the phone rings and i get up for the twentieth time from my conversation/gossip-fest with my friend to check caller id and decide if i am in the mood to chat.

it's j's teacher. it rings again. i debate whether or not i want to go another round of "guess what your son did today." it rings again. ah hell. i answer it.

"mrs d? this is j's teacher. don't panic. it's good news."

lol. seems we don't have a lot of those phone calls and we both know it.

"j has had the best week since he started in this school last year. in fact, he won student of the week for the entire school."

holy crap! he isn't in trouble...he is the amazing wonder kid!

so we reward him with a bonus in the allowance and i take him to toys 'r' us before it burns a hole in his pocket. the kids were ecstatic that transformers were buy one get one.

and then we hit the geeky boardgame jackpot!! we got this RISK 2210 AD game and then for free we also got this Heroscape game. oh yes, we are in strategy board game heaven.

and they aren't fighting. well, in the game they are. but they aren't screaming, bickering, threatening to tattle, fighting.