1/02/2000
2000

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Letter from April
It's the year 2000 and we are partying like its 1999!! It's so much fun you should see the fireworks. They are so fun I can't believe my eyes!! I am at my cousin's house and its fun. We are having a big party but just the Edwards's and the Gibson's!! We are going in the hot tub now.

BYE!!

Love April


We celebrated New Years differently this year- no big crazy parties that we usually have at Mark and Carrie's. Because it was the New Millennium we wanted it to be with our family and Mark's. It was nice, of course I couldn't get all my kids there, they are growing up on me.

Worrying
We were all so worried about Marita this holiday. We really don't know what is going on with her but she gave us a real scare. School lunch is where I first became aware that something was wrong with Marita. We were dividing the pizza's, donuts and drinks for lunch. I looked over at Marita and she looked totally confused and helpless as she stared right at me willing me to help her. "I don't know how to count, I forget, what do I do?" she pleaded. I acted like it was an everyday request and I took over what she should be thinking. We counted together, mostly I could only hear my voice but it did put her at ease. That was the beginning of her nightmare. A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from her asking me to help her. Her words were broken and you could barley understand her but she needed me. She said everyone was ganging up on her and to come over right away. She obviously had to go to the hospital but for her own peace of mind she had to realize that and not be forced. I don't know if Dave's side of the family is upset with me but all I know is that I had to stand up for her and let her make her own decision about if she was going to go to the hospital. Her speech went from bad to worse and she looked like a caged animal trying to defend itself. They were treating her like she didn't have a mind of her own but she was still able to understand what was going on. As soon as I said it was her decision as to whether there were drastic changes in her speech in the last couple of hours she decided on her own that is where she needed to be, the hospital. Her side of the family acts like I am her interpreter, she will say she is fine or tell them what is going on with her and they would turn to me as if to ask "is she telling us the truth?" Now she needs a series of tests to see what is wrong. I still think she has something like MS, because she was shaking so bad and I don't understand why she loses her speech.

Stacy is feeling a lot better, they thought she had mono, right before Christmas and then maybe her spleen. I think it was an overreaction from the doctors. She probably has over exerted herself in the indoor track, pulled a muscle in an unusual spot. Stace never complains and when she does, everyone might have paid a little bit too much attention. They told her she has an injury like skaters have, but I don't understand, I am glad they are both ok.

Stacy has been a pleasant surprise, I was so worried about her being so shy and not knowing anyone in high school and it has been a great adjustment. She knows a lot of people, not from elementary school where she is known as the shy quiet one but from all the sports she has done over the years. She also met a lot of people in her music class. We always thought that she was such a good little angel of a child that she was going to be one hell of a teenager, you know, payback time for the parents having it easy but she is great. I love seeing her yelling and screaming with her friends, yelling out my car window, Nadia and Brent look kind of puzzled about this but I think it is great. I asked all my kids to try not to go steady with anyone in there high school years and after the trouble Stacy had with Jeremy when guys were paying her attention at the beginning of the school year it looks like she is taking my advise too. She still has that look of pure innocents on her face. I hope she is safe.

Dodging the Boys
The phone has been ringing for Stacy! My shy one was good at dodging the calls and we could soon equate the ringing of the phone to the slamming of the back door. I could honestly answer the phone by saying that she had just stepped out. When we realized that she was actually 'going out' with Jackie I tried to encourage her to talk to him instead of darting out the door every time he phoned. I learned that one too, when I was her age so I guess the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree! Every now and then she took my advice and had a conversation with him based on what she had wrote on the paper. It was very unnerving for her and a relief when he broke up with her. When she found out that he immediately went out with another girl, did she have a hate on for those two!

Underestimating an underachiever
April put her heart and soul into a project during the last Christmas break, worked morning, noon and night on it. She wanted to make an impression on the teacher so she put more into it than she should have. I think the teacher wanted a couple of French descriptions of an animal for each page but April put in paragraphs. They were told it was an Internet assignment. No one helped her, the only direction she got was another French teacher looked at her work and suggested she get help on line at Alta vista.com. She was so excited about getting the mark her other siblings got and when she got her assignment back she was devastated. The teacher gave her a C and said that she had received help. I phoned the teacher, tried to explain how much effort April had put into it all break and that no one helped her. She wouldn't believe me, said that she knew that she had older siblings and that they were high achievers and that April was a C student and that was all that could be expected of her. I could hardly believe my ears. I went to the principal but only The acting vice principal was there as acting principal and I told her how this had affected my daughter and that no one should ever underestimate an underachiever because you know when they are going to make a change in there lives and this is what April had tried to do. The after effects of how the teacher handled it were colossal. All April's enthusiasm about school was gone, everything she liked about it was tainted. She put no attempts to work on anything, even her beloved crafts. I went to talk to another teacher about it because it was affecting every part of her work and when the teacher greeted me the teacher said, "Oh, you already got my message!" No I hadn't but it was strange that we picked the same day to show our concerns about April. He said that all the life had been drawn out of her and she wasn't the same girl that he had taught for the past 2 years. I explained what happened and he showed me her feeble attempt at her toilet paper castle. It ws pitiful and such a shame because normally she would have created a masterpiece but here we had 4 rolls connected by cardboard as if to say "there. I did it." He had a long talk with her and talked to the other teachers and she improved but there was never any big effort to make it better, just that it was done.

Overachiever
Nadia is so much happier in her senior years at The high school. I am glad she made the switch from Sinclair when she was in grade 10. She has made great choices in friends and I love hearing how they laugh uncontrollably in class. Nadia seems to be associating with the smart girls, with the exception of Crystal, whom she mothers. Nadia recognized that Lauren was very smart and when a teacher challenge the winner of a and equation solving formula, worth 10 bonus marks on the report card both girls worked day and night to try and break the -formula they admired each others attempts and went out of her way to get to know her and has become close to her. She is so smart and tries to learn knew things all the time, even if it is not something she has to learn. She picks subjects and researches them intensely. Things like learning about countries, Greek mythology hockey... She is a sponge when it comes to book reading so much so that I actually buy other peoples books after they have read them and yet she still needs the library. She is like Aunt Gertie in the way that she has all this wealth of information in her brain and she can access it at any time. The trivia queen. Nadia is not naive about life and knows a lot about human sexuality, she says that when she has found the right person she looks forward to a sexual relation. I never thought of it that way but Nadia is a planner.

Court date
Brent had to go to court in January in regards to Adam being assaulted last year in grade nine. It was so weird, Grant Dackers's mom felt that Daniel shouldn't have to be there as a witness because of the fact that Adam and Daniel were no longer friends. She forgets that he is a witness to an assault and was not there backing up a friend. Besides, I don't have proof, but I have always thought that it was Daniel that told the guy what Adam said about him. I remember at the time in my car looking back at Daniel and saying that things said in my car shouldn't be repeated and then all of a sudden he heard what was said. That and the fact that he talked so much about the West Side boys in grade nine that I felt defensive about them even though I didn't know them at the time. After a year of anxiety about all this the boys didn't have to testify and it is all over. We went to court, and then they sent us to another building and finally Adam and the lawyers went in a room with the defendant and they resolved it so that no one had to testify.

The protector
Brent is finally starting to have a group of friends over, the first time in years. He was always trying to keep his friends away from Stacy- he has assumed the position of being her protector. The first time I noticed Brent blocking guys from Stacy was with Bloxy Knox. He went to grade 8 Grad with Stacy and when he came to pick her up Brent walked by her and said, "touch her and I will kill you" Bloxy's mom took offence to it saying that there is a huge height difference, Bloxy would have no problem with Brent" At the grad party Stacy and Bloxy stayed out till 2am with Brent sitting right there beside Stace, a built in chaperone. Brent wouldn't let his friends come over for a couple of years because they wouldn't stop about his sister. If they rang the bell he would send Stacy upstairs and she would obediently go. When they finally started coming back to our house this year, Adam would get as close as he could to Stacy and I was happy to see that she took my advise and would step up to him, in his personal space, and he would back up but there was a lot of eye contact going on. Adam liked Stacy a lot.

Brent was on the computer in the basement furiously pounding away on the keyboard determined to undermine someone's hottest girl list on the Internet. My little Stacy was ahead on the list and although Brent didn't admit it, he was racking up the votes for another girl to get his sister out of contention. I am pretty sure I am right, I checked the site the next day, the girl he likes is now out in the lead by about a thousand votes. I remember Brent chuckling to me that the guy didn't have any protection against people who vote multiple times. The guy put a disclaimer on his site noting the cheating going on and closed the voting. Brent won his battling in protecting his sister.

Disillusionment
Nadia has had problems with her yearbook teacher. Last year Nadia was like the teachers pet with this teacher, they were best of friends. She even invited Nadia to her kid's hockey games. Nadia is supposed to be the editor but as Nadia noticed last year the teacher is very hard on the editor, usually the editor is the scapegoat and Nadia is not standing up for herself, well maybe she is, but not hard enough as far as I am concerned. The teacher says that Nadia didn't fulfill her part of the pictures and Nadia is saying that one of the guys had used her pictures for his sections claiming them as his own. I personally know because I am the one who would have them developed that Nadia was taking a lot of pictures. I told her to show when the yearbook comes out which pictures are hers to prove it because the kids in the picture will be Nadia's grade and not his.

Boys are for sacking
The girls all did the pitching clinic in Oshawa again. Josh comes with us to catch for us and has been squared so many times but still comes back. My memories of Josh in pitching clinic will be of him crumbling to his knees and rolling around in the floor in agony with is hands covering his privates-so many times! Each of my girls got him! Josh comes to be near Stace, would do anything for her. April uses her humour on him., flirts and sometimes comes on to him so bad, but he seems to handle her well. One time he didn't know what to do when a song came on and April leaned into him and said, "Josh, they are playing our song" we laughed at his reaction until there were tears. I catch for April or Monica, I still am not very good at it but I am getting better. Monica is accurate enough that I don't have to move much to get them and I have even closed my eyes and she gets them right into my glove!

Taking your lumps
Nadia fell down our driveway. She landed on her elbow the one that is already sore. She was wearing shorts and a skimpy t-shirt and landed right in the snow. Nadia's elbow is hurting her giving her pain so I took her to the doctors. I didn't go into the room with her, I want her to be independent for her health concerns, and she is mature enough. She says that it is numb, so he gave her an anti-inflammatory. She found out she has pinched nerves in her foot and elbow. Her foot? I thought she was complaining about her leg. It takes a long time for me to take Nadia to the doctors because she usually only complains about pain when she is going to bed and long ago the doctor said it was to attract attention because she would complain all day if something hurt enough, I don't know, Nadia is old enough that she could take care of herself though.

Stacy somehow received an eye injury- somehow there was something in her eye and it was excruciating for her and her vision went blurry white. We didn't know what happened but she finally managed to pull something out of her eye. We took her to the doctors and didn't know what it would have been so we went home and got it and took whatever it was to the next doctor and he said it was a piece of wood that had got stuck between her eye and eyelid. Ouch! Her eyesight deteriorated so much that her prescription changed for a while and we had just got her glasses!

Putting out the Trash
Brent caused use some concern this year. I liked the fact that he was going out more, I really encouraged Brent to be more social. Brent was always such a homebody with a huge interest in the computers, it seemed to take up all of his time. Then he sporadically hung out with a group of guys, mostly old The elementary school boys and most of the time at Adam's. A rare occasion Brent had the kids over to our house and I went downstairs for a second, knocked on the wall to give them privacy because I don't want to see what I don't want to see! My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw Sarina laying over 3 guys, one being Brent and there hands were all over her. I stomped upstairs and unfortunately started to yell at my girls saying that I didn't want to ever hear of them in that position. I wasn't finished, I went to the store and bought Brent the biggest package of condoms I could find. Overreaction or what, but Brent liked the idea of the condoms and the conversations that followed. Nichole is Adam's on again off again girlfriend. She upsets me so much because I know that she secretly stays at Chrissys house without Christie's parents knowledge and then in the morning sneaks over Adam's house too. I have seen her on several occasions walking to his house in the early morning and her own home is far away. Christie also sneaks Doober's girlfriend over and because he was spotted looking into the Bloxy's bedroom window, adults now know him as a dirty peeping tom. I am probably the only parent that knows he was only there to be with his girlfriend. Another time Brent phoned me and asked to stay at a sleepover. I asked where he was going to be and he told me Sarinas. I was so surprised that he told me the truth but then Brent has always been known to be honest and with Nadia urging me on, saying that he didn't have to tell me, I gave him permission. I said that I was going to pick the kids up the next morning. The boys all met me at the door so I wouldn't talk to the mother, very smart of Brent, and I found out later that the boys had actually been snuck in so that the father didn't know they were there. He was on night shift and when he was to come home, they had to leave early and then pretended that they all came in the morning with the mothers knowledge. John Scott left really early, didn't want to get a ride but he is known for walking long distances anyway. I stopped the van and I asked whose parents were given the true story of where they were. Only Adam and Brent told the truth. I told the boys that I wouldn't tell on them but if their parents asked me a direct question, I wouldn't lie. Doober said that if his parents ever knew he would get killed. (I know his mom the best). I don't understand Nichol's mother, what was she thinking, Nichol must have her wrapped around her little finger!
Later on I think I got the message through to Brent about Nichol when I was talking about Adam and the on again off again relationship, that Nichol could be permanently in Adam's life if she were to get pregnant so Adam should be very careful, Brent kept shaking his head at that thought, because he thinks she nags at Adam. Nichol has a lot of growing up to do, hopefully she will.

All our girls have seen a lot of Oshawa Generals games this year, that kind of adoration will happen when there are no sports in school. James and I have been to a couple of games too, it is very entertaining.

Say what?
April and Monica still have speech problems and I have complained so much that the speech therapists must dread it when new children in different schools say that they know April and they have the same problem. Apparently April is responsible for teaching many kids to speak with her awrs (r's). I made a point of telling people to do that. I have complained about her to the school board too. She actually hurt my girls when she grabbed their throat and she did it to me too. She has been no help at all, first she says that it is too early to start on April's problem, and then she says we started too late. It is my job though to try and make her do her job and not give up like she is trying to do.

Nadia's journalist portfolio has a new edition! She completed her magazine assignment and it was awesome. She interviewed NHL refs, players and sport clothing manufacturers. The ref asked that she have a telephone tape recorder so that she could interview him properly. So we went out and bought one (returned it days later - bad). She transcribed everything that he said, word for word. Nadia worked on the Magazine constantly, paying attention to the smallest detail, even the page numbers had a tiny hockey puck complete with shadows. It was almost a downer when she finished it, she was so inspired that she created a web page with the materials she used in the magazine. Another site liked it so much that they linked up to hers. She maintained it for the hockey season and it got a lot of hits. It is linked up to a lot of sites. We are very proud of her accomplishments.


So sad
Our neighbour Ted was diagnosed with terminal cancer just before Christmas 1999. He was a heavy smoker, he often stood outside his house. He was kind of a good-natured busy body and in March the ambulance came, blocking all our cars in the driveway and as he was taken away you could see how skeletal he was, poor guy. While we were out of town, Ted died, it was expected, of cancer. I had made him a music picture video of everyone in our neighbourhood with everyone's pictures, because we all knew he watched TV a lot and he enjoyed it but it got to the point that he didn't recognize people on it, even his own kids. So Sad.

My new passion
I made someone cry. I did it on purpose, I was hoping that someone would feel that emotional but I was surprised at who it was. I made John and Roxy my in-laws best friends a Corel Presentations video. They were having a party and I and months to prepare as they were in Florida with my in-laws. I raided their photo albums and scanned hundreds of their pictures. I group similar pictures to music of ---- and John was so taken aback by it that he would turn around in front of the big screen TV and block everyone's view to thank me profusely. We would have to start the video all over again.
Because our school will be splitting up to form 2 schools I thought it would be a treat if I made a video of The elementary school memories and share it with the school. It went through every class and two teachers asked for a copy. Many parents were appreciative, they might not have seen it but their kids told them about it.

Understanding Innocence
It is hard to let go with Stacy. It is a big wide world out there and Stacy has protected herself all her life from what most people want to know. I realize this, I did the exact same thing and I feel that I can read her thoughts, the looks on her face, her silences, it is as if I am looking back at me at those moments in my life and because I have lived this I have an opportunity to aid her into adulthood. Stacy's world is small, neatly organized with only the basic elements that require what she needs to be happy with what she wants to know. It is categorized by 'these are the things I absolutely have to know in order to live happily in the environment that I have created. These are the things I don't have to know about yet and I don't want to, so I will quickly shove them aside and avoid them at all costs.' Almost every year the school would notice her reluctance to have the sex education, even to the point of not watching or putting her hands over her ears. Meanwhile at home she would be begging me not to sign the permission form and not to even go during the sex education. That wasn't part of her world and she did not want to know. This year the biggest change for her was in friends, she is now with girls her own age or her own grade. She was content in protecting all her innocence in having younger girlfriends or girls with ethnic backgrounds that have a highly family orientated lifestyle. Girls like Amy whom she has known for her whole school life, even went to each other's birthday party but I would be surprised if they had ever uttered more than a few sentences to each other, she is now opening up to. Girls that she would only acknowledge with a nod over to the opposing volleyball or basketball or baseball teams, girls she has a familiarity with, she is opening up to the new friendship with such vigor that I am surprised but so pleased with her. She really isn't as shy as I was but then she has had me that recognizes some of the things she has to let into her little world even if it is bit by bit. Grade 8 was the battle of the tops, she wouldn't wear anything form fitting, only baggy tee-shirts. One by one I disposed of her tee-shirts and bought her sleeveless tight tops. I finally won. This year we are struggling with shorts and I am not winning the battle yet. Still she shut the door to any idea of what sex was about. I made many attempts to talk to her about it but she would have no part of it. Even to the extent that I told hr she couldn't watch TV after 8 or adult comedy's if she would not open up to knowing about he birds and the bees. She actually didn't watch them, she voluntarily avoided adult TV!

She was supposed to go to Windsor with her Track team and no parents were to go. She has never been anywhere without us and we decided now was not the time so we came. I might have let her go alone but James said we were going. I think she was happy we did. We are all not ready to let go yet, I guess. Stacy has been having a hard time maintaining her weight and although she looks good her weight cannot go down anymore. Because she has been losing weight so quickly, I had been giving her Boost with extra calories, many, many times a day. I guess I got carried away, when she took her sweats off at the beginning of the race, James and my eyes pooped out because there was Stacy, looking beautiful, with a lot more meat on her than we could imagine. Big chested, curvy, with weight on the tops of her legs and her arms. She looked all women, not like a long distance runner and unfortunately she could not run if her life was depending on it. She came in last in all her races and looked so frustrated. She caused quite a stir with the spectators though. All the guys were running to the stands to see this gorgeous girl, not to see her run, just to see her. The next day the stands were packed and all the talk was of Stacy and her body. I told her that I would never again mess with her weight, that it was totally up to her because I obviously don't know what I am doing. The weight just dropped off her but unfortunately she got some stretch marks on her boobs because it happened all to fast. They stretch marks will fade eventually, but I felt so bad (she is so self conscious as it is) and her weight is all her control now, not me.



Our money pit
Brent had caused us some concern, or at least his friends have, we know they were drinking and we wanted to keep them safe and off the streets. We wanted to keep a better eye on our teenagers so we decided to invest in a pool table. If they are at our house maybe they won't get themselves in trouble. James kept a close eye on the classifieds and we found one. We went to the skanky part of Oshawa and I thought we were going to be ripped off because all we saw was the table in pieces, unfinished and all they showed us a leg and we bought it in good faith, James's good faith, not mine. They wanted $500.00 up front and they said they wouldn't cash it until the transaction was completed and I thought we lost the money but I was wrong. It is a beautiful pool table, really big retailing new at $8,000.00. We paid $3,000.00. James said that it was too big so we have to take down a wall, the old coffin wall we have always hated to make more room.

Our basement has always been a sore spot for us. We bought this house partly because we wanted a finished basement and you really don't look at the house very well when you first purchase it because when we got in we realized how horrible a job the guy did. We let the kids go wild down there when they were little but it was time to take back the basement and claim it as a place where we would like to hang out. We had noticed that Brent's friends were really being rough down there, a couple holes have been punched in the drywall and apparently ours wasn't the only house they had been demolishing, the Alexio's had huge holes in there basement and they were fixing theirs up too. Our pullout coach was ruined from a dozen kids laying on it all at once too but it had already had its day. So out it went! All the furniture - gone! We hauled so much to the dump even after I had given most of everything to the Valentine Toy and Bake Sale in February. So we figured if the basement was nice maybe they would take care of it.

There wasn't a level spot in the basement. James wanted to tear it down, start all over again but Dave Kegs suggested that with a little drywall compound we might be able to save it. Seven huge pails of compound later, the whole March break and a lot of help we finally got a half decent basement. The Kegs's helped out a lot, we painted the walls so many times and finally it was presentable. Paul, from down the street helped us by patching the carpet where the coffin used to be and so we didn't have to buy new carpeting! We all wanted a hockey theme so we spent a lot of time and made a hobby of finding unique hockey memorabilia for it.

Sports
Monica has been having a good year with sports in and out of the school. She tries to learn every sport she can and enjoys the friendly rivalry Holly and her have. She was proud of Holly when she won junior athlete of the year at the elementary school and Monica knows that they both pushed each other to do better. Monica tries out for every team at school whether it is academic or sports and makes every team. She is not as skilled at chess as some kids but when it came time for the chess tournament she was very composed and focused and that kept her in a lot of games and impressed Mr. Jeffery. The fear factor was not part of her game.

It was fun having Monica and April both on the basketball team at school. Miss Ryan taught them well and even though Monica was in grade 4, she played regularly and guarded a lot of older kids she knew from other sports. April is very positive and great for cheering on her team.

April was the treasurer for the Builders Club, I think it is mostly a fundraising effort. April was all eager to canvas stores so we phoned Zellers and asked them for a donation. April couldn't believe her eyes when they gave us their donation. It was a huge box of chocolate eggs. She proudly brought them into the assembly to the delight of the school.

As usual we had a lot of Baseball, all four girls on house league and 2 in select. Stacy tried out for select and didn't make it and there was a lot of controversy about it. Some of the girls who were always on it came for one try out and made it. In the tryouts they were always using Stacy as the pitcher and she was striking them out regularly. Many a coach and parent came up to Stacy during the season and said that she should have been on that team. She shone all season and was one of the strongest players in the league.

I guess my kids are getting older because this summer I could only rise up April and Monica to come on our early morning tennis fun, while the shade was still on the courts. The others just slept their mornings away. This is the first year I didn't regularly take the younger kids to the park and had to debate with April and Monica to go to the corner store! I miss the park and watching the fun so I take Billy about once a week, and he loves it too, it is my time with him.

Monica and April had a lot of Sports Camps Basketball Volleyball and Roller blading sports. And they still have the best neighbourhood you could hope for. They are only a few girls in the neighbourhood but the boys treat them like they are one of the boys. They rarely have to leave our street for any fun. Life is good!

We had April and Monica on the same baseball team as usual but this time the coach treated them so well, it was a pleasure to have him. Monica told Big Al at the beginning of the season that she knew everything there was to know about baseball so they had a sparing good time and at the end of it Monica could be heard saying ‘I know nothing about baseball'. He called her "Little One" she was so much smaller than anyone else because she was a couple of years younger than everyone. Everyone on other teams treated her like she didn't know about baseball at the beginning of the season. She would come up to the plate and they would all move in towards the infield. Soon they realized to move back in the field when Monica came up to bat! Her pitching was awesome as was the rest of her game and she never was seen on the bench. Al had a lot of baseball smarts and soon there wasn't a base Monica couldn't steal. April was still a positive good sport and was treated so well by Al, he used all her humour and energy in a positive way and a couple times actually held a lighter to April's bum while he chased her down the bases to make her hurry!

Monica had an excellent year in Select, she is an awesome pitcher and can pitch game after game and seems to get even better, doesn't get fatigued. The Rep team has been watching her this season and asked that she join their team. James has enjoyed coaching her because she is so upbeat and takes direction so well. James is also coaching Nadia's team.

Nadia was still one of the strongest, most accurate pitchers in sophomore, was the top draft pick. She can read a batter so well and rises to the challenge for the better hitters. She can work the latter like a pro and Nadia's inside pitches were so precise that it was sweet to watch. I could call what she was going to pitch by the way the batter reacted to her! But Nadia struggled with the bat. Nadia faithfully went to batting cage but it didn't seem to help, she moves her head at the last minute and it pulls her view of the ball away.

Brent wasn't in baseball this year he chose football. Brent thought that he was too old for us to be with him in sports so he wouldn't let us come and watch him play at first. He wouldn't even show his schedule or let us drive to the bus. One time we got a call from a hospital in Hamilton telling us he'd been hurt & another parent had to stay with him for 5 hours. He came home so happy, (we thought he would want to quit after getting that hurt) and yelled "I love football, I get to hurt people!" After that we were allowed to go.

It is pretty rough sport, one time while I was going to see Jessie's soccer game I came early to see Brent practice. He had been hurt, multiple times, his arm looked mangled and I felt bad that James might be taking him to the hospital while I was watching Jessie's game, but Stacy had asked me to be there at the request of Jessie so I stayed.

Out to Lunch
Nadia had a horrible experience at the end of school. She had a Rice Crispy square at school and apparently it had been laced with LSD. Poor kid didn't know what was happening to her and her fiends are very naive about drugs too because they are pretty straight and they hid her away in a closet. That probably made it worse. Some of the druggie people found out about it and analyzed her situation and figured out it was acid - LSD. I couldn't go pick her up so Marita did and she said that Nadia was definitely stoned- she kept ducking in the van because she thought the roof was coming down on her. We took her to the doctor who happened to be Mark and he said that she was definitely stoned and that he thought it was probably LSD, which is what the kids at school thought. He said that if it was LSD, the amount of time that had passed it would probably be out of her blood stream but any other kind of drug would show up. He phoned the lab and told them about it and they said that they believed it and that just the day before a kid had received a food product from the cafe of The high school and it was spiked with laxative. The school said it was an impossibility, that the cafe was monitored quite closely. They did however remove students from working in the café near the food.

Tighty whitey's
It has been hard but expected that guys would make a big deal out of Stacy but one time was so hilarious. Some guys, I guess they didn't see me in my parked car and they sure didn't know I was her mom, stopped by my car and were waiting for "the girl in the 'tighty whitey's" to come out. I tried to remember what pants Stacy was wearing and then she came out in white pants. They got all excited pointing her out and as she came there way they took refuge behind my van, not knowing that it is where Stacy would be ending up. When she opened the van door and I started the van, they took off in all directions! It was hilarious. She never wore the pants to school again.

Nadia made a video for Prom and it went over very well and also sold a hockey team a video that she made. It was played at the Sony Palladium.



My son through girls eyes
At one of the bantam tryouts I heard some of the girls talking about Brent, they didn't know I was his mother. They basically laughed when one of them said he was kind of cutie, they called him a computer geek and a nerd. Funny, but my feelings weren't hurt at all. I realize that the guys that they are after now are the ones that usually make a scene in class, are the rebels, or jocks and really stand out for attention. Some of them already look very mature and those are the things that attract the girls now. Later on they will notice the Jeffs and see that the ones who mature afterward have a lot to offer. These guys, the smart guys are the men that they ladies will be looking for later on to settle down with, they will have the extravagant lifestyle while the guys they thought were really something peaked in high school and it is all downhill from there! They will be the Al Bundy's of the world. One of the mothers overheard too and she was really embarrassed when I told her they were talking about my son. She brought her daughter Catherine Z. over and I told her that Brent was my son. She looked so uncomfortable and then said, "I really don't know what to say to him, he knows about things that I have no clue about" Later in the summer at a game she approached Jessie from behind and kept hugging him, she was basically all over him. Is Jessie one of those guys I was comparing my son against?


Our traveler
Nadia saved for and had her Europe trip. Unfortunately she decided to be private about what happened, she didn't tell us much, which was a disappointment until you remember she sometimes gets like that. Some of her friends told us bits and bites. She did tell us that she bought a bottle of Vodka and sold it a couple of times to different people and made some money on it. If people are silly enough not to realize that they could have gone out and bought it at the store themselves then they are free game. Nadia did get hurt there and ended up on crutches.

Post Card from Nadia
Hey Mom Dad, Brent Stacy, April and Monica!
How are you guys? I'm doing great, some really beautiful places there. I went down to the catacombs, which are tunnels (very old tunnels) under the city. They said there would be bones down there, but I didn't expect what we found. There were literally millions of dead people down there, well there bones anyway. It was incredible. I took pictures of everywhere so I'll show you what I am talking about. So how is baseball and Brent's football going? I heard Monica did great at her tournament and Brent won his first Football game. Great job guys! I wish I could have been there. I'm sure April is playing great too. And Stacy, how's that thumb? I hope you have been able to pitch for my team! Dad, Happy Birthday! And finally love ya mom. I love you and miss you all. See you soon.
Nadia Edwards

Community Kid
April is well loved in our neighbourhood by both parents and children. There wasn't a day go by where the little neighbourhood kids don't call on her. They seemed to flock to April and any idea she had was a good idea to them. April spent a good portion of the summer and weekends at Oylivia's just being with the kids, Oylivia love having her, said that she had five kids and sometimes introduced April as one of hers. April was in and out of the Kegs's pool and the Hatzes always looking after the young, I guess the way I did when I was that age too! Brian Kegs is only a couple of weeks older than Monica and this year the play got transferred from Monica to April. Brian and April seem like they are soul playmates, thinking on the same wavelength.

Lauren and April still spent a lot of time together but this summer it seemed like April was trying to integrate Lauren into our neighbourhood, which sometimes didn't work because Lauren is an only child and sometimes our house is just too much for her. We love having April and Lauren together and I never resent the time away that April has at Lauren's because I trusts Tom and Carol so much with her- and Gran.

One thing we won't pay for again is Wonderland passes. We paid $388.00 and our kids hardly went at all. Unfortunately we have to always be involved in the transportation end of it. You would think other parents would contribute but it is always the same parents that drive.

Summer School
Brent had to go to Summer School. Actually he didn't have to go he got 62% but since Science should have been one of his higher marks so he wanted to do better. I had a frustrating time with his teacher. In interviews and on the phone she would say that Brent was one of the smarter people she has known, but when I complained about his low mark she would say that he wasn't doing his own work, he was helping others. She said it was like having two teachers in her classes and it was wonderful. I said that perhaps she should make him sit down and do his own work and she would repeat how wonderful it was having someone helping her like Brent. Gurrr. Anyway he went to school in Pickering and we both got our eyes opened about how rough life can be. Every day there was in incident in his class where someone would get kicked out of summer school. One day the principal actually dragged a kid out of class while he was still in his desk! There was actually a mugging right beside my car on the last day and I didn't even realize it. Brent got threatened, he had group assignment and they decided that he had to do all the work because he was smart. Brent refused to do it, saying that he would rather get zero than be ordered around. He had gone into that with a 98% and it brought it down to 92%. Dan has summer school too so I got to know him from driving him home and having lunch with them.

Handling the boys
Stacy always was unaware to noticing any guy liking her, didn't think anything in that direction and would have to be told, the issue was always forced upon her. When a girl named Sara told people that she didn't like Stacy because James Finnigan liked her, the concept was so alien to her Stace tried hard to dismiss what Sarah had been saying. She didn't realize the boy liked the way she looked because the boy only ever said hi to her. She was very innocent in that way- in every way, I guess.

It was kind of weird but when Stacy accepted going out with someone it was almost so they wouldn't bother her about it, she acknowledged that she was going out with them, but then would spend their whole relationship, hiding from them, trying her best not to be near them. The guys would phone and she would run out of the house and I would have to tell them she had "just stepped out of the house" or she would run to the bathtub and I would say that she has just stepped into the tub. I wouldn't lie for her. She would write down what she was going to say if they phoned, she was soooo shy. To me she talked up a storm, so I knew all she needed was confidence.

It took Jodi, a new school friend, to tell her that Jessie was interested in her and arrange for them to get in contact. Jodi was with them a lot at first, I think Jodi fixed them up in spite of the fact she liked Jessie herself or because of it. I realized that Jodi got closer to Jessie because she got to talk to him more so having him interested in Stacy put Jessie directly in her path.
We found out that Jodi cried when they finally got together so I guess she was being selfless. That is the first reason I noticed Jodi, it confused Stace that why would she get her together all the time with Jessie if she liked him too but it was probably the only way she would get to know him better and get close to him. That made me remember my teen years and some of the confusion I felt with some girls. Stacy's feelings about Jodi became mixed and often times she would not be available when Jodi called.

Jessie was the first boy Stacy ever pointed out to me. She tried many times at school but there were always too many kids to know which one was Jessie. I finally saw him at the Oshawa Dome, he was involved in the soccer there while she was running the track. He told me later that they almost didn't go out because she was so shy that she wasn't saying anything to him. When he thought of giving up, she turned to him and asked him out again. I am glad he shared that with me. This type of relationship was new to us because this was the first boyfriend that she would actually want to be near. Jessie came to many of her baseball games and spent many hours talking to us at the games.
We all liked Jessie, he was talkative to us and Stacy seemed to lose some of her shyness, I think, because of their relationship. She is so regimented, it was funny to see the poor boy walk her all the way home from school on a hot day only for her to turn him away from our house because she didn't want him to see the house not tidied up. She wouldn't let him in unless the house was clean- ever. They each had two-week vacations away from each other and they both were committed to their sports so it was a pretty manageable relationship. He was involved in soccer and his parents were very involved with his life, which I always need to see. He had a comradary with his dad and was affectionate with his mom- always a good sign.

I took Stace out of Track for most of the summer and she gradually worked up to rejoining the legion by running the track with me, (while I walked) and once with Jessie. That was cute because when I went to pick them up they were drenched with there drinking water. I didn't have the normal size drinking bottle so I had to give her the huge kind, so I guess she won the water war with that!



One time, while walking the track the lawnmower man took a liking to me and while trying to get my attention decided to follow me with his riding machine. I was so lost in thought while I walked the track that he got so close I was almost run over! He thought I had a great smile and wouldn't leave me alone. Stacy came to my defense, all protective of her mom, but after that we stayed away on grass cutting days.

I saw something that really bothered me- the way Stacy handles unwanted attention from guys. I was a little distance away from her behind the soccer stadium watching Brents practice and I guess she looked like she was alone from the view point of the visiting soccer players and they started yelling suggestive things to her and climbing the fence like they were going to jump it to get her. They were doing rude gyrations to her and she just stood there looking totally unaware of what was going on. I ran up to her and yelling about it and she said that it didn't happened. I said that she should give them a dirty look, or the finger, or swear at them, or say that she was going to tell Jessie but no, she pretended nothing happened. That is what some girls do when they have been molested and denial is the worst way to handle things. This burying your head in the sand attitude she has really scared me.

April has been infatuated with a guy named Braden one grade lower than her and she is very vocal about it. I took a picture of him as I do lots of kids at school and she must have duplicated it dozens of times.

Fit to be Friends
Louise Crouch has been walking a lot with Nadia. Louise is involved in the hockey industry, where Nadia has had been studying in depth for the last couple of years. Louise is involved in hockey shows, gives Nadia posters. It started out that Nadia was just her client as she is a Nutritionalist. I think of it as a great relationship for Nadia. It is nice to have her friends with a professional woman, someone who has a completely different life than her mommy. Nadia has made a good effort into walking a lot this summer, thanks to Louis Crouch. She drops in on Nadia for walks and all of a sudden Nadia seems to enjoy them. She even goes on her own sometimes or meets some of her friends halfway to their house. She is learning good health habits so at least she is trying and she drinks so much water now, which has to be good.

Byte me
We were lucky that Brent was so interested in computers, he had 5 computers going with four hooked up to the internet. Brent is with Adam a lot and goes on 'binges' for lack of a better word, where he would see all of his friends every chance he could- hardly being home at all and then Brent would be home for weeks on end doing his own thing. I don't think his friends could ever figure that out but I accept the fact that Brent needs some solitary time, sometimes just staying up late by himself or with me was all he needed, sometimes weeks of it- who knows why, maybe that is the way Brent copes from being from a big family. Brent seems to be quite comfortable alone or with people. Oylivia has a special place in her heart for Brent and says she misses the large amounts of time they used to spend together because they both shared an interest in computers Oylivia has noticed and has been anxiously awaiting the end of his 'grunt' stage where that is all the dialog you can get out of them, most boys go through it but he is still friendly when they cross paths. I would say Brent is on the tail end and emerging from the grunt stage!

Brent gets so involved with his computer work that he woke me up at 2am one morning to say that he was going to Adam's to get some program. I didn't want him to go but he said that he could have gone without me knowing. I told him it was dangerous and he thought I was funny and went anyway. Well he got stopped by the cops and they made a scene asked if he was gay that he had to see his 'boyfriend' in the middle of the night. At least he tells me these things even if I could have said, 'I told you so', I respect Brent for our relationship.

Nadia was connected to the Internet every chance she could. She had a friend on there, his name is Derrick and it sounds to me that they are intellectually connected. She really enjoys his wit on the net!

Uprooting
James's dad is getting to the stage where he is talking about moving. I don't really think he wants to, he likes to be in one place. As a child he moved something like 30 times, so I think that he is thinking of it for us so that his kids don't have the burden if anything happens to them. We told them for years that we would move into their house when they were finished with it. It is perfect for an older big family with large family rooms, living rooms, basement and a pool. We would however have to have improvements done in the kitchen and bedrooms. We told him that we weren't ready but he said to get everything in order for a move if we wanted to. It is hard to consider after we have done so much work in our basement and we are just enjoying it for the first time since we have been here. Suddenly he changed his mind and is content to stay where he is, but I guess when the time comes we will have to act fast.

Lost
We had a big scare with Monica in the summer. She was at Holly's house and I phoned because it had been a long time since I had heard from her. Colleen said that they were out in the neighbourhood and she went looking for them. At that time she was told they were in the park and since it was dark and Holly was found but not Monica I went over to look too. Colleen was beside herself that Monica was alone when she was under Colleen's care. We couldn't find Monica anywhere and while we were in the park we noticed this van in the parking lot with a man in it. When we approached the van he started up his engine and Colleen actually blocked the van until we could talk to him and take a peek inside. It was scary. In the end we found her in the schoolyard with an older girl who lives across the street from Holly.


Fork in the road?
Brent is growing up sometimes too fast. I have been hearing rumours about what Brent and his friends are doing and it includes drinking. I made the mistake of asking Brent if he ever smoked pot and he said that he had in grade 8 with the Doobie Brothers, hence the name. At least he is honest with me.



Weeding out my thoughts
One thing that has drastically changed this year I am sad to say is my garden. I no longer seem to have the desire, time, need, I don't know but it just is not the same to me. I actually let my most prized day lily die. I dug it out to place it elsewhere in my garden and there it sat. I kept thinking that I should find a spot for it but still it withered away in a lump of dirt. I guess I don't have the need to be out side in the front as much since my kids as so much older and I don't have to watch them. Gardening used to let me relax while I stayed out with the. Still, you would think that I would take pride in what I have always loved to do. Maybe I am being hard on myself. I still bought annuals and spot placed them and I still weed, it is just that I don't buy new perennials very much.



Annie at 1/02/2000 03:58:00 a.m.


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