Parenting: Hardest job ever

O.K. so this past week did not see the much hoped for improvements. It was the week from you-know-where. It started off with the excitement of the new hot tub being the hang out place to "Oh my gosh, everyone has a terrible rash including the teenage friends that came over." The only person not with the rash was Becca & she didn't get in the hot tub, so I was pretty sure it was the culprit. After a trip to the Dr. and $50 later, it was confirmed that we had Hot Tub Rash which is caused by a bacteria in water. Apparently we didn't have enough chlorine in the tub. So in the freezing and below zero temperatures, our awesome dad drained the hot tub (which made a nice ice skating rink at the bottom of the street) and refilled it with water & bleach. Won't be using the tub for a while. Next trauma of the week was that Darek has decided he no longer needs to go to some classes & was leaving school, arguing with teachers and being a stinker. So Don made a trip to the school, talked with teacher's & set some ground rules, which Darek apparently didn't think applied to him because within 2 hours of the visit with dad he was MIA once again. At the same time all this is going down, I stop at the Jr. High to pick Becca up for a dentist appt. & am stopped by one of the counselors who says she needs to speak with me. Let's just say I received my first wake up call to how powerful and detrimental social media can be. The talk with the couselor did not result in any action taken against Becca, but it did result in a nice long talk with her daddy(& that's only because she won't give this mommy the time of day). Remember how I said it was the last week of the term & we would probably be scrambling to do assignments, well leave it to my kids to not let me down. Wednesday and Thursday nights were spent doing make up work to get passing grades. Ugh! How much worse can the week get? I shouldn't have spoke too soon. Friday, Darek wrecks the UID company truck by rear ending another UID company truck! Can I just shoot myself now! Happy Birtday Don. What a great way to start your day. Darek was so upset, but he still received the wrath of his father, because his father was receiving the wrath from UID. Now remember I have this romantic evening planned for Don & all I can see is it going down the drain. No one at my house is in a great mood. Darek has more than likley lost his job with UID and Don's job is now borderline. I convinced Don that he needed the night away and the hotel was already booked. He agreed to go however, his frame of mind was not on the date. It took me about 3 hours to get him to relax and just forget about the day and we would come back on Saturday and deal with it. Despite the freezing temps and the snow we enjoyed a very much needed date night and we came home revived and ready to tackle life. So here it is Monday, the start of a new week & the start of a new term. All three kids rode the bus this morning with much whining because Darek has lost the privilege of driving his truck for one week. Darek & Parker haven't been on a bus for almost a year & they were not happy. Becca refused to wear a coat (it was 5 degrees this morning) to the bus stop & once again I became the much hated mother. All three kids start Gym today which I'm sure will result in unhappiness when they return home this evening. Haven't heard from Don yet and so I'm hoping that means he still has a job. Oh and on top off all this I STILL didn't get the stupid tree down. I did get it undecorated, so hopefully this week. Now despite having such a crappy week, I received news on Sunday that made my troubles look like a walk in the park. My dear sweet neighbor who just gave birth to their third child has been told her husband has been called to duty to Afghanastan for one year! My heart breaks for her & those three small children. War is hell! I do have one bit of good new is all this - Rachel presented her Famous American speech at school on Thursday on Amelia Earhart and she did an awesome job. May this week be a slight improvement.