Everything you can do, I can do better. I can do everything better than you.

Ah, I really hope Sean's sense of humor is on fire this week because I'm about to test it.

I'm starting to realize that some people are just better at different things. After 7, err...8? years of marriage you'd think I'd come to accept our definitive roles. You'd think that although Sean and I compliment each other in so many ways I could realize that he is really nothing like me. And truly, that is not a bad thing.

Let me explain.

Much to my dismay, I am type A. I worry about everything. I make lists to keep myself organized and I write things on them I've already accomplished JUST to make myself feel productive. I am a control freak. Most weekends, I wander my house completing half of a task as I cannot focus on what I'm doing because THERE ARE SO MANY other things to do. So you'll find me opening the fridge, removing a shelf of contents to clean it and as I stop in the laundry room to grab the cleaner I see a load of laundry to be folded. Twenty minutes later I'll see that the fridge door is open and Ian has carried the jug of milk into the living room. I'd love to say this is a result of having children, a full time job and being over-extended. But I'm sorry to say, I think I've always sort of been like this. Anybody want to be my friend? I didn't think so.


Sean is much more relaxed. He knows what's most important and would only find himself in the cleaning supply bucket if the toilet was growing fuzz. He prefers to spend his time, engaging with the kids and giving them fun filled weekend activities while I spin around like a tornado making sure the blocks are in the 'block bucket', and the Mr. Potato heads are in their drawer. Wouldn't want them mixed up right? I'm sick. I know. The fact that some days he never stops running from one meeting to the next and then closes his computer alas at midnight doesn't even affect him. He works hard and with a positive attitude. If I leave work 30 seconds past 5, I feel like I am now TOTALLY behind in my evening routine and now there is NO way I'll make it to the gym. GAAAWWWWD, over dramatic freak.

Over the last two weeks, we found out our Mexico trip with friends was not going to work out. We opted to have a MASSIVE CHANGE IN PLANS which typing the words alone is making my blood pressure rise.

Cancelling flights, researching new vacation spots, hotels, logistic planning to and from has been my primary focus for the past two weeks. In my spare time, outside of work, and the kids, and well...The Bachelor.

I managed to change our flights, I poured over hotel after hotel looking for the perfect abode at both Disneyland & San Diego. I found a reasonably priced 3.5 star establishment equipped with attractive comforters, fluffy pillows, AND complimentary breakfast. Believe me, this was no easy task as comforter design and fluffiness is almost as important to me as free coffee in the morning. I digress...

I spent an obscene amount of time PLANNING, organizing and laying out our trip. Meanwhile I asked two specific favors of the hubsand including 'please call (blank) hotel and ask for rates.' He did, I heard him discussing dates, then he says loudly, 'OH, I need it for March. Not February. Oh, OK, thanks goodbye'. I also asked him to handle car rental. I thought that was fair and although he's spent two evenings researching Hertz, Budget, & Thrifty car rates all we've resolved is that renting a mini van is more cost effective than a mid-sized car. Great. I'll take comfort in that fact as we hitch-hike to San Diego with two small children, 3 bags, 2 car seats and a couple of pirates of the Caribbean swords.

In his defense, we have a month til vacation. But in my eyes, why wait? Why leave the task loitering there on the list like that? It just seems like uneccesary stress..and clutter.

I say all this because this morning I checked our credit card transactions to ensure all the bookings I've made over the past few days were correct, etc. And low and behold you'll never guess what was on there. A charge to above (blank) named hotel. The one that was booked? But available in February? Can anyone make it to Disneyland by Saturday? Because apparently there is a room with your name on it. 3 nights on us, the name is under SEAN KOLMER.

There is a reason I do what I do and REFUSE to share the responsibility of bill paying, etc with Sean. There is a reason Sean takes out the trash. And it's not just because I can never remember which side of the street to face the lid or which bucket is recycling and is it an even or odd Thursday? And truly, I don't even know which can is for Yard Debris and which is for Garbage. Because well, that's his job. And unless he's travelling all I know is that if I place the garbage sack outside the garage door, it miraculously makes it into the can, onto the street and gets whisked away to garbage land. Like MAGIC.

I fill the dishwasher every night but do I ever put soap in it and push START? No. I may find the perfect dog for us, but do I walk him? Ever? Heck no. I cook and do dishes, Sean gives the kids baths and typically combs Alex's fro (and believe me this is a bummer of a task). I make sure we have the ingredients for the weekly meal plan, yet Sean is always changing the oil in one of the cars, or replacing the furnace filter. It's hard to deviate. So I can sympathetically understand that when I ask Sean to do one of my jobs (because I do have MORE of them) he forgets, or does it wrong. Truth be told if when packing for a trip he asked me to remember the phone charges, the monitor, and to set the light timers? I'd forget. Or do it wrong too.

Every week, I re-write my 'to do' list. I don't like it over cluttered. I don't like it to be messy and hard to read and this morning as I did this. Something happened. I RE-WROTE for the 100th time, 'College Fund' automatic deposit.

DUN DUN DUN.

If blood could boil, mine did.

Since Ian was born back in July of 2007, I have been writing this down over and over and over. You see, Sean's work allows you to deduct pre-tax a set $ amount per month to be deposited into the kids Oregon College Savings Plan. This is something I CANNOT do. This is something Sean HAS to do. So I'm begging him, publicly and embarrassingly to 'PLEASE submit the paperwork. Also, please call your health insurance and discuss Ian's hearing test costs. If you do this, I do hereby promise (and you know how I stick to those) to do any one of your jobs of your choosing. As long as it's not the garbage thing, or anything in the garage and/or outside. Which includes dog walking, poop picking up and removing all the trash from my car which you so graciously do weekly. And Sean, 'I love you'.