New School Year

School has started anew this Fall, and every year is different. At the Girl's middle school, she says there are 200 more students this year! I guess the incoming 7th grade class is much bigger than last year's!

I was wondering what was going on the first week of school. I took the familiar route to drop the Girl off, and couldn't believe the traffic. After 3 years of having kids at this school (2 for the Boy and 1 for the Girl), I know the best place to drop them off, how to avoid traffic jams, etc.

But suddenly the street was full of all these parents that have no idea! They park along both sides of the side streets, so that only one car can fit in to drive, so that you have to take turns with people going the opposite direction. Some people are apparently blind or something, as they couldn't seem to figure out that they needed to take turns, and just went ahead and barged into the lane anyway, going the opposite direction!

So far, by getting too far to the right trying to avoid other drivers, I have knocked back a mirror on the van of a woman I know ("So sorry! I'm sorry!") and knocked over a trash can!

How embarrassing. Now I go a little later to avoid the crunch.

The girl is happier this year, since she has more friends and is no longer the younger class at school. Last summer her best friends never wanted to do anything - not even come swim once a week. But when she went to camp, the Girl made friends with a popular girl, and after that got invited to do a lot of things and made more friends. When school started again, her old friends got jealous. But really, what was she supposed to do?

I got a little worried about the new friend, however. The first day of school the Girl said she was sharing a locker with this new friend, as she doesn't really like where her own locker is (bottom row, downstairs). Later that night, the friend texted her that her parents didn't want her to share a locker.

So I was hoping that this new friend wouldn't turn out to be a problem, but so far it seems OK. You know how girls can be.

She is 13 now and I feel her pushing me away. She's taken to calling me "Monkey" - a term less endearing than I'd like. The other day I got excited when she sat next to me, in front, when I took her to soccer practice. It turned out, tho, that she only wanted to changed the radio station at will.

Last weekend her soccer team won a game on Sat., but the Girl was mad at one of her teammates and basically wanted her kicked off the team. The next day they lost a game, but the Girl scored on a great penalty kick and was very happy. She tries to get cranky with us trying to help her (bringing food and offering it to her), but I try to emphasize that we are only trying to support her.

Meanwhile, the Boy has visited us twice already this semester! Wow. He says he's going to try to visit more, as he now realizes how little he came home last year. Really? What about the year before that?

I think that because he's in an apartment now, he's more on his own than ever before. He called me one day, saying, "Mom, I hate cooking SO much!"

One day he called from Costco, asking what he should buy. I made some suggestions, and he said he'd already picked out rice, salsa, and bologna. OK, whatever. He asked what he could do with bologna, and I said, well, you can try frying it.

Later that week he texted me that he HATES fried bologna! He said he cooked it for dinner and couldn't even eat it! He asked what else he could do with it, and I suggested eating it with a lot of mayo, or trading it to his roommates for an egg or something.

He bought about 2 lbs of it, and wanted to bring it home, but I said don't bother. It's not even good for you. Technically, it's bad for you.

But I told K that now that the Girl is pulling away from us, the Boy seems to be coming back our way.

That would be nice.

Where is her country?

It turns out the maids accidentally took the Girl's cleats. I didn't call them for awhile, as the timing didn't seem right for them to have taken them, but finally (after looking and looking for them) I called and spoke to the daughter of one of the maids, as she speaks the best English. She asked the other maid, and found that she did see them, but has already sent them to "her country."

They were just in a white plastic drawstring bag, on a certain chair, so they just mixed it up with stuff I'd given them. I'm constantly (it seems) going through my stuff and getting rid of things. The Girl does it even more than I do, so lately I'd been just giving it to them instead of Goodwill. Well, at least we know what happened to them!

The Girl is mad, tho, and imagines that someone in another country is running around in her soccer cleats. She's mad that she now has to wear what she calls "clown shoes."

She's second on a waiting list for a camp that starts in a week, so we'll see what happens with that.

What evacuation?

Lately when I try taking a nap, I sleep just a short time and then suddenly feel like I'm falling and wake up. It's very fast, but whew! Then I'm awake and my heart is beating fast. Maybe that means I don't need the sleep.

I've been asking the Boy since last September to go to the Financial Aid office to find out something I don't know, and was having trouble finding out. During the Holidays my husband asked him again, but he just couldn't seem to do it. Finally I asked him, "What is it that you don't understand? Do you not understand what we're trying to find out?"

He said, "No, I don't know where the Financial Aid office is."

I felt like laughing, because I know he got a map of the school on the day he moved in, but I told him, "Ask somebody! Someone there must know where it is!" (It's in the Student Center).

A few days later I texted him, and he said that he'd found the Financial Aid office, but they said he needed to make an appointment to find out the answer to my question. So I texted him back, "Could you please make an appt as soon as possible?" and he said "okie dokie." Honestly.

So today he called me with the answer, and I told him i was proud of him for taking care of such a grown-up thing. He says he's trying. He actually admitted when he was here on vacation that he wants all the perks of getting older, but none of the responsibilty.

The girl is a different story. She's always had an enthusiastic personality, but now she's 12 going on 13. I blame part of it on the Twilight series and how funny the main character is because she's so uncoordinated, but now tripping and bumping into things is SO funny. I don't remember the Boy ever going through this, but she's become boisterous! When she talks to her friends there's a lot of loud talking and laughing these days.

Her basketball team is on a 4-game winning streak.

K's team won two more games, and are now officially in the playoffs. This has been his dream since he started coaching 2 years ago, but this year they've pulled it off. He never knows from week to week what kids he'll have (getting in trouble, going home, etc.) so it's always been challenging. But now he's so happy he's been giddy.

I've been studying to take a super duper tax test next week. It's funny, but the more I learn the specifics of the rules, the more I find there are grey areas. Is it rent or is it not? Is he a dependent or not?

Anyway, we've had some wild rains up here, but our luck has been good. Let's hope it's a big wave (of luck, not water) and that we can ride it for awhile.

Don't do this, don't do that

As Mother's Day rolls around again, I'm reminded how much my little girl is growing up. One year she saw Regis & Kelly on TV say that they were looking for people to write in about their wonderful mothers and get them something from their dreams. She looked up at me and I could see she was thinking I was a great Mom and she should do that for me, and I told her it was OK, she didn't have to write a letter. I was happy that she thought I was a great Mom.

Now she's getting older and quieter, while at the same time more irresponsible and silly. She recently didn't even tell her father about the father-daughter dance they'd gone to the last few years, and he was sad about that. But I can see she's gearing up for middle school, and starting to withdraw and fight with us more.

Finally last weekend I told her that she's fighting with me too much. I can see she's headed into the years where everything I tell her is going to be wrong.

We learned from the Boy that kids try NOT to do what you tell them. For instance, I always told him, "No matter what you do, don't bring home a C. I'll get you tutoring, I'll help you any way I can. Just don't get any C's. So his last semester of school he got 4 A's and a C. Everyone says, "That's great about the A's!" But the C was the one thing I told him not to do!

So with that in mind, I want to say to tell the Girl the following:

Don't get good grades. In fact, quit school! Quit sports too.
Get into a relationship early, and what the heck, get married as young as possible!
Don't read, and whatever you do, don't go to college.
Don't learn how to drive, or get a job.
Don't be happy.

Hopefully, in her need to have us be wrong about everything, she'd go against us in a positive direction.

Think that would work?

Drama for your Mama

The day before the soccer tournament this weekend, K asked The Girl to get her soccer uniform together. She looked in her room and announced it wasn't there.

What???

When K gets frustrated, becomes sort of like a whirling dirvish, and the whole house heard about it while he searched in various places. It seemed to me that it should have been clean by now, as she'd last played a game around 4 weeks ago, but she claimed to have put it into the laundry, and never seen it again.

I'm in charge of washing the laundry, so I was feeling a little blame and pressure. K, who folds the laundry, claimed to not have seen it come through the laundry either. So we searched the entire laundry room several times, but couldn't find it!

Meanwhile K kept walking around, saying, "Where is it? Where is it?" He was really getting frustrated. I kept saying that the house just isn't that big - there aren't that many places it could be!

The girl looked at me with big brown eyes and asked in all innocence, "Mom, why does he keep asking ME? Why does he automatically blame ME?"

I finally replied, "Because it's YOUR uniform! You are in charge of it! Because it was probably you that had it last."

No, no, she swore she didn't have it. I was trying to diffuse the situation and calm everyone down, and not feed into K's upset, or my perception of blame. K went into her room, and found the shorts to her uniform.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I thought you only meant the shirt!"

ALL of it! We need ALL of the uniform! Together!

We sent the Girl to the van, which had a bag of clothes for Goodwill that the Girl keeps bringing out of her room. She came back with her old jerseys, which we now would need. K was a little mad that she had been getting rid of those.

We searched everywhere. I even looked in The Boy's room, in case it had accidently gotten in with his clothes. Nope. Finally I sent K to the van again, thinking maybe she took it off in the van on her way back from her last game, and stuffed it somewhere in the van. I couldn't understand how it hadn't made it into the laundry toom!

K came back with the red jersey, which he found in the Goodwill bag! Of all places! Usually I go through her things before I get rid of them, but K had grabbed this bag and had nearly taken it to Goodwill the day before!

K was SO mad. The Girl came to me for protection, and I took the opportunity to remind everyone that the uniform was CLEAN!! It had indeed gone through the laundry and come out the other side, so everyone was a little wrong.

I couldn't understand why she hadn't found it in the bag the first time she looked, though, so I asked her, "Are you color blind?" and she answered, after a pause, "I love you!"

I told her, "Honey, if you want to quit soccer you can just TELL us! You don't have to give away your uniforms and sprain your ankle!" But she claims I'm taking her actions too literally.

I know exactly how it happened, too. She was so excited about getting new clothes for school, that she probably took an entire drawer and just dumped it into the bag. She can't have looked at the clothes at all, or she would have noticed the uniforms.

After she went to bed I told K, "Why does he think I know where it is? Why would anyone think that I would know where it is?" And finally we could laugh about it. We laughed until we cried. That was a classic.

But we still haven't found the white uniform.

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Then we went to a soccer tournament in Irvine.

Saturday we played a team from Las Vegas, who were the champions last year. They were really tough, and finally beat us 2-1. I think we only scored because we got a penalty kick right in front of the goal.

The second team we played was from Carona. We beat them pretty easily 2-0, but their coach was really mad and complained to the ref for awhile after the game. They were saying bad things to our girls, so I didn't like them too much. They ended up not winning any games.

Sunday played a team from Santa Clarita, and lost 3-1. One of their goals was just a mistake by our Goalie we'd had to borrow from another team because our substitute goalie had gotten sick. So basically she was doing us a favor. We felt a little badly about that, and tried to make the girl feel OK about it. And again, we only scored because of a penalty kick right in front of their goal, but I thought the game was closer than the score would suggest.

So we were out and didn't get to play the Las Vegas team again, like I had hoped. I stayed to watch a little of the next game, and a team called Madrid started setting up in front of us. The coach looked at me, and I saw him get a look in his eye like he recognized me or remembered something, and then he looked at The Girl. He knew her name, and called her over.

She went over and talked with him for a few minutes, and I could feel a few of the parents from that team looking at me. When she came back, she said that he'd told her that she looked like a good player, and was impressed that she was a leftie. He asked where she would go to high school (in 4 years!), and told her if she still played in high school, that she'd probably play his team in Sherman Oaks.

Hmmm. Then that team ended up winning the tournament! I was really surprised.

Graduation

The Boy's High-School graduation was really nice. I'd been a bit worried, as our parents haven't really talked to each other in over 10 years, and both sets came to town for the occasion. But everything went surprisingly well, and our parents even seemed to get along. The Boy was nice to everyone and even stuck around to visit a little bit.

At the last minute I went out and bought a new dress for the ceremony, and I was lucky to find one that was really cute. I splurged on a pair of sunglasses that matched.

There were some nice speeches, and they kept the proceedings pretty short because of the heat. I recognized the Boy pretty easily, as he had worn his colorful shoes with his gown. We cheered at the names we knew, and at the end they threw their hats into the air.

It was really moving. I hadn't made the Girl go, as it was her last day of school and her friends were having parties. Plus we were short a ticket. But when it was over I wished she had been there to see it. It was a nice experience.

We went out to eat that night. The next day we toured CSULB, where the Boy will attend school next fall. It looks like a nice school, and he should do well if he applies himself.

We went out to eat that night too (PF Chang's) to celebrate our anniversary (22 years) and the in-laws anniversary (49 years). Theirs was that day, Friday, and ours was the next day, Saturday. We celebrated a night early, as we were having the grad party on Saturday.

On Saturday we had our long-anticipated Graduation Party. It was very nice, in spite of the power going off. It was really, really hot, so it was a bad time for the electricity to shut off! Just as the neighborhood band plugged in their amp, the whole block went out.

I think the band was more disappointed than anyone, as they'd really wanted to play.

Thank God we had the pool, as it was really hot for a few hours. Then a breeze picked up and it was nicer. The electric company came out and said we needed a new transformer, so he requested one. All together it took about 6 hours to get the electricity fixed. Half of our party was intrigued with the whole process however, and stood transfixed in the yard as they watched the guy in the cherry=picker replace this transformer.

Not as many people came to the party as I'd feared, so we had lots of food left over. It's hard to gauge when you invite nearly everyone you know and don't ask for RSVPs. The Boy had a nice time I think, and cleanup wasn't bad at all. We saw some good friends and had a great time visiting with everyone.

It was kindof nice that it was our anniversary too. In the middle of the party, we'd pass each other and remember, and take a moment to kiss each other and appreciate all that got us to this moment. It seemed right that we were marking this passage on our anniversary.

The next day my parents treated us all to brunch at Whole Foods, which was near their hotel in Pasadena (on Arroyo). They were really excited about it,but I was skeptical. Brunch at Whole Foods? But it turned out to be really nice, and we could special order lots of things, like omelets and pancakes. I ended up liking it a lot.

All in all we had a surprisingly good time. I think the Boy is just starting to realize that he accomplished something. Granted, all he had to do is stay in school, but not everyone can do that.

I feel we've given him a decent start in life. I'm glad about that.

The rest is up to him.

Dear Mr. D

I've been feeling nostolgic about my kids lately. It seems like they grow up so fast. This year was a really good year for The Girl. This is a letter she wrote her teacher at the end of the school year. Next year, 6th grade!!!

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Mr. D,

I‘m XOXOXO, one of your 5th grade students from the year 2008.In the year 2008 I learned so much because you were my teacher. You always fit learning into everything we did and always challenge me. Everyday I learned something new things and I thank you so much for that.

I remember the time you took the time to tell the whole class two stories about when you use to play football in high school and college. You put so much enthusiasm into your stories, you’re a great story teller. I really enjoyed hearing how far your team got to the champion in high school and how hard your team worked to get there. Your other story about wrestling that really tough guy in a football boot camp was also very entertaining.

I’m really going to miss learning form you. I’ve learned more this year then I’ve ever learned in one school year. You never took a day sick from school and you never said it was too much gas wasted to get to school every day from where you lived. Thank you so much for this wonderful year, too bad it had to go by so fast.

High School Drama

Someone else recently brought up the term "Helicopter Mom." I'd never heard that term before, but it refers to a parent who tends to hover over their child I think.

Well, I have run into one of these parents lately, and a lot of drama surrounding prom ensued. Actually, I've never met this mom, and it's probably a good thing.

It all started a year ago. The Boy's friend B was going out with a girl, R. Then he decided he'd rather go out the the Boy's Girlfriend's Sister, Melinda. But when B broke up with R, R confronted Melinda about the timing, etc. Then the Boy's Girlfriend told R to leave her sister alone.

Then the Boy wrote about it on Myspace, and R's parents came over to confront us about it. Luckily I wasn't home, but K got to meet them all. They were brandishing papers printed off Myspace, and insisting that K read it. He declined. When they weren't satisfied with K's response, they took it to the Principle's office, where all the kids had to sign a document promising not to fight with each other any more.

That was a year ago.

This year, the Boy's Girlfriend is no longer in High School (having graduated), so she applied for a Guest Pass to go with the Boy. The Friday before the week before Prom, the Principle tells Boy that her application for a Guest Pass was denied. Why? Because she's on a "List" of people who were mean to this girl R, and R has said she doesn't "feel safe" with her at the Prom. The Principle said she couldn't discuss it with him, nor should he try to contact R about it.

So he called to see if we could help him. So K called the Principle, who repeated that she couldn't discuss it, and we weren't to talk to R's family about it either. After pressing her for SOMETHING that could be done, she gave him of someone he could call - Dick. So K called Dick and left a message. Being that it was Friday afternoon, he never called back.

So K tried again on Monday, calling Dick and getting no response. By now the kids had resigned themselves to going somewhere else, and meeting up with their friends later.

On Tuesday I asked the Boy if he even wanted to go anymore, and he said it was too late now, because tickets weren't available anymore. Well! I didn't like the sound of that at all! So I fired off a scathing email to the Superintendent of the School District, copying Dick and the Principle. I told them I didn't think it was fair, and various reasons why it was unfair, and pointed out that the Boy was up for Prom King and how would it look if he couldn't show up because his date was not approved? Plus I pointed out that the Boy was now being damaged by their actions, and I was disappointed in all of them.

Well, Dick called that same morning, and said that the Guest Pass had been granted! "What? Really?" I exclaimed in surprise. Yes, he said, they didn't want anyone else to be penalized because of this.

This situation, I guess he means. Where R's family is trying to sue the school district, has restraining orders out on two other girls, and is accusing every boy she ever dated of sexual harassment. I think the mother can't stand the thought that anyone doesn't like her daughter, and in the process is alienating everyone against her daughter! Better that she should teach her daughter to roll with the punches or work things out for herself.

Anyway, the Boy was SO glad to get to go after all, and I got lots and lots of credit. They had a great time, and all was well until the next drama got ready to unfold.

So much fun.

Birthday at Disneyland

For her birthday, the Girl asked if she could take one friend to Disneyland. She chose a friend who goes to another school, which I thought was a good choice because no one at her school would be jealous about it.

We picked her friend up around 9 or 9:30, and were on our way. We'd brought along a sweater and a change of clothes in case we got as wet as we did at Sea World. The girls put sun block on during the ride up there, and I played a new CD I'd made for them, with Pocket Full of Sunshine and other new songs. We'd gotten a good deal on park-hoppers thru Cal Tech, which seemed like a good deal. I was afraid Dland alone wouldn't be a full day, but I didn't want to get the Vons 2fer ticket, as you could only come to the second park on a different day, but within one month. That just seemed too hard, as it's a long way to drive.

Well, I was wrong in that Dland alone really can be a full day! I was glad to have the ability to go to the other park, tho, because we also had fun there.

I was surprised how crowded the park was, but I guess Spring Break is a different week for lots and lots of schools! It was a nice warm day, and when we first walked in I kept smelling the faint scent of pee as the sidewalk heated up. I kept thinking, "Who would be peeing out here on main street? And when?" Also, every now and then a whiff from the sewers would waft up for a nice P U. It just reminds me not to EVER try to go there during the heat of summer when the park is running anywhere near capacity! Whew!

I'm just saying.

Anyway, we went on 11 attractions in about 12 hours, and were exhausted by the end. We ate at our favorite restaurants - Pizza Port in Tomorrowland, and the soup-in-a-bread-bowl place in DCA's pier restaurants. At all times we were either on a ride, standing in line, walking to the next place, or eating. I don't think we could have fit in one more thing!

We got lucky at Space Mountain. I'd forgotten that a guy was telling everyone on the way in that this ride was down, and I was looking for the place to get a Fastpass to it. As I looked around, suddenly the ride opened up, and everyone started rushing inside! That was one of our fastest lines all day! Also, at DCA there were not as many people, so lines were shorter there for many things. Not California Soarin'. That line was as long as ever.

We got much wetter than we thought we'd really get, but luckily all of us (except K) had brought something to change into. I changed my pants, but since my hear was soaked, it kept my shirt wet in the back for most of the day.

For the first time I started to feel sick on Space Mountain. Space Mountain! My favorite ride! The easiest of roller coasters. The visuals in the beginning got to my stomach, and it took awhile for me to recover from that. K too! He says we're officially too old for roller coasters now. Sad.

He stood in line with the girls nearly 2 hours for their second ride on Space Mountain. This was their last ride, and I was exhausted, so I sat near the exit and waited for them. I could see into the arcade, and was watching an elderly woman kick everyone's butt at "Dance, Dance Revolution."

That was funny.

On the way out, the fireworks show had started, and the ushers were routing the walkers into certain pathways, then shouting at us to "keep moving!" That struck me as being not very nice, and I hate it when Disney is not very nice. I also hate it that they encourage people to waste!

I have mixed feelings about Disney, but all in all we had a fun day.

Now The Girl is 11 years old. On her actual birthday, she got her ears pierced to celebrate. We ate at Olive Garden (her favorite) and I made chocolate cupcakes.

The Old Tomato

My Sister "R" came for a visit last week. Another soccer team had asked The Girl to play with them in Santa Barbara that weekend, and I forgot it was the same weekend that R was coming! But K took The Girl up on Sat while I went to get my sister at LAX.

I took R to Venice Beach where we got something to eat, and I bought a few Christmas presents. I try to buy them when I see them all year, and that makes the holiday crunch a little easier.

When K and the Girl got back from Santa Barbara, K was telling us how well The Girl played, and how the ref was being really hard on her team. The Girl said, "Yeah, I even heard him tell one girl, 'Don't make me give you an old tomato.'"

After we finished laughing, we informed her that the ref was probably referring to an "ultimatum", which in the end is probably just as bad as an old tomato. But all week we kept saying, "Don't make me give you the old tomato!"

The next day we ALL went to Santa Barbara to see the Girl play. The Boy and his girlfriend went too, which was nice even tho they mostly spoke only to each other. The Girl was put into a midfield position, and scored the team's only 2 goals of the weekend!

This of course made me wish she could be on THAT team instead. They're too far away from us - otherwise you know I'd be considering it. I get frustrated that The Girl never gets to play forward on her own team, frustrated that it's only because the other girls aren't good enough. That doesn't seem fair to my daughter, that every new player tries out in the forward positions.

Anyway, we took her out to eat at Chili's as a treat for her. I noticed that the Boy's Girlfriend ordered a dish with shrimp. Me, I was raised to never order anything very expensive when someone else was paying. Was it consideration, or guilt? I guess kids these days aren't taught that, but then I also know that her parents take The Boy out sometimes too. Anyway, she and the Boy cuddled the whole way home. Later I heard that they had a fight when we got back, because the Girlfriend said the Boy doesn't pay enough attention to her.

What? Is 98% of all his time not enough?

I don't get it.

Audition

Monday I took The Girl for a TV show audition she was interested in. To her credit, she didn't want to miss any school for it, so we went after school. I'd never been to one before, so I thought it would be better to go early, but going later turned out well, as it was not crowded at all. We filled out some forms, and were sent to "holding area," walking through a room that was crisscrossed with bands to hold a long, long line. Whew! Glad we missed that!

Before we heard about the audition, we were preparing to send in a tape. The online instructions were to send a tape with just talking - no singing, art, acts of any kind. The instructions for the live audition? Wear a costume! Bring the whole family! Have the whole family dress up in costume! Show and tell or recite something. WTF?

What is the purpose of dressing in costume to audition for a show that doesn't use costumes? Personally I think they wanted us to look as foolish as possible, so they can do a show about the crazy people who showed up to audition. But I'm cynical. Maybe they're really casting a completely different show and didn't want anyone to know.

So The Girl dressed up as an artist (hat, paintbrush) and showed some of her artwork and awards. She was speaking softly at first and kept bending down, but when they started asking her questions, she perked up and spoke more audibly and enthusiastically. I thought she gave some great answers.

It was her first audition, after all. If you don't count trying out for her school's talent show. She was REALLY nervous about that first talent show. So it was an adventure for us, and kind of fun. It was fun to listen to the kids in our group and their answers to different questions. One girl said when she grows up she wants to be a Director, Producer, Mary-Kay Salesperson, or a Talk-Show host. Another was practically a professional, and said she does community theater.

My Girl said it best: "How are they ever going to pick just 25 out of ALL THOSE KIDS?"

I was most happy about getting my parking validated, because paying for parking at that location would have made it a pretty expensive day! Yay for asking questions! Sometimes you have to ask more than once.

Feeling Better

I could barely wake up yesterday, and felt low, negative energy all day.

I finally decided I had a headache, and took a couple pills. I still fell asleep in the car while waiting at soccer practice. I slept SO much. I'm sure it's PMS, which I hate.

It was so bad yesterday, that I avoided making any calls, because all that bad energy was making things go wrong and suddenly nothing seemed possible. I tried to think positive thoughts and get to a positive-feeling place, but it wasn't happening.

I hate it when I feel like that - like everything's just a little too hard and I can't do it anymore.

I'm so glad I'm feeling better today. It's amazing how you take for granted feeling good until you feel badly.

The Boy has been feeling under the weather too. He had his wisdom teeth pulled a week ago, and seemed to suffer a LOT more than I did. Then, he came down with a cold. So his jaw hurt, and he had a sore throat.

Then he went to the Prom over the weekend, and stayed up all night. So now his jaw hurts, he has a cold, and he's exhausted. Poor kid.

The Girl has been doing well. She said she was having trouble breathing after practices, so I took her to the Dr. They said she has "Exercise Induced Asthma" and gave her an inhaler. She's very excited about that.

She and a couple of friends decided to enter the school's Talent Show, and got together THE DAY BEFORE AUDITIONS with only an hour to develop their act!

Now I know where the phrase "get your act together" comes from. If you want to have an act, you have to get it together!

Amazingly, they came up with a dance and it was really cute! They got accepted into the show, so they must have performed it pretty well with only a little practicing.

Later that week she came up with another act for the Girl Scout talent show, which was very low key. We took our dog, and she did a cute dance and induced the dog with treats to dance along with her. It was very cute.

To help her out, I got the great idea of not feeding the dog that morning. The Boy came home from school hungry, and made 3 Toad-in-the-holes to eat. He took them downstairs to the coffee table, then came back upstairs for some hot sauce. When he returned, the dog had eaten one of his eggs!

He was SO mad at the dog because he was SO hungry, but I told him that the dog probably was too. It was my fault, because of my bright idea to not feed him.

Don't judge me. I learn a little something every day.

Politics and Puritans

Yesterday the Girl came home from school complaining about the fierce competition in some vote that's taking place at her school. I guess the entire 4th grade gets to vote on one person to be head of all the 4th graders next week, but they can only vote for a member of Student Council.

The Girl didn't think of asking people to vote for her until she heard someone else do it, and by then one of her good friends had already been asked to vote for another good friend, so she's torn. The Girl is afraid her friend won't be loyal to her. But she says they've all pledged to remain friends no matter what happens.

But it's unfair that other people were lobbying for votes and she wasn't, and she hates it when things are unfair. So do I. I hugged her and told her it was OK with me if she wasn't in charge of all the 4th grade. She doesn't have to do everything.

Then a boy in the running asked another boy to help him get votes, but the "helping" boy got mad at the girls when they wouldn't say they'd vote for his guy, and he started kicking them!

Boy, I guess politics is pretty much the same no matter how old the people are.

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The other day the Girl was complaining about a book that was hard to read, and the Boy responded, "Just wait until you have to read The Scarlett Letter!"

I agreed with him, saying, "It's not as colorful as the title would lead you to believe."

He said, "Now we're reading The Crucible! I hate it!"

I said, "Really? That's a play. I kind of liked it."

The Boy said, "No! I've had it with the Puritans!"

and I thought that was pretty funny. No more Puritans for him.

Christmas wrap up

It seemed a little low-key this year, even tho the Girl still gets excited. I've told her about Santa, but she continues to keep the dream alive. She's really fun. She helps me decorate (i.e. does it all!), encourages me to make cookies, makes eggnog french toast (Yum!), and hangs the stockings.

I kept telling the Boy that he may not get everything he wanted for Christmas, so he'd better do extra jobs, save money, etc. He kept saying, "But I only want 2 things!" Well, those 2 things just happened to add up to $###!!! But that's ok, I figured when he came up short, he'd work to make the extra money. It would be a learning experience.

I should point out that his Birthday is 2 days before Christmas, so he expects a lot from those few days.

Well, the Boy ended up netting even MORE than $###!!! I couldn't believe it until I sat down and added it all up again with him. It's amazing! So how am I to teach this boy the value of money?

I tried doing what my father did with me - he made me save half of what I made. It worked great for me because I wasn't used to having $100, so saving $50 and still having $50 to spend was fine with me. I still use this method today. But when I tried this with the Boy, he was offended and vowed never to work again! And he hasn't!

Why should he, when life bails him out like this? When you think about it, it's 2 sides of the family, each with 2-3 aunts, and 2 celebrations. Still, not only was I frustrated at my attempts to teach him about money, it seemed incredible to me that we are scrounging to locate the money to fix our van, and the Boy just got nearly half that amount for birthday/christmas!

After a night of feeling sorry for myself (ingrate that I am, for I am truely lucky in SO many ways), I talked it over w/K and we decided to let the Boy keep all that money. But he has to make it last until the end of the semester. He'll get allowance, but nothing extra for bowling, dinners out, etc. He has to learn to manage the money he has. Hopefully he will, although I know all too well how fast it can disappear.

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We had a big arguement over the holidays, when the Boy was home more and asking for more and more, yet giving less and less. Anyway, he told me to make my arguements more intelligent, and K lost his temper completely. Later, I tried to talk with the Boy and tell him that he just can't talk to us that way.

He'd also said something during a fight about my preferring his sister. I told him that I'm protective of her, but I was protective of him too. He just doesn't remember. He is my first born, and I will always love him in a special way just for that.

Besides, I pointed out that it's not my fault that we don't do anything together anymore. We used to watch movies together, but a few years ago he stopped doing that too. This is perfectly normal, I think, but it's not my fault and it definitely doesn't mean that I don't love him.

He's seemed a little nicer after that.

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The girl got enough money for Christmas to buy a certain toy that she really wanted. But guess what? Everyone is out of stock! We went to Target, we went to Best Buy - no toy!!

She's been checking online, which is really cute because she's only 9, and she's checking availability. She also bought an animal called a "Webkins", that comes complete with a code for a website that's been keeping her busy with games and activities that supposedly take care of the pet.

But she's dissapointed that she can't find the other toy she wanted. Tonight she said, "Don't they even care about MY needs?"

Looking for glasses.

Yesterday, I wanted to do my homework, but couldn't find my glasses. I checked my purse 3 times, even taking everything out at one point. I looked in my car, I looked around the house. Where did they go?

Finally I found another pair under the bed, but it was hard to do my homework because whenever I tilted my head downward, the glasses slid down my nose and the page would go out of focus. I tried pushing the sides of the glasses inward, but they continued to move out so that they didn't stick to my head.

This morning I was getting ready to take the boy to school, and I looked in my purse for my phone. There were my glasses! Right there, standing up inside my purse! From this the Boy concluded that whenever I want to find my glasses, I should look for my phone. And if I want to find my phone, I should probably look for my glasses.