Monday, January 31, 2011

My Misson....

We had a busy weekend! Friday night C had two friends over and they plus J went skating at Mrs. T's Skating rink. That was a long evening. I came home from work, started dinner, ran them up to the rink, hit the store to deposit Bee's check, then ran home, finished dinner, and then went and picked up the girls at 10pm. All in all, putting about 40 miles on Bee's truck.

I was in Bee's truck because my car had a flat tire. We found out on Saturday that the tire I have thought was just out of balance since JULY, was not really the problem. My front tire is bad and need to be replaced, but the real issue was the back tire. Apparently, and inch width of tread around the center of a tire, along with two giant blow out holes is what will cause your tire to bounce like crazy. I am lucky to be alive. What saved me, besides God and his angels surrounding me and my car, was the fact it was a back tire.

Bee also managed to upset me on Friday night by asking me, sweetly, if even though, not 5 hours earlier I said to keep Friday February 18th open because we had dinner plans with BFF Rose and her potential new guy, if he could instead go Coyote hunting with his friend John. Ahem. I also reminded him that it was VALENTINES DAY WEEKEND. Which then promoted the discussion that because Valentines Day is on a Tuesday, you would celebrate the weekend BEFORE. I disagreed. However, everyone I have asked in hopes of them backing me up, agreed with Bee. Wahmp-Wahmp! Oh well, I just always just celebrated the weekend AFTER because I always get paid on the 15th, so I have money then. I finally relented at the end of the night, after I stewed on it while dying my hair blond. I figured that we could celebrate Valentines Day the weekend before. However, he will have to pay for everything as his penance. I already have paid for his gift, so I am good there. As for our plans, I will just have to un-make them, which I HATE doing, but Bee's a good guy and this is a rare opportunity. Ever since moving to our new house, he has been good about keeping his belt tight and not spending money on things we don't need. He also has not done anything that he hasn't taken me with him or at least offered to. He deserves a day or two to do boy things with boys. Plus, he gets $150 per coyote he kills. Plus, a bonus if it's the biggest one of the kill. Last year, the prize was $12,000.00.

Go. Do work, son!

Saturday, we left for Detroit. We were delayed, because C's friend's parents were inconsiderate and were super late to come get the kids. We dropped the wee ones off at Grandma Bee's, and headed out of town. We went out to Olive Garden for dinner, which is a huge treat for me because Bee won't eat out at an Italian restaurant because he gets mad at the thought of paying $10.95 a plate of .95 cent spaghetti. But ya'll, as always it was delicious! Mmm...the salad and break sticks...the asaiago cheese ravioli! The wine! Then, we headed out fora few adult beverages and dancing, came back to the hotel and crashed. No hot tub this time :( We ran out of time. Oh well, we said we'd go back up in March for the heck of it. We headed to the meeting the next day, then after that headed home.

After picking up our truck at my parents house, then getting the kids from Grandma Bee's, we finally made it home at around 9:30. Sent the kids to bed and I went about tying up the loose ends of the weekends. Folding Bee's and my laundry and putting it away, making lunches, unloading the dishwasher etc. As I open the mail, we had a letter from the high school. J had wanted to do track and had signed up for it, but when we were going to have to wait on her physical, she decided to just spend the spring and summer training because she was out of shape. Well, she was still listed as trying to play a sport, so we got the notification that she was not eligible because she failed two classes this past semester. American Government and ART!

ART! This child spends her days doodling in her sketch book. In fact, she spends so much time in it, her chores get neglected along with other school work. She draws all the time, and is GOOD. Wants to go to art school. Reads books on art, lives, breathes, and sleeps art. Yet, she failed it. Bee and I were livid. We must have lectured her for over an hour. She's a junior. She doesn't have the time to mess up. We would have known about it sooner had we been checking up on her via the parent Internet site where they post all report cards, interim reports, assignments, and weather or not they have turned them in at. They send nothing home on paper, and I tried to sign up for a log in this summer, but they denied me because I was not their biological mom. Bee is absent minded and never remembers.

So, I thought about it. I decided on a plan. I am making J my mission. That mission is that she graduate, and that she does it with decent grades.

I singed Bee up for the password ans log in under his email. I told her this morning I will check every day and I will know by the time I get home if she turned in everything. If she does NOT, then she will lose one privilege per assignment. Her DSI will be first. Then her MP3 player. Then her TV. Then her sketch pad, and I will keep going until the only thing she has in her room are 5 outfits because it is a human right that she be clothed. I will take her bed and everything if need be. She will also write me a report on each assignment she misses. A report that I will choose. She is not allowed at the library except to study and do homework. If she is caught talking to friends, or "chillin", then she will lose the ability to go alone. I will go with her and be her chaperone. She will also study every day for an hour. Maybe more, depending on how she's doing. I have yet to see how's she's done all year. She might not be able to pass the year. If not, she WILL do summer school.

I gave little man a similar speech because he's been goofing off too. I told him I was BFF with his teacher and she would be emailing me to let me know if he is behaving or not. If not, same thing. He will lose things one by one and have to earn them back. I will not accept this from them. They are SMART kids. Super smart, in fact. They should be doing a lot better. I was that way. I was super smart, but lacked the motivation. My parents yelled and yelled, and grounded me from life and I still didn't care. They eventually stopped yelling and resorted to telling me I was dumb and would never graduate. THAT fueled me, and I did graduate. I had an overall 2.3 GPA. But, with my intelligence and test scores, I should have easily had a 4.0.  Had they had the technology to litteraly almost BE THERE with me at school, things would have been different. I don't want her to struggle with life how her dad and I had to. I WILL make sure she turns herself around. She'll thank me for it later...and I just might learn something on the way!

2 comments:

Amander said...

I hope he catches the biggest coyote!

(But I totally understand about having to "undo" plans - it sucks to have to explain stuff like that - even when the person is totally understanding.)

Sarah said...

Good for you as far as cracking down on J! I recently went through something similar with my oldest. My sister had me laughing because she said that I went all "Chinese mother" on him. (Did you read that article?