More on last night

Dh's daughter has been here for the last 2 weeks. This always causes problems (partly because everyone assumes that because I'm home, I don't mind adding a third child day in and day out). Last year, I talked to her mom and told her that I didn't think that we would be able to have her this summer. Mostly, because I was supposed to be working this summer but partly because it is a real pain. Her mom seemed relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with it. Then MIL got involved and insisted that she come for 2 weeks. I was told at that point in time that MIL was taking off work for the whole time and hanging out with her. That was fine with me, as long as I wasn't involved.

She got here July 4th and hadn't been in town 10 minutes when the phone calls started. Mil was having a cow that dh wasn't there to meet them when they got to the house. She also mentioned that she and FIL had to work the next day and that they would be bringing A over that morning. Fortunately, dh put his foot down and told her that she asked to have her here, she needed to figure out what she was going to do with her. He told her that he was off between 10 and 2 (he works a split shift) and that she was welcome to come by then but outside that time frame I wasn't available. I was ready to have an absolute fit so it was a good thing he told her that.

The other part of the problem is A and C fight like cats and dogs. They can play together for maybe 15 minutes before they get violent with each other. They are 10 and 5 and really can't stand each other. Lizzie is nothing if not loyal and will take her brother's side every time so it ends up being the 2 little kids against A. She fights back harder and then someone gets hurt and I have to yell. She is also really rude and talks down to C all the time. She is rather rude to me as well but I generally ignore her. C asked her to do something for him one evening and she made a shooing motion with her hand and told him to go away. I stepped in and said "he asked you nicely to help him, he said please and you need to help him now. Thank you" She rolled her eyes and muttered "whatever" I told her "do not roll your eyes at me. That is incredibly rude and I won't put up with it. You will be polite when I'm around." What I told dh later was that if she was one of my kids, I would have threatened to smack her eyes out of her head for a stunt like that.

She is leaving today and MIL was on my ass all day yesterday about getting together and seeing her before she left. I put it off as long as I could but finally had to call MIL and ask if they wanted to come over about 6. They got here and the kids were fighting like always. C spent a lot of the time in time out because he was really having a rough time with her. A was also put in time out because she kept hitting him (he has a welt under his arm where she hit him with the sword she was playing with) and telling him to leave her the heck alone. C went in the house to go to the bathroom and when he came back out, she grabbed his arms, pulled them behind his back, twisted them and then shoved him face first into the bush stumps that we have near our fence. Then she tried to tell me that he hit her first so she did it to defend herself. That is flat bull and I told her so. After I got C settled and his cuts and scrapes cleaned (he has several cuts on and around his mouth from being forced into the bushes), I went back outside, collected Lizzie and told A I hoped she had a good trip and that it was bedtime so we would see her later and walked into the house. I know, probably petty and childish, but I was PISSED! Had C done that to Lizzie, I would have spanked his butt and sent him to bed. I do occasionally spank my children but I have said all along that I would never spank her because I know, as a mother, I would come UNGLUED if someone spanked one of my children. But last night, I was as close as I've ever come to smacking her. I was so mad that she, being much bigger, did something that mean and that violent totally on purpose.

ADSR topic is museums with amazing somewhere on the layout. I think I have a couple of museum pages all ready done, I just need to alter them to include something "amazing" Is that cheating, cause we haven't been to a museum in awhile so I don't have many recent pictures of museums.