Tales of a tardy 15 year old.

Yesterday, as I promised, I implemented operation "embarrass teenage son into compliancy." My son has had issues with tardies since the beginning of the school year resulting in discussion after discussion and grounding after grounding. "What, pray tell, are you doing before 1st period that is preventing you from getting there in time." I asked. "Uhhhhh.. talking?" he answered. ARGH!! Instead of walking off the bus and going to class, Kris walks off the bus and goes down to the school cafeteria, buys himself a chocolate milk and converses with his friends and is unable to discipline himself enough to say "I must get to class." To say that Kris has little impulse control is the understatement of the year but with all my years of Psychology, I really have no solution other than the system of consequences and finding the right combination of them. After his last bout with tardies which resulted in three days of detention my son tried to tell me was extra help in Math and that's why he stayed after school, I warned him next time his mommy would walk him to class. Kris laughed it off. Nah! Mom won't do that. She loves sleep too much. Maybe so but when I say something, I generally mean it. So Tuesday night I told Kris I would be getting up at 5:30 am to escort him to his first period class. He chuckled, "I'll just make sure I'm out early." "Not if I get up before you, son." "You're not going to do that." he said. Ha! Well watch me. Stubborness runs deep in my family. I have it. My brother has it. My dad is loaded with it. And, it has been passed to all three children in spades. I set my alarm for 5:30, started the coffee and was in the bathroom getting ready when Kris shuffled up the stairs to take his shower. He saw me there and the crestfallen look on his face was priceless. As we turned into his school, he directed me to park around the back, he was going to take me in the back way. Fine, I said, I promised that anyone who asked me was going to get the full story on just why I was there. As we entered the back way, there was a security check point. I introduced my son and kept my promise by explaining. Some students snickered. Kris turned red. But, I was not allowed to pass through. One of the security people escorted me to the upstairs checkpoint. GOOD! I thought, we walked right through the main stairway and through the main hallway and Kris saw some of his friends. GOOD! I spoke to the main checkpoint and she suggested I see the Dean to obtain special permission. I asked the security person to usher my child to class which she did and I had a nice conversation with the Dean who gave me permission to escort my son this morning. Operation successful today. As I dropped Kris off to his English class, I told him the next time he's late, I will obtain a seat in the back of the class and learn Farenheit 451 right along with him and escort him to second period too. I mean business this time, I said as loud as I could so that all the other kids could hear. The check point person asked if she would be seeing me tomorrow. I hope not. I hope I got my point across. It is now up to Kris. Generally, he was a very good sport and when he entered his classroom he told his teacher, "I've been escorted."

Yesterday's Dr. Appt was nothing big, more bloodwork. BP is good. Counts are good. I"m not surprised as I'm on the placebo but my Oncologist assured me not to worry and to enjoy the break. Sometimes I wish they would just go in, take the nodules out and if and when they grow back, maybe there will be a cure??? Probably not but it looks like there is some promising research in the works. John Kanzius' seems to be the most hopeful and could be a blockbuster if it works as designed. He developed a machine that uses nanoparticle technology. Nanoparticles are injected in the blood stream, taken up by the tumors which have larger, leakier blood vessels than normal tissue, and his machine cooks the nanoparticles, destroying the tumors from the inside out, with radio waves. MD Anderson is leading the way in development and hopes to bring this technology to trials in 2010 after they cure about 10K rats of various cancers.

Cassie had a band concert last night at one of the local high schools in a concert called the "Annual Band Exchange." It's generally a promo for entering freshman. It's purpose is to generate interest in pursuing the band program and the high school put forth their best band so the kids could hear how they may sound after 4 years. Cassie's band played with another 8th grade band in the district and the evening was capped off with the uber band from the high school. After the concert was over, she asked which band was my favorite. "Yours of course" I said "And you played so well that you were the whole band!" Cassie gave an annoyed look and said "A band is made up of all the players and you were supposed to say we all did a good job!" I just can't get it right, can I?