Shari
IsItFridayYet?
Well, we survived vacation.
***
I'm not sure I am much "rejuvenated", but it was a change of scenery, anyway. difficult child 2 did not have one big, bad, culminating event this year, like in the past, but instead had several smaller episodes. Several time I just had to drop what I was doing and become a shadow around the campground to keep him from hurting someone, but overall, he enjoyed the trip and largely played around by himself.
***
easy child 2 got to go and took a friend, she only gets to have friends over at our house, so her social skills are lacking, but she did really good, really. They had their spats, but heck, any two 11 year old girls who are together for 10 days in a row will spat. I did have to pick up more after them than difficult child 2, tho....that was a little disheartening. lol But they were good and had a great time the whole week. They played with the other kids and made a lemonade stand, used my little camp wagon to pull behind their bikes to sell lemonade and rice krispie treats around the camp. lol
***
easy child 1 and his fiance went, as did my mom. husband was there for the weekends. We camped, played in the creek, took 2 canoe trips, cooked in the dutch ovens, and made breakfast for 50 in the giant cast iron skillet (twice - it really is fun). husband bought me a cast iron dinner bell to ring at the forge - lol - the triangle kind with a striker. My great grandfather was a camp cook, he says its in my genes and I needed the bell.
***
They held a washers tournament and easy child 1 took third. He also earned the spot to host the tournament next year, and he's already asked me to help. It should be fun.
***
easy child 1 did a lot of the bbq-ing (we mostly cook over the fire) and wants to learn how to cook in the dutch ovens. Friends of ours bought a new RV and are selling their old one, so easy child stopped by the bank and just called and is approved to get a loan to buy their old one. He and his girlfriend are very excited. I'm excited they want to continue camping. It needs a little work, but not too much. It needs all the interior re-upholstered (not just cause its ugly, but its full of holes in what's there now) and I told them I'd help them do that, so that will be fun. But mechanically, its sound, so I'm excited. They'll have their own place and stuff when we go camping now.
***
We got home yesterday afternoon to difficult child 1 and his soon-to-be-wife. He is in for 2 weeks. I am glad to see him, he looks good and seems to be doing fairly well. Not so sure about the whole wedding thing, but what do you do... It is Friday afternoon, and I will be there. He got in Saturday night. I think he is still a difficult child, tho. He had a long layover in Denver and got smashed in the airport. He said he got beligerant going thru security and they searched EVERYTHING. He lost his wallet and cell phone. <insert eye roll here> He had a couple friends over Saturday night and we found several bottles of alcohol, and he left the deep freeze open. Most everything is thawed out... I'm trying to not count days, cause I do miss him and love him. But I don't miss this stuff. He is slated, at this point, to deploy in February.
***
I talked to easy child 2's mom last night about getting her into tutoring. She lead me into the living room where easy child 2 was sitting and commenced the screaming. She screamed at me for the first 20 minutes about why husband "cares now" but wouldn't do jack ^&^%$% when he was with her. I just took it, fed back occassionally, but mostly just let her scream. She said some of the most bogus cr@p, at one point told me to butt out, if husband wanted to talk to her, that was fine. lol I reminded her that she refused to talk to husband, but if she wanted to take it up with him, I'd be MORE THAN GLAD to step out of this mediator roll. lol. She actually apologized later for that statement. She also yelled at me for doing this behind her back, to which I replied A) husband and I have been asking to get easy child 2 help for over 2 years now, and nothing has happened, and B) it was spur of the moment and MY MOM paid for the testing, and C), if you need a C), is the fact that I am getting exactly what I expected to get (screamed at) regardless of what point in the process I talked to you about this. I said it seems like an "us versus them" contest with her, instead of what easy child 2 needs are, and that cr@p needs to STOP. She screamed some more, easy child 2 left the room crying, and THEN we had a decent conversation. She's not much into the tutoring and claims she gave the school all the info but they refused to do anything more. I told her I was somewhat familiar with the process, and asked if its ok if I try, and she said that would be ok, so she is allowing me to set up and IEP meeting and try for services thru school now. I'm going back tonight to drop off easy child's bike (her grandpa is fixing the brakes on it for us), so I'm going to stop back in and ask again to take her to the tutor at least until we get something started thru school. She also talked some about her new husband and his kids. Its very apparent her marriage isn't exactly good. We just need to get the lawyer retained and get on this. easy child wants to live with us, I'd think that would carry some weight at this point, along with the fact that her mom hasn't got her tutoring or counseling that was recommended for her...
***
difficult child 2 threw a fit of epic proportions last night. Generally, its brought on by him being denied something, but last night, he just seemed to go on autopilot and wind himself up. He was throwing furniture and hitting and kicking. I finally got him down on the kitchen floor, and when he seemed to have calmed down and I got up to let him up, he started kicking me, easy child 1 and his girlfriend again. I tried to lean down to stop him, but he kicked me in the face, so I finally had to use my own feet to knock him over on his side enuf to get ahold of him. I felt like a heel, I had basically kicked my son, but he couldn't continue kicking us, and we were between him and the wall - it wasn't like I did it out of anger, I thought about it before I did it, but still! But what the heck else do you do in those situations when you HAVE to stop them from doing something??? The good news, tho, was after he calmed down, he had a really good evening.
***
Oh yeah, and I met a mother in law on vacation that rivals my own. She has the same name as my mother in law, too. Her son's oldest daughter has some "issues". I'm not sure what, if they even know, but she's 21 and is about the equivilent of a 10 year old. And she has imaginary friends (three of them, same ones she's had for years now). Nice, nice, girl, tho, she's been a part of our group for years, no one really thinks twice about it anymore. Anyway, this woman is embarrassed by her granddaughter and will actively and freely mock her in front of anyone and everyone, including the girl. So her mom and I swapped mother in law horror stories. That was kinda fun, in a sick sorta way.
***
So now I'm home, buried in laundry, and back to the grind.
***
I'm not sure I am much "rejuvenated", but it was a change of scenery, anyway. difficult child 2 did not have one big, bad, culminating event this year, like in the past, but instead had several smaller episodes. Several time I just had to drop what I was doing and become a shadow around the campground to keep him from hurting someone, but overall, he enjoyed the trip and largely played around by himself.
***
easy child 2 got to go and took a friend, she only gets to have friends over at our house, so her social skills are lacking, but she did really good, really. They had their spats, but heck, any two 11 year old girls who are together for 10 days in a row will spat. I did have to pick up more after them than difficult child 2, tho....that was a little disheartening. lol But they were good and had a great time the whole week. They played with the other kids and made a lemonade stand, used my little camp wagon to pull behind their bikes to sell lemonade and rice krispie treats around the camp. lol
***
easy child 1 and his fiance went, as did my mom. husband was there for the weekends. We camped, played in the creek, took 2 canoe trips, cooked in the dutch ovens, and made breakfast for 50 in the giant cast iron skillet (twice - it really is fun). husband bought me a cast iron dinner bell to ring at the forge - lol - the triangle kind with a striker. My great grandfather was a camp cook, he says its in my genes and I needed the bell.
***
They held a washers tournament and easy child 1 took third. He also earned the spot to host the tournament next year, and he's already asked me to help. It should be fun.
***
easy child 1 did a lot of the bbq-ing (we mostly cook over the fire) and wants to learn how to cook in the dutch ovens. Friends of ours bought a new RV and are selling their old one, so easy child stopped by the bank and just called and is approved to get a loan to buy their old one. He and his girlfriend are very excited. I'm excited they want to continue camping. It needs a little work, but not too much. It needs all the interior re-upholstered (not just cause its ugly, but its full of holes in what's there now) and I told them I'd help them do that, so that will be fun. But mechanically, its sound, so I'm excited. They'll have their own place and stuff when we go camping now.
***
We got home yesterday afternoon to difficult child 1 and his soon-to-be-wife. He is in for 2 weeks. I am glad to see him, he looks good and seems to be doing fairly well. Not so sure about the whole wedding thing, but what do you do... It is Friday afternoon, and I will be there. He got in Saturday night. I think he is still a difficult child, tho. He had a long layover in Denver and got smashed in the airport. He said he got beligerant going thru security and they searched EVERYTHING. He lost his wallet and cell phone. <insert eye roll here> He had a couple friends over Saturday night and we found several bottles of alcohol, and he left the deep freeze open. Most everything is thawed out... I'm trying to not count days, cause I do miss him and love him. But I don't miss this stuff. He is slated, at this point, to deploy in February.
***
I talked to easy child 2's mom last night about getting her into tutoring. She lead me into the living room where easy child 2 was sitting and commenced the screaming. She screamed at me for the first 20 minutes about why husband "cares now" but wouldn't do jack ^&^%$% when he was with her. I just took it, fed back occassionally, but mostly just let her scream. She said some of the most bogus cr@p, at one point told me to butt out, if husband wanted to talk to her, that was fine. lol I reminded her that she refused to talk to husband, but if she wanted to take it up with him, I'd be MORE THAN GLAD to step out of this mediator roll. lol. She actually apologized later for that statement. She also yelled at me for doing this behind her back, to which I replied A) husband and I have been asking to get easy child 2 help for over 2 years now, and nothing has happened, and B) it was spur of the moment and MY MOM paid for the testing, and C), if you need a C), is the fact that I am getting exactly what I expected to get (screamed at) regardless of what point in the process I talked to you about this. I said it seems like an "us versus them" contest with her, instead of what easy child 2 needs are, and that cr@p needs to STOP. She screamed some more, easy child 2 left the room crying, and THEN we had a decent conversation. She's not much into the tutoring and claims she gave the school all the info but they refused to do anything more. I told her I was somewhat familiar with the process, and asked if its ok if I try, and she said that would be ok, so she is allowing me to set up and IEP meeting and try for services thru school now. I'm going back tonight to drop off easy child's bike (her grandpa is fixing the brakes on it for us), so I'm going to stop back in and ask again to take her to the tutor at least until we get something started thru school. She also talked some about her new husband and his kids. Its very apparent her marriage isn't exactly good. We just need to get the lawyer retained and get on this. easy child wants to live with us, I'd think that would carry some weight at this point, along with the fact that her mom hasn't got her tutoring or counseling that was recommended for her...
***
difficult child 2 threw a fit of epic proportions last night. Generally, its brought on by him being denied something, but last night, he just seemed to go on autopilot and wind himself up. He was throwing furniture and hitting and kicking. I finally got him down on the kitchen floor, and when he seemed to have calmed down and I got up to let him up, he started kicking me, easy child 1 and his girlfriend again. I tried to lean down to stop him, but he kicked me in the face, so I finally had to use my own feet to knock him over on his side enuf to get ahold of him. I felt like a heel, I had basically kicked my son, but he couldn't continue kicking us, and we were between him and the wall - it wasn't like I did it out of anger, I thought about it before I did it, but still! But what the heck else do you do in those situations when you HAVE to stop them from doing something??? The good news, tho, was after he calmed down, he had a really good evening.
***
Oh yeah, and I met a mother in law on vacation that rivals my own. She has the same name as my mother in law, too. Her son's oldest daughter has some "issues". I'm not sure what, if they even know, but she's 21 and is about the equivilent of a 10 year old. And she has imaginary friends (three of them, same ones she's had for years now). Nice, nice, girl, tho, she's been a part of our group for years, no one really thinks twice about it anymore. Anyway, this woman is embarrassed by her granddaughter and will actively and freely mock her in front of anyone and everyone, including the girl. So her mom and I swapped mother in law horror stories. That was kinda fun, in a sick sorta way.
***
So now I'm home, buried in laundry, and back to the grind.
