Oh! It's Monday. Oh. Hooray.

I'm so tired that I could just curl up here in my ridiculously uncomfortable desk chair and sleep til tomorrow. I've got pics and rants and raves for you , though, so I'd be disappointing you (and myself) if I failed to get them posted because I chose to be so completely self-centered and listen to my body and succumb to the exhaustion. I'm not sure where to start - the rant or the rave. Oh, it's been a while since I ranted about Ex, so I'll start there.

I may have posted just a tad on this earlier because it's been on my brain, but I'm not certain, so I'll start at the beginning. Since the divorce, the kids have gone with their father on Thanksgiving because, well, they have more fun playing with their cousins than hanging out with grown ups doing the family thing with my side - no offense to MY family, the cousins just didn't really hang out and do anything fun...just eat and do dishes. Now, we go to PC's family for Thanksgiving and have a blast, and the requistite smoking lecture for PC & ET, but still, we have a riot. The kids usually leave the house somewhere between 10 & 11 while PC and I catch the end of the parade on TV and then sit on the couch doing nothing except watching the dog show and drinking coffee.

This year is a little different. This year, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving. I "get" the kids for my birthday and, when it falls on Thanksgiving, I "get" them for the whole day. Well, after going around in circles with Girl and being terribly selfish, wanting to have my children ALL day on my birthday, I consented and told the kids that they could go with their father, especially since we don't usually go to Meem's house til later in the afternoon.

In the past, Ex would meet us at a McDonald's on his way back home, which was about 10mins from Meem's house. I said that this year, since I'm already letting him have the kids ON my birthday - and I'm doing that for the kids, NOT for him - that instead of meeting at the McDonald's I'd like him to drop the kids off at Meem's house, which is just 10minutes out of his way - not even out of his way. He said, "Well, I'll have to call you back on that one."

Um, hello! MORON! I have driven 45 minutes to drop the kids off at one of his sisters' houses, and an hour to drop them off at another of his sisters' houses and 45 minutes to drop them at his parents' house. It's not like he has to walk them to the door or anything - just pull up, open the door, make sure they get in the house safely, and leave. Is there a reason that this should be so complicated? That this should require "thought" and a consultation with New Wife? Truly, the reason is - well, because he would be doing something that would make MY life a little easier. OH, and did I mention that when we meet at this McDonald's every year, he is ALWAYS 30mins to an hour late? We've left our family parties to go pick up the kids and been gone, sometimes for an hour and a half.

Here, you're getting a two-fer. His other call last night was to say, "Oh, I forgot, I have dentist appts for the kids tomorrow at 4:00." Again, I say, MORON!!!!!! First of all, Girl has something she MUST attend to after school until 5. Secondly, hello!!!!!!!! - SmallBoy - you can't just DROP a dentist appointment on a child who needs to be prepared in advance, particularly for something as sensory oriented as a trip to the dentist! Not to mention that he can't just tell me less than 24 hrs that something's on the schedule for the kids and that he just "forgot" to tell me for the last 6months! So, not only did SmallBoy have to have a crash prep session for the dentist, we had to change his after school plan. Wait...it gets better - SmallBoy was ALREADY IN BED at this point. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH

Ok, done with that rant. I stewed enough last night about it. YesterDAY, on the other hand, was a blast! Check out the post below for some pics from the gig, and some pics of SmallBoy baking. You'll also read that I did manage to have a voice for church after singing at maximum everything at the gig the night before. After we got back from church, I posted, went to wake PC and, as I had expected, fell asleep for an hour. Not too bad, but still in desperate need of more. SmallBoy's Scout pack had an outing to a minor league or semi-pro (whatever) hockey game. This would be his very first experience with hockey and stadiums and HUGE crowds and the volume generated inside of a stadium. PC and I were prepared for anything and everything.

On the way, we stopped for hot dogs at Gene & Judes (THE best hot dogs on the planet, and, yet, they don't have a site for me to link to). Stand in line, order, snarf. As is the style of a true Chicago hot dog, there is no ketchup to be found on the premisis - which means not only no ketchup on the dog (one would be shot on sight for that), but, sadly it means no ketchup on the fries...Ah, but the beauty of the fries is that they're homemade home fries. My arteries clogged watching them being prepared, but I quickly recovered when I put the first one in my mouth. The dogs are nice and crisp viennas with the skin on them. Oh, wait....here's the best part - the dogs come with the fries AND, the fries are put ON TOP of the dogs. YUM. Ok, I'm drooling again, and all I get for lunch is a salad, so I should probably stop talking about this place!

Onward to HOCKEY!!!!!! Since we ordered tickets as a group, the scouts all received a coupon for a free hat and a free puck, and, a free hot dog & drink (just what he needed - another hot dog). We walked in the gate and turned to the left. Heh heh he...turns out our section was the first section had we gone right. I was so expecting my Not-So-SmallBoy to freak out that we had gone the wrong way, or that we were lost, but he didn't! We had been told to expect fireworks in the opening ceremonies too. Fireworks. Inside a stadium. Child on the spectrum who hates loud noises and has never ever been inside of a stadium. Guess what! He LOVED it!

The game was pretty good, for SmallBoy's first time. There were a couple of fights (and hockey would be so insanely boring without them), some awesome goals, a guy got popped in the mouth with a high stick, the game was tied at the end of regulation, so they went to OT (I have to write that out as "over time" because WE all think Occupational Therapy...LOL), and then finally ended in a shoot out - We won! SmallBoy socialized, he walked around with friends independent of us, he cheered, he yelled, he wasn't bothered by the loud noises. For a few hours, no one would have known. No one.

I forgot to tell you about scouts! PC took SmallBoy to scouts on Saturday where they refreshed on knot tying and then had to recite the Weblos Scout Oath, Law, Boy Scout Motto, and Slogan. SmallBoy studied his booty off and passed with flying colors!

Here's a bit of what we did this weekend. I couldn't get the slide show to work in this post, and I REALLY REALLY want you to see the pics, so click over to my myspace blog where I have this re-posted with pics. Let me know what you think!