The Graduate

He is my favorite 5 year old in the whole world!!!!

We decided to let Gabriel graduate from kindergarten this year. Even though he isn't technically a kindergartener until the fall, he has spent 2 years in K class at our home school co-op. The teachers all say what a delight he is to have as a student because he listens so well and clearly loves learning. Most of the teachers this year didn't know he was younger than all the other kids (in spite of the fact that he is short - even for his actual age), and he seemed to be doing pretty well socially so we thought it made sense to promote him.

We will probably leave him with his own age for most other activities (like church) and I will report him to the school district as being in the grade he should be in, but doing work on whatever level he happens to be on. At least that is the plan for now. Being Gabe's mom keeps me on my toes.

The ceremony was really cute. They put each child's picture up on the wall while they marched down the aisle, and then asked them all what they wanted to be when they grow up. Gabriel wants to be a police man and a singer. His focus right now is on careers that don't require college (go figure!). Then they invited the parents up to pray for the kids. I cried like a baby and blamed it on my hormones.

It is better to give

I came across these verses this morning as I was reading in Proverbs 11:

24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more;

another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty

25 A generous man will prosper;

he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

These verses jumped out at me because we had just been discussing generosity and giving FREELY with our kids. Yesterday we had a chance (through Missio and Interfaith Works) to bring gifts to a refugee family from Burma. The kids are pretty good at being generous, and they were excited to meet the kids we bought gifts for. We knew that this family had next to nothing, and we never expected anything in return for the few small gifts that we brought...

The family we visited has been in America for 3 months. There teenage daughter spoke the most English, and even that wasn't much. But they invited us into their home and gave us their couch (while they all sat on the floor). The kids had such big smiles on their faces as we handed them the gift bags. And the mother was beaming.

The mother motioned for us to take our coats off. Then she said something about rice and ran to the other room. She came back and started handing out shirts to all of us. "Kopi shirt" "Kopi, Christmas, shirt" When we put the shirts on, she decided some of us needed different sizes and settled on a bag for Cadence since all the shirts were far too big for her.

Once she was satisfied with the shirt situation, the mother said something to her daughter and ran out again. This time she returned with a bowl full of food and two spoons. ?? Being an American, I wasn't quite sure what to make of this - but of course she motions for me to sit on the floor and hands me the dish. The light was broken in there living room and it was getting dark outside. I couldn't have identified what I was about to eat if I wanted to. And I wasn't sure I wanted to... if you know me at all you know I am a super picky eater.

Grinning and nodding all the while I grabbed a spoonful of what almost looked like bugs and took a big, smiling bite. I was kind of holding my breath while I chewed in hopes that I wouldn't gag. It was crunchy - really crunchy. I noticed it didn't taste too bad! It turned out to be some kind of nuts with some spices or something. It was really very good, and I was so grateful for that. I proceeded to pass the bowl around to my family and everyone but Cadence had a little.

As we were leaving, the mother kept hugging me and telling me "You make children very happy" "You come back here" "You are family now" "Thank you". It must have been nearly all the English she knew. I wish I had thought to bring the camera with us, but we didn't know how the outing would go. We were told these families normally won't open the door for anyone so we half expected to hand them the presents at the door and then leave. But I did get some pics of us in our gifts when we got home.

It's too bad you can't really see Todd's jacket behind the kids. He is planning on wearing it to church Christmas Eve, so maybe I'll get a better picture of it then.

Christmas Tree pics

We went out last weekend to get our tree, and got it decorated this weekend. This is always a stressful thing for me (I just don't like Christmas very much) but it went really well this year. The kids were all involved and excited about the whole thing.

It was snowing pretty hard when we got to the tree place, so once we found a tree we all liked the kids found shelter under a group of trees. They would have been happy to play there for hours.

After the decorating, we did some family pictures in front of the tree. This was my first ever attempt at using the timer on a camera. Not the greatest picture ever, but not the worst...

Then I got down on the floor to take some shots of the kids. The dog kept running up to me and licking the lens of my new camera!!! But when we tried to get her in a picture, she refused to sit and be photographed. I'm quite sure she has brain damage. At least she's cute.

But they are much cuter!!!

Happy Halloween?

You decide...

Croup Attack

Gabriel gave me a good scare yesterday afternoon. He had been sounding a little croupy for a couple of days, but not coughing so much as just sounding hoarse. He was a little lathargic all morning, so I told him to lay down during quiet time. Being my sweet, compliant child, he did lay down and fall asleep.

When I woke him up to go get Todd he was still pretty lathargic, and his color was bad. His hands and feet were pale and cold. He was laboring to breathe and not getting enough oxygen. I took him into the bathroom and steamed it up for him while I called the doctor's office. I was pretty nervous about leaving him in the bathroom alone, but I couldn't hear with the shower running.

The Dr. said to bring him right in. So I grabbed some warm juice and a lollypop (some of the best croup remidies) and opened the car window for him. Then we sat in the office and waited. This was making me nuts. I pulled out of the steamy bathroom to bring him here, and we're just sitting here! His color was still bad, but his breathing was less labored so I just sat there, staring at him, waiting.

Finally, there was a knock on the exam room door. In walks a young girl I've never seen before. She explained that she was a P.A. student and asked to look at him before the doctor came in. I was torn here - if the doctor is sitting in his office doing nothing, I want him in here looking at my kid. It's not like we're talking about an ear infection or something non-threatening here...but if the doctor is still with another patient, than having this girl in here is better than nothing, and she should be able to tell if he needs a shot of steriods or not. So, I said sure, go ahead.

Well, it turns out that she couldn't tell much of anything, except that his ears look good. She kept asking me things like "So your real concern is his cough?" And in my head I'm thinking, "No, my real concern is the fact that he is bordering on turning blue!!!" But, like I said, he was breathing easier now so I was gracious and said "Uhh, yeah".

When she came back with the doctor, he started asking me questions about wheezing and his Singular. At this point, I was starting to question my own sanity. All my kids have breathing issues. They all get wheezy and they all get croupy and I can tell the difference...I used to be able to tell the difference...I pretty sure he's croupy...I think...maybe... But then the doctor listened to Gabe and had him cough. He turned to the student and said "That is all upper respiratory, you can tell because it sounds the same no matter where you listen, and that cough is definitely croupy."

So, I'm not loosing my mind. Yet, the doctor doesn't seem as concerned as I am about the attack. He then explained croup to me, very thoroughly. I was a little irritated (don't you think I already know this...I do have three kids), but I have to give him credit since he isn't our regular doctor and his explanation was pretty good.

At the end of his spiel, he made a point I hadn't thought of. If Gabe had such a bad attack at nap, we were probably in for a really rough night. He gave us some Prednisolone and told me to get Gabe's room all steamed up at least an hour before bed. He said hopefully by the middle of the night the Predisolone would be working and between that and the steam we might make it through the night okay.

We had to buy a new vaporizer, which at $60 made me turn a little blue! We decided to put Gabe on the air mattress in our room to be sure that we heard him if had any trouble. We heard his little croupy cough on and off during the night, but it was never more than a little bark and he slept quite soundly. So in the end, I am glad that he had that nap time attack. Otherwise we may have ended up at the ER last night.

Photos

We went to camp last weekend. While we there I discovered that my mother, who is...shall we say....technologically challenged...had run out of room on her camera's memory card. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to deal with such an epic ordeal, I offered to take it home and burn all the pics onto discs for her. Here is some of what I found among the 735 pictures (after the 417 of their trip to Italy)

This first one is my mom out four wheeling with my grandparents - it's just kind of funny to me.

Don't worry, they don't really let Jacob drive!

Here are a few from the time we brought the BURROWS to camp with us.

The four wheelers couldn't make it through the path here, so the men had to do something. (It isn't every day that you get to rip down a tree with your bare hands).

There were also pictures from our last few trips to the NYS Fair. I was struck by how old Jacob looks in this group picture. And then in the VFW tent, one of the guys outfitted Jacob for war in Vietnam.

And finally, a picture from our hike in the woods last weekend.

MMR Circus Song

OOL

This weekend the kids were swimming in their little kiddie pool in the back yard when Jacob came in yelling that Cadence had peed in the pool. Todd called her in and made her get changed and let her know that this behavior isn't okay. She kept insisting that she had not peed in the pool, but Cadence frequently denies her impish behavior... The boys were confident that she really had peed, and as Cadence was being reprimanded for this stunt, Jacob came in to ask "So, can we get back in the pool?" Ummm, NO! Seriously, sometimes he makes me wonder.

It occurred to me to ask Jacob, "How do you know she peed in the pool?" To which he replied, "She said she did!" "Well, did you see pee come out?" "No, but she said she did." Anyway, we finally realized she was pretending to pee in the pool while dumping water out - she was actually innocent (for once).

Summer Reading

Aside from being my anniversary (which I remembered all by myself), July 1 kicked off our summer reading program. Jacob always gets excited about it, but this summer is extra exciting because Gabriel signed up too. They are supposed to be in kindergarten, but since we homeschool I can do whatever I want right? And he definitely reads better than most kindergartners.

My only concern was whether or not they would give my little man a library card (you sign in online with your card number to record reading). I didn't think he could do it, but Gabe wrote his first and last name on that little white strip on the back of the card - my four year old has his own library card! The librarian thought we should take him out for ice cream to celebrate, but we made due with the free movies at Carousel.

The only problem with the summer reading program is that now I can't get the boys to stop reading. Seriously, Jacob polished off 3 chapter books in one day. And Gabe? He got out a big stack of "Henry and Mudge" books - he was all excited when he realized that it was a series...he read all (5 or 6 I think) of them at quiet time. We had to go back to the library after we picked Todd up so the boys could claim prizes and get more books.

And of course Jacob is upset that Gabe is going to win the contest because I won't let Jacob read the really easy books like "Junie B. Jones" or little picture books. When I made the rule, I didn't anticipate Gabe reading as quickly as he did. So I got Gabe some books from "the big boy chapter book room" hopefully they can hold his interest and take a little longer to read!

How to Find a Good Wife

This morning at breakfast, Gabriel and Cadence were talking about growing up. Gabriel said to Cadence, "Well I already know one way to find out if a wife will be a good wife or a bad wife." Now that was a statement that perked my interest... at least once when I have discussed growing up with Gabe, he has expressed concern about finding a wife. I told him how he should make sure he finds a good woman who loves God, loves him and will be a good helper and friend to him. But that was a long time ago, and I was wondering what piece of that conversation he had remembered...

As I listened carefully, Gabriel went on to share his knowledge with his sister: "If a wife has a mean face, she is a bad wife. But if she has a smile then she is good. That is one way I know to tell if she is good or bad." So if you want to be a good wife, go smile at your husband! (who knows where that could lead...)

Science

I decided that doing science over the summer is one of the best ideas ever. We are done with third grade, so we have lots of time to focus on science. I have found that Jacob is more likely to ask questions (and explore the answers) and he really enjoyed making a lapbook. When we have several subjects a day on our plate, he gets this "lets get all the school work done so can play" attitude no matter how I schedule breaks and playtime throughout the day.

The only problem is Gabriel...he really likes doing science with us most days. He is retaining and understanding (most not all things) better than Jacob. I have no idea how to curb the jealousy that my nine year old must feel toward his four year old brother. I keep hoping that he just won't notice, as he seems incapable of reading people and generally oblivious. But when Gabe knows the answer and Jake doesn't he notices.

Just a few minuets ago, Cadence asked Gabriel to read a book about moths to her. He was reading it and then he brought her over to the school wall to show her our picture of a pupa. "See number three, Cadence? That is what a pupa looks like." Both boys seem to feel that it is their duty to educate their little sister, but it was especially funny to watch Gabe give her a science lesson.

Did I say I was excited?

Because now I'm not so sure...Yesterday Jacob decided to write a letter to our local Christian radio station for a contest. Gabriel wanted to write a letter too, but Gabriel isn't old enough to win a week at camp. He was upset about being too young and insisting that he could write a letter, so I told him that he could go ahead and write to the lady but he wouldn't be able to enter the contest.

A few minutes later, Gabe brought me a letter that said "I want too go to teh ranc when I am littl." I told that was really good, and that I would send it later - but reinforced that he was not old enough to win the contest. I continued on with dinner preparations until Jacob came in announcing that Gabriel had written a mean letter. Now, I had just read his letter and thought that it was perfectly nice... "Leave him alone, there is nothing wrong with his letter" I said to Jacob. But Jacob insisted, "He said it says he will kill the lady, and it does - I just read it."

I called for the letter, which Gabriel brought to me again. And sure enough, it had been edited to include "or I will kill you"! I stood there, somewhere between horrified and very amused wondering how to proceed. I explained to Gabriel how unkind it was to say such things. His defense was that he wanted to go and the lady deserves to die if she doesn't let him (perfectly logical in his mind)... I guess he was trying to use strong language to sway the argument in his favor. But I insisted that he write a different letter as I would not send the death threat. He quickly complied and came back something to the effect of "Let me go to the ranch when I am little so I don't kill you." Much better, right?

After another lengthy explanation about the use of threats to manipulate a situation (not to mention the wrongness of killing!!!) an acceptable, yet still a little demanding, letter was drafted and signed. I guess now that he sees writing as useful and valuable he has fully embraced it. Maybe he has a future as a speech writer for a terrorist organization....

Learning to observe

We launched into science yesterday! And the first thing we are learning is how to observe. Well, I guess before that Jacob has to learn to keep the words "observation" and "hypothesis" straight, cause it will be confusing for everybody if I tell him to observe something and he is trying to form a hypothesis about it...

Since our work load is very light right now, I decided to take the kids to Beaver Lake this morning for some observing in the woods. It is a beautiful day, but as soon as we stepped into the woods it was cold! There was a very cool breeze blowing off the lake, and even though I brought jackets that made it a little hard for the kids to enjoy themselves. We walked through one and half trails despite the cold.

We learned how wild grapes can cause clearings in the woods and why that is an important part of the wooded community. The kids were very excited when they found one of those clearings on their own. Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals - Jacob blames that on the big noisy group of kids who were there on a field trip. He was more than a little irritated that those kids didn't know how to be quiet. Imagine, Jacob mad at someone for making noise!

Where did it go?

I need to vent...I am so sick of asking "Where did it go?" I could scream (and perhaps I already have). A few weeks ago Jacob lost his AWANA shirt, which caused lots of stress 'cause he was supposed to have for the awards night last weekend. It still hasn't turned up. Around the same time he also lost his ruler which is also still missing. Last week, the math book up and disapeared. Seven days and several hunts later, no sign of said book! Where the @#$% is this stuff going? It isn't just that he can't find it (with his less than excellent finding skills) Todd and I searched the whole house more than once and the stuff is gone.

I thought maybe he lost the math book on purpose, but he enjoys math WAY more than he enjoys looking for stuff he lost. He is getting pretty sick of looking but I am way past sick of having missing stuff. I'm starting to think I will need to buy another math book.

Idiot Box

I was just reading an article on crosswalk on de-stressing the home school house. I came across a few things that were interesting, and I couldn't pass this part up...

By limiting or eliminating your TV time, your home life finds more stress-free hours in the day. Because your child is not subject to ads (which exist solely to tell you that you are not content with what you have), you have less-stress shopping. Your children are also more receptive of others' gifts to them. As Urie Bronfenbrenner, a professor at Cornell University puts it:The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces as the behavior it prevents. ... Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into adults.

I have been fantasizing about putting the television out to the curb nearly our entire marriage, but the idea causes Todd to break out in hives (slight exaggeration - he has once or twice intentionally gone a week without tv, and didn't kill him, but it did hurt him). Now, he will be quick to point out that I spend my share of time worshiping at the shinny black idol in the living room, and he is right. That is why I would just assume not have it in my house. The only thing I would really miss is NY Giants football (did you see that they finally won yesterday?)

Any hope I had of becoming one of those crazy one income homeschool fundamentalist families without a television died last February when the above pictured 32" LCD flat screen found its way into our house, complete with 5.1 surround sound. But, you can see that the NY Giants have eyes, noses and mouths with such a television. I hate it because it has a tendency to draw you into hour after hour of mindlessness. Don't get me wrong, I understand that sometimes you need mindlessness. But tv wastes so many hours of life (and countless brain cells, no doubt). Not to mention the effects of tv on "ADHD" - somewhere I read that when children labeled ADHD went a week or two without any screen time, their symptoms disappeared and when the screen was reintroduced, so were the symptoms. And I give credence to this because we have noticed a strong correlation with Jacob. Not to say that a half-hour of tv (or even a full length movie) here and there will cause him to bounce uncontrollably around the room. But if he watches a half-hour or hour every day, he quickly becomes dependant on the tv to entertain him, and his behavior becomes noticeably more unruly.

That's all for now, I need to go figure how to watch one show while recording another since The Office and Grey's Anatomy are on at the same time this week. :)

Swimming Lessons

Last week the boys started swimming lessons at the YMCA, and today I actually remembered my camera. Thursday is Gabriel's day, Jake's lessons are on Tuesdays. That is one of the things that I do not like about how the Y does swimming lessons - just once a week. Personally, I think that Red Cross swimming programs tend to be far superior to the way the Y does it. But, I value my Y membership, and swimming lessons are free with the family membership. Plus it is good for Jacob to be at an indoor pool because he always gets really cold when swim lessons are outside - and he can't stay in the pool the whole lesson.

Both boys have made some good progress after only two lessons. Jacob is jumping into the deep end (10 ft) and swimming in the deep end without any floatation device. It is not so much that he was unable to do these things before as it is that he was terrified of doing them. I kept telling him "It doesn't matter how deep the water is if you know how to swim - just swim!" Well, the peer pressure of swimming lessons has helped him get over that fear. He is still tentative in the deep water, but at least he is trying! Now if we can get him to put his head down while he swims, he'll be doing great.

Gabe is actually coming along a lot better than I expected. When we are at my sister's, he would rather be on the side of the pool than in the pool, and he wouldn't let go of me (even though he had a life vest) when he did get in. Step one for the polliwogs - get in the pool. The first lesson he hung on the side of the pool with his belly on the deck and his butt in the air whenever it wasn't his turn. As you can see, he was much braver today!

He is having a great time. He grins from ear to ear every time it is his turn to do something, and he is really trying hard, too. The only thing that still seems to trouble him is the backfloat, I can see the worry on his face when the teacher flips him on his back.

What other exciting things are happening in the Young house, you ask...well Todd and I marked our seventh anniversary on Sunday. Yeah! Most of my bridesmaids didn't think we'd make it to five. We are celebrating this weekend by going to Seabreeze without the kids. I would have preferred Darian Lake, but Todd has to take Dramamine to go on the rides and Seabreeze is closer. Plus, there are lots of great music stores in Rochester. So we (and by we I mean I) will be bass shopping on Friday. But that is the one kind of shopping Todd doesn't mind spending all day (or week, or month) doing - usually I am the one looking at him thinking "can we leave this stinking store yet?" If I remember the camera, maybe I'll post some pictures after the trip.

Check Up

I took Cadence in for her 2 year checkup today (a little late, I know). The doctor kept saying how cooperative she was - doctors are the only people that child cooperates for! After he measured her, he looked at me and said "She's in the 75th percentile for height - where did that come from?" He said she will probably slow down as she gets older, but there is a chance that she could end up taller than Gabe. Poor Gabe, at least he has big brains...Anyways, Cadence is in the 50th% for her weight, and everything is looking good.

In other news, I'll be leading worship tonight for the first time in a long time. I've decided to jump back into it and see where it takes me. I no longer feel like it is something that I need to do, or that it is my primary goal in life. But I love to do it, so here it goes.

On the Jacob front, we found a lawyer and are meeting with him next Thursday. He mentioned that we will need to have a home study done and I will need to adopt my own son. It seems ridiculous to me, but I guess NY State laws are pretty antiquated on the adoption front.

My Little Boys...

My little boy is growing up! Today he brought home a bunch of stuff from school, including this book - a 120 page choose your own adventure. He threw it on the bed and said "I finished reading that a long time ago." He has always been a reader, but until now the only way he would read "real" chapter books is if I was reading and he was listening.

Gabriel also made a big stride in the reading world today! This was his first reading lesson without the Distar type (which includes long/short vowel signs and blends like th, sh are written more like one letter) Just when I thought he wasn't catching on and we would have to do some review, he took off and finished the lesson like a champ!

Happy Days

We've recently been celebrating birthdays around here...Jacob, and then 5 days later, Cadence. I was really worried that he would be upset about her birthday being so close to his, but he loves it. He thinks that sharing his party or cake or whatever with her is great. (He is such a good big brother!). Jake was excited that his birthday fell during spring break - that meant breakfast with Grandma and Nate on his birthday. I didn't have a camera with me for any the special things Jake got to do on his birthday, but I did take some pictures when we "celebrated" at Splash Lagoon - we got a cake to celebrate both of their birthdays, and the trip was in place of expensive birthday parties.

When it is somebodies birthday around here, I try to make one of their favorites for dinner. Jacob got Shepherd's Pie. Cadence prefers the taste of rocks and crayons to most of my cooking, so I knew that the only acceptable birthday meal would be pizza. But Todd and Gabriel won't eat pizza (especially homemade). One day when I was bored I tried making boneless buffalo wings, and they were a huge hit, so now they must always go with the pizza. Thankfully, Jacob wants to be a chef and helps in the kitchen every chance he gets. So he does most of the work for the boneless buffalo wings. Her majesty was delighted with her birthday meal...

And today my mom and I took Cadence to Build-A-Bear to spend some of her birthday money. Of course Gabriel was all kinds of upset that he wasn't getting a new animal, but he got over it eventually. The purpose of our trip was actually to find a dress for me to wear to my mother's wedding. My goal was to find a black dress that can double as a funeral dress (her "honey" is 84, and she is 56 - I give him 5 years tops). I did find a black dress, but I think that it is a little too dressy for a funeral.

Anyway, back to Build-A-Bear - Cadence was really cute making her puppy, who she named Spot (at first she kept telling me that his name was Dog). First we had to wait in line (and wait, and wait and wait).

Then, Cadence had to step on the pedal and push the buttons to stuff Spot full of love and all that good stuff.

Then, she had to pick out a heart for Spot. The heart had to be rubbed on her nose and her toes, and warmed in her hands, and spun all around, and finally it needed a kiss.

Once the girl sewed Spot up, Cadence gave him a bath and brushed his fur. We selected a Birthday outfit for him to wear, then brought him home. He is currently napping with Cadence upstairs in her new Strawberry Shortcake bed. I'm sure he will be very happy here with us:)

The Story of Stupid

I need to vent... Last August, Jacob's biological father quit his job (he told me it was just a six week leave) - in order to do some work under the table and without paying child support - so that he could accumulate the money he needed to pay some fines and get his driver's license back. It was 5 years ago that I discovered he had no license, because Child Support tried to take it, but found that it had already been revoked. During that time, he left the state since he kept getting pulled over in New York.

A few years later, he returned and continued to drive without a license until he got pulled over a few more times. Then he agreed with me that it was not a very Christian thing to do to knowingly drive without a license. So his wife became chauffeur. Then, he moved an hour away from his job, when he had been living about 5 min. from work. So, of course, it seemed very logical ( in his mind) to quit the job when he did. It was just a few months before he quit his job that he finally got caught up on support. He swore when he "took a leave" that paying support would be his first priority, he didn't want to get in that big hole again...

Six weeks came and went, he wasn't ready to go back to that good job he had. Six months later he was finally looking for work, but its hard for a contractor to find a job in New York in the middle of winter. No worries, he said, his old job said they would gladly take him back (or so he thought). When he called them, they didn't really have any work for him at the time. But he had finally managed to get his license back. Now, he would send in a payment or two every couple months, but nothing at all after Christmas.

When you are delinquent on child support for 4 months in New York State, they automatically suspend your license! I already knew this since I talk to the Child Support people all the time "Have you gotten any money from him?" "Has he notified you of an employer?" "Why doesn't the employer send the money every week like they should?" But dips?@t didn't have a clue....So at the end of Feb. a notice was sent to him saying "pay what you owe in full or your driver's license will be suspended. He says he didn't get it, but if it is true "I won't have a job" he says. Because his grace period is gone, and as of last week his license was suspended.

He has offered to look into the matter, and come on Saturday with a current abstract of his driver's license. But I'm willing to bet the the Abstract will not be current enough, or he will forget. Maybe his wife will be driving, but what do I do when the unlicensed idiot shows up to take my son? Would you let your kid ride with an unlicensed driver? I'm thinking I will have to call the PoPos and let them explain to the moron what "suspended license" means, but I really don't want to have to go there, so pray for me....

Anyway, it really is pretty stinking funny to me that he quit a job (and quit paying support) so he could get his license back. He got his license back about a month ago and now he lost it for not paying support. Oh yeah, and he pulled into my driveway with a new (used I am sure, but new to him - second vehicle for their family) truck yesterday. He had the money to pay off the back support and bought a new truck instead. RETARD!