It's an adjustment.

Last night my oldest, laid back as can be son had a meltdown.

He is not really a meltdown type. He's so cool, calm & collected most of the time. He played it off like he was frusterated with his homework, but then I heard the truth in the form of a mutter: "I hate Oklahoma. I wish we never left South Carolina."

And it hit me like a ton of bricks.

The hubby & I had noticed some uncharacteristicly low grades coming home in his folders lately, and a major attitude brewing. Granted, he's 9 and I've been told that the attitude of teenagers starts early, but it was so out of the norm for him. He's such a go-with-the-flow kind of kid. These were signs of him not adjusting, and I just didn't see it. I was too busy wallowing in my own self-pity of hating the crazy, can't-make-its-mind-up weather and longing for my friends and the beach that I didn't even realize he was having an even harder time acclimating that I was. Way to be an on-the-ball mom. Nice.

I feel like it's partly my fault, too, because I'm guilty of voicing my complaints about Oklahoma in the presence of my kids. I realized last night that if I want my kids to succeed in getting used to a new place, then I need to show them how. I can't just expect them to dive in headfirst and come up smiling. I need to show them how to hold their noses and then swim to the surface. I need to give them positives instead of just pointing out the negatives. And I'm the first one to tell you I'm a pessimist, so that's going to be a major working point for me. But if it means that my kids will be better able to cope with a new environment, then I will bust my butt to get myself in the right mindset to make that happen.

It's going to be a process, I'm sure, but I know that they'll get there. We all will.

(It will definitely help if the weather can warm up and keep the snow and rain and tornado threats away though!)

Apparently I just attract jerks.

Since we moved into our rental house in January, we've had issues with a neighbor. Things have gone from him nit-picking over the appearance of our yard (resulting is us getting cited on two seperate occasions from the HOA) to him threatening me and my kids because we were playing basketball on our own driveway during daylight hours. I've looked up the rules & regulations for our subdivision and basketball hoops are not prohibited.

I contacted the HOA this morning regarding the issue and they advised me to contact the local authorities and file a report.

Why is it that people can't just be civil? Why must they feel like the whole world owes them? Maybe life has dealt him a rough hand. I do not know. But what I do know is that whatever is making him so angry is not anything that myself or my family has done...we're just unlucky enough to be the people that he takes it out on.

I am trying to be the bigger person in this situtation. When he confronted me yesterday I was very calm and never once raised my voice, despite him using vulgar language in front of my children, even after I'd asked him to not say those things with them around. I will do everything I can to keep my yard in check and avoid his yard like the plague. I will pray for guidance from Heaven and for patience in dealing with him. I will not stoop to his level. But I also will not be bullied and will not tolerate the harassment to my family.

So a phone call to the police I will make.

Regarding Rude People...

I have a little story for you.

While using the automated postal kiosk at the Post Office this afternoon, I dealt with an incident regarding a woman and my 6 year old son.

I was standing at the kiosk and asked Jonah to please throw away the sticker backing for me, thinking it would give him something to do while I finished shipping items. He decided to play basketball with his brother and threw the paper over to the can. I turned around and reprimanded them saying that there were other people around and they needed to be respectful and not throw things because they might accidentally hit someone. So Jonah decided to slam dunk the paper into the can. He reached in and retrieved said paper and I turned around, took the paper and said "Jonah, that's gross. DO NOT put your hands in the trash can." I turned back to the kiosk to print my reciept and Jonah went back into the can for his paper, when the woman who was standing at the table next to him grabbed his hand and said "Hey! What did your mom tell you??" Then she proceeded to get in his face and scream "KNOCK IT OFF!!" at him. Jonah came to me scared and I was telling him to stop acting up because he was disrupting the other customers when I overheard the woman mumble something to the person next to her about 'bad kids'.

It took every ounce of restraint to keep myself from confronting the woman and in doing so, set a bad example in front of my kids. I decided to use it as a learning situation and explain to Jonah (and the other two kiddoes) that you have to behave in public places because some people may get upset with you, and then you'll get embarrassed and so will Momma.

But really, I wanted to slap the woman and tell her to keep her crazy hands off my child and shut her judgemental mouth before I shut it for her.

Did I do the right thing in keeping quiet and leading my kids out of the Post Office? Or should I have stood up to her and defended my family?