the sickies!

we had a wonderful Christmas, but at 430 pm, right after the dinner, i was hit with the worst virus i can remember having in my life and spent 3 days on the couch. then i gave it to shawn, then kendyl & doug, then daddy. only kris & jackson have been spared(so far! both are sleeping away tonight-kris in NYC, so i hope they feel ok!) shawn is still pooping like crazy, but stopped throwing up. still wont eat.i had it 72 hours but yogi, kendyl & doug only had it for about 24 hours. i will post pics and tell funny stories when i get a second. hope you all have a fantastic new year! stay healthy! miss you all!

pics

jackson chose not to take part in much of this, so hes not in many of the pictures so far he hates it. cries the whole time

Uncuh Tim after

Uncuh Tim before

helping Uncuh bake mummy & daddy an anniversary cake!

shawn with doug, looking at his favorite lit tree across the street at Jerry's house. he loves that thing

sledding!

birthday boy dec 9th

jessica, miguel, doug, ben, chelsea

sweater has a cute little skunk and says LOVE STINKS

a hand me down, the kids have had so much fun eating m&m's from
the drawers every day

RAD/FAE in the news

i recently became friends with the mom of a boy who's on jackson's basketball team. she adopted her other/older son from the system at age 3. hes a RAD kid who also suffers from Fetal Alcohol Effect. we chat about the goofy, at times unacceptable but quirky, funny things they do and the strange behavior they exhibit. its all lighthearted though-the only negative thing shes ever said about this boy(age 20, graduated highschool with my Kristin) is that she was so relieved when he failed his military entrance exam because "can you imagine giving mikey a GUN???" lol
it's been so fun to have someone nearby to talk to, in person, once a week at basketball practice who shares in my "HUH???" moments and does that head nodding thing when i talk about trash picking and trinket stealing. i really like her.
well....... the boy moved in with his paternal grandparents last year, everyone was more relaxed, and he got along well with them both. the grandmother died soon after he moved in, but the grandfather wanted mike to stay with him. we had that big storm thursday and we all lost power. after almost a week without power, it came back on this past tuesday and everything seemed fine with mikey and grampa.... . but then yesterday, early morning, for reasons unknown, Mikey chopped up his grampa with a hatchet and burned the house down. you can read the story in these NH papers online. Manchester Union Leader or The (Nashua) Telegraph. i suck at links, sorry.
this lady is the BEST person. one of her 11 year old boy/girl twins has CP and is wheelchair bound, she comes to all Matt's games.... shes so down to earth and i really like her. i cant imagine how shes feeling. i think i will go to the wake just to give her a hug and nod my head while she talks.
RAD is HARD. you NEVER feel totally safe because they are such good actors.
jack was VERY rude before school thismorning. i finally told him to get his stuff and leave. im finding weird stuff in his room still. especially screwdrivers. weapon of choice? who the hell knows?
big snow storm here. we have a foot already i think. please dont let the power go out! 40 MPH winds on the way.. please pray!
hope all is well with you all. please pray for the phillips family, if you can :)

what a week!(so far!)

big ice storm came through new england-seen the news lately? we lost power for 96 hours. i cannot describe how it felt, standing in a cold, dark mall food court, car packed, with nowhere to go with our 4 youngest kids. yucky feeling. i could make this a big long story but im just too spent right now. in the end, we stayed with my best friend Libby in another town. she has 4 teenagers, 2 huge birds, 2 naughty kittens, an indoor bunny and a lassie dog. she also has a husband with a cold. they were so good to us. they fed us great dinners, let kendyl hog the TV and washed our clothes. we baked cookies and cinnamon bread. joe even fixed Yogi's chainsaw! Ken & Shawn got to bathe in the big, deep jetted tub! they loved that. the not knowing and feeling bad for our lonely, cold dog was the only hard part. the rest couldnt have been better. shawn took to co sleeping like a champ-yogi & i shared the basement pull out couch with him- and kendyl loves Libby's 13 year old daughter Steph who is an AMAZING care taker. she kept kendyl upstairs with her, and jack slept under the Christmas tree. doug has strep throat so he stayed with all his sick friends here in town lol. why infect us all, right? sometimes things happen for a reason. steph showed me a shortcut i never knew about and i cut like 10 minutes off the trip, so maybe thatll get me to visit more often. life just gets so busy. we had so much fun catching up. we promised to get together more often. why does it take a local disaster??????? i totally fell head over heels in love with one of the birds. Bones is a HUGE scarlet Macaw with a vocabulary that would knock your boots off. he is a A TRIP. only joe can handle him, but its so fun to sit by his cage and listen to him talk, get him to mimic you and try to teach him new stuff. if we didnt have kids, we'd have birds. it is so much fun. but BOY do they love to screech. they want what they want and take up alot of your time. they are messy too. i had a smaller parrot years ago and 4 years was long enough. he wanted to take my eyes out. i miss my bones already :( i guess i better visit them all more often huh? power came on at 7 last night and we packed up and came home. forgot a few things, so i have to go back anyway :) why cant i start a new paragraph? whats wrong with blogger today? so... today was spent cleaning up this dumpy place. yogi's friend Tim will be here in a few days, was held up by weather and a gross 24 hour flu. OY. did lots of un packing, re -organizing and meal planning for the coming weeks. we may not get a tree until like 2 days before Christmas! no space anyway, i know.. i know... BAH HUMBUG! but the last few days have worn us all out. Yogi is working in Boston again, out in the cold all day every day so we may just keep things really restful this holiday. almost done shopping, need more for the 2 bigger boys and stocking stuffers. kept it LIGHT.
ok... i better get going, still so much to catch up on!

ali and her very very very very very RADspastic week. By Ali

WHAT A WEEK! Pack your goody bags, ladies. youre goin' to story land!
Ive been "helping" ok.. doing it all.. jackson clean his room. Yogi's best friend, Tim is coming to stay with us for a few weeks or months and i made space for him in Jacks room, since he has the huge room. we set up a twin bed by the window, and are trying to really clean out the room so walking is possible. needless to say, cleaning his room is a disgusting task, not for the faint of heart. it can get ugly. at times, i feel i must swear myself to secrecy concerning my findings. i am not exaggerating.
ok.. so.. every so often i like to go through all the books on the shelf, weeding out the ones hes outgrown to put them on Kendyls shelf and get rid of the ones he has sat and painstakingly ripped the pages out of one by one when angry. Hidden in the pages of the books i found my Castaway DVD, Doug's Dodgeball and Too Fast, Too Furious DVD's, and the topper? CD's that kristin burned containing all her photos from her trips to Australia, New Zealand, Italy and some other place. WHY???????????????????????????????? just so we have to search and he can watch??? OY. weirdo.
when i'm in his room, the most obvious observation is the fact that Jackson has NO sense of order. no idea what "putting away" means. socks, un matched, in 17 different drawers, an UNO game box in the closet, and UNO cards in 24 different locations throughout the room. urine scented drawer liners(clothing) in every drawer and both closets, one shoe in one closet, the match in another. 20 books in one closet, 30 in another, 40 under the bed and 16 on the floor. bookshelf? EMPTY aside from halloween candy bar wrappers, a tennis racket, one snow boot and empty glue sticks(he ate the glue @@) when you spend time in his room, its clear how mixed up he is, on so many levels. CHAOS is where he lives. his head must be swimming with thoughts that make no sense. I cannot imagine the fury inside his head. i painted the room a year ago. its so beautiful in there now(well.. it was.) a calming blueish grey with white trim, white, 30$ shades on 4 windows.....my favorite find yesterday was the wall he took a screwdriver to. my second favorite was the black sharpie marker mess. the roof leak didnt help either. theres so much to do up there at this point. my stomach hurts when i think about whats ahead and how hard i worked that week to get it done and nobody cared one bit. the new roof is on, but now we need to replace his ceiling and carpeting. he likes to get out of bed at night, fall asleep on the carpet and soak it in urine, so between that and the roof leak soaking it... UGH.
Anyway, the room is clean and organized now. 5 trash bags of garbage, 2 of clothes that dont fit and one of books for kendyl and its a done deal. now, onto the BEST PART:
this morning i went up there to plug in a lamp next to Tim's bed. i needed to move the dresser a bit to access the outlet. a USED condom was stowed behind the dresser. i thought I would DIE RIGHT THERE. jackson said he found it in an outdoor garbage barrel when taking out a bag of trash, & took it to his room to "CHECK IT OUT". 6 months ago a used, dripping condom fell out of an empty pizza box in my kitchen. Dougs friend Ben had hidden it there( not sure if i blogged about it or not). jackson handed it to me and asked "whats this????" he thought it was a playtex baby bottle liner. i had him wash his hands and explained exactly what it was & i had NO idea who it belonged to at the time. Ben raked leaves and did lots of push-ups. why did Jackson want to inspect another one?????????? why is he so freaky? SO absolutely disgusting! im sure his hands were not washed, who knows what else he went around touching after that!!!!! this find of mine came 30 minutes after i, while brushing my teeth, noticed that Dougs razor was full of jackson's black curly balls. he had taken the razor to his afro. i told him to keep his hands off other peoples things!!!! then i told him his hair looked RADiculous! i told doug to hide his stuff! then i find the condom. could somebody please drug me??????????????????
Yogi and jackson are in Boston meeting the Celtics at a Christmas party. he acted so RADummy all morning because he has such anxiety(that nobody will treat-im stupid i guess) over the un-known and we had a very TOUGH morning, he asked me 10 times "what are we gonna do there anyway?" i am so glad hes gone. he was grouchy, sullen, hyper and rude to the younger kids. i had to speak to him over & over again.
did i mention im glad hes gone? LOL
ok... vent over. the baby is up. have a RADtastic Day!!!!
LATE EDIT 5PM: jackson was withdrawn and hardly spoke the entire day. it was too kiddish for him, a santa, clowns.....no basketball game & only 6 players. the gift the kids got awas a Trivial Persuit game lolololololol. he wont even open the box, i dont think. Yogi says he just sat there the whole time and that yogi was the only white guy there, which was soooo weird! he met a mom from Ghana and spent the day with her & her 2 kids and as usual, made his own fun. the food was great. thank you Boston Celtics for inviting my weird, un appreciative kid to your party. next year you can keep the slot open for someone who cares. love, ali

how?(late edit)

DO YOU MISPLACE A 10 LB CROCK POT? THE THING IS IMMENSE! oops, sorry for the caps button.
i cleaned closets. where are all the gloves? where are MY gloves? why cant i find the outdoor lights? im having one of those days where everying is missing.
we are all still in the throes of post nasal drip and crap here. i have an eye cold and its itching SO BAD i wanna gouge my eyes out.
yogi took jack to his first basketball game of the season. the kid is PUMPED. (LOST UGH)
yogi got his first leaf blower. hes 46 years old. hes not spoiled- he's PUMPED.
i am dragging my leaky, itchy eyes Christmas shopping ALL BY MYSELF when he gets back. i am PUMPED!
Parade in town tomorrow. Kendyl is PUMPED! (didnt feel good enough to go)
Shawn's birthmom finally got in touch with me after 15 mos. i sent her a message through her Facebook account, she wasnt answering e mail. i am BEYOND PUMPED! she got married in june and now lives 38 miles from us at Hanscom Air Force Base in MA! shes from little rock but joined the air force last january and has been very busy and hasnt wanted to "bother us" ????????????????????????????? shes lived in MA since June but didnt contact us! i mail pics and letters every 8-12 weeks but she hasnt received all of them. the agency dropped the ball i guess. in fact, they even sent a package to L.'s MOTHER's house in july! her mother didnt even know she had a baby! her mom assumed they were pics of her first son and opened it up, looked right at the pics and letter and didnt realize he was her daughters baby, even with those dimples. she kept telling L that he was "mixed race", the agnecy sent her the wrong package and that she was going to throw the stuff in the trash but L told her to hang onto it so she could look at it before sending it back to the agency. those were pricey, professional 1 year portraits! not happy with the agency right about now. now we are going to stay in direct contact instead of all this secrecy stuff- we hated it anyway. so did she. we were all following "the rules". dummies. the family that adopted her first son, who is now 4 years old, blew her off after the first few months and stopped all contact, so maybe she just assumed we'd be the same way and didnt want to set herself up to be let down again. then again-maybe the agency(same one) just didn't do their job. shes such an awesome girl. why would a family do that to her? ive missed her so very much and as strange as it may sound, we WANT her in shawnies life. shouldnt an "open adoption" be...um.. i dunno... OPEN???????? we can't wait to go visit. Yogi hasnt met L. yet so hes excited to get the chance.
shoot- gotta fly. bye for now!

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Last night kendyl stayed up WAY TOO late to watch Rudolph with us and to help me put return address labels on the Christmas Cards. then she took cold medicine and went to bed exhausted. she finally woke up at 930 thismorning and reported that jack woke her up in the middle of the night to listen to music on the computer and he ate the rest of his hot wings-hot wings are gone and she has no idea how to lie yet. he even told her not to flush the toilet because the noise would wake us up and we would be mad. i am so mad i could spit nails. i love that hes training her to be a dishonest, sneaky little BRAT.
yesterday the Boston Celtics called me to invite Jackson and us to their Christmas party. gifts, pics with entire team, shooting practice.....GUESS WHO WON'T BE ATTENDING??????????????
yah yah yah..... he woke up cuz he was so excited about the party he couldnt sleep yadda yadda yadda I DONT CARE. i want him to stop doing this. when caught, he used to claim ken woke HIM up, but then she learned to talk. we threatened to install cameras. it stopped for a while, but now its starting up again. doug says he heard jack get up at midnight cuz he had wet the bed(YAY!!!), but he didnt realize he woke up kendyl after putting his wet stuff downstairs.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. gald i have all day to stew before he gets home from school. i will smaile and ask "was it worth it?"

i miss you gals!

i figure its time for a HUGE update. i will try to humor you.

i'm borrowing my friend Amy's laptop. it is the BMW of all laptops. i dont want to return it! it is amazing and sooooooo fast. incase you care, its an HP pavilion dv6809us with vista premium, a built-in webcam, all the cool gaming softwear and memory(which must be why its so fast) and its sooo shiny and really thin and light. i LOVE this thing. i want to marry it. i call "him" Oh Shiny Fast One. hes the man. our laptops are still being repaired .....whichever one is easiest to fix will come home first. neither are anything special. hhmmpphh. i'm going to take a pic of amy's laptop (holding todays newspaper) with my cell phone and send it to her with a ransom note. i have several demands. enough about notebooks.

the family photo night at Picture People sunday night went very well. Yogi insisted he & i be in the picture this year. i battled against the idea and lost. He always gets his own way. always. we all wore jeans except Kendyl, who wore a red dress and white tights. our shirts were red, navy or dark green. it looked really good! he did the group shots first which went great. shawn did well in Yogi's arms. then, when he tried to take shots of the 5 kids, Shawn wasnt havin' it. he took one right before shawn started screaming and that one is mediocre, but thats all he got. the ones of the 2 girls are AMAZING, the ones of the 2 oldest are SUPURB, we forgot to get one of just Yogi & me, and getting one of the the 3 boys together was impossible. they re- touched dougs skin in all the photos and they are beautiful, doug loved them. all in all, a very successful shoot. sadly, i look like a huge whale surrounded by 6 hungry, skinny sharks in every photo, yet here i sit eating lemon cookies. siiiggghhhhh. hoping to lose 65 lbs before next years shoot. ROFLMAO!
i will post them as soon as PP puts the pics on the website(it's taking forever!) and yes, i spent too much ;)

Black Friday shopping was a very surreal and eye opening experience. we were at Walmart at 5am and it was dog eat dog... eat or be eaten. we were only there to laugh, no fights from us,but it sure was funny. we heard one lady yell at an employee who needed to stay at her post"fine! i guess we'll have to go find someone who cares to help us!" i patted the employee on the shoulder and offered her gum. it was funny and she just blew the witch off. i scored on my first winter coat in 10 years-its red & white and i look like an ambulance in it, but i love the warmth. then we went to breakfast WITHOUT KIDS for the first time in 5 years and it was weird. best french toast i ever had in my life. Yogi pigged out on everything. then we hit 3 more stores quickly and came home at noon. kendyl wasnt feeling well, she had 2 over lapping cold viruses and had a fever. (Yog had it prior weekend i think)then shawn got it. yesterday i took them both to the Doctor and shawn has bronchial pneumonia. yay. hes feeling better already-good drugs. Kendyl just has a cold. neither has felt good in over a week now.

the truck issue continues. each garage says the other is full of it, now we need an impartial, objective expert witness to look all the paperwork over and testify for us in court if it goes that far. that pompous bass is not stealing 2k from me! LOSER! he doesnt have a leg to stand on.

we re-roofed the (leaking)dormer on our cape over the weekend, that was fun. i cleaned up the mess from the old roof and raked the front yard, doug went to the dump, yogi shingled the house. jack helped. shawn was a whiney pest lol. kendyl tried to help too, but shes short lol

anybody see the planets next to the moon last night? that was SO COOL! i thought jack would really get into it, but he was rather morose(sp?). he used to love all that astronomy stuff. eh.

shawn is so jazzed about the little decorated tree on jerry's lawn across the street. he stands in the bay window pointing and chatting away at it all evening with these big eyes. he was so sad when it wasnt lit at 530 thismorning lol. he just loves lights. and they blink! i wish it was warmer here so i could take him for a walk at night so he could look at all the lights. he would love that so much.

AJs widow is moving to Korea with her daughters because she just isnt making it here. because she owns a crappy income property in the city that is worth NOTHING and owns a car, she cant get any insurance for her or the kids. she just had a minor heart surgery and has a 16k hospital bill she cant pay. shes a teacher in maine at aprivate christian school that she lives in with the kids. if AJ had died in iraq, she'd be set for insurance, but because he died in the streets like a dog 5 months after returning from iraq, she gets NOTHING. she literally is leaving the country-a country her husband fought for-so that she can make a living teaching english is another country. a local police officer was murdered and his wife gets tons of help in the form of state aid, private donations, his pension.....and everyone rallies together to hold fund raisers for her & her 2 boys all the time. why is he more important? i dont get it. we've contacted congressmen, but havent gotten anywhere so far. AJs parents are devastated. Sayle is all we have left of AJ, its so sad that she has to do this to survive.

Kendyl wants a pony.

my mom is doing ok without her mom. she seems relieved.

thats it for now. yogi needs laptop. miss ya'all.

thanksgiving pic

ken was very busy caring for her offspring

no idea

jackson acted very RADtastic all night. why the winter coat the whole time???

kendyl rocking her baby doll with my dad

now yogi's laptop is busted, same issue as mine, so we are without after kris goes back to school on sunday night. mine is being fixed, but its taking a while. so.. may not post much. happy thanksgiving everyone! mine ended up being pretty good!

for the first time in my 23 years since leaving my parents home we are are going shopping on Black Friday! we have never done this. is it any fun???? should i bring a gun?

NOT EXCITED

about Thanksgiving this year. there. i said it. and im not taking it back. its just gonna be immediate family and as non-boring as my family is-i am bummed out. am i just a spoiled pansy? a party pooper? i KNOW i should turn my frown upside down and make the best of it, even try to make it the Best Crawford Thanksgiving Day Ever, but right now i just dont care. My Rachael Ray stuffing just doesnt seem worth slaving over at all. The leaf and acorn chocolates i planned to share at Mom's house dont seem worth taking the time to make now. We bought the HUGEST(is that a word?) turkey. it will take weeks to eat. kris & doug are not big eaters and the babies eat practically nothing, so its really just jacky, yogi & myself. ok so i better count up my blessings and suck it up, right?
1. kris will be home
2. we are able to purchase all the fixins, dont need a food pantry
3. we are all healthy, aside from my sore shoulder and a few sniffles.
4. we have electricity, heat and hot water
5. no roaches!
6. no in laws(im kidding! i kid! i tease!)
7. no travel required. is that a blessing or not? ho hum.
8. my husband is a great cook and a huge help-it wont be all me all day long
9. all 7 of us can be here. did i already say that?
10. 2 words-PUMPKIN PIE.
11. 3 more words. PUMPKIN CHEESE CAKE(yogi's specialty)
12. scrabble. gonna play. gonna win.
13. excuse to stay in pajamas all day if i want!
thats all ive got. not bad.

WOW!

what a great post from my pal Christine today. go read it! although most of the moms who read my blog have already adopted, a few haven't so i thought i'd link you all to her blog(to the best of my not-computer-savvy ability)
i dont usually chat about The Big Guy in my blog, my relationship with him is private to me, but Christine is way more.. um.. new age??? (WAY). so go check http://www.welcometomybrain.net/2008/11/national-adoption-month-definitely.html out ok? please?
(the hyper link button never lets me copy & paste. drives me insane!)

not much....

everything is pretty cool right now, not much to report. it was a pretty uneventful week, really. we are getting VERY cold weather though, nothing i want to go out & play in! feels more like january than november. shawn, kendyl and Daddy have colds, Daddy is the sickest and the stuffiest right now. shawn had a rough start to the week, but seemd much beter today. my nose is a bit stuffed up, but nothing bad.. atleast not yet. my husband isnt one of those wimpy, whiney husbands, he didnt have any work scheduled today, but we still did all the usual saturday stuff and he was his usual chipper self. im so lucky huh? hes also been getting up with shawn at 5am every morning and letting me sleep in. yogi rocks!

i had a painting job this week, so i was out at the property every night, so i didnt blog much. i love it when i get to go paint. i bring MY music that nobody else likes and enjoy the time to myself A LOT. even though the family wanted everything "neutral" it came out beautiful. atleast they let me pick the colors. all finished now.

i went to find a winter coat for shawn today at Mother & Child, the local resale boutique. i dont know what shes smokin' lately but 16$ for a USED baby jacket? i was so pissed. i still bought 2 jackets(gotta have a backup) and left, but GEEZE. if it doesnt say hannah andersen in it why should it cost that much USED? thank goodness he already has snowpants from a bag of hand me downs.

brody's grammy is out of the hospital and doing much better, she even came to visit for a bit yesterday! Brody, who is autistic and started school a few months ago is making AMAZING progress and i cannot believe how much he engaged with me yesterday and even kissed me goodbye! he never even looked me in the eye until 8 weeks ago. he picked up the little toy guitar and said "im playing guitar hero" plain as day. i about fell over. hes even potty training! this is HUGE. he will be 4 at the end of january. he's like a different person. WOW. im still in awe. he also looked HUGE next to kendyl, he is gonna be a big boy some day.

Thanksgiving will be quiet again this year, itll just be the 7 of us, here at home. mom isnt into doing thanksgiving anymore. we may go over for a dessert buffet afterwards, i suggested it so we can all get together atleast, but im not sure if she even wants to do that. the last few years she hasnt wanted to do anything. she had a heart attack 7 years ago and since then shes been different. my dad thinks its all too much for her, she says. oh well. so now we just do our own thing. i cant wait to make my rachel ray stuffing!

i wish everybody felt better, it would be fun to go do something tomorrow. i may take the 3 youngest bowling-jack & ken are so into bowling right now. let daddy sleep!

wish i had more to say, i feel boring this week. maybe boring isnt so bad LOL

wordless wednesday

i was tagged!(um.. a week ago)

sorry Lisa, here goes:

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules.
2. Share seven random or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post with their links.
4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

no idea how to link to Lisa, but she'll see it eventually anyway.


1. i don't want stainless steel appliances-the hand prints would drive me insane.
2. the inside of my SUV is always kept immaculate. i cannot stand a messy car.
3. ive slept with the same flat, old feather pillow for 20 years. ive tried to replace it, but any other pillow hurts my neck. i take it with me when i travel.
4. nobody is allowed to say shut-up in my house. if they say it they have to vacuum and clean, visitor or not. same goes for wearing Yankees apparel, except for that violation you have to do push-ups.
5. q tips creep me out. i wont touch them.
6. i would like to get a degree in social work but im too lazy to further my education.
7. i do not like calling people on the phone or answering a ringing phone and will avoid it at all costs-no reason i can identify. i am stumped.

i would tag one of you, but you have all already beeen tagged LOL

RAD kids don't do sleepovers!

On Saturday night Jackson's friend Dominic invited himself over here to spend the night. sure. no problem. his Mother drove him here at about 7:30. Jackson had been honest with Dom, making him aware that we do not have video games, personal television sets, game boys and the like. Dom wanted to come over anyway. We turned on the Celtics game. "I only watch the Knicks. I only watch NY teams. No Celtics, No Patriots, no Red Sox...". Gee, this kid was really trying hard to get on my good side huh???? i asked him "Are you from NY?" he said "no". i just walked away in utter disgust. The boys got on the computer and watched their favorite rap videos on You Tube and practiced a few hip hop dances in the kitchen. Yogi made popcorn for them. I suffered through that without whimper. i crashed at 10, Yogi let them stay up until 11, then ushered them into Kristin's room. At midnight he came upstairs to bed and the REAL fun began..... (Christine, get your mind outta the gutter!).........DOWNSTAIRS. Jackson is such a follower. Dom got the telephone and a phone book and good times ensued. Shawn was awake at 5am so Yogi took pity on my poor chubby soul and brought him downstairs so i could sleep. He planned on making a huge, yummy breakfast as well. Instead, he found the phat beat music shaking the bedroom, Jack, Dom & Kendyl jumping on Kristin's bed and food everywhere. The dog had puked up some goodies as well. uh huh. He calmly sent the boys to bed, sent Ken back to bed which caused a whale sized, 1 hour long, door kicking, "jackson! dominic! SAVE ME!" drama tantrum for the entire neighborhood to hear(remember the preacher next door?? hasn't this poor, innocent man suffered enough Crawford antics on the Sabbath Day by now?????) At that point Kendyl drifted off on her hardwood floor, the boys continued to giggle and horse around and at 8am the phone started ringing. Mommies from across the land were calling to ask why our boys were calling their daughters at midnight, 1, 2 & 3am. mmmhhhhmmmm. for real. i love adolescents!
I came down at 9am(bliss!!!) and he filled me in on the morning's events. Dominic was driven home immediately and Jack raked leaves until dark. Even though he was angry he didn't shut down like he usually does. We talked a lot about choices, friends who influence those choices blah blah blah. He says that Dom wanted to sneak into Doug's room and play video games and "borrow" his Lil' Wayne CD(punishable by slow death, but this kid doesn't have an older brother so he has no understanding) and when Jack wouldn't he called him a pu**y! Then he told him our house was boring, we have nothing to do and he's never coming back. HE'S CORRECT IN HIS THINKING! he was livid that they had to go to sleep at 11 but the fact is, they could have stayed up all night listening to music, dancing(they both dance)drawing, playing Kristin's piano.... no one would have cared but once you start pulling the crap they pulled-I pull the plug. Well.. if I'm awake I do LOL. At school today, when Jackson told Dom he has to rake leaves all week Dom told Jackson we are prejudice racists and are using him as a slave lololololol. Dom is always playing the race card. Dom is apparently grounded for 5 weeks, but Jack doesn't know what the terms are. They are in a condo, so no leaves to rake.
In jack's defense, I think he was afraid to wet the bed and stayed up all night to avoid it and I'm glad he at least refused to go into Doug's space.
Sleepovers have not gone well for Jackson so far. We may wait quite a while to try again! He just gets so much anxiety and messes it all up.
His report card was very good, as promised,..although the behavior/responsibility/respect section was crappy at best. all the grades were "partially demonstrates" except for respects authority was "usually demonstrates". He also acts like a complete boob in music class. Like that teacher deserves his lack of effort, refusal to listen, class clown crap and all that. He knows that if I don't see a HUGE improvement (I am calling the teacher)the phone he's getting tonight will be put away.
Off to the cell phone store! LORD HELP US ALL.
UGH-Dom just called me to apologize. his step dad pulled him off the basketball team.... for how long, i don't know. DAMN. poop rolls down hill. Grounding kids from sports only hurts the coaches and teammates. these guys are volunteering their time!.... YUCK.

a boy and his Daddy

strange happenings as of late/some pictures

24 month old boiler-paid 8k- is spewing black ash all over my laundry room. nobody can come over to service it(that better be all it needs too!) until the 17th.

washer broke yesterday, as i attempted to catch up on 22 loads of laundry. a guy was here to fix it in 2 hours, took 20 minutes. $130.00. OUCH!- but in haiti i would have waited 2 months, so whatever! no complaints there!

as sexy beast washer repair man left, i went outside and my dog ran into the street to bark in a cats face. it was not a cat. it was a confused, drunken (rabid?)SKUNK! at 130 pm! the skunk merely took note of kodys presence. the repair guy & i talked Dakotah into walking away from the skunk and the thing never even attempted to spray him. it slowly gimped over to the neighbors house and walked in circles around her barn for a while as i left a message with animal control. they never called me back and never showed up. GO NH!

20 mintes later, i got a phone call saying "Kris has been hurt, you need to get up here right away!" then he hung up. i panicked for a second or 2, then came to my senses. he would have told me more if she was really injured. i called her on her cell phone and shes just fine. some ass head (one of her residents)got ahold of the student resident assistant list and pranked her home. NICE! being an RA is cool beans-NOT.

i broke my 75$ toothbrush. dont judge me. i bet you have an Ipod! LOL i have bad gums i tell ya. i NEED a pricey toothbrush.

i also smashed my winnie the pooh pump soap dispenser to smithereens on the tile floor. it was a great bathroom day.

my friend sue, kendyls best friend Brody's grandmother- we met 3 years ago at a McDonalds playland and have been tight ever since-is in the hospital with congestive heart failure-lots of fluid. shes been a heart patient for years and lost both of her parents BEFORE 40 due to heart attacks. she has suffered 3 herself i think. im so worried about her! trying to find a way to visit later on today.

have gone through 3 tanks of gas in 4 days. geesh! funeral, taking kris back to school.....

roach extermination seems to have been quite the success. he was here tuesday. so far so good. what a production though UGH. i was too tired after the funeral to empty my house onto my lawn. but we did it.

in less than one week:

bug guy-350.00

gas-175.00+

washer guy-130.00

boiler guy-160.00

electrician who fixed our problem for good on Saturday-550.00

funeral photo developing for my mom-40.00

new disk for camera-45.00

funeral dress for kris-40.00

kristins cell phone bill balance + fees to put her back on our plan-330.00(RA's are required to own cell phones @@ & the kid is BROKE)

that isnt even all of it... life is EXPENSIVE!

good thing roofs are leaking and old all over the area.

good news? we are all healthy & happy. dog didnt get sprayed. shawn is sleeping ok(although up at 5 today UGH)roaches are dying!

got some good pictures, will try to post(aol is being ornery)