Am I a heinous Bitch?

Am I an over-reactor?

That seems to be the question of the day/ week. We just moved out of a townhouse we have rented for the last two years from a property management company that, I'm pretty sure, passes out "Mien Kampf" to their employees. They require ( as do many others ) that you have the carpets professionally cleaned ( this cost $315 ) and they also require the house to be cleaned to their "standards" and basically for it to be clean enough you need to use a cleaning service that they recommend ($212) though the cleaning service isn't technically affiliated. So I did both of these to the tune of $528, and I should mention they automatically keep $400 of your security deposit for "redecorating" aka painting. So that's a $1300 security deposit, Minus $400 to paint ( which they are required to do by law anyway), and $528 in cleaning services after you move out... that leaves you with... $373 to gain IF they haven't deemed your rental destroyed..

Sooo... we had most of our stuff out of the house with the exception of the furniture in the garage and our fish tank we had moved to the back deck so the lady could clean. We drained the fish tank so that it could be moved and put our 4 year old piranha in a tub full of water from his tank, while the tank sitting next to him had a small amount of water in it and some cleaning solution all left on the back deck. Apparently the cleaning lady, or someone from her "crew" felt our fish should be back in his tank and dumped him into the tank.... full of cleaner.... and killed him. My question is "WHY WOULD YOU FUCK WITH THE FISH, JUST CLEAN THE FUCKING HOUSE" so I called to let the cleaning lady know we were really upset that she, or someone with her felt they needed to touch our fish and ultimately killed him. She said she had no idea who would have done that or why anyone would have done that... My thoughts exactly, and while we are voicing complaints there was a brand new bottle of carpet cleaner in the upstairs closet that I needed to use to go over some spots in my sons room that was gone when I came back to use it. So to recap, yes, the house is clean, but my fish is dead and the $25 bottle of cleaner I bought specifically for a spot in my sons room is missing.... what else is missing? Good question. Who knows?! Everything in the garage was in boxes that haven't been unpacked and at this point the only other thing we have noticed is my husbands tool set ( probably a little over $100) So when I talked to the cleaning lady I told her she needed to bring me back the carpet cleaner ( since I needed to turn in the keys the following day ) and anything else that was taken from my home.
Yesterday when we arrived to take the remaining things to storage, the carpet cleaner had still not been returned, so I called her back and told her she needed to leave me a check for $50 for the cleaner and our piranha she needlessly killed. Is this going to far? I really didn't think so, she had been paid for her cleaning service I didn't think it was fair that I had to re-buy items she clearly had. I thought it was nice of me to NOT put a stop payment on her check.

Today- I call the SS to turn in my keys and begin to tell them I wasn't thrilled with the cleaning service THEY were recommending when Hitler ( the property manager ) bit my head of saying that they had used this lady for the past seven years and she would have never stolen anything, if she took something it was because they are not to leave ANYTHING behind in the rental units... Well, hold up there. She left my Windex, wreath, candle and a shelf that was on the wall, and I thought they weren't affiliated? Why are you so defensive of an unaffiliated cleaning lady and why is she subject to your rules? Then Hitler proceeds to tell me she wouldn't have had any use for the carpet cleaner so she wouldn't have taken it.... and in the very same breath she says " She brought the carpet cleaner back with some other items and $25 for the fish"... Am I crazy? She didn't take it? She'd have no use for it? But SHE had it AND RETURNED IT? But you are treating me like I am insane? As for the fish..... she was just being a good Samaritan and trying to help it.. guess he looked like he was suffering in his crystal clear water and needed to be placed in a scummy green, cleaner filled tank. Perhaps I owe her an apology for the obvious misunderstanding? Perhaps she should apologize to Paco... oh.. that's right.. he's dead!

WARNING: GRAPHIC PIC OF A DEAD PACO.................................................

Two Preschoolers and a Funeral

Kids and Funerals. I had no idea it was such a controversial subject. Probably because I grew up with a no nonsense kind of mother who never put a sugar coating on anything in her life, that took me to my first funeral when I was about two years old. So to me, funerals and death are just a part of life. Today, I was thankful for that. Why should we shelter our kids so much? Is it a secret that people die? I am not a "replace the goldfish" kind of mother and I am hoping that someday my kids will appreciate my honesty.

I hadn't thought much about taking them to a funeral. Thankfully, because no one in our family had passed away in quite some time. But, last night when I was getting ready to go to the funeral home for the visitation (my Uncle Ken died) my kids asked why they couldn't go. The reality is that they COULD have gone, I just didn't want to take them. They told me they wouldn't be scared to go because they play video games all the time and see movies where people die and that doesn't scare them. It was somewhere between the video games and the zombies that I decided they should go to the funeral.

My Uncle Ken was a Marine and a Sheriff for over 30 years and if you have ever been to a funeral for anyone in law enforcement or military then you know what a big to do it is. I thought it would be great for my kids to see this and know how much respect everyone had for their Uncle, as well as see that when a real person dies, there is real sadness and no reset button. This is a message I am happy to say they got today. If you ask them about it now Dublin will tell you about the 21 gun salute, how we were allowed to run red lights and all of the police cars, and Talia will tell you about the white bird her cousin released at the cemetery and how sad everyone was. They were well behaved and polite. I was super proud of them. They typically get in fist fights every few hours so this was quite a feat for them.( I won't lie, during the service I gave them lollipops so they their mouths would be too busy to talk )

This is a photo of my Grandfather (left) and my Uncle Ken last Christmas.