This week at The Berry household has been a smooth week compared to most. Jack is still continuing to have a mostly uneventful week, which makes for two good weeks. The good weeks aren’t without some type of needs from him. As most of you know, Jack got an electric guitar for Christmas. Santa gifted him with a kids cherry red electric guitar, it was really the only thing on his wish list. To compromise, Santa (the smartest transgendered person I know), got him the kids version so he wouldn’t rock the house down all day & night. Santa didn’t give him the amp with it either, smartest decision ever by the way. We are blessed to know a really wonderful family, I think I’ve mentioned them before, the VunCannons of Ellerbe. Both of the younger VunCannon guys have helped us with Jack on numerous occasions. One of them plays the guitar really well & Jack found out about this. Jack has broken a guitar string several times since finding out he can play the guitar. It’s so aggravating. Jack tears up absolutely everything. My Daddy always said our kids could tear up an anvil, turns out he was right! Jack does it for spite, attention or maybe both. Yesterday it was his Bluetooth earpiece, you know, what CEO’s wear so they won’t have to be prisoner to a phone between their ear & shoulder. The earpiece was broken, he called begging me to get another one, so I had to do that & stop at Chiba where I know the drive-thru fella swears I have a crush on him! You would think Jack is running a Fortune 500 company out of his small bedroom by the looks of it. He’s got his earpiece, laptop, iPad, iPhone, & an actual notebook & pencil on his bed at all times going & has Japanese delivered just like an executive would!
Jack has been harping about turning 18 (in August) for a year now. It has us scared to death. He really thinks when he turns the legal age of an adult, freedom will ring! To him this means the ability to stay home alone & do anything else he wishes without parental consent. This is very scary for us. We really don’t know what to expect on or after his birthday. Jack needs assistance in all arenas, from bathing, toothbrushing, grooming, you get the point. Something funny/not funny that happened the other night, Jack went to the bathroom & asked me to wipe him like I always do. He then changed his mind & decided to do it because he said when he turns 21 & gets a girlfriend she won’t have to do it. My Lord, this child’s mind can go places! He’s moved the technical age of getting a girlfriend to 21, but he is still actively seeking one and/or a wife online everyday. Jack was asking about driving a few days ago. This has always been instilled in Jack that he can not since he has seizures. I tried to explain to him again this was not possible. He seemed satisfied with that answer…for now. He is also on a tattoo kick. If tattoos are your thing, that’s great, but I can not see taking him to a tattoo parlor, that is a can of worms I am NOT willing to open. He even contacted the Epilepsy Foundation on Facebook to ask them if he could get a tattoo. I am always astonished by his smarts & threatened by them at the same time.
Due to the taxi fiasco a few weeks ago (that was when Jack called a taxi to the house, he got in it & started to drive off before his caretaker stopped it-he was going to Ellerbe’s finest mall, Dollar General to buy a gift card without any money), we have had to change everything about our living arrangements. All keys are hidden, we changed the door locks, alarm code, the doors are never open any more. Just having the doors open makes me feel brighter, now they have to be locked. He didn’t want a baby monitor in his room any longer since he was about to turn 18. I would hide it, he would find it & get upset. I don’t really use it for seizures any more, I use it to hear he is up to. While Jack was with the VunCannon family one day for lunch, Lee & I used our time wisely in a covert operation. That’s when the locks were changed, more window locks in place, & we taped his monitor to the back of his dresser. What a pain our lives have become. Lord help us if there is ever a fire, we probably would burn to crisps because we’d never find the house keys or be able to jump out of the windows. Thank goodness the fire department is around the corner! I’m half expecting him to find the monitor one day or it come untaped in the middle of the night. The other piece is kept hidden in our room at all times. Lee & I felt like secret agents working to hide bugs in a Russian spy’s room, we were working on a timeframe & scared to death Jack would come bounding in any second. We succeeded…for now. Remember when Jack shaved his eyebrows a while back, then more recently he shaved his hair all because someone told him too? Well, I hid the electric shaver so good, that Lee didn’t find it for three weeks! I have no clue of its current whereabouts!
Our busy season is about to go full throttle, picking berries, making fruit dip, dipping those delicious strawberries in chocolate, strawberry cobblers, making the schedule which is absolutely hellacious-try scheduling 10+ girls in an ice cream shop, it’s the things nightmares are made of, but we love them all so much. Then there’s the scheduling of the produce stand, Calgon, take me away! I have to wonder how we’ll make it this season? Will Jack continue to cooperate, will his obsessions be taken to a new level? It’s daunting to think about. It might not be pretty, it might not be our best effort, but it will be (hopefully).
Cruel & Unusual Circumstances 
Love to read your blog…
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