[audio-pals] Last Few Days in Review

  • From: "Josh" <lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 11:42:56 -0400

Hey,
   We are now back from our trip to Pigeon Forge, we actually stayed in
Gatlinburg, but all the little tourist cities are so close that if you stay
in one you are going to end up in the other other at some point. We arrived
back on Saturday. So, I will back up to Tuesday. We had intended on going up
to spend the evening having dinner and going to Nascar Speed Park. We went
to dinner at Hard Rock Café and then headed over to Nascar Speed Park. When
we arrived in order to keep him some what on a bed schedule which eventually
got thrown out the window for a couple of days, but that is later in the
story, we decided before going in that he would have an hour to ride the go
carts. Well, when we gotinside and found out that in order to ride the go
carts we all had to pay $20 a piece just to get in or so we thought at the
time. We cancelled that plan for the night, but told Little Man that we
would return the next day when we had more time. Between that night and the
next day Amanda and I decided to go up for a few days rather than just the
day. However, we didn't hear much from Little Man the rest of the night due
to him being upset because he couldn't ride the go carts that night. He kept
it under control till bed time when he broke down, we, Amanda and II, both
knew he was upset even though he was the one that said he would rather have
more time the next day. We knew the minute he turned down a helicopter ride
that he was upset after we left Nascar Speed Park. We also knew from a long
conversation with Amanda's dad that he and his wife would like to join us
for the trip to Dixie Stampede. There is a lot more to this story with the
conversation with her dad, but that is for another e-mail when I can explain
more in-depth us being called "Holier Than Thou" by her dad. As a matter of
fact to not keep everyone in the dark I will try my best to send the e-mail
that explains the comment in another e-mail that comes behind this one. Back
to the topic though. So, I ended up trying to put in perspective for Little
Man by asking him if he would want to pay $5 for 10 legos when he could have
150 legos the next day for the same price. He said he would rather have the
150 legos. After that little conversation he was a lot better and had a good
rest of the night. The next day we got up and packed our bags. Amanda sent
her step-mom an e-mail letting her know that we were going up and that we
were planning to go to the Dixie Stampede either later that night or on
Friday. We eventually heard back from her explaining she knew nothing about
the trip so Amanda would have to call her dad. Amanda didn't feel like this
was her place since they had already talked about it a few nights before so
she waited till Thursday night to call about Friday. However, we did receive
a good bit of news that Amanda's aunt, uncle, and cousin decided to also go
up to Pigeon Forge for a day or two rather than heading back to Pensacola.
We got in touch with them and ended up spending majority of our trip
together. So, the first stop was Nascar Speed Park where Amanda's little
cousin, 12 year old, rode go carts with Little Man. We also found out htat
we did not all have to pay the $20 in order to get in. We did pay for a $10
roll of tokens, 2 rolls of tokens for $16 so that wasn't too bad. When
Amanda's aunt and uncle arrived we all decided to purchase unlimited
miniature golf for another $7 a piece again that was still saving money when
we consider that we thought originally we were going to have to pay the $20
a piece in order to get in. So, we spent practically all day just letting
the kids ride go carts and playing miniature golf. I ended up putting 65 on
18 holes of miniature golf. It was a par 3 course so a perfect score would
have been 54. Amanda scored a few points under par I belive her score was 57
and her aunt scored right around a 61 if I am not mistaken. The kids started
out playing, but got bored with it and returned to riding rides. When we
finished up they were in line to ride the kiddie roller coaster. We had
dinner at aplace called Logan's Roadhouse. When we arrived to check into our
room we discovered that they did not have the room that we had reserved so
they gave us a free room upgrade which was nice and right beside the
Ripley's Aquarium. The only downfall to this hotel where we stayed was the
breakfast cost right around $45 with tip and it wasn't anything special. We
had this room reserved for 2 nights and did not make this mistake on the 2nd
morning. After breakfast at the hotel we went to the Aquarium and spent a
good portion of the day there. That evening we met up with the aunt and
uncle for a dinner show and then returned to their RV park for some smores
by the campfire. The dinner show was called Lumber Jack Feud. The feud was a
lot of fun and the food wasn't too shabby either. So, this is Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday we all got up and headed into the mountains
for a picnic in Cades Cove and a drive thorugh the loop. We got up there a
little after 11:00 AM and set up in a prime picnic location right by the
creek. The kids played in the creek with Amanda's uncle till about 4:00 PM.
At 4:00 PM we headed into the loop where there are deer, wild turkey, bears
and other wild life. We spent about 4 hours in the loop which is 11 miles.
In addition to all the wild life there is old log cabins, churches, and even
an old general store down from the visitors center at the half way point. At
the end of the loop just before getting ready to head out we seen what
everyone comes to Cades Cove to see other than the beautiful scenery in the
mountains. I enjoy the tranquil setting and even got to enjoy what everyone
comes to see from the sounds it made. Up in the tree we seen a Smoky
Mountain Black Bear working on pulling down a limb that apparently had some
good food on it it from the amount of effort this bear was putting into
breaking off the limb. Thursday night we decided we were going to stay
antoher night, but we found out that our hotel was sold out so we had to
move. We moved to the other side of the Aquarium to a hotel that didn't have
great reviews, but I am glad we didn't listen to the reviews because the
room was great and I imagine that the reviews kept the price of the hotel
down too. Saturday we were forced to leave because we had a foster parent
training class. So, we got upand checked out at 10:00 AM. We had planned on
stopping to to grab a bite to eat for breakfast, but luckily we had snacky
type stuff that we could eat for breakfast such as little hostess muffin
minis because traffic was horrible. We were working our way to the
interstate, but received a text from Amanda's aunt that they had been
sitting in traffic for nearly 45 minutes just crawling. The interstate
should have ony taken roughly 15 to 30 minutes to get on to from where they
were staying, but by the time they finally reached the interstate they had
been sitting for an hour in traffic. I am glad that we received the text
when we did because it enabled us to take a bck road into town. Even sitting
in the traffic we did until we got to the back road prevented us from
stopping for breakfast. We dropped Little Man off at 12:40 PM and the
training was at 1:00PM. We pulled in for the training at 12:55 PM and by the
time we got our stuff set down it was 12:58 PM. We cut it close, but rather
we were there at 12:00 or 12:58 we were on time and set up by the 1:00 PM
class time. While on a break Amanda had received a text inviting us to
dinner. Ordinarily we would like more notice than a roughly 2 to 3 hour
invite, but since we got Little Man we try our best to make whatever they
have going on and I have always tried to be flexible, but the in-laws are
the type if they received that kind of notice then they would automatically
decline due to not having enough notice. So, that night we ended up getting
home right around 10 and then we were back up the next morning for church
since we had missed the last 2 Sundays due to being in Kentucky one weekend
and the next weekend family was in from Pensacola so we thought that would
be the last time we saw them till next year which didn't turn out to be the
case. All in all we had a great time even with being called Holier than thou
by her dad over some butting of heads when it comes to Little Man.  
-
-----Original Message-----
From: Josh [mailto:lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 11:05 PM
To: 'audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: [audio-pals] Re: Week in Review

Thank you and yes it is a lot of fun for adults too. I love the skeetball
game. He is having a blast. Either Amanda is feeling a little better or has
just gotten use to the pain *LOL*. I haven't heard much about the incident.
I just found out today that he is tall enough to drive on three of the
go-cart tracks at one of the places up in tourist town Pigeon Forge (Nascar
Speed Park). So, I think we are going to try and take him up there one day
this week. We have school supplies to buy also. Another thing that I believe
is in the plans is Dixie Stampede.
    The latest incident involving him is we are finding out that people that
use to be our friends believe their daughter does no wrong. I say that use
to be our friends because once a new couple moved into our apartment complex
they dropped us and went with them. Well, their daughter is quick to run and
tell on anything that Little Man does. Some things are his fault, but the
more we observed the more we started realizing that she instigates him to
try and get him in trouble so that they can exclude him by getting him into
trouble. When all this first started happening he would get in trouble and
nothing would happen to the "angel". However, L.M. has since learned that if
he tells us the complete story then we know how to best help him. Tonight is
one of those situations. They were throwing one ofthose stress balls. They
eventually came and told that he threw the ball hard and almost hit the
little girl in the face. His story is when he first got down there the
little girl said well are you going to throw it or what. This part of the
story came about because he is bad about trying to make people do things
rather than asking them. However, this time was not the case as he pointed
out she made her comment. So, they started launching the ball at him hard.
Well, he too was throwing the ball. He said that when the ball almost hit
the girl in the face no one said they were threw throwing or anything, but
rather than trying to catch the ball she stood there and looked at it and
that is when the ball almost hit her in the face.
    Due to his emotional reaction when I tried to trip him up a time or two
and the consistency in his story I have no doubt in the world that what he
is telling me is the truth as he sees it. This girl knocks on the door
constantly so he is now being informed to start knocking on her parents door
when she tries to start things with him. Amanda sent the momma a text and
her only response is the girls say that he hit her in the stomach with the
ball and they let that go (CYOA). Amanda texted back nad told the momma that
us adults all know that kids are going to leave out the parts that would get
them into trouble and we all know that kids aren't angels all the time, but
we do not believe any of them are innocent with this incident. Amanda asked
the momma why this part of the story was left out, the part with hitting her
in the stomach with the ball, when she came to tell on him since she has no
problems telling any other part of the story when he does something. It
seems logical to report the actual hit rather than the almost hit.       
   There was no response back because there is no answer for this illogical
response in the first place. She knows her kid is in the wrong, but refuses
to admit it. However, Little Man went and apologized for the unintentional
almost hitting her in the face with the stress ball. He even apologized for
yelling back at the girl that yelled at him.
   The interesting part is the parents of this girl complain about her mouth
and her actions all the time toward them. They say she doesn't come home one
day that she doesn't get into trouble for her mouth. I feel bad for coming
down on him so hard in the past when more than likely she instigated him as
I have observed her do on a couple of other occasions in the past. If they
don't lose this set of blinders they have on this girl is in for a lot of
trouble in the future. We had him tell the story an number of times and the
trips were thrown in at different areas and the story remained consistent. I
know he is capable of getting into trouble with his mouth, but I also can
tell when he is trying to get away with something. This time he isn't 100%
guilty, I am not sure he is even 25% guilty, but nonetheless there was an
issue so there had to be at the least a discussion. so we just talked to him
about not throwing the ball where it will hit someone in the face. I am glad
that he didn't get into trouble with this incident because I am looking
forward to heading up to Pigeon Forge tomorrow or the next day.  
-----Original Message-----
From: audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Heather
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 2:42 PM
To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audio-pals] Re: Week in Review

Hi Josh, it sounds like lm had a great time.  Chucky Cheese is cute and fun
even for adults.  I do believe Bethie and I would take the boys to Showbiz
Pizza years ago.  I used to shoot the teeth out of the clowns mouth without
even being able to see the teeth!  There were cute dancing characters that
would sing Elvis!  Ah the good ole days!  Bet he had fun at the zoo.  I hope
Amanda is not hurt and is feeling better now.  Have a great rest of the
summer.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh" <lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2014 8:04 AM
Subject: [audio-pals] Week in Review


> Hello ,
>
>   Well we will start with Friday. On Friday morning Amanda got up for 
> a training that lasted 3 hours, she has to have so many hours of 
> training each year to keep in good standing at her job. After she got 
> home we had some running around to do, last minute stuff, before we 
> headed up to Kentucky.
> Amanda's uncle, Little Man's great uncle, invited L.M. up to be the 
> bat boy on his travelling team of 13 and 14 year olds. So, L.M. 
> thought he was big stuff this past weekend running around on the 
> baseball field. So, Sunday morning we set off headed back home and 
> actually enroute to a birthday party that was for Amanda's co-worker's 
> son and L.M.'s friend. The party was at a place called Chuck E Cheese, 
> I am told it is much like a Famous Dave's if anyone is familiar with 
> that. The previous name of the establishment was Show Biz Pizza. The 
> place is a kid's dreamland full of arcade style games and characters 
> that get on a stage and perform. So, after a long, but fun weekend we 
> returned home. Monday was semi uneventful other than L.M.
> having
> Vacation Bible School starting up which ran from 6:00 to 8:30 each night.
> Friday was the program night and the last night of V.B.S. Tuesday we 
> spent some time at the allergist office finding out that the 
> pediatrician that he went to the first time was incorrect in her 
> diagnosis of him having allergies to wheat, eggs, and dairy. We found 
> out htat he only has an allergy to Maple Tree Pollen. Wednesday we 
> went to the library to return some books and then headed up to a drive 
> through safari that is nearby. .
> When we returned back to town we went to the zoo and purchased season 
> passes. Thursday we went skating. I did not skate. Amanda did skate 
> and ended up getting injured, no broke bones that we can tell right 
> now, but she is still limping around as of this morning. Today we, 
> Amanda and myself, have DCS training in order to stay in good standing 
> as foster parents that starts at 9:00 and runs till 3:00. After the 
> training is over we have to go to her dad's house due to family being 
> in from Pennsacola, Fl. While we are at training L.M. is going to 
> Super Hero Day at the Zoo with my Dad and Mom.
> So, it has been a really busy week with minimal down time. Amanda is 
> off for the upcoming week, last week of summer vacation for her. Then 
> one more week and L.M. goes back to school ending his summer vacation.
>
> 


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