you just can't make this stuff up...

so chester, our newest & least-mentioned client was suspended today for punching another student in the eye. first offense, ISS. second offense (which today was), suspended until TUESDAY. for crying out loud. but we're sitting at the dinner table & i overhear part of a conversation between ernest & chester. i ask him to start from the beginning:

chester: "as i was sitting in the office waiting for you guys to pick me up, the police officer was sitting there with me. he asked who i lived with & the names of who would be picking me up. i said, "i live with ben & lynsey." he got a funny look on his face. then he said, "ben & lynsey? do you live with a kid who tried to hold the principal hostage with a stapler?" and i answered him, "oh, do you mean carrot top (used his real name of course)?" and he said, "yeah! that's him!" but i told him that he doesn't live here anymore."

oh. my. good. NESS. above all else, this my friends, is why you write a blog (or at least keep a journal). ben & i totally had spaced...or blocked out...that incident. back in aug, in our pre-blogging days, in a total of 48 hours:

-carrot top attempted to kill the principal with a stapler...while already handcuffed (not the brightest weed in the patch) & was expelled from that school for the rest of his life

-homeboy (don't know who he is? refer you back to our very first post, 9/07) & his compadre beat up ernest

-homeboy got caught stealing a teacher's ipod. he then came home, & started lighting cigarettes on the stove & coerced carrot top to smoke them with him (i ended up having to pull out the stove & unplug it).

-ernest took a 6 inch knife from his father's collection to school with him (& actally ADMITTED it was to seek revenge on homeboy & his friend for the previous day's actions) & was caught & expelled forever from the very same school carrot top had been banished from the day before.

-homeboy ran away & didn't resurface for 3 months. (for the record i want you to know that i knew where he was after 2 days of him missing. but the cops sat on their rears...even when he was found breaking in cars & stealing stereos. they have bigger fish to fry in durham county. but my detective work would make columbo proud.)

-carrot top did $5,000 worth of damage to the house & group home van with a crutch.

-ben had to restrain carrot top for 20 mins. until the cops finally took him away & he went to jail for the night.

-ernest climbed up on the roof, bawling about being expelled from school. only ben could talk him down. (he idolizes ben)

when i think about how far we've come since those days i am truly amazed. it's not that those things don't happen anymore (enter chester & fantasia today) but i remember being so completely traumatized after those two days that i thought i would never recover. and here i am. still standing. thicker skinned. but not all has changed. i'm still counting down how much time we have left in fast sundays (ONLY TWO AFTER THIS SUNDAY). and still writing blogs that are too dang long. those people that can get their points across in just a few short sentences? my heroes, yep. ah well. ramble on.