MAJOR drama and ANGRY blog. Reader beware.

I win the SUCKER OF THE YEAR award.

OK, so it was supposed to be a fabulous weekend - a real celebration. Sadie turned 1, and we had a party to celebrate with our friends and family who supported us through this past year. It was something I'd looked forward to for months. But this weekend has been extremely stresful.

I had major issues with some people at our party (described below), but the most scary thing all weekend was a close call I had with Sadie tonight - she stopped breathing. No kidding. She started screaming and 2 hours later, was really worked up. I took her for a walk, and she started to do this weird intake, and her breathing got slower. I ran back home with the non-jogging stroller (fun) and threw her in the car to take her to the emergency room, yelling in at Jason that I was taking her to the emergency room. I hadn't even gotten to our first light, when I heard her breaths stop for an extended time. I panicked, prayed like I've never done in my life and floored it, doing 60 on a 25 mph road to the nearest facility - a Patient First. I got her out of the car and she was blue and her eyes were rolled back. I ran into patient first, accidentally banging her carrier on the way in, and she came to. She pinked right up, and by the time I got her into the exam room, was coherent, though sweating profusely and still breathing oddly. They watched her a few minutes as I took her out of the carrier, she gave a great big cough, and seemed to start breathing fine. They treated me like I was insane, even when I told them that she'd had a heart defect, and it could be serious. Finally, after only a few minutes, she was back to her normal self - blowing kisses at the doctor, smiling at everyone and trying to get down to crawl.

They all thought I was nuts. I have this major bruise on my arm from a blood test last week, and Sadie - while we were there, mind you - developed two bruises on her head. The doctor asked me if "everything was OK at home" (no, I'm not abused nor is Sadie), then sent me on my merry way; admonishing me all the while that they are not an emergency room, just a 24 hour clinic. I told him I knew that, but just wanted to get her on CPR or intubated if needed and that they were the closest place (which my cardiologist had told me in our early scary days of having Sadie home). So, I left with my tail between my legs, feeling like the fool of the year after the weekend I've had. Sadie's perfectly fine now. I think maybe she swallowed something perhaps.

Which brings me to my angry venting section of tonight's blog. While it was wonderful to have everyone over, and my eyes were brimming as I looked around the room at all who were singing happy birthday to my little miracle baby, I leave this weekend behind feeling vastly disappointed. I'm also furious, exhausted and worn out. So I'm venting. Which is, frankly, why I started blogging in the first place. Venting and spreading news. So, now that the dramatic news of tonight has been told, there's a major vent session coming up. Here goes:

I frankly don't care if this family finds out I'm blogging about them, as they are NOT welcome in my home again. They were casual friends at best, and have the most horrid parenting and child-rearing skills I have seen - thus they have bad kids. Because they overheard me talking about our upcoming party at another friends' party recently, I felt obligated to invite them (Sucker award #1). Their children were completely unruly this weekend - they spread sand throughout my house, left towels wadded up in my bathrooms, turned on the floorboard heater in Katies' room full blast and almost burnt the house down, tore apart her room (2 times), stayed the night due to the story I'll tell below, woke at 5 am this morning SCREAMING (for fun) and waking everyone in the house. I had gone to bed at 4 after cleaning behind everyone, and sleeping on the floor of Sadie's room with baby blankets wadded under my head as a pillow.

The parents were no better. I got bamboozled into leaving the party I'd been waiting all year (Sucker award #2 - I thought the husband had been drinking and thus could not drive - turns out he hadn't been and just wanted to stay). I had barely had more than a few bites to eat all day of the food I'd been craving for months, when I hurried out the door to the hospital with the family's matriarch. We ended up in the very room I gave birth to Sadie in (which holds scary, sad memories for me) for hours, while the husband stayed to hang out with MY friends and let his children tear apart our house. Turns out it was a false alarm. I'm thankful she's fine and the baby is OK, but am still too angry to really acknowledge it much. I called the husband after been at the hospital several hours and told him to come over to get his wife, and that I was going back to my house. It took 2 phone calls before he agreed to go to the hospital.

The couple came back to my house "too tired to drive," which I could totally understand after that drama, so being the polite hostess I let them crash in our bed, leaving us with no place to sleep as we had a full house. Her husband then proceeded to tell all my guests all night to "hush" so she could sleep (HELLLOOOO?? MY house?!), then went to the room and locked the door - after I told him I needed to get pillows and a blanket out for myself. I knocked on the door to retrieve them, and he told me to go away. I told him who it was, and he said he didn't care, to go away. NIIIIICCCEEEE. This morning, when their kid had been screaming/talking loudly for over half an hour at an ungodly time (still very dark - about 30 minutes later I checked the clock and it was 5:30 am) and after 3 warnings, I told their child to quiet down or I'd put him in time out. The kid told me I couldn't do that. I told him that it was my rules and my house and I darn well could and would, giving him my best "scary mommy eyes" and he finally quieted down. For five minutes. The entire family snuck out shortly after without so much as a goodbye or thank you.

I mean really, come on. How can people be so rude? Never, in a MILLION years, would I let Katie or Sadie run wild, tearing apart someone's house and not admonish them, help clean up or at least apologize. Never, if my spouse were in perceived danger and on their way to the emergency room, would I stay behind to visit. Never would I sleep in a hosts' bed and leave without at least scribbling a note of thanks. Never would I LOCK my hosts out of their room when they needed something. And by God, I've only spanked Katie a few times EVER, but those kids butts would be so red you could see them from a moon if they disrespected any adult or household the way those kids did. Did they even stop for a moment to think that I, as the hostess of the party for my 1 year old that barely survived her first year, would like to rejoin the celebration for my child, instead of sitting at the hospital staring at the clock? Nooo. But at least the husband had a good time visiting his "friends." Jerk.

So, I spent most the party getting everyone and their kids settled, barely visiting, thinking I'd have the afternoon to relax and visit, only to deal with their drama all night. Good gosh, I can't tell you how much I despise this family at the moment. They are hereby banned forever from the Thies threshold. Today's drama of Sadie's episode has me darn well close to nervous breakdown status.

The good news is that Sadie slept through the majority of her party, so at least I didn't miss too much of her celebration - I just missed the socialization with our friends. The better news is that she's safe and sound in bed now, sleeping like (haha) a babe.

Tomorrow is Katie's first day at a new preschool as well as some medical tests for me. Let's see what kind of new drama we can stir up here.