Dazed and Confused

I haven't been blogging lately because so much is going on and I don't know what to say about it. This new life is truly a roller coaster. We are having many days that are so much fun, but they are interspersed with some horrible clashes. The boys are still taking turns misbehaving. But the temper tantrums are rising to new levels. I, on the other hand, am doing an increasingly good job of pretending it doesn't bother me. Ha!

I like to think I'm not too materialistic and the boys mean more to me than any possession I could possibly have. But...I've been living alone for 9 years where no one broke anything but me. So when Joey puts my home telephones in the dog bowl to punish me or Josh makes a gash in my brand new dining room table with the sharp, eraser-less end of a pencil, it does hurt me...even though I have to pretend it doesn't bother me at all. This is something I'm struggling with. The stuff does not matter more than the boys...but it doesn't matter zero either. I've worked very hard to live in a nice home with nice furniture and such. And if they destroy it all, I will still find ways to love them through that. On the other hand...I really hope they don't.

Josh is having a really hard time. He has started copying Joey's temper tantrums to the best of his tiny frame's ability. He screams "Meany" and "I hate you" and "I just want to die". All of which he got from Joey. And Joey has been ramping up at such a velocity that the psychiatrist has put him back on meds. He's extremely unhappy about that. But, so far, he's taking them without incident.

On the fun side, we went to a UT football game with the whole family that was tons of fun. We went to the Pond Springs Fall Festival at their school and played games and really enjoyed ourselves. They are loving rock climbing and Fit Academy and Chess Club.

The good parts are really good and the bad parts are really bad. Extreme times.