It Was a Great Day, It Was a Horrible Day

These are my 2 beautiful granddaughters, love those smiles!!!

This is after the dance recital, that's why they have the bouquets of flowers and are wearing their robes. I wish I could get photos of them in the dance costumes, but the only time I seem them is during the recital and flash photos are not allowed. My camera is a small point and shoot so I don't even try to take pictures. We sat through 2 hours of dances.  I love watching the girls perform. The choreography is excellent!!! The music ranged from rap to traditional ballet and the moves were just as varied. The little ones are soooo adorable and the older ones are fantastic. I'm rather partial to the faster moving tap dances.

I thought I had tickets for sunday, but I was mistaken so I had to make a last minute call to my grandson's parents to say I was picking him up a day early. Thankfully I gave myself extra time for the 100 mile drive so the extra stops we made didn't make us late. When I got to J's house his little brother was crying and J was not happy. I guess he had a bad week (at home) and had to go home that evening instead of spending the night at our house. He has the same defiance disorder that many of his male relatives have so he doesn't like to do it NOW. He gets very angry and says nasty things to his mom, I guess. So everyone yells at everyone else. He is taking an anger management class, he's only had one so far. I told mom I think the family should go for family counseling. We had many of the same issues with his dad when he was growing up and I understand how difficult it can be. I wish I had a magic potion for everyone....but I don't.

Jalen was really grumpy when we left his house and didn't want to talk about it, so I let it go. I always tell him he can talk to me anytime and about anything and it can stay just between the 2 of us. He was not liking his life or family. Once he was over his bad mood we started talking. We have ALWAYS had intelligent conversations. He was telling me how he was channel surfing one night and came across a 'show about Jesus, so I watched it'. He was telling me about the program and couldn't think of the right word, he's explaining and I'm guessing. Finally I come up with confession. "Yeah, the Sacrament of Confession", he says. We are Lutheran and don't have confession and I don't know how often he hears the term sacrament so I was impressed.

He sat through 2 hours of dancing......kinda chatty, kinda bored....but he knew he'd get to play with my 10 year old granddaughter, whom he just loves! After the dance he picked out the flowers for the girls and rushed through the crowd to find A and give her them......I had to scurry to keep up with him. Afterwards we went to Culver's for ice cream, we always go out for treats after the recital. He voluntarily helped my older grandson bring birthday gifts in from my car. I think my 13 year old grandson liked the shorts and t-shirt I gave him because he went into the bathroom and changed into them.  When J asked my daughter, again, if we could please go to her place to play with A, my daughter said (no) that they had to go to bed early, etc. It had been a very hectic week for them and she was exhausted. J just broke down and cried, and cried, and cried.

It was so hard for me, I understood, but that was all he was looking forward sooooooooooo much to playing with A. He was heartbroken and I was too (for him). I was trying to think of something (free) that we could do to try to salvage the day. If we stopped at the toy store he'd want me to buy him at toy. After about 45 minutes he was a little better and was singing again. We stopped at a Goodwill store and he looked at all the toys and put 2 things in the cart and put one back after he decided which one he wanted - $1.99  mini-marshmallow shooter. He walked around with me and we looked at other things too. Whew! things are on the upswing. When we got back to the car I suggested we read the devotional books he brought along. Yes,      my grandson grabbed the devotionals and said 'we should bring these along too'. I was surprised by that, but I knew it was going to be a long ride and books are good. I read the Portals of Prayer and he read the children's devotion.

By the time he got home an hour later he was fine. I was so relieved to drop him off at home in a good state of mind. Unfortunately I'm not able to communicate with J's parents very easily so I don't know if his attitude improved and if they were able to enjoy some family fun time outside in the 70 degree weather we had today.

my daughter and her family, my first teenaged grandson

About noon I walked outside and it was WARM so my plans changed and I spent the afternoon outside.

Hope you had a good weekend and that your week is off to a great start!