Sunday Stealing #7

I haven't disappeared, I just didn't care for the weekly posts I was doing. I like sharing what I'm watching or listening to, but I don't enjoy getting the posts together. When it becomes work, it's not enjoyable. I was happy to be posting again, just not the content.

I did see this that had some good questions so I'm doing another one of them.

Funny the World

Your high school graduation class of 1991.

1. Did you marry your high school sweetheart?  I didn't date anyone when I was in high school so no. My wife and I did technically go to school together though if that means anything.

2. Type of car?  My first car was a '76 Chevette but I don't remember if that's what I was driving when I graduated.

3. What kind of job?  I want to say Value Center (Big & Tall) was where I was when I graduated. I also worked at TJ Maxx but I think that was before the other. Either way, I quit it when I graduated because I started full time in a factory the day after graduation.

4. Where did you live?  Outside South Bend, IN

5. Were you popular in school?  I was the exact opposite of popular.

6. Were you in the choir/band? Nope.

7. Ever get suspended?  Nope, but I got threatened to get expelled.

8. If you could, would you go back?  Hell No!

9. Still talk to the person that you went to prom with?  Didn't go to prom so that would be hard no.

10. Did you skip school?  Remember being threatened to get expelled up there a couple of questions, that was for skipping? I was told if I missed another day, they would expel me. So I started leaving after 3rd hour and they never did anything about it.

11. Go to all the football games?  Yes. It was a family affair, we all went to the games.

12. Favorite subjects?  Gym class was my great equalizer. All those kids that picked on me, I'd make them look stupid in gym.

13. Do you still have your yearbook?  Probably somewhere, if not, my wife probably has hers.

14. Did you follow the "original" career path?  To work in a factory, pretty much.

15. Do you still have your class ring?  I think so but I have no idea where it is.

16. Favorite teacher?   Mrs. Wagner. She was also nice to me.

17. What was your style?  Comfort. T-shirts and sweatpants. I didn't care what I looked like.

18. Favorite Shoes?  I had a pair of Jordan's. Other than that, I don't remember any other pair I had. I think I had a pair of Adidas, black with the 3 stripes down the side. Not sure if that was high school or not.

19. Favorite thing to eat for lunch?  My senior year I had Pizza Hut pizza for lunch every day.

20. Favorite band?  Probably Petra or Russ Taff at that time.

21. High School Hair?  White man's afro is the explanation I always give.

22. How old when you graduated?  I turned 18 the same week of graduation.

Catching up

I was updating my “stats” spreadsheet and realized that I hadn’t posted here in about a week and a half so I’m going to try to get something out.

I started a daily journal (private) so I stopped posting that here, the good thing about that is I can go back to see if anything has happened in the past week and a half.

Before I do, I should mention that my 12 year old daughter has figured out boys, damn it.  She has a “boyfriend”.  The quotes would be because I basically told her, you can call him boyfriend if you want, it’s just a title, but there will be no dates.  You can see him at school functions and school and that’s it.  He keeps begging her to come to his house and I won’t allow it, she’s freaking 12, I don’t think so.

Tuesday, October 21st

Samantha got invited to a friends brothers football game so she went home with her friend after school so she could go.  When they were dropping her off afterwards, I got a phone call that the friends mom wanted to talk to me.  So I went outside and she told me that when they got to the game, Samantha took off with her boyfriend and her friend is required to sit and watch the game to support her brother.  So the friend invited her, their mom paid for her to get in (Samantha had money, the mom opted to pay) and Samantha ditched her.  So needless to say, she got a lecture when I got upstairs.  The mom had said that the friend didn’t want her to say anything so I just had a conversation with Samantha and steered her to what I wanted her to admit and when she did, she got lectured.  I was so disappointed in her, and I let her know it.  She was told to apologize to her friend the next day at school and she lost her phone for 2 days.  She got multiple lectures from the family about it, hopefully she learned her lesson.

I knew boyfriends would just cause problems.

Thursday and Friday, October 23 and 24th

We had inventory at work these 2 days.  I ran a forklift both days but I ran the stand up forklift.  Now I used to walk for 12 hour days and my legs would be tired but this was actually worse.  Since it’s the stand up forklift, I’m basically standing in one spot the whole time, my legs were killing me.  What’s worse is there is a pedal under my left foot so I have to keep some weight on that leg so I couldn’t even shift my weight back and forth.  I put 12 hour days in both days and about 5 hours on Saturday as well, but most of Saturday was sitting around.

Friday night, October 25th

Went to the high school football game.  Samantha wants to go to the home games now because her friends go and more specifically, her “boyfriend” so I have been taking her and then sit with my cousins who have a son on the team.  He’s a freshman so he doesn’t get much playing time at all on the varsity squad but he’s out there and dressed and may end up starting as soon as next year.  The real reason I go is because they set up a elephant ear cart.  I love elephant ears.

On the way home, in the parking lot to our apartment.  I pulled up and there were 2 cars parked next to each other, talking.  I pulled up, they didn’t move, so I quickly tapped the horn.  Nobody moved.  So I quickly tapped it again, still nobody moved.  So I laid on the horn for 10 seconds.  They finally moved and proceeded to the parking spot.  Apparently, one of the cars was the same neighbor that hates me because I make him turn down his stereo.  I got out of the car and he mumbled, you didn’t have to lay on the horn like that.  I said apparently I did, you weren’t moving.  He said we would have moved, you didn’t have to honk the horn.  I said how about you think about someone other than yourself for once and I walked away as he was mumbling something else.

Saturday, October 26th

In my last post, I mentioned that Samantha had wrote her mom a note about what she was feeling.  She was texting with her in the car and asked if she read the letter and she said she had so she asked her what she thought and her response was, you have the right to your opinions but I’m staying with the JackAss.  So Samantha essentially told her that she wasn’t going over there anymore and theEx said ok.  That was it.  Haven’t really talked since.

Earlier in the week, my mom had stumbled across the fast that the Michigan women’s basketball program was having a basketball camp for elementary and junior high kids so she signed Samantha up for it.  So Saturday morning, Samantha and I headed up to Ann Arbor.  We got there early enough that we walked around the Crisler Arena beforehand.  It was pretty cool, looked at some trophies and such, then we watched the elementary kids do their clinic.  Eventually Samantha got to go to her camp and I sat and watched.  They basically set up multiple clinics and you rotated to each one and one of them was a tour of the locker room.  The women’s players are the ones that led the clinics so she got to interact with them as well.  After the clinic, they got free posters and got to get all the team’s autographs.  Samantha had a great time and I had a good time just being there.

Here’s the photos from that day.

		Michigan Women’s Basketball Camp VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Monday, October 27th

Took Trevor to the library, he finished the 9 books he grabbed last time and got 7 more.  He’s definitely a reader.  Of course, that may be different if I didn’t have the no electronics for an hour after school rule.

Wednesday, October 29th

Our annual tradition of my brothers family, my family and my mom and stepdad get together took place Wednesday night.  We all get together, go to the pumpkin patch where all the kids pick out pumpkins, then we go back to my mom’s where the kids carve them out.  Then we sit down for supper and usually celebrate my stepfathers birthday which was on the 26th.  He’s only 56 now but apparently my mom was dyslexic that evening and put 65 on the cake.  Nobody said anything until after we sang, he blew out candles and photos were taken.

Thursday, October 30th

Samantha had her 2nd choir concert of the year.  It was technically the high school concert but they had a choir camp a few weeks ago and the kids who went to the camp, did a song during the fall concert.  She sang and danced to the Purple People Eater.

Friday, October 31st

Halloween.  Every year we go over to my grandparents house for a chili supper before we take the kids around trick or treating.  The kids are all getting older now and we actually only had 4 kids go.  Trevor went as Steve from Minecraft ($25 for a cardboard box head, ridiculous).  Samantha went and walked around but didn’t dress up.  We usually stick to a route that we’ve done since I was a baby, but since it was in the 30’s and snowing, we shortened it up.  Yes, it was snowing, in October. 

After trick or treating, we hung at the grandparents house for a little bit and then I took my brother’s kids home, or at least the son because the daughter was coming home with us.  We met theEx and dropped off Trevor and then headed home.

Saturday, November 1st.

I haven’t done anything all day, the only thing I have to say is I can’t believe it’s November already.

Daddy/Daughter Dance

As you may or may have remembered, Friday night was our Daddy/Daughter dance.  Thursday night we went out to get a dress for her and she was not looking forward to that.  She does not like to wear dresses.  She’s not really the girly girl type.  So we ended up picking up some nice dress slacks and a shirt for her instead.  I think she really thought I was going to make her wear a dress but I told if she didn’t want to, she didn’t have to as long as she understood that most of the girls would have them on.  She said she didn’t care so we picked out the outfit that we got for her.

Friday night, I left work early so I could come home and shower and shave.  Nobody wants to dance with a stinky father.  We arrived and picked up the corsage that I purchased for her.  Even though she wants to call it a croissant or krypton, she can’t remember the name, I’m just happy she knows what krypton is.  (yes, I quizzed her, she actually knew what it was.)  The person handing out the corsage’s made sure to give Samantha a red one (she’s an Ohio State fan and they are pushy and other words that I can’t say).

We ditched our coats and headed for the gym.  As I walked around the corner and saw that most of the lights were off and the music blaring, I thought “Oh hell, what did I get myself into.”  We walked in and the first thing they did was hand me a free bag of popcorn.  I could get into these dances.  I went and stood against the wall eating my popcorn and watched Samantha run off with her friends.  As I hid in the corner, I started taking in what was in front of me.  I noticed that the dance floor consisted of about 50 girls and 3 dads.  So I started to look around more and noticed that the majority of the fathers were standing around talking to each other.  I figured I probably didn’t look too bad then, hiding out in my corner, being a wallflower (that’s what my wife called me).  I sat back and kept an eye on Samantha, she was on the dance floor but for the most part was just chit chatting with a couple of her friends.  After a couple of songs, Samantha and her friends came over to drag me out on the floor.  She’s lucky I was done with my popcorn.  So I went out on the dance floor and got my groove on.  No, not really.  I just kind of stood there while Samantha danced and her other 2 friends stood with me.

Then it happened.  A slow song.  I don’t remember what it was, but it was a country song and I knew it a little but that’s not what really happened.  Once Samantha and I figured out how we were going to dance, we swayed back and forth and turned in a slow circle.  That’s right, I may not be able to dance to anything else, but I can slow dance.  So as we are slow dancing and chit chatting, I’m looking around and I noticed almost every father is on the dance floor now.  I chuckled to myself about it but the real hilarity ensued as soon as the slow song ended, all the fathers ran off the dance floor.  Except me of course, I walked off, and found a table to sit at.

I sat and watched Samantha as she got more and more relaxed and started dancing more and more.  I sat there and thought how much she was growing up and how she’ll probably start going to dances next year.  I watched her dancing and having fun and thought about our relationship and how much I’m enjoying it right now.  We talk, we joke around, we have a relationship where I’m not having to be on her ass all the time.  She’s growing up and I’m sure in a few years I’ll be complaining about how we no longer have a relationship and how she’s a teenage brat so I plan on enjoying this time as long as I can.

But back to the dance, I was sitting at the table, watching her and then a certain song came on and Samantha wanted nothing to do with it.  She ran up to me and said we can get in line to take the picture now, I hate this song.  What song was it?

Yep, sounds good to me.  We bolted for the cafeteria and stood in line, for about half an hour.  The line was moving slow enough that if a song came on and the girls wanted to dance, I let her go back into the gym for it then come back.  We got up through the line and took the picture (it’s being sent to me, I’ll post it when I get it).  We headed back to the gym just as another slow song came on so we got on the dance floor, carved out a little room for ourselves and danced together.  As soon as the song came on, I knew I was going to enjoy this.  I asked Sam if she knew what it was and it sounded familiar but she wasn’t sure what it was.

We talked again, and I told her about the song, what it was about.  I was listening to the lyrics while we talked and I teared up a little bit so I changed the subject.  Can’t be crying in front of all the fathers, it might ruin my rep.  Eventually the song ended and all the fathers ran off again.  Samantha asked me to stay out and dance even though it was faster songs so I did.  I had decided before I even got to the dance that it was her night and I would dance any time she asked.  So I danced the last 2 songs with her while she made fun of my dancing.  We left after the last song and headed home.  Samantha was wired the whole evening and was talking non-stop.

I definitely don’t regret going.  I was a little nervous about going but I’m definitely glad we did.  I know she had a good time and I know I had a great time.  I hope it’s a memory of me that she keeps for awhile.  I know it’s something that I never will forget.

Before the dance.

Snow and Dancing

In case you haven’t heard, our city/counties have been shut down a few times in the last couple of weeks because of snow, cold temperatures and the wind.  I believe the kids are up to 8 snow days already this year.  Some schools are already called off tomorrow, I’m just waiting for the call that theirs is.  Luckily, the 12 hour day schedule has actually helped as in I’ve only lost 1 day to shut down out of 3.  They were shut down the last couple of days but they were already scheduled days off so there is that.  We can’t afford for me to miss, too broke.  As of now, the plant is schedule to be reopened tomorrow morning, just in time for me to go in on my scheduled day.  I keep trying to explain to the kids when they get excited about another day off, that they are going to end up going until July to make them up.

My daughter posted the above status after I told her last night that I have never been to a school dance.  I think she’s thinking that we are recreating this.

We danced at my nieces wedding, that was back in 2010 (I think).  I tried to warn her by posting these videos on the comments saying that I was going to dance like this.

or pick one of these dances

She didn’t find it that funny.  I recall her saying she would die.  My brother responded with this video saying it would probably be more like this.

She has no idea what she’s in for.  My mom used to make fun of me because I had all the athletic skills in the world (before I got fat) but I couldn’t dance to save my life.  The sad thing is, I can’t even argue it, she’s right.

She thinks she’s nervous, I’m the one that’s nervous, I’ve never been to a dance, not even when I was in school.  I have no idea what to expect.  Sure I can slow dance, all that is is rocking back and forth and moving my feet in a slow circle but if they pull out a faster, upbeat song, I’m screwed.  I will look like one of the videos above.  It will be worse if they play some of the crap that the kids listen to, I might have to leave early.  She may actually want to leave early to avoid more embarrassment.

Flashback Fridays #14

It’s been brought up recently so I figured I’d talk about it.  I was a pretty good kid, I didn’t drink, I didn’t do drugs (still never have) and I wasn’t out partying.  If I wasn’t at home, I was at my friend Marshalls, at Lifeline shooting hoops, or at church.  My mom didn’t have to worry about me, at least in that sense.  I did do something that she tried to stop and couldn’t, something that could have gotten me kicked out of school (it almost did).  I skipped school, a lot.

I hated school, I hated how I was treated (either negatively or ignored), I HATED school.  But even more than my hatred for school, was my hatred for getting up in the morning.  I liked to stay up late, and therefore was not ready to get up when the alarm went off.  So when I hit Junior High, I started staying home, usually on Mondays.  After staying up late on Friday and Saturday night (usually just sitting in my room, playing with my baseball cards), I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep at a decent hour on Sunday night so I wouldn’t fall asleep till 4ish.  Instead of forcing myself up out of bed (like I did on Tuesday mornings) I just wouldn’t go.

I was the first person to leave in the morning but my bedroom was the only one in the basement.  So I would get up, get ready and then, just before the bus would come by, I would yell to my mom that I was leaving, open and shut the front door and sneak back down to my room.  Now, because my brother would come into my room at times when he was up and getting ready for school, I couldn’t just crawl into bed.  So I would hide.  Do you remember waterbeds?  Do you remember when they would have a shelf for a headboard?  Do you remember the little crawl space under that shelf?

Not my bed, but you get the idea.  See the crawlspace under the shelf?  I would grab a pillow and back myself into that crawlspace and fall asleep.  Guess it was a good thing I didn’t snore.  Eventually, I would wake up after my brother and mom would leave.  I would go upstairs, crawl into my mom’s bed and fall back asleep.  Why my mom’s bed?  Because it had a phone next to it (this was before cellphones young’ens) and when the school would get around to doing attendance, they would attempt to call my mom at home.  I would wake up to the phone, answer it, tell them in my surprised voice “Oh, she must have forgotten to call in, I’ll call her at work and have her give you a call.”  Then I would go back to sleep.  When I actually did go to school, I would be the first one home so in a few days, I’d get off the bus, grab the mail, and throw away the letter from the school to my mom to tell her that I wasn’t at school.

I got caught here and there, my mom would find out but by my final year of Junior High, I had it mastered.  I bet I went to school on a Monday only two or tree times all year.  That didn’t include the days later in the week that I didn’t go.  I missed a crap load of school and they did nothing about it.  The bad part was, I got bored sitting at home by myself all the time.  So I started to talk my brother into it and we would both skip.  We had a few skipping stories, like the time my aunt stopped by and we snuck up on the roof until the bus went by and pretended to just get home.  But the most famous story we have when we skipped school was when we got a visitor to the door.  We were sitting on the living room floor, playing Monopoly when the door bell rang.  I snuck over to the door and looked out the peephole to see my Vice Principal standing there.  There was no choice but to open it since he knew we were home.  Apparently, the school got wise and called my mom at work and offered to go pick us up.  So the VP and my guidance counselor took my brother to school (Elementary) then took me to Junior High.

The next year, I started High School and they kept track a lot better than Junior High did.  Eventually it got to the point where they pulled my mom and me in the office and they told us if I missed another day that I would get expelled.  So I didn’t miss another day, I would show up for the first 3 hours and then walk out and drive home.  I was (and still am) stubborn so I kept doing it.  While I didn’t really get into much more trouble for it anymore, I had to cut way back on how often I skipped.

One of the things I hate about the new rules of schools is that the parents can get into trouble if their kids aren’t in school.  My mom did everything she could to get me to go everyday, but she was a single mother who had to work.  She didn’t know I was under my bed, she would check my room to make sure I wasn’t there.  There is no way she should have gone to jail because I was skipping school.  I understand the law because there are parents who don’t care and let their kids skip school but that doesn’t mean all of them are bad parents.

Randomness #17

Just a quick holla to let you know I posted another story on Yahoo (actually a week ago).  While my other posts were sports related, this one may help all you out.  I’ve done it for years and never thought to share the info.  I googled after I posted it and the information is out there but nobody told me, I figured it out on my own.  Click below to check it out.

If anything, click it, let it load, then close it.

The kids have met their teachers and seen their classrooms, they know where they are sitting and who else is in their class.  Now they just have to get on the bus and go to school, which they will be doing tomorrow morning.  They are both nervous, as am I, because this is a new school system for them.  We are really close to getting approved for a mortgage loan (we go back Thursday to find out if we are approved yet) and we are only looking for a house in 1 school district.  So we decided to go ahead and switch their schools now so it didn’t have to be done in the middle of the school year.  Now we just have to get the house.

Samantha seems ok with the switch, she knows more people than Trevor does at the school because they’ve been playing little league in this district for a few years, but since Samantha made the all-stars, she basically played on two teams this past year.  We only saw one of her team mates in her class but we saw a few more out in the halls.  Samantha is definitely more of the social butterfly than Trevor is.  Talk to her once and she’ll act like your best friends for life.  Trevor, he’s quite and is in his own little world.  He seems a little different because he isn’t the typical rambunctious boy, he does want to play with his lego’s or video games but he’s not a rude, loud or physical.  He’s quiet, helpful and sensitive so I worry more about him going to a new school.  He had friends at his old school but to watch him interact with his classmates, he didn’t seem to really fit in.  Plus he has told me he’s nervous about starting a new school and that just makes me even more nervous for him.

The good news is, before they were old enough to be in school, I always thought Trevor would struggle and Samantha would shine.  It’s actually been the opposite.  Samantha struggled some her first few years and Trevor has shined.  Samantha picked it up last year and had a good one so hopefully she’s coming around now.  But I’ll always worry about Trevor when it comes to his classmates.  I do have some worries about Samantha and her classmates as well, but not as many and totally different worries.

Track – Dream On

Artist – Aerosmith

I figured since I skipped my Music Mondays post yesterday (I was wore out) that I would at least give you a Track of the Day this evening.

If you would ask me what my favorite Aerosmith song is, this is it.  I don’t know why exactly and I like a lot of their songs but this one has always stuck out for me.  Maybe I remember it being released, I was less than a month old so maybe I associate it with cuddling in my mom’s arms.  Who knows?

Home life and buying

As you can tell, I still haven’t gotten back into the swing of throwing some posts out.  I tweeted this over the weekend, while at work.

I’m pathetic.  While I’m standing around at work, because we aren’t that busy, I sit there and think – I could be home blogging right now or I could be home organizing the cards I’ve recently purchased.  Which I imagine we all probably do while we are at work.  The problem is, I’ll get some days off and I just sit on the couch and not be able to get motivated.  The bad thing is, I’m so behind in my blog reading because of the new rule at work to where I’m not allowed to use my Kindle on the line which is where I did the majority of my blog reading.  Which in turn, puts me behind on other things like finding funny pictures and cartoons for my RTFARG Facebook page.  Of course, I can’t really blame myself for just being a vegetable on the couch doing nothing, because I have gotten into one thing on my computer.

I’m haven’t gone overboard with the playing time or anything, but it’s my “go to when I’m bored” now where I used to read blogs to try to stay caught up.  The courses are very realistic, and even my putting sucks so it makes it feel very real.

We have been looking at houses, as I’ve said before, and we’ve found one we really want so we had a meeting back with our lender today.  My credit scores are all up and close to where they need to be, (highest I’ve ever seen) but of course, the last thing I needed to pay off (which we did a few weeks ago) hadn’t cleared yet.  Cheri had asked him for a timeframe on when he thinks our credit will be ready and he said he really didn’t think it would get done till later in the summer so we can probably kiss the house we want goodbye.  We’re hoping it stays on the market long enough for us but the way my luck runs, it won’t.

Regardless, we drove out to the place that we paid that last bill off to get a letter stating it was paid off to send to the credit score places to get it cleared.  The lady we talked to basically said that nobody let her know that it was paid off so they hadn’t reported it yet.  I love how these places don’t hesitate to report you when you don’t pay but when you want them to do something for you, yeah, screw you.  So now it should get reported in the next couple of weeks and get cleared.

We also got a secured credit card to establish more positive credit so once that comes, we are supposed to charge everyday stuff and then pay it off right away.  The plan in our heads at this moment is, we will use it to put gas in the vehicles.  So once a week on Cheri’s and once every 3 weeks on mine.  Her gas mileage sucks.

When we finally did get home today, we picked up the mail and there was a letter from HUD, when Cheri first moved up here and we combined our families we were receiving aid from the government to help us get by until we could get disability for Cheri.  Technically, we still get it.  They’ve been paying $31 of our rent every month.  We were up for renewal at the beginning of this year, we didn’t bother with it.  All the paperwork and hassle of filling everything out wasn’t worth it so we just ignored their letters about renewing and then we received the letter from them today saying that our aid was officially cancelled.  It’ll crush us losing that whopping $31/month but we’ll manage (insert sarcasm icon here).  But there was one line that confused us, it said “You must vacate your unit by April 30th, 2013”.  Um, what?  I figured it was a screw up, how can they say we have to leave it we are still paying our rent to the apartments.  So I took the letter down to the office and asked them about it, they pretty much laughed along with me.  Best we can figure is most people receiving assistance are receiving a lot of assistance so when they lose it, they can’t afford to live there anymore.  They said I have nothing to worry about, which is good since I can’t quite buy a house yet.

Nothing else really happened today, kids came home from school where Samantha is doing ISTEP testing so she didn’t have any homework where Trevor isn’t taking the tests yet so he did.  So I played Samantha in some chess again, they both seem to enjoy the game.  Samantha is a little better than Trevor because she has learned that you have to sacrifice pieces to get to the end.  Trevor is all defensive and trying to keep all his pieces.  Like I said in my last post, it won’t be long before they start beating me.  I’ve always enjoyed the game but was never all that good at it.

We’ll see if they even go to school tomorrow because we have been getting hammered with snow.  There are all kinds of school closings already but the kids school tend to wait until the last second before cancelling.  I already shut off their alarm so if it gets cancelled or at least delayed, maybe they’ll sleep in a bit.  But I doubt it, they don’t know how.

Kids and Social Media

My daughter brought home a letter from the school today.  Saying that there has been some instance’s of cyber bullying coming to light.  In the freaking 5th grade.  The letter was long, posted some rules about electronic devices but basically it said that parent’s need to monitor their kids better when it comes to Social Media.  While I do agree with the intent behind the letter.  I really want to send the principle an e-mail and say I realize that there is only so much the school can do and I’m not against what the letter said, but let’s face it, most parents don’t care what their kids are doing online as long they are entertained and out of their hair.

My daughter has a Facebook account and has limited access to the internet at home.  The access has parental controls as well as I get an e-mail telling me every website she has visited which is mostly just Facebook.  And as far as the Facebook account goes, she doesn’t know the email or password associated with the account.  So she can only access it when Cheri and I are around.  And every notification she gets on it is also emailed to me.  Almost all of her friends are family members and I’ve even had to hide 1 of them because she’s early 20’s and tends to cuss a lot.  She does have a few friends from school, but not many.  All friend request go through me which means I look at their accounts after approval and before I let her look.  I approved one friend that after I approved her, I checked her wall a week or so later and there was sexual like content plus her profile pic had the F word in it twice.  I posted about that here.  She was defriended immediately and I’ve had to turn down friend requests from her more than once.  She doesn’t know the word no, I’m guessing.

Since then, I’ve been to this girls house and seen that she lives with her grandparents and an uncle while her father stays out back in some sort of shed.  She has her own laptop and cellphone.  At freaking 10 years old.  I understand it’s probably real hard for the grandparents to raise this kid but you can’t let them do whatever you want either.  I’ve already told Samantha that I won’t even discuss a cellphone until at least 13 and that’s just discussing it, that’s not a yes your getting one.  It doesn’t help that the school system that my kids go to is in a rich kind of area.  So a lot of the kids parents can afford to give their kids the nicer things.  If you go to the high school, you’ll see all kinds of Beamers and Mercedes in the parking lot.  They are spoiled beyond belief.  I sent them to this school system because it’s the best in the area, academically and athletically.  It’s also the high school I graduated from.  But anytime there is a school function, Cheri and I just feel out of place.  While we are still considering a house in this school system, it is not at the top of our list anymore.  There’s more issues I have with it but I’m getting off track.

These kids that got caught, or told on, I don’t really know what happened, on Instagram.  Which means they probably all had cell phones.  The school’s rules basically leave it up to the teacher to post the rules of the classroom.  They are allowed to have them at school as long as they aren’t disruptive and if a teacher says he doesn’t want to see them, then they have to be put away.  I think the school rules at that age should be no cell phones out period.  You can have them on you and have them out at lunch and recess but any other time in the school they should be put away.  At this age, all after school activities are planned from this time, to this time.  You know what time to pick up your kid.  There is no need for a cell phone to call a parent when practice is over.  Junior High, maybe.  Elementary, no.

I can’t believe I’m actually having to deal with this stuff already.  I thought I’d at least get her to Junior High before this became an issue.  What makes this worse, was I had planned on posting a post about my Social Media Addiction.  I guess I had this coming.