Just One Voice

Katelyn came home tonight disgusted and frustrated, as she often does, over her day at school. She loves education, loves her teachers and craves to learn. She just doesn't like the other kids at school. She has complained about this since her first day of high school. And you know it's pretty bad when a kid complains about how other kids treat both teachers and peers.

Tonight I listened to her vent again and tell stories of behaviors that would have gotten any of us paddled or at the least sent to the principal which would then mean trouble when we got home. She's not talking about Columbine-type events...at least not yet! She's complaining about vulgar mouths, chaos and disrespect. Then she commented, "Oh Mom, I wish they would just put discipline back in school! And if I talked like some of these kids or acted like some of these kids, I'd expect to get whacked BIG TIME. That's what we need...a few whacks. I wish there was something I could do to change my school."

So we talked for a while. I asked her if she felt that strongly about it, had she ever considered talking to someone else about it at school. She said "Yes, every day! I'm the only one in class who will speak up for the teachers. There's so much more I could learn if the other kids would just sit down and shut up and stop arguing with the teachers, stop distracting others, and stop throwing things. The whole place is out of control! Why don't they just grab these kids up by the shirt and march them outside and call a parent?!?" I explained because there have been too many parents who would sue, blaming the teachers and every other adult along the way for their "perfect child" getting a wrinkled shirt in school.

Katelyn: Well, let me tell you if one of my teachers called MY parents, it would be an ugly sight! And I sure wouldn't do it again!
Me: But YOUR parents hold YOU responsible for behaving in school as we expect you to behave at home. Some of these kids act the same way at home; and it's "ok" with their parents. And some of the kids act out at school and the parents would never believe it even if they were called. So what's a teacher to do?
Katelyn: Then the school should be whacking parents too! I'm tired of going in everyday and spending most of my day defending teachers from disrespectful, mean teenagers when I could be learning.
Me: Why are YOU defending teachers? The teachers should be coming down on these kids, NOT YOU!
Katelyn: They TRY. But the kids buck right back up and start mouthing off, even daring the teacher to do something about it. When I can't take no more, I stand up and get up in their faces and say "Maybe the teacher can't do nothing about it, but I sure as heck will, now sit down and shut up!"
Me: Awww, Katelyn, you can't be doing that!
Katelyn: Well, somebody has to do it!

After some more discussion about my concerns about her trying to be the classroom disciplinarian, I finally asked, "What else could you do to get the word out, as a teenager, that "this ain't cool" without trying to be the adult?" She hem-hawed around for a while and finally stood up and exclaimed, "I GOT IT! I know what I'm going to do!" And off she ran to the laptop.

She started a letter "To All Local Adults." She plans to send it to the principal, school board and the local paper. This could get interesting!?! I'll keep you posted.

Breeding like rabbits or just a zoo?

I'm beginning to think my front lawn is a breeding ground. We've always had trouble with rabbits; but this is ridiculous! I don't know if the recent cold snap has brought them all out, or if they're trying to celebrate the holidays with us? One night last week, I had to hit my brakes 3 times on the way up the driveway to avoid hitting the little tikes hopping across the drive. Tonight, as I turned the corner around the mailbox, they came hopping out all over the place! And they seemed to hop in rhythm to our Christmas lights. Then as I got up to the deck to park the car I noticed that one of them remained...just wasn't going to give up his dinner I guess? The problem exists in the fact that the darned rabbit was trying to eat my poinsettias around my bird bath. They're fake, not real, just silk!

Then as I got out of my car, I glanced over towards the woods at the side of the house to see why the dog was barking that direction. There stood a deer! DH has gone hunting several times this season and has come back with NIL. This sudden urge came over me to "show him how it's done" so I begged and pleaded with Bubba to stop barking as I ran into the house for my gun. Then I ordered Bubba to stop barking and tried the "all the way down NOW" command. Neither worked. The deer was gone when I got back outside. But I wanted SO BAD to be able to have a deer hanging out back when DH comes home from work in the morning. I can see the disgusted look on his face now! *LOL* But the only sure thing I could get tonight appeared to be a rabbit. I guess I could; but somehow hanging up one of those rabbits just doesn't seem like it would have the same impact.

I wish someone could tell me

how to raise an adult child?? And tell me what causes a college graduate who in her youth was always a good student, responsible, smart, bright, and beautiful to wake up one day and decide as an adult to completely destroy her life? What makes a beautiful young woman turn into the very type individual whom you would never allow around your other children or trust in your home?

Addiction.

It's an ugly word and an even uglier disease. And it hurts like hell not to be able to do anything to stop it, to know that anything I do only enables and makes it worse. And then to watch her not only destroy herself but then attempt to destroy me and the rest of her family for not "helping" her as she demands, is absolutely more than any parent should ever experience.

Still battling Little Joe

He was last seen on the laundry room shelf above the washer and dryer. We have determined that he absolutely must be coming in and out of the house. We still can't figure out where. Looks like we're going to have to break down and pay to have someone come remove him :(

Update on Little Joe and his insignificance

No signs of the little guy on Sunday and Monday. I had finally convinced myself that he had managed to find his way back outside.
At least until I got home tonight....

I had a rotten day at work today. It's a full moon, I know. But I still will never understand how grown professional adults can be such high maintenance. On days like today I walk out of the building, sit down in my car and just collapse, wondering how in the world I ended up working in a daycare center. I don't know what happened this week, but clients are acting out; and staff are unusually stressed and starting to act out themselves. Nobody seems to be thinking clearly or rationally at this time. And all I want to do is pull out my hair while hiding in a closet somewhere!

I came home tonight, two hours later than I had planned due to the challenge of escaping the building without 10 people stopping me for the perpetual "I need help" request. Then my car decided to react to the cold or the full moon; I haven't decided which yet. Three different lights came on in my dashboard; and my heater is making a horrible rattling noise. I came home drained and exhausted to find my 14 yr old with a low grade fever and sinus infection and the 16 yr old with a severe toothache, both in ugly moods griping at each other about the other one being gripy. I walked into my bedroom, in utter exasperation to put down my purse and coat, turned on the light and heard a shuffle over around my dresser.

Yep, Little Joe is back! And ya know what? I don't even care! He can have my house. He can have the Christmas tree and whatever else he wants to terrorize. He can trash it all! I'll just shovel it all out into the trash and start over again. I'm tired of fighting animals. I'm tired of people who are always fighting. I'm tired of phones, cars and bickering teenagers. I'm tired of bickering with my DH about why I am always late getting home and why I'm always exhausted. Did I mention that I'm just downright TIRED!?! I think I'll go to bed and pray that I wake up with a better attitude tomorrow. I hope so because right now my attitude stinks!

Ballad of Little Joe (Part 5)

Saturday AM: No signs of our little varmit this morning. I slept on the couch trying to listen for any noises in the loft. I woke up around 5am to DH asking, "Honey, what are you doing sleeping in here? Why didn't you come to bed?"
Me: I stayed up to play with the ghosts
DH: Honey, you're starting to worry me! Now go to bed and get some sleep.

After he left, I went up to the loft and looked around. Nothing looked disturbed and no signs of our guest. As soon as the girls get up, I'll start moving stuff around up there and see if I can find a ghost or our uninvited guest.

Ballad of Little Joe (Part 4)

Friday Night: After DH put Bubba outside, I sat down and worked on a couple more rows of my bead skirts. (I use glass seed beads around glass ball ornaments) I left the tray with my beads and ornaments on a TV tray in the living room to eat dinner in the dining room. We were almost finished with the meal, when we heard something fall in the living room.

I jumped up from the table, ran around the corner, fully expecting to initiate a full-blown attack and saw no squirrel. The coasters from the coffee table were on the floor; but I was convinced that the squirrel must have knocked them off. DH sighed and complained that I was spending too much time at work and becoming as paranoid as some of my clients because "...things fall; they were probably too close to the edge of the table; you've got to get over this obsession with that squirrel! He would have been in a trap by now IF he was still in the house!"
ME: Well, if he's NOT in the house, then I guess we need a ghost buster because now the house is haunted?!?!

I took the broom and ran it behind the furniture, under the furniture, and banged it against walls trying to get our squirrel or ghost to come out.

No luck :( Now, DH is going to think I need to visit the State Hospital! **AARRGGHH**

DH went to bed around 10pm so he could get up to work Saturday morning. The girls and I were going to stay up and watch a movie while I was finishing up one of the beaded glass ornies. The girls went downstairs to put on their pajamas. I went to the kitchen to fix some cocoa and again heard "clink, clink, clank" then "clinnnnnnnnnnnnk, shatter."

I returned to the living room to find seed beads all over the floor and my half-finished ornie broken on the floor. The girls were still downstairs. DH was in bed. The dog was downstairs with Codah. And no squirrel in sight.
So I guess we have a ghost now?!?

BUT.....
While sweeping up the seed beads and glass, I noticed that I had a few seed beads going up the stairs to the loft. Since the stairs go AROUND the side of living room, I can deduct that flying beads would NOT fly around the corner of the stairs as they fell. And I think I can safely deduct that ghosts can't carry seed beads on their feet. So therefore, I can appropriately deduct that Little Joe must have ran up the stairs and carried some beads on his little feet! Tomorrow, I'll tear apart the loft!

Ballad of Little Joe (Part 3)

Thursday AM: Nothing in any of the traps this morning :( DH came home with 2 cage traps and has them set up in the house. So far, "Joe" isn't biting at my bait nor DHs. But DH said he was home all day today and doesn't know where he is. He said he only saw him once....that was on my desk for a brief moment before he flew off again.I'm really hoping DH is just pulling my chain with this! If not, I'm not gonna sleep again tonight! I'm just glad I am going to work today!

Thursday PM: Well, he has caused more chaos and still managed to escape us! He was just in Codah's room. When she turned on the light, he jumped/flew from her canopy ledge (holding all her glass angels), knocking off 4 angels, breaking 2 of them beyond repair, then shot across her dresser, knocking her jewelry box (which primarily holds a few pairs of earrings and all her beaded bracelets and leftover stray bead stash) off onto the floor. Codah just tearily informed Katelyn (in a rather loud tone) that SHE will catch that squirrel, "give it a swirley" and then flush it down the toilet because she has "had it with that stupid fuzzy rodent!"

From Codah's room, it went down the hall, which means it's now in either Katelyn's bedroom or the bathroom. Either way, we'll see how tolerant Katelyn is when something of hers is affected by "cute little Joe." Katelyn's was down there with DH looking for it so she can save it from Codah's wrath. ~sigh~

Friday AM: No signs of any activity around any of the traps. We still have glue strips throughout the house, along with bait nuts and two "safe" traps.
I'm losing all patience! The girls want to finish decorating the house tonight. But I really don't want to chance that Little Joe will wreak havoc on our tree, my lanterns or my village.

Mom called me on my way to work wanting to know the latest on the Little Joe saga. Then my sister called. Then two girls from work called. I'm living in a soap opera because of an uninvited house guest!

Friday PM: I walk into the house after work and poor Bubba is frantic. He runs down the stairs, bumps me with his nose (doesn't wait to be petted or to hear "pretty boy"....so there's definitely something wrong) then runs back up the stairs to the couch, turns around and repeats all the above about 4 times. DH is in the kitchen when I ask "Hey, did you know that danged squirrel was in here somewhere?" DH tells me that there has been no sign of Little Joe today.
ME: Then why the heck is Bubba acting this way. (Bubba is still frantically running a path into my floors from the couch to the front door)
ME: BUBBA!! STOP! DOWN! (still frantically running back and forth as if I'm mute and invisible)
ME: HONEY! Something is wrong with Bubba! Would you PLEASE get in here and look for that squirrel!?!?!
DH, coming around the corner, using his low you're-gonna-get-it-now tone: BUBBA!!! DOWN NOWWWWWW!!!

Poor Bubba dropped to the floor with his head on the floor, between his front paws with his butt up in the air, looking like a cougar ready to pounce and gave a whiny growl.

DH: BUBBA!!! ALL THE WAY DOWN, NOW!

Bubba rolled his eyes up at DH, kept his butt up in the air, and quickly brought his head up off the floor without moving any other part of his body, then flopped his head back down on the floor with a THUD and then growled again as he repeated his eye roll.

OK, now it doesn't take a rocket scientist nor a dog whisperer to figure out what Bubba is trying say here: Daddy, I heard you! And I'm TRYING to obey; but I'm really desperately TRYING to tell you that you something is wrong in this living room! Why won't you listen to me?!?!

DH got frustrated and put Bubba outside and tried to convince me that if Little Joe was still in the house, he would have been caught in one of the traps by now. DH was sure that our house guest had found his way back outside again.

Ballad of Little Joe (Part 2)

On the way home from work Wed night, I was talking to DH on the phone, complaining that I won't be able to sleep at all that night knowing that "Joe" is in the house. DH told me that was silly cuz "that thing isn't going to get in the bed...you'll be fine."

So I came home, went into my bedroom to put my purse and coat down, and guess what?!?! I kid you not, that danged thing was ON MY BED!!!! I picked up the yard stick (only thing I could find at the moment) and started screaming and swinging. It FLEW from my bed to my dresser then off from there into my craft room. It's a danged flying squirrel!!!! And he's now in my craft room!!!! So determined to get this thing before Katelyn gets home from youth group, I brought Bubba in here and put him in the craft room. He ran back out and stood outside the door just barking, but won't go in there! Now what the heck kinda lab guard dog is that?!?!?

There's a guy in town who guarantees he can catch it. But he wants $1000 to do so. For the animal activists out there, I'm sorry. But I just can't swing $1000 to be humane. And I can't deal with a flying squirrel house guest. So I put giant glue traps and bait all through the house.

Katelyn came home from youth group and immediately inquired about Little Joe. I told her where I had last seen him; and she went running off towards my room to check. I warned her "Don't go running in there; I have traps set up along the walls and doorways." Her imfamous ever-repeated favorite last words before entering my room were "Mom, I KNOW what I'm doing!" As she finished her sentence, I heard silence. Then I heard, "ARRRGGGGHHHH!!! WHAT IS THIS?!? MOM!!!"

I wish I had a picture! I came around the corner and saw Katelyn with her foot up in the air, shaking frantically, trying to remove a glue trap from her favorite high top converses. She certainly looked like she knew what she was doing! *LOL* I told her the box said that glue had an anesthetic on it. So I don't understand why her foot was so hyper while attached to that glue trap!?! *EG* Hey, and those glue traps work really well! We had to remove her shoe from her foot and take it outside, still attached to that glue strip. I'll have to do some thinking about how to detach it because it's NOT pulling off.

My BIL came over to see if he could catch Little Joe. Then we couldn't find it at all. My craft room was torn apart, things everywhere, and still a lose squirrel!

By 10pm we still had not got him yet. I was afraid to open a window, afraid his family will come in to join him. DH and BIL both told me they were nocturnal too. So I left a light on next to my bed AND left the TV on in my room....just in case!

The Ballad of Little Joe

Wednesday morning was NOT been a good morning for me. DH went to work around 5am. I THOUGHT I'd get something done that morning with him gone. BUT I had a true test of my BP and heart function that morning while sitting in the bathroom. A squirrel came running in under the bathroom door and then tried to give me an MI while scurring back and forth between the toilet and the tub wall, while I attempted to get up off the toilet with my legs and feet up in the air, trying to prevent touching the floor.

Then Katelyn, hearing my screams came running up the stairs and flung open the bathroom door just in time to let the thing scurry through the house. Then she spent the next 20 mins trying to catch the little varmit that she has now named "Little Joe." I waited for someone from the extension office to get here to help me determine how to get this thing out of the house. Then I planned to go have one of the nurses at work check my BP!

I had a miserable time trying to get Katelyn off to school. She kept whining and begging, "PLEASE MOM, don't hurt little Joe. He came here because he wants to live with us! I'll catch him, you'll see! And I'll make sure he never gets in the bathroom again. Just don't let the extension guy kill him. He's just a baby! Please Mom, let me keep him!" **AARRGGHH**

The extension office was not much help. I got the typical educational lecture about how he might have gotten in along with a suggestion to set "safe" traps for him. I'd have to go to the hardware store on the way home from work to buy some.