Teenaged Angst

It's interesting how different people show their anxiety. The Imp is getting apprehensive about events coming in the next 2 weeks.
Next Friday she has her wisdom teeth removed. She's only recently been able to get her flu shot without hyperventilating and making a production. And that's only with me holding her hand repeating the mantra "Just look at me. Breathe deep. Just look at me..." So the idea of someone cutting her gums to remove teeth not yet emerged freaks her out....alot. We had to watch a video that explains the procedure AND all the possible reactions. She almost passed out just watching the video and covered her ears and closed her eyes when they put diagrams up showing the steps of the actual extraction. So even though we don't discuss the upcoming "event" anymore, it still looms in her subconscious.
Then in 10 days she starts at a new school. She's always gotten "first day of school jitters" even when going back to a known. She's not 100% in favor of transferring schools (not totally against it either) and she's worried over the social situation.
Me? I'm a talker. Something in the near future stressing me? Let me talk it out. Almost anyone will do. Let me look at it from every angle. Imagine the worst possible scenario and how I'd survive it. This over analysis will calm me. Not the Imp. She firmly believes that not acknowledging the stressful event will either a) make it less stressful or b) maybe it will go away. Avoidance is one of her top coping techniques. So she doesn't want to talk about her surgery or starting at a new school but is still very uneasy about them both...so she has to have an outlet. That outlet is vehement, loud, indignant protesting of her school uniform. Her verbal rampages make the uniform sound like something from a Victorian era boarding school.

She walks around ranting about her belief that uniforms are, by their very nature, tortuous and cruel. Her actual uniform consists of khaki pants and a green pullover. Horrors!

And to add insult to her already injured sense of fashion, shoes must be dark brown or black and tie. No athletic shoes allowed.
So these shoes would all be acceptable.






These wouldn't



And these are what she really wants to wear.





And then, what really pushes her completely over the edge of sanity is the sock requirement. They must be white and cover the ankle bone. I don't know. I think someone needs to nominate me for worst mom award for allowing the school to impart such harsh conditions upon my child.
As you can tell, my patience with the whole uniform thing is about gone...okay it IS gone. But I'm trying not to kill her and remind myself that this is the way she's expressing her angst. There are definitely worse ways. But once school starts there's a 'no complaining about uniform' rule unless she wants me to create a weekend uniform for her as well.

Oh, she's walking through the house, as I type, complaining about the fact her shirt must be tucked in (despite the pictures showing otherwise, apparently the administration is cracking down on this rule). "I can't believe I have to tuck my shirt in! Well, I'm gonna blouse it over so it doesn't look tucked-in. It looks so stupid to tuck your shirt in. This is so stupid. How I dress does not make me a good or bad person. They need to focus on something a little more important than my shirttail."

I give up. But I am instituting a moratorium on uniform talk for the 8-hour car trip we're about to make!

Driver's Ed

The Imp got her permit last week and I reluctantly took her out yesterday for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised. She has more spacial coordination and/or eye hand coordination than her sister and is much better naturally at driving. I almost didn't survive teaching the Singer how to drive, and we'd come home from each 'lesson' tense and angry. With the Imp it is so much more relaxed. Part of that is temperament since the Singer and I are too much alike for me to teach her much of anything.

Finally got the Imp's schedule set for next year. Since she's transferring from the IB program her sequencing of classes is all messed up. The IB is an international curriculum so its courses do not match Fl state grad requirements exactly. Some of the issues are odd. The Imp took a semester of World History and then second semester she took American Government. So she needs second semester of World History to meet Florida grad require. And semester II of World Hist is only offered during the second semester. There's the PE requirement-- it is waived for the IB program since the IB requires students to earn "Action Hours" outside of school. Then there's the fact that Tampa Catholic requires 28 credits for graduation. The Imp only earned 6 credits this past year, so she's technically a credit behind. But I think we've finally got it all worked out. It only took 4 phone calls and 2 emails to get the person we needed to finally contact us.

Tomorrow we're off to pick up her summer reading books. She has 2 1/2 weeks to read them. Plenty of time for her.

The Singer is starting work at the law firm on Monday. Thank goodness! Her lethargy in the house was driving me batty! She's been home for 12 weeks already and that's too long. She's still here for 4 more! Going to work every day will save us both. Unfortunately she won't be able to make our trip to SC to see my folks next weekend.

Rock the Universe Here She Comes

At 'Voice of An Angel' auditions the Singer made it to call back auditions at Universal Studios during Rock the Universe Sept 12, 2009! Yippee! Not only is she thrilled to be able to compete then, Casting Crowns and Toby Mac (mine and Hubby's favorite artists respectively) are playing. We're psyched. So you know where we'll be on September 12.
The Singer had a week of good news. She got the job at the lawyer's office. She meets with them this week to set up her schedule. She is excited and relieved. Having a car carries financial responsibilities she didn't have as a scholarship student at college. She is thrilled that this is a job she can continue through summers and all 3 years left at college.

The Imp had a fantastic week at St. Leo's. So she's walking around on a retreat high still. Of course she came home wheezing, so she's on the nebulizer every 4 hours. I'm hearing her little tight chest *cough* *cough* as I'm writing this. I heard it all night, too. She's exhausted from the little sleep she received on retreat and without getting full oxygen, it's hard for her to get rejuvenated. Fortunately, she's got nothing really to do this week except recover.

After a very stressful end to the school year, we've decided the IB program isn't the best place for the Imp. Lots of reasons, but to put it succinctly, it's because staying in IB would require her to be a student only. In order to succeed, she'd have to give up everything else: the swimming, the singing, helping at St. Leo retreats, etc. She doesn't really have the desire to do that. Although when I brought up leaving the IB, the Imp was resistant. Leaving friends is hard. But one of the first things she said after getting home from retreat was "Mom, I think God put it on your heart for me to change schools so I can 'do' lots of retreats this year." So she'll be starting at the Singer's Alma Mater, Tampa Catholic, on August 12. We meet with a counselor this week to make her schedule so she can start her summer reading. Of course, our budget will have to contain major changes. Catholic schooling isn't cheap. But if we can do it and it's best for her...then we will. The Imp did lament that after last summer having the longest break ever: almost a full 3 1/2 months since going to a Catholic schools she got out mid-May and then switching to public school she was out until the last week of August. This year she went to early June and goes back mid-August-- just over 2 months. Oh well. She'll be fine once school starts.
Lots going on but can't complain about any of it.

Voice of An Angel

The house is awfully quiet without the Imp around. I actually got to spend an hour on my lounge floatie in the pool yesterday. I was preparing for my Bible Study, but it was great to soak up the sun.

I'm busy planning my fall garden. My cukes are gone...bugs and sun. And my tomatoes are gone. Any good gardener will tell you that July and August are not months for tomatoes in Florida. My green and red peppers are still producing. I'm planning what I'll start inside during August...definitely onions and more beans (reverse of northern states, I have to protect my new plants from heat not cold and wait until we start having cooler...that means below 75...nights before planting outside).

The Singer is all excited. There is another voice competition called Voice of An Angel. It's sort of like Florida's Christian American Idol. Part of the application process is listing service work done by the participant. She just found out about it and the audition is this Sunday. Of course, I've always said she had a voice like an angel, so I'm sure she'll do great!

Hubby and I have been busy coordinating the showing of "Fireproof" this Friday at our Marriage Ministry meeting. We're pretty excited about it. The movie will never win any artistic awards but the message is powerful and it's a feel good movie about marriage. Hubby and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary this December. We're trying to decide how to celebrate it. A room on the beach sounds good to me.

The Singer has been busy. She had an interview at a law office (for office help) yesterday and got called for a second interview tomorrow. It's close to the university, so would be great to keep year-round. It stays open 'till 10 at night so she can get hours in beyond the normal 9-5. I hope the interview goes well tomorrow.

St Leo Retreat Center

The Imp left last night for a week's retreat at St. Leo Abbey. That she has been impatiently waiting for this and thinks it's the best way to spend a week out of her summer warms my heart. She's been talking about going for weeks. In fact, a week BEFORE we went to the beach she asked if she could start packing for St. Leo's. This from a girl who normally flies by the seat of her pants and is not known for her plan-ahead personality. Hubby drove her up to the Abbey last evening. I had to send her outside more than once yesterday as she was literally bouncing off the walls and the excited energy radiating from her was distracting. I was trying to finish the dress she wanted. Unfortunately, I got everything but the zipper and hem complete before she had to leave. But I worked on it from after church until the moment she left, trying to get it done. She had cut out all the pieces for me earlier in the week. But...she didn't read all directions thoroughly and I had to recut some pieces and figure out how to make others work after we'd used up all the extra material. I had made some alterations on the bodice for more appropriate coverage, so the final product should look very good on her. The Singer is making a similar dress (same pattern, different view) and I've altered the bodice for her, as well. The benefit of home-sewing...you can make the slight adjustments you talk about in the dressing room ('This would be perfect if only this were a little smaller/larger'). The Singer wants to sew her dress today and Wednesday.

Saturday night we had our Teams couple group over. It really is so refreshing to spend time with these people. And for as single-minded as we are (all conservative Catholic) it is amazing at how different we live out our shared beliefs. The stimulating conversation from Saturday plus a part of the movie, "New in Town" had me mulling over how to witness a Christain life. The Singer's favorite quote is from St. Francis "Preach the gospel constantly. Use words if you have to." And for the most part I agree with that. However, if I never attribute my actions to my belief in Jesus, then I'm not really preaching Christainity, but simply a life of love and consideration. There is a large following of Humanism and with the belief in "the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility." You can see where not specifying what motivates your behavior you may not be preaching the gospel of Jesus. In the movie, set in Minnesota, a woman says something to the effect that her small-town ways, her long a's and her mentioning Jesus in everyday conversation bothers you. And it's true, bring up Jesus/God too frequently and you make others uncomfortable and they tend to judge you as Bible-thumping, etc. But if they are truly tolerant, why not tolerant that it is, indeed, my belief in Jesus that prompts me to altruism, integrity, honesty and responsibility? [Being interrupted by the phone and my daughter, I've lost my train of thought}

"Not Ready Yet"

The Singer went to audition for "American Idol" today, along with 10,000 other people. She spent an hour slowly moving along for the last 2 miles of the drive. She auditioned and they said "You're not ready yet." She had a good time. Felt she did well. Thinks she could've picked a better song for her audition and plans to try out when they come close to Tampa again. I'm so happy she had a good experience. My secret hope was for her to make it past this first selection but not any farther. I have great reservations about what one would be exposed to in the 'entertainment world.' We've got enough temptations and struggles living our little ol' lives. I'm just glad it's over. I think I was more anxious over the whole thing than she was. I'm very proud that she was willing to try.

On another positive note, she was actually called for a job interview today. She applied to this law office a few weeks back. She heard nothing so figured they weren't interested (she knew they were hiring from a friend...that's why she applied). So she has an interview Tuesday morning. This could be a great part-time job throughout college.

Time Crunch

My little Imp got her driver's permit today. I'm actually very pleased. She turned 15 in December (when she could have gotten her permit) and said she didn't have time to take the online Drug and Substance Abuse class required before getting your permit with all her school obligations. She said she'd do it over Spring Break. Spring Break came and went...no go. We are now almost at the end of the summer and she finally got around to doing it. She can't get her license until she has her permit for a full year. I know next summer is going to be hard, she'll want to drive, but won't be able to because she won't have her license until July.

I just finished painting the doors for our bathroom. We should be able to get them back up tonight. Yea! Then this job will be complete and all the paraphernalia will be able to be put away, and we'll have use of our garage for our car again.

Now I'm off to help the Imp sew a dress she wants to take with her on her retreat week. She leaves Sunday afternoon. I'm having 12 people for dinner on Saturday and have lots of house cleaning chores to do and will be gone all day tomorrow. Again, this is something she's talked about all summer and is just now getting around to it. And wants my help.

Summer Time

Hubby's Father Day was pretty great for him. He got a new grill that he and the Imp broke in; he got a new TV, courtesy of credit card points, and he got to sit around and drink beer and relax.



The next week we went to Madiera Beach (just across the bay) and had a great time. While we were there the girls told us a story about the last time they'd been to the beach (a week earlier) by themselves. Apparently, the Singer (older sister) saw a fin in the water...very close to where they were in chest deep water. So the Singer yelled at the Imp to get out of the water. So in a flurry of screaming and running, they made it up on the beach. They turned around and saw a dolphin playing in the gulf. The Singer said she was so scared, thinking it was a shark. Remarkably, they both had no problem going in the gulf while on vacation.

We celebrated the Singer's 19th birthday while there.



I spent one day at the beach making her birthday cake. It was my first attempt at using fondant. It was fun to experiment with and I'll probably do it again, but fondant just isn't very tasty.





The Imp brought a friend along to the beach. I was surprised at how empty the beach was. But I'm definitely not complaining. I love it like this.







Saturday, Hubby's cousin and family came over to the beach to celebrate. The kids had fun watching the sun set and acting goofy in front of the camera. It took quite a few shots to get the timing right for

Ready, Set....



JUMP!



Hubby and I spent the long weekend painting our bathroom. There are so many corners and things to paint around in a bathroom...very few big walls. Taping took almost as much time as painting. As usual, the job turned into a bigger one than planned for. Hubby was taking off the tank to the toilet to make painting behind it easier and noticed it damp around the bowl. He removed the bowl to find the flange was cracked. In between painting he worked on fixing that. If your house was built well, it wouldn't be a problem. Our house was built as part of a planned neighborhood. Lots of houses going up as quickly as possible. So after watching a few good videos online on how to fix it, and multiple trips to the hardware store, and 2 days having to share the girls' bathroom, the flange was not fixed. We had to call in a plumber today! Over $200. Ouch! But once it's fixed our bathroom will look really good...except that I still have to paint the linen closet door which is in the garage.