I think you misread me - Pittsburgh does have AWESOME ethnic restaurants. At least I assume so from driving past them on my way to the funeral parlor or the nursing home. The grandparents are “planted” in Queen of Heaven, in the Sorrowful Mysteries. (Catholics is weird!)
We’re going to the circus on Friday. I’m excited, but I can’t imagine the older two wouldn’t find it lame. I believe tonight was open house at the high school for the middle kid - I’ve been home sick but will get the update tomorrow. He’s recommended for 5 advanced classes! (I assume math is not one of them.)
Should you ever come back here to visit, I’ll give you plenty of recommendations
I say my grandparents are “planted” too! Well, not the Hindu ones.
Circus sounds fun, advanced classes sounds exciting! I hope the kid has plenty of time to sort out a decent transcript before college. There’s always community before a bigger pond too.
Isn’t it amazing? I’m finally growing the ability to package notions in a way that makes the other person want them! It’s only taken thereabouts of 40 years. Maybe in 40 more I’ll grow a sense of fashion and be able to talk clothes :eek:
The circus was surprisingly fun! Things have been pretty good, EXCEPT… my half-brother came home today. I have no idea what this means for anybody. He did sign the papers the lawyer drew up (the lawyers suggested a more informal custody agreement with signatures) but I’m not feeling good about it at all. I told my parents they don’t keep people locked up in the looney bin anymore, but they didn’t believe me.
The kids are over there for the weekend - I guess my parents couldn’t think of a good reason to say no. As far as I know, though, the plan is still for his wife to go home with her mom for a while. The whole thing just makes me nervous.
Oh, and we got his military records. It is to laugh. 5 whole months!
Well, so long as they still stay at your parents house, it sounds okay. Naturally him being out of the loony bin means you’re nervous - and you should be, he’s such a ridiculous cancer. Got my fingers crossed he doesn’t try to warp the mind of the kids in a mere 48 hours.
Oh, good news - they came home really excited some day this past week to show my parents their new math grades. Improvement! LOTS of improvement! (Of course, for the girl that means still a low D, but hey.) The thing is, I haven’t actually sat down and worked with them on it because they’ve told me that the stuff they’re learning right now they understand, but they keep mentioning that I’m working on beefing up my math chops. It sounds totally nuts and sappy, but I have to think part of the improvement (besides just, you know, being forced to go to school) is that I showed them that it’s important enough to take time out of my busy schedule to go back and learn this stuff again to help them. I like to think that, anyway.
On the “oh my god I am going to kill these people” front, my mom took the girl to the dentist a few days ago and found out that none of them have been in at least three years because the parents ran up a bill at some dentist and never went back. (Remember, my dad would have totally paid for the kids to see the dentist. Obviously. Plus, Medicare.) The cleaning took more than an hour and was hideously painful for the poor thing, although thankfully there were no cavities. Some spots to watch, though. The idea that you could take your kids to the dentist but are too lazy and shiftless to give a rat’s ass about the only set of teeth they’ll have in their lives… I’m seeing red just thinking about it. Grr.
Check with your local library – often they have videos of popular TV shows like this available to check out.
Or better yet – tell him to do this himself. That may involve you in several tasks: showing him how to search the library catalog (most are online now), requesting it if it’s at a different branch, getting him a library card, and taking him to the library to pick it up – but those are all worthwhile things for him to learn. There is a lot of value in learning to make use of the public library, and doesn’t sound like his parents have taught him much about that.
P.S. Dr. Who was a bad one to start him on – there are many, many seasons of this, if you end up buying them all for him! Should have started out on one of the British series that only had a few episodes.
I’m your local librarian. Well, my local librarian. We ain’t got it.
I gave him Doctor Who because I figured they’d never encounter that sort of thing on their own, see. And I don’t think they’d like the old Who - they’re not accustomed to, er, historical pacing.
I’m glad to hear that things are going so well. I have a penny for your thoughts: instead of taking Sunday lunch to your parents, bring the kids back to your place and have them help you prepare it, and then your parents come round and you all enjoy it together. Make it a four course meal, so each of them helps you with one small course (soup, starter, desert) and they all help with the main course. And the two who aren’t cooking right then can do things like lay the table, push the hoover around, straighten up the sitting room, etc. Then they get a sense of accomplishment and your parents get a couple of hours rest.
Er, we’re supposed to be modeling good behavior, including keeping things neat and tidy. So I, um, haven’t exactly been able to bring them around to my house quite as of yet. I’ve been trying to clean with that goal in mind, but it’s tough when I’ve been spending so much time over there - especially since I’m such a native slob myself. (Well, I thought I was. Then I saw their house.)
So, I played a round of Sorry! and a round of Clue for the first time since before these children were born, and my “brother” calls the girl to ask her to change his dressing. WTF, by the way? They all went over to my mom’s nurse friend to see what was what. So I told her to tell him, if she didn’t want to do it (I made it clear it was her choice) that I would come over and do it. If his wife couldn’t. Which clearly she could but whatever.
So he had no choice but to take me, and it was laughable. Serious, “Does it look infected?” “No. It isn’t weeping or red or anything.” “Oh, okay. So, um, squirt some of this on it and here’s the bandage.” “Okay! Awesome!” You could totally tell he was pissed not to assert his control over the girl, who is his little favorite. It was awesome.
Board games are a great thing! I swear they get the SO’s younger sister (the middle schooler) to actually talk as opposed to saying things like “yeah yeah, school was fine”.
At least brother is getting shut out. That’s a good thing.
Oh - I hope you don’t mean me! I think your behavior was entirely admirable, except for the fact that you didn’t poke him in the wound. Totally should have gone for it.
I meant that his desire to have her change it, and his anger at having that desire thwarted, are… oogy. Very oogy.
And I’m really glad that, given the choice, she chose not to do it. *And *that you’ve made it possible for her to have a choice!
In sum: Brother = oogy. You and your folks = beyond awesome.
I believe tonight was open house at the high school for the middle kid - I’ve been home sick but will get the update tomorrow. He’s recommended for 5 advanced classes! (I assume math is not one of them.)
