Another complaint

Two weeks ago we had maintenance out for some repairs on our front door. It seems that some work done to our roof (replacing a wood beam directly above our door) left our front door out-of-square. Badly out-of-square. The door is now very crooked and difficult to lock. The maintenance man replaced the weatherstrip (I advised there was a draft) and using a mallet and a piece of wood he moved the door jamb out about 1/8". What a great fix (I say sarcastically). After that the door was even harder to lock but that was probably a combined effort between the rainy weather which always affects the door and the new weatherstrip. However, the draft was still very present and the door is still crooked. Very crooked. The gap at the top is maybe 1/16" and the gap at the bottom is maybe 1/2".

I went down to the office this past Saturday and was advised we would have it fixed Monday. Today is Thursday and the guy just game. I've learned that just seems to be the way it's done here, and if they don't show up within a week then that's because they wrote down the wrong apartment number (it's happened several times...). Anyway, he was just here and started off saying there wasn't a draft. I proceeded to tell him that there indeed was and it was not just some breeze on a windy day, it's constantly there. I can always feel cool air when the door is closed. So after going back and forth for a few minutes he had his co-worker shine a light on the outside of the door while he was inside. Guess what they found??? A LARGE area where light was coming thru. ((I'd just like to say, I told you so! Thank you.)) He has to get something to fix the issue so who knows how long it will be before they are back. As they were leaving he handed me some trash and said that they found it on my porch (a door flyer/hanger). Ah, lies again. I saw the maintenance man's assistant take it off the apartment next to mine (it's empty) and he was holding it in his hand when they first got to my door. As the guy was crouched down I saw him drop it on my porch. So while the maintenance man may not have known it wasn't mine the co-worker did and said nothing. While it may not be an exact lie previous events have just made it so every little thing annoys me.

Oh, the best part of their visit? They woke Penny up. She had been crying for a while and cranky forever. I had finally calmed her down and put her in bed about 10 minutes before they arrived. They showed up on the porch, shouted to me thru the window saying hello, then banged on the door. I wasn't sure why they were at first but was reminded when they slammed the door shut repeatedly before I had a chance to process what was going on. Fortunately, I put her back down after they left and she fell back asleep.

Sleep

7:49pm Tuesday

Lucy has a habit of getting out of bed for hours after we put her down for the night. Well not always hours, but sometimes she'll do this for two straight hours! She gets out of her room, we put her back in bed, she gets out, we put her back in... It's exhausting. We've tried everything we can think of to keep her in bed.

Today someone suggested that we lock her in her room. I'm not too fond of the idea, if there's an emergency she needs to be able to get out. Well, we happen to have one of those plastic, two-piece door knob covers. I've seen her snap it in two before so I know she can get it off. I just hope she doesn't play with it tonight.

We put it on tonight. She was asking what it was and I just made up a story. She was wearing Tinkerbell jammies, that was my inspiration. I told her that Tinkerbell lives in there and is going to watch her tonight. I said that Tink would tell us if she got out of bed. We put her down and closed her door.

Well Lucy is in there now screaming and crying, but from the sound she's still in bed! WOW! Let's see how this pans out... I'll let you know. I hate listening to her cry. It makes me sick to my stomach, physically. I get a bit ill. But she's old enough that I let her. Plus I know she's only crying for me to change her tape. She does it every night.

PS~ Of course we will take the plastic cover off the knob before we go to bed :-)

8:15pm

Well I think she cried herself to sleep, in bed!! I'll check on her in a bit and let you know.

Wed Morning

It worked!!! Daniel and I checked on her and she moved a bit and said "Snow White". I knew that's why she was crying, she does it every night. I put in one tape, even one she asks for, and she always wants to change her mind 5 second into it. This morning she came into my room and told me "Mommy I stayed in bed, the pirates didn't get me!". Oh I didn't mention the pirates earlier? Ha! I had told her that Tink would send in the pirates if she got out of bed ROFL! I said it before I thought about it, I'm glad pirates don't scare her (it's one of her fave rides at Disneyland) because that could have easily backfired in my face. It did seem to intimidate her and apparently worked.

It's a sad day

My Aunt Melody passed away last night.

I miss her, she was a wonderful person to me. In some ways though, I've already mourned the loss of her. The aunt of my childhood- fun, loving, playful, joyful- is not the aunt of my adulthood. Maybe she didn't change but my perception of her did? I'm not sure but there was a difference.

I now mourn for my mother, who's lost her baby sister. I mourn for my grandmother, who has lost her daughter. Those thoughts bring me to my knees in sorrow and pain. I look at my two girls and I think about losing one, or I think about the other having to lose a sister. I can't hardly breathe. No one should have to go thru this kind of pain, ever. Especially not in their 50's that's just too young.

There is a picture my mom has of Melody. She's holding one of her babies on her chest. She's positively radiant.  I wish I could find it but I don't seem to have any pictures of her.

I miss her.

Oy with the poodles already!

The girls decided this morning would be a good time for their first scream-fest. Nice, lucky me. Penny was screaming because I took ibuprofin last night and she always screams after I take that. Thus I use it only for emergencies. Yesterday my ear started hurting and I knew where that was leading... my jaw. Man the pain is excruciating!!!! It's ten times worse than (medicated) childbirth. It's almost incapacitating. I took an ibuprofin to help with the swelling that comes with the joint paint. I slept all night with a heating pad on my face and it still hurt when I woke up. Of course it could have just been the lack of restful sleep. In the 6 hours I tried to sleep, Penny got up twice and Lucy got up twice. Throw in some major snoring from Daniel and I maybe got an hours worth of sleep. After Daniel left for work I actually fell asleep... until Lucy woke up 20 minutes later ready to start her day. She was followed by Penny just a few minutes later. Thus began the scream fest at 6 am. It is now 11:45 and there has been silence in my house for 10 minutes. If its all I will get today I'LL TAKE IT!!!! Needless to say my TMJ still kills and now I have a migrane.