I came home from work yesterday to find the dog had a huge chunk of shit hanging from his ass. When his hair grows in, this sometimes happens. I had to give him a bath, and get him all clean, then cut the hair around his ass....I feel like Blu here. But, after I shampooed him, I gave him a little conditioning treatment with my conditioner, now his fur is all soft and smells great.

I painted stripes in JJ's bedroom, like he wanted. I think they look awful. He has to look at them on Saturday, but I don't think he's going to like them either. I have no idea what I can do to doctor them up. And, when I pulled the tape off, it pulled the drywall paper off the walls, so now I have to touch up the base color too!

Braden has decided he wants to go out for lacrosse. He hasn't played a team sport since he was about eight years old. I just know he's not going to like practicing every day, rain or shine, and getting up early for Saturday games. But, he's so excited about it. It costs $150.00 to join the team, plus he has to get a physical, and we have to buy all his equipment. This is probably going to run us about $500. He better like it.

The girl in my class, who is a big giant thorn in my side, is leaving on Monday. She's going to a residential placement. I can't wait to be rid of her - and I've never felt that way about a student. But, everyday all I do is prevent other students from beating the crap out of her. Even though I'd like to see it happen. Oh, and Monday is my birthday. Her leaving is the best birthday present I could ask for. Well, almost the best.

One for the memory book...

What a great weekend I had. Friday night, Braden slept over at a friends and Keith and I went grocery shopping...I know, oooh fun! Before we went, I swept and mopped my kitchen floors.

Saturday, I painted JJ's room and cleaned all my upstairs windows. We went to that banquet...it was at a firehall. I hate firehall food. Chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn and gravy. But, the stuffing was really good. I had thirds. The comedian was so-so. I laughed pretty good at a couple of his jokes, but I can't remember a single one.

JJ came over on Sunday, and we'd made his arrangments to have his older brother Andrew over too. What a great time everyone had. Braden had a friend over, and the four of them played video games, shot each other with airsoft guns and rode the four-wheeler. It was really cute to see JJ and his brother together. They don't get to see each other too often. We did have one little mishap. Andrew accidentally drove the four-wheeler into the side of the house, and broke the frame of the basement window. I have to give Keith credit...he remained calm. No yelling, no swearing. And Andrew felt so bad. He must have apologized fifty times. He and Keith spent about a half an hour in the basement trying to fix it. We all had a nice dinner, then we had to take them back. I sent everyone back with some homemade oatmeal cookies. It's nice to have a housefull of happy kids. It reminded me of a Sunny D commercial.

Do the cha cha

We've been without heat for two days. It's been freezing in here. Last night I sat with gloves on. We've had two people come to fix it, and it seems to work, but then it shuts down. Today, someone finally came and fixed it right, now I'm basking in warmth.
Last night, while I was doing dinner dishes, Braden came to me, all serious. "Mom," he said, "I need to know some things. Tell me about those cardboard pointy things girls use. Why do you put them up your butt?" I said, "Sit down, we need to have a chat." I proceeded to tell him, as generally as possible, about how the female body works, what a period is and why we get them. When I was done, he said, "But, I still don't get why you use those things up your butt." So, I was explaining to him that women have several holes...one to pee, one to poop and a third one where they have babies. I told him that you put the tampon in your "Cha Cha", or vagina to keep the blood from coming out. He looked at me and said, "Oh, you mean in your pussy?" What the??? I said that yes indeed that was a word used to describe the vagina, which I like to refer to as a cha cha, but that it didn't sound good, and I would appreciate it if he didn't use it. He agreed, but for the rest of the night, he kept saying (while chuckling to himself) Cha Cha! I really expected to get phone calls today from irate mothers because I was sure, in spite of repeated warnings not to, that Braden would go to school and tell everyone all about his new found information-with his own spin on it, of course. So far, my phone's been quiet. If only Braden would be.

Well, I went to the sex toy party. Braden wound up going to the movies Saturday night, so it was either stay home and have sex or go to a party and buy something to have sex at a later date. So, I procrastinated. I know, either way I was having sex, but at least this way I got to buy something! I bought some sort of "cream" that is supposed to make me "turned on". We'll see if it works.

Friday night, Keith and I went to the mall and did some shopping. JJ said he needed some undershirts and beaters. One of the stores had plain T's on sale 5 for $19.00, so of course I bought five. I got him three whites, a black and a red. He wore the red one to school yesterday, and I was teasing him, "That's a nice shirt. Is it new?" His reply was, "Yeah, my future mom bought it for me." It almost brought a tear to my eye. I talked to the "powers that be" at the Home, and they're going to check on him going on the camping trip with us. She did say that he's been doing a great job of doing exactly what's expected of him, and that she's very happy with his behavior.

We got an estimate to put dry wall up in the basement....$2500. That sounds like a lot of money to me. But, then again, I have no clue about things like that.

I told my students that I belong to a gang. The BKT gang. (It stands for Bush Kill Township), and that our flag colors are sage green and ecru, and our symbol is a minivan. I also told them that you don't get jumped into our gang, you have to be able to shave half off your grocery bill using coupons. So now they all yell things to me like, "BKT in the house" and "BKT Hollah." I told them if they tick me off, I'll get my peeps after them, and we'll feed them cookies and make them pull their pants up where they belong.

I have nothing big on the agenda for this week. Saturday night, Keith and I are going to a banquet with another couple. There are going to be comedians there, and hopefully they'll be funny. I'll let you know.

It's Thursday night, Keith and Braden are at scouts. I have a few minutes of peace and quiet. Ahhh, it's nice. I've decided to type this entry in the Emmerica-ransom note-style of different fonts and colors.

I'm stuck on playing mah jong (Thanks Emma and Res you bitches). I wanted a hand held version, but they don't make one. I guess that's a good thing, or that's all I'd ever do.

My sister-in-law (Afro's wife) is having a sex toy party tomorrow night. She keeps bugging me to go. I keep giving her the same reply, "like I want to buy something to make my husband WANT to have sex with me!" She suggested I buy a little something just for myself, but he'd just want to watch.

JJ came back to school and is handling everything very well. His attitude is amazing, and the Children's Home is so impressed, and realize what a positive influence we have on him, and is allowing us to visit him, even while he's on his "lock down". They said if he keeps it up, he can come to visit in a couple of weeks. Now I just have to try to convince them that he should be allowed to go on a boy scout camping trip with us to Washington D.C. I'm going to tell them how wholesome the trip will be, and how much of our nation's history we'll be visiting, and hope they agree to let him come with us. Cross your fingers.

Braden has a birthday party Friday night at Planet Trog. It's an indoor laser tag place near the mall, so Keith and I will go do a little shopping while he's at the party.

That's about it for me. Maybe something exciting will come along, and I'll be able to share it with you.

Good news and bad news

JJ's hearing was today...he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft. They let him off with a consent decree, which means that he'll have a period of probation, and when that's over, it will be erased from his record. He did me proud in the court room, yes sirring and no sirring the judge.

Now, as far as the Children's Home goes, he's on lock down for 30 days. He can go to school, then he comes back to the home and has to either be in his room, or one-on-one with staff. That's it. He's not allowed to come to our house, and so far, we're not even allowed to go visit him. (it's a good thing that I'll get to see him in school everyday) I think it's a bit much. We'll see how it goes for a bit, but I don't think coming to visis us, or us visiting him should be taken away from him. I may just have to call his DHS worker and see if I can get her to pull some strings.

Early Bird Specials

Ah, it's the weekend. No plans, really. This morning, I opened my tired eyes, and the sun was shining so brightly in my windows that I thought it had to be about 9:00. So, I got up, made myself a cup of tea, then looked at the clock. 6:30! Damn you sun! You all know what this mean, don't you? It means I'm getting old. Old people wake up early even when they don't have to. I'm getting old.

I might go to a basketball game this afternoon at the Children's Home. One of the kids at school asked me to go, and while I don't really like watching sporting events, I feel badly that these kids probably have no one watching their games, so I'll probably brave the cold and go. What's a couple of hours of my time, really?

This week at school, I was working on the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. The kids like when I get stuck and ask them if they know the answers, even though they very rarely know them. Here's a classic example: I need a five letter word horse. They'll say pony, colt, mare, etc. So, I'll say, "no, five letters and it begins with an S." Then, they'll only concentrate on the five letters and the S part and start yelling out any five letter words they can think of that start with S....speed, sugar, sassy...it's usually good for a laugh. But, this week, I needed a six letter word for a group of rabbits. I had no clue what the answer really was, and this one boy in the class raises his hand and says, completely deadpan, "jerk off!" "What?" I asked. "Jerk off," he repeated, totally seriously. I knew he wasn't just being a wise guy, and this poor kid really thought the term had something to do with rabbits, so I handed him a dictionary and told him if he could find it in there, he'd be able to prove it to me. Obviously, it wasn't in there and he sheepishly came over to my desk and said, "Sorry, Miss, I must have been thinking of something else."

I'm still loving my new car, even though my husband hasn't gotten the ladder out yet so I can program the garage door opener. I can't wait till the weather gets nicer so I can wash it out in the sun. It's one of my favorite summer activities. Well, that's about all I have. I have to go apply for my AARP card, and look into condos in Florida.

We have a snow day today. Where I work, we have a snow chain, where each teacher calls the next teacher on the list, and so on until everyone is notified of the day off. The problem is, once I get the call and then I fumble with the light and my glasses to make my next call, it wakes me up. Then I have to pee, so I have to get out of bed. Then I get back in bed, snuggle under the covers and ... start thinking. Then, I can't fall back to sleep. It happens every time.

JJ had his hearing on Monday, kind of. It was supposed to be a hearing for all four boys involved, but three of them plea bargained, and admitted to their parts in the van-taking and crashing. (they're getting probation, fines and they've been given thirty day notice that they have to get out of the Children's Home) JJ says he was never in the van with the boys, that all he did was find the key, then wrongly gave it to another kid instead of turning it in to staff. However, originally, one of the boys said that JJ was indeed in the van with them, just not when it crashed (which never made any sense to me). Well, at the hearing on Monday, the other boys said they were the only three in the van, and that JJ wasn't with them. So, JJ's lawyer said his best bet was to have a contested hearing. So, that's what he's doing. The hearing is next Monday. The bad part is that JJ has to stay in Juvey until the hearing. I did get to meet JJ's brother, Andrew at the hearing. He looks just like JJ, only bigger and older. He's very quiet, just like JJ. I was so nervous about the hearing that I talked the poor kid's ear off. He's probably wondering why in the heck JJ would want to come and live with me. Although, when it was all over, Andrew asked if I would do him a favor and call his DHS caseworker and see if I could arrange a visit with his brother for him. Imagine being in a situation, as a kid, where you have to turn to a stranger to get help with seeing your own brother. My heart goes out to all these kids.

The Children's Home told me on Friday that due to this situation, and JJ's involvement in it, they're postponing his fostering for a few months. That's going to be thier own punishment for him. When they first said it, I understood. But, the more I think about it, the more I disagree. Sure, he should have turned the key over to staff, and he should have come clean about everything he knew right from the beginning, but he didn't. He made a bad choice. But, isn't serving three weeks isolated from everyone he cares about, not going to school, not playing basketball, not having any visitors, three weeks in the juvenile detention center punishment enough? Is it just my maternal feelings toward him that make me feel this way? I think much more harm than good can come of having him stay at the home. And, on a practical side, I can keep a much better watch on him here than the minimum wage paid staff can at the Children's Home. I don't want him to think that I think what he did was nothing, but for crying out loud do we need to make this poor kid's life any worse? Oh, and here's a picture of JJ and Braden playing video games. Aren't they both cutie patooties?


On to other things...Braden has to take a sewing class at school this semester. His teacher is always yelling at him that he goes to fast, he needs to make eye contact with her instead of staring at what he's sewing...he's a wreck that he's going to flunk sewing. Anyway, on Wednesday after being told about the eye contact thing, he was trying to look at her while he was sewing with the machine, and accidentally sewed his finger. It's not too bad, it didn't need stitches or anything. In fact, Braden thought it was pretty cool that the school nurse had to pull the thread out of his finger.

My sister-in-law is having a lingerie/sex toy party next Saturday night. I'm not sure if I want to go or not. I wonder if they sell flannel pajamas?