<p>Our German Shepherd once took and HID all the eggs … we found them for days and weeks afterwards.</p>
<p>cpeltz – when D was home for spring break, we had to stop by the In-N-Out nearest LAX on our way home.</p>
<p>zetesis, yep, that’s the one, he’s looking forward to a nice steak dinner tonight, then heading back early tomorrow. Four days is great, not quite so sure how 3 months will be!</p>
<p>one smart German shepherd. Our dog a golden, would get so sick if he ate any of that stuff. I hate to think of it, as I have had to cl!ean up after him before. and he loves to eat everything. Moda sounds like your lab had a cast iron stomach. Happy Easter to all</p>
<p>We still wonder what our shepherd was “thinking.” Reminds me of one of my favorite stories of my H’s childhood: He once got up into the cupboard, and ate as many of the chocolate cookies his mom had baked as he could. Then, because he couldn’t eat any more, he flushed the rest down the toilet. Now, what was HE thinking?</p>
<p>happy easter</p>
<p>dte—spent a sunny breezy afternoon at the local dog park with my golden Layla…with white wine to go…she’s always getting into the packs of gum my kids leave around…</p>
<p>I made my first ever leg of lamb today. It turned out beautifully - enjoyed by all…new potatoes with dill cream sauce, carrot souffle, etc. Yummy and a whole lot easier to put together than Thanksgiving dinner.</p>
<p>Son left to return to school at about 6:30 pm…we could tell he wasn’t thrilled about going back. </p>
<p>Don’t think the Baylor ladies are going to be able to beat UConn, but good for them for getting so far. I was so excited yesterday about Butler.</p>
<p>Yum, missypie. Leg of lamb tastes better than turkey, and those potatoes sound delicious. Good thing that MissySon doesn’t have much longer at Unhelpful College.</p>
<p>I quizzed son over the weekend, hoping that he was getting help from the academic success or disablities office without them communicating that to me. No…not a bit. On a positive (and funny) front, Son had his first appointment with the psychologist at the counseling center and reports that she is “smokin’ hot”, just out of grad school. I guess that’s one way to make sure these college guys keep their appointments!</p>
<p>Too funny, missypie. I guess if I had an attractive psychologist I’d be inclined to go, too! </p>
<p>S is home unexpectedly. He had left rehab this past Monday and ended up at a “sober house” recommended by the rehab folks. Not exactly what was represented. We’ve had a week of phone calls from son and we thought things were straightening out until last night. Frantic, crying phone call home- H ended up driving up to MD to pick him up after returning home from taking D back. Not ideal, but sometimes you just have to go with your gut. </p>
<p>Was doing some financial forms with D over the weekend- and there were so many questions I just didn’t know the answers to. Yes, we hope S will return to school- but where? I wish life didn’t have to be so complicated.</p>
<p>Sabary, is there another alternative to the sober house he left? Sometimes it’s the right idea, just the wrong place.</p>
<p>sabaray—agree with missypie…was the sober house mostly adults much older than your s?</p>
<p>Definitely the right idea, just not the best fit. Clearly a seamless transition would have been the best fit but just didn’t happen here. H is working on that this morning. S was just backsliding into depression and undoing a lot of hard work over the past 30+ days. So we’ll hope we can find a better placement quickly. Definitely not sitting on our hands here! </p>
<p>lindz, the house was a total of 6 young men ages 20-25. The idea is that the young men would find work through a job placement program (which turned out to be nonexistent) and pay their own way. We liked that idea as S likes to work and wanted to be more responsible (all good signs, we thought). He did manage to be hired on a “try-out” basis to start today for a paving company. I suspect that means they had a contract and needed day labor and then if he wasn’t needed past then he’d be out. The other young men evidently mocked him for being a “college boy” - several of them were parolees with significant drug issues. It sounds as if we didn’t do our due diligence, but it wasn’t a good fit all the way around. It’s amazing what people think you should accept or settle for when you’re dealing with a substance abuse issue. </p>
<p>Ah well, I don’t need to retire anyway. Ca-ching.</p>
<p>A few years ago, a colleague admitted to his alcohol problem and checked into an out of state rehab program that had been highly recommended. He came home after less than a week…we were initially disappointed but he said it was just the wrong place - a whole lot of the other folks there were non-working heroin addicts - he just didn’t feel comfortable there. Within a month he was off to another place full of guys like him - guys in the business world who had been hiding their issues for years. He could really relate to the people there and his treatment was a great success.</p>
<p>I agree - you just have to go with your gut.</p>
<p>good choice sabaray, sounds like it would only have demoralized your son…you’re right often in substance abuse care folks are not treated with the dignity they need. I’ve worked in numerous treatment programs and the old school believed in tearing people down…not only wrong to treat people that way but it never worked. glad your son has your support…good luck with your search.</p>
<p>missypie—good example of “when it works”</p>
<p>Oh sabaray! Glad you were able to bring him home and start the search again! Good Luck! Sending prayers for your strength and persistence to help S! </p>
<p>missypie…hoping your S perseveres and finds success despite the roadblocks put up by school! </p>
<p>We had a wonderfully warm Easter day. Made steak and shrimp on the grill and we all ate outside on the deck. Can’t remember doing that for years! Sad to send D2 back around 4:00 for the long drive back to school. D1 is still here as she has a dentist appt this morning and then off she goes this afternoon. Spent a lot of time talking with my niece who is a HS junior. Wow…she and her parents have some unrealistic expectations about colleges, ACT scores and scholarship opportunities. I fear they will be very disappointed.</p>
<p>One more Easter story: We still have an Easter egg hunt in the back yard on Easter afternoon…I fill plastic eggs with candy. Well, one year I must have put money in some of them because yesterday when I was filling the eggs, I opened one and found a $10 bill! Missypie’s own little Easter surprise!</p>
<p>^^^ Now that’s a pleasant surprise! </p>
<p>PS Let us all know the next time you plan to put money in the eggs – we’ll be there!</p>
<p>Maybe you could somehow tie it in with the bus tour to see all your decorations! You could have Easter decor that we could all travel to see - just leave the trees up all year and change the theme! </p>
<p>Somehow I think I’m functioning on too little sleep today. Or maybe not functioning at all.</p>
<p>We also hide the kids’ Easter baskets inside the house and after church they look for them. I think I’ve mentioned before that one of the Aspie traits about Son is that he can’t *find *things - his homework can be in the middle of the desk in his room and he’ll look right past it if he’s looking for it. Thus, hiding Son’s Easter basket has been problematic… he’d be this big old boy trying very hard not to be upset when his sisters had found their Easter baskets and he hadn’t found his. </p>
<p>Last year I decided to hide his in a very easy place - among the junk on his top bunk. I did the same thing this year and he made a comment that I must be running out of ideas because I hid his basket in the same place last year. I didn’t DARE say to a 19 year old MAN that I did that so he wouldn’t get upset that he couldn’t find his Easter basket!!!</p>
<p>When the kids were younger and we had the dog, we would plan an easter egg hunt with plastic eggs with clues in them which I would do in rhyme. This would inevitably lead them to their baskets which were usually in a very safe and secure location away from the dog – inside the dryer or the car (our dog could open the oven and doors to cabinets). H actually got up yesterday and hid the basket I made for D16, but considering she got her car on Saturday, I’d say she was ok in getting one smaller than typical.</p>
<p>I think s was slightly disappointed that we didn’t send him anything but it was more like a “oh” vs an “OH!”</p>