keep passing the open windows

I’ve written about my nephew F. before. He’s twelve, going into 7th grade, and the second child of my younger sister, M. He has a penchant for posting questions on Yahoo! Answers and they never fail to crack me up.
His most recent question:
“Am i sphyickec if it’s real?”
“for the last year [...]

Saturday night I took the kids, Tay, Rea, and W., to see a performance by the BBQ Kittens, an improv group that performs shows similar to “Whose Line is it Anyway.”
On the way there we met Chris to switch cars. During the Chinese Fire Drill Chris dropped his OUR cell phone. [...]

I think my nephew F. may some day be a multimillionaire. He’s eleven and the most entreprenurial member of my family, by far. He collects items on trash day to repair and re-sell. Once he took an instrument to the shopping center near his house and played it to collect tips. [...]

I was asked to chaperone this Friday’s middle school dance, I said “Yes” and graciously offered up the services of my husband, too. Now comes my dilemma, how to tell the kids. Last year when I told them we were chaperoning they both cried. There were many proclamations of “You’re ruining my [...]

Tonight I called DCFS on one of my daughter’s friend’s parents. I’m not sure if I did the right thing, or, more accurately, I’m not sure if it will actually help.
Some background, Reagan has been friends with the child, “Venus,” since kindergarten; Venus is a smart girl, funny and vivacious, however, she does [...]

I’m glad it’s Christmas vacation. Reagan is getting a break from her bullying situation. Hopefully that will blow over during the holidays. Maybe not, though, since the Tuesday before break the other child struck Reagan at school and we called the police…. I’m hoping that won’t make the situation worse, but [...]

Today my son and his 8th grade class are taking the Constitution test, the exam you must pass to be promoted to 9th grade.
The teacher prepares them very well for the test. There are tons of worksheets, essays and packets of paper for them to fill out and study in the preceding [...]

Recently I was reading a thread about the mall shootings in Nebraska. The poster was asking if that tragedy has caused you to think twice about going to the mall and if you worry while you are there that something might happen.
I started to write a comment but didn’t post it realizing I sound [...]

A post that Jadegirl wrote made me think about my own situation with my kids’ paternal grandfather, Larry.
Larry has always been an asshole. My husband did not have an easy childhood; his parents divorced when he was young, then remarried; Larry was a drug addict, often unemployed and often cruel to my husband and his [...]

My son’s friend, B. “Your house makes me think of a trailer.”
Me: “Why?”
B.: “I think because of the long skinny hallway.”
Me: “Gee, thanks.”
B.: “But a really nice trailer.”