Target Aquired; Why a certain ice cream chain sucks; I am tired of bittersweet moments.

So I have determined my first long-term victim, er study case. She is an Air Force wife, whose daughter attends preschool in my daughters class. Her daughter is 3, just like mine. At the open house on Thursday night, she nagged the teacher continually "is the a 2 and 3 yr old class?" She must have asked this 5 times. The teacher told her every time that no, it was not a 2 and 3 yr old class, this was the 3 - 5 yr old class. She replied "Good, because I don't want my 3 yr old in a class w/ a bunch of 2 yr olds." Seriously? You have to be that much of a snob? I wanted to look at her and say "Well, I don't want my 5 yr old in a class w/ a bunch of 3 yr olds." Really, 2 and 3 yr olds are much closer developmentally than 3 and 5 yr olds are. So how can she be so snotty about her precious daughter being in a class with *gasp* 2 yr olds, but think it is ok for all those 5 yr olds to have to put up with her daughter. She is also all sorts of preppy (insert spirit fingers here), not a sin in and of itself, but if you don't have the body of a 16 yr old, don't dress like you do. She doesn't and she shouldn't. So she is going to be one of my long term experiments. I am going to see how long I can irritate her before she snaps. Should be fun.

Now, I would like to explain why a certain ice cream chain, which rhymes with "Raskin Bobbins" sucks. I went there w/ "nee-nee" and her hubby while they were visiting, and got into a general b.s. conversation with the manager. It started when he told me not to expect a military discount from "RB" because they don't even give employee discounts. I then asked him how much employees in general make there. Starting employees make $6/hr, if you are lucky enough to make manager, you make $8/hr. Really. "RB" is a huge national chain that charges way too much for mediocre ice cream ($2.09/scoop is the regular price), and yet they pay their managers $8/hr? Tonight when I went in to take my girls out (it was dollar scoop night) and was talking to that same manager, I went to order and I was informed I would need to wait 15 minutes because they could not give me the ice cream for $1 ea until 6 pm. No exceptions. (Fortunately for me, the manager I always talk to got us the ice cream right then but let me wait 15 min to pay for it.) So my beef is with "RB" Corporate, not my local one. Because the people at my local one rock. Even if they don't get paid enough to care. (Sidenote - that same manager brought me a wet washcloth while I was trying to clean my incredibly sticky 20 mo old with the worst paper napkins in the world, and I hadn't even asked for one.)

Finally, my last issue for today is the fact that nothing in my life is just good right now. Every single thing that happens causes a small amount of pain because the hubby isn't here. This relates mostly to stuff with the kids, but I can't think of anything right now that his being gone doesn't affect. Now, I am not one of those women whose lives are only made complete by their husbands presence and approval. Both of those things are very important to me, but it isn't my end-all-be-all. But every time one of the kids does something cute, I think about how they wont be doing that anymore by the time he gets back. Little Man is starting to really develop his personality, and he is so cute. He smiles and is starting to reach for things and recognizes my voice and so forth. Babies change so quickly at this age, that by the time hubby gets back, he will be a whole different kid than he is now. I hate this. I am sure the hubby and kids will be able to bond just fine (he missed the first 6 mo of our oldest daughters life, and she thinks the sun rises and sets on him at this point), and everyone will live; we certainly are not the first nor the last military family to go through all of this. But you really can't imagine how much this sucks until you are right in the middle of it. At least we are on the downhill side though. He will have to go back, but I refuse to think about that right now. Another thing that makes this suck: I want to be able to slow down and really enjoy these ages with the kids, esp little man, because I love the first year, and I will not ever have that again, but at the same time I want time to fly by until he gets back. *sigh* At least we are all healthy *knock on wood*. Have you ever noticed that when you want to knock on wood the entire world seems to be made out of brick, plastic, aluminum, and concrete?