Devon's first grounding...

EEEP!

For those of you who know me well enough, you'll remember I have PTSD like issues when it comes to situations involving control or removal of choices. This makes discipline hard for me, sometimes even traumatic, blah!

Dev's been my son for a year and a half, and he just recently finished with his very first grounding from me ever! Both the kids use the Sneek Yuus Nuu hud, which is awesome, but the stupid name annoys me. Anyway, it allows you to set a time period for grounding your kids, which, as a feature to the hud, is awesome.

Dev's been having issues with maintaining his urge to climb lately, and so I'd done the "family rule" with him of  1st offense - warning, 2nd - time out 4 minutes (1 minute per year of age), 3rd double time out!
I know of at least 2 instances in there that he got a slide or extra little warnings also. I'd been expecting and waiting for the day the big 3 day grounding would come, cause after the last climbing event happened, I'd warned him that the next time would mean 3 days of being restricted.

Lo and behold, it took about 2 month's maybe, and I logged in to find the little bugger on top of my upper kitchen cabinets! He was just hanging out there.. apparently got up and couldn't figure out how to get down. I'm truly surprised he hadn't fashioned himself a modified fishing pole out of string, a stick and gum, and tried to fish for cookies... I really shouldn't give him ideas.. let's move on.

So he gets his punishment doled out, all the while my gut is twisting and my entire body is buzzing. I was truly frightened. Thankfully, Dev knows about my RL past and why I flip out over stuff like this, and his reaction and reassurance that he was fine, really helped me to also be ok. Flash forward to the next day.. which happened to be a weekend, and so if Dev had wanted to explore. the hud made it impossible, he was restricted to our parcel. I remember locking the gate (RL) to go to town, and a cold chill passing over me as I thought about Dev stuck in the SL house and unable to move. A sweat started to tickle at me as I got into the truck to go take part in my RL stuff, and I thought to myself..

He's home...

Which means he's safe. I calmed down some and took a few deep breaths and told myself he'd be ok, and I'd be checking in as soon as I could. Day one went pretty well. However that evening what did I see but a Devy walking across the top bar of the swingset just as happy go lucky as can be.  

>:(

Oh yeah.. he got an extra day of grounding added to his sentence. That's my son.. the climber.

All in all, Dev did great, and I'm pretty proud of myself for not having a major hysterical breakdown, I didn't even have one flashback to my RL past. So, I'd call the situation a win, if only my son would stop climbing..

I have a funny feeling it isn't over yet.  :P

My Skottie....

What can I possibly say.. He's sweet, and quiet, and really a doll. Skottie's been a part of the family since the day Dev introduced us, which is nearly a year and a half ago, believe it or not! Skottie isn't always able to be on with us as much as we'd all like to be together, his real life (What's that?!?) keeps him busy. Skottie's a traveler, and it's not at all surprising to me that he's an explorer in SL too. I spent hours thinking of what songs to use for this video because none of them really captured how I feel about Skott. He's partly a mystery to me, I sometimes find myself wondering what he's thinking, how he's feeling, and if I'm doing all I can for him.

Skottie never complains, he's packed and unpacked his room several times when we've had to or chosen to move. He's just an all around sweetheart of a person, always asking how we've been, and what we're up to. I often wish I could scoop him up, plant him in his desk and cement his feet there for a few days. He he he!

We love you Skottie, even though you're not with us all the time, you're still always with us.

  

So last night I was thinking...

That I really should go to bed, it was 3 am after all. I just couldn't stop thinking about how very very lucky I am to have my SL family. Maybe I was tired, maybe delirious or even loopy, could have even been one of my really all over the place adult ADD moments. I seriously doubt it though..

My heart is so absolutely full of love for the wonderful people in my SL. I have an awesome sister, and a couple nieces and a nephew.. and even little furball niecie puppy too. I have a mom & a dad, and though I love them all so very much. I also have 3 amazing kids who are my world. Devon and Skottie have been my sons since January of 2010, that means we're coming up on a year and a half of being together as a family. And I have had my little Lianna since the end of April, it's hard to believe that 3 months have already gone by.

I did a video for Dev a while back to show him how much I love the little turkey, and I've been meaning to make one for Lianna & Skottie too. Skottie my little man, yours is coming! I just have a little more filtering though pictures to do, oh.. you know.. a year and a half's worth...

Lianna my Princess Noodlebug, I have finished yours :) 

I can not begin to tell you Lia, just how much you have restored my faith in little girls. I was beginning to think we were never going to find you, and then just like Devon... you wandered into my life and found us. You will never understand how much you have taken over my heart by placing yours in my hands. You make me smile when you giggle, laugh when you're silly, worry when I sense you're upset or frustrated. Just like Devon, you will always be mine, you never leave my thoughts. Never change princess. The way we talk, the way we laugh, and the way we vent, it's all supposed to be like this, easy, comfortable, and trusting. Thank you for bringing that back. I Love You more than you know, thank you for choosing me, and our family.

And now for the video...



Magicland.. we had a blast!

I dragged the kids to Magicland last night, cause you know how the kids just hate going there (right) and we played all night long. I took 460 lindens worth of pictures! Sooo I had to do a video. Magicland is great, but I think every time we go there we miss Mouse World a little bit more. We know it won't be coming back, but we pay tribute to it in our own quiet way. Anyway, we had a ball riding rides, and thankfully the lag at Magicland was really surprisingly minimal. We made it mostly all the way through the park, but I think we'll be going back soon. Here's the video :)

4th of July 2011 @ Giano

So our community had a little 4th of July party for the the residents, and we were able to make it! We had a blast, Dev & Lia were playing in the water and enjoying the small town fun. They both got their faces painted, we had some burgers, threw a few balls at the dunk tank (and dunked Dev) and we even took part in the pie eating! It really was a fun time, we enjoyed hanging out with the community and our family. Check it out.



My Sister Kenni's Disney Birthday Party!

What could be more fun than Disney Costumes, Disney Trivia, Disney Movies, Disney Food... notice a theme here? Well the best part was that we were with family, and that my fabulous sister Kenni had a fun B-day with her little ducklings (her kidlets) and my family was privileged enough to be in attendance too! We had a ball, I didn't sing, but I sure daydreamed about being Mrs. Orlando Bloom... well  yeah! Everyone looked adorable in their outfits, the trivia went well, and the food was adorable. We wound down with the movie Tangled, it was really a great night. I hope my sister's b-day was as fun for her as it was for me. Love you Sis!

Vacation Days 7 & 8 ~ Yeah yeah, so I'm 2 month's late...

We were tired! This last video of our cruise is very late in being posted, we were tired and things have been keeping us pretty busy since we got back home. I'll be posting some videos of our recent exploits really soon. Check back!

~ Jewel