Well, I have survived a couple of weeks now without a computer.  The break-in seems to have been part of a coordinated ring which was pretty extensive and involved much worse offenses, but the good news is that the info we provided has led to 2 arrests.

But enough about that sort of thing.  I’ve enjoyed a little painting, reading, working in the yard, and getting back into my self-study Historical Survey of the New Testament.

My older son has completed most of the “hoops” involved in getting set to enter the Army.  He plans to be a medic, but he is also being offered airborne. That is so cool.  A parachute jump has been on my bucket list for a long time, so maybe some day he and I can jump together!

Well, here is a humorous story for your entertainment;

As you know, hubby keeps a garden.  One of his hobbies, besides shooting, and guitar-making, is raising reaaalllly hot peppers.  My younger son, a sophomore, talked about it in school and all of the sudden he had bunches of friends who wanted to try the hot peppers.  So what does he do?  He puts 12 of the second hottest peppers known to man, into his book bag like some drug pusher, and carries them to school, selling them at two bucks a pop.  Now, he pulled them out before he left, and showed them to me, and I told him that it was NOT a good idea.  I said, “that is the sort of thing that can turn into some major incident and get you in a lot of trouble”.  He said that he was just going to give them to friends that asked for them, and he has already warned them about how hot they were.  He hangs out with several kids after school, and so I told him that he could take them and let those friends try the peppers after school got out, and NOT on school grounds.

Well, at 11:30, my friend Barbara and I were about to head out for lunch together, when the phone rang.  It was the principal.  She and I know each other well from when I used to be the elementary school nurse, and she was the assistant principle at the elementary level.  She said “Mrs. Lloyd, I have Isaac here in my office, and we have a kid in the nurses clinic with an upset stomach and throwing up because he ate a really hot pepper.  This is something we have to take seriously because we never know who might be allergic, and even the child may not know it.  She knows my kids, and that they are honor roll and well-behaved (usually) so she said she was going to let him off with a warning.  My son later told me that when she was on the phone he could see, but not hear her, but he saw her jaw drop at one point.  That was probably at the point when I said, “no, Mrs. Thompson, I don’t think that you should let him off with a warning because we discussed this before school and he was not supposed to bring them out at school”.

So she gave him “In school suspension” but she said that there were a lot of kids already in there today, “real troublemakers”, so he could do his time the following day.

After I got off the phone with the principal, we got in the car and headed to the restaurant, and I got this text from my son: “Am I grounded?”  I merely responded “I will pick you up today, and we will talk then”.  A little later, as we waited for the waitress to bring our food, he texted again: “I’m sorry I didn’t do what you said”.  I let him sweat a little, then answered “Love you”.  He answered “Love you too”.

Barb and I had a few chuckles over it all, and when I picked him up, he was very solemn and quiet.  I know I spent a good hour, going through all of the possibilities of what could have gone wrong, and at first he acted upset over the fact that he had been “off the hook” until I stepped in.  Had he not gone there, the lecture would have been much briefer, but then I had to impress upon him that it is my prerogative, as the parent, to allow the school’s disciplinary measures stand.  He didn’t think it was fair, because no one got hurt.  Yet he was worried about the fact of a permanent mark on his record and how that might effect his college options.  So with a little more verbal maneuvering I was able to get him to see that someone did get hurt, and it was him, and that was my entire concern, his well-being.  It is why I told him to keep it in his book-bag to begin with.

After the long ordeal of calmly but insistently guiding the discussion to the point where he was able to see my position, the school’s position, and the risks, he had quite a change of attitude, and as we got up to go get a snack, I said “now, let me take off my parent hat”, and said “you see, we as parents may see the humor in what you do, but we are obligated to make you see the real risks too.  Sometimes we have to suppress our own laughter and put on the stern face, and do that duty, because laughing would trivialize what is serious about a stunt they’ve pulled.  But it is so cool that they are now at the age where they can begin to understand those things.  Because after the discussion, then we had several more minutes through out the evening, where we were able to laugh about the antics. Apparently the kids were more than happy to cough up two bucks a pepper, just to have the experience!  He re-enacted the reaction, which was identical to every kid who ate the peppers,  in that there was first the enthusiasm, that first bite, a smirk, and then a pause……then the coughing, sweating, crying, and begging the teacher for a hall pass for water, would ensue.  The teachers caught on, and flatly denied them the hall pass.

Had it not been for the one kid, heretofore dubbed “Pepper-puker”, he’d have gotten away with it.  But he made twelve bucks off the endeavor, and orders are still pouring in.  Not only that, but he had somehow achieved cult hero status by second block.  Teachers and students alike were talking about the kid with the peppers, and he chuckled later that night as he said “I can hear it now at my graduation speech”.  “Hey, aren’t you that kid, the one with the peppers?”….

I have said many times, when they get old enough that they are no longer my responsibility, they are going to be such a hoot!  We make our own fun here in Lloydville!   One thing’s for sure.  There’s never a dull moment here.  God love ’em, teenagers are a blessing.

Well, the countdown has begun.  8 months from now our eldest will not only be graduated, but in basic training!

Time just flies, doesn’t it?

Miss you guys!