brrrrrr. Is it really April 26th?

Yesterday, we were under a winter storm advisory that started at 1pm. By 6:30, all we had gotten was some rain and we breathed a sigh of relief. Phew...it missed us.

Thomas and I went out with a couple that we have been friends with since moving here and had a great time sharing teenager stories. Two bottles of wine later (drunk mostly by the two ladies since the men were driving) we were sharing our most yuckky teen stories. Man, was it a relief to realize that we aren't alone. We walked out of the restaurant at about 9:30...and the wind had picked up. I noticed that there was some ice covering our car.

This morning, we woke up to this:



oops, should have closed up the grill after we had our barbecue


Why, yes...these are ICICLES hanging on our deck:


The snow is blowing again right now....Ahhhhh, April. There's nothing to do but laugh. Mother nature sure has a sense of humor this year.

On the kid front....all is silent with the younger ones.

The older kids continue to provide us with endless hours of ....ummm....entertainment :huh:

Officially, we have decided to move Amanda back to her old middle school though. We have come to realize that the social dynamics aren't much different in this new school and her unhappiness is also...the same. Events recently though, have sealed the deal for me.

It started with the OMG comment that she made. I have gotten multiple calls over this. You would think she had dropped the F-bomb or something. :huh: :huh: Apparently, Amanda was asked to address this in a short little essay and she wrote that she doesn't understand how saying oh my gosh can be offensive to God. The text-talking became such an issue that now the kids have to spend the last 15 minutes of the day praying at school. I'm sure that other things must have played a role, but I'm just blown away by the fact that I've received multiple calls about how we don't take the Lord's name in vain at a catholic school. Of course you don't..but how about considering that it might not be what she meant or using it as an opportunity to address this issue positively.

I recently started talking to the counselor who worked with Amanda through the bullying a couple of years ago. Her comment to me after finding out where we sent Amanda was "Oh...NO." She told me that she wished we had asked her for suggestions because "the staff is just....mean." She then shared some stories of her own interactions and disappointments and....honestly...I feel terrible that I haven't taken my daughter seriously when she has told me things. I just assumed that she was just embellishing the truth. Yesterday though, was the real dealbreaker for me.

In gym class, Amanda was standing and talking with her 'friend', Gabe...the one who she had been text-talking with . Another little boy walked up to them with a metal baseball bat and in front of Amanda, hit Gabe over the head as hard as he could twice and then dropped the bat and ran off while Gabe fell to the wall screaming in pain. Amanda was horrified because she thought Gabe might also be having a seizure. Both boys were gone for the rest of the day and Amanda is concerned about her friend and not knowing if he is ok. Me too!

At some point during the day, the vice principal and a couple of teachers came in to talk with the kids about how "the devil had taken over this one child" and they needed to send up extra prayers to ward off the devil. My outspoken daughter basically said "the devil isn't responsible for this, X (child's name) is." It wasn't received well, of course.

Here is what I have to say to the school at this point:

OMFG And if they don't know what that means...they can look it up....and then pray for my soul.

What if this kid had not stopped at Gabe and had turned to my daughter? I am horrified...truly...horrified.[/quote]