Blah...

This has been a long week, I caught a cold which started as a sore throat and I figured within 3 days it would be over. However, it's dragged out and progressively gotten worse, day by day. It finally peaked yesterday and I'm on the road to recovery, although I've been told the cough stays with you for up to 3 weeks. Devon has been home for the past 5 days, he has a bad nonproductive cough.
Kiesha is done with Volleyball, she had a big tournament which went from Friday-Tuesday. By the end we had unhappy students and parents because the idiot coach was caught favoring a handful of his players whom would be permitted to play the majority of any given game, while the remainder of the team were benchwarmers. After conversing with a fellow disgruntled Mother, I'd relented and had a 40min conversation with the Coach, the arrogant ass tried to tell me lies and deny that he had favorites, but the truth eventually came out. I'm disappointed that I hadn't had an opportunity to get involved in this situation earlier in the volleyball season, but I'll be more aware for next year if this idiot is still coaching.
Devon is done football season. I had a long conversation with his Principal last year because of the lack of knowledge that was being provided for the parents in general and the ongoing issues I was having in trying to Coach the basketball teams for the past two years, due to lack of organization and procrastination. I was told this would be remedied, but there is no indication that things have improved in seeing the management of this football team, we as parents have been poorly advised of games. I'd tried to speak to the football Coach and the Teacher sponsor about getting an updated schedule, both of whom told me would be issued to Parents, but it was not. I didn't find out until Devon called me after school to ask if I could drive the team.... I told him he could relay to the Teacher & Coach that they could suck on an egg, because they should have arranged this in advance and advised parents about the game!
Kiesha initiated a conversation about picking a career, she seems pretty relaxed about the idea. We reviewed some job options, how long it would take to complete schooling, where the education was available, wage expectations and job availablity. I'd hoped she'd express interest in one thing, or the other... but nothing. Which is a concern because it's the not knowing or lack of interest in a direction that could leave her drifting for years in career aspirations. For myself I wish I had more knowledge at her age, because I would been done school and have a career. Dennis still wants to be a Airplane Pilot, I'm still trying to think about how to get him involved to see if it's truly the direction he wants to go, I'm not sure he's ever flown on a jet. Devon wants to be a Police Officer, he's still fairly young and I'm sure it will change.
Heath had made all sorts of goals in efforts to improve his relationship within the family. He wants to start hiking with the kids more often. He's started doing the dishes daily with Devon in order to assist him in learning how to have the dishes done appropriately and in a timely fashion, but also to spend some one-on-one time with him on a daily basis for bonding. He's commited to taking care of the kids in the evenings for two hours 2-3X week while I attend the gym, during which he'll take them to the swimming pool for one evening and their Spare Blox programs. I also gave him the book; "Parent Effectiveness Training" I've read it twice and it has always opened my eyes to the poor habits we've learned from our own caregivers, whether we've noticed it or not.
I finally completed my xmas shopping for Lori & Larry, I got Lori what I would refer to as retro native sweater and I'm making Larry a 2009 scrapbook of the 5 grandchildren. I worry about whether they will apprectiate the gifts, as I don't know them very well and have no idea what things they like, or don't like. I've had no problems accumulating gifts for my 3 boys, but Kiesha is very difficult to buy for now that she's no longer into childrens toys. I also have concerns about what everyone else has purchased for the kids and whether we're going to have an overlap in gifts, skating helmets, skate boards, Halo and Bionicle items. Communication in these matters have been difficult, I've made several attempts to ask about gift ideas for Lori/Larry which took at least 3X to get a feasible answer, just for Lori. This is going to be very different, I've been doing xmas with Don/Valerie for years, then we've been doing it on our own since they've passed, now to intergrate with a large family for the holidays feels chaotic!
Alas, we'll go with the flow and hope for the best....