Tales of A Driving Teenage Daughter

Yesterday's VText messages from Daughter:

Daughter:  I hit a raccoon.

Me:  You okay?

Daughter:  Baha ya. I laughed Baylie was like what! Maddie was like did u hear the bone crack?

Me:  Gross, Maddie!  Was it alive when you hit it?


Daughter:  We not sure.

Okay, how can you not be sure it was alive?  Anyway, it was the first animal she ran over.  Later she told me that animals were trying to commit suicide with her car all day.  Two birds dived in front of the car, a cat, and well, she swerved and clipped a mailbox, tearing off the side mirror.  The mailbox lived to collect another day, while the mirror shattered all over Son. 

Yesterday was an extremely tense day for me.

I'll Take that Challenge!

Last night after choir practice, Allie, Timm and I were driving home. We took a detour to the BMV to see what time it closes. Well, Thursday it closes at 5. I can not get off work to take her and Mike is working. So I said, "Maybe Daddy can take you after school Friday, but it depends on the storm and oh, wait, Timm has a doctor's appointment. Besides, if the weather gets as bad as they say..." I let my sentence drop off.

Allie sighed.

"Saturday will be out of the question too." I continued.

Allie looked at me and said, "God is challenging me." She looked upward, raised her fist, and said, "God I accept your challenge!"

Do we do that? Do feel like we are being challenged at every turn and do we rise to the occasion and accept what is happening and vow to overcome? Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. It is all in our attitude. If you are sick, and going through a rough time, like Timm and his headaches, what do you do? Do you sit back, cry why me and wait for an answer? Or do you go to doctor after doctor, do what they ask and stay positive? Or what if you are going through a financial difficulty? Where do you turn?

I honestly can say that I usually hate when God is challenging me to do better. I know in the end that I will love the outcome, but the struggle I put up is wearisome. So why do I struggle? Probably because I am human and I am rebellious. I try not to be, but let's face it, we want things our way, not God's way.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So let's vow to be up to the challenges we face. God wants more of us. We want more of us for Him. Are you up to the challenge?

I Enjoy Talking With Her

Daughter is just full of good, little funny stories. Last night after choir practice, we went past the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) to get actual times it is opened and closed and when. We found out that it closes at 5 PM Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; 6:30 PM on Tuesday, and
2 PM on Saturday. So we were discussing when would be the best time for her to take her test. I don't get off until 5 PM and Foxy works until late, so tonight isn't it. Foxy is off tomorrow, so maybe right after school tomorrow (but then there is the threat of the impending winter storm coming; if it is just rain, then okay, but if the freezing rain and snow start...nope. So if it is bad tomorrow, then it will surely be back on Saturday AM. They are saying 3 to 6 inches. For SW Ohio that is acceptable, but not with the ice underneath.) So as we are talking about this, Daughter says, "God, why are you challenging me? Well, I accept your challenge!" I start cracking up! I so enjoy talking with her. I told her, "Oh, you are so in my blog tomorrow!" Then Son piped up from the backseat and said, "Don't put me in your blog." Oh, I just did, Son. So there!

Thursday is my day to list what I have enjoyed this week. Here we go!

1. I have enjoyed reading my new friend's emails. She is a Major stationed in Afganistan and each week she send an email about her weeks. Tomorrow I will probably put more about her because of the way we met.

2. I enjoyed the danishes and donuts my co-worker brought in to celebrate his birthday. I had a danish that was shaped as a figure 8. One side was filled with apricot jam. The other side has a glaze on it (I am saving it for tomorrow or later).

3. I am enjoying cd I am listening to in the Edge every AM while driving to work. It is our Easter Cantata, "My Chains Are Gone". I am sure everyone that looks at me thinks I am nuts for talking to myself. I am actually singing, though.

4. I so enjoyed the last 10 minutes of 24. I do love the thrill of that show!


5. I am also enjoying getting things together so that we can have our very own Super Bowl 44 party. I always fix snacky foods and this year a sandwich ring. I will have more on that on Monday, though. GO SAINTS!

Wacky Wednesday

Last night, I helped Daughter order her class ring. It will be so pretty! Her ring will be silver with her birthstone, Ruby, her nickname inscribed on the inside DINGY. On one side will be the school mascot with her Name, and on the other side will be a drill team design. The stone will be diamond cut, of course. My girl has taste! But she is practical and has kept the ring under a big price.

Yesterday, Foxy took Daughter to get her SS card, because I can not find the original. So it was relatively painless and they gave her a paper that she can show to get her temps. The problem is that there may be a winter storm coming, so she wants to go like tomorrow and try and get them. Well we will see if that will be possible.

Daughter was talking to the Best Friend about getting her license. Best Friend asked me if she did pass her test, would I let her drive home? Uh, yeah I guess I would. Daughter looked at me and said, "What? I would get to drive? Uh, that is a lot of pressure now!" Is that funny or what? I guess that is what the wackiness is. If the state of Ohio will give her her temps, I guess I can go along with it and let her chauffeur me around for a few hundred hours. As soon as every one's nerves calm down, then it will all be good. I hope. Pray for me!

Take out a loan for this one!

It's Tuesday! Tonight we are going to order my daughter's class ring. The picture you see is my class ring. Isn't it awesome that I can still wear it? I think so. Daughter sat down with us and showed us the catalog and let us help her decide what to get. She is not much into jewelry, but both Foxy and I had our rings and showed them off to her and The Boy. Ha, ha! (I am laughing because Foxy can't get his on. I am hoping he is wanting to work on that soon, though.)

Anyway, mine is gold with a amethyst starburst stone, musical notes on one side, a warrior head on the other, and that's about it. Cool, huh? Yeah, I know, the picture is fuzzy. What a great shot of my skin! EWWW! So what was your class ring like. I am hearing that this is going to cost us a small fortune. Sigh. What doesn't these days?

Friday Five and It's Still the Same

This week, our family have had a few firsts. Especially with Allie. Nothing dramatic, nothing major, well, yeah I guess the first one is major in all our lives. Tomorrow, I am going to take Allie to get her temporary license to drive! Uh, maybe it will snow and I can postpone this? No? Well this is a right of passage, isn't it? The other first is one that both Allie and Timm are interested and dreaming of. Allie brought home from school a packet for a class ring. Did you get a class ring? I did. It cost me $186. I remember that because I wanted a gold one and my parents would only pay half of it. I had to come up with the other half. Which brings me to my next question. Doesn't that mean i was older and had a job? I still have that beautiful ring. I can even still wear it. The prices are ridiculous for rings now days, but the settings, engravings and effects are pretty awesome!

The kids were dreaming, I mean, looking at the packet this morning, saying, "I am going to get this stone, and my friend and I want to have our nicknames engraved on the inside." Okay, but who really wants the nickname Stinky forever engraved on something? For clarification, that is Allie's friend's nickname, not Allie's. Her nickname is Dingy, if you didn't know. That's for another time.

It is Friday and that means Friday Five. This week, let's see what your five favorite memories surrounding learning to drive was... Here are mine.

1. I got to drive with Mr. Van de Grift. He was and still is cool! If you made a mistake he would hit you with his pencil. Luckily, I don't remember getting hit with one.

2. My dad would not help teach me to drive. It made him really, really nervous. I always thought that was funny.

3. I learned to drive in a Jeep Wagoneer. I am a small person (5' 2"), so that vehicle made me feel really tall.

4. The school taught the drivers ed class. I went every Saturday AM for like 6 or 8 weeks. What an eclectic group we were!

5. When I took my driver's test, I wasn't sure I passed. The instructor told me he would like me to have more time behind the wheel, but congratulations...you passed! I would have never lived it down if I had not passed.

Wacky Wednesday - She's Bigger than her Mom!

Okay, last night my 15 year old daughter and I went "unmentionables" shopping. We have this dog who will pull out our undies from the hamper and chew them up. Seriously. She loves our underwear. So we both decided that we don't have enough pairs to finish out a week and Fashion Bug was having a "buy-3-get-3-free" sale. So off we went.

Now as we are driving in my Ford Edge to FB, her bff, who is from the male species, calls her. She tells him what we are doing and that she will call him later. He continues to talk to her and tells her he wants to be on the line and "help". As a backstory...he has been teasing her for a year that she should get measured for a "real" bra. She only has been wearing sports bras. He thinks wearing a "real" bra will help her in the boy department too. Anyhoo, they proceed to talk about this and she finally gives in to get measured. He gives his opinion on what size he thinks she is. (D cup). She disagrees with him. I am giggling the whole way.

We get there, and she is still on the cell. They talk and she has me take a picture of these cute little, frilly panties and sends it to him. LOL. We gather up all the undies we are going to purchase and then ask one of the very helpful saleswomen if she would be so kind as to measure her. Well what do you know? BFF is correct, she is a D. Okay the Wacky part? I am only a C. My mother and sister are both HUGE, but apparently that gene was not passed on to me.

Well we did purchase her two new brassieres and I also got two (another buy-2-get-2-free deal) and I found two nice shirts for work. But that is my wacky daughter story.

Allie's room

Though the picture doesn't do it justice, This is
my daughter's new color scheme and this is actually a picture of the wall her dad and uncle did per her instructions or idea. The other three walls in her room are one of the three colors (Strawberry, Limicious, and Cabin Plank). I told her I thought a watermelon exploded in her room! She is very happy with the outcome and the squares on this wall, especially. It is very modern and very chic for a 15 year old, I think.

Her new bed is white and she has a berry colored comforter that works well. She is getting her grandmother to take a dark brown sheet, lining it and making curtains. Her windows are ceiling to floor , so the sheets seem to work out well. I will post another picture when it all gets done. But this is the first picture I have posted on a blog. I am excited about this! How did I do?

Scary?

Do you like to be scared? Do you like to go to haunted trails, house, or caves? Well, our family does not. But this weekend, my daughter's BF had his bday party at Kings Island's Fearfest. She tried to tell him that she hates that stuff, but she went anyway because she did not want to bail on him. When we got there, there were creatures milling around, like in the movie Halloweentown (Disney). She was not thrilled. The rest of the kids headed out to a trail or train or something and she dug her heels in and stayed with me and BF's Mom (I helped drive kids to and from KI).

She watched a show with us and we walked around being screamed out by creatures and it really freaked her out. I tried not to make eye contact, but this kind of evening is just not what we ever do or what we enjoy. It upset BF some, but he was warned.

So the the next day, BF was with us and tried to talk to my daughter about this. Apparently his mother told him that daughter was very immature in her actions because she didn't go off with them and try to have fun. She also told him that she is too attached to me and that daughter needs to grow up and BF shouldn't hang out with her anymore because she stresses him out too much.

Well this has ticked me off. I have honestly tried to get daughter to go out and do things on her own. She hardly won't. Not everyone is into scary things. Maybe she is too attached to me, but I don't mind it. I love knowing what is going on with her and her friends and I love that she can talk to be about everything. I do agree that she stress about things and worries about things too much, though. I have tried to tell her that boyfriends and situations will work out, but it's hard for a 15-year-old to hear that. Daughter won't hardly go over to a friend's house unless she really gets to know them and she hasn't spent the night with anyone in a very long time. It really upsets me that this mom is a)trying to tell her kid who his friends should be and b) that she is kind of taking shots at my husband and my parenting skills. I have raised my daughter this best I can and I know she doesn't lie and she isn't deceitful. I know for a fact that this parent's kid has been lying about things to her for months, but I don't feel it is my place to interfere. I will not do that to him. But she isn't the person I thought she was.

Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

Know your Child

Today I dropped my 9th grader off early for band camp. She is scared and tired and not quite sure she is ready for this. Last night she had one of her major mental breakdowns. As some background, the Auxillary girls spent the night before making their tassels and going TP-ing. That's another story.

The 9th grader apparently, being crafty as she is, made her tassels in record time. She was telling me how impressed the senior of the group was and that she now holds the record for how long it takes. I am sure we will be making lots of tassels as the years go by, so she will have to explain that to me later. But the girls stayed up way past her bed time and last night I saw the result of that. She is the type of person who doesn't like the unknown. She wants to know exactly what we are doing, when we are doing it, and and don't give her any of this "You'll love band camp. You will have such a great time!" She didn't care about that at 11 PM at night, with less than 7 hours of sleep. She didn't know what she wants but she was sure she doesn't want to go to band camp. She wants to stay home in the comfort of her bedroom and cry. I love being a mom, don't you?

Anyway, I went to find her schedule to help show her exactly what she was going to be doing when, and give her time to calm down. Dad wanted to help, but his words of encouragement were to say the least, not very encouraging to a 15-year old girl dealing with emotions and sleep depravation. Bless his heart, he tries.

When I get back, I find the 9th grader packing a few more things, and she tells me that when they are seniors, they will do this and this and this. I hugged her and said, "See you are already planning for the future." She smiled and said, "I know." The best part is that she will be with her best friend, and she can make stronger bonds with the other girls and boys.

This morning, I told her best friend, that she had a mental breakdown last night and he had to be extra nice to her this week. "I'm always nice to her," was his response. (I am rolling my eyes at this comment.) He's almost 15, what does he know? This morning I stood around and talked for a few minutes and the 9th grader finally told me I could leave. So I hug her, tell her and the best friend to be good and that I will see the tomorrow evening. Then I turn and walk to my vehicle. I know she is in good hands and I will be out there tomorrow evening, spending the night and probably chaperoning the 9th graders as the prank the seniors and the director. But, that will be for another time.

My 15 year old had a sleep over last night. She text me about 11:30 PM and told me that she was going to TP a house. Good grief! I know it's "harmless fun" but...

Anyway, this AM I asked her if they actually went and she confessed they did. SIGH. It was her friend's house and I know we will get paid back for this. So a little excitement will be happening soon. Good grief!