Not going to work today

Luke and Steven are going to work for me tonight. I have a cold and I'm just too tired and yucky feeling to go. Plus this will give my leg one more week of healing before I have to sit on that bench again.

Steven went on a date today, taking a girl he met at hockey out to lunch. I peeked out the front window as she was picking him up (even though I was forbidden to do so) and she looked cute. She is 19, has long black hair and a decent looking car. I was trying to see if she had her seat belt on, but I couldn't tell. I don't think Steven put his on, which is scary, but what can I do? It will be interesting to see how the date went when he gets home. I'm not thrilled with the idea of him having a girlfriend, since he can't yet manage his own life, but he hasn't asked my opinion!

No rages yesterday, YAY!

Hannah was very calm and dare I say it, sweet! She and Shauna helped me make cream cheese brownies for Jack's birthday. She was very patient with waiting for the right time to lick the bowl. She asked at least 5 times, but didn't argue when I said not yet. When I finally said yes, she licked that bowl cleaner than I've ever seen it! Later on, Shauna noticed that Hannah had taken one of her shirts, cut the straps off the inner shirt (it was one of those shirts that has a spaghetti strap top attached, underneath a long sleeved top) and cut the shirts apart. When I called her downstairs, she came down and went directly into the powder room. I asked her why she wasn't coming in to the kitchen to talk to me and she said, "I already know what I did and I'm in the time-out." LOL, so she CAN learn!!!!!

Hannah is having a really hard time at school and around the neighborhood with a new girl that moved in recently and has decided to steal all of Hannah's friends away from her and treat Hannah as badly as possible. She is the same one that I posted about a few weeks ago. She, Hannah and two of Hannah's other friends had all been hanging out together and Rebecca invited them all for a sleep-over. Rebecca's mom said they couldn't stay over that night, but that the other two girls were welcome to stay the next night, but Hannah was not. The mom even came over and told us that Hannah could stay the next weekend, but several weekends have gone by now and still no invitation for Hannah. Surprise, surprise! Now Rebecca is being totally nasty to Hannah.

25 years ago today...

At this time, twenty five years ago, I was in my 22nd hour of labor with my first baby. That is if you don't count the previous five days of labor pains! At the end of 31 long and painful hours, the nurse placed a beautiful baby boy in Mike's arms. I can't believe that tiny 8 pound, 12 ounce baby is now towering over me at 6' 1"!

Happy Birthday, Jack Daniel!!

Something funny in all of this

While Hannah was raging, Alex and Shauna grabbed the dog and ran outside (they have been trained to do this, for their safety). They ended up in front of the garage as the two police cars and ambulance pulled up. Apparently a little girl who is Shauna's age rode past twice on her bike. The second time she stopped and saw Shauna, even though Shauna tried to hide behind a car so she wouldn't see her! She came up the driveway and asked Shauna what was happening. Shauna was embarrassed to tell her the truth, so she had to think on the fly. She told her that a lizard had gotten into our house and we had to call the police and medics to get it out! LOL! She said the first thing that popped into her head was that a frog had gotten in, but at the last second, she changed it to lizard. I'm sure this is ALL OVER the neighborhood by now (that's how it is here) and everyone probably thinks we are nuts for calling emergency services for a lizard! On the bright side, at least they don't think we are nuts for calling them for a frog!

A very mixed weekend

The visit with the Chicago kids was really nice! It was so good to see them all, again. I wish they could have stayed longer, but it was a good weekend.

The bad things started after the boys left to go home. Hannah had two MAJOR rages yesterday. I don't feel like going into a lot of detail because I am just too upset, but let's just say that even though Mike, Jack and Steven were trying to hold Hannah down, I am sporting at least 10 fairly large bruises this morning. Steven called the police during the second rage, so that was fun. I don't blame him for doing it, she has never been out of control at this level before. For some reason the paramedics also came, I guess he must have told them that she was punching and kicking me. Of course, she calmed down less than a minute before the police walked in the door. The paramedics checked her out and she had a normal pulse and blood pressure. He should have checked the VICTIM'S blood pressures, as I'm sure mine, Mike's, Jack's and Steven's was through the roof!

I'm really dreading her getting home from school, which will be in about 10 minutes. I hope she is calm, but I'm not going to hold my breath. When I was driving Steven to work today, he told me he was worried about what would happen if she rages when he and Dad aren't there to help. He advised me to let her do whatever she wants so she won't rage! I know that I have posted mainly negative things about Steven, but he acted really mature and was a huge help this weekend. I'm proud of him for that! One of the police officers who came yesterday knows our family from previous contacts with him about Steven. He told us that he has seen Steven around town several times and that Steven has always been behaving. Our neighborhood police seem to really be involved with the teens in the area and they try to make a lot of contact with them in positive situations.

A dog with no clothes?

Wrigley was taking a time out in his cage, for being too wild. Since it is pouring rain, we can't let him run his energy off in the back yard. Shauna looked at him and said to me, "We really need to have him nude so we can take him on walks again." I thought about it for a second and realized that she meant that we needed to get him neutered!

Visitors

Adam Sommerfeld, Jack, Steven, Mikey Summa and Joe Klich. Jack and Mikey have been friends since the first day of kindergarten. Joe and Steven have been best friends since they were two years old.

We finally talked Drew into getting into a picture! He and Adam were always in trouble together in grade school. They both blame the other one for being the cause, but they are still friends, after all these years!

Time to say goodbye, all too soon.

Three of Jack's friends are driving out from Chicago for the weekend, to celebrate Jack's birthday. It seems like an awfully long trip for a weekend, but I guess when you're young you do things like that.

He has known one of the boys, Michael, since kindergarten. One is actually Drew's friend (now Jack's friend, too) from grade school and cub scouts. The third is Joe, who is my other best friend's (besides Denise) son. He has also been Steven's best friend since they were two years old. Joe is actually in my profile picture, but the picture is too small to really see anyone. The picture is of our whole family and Joe's whole family from when we visited in summer of 2007.

Me and Steven Tyler

Jack is washing the dishes today. Mark that on your calendars, it probably will never happen again. However, that is not what this post is about. It is about my obsession with Steven Tyler. My son, Steven, is named after him, which might not have been such a great idea since my Steven tends to take after Steven Tyler a bit too much. Maybe I should have named him after the Pope instead! That isn't what this post is about either, so I should get to the point.

Jack won't do dishes without listening to music so he brought down his ipod and some sort of thing that it clips into and plays out loud. After an Aerosmith song came on and I mentioned that I hadn't heard much Aerosmith lately so Jack set the ipod to play all Aerosmith. He then asked me if Steven Tyler had any venereal diseases. As much as I would love to have the opportunity to find that out first hand, I have no idea. I pointed out that we are talking about Steven Tyler, so I'm pretty sure he does.

Then I wondered out loud if Steven Tyler was out of rehab yet. Jack asked why he was in rehab and I said I thought that he was hooked on pain killers. I then suggested that maybe I should join him there because when I tried to stop taking my pain medicine (vicodin) cold turkey, I got really sick.

Don't worry, I am down to one vicodin a day and only have two left, so I'm pretty sure I won't be needing rehab!!! Although, if I find out that the rehab Steven Tyler is in accepts my insurance, I might just have to ask my doctor for a refill!!!

Disclaimer: If you are reading this and don't know me, I am totally joking. Well, except for the parts about Jack doing dishes and Steven being named after S.T.

Back to Work

I decided to go back to work tonight, since my leg has been feeling so much better the past few days. I also wanted to go back since my job will only be around for the next 8 weeks or so. I lasted through a game and a half before the pain got too bad for me to stay. The bench I have to sit on is really hard even though I put two pillows on it. I only sat there for about 5 minutes and then I had to stand.

It was really nice to go back, though, because a lot of the guys were happy to see me. Luke and Drew played in the first game and they both did really well. It was so hard to watch the game, I kept thinking that this will be one of the last times I get to see them play. I wanted to stay for Steven's game, but I just couldn't do it.

My leg feels better now that I'm home. I realized that I probably made it so much worse at the beginning when I had the leg pain and I still worked for the first 4 weeks or so, sitting on that darn bench.

Homemade chocolate ice cream with Oreo chunks

The kids loved the chocolate ice cream with the Oreo chunks. It was delicious, but I didn't care for the consistency. It seemed like the cocoa powder didn't dissolve totally. I only had it when it was fresh out of the ice cream maker and still soft-serve, so it might be better after it is in the freezer for a few hours. I have to make another batch today because it was too much to fit in all at once. We're going to have to buy some ice first because our ice maker never has enough in it for the ice cream maker. If I remember, I will take a picture later.

This is an experiment

My husband doesn't like to talk or to listen. There is no such thing as a discussion in our house, it just doesn't happen. When there are things that we need to discuss, which is often, I figure it isn't worth wasting my time and energy to talk when I probably won't be listened to anyway. I'm pretty sure he reads my blog, so I'm going to say some things here that he probably wouldn't listen to if I said them out loud. I'm taking a chance that he might yell at me for making this public. He also might just stop reading my blog or he'll read it and ignore it. My hope is that he will read it and realize that there are things that must to be discussed for the good of both the kids and the marriage.

Today Luke and his friend, Stephen B., are cleaning Luke's room. Stephen B. is good at cleaning and organizing and Luke takes after me and is terrible at it. The only time Luke's room gets cleaned is when Stephen B. helps him. A few months ago, I told Luke to clean his room and in four hours all he cleaned up was half a bag of trash. Not half of a large trash bag, half of a Walmart size bag. Anyway, he and Stephen B. came downstairs to announce that the room is almost done. Mike's response was, "Did you do the closet?". No praise for undertaking such a huge job (Luke is a huge slob, so cleaning his room is no easy task), just a comment that implied no matter how hard he had worked so far, it wasn't good enough.

Sidebar: My next door neighbor just came to the door to tell me that someone had left the side gate open (I won't mention any names of who might have left it open, Mike and Jack!) and Wrigley was running around the block. Apparently Wrigley was bored with reading my blog so he decided to go for a jog! Since no kids are home right now and I can barely walk, I went to the kitchen to call Luke and tell him to come home from Stephen B's and get the dog. I no sooner hang up when I see something outside the back door. It was Wrigley, waiting to be let in, he came home by himself! Maybe he is actually maturing!

Back to my post. Last weekend Mike did a ton of laundry which was absolutely wonderful. He worked really hard on the laundry and also did a lot of yard work which was impressive and I was very grateful for. He washed clothes that we haven't even seen in years and a lot of stuff that doesn't even fit anyone anymore. He must have really dug down deep in the laundry baskets, a task that I admit I never do. However, none of the Invalid's (that would be me!) laundry got done, so said Invalid had nothing clean to wear this week. Fortunately, Luke agreed to do the Invalid's laundry yesterday so at least I didn't smell bad at physical therapy today!

Lastly, for today anyway, kids with ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fetal Alcohol Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, etc., CANNOT remember to close the pantry or turn out lights. They just CAN'T do it! They don't do it on purpose to annoy the hell out of their parents. Their brains are incapable of remembering to do that everytime. They might remember once in a while, but they CANNOT remember things like that on a consistent basis. Freaking out every time it happens only frustrates the person who freaks out, it doesn't help the disabled children remember!

I'm done for now, wish me luck!

I cooked something all by myself!

Except for asking Stephen B. to get me the cans of tomato out of the can cabinet, I cooked an entire meal all by myself! This is something I haven't done since mid-July! I made meatballs with orzo and zucchini and it was yummy. Ahhh, progress.

Well, the Oreos for the ice cream were not where I thought they were and I couldn't find them anywhere else. A few years from now, you will probably read a post entitled, "I was cleaning my room and I found a package of Double Stuff Oreos, I wonder how they got in here!".

Oooops!

Well, I was just talking to Luke's best friend, Stephen B., about the dog and I realized that we forgot all about the dog's first birthday. It was on September 9th and while I remembered that was the birthday of one of the friends that fixed Mike and I up to go on a date in 1980, I totally forgot that it is also Wrigley's birthday.

Now I'm not a person to care too much about pet's birthdays, other than to mention them to the kids, but I'm sure the younger kids will be mad at me for not remembering. I kept thinking that because we got him on November 9th, that that was his birthday.

So Happy Belated Birthday Wrigley! (I'm sure he reads my blog. I figure he must have some hidden talents and he is just pretending to be the dumbest dog on the planet!)

Speaking of birthdays, Jack's due date is tomorrow. Yes, weird, I know, but I still celebrate the bio kids due dates. I would celebrate the adopted kids due dates, if I knew what they were. I do celebrate October 20th because it is not only the date my baby brother was born and died, but it was also the day that Alex's birthmom, Elizabeth, felt him move for the first time and stopped using drugs until after he was born. I usually only celebrate in my mind, so people don't actually know how weird I am, but since I'm blogging now, I figured I'd include that little tidbit.

I also celebrate firsts and lasts, which drives Mike crazy! For example, the first hug of the new year, the baby's first smile of the year, the last diaper change of the old year, first outing with Daddy, and so on. Luke apparently takes after me because he has been pointing out every first since he got his learner's permit and car. First time he drove in the rain, first time he drove on the highway, etc.

Cooking

I'm really happy that I've been able to do a little cooking the past couple of weeks. The kids have really gotten tired of making themselves soup for dinner every night. I still need a lot of help from the kids because if I walk too much, my leg gets really painful. I made fried chicken breasts the other day with Alex as my assistant. I only make them about twice a year since fried food is a no no, but Shauna had a craving and Mike and Jack had purchased a bunch of chicken breast on a very good sale. They were yummy!

Jack made everyone flavored noodles last night. They are packaged and not healthy, but they are really cheap and I only had about half the amount of grocery money I actually need for a week, so they had to do. The kids love them and that is the only thing that Jack knows how to cook without using the microwave! I've offered to teach him to cook, but his reply is always "That's a woman's job." I can't wait until he gets married and his wife beats the crap out of him for saying that!

After most of the kids were in bed, I made the batter for chocolate ice cream. It had to cool in the fridge after cooking, so we are going to freeze it later, after adding some crushed double stuff oreos to it. I have been hiding a package of oreos in my dresser drawer for this recipe. I just hope no one discovered the stash and ate them! It is getting harder and harder to find good hiding places around here. Then when I do think of a new hiding place, I always forget where it is! Hopefully the ice cream will be good. This is my first attempt at making chocolate ice cream and my first time using an ice cream recipe that involves cooking some of the ingredients.

Do we have a racist in our family????

Last night, at 10:00 pm, as I was watching the end of Ghost Hunters and preparing to go to bed, the phone rang. As usual, Steven had left the hand held outside on the front porch, so I just let the machine get it. I then hear a message from a woman who leaves her name and number and tells me that my son said a racial slur to her son on the bus today and told him that no blacks were allowed in the back of the bus and she would like to discuss it with me.

Hmmmm, I have two sons that go to two different schools on the bus, is she talking about Luke or Alex? I can't imagine either one of them ever doing what she claimed they did. I first woke Luke up for questioning. I was actually thinking that it might have been his friend, who lately everyone thinks is my son for some reason! I explained to Luke what happened and of course he told me that he would NEVER use a racial slur or say anything like that to anyone. He said, "I have black sisters, why would I say something like that." I told him that I didn't believe he would, but I wanted to check if maybe someone around him had said it.

Next, I woke Alex up. Again, I explained the situation and got pretty much the same reaction. He also said, "I would NEVER say that to anyone, my two little sisters are black!." He also told me that there were only two black kids on the bus and one is Hannah! He also said that he and Hannah really like that boy (who just moved here) and they had played with him several times at the pool this summer.

So I called the woman back in the morning and she didn't answer so I left a message, telling her that I would like to talk to her, too. As of now, she hasn't returned my call yet.

Alex was called to the counselor's office today. When he walked in she said, "Why do you look so nervous?" He said he wasn't nervous, but I bet any kid would be nervous, just for being called down, even if they were innocent. He said that she acted like she was sure he had done this, although he said that after he explained everything to her and named the girl he was sitting with at the time, who could confirm that he hadn't said anything, she seemed to at least semi-believe him. Apparently there is another kid named Bailey, who looks a lot like Alex and several kids said he was the one who said it. Alex and his friend both told the counselor this and she also called Bailey down. When Bailey came back to class, he told the kids that he told the counselor that he hadn't done it and she believed him.

I was actually pretty mad that the counselor didn't call me about this. I plan on contacting her tomorrow. Alex also found out from the counselor that the boy who was called the name didn't want to tell anyone, but some other kid told his dad and his dad was the one that called the school to complain. I don't blame the parents for being upset or complaining. I just hope this doesn't ruin Alex's reputation at school, since the rumors have now traveled all around the middle school. Some kids think Alex did it and some think it was Bailey. Ugh!

I'm Back!

I haven't been posting for the past few days just because I didn't feel like it. I actually had a few bad days, pain-wise, and I was pretty discouraged. The last two days have been better.

Hannah had a pretty big rage on Saturday and a HUGE one on Sunday. Part of my pain setback was due to the bruises I received during her rage, on my arms and legs. I have never had bruises that were so painful and hope to never have them again. I had to take Ibuprofen around the clock for 5 days, just to cut the pain from the bruises. Jack and Mike were also kicked and punched, but aside from one big bruise on Mike's leg, they emerged pretty much injury free. I don't feel like going into details about the rages, too depressing.

Hannah is now grounded for a week and she is having a fit because she is invited to a sleep-over birthday party for one of her friends on Saturday and she can't go. I hope that doesn't cause another rage. She was a witch with a capital B on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but was a bit better behaved to day.

A Nice Day

Yesterday, I had such a nice day! This requires a little background information, so bear with me. When I was a kid, we had a family that lived across the street from us that we were great friends with. My mom and Sharon were best friends and our whole family hung out together, went on vacation together, etc. They had a son my age, Jeff, who was my first best friend, a daughter, Jill, two years younger than me, a son, Joel, about 3 years younger than me, a son, Kurt, 4 years younger than me and then, after they moved to another nearby town when Jeff and I were in third grade, they had another son, Troy, who is about 10 or 12 years younger than me. After they moved, we kept in touch and saw them every year at first, but then every few years after a while. The last time I saw them, was three days before I moved to VA, when we saw them at their grandmother's wake. Anyway, I was messing around on the internet in June and I did a search to see if maybe Jeff or Jill had a myspace or someway that I could contact them. I found an obituary for Sharon, who had died last February. I was shocked and upset. She was such a sweet lady and not that old. In fact, the day that my baby brother died, my sister and I were staying at their house and Sharon is the one who told me the news. She was so gentle and nice about it. I told my mom that Sharon had died and she, too, was very upset. The next day, she called Ralph, Sharon's husband. They started talking on the phone pretty often and Ralph decided to come out to VA to visit, as he is a big history buff and loves the south. He and Sharon had moved to Georgia before she died.

So, I had my PT appointment. My pain had escalated last week, so the appt. was very relaxing and relieved a lot of my pain. My mom and Ralph took me to the appointment and then I went to my mom's house with them after wards. We sat on her deck and talked and I was able to get caught up on how all of Ralph's kids are doing and how their kids are doing. It was so relaxing and fun, no kids, no stress, just fun. Ralph will be leaving for Chicago next Tuesday, so I'm hoping to get to spend some more time with him over the weekend.

Dumb Dog

After almost dying a couple of months ago, you would think Wrigley would have learned not to stick his nose into places it doesn't belong. He came in today with an extremely itchy snout. At least he didn't go into shock this time, but it appears he was stung by something. We immediately gave him a dose of Benadryl (eat your heart out, GracieGirl!!) and put some hydro cortisone cream on it. It is still itchy but seems to be lessening.

I think we have a next of some type of stinging insect in the back yard, in the netting that was used when the front yard was seeded. Hannah also got stung a few months ago, when she stepped on the pile of netting. The dog loves to stick his nose into the netting, looking for whatever it is that dogs look for.

Freedom of choice?

This morning Shauna decided to wear a pair of pink pants, covered with hearts, all in different shades of pink. For her top, she chose a red and white stripe. When I saw her I told her she needed to change because her outfit didn't match. She immediately started yelling at me, asking why does she have to match, I like these clothes, etc. I tried to explain that you shouldn't wear a striped shirt with heavily patterned pants, but she didn't really want to hear it. She stomped out, slamming the door behind her, still making angry comments. She came back a few minutes later with the same shirt and a pair of solid colored light pink pants. I still wasn't thrilled with her choices, but I figured that was better than her first choice.

I want her to be independent and make her own choices, but she is in fifth grade and I think kids might make fun of her for odd fashion choices. It seems that fifth grade is the year that most of the girls start to become really aware of fashion. Apparently, Shauna isn't in that phase yet!

My son, the actor!

About a week ago, I mentioned that a friend had told me about an audition that Alex might be interested in and I was debating whether or not to let him audition for that role. Well, I wanted to ignore it, but I felt too guilty, since I know he has been dying to do something with this community theater for a long time.

Last night, he went to the audition. Jack drove him and we expected it to be a quick audition and then he would come home and wait and hope for a call saying he got a part. Well, he ended up being there for almost two hours and he got a lead-kid part! He is so excited because this will be his biggest part as of yet and this play runs for 4 weeks, with 21 performances. He got the part of Tommy Banks, the son of the "Father of the Bride". Rehearsals started tonight and the first performance will be on November 6th.

Light bulbs and bare feet

One of the things about Hannah is that she just CANNOT learn by warnings or by seeing mistakes made by others. She has to experience something herself before she will believe it. Even then, she might have to experience it many times before she truly believes.

Last night she came downstairs with a bath towel wrapped around her foot and told me she had stepped on broken glass in her room, but that she had pulled the glass out and her foot was bleeding. I was so proud of her for handling it so calmly, no tears or anything. At first we thought it was glass from Shauna's snow globe which had broken the night before, but upon further investigation, it was a light bulb.

Hannah always takes the light bulbs out of her ceiling fan light when they burn out. She also never throws them away, just leaves them wherever they happen to land. If we are lucky that would be on the dresser or a shelf, but more often than not, they end up on the floor. I asked her if she learned anything about light bulbs and she said she sure did!

She went off to school this morning, but ended up coming home about 10:00 because her foot was hurting. I'm still up in the air about taking her to the doctor to have it checked out. It doesn't look too deep, but since it is on the bottom of her foot, it might have trouble healing.

Tropical Storm Hanna Fizzles

The tropical storm never made it to a hurricane and by the time it got to us, it had pretty much fizzled out. Not that I'm complaining, but now we have a ton of bottled water to drink! We were prepared for a storm that would be at least as bad, if not worse than Hurricane Isabel that hit us 5 years ago and did significant damage in our town.

Preparing for Hanna was a lot of work. For some reason, Mike decided that he wasn't going to help secure the house and yard, so Jack and Luke stepped in and completely cleared the back deck and back yard, and the front porch. They brought the patio table, umbrella and two bbq grills and a bunch of other stuff into the sunroom. Alex cleared his whole upstairs porch, with a little help from Shauna. Jack and Luke also secured the garbage cans and brought the generator up to the porch. I'm not sure why Mike didn't think it was worth the effort to make sure his family was safe. This storm could have easily produced much higher winds than it did, so we were very lucky.

How can a parent be so mean?

Hannah met a girl who has recently moved into our neighborhood on the first day of school. She has gone to play with this girl, Rebecca, several times over the past week. Hannah also has two friends that she started hanging out with last year, Alexus and Meagan. They are also hanging around with Rebecca. Yesterday, Rebecca invited all three girls to sleep over at her house. Her mom, knowing the hurricane/tropical storm was approaching, told Rebecca that they could stay another time. This afternoon, Hannah goes over to play with Rebecca and is informed that Alexus and Meagan are staying overnight tonight, but she is now uninvited because Rebecca's mom said she could only have two guests. Of course, Hannah is heartbroken and starts crying, the girls then laugh at her. Alex was either there with Hannah or Hannah came home and told him the story at this point, I'm not sure which. Anyway, Alex ends up over there with Hannah and tells Rebecca that she is rude and mean to tell Hannah that she can't stay overnight now. Rebecca then starts to cry and gets her mom. The mom basically tells Hannah and Alex, too bad, I only allow two kids over at a time. Then she tells him, if I let Hannah stay too, I might as well invite 40 kids. Alex, politely says to her, "Well, it really hurts Hannah's feelings because she was invited, too, and it isn't fair to her to be the only one left out." Again, the mom tells them that Hannah is not welcome tonight.

A few hours later, this mom shows up at our door and asks to talk to me. I hobbled out there, not too anxious to talk to someone who could be so hurtful to a kid. Anyway, she introduced herself and proceeds to tell me that Hannah left her jacket at her house and she was returning it. Rebecca is with her, but she did not come all the way up to the door. She stood on the landing, where the stairs turn and I could only see the side of her head, she had her head forward so her hair would cover her face. Then the mom gives me the same story about only allowing two kids over at a time and that Hannah could stay overnight next weekend. She was semi-apologetic, but I could tell that she wasn't really sorry, she just didn't want Hannah to stay over. I was polite, but cool to her and I never said that I accepted her apology because I don't. I told her that Hannah was really hurt because Rebecca had invited her and she felt really left out because the two other girls were being allowed to stay but she wasn't. Her answer was well Rebecca invited them before she asked me. I didn't answer. I have been a parent for 25 years and never, not once have I ever done anything like that to hurt a child. Who does she think she is kidding? Would one extra little girl really make a difference? Give me a break!

Alex is totally convinced that Hannah is not wanted because she is black. Of course, this is a good possibility, but who knows. No matter what the reason, Hannah is devastated and I am so angry. I know the issue isn't behavior because even Hurricane Hannah is very well behaved when she goes to other people's houses. Middle school is going to be fun.

Hurricane Hannah

No, I didn't spell Hannah wrong! Hurricane Hanna is heading towards us and expected to hit us this weekend. Hurricane Hannah is a Category 5 and is already here! Our Hurricane Hannah bursts through the door after school and wakes in the morning with an attitude that can only be described in one word and that word begins with a B and ends in a chy. I'm hoping and praying that this will be a short-lived storm.

I'm not sure if it is PMS or the adjustment to a new school and school year or both, but she is in rare form this week. But what do I know anyway? I'm "fat, stupid and ugly", and I "don't know anything about fashion and middle school" because I am "soooooooooooo stupid" and I need to "mind my own business".

Happy Anniversary, Mikey!

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary. We aren't doing anything to celebrate since Mike is in Northern VA at work and I am at home. Boy, 26 years sure goes by fast!

I'm so upset!

Well, this afternoon, my boss called me and told me that they are canceling the youth hockey program that I direct. That didn't surprise me all that much, but he also talked about how adult hockey would still be going on. Since I work at adult hockey as well, I figured at least I still have half of my job and my three older kids, who are obsessed with hockey, will still be able to play, since they have outgrown the kids league anyway. My boss also told me that maybe we can see what is going on in January and possibly still have the Winter League for youth.

A few hours later, I received an email from the adult hockey referee informing me that not only has the sports complex canceled youth hockey, they have actually decided to remove the entire hockey rink from the facility! Since they are removing the rink on December 1st, I'm wondering where my boss thought we would play hockey.

This is going to be a MAJOR life change for our family, since we are so heavily involved in inline hockey. Our only options now are for the kids to quit playing or to travel to another town about 35 minutes away to play ice hockey. Ice hockey is incredibly expensive, so that probably isn't an option.

Audition

A friend emailed me an audition notice from a community theater group that is looking for young teen males for a role that would run from the beginning of October until the beginning of December. I'm not sure if I want to tell him about it because he and Hannah got parts in a play with them a couple of years ago and I hated it.

For starters, the theater is about 15 or 20 minutes from home and they practice every day. Secondly, they have kept them as late as midnight for rehearsals on school nights and then they got mad at me when I said they couldn't stay that late! Alex was 11 and Hannah was only 9. I got "talked to" more than once because I took them out early. I ended up getting so frustrated that I wanted to pull them out a few days before the play started, but they loved it so I had to just suck it up.

I also found out from my friend that she is getting her daughter an agent. Alex is going to freak out when he hears that because he has been begging me to get him an agent for years. Ugh! I don't think I'm cut out to me a "stage mom"!

Thank God and Greyhound they're gone!

Just kidding, but that song tends to pop into my head every once in a while! It is an old country western song that I thought was hysterical when I was a kid. Anyway, the four youngest kids are off to their first day of school. Hannah was up early today because she was so excited and she got ready without any fuss or tantruming. How I wish I could count on her to act like that every morning! Shauna looked so pretty with her new braids, I'm going to try to remember to take pictures after school, since I totally forgot this morning.

Mike left for the DMV with Luke at 7:45 am, only to find out that it doesn't even open until 9:00. So they waited and Luke almost didn't pass the eye exam. He has an appointment next week for new contacts. He had to take it twice, but he squeaked through. He also passed the written test so he won't have to drop driver's ed this semester. Jack and Steven are going up to DC to pick up a used car for Luke that one of Mike's co-workers is selling. I will be so happy when all the older boys are driving and they all have drivable cars. It will be a huge help to me. Steven is busy paying us off for the months we had to make his car payments and insurance payments, but when he gets that paid off, he is going to start saving for a new transmission for his car.

Hectic Day

Even though we planned ahead and have had all the school supplies for a few weeks, today was still a hectic day. Shauna went to her friend, Cierra's house, so Cierra's sister, Raven could braid her hair. That meant I had to comb it out, wash it, condition it, comb again with conditioner still in, and then rinse, comb again, blow dry, and comb one last time. That was fun. Her hair looks beautiful, but she has a headache from the braiding. I keep telling her to tell Raven if it hurts and she won't braid it quite so tightly, but she won't tell her. She took some ibuprofen and I'm sure the headache will be gone in the morning. She also has a stomach ache, but that is probably just nervousness about school tomorrow. She has a hard time with transitions.

Tonight I braided Hannah's hair, as she had decided that she wanted the front part french braided and then the back part loose so she could pull it into a pony. She sat pretty still for a change, so it didn't take as long as I had anticipated. Now I just hope she doesn't change her mind about the style in the morning, like she usually does! She just came down dressed in the clothes she had picked out for tomorrow, ugh. She usually insists on sleeping in her clothes for the next day, which drives me crazy.

Luke is being a disrespectful brat today, which isn't like him at all. He starts driver's ed tomorrow and has to bring his permit on the first day or he has to drop the class. He has already failed the test twice and only has one chance to pass it or he will have to pay extra for extra classes. The only reason he didn't pass the first two times was because he didn't study properly. He isn't interested in studying now. We talked to the driver's ed teacher last week at open house and he gave Luke permission to skip class tomorrow and go take the permit test again. I have my doubts about whether he will pass it this time because he refuses to study. I think I'm going to have to take his computer and PSP away since that is all he cares about. He is buying himself a car this week and yet he can't understand why it is important to study for the driving test. At this rate, Mike is going to have to clean out the whole garage to fit Luke's car in there, too!!!!

Tomorrow should be interesting! Getting Hannah out of the house by 7:30 is going to be the biggest obstacle. Last year she refused to get out of bed until 5-10 minutes before the bus was coming. I'm hoping that since she is in middle school this year and feels the pressure of dressing nicely and looking neat and clean, she will make a better effort this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!