When it rains, it pours

Ok, hmm. I’m not really even sure where to start with this one; I’ve just got a lot of shit swirling around in my head right now. So this is going to be one of those brain drains again. It’s your lucky day! Buckle your seat belts, this could be a bitchy ride.

First of all, sweet baby D has hand, foot, and mouth disease. What? Gross! I know. She developed a bunch of little blister-like sores on her hands and feet starting Sunday morning, and her legs and arms had more tiny red dots all over them that weren’t raised. Some of the hand/feet sores looked pretty nasty, almost puss-filled, so that prompted me to call her doctor yesterday. Diagnosis confirmed – the doctor found some little sores on the roof of her mouth that I hadn’t seen in there, so that solidified it. Awesome. And since it’s viral, there are no antibiotics, so we just wait it out. Double awesome. So I’m home with her today because doctor’s orders were a day out of daycare. Oh wait, that part’s a good thing. I’m certainly not missing my desk at work right now.

Next, I found out some most ridiculous news yesterday. So we have this big trip to Hawaii planned over Christmas. Ok, cool. It’s all of us on my mom and stepdad’s side – me, R, and D; my sister and her husband; my other sister; my mom and stepdad; and his 2 kids. Well, youngest sister announced to my mom yesterday that she’s now not going. WHAT THE FUCK? Oh wait, it gets better.

Why isn’t she going? Um, well, apparently last week sometime her boyfriend’s ex dropped their 2 kids off at my sister and boyfriend’s apartment and left. So now my sister has had to quit her once almost-full-time job to stay home and babysit these kids all week while her boyfriend works like 12 hour days, then he watches them on weekends while she has picked up a new Saturday/Sunday part-time job. And they’re moving into a slightly bigger apartment this weekend I guess to accommodate the new uh, living situation.

Ok couple things here:

1. I love my sister more than she could possibly know and only want her to be happy, but what?? Am I crazy for being shocked by all this? They’re almost-27 and almost-26, and now she’s suddenly playing pseudo-mom to a 6- and 5-year old? Shit, if someone dropped 2 kids off on my porch and said “see ya”, I’d be a little pissed, donchya think?

2. Without getting into all the specifics, there have heretofore been some extenuating circumstances that prevented boyfriend from even seeing his kids. And now he has them full-time? If that doesn’t qualify for things that make ya go hmm… I don’t know what does. What’s gonna happen when the ex flips a switch again and suddenly wants them back? I said I feel worst for the kids in all this – they don’t deserve to be shuffled back and forth between 2 apparently inept parents, who were basically kids themselves when they were born. (i’m not knocking all young parents here, but at age 19 you are still a kid, whether you’re a parent or not)

3. I’m afraid my sister is going to quickly find out she might be in just a little over her head with all this. She’s admitted that she’s pretty overwhelmed, since this all got dumped in her lap, turning her life upside down in kind of the blink of an eye, and without her asking for it. I mean seriously – being home with these kids all day, walking them to/from school (after getting them enrolled, that is, which could be difficult in and of itself when lacking any sort of legal guardianship), etc., etc., starting like RIGHT NOW?

4. I just hope she’s truly ok. Fortunately my other sister and brother-in-law live pretty close to them, so she’s made sure to let her know they’re there if she ever needs them. Apparently youngest sister sounded remarkably calm and accepting of the whole shebang when they spoke today, so I guess that’s kind of comforting. Kind of?

I give my other sister credit, though. When she told me all this before going to talk to youngest, I wanted to teleport out there and punch youngest and boyfriend in the face. Or at least send a nasty text. I’m glad I reigned in my immaturity and refrained, though. That’s a first.

Ok, what’s next? Oh yeah – my dad. He’s engaged. HA! Again, what?? Yeah I know, I told you – downpour. I have mixed feelings on this one. I do really like the woman to whom he’s engaged (they’ve been together off and on for close to 2 years, almost the whole time he’s been out of prison). She’s nice, she’s normal, she’s grounded, she has grandkids of her own and is wonderful with D, and she is a really good influence in my dad’s life. Essentially a 180 from the woman he married after my mom, a psychotic nightmare of a bitch. Trust me, that description is 400% warranted. This current one? Complete opposite and such an amazingly refreshing change.

But here’s the odd part. They were broken up – like him moving all his stuff back out broken up – over the summer and up until about 2 months ago, now just that like he’s moved back in and they’re engaged? Huh? What’s the rush? They’ve both been married multiple times now, so why dive into matrimony again? Plus, neither of my sisters have met her yet, which I told him he needs to give them another chance to do before they actually tie the knot. Not doing so would be incredibly rude and selfish, in my opinion.

Also, she was in the dark about his drinking again even longer than I was. We were talking about it when I was down in Peoria the other weekend, and she didn’t even know about it until what sounds like shortly before they got back together this time. Now, she’s been through a couple bad episodes with alcoholics, so she’s not willing to put up with any more shit if my dad’s on the sauce. He drank a lot at my sister’s wedding in September, which I know was uncomfortable for pretty much all of us. But it was his choice, and it still wasn’t like it used to be. After that trip I told him how I hated his drinking again and showed him what I’d written after D’s birthday party when he was at our house this summer, so hopefully he took my words to heart. He doesn’t drink when we’re with him now, which is an improvement. And I know his drinking at home is significantly reduced as well. A beer here or there? Fine, that’s totally normal. And fortunately his fiance won’t tolerate much more than that anymore. So there’s that.

Next up? Shit at our house. We’ve been working on the damn thing for over 4 years now, and it just won’t end. Nothing like home “owership”, eh? And we’re so frickin’ close, I can’t stand it! We’ve been working on one particular thing for a couple months now, and we just keep failing to get it done. Come on already! I just want to have a finished home for our little family that I can actually see us living in and growing in for at least a couple years to come.

Welp, I guess that’s about it. Thanks for listening again.