Busy Week.

I decided to try halving my dose of Wellbutrin and cutting out caffeine completely. We'll see if it makes a difference.

The big news of the week was that my parents came to visit and Beebie turned eleven (which, as you know, is one better than ten). My parents' visit was pleasant, drama-free, and full of the unconditional love that I grew up with and R didn't. I needed that. My mom even said I looked like I'd lost weight. Why, thank you, yes, I have.

The kids were SO GOOD. I was so, so proud of them. My parents had kinda had a whirlwind last two weeks, with Grandma's funeral and everything, then my mom had to fly home, work a day, then fly here early the next morning. They really needed a vacation, so I talked to the kids and let them know that Nana and PopPop might be a little tired when they're here. Most of the time we all just hung out at our friend B's pool, which is what would have been the kids' first choice anyway, so it worked out great.

We all even went shopping one of the days (I don't even know what day it is today, honestly, this week's been hella nuts) and spent nearly 5 hours at the mall. And nobody whined, nobody complained, nobody acted like a butthead, they were awesome. Beeb got a bunch of cute new stuff for school and the boys got some stuff too, so everyone was happy. Mom even bought me some skinny jeans and two pairs of skinny shorts because the ones I was wearing were about to fall off of me.

Another day we took the kids to see Wall-E (I was a little bummed out about seeing it, because a while ago KOFA and I had talked about seeing it with all of our kids, but he's not really back in my life yet). During the movie, I kept hearing a weird sound from a guy in the row behind me, somewhere between a grunt and a moan. It was repetitive, but not exactly rhythmic.
Completely weird.

And of course, my mind went all kinds of crazy places, thinking there's some psycho freak sitting directly behind my little boy, spankin' it in a movie theater full of kids. I didn't want to turn around and call attention to it, because A) I figured that was what he wanted and B) I didn't want Tito to turn around and witness said psycho freak Punchin' the Clown because I'm just really not prepared to handle the Masturbation Conversation right now, ok?? Call me old-fashioned, but Tito's five. He's still figuring out how to pee without taking his pants all the way off.

These disturbing noises went on for the ENTIRE movie. Nobody else was turning around or saying anything to the guy, was I the only one who could hear it? He sat down after we did so I didn't know if there were people sitting near him or what and I couldn't turn around discreetly. Seriously, I thought I'd be sick.

And then finally the lights came on, and I turned around to discover that sitting behind us was a group of handicapped kids/young adults. And I felt like an asshole. But admit it, you'd have thought the same thing I did when you heard that sound.

Annnnnnyway, Beeb got to go see the Jonas Brothers Tuesday night with some of her friends. In her words, OHMYGOSHMOMICANTBELIEVEITWASSOAWESOMEYOUTOTALLYSHOULDHAVEBEENTHERETHEBESTPARTWASWHENJOETOOKOFFHISJACKETANDEVERYBODYSCREAMEDITWASSOOOOOMUCHFUNIHADTHEBESTTIMEEVER (inhale)SERIOUSLYMOMITWASTHEBESTCONCERTEVERIAMTOTALLYGONNAMARRYNICKJONASHEISSOGORGEOUSOHMYGOSHYOUSHOULDHAVEHEARDTHEMSINGINTHEYEAR3000ANDYOURGREATGREATGREATGRANDDAUGHTERISDOINGFINE...

Yeah. The girls had made some posters to take to the concert which were confiscated at the gate (y'know, cuz 11 year old girls running around with paper are scary and dangerous). The security people promised to make sure the Jo Bros got them, and then the girls were bummed out that they hadn't thought to write their names and phone numbers on the posters. But it was fun to see Beebie so excited. She had a blast.

Wednesday, her birthday, also happened to be the day that my parents went home. That's always a sad day for all of us, myself included. I like my parents. I love that my kids have so much fun with them. And it's so laid back, too. Nothing we could do would make them not love us anymore.

Such a contrast from hanging out with the Inlaws. There's always the possibility that you might not get invited back to FIL's, although that would mean he can't belittle and intimidate you in person anymore which wouldn't be any fun for him, so I doubt he'd really enforce it; he'd just threaten it. Fuck that. I'm glad my kids see that FIL's way is not the only way.

Ok, so for her birthday Beeb chose to go to Dairy Queen for lunch. They have some damn good burgers there. Who knew? At some point while we were all eating our Dilly Bars, somebody spilled their ice water in my mom's lap.

I fuckin LOVE having a camera with me at all times.




The kids thought it was funny.


And it was.


But it got funnier.



And funnier.



And FUNNIER.


And finally she just sat spread eagle in the sun, hoping her crotch would dry before she had to get on the plane.



And the best part - I can cry again! I cried laughing. And I cried when they left, too. Mostly because the kids were so pitiful.