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.