Busy Teenagers- Smelly Dogs

Things are quite busy around the house lately and we just dont seem to have enough wheels. My son is gone to Alabama attending some military training in EOB (Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or a fancy shmancy name for bomb squad). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_Ordnance_Disposal
Right now it is a bit like college for him, sitting in a class room all day- once in a while a field trip to, well, the fields. There have been exercises where he dons a suit much like the underwater aparatus of outer space movies from the 50's and they complete maneuvers and tasks. I am not quite sure if these maneuvers are so that the seargents can have a good laugh for the day or if they actually serve a purpose. But if it makes my sons military career any safer, Im all for a little humiliation.

While my son is gone to training, his first car, a blue chevy cavalier, sits in my driveway. My oldest daughter has had a drivers license for about a year and a half now and yet, car at her disposal, I am left with three choices. Option one, hand over the keys to my car, and stay at home for the evenings she works; Option two, I keep the car, use it as I need, then drop it off to her and walk home the three or four blocks; or option three, take her to work (or let her walk) then drive back at 11pm to pick her up. We have done all of these.

You may be wondering why she does not take the perfectly good car her brother left here? Because it is a standard transmission, and although she has been trained by my son and I on numerous occasions, she just cannot get the hang of driving with a clutch. So the car sits. I suppose it is for the better, as the car comes up for inspection this month and needs some brakes, tires and --- a horn, cannot pass inspection in Utah without a functioning horn, is this why Utahans insist on using theirs for the stupidest reasons?

So, we are left with a dilemma, she is extremely frustrated at her current fast food job. I have to agree with her on the point that family run businesses are not always the best to work for. She applied last night at a local best buy (where previously mentioned Jake, and his father both work) and the pay is approx. $2 more an hour, there are a few open positions. It sounds like it would be a pretty good fit for her, answering phones and customer service, with her personality she will do fine. Problem_! it is not a few blocks, it is 5 miles. This may turn out to be work, on my part. she seems to think that Jake can teach her what her brother and i were not able to ....
I'll keep you posted.

Other events, the Shakespeare festival group http://www.bard.org/competition/index.html Rachel will be competing with will perform their rendition for the school and parents this Friday night, as the parents will not be able to go to Cedar city with them, I am looking forward to that showing. Both girls work Saturday night, and then all next week the school will hold homecoming week festivities. I am still not sure if Chantel will run as the homecoming nominee from the color guard group or not. I hope she does. She may never get another opportunity. The week after that, Rachel will be in Cedar City at the competition. Life is never boring in our household. Oh! and Rachel had her first night on the driving range, turns out she isn't a natural. ugh.

So you may be wondering what I will be doing with all that spare time in between chauffeuring these girls around town. Well, I will be tending to the house, the yard, and well, the dogs will be getting a bath tonight as I was awaken in the night by a horrendous odor. It was dark and I was half-asleep but I swear there had to be a green and grey cloud hovering above my bed. One of the dogs, or maybe both of them have rolled in something. I swear sometimes I feel like I am raising 5 children... or animals.