[audio-pals] Re: Last Few Days in Review
- From: Thomas McMahan <thomas.mcmahan@xxxxxxx>
- To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 15:04:38 -0500
Yep, we know it here the accusations that come from one person in Patti’s
family, yet in all reality that person’s word is worthless around here now, and
credit isn’t much different either. Yep all of that stuff is still going on,
off and on at least. So Pat and I don’t deal with that particular person. I
am just waiting till the castle walls fall in, then will pick up whatever
pieces are worth picking up at that point. Apparently inlawas are expendable,
that has been made abundantly clear to me, the funny thing is that once that
lane was opened in the street, it opened the lane that goes back the other way
as far as I’m concerned.
I just hope that the people in your family, or should I say families manage to
keep their heads and be wise and eventually understand why you all are doing
what you are doing. What happens now has definite implications down the line,
such saw when LM becomes teen man for example. Having this structure will
hopefully teach him both structure, but also respect in general. Will there be
rebellion? Of course, that is also a natural growing process, but the
fundamentals are being laid now and that is good.
On Aug 4, 2014, at 2:33 PM, Josh <lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I agree and Amanda agrees. We have been promised that our wishes will be
> respected even if they don't agree with them and I reinforce not only our
> wishes, but also the courts demands. The last couple of times we have been
> over there even though we have had these long drawn out discussions over
> these matters the topics have been avoided except for maybe once or twice
> which is a vast improvement, but we should have never had to go to theses
> great extremes to get it the way we want it to be for all intensive
> purchases our child to have a safe environment. I did end up dropping a
> bombshell though the other night. We were in these discussions and being
> told how we are holier than thou and we are all family. I agreed and waited
> on my turn to speak. When it came I agreed and asked him why his wife when
> her father passed away and we were going to go in and pay our respects she
> informed us to not go in because the "family" was in there. That to me seems
> like it drew a solid line in the sand of who is family and who is not. He
> seemed shock to hear this tid bit of information. Her father passed away
> over a year ago.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Thomas McMahan
> Sent: Monday, August 4, 2014 1:39 PM
> To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [audio-pals] Re: Last Few Days in Review
>
> Right, if the court says it goes, then it does, and if they say it doesn’t
> go, it better not. It can take away just as easily as it can grant.
>
> They can talk t
> On Aug 4, to the whole family as they say all they want, but it’s not their
> decision, and you are erring on the side of caution thus it’s really hard to
> argue against. Time for them to grow up and deal with it. Things aren’t
> the same as they were 20 years ago, or 40 years ago. Regardless of whether
> a person prefers it as it was then or not, the facts are is that things are
> different. It’s not called youth protection for nothing, well it shouldn’t
> be.
>
> 4, at 12:29 PM, Josh <lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Called us holier than though because they belive that they are above
>> the court order that is in place and that they know best even though
>> we see how his behavior is when forbidden topics are talked about. We
>> have explained to them what the forbidden topics are Amanda's step-mom
>> just about had an all out argument with us. I finally told her that
>> this is not a matter up for discussion. This occurred last week after
>> our hours long conversation with her dad. I had to use some psychology
>> to explain why it is the way it is, but I am not sure it did any good.
>> This past Saturday is when her dad told her that she was acting holier
>> than though, but he knew that it would engage me as well when he said
>> that. I told him that they can say whatever they wished about us and
>> they can get pissed off if they want, but unless this court order is
>> followed then we will continue to be present anywhere that he is
>> present because not only is his physical well-being a priority of mine
>> and Amanda's, but also his emotional well-being. The whole holier than
>> though came up one out of a matter of attack because they had nothing
>> else to attack, but because when we go over there we don't drink. We
>> don't have anything against it and we may even have a couple of drinks
>> from time to time ourselves, but we don't drink everytime we are over
>> there. We don't want Little Man getting the idea either that this is
>> ok so we do limit our time that we are over there, but have never told
> them to stop or else like my mom did with me when I was growing up just
> because there was PBR in the
>> fridge.
>> Interestingly though they do not see anything wrong with talking
>> behind our back because he said the whole family has talked and that
>> they have come to this conclusion. When he says the whole family he is
>> referring to the ones that go over there and drink. However, they know
>> how strong we feel about this to go up against the entire family if
>> they don't want to comply with not only our wishes when it comes to
>> him, but also what the court mandates.
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Thomas McMahan
>> Sent: Monday, August 4, 2014 12:12 PM
>> To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: [audio-pals] Re: Last Few Days in Review
>>
>> Then I guess you’re doing something right then. There are worse
>> things to be called.
>>
>> On Aug 4, 2014, at 10:42 AM, Josh <lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> 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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