Friday, Yet Again

Is it just me, or does it seem like friday's have been coming faster the past few weeks? Here we are again, at the beginning of the weekend.Yesterday the kiddos went back to school. Wed. night boo started in with not wanting to go. She cried herself to sleep. She got on the bus yesterday hysterical. Ryan sat with her, and he thought they were sitting with one of boo's friends, alexis. Ryan asked alexis to help calm brandi down, and apparently it wasn't her. It was on older child who said, and I quote, "give her some benadryl". Can you believe that? We all know how her mom shuts her up! Anyway, when she got home, she said she only cried on the bus, and a little at breakfast. Only a little though, cause she was stopping. Last night she started crying again, and I finally told her enough was enough. The kids on the bus were tired of listening to it. I know nothing bad is going on, because she'll tell you, as soon as class starts, she's fine. I have the only 6 year old with anxiety problems! This morning she started crying as soon as she woke up, and I told her if she didn't stop, daddy would whoop her. She stopped. I hate to get ugly with her, but I don't know what else to do. I tried bribing her, rewarding her for making through the day, babying her, hugging her, but none of that worked. It probably made it worse. We did agree on this: If she didn't cry in the mornings, she would get to watch a movie with me when she gets home, before the other kids get home. That gives her 90 minutes of my undivided attention. Yesterday we watched HSM, today is supposed to be HSM2. I know, she cried yesterday, yet we still watched the movie. It was because she didn't cry in class. Today we start the new deal. And we made it after she stopped crying. So we'll see.Here's some freaky crap for ya. I think I have mentioned this woman named donna (my toxic friend) who we used to live next door to. I won't go into the how or why (it's hubby's fault) but we ran into her yesterday. She had some very interesting information. Let me start at the beginning..When I was pregnant with boo, we lived in a 2 bedroom mobile home in a trailer park. There were 10 trailers in all, and donna live to the left of us. To the right, there was an old man. He died shortly after boo was born. His children decided to let his exwife and her husband move in, instead of letting the trailer sit empty. That summer, boo was 6 months old, the grass at their house started growing, and no one was cutting it. So, sweet person I am, I started doing their yard when I did my own. One day the husband, raymond, came out and thanked me, and asked if I would come in and meet his wife, dolores, who was disabled. Sure, so I go in and say hi, they continue to thank me for cutting their grass, and a little friendship develops. They moved from florida, and they missed their friends, and they loved my kids. Raymond and ryan developed a cute little friendship. Ryan would help out around his yard, and raymond would fix ryans bike and stuff. Ryan was only 6 at this time. There was another little boy, caleb, who was always with them too. He stayed with his grandmother across the road. One day, I went outside, and raymond had ryan and caleb sitting in the trunk of his car. I flipped! Raymond claimed the boys said they couldn't fit, and he wanted to prove they could. Creepy, but I let it go, because raymond wasn't the brightest old man. Then raymond started coming to my house every night to say goodnight to the kids. When school started, he wouldn't leave when I hinted it was time for the kids to go to bed. If I had company, he would still come over. My mom thought he was creepy. I just thought he was a lonely old man. So a few months later, we decided to move. A 2 bedroom mobile home with 3 kids was getting pretty crowded. Hubby told me not to tell them exactly where we were moving. When they would ask, I would just say, oh, to the other side of the lake. (we moved into the house where hubby grew up. His dad had recently remarried and moved in with her, so the house was sitting empty. We just moved in and pay the house payment every month. We went from a 2 bedroom mess to a 4 bedroom house, and it was great!) Anyway, about a week after we moved in, there was a knock at the door. Yup, raymond. I asked how he knew where I lived, and he said for the past week he had been driving around in the area looking for our car. Then a few days later, we came home, and he was in our backyard walking around! Hubby drove by, and we came back 15 minutes later and he was gone. The next time he came by. I didn't answer the door, cause hubby was at work. (he worked days at that time, too) Then after Christmas, he came by again, and hubby told him not to come back. We never heard from him again. Donna would say that if he saw her, he would ask about us, because at that time donna and I were extremely close. She never gave him any details, just said we were fine.So yesterday, donna asks if we'd heard what happened to raymond. Nope, can't say that I had. Turns out he's in prison for MOLESTING HIS GREAT - GRANDSONS!!!Holy crap, people! So now I'm thinking, oh god, was the man EVER alone with ryan. No, not that I can remember. They were always outside in the yard (which was all open, and there was always someone else around) or I was there. Hubby still wants to ask ryan when he got home from school if anything ever happened. So I ask. I started by asking if he remembered raymond, and he said yes. I told him he was now in prison. He wanted to know what he did. I said he molested his grandchildren. Ryan's jaw dropped and he said, "no freakin' way!". I could tell by his reaction that nothing ever happened to him, but I asked anyway. His answer, "God no". And he looked me in the eye and pinkie swore. Good enough for me. Now I don't have to worry about hubby killing someone. He was seriously thinking of ways to get into prison to do it. Yeah, he's warped.But I tell you, looking back I can kinda see the signs, but at the time I just thought he was a sweet old man. You never know!