Football, cross country and homecoming are over, as is Thanksgiving. I couldn't find my file of Thanksgiving pictures but will look again tomorrow. It has been a good fall season altogether. Igor did well in cross country and Andrey was the star of the 9th grade team. Raymond and Igor surprised me by both getting a date for homecoming. Igor has kept the girl so far. Raymond is getting lots of fill in hours as a lifeguard at the aquatic center and Maria had her last final exam today. It looks like she has A's and B's in everything. We don't have the money for next semester so she may take the time out to work and pay back what she already owes and try and save for next fall. We'll see what happens. It was great having Fern and Ben home for Thanksgiving and we enjoyed sharing the day with the guys at Waypoint. They fried some great Turkey and helped make the day more special for all of us.
Sergey is doing great at OTP and is on level 2, whatever that means. I am so thankful for that program and the great team they have there. I wish we could all go to OTP as a family. The rest of us need the social skills that they are drilling into them there. Still struggle here with issues that won't seem to go away. Seems like adolescent hormones unpack all the baggage that came with some members of the family. It is like the whack a mole game at the fair. You get one problem licked and another one pops up somewhere else. I am feeling much of the same frustrations that comes with being the parent of a child (several children, in fact) that make me look like a bad parent. It gets old after a while. I think that I am thick skinned and don't care, I convince myself that I am not to blame for their behaviour, lack of social skills, embarrassing habits, etc. I didn't train them from infancy, I wasn't the one who drank when I was pregnant with them, locked them up with no food, left them alone at night, on and on...but most folks don't know all my kids history and if they did, they wouldn't believe that years of neglect and/or abuse can wreak such havoc on childrens emotions and every apsect of their lives. It changes all the rules of the game for raising kids. And so we go on with our weird family and folks can just think what they like, there isn't much I can do about it. We have a good time amongst ourselves, have enough aunts, uncles and cousins who put up with the weirdness and are used to it, who we hang out with and who can deal with the chaos, drama, etc. that we take with us everywhere we go. Sometimes I wish I lived in the same neighborhood as my friend Vicki and her crowd, or some of the folks whose blogs I read..Cindi, Kari, Claudia, Paula, who have an idea of what it is like. Oh well....
We just got the bits of paper out of the corners and most of the stockings are empty of candy and are migrating back to the box in the hall to go in the attic. We have had a great Christmas overall so far. Not that we haven't had crying, pouting fits, temper tantrums, meltdowns and all that, they are just part of normal around here, but in general, everyone liked their presents and have enjoyed the extended family and the good food. It has only been a week since school got out and some of the kids are bored already. The level of stimulation they need to not be bored amazes me sometimes. Tomorrow, the boredom whines will be met with work detail. You can only play with new toys and games for so long.
