How is it December already? We've shot through September, October & November and stomped over the 1st week in December too. Before you know it, we'll be celebrating Hannah's birthday for real - right now everyday is her birthday and she's most irate if anyone dares to deny the Princess her wishes.
So last time out we'd just introduced Oreo and now we can officially confirm that she's feisty, regular battles with Jakey to see who owns the highest thug status but she's also recognized her place in regards to Poofy. Glad to say after a 3 week hiatus he ventured upstairs, rumors that this coincided with the return of Paul aren't wide of the mark and you're welcome to venture
Anyway Poofy has taken back ownership of wherever he goes, and has often stood and stared down Oreo, she's always the one who cedes and walks away, even with a hiss it's clear she's given ground. I think he isn't being mean, just not willing to take any of this "youngsters crap". Even at food times there's a definite pecking order and we've had to split up the servings as he moves pretty rapidly for a fat old cat.
Ryan's soccer was hard work, we ended up not having a regular turnout so inexperienced players had to play all games, but the boys tried hard and even without it being obvious if you simply judge by results, I think they all ended better players than before, we'll see what Spring brings in terms of team and who Ryan slots in with.
Halloween was as usual a success, ranging from Princess Elsa (oh my God Frozen non-stop on the DVD...zzzz) and a Ninja, to Jessica and co working wonders at Bingo for the benefit of the PTO and punting the pumpkins off our deck for the squirrels below :)
School is an interesting one for Ryan, at times some of the results/feedback are disappointing, but when we actually look at the results he's right on the edge of where he should be, there's a swelling school of thought that some of his issues may not be as simple as ADHD and that could be fun to chase down in a new Insurance Deductible period.
Hannah is getting occasionally disobedient "I don't want to", a real threenado if you will, though not as bad as some kids we've encountered. I guess at times you have to see others in action to appreciate what you actually have, rather than assuming because they're not 100% good ALL of the time they're actually devious little turds. However, if a certain young man continues to BS about his homework and reading tallies, Santa might have to return some of his gifts for credit!
Work continues to be interesting for us both, I'll be interested to see how things are handled because there's little doubt a lot of people have justifiable concerns and moral is inevitably beginning to get pounded. In the meantime, we turn up, do our work and do our best to decompress whilst dealing with WubbaStrops and BooTantrums.. The thing about Ryan is when he's in the middle of one of those moments, laughing at him actually stops the sulk and he laughs too... which tells you 95% of it is totally unnecessary anyway.
The escape room crew ventured off to watch "Love Actually" and returned with props, not sure if they were donated or simply lifted, all that means is the men will get time for another night out, the last one lasted 5 hours much to the chagrin of the wife who whined "what can you have talked about for 5 hours?" However, some of our crew need to plan a better drinking structure lest they fall into an Uber and not recall any of the evening - no names, you know who you are!
That's all for now, another update before Christmas, hopefully a positive one from Santa :)
Thanks
J, J, R &H
