ALL THE LIFE'S A PROM

I know I should be updating loco parentis status more often, if only to quell the far away mater's worries. But if anything bad happened well this would be the first place I would post it, so no new is good news right?!

Everything is going swimmingly.
A couple of weekends ago the family and friends did a days boating down the Verde and camped. Laura and Sallie ran shuttle, took the dogs and set up camp so all we had to do was muck aboot in boats and meet them. It meant hauling the Duckies up a hill a mile to the cars at the end but was worth it.

We left with 3 one person Duckies and a 6 person raft which Rob was the mighty salty captain. I took a Duckie down about half way then swapped with Hal. The river is running highish, lots of snowmelt. The rapids were not the problem, the strainer trees caused only a slight, and I say slight, no really slight not deadly at all, concern in a few places.
There was one place which was full of trees and took a sharp bend. I was in the raft with Rob, another adult and the rest of the kids, all we could do was duck down so we wouldn't get knocked off and ride it through. We got through then noticed a water pistol and my shoes floating past (my fault I didn't tie them in), which meant the boat Hal was in was not in a good place. We beached the raft and Rob went running back up the bank. It turned out that Hal got wrapped around a tree with a ton of water pushing him onto it. His foot got caught under the paddle and he couldn't move. Mike was in a Duckie behind us all so he was right there to help and it was all good. I was sitting on the bank with the raft, not knowing what was happening upstream having a little ' so this what real parents must feel all the freaking arse time...gahhh'
All good...breathe.

We finally got the the camping place, dried off and had a wonderful dinner, campfire and song.
The kids had a wonderful time, mudding up, making spears, arrowheads and generally going all Lord Of The Flies.

So good times, and normal life just potters on.

Adjusting to having Hal here has not been hard. He is a really good, sweet person. There is a large streak of naivety (if thats the word) in him that is really nice.
I don't have much to do with real teenagers, and tv shows always seem to show me the annoying ones so I don't have an accurate base line. He is respectful, gentle and easygoing, I hope that's a normal thing but I have no idea. Lots of mocking in our household and when he says dumb stuff we call him on it.

We have 3 foster puppies. He loves them. He is great on poop duty (disgusted but great) and always calls me over to look at a extra cute thing they are doing.


We were both in tears of laughter last weekend over the ferrets. One was climbing the stairs, he startled it and it rolled all the way back down. Ferrets freaking out on stairs is the funniest thing ever. Then we spent a fair bit of time, very humanely* making them freak out on stairs..
*no ferrets were harmed for our amusement.

We watched Monty Python's Meaning Of Life the other night...so very funny but I had forgotten about the whole teacher sex ed class....I was cool as a cool aunt can be. But I figured, If ya gunna learn about sex, Monty Python may the be the best or possibly the very, very worse role model....i'm in my lallallala it will all turn out for the best way mode.... so a good model methinks. And he does explain it rather well.
Nothing wrong about knowing about the clitoris and its fantastic uses.

He has gone to the prom....
when I was a kid in Australia the American prom was a weirdly magical Queen, cheerleader, corsage, dance, jock, manly, corvette coming of age American experience. Everyone did it right?!
Then I met Rob.
He never went to his prom.
Forever known as 'The Failed American'

He has 4 classes a day and it seems they are a bit age mixed up...something about credits needed ehh i don't know. Anyways the Outdoor Adventure class (archery, frizbee and cookouts..sound tough) there are some seniors- 18year old and graduating soon. They are the group that went camping over Spring break and all survived. So Hal asked Melissa who is 18 to her Prom. She said yes. ( if she said no i was hoping it wasn't going tooooo be soul crushing)
Now we all think but have not said to him ( because its awesome and should not to be made into something big, unusual and scary) that a 15 year old taking flowers (his choice and arrangement, i got up that morning and there he is organising the colours, i gave him some ribbon) to school to ask her to prom is so ballsy that even now Rob's and my 15 yr old self is blushing at the thought.
There was no angst with him, no sweats, not scared of peer mocking. Its wonderful but still wow, taking roses to school without fear other kids crap flung at you....that's great.


We went last week and ordered the Tux, ended up with the tails and bow tie. He is adorable. The guy at I Do I Do....- Flags best rental and lingere shoppe. I kinda mentioned tails and the guy was all over it. Telling Hal that not many people wear them but they look great and you will stand out because of it. We got it, he seemed happy with the whole look.

We have Rob's great grandfathers top hat. Its at least 70 years old and in amazing condition.
He was picked up by Troy (a grad) to go to dinner first....damn no date.

He has a curfew and and strict aunt and uncle rules
Two Rules- uno- Don't break the hat
dos- Don't get anyone pregnant
tres- be home by 1ish