It's a Wonderful Life!!

Contractual Issues and Froating

We have had a rough few days around the hacienda. It is hammer time around here. Mr. Man's behavior this past month has been, well, horrible. I know part of this is school doesn't start until Labor Day - yes, not the day after, but LABOR DAY. The new construction, which was to be finished the middle of August, is delayed. The school gave us options for care, but I opted to keep him home instead. This is mainly due to finances - it would have cost $400 to send him to outside care! On second thought, considering my sanity is in jeapordy, it may be money well spent. The A.F. is so far behind on child support that I am forced to manage without any help. It has been hard. The A.F. has, in the past, been timely with his payments. Evidently, this is not his priority right now.

I told Mr. Man that Super-nanny would be called and we were making some changes. So, this is what we have done. Tuesday night I stayed up late and typed out our House Rules, Daily and Weekly Chores, and Rewards and Consequences. All this went into effect Wednesday morning, bright and early. He signed each sheet saying he understood and accepted. Of course there was a disclaimer, that at my discretion, the rules were subject to change.

I actually feel this has been harder on me than him. I am holding him to every rule. Bless his little heart, he has spent alot of time in "time out" and he has gotten several ping pong paddle swatches. But to my amazement, he has taken it all in stride. The first day was just horrible and I spent the better part of the day with discipline. Then we went to church Wednesday night and things did not go very well in the Upper Rooms. Ms. Debra called an impromptu meeting of all parents and in her gracious spirit she told us that our childrens behavior was unacceptable, which I so appreciated. I have a great respect for Ms. Debra, she works hard and she absolutely adores our children. I was horrified, because I knew Mr. Man was a party to this. Well, I will just say, that the whole time Mr. Debra talked, the only image in my mind was not pretty.

Thursday morning I e-mailed Ms. Debra an apology and attached my House Rules, etc. contracts which Mr. Man signed. Knowing full well that she probably thinks of me as a complete nut case, ready for an extended stay at a psychiatric hospital. Folks that know me will tell you I will be the first one to ask for help - and what better place for advice than within the house of our Lord. The part that is regretful to me is the fact that "I" am the parent that let Mr. Man's behavior get out of control before reining it back to an appropriate level. Beating myself up about that is counter-productive - other than a hard lesson learned.

For me, the saying Hillary Clinton coined "It takes a Village" is very real. My little family is small, but there is alot of love in these walls. We hug and kiss alot, we play games alot, and we laugh alot!

Mr. Man is a loving little boy most of the time, but I have found that when he gets tired, things go South quickly. He has a strong personality (much like the A.F.) and he is very head-strong. He has a knee jerk reaction to anger and a quick temper. I swear sometimes I just look at him and wonder if he got any of my genes at all. I know the Manning blood is coursing thru his veins strong. That is all fine and dandy, a little competitiveness is positive, I just have to channel it in the right direction.

That little bugger will test me at every turn. He usually ends up in "time out" and he has adjusted well to his chair. He told me today that the "time out" chair was quite comfortable. It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. But instead, I said, fine and dandy, because this ain't going away! He hid the ping pong paddle from me three times. Lucky for me I know his hiding places.

I can't say I have seen a tremendous change, but yes, it is progress  and not perfection.

We missed worship today because he got up in the middle of the night with a stomach ache and then vomited. He was at the potty and announced in an excited voice that he had to go outside. I said "Sam, it is 1am, why do you want to go outside??" He said "I am about to FROAT". That is what he calls throw up............is that not the weirdest thing. He has always called it froat. I have no clue where that came from. So I told to go ahead and FROAT in the potty! Then he had the dry heaves for about an hour. He felt so bad! So I let him sleep late and when he woke up at 9:45, he seemed to feel fine. But he said his chest hurt really bad from all the FROATING.

We watched an awesome movie this morning - The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise. Have you seen it??? It is now one of my favorite movies. Of course my all time favorite movie is American Beauty!  We went to the M.U. late yesterday afternoon and caught the end of TLS, so when it came on today, we were able to see the whole movie. I don't like Tom Cruise with long hair though. Then he watched King Arthur. My little man loves battle scenes. Ms. Leisa and Wild Walker came by late this afternoon and brought us dinner. How sweet!

So, what are your favorite movies - just curious? I am on a movie kick, and I don't want to waste my time watching Hollywood nonsense.

So, all is well around my house: the Contract is in place and the Froating has stopped.

It IS a Wonderful Life!

Peace!

The Sopranos Night

I am having trouble getting out of bed! My new mattress is really high. I told the delivery guys that I had rather go to bed high! They laughed! I did too! To be perfectly honest, it is purely divine. I have been sleeping with Mr. Man and I knew that the time had come for me to sever the tie that binds. My dear friend Shae, had loaned me a mattress, but to be honest, I only slept in it a couple of nights. It was much too hard for my liking. Too much of a good thing IS good. I crave a good nights sleep and I did sleep so well last night when I finally did go to bed, that 7:00am came around to get ready for church, and I was not budging. Mr. Man actually woke me up at 7:00am, which is quite unusual. He was hungry. So I raced to the kitchen and made him a bowl of Cheerios and banana and milk and flew back to bed. I was back asleep in a flash. He came in there at 10:00am and said "Mom, are you getting up today?" I said, yes, sometime, but not now. So I rolled over and slept another 30 minutes.

Now I can blame all this on my new mattress, but I have been feeling poorly this weekend. What with the Agony of Saturday - I missed the whole day. I was supposed to go to a family wedding at Main Street Baptist. But I missed that as well. I will spare the details, but suffice it to say that I had some intestional disruptionssssssss.......

I worked a little today, cleaned a bit, just enough to say I did something. Mr. Man and I went to see Shrek 3 this afternoon. We met his friend Brady B and his brother and mother. It was great. We love the Shrek movies alot. On the way out of the theatre Mr. Man begged me for Brady and his brother to come over. So I waved goodby to mother and stood there with 3 boys. I heard the Alley Neighbors dog barking and then the 3 boys ran for cover. I had a bad feeling. This is a mothers intuition - and yes, it really does exist. About an hour later, there was a knock on my back door. It was the Alley Neighbors. Mr. Man has had a bit of trouble with them in the past, so he is banned from the alley. I told him there is no good reason, with the exception of retrieving a ball, that he should be in the alley. The Alley Neighbors wife had a cut on her lip that was bleeding and a bandage on her finger. I knew the blood and bandage was somehow connected to Mr. Man and company. The Alley Neighbor proceeded to tell me that Mr. Man and company had come to their gate aggravating their BIG MEAN DOG. Well the BIG MEAN DOG jumped up on the fence and had gotten his paw stuck in between the wooden fence. The Alley Neighbor was trying to pry aloose the BIG MEAN DOG and it bit her.

It is never simple around here, there is always some drama. So, once again, Mr. Man is being punished for going into the alley. He will have to write 10 sentences "I will not go into the alley". I still haven't figured out the punishment for whatever he did to deserve a red light on Friday. School will finally be out on Friday.

The Absent Father came by just as we were about to go to the movie. He gave me money for child support and 3 invoices he owes for business. He is behind on his bill for pigskins, and I am just about ready to cut him off until he gets caught up. The whip is about to come down. I have had enough.

Tomorrow will be crazy with orders and phones ringing. Then I have to prepare for Pam and my smart and funny bookeeper, Trish. We will get this solved.

I will take Mr. Man to school at 7:45 and then come home and go straight to the treadmill. No coffee, no spider solitaire, no phones, no menthol cigs. First things first. If I wait till the drama in my life slows down, and the clutter clears, then obviously, that may be when hell freezes over. So I have made a commitment to myself to walk 15 minutes on my treadmill before I start work.

It is about time for my obligatory weekly viewing of Sopranos

Patiently I wait....God give me strength.