Teenagers can be fun. At least my teenagers amuse me. Even when they are annoying, they are amusing. All teenagers think that they know more than their parents. I can state this, because I have had the opportunity to work with teenagers for the past eight years. I was a smart teenager. I knew it all! I remember that I was always way smarter than my parents, one with a Master's Degree, the other with several years of college. I knew more about the way to raise teenagers than my father, who was a High School principal and had a degree in psychology as well as a secondary education degree. I knew that what ever rule my parents made regarding my life, was the wrong decision. They didn't know what my life was like! How could they? They were so OLD! They had never had the kind of life I had. I knew what time all my friend's curfew's were, what their parents let them get away with, where to go when you didn't want anyone to know where you were, what to do when you didn't want your parents to know you had the car...you know, all the real information that is vital to a teenager's existence.

When do teenagers lose the thrill of spending their parent's money? I always feel guilty when my parents send me money for my birthday and Christmas. I think about all the times that I asked them for things and I don't want to have them pay for anything else. When does that guilt kick in? Can you instill it in your teenagers?

I love my husband. I miss him when he travels. It is so funny that I miss him so much. I know other women who look for the opportunity to have their husbands away. They get to things that they don't do when their husbands are in town. Not me. Life is still the same, only lonelier. I don't talk to Howard now as much as I used to. I like just being by him. In the book, These Is My Words, by Nancy E. Turner, she refers to the main character knowing that her parents loved each other, because she would watch them sit by the fire, not saying a word, by just looking content. She knew that when that time happened to her, it would signify true love. I could totally relate to that feeling.