speaking of homework...

Ok, so Justin tells me that they marked him absent this morning because he was just a little late "or something stupid like that." I asked him to define "a little late" and he says less than 20 minutes. Or well, probably less than 15 minutes. Bagh! I reminded him that I let him skip seminary this morning because he was up late doing homework but clearly that won't happen again since he can't get his butt to school on time. AND, this was late start day which means school doesn't even start until 8:45 and he was up at 7 so there's no reason to have been late. I told him to leave the house by 8 and he'd be fine. It must have been one of those 'mom's stupid and doesn't know what she's talking about' moments when he decided he didn't have to leave that early... Then he says, "Oh mom, in American Gov (keep in mind this is his honors class) I haven't done any of the homework or taken notes in class and I still got a 90% on the test." At this point my mind goes off in a couple different directions - one side is saying 'great!' for the test part because he's had a hard time and been really worried about the test. The other part of my mind is saying 'holy crap! and you wonder why you have an F in the class!?' I of course take the very undiplomatic and unsupportive route and say "I suppose you want me to be happy but you just admitted you haven't done any of your homework..." As soon as I say it I'm already regretting it. He cuts in and says of course I'm not happy he knew I wouldn't be. Oh drat! I swear I can't seem to get this right! And quite often I feel like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I just don't understand why he can't see what I see, simply that if he can do that well on a test in his honors class without trying very hard then he can do really well if he actually put some work into it and stopped whining!!! Aagghh! I'm screaming silently in my head so as not to alarm anyone but really! I wonder if all teenagers are this much work or if mine is just a pain in the butt? (Ok, I'm pretty sure I know the answer but I would still like to wonder because maybe it'll make me feel better somehow...)

Perhaps I can ask the gaggle of jr high girls that I walk past every afternoon to explain their pov to me. Nah, that wouldn't help either.

impersonating a teenager

Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to impersonate a teenager. This is especially true when I'm walking to the bus stop with my hoodie and my backpack and I'm rockin' my pod (this little phrase came from the salesman helping us spend a lot - oh, I mean - get a sweet set up for Justin to ride this winter on the slopes dude!) I also have the luxury of that rosy glow, usually reserved for teenagers, upon my face - but don't worry the old lady bags under my eyes, that grow bigger and darker every day, offset the acne so that instead of a sad sort of 'youthful' I just look a mess...

I also used to be a morning person but I've reverted back to being a night person. Not so much because I like staying up late as that I'm up late doing homework and get up waaay too early. I hate getting up. Can someone please find more Saturdays for me? And how about more LDS kids so they can do release time seminary again... Okay, okay, I'll stop whining.

Lest there be any confusion, Justin DOES NOT think I look like a teenager - I'm still his same ol' frumpy mom!

Squeaky Voices

Is it wrong to laugh, usually under my breath, when I hear Justin and his friend getting all into their video game saying things like "Dude!" or "What're you doing!?" with a nice squeak in the middle of each syllable? Or sometimes the squeak is at the end of the word. Sometimes you can't hear it but others it's so obvious it just makes me laugh. Just now it was a whole series of "Dude!"s and every one of them was squeaky. I of course, being the considerate mother that I am, leave the room before I laugh or I hold it in and try to keep the smile on my face to a minimum whenever I'm close by but really, it makes me giggle.