Loooooooong Time No Blog

I know it's been a long time since my last blog. Soooooo much has gone on, I'm sure so many of you, even those of you who are with me all the time wonder what the HECK is going on. I know, I know.

Many of you have asked if 'just nothing is going on' because I'm not blogging. That wouldn't be true. In fact, tons of stuff has gone on. But the computer a friend from church who was generous enough from church to give us is again full of Trojan viruses ~ love kids! Even with virus protection, it got in. Chris keeps trying to clean it, but we can't get rid of it. Not yet anyways.

The laptop, the only other computer we have which we've told the kids they can 'use' but not really put anything on as far as downloading on or anything because the laptop is completely full as far as space on the hard-drive. We have told them this, sat them down - shown them how full it was - explained it was Chris's 'work' computer and not to put stuff on it. Yet, we keep finding pictures and stuff that the kids keep putting on the hard drive. Their friends........ lunch pictures............... pictures of them in the bathroom..... with their friends....... with their bathing suits..... etc...... just kills me. Of course, it too had a Trojan but we managed to remove it off the laptop. I just find it very difficult to use this laptop for several reasons... the touch pad is very sensitive.... it's hard drive is full... so much on it doesn't work, from the CD drive not opening anymore to the power cord not plugging in. I've blogged before about this one "limping along".

Anyways.... with Mr. Bush's tax stimulus check received last week, I decided to go to Sam's club and get an inexpensive laptop. A small one that Chris and I can use - NOT the kids. E-V-E-R. We didn't get a docking station, it's not going to go into the office, it's just something that Chris and I can use for our own personal use (well, Chris for business use of course). Sweet, huh?

So.... with computer on my lap - let's get down to business, shall we?

Things here are pretty good - and sometimes bad - just as usual, huh?

On the good side, the kids have dong a phenomenal job in school. There is a darn good chance -- like maybe as much as a 95% probability - that all three of Julie's kids are going to have honor roll this last 9 weeks. Jonathan, we believe, is going to have all A's and B's and only 1 C. This is just... unreal. We had NO IDEA that this could really happen. The problem is that we promised the kids if they got honor roll that they could have something they wanted as a reward. All the kids have wanted cell phones. We are going to be a cell phone family, let me tell ya. We are going to have to either get two plans (maximum number of phones you can have on one plan is 5, so we can't have 6 without adding a whole other plan) -- or we might have a friend add Justin to her cell plan as that would be easier.

Justin's grades have just gone WAY UP since getting on his new medication. It's amazing to see the difference that little pill has made. It hasn't changed anything in his personality or anything about him in any way other than in his ability to focus at school.

Kayla and I are still having 'issues'. Tonight we had another big talk. It started because she wanted to go to a different school. The same school that her boyfriend goes to. It's a technical 'career' school. She started off the conversation saying that she wanted to go because it was close to her mom, and since she was moving there when she was 18, she might as well start going there now.

Well, you can imagine this sat real well with us. (NOT!) However, we wanted to be adults about it and sit down with her and discuss it. However, Kayla was SUPER upset that we were not totally excited and willing to immediately sign the paper without even thinking twice. She got up, grabbed her paper, balled it up into a wad and started to leave.

Chris and I were really upset with her. What we wanted to do was sit down and create a pros and cons list for this change in schools. We also found out that this school she's asking to go to is a drop out prevention school. A last resort for kids who have been failing in the regular schools. Is that really supposed to be right for Kayla? She's now an honor roll student! They did tell her that she could graduate early. Because it's a dropout prevention school, they don't have to stick to the same rules/guidelines as regular schools. They don't have to have X number of math credits and English credits and so on in order to graduate.

So we argued a bit. Yelled a bit. Then talked for a long time.

This time Chris was much more upset about Kayla saying she was going to move out when she was 18. Last time we spoke, Kayla said she wasn't going to do this... now, she's telling us that she's not only going to move out, but that everyone knows all about it - including Julie.

Pause here for me to say how incredibly pissed off I am that Julie is going behind my back and making these plans with Kayla. FURIOUS. I am just FURIOUS with Julie over this. I don't know what to do about it. I want to punish her, but am not sure how to do so. Do I tell her she can't come over for visits for a while? That's what Katie says I should do. But the, for how long? Ooooooo it just makes me SO MAD. Okay - unpause.

So, we talk to Kayla about this whole thing. First thing we talk about is her grand plan of moving in with Julie. We talked about all kinds of things. Has she thought through that completely? How small Julie's apartment is.... high crime neighborhood.... what's going to happen when she gets manic or depressed and needs to go back into the hospital....

Then we talked about the school. Chris read all the requirements for the school. You have to agree to go into their work program after high school, meaning they place you into a job in your career field. And the career field isn't one that she's actually wanting to get into after high school. What about college? Well, since this school is DESIGNED for kids who are about to drop out of high school, they aren't college material. Kayla IS going to college. The whole school setup isn't right for her.

I created a pros and cons list with her help. The biggest things she had on her pros list was that she'd graduate early and that she'd be going to school with her boyfriend. The cons list however was quite long - that it was a drop out prevention school, she'd have to go into the career field, not college, she'd lose her friends, and that although it's a career oriented school, it doesn't have the career that SHE wants in it.

So, end result, we are not signing the paper. If she wants to move in with her mom in January and she wants to sign her up - go for it.

Then we created a pros and cons list for Kayla moving in with Julie. The only thing Kayla could give me for "Pros" was "I can do whatever I want" and "My boyfriend can sleep over". Two grand reasons I'd say... real mature. On the "Cons" list were: Mom's mental health-cutting/suicide attempts, snoring, being there when Julie has men over, it being a very SMALL apartment, high crime neighborhood, no privacy, leaving all her friends and sister and brother behind, the apartment is right NEXT to the pool (which has no hours people can't be in it), and changing schools mid-year.

I asked Kayla at one point.... if your dad were to come down for just a minute... and he was standing in our living room talking to you about all of this.......... WHERE would HE want you to live while you finished school? Then Chris asked her to answer honestly. She said he would want her to finish here. I know he would, I know he would be SO PROUD of her. He would NOT want her living at Julie's house just to push her buttons and seeing how much she can get away with. He knows that we have given her stability and fair yet firm discipline.

I don't honestly know anymore what Kayla is going to do when she's 18. I'm really trying not to care. TRYING.

I should run for tonight. Now that I have the laptop, I'll post a lot more often. I have so much more to catch you all up on. Kayla is going to court tomorrow to testify against what a police officer and the assistant principal of her school is going to say is true. This will take a while to blog about... but I'm tried tonight. I'll blog tomorrow on this one!

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for Chris and I in particular, that we stay connected. We've had a bit of disconnect lately and could use some prayers in this area. Thanks!