The boys are running around, between their room and the living room, but for the most part aren't trying to kill each other and that's an upgrade to any day.  I'm sitting here at the kitchen table with a big mug of french vanilla coffee and I just finished eating an english muffin.  I don't really have anything to post about.

As usual I have a ton of laundry that needs to be dealt with.  I really desperately need to go grocery shopping because there's not a whole lot of food in the house. 

Actually, Steve might have taken my car today.  I'm not sure.  I could get up and look out the window but I'm just not feeling that ambitious. 

I have some work to do for Nela's company, that might actually get me some extra scratch so I should actually go manage that.

So yesterday I made a post about my mother-in-law's inequity in how she treats my sons in comparison to my stepdaughter, right? 

First there was a message from my brother-in-law for Steve to call him.  Then sometime in the afternoon I got this nasty comment in my journal from someone with a vulgar screen name.  I have my comments set up to log people's IP addresses.  So I checked it against an old email, and it was my brother-in-law. 

When Steve got home from work, he called BIL and fought with him for an hour.  He was told things like "You need to control your wife."   Then he called his mom and got the same kind of stuff except that she dug up every perceived wrong he or I have ever made.  She said that I've been trying to take him away from his family from the very start and now I've got my wish.  She also said that if he brings me to her funeral she'll haunt him and that she guessed that this means she is losing her last grandchild.  Yeah, the last ONE. 

  So Steve essentially lost his family last night and I've never seen him more upset. 

I am so annoyed and frustrated and hurt and I don't even know.  All because I asked for my boys to be treated the same as their half sister.

I hope everyone had a very happy Mother's Day! 

This weekend was pretty calm.  I have no recollection of what we did on Friday except that I broke one of my teeth.  It's my own stupid fault-- I had a half-finished root canal that I procrastinated on for a couple years.  Then I didn't have dental insurance.  Then I was pregnant.  Then I had a newborn.  Yadda yadda yadda.  So this tooth broke in half but both halves are still in the gum so everytime I attempt to eat something, it presses the tooth halves outward, stretching my gums and it really hurts.  

Saturday my mom came over in the morning to play with the boys.  In the evening Steve and I watched this show about diners on the Food Network that made me really, really want diner food.

Yesterday, we went to the Americana Diner in Shrewsbury, NJ.  It was wonderfully shiny and chrome-y on the outside and appropriately retro inside.  We had huge breakfasts and then ran around doing errands.  We brought Andy home for his nap and left Rachel home to mind him while Steve, Joey and I made a quick jaunt to Costco for dinner fixins.  

I made crab-stuffed shrimp and a homemade Caesar salad.  I swear my dressing is better than anything you can find in a bottle!  So Steve and I had massive garlic breath all evening.  We got the kids settled in for the night and watched the Sopranos but taped Big Love.  

Tonight: Emergency dental appointment at 6.

It's the first of February... 11 days until I turn 30. 

Steve told me last night that he hasn't planned anything to celebrate.  I held back tears at the moment but today I'm really hurt and upset.  I started talking to him about this last summer, that this birthday is a really big deal for me and I didn't want him to let it slide by without doing something special, having a party etc.  I know work is difficult and taking a toll on him but it's just one day.  How hard is it to order a cake and invite some people over?  When he turned 30 I made a huge fuss.  I don't even know what to say or do about it now.  I don't think it's fair or remotely appropriate for me to have to plan my own birthday celebration.

This was the first NYE since I was in high school that I spent alone and didn't stay up to see the ball drop.  I'm not bitter or anything about it.  Really.  Steve had to work-- he's had the worse time lately with employees calling out/ resigning/ getting called up to the military.  I had both kids asleep by 9.  I settled in for a long, hot bubble bath and was asleep by 10:30.  Whooo hooo. 

New Year's Day- that was yesterday, right?  My family came over for a very early dinner.  It was the Ruffings (Juli, Steve, Andy and Rachel), my mom, my Aunt Anne, my sister Nela, her boyfriend Terik and my nephew Foobie.  I used my wedding china and crystal to set the table and after our Italian feast we had birthday cake for Rachel.  I used my spiffy new infomercial Betty Crocker filled cake cake pan.  (Although I got it at Linens N Things.)  As per Rachel's wish, it was a chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding and covered in chocolate frosting. 

Andy refused to nap while everyone was hanging out laughing and being loud. I knew something was wrong with him because he was a drool machine and his cheeks were really rosy.  He also had a little bit of a runny nose and gunky eye.  Everyone was gone by 4:30.  We washed and put away the china.  Cleaned up the kitchen and just hung out for the rest of the afternoon.  We gave Andy a bath and started trying to get him to bed around 7:30.  Around 9:30 he conked out, mid-wail, in the middle of the living room carpet.  Poor little guy.  We let him stay there for a half hour or so before moving him to his bed, when he woke up and was inconsolably crying again.  Based on the drool we figured he might be teething so Steve put some gum gel numby stuff in his mouth and 30 seconds later he was asleep again. 

Before bed, I cut Steve's hair.  We both fell asleep really quick but I was up on and off from 2:30 or so on with crazy nightmares.  I dreamed that a serial killer was chasing after me and wanted to cut off my legs. 

This morning I had to take Andy to my parents' house because his day care is closed for the holiday but my office is not.  Here I am at the office, bored out of my mind.