Fine for parents

There was an article in the Dallas Morning News out of Austin. Law makers are pushing a bill through that would fine parents if they did not show up for scheduled meetings. It seems that teachers are contacting parents to discuss educational or behavior problems and the parents are not showing up. Some parents seem to feel that the raising of their kids are up to the schools. I disagree with this sediment. I know from experience that the education and raising of our children is a joint effort from all adults who are a part of our kids lives. This bill wants to fine parents $500 if they don't show up after three attempts to meet with them. Now this seems a bit extreme. I know a lot of parents, well let me rephrase that, some parents just sit back and let their kids do whatever they want and don't seem to care if their kids graduate or not. However fining them doesn't seem to be the answer either. If these parents are not willing to show up to discuss problems that their kids are having, what makes these law makers think that these same parents would pay this fine. And would this fine be per kid or just a lump sum? And how would this fine be collected? Would these parents of the year be forced to sit in jail until they come up with the fine? And what would happen to the kids if this did happen? What if the parents didn't have the $500? I know this amount would be far more then what Mike & I could afford. Not that we would not show up if we had a meeting scheduled. There would be acceptable excuses, but these would be left up to the districts and schools. This seems unfair to me. It would be better to have set standards all across the board. And what proof, if any, would you have to produce to prove that you had a legitimate reason? A note from grandma perhaps? I don't claim to have answers to these important issues, but it seems to me that there has to be a better way then fining parents.

Annoying Kitten

Our kitten Mac is usually a very sweet kitty. But about an hour before feeding time he gets a little overbearing. He likes to curl up on the couch cushions next to me. He will get up every few minutes, walk over to me and either meow loudly in my ear or bites me. I'm sure he thinks he is giving me love bites, however it tends to be more painful then his standard love bites. He likes to walk down my chest, giving me a very good view of his ass. It's a nice ass, but not something I really want to be looking at. This evening he did this four or five times in a space of 30 minutes. At one point he comes over and bites my cheek a little hard. Now maybe I am more sensitive because I am in more pain then usual. Or maybe it was because I am very careful about getting my face next to an animal that can potentially leave me with scars. But whatever it was I reacted, and not to Mac's benefit. I was working on the daily crossword puzzle and when he bit me I reached up and whaped him on the head and pushed him off the couch. He comes back a minute later, licks my cheek where he bit me and then gave me a real Mac love bite on the nose. He then turned his shoulder to me, expecting me to hit him again. It was obvious to me that he was trying to apologize for biting me so hard. He then spent the rest of the time meowing in my ear and trying to bite my ear. I will be glad when we get him fixed. I hope this will cut down on the hard bites.

There may be hope yet

Mike and I approached Sandy this evening about her breaking the house rules. All she had to say was "Sorry". That doesn't work for us anymore. We have heard it time after time and nothing changes. So we took her big night lite (computer) and Ipod away indefinitely. We are having her write 5 pages of the house rules, she will loose her first available O meet or drill (JROTC functions). She will have an inspection every Saturday afternoon, and spot inspections whenever we feel like it. She will stand at attention at the foot of her bed. Mike will make the first inspection. He is the "Commanding Officer" When he is finished I will make my inspection. I am the "President" of this house. If her room fails inspection then all her clothes in her drawers (With the exception of her JROTC uniform) will be scattered all over her bed and floor. Or as it is called in the military "Turning your room". I won't be cruel and flip her mattress, only because it is too heavy for either of us to move safely. But her bedding will be pulled off the bed. Other then a brief hissy fit when I told her her Ipod was gone, she took it very well. I think she thinks we won't follow through. We have told her we would do this before and did not follow through. Not this time. I am tired of her breaking the house rules whenever it suits her. So we shall see what happens over the coming weeks.

This and that

Sandy got home from her youth group function about 2:00 or so. It was nice having a few days without her. Anyway she comes in and tells us that she knows she has homework and will start on it. I tell her to do her laundry while she is doing her homework and she says "yes Mom". We lay down for a nap until 6 p.m. I get up and start dinner. Sandy comes out to give me a hug and I ask if she has done her homework. She replies that she is still working on it. Hmmmm, I'm a little suspect, but I let it go. I then ask her if she has done her laundry and she tells me no. I ask why and she tells me that she was afraid it would keep us awake. Translation: I didn't feel like doing it. So she starts her laundry. How in the world a kid can end up with two loads of laundry when she does her laundry every weekend is beyond me. Mike and I can go for a week and a half between laundry days and we don't have two loads. So we finish dinner about 7:45. At 8:30 Sandy comes out and wants to go to bed. She wants me to take her dry clothes out of the dryer, put the wet ones in the dryer and when those are done, remove them from the dryer. I am unwilling to do this. If she had done this when I told her to she would have gotten it all done. Then I ask if she had gotten the litter boxes done. This is part of her daily chore routine. She about bit my head off. If she wants a guinea pig she is going to have to clean up her attitude and be more responsible. Mike & I will be revealing her candy stash and the repercussions of this. I am anticipating a battle royal.

Shadow our black Siamese mix was acting really strange this afternoon. We usually take him into our bedroom and let him sleep with us. He is the only cat who will not go wandering into the bathroom and trash it like the other two will. He would not settle down. He kept pacing back and forth like an expectant father. He did this for about a half an hour. He went under the bed at one point and I tried to pet him and he jumped back and gave me a dirty look. He finally jumped up on the bed right when I was drifting off. I scratched his ears and snuggled down to go back to sleep. He comes up to me a few minutes later, purring and licking my ear. He eventually settled down but he did not curl up at the end of the bed like he usually does. He was lying on his chest. He has been pretty jumpy all day. I am not sure what is bothering him today.

Yesterday on the news

I saw something on the local news that has been bothering me. Moms have been setting up play dates for their kids for years. But now there is a new element to these play dates. Mommy dearest is drinking wine. Now I am in no way a tea totaler, however when I did my drinking my kids were in bed or were not with me at the time. There were shots of two year olds watching mommy drink out of a wine glass. Yeah, that's right, encourage your kids to become alcoholics at an early age. One lady was talking to the camera, saying how the wine relaxes her. She was holding her, what I would guess to be a six month old infant. And at one point this baby reaches for mommy's glass of wine. What is wrong with this picture? And who is doing the driving after these play dates? Is there a designated driver at these things? Somehow I think not. And what if one of these kids takes a drink out of mommy's glass? Would mommy be charged with child abuse? Would the kid be taken by CPS? Knowing how our society punishes child abusers and murders, if there was any punishment it would be a slap on the wrist and the kid would be returned to his loving and caring mother. It bothers me that our society puts such a low value on our future.

We are kidless!!!!!!!

Our kid just left for the weekend! Yeah! She will not be back until sometime Sunday afternoon or evening. We won't know what to do with ourselves (Oh yes we will). It's a shame we don't have the money to go out. Oh well, perhaps in a month or two. I decided that part of her punishment for taking candy into her bedroom will be removal of her computer, which she uses as a night light, and the loss of her Ipod. Beyond that I am not sure what else we will do. I don't know if I am angry with her or disappointed. It really bothers me that she feels like she can break the rules whenever she wants to. Nothing we do seems to make an impression on her.

On a nice side note. I weighed myself this morning and I am now 179 pounds! Yeah for me. This is the lowest I have been since I had kids. I started seriously loosing weight about four years ago and I figure I have lost a total of 25 pounds so far. Let's go out and celebrate with a hot fudge sunday!

Just when I thought she had learned her lesson

A couple of days ago I got a craving (no it's not that) for chocolate. Sandy had brought home a brown bag filled with Tootsie Rolls and Hershey's Miniatures a few weeks ago. I went looking for it in the refrigerator and it was not there. I asked Mike what he had done with them since he had cleaned the refrigerator. He said he had not touched them. So then our suspicions fell on Sandy. I looked through her room the next day and did not find any candy wrappers, so we concluded that Mike must had thrown them out by accident. Today I was pulling out some clothes for Sandy to take with her on her youth group trip this weekend. And what do I find? You guessed it, the bag of Tootsie Rolls all eaten. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So I did some further pawing and every one of her drawers in her room had paper and junk in them. I don't even want to go into what the bottom of her closet looked like. AND we have reason to suspect that Sandy had gotten up in the middle of the night and was watching TV. Now we have the channels we don't want her to watch blocked, but it was just the very idea that she had gotten up when she was not suppose to that makes us angry. She even admitted a few days ago that she had woken up at 2 a.m. and was quite proud of the fact that she went back to sleep. Looking back on this now, I should have realized that something was wrong because when I ask her what time she gets up and eats breakfast on Saturday mornings when Mike & I sleep in she can't tell us for sure. The fact that she was so sure of what time she woke up should have been a red flag. At this point she has no clue that we know about her candy thievery, but she will have repercussions when she gets back on Sunday. I don't know what yet, but I can guarantee she won't be a happy camper.

Not as bad as I had feared

Well I got my boobs squished and it wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be. It was uncomfortable, but not extremely painful, like some procedures I have had done in the past. They are tender now, but nothing worse then what I would get during "that time of the month". My doctor will get the results in 5 business days and if there is something wrong then I will get a phone call from the person who did the mammogram. Otherwise I will get something in the mail.

Sandy will be gone this weekend. Yeah! She will be going to a youth group function. She will be leaving Friday nite and will be returning sometime Sunday afternoon/evening. She will have her work cut out for her getting her homework done. Yesterday she did just about everything she could to get out of doing her homework. The grade she got on the test she took yesterday (the makeup) was the same as the grade she made the first time. I have a sinking feeling that this will bring her grade down again. We really need to contact the school and see about getting her a tutor in Biology and World Geography. I don't want her let this go too long to bring the grades back up.

Typical Tuesday

This is not really a typical Tuesday, but I wanted the title to rhyme. What can I say, my life is pretty boring at the moment. You recall in yesterday's post I mentioned Sandy and her messy room. To her credit she didn't pitch a fit over having to clean her room again. She did spend a lot of time goofing off, talking to me and tacking a poster of Orlando Bloom on her ceiling. Obstensively so she can gaze in adoration on his face before she goes to sleep. Uh huh, well I can remember being ga-ga over some movie stars when I was her age, so I will cut her some slack. She has to stay after school today to retake a test in Biology that she failed last week. She also has a test that the class normally takes on Tuesday plus she said she had to redo something else from yesterday that she didn't get done in class. I don't know when she will get this done. She also mentioned that she wants to spend some time after school in her World History to get caught up. She wanted to do that today and we said that wouldn't work with her having to retake a test. I applaud the kid's desire to keep up on her work, she just needs to plan this better. She also needs to let us know how she will be letting us know when she is done. She didn't have a clue as to when she would be done taking her test and she didn't know if she would have access to a phone.

Sandy has been bugging us the past few weeks. It seems her Biology class has two baby guinea pigs and the teacher has thrown it out to the class that if anyone wants one all they have to do is take them at the end of the year. We told her we would think and talk about it. Well it seems like once a week she asks if we have talked about it. To be honest we haven't talked about it at all. I figured that if I waited long enough she would loose interest. No such luck. I have a lot of reservations on getting this rodent. First and foremost is that we have cats. One of these cats is a kitten. Put two and two together. Second is room. She wants to keep the pig in her room and the way her room is now there is no room at the inn. Sorry bad joke. Anyway she brought it up again last night while I was building a fire in our fireplace (I just love that fireplace). I pointed out the responsibilities of having an animal and what she would have to do to prove that she is mature and responsible. I like guinea pigs but I just don't know how well this little critter will fit in right now. And on a side note, Tara wants a fish tank in her room. The Bacon household is turning into a regular zoo.

Tomorrow I am going to get my first mammogram done. On the one hand I want to get it out of the way. I can't get a breast reduction until I get one and I do need a baseline seeing as I am of "that age". But I don't look forward to getting my boobs squished and I imagine I will be pretty grouchy when I get home. I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.

A teenager and her messy room

I didn't make it into church yesterday because of my pain. After Mike and Sandy left I went back to bed. As I was walking past Sandy's room I couldn't help but notice how messy it was. Books on the floor, pieces of paper scattered everywhere, clothes that she was not wearing under her sheet (Sandy's equivalent of making her bed) and worse of all batteries on the floor where kittys can swallow them. So after dinner I told her that she needed to go back and clean her room. I also told her that I found batteries on the floor. Her response was "They are probably dead anyway". And I came back with "I'm sure the cats will appreciate that when they swallow them and they have to have emergency surgery". I also told her not to ask for batteries for anything for awhile. She stomps off in a huff. Fast forward to this morning. I check her room and I find that her version of cleaning her room was to stick everything that was on the floor on her night tables or computer desk. There was still paper all over the floor, CD cases on the floor, two coats that could be hung up tossed on top on her spare bins and her garrison cap toss into one of her spare bins. She also, in flagrant disregard to house rules, did not fold and put her clean laundry away. Not acceptable! Soo Mike and I have decided that when she comes home from school she will spend the time until dinner cleaning her room yet again and when she has it cleaned to HER satisfaction she will notify us and stand at attention at the foot of her bed. Just like she will have to do during inspection when she goes into the Air Force. Then the two DS (drill sargents, us) will go into her room and inspect it to OUR satisfaction. I have no doubt that the two opinions will not meet. Should prove to be an interesting evening to say the least.

Weather only a duck could love.

We woke up yesterday morning to rain. All day it rained. It was cold, damp and totally miserable. I knew it was going to be a miserable day when I tried to get out of bed and every joint said "I don't think so lady". I thought perhaps it was because I was overdue for a pain pill. Nope, it seems my joints had other ideas. Yesterday was one of those rare days (Thank God) where my pain pills and muscle relaxers don't work. We had to go to the store to pick up a med my doctor had prescribed and I found out that I don't want to go grocery shopping on a Saturday afternoon. The lines were packed...............well not really that bad. But when you are in extreme pain, even one person ahead of you makes the wait seem like forever. AND when we went to pick up a poster board for Sandy and her project (which she found out she needed on Thursday but didn't tell us until Friday evening) she informs us that she also needs notebooks to take notes with. This was the first we had heard about this. If she had told us this Thursday we could have made a side trip to Wal-Mart and gotten this far cheaper then we got it at Kroger. As it was we told her she had to wait on the notebooks until we get our checks on February 3. We keep telling this kid that if she needs supplies she needs to tell us when she realizes she needs them. Her excuse is "I wasn't thinking". Ya think!!!?

I thought she had learned her lesson

Here we go again. We got an email from Sandy's Biology teacher telling us that she did not turn in an assignment, failed a test and did a sloppy job on a booklet that she had over a week to complete. Because she is getting a 69 in Biology she will be unable to go to any of her JROTC functions. Her Algebra teacher, who is also her contact teacher, is helping her complete her assignments. According to her, Sandy is almost caught up. However this Tuesday Sandy will have to take a test in whatever subject she is on now PLUS she will have to stay after school to retake the test she failed. Her biology teacher is asking us if she is doing any work at home. She is making a half assed attempt to do the work, but it all comes down to the fact that she is lazy. And to add insult to injury, we asked her about a specific assignment we helped her do and she told us that she had turned it in. She didn't and lied to us about it. Sandy is claiming that she doesn't have enough time to take the notes before the teacher moves on. I have no doubt about this, however Sandy needs to go to the teacher and make an attempt to correct the problem. If the teacher won't help her then she either needs to go to her contact teacher or come to us. We have allowed her to continue to do her homework in her room, however we have taken her Ipod away from her until she brings her grades up and gets her consequences done. She isn't happy about the latest developments, but she has only herself to blame for this. We are not going to have a repeat of the problems we had getting her to do her English work and her Team Leadership. The classes she is taking now are required classes. She can't flunk them and get away with it like she did with her Team Leadership class.

On a separate vein, I have finally set up an appointment to get my boobs squished for the first time. This will be done Wednesday afternoon. Oh what fun.......NOT!! I also went to see my Primary Care Physician today. It was a follow up to my visit a week ago. She put me on antibiotics and wanted to be sure that all was well. The cough is pretty much gone but I still feel run down and I am still running a low grade fever. What is hard to figure out is if this is a viral infection or my Lupus flaring. I was told to wait another week and if I am not feeling any better, then call my Rheumatologist. *Sigh* I hope it is the viral infection. I really don't need to be going through a flare.

No such luck

As a typical 15 yr old kid, Sandy was hoping for another snow day, but alas it was not to be. She had to get up and get herself off to school. She was able to get the majority of her homework done. We take what we can get. Unfortunately I have a feeling that she will end up with even more homework due to the snow day. She doesn't get home until 4:45 p.m. so that limits the amount of time she has available to her to finish her homework. She is suppose to have a JROTC meet on Saturday however we are suppose to get another round of rain/sleet/freezing rain/snow. We will have to see what happens. On one hand if the weather is inclement, then she will be able to get her consequences done.

Also on Saturday I have an appointment to get a procedure that every woman over the age of 40 looks forward to with eager antisapation...........................NOT! What am I referring to? A mammogram. Or as I refer to it......getting my boobs squished. I was told by the receptionist that there is now some rubber pad on the bottom pad so it is not as painful as what my mother got done. Since I am not talking to my mother right now I wouldn't know. But I do know that it is yet another torture device thought up the Marque De sod. I mean, if men had to have their testicles mashed by a cold plate, or if a woman invented the mammogram, I have no doubt that the machine would have been made differently.

Misc blog

Another exciting day in the life of the Bacons. We went out to CVS and bought a new chair for Mike's puter. He then spent about 45 min swearing at it while putting it together. When Mike gets frusrated with something he tends to use colorful language. He has worked in it very hard and it is far better then what it was when we first got together.

I got copies of the girl's grade cards. Mostly As with a few Bs. I do have to admit that they are doing well in school. I wish I could get some of their work, but fat chance of that ever happening.

Mike will be going to the church library today for a few hours. He needs to get caught up on putting books into the computer. People of the church donate all sorts of books and they need to be cataloged and put on the correct shelf. I may go and help him some days but I think today I will stay here and get some cleaning done. And enjoy the quiet.

We need to make some phone calls to see about getting our kitten neutered. We are wanting to get it done through one of those low cost deals. Then we need to get established with a good vet. Getting shots for our three idiots should prove fun.

Turn the pages of your memories

I wrote this one about six weeks after my ex had left the state with my girls and I was sure that I would never see them again. That was in February of 1997 and I still tear up when I read this.

This one is dedicated to you Tara & Elisa.


Wide toothless grins, warm moist kisses,
fading giggles and hugs recalled in hazy dreams.
Pushes on a swing set, catches on a slide,
hours in the sandbox, and hopscotch chalked on the sidewalk.

Scribbled Picassos' on the bedroom wall, evening bubble bathes
and naked dashes down the empty hall.
Nursery rhymes and lullabies, bedtime stories
and goodnight kisses for favorite toys.

Waking from my dreams with a start -
was it your voice I heard calling in the dark?
I run down an endless hall to your room, and find an empty bed.
Reaching out for your hand, I clasp only air.

I listen for your voice but hear only silence.
You were my one and only, the light of my life.
Did you know that I cared for you deeply?
Did I take you in my arms and tell you I love you?

Noses are red and fingers are blue

Mike and I had already decided that we were not going to go to church today irregardless of whether Terry (our pastor) called off services or not. We did get an email and a phone call stating that there would be no services or youth group. It has been sleeting and freezing rain on and off all day and we are now in for another batch of freezing rain. The news channels are warning of possible power outages as power lines snap under the weight of the ice. I hope and pray that doesn't happen. We do have a fireplace and wood but it is suppose to get into the teens with wind chills in the single digits. I haven't been through this much cold air since I left Misery. We will have to listen to the radio and watch the TV close Tuesday & Wednesday to see if Sandy's school starts late. I kind of hope they do if it gets as cold as they are predicting.

Speaking of Sandy.................she had some biology homework that we had told her to work on Saturday. Well it turns out that as far as her homework and her consequences (you remember, those 100 pages) were concerned, all she did on that was screw around. I asked her while I was cooking dinner this evening if she had gotten her homework done. She heaves this big sigh and slumps her shoulders. I said "What, you weren't going to get it done"? And she says "No, I was going to do it tomorrow". I muttered under my breath "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow". Mike & I battled with her for weeks to get her to complete a report on Helen Keller that was due in her English class. It took a friend of ours stepping in for her to complete it. This is a required class so she won't be able to goof off, fail it and not take it again like she did with her Team Leadership class. I would hate to see her screw up her chances to get into the Air Force.

We are trying a new tactic with our kitten Mac. He is the one with Getsonta syndrome. It seems to be spreading because he can now be found on the counters and in the sink with his brother Shadow. Anyway, we are now putting him on a leash and looping the leash around the coffee table leg. He hates being tied up. I also have been taking the sprayer in the sink and squirting him in the face. I usually get a glare from him when I do that. It sounds cruel, but I am sick and tired of finding him licking the cooking utensils or the fry skillet. One way or the other he will learn not to jump on things he is not suppose to. Even if it soaks the both of us!

Brace yourself, the next one is coming.

We got our first round of freezing rain. They are predicting another 1/4 inch of ice 12-24 hours from now. We have decided to forgo church tomorrow. We don't want to risk it. We have wood for burning and sandwiches we can make if the power goes out. I hope not tho. I am not sure I can survive for long without my heated mattress pad. We may want to consider buying propane heaters or a propane generator for times like these.

I have been busy today. I got the kitty's litter boxes cleaned out, cooked dinner (which consisted of nuking reruns) two loads of laundry, cleaned the toidy and swept our bathroom floor. I would have cleaned the rest of the bathroom but we ran out of Comet. I think tomorrow I will relax. Sandy all on her own, swept and mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned her bathroom. That impressed both Mike & I. She earned quite a few brownie points. I am hoping that she spent the rest of the day working on her homework. I will find out tomorrow.

Constant Companion

This is one of my poems that I wrote several years ago. It is describing what it is like to live with cronic pain.



Staring at the walls, time my constant companion.
Sleep, as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and like that pot of gold, never to be found.
Pain lancing my body, also my constant companion.
Something to be endured, making me a better person; molding me into who I will become.
Some say your past shaped your future.
Perhaps, but I say the now is what counts the most, what makes you who you are.

Baby it's cold out there!

I finally got tired of feeling blecky and called my Primary Care Physician. I called them about 1 p.m. and was able to get a 3:30 appointment. My doctor prescribed some antibiotics but warned me that they may not work as she was not sure if it was viral or not. When we left the house it was drizzling and the temp was about 60. When we came out about 4:30 it was pouring and the temp had dropped to 40. It was raining so hard that the streets were flooding. We decided that we were not going to go back out. We had to be home by 4:45 for when Sandy came home from school. Mike decided that since they were predicting freezing rain and sleet after midnight that it would be better to go out and get my script filled as we did not want to be out in it. The temp now is 33 with a wind chill of 24. Brrrrrr. We built a fire in our fireplace and made Chex mix. I will have to clean and refill our kitty's litter boxes and mop the kitchen and bathroom floors. Another exciting day in the life of the Bacons.

Misc blog

This morning I was able to attend our church's circle meeting. I have had to miss a few months due to transportation problems. It was nice to be back. What was a little depressing was the number of people on the prayer chain. So many people had serious problems that my problems seemed like nothing. It's amazing how you think your problems are the end of the world until you hear someone else's story. Kind of puts things into perspective.

I have finally talked to my girls. I had not talked to them since Christmas. I was trying all this week with no success. See my ex idiot has a history of playing games and not letting me talk to my kids. I had to take him to court to get regular phone calls and visits. Not that he is paying attention to the court order in regards to the phone calls. He actually had Tara suggest to me that when they come out here for the summer that he pay for the round trip ticket and I would reimburse him for half. First off, he is not suppose to have the kids relay messages back and forth. Because of the pending court case he is not suppose to talk to me at all. If he had a lawyer, the lawyer would send correspondence. However, his mouth piece dropped him like the proverbial hot potato when I filed the abuse case against him. So the best way for him to talk to me would be via letter. If he really wanted to do things right he should send it to the courts and ask them to send it to me. The courts will be made aware of this little boo boo on his part.

Second, I would not trust him to get the ticket. I would have to double check, but I think we set it up as I am suppose to pay for the trip here and he is suppose pay for the return trip. So if we did it that way we would be on contempt of court. The last time I trusted a member of his family I got screwed on one of my visits. Never again!

And third I can find a cheaper rate then what he was quoting.

I have decided that I must call my Rheumatologist. I haven't been feeling good since Christmas and I can't seem to shake this low grade fever. It is not unusual for low grade fevers in Lupus, but this has gone on long enough. It is dragging me down too much. So I am hoping that all he will do is prescribe some antibiotics.

I had hoped

As the few (2) of you who check this blog regularly may have noticed I have not blogged in a few days. There are two reasons for this. Health problems and nothing much to blog about. Yes, such is the exciting life in the Bacon household. However, today I do have something to blog about. Mike & I have been struggling for months with our daughter Sandy. Sandy is a fifteen year old walking hormone with anger issues. She has no problem showing respect to her teachers and other adults around her. In fact they can't help but sing her praises. But when she is around us, well, let's just say that she is less then exemplary. A few months ago I read in "Dear Abby" about a lady who was having problems with her teenage daughter and someone responded on how she would use writing assignments to garner respect. That caused a light bulb to go off. Sandy absolutely hates to write, especially if she has to do this freehand. So I came up with the idea to have Sandy write one page (front & back) of "I will/will not"....... (fill in the blank). If she does the same thing again, then she will be assigned two pages and it will be raised exponentially there after. She has had a few assignments to write but when she had gone a few weeks without any writing assignments, I thought I had hit on a method that would keep her in-line and keep peace in the house. Then we had a major melt down this morning. She "forgot" to take her pills this morning and she got snippy with us and it went downhill rapidly from there. I won't go into the gruesome details, but suffice it to say by the time we realized that Sandy had not taken her pills she had amassed over 100 pages of writing.

Typical Sunday?

As Mike mentioned, we installed new officers (sounds like new Christian software, Officers 2.007) anyway it's a very interesting process to watch. I was raised Presbyterian but I don't remember ever seeing this as a kid. Mike keeps telling me I should expect a call asking if I am willing to serve. Honestly, I don't feel myself being called to anything. Right now my health and my kids are my priority. Once my health improves, then maybe I will be lead in a certain direction. We got home about 1 p.m. to find our four footed kids had gotten into things. Or to be more exact, onto things. Sandy's ear buds to her IPod were on the floor next to the kitchen. A Christmas bell, an ornament that got missed when we packed up all the Christmas stuff was on the floor in front of the television. It had been on the television. AND we had some artificial flowers that a friend had made for our anniversary last June sitting on the fireplace mantel. We found them on the fireplace hearth underneath a sweater that Sandy had left on the couch. I am put it on the mantel Saturday night because I knew that a certain kitten who shall remain nameless (Mac) would either chew on it or claw it to shreds. As near as we can figure he got up on the mantel and pushed the flowers over the edge but somehow the sweater was pushed/pulled ahead of the vase. That is the only thing that kept the glass vase from shattering on the brick hearth. I can only hope that getting him neutered will ease the symptoms of Getsonta....................NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't sure if I would make it to church yesterday and when I got up today I wasn't too sure if I wanted to go, but I wasn't running a fever and I wasn't coughing or feeling too icky, so I went. I took a nap and felt a little better. We picked Sandy up from Youth Group, ate dinner, lit a fire and watched Desperate Housewives. I was fine. Now all of a sudden I am coughing up a storm and running a fever of 99.7. *Sigh* I just can't seem to win. Somebody shoot me please!

Blessed silence

I shall try this again. My first attempt to blog didn't get posted. Internet Explorer crapped out on me while I was doing a spell check on it and I was so disgusted that I just walked away from my puter. Sandy was able to go to her meet yesterday so when I got up I was the only human inhabiting the house. Silence, oh blessed silence. Anyone who knows Mike really well knows what I am talking about.

Sandy and Mike worked on Sandy's homework and were having all sorts of problems. She was working on putting biology terms into a crossword grid. The problem was that some of the words didn't fit in the squares. Sandy had an English book stolen out of her JROTC class. And since we can't afford the $50 fee to replace the book Sandy isn't allowed to bring home her biology book. Mike will be calling the school on Monday to try to correct this problem. It is wrong that she is unable to get a book just because we can't afford the fee.

Today is communion Sunday and I hope that I am able to go. The past two days I haven't been feeling very good. Friday I was feeling blecky and yesterday I was having problems convincing my stomach that it really did need to keep food in it. The thing is I don't think I am really "sick". I am just having sinus drainage. I could call the Dr but unless I find out what I am allergic to it won't do much good. And going to an allergist is considered a specialist and that will cost me $25 a pop for just the office visit. And since I am trying to get some surgery done, I don't want to get into that kind of cost.

Still a slim chance

I guess CO White of Sandy's JROTC class told her to be at the school at 7 am for the meet. The problem is that we know nothing of if she is allowed on the bus. The CO never got back to us last nite. Lorie, the lady down the street who has 3 of her 4 girls in JROTC (and three girls that have ADHD, my heart goes out to this lady) has volunteered to talk to CO White for Sandy. Mike will be getting up at 6 am to leave here at 7 to meet his ride. He is going to call Lorie and if the CO has given his official thumbs up, then Sandy will be going to her meet. If not, then she will be stuck here doing her homework with me. She has been told not to throw a tude if she can't go, as I will not tolerate it and Mike will also deal with her when he gets home.


Mike woke me up this morning at 6:40. The alarm was set and going off for 10 min and I did not hear it. Which is very unusual for me. It took another 10 min for me to sit up in bed. Then I tried walking to the bathroom and I was walking veeery slowly. Mike took one look at me and offered to deal with her and I went back to bed. He got me up at 11 and I was still moving slowly even after taking my morning meds. All day I have been feeling bleckie and have no motivation to do anything. I wasn't running a temp when I got up at 11, but I was running a 99.4 by 3 pm and having just checked again at 12:36 I am running a temp of 99.6. Now fevers are not unusual with people with Lupus. Two summers ago I had temps as high as 100.2-102.4. I watch them pretty close, take it easy and drink lots of fluids. I am hoping for everyone sake that what ever I am fighting is concluded quickly. I don't need to be sick right now. I really hope Sandy gets to go so I can have a quiet peaceful house all to myself..

Wishful thinking

We got the bad news this afternoon. Sandy, after working her tail off to try to bring her grade up, failed the class anyway. Her contact teacher, who happens to be her Algebra teacher and helped her get her work done, is going to talk to her JROTC teacher and see if she can attend Saturday's meet. But as it stands now she will be unable to go to the meets for the next three weeks. If she keeps her grades up then she can attend. No pass no play policy. It's too bad they don't take effort into account. But we shall see what happens. Sandy did tell us that her JROTC teacher is lining up a tutor for her for her Biology and World History classes. We have also told her that if she starts having problems to go to the teacher first and if she isn't getting any satisfaction (I can't get no sat-is-faction, sorry Stones moment there) then to go to her Algebra teacher. Very nice lady.

Mike & I went to a food bank to stock up on some groceries and while we were there a small child about three or four was screaming at the top of her lungs while Mom wandered around stocking her cart. She had a bag of potato chips in her hands and was just sitting in front of the cooler of produce screaming. Then two other times she started screaming. She was tired and wanted Mom to hold her, but Mom had an infant in the cart and a boy of about four or five with her also. Now these two were fine, it was just the little girl who had a problem. Now I am all for ignoring screaming fits, but this was excessive. I'm not sure what the answer to this problem was seeing as this food bank sets up certain times for people to be there and I don't know if she could have left and come back another day or if she would have had to wait until the following week. But this screaming fit was getting on everyone's nerves. Makes me glad that I am no longer in retail.

Amazing what one can do when one puts her mind to it

I was amazed at how much Sandy got done on her "I will nots" pages. Mike was able to download some music onto the new Ipod she got for Christmas from a friend at church. She really, really wanted to listen to that Ipod, so she got the rest of her "assignments" done so she could listen to it in her room. She wasn't real happy when we told her that she was not going to take it with her to school or on her Orienteering meets (those are for her JROTC). But we told her flat out that it was this way nor nothing. She choose our way (big surprise). She has been very pleasant the past two days. It's too much to hope that this will remain. She is 15 after all, so basically she is a walking hormone. But she is a good kid.

Mike will be going to an officers retreat on Saturday and Sandy is hoping to go to a meet. Whether she goes depends on her grades. She was getting a failing grade in her Team Leadership class. She worked her tail off to bring her grade up but her teacher has yet to post her final grade. This is a quarter class and not a requirement for graduation so I don't know how much of a stickler her CO will be if it turns out she hasn't passed this class. I am hoping she can go so she can compete and I get the house to myself for the day! Yippee!!!!

What a pleasant day

I was concerned as to how Sandy was going to react when she found out that she was going to have to do some additional writing. But to her credit she did far, far better then I could have ever hoped. She took the news with grace and spent the entire day writing her papers. Even after I told her she could stop until we were ready to eat, about half an hour, she went back and wrote more. Very good Sandy, a round of applause to you!

On a different note, as some of you may or not be aware, I have taken my ex back to court on abuse charges. I did some checking on-line to see if anything else had been done to the case over the past few months. Well nothing will be done on that until Jan 27. That is the deadline when we have to deposit $500 to the courts to pay for the GAL (Guardian Ad Lidem) That is the person who is assigned by the courts to investigate allegations of abuse. I don't have that kind of money and I know he won't pay his half, so I can only hope that the courts will waive the fee for me since I have already filed and have been given permission to proceed as a poor person. I also hope that the GAL will do her investigation without the fee. Anyway, upon doing this research I discovered that step-mom has a 5 grand judgment outstanding with a credit union, two speeding tickets within two weeks of each other and he has a $600 judgment against him along with a misdemeanor illegal disposal of wildlife. All told they have 6 different court cases without counting our divorce and visitation issues. One has to wonder if the courts will look at his history and clamp down even more. I am not going for custody yet, but after seeing this I just may go for custody sooner then I had originally figured. We shall see what happens in the next few months.

Getting back to normal (what ever that may be)

Like Mike said, we pulled down all the lights and Christmas decorations. The lights on the tree had somehow gotten all twisted up and we had the devil of a time untangling them. It sure looks bare where we use to have the tree sitting. It is also strange to walk past our middle daughter Tara'a bedroom and see it dark.

Today we sent Sandy to help feed the homeless at the Austin Street Shelter. She came home in a good mood. But we shall see if it holds. When we went to dig out a change of clothes for Sandy, we discovered that Sandy had not dried her clothes completely. All of them were damp. She had changed the setting on the dryer AND had put more then one load in the wash at once. We had specifically told her what to put the dryer on and had showed her what constituted a load. She had not bothered to fold and put away her clothes after they were washed, going against house rules. So because of this and other outbursts she will have to write two-four pages of I will or I won't...............fill in the blank. She had almost gotten caught up from a bunch I had enforced to try to get some respect out of her. So I have a feeling that we will have a very unhappy 15 yr old today. Mike will be going to a church officers meeting this Saturday leaving Sandy and I together for about 7 hours. I was dreading it until I came up with the idea to just add to her writing if she gets mouthy or disrespectful. Our friend Mary asked Sandy at one point Sunday if she was going to make any resolutions. I threw out to her that perhaps she may want to make a resolution to show more respect to her parents. Her answer was to stick out her tongue with cheese whiz all over it. I guess that was my answer. Nice huh?