This n' That

Sunday evening, I only had the small compact camera to hand, which is a pity, but still, it was fun to shoot all the same.

Bec and her friends love to play "dress up" at home, and when she does, she's happy to pose any which way I ask .. but hey, Lord help me should I dare to want any "ordinary" shots of her in like, an "everyday" situation. I can't get her to face the camera for all the blackmail and bribery in my entire arsenal (and believe me, that's one heck of a lot)!

See what I mean? It's not that she didn't know I was taking this, no, quite the opposite, it's because she knew, the little horror! The last time she posed smiling and wholesome for me was probably around her tenth birthday - this is all I get now..

Or this (no, she wasn't seen out in public, thank goodness, these were taken in our glen)

Oh, don't mis-understand me, I think these are great - it's just.. (sigh), I wish I could take a natural one of my fourteen year old once in a while.

Moving on - our boiler has packed up again - can you believe it? Ever since we upgraded it's thrown a hissy-fit every year. The guys are working on it as I type . Eldest lad is eyeing them suspiciously from the window.

"Are these guys paid by the hour, mum?"

"Why?"

"'Cos they've been sitting in their van for the past half hour, talking on their phones.."

Cheers son. Some things you just don't need to know.

Ooh! Sam's blue disabled parking badge has finally been reinstated - after only two and a half years of rugby-tackling and chasing everyone down about it. Remember that politician bloke from around Christmas time? What a waste of space he turned out to be, I never heard a darn thing back from him since that email of acknowledgement he sent, telling me about his man-flu'. (Maybe he died?) Anyways, I found someone else to badger, and after nearly four months of me shooting weekly reminders out to him, he's finally followed through -whoohoo! I'll worry about it's renewal again in another three years time, but for now I'm a happy bunny. Mind you, on the downside, I've just been informed out of the blue that he will be leaving school (his special needs unit) THIS year, not next, despite him only being 17. He only goes there one day a week, as he has a life skills course at college he attends the rest of the time, but it still is a bit of a blow, as they can offer no alternative place for him to go. Sam has little outside of college and school for any interaction outside of us, it sucks. (Shrug). But you know me, I've not begun yet - I'll be sure to find him something, watch this space!

Now the weather has decided to lighten up some, I'm itching to take off for a long girlie weekend with my dearest mate, Little Ally - so look out London, I'm coming baaaaaaaaaack!!! Teehee. Hope it isn't as disastrous as my last trip over there proved. Um, long story, but never plan a week away with someone you have only met through blogland - it's so true, there really are a ton of nutters out there - "she" turned out to be a "he", and um, I really don't want to talk about that anymore..! Suffice to say, Little Ally and I have known each other since our teens, and I just know we're gonna' have a ball! I'm ditching the family and flying out the first week of April - ooh (pinching myself) I can hardly wait..

Hum, this isn't so much of a post as a ramble (blush) - sorry folks. To quote me old pal Jim, over at Suldog (sorry friend, I've forgotten how to do links again, but everybody knows you anyway, and besides, you are in my sidebar) "Back later, with better" (Scouts honour.)

The Bonding Project

In search of finding something to do outside of only nagging at my eldest daughter, I cast upon the idea of inventing a summer project we might both work together on. Something exciting enough for her to actually want to spend some precious time alone with me.

I figured appealing to her teenage self-absorbtion might work, so I suggested we give her permanent living quarters bedroom a bit of a face-lift.


She was tickled pink with the pair of bedside cabinets we found on-line. Complete with their little udders, they are kind of cute, aren't they?

Flushed with success, I presented her with paint-charts to peruse. On her way out, she said she would look at them tomorrow. Tomorrow arrived and she again said she would look at them the next day. And on it continued.

I gave up and chose the bloomin' paint myself, eventually enlisting her poor old dad to pitch in with the decorating. Yeah, it was a complete and miserable failure as far as any bonding projects go, but hell, at least I had her enthusiastic and undying (if albeit temporary) fresh love and approval for the time being (so sad the crumbs I'm grateful to receive).

AND..


TA-DAH!

These two chairs I rescued from our storage shed. They'd been languishing in there for the best part of over eight years, all battered, chipped and forgotten. I'm kinda' proud of my renovation, I think they look every bit as good alongside those shop-bought bedside tables up there.

I went to see what other rejected bits of furniture I might re-cycle..



I wasn't disappointed.




And to think, we'd inherited one of these little gems from the previous occupiers who'd only seen fit to leave it behind (I knew it would come in handy one day).




I confess to spending out good hard earned cash on this cow-hide rug, but hey c'mon, how could I resist, eh?




And see that glitter ball on the ceiling? 50p (pence) from a car-boot sale (yard-sale to our American friends).



A couple of lamps, some soft furnishings


And a few posters later..


And the whole place was transformed.


But as you can see, it's still yet a work in progress.


And although she has finally found fit to (for the time being) keep her on-suite loo clutter-free



(Oops, who's that in the reflection?)



Her closet is still a walk-in disaster (sigh).

Beccy has literally just returned this evening from a Netball tour in the UK.

"Mum, mum, guess what?"

"You won?"

"No, even better! This woman stopped us in the shopping centre, in front of all my friends, everybody - she said she represented a modelling agency, and said my face, figure and height was perfect for them - she wanted to give ME her card! It was soooo embarrassing - she said I could be a model! Can you imagine..?"

Catching my frown, she exits, shoulders slumped, with an, "Oh, relax. I told her my mum wouldn't let me."

(Hmph! I told you this new found undying love of hers would be short-lived.)

Sigh.

Oh, The Joy's of Parenthood!

(Photo copyright: Shrinky)

Looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, doesn't she?

My eldest daughter is the one who keeps me the most on my toes, the only one I've ever had to ground, she appears to accept school detentions as nothing more than a badge of honour.

Fourteen going on forty, I choose my battles with her carefully, bite my tongue when I can, and purposefully seek out reason to praise, rather than to criticize - believe me, it's not an easy task. If I came down hard on her every transgression, I'd run the danger of alienating her altogether, something which I am trying hard to avoid. Much as she causes me the odd heart-attack, at least she still talks to me a little about what goes on in her life (even if there are some times it would be so much kinder for me to be kept in blissful ignorance)!

So I try my best not to sweat the small stuff, and focus more on the good - but she pushes the boundaries constantly, and there are times I could cheerfully choke her. My other kids don't challenge our authority, act out, or place themselves in danger, as she does. I almost died when I saw her face-book page (thanks Chewy), and so did she when she found me reading it. Suffice it to say, it's long since been taken down.

Likewise, after tucking her up goodnight the other month, I had no idea she had snuck out of the house - if it weren't for some sixth sense of hubby's to go back to check on her again, we would have had no idea she was out way after midnight. Thank God for mobile phone's - knowing she'd been well and truly busted. she did at least have the good sense to answer hers. She was grounded for weeks over that little caper. It wasn't until later my youngest finally grassed up she's been doing it for ages, tapping on her (Abby's) ground floor bedroom window, waking her up so she can climb safely back into the house again. Beccy sleeps on the top floor of the house, no coincidence, it's the safest place for her, or so I had thought. Poor Abby has been told she will find herself in the deepest of deepest do-do, should she dare to to aid and abet her anymore. Beccy goes nowhere at all now, not until I check with the parents of her friends first. I need to confirm she is actually where she claims to be at, shepherding her there and back, taking nothing on trust.

Her big brother helps greatly to reel her in, phoning me if she turns up at any of his mates parties, or chasing off any older lads that might cast their eyes over her at school. I'll be lost when he leaves the island for university next year! (She, naturally, is loudly and vocally counting down the days, and has offered to throw him a party to see him off.)

Her grades are acceptable, but all her teachers agree she is under-achieving, Miss Popularity at school, she is far more focused on holding court than to worry over serious study. The most frustrating part of all is, her IQ scores are far over and above the majority in her year, she chooses to coast because she can, and no amount of carrot and stick from my end appears to motivate her. As for home, we are only there to serve as her personal chauffeur, chef or money-lender. What is mine is mine no longer, make-up, clothes, even my shower (she has her own, but prefers mine) is used and abused with careless abandon. She collects towels in her bedroom, in multiple soggy heaps on the floor.. I curse every time I realise (too late) my supply's been plundered yet again.

Yup, much as I love her, the girl is driving me nuts. She is a teenager with a capital "T". Guess what she bought me for my birthday? Get this; a toiletry set with the brand name, "Bad Momma" stamped all over it. Thought it was hysterical, so she did. It really hurt my feelings.

Hmph.

And yet..

Out of them all, she reminds me so much of me.

(Wry, sheepish grin.)

Teenage Kicks

"Tell you what, how about I take you and a couple of your friends to London for a Weekend?"

"Aw mu-um, everyone has a disco.."

Oh well, if everyone has one, guess it's written in stone then, huh? Sigh. The thought of fifty thirteen year olds crammed into a confined space fills me with dread, but as you know, one should never underestimate the powers of begging. The promises this kid made you would not believe. Actually, I wish I hadn't either, but there's no fool like an old one. Two weeks later I finally caved, reluctantly agreeing to book both the hall and a DJ. 'Course, what I forgot to factor in, was that by agreeing she could invite up to fifty kids, Beccy telepathically knew I ACTUALLY meant sixty or more..

"I am not hiring a hall twenty miles from where we live, especially as I need to cater this darn thing.."

Obviously, this was totally unreasonable, no one would come and her life would be ruined. Everyone expects a venue close to school, it goes without saying.

Silly me.

I bit on it and hired the civic hall. Invites were sent and deposits laid down.

Now, naturally I was very proud when she was selected to represent the island playing Netball, but I was rather less than thrilled to discover the tournament she had to attend was in Scotland, over the same weekend her party was booked.

"I have to go, I can't let the team down!"

(She had to go, she couldn't let the team down.) Deposits forfeited, fresh invites were sent. . which sadly also turned out to be on the same date she just had to be in England to represent her school playing hockey. (Unreasonably, I was getting a tad irritable.)

No, Beccy is not an only child, she is one of four, God help us.. So it was, over one full month after celebrating her actual birthday, we finally rolled up last Saturday to throw her a disco. Have to confess she was right on one thing though, all the girls really do dress as scantily as she does.

Anyway, it all got off to a good start, glow necklaces and bracelets were duly dispensed and a fun time was begun by all. I managed to grab a few snapshots, before happily letting the DJ take over. An hour in, I found my way to the kitchen to warm some food. Hubby pulled me aside - you see part of the deal for hiring this place is to ensure you leave it as spic and span as you've found it. Fair enough, eh? Mindful of the retainer we had left, we had every intentions of honouring that. Trouble was, there didn't appear to be a broom or mop in sight. We looked, we really did. Nothing. How dumb is that? So it was, hubby volunteered to nip back home (an hours round trip) to fetch back ours. Sweet Sam found the disco too noisy for his liking, but he was happy to stay in the kitchen and peek in on the disco. I didn't see any need for hubby to take him with him on the ride.. everything was under control.

Yeah.

No sooner had hubby left when the proverbial hit the fan. Beccy came charging through to find me, someone had pulled a chair out as her friend was about to sit down - it was a "joke", the person hadn't expected her to fall so hard. The poor kid was now lying flat on the floor and screaming she couldn't move her back. (Sam instantly went into a full out panic attack, falling into a fetal position, he began screaming his lungs out. His worst phobia is injury. Being a large fifteen-come-five-year-old, no thirteen year old there could be expected to calm him.) I had no option but to leave him there to sprint to the girl. Every parents worst nightmare, she couldn't move. I cut the music, and had the DJ call an ambulance, whilst trying the best as I could to comfort the girl as I phoned her mother.


The medics enlisted both the DJ and myself to help lift her on to a body-board, and inflated a rigid wrap around her. Her mother arrived just as she was being boarded onto the ambulance. I promised to call her first thing, filled with guilt and horror at so miserably failing to ensure her daughters safety. As if things couldn't get any worse, this is at the exact same moment when the DJ, in his infinite wisdom, decides to resume the music, with all of the kids charging back to the hall, whooping it up and cheering at the tops of their voices.
Sensitive, huh?


I simply wanted to die.


Hubby finally pulled up and I was able to send him off to find Sam, who had by now now locked himself into the loo and was refusing to come out.

The DJ shrugged, "Look Missus, you have sixty kids here for at least another hour, what do you want me to do with them?"

I saw he had a point. I packed my camera away, no longer having the heart for any more pictures. As all this was going on, groups of our kids were seizing the opportunity to drift out on to the street on the pretext of "getting some air" (teenage-speak for flirting with the local talent). A bunch of older lads from the local school (not the one ours attend) had gathered outside and were now being chatted up by certain girlies from our party. Not born yesterday, I quickly shooed them back inside and hubby stood guard by the main door. This didn't prevent the older lads from fetching a few more friends along in attempts to gatecrash, but they finally gave up and went away.
Or so we thought.
Minutes after hubby re-joined the disco, a loud crash signaled the inner patio door caving in. Being safety glass, it thankfully shattered rather than broke, but with that bang also went our retainer. .
(Little bastards.)


It was after 1.30am by the time everyone was collected, the hall cleared up and we drove home. On the journey back I confess to being stunned at Beccy's callousness.


"She's alright mum, honestly she is, she's just a drama queen, everyone knows that, she's always doing stuff like this.."


I felt like thumping her. Instead I read her the riot act before packing her off to bed. The night dragged on forever, neither hubby nor I had one wink of sleep. I called the girls mother at 8am. Her daughter, bright and perky, answered the phone. Her mother came on the line to say she must have some internal bruising (What? You mean she didn't have so much as an external one? Not even a teeny tiny one??), and that all things considered, it hadn't been so bad - what with the hospital staff making such a fuss over her daughter, she swears her kid positively thrived on the experience - but then, apparently, she always is kinda' accident prone..


Well all the same, I have to say I am much relieved she is all hale and hearty. Nevertheless, I sure hope Bec enjoyed her disco, 'cos as I have already gone to great lenghts to explain to her, there is absolutely no way on God's green earth she is ever, ever going to have another one.