Taking a ride on the short bus...

Today I decided to hurry up and take the boys shopping for some school supplies while the girl's were at cheer leading practice. As always, my children get into these crazy, silly, moods. If I am in a good mood, I am amused easily by the actions of theirs as long as it's not too bad or rude. Clark is a silly brave boy sometimes. A few years ago, he came up with this thing where he blurts out "HI" to people, and other strange phrases to see what their reaction would be and laugh at them... For instance, at parades, Clark thought it would be funny to yell out, "Merry Christmas!" to Independence day goers. Or at Christmas, "Happy Halloween" and stuff like that. When he went trick or treating, he would say funny stuff too to people. I have to admit, it is kind of funny. Now, his big thing is to bang on the window when we are parked next to someone in their own car. He does it at stop lights, and if the have their window down, he says silly things to them..Some people get frightened, some people laugh, some people say stuff back, and some give a really dirty look. Am I wrong to let this behavior go on? Or am I to blame?



Perhaps I am to blame. In my past I did some pretty demented things to amuse myself and entertain others. I am sure everyone has a horrible, embarrassing car story, my parent's were really poor at times and we had to ride in transportation less than desirable. At one point in my life, my dad got a steal of a deal from the state auction, a big bright yellowish orange construction van. It had clear windows all around, no seats, no carpet on floors, and no air conditioning! My dad found two blue van seats to put in it, he bolted them to the floor. I was just turning 14 and I hated that van! Nobody had a van like it except for highway workers, and that was even rare to see. When we rode in it, we had plenty of space, but people always stared at us where ever we went! I got it in my head to start acting the part. I felt like I was in a handicapped bus, so I let people think so. Not long after we got it, we were on our way to Alaska from Ohio, in which we were bored to death. So while we were on the freeway, I got my brothers and my sister to act up and put on a show for highway drivers! My mom was really annoyed, but she didn't even know what we were doing half the time. We would act like we were choking each other, make faces, mess up our hair to make it wacky, post signs with "help" on them, and our favorite was pretending to eat our boogers. I can't help but laugh at this now, but certainly, I wouldn't want my kids to act that bad!



That stupid van made it to Alaska, and soon after it arrived, I got it into a small bumper thing and it saved my parent's life after getting hit head on by a log truck. So it did have a purpose. But then, my parent's got the Juneau Junker, which was even worse! It was a long pale yellow car, that had a loud spitting muffler and a serious lean to one side. It was so tilted that we, as kids would crush the person on the right, and the back bumper would make sparks when we turned corners. I made my mom drop me off at the corner of the school parking lot, it was that bad!