Stocks and Bonds

4-19-12


Bobby learned a valuable lesson in investments yesterday.

As you may know, the boys currently earn little stones as currency when they do good or do their chores, etc. Bobby has been jonzing for his own kitten for some time now, and I told him if he could earn 500 of them, he could trade them in and we would go down to the shelter and get him a kitten. Being that he never seemed to be able to save them past 100, we figured we were in the clear. Plus, some punishment does involve stone removal, so they both have kept a pretty constant balance under 100.



There are way too many cute kittens to choose from!


The boys decided to brainstorm yesterday morning.

Dax recently had been on a streak, racking up 182 stones in his little jar. For some reason, he and Bobby discussed their riches, and Bobby decided to give all of his stones, which totaled 220, to Dax, and Dax said he would use all of the stones to buy Bobby a kitten. They did need another 98 stones, but they figured they could earn that easily. Bobby also figured that he could have Dax do all their chores, earning two sets of stones since he was doing twice the work.

Bobby was investing in some very volatile stocks. These kids have been known to lose all of their stones in one horrible tantrum. This would mean that Bobby could lose all of his stones AND all of Dax’s stones. This was very risky, especially when Dax melted into an epic tantrum on the way home.

Dax pitched a ginourmous fit about not being second in our line of bikes on the ride home. This kid has some kind of very complex system to figure out “bike order”, and he is very strict on it. So when Bobby rode in front of me per my orders, Dax was sure I was endangering the planet and flipped out in epic proportions. It was pretty spectacular.

In the past, we would have taken stones. Instead, I ended up putting him in a time out and turning his house card to yellow. Ken and I agreed that from here on out, if they get to Red at home, they would lose all stones.

We then took this time to talk to Bobby about investing and high risk stocks.

We gave Bobby a do-over, allowing him to split the investment 50/50 with Dax, giving them both 201 stones total. It seemed to make sense to Bobby, and I think he was relieved to not have to start at zero. It was kind of a fun lesson.

The rest of the evening left us with the boys and their friend Anthony building their Lego sets. I cleaned out my closet of clothing that didn’t fit, and handed much of it over to Ken who spent time in front of the sewing machine making alterations on my skirts and transforming many of Dax’s jeans with holes into nice shorts. That kid can put a hole in a pair of Kevlar pants.

I think I scared the shit out of Bobby again later when we once again read Bedtime for Francis. The copy came from Dax’s class, and this is the copy that included the two parts where someone felt the need to censor the original text by crossing out ‘spanking’ and writing above it ‘time out’. I read it as written, and the boys asked me about it. We had another conversation about censorship, and Bobby asked me about spankings. I explained to him that there are many people who believe spanking is wrong. He then pointed out that Poppy wasn’t one of those people, having heard Poppy tell him several times about how in his day there were no red cards, just a giant wooden paddle with holes in it. Yeah, quite the visual for a kid, and it made me kind of laugh. Bobby also shrugged it off, knowing he would never have to endure this kind of corporal punishment. He asked me why people still spank. I then looked at him very solemnly and said, “Because sometimes things like Time Outs and other punishments don’t seem to get through to kids.” He turned sheet white and squished up against me in a full hug. I think he got the message.

I talked to Dax about he and Bobby going to Utah with Gramma and Poppy without Ken and I. He said that sounded like fun. I asked him if it was ok that I wasn’t going with them. He said, “Oh yeah!” He then thought for a second, and said, “Mom, its ok if you don’t go. I will probably cry at first, but I will be ok.” My kid rocks.

Per Alyssa’s recommendation, I have downloaded 3 out of 4 of the Twilight books. I found them as free PDF’s that I was able to load into my iBooks app. I may never have to buy a book again at this rate. LOL! I am not super far into the first book, but right now the most difficult thing is clearing my mind of what I do know about the story/movie. I have seen a couple of things, I know some of the actors, and it is a little hard to just read it outright. I am intrigued enough to read it all, but I am not sucked in like I was with Hunger Games or even the Fifty Shades series. But I am just enjoying the fact that I can read it during my workout. I discovered yesterday that the holder on my treadmill holds Padme’ quite nicely and I don’t have to hold down pages like I did with the real book. I can read my book while walking, which makes the time go by quite quickly.

Tomorrow I am coming to work in uber comfy clothing. It is our Health Fair Day, which means lots of interesting booths and activities. In fact, I am doing a Zumba class at 10:30. It is 45 minutes and should be interesting. Thankfully I am not the only newcomer to it, and I am guessing they will not kill us on it. Afterwards they will feed me this healthy lunch, so this should be cool. I am actually looking forward to it.

Tonight is soccer practice. I don’t know what time Ken gets home today, so I don’t know if we will have time to ride our bikes up there again. I hope we can, as that is pretty awesome.

My boob gets an ultrasound on Monday. It is the follow up to my biopsy from the lump I had found. I have not seen anything unusual since the procedure, so this should be routine and have no issues. I was shocked at how quickly they could get me an appointment. My reminder notice said that they make appointments 2 months out, so I assumed when I called it would be sometime in June, maybe even July. Instead I was able to get in on Monday morning. It will be good since I can go to work for a couple hours, then head over there. Then I can hang out the rest of the day. Woo hoo!