Update on Tom

When I got back from getting Katie at school yesterday, Tom was still asleep. He slept until almost 3pm. He got up and got me to put the Icy Hot patch right down the middle of his lower back...up and down. Then he sat in his recliner and did some work. The man cannot just take a day off, even when he is hurt. I can predict the future. He will be 100 years old, on his death bed in the hospital, demanding his laptop so he can check the servers at Zeus. hahaha

Anyway, he took some Motrin when he got up but asked me if we had anymore Zanaflex because the one he took was wearing off. I didn't. So I called Dr. Hook and asked him to call him in something for his back. He gave him Vicodin and Flexeril. He hasn't taken the Vicodin. We are funny about narcotics. We only take them for extreme pain because of the risk of addiction. But he did take the Flexeril and he has gone from excruciating pain to soreness. He missed his physical this year. He really needs to go in and get his calcium checked. I found out that all of the severe muscle cramping I have been having is because of low calcium. Who knew?

But anyway, that's the update on Tom.

Now on to Katie news. Those who have known us for awhile may remember that we had absolutely NO problems with Brittanie...not even terrible 2's....until she turned 5 and that's when she started stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. No many how many times she got a paddling, she would continue to steal. Everytime she would steal something I would make her take it back and apologize. But it still didn't deter her. The last time she stole something, I flagged down a St. James Parish Sheriff's officer and had him talk to her, ride her in the back of his squad car to the St. James Parish jail and they went in and told the inmates to make alot of noise when she came in. Well that scared her to death! That was on a Friday. That Sunday, she went to church with my mom and there was a young guy...late teens/early 20's....giving his testimony that he had been stealing, even from his parents, to buy drugs and even though he had gotten saved since he did this, he still has to pay the consequences and was going to jail the next morning to serve his sentence. That did it for Brittanie. The 6 month run of stealing came to an abrupt end. She has never stolen anything again. Well now I'm afraid Katie is about to start up. Yesterday when I drove up in car line, her teacher was talking to the kids that were left and asking them if anyone had taken the toy sheep. They all said no. One of the teachers said she saw Katie with it. So she asked Katie and Katie lied again. Well when she saw me, she moved to go to my car and forgot that she had stuck the toy sheep between her thighs and it fell out. So the teacher talked to her and she cried. (Katie has become a real cry baby recently and cries about EVERYTHING...most times with no tears!) That's when I realized she had something (can't figure out what it is but she calls it a ring) that I told her she couldn't take to school. So obviously if it was in her hand, she had it all morning with her at school. So we have lying, stealing, and disobedience. This kid is NOT going to be easy as pie to raise like Brittanie was. She is so headstrong. It is going to be tough to break that will. She gets it honestly as Tom and I are both very headstrong. But that is what kept Tom and I from yielding to peer pressure growing up. Tom and I have never tried drugs and never had a desire to. We didn't have sex before marriage. I drank a little before we got married but Tom has never had a drink. So a strong personality can be a good thing. But it can also be a bad thing if they don't want to do anything their parents want them to do. That's where we are with Katie. She doesn't want to do anything we want her to do. But Tom always says, a hard head makes a soft behind. He has told me more than once that if his dad wouldn't have stayed on him and made him behave, he wouldn't have turned out like he did. So we owe the same to Katie. But I am so dreading the thought that we may have to go through the stealing thing with Katie.

Brittanie has completed her first week of work at Subway and loves it. The owner told her she has caught on well and is doing a great job. I'm so proud of her. She has a strong work ethic like her dad. And she got her new schedule and starting next week (remember she turns 16 on Monday) she will start getting 4 hour shifts and they will start at 5 instead of 4 so they won't conflict with her drill team or rifle team practices. She still won't ever have to work on Wednesdays or Sunday mornings so she won't miss church. We asked God to give her the job He wanted her to have and He has really blessed her with this job. It is close to home and school and is low stress and accomodating to her schedule.