Kidless in Drama land...

Well, I can ho and hum, but pretty much I am at a loss right now. It doesn't help that I'm still sort of pissed off that my daughter was shafted at the local "bike drawing" either.

My kids are all gone to the big city of Anchorage. Yes, ALL FOUR OF THEM are over 600 miles away. 600 AIR miles. A big difference if I could just drive to them in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.



Kid #1 (Koy) left a bit ago on the jet to go to an NBC Basketball camp at the Alaska Pacific University Campus. His coach is picking him up in about an hour and he's off to the dorms for a week of intensive basketball madness. And a little swimming. I sent him with TRIPLE the amount of money I EVER went on "high school" trips with.

Oh My God. My kid is in high school. I'm only 33 years old, I can't possibly have a kid who's taking high school trips yet can I? I'm gonna need to get another job if he's going to be traveling all over. Sheesh. (He's not old enough to get his own, so until then, momma will give him the moolah.)

Kids #2 and #3 (Maddisen and Max) are with their momma in Palmer. A week of warm weather and school friends. They come back next Saturday for the rest of their stay. And speaking of school. Holy Cow, they'll both be in middle school next year. What the heck??! I need to have another baby to make things right again!



Kid number 4 (Kaisa) went to Anchorage too. She left in a hurry, almost missing her flight and called me from Anchorage. "Mom I MADE it! Just call me on this cell phone if you need to get a hold of me." Yeah...she's seven. I have some independent kids!

Even our boarder Jake is gone until tomorrow or Wednesday. So its just Dean and I. WHAT are we going to DO?!

Neither of us can cook for just two people. We'll be forced to eat out all week for fear of wasting so much food. Oh well.

Anyway. I'm a little irked about this weekend so maybe I just need this week to cool off.



We had a community clean up (like every year) and my kids cleaned their hearts out. They picked up the teeny tiniest litter on the ground and filled triple volume garbage bags, compared to the parents who picked up around their house for their kids. My seven year old picked up ONE garbage bag full of garbage, but her brothers and sister allowed her to put her name on some tickets. You see, the kids get a dollar per bag and a ticket for a chance to win 17 bikes that were donated by various organizations and individuals around town.


Kaisa and Clara are standing at the top right.

The drawing was at 8:00 p.m. Saturday night. After a LOOONG day of softball, work and handing out money and tickets, the kids waited anxiously for their name to be drawn.

Max won a bike right around the middle and since he just got a brand new mountain bike for his birthday, we had previously decided that Coltrane would get the bike if he won. (my nephew who's been riding Kaisa's old Mermaid Bike all frilly and pretty!) So, we picked out a bike for Coltrane. Then they wanted me to pick another ticket out for the next bike winner.



Here's where it gets sketchy.

And here's what pisses me off. The Coordinator told my son and his family (and God knows who else) that I picked two tickets, saw the names, then put one ticket back and kept Kaisa's ticket for her to win.

Seriously? With ALL THOSE PEOPLE WATCHING? I had the time and effort and forethought to pick my daughter's name and HIS son's name out, LOOK at BOTH tickets then decide that I would put HIS name back? All in under two seconds? Really? I mean, I claim to be good at things. But, I'm not THAT GOOD. Especially with THAT many people watching.



So, what happened was that I stuck my hand down the bucket...pulled out a ticket, it flew out of my hand ONTO THE GROUND and I had one stuck to my cuff. I dropped that ticket back in the box, said, "This must be the one that wants to be picked cause it jumped right out at me!" And said the name on the ticket, AFTER I had picked it up FROM THE GROUND... "Kaisa."

She came up to pick her bike...and he said loudly, "NO." Then muttered under his breath, "you wouldn't believe who's name was on the other ticket." I responded, "Who?" And he said, "Jack." His son.

I told him that it wasn't fair what he was doing to my child. That HER name was picked. I picked ONE ticket, and one ticket was stuck to my sleeve. HER ticket was the one I picked out from the BOTTOM of the barrel. Very obviously, I didn't know who's name was on the other ticket, so clearly I wasn't able to "decide" about which ticket I wanted to choose.

Needless to say. With a huge crowd like that, ALL the kids waiting for their name to be called, he would NOT allow her to pick up her bike. He would NOT allow her to pick the bike she had fairly won.

So she cried. And cried, and cried. And CRIED. I attempted to talk to him about it before it went on too long, but he brushed me off, and informed me that "you picked two tickets" which wasn't entirely true, and HE KNEW IT. He even went as far as making a spectacle about another "two tickets" being picked a few tries later, saying loudly to the crowd, and looking straight at me and my bawling daughter, "OH, TWO TICKETS, we have to DRAW AGAIN." Yeah. Sure buddy.

I am 100% positive that if it hadn't been HIS child's name on the other ticket that was dropped back in, I'd have been blogging about the fishing we did yesterday evening. And how thankful I am to the volunteers and the coordinator for putting this together. And for all the bikes that were donated. I had a blog written about it already. But instead, I'm upset. My child is upset and worst of all...the whole situation is being lied about to cover one's back. I didn't pick two tickets. I didn't see Jack's name. This is my blog. End of story.

How was YOUR weekend!!?

*Edited to add: I know, I should be happy with one bike. But the point is not that we won a bike. It's that the rules were broken and my daughter was embarrassed. She was called up, excited to win something, and then shot down. And she's SEVEN. She's not a teenager who can get over it. She's the BABY. I tried to make it a "life lesson" but she's had so many life lessons, just this once it should have just been done fairly. And THANK YOU Al Adams for your donation of a Bike for Coltrane. He's in the village right now, but will certainly be excited not to ride a mermaid bike around town anymore!!!