Despite my best intentions, I didn't ruin my 16-year-old's birthday

Yesterday, my firstborn turned 16-years-old. (How did that happen?!)

In Texas, this means you can finally apply for a driver's license.

Last summer, he took a driver's education course and a written test to receive his learner's permit. (Did I mention the 4 hours we spent at the DPS trying to get it? The DPS office in our smallish town is packed like that EVERY DAY!!)

Since receiving his learner's permit, he's been driving with me or his dad in the passenger seat ever since. (at first his little brother refused to ride in the car if his older brother was driving) 

It was stressful at first.

There were some near misses. (I stopped counting) 
With time and practice, he got better. 
He's a pretty good driver ... 

And then along comes his birthday, yesterday, when he was scheduled for the big driving test at the Texas DPS.***

***Side note - In North Texas, you have to schedule the driving test more than a month in advance in order to get the date you want. It's CRAZY. We called a month in advance and ended up having to schedule our appointment at a DPS on the other side of Dallas to make it on my son's birthday.  

The weekend before the test, he spent several hours practicing parallel parking in my grandmother's car, because it's smaller than my big ole boat-of-a-car.  (He took the test in her car also)

 The day before his test, I realized we needed a current VOE (Verification of Enrollment) from the high school. The one we had on file was from the summer and not valid anymore. That took some last minute calling and stressing.

And then the night before his test, I realized I didn't have the certificate of completion from his driver's training class.  and the driving school was only open specific hours. So, that induced more stress and calling and emailing and stalking the owner ...

Needless to say, we ended up making more than one trip to the DPS in Garland (almost two hours round trip) and a trip to the driving school as well, where we sat outside for a good thirty minutes in hopes they'd open early ...

(Waiting at the DPS, irritated with me for taking a photo)

You get the idea.

But, somehow, despite my intentions, we made it to the DPS with all our paperwork,
he was able to take the test 
and 
he PASSED!





(outside the DPS with his temporary license)

So, Texas, my firstborn is now on your roads.  

Please, please, please be gentle with him.

Moments with My Teenager

Let me start by saying, my teenage son,
who's just weeks away from turning 16-years-old,
has been a responsible, trustworthy and pretty laid back teen.
(even when I mess with him)

However, there are occasionally moments.
Moments where he goes spacey ... or gets moody.


In the photo above, he's about to go into his bass lesson,
and he clearly has the moody bit going on.
I don't remember why.
Actually, there didn't need to be a reason.
He just was. Moody.

As for the spacey moments, here's the most recent example:

Monday, he left out chocolate (milk chocolate and caramel kisses. WRAPPED in foil),
which the dog promptly ate while we were gone, foil and all.

The same day, my teenager also almost started a fire in the toaster.

 I'm banning him from food.
All food.


 P.S. the dog is okay, thank god. (Chocolate is toxic to dogs, just in case you didn't know)

P.P.S I just scheduled his driving test at the DPS for his birth day.
(I may need to be medicated for that.)



 

The Joys of Parenting: Part 53 (warning, graphic material)

One of the joys of parenting is ...
never knowing when your child is going to end up injured.
 It could happen at any moment.
When you least expect it.


As the mother of two boys,
who in the last year have both had appendixes removed,
one had 2 knee surgeries,
the other a long hospital stay and a gallbladder removed...
 not to mention the myriad of other tumbles, bruises and injuries...
I feel like I've seen it all.


Until yesterday, when my teenager texted me a photo.
Just a photo, no message.
This photo:



 


*cue mom panic attack*

I freaked out.

He had an unfortunate encounter with some Astro Turf.

Sigh.


This parenting gig is rough.

 Any unexpected parenting joys in your house lately?



 

My Boys' Christmas Wish List

It's that time of year again.
The time of year that relatives begin asking what my boys want for Christmas.

I usually ask the boys to make a list.
They haven't given me their lists yet,
but I do know the most important items on them.


At the top of my teenager's wish list this year:

• An amp ... for his electric bass guitar. 
• Halo 4 (a video game) 

  At the top of my 10-yr-old's wish list this year:

• a double-bass pedal for his drum set 
• Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (a video game) 

 I'm sensing a lot of noise in my future.




 

Texts Without Context

My 15-year-old just texted me "metamorphosis frans kafkat."

Out of the blue.
No other context.

I'll admit, I had to Google it ... and it led me to think
that maybe he needs me to buy him The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka?

Or is this a new teen text strategy to confuse parents?

Want to read another funny mother-son texting story?




 

IcyHot & Donuts

With my teenager playing high school football,
he comes home every day covered in bruises and sore all over.
Ice packs and ibuprofen have become a staple with dinner.

And, then I bought IcyHot,
which he has me rub all over his upper back and neck.

It smells good, but I learned an important lesson last night.
Never slather IcyHot all over someone,
and then a little bit later, scratch your nether regions.

The result leads to surprising numbness in unexpected areas.



In other news, my dog woke me up at 1am last night
because she needed to go outside.

That's not normal.

This morning, I discovered why.

She made a late night discovery of donuts and ate half a box!

IcyHot and Donuts.
Dangerous things.


 

Who's In Control?

My 15-year-old has a learner's permit,
and is only 4 months away from a driver's license.
Those four months might as well be 100 years.
He's SO ready to have his own car.

For the next 4 months, though, he's stuck driving my big ole truckster.

He's doing great, but he seems to think that if he's driving, he controls the radio.

Nice try.

I'm still his mother.
He has to wait til he's 18 to get past that.

bwahahaha

A Brief Snapshot

Last night was baseball practice. I try to bring Annie, because it's a chance for her to get some exercise, run after her ball and enjoy nature.

My 10-year-old has 3 baseball games this week.  3! And my 15-year-old has a football game. It's going to be a loooong, busy week. But, I have to admit, watching my boys play sports is one of the biggest joys in my life, so I don't mind.

I'm relieved that they are both feeling healthy and able to play.
Not but a few months ago, Remy was having surgery and sick.
And Donny was still recovering from knee surgery.

I'm thankful they are feeling better.
We still have issues, but things are looking better.

Relieved.
Happy.
On ward.

 

Pre-Cal, World History & Chemistry, Oh My!

 

Monday night was Curriculum Night at my son's high school.
It's an opportunity for parents to follow their child's class schedule and spend 10 minutes in each class, meeting the teachers and hearing about the curriculum for each class.

I forgot how much walking one does in a big school. 
Up and down the stairs, down different long hallways, all in the 3-minute passing period.
Did I mention they don't have lockers? 
Every student has to carry everything in a backpack.
The school mascot is a bulldog, 
so every single room had a bulldog poster or photo or figurine. 
It became a game to find the token bulldog in each room throughout the night.

Here are the main thoughts I came away with for each class:


Football - I didn't make it to the school in time for my son's first class, which is football. But, that's okay, because I made the beginning of the year football talks from all the coaches. He has football first thing in the morning ... and for over 2 hours after school each day. However, with his multiple knee surgeries and healing time, he's missed a lot of football. 

Pre-AP GT Pre-Calculus - This is one of my son's favorite classes, because he loves math. And I was seriously blown away by the fact that this teacher records her daily class lessons (audio and whiteboard) and uploads them to her teacher website daily, so if a student misses class or needs to review the lesson while doing homework, it's right there!!  Seriously cool.

Spanish III - My son will be eating well in this class, because they will be making all varieties of Spanish-speaking countries' cultural dishes. The teacher is from Mexico, and she speaks pretty much only Spanish to them during class. She was peppy and hilarious. Also, their entire textbook and workbook are online! (although the actual textbooks are also in hard copy in the classroom) No excuses for not getting work done. Love it. I was ready to sign up for this class by the time we left! Hablo un pequito espanol.

Pre-AP Chemistry - I didn't like chemistry when I was a sophomore...but now, I think I might find it a lot more interesting. Atoms and Electrons, chemical reactions, moles and acids and bases. They have labs once a week! If you show up to a lab in open-toed shoes, you have to change into socks and spare shoes she keeps in a cabinet. She's serious about safety!

AP World History - They are going to cover 10,000 years in 33 weeks, and this teacher is going to push those kids to their limits. It's a college-level course, and the teacher said the kids are going to hate him, and he's going to make them cry.  I can tell this will be my son's most challenging class. And he likes history. Part of me was totally challenged by the teacher's intensity ... and the other part of me wanted to run out of the room crying.

Art I - The perfect class to have AFTER World History. It looks much more relaxing and a conduit for flowing creativity. The teacher shared his Twitter handle and shared his "primitive art" philosophy. He burned dead tree branches to make charcoal sticks for the class to draw with, and he's growing indigo at home for blue dye. He's going to use rust to make a yellow ocher color and get those red dye bugs for the students to mash to create red. He bought a ton of old books that the library was getting rid of, and gave one to each student to decorate and make their own ... and these will be there sketchbooks throughout the year. Also, I want to take this class.

Pre-AP English - Over the summer they read Into The Wild and had to write an essay on it. Before school even started.  hehe They are currently reading Lord of the Flies. The teacher has a wonderful southern accent. They are going to read Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Shakespeare's Julius Cesaer and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I want to read all those with them. 



I liked having the chance to meet my son's teachers and see his classes. 
I made him show me where he sat in each room. 
I got his opinion about each teacher and each class while we were in each class.
 

We had to make a pit stop at the vending machines to get my younger son a snack 
(or he was going to die of starvation, clearly), 
and I saw this machine: 





It's a Snapple Machine, but it's full of Yoohoo.
Every single option was Yoohoo.
Weird?

Also, are asymetrical skirts and dresses in fashion right now? 
Because I saw lots of mothers and daughters wearing them ..

What was your favorite class in high school?
I loved English and Latin and Photography!



.

How Do You Want To Die?

Last night was Curriculum Night at the high school.
I'll have another post about that tomorrow.

However, as we were leaving the high school and headed home,
my 10-year-old posed a question.

"How do you want to die?"

 My 15-year-old immediately responded, "Of natural causes in old age."
To which the 10-year-old says, "Oh, that's boring."

I was still flabbergasted by the question.

Where had this come from?
Had he been thinking about death?
Had someone been talking to him about dying?
He thinks certain ways to die are boring?!
I'm clearly on the verge of a full blown panic.

Before I completely freaked out, I decide to ask him,
"How do you want to die?"

He has his answer ready.
"Being chased off a cliff by naked women."

My jaw dropped.

Both boys dissolve into giggles.
Good lord have mercy.


(for those of you who don't know, apparently that is a scene from one of the Monty Python movies.)


 

The End of a Rough Summer

Today is his first day in 10th grade.




Today is his first day in 5th grade.


Today is the End of a Rough Summer and the first day of school in our part of North Texas.
The end of a really, rough summer.

 My 10-year-old starting getting sick in May.
After weeks of pain and nausea ...
and tons of medical tests,
he had surgery in June to remove his gallbladder and appendix. 

Then, after some bumps in the healing process,
we ended up back at the doctor's office
and he ended up with a new diagnosis of Abdominal Migraines. 

 Needless to say, he's had a rough summer.
No summer camps.
Canceled trip to Disney.
Lots of indoor time healing.

The 15-year-old spent the summer healing from his 2nd knee surgery
and learning how to drive.

It has been a stressful summer, to say the least.

 But, I've watched my older son become more confident in his driving
and continue to grow into such a fine young man.

 And I've seen my younger son overcome adversity
and begin drum lessons and return to baseball.

 I have hope as we go into fall ...
hope that this will be a great year.
And thankful we survived the summer.



 

Find My iPhone: Yes, My Teenager Lost Another Phone

A True Story, brought to you by Find My iPhone and my occasionally forgetful teenage son.


My 15 yr old son has an iPhone.

The same phone that he used his Christmas and birthday money to buy about 7 months ago.

Firs you need to know this:
He doesn't have the best tract record with cell phones.
He's dropped one down the sewer.
He's gone swimming with one.
He's dropped one in the toilet.

But, after few years and some gained maturity and responsibility, and his own money,
and he's ready for a smartphone.

He's done a surprisingly great job of keeping up with it ...
until a few weeks ago.

He left his phone at our apartment complex pool.
Overnight.
And realized the next morning that it was missing.

So, he calls me at work.
In a panic.

 Enter: Find My iPhone. (accessed through Apple's iCloud.)

This is so wonderfully cool.
With Find My iPhone, through GPS, you can see on a map
where your phone is currently located.

You can send a message and/or sound to it, remote lock it and/or remote wipe it.
The sound emits at full volume, even if your phone was on silent, for two minutes.

My son did this, with no luck.
So, when I got home from work, we went searching.

I downloaded the free Find My iPhone app, and then started searching for his phone.

The GPS showed his missing phone was still in our apartment complex,
but located near another building.

So, we went a-knocking.
We knocked on every single door in that building.
No one answered.
except one.
A teen boy was working with a crew putting in new carpet in an empty apartment ...
but he said hadn't seen the phone.

We were about to give up, when I decided we needed to access the Find My iPhone app again and have it send the noise ... and then we heard it.

A pinging.

From the bushes right by the apartment with the carpet installers.

We found the phone!

Someone had ditched it (probably freaked out by all the noises it was making and all the message we had sent). They'd stripped off his OtterBox Case, darn it.

Thank goodness for Find My iPhone!!

FYI, Find My iPhone must be enabled in the iCloud settings on your device for you to locate it with this app.

 Because my with my son's track record, there's no way I was buying him a replacement.


 (This post was not sponsored in any way by Apple or iPhone. It's a true story, and I'm SO thankful we were able to find the phone.)


 

Teen Reading Material

For the last two weeks, this has been my teen son's reading material:





It looks remarkably similar to my reading material 20 years ago.


And last week, we went and stood in line at the TX DPS for 3 1/2 hours
to get his learner's permit.





3 1/2 hours!!

We'd been warned it could take 3-5 hours.

I think he would have slept over night in that line if he'd had to.



 

When you turn 15 in Texas

My baby turned 15 years old this week.

And in Texas, when you turn 15, you can get your learner's permit.

Holy crap, my firstborn is learning to drive!

Knee Surgery & Chicken and Dumplings

The day started with my 14-year-old having knee surgery 

due to a lateral meniscus tear from playing football.

They shaved his knee and then let me initial it...

you know, to be sure I had their permission.  

(OK, not really, it's to verify they are operating on the correct knee.)  

Then the surgeon showed up and wrote "YES" in big letters on the same knee...

and wrote "NOT" on the other knee.

He knew what he was doing.

And the surgery went well.

And now my son is home.

My grandmother has dropped off his favorite meal.

She made him chicken and dumplings.

And all is right with the world again.

The Worrying Never Ends

When you become a parent, you become skilled at the Art of Worrying.

You worry whether you're eating the right things 

caring for the baby growing inside you.

You worry the baby is getting enough to eat 

and worry why he's crying when he's a newborn.

You worry he's growing and progressing at a normal rate 

as he becomes a toddler.

You worry he will adjust to school, that he'll make friends and do well.

The worrying never ends.

You worry about new things every year.

My first born son is just months away from turning 15 years old...

and my new worry?

Driving.

He'll start learning to drive.

Heaven help me.  

The worrying never ends.

What are you current worries?

He's giving me gray hair!

My 14-year-old son has had:

6 broken bones,
several sprains,
and
less than a month ago he had a bad appendix
and now...

It's his knee.







He had a MRI yesterday, and we'll find out tomorrow what's going on.

I'm really hoping he doesn't need surgery!!

(and I'm not even going to mention that in 3 months he can get a learner's permit and start driving!  Oh, vey!!)

Perspective

Yesterday, when I came home from work and was rushing to turn right back around and get my 9 yr old to football practice, my older son, (who recently recovered from appendicitis) made an appearance and asked me, "Mama, how was work today?"

I was in a hurry and said something along the lines of "It was fine"  or "OK."

And then he said, "Did you win?"

This question might seem odd to some, but coming from my competitive, sports-minded son, it made sense.

It's all about perspective, folks. 


Did you approach your day with this attitude?
Did you win today?

GasX does not cure Appendicitis

My 14 year-old son was home sick for two days last week with a virus, when he developed pain in his abdomen that wouldn't go away.

He thought it was gas.

However, after 6 hours of pain and no relief from GasX (they have these neat little thin strips that you dissolve on your tongue), we moved to Plan B: The Emergency Room

Turns out he had appendicitis, and less than 12 hours later...surgery to remove it.

The lesson I have learned from all of this?
GasX does NOT cure Appendicitis. 

Have you had your appendix out?
(I still have mine. Is it a ticking time bomb?)

A Fitting Tale

In this photo, my 14 yr old son is mowing, 

wearing shorts that he bought with his own money. 

Money he earned mowing.

Fitting, yes?

Do you have your children do chores?

Do you pay them?