Friends

My goodness what a crazy weekend.  Saturday was our date night, we went to see Jimmy Buffett at the BJCC and we met another couple at Margarita Grill in Pelham!  OMG FABULOUS!  The concert was one of the best EVER! What an entertainer!  Then on Sunday one of my good friends lost her dad.  She had just buried her Aunt on Thursday and now another funeral tomorrow.  My heart just breaks for her.  She has had a rough 2 years and the poor thing doesn't get a break.  Praying for her.  I am going to her dad's funeral.  He was a sweet man.  I got the privilege to get to know him a little.  I was so glad to see so many people at the hospital for her.  What good friends we have when the time is needed.  I hope that my being there and my prayers are enough.  I want to be the friend that I need when times are tough.  So not a lot of teenage drama but I did keep my girls posted and they were very sweet and need to know that life is a special gift.  I also want to teach them compassion and how to be a good friend, no matter what.  We do have to teach our kids compassion and empathy.  How else are they going to learn.  I try very hard to get my girls involved when we are doing charity work.  I want them to know that there is MORE to life the boys and girl/boy drama and makeup.  But we do forget that those things are so important to them and that is their whole world.  We have to take a step back and remember those days.

I like reading a prayer and seeing the words.  It kind of helps it stick.  I have done a little research so here is the prayer that I have started praying in regards to my children, hope it offers peace and some help:

Lord, sometimes I don’t know where my job as a parent ends and Your heavenly gift as Savior begins. Grant me understanding, so that I may do all that I can, and nothing more.  

Hold them in your arms as they go through their day.

Reveal yourself to them often, proving that they are never alone.

Help them to be strong enough to make a difference; to change the lives of others rather than changing who they are to fit in.

Make their paths straight before them, just as you promised to do, and then give them the strength to follow.

The decisions they make today can alter the path of the rest of their lives. Please help them to better understand this, and protect them when the time arrives to make those choices.

Show them that the rules we have in place are to protect them; not to prevent them from having fun, but rather to keep them from crossing lines into adulthood long before they are ready. Help them understand that once you cross those lines, there is no going back to being a kid.

Help them never to doubt you, you are real, so please comfort them and give them your answers long before they need them.   

I pray these same things for their future spouses and children. Protect their future and create it in a way that brings them all closer together and to you in the end.

And God, please keep whispering these things to them until they are ready for me to tell them face to face. 

Because Lord, I adore my teens, and am so thankful you chose me to be their parent.

Give me what I need to do the job you asked of me, and hold me when I’m scared. I never want to let either you or them down.

In Jesus Name,

Amen 

Leanne

Ok - too quiet

So, I am complaining cause it's too quiet.. lol.. with Rebecca out of town for the week and JT out some nights and Kim working - me and Ashlee have been hanging out and its been pretty quiet for a couple of days.  I did treat Ashlee to a pedicure and dinner - just the two of us and it was GREAT!  I forget to remember how important it is to spend the one on one time w/the kids.  In our busy, crazy life that one on one is important in every dynamic in the house.  We talked and laughed and got candy on the way home and omg her toes are ORANGE!  She loves it and I am so proud of her.  She is at PJHS now and has been for about a month and doing great.  She is growing up so fast, doing good w/her grades and really enjoying the horse lessons.  It was just her and I the other day and she said - so this is what it would be like to be an only child, she kinda liked it. I sit back sometimes and watch how fast they grow up.
Kim went to work tonight (even though she has stuffy nose) and armed w/halls & hand sanitizer!  LOL.. Proud of her, at 15 she knows that people depend on her at work.  Jose compliments her all the time.  Once she can work a little more, she will be running it. LMBO!
I am really enjoying this blog, kinda like having personal girlfriends to chat w/at the convenience of my laptop.  I know that sounds funny but sometimes you just want a girlfriend to listen for just 5 minutes!  And I can tell you blogging this way, no one interrupts you, you don't lose your train of thought or concentration either.. Crazy but I really enjoy this...
I am praying for our blog circle!  God Bless and may we all have a little less drama tomorrow, if not blog about it!
Leanne

Help!

So, say you have a blended family. Say that the floor is ruined because of spilled drink.  Say the agreed upon new rule by her dad is NO DRINKS IN THE ROOM OF ANY KIND.  Now say there was a RED GATORADE in her room this am.  Say the response was "i forgot".  What do you do?
See I told you guys that I would sometimes have blended family drama, too!

Other than that, so far it's a good day, although it is only 706am.

Leanne

When girls have friends spend the night!

My goodness, the claws are out this morning.  It is almost not worth it to have kids spend the night and vise versa!  She did this, she went into my room.  She is being mean to me.  Drama and then what is up with the makeup and leggins and hair updid for a parade with about 80% humidity.  lol.. will they ever learn.

Ok on a side note - I love All You Magazine.  Here is 2 tidbits of GREAT info:

Save on Energy
Vacuum refrigerator coils to save on electricity, inspect sliding glass doors for dirty rails (which lead to air leaks) and run a dishwasher cycle with distilled white vinegar to remove hard-water deposits and reduce the machine's energy demands.  (momondealz.com)

and

Donate Defunct Coupons
Military families overseas can use expired coupons for up to six months past their expiration date.  Find out which bases need what coupons by visiting ocpnet.org. (thismonnysavesmoney.com)

Please tell your friends about this blog. We are trying to grow and help as many mommies as possible.  Every once in a while I may throw a blended family drama story in there too! lol...

Leanne

Surprised at the response!

I am so excited about the response I have received from the blog.  Great comments and ideas to work with.  Tell your friends about this.  The more people we have to share our stories with the better this blog will be.  I am praying for our 6 followers of this blog.  Thank you for supporting this crazy thing we call life with teenage drama queens!  Today was a good day - although they are not home yet!  LOL!

On a personal note, we now have a new addition to our family.  A guinea pig named Pablo`.  He will definitely cause some drama but right now he is causing smiles for Ashlee.  She is having a hard time with 13.  I remember that age.  I am going to try to listen more and get to the root of the problems and help her come to a resolution instead of me forcing one on her.

Rebeccah will be going next week to Pensacola.  Her mom is going to be there for a family situation.  She is missing a week of school.  Pray for safe travels, a family situation with Rebeccah's grandfather and me - helping her get caught back up when she returns.  She will have work to do while she is down there, but the craziness will be getting her back and making up the tests and things she couldn't take to Pensacola.

I hope everyone has had a good day so far.  As for me, I have had no drama as of yet today!

Leanne

Teenage Drama Queens

As the mom in a blended family (that brings its own problems without drama) and a mom of 2 teenagers and 1 stepdaughter who is a tween. I have been talking with parents in my shoes and one thing is in common if you have daughters, DRAMA! What is up with all the drama daughters? Someone said I should start a blog about this so here goes. I am no expert as a parent, just have experience with it and blogging is a pasttime I do to kinda journal our days, when I have time and to let folks in the River Region and family and friends know what is going on. Does it matter, why do people blog? To get things off our chest. That’s how i feel sometimes. If I blog like that and I DON’T publish it, I just do it to get all the hurt and stress off my mind, I guess therapeutic. So here’s my new project – my therapy – getting my drama daughters craziness off my chest.

It started the middle of 6th grade when my daughter was bullied at school thru Facebook. There was a girl who pretty much dog cussed my daughter. Now my daughter didn’t start it, but she got sucked into it. I wont go into intimate detail, bit it ended with cops called to school and 2 months of NO electronics was the final verdict for my daughter. So we decided to move my daughter to a different school. It didn’t help. Now in the mean time, it’s Christmas time 2011. My step daughter comes to spend the 2nd half of the school year. She got into drama on day 2. The ironic thing was it was at the same school of previous incidences and all ready knew the principal. LOL. Drama. She said, she said, and she said and I didn't do it then it went to passing notes to boys and causing fist fights. It is insane. Day 3 at a new school and a new boy friend and in trouble with those 2 boys in ISS.
It has now progressed to boys hanging out at the community park and to saying “I love you” on Facebook to tears cause one has a boyfriend and the one who doesn’t is so depressed that she cried herself to sleep last night.

I never had a boyfriend until 16 and sure didn’t have a cellphone, texting capabilities or a Facebook packs. The only thing I worried about was if friends called the house phone past 8p. What has happened? If you would like to chime in, vent, offer suggestions or just need a virtual hug and verbal support and comfort – here it is.
I am praying for my daughters and will pray for families with drama daughters. Will we survive?

While talking about starting this blog, I learned it is not just teenage girls - it is boy drama too!  So Parents of Teenage Drama - share, post and vent away!

Leanne