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???