Another one joining the 40 plus group!

This time it was Mitzi's turn to have the BIG 40 Birthday.  And this lady sure does know how to celebrate.  She didn't just a birthday day, more than a birthday weekend, she had a week long birthday celebration.

Personally I would have been wiped out after the 2nd day.  May the Goddess bless me with just some of her energy!

Missin My Girls

Fall is here in my neck of the woods (as I am sure it is in most of yours) and with that the end of Sand Volley Ball.

I LOVE playing and really enjoyed the last team I was on. 

One of the girls is a coworker (Erin), one a wife to a coworker (Jen), an old college friend to Jen's husband (Kendra), Coworker to Kendra (Nicole I think), and Pam a church friend of Jens.  We also have a wide age group Erin being the youngest at 29 and Pam and I at the ripe old age of 45 (tee hee).  

Surprisingly we play very well together and get along fabulously!

Pam, Jen, Kendra, and I have actually played together before although briefly.  That was when I played indoor volley ball and the ankle went out. 

Kendra has gotten all of us to play indoor again (YEA!!).  I tried bowing out due to the ankle and hard surfaces but she would ear nothing of it.  Told me to wear my brace and get over it.  Ha so I did. 

That starts in January.  And I am very much looking forward to next spring when sand starts again!

The Girl Who Plays Dress Up

Felicia LOVES dressing up, always has.  Since she could crawl she would put "things" on to play dress up. 

Even now that she is older the habit has not changed. 

Needless to say she loves Halloween.  It's a "grown up" excuse to play dress up.

This year, as you can tell, she was Black Swan.  The reason for this particular outfit?

She wanted to use some of her lingerie that she has accumulated from Fredricks. 

not sure if I am mortified or not, but a great costume none the less.

Joining the Over 40 Club!

Another one of my friends hit the BIG 40 recently.  Funny how NOW that I am in my 40's that 40 doesn't SEEM so old anymore.  And for that matter neither does 50. 

Her husband set up the cutest things for her.  A week long birthday present to be exact.  He called different sets of her friends / co-workers and everyday of the week he had coordinated a different activity for her.

One day she went to a Cardinal game with co-workers, dinner and winery with neighborhood friends, another night she had spent with other friends, and two different days of parties with different family each time.

I thought it was a very cool idea.  That way she was able to celebrate with everybody.

We of course had our little celebration at the Wine Cellar in Cottleville.  It is our little hang out about once a month.  They have a little band and some amazing wine slushies.  Oh and we put away some Brie when we go. 

The REALLY nice part...........No kids no husbands.  Just us girls!

Warrior Dash - What Was I Thinking

Just for inquiring minds......................... It WAS FANTASTIC!

Kind of unnerving having to jump over fire.

Out of 6855 people I finished 5035.  Not bad as far as I am concerned!  Especially since I do not run ever, and have not been to the gym for a workout in over 3 months!



After I slid out of the mud pit, I went to where the local fire department was hosing people off (OMG that was cold).  Mike made me go back 2 more times telling me I was NOT getting in the car with mud all over me.

Note to anyone that wants to go to these types of events......  BRING TOWELS!  

In the end I went to the car and just stripped out of my clothes (still dropping mud everywhere), cleaned off what I could (with one of his athletic jackets I found in the car), put my sweat jacket on and some clean underwear. Then got in the car, jacked up the heat and told him to NOT get pulled over.

I enjoyed a VERY long hot shower when I got home.

From Ace to Ass in 3 Days

In my previous post I mentioned Devin had a rather good IEP (individual education program) meeting with his case manager on Thursday.  I was there and was witness to it. 

Friday came no problems.

Today is Monday and he has hit his down side. 

5:45 am he refused to get up this morning to get ready to catch the bus.  he state "I have a ride". 

6:00 still refused to get up, stating he didn't need to be up yet.

6:15 starts the cursing

6:45 still cursing when I try to get him out of bed

At this point I disappeared to the garage with my coffee, book and cigarettes to "unwind" and "calm down".  To try to not sound so "crabby" when trying to get the boy up.

7:00 again told to leave his room and leave him alone.  (not in just those words)

I head to get my shower and get myself ready for work.

7:30  At this point first bell has already rung 10 minutes ago.  And I tell him to get up that school has started and he was now late.  I was informed he was not going.  I wanted to pull the Tasmanian devil on him at this point!   But alas I cannot as I am to be the "responsible" "grownup" party here (ugh).  I said that if this is what he was going to continually pull he needed to leave my house.  Oh, and give me the cell phone.  I was told no.  My reply was no problem I will call Sprint and cancel the service and if I do that it will not get turned back on.  His reply was fine, I will get my own. 

In my head I was thinking "HA I got you by the short hairs here little man!"  I simply replied that he could not get an account for ANY cell phone until he was 18 and that he was 9 months from that.  His reply was simply "get the F (no he didn't say the whole word) out of my room).  I walked away (if to do nothing but keep myself from ripping his head off), then came back asked for the phone again.  He handed it to me (after taking out the battery).

TRIUMPH!  He knows the phone is a goner.  And he didn't want me seeing his text messages and see his contacts.  He thinks he is being sneaky.  But at this point Mike realised Devin was still home and in fact not gone to school.  Round two started.

Mike likes to repeatedly ask the same question over and over.  That is until you give an answer he likes.  That was not going to happen this morning.  So he then proceeds to tell Devin if he chose to ditch school he needed to get out of the house, that he was NOT going to support a dead beat lazy kid.  I simply told Mike to walk away, don't let Devin get to him (1 that is my job and 2 he will end up with a coronary). 

Mike wants to take him to this rehab place not far from home.  I asked him why and to rehab what?  His attitude?  We have been told before and repeatedly that Devin is the way he is and there isn't much (not even medication) we can do to change it.  Mike said put him in for smoking pot.  I told Mike that is a waste of our money.  Devin needs an attitude adjustment and he will NOT get that at a drug rehab place.  I know why Mike wants to send him.  To give the rest of us a little peace and tranquility, and to say he has "tried" everything to deal with Devin.

We have tried everything, and honestly I like Devin better after he has smoke a little.  I know BAD MOM.  But really, don't judge until you yourself have attempted to raise a child that absolutely HATES you, can't be civil around anyone in the house (not sure how he acts around his friends families), is constantly angry no matter what you have or have not done, doesn't have a civil word to say.  And then he comes home one day in a great mood, helps around the house, speaks nicely to you and the entire family, willing to sit and do homework, what ever.  I can only WISH that stuff could come in pill form and was legal.

I know your thinking the kids has SOMETHING going on in his head.  You are right, but for the life of me I have tried to find out what that is.  We have been to ........ 6 psyhcologist, 1 psychiatrist, 2 neurologists, 1 behavior specialist, a handful of MDs, and 4 Therapist.  We have had just as many diagnosis.  several ADHDs, ODDs, Asperbergers, Depression, and several repeats of "he is a very strong willed by".  Seriously?!   And not one of them has given us anything to help with Devin.  We followed advise from one doctor and ended up with DFS at our door telling us we were psysicologically abusing Devin.  And we have been dealing with this since the 1st grade thank you very much. 

So here I am sitting at work trying to get it all out of my system and into this post, to where I would love for it to stay and make everything better at home.  It cannot. 

We have friends that want us to vacatio with them.  I would love to but again we feel we cannot.  Devin is near impossible to take anywhere and we absolutly refuse to leave him along for any length of time at the house.  Another friend jokes "well that is why you have insurance no?"  Um NO I don't want to have to come home to a party trashed house, or gracious knows what.  THAT would be irrisponsible on our parts we think, so no vacations.  I am hoping to sneak away with Mikayla later this year.  Maybe to Floriday, somewhere warm.  Maybe I will allow Mike to send Devin to rehab.  Maybe then we could take a vacation and not have to worry.  

I like control, and right now............................. we have no control.

Sporatic is my Middle Name

Blogging (and even reading posts) have been sporatic of late.  I know bad me.  I got a new toy.  A droid tablet.  I AM IN LOVE.  I have been downloading books like crazy and reading non-stop.  Now I always thought that I could never give up my physical books.  I love the textures and smells of a book.  But the instant gratification of having multiple books at your disposal, and being able to get just about any book you want instantly (sometimes free of charge) is euphoric at times.

So that is where I have been, nose down in a book (screen).  Blistfully enjoying a fantisy world and being able to disappear from the real one.

With that said.................

I had a meeting at the high school today for Devin.  His annual IEP meeting.  For years I fought to get Devin more support in areas I thought he needed it.   Some years the school has been helpful, others not so much.  This year I just sat there, it is up to Devin now.  He is made to attend these with me and has more decision and input requirements than before.  Today was not all that bad as we found out that he could still graduate this year.  Providing he petition the school board into letting him do what they call Credit Recovery.   Basically it is night school in addition to regular school classes.  Unfortunately is it ALL self study and that is not a strong suit for Devin and he was not really interested in that option.  His other option is to take 3 credits next year first semester then graduate.  Mike and I had been trying to get him to understand last semester that if he could pass he classes he would have been able to graduate this year.  But no, again Devin has to learn things the very hard way. 

To date he is carrying all A's and 1 F.  He has been switched out of the class that he was failing (he said it was because he was lost) and into another.  I am not hoping that he will keep his As, all I am hoping for is for him to pass all his classes.

And so it begins

School has started and I can tell you I had some serious mixed emotions about that:

Good:
 - I get some time to do what I need in the morning without the fear of waking anyone up.
 - my utilities will go back down (no TV, radios, and lights on all day)
 - my days off are quite after everyone leaves

Bad:
 - The boy's mood swings are usually (almost always) bad in the morning
 - lots of grumpy, foul, loud language to start my day.
 - more mom taxi duties

I actually think I was dreading school starting more than I was looking forward to it.  Devin makes like around here hard enough but then throw in the fact we are making him get up every morning at an hour he would rather stay asleep, he makes everyone pay.  Not a great way to get your day started, and usually sets my mood for the day.  My only up side is that I have an hour to cool down and relax after he leaves and before I have to go to work.

Mikayla (lucky for me) is pretty quiet in the morning which is probably a very good thing.  Helps me keep myself level because I am already on edge after having to deal with the boy.. Who who has refused to take ANY of his medication and I am tired of fighting with him about it.  Sorry teachers and school.

Devin keeps telling me he is going to quit school.  We tell him there will be slip pickings for what kind a job a high school drop out can get and WE will NOT be supporting him forever.  He states he doesn't care, school is stupid, teachers are stupid,  etc.  He knows we cannot stop him when he turns 18 so he likes to remind us that he will NOT be going to school next year.  We do remind him that had he not failed all the classes he has he would have been graduating this year.  Just do the work, show up, pass then you can be done with school.  He thinks he doesn't need to graduate.

By the end of this conversation (usually yelling involved as well as swearing on Devin's part) I am worn out.  When we tell him that in order to live in our house he must go school and pass his classes.  He likes to remind us we are legally obligated to PAY for everything he needs including clothes food and a place to live.  We cannot kick him out.  I remind him at that point he is correct but I do not have to buy $100 jeans, his favorite foods.  All I legally have to provide is food of my chosing, clothes can be from good will and do not have to be the top of fashion (if that what he calls what he wears).  Oh and when he turns 18 and he does not follow OUR rules, we can LEGALLY toss him out on his butt. 

Will I actually follow through on that threat?   Yea probably I will be forced too.  He should know this by now since I have followed through on everyone I have said so far.  He knows that it was me that asked his probation officer to put him in juvi for 2 weeks, never hid anything from her.  He has learned that when I say do this again  and this will happen.  Unfortunately he makes me follow through with every threat.  I don't know what compells the boy to continue on his path of self distruction.

Time to meditate and put myself in that happy place.  :)

Well she IS Determined

It seems Mikayla is enjoying her drawing.  And she is now moved on from paper as her medium of choice,

This is what she drew on her friend Deionna's shoulder.  Not sure what spurred this on, guess they got bored after a day of shopping at the mall.

This is Mikayla and Deionna sometime today.  I think these two have changed outfits at least 3 times today.

This is another picture of the TODAY (notice the different outfits) in the mall bathrooms. 

They both want to get tattoos.  Both are only 15.  And it seems that both Deionna's mom and I think alike.  No was the answer from both of us.  At least not until they have moved out of our houses (or 21 I guess the case may be in our house since Felicia set that precedent).

Another Art Day

Mikayla's latest "work" drawing.   It started out as a tree and this is what she ended up with.  Where her mind goes...........

I rather like what she draws when she is waiting for me to take her to work.

Oh!  Did I mention Mikayla got a job?  She is 15 and just as ambitious as her sister.  Working already, you go girl.

A Feel Good Weekend

This past weekend a few coworkers and friends went to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.  Habitat is building a small subdivision of houses near where I live and needs all the volunteers that they can get.  John (coworker) organized the trip this past weekend. 

We were lucky it was an overcast day, but the humidity was thick.  We were huge sweat balls within an hour of starting.  Needless to say we went through LOTS of water.  Well most of us Erin went through lots of soda.

This is John.  He was in charge of cutting the boards that we were putting on the roof.  Yes I said putting on the roof.  I and several others volunteered to shimmy up on open trusses and put on the roof.  Crazy I know!

This is Jennifer (John's wife - Standing) and Erin (coworker - sitting).  Jen was freaking amazing!  She was lifting boards and winging them around as if she was on the ground.  Girl is crazy.  But one of the nicest people you could ever want to meet.

Oh, and Jen and Erin are also on the volley ball team I joined. 

  

This is Pam (we play volleyball together).  She's a sneaky bugger turning her head before I could get her picture. 

This is Matt (coworker).  Thanks to this pose his new nick name at work is GQ Matt.  He is our youngest in the office (born the year I graduated high school)

You have to excuse my hand in this picture.  I was getting shaky since it was getting close to lunch.    Erin and Matt were obviously nervous being up on the roof.  I can't say that I wasn't nervous, but once I was up on the roof I was fine.  It was just crawling up and down the ladder that made me nervous.

Yep this is me.  We were waiting for the next board to be hoisted up.

Just in time for lunch storm clouds rolled in.  So while we ate we finally got the rain we so needed.  But because of the rain we were unable to go back and do any more work.  We are planning to get together again for another Saturday trip to work on some more houses.

Art Exhibit Day 2

I actually remember to grab some more of Mikayla's work.  Well one actually, I thought I had more. 

This was one of her other pieces of work that was in a show.

Artist in the Making

I know I post a lot of stuff about Mikayla.

What can I say, she is still living at home, willing to spend time with Mike & I, and/or not always sleeping.  It does feel at times that we have only one child left at home.

Would love to post more information (and pictures) of Felicia, but a lot of what Felicia and I discuss is usually sex related (the life of a twenty something!) and THAT I don't think I should be posting.  And the pictures that I can get of her have been taken with a phone and rarely of good quality or are too blurry to even tell what is going on (again the life of a twenty something)   Nor would I feel comfortable posting about those kind of discussions here.  I am glad that she does choose to discuss this area of her life with me, just sometimes I wish not to hear so much detail. 

But over all Felicia is living the good life in the Chicago area and doing well.  So well that we are unable to talk her into moving back home.  I guess that is a good thing after all.

So back to Mikayla.

I have been promising my parents that I would get some of Mikayla's art work on here.  Alas failure again!  Sorry I will get more as I remember to scan it.

Mikayla has been entered into 3 art shows throughout her Freshmen year.  She LOVES to draw, paint, color, you name it.

Last week I had to take her to the dentist and afterwards she had to hang out at the office with me.  This is what she drew to keep herself busy till I was able to leave and go home.

Looks like something someone would get for a Tattoo no?  She has been drawing Tattoo ideas for about a year now.  At first it was little ones for the ankle area mostly.  Once in a while she would use a sharpie and draw them on herself to "test" run what it would look like.

She has actually drawn some really unusual and interesting ones.  I really liked one that she had done earlier this year and if I had seen it before I got my M&M tattoo I would have probably gotten one she drew.  If I ever get the nerve to get another I will have Mikayla design it first.

This was another one she did while sitting at my office after another dentist appointment back in June.  At least it is a quite past time (insert large smile here).

Mom and Dad as soon as I remember to bring her drawings to work and scan them I will get them up here.

We have ANOTHER new look

Mikayla gets board with things and gets board with them quickly.  Particularly with her hair.  If she is not wanting to constantly change her cut or style it is her color.  She has been blond, red, brunette and highlighted.

Several months ago she finally wore me down and talked me into allowing her to go real blond. 

This is her blond (sorry its black and white.  All I could find quickly) 

The darker hair are extensions that she got from a friend.  She still has relatively short hair.  Which was another change she just HAD to have.  Now she wants extensions because she said that her hair grows too slow.

(again she has extensions in, so the longer pieces are not her actual hair)

Well she again wore me down with wanting her hair colored.  I had to use my color on her due to the fact she had such blond hair.  It took me forever to make sure EVERY piece of hair had color on it. 

When we were finished I was pretty proud of myself.  It came out pretty good!   What blond did show through looks like natural highlights.

The dark sure does make her blue eyes just pop right out, don't ya think?

Lessons

Mikayla has decided that she wants to try out for the girl's Golf team at school.  Why you ask.  Well apparently she has been told that there is a lot of scholarship money available for girls who play golf.  My response WHO RAH!

Luckily an old friend of ours plays golf A LOT.  And he agreed to give Miakyla (and myself) golfing lessons.  LOVE FREE LESSON.

Uncle Le the "pro golfer"  in his mind at least (tee hee).

Yes I said Uncle, not by blood but because he has been a fixture in the kids entire lives.  His boys are referred to as cousins by the kids even.  Le and his wife were both in our wedding.  He is one of Mike's oldest friends.  And a great guy.

Mike asked how Le was as a teacher.  Let me tell you what.    The guy was fantastic.  He spoke softly with patience.  He gave great instructions and encouragements.

Funny, I never noticed before, but Mikayla seems to be taller than Uncle Le.  Going to have to show him this picture.

As you can tell we worked on our swing the whole time.  FOR TWO HOURS!  And even at 9:30 in the morning, fans running, it was HOT.  I decided that I didn't need to go to the gym that day as I must have sweated off 3 pounds just swing clubs.

When Le was assisting me, he kept saying I moved my head too much.  I was standing there with him holding a golf club on my head.  Luckily Mikayla couldn't find the camera!

When we swung well he said so.  It was nice to hear we were not screwing it up all the time.

He really was an inspirational teacher.  I am hoping she sticks with it this time.  At least she has a friend already on the golf team, so that should help her with commitment at least.

This is how we both felt after the lesson was done.  I believe that Mikayla went home and took a nap.

We are planning to go again next week to the driving range and practice our swings.  But I think this time we will split a bucket of balls vs. two buckets.  That was a little much for the first time I think.

The Dooms Day'er

I get a text from my son (yes I gave him back his cell temporarily) yesterday out of the blue.  Our conversation went like this:

Devin:  Nulear war starts augest 2end (No I am not correcting his horrible spelling)

Me:  What is that?  (thinking he is speaking of a movie or music group) and are you bringing home my money? (that he "borrowed" from me)

Devin:  China is threting the us with nukes because the national debt is tooo high and the greece stock market failed so there rioting alot over ther and then another nuke lab leaked or something aka world is ending

Me:  How about my money

Devin:  Ill talk to u when i get home.  (He never did come home)

I think the boy should NEVER watch the news.  He only picks up on the bad and negative reports.  There was one day not too long ago that they were predicting to be the end of days.  He was totally freaked out and upset. 

And he still swears that the Mians have called the End of he world right. 

 Maybe that is why he has decided to stop going to school, drop out of the "functioning" population and just do what ever the he$$ he decides he wants to do.

These news reports, gossips are not doing his personality disorder any favors.  It takes weeks for me to get him re-regulated after he gets this way. 

Mulch Mulch Mulch

I am going to have the arms of a wrestler by the end of the week!  Mike and I have been putting mulch on ALL the landscaping.  And I am now realizing that I may have over landscaped my yard.  Gracious! 

We just emptied the truck for the third time this week and we are still not done.  And when I say empty, I mean we shovel the mulch into 5 gallon buckets to carry around the house and dump where we want it. Then spread it around.   It does help a little that I park the truck in various places around the yard (let me tell ya I get some weird looks from the neighbors for doing this) so we don't have to walk that far.

So it looks like I will be stopping once again on the way home from work to pick up yet another truck load of mulch. 

Pictures to come when I am done and CLEAN.  Messy stuff Vern.

PS. And I have been still going to the gym for my normal work out.  I think I must be crazy. 

Don't Be Fooled

  Look into this little face.

Adorable right?  Innocent, lovable?

Does tricks for treats, craves attention, graver of everyone else's attention.

Don't let her innocent looks deceive you!

She is a KILLER!

This little trouble maker defends her yard to the death.  By which I mean that stray animals beware.  Over the years the rabbits have learned to not have their nests in our yard.  Bailey will dig up (if she can find them) their nests and KILL all the babies.  Then she leaves the "parts" all over the yard (as if in warning).  Last spring was the first time we did not have baby rabbits in our back yard.

She has now taken her little aggressions out on baby birds.  Poor things that end up out of the nest but not just yet able to fly, finding themselves in our backyard, find that their lives are short lived.  Mike found a dead bird in the landscaping several days ago.  Not sure what was going on (Bailey had never gone after birds before) he flung the carcase over the fence.  Yesterday evening we saw another baby just sitting on the stone wall near the fence, trying to be as still as possible.  Mike asked if I knew what it was.  Told him a baby dove.  He then figured out what was going on and said Baily has decided to be the bird hunter.  This morning Baily was going through the plants and we caught her but not before she found the other baby bird.  I got Baily into the house, Mike went after the bird to see how badly Baily got it.  He never told me if it made it.

Baily's response, just prancing into the house licking her lips to wipe off the feathers stuck to her mussel.

Her nick name use to be rabbit killer, now we just call her Devil Dog Protector of Yards.

Life is the messy bits

Yesterday I watched Love letters to Juliet.  Defiantly a chick flick but a decent one.  I mean I wouldn't go running out to the theater for it.  What I really like about it was for the great quotes you get from it.

My favorite of course was my post title.  Life is the messy bits.  It for some reason makes me be less stressed about situations at home.

I have adopted it as my mantra and when I start feeling stressed about goings on I calmly and quietly repeat to myself:

Life is the messy bits

Life is the messy bits

Life is the messy bits

See watching the "boob tube" is not all that bad or waste of time.  Cheers!

Holy Crap Pets are Expensive

This little guy is starting to cost quit a bit of money here lately.

A week ago we had our annual Vet visit (well actually it was 5 months late, I dislike going to the vet in the middle of winter).

First of all the poor guy is allergic to his rabies and distemper shots.  Starts puffing up like the stay puff marshmallow man.  That of which requires several steroid shots before and after then several days of steroids.  Then add in a 6 month supply of heart worm/flea & tick treatments for both dogs and the costs of their annual physicals, nail clipping and gland emptying.  Total for that trip $545.

Fast forward a week, just a week.  Now Budweiser has decided to get a nasty bladder infection.  We of course did not know this at first.  First we thought he had a hurt foot or something.  Then we noticed that his belly was really HARD.   Jump to yesterday and a friend comes over and steps on poor Buddy (she always steps on him every time she comes over) and he decides he is not going to walk any longer.

Today we tried to get him to go outside to the bathroom, had to carry him outside and put him in the grass (in the rain).  Nope he just sat there.  Just great.  After Mike went to a couple of meetings he called me to let me know he was on his way home.  I called the Vet got Buddy an appointment.  Mike and Mikayla took him in, got x-rays, blood work, a walk (they tried walking vs and enema).  Finally he relieved his bowls and bladder.  The x-rays showed that his bowls were seriously blocked and was his bladder.  We left him at the Vet for a while as they said they were going to give him an enema (which they decided to walk him instead).  When Mike got back there to pick him up they said that they tested his urine and that he has a bladder infection, they also think he may have hurt his back (common in Dachshunds) and gave Mike medicine for me to give him over the next week.  IF he is not better within the week we are to bring him back for another visit.

Today's total $300.  Guess the mulch is going to have to wait just a little longer.

Some Things Never Change

Felicia came home for a friends wedding this weekend.  It was great having her home and getting to actually see she is doing well.

The wedding was for a sorority sister which meant kids from all over came in town for it.  AND which meant we were hotel D. for the evening.  Mike of course was the cool dad and made them Bloody Mary drinks when he got home for their    "pre-reception party" and showed Felicia how to use the hot tub and fire place for the "after reception party".  He can never say no to her.

It was a stay in night for Mike and I as he is still sporting a nasty head cold.   So after I made dinner (baked cod in a lemon butter sauce and salads) we watched Drive Angry (not a movie I would highly recommend).  Mikayla and her boyfriend were out back in the hot tub (no worries we have security cameras all over the house and could watch them without going out there).  Devin even blessed us with his presence (he was eating non stop so I can only guess what state he was in). 

Then somewhere between 11 and 12 pm Felicia and her herd came home.   I had forgotten how loud drunk people are, especially 21 to 24 year old drunk people (Felicia was DD and started drinking again when she got home).  They headed off to the backyard when they heard Mikayla was back there with her boyfriend.  They wanted to do a "hand check".  

Ah poor Mikayla and Devin don't realize that they had gained more older sisters over the years.  Devin received SEVERAL lectures from Casey.  She chased him down several times to "discuss" his behavior.  She was quit startled to see how tall he had gotten since she last seen him (I believe he is at 6' 1" now).  And from what I gather from Mikayla the girls had gone after her boyfriend also (they don't approve of baggy pants, or drooping pants or how ever it is these boys are wearing them) and were commenting on Mikayla's figure and how she needed to cover up more.   Those girls are definitely more prudish with siblings than I am with my daughters.  Obviously Mikayla and Nathaniel left the back yard and chose to watch a movie in the living room.  Probably a good choice.  

I had to keep reminding them that we had neighbors.  Again WOW young people are loud.  Oh, and did I mention that Felicia's friends seem to be totally comfortable around Mike and I?  So comfortable in fact that they don't hold back with their conversations when we are around.  There are just some things Parents do not need to hear, even IF we know they are doing these things we don't need verbal conformation.

Finally sometime after 2am the ones that lived close (and were sober enough to drive) left and the rest started making their way to bed.  And here it is 8am and I am up already.  Just less than 6 hours sleep.

Humm should I start cleaning up from last night?  Making A LOT of noise, and wake them up?    Guess I would not be cool mom any more if I did that hu?  Guess I will play another round of Domino's on the computer and give them till 10 to get up.  But after that it is all fair game.