appalling

My sister called tonight, asked how the kids were.

"Appalling."

"Whaat? Those kids are not."

"You asked. I 'm telling you the truth."

Today I had two handsome police officers on my front steps. Apparently someone from our home called 911.

Nooo. Nobody called. There's no emergency. I offered for them to come in and check if they wanted to.

"No, that's okay. Could it have been those kids out back playing with that dog that looks like Gentle Ben?"

Wow. Maybe. I offered if they wanted to talk to the kids. They said no. They don't want kids to be put off from making a legitimate 911 call in the future because they felt intimidated in a previous call.

Okay. That makes sense.

Turns out, it was Julia. She was bored. She also called 411. Tim knew she did this, but he's not much on tattling. 411? That's the phone company! You can't be bothering those people either!

And the police! Here they're at our house because you're goofing around, being an idiot. What if there was an actual emergency and they're over here playing around? That's terrible.

So she's getting watched, which means she has to be where I am, no matter what boring old thing I'm doing, she has to stay where I can see her--direct supervision, so she can't get bored and engage in any other nefarious activities.

Little Jay called to have a philosophy paper proofread. I asked him if he'd ever been bored?

Yes, many, many times.

Did he ever call the cops due to boredom?

Noooo.

I asked him if he felt sorry for me having to deal with kids this bad. He said, "I do a little bit, actually."

Later we took Tim to vision therapy and Julia went with me to buy a bottle of wine. They offered her a sucker and she thanked the lady and asked if she could take one for Tim too. Of course they said sure.

Then when we picked Tim up, and it was time to give him his sucker that she'd thoughtfully obtained for him?

She'd eaten them both.

That's when I told her she was appalling. Breathtakingly naughty. Unbelievable. You ate his sucker? AND you called the cops? WHY? What has come over you??

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 70 degrees and sunny. Oh, may some sunny days bring back my normal child? This one is driving me nuts. love, Val

i love her, even when she's a turd