Love is Money

Tough day for the Chew Bug! Everyone knows how much I love my animals. So when Chewy started limping last night I went into panic mode. Not that I would not have done the same for my kids but they can tell me what is wrong and he can't. Well, six hundred dollars later we now know he has all sorts of dysplaysias. Hip, knee and elbow! My he is so young you say. He is only three how could this be? I have been assured by my vet and wonderful friend Dr. Hamelton that this is what happens when you get a discounted pure breed. I personally thought I was getting a deal at two hundred and fifty dollars when I went to the breeder and picked him up but I should have known to good to be true. Now I would not trade him for anything he is my perfect dog. Now not only does he not produce any tears (which means I spend money monthly on drops and put them in all day long) I now have to buy monthly meds that will run around fifty dollars a month! So, the lesson here is don't buy a discounted pure breed but know that I would sell my home if I needed to in order to make sure he is OK. It is not every day you come across a foster mom for kittens that is 100lbs of furry love!

It's time to pay the Piper!

Ok, so lots has gone on...  Not really, just enjoying not having to do much house work because Austin is paying the Piper for his weekend of rebelling:-)  Last night we had Passover at my Aunts house and it was nice.  Love the wine and Matzo Ball Soup and the boys were pretty good.  With exception to my husband teasing me about only being Jewish on holidays!  Well, I asked him how Catholic he was and he said very and I nicely reminded him that he only celebrates at Christmas and Easter!  So I think we are both pretty bad at our religions.  Today my X is picking up Cody for the rest of the week.  I'm happy for Cody that he gets to spend time with his dad but I'm really gonna miss him!  It's funny how they drive me crazy but as soon as they are gone I feel lost.  I don't know how I am gonna do with the whole empty nesting thing once it is time.  I know I say I can't wait and that I am scouting out colleges far away; however, I have a funny feeling when the time comes I am gonna want them to live at home and go to college.  Parenthood who ever thought it would be this crazy!  I'll try and post some pictures of Passover.  Also, loved having my brothers girlfriend and her little girl there it made it so much more fun.

Making Up is Hard to Do!

First thing this morning I hear my boys talking thinking I'm still asleep!  As they whisper I hear Austin saying "Stop being like that I wrote Mom a letter telling her how sorry I am"  then Andrew says "It better be good you really hurt her feelings".  As I am laying there grinning from ear to ear I hear them debating weather or not to wake me up and give me the letter.  Soon after Austin comes into my room and whispers "Mommy".  I turn over and he hands me his very long letter written in pretty blue marker.  Long story short it was the sweetest letter telling me how sorry he was and how much he loves me.  Of coarse I hug him and tell him how much I love him and appreciate the letter.  As I am sure he is thinking "I'm gonna be ungrounded" I softly whisper "You know this does not change your groundation".  He quickly says "I know" so I hug him again and tell him how much I love him and send him back to his room.  So I am feeling much better and I'm sure I will shorten his grounding once I'm sure he has learned his lesson and does his reading with no arguments.  Besides that it was a slow boring movie watching day.  I made baked ziti for dinner and we all had dinner together at the table like normal.  I love my boys and I'm happy to have things back to normal.  Now if I could just get the kittens to poop life would be pretty good right now.

A Day of Silence

To all my friends who have e-mailed me support thank you!  I love you all!  Well, as many of you know after the huge fight with Austin, while in his room, he cut out his screen in the window and ran away.  He also left me a VERY ugly note that added fuel to the fire.  So after hours of searching with the neighborhood kids, parents and sheriff we finally found him at his friends house hiding out.  So you ask is he still alive?  Yes, of coarse he is; however, I think he finally has gotten the message!  When he got home the sheriff stopped by and let him have it.  It took everything I had not to scream "You tell him"!  Austin however is probably still praying he never sees that cop again.  Me I think I should invite him over for dinner and make him an honorary part of our family.  How are me and Austin you ask?  Well, I have taken to not speaking to him.  See, I am a yeller so when I go deadly silent the house walks on eggshells.  Austin has apologized and I said "I just don't want to talk to you yet".  My husband has offered to go buy me some Outback Steakhouse and my other boys have steered clear by staying in their room playing games and reading.  Austin, has just laid on his bed all day because he can do nothing else. No TV, games, friends or toys.  His options are reading or nothing.  So, I'm not sure how long the silent treatment will last because I'm not good at it and I can tell he is super sorry.  I think I'll take it through the weekend and make sure he gets how hurt and angry I was.  I know some of you are "What about big Andrew what did he do"?  Well that is another blog all together.  I think he was too scared and pretty much let the cop handle the fear factor.  He did go sit and talk with him last night and I heard some "Well thats too bad" and "It's gonna be awhile".  However, besides that I did not ask and did not listen.  I'll keep you all posted.

No He Did Not!!

OMG!!!  I am slamming away at this keyboard early today because I just got into it with my 14 year old son!  I am soooooo mad I can't see straight so I needed to do something to keep me busy.  Ok, so here is how it went down.  Austin comes home telling me (AGAIN) that he has a high "D" therefore, he should at least be aloud out to play basket ball.  Well I nicely ask him how many times did he read this week after school?  He tries to lie and say everyday.  I ask "What did you read"  he says "Witch and Wizzard".  I then say "Thats funny because I have that book with me so again what did you read"?  I get the dumbfounded look and he just keeps staring at me so I tell him "See Austin this is why you have a "D" in reading because you somehow think you don't have to do your work"?  I then remind him that a "D" is a "D" no matter how you say it.  So I then inform him that NO he is not aloud outside this weekend and that he is grounded till he brings up his grade and stops lying about his homework.  Then he turns around walking away thinking I could not hear him and says "FU"!  No, not the abbreviated version the entire words!  WHAT you say?  Oh my good friends that is when I flew off the chair I was so comfortable on and went into his room and said "Say what you just said to my face"!!  Again, I get the dumbfounded look.  At this point the fear in my son is indescribable as I loudly inform him that his little teenage life has just come to a complete stop.  He has now lost EVERYTHING he holds dear to him and that for the next FOREVER he will be grounded to his room with nothing to do but read books.  I know you all think I am being harsh well maybe but I'm still fuming and plan to stay that way all weekend!  I would never have said that to my mom!  Oh and wait till his dad gets home it is gonna get ugly!  I'll keep you all posted on the big bang...

A "D" is a "D"

Well correct me if I'm wrong but when I was in high school when you got a "D" it was a "D" no matter what percentage it was at?  My son Austin has a "D" in reading and insist that because it is a high "D" he should not be grounded?  So is a 68% still a "D"?  YES IT IS!  Sorry Austin but your still grounded.  Now I'm not sure who is really being punished me or him?  It seems that whenever my boys are grounded they hang around me all the time.  I know their game.  Lets bug mom till she let's us off being grounded so she can have peace and quiet.  Again, sorry boys but I'm on to you!  Bug away because it just makes me more angry and I'll start taking away more!  Not that I don't love being with my boys; I love them with everything I have.  I don't have much but what I do have is theirs.  As, I sit hear and type my daily woes I'm listening to them argue about names??  Well, I guess Harvard is out.  Maybe Hillsborough Community College would take them?

Will I make it?

Well, I am doing my blog early today because I'm gonna go to bed early.  It has been a very eventful day!  First, I was putting away laundry in the boys rooms when I got the strangest feeling that I should search around to see what I could find.  Yes, I am a true believer that if you live in my house privacy is a privilege not a right!  So, I tried to think about where I would hide something I did not want my mom to find and well what do ya know I hit the jackpot!  I sat on my sons bed looking around the room and then it hit me!  Look in the pages of the book propped up next to his bed.  It is a HUGE dinosaur fact book.  While flapping through the pages some very interesting pictures fell out!  Now I understand he is a 15 year old BOY.  However, my stomach is SICK!  I have taken the pictures of the naked women and thrown them away.  I am just wondering how he is going to approach this invasion of privacy?  Will he go to his brothers and blame them for stealing his porn or will he just stay quiet and hope it was not me who found it!  I don't know what to do?  I know he has made comments that he is a BOOB man (boy).  However, I don't want that crap in my house!  I have enough trouble keeping my husband at bay and letting me sleep.  Now I gotta worry about my 15 year old son knocking up some teenage girl.  I know I'm over reacting right?  Well what would you do?  I have had the TALK and pushed my husband to keep up the open conversations about respecting girls and PROTECTION just in case.  See this is why I have to take a Xanex and go to bed!  Oh, and for my good friends that want to remind me that I had sex when I was 15 all I can say to you all is JUST WAIT TILL YOURS ARE THIS AGE!!!  I was an insecure slut but I turned out pretty good and want to discourage my boys from taking advantage of girls in that stage of their life!  Ok, off to take my Xanex.  I'll just record American Idol.... 

Everybody Poops

Yes, I am talking about poop!  Andrew and I just finished trying to poop the kittens.  They are not able to do it themselves and the momma usually does it for them at this age so since they are orphans it is up to me!  I however, was only successful in pooping "Smoochy"!  Smoochy is such a little Smoochy bug and pooped like a champ!  The other three are giving us issues.  I gave up after a while and gave them a tad of mineral oil.  Hopefully we have better luck tomorrow.  Besides that the most eventful part of my day was catching my son Andrew Jr. in a lie!  I asked "did you do you homework" he looks at me with a big smile and says "Yep".  I being the trustful mom I am asked "Really"?  He said "Yes mom I did it" so I just got the BS feeling and said "Let me see it".  Boy did that smile drop from his face while he just stared at me in fear!  I said "you so just lied to me"  he again just stares at me and thats when I said "go do your homework and then go to bed and no games this weekend"!!!  He is shocked and upset with me???  I just don't understand how they think sometimes.  I always catch them in their lies haven't they learned by now?  You can't fool the master manipulator of teenage lying!  Of course I am an adult and see the errors of my ways and have apologized to my mom over and over for my teenage years but I'm only 37 years old I remember it like it was yesterday!  I always tell the boys "THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS COME OUT!

Good old Days

Well the kittens are all fed (still nameless) and sleeping.  The kids and hubby are sleeping so I thought I would write about my day.
First I had the same old battle with Austin about him being grounded for his "D".  Then the funniest thing happened.  What you ask?  Well, we were going through some of my old stuff my mom sent home and found one of my report cards.  See back in 1989 the report cards were typed onto carbon copied papers in blue ink and sent home.  So my son looks at it and says "Boy mom you were a goody goody".  I know all my friends are laughing wondering if it was really my report card.  Yes it was!  The only problem is that me and my slick crew of friends changed our "F"s to "A"s and our "D"s to "B"s with a blue pen.  Now I caught it right away and started laughing but when Austin asked what was so funny I just said "Told you I was a good student". LOL!!!  We had it so easy back then.  Now they use ed-line and the kids don't have access to it so they can't get away with anything!  So yes I still won my argument with the "D"s being unacceptable but in the back of my mind I was thinking "My poor mom had no clue".  I later told my mom and she said she never knew.  We were good!  See I always tell my boys that "I've been there done that worse and ten times better than you ever will so don't even try it".  Oh good times:-)

Kitten Season

Well I just picked up my first batch of orphaned kittens of the 2010 season.  They are so cute!  Eyes still closed they are about a week old.  I am looking for names so any suggestions would be appreciated.  I will post pictures of them in the next few days.  Right now they need to stay warm in their little bed with their stuffed mommy.

Now for the latest teenager news...  Did you all know that a 14 year old boy could still throw a fit like a 5 year old?  Wow I'm speechless on this one.  My youngest son Austin actually sat on the floor stomping his feet crying and throwing a fit because he got grounded.  Why did he get grounded you ask, well he has a "D" in reading (I love ed-line).  He actually said that all the zero's he has are wrong.  He did not do these assignments or did not turn them in (resulting in a zero) but still he can not understand HOW he has a "D"???  He has yet to pass a reading test.  Now I have had him tested for a disability and they say he does have a huge difference in the math verses the reading but he does not fall under "disability" status and he should be able to pass these reading tests.  He does well in all other subjects he just hates reading.  He has also never passed his FCAT reading and is in special classes for reading.  However, after watching the fit today I'm convinced it's pure laziness!  I make him read every night and he does ok, not great but ok.  If it was a reading test on football he would A's it!

Now on to my adventure with Cody.  We went driving today again and boy I'm done with that!  I swear we almost ran into the mailbox.  He would not turn the wheel.  I started yelling at him to hit the breaks and he said "I quit I don't want to drive"  I said "Fine get out and I'll get us home".  So that is that I guess my patient husband will have to take over.  

Driving me Crazy

Well today I let my son drive for the first time ever!  My whole body is still shaking!  All I can really remember is my feet pushing down like I was trying to hit the breaks.  I also remember saying "You control the car the car does not control you"???  Really?  I have no clue where that came from!  Sounds pretty good right?   I can't believe my son is driving.  I don't even remember learning to drive with my mom.  I took drivers ed at Leto and I got a "C".  May explain my driving record.  I also made my husband take him around the block you would think I was asking him to cut off his right arm!  I bet when it's Andrew's time to drive my husband will be super excited to take him.  He just does not have the patience to deal with Cody's goofy reactions.  I am mean so he listens to me!  Now I'm looking for some good restaurants in NYC for my yearly girls trip next month.  I'm so excited I'll be gone for 6 days.  Can't wait!

Hunger Games

Well, today was pretty uneventful.  I watched the baby (I'm to old for that) and I finished my book.  I have to say I'm pretty torn on how I feel about the book (Hunger Games).  I hate the concept of the story but I could not put it down.  I was angry, sad and excited by the end of this book.  I have started reading the second one in this series (Catching Fire) and I'm making my self take a break.  It is a gripping series.

Cody (and Andrew) survived the carpool this morning.  Cody is still fighting with his friend but I'm sure they will survive.  I'm really irritated with the fact that Cody is letting his grades slack.  I'm gonna have to get back on top of the grade thing now that I'm getting better.  Austin on the other hand has a "D" in Science and is very proud it's not an "F"!  Guess two out of three kids making it to college is pretty good.

Party's Over

Well the party is over and everyone is on their way home.  My sister left this afternoon back to Michigan and my nephew has moved into his girlfriends apartment.  The rest of the family has dispersed back to their corners of the world and things are getting back to normal.  I'll  miss my sister and it sucks that I was so sick while she was down here.  I did however make my steak as the number one child by playing the "DEATH" card!  I told her that if I die before them that I will always be in the number one spot!   My brother seems to think he is but lets all remember that I am the only one of my family to graduate high school, I have never been arrested and I don't do drugs or drink that much (anymore).  Oh and I am the one that has ALWAYS been here with my mom!  So like I said I'm the favorite number one child.  I know mom loves us all equally but really it's me thats her favorite:-)

Tomorrow also brings me back to watching the neighbors baby Zack.  He is adorable but a lot of work and I don't know if I'm up to it.  Also, Cody is gonna have to deal with his carpool issue.  I'm really feeling sorry for my husband who has to take them all to school.  Cody is not gonna make it easy but if anyone can deal it is my husband.  I can't wait until Cody can drive himself to and from school so no more carpooling.  These kids drive me crazy!

Well thats that for today I'll catch you tomorrow.

Anti Social

I have come to the conclusion that I am anti-social.  Now I am taking into consideration that I am still pretty sick; however, dealing with people even when I am well is a bother to me.  Today was my mothers 65th birthday party, (happy birthday mom), my sister came down from Michigan my brother is home after being gone for the last 5 years and all I wanted to do was be left alone and go home.  Don't get me wrong I love them all very much and would give my life for any of them.  However, I just did not want to be there today.  WHY???  I am starting to wonder if Cody's anti-social behavior is hereditary?  Maybe it's because I'm feeling insecure with how I look?   I don't know, I'll have to reassess this when I'm feeling better.

I do have to say my kids were really good today.  Probably because they know how I am when I'm coming down from steroids and didn't want to lose any of their stuff.

Andrew did not win any money today in his fishing tournament but thats ok because he loves just fishing.  I would have loved a big check to spend on my NY City trip but O-well maybe next one.

Day One For Real it's True

Hey welcome to my life! I have decided to star my own blog to let people know that they are not alone in this crazy world of crazies!

To start a little about me: I am 37 year old married mom of 3 teenage boys! Yes 3 teenagers that are sure they know everything and anything there is to know about the world. I am also a huge animal lover. Basically saying I have way to many animals (3 dogs and 5 cats)... I am a foster mom for abandoned kittens (bottle feeders) before they go up for adoption. I do not work because I have Lupus and seem to end up in the hospital a lot more than I would like. My oldest son has Asperger's Syndrome (he is 15) and very smart. My middle son (also 15 long story) is very shy but extremely intelligent and heading down all the right paths to get into a good college. My youngest son (14) well let's just say I'll be happy if he graduates!

You ask is there a man by your side that can deal with all of your craziness and I say YES! My husband Andrew the most amazing loving and PATIENT man in the world. How we ended up together is anyone's guess but we have been happily married for over 10 years. He is a huge fisherman and works in the Mortgage business. Not a great place right now but we get by better than most right now.

I am a very strict mom my kids are never on the computer unless it is for school. I know I'm keeping them isolated and behind in the times! Whatever! They get along just fine and have everything they need to be successful and I am excited for they day they leave (I mean go to college).

I will also try to post pictures of our family and a lot of the pictures I have are of my 4 legged babies!  Maggie is my Boston Terrier and she is my baby!  No other animal can compare even though I love them all!  I have Two Bostons one Golden Retriever and 5 cats (Trouble, Patches, Willow, Starmy and my foster Mamma).  I have a feeling Mamma will be a permanent resident before long.   

Starting today I will post my daily exciting issues in my life starting with today's events and of course it is a rainy boring day in which my husband is off on a fishing tournament and my kids are just coming in from school. My oldest son is now having a melt down because of his carpooling situation. He just got into a huge fight with his friend and now does not want to carpool anymore! This is typical for kids on the Autism spectrum to have meltdowns so I will let him calm down and then try to figure out what to do. I myself just got out of the hospital yesterday and am having a hard time feeling like dealing with this; however, what choice do I have. If not me then who? He is my lovebug no matter how hard it gets. Well I'm off to look for something to cook for my bottomless pit stomached boys and then back to bed. I know today's blog is boring but hey there will be some days when I can't stop typing so count your blessings this is a non eventful day so far.