Parenting takes some balls

...seriously. It's hard, and it can be scary, and it's unbelievably frustrating. Sometimes all I can do is get on my knees, bury my head and give it up to God because, honestly, sometimes it's just more than I can bear.

This week I had to go through something I never, ever, thought I'd have to do. A couple of days ago I was rather frustrated from an errand I had to run after work (still dealing with CareNow, Satan's playground for workman's comp), and I came home to a mess in my house. Charlie started driver's ed this past Monday, and I was in a crunch to get him to class on time. I was tempted to not allow him to go to driver's ed because of his lack of consideration, leaving me a mess to deal with after working all day, but driver's ed isn't cheap and I hate to throw out $400 for a bad mood. So, I took the kid's cell phone away along with his computer privileges. Charlie doesn't talk back...okay, he's a teenager, but he rarely talks back. So, he handed over his cell phone with no complaints, but trust me, I know this had to rip his heart in two (he's a texter, after all).

After dropping him off at driver's ed, I heard his phone recieve a text and I read it. Yes, I did. As if my mood wasn't bad enough, what I read literally dropped me to my knees. It was from a friend of his and it was regarding the selling of drugs to another friend of his. My temperature is rising and I'm sure my face is flushed just thinking about it again. It was all I could do to keep from going up to driver's ed and pulling him out of class.

While I sat in the parking lot, waiting for him to get out of class, I read these texts I'd found on Charlie's phone a hundred times, trying to imagine it meaning something else. Anything but what I was sure it meant. When Charlie got in the car, I sat there for a minute and tried to breathe. I showed Charlie the text messages and he confirmed that yes, it was about drugs. One thing I'm very proud of my kids for is that they would rather get in trouble than lie...it's one trait I've worked very hard to pass on to them. He said that he wasn't involved personally. I questioned him about his ever, ever, doing drugs and he said no. I must not have looked convinced and he said 'Mom, you work at a doctor's office. Have me tested, do a urine or hair test.' I believe him.

But I still drove him and his cell phone to the police station.

At first Charlie was a tad shocked that I was going to take him and his phone to the police. But, I have always told them that if I ever suspected or had evidence of them doing drugs I'd call the police. Honestly, I always thought it was more of a scare tactic...an empty bluff. But when this happened, there was no way I was going to go home knowing that there was a sale of drugs at the high school and not do anything about it. I also wonder, just as a personal side note, how different my life may have been if my mom would have noticed once, just one single time, that I couldn't stand up straight, talk without slurring or walk through a door without running into it. Anyway, on the way into the police station, Charlie was telling me about how the friend that had sent the first text about bringing the drugs to school to sell, had fallen asleep in class earlier this week and they'd not been able to wake him up. What???

Once in the police station, they called down a detective to talk to us and I explained how I'd gotten a hold of the phone, read the text and confronted Charlie. They asked Charlie some questions and he was very respectful, gave them honest answers to what they asked and filled out a report. The dectective told me that he was so impressed with Charlie, how Charlie wasn't only respectful with him (the detective) but with me. He said that most kids whose parents bring them in refuse to talk, make eye contact or are hateful to the parents for dragging them in. When Charlie and I walked out of the police department, I told Charlie that I knew he was going to be mad at me for awhile, and this is what he said to me. "Mom, I'm not mad at you. If I had a kid that was having anything to do with drugs, I'd do the same thing."

I love this kid.

The police were waiting the next day when one of Charlie's friends got off the bus. They called in the other friend to the office. One of the kids will be going to an alternative school for a few weeks and the other one is hopefully scared straight...or straighter anyway. They asked Charlie if he knew anything about it, and he told them the truth. That his mom had confiscated his cell phone for not doing his chores, had then read their texts and taken both himself and his phone to the police station.

Another side note: a year ago this friend selling the drugs had been grounded from my house because I'd read on his myspace that he'd been drinking. I asked him about it , if he really drank like he put on his myspace or if he did drugs. He admitted to me that his relatives bought him alcohol and he did drink, but he didn't do drugs. I told him that if I ever saw him intoxicated that I'd not only report him but his relatives for supplying it to him, and I asked him if we were clear. He said 'yes ma'am'. Then I told him that if I ever had any reason to believe he was encouraging Charlie to drink or do drugs that I'd come after him with all that was in me. I asked him if he understood and he said 'yes ma'am'. Apparently he didn't.

C'mon...start!

Texas weather has turned cold. Love the Texas cold...it's not like the Indiana cold I couldn't wait to get away from. I can deal with Texas cold. You know, in small doses like from the house to the car, the house to the mail box, that sort of thing.
Tuesday my car refused to start when I'd ran an errand after work. I tried a couple of times...nothing. Then it started. I ran by Goodyear, but they were closing so I ran down the road to Auto Zone. My battery was only a year and a half old, but they couldn't find a record of it being purchased there, which it was, so I bought a new one and they installed it for me. Car started right up. Yay.
Wednesday after work, when the coldest of the cold came through, I got a repeat performance of my car's rebellious behavior. All my fellow co-workers are leaving; no one living anywhere near me. I got several offers, though, for people to take me home. Nice people. My supervisor called her husband and he came up to look at it. I hate asking people to do things for me and here was this sweet man (who I've had a slight crush on since I've started, lol, which I told my super) working on my car in our cold weather with the wind whipping all around. Finally, he figured out it was the starter or the starter celluloid or something like that. He called a friend of theirs that works at a shop less than a mile from my house. After tapping on the starter, my car started and I drove it straight to their friend. I didn't meet their friend, but one of the employees told me that a starter could run around $400 plus labor. I'm going over in my mind how I will have to borrow from Casey, Charlie...maybe I could find a friend or two I knew in grade school.
My supervisor picked me up the next morning for work. I love these people, seriously, nice people here. The shop called me and gave me the news, $210. Again, YAY. They gave me a discount because I was 'a friend of a friend' and that was the total price. I am so thankful. I may still have to borrow from Charlie by payday, but I won't have to look up names out of my old yearbooks.
So, it's Friday. It's cold, dark and rainy. Fortunately...I LOVE THIS WEATHER. I hope nothing comes up this weekend and I can lay back, rest up (no phones) and have all the blinds open so I can enjoy this weather without being out in it. Perfect.

...and it's only a 20 minute commute

Sappy post, just tellin' you now.

I've been at my new job now for nearly two months. Not much time, I know. However, I'm so happy with my job. I work for Women's Specialists, a group of five ob-gyn's that specialize in infertility and high risk pregnancies, as well as all the normal ob-gyn stuff. We're a one stop shop, if you will, of all things female; mammograms, sonograms, bone density tests, and even as late, laser hair removal.

I and my 'office mate' answer all incoming calls and schedule all appointments. Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds. Now, I've always been up front about not being much of a people person, but I love answering the phones here. Every call is personal. Women calling in who have just taken a home pregnancy test and happy. Pregnant women calling in with cramps or bleeding; scared and crying. This practice has been in existence for over 30 years and I get calls from women in their 70's who now have their granddaughters coming in for appt's. I get calls from foreigners I can not possibly understand and have to have them spell out their words giving me an example of each letter; 's as in sam, f as in frank, a as in apple' sort of thing.

A perk is all the pharmaceutical reps. They bring in breakfast, lunch, snacks, coffee...you name it, several times a week. Very cool. Another perk is all the employees get any and all of the services we provide for free.

The biggest plus for me, though, is the people. Close to 30 women. One of the nurses had her 29th anniversary today...29 years at this office (this woman was my secret Santa, and she was so generous with me, to the point of spoiling me). The office manager, 25 years. The majority of the people (nurses, office staff) have been there at least 10 years, most longer. How extraordinary is that? It's like family. For a girl that has little family, this is a dream for me. My office mate, Carolyn, is so kind, patient and caring. She's already a friend, and I believe in time she'll be a close friend.

Every morning when I get up, I'm thankful. I'm grateful, I'm blessed and I am so very thankful.

Back It Up

A few months ago Charlie's phone began malfunctioning. He'd had it for a short while, maybe a year, but it wasn't an expensive phone and to repair it would cost as much as it would to replace it. Nope, didn't have it insured, wasn't an expensive phone. It was a flip phone and every time he'd shut it, it'd randomly dial out.

I called Sprint to see about having it replaced, but it's time wasn't 'up' to have it upgraded. However, two of my other phones were; my phone and my spare car phone. I've had four lines on my Sprint account for years, one of them a free line (which I kept in my car as a spare) and the other three belonging to each of the boys and myself. So, we retired Charlie's old broken phone, I gave him my spare phone for which he upgraded to a Rumor and I upgraded my phone to the Palm Centro. I say we retired Charlie's old phone because to cancel it, it would have cost me a $200 early termination fee, but to keep it I pay $9.99 a month for another 9 months.

I know...try and stay with me.

Charlie and I ordered our phones from Sprint on-line because of the on-line savings. Huge. We get our phones and have them activated. Charlie loves his and me...not so much. Granted, I didn't give it much time but it doesn't have a 'back' button. No back button.

I took it to the Sprint Store and asked them where the back button was. I've never had a phone without a back button. Plus, it had said on-line that it was GPS enabled, but that was a mistake. It had Google Maps which needs a starting and destination address. The problem is that when I'm lost, I don't have an address to where I am. If I knew that, I'd not be lost. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a direction disorder. It's a little known disorder, but a disorder all the same. Okay, I've termed it, but I'm sure it's real and I have suffered from it for years.

The Sprint Store (two of the employees working at the time I went in) told me that, and I quote, they hated the Centro. They showed me the new Blackberry Pearl that was coming out in about a week. The Pearl had GPS...and a back button. :) They suggested strongly that I send my Centro back and order the Pearl.

I sent the Centro back and ordered the Pearl.

The Pearl arrived in about a week, and I hated the Pearl. It simply didn't work. I can't begin to remember all the problems I had with it from programs not working, the trackball not working and the Blackberry department at Sprint telling me that there was a problem with some of it's programs and they couldn't tell me when they would have a patch available to repair all of it's problems, simply that they were aware of them and working on them.

I called Sprint and told them I wanted to return it. They told me that I couldn't return two phones. The Sprint store told me that they do not repair phones that were purchased on-line, that I had to send it back to Sprint for repair. I'd have no replacement phone...no phone period. *I later found out that the Sprint store was wrong, they have to repair on-line purchased phone. They were either wrong, or lying. I'm hoping they were wrong.

I've been with Sprint for probably 10 years. Love Sprint, never had a problem, never had bad reception or lost calls. Loved them. Until November, my bill for four phones with unlimited minutes and texting was about $140. Not bad. Then I got my November's phone bill, for $1,700. SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. Naturally I refused to pay, and then I was faced with a disconnect notice.

Sprint has a serious problem with it's customer service. It took me nearly five weeks of spending countless hours on the phone with customer service before Sprint fessed up and took responsibility for their errors. Once I was on the phone for nearly three hours, another for nearly two hours and probably a dozen times ranging between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. Every time I'd call I'd either get passed from department to department, disconnected, argued with, insulted or connected to someone who had extremely limited English. Honestly, one man could not understand what I was saying and for fifteen minutes I listened to him tell me that I didn't have an order for 'headphones', he didn't speak nor understand basic English. I kept telling him I wasn't saying the words 'headphones' and he'd come back and tell me that he couldn't find an order for headphones.

One rep told me to go to a Sprint Store to talk to someone in person about my bill. The Sprint Store told me that they're not able to pull up a customer's billing, that none of their stores were able to do that. This was one of the many lunch hours I spent at Sprint. I called a couple of Sprint stores when I got back from lunch, and yes, they were correct. However, the store did give the most helpful information I'd received up to this point, the phone number to Sprint's Retention Department.

By this time, my phone bill was now up to $1,900. More mistakes on December's bill...crazy mistakes. But, I now had a light at the end of this tunnel. I contacted the Retention Department and was connected to my Sprint angel. After two hours on the phone with her, after going over line, by line, by line of my November and December's bill, it had been corrected by $1,200.00. She also told me she'd take my Pearl back and when they received it they'd take an additional $300 off of my bill. I told them I'd like to try the Centro once more (I'd met several people by now who had and loved the Centro) and my Sprint Angel had it sent to me within a few days. What's funny is when I took it and my Pearl into a Sprint store to have my Centro activated and my info from my Pearl transferred to my Centro, the people at the store couldn't believe how bad my Pearl was. It took them over 40 minutes to get what they needed off of the Pearl because the trackball just didn't work. Yeah, tell me about it.

My Sprint angel offered me many financial compensations to keep me as a customer, for which I'm greatly appreciative. But, seriously, the past two months have been a nightmare with my phones. I've now had my Centro for two weeks. I love it. It doesn't have the GPS, but I've programmed all my locations and all my contact's addy's into it, so that should help...all I need is the destination address and I'm good to go. The Centro is fast and I love all the programs...but I do still miss that back button.

3:10

Casey and I watched 3:10 to Yuma tonight...one of my new favorite movies. Rent it if you've got the time, it is honestly decent.



*Also, for my slightly disturbed friends (who are much like me) I highly recommend Shoot 'Em Up with Clive Owens. The boys and I watched it the other night. It reminded me a tad of Sin City without so much nudity. It's so over the top and I loved it!

Catch Up

I'm reading Joel Osteen's book Become a Better You. What an awesome book, love it. I'm reading it on my lunch hours when I don't have errands to run. One of the things that impacted me today was a simple and easy enough statement, but I appreciated it; every temptation you overcome brings you closer to your success. I don't know about y'all, but honestly speaking, I face my temptations daily and this little statement did me a lot of good.

We're having Daisey put down on Friday. She's been Casey's dog since he was barely 5 years old, so she's a tad over 14 now. Casey wanted it to be done before he went back to school, she's his dog and he wanted to be with her when it's done. He and Charlie will be digging her a hole in the back yard where many, many of our much loved pets have been burried over the past 23 years. I'm thankful our vet is coming to our home to do it because we want her to be comfortable and familiar in her surroundings. As always, prayers are welcome.

As for me, I'm still loving my job. Looking forward to my 90 day probation being over...insurance darlin', insurance!!

Life's not got enough hours in the day for me lately. I'm off to bed. Hugs to all. :)

Tell me this...

...what kind of person comes into your home, eats ice cream out of the container and then puts it back? If it were near empty and they thought they were going to finish it...I can see it. But to take a container of Blue Bell out of my freezer that's more than 1/2 full, grab a spoon and start eating out of it, then put it back in my freezer?

Tell me, is it me or is that completely disrespectful?