Mommy's Helper and Hurt Locker

You would hardly believe that this is the face of the child who has spent the last four hours screaming like a little pteradactyl for various reasons, like her socks are on, her socks are off, she's getting in the carseat, she dropped her books (because there are socks on her hands), etc etc. Carly said, "Mom can we go faster to school? Bree is hurting my ears and I need some PEACE!"

And now this...minor destruction and some book time in the doll stroller. Actually NOW she's sitting in my lap scribbling on last month's budget worksheet...then she tried to climb on the desk so NOW she's on the floor and screaming again. Fun times. =)

We (I) have about five thousand things to take care of this week while Paul is in Montgomery. The upside to it is that I'm not going to be cooking and cleaning up after dinner twice each night (once at 6 and then again at 8:30), so I'll have some extra time at night but that's not really a big deal compared to just missing him. I laugh at myself when he leaves for a week because I'm such a wimp anymore. =)

I have to admit I'm nervous about our house selling. There are four new houses in our subdivision and I think the one directly across the street from ours is a four-bedroom, too. I'm just touching up paint, mulching and crossing my fingers because I don't know what else to do.

And finally, did you see the Oscars last night? For the first time in my life, I sat down and watched the whole thing. I'm so happy the Hurt Locker won, but before I get to that, I have to say that Mo'Nique sort of grossed me out by alluding to her legal difficulties during her acceptance speech. She deserved that award but we didn't need to be reminded of the chaos in her life. Boundaries, people!

So, okay. Loved the Hurt Locker for obvious and boring reasons but ALSO because it showed the other side of things. I loved and hated that (spoiler alert!) it ended with him going back...because the truth of the matter is that when a combat trained man comes home from war in one piece, he does go back. And if he doesn't go back, part of him wants to. I hated that he didn't choose his family, but the point of the movie was that war can be kind of an addiction and they did a great job of making his home life seem so staid and dry. Diffusing bombs to cleaning rain gutters? I'd go back, too.

Of course I was irritated at the wife, because selfishness and impatience always irritates me, even if it's helping to make the contrast between Badass-Bomb-Squad Guy and Husband-And-Father Guy more extreme, and therefore more understandable. Anyway, it was a great movie and everybody should see it, I can't really explain why it's not the worst thing that The Mission is always going to win, or how it is that guys like mine balance their life and their work when one is just the one but the other is both, or how much it means to me that when Paul had the choice to go back and be the badass or to get stuck out here in the swamp doing a job he hates, he chose us. Some things just are.