Irresponsible Kids

I'm telling ya, I have never in my life seen such irresponsible kids as these kids. I blame their inability to appreciate what they have I suppose. Let me tell you what happened Saturday.

A friend of ours, Michelle, had given a bicycle to us. We picked it up late on Friday night. Saturday morning Chris and I sang at Church at 8ish, then at Noon we were to be at a park for a school chorus picnic with the entire family. At 11:45 am we took the bike OUT of the Durango so that everyone could fit into the car.

We proceeded to the picnic which was just TONS of fun. Football, water balloon toss, tug-of-war, etc. Kayla, Justin and Kayte thought they were not going to have fun because they didn't really know anyone there - chorus kids are not really their 'crowd', ya know? But they did have a great time.

So, we get home about 3 pm and Kayla wants to go to the bank to cash her paycheck. She and Kayte take the two bikes we now have. (One from Michelle, one ours that Chris fixed.) Kayla and Kayte ride the bikes as far as CVS Pharmacy. Sun Trust bank is across the street from CVS. Kayla get the bright idea to "hide" the bikes at CVS and walk the rest of the way. Her reasoning? Riding a bike across the street is 'dangerous'. Whatever.

So, do they park the bikes in front of CVS? No... of course not. They park them in the back - where there is no customer traffic. It's not a hidden area, you can see the back of the CVS from a strip mall right next door. They 'hide' them and walk over to the bank.

The bank, of course, is closed. It's Saturday afternoon - which I tried to tell Kayla, but she doesn't listen to me. Then they decide to cross the street again and, rather than picking up their bikes, walking North a block to McDonald's (Kayla's new job).

At McDonald's Kayla meets a friend who gives her some pants. I assume they stayed there a bit then walked back to CVS to pick up their bikes.

Do you think their bikes were still there? Of course not. One of them, the NICE one that Michelle gave to us, is missing. Stolen.

It had been out of the car no less than 4 hours when they lost it.

Chris and I were FURIOUS with them. How completely irresponsible they were. Clueless to the fact that Michelle paid her hard-earned money for that bicycle. Then, out of the kindness of her heart, gave the bike to US. And less than 4 hours later, they leave it, walk away and come back only to find it stolen.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Of course, we are going to make Kayla purchase another bike with her paychecks. It's the least she can do. I just don't know if it's going to teach her the lesson that she needs to be taught on this one. How do you teach kids appreciation? Responsibility? Respect? Especially when they are in their teenage years??

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It's hard to believe, but tomorrow Chris leaves for another beach shower job. It's hard to imagine him gone for another week, but - it's good that he's working.

Not that this has anything to do with Chris and his beach job... but I feel like sharing. I slept for about 15 hours last night. Nothing but college football on TV so I went to bed super early and got up late. Sheesh....... !!!!!

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So, last night we are having dinner - Taco night. Everyone is home - and a guy is over the house. I won't mention the guy's name for reasons that will be obvious in a minute.

Everyone else is eating, I'm on the laptop checking grades and myspace accounts. I get on one of the girl's myspace pages and read a recent thread from some guy I didn't know. The girl had just told him that she didn't want him as a boyfriend. In the message the guys says: "well damn you dont want a man....and i just want a girl to hang with and have the benifets of a g/f but with out the whole commitment...how does that sound with me and you?"

I couldn't contain myself. I said out loud "OH MY GOD, this damn guy just asked you to be a "friend with benefits" in a myspace message. I mean, he actually SAID it and everything?" I was blown away by the audacity of someone to just SAY it.

Then I find out that the guy.... is the guy who is sitting next to me right now, eating Tacos with us. WHAT???? I told him how incredibly WRONG he was and how DARE he. He tells me that I misunderstood it.

Yeah... I think not. Freaking teenage kids today. They kill me.

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OH - BIG NEWS!!!

The kids, Kayla, Justin and Kayte, are going to Maryland for Christmas! Chris and I are going to drive them up on 12/21 and we'll be back in time for Christmas Eve.

I am VERY excited about this.

First, I'm excited for them because I know they love their Grandma and Grandpa very much. They don't get to see them often since they live so far away. Gwen is always looking for things to do for them to be a part of their lives. When her son, Ron, died - I'm sure she must have wondered how much she was going to be able to be a part of their lives. Julie and Gwen don't really see eye-to-eye (putting it mildly). The kids have talked about going up to see Grandma Gwen and Grandpa Coley since they first moved in with me. I know Gwen will be able to provide them a memorable Christmas.

To me... that's what it's all about. More than gifts, more than Church performances, more than anything else around the holidays - it's making memories.

Secondly, I'm excited because it takes a LOT of stress and worry off of me. We can still buy them some gifts... but I don't need to worry about making this Christmas very memorable to them. It's a given that it'll be memorable to them. I don't need to worry about being the big-time provider for the entire family at Christmas. I can't tell you how much of a stress-reliever this is to me. Now it'll just be Chris, Jonathan and myself for Christmas. (Oh, and Julie. She wants to know what we are doing... but I don't want to think about that right now!)

We agreed to drive them up to Maryland to save Gwen some money on airfare. Chris said he didn't mind the drive, and hopefully I can get off on that Friday to help him with the trip. We'll probably end up renting a vehicle to make the trip since the Durango is doing so poorly at the moment. I think Nana and Papa are going to watch Jono for those couple of days. By doing so, we'll be taking 3 teenagers in the car instead of 4 and we can probably get away with renting a big car, not a minivan. This should save us some money in rental cost. Then Gwen will fly them back to Tampa on the 29th of December.

When I evaluated myself as to why I felt so ding-dang happy that the kids were going up to Maryland, I felt really good. I began to feel bad that I felt so happy - wondering if it was all to do with money and how much I could save by them not being here at Christmas. But, I thought about my motivation and feelings for a few days and realized that it was simply that I wanted the kids to have a great and memorable Christmas. I realized that I didn't NEED to be the one who gave it to them.

So often we can become so wrapped up in being the 'Savior'.... being the hero.... that it is not really healthy. I realized that I didn't care who was the hero, who made the memories, as long as the kids were happy, healthy and taken care of -- I was happy. So I give kudos to myself.

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I should run. The Buccaneer game starts in a bit and I've got to finish making dinner. Home-made chicken pot pie. Yummy.

I leave you with this for today:

The Paradoxical Commandments
By: Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.