Happy Friday everyone! Life on the Ponderosa is getting back to normal now. The time leading up to a big party is quite stressful, but I think the party was a huge success. And boy, there is a lot of beer in our garage. The people that came surely know what Paul really enjoys.

Emilyism for the week is this....she was reading Beauty and the Beast to me (just telling me the story) and somewhere on page whatever, Beast needed to look at pbskids.org. Not sure if Beast knows what the internet is or for that matter has a computer, but it was cute. When I asked her if she was sure that's what it said, she was very confident.

I have said lately that I am really enjoying Meg and her 10 year old ways. Do I want to put her out in the snow somedays? Sure. But she has so much spunk, it's easy to love her more. She came home Wednesday and said she was sure that Cameron was cheating on her. But after a great pep talk (I like my pep talks) about how boys are idiots, she seem to feel better. However, I'm pretty sure Paulie was not happy about that pep talk. I told her that the only men she could count on right now were her Dad, her brother and her Grandpas. She added UJ :) As for the Cameron situation, I think she just doesn't want to lose him as a friend and I said as long as you stay nice you never will. Besides, what does "cheating" really mean to a 4th grader? That he looked at another girl? If I got mad everytime my husband glanced at a pretty lady, I'd be mad all the time. It's in their blood. It's who they are.

Sarah is battling major dry skin issues on her hands this week. So any helpful tips would be appreciated. Right now, I have her using a body butter from B&B to help with it and it seems to be getting a little better. Poor thing. Also, she told me this morning that she would like a Cat In The Hat at our house. Not the stuffed version either. The one with the picker-upper. I think I could manage that. We could use a picker-upper around here. Right now we have one and it's called "Mom". But "Mom" sometimes runs out of energy.

Paulie had a tough week too. Some stupid boy teasing him in the locker room. But Paulie pointed out that the kid is shorter than Meg and I laughed and said, well, why don't you say to him that when he gets as tall as your little sister, then come back. But until then, leave me alone. He giggled at that and seem to be better about it. We'll see what happens today.

I had a heart-to-heart with a friend yesterday on the phone that was talking about having another baby. And I realized that I really am done having children. I wasn't jealous, or envious that she would be venturing down that road again. It was reassuring to know that my life was as complete as I thought it was.

We also talked about schools and bullies and how mean kids can be. And I said that I can't control much of what comes out of some little punk's mouth at school. What I can control is what kind of environment they come home too. Make sure that this home is a place where they can feel comfortable to tell us what is going on in their lives.

Had a talk with Paul a few weeks back about alcohol and drug use. He wondered if he had enough knowledge to help him in those situations. First of all, I pointed out to him that he was a graduate of the DARE program and he could use those tools to help him. But I also said, that simply saying "no" is the best response. And no matter what happens, where he is, or what he's been doing. I will come and get him. I said you may not always make the right choice, the smart thing to do is to realize that you didn't make the right choice and ask for help. That's what makes you a grown-up. What makes you mature. I think he understood that. I hope he did.

Parenting is so hard these days and you want them to have experiences to make the right choices, but I think the flip side is that when they make the wrong choices, you are there for them too. I can think of countless grown-ups who still make wrong choices. We're all human. It's our choices who make us who we are....that's from a movie. Probably Transformers considering how much of that I've watched in the last month or so.

Well, enough of my rambling. Enjoy your weekend!