David finally took the big plunge.  He got his first tattoo last night.  I was standing by with the camera to capture that first painfilled expression, which didn’t come until the needle got to the upper part of his arm.

Ouch!

 The finished product.

The red is blood and bruise.  It will go away over the next few days.  Pretty cool, huh?

My first best friend ever (I was 4) sent me a fun link.  You can click below and find out the #1 Billboard song on any day in history since Billboard started.  I have to say, it’s rather humorous that the day I was born the #1 song was “Everything Is Beautiful”, while on David’s birthday it was “One Bad Apple”.  The day I graduated high school it was “One More Try”, which is kind of funny.

Number One Song This Day In History

 Post a reply and tell me yours!

As I look back over my underlines in Chapter 1 of Boundaries with Kids, my favorite quote is this:

“Children are not born with boundaries.  They internalize boundaries from external relationships and discipline.”

You mean all of those so-called “experts” (who, by the way, have no kids of their own) who tell us children don’t need discipline, but will simply grow out of being little know-it-all’s who think the world turns on their whims, are wrong?  But it’s on the internet, so it must be true!!  Excuse me while I puke.  Why is it that pet owners who use the principles of discipline and reward usually end up with well-behaved pets AND they don’t feel the need to take unsolicited advice from those of us who have never owned a labrador (shameless Looney Tunes reference).  Now, I’m not saying kids are dogs (only some of them), but I am saying that many of the laws of nature apply both to our species and theirs.

I’m not a perfect parent (I tell my kids that, which lets them know it’s okay to not be perfect, and that’s good).  But I fully intend to do whatever it takes to rear happy, respectful, God-loving, people-loving children who by adulthood will know the process of making a good decision and will have the guts to own their choices, good or bad.  If I’m lucky they’ll also be rich and want to buy me cute things.  What more could a mother want?

Coming up this Friday Kyle will be the proud owner of a blue cast.  He decided to jump off some playground equipment at school yesterday and landed on his arm.  Since the pain was still so bad today, I took him for x-rays this afternoon and he has cracked both bones in his right arm.  He has a splint now and will get a cool cast on Friday to wear for 4 weeks.

David and I have been saying to eachother for a couple of years now, “How long until he breaks something?”  August 12, 2008 was the answer.

Kyle’s pain is pretty well controlled with Advil right now.  Say a prayer for his healing and for our sanity!

Ever heard that one?  It’s true, you know.  Somebody has to pay.  Unfortunately, it’s often not the person eating the lunch.  Yesterday after I dropped off the boys I went into the school with a check for their lunches this week.  I explained to the office lady that I had tried to pay online but it wasn’t up-to-date.  She assured me that they could eat lunch and told me not to worry even if I hadn’t paid.  Nobody is refused lunch.  She told me they would send me a bill if we got behind.  So I guess it’s like the county giving a credit card to everyone, regardless of their ability or desire to pay.  Pretty much if I just don’t pay my kids will still eat (not that I don’t want my kids to eat, I just think each parent should be responsible for their own kids!)  Seems like more and more in our culture we are trying to upset the law of consequences.  Your tax dollars at work.

This summer I read “Boundaries With Kids” and I highly recommend it.  I’ll begin reviewing it here.  David is reading it now too, and we’ve already implemented a couple of ideas.  So often I’ve inserted myself into my children’s conflicts, just to get through the day, rather than teaching them how to resolve it the next time it comes up.  This book is about teaching them the lifeskills they’ll need to become independent, productive, happy adults.  It’s the long view.  And I’ve honestly never read anything that gave me more hope that someday the whining can go away, the fighting won’t be my problem because I won’t put myself in the middle, and when my kids reach adulthood they will actually be equiped to live on their own.  Now we just have to remember not to fall back into the old habits.  More on the book tomorrow.

Well, the first day of school has finally arrived!  Lindsay and Logan have been excited the last few days, but it took Kyle until this morning to be excited about it.  Kyle got up at 7 (doesn’t have to leave until 8:30).  He got dressed, tried to pack his own lunchbox (only needed 2 snacks; he packed about 6) and still had time for an hour’s worth of Power Rangers on TV.  He was so revved up practicing his new Ranger skills that I wanted to find his teacher and apologize in advance, but I didn’t.

I drove the boys to school since they had so much stuff to bring and no idea what to do once we got there.  We eventually found their respective teachers’ signs (kind of like finding your group for a guided tour).  I asked Logan if I could kiss him good-bye.  He said No.  He wouldn’t even sit on my lap this morning.  He informed me that he no longer wants to be treated like a baby.  I assured him I wasn’t treating him like a baby, but that I just like to snuggle.  Maybe if I keep saying that we’ll both believe it.

I’m going to lunch at my friend Donna’s house today to celebrate.  I must admit, though, I had to hold back the tears walking away from my boys this morning.  First day at a new school can be kind of scary (for us moms).

It’s 11:30 at night and apparently I have a touch of RLS (restless leg syndrome - can you have a “touch” of that?).  I can’t sleep, can’t use up the energy in my legs.  I don’t usually get up when I can’t sleep because I figure I’ll just get completely awake again, plus I might miss that certain moment when I would finally doze off if I’d stayed in bed.  But, here I am so I might as well blog.

I took the kids to Cheyenne to visit my parents Monday morning and came back today.  We’re cleaning out my Grandfather’s house to be sold (he lives with my parents now) and I brought home a couple of interesting old stamps.  One is a profile of HItler and the other is also WWII era.  They must have been stamps my Grandfather sent home on notes to Grandma during the war.  I was fantisizing that they might be worth something.  One we couldn’t even find a record of, but David found the other on the internet and guess what!?  It’s one of a series of 23 stamps and, if I were to possess all 23, the set would be worth $2!  That’s more than I would pay for anything with Hitler’s picture on it.

I’ll probably play Sudoku after this.  I’m a little bit hooked.  I have a friend who has one of those handheld games she plays before bed, but that’s another story.  What do you do when you can’t sleep?

It’s only a matter of days now.  My kids are going back to school one week from Monday!  I can hardly contain the excitement.

I am so ready for some quiet time — some time when I can clean my house and it will actually stay clean for at least a few hours.  Do you know what I mean, girls?

Now I’m not looking forward to the driving, the homework, the beasts they are when they first get home.  When school is in I always want a break from all of that, plus a chance to sleep in.  But until I’m rich enough to hire drivers, homework tutors and lion tamers, that’s how it will be.  Unfortunately I have to trade one freedom for the other…but I’m ready!

Lindsay loves to cook.  She spent most of her day in the kitchen today, experimenting, and she made dinner and dessert tonight.  Cooking has been a passion for her for several years, and now she has a couple of original receipes that are really very good.

Tonight she put a new twist on her Triscuit appetizer and gave it an Asian flare.  After we finished our sandwiches she set out dessert - four variations on puffy rice treats.  One of the choices was quite interesting, in that it had some sort of blue frosting with crushed peppermints on top.  David was about to try it, but first he asked what the blue stuff was.  She said it was food coloring sprayed on marshmallow cream.  Now, I don’t claim to be the queen of any kitchen, but I am familiar enough with the contents of our cupboards to know that we are fresh out of blue food coloring.

As it turns out, what my daughter considers a totally acceptable substutite for food coloring is what the rest of the world knows as bath fizzers, a fun treat for anyone who wants to soak in fizzy, pastel water.  Apparently the fact that she found them in the bathroom was not enough of a clue.

David and I keep telling Lindsay that she could totally be a chef someday, even a finalist on a reality cooking show.  I do recommend that you try her original Triscuit appetizer; it’s my favorite.  And nowdays I’ll try almost anything she makes, although from now on I’ll probably ask if all of the ingredients came from the kitchen cabinets.  She’s never going to live that one down!

I didn’t go on a lot of dates as a teen, but I want to tell you about my worst date ever.

There were a couple of new guys at church, and the older called around 6:30 one night to see if I wanted to go bowling.  I asked my parents, who said “fine” and gave me a time to be back.  The guy said he needed to do a couple of things, some time went by, his younger brother called then and asked if Lisa, my little sister wanted to go too.  They finally arrived to pick us up (I think it was 8:00 by now), and the 4 of us loaded into their family station wagon and went to the bowling alley.  While we were there I asked my date to get me a drink, and after he avoided me several times I finally got out some money, handed it to him and asked him, again, to get me a drink.  He left and came back eating candy, which he had purchased with the money I gave him for my drink.

Later we went to Village Inn and as we were leaving my sister and the 2 boys got into the car and locked the doors teasingly.  By now I had figured out this guy might just drive away, so I got onto the hood of the car to keep him from leaving me.  He took off and drove around (in the dark) with me plastered to the hood of the car, grasping for windshield wipers and radio antenna just have something to hold on to.  He finally stopped in a residential area, where I got off the hood.  Then he drove away, leaving me on the corner.  He did come back…eventually.

I should have invited him in when we got home, so that he could witness me telling my dad what he had done, but when we got there he pulled up in front of the house and said “okay, get out”.

Looking back on that experience, I wish I had had enough self respect to just walk away from that street corner, find a phone and call for help, rather than getting back into the car with that p!&*#.  I’m saving up that revenge energy just in case anyone ever treats my daughter that way.  Warn your sons.  It won’t be pretty.