One of those days.

This won't be a fun post. Not a single picture was taken today, and by the end of the day, I want to run far, far away.
Had to work this morning, and had a fairly decent day there and when I got home (the kids were next door playing). But then the screaming kept coming from the backyard. Brady could NOT leave the girls alone. So he got sent home, which sparked a wonderful shrieking tantrum and it went downhill from there.
The constant picking on each other has completely worn me down today. I am so tired of it. How tired am I? Brady and I are attending family therapy tomorrow. That's how tired I am of it. He has worn me out, I have nothing left in my battery to charge me up (Erin made a poetic statement on how most children "refill" your bank of love, patience, and endless energy. Brady only makes withdrawls.) I hate to say that out loud, but seriously. If you spent a day with us, you'd have a hint of what it's like.
So anyway, not that today was any different than any other day, except that I have been run down physically for the past 2 weeks (there's a lot more complaining and self-pity buried in that statement). And then, to top off the day... I'm on the phone with a Karate school (Brady "won" a free month when we were at the kids fair on Saturday) and speaking with the lady, because I have been seriously considering enrolling Brady in this martial art for all the benefits that they claim children learn in this discipline. So I'm on the phone doing something positive for him, while he and Natalie and Riley are playing on the front porch (I'm like 4 feet away, and Riley's dad is in the driveway). Little did I know that while I was on the phone, they each grabbed a handful of packing peanuts (we've been meaning to take them to the post office or to Costco to "re-use", try to do the earth-conscious thing) and have annihilated them all over the porch and grass. I blow my gasket. I was embarrassed because, although I didn't "yell", I certainly was pissed, and it was very evident in my tone that they had crossed a line with me. Poor Eric next door is frantically trying to pick up the bits and pieces, and I try to calm down enough to excuse him as I brought my vacuum outside to vacuum up my flower bed (and you wonder why my house is a pit inside? It's shit like this that I have to deal with).
So the kids went to bed like little angels tonight, their only saving grace for the day.

OH. And I really try hard not to complain about specific people in my life, as it's not really productive, and they might somehow, someway get a hold of this blog... but Larry's boss at work is a world-class piece of crap.
I have felt this way since 2004, when Larry worked with him at another warehouse. He was worthless then. He's worthless now. And now I truly believe that he has a personal vendetta against my husband. It's blatant bullying, anti-favoritism, whatever you want to call it. It's bullshit, bottom line.
Larry is notorious (his admin. staff tease him for the amount of denied requests in his chart, it's an actual office joke) for turning in time off requests (for silly things like: spreading my dad's ashes, visiting with family from out of state, his children's birthdays, family activities that take serious planning, etc.) and getting them denied, every single time. I'm serious. Every time. The man gets 5 weeks of vacation a year, and every year he ends up being mandated by corporate to take the entire month of September off (his anniversary date is in Oct) and rolling the max. hours over to the next year. Every year.
I emailed this manager this weekend about taking a trip in October. I stated that I needed to know soon if these dates would work so that I could book our flight before the promo was over. He emailed back and said "Should be OK, get a request in tomorrow." So I booked the tickets and sent Larry in to work with the dates. Larry calls and suddenly his days off for the rest of August have been switched. Every single one of them. So now he can't go to the fair with us at all (I bought tickets to both the demo derby and the monster truck show). And he wanted to go to the Senior PGA tour (I took him last year for his birthday). That's out too.
I feel like I'm pretty open minded and critical in my thinking. If it was just the way the company was run, I wouldn't think twice about Larry getting screwed all the time, it would just be a crappy fact of life. But that it is always this one particular manager, and that other managers can miraculously approve Larry's time off requests (there was a incident where this manager denied it, and another manager looked at it and approved it, saying there was no reason he couldn't have it off. And another time he was denied a time-off and when he arrived at work there were 4 duty managers on for the evening (they only need 2 at the most).) This kind of shit is what makes me feel like there is some blatant hostility. So be warned Mr. Worthless... I'm documenting all of this bullshit. You messed with the bull, buddy...

P.S. The packing peanuts got unceremoniously thrown in the trash. I was so pissed, my eco-consciousness went out the window. I plan on riding the bus all next week (it's free) to make up for it.