Blonde Eyes...Life with a teenager.

This meme says it all! (I found this ages ago circling the interwebs, I have no idea where it came from, other than that at the bottom is says WeKnowMemes. Not my picture, but it was obviously a free to circle the net pic)

The above meme has been a joke between Blonde Eyes and myself ever since we first found it circling facebook months ago. 

In my family there is a group of kids that were all really close in age. Three of them fell September, November, December all in the same year. One just a year older. I had a big hand in raising these kids in their younger years. Changed their diapers, babysat, and at different points each of them lived with me for a time.

I don't have the prettiest family story so let's leave it as:
 <insert gap of time of not talking to anyone even remotely related to me>. 

I have recently gotten in touch with the other three kids (as the fourth was my own). I have a close relationship with these kids. When each of these kids lived with me, I raised them like they were my very own (one of which even told me I was the best mother.ever.) I would gladly take even of them back. In.a.heart.beat. I hope I impacted their life just as much as they impacted mine. Looking at the teenagers they have turned into under the direction of their parents (which, even if I don't agree with everything they are up to these guys are still the amazing kids they were when they walked out my door), causes me to reflect more on my very own Blonde Eyes.

Last night on my personal status message I put (I am one of those annoying people who in the month of November throws up something I am thankful for every day): Day 15: I am thankful for Hope. She's not perfect, but she's a good kid. Of all the possible outcomes, I'm glad she's only a mildly annoying teenager :) ♥

Napping on the couch with the dog...

And here is the shake down of it. I get really annoyed with my daughter. She's not stupid. BUT she has always had a bad tendency to be L A Z Y. She would rather work really hard to get her grades barely afloat, then put forth half the effort to just keep them good to start with. So, she would things like, goof off the first three weeks (lose papers, not turn stuff in, turn in half finished work....), and then the next three weeks run around in a panic trying to get her grades up enough to pass.

Then, at home....rinse and repeat. You want her to actually clean up after herself? UGH, that's for lesser folks! You tell her to go clean her room, what you get is her going to her room and going to sleep. 

Napping on the couch....

She does a whole lot of the UGH and eye roll crap. Gosh, I swear I could just choke her sometimes.  Then, a week before school started she ran off like a complete crazy person with not a single lick of sense. We just refer to this as a momentary break of sanity.

High school started and she has actually gotten much better. Her and I are thick as thieves, and she loves being in Color Guard so much that I *almost* don't have to worry about her grades being too bad. Color guard has actually turned her into quite the beast. Lazy? Do you have any idea how many extra hours this child spends at school WORKING her butt off? I don't even keep count. She almost lives up there. There are weekends that she's up there working or traveling around with the band. Last night she came home with her thumb being a lovely shade of purple.

Watching t.v. on the couch...

And my lovely child who always does nothing but complain and whine? She gets physically assaulted on an almost daily basis and the teacher says she NEVER says a word about it. She comes home and does a kiss my boo boo bit and that's the end of it. o.O 

Chores? She's on it. I asked her to choose one night a week to cook to help out around here and she picked TWO nights.

In her Color Guard jacket.

So, Blonde Eyes might be pretty annoying and frustrating, but it's really only because I know she could be so much more if she WANTED to be. Overall though, I didn't draw the short stick with her. She doesn't party, she doesn't do drugs, drink, smoke, and isn't sexually active. Do I still worry that at any moment someone could pressure her into it? Hell yes I worry about it. I'm the mom of a very pretty teenage daughter who likes to make people (and especially peers) happy. 

But she has something she loves, and it keeps her busy. And right now, I'm happy with what she does in her down time. :D

At camp (before changing her hair color).