Updates from Everywhere

We got home safely. There was little drama, though re-entry was hard for us facing Dominyk's immediate chanting "I want a pop. Can I have some money? I really want a pop" literally for a full hour before he finally figured out it wasn't going to work and had a meltdown. After that, other than his endless chatter, things went pretty well.

Today we are headed to a soccer tournament -- well, some of us are anyway. But before we leave I thought I'd give you some updates. Starting with the top...

I may have failed to mention that our oldest son, Kyle, got pink slipped this spring as a first year teacher. He went a couple months not knowing if he was going to have a job this fall, but he has now been offered a sixth grade position which certainly won't be as fun as 3rd grade, but it's a job. The day he told us he hadn't decided if he was going to accept and we seldom hear from him, but we're assuming he did.

Mike, who is still out of jail apparently, sent me an IM on facebook the other day asking me if I wanted to buy a GPS. I told him we had one. He asked me if I'd be willing to sell it for him on ebay -- new, in the box and everything. I asked him why he couldn't -- said he didn't have a credit card. As I was trying to explain why I wouldn't be interested in helping him out due to several prior arrests for receiving stolen property (his, not mine) he signed off face book and I've not heard from him again. He didn't even finish the conversation. The time that I heard from him before that was when he called the house (which he isn't supposed to do) and I said hello. He said, "Oops, wrong number." I said, "Yeah, right." (Hope it really was him!) I also had one more IM conversation with him where he asked me how I was and when I said fine he said he probably needed to go bed. It was 11:30 a.m. FASD. Gotta love it.

Bart blogged last night about hearing from John. I had talked to his attorney while in Philly and I think I forgot to blog about it. The attorney said he was cringing at the news he had to tell us. I let him know that we were veteran cringers and that we'd be fine. He said that John's hearing had been postponed because he had a secondary investigation going on. Apparently, John and his girlfriend had used her mother's credit card to buy something off the TV. I could tell that the attorney was reluctant to tell us what, but when he did I laughed out loud. I'm sure that wasn't the response he was expecting, but I couldn't help it. My 18 year old son was buying male enhancement pills. So now his hearing is postponed once again while the county attorney does a thorough investigation. The public defender said that they were acting like John and his girlfriend broke into Ft. Knox, but John is acting like it's no big deal. Apparently "credit card fraud" is a big deal. Sigh.

Salinda has been at her boyfriends for the past two weeks but he starts working on Sunday. She says she is homesick and wants to come home early this week -- she has driver's hours on June 29th and an ultrasound appointment, but she wants to come home a few days early. Hearing her say she's homesick feels a bit strange since she has spent the last three years telling me every day she's here how much she hates living in our house. I'm keep holding out hoping that she'll turn out like The Adoption Counselor's #5. If her attitude doesn't change it's going to be a very long well... forever with her.

And we heard last night from Bart's aunt. They are thoroughly enjoying having Tony up there with them. He's working hard and being delightful apparently. It's nice that he can have a chance to have so much attention and that he is making money. Above he was actually doing a volunteer project with Bart's mom and sisters at the church up there. It makes me a tad bit annoyed to know that he obviously CAN be cooperative and appropriate, even delightful, and wish he could do it when I'm around but if he's happy and they are happy, we can't help but be happy.

So those are the five kids not living here. The kids that are living at home this summer are doing well. Rand continues to work part time -- this week he was scheduled for 3 days, but he's barely making enough to pay his car insurance, his student loan, and his cell phone bill. Jimmy keeps trying to get a job, but so far he hasn't been successful. Ricardo is deep into soccer, and Leon is playing baseball. Sadie is working about 10-15 hours a week at McDonald's and whines sometimes, but it's good for her to find out what life is like. Dominhk has lots of PCA coverage this summer, so that helps us. And Wilson is gone right now with his buddy and his dad to the Boundary Waters.

Ivan, Ricardo and Leon's friend, is here almost all the time, but he is asking to move in for the rest of the summer. His mom is moving to her third trailer that they've lived in this summer, and this one is a couple miles out of town and he really doesn't want to live there. He's the youngest of much older brothers and there is nothing to do. I'm sure he's on his own most of the time. So I'm going to have a conversation with him and let him know that he is going to have a day to do dishes and a chore to do every day if he moves in for the summer. I know he'll agree.