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Does The EX Have a Brain Cell?

Posted on July 8th, 2010

I wonder that sometimes.

Was he born like this or did he just regress as the years went by?

My sister has a theory about that – but I don’t think it’s good conversation in mixed company!

I have four children.  I love them all – they each have their own unique talents and challenges.  My youngest boy, however, is just different.  He’s sweet, compassionate, giving, loving and fun to be around.  I don’t love him more or less than the others – I just recognize his differences.

The theory is that the ex is jealous of the youngest boy because he perceived that this child took me away from him.  That somehow Freud’s theories were scrambled and the man became jealous of the boy.

No matter.

The other day the ex called and got the youngest on the phone.  He asked if the older two were home.  They weren’t.

He proceeded to tell this boy that he was going to ask them to go out for a Starbucks that night.  And then hung up.

He didn’t ask about the youngest boy.  Didn’t ask if he would want to go to Starbucks.  Just didn’t think.

Another day he was talking with the youngest boy about his plans for his birthday.  Leon (we’ll call the youngest Leon) is always excited about his birthday.  He plans it for months in advance.  What is for breakfast, where we’ll go for dinner, what he’d like for presents.  It’s a special day for him.

So, Leon is describing how he wants a Mac book and how he’s planning on raising the money over the summer to pay for it by his birthday.  He’s excited and animated – it obviously means a lot to Leon.

And then the ex opens HIS mouth. “Have you been practicing soccer?”

It’s like he wasn’t listening AT ALL.  He deflated this poor kid and Leon could recount the story verbatim to me.  The look on the boy’s face broke my heart.

Somedays I don’t know how to handle the guy.  It continues to amaze me how much a person can NOT grow over the years.

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I Bought It on Ebay!

Posted on January 26th, 2010

My kids have been humming a song around the house these past couple of days. And then, out of the blue, YELLING – “I bought it on eBay!”

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what they were singing. So they took me to the page and let me listen to Weird Al Yankovic singing.

Now I know I’m behind the times – cause the song was published on YouTube 3 YEARS ago! But it is cute – and I’ve sold on eBay

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Read the Directions!

Posted on December 11th, 2009

I am always amused by the number of people who find that reading directions takes too much time in their day.

For instance, when I was visiting my sister she asked my oldest son about using the snow blower.  She was making moves to take out the instruction manual when my son said – “You just use this to prime the engine, close the choke here, turn this key or use the pull start if the electric start isn’t working.  There – you don’t have to use the directions because I just gave them to you.”

And her husband had the same idea.  Why look at the directions if you can just eye ball it first?

Today, my oldest daughter wants to make some Ore-Ida frozen potato squares with her sausage and eggs for lunch.  She yelled in, “Mom, how do I make these?  Do I just put them in the pan and cook them?”

“Read the directions, they are on the box!” I yelled back.

My youngest son responded, “Oh, I don’t think you have to do that!  I saw Auntie cook them.  She just warmed up the pan and cooked them.”

UGH! DIRECTIONS people!

Can you do things without directions?  Of course you can.  But sometimes you don’t have all the answers.  Sometimes  you have to look at the manual or read the box to learn that last little bit of information that makes the whole process run smoothly.

We aren’t perfect people.  We don’t do things perfectly.  It’s a good thing that most machines don’t break the first time you start it wrong or food can be cleaned up and put away.

Unfortunately some of us also experience seasons in our lives where we, or someone we love, didn’t read the directions or follow the instructions.  And then, we are left to clean up the mess.

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