Sibling Arguments at the Pool

Since I feel entitled to spend my husband’s overtime money in advance, I took us to Burger King for dinner (they have awesome Crayola toys right now in the kid’s meals). I was a good girl and got a cheeseburger kid’s meal with apple fries and Diet Coke.

Dear Lord, can I put more brand names in one paragraph??? Xerox, Kleenex, Starbuck’s, Dell, Sprint. Yes, it looks like I CAN!

Anyway, then we went to the pool, which was DEAD since it’s only 82 degrees and the pool was chilly. But we have braved the cold ocean, so the pool was fine. Until a lifeguard got worried about Callie’s blue lips. So I put a towel around her shoulders and made her sit out a bit.

From the sidelines we watched the Cain and Abel of the aquatic world (Joel and Michael) going at it. Joel likes to spit water at people and try to dunk them. Michael likes to scream at the top of his lungs at Joel, but keeps going back for more. Callie likes to call Joel an a**hole (only once, thankfully) for the whole pool to hear.

And I’m thinking, “Kids, where’s your dad when I need him? Right, he’s in Phoenix. He’d know what to do. He had siblings, after all. He knows what’s normal and what needs discipline.” I, however, alternate between pushover and yeller. There is no in between.

Came home, dragged the trash and recycling to the curb, and cried to Aron over the phone about how much I miss him. He’s hoping only 2 more weeks in Phoenix (for a grand total of 15 instead of 10, which has shot our entire summer with him, dammit), THEN ……. THEN!!!!!!!

… Then he is going to try to take an ENTIRE WEEK OFF! Which is the week I was going to start homeschooling, but WHO CARES? Either he can help me or it can wait.