Hi Everyone!!

You know, there are times when we as parents just need to brag about our kids.  I find that this is one of those times!! 2 of my 3 kids are very involved with the Y.M.C.A and their youth groups.(I am not sure what happened to the my other child, none of us are perfect) Anyway, my 15yr old son spent Sunday morning on a walk for Autism. This is something that my 2 children (again, I can only try) have done for a number of years. When he came home, I asked how it went, thinking I would hear stories about the children with Autism that they met, and what he did to help out.  The answer that I got from my 15yr old son was, I saw Becka, now Becka was his girlfriend untill last week when they decided to break-up, because they live in different towns, and she has dance 4 days a week, and it was too hard to see each other because neither of them have their license, and how he was really upset, but they have decided to be good friends for now, but he saw her and she looked so beautiful! Now as most of you are wondering as was I why am I hearing this, all I wanted to know was how was the walk, how did it go making the cotton candy ect., yet this is what I get.  I blame this on my self teaching my children about being honest and open with us as parents.  Be careful what you wish for my friends!! My daughter Amanda who has been with the Y since she was in the 7th grade, and then went on to run the group all through high school, and it helped her to get into college, because the College she goes to is also the founder of the Y.M.C.A. This weekend my daughter Amanda spent her Saturday volunteering, for the show Extreme Home Makeover, who happen to be in the city where she goes to school.  You have to understand where she goes to school, that we pay $37,000.00 a year for her to go, as you make your way to her campus, there are burning cars on cinder blocks, graffiti everywhere, bars on all the windows and doors.  Then as you turn the corner to enter the campus, it is like the garden of Eden. The president of the College's house, is nicer than any house that I have seen on any Houses of the Rich and Famous!! It is the strangest thing I have ever seen, The kids on campus are not allowed to be out on certain days, such as Halloween, they are all locked in their dorm's because it is gang initiation bight in the city.  Gang initiation night!! That's right!! Anyway, they were doing the show in the city where she goes to college, so all the girls in her suite all went to volunteer. Now if I didn't know my daughter better, and know her volunteer history, I would say she was going just to get on t.v. So they dolled themselves all up, and picked out the cutest outfits, and headed down to where they were taping.  She called me later that night to tell me how everything went. She told me how they were exhausted, how they were there all day, how they had to stand around for hours, until finally they were needed.  so they gave them the shirts, to which my daughter and her friends, had to make them "cuter" I have no Idea how this was accomplished, but I believe that it was a success.  They were then all given hard hats, that were not "cute" at all but the rule was that they had to be worn while "on set" a t.v. term apparently.  So they followed some guy who them put them in a room where all 10 of them were given their jobs. Now I am picturing in my head, my little girl and my adopted girls all wielding hammers, building walls, putting in windows, you know, jobs like that.  She proceeds to tell me that they they had to get water for the other workers.  That was her job, getting water!!! I guess everyone has their part.  Then they did a scene with Michael the designer, and that was the end of the day, and they were going to return the next day to yell "Move that bus!!" So I called her to Sunday night to see how things went, and she told me that they all got up, and got dressed, (as cute as possible) and headed down, excited to see how excited the family was going to be. When they got there, it was packed, there was hardly room to breathe!! They all got in with the group that were packed in like sardines, ans she informed me that she was so "hung over" to stand there all day so her and a couple of the girls went home! Now, here is where the open lines of communication with your not quite legal child come into play!! I am proud of the work that I have done, that my baby feels that she can tell me how she was so hungover, she could not stand, and yell "Move That Bus" now I have never actually yelled at a bus to move, but I am thinking it can't be that difficult, hung over or not.  This is where I am wondering why I did not leave well enough alone, and savored Saturday night's phone call, and left it at that, but no, I had to call to hear what more of how wonderful my child is. Especially when I need 2 of my children to make up for the other one that I am still trying to figure where we went wrong.  So my friends, the moral of this story is keep the lines of communication open with your children, and leave well enough alone!!!!