In Da Hood......

"Somebody must have been praying for that fool, cause I swear I aimed right for his head."

This week was middle school orientation. Yes, I have a soon-to-be-seventh-grader. Amazing how time flies, but here it is. I've been a bit nervous about it and I suspect Camdon has been too, although, he'd never admit it.

So we go to the orientation and as were sitting in the gym looking around, I see all sorts of people we know. Good people. We've lived out in Kuna 11 years and have been privileged to know all sorts of wonderful families. I saw a lot of them that night. It set my mind at ease knowing Camdon would be surrounded by good friends with the same standards as he.

Camdon wasn't buying it.

"Mom, not everyone goes to Middle School orientation. Only the good kids do that."

His dad wasn't buying it either.

"Yeah, the kids who'll put a knife in your gut over your lunch money don't go to orientation night with their mommies."

Oh brother! This is Kuna not the projects. Camdon says he hears the lunches are WAY better in Middle School, but I guarantee cherry cheesecake is not a motive for manslaughter. Carter says he hopes that doesn't happen to him. It wont. No ones getting knifed.

Just today Camdon came home with some papers about student council. His 6th grade teacher has recommended him to the Middle School. I'm so proud. I hope he decides to run. His campaign slogan can be about eliminating violence in the lunch room.

Trash or Treasures?

“We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing.”

Lately I have been obsessed with the TLC show about hoarders. It drives Justin crazy, but I can't help myself. I'm fascinated by this disorder! Check this out....

WebMD says this about hoarding: "When your junkaholic behaviors involve acquiring and keeping objects that appear to have limited if any value, and they begin to take over your living space, you meet the definition of a hoarder. Such people can't make a decision about the worth of anything, from food tins to tattered receipts, and over a period of years, they may accumulate mountains of "stuff" that can eventually leave them isolated and almost incapacitated in their own homes."

Like I said...fascinating. To me anyway. Justin's always asking what my fascination with the mentally ill is. I don't know where it comes from. It's just there.

But my hours of watching this show finally paid off! Most of you know my 82 year old friend from Sizzler. She's like an adopted grandma. I see her weekly and check in on her when I don't. She's been upset because she bought a new car from her daughter but it's bigger than her old one and it won't fit in her garage. She hasn't been able to sleep over the issue so I told her I'd help. Man! I didn't know what I was getting into. This woman is a boarder-line hoarder. Her home isn't this way, but the garage. Oh man, the garage.

It took me 2 full days to figure out how the car was going to fit without her having to give up too much of her stuff. I learned from the show to say things like: "nothing leaves without your permission." And "do you still feel in control?"

I was so proud of the fact that she let me take two trips to the D.I. Both times my van was filled to the brim. I felt just like one of those clinical psychologists from the show. In fact, after we were done, she gave me a big hug and through tears said: "you know why I love you? Because you don't just tell me it's junk and get rid of it. You're patient and let ME decide what goes."

She'll be 83 on Thursday. Her daughter asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Her response?

"NO MORE SH*@!"

I think I'm putting that on her cake.....

"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."

About year ago I began having little promptings that Justin and I were supposed to become foster parents. It started out as a little whisper, which was easy to ignore, because I knew there was no way in heck Justin would ever go for this. After a while the whisperings became louder and harder to ignore. I'd think about it ALL the time. I'd cry when a commercial about adoption came on. Still, I ignored because I was too afraid to bring up the subject with Justin. A few months went by and the whisperings became a yell. A specific yell. There was a baby girl somewhere out there that needed our help.

I had no choice but to say something. I could no longer deny where these feelings were coming from. So, one day out of the blue I said something to Justin. Well, I sent him a text message actually. But, that's not that weird....we often text throughout the day. It was blunt and said something like:

"There's a baby girl out there that needs our help."

His response was immediate and went something like this:

"???"

I told him I thought we needed to become foster parents. He said. OK.

Just like that. No begging. No weeks of talking it out. No "pray about it and see what you think."

I was so happy! I immediately called my friend who works for the State of Idaho as a Social Worker. He told me who to contact to get the ball rolling. Sadly, my happiness quickly turned to frustration as I learned how long, hard, and ridiculous the process was going to be. It was going to take at least a year and cost thousands of dollars.

I basically gave up because the stupid system makes it so difficult.

Today a friend of mine told me about her meth-head sister. She's been doing drugs for 15 years, has several warrants out for her arrest, has four kids that she couldn't care less about, and is now on the run because she's getting a $4000 tax return and knows they'll come looking for her. She's abandoning her four kids to avoid 2 years in jail. She's going to Tennessee. Whatever stupid idiot.

This brought all of my feelings of frustration back to the surface. Where is the justice in this? Any stupid meth-head can have babies and then abandon them, but they're going to make me jump through 100's of hoops, pay $1000's of dollars and be scrutinized for 6 months before I can help? C'mon people! If you'd make it easier for loving couples who have the space and resources, there'd be less of a strain on the welfare system.

Fine. Have it your way. Let the meth-heads win. Stupid Government.

Nacho Tay's a daddy?

Taylor's my cousin. I won't say he's my favorite, that wouldn't be fair. But, out of all of my cousins, he's the one I know the best. This is because he's the youngest and by the time his parents moved to Boise everyone else was out of the house. We got to know each other when he was in high school. To know him is to love him. He had a lot of big, blue hair and my two older boys, who were then like 2 & 4, were afraid of him. They called him the Boogey man.

We worked together before his mission. Once, in the middle of a shift, he said to me, "watch my section while I go take a dump."

Once he brought a date out to the house to baby-sit while we went out. It was awesome. Not the date...he can, and did, do better. It was awesome that he was willing to do it in the first place.

Once when Jamon got baptized he came and brought a gift. It wasn't a set of scriptures or a tie tack. No no. Nothing prepares a young boy to enter the waters of baptism like a Boise State bobble-head.

He lived with us once. He went to all the trouble of moving his stuff out to Kuna and then he only stayed a week.

Once he borrowed our old pick-up and it ran out of gas on him. Only he didn't know that. He thought he broke it. He didn't know that all he had to do was flip the switch over to the other tank. He just left it on the side of the road. He called us the next day to tell us where the truck was.

Once he was thinking about breaking up with his girlfriend (who is now his wife). I'm glad he chose to come to me to talk about this. And I'm glad he decided not to do it.

Once at Christmastime he called to see if we were home. He said he was on his way out and that he had something for us. We waited and waited. Then like an hour and a half later he called and said never-mind...he wasn't coming.

Once Taylor told us he was having a baby. I wasn't sure what that was going to look like.

Then on Sunday I saw what that looked like. It was amazing! The scriptures tell us, "every member of the church of Christ having children is to bring them unto the elders before the church, who are to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them in his name."

It was such a privilege to be there for this blessing. Taylor gave a beautiful, articulate, heart-felt prayer. I have never been more proud of our Nacho Tay. After the blessing we were trying to figure out what Emery was to me ( I think first cousins once-removed) and to my boys ( I think second cousins once-removed). I don't know for sure and I don't really care. He's family. That's all that matters. We love you Taylor, Tara, and Emery Tay!

Easter Shopping

I found this on the kitchen table earlier this week. Since when do we make a wish list for the Easter Bunny? I wanted to say something like: "I'm disappointed in you Jamon, you should no better than this." Carter took care of it for me.

"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

That's right!

Unfortunately Grandma was in town when I was doing the Easter shopping. I don't mean we didn't love having her here, I just mean that she saw the list and insisted we get everything on it. Luckily his needs are pretty simple. Happy Easter everyone!