The beasts are back in town...what would you do?

As you probably already guessed....yes, I'm talking about the boys. It's not even that they've been terrible lately. They really haven't. It's just this feeling I have of discontent, when it comes to them anymore. I hate to even allow myself to think along those lines, but it's just always something. Always issues, and lies, and drama with them. Always into something or doing things that they just shouldn't be. It's so frustrating!

So, this weeks fiasco involved fund-raiser candy. I agreed to do a fund-rasier for Corey for his band class. This would cover his fee for using the instrument for the year. Ok, no problem. We are given a box of 52 assorted candies, to be sold at $1 each. That should give me a grand total of $52 dollars...correct? I sit down the other night to count the money and make sure that the correct amount is there. Well, guess what? I'm $7 short. Now I know darn well that I have collected all the cash for everything that I have sold. So, where is the other money missing from? As is the custom, when something like this happens...I call the kids over....

First was Tyler...he comes strolling out of his room, in his usual nonchalant manner...

Ty: "What mom?"

Me: "Well, I'm counting up the candy money and seem to be short. Do you have any idea why?"

Ty: Scratches head and diverts his eyes.....

Me: "Tyler, did you take any of the candy out of the box without paying for it?"

Ty: Weighs his options for a few more seconds...and then finally proclaims..."Yeah, I did!"

Me: "Okay, how many?"

Ty: "Ummmm.....1."

Me: "Just one? Are you sure, because I'm short by about $7!'

Ty: Diverts eyes again...looks over the whole kitchen and livingroom...never stopping to actually look at me..."Well, 3! Yeah, that's right 3." Is pretending to count them off on fingers...like he's remembering the exact moment he had those 3.

Now, in walks Corey....he had no idea, he was about to be blinsided as well.

Me: "Hey Corey, you wouldn't happen to know why I'm short on candy money, would you?"

Corey: He looks puzzled and proclaims right away..."NO!"

(Note: Corey is a teenager and nothing is ever his fault, nor does he ever know how anything ever breaks, falls, gets dented, comes up missing, etc. Teenagers don't have to take responsibility for anything.)

I go on to tell him that Tyler has already fessed up to 3 of the missing 7 and Corey says that he has had 3 total, and even paid for one of Tyler's the day before. He even goes and shows me the bills he used, because one had his name on it, (yes I know, that's another lecture), one had red ink on it, etc.

Hey, I'm falling into his little trap...hook, line and sinker. I am his mom! And even though mom's claim to be much smarter than our children, we are still gullible as hell! LOL

After this exchange, Corey runs in his room for a minute and comes back out...he has a bit of an attitude and says..."Well, I guess I WILL JUST PAY FOR THE MISSING CANDY BARS!" He takes 4 dollar bills and shoves them into the envelope. I'm taken back, and say, "wow, that's very nice of you Corey!" He's like, "yeah", and walks off.

So, it ends up that I tell Ty he is going to work off what he owes me. He is ashamed for a few minutes and runs and cleans up his room some, trying to calm the waters, appease me for the moment. By the time this weekend came, it was pretty much pushed to the back burner of my mind...I had other things more pressing to think about..

This weekend, I've been trying to stay on task and get as much done as I can. Vegas is just days away and I don't wanna be scrambling to do everything at the last minute. Which brings me to the near conclusion of this story...

While doing laundry yesterday, I pulled a pair of jeans out of the dryer. They were Corey's jeans and while folding them $4 happen to pop right out of the pocket. I didn't really think a whole lot about it at the time. My kids are always leaving rocks, money, shells, bottle caps in their pockets. No big thing.

Tonight, when the kids got home, Corey and I started doing a jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table. The fundraiser money is due tomorrow though, so I stop working on the puzzle and start to count this money. In going through it, I'm right back where I started from....$7 short. I never replaced the $3 from Tyler and once again...the $4 that Corey gave me, was gone once again.

I said to Corey..."Geez, I'm short $7 again...how can that be?" He looks at me quizically..."What?" And he goes on to say..."How is it that we keep coming up short?" I tell him that I'd like to know the same thing and he says..."well, I have absolutely no money at all right now. The only thing I have is is half of a $5 bill that I found at dad's this weekend!"

I just found $4 in HIS jeans pocket, he wore them about 3 days ago. Tell me a 13 year-old doesn't remember his last $4???? That sounds like a crock of shit to me!!!

I let it go for now, but am in a predicament where I just don't know what to believe. I know that Corey may feel like it wasn't his responsibility to put his $4 in there in the first place, if he didn't do it. And then he went and took it back. If that's the case, then that would be very hard to tell me. But I would understand that, if given the chance.

Or the other scenario is that Tyler is lying, and actually took all 7 of them and was just standing there letting Corey take half the fall. Which really really upsets me too.

These are the kinds of almost daily struggles that I have with these two. The story almost never adds up and neither claim to have done anything wrong. It's maddening!

So, what would you guys do in this case?? What do you think is right? Who do you think is telling the truth???

Doing well! =)

I posted the other day, that my brother was having a pretty serious surgery. He came out of just fine and is improving each day. He's still in the hospital, and may be for a few more days....but he's certainly on the mend, which is a big relief. It hasn't been without some minor mishaps, but all in all, everything has gone well!

Thanks for all your support and well wishes, it was appreciated!

Wish us luck!~

As I type this, my brother is in surgery to have a bowel resection! I probably won't be able to go up and see him today either...just too much going on. So hey, if anyone would like to send a prayer his way...we'd both be pretty grateful!

Have a great day!

Still walking the line!

Well, I reported that the kids would probably fall off the wagon soon, but they haven't. Things with them, have been relatively calm. They have been doing their chores without question and getting along pretty well. I haven't heard them bickering and fighting, nor have they been doing any yelling and screaming, which has been a great thing. Now that I'm putting all of this in writing, it's sure to backfire on me...but hey, I'll take my chances!

I want so badly to believe that something good has actually come out of this and hopefully, them working together instead of butting heads and trying to get each other in trouble all the time, is all part of the past! (No, I'm not counting on it! Do you think I'm that stupid?)

My sister still isn't really speaking to me, but I'm working at not letting that get to me too much. This too shall pass, I believe!

Otherwise, things are okay...could be better, could be worse!!! I'm possibly looking at a little foot surgery in the near future and the countdown to Vegas trip 2006 is commencing (soon)! It was definitely a struggle to try and find someone to keep my kids for me...but after a small amount of bribing, Bri's sister has agreed! Woo hoo. I'm still not getting my hopes up too high about actually going because you just never know, and I'm my life, I can usually always count on the most whacked shit happening, so I won't actually start the countdown now, but will wait until the week before! That might be a little safer.

Well kids, that's about it for me...this is Jellybean signing off! Have a great night!

And P.S. Happy belated birthday to my good friend Liza!! Love you bunches and hope you had a wonderful day!!!! (oh, and miss you....you little bugger!)

Overcoming...

There has been so many things that have transpired over the course of the past few weeks, so much stress and just plain overload, that I don't even know where to begin.

I may or may not have told you about the arrangements that I had made for my kids, while I was to go on my boat trip. It wasn't easy to coordinate at all, (a big thank you goes out to the ex for that), but I thought that I had everything covered.

I was to leave on a Wednesday and they were gonna be staying with my sister until that Friday. On Friday, they were going to my brother's house and staying there until Sunday. Unfortunately, my brother went into the hospital on Friday night, so my sister got them back after only 1 day. They stayed with my sister until that following Thursday night, and then went to stay with two of their friends from school until Sunday morning, when we got back into town.

For some reason, which I can only conclude is since I didn't threaten them with their lives, they thought it would be okay to destroy everything in their paths. They tore off a cupboard door in my sister's kitchen, they ripped off her railing leading down her basement stairs, they de-magnetized my nieces tv, my oldest busted his brother's lip, got chocolate pudding on her carpet, had a food fight with cheez-its, and also managed to break down the center panel of my brother's couch.

After being gone about 4 days, I had my sister calling me just furious. She was telling me that I needed to call and talk to them and try and put a stop to all of it. She's also telling me that my bro's in the hospital and that he looks very frail and hadn't been able to eat anything in 4 days and that they might be doing surgery to drain an abcess and that he will have to have a colostomy soon, once his diverticulitis heals up some.

I can't even tell you how frustrating it is to look forward to a trip for a year...have to scramble to find someone to watch your kids for that long of a time, only to have it turn out the way that it did and then to learn that you are hundreds of miles away and your brother is really ill. There was nothing that I could really do about any of it and it just sucked.

I did talk to my brother, when I could. Phone calls weren't even an easy task because where we docked the boat, of course we didn't have service. What I had to do every time I wanted to use the phone, was to jump on my jet ski and head out of the cove we were in, to the middle of the lake. That wouldn't be a big deal, if it wasn't raining the past 4 days we were there. So there I sit, in the middle of the lake on a waverunner, in the rain...only to hear news that just kept getting worse!!! Not to mention, hearing that the dog was peeing all over Tina's house....RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER!

There were a few days of total rest and relaxation, and I did try and make the best of the time that I had...but let me tell you, I've certainly had better vacations!

Since coming home, the boys have been doing tons of chores daily in exchange for cash....cash that will be handed right over to my sister, for all the crap that they pulled, I have lit up both their butts (talk about making them feel humiliated), and we have "discussed" at length about how they WILL start behaving! So far, their tails are still tucked between their legs and they are walking on eggshells! I see this lasting about another week or so...

Let the good times roll...

Vacation would have been perfect if:
1) My brother had not been hospitalized for almost a week
2) My kids would not have been total/complete monsters
3) My dog wouldn't have peed all over my best friends house!

Ever feel like somebody is just trying you to see how far they can go before breaking you?

Explanations to follow!