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| It's been a week, and it's been so long! The boys are all falling apart. Today was better, but it included this lovely senario. I am in my office with the door CLOSED and I'm on the phone with a very important person and four boys come running in. They're really excited and giggly and impatient and they have a digital camera. Suspicious, but curious, I motion for them to come over and show me what they're so excited about. They all gather around and are holding their breath as they show me the picture on the camera. Can you guess what it was? Poop! In the toilet! Like, one of them sat down, shat, and took a picture of it. UGH!!!! Now I'm flailing my arms and trying to get them to go away without screaming since this very serious person is on the phone. But the boys don't see any of this because they're laughing so hard they have tears flooding out of their very bad little eyeballs. I should have learned by now. For the record, my most used words of the week: poop and ball tap. GROSS. Well. It's the weekend and I have the house to myself! I can listen to my crappy hip hop music as much as I want, and I can go to the barn for ridiculous amounts of time! p.s. my birthday's coming up  | | |
| I've learned a few things about teenage boys.
1. If one of them has bruised/swollen/or otherwise hurt knuckles/back
of the hand they were either a) playing bloody knuckles in which case
you should check all the others' knuckles because at least one other will have
some gross wound, or b) acting out on being very angry in which case
you should check the walls and doors.
2. If one of them starts screaming at you or is being completely
irrational and angry, ask if you can go for a walk with them. Walking
does something to the teenage boy brain that makes it start working
again. 99.9% of the time once you start walking they'll either
a)apologize for prior behavior, b) confess something they're feeling
guilty about, or c) cry because really they are just so sad. Sometimes a, b, and c will all happen.
3. They eat a lot. And if they don't, it's for attention.
4. Speaking of attention, they don't do stupid things for attention if you are giving them the attention in the first place.
5. Once you jump through, like 5 gazillion hoops and chip away at all
those walls they've built up, they will do anything for you. Even dig
through the trash to find your keys you accidentally threw away.
6. No matter how much you go to bat for them you cannot compete with
mom. And they will be so angry at you for not being mom. But once they
come to terms with that, and you let them grieve, life gets much better
for both of you.
Josh and I are making steak and mashed potatoes for dinner. Wish you were here to join us.
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| You know, sometimes my job requires me to do/say/know some pretty crazy stuff. Today's example is a real gem. This (18 year old) kid was asked to write the following "contract": 3 Ways to prevent spreading germs from finklematter*:
I will make sure to apply my creams and lotions in the morning.
I will improve my hygiene skills by washing, drying and cleaning appropriately
I will make sure to wash my hands, and dry them well to prevent disease spreading.
The only way to remind my self to wash my hands, is to think of someones butt on everything that I touch (this may be weird, but it is the only way…). *"finklematter" is actually "fecal matter", but he thought we were saying "finklematter". so there ya go | | |
| www.pooch.org I got to go to the institution on Friday and meet the dogs and some of the youth. It was really cool to see them do obedience training. We watched Francesca, the Great Dane. Check out her picture on the website. | | |
| You may have already seen this, but a friend sent it to me and I was reminded that I like it and wanted to pass it on  . http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm | | |
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