The boys were in bed, I`d made breakfast for Ben and the girls, we were sitting around, me recovering from happenings of the night before, wondering how long to let the boys sleep for, we decided to wait until the realtor has been thru, it was 9:30.

Little dog (our fierce mini foxy guard dog) started barking, here comes the "mailbox men", I went and woke Dan up, told him what was going on with the mailbox men and walked outside with him.

It SHOULD have been an easy conversation, BUT as I`ve said before, the meathead that owned the mailbox wasn`t happy and wanted that confession.

I introduced Dan to them and stepped aside, the aggressive one started ranting at Dan about the mailbox, the hair on the back of my neck began to stand up, Dan got *that* look in his eyes (he was beaten for ten years of his life by his over aggressive drunken father), I started to move closer, the mailbox man raised his hand to point his finger at Dan, I stepped between him and Dan and said "don`t rah my fucken kid down man hey", HE POINTED HIS FINGER AT ME AND STARTED RANTING,

I took a deep breath and said "what do you want out of this?", he replied "the money for the fucken mailbox",.

I asked calmly "how much is your mailbox", he yelled "fifty fucken dollars".

I turned to Dan and told him to go and get 50 out of his wallet and give it to the dude, its more than likely someone from here did do it, so you play you pay, Dan headed off to get the money - I thought.

Old matey was STILL ranting at me, I was still keeping my calm, Dan was taking his sweet time!

Bek came out, I asked her where Dan wass?? She looked nervously at the ground and said "in the toilet".

I told her to go and get 50 dollars out of his wallet and bring it to me, she RAN off, what I DID`NT know was that Dan was in his room taking the weights off his bench press in order to come and beat the shit out of mailbox man....Bek came back with the money, I handed it to mailbox man, he was still carrying on, next time he was calling the cops, probably the preferable option I agreed, blah, blah fucking blah....

He drove off as Dan walked out the door with the bar and the fucken realtor pulled in!!!!!!

BLAH!

It`s turned out all good, they looked thru the place and went. Yay.

I went inside to a tired, irrate 15 year old, told him to go back to bed, we`d talk about this shit after the weekend, it WAS still his birthday `n shit ya know?

Fuuuuck...

I spent the day getting the shed tidied up for the party, hanging with the girls and Ben, talking about what a fun party it was going to be, some of Dans mates hired party lights, those flashing ones that make you look like your movements are disjointed.

I let Dan sleep till 4, then woke him up to get ready.

Around 5 `oclock a few kids started rolling in, 5:30 my brother rang from the coast and said he was coming up, "awesome" I say, "Dans having a party, it`ll be great!!!!"

Great. That should have been the theme for the entire weekend, cos just as I thought the word great, it kept outdoing itself.....

Great......

Greater.......

Get ready for GreatEST.................

Ok, I have a 15 year old son, he was kicked out of school a few months ago..lonnng story..and now works full time at a turf farm..

Every weekend him and 3 0f his best mates party, in our shed. They`ve got a pool table, tv, playstation,dvd player,stereo,lounge,loft,beds, you name it.

This shed is kitted out, they love it.

They spend their weekends in their playing loud "gansta" music, having a few (sometimes a few too many) drinks, they`re safe and supervised, everyone knows where their kids are and what they`re doing.

In a safe, supervised environment, much preferable to worrying all weekend where your kids are and what they`re up to.

So when Dan says to me "I`m having a party this weekend", I`m good with it, he hangs with good boys, I can`t forsee any problems.

I can`t "forsee" any problems?

What the fuck was *I* thinking?!

This "party" started on the Friday night with "just few mates", like 15 of them, they were all boys from the same school, I didn`t know half of them but they "looked" like good boys!

I left them to their party, made my presence known every now and then but ultimately left them with it, they`d come inside and have a chat every now and then, none of them seemd overly effected by drinking, I`m thinking what good boys they are, even after hearing the chants from the shed of "scull, scull, scull", they SEEMED OK.

I was 15 once, I *should* have seen the signs of "you`re being fucked with my dear lady"!!!

I don`t drink at all either so I SHOULD have picked it!! The cunning little shits!

It`s midnight, Ben and I went to bed, big week, bigger day, our heads hit the pillow, we hit slumber land.

I woke up at 5am Saturday morning, went to make coffee for Ben and I, I looked in Dans room as I passed,(at least 2 boys usually end up in there), yep, 2 bodies, Luke and Dillon, I headed out to the shed to check the rest, I wasn`t sure which ones were actually staying , I knew the regulars and Dan were.

I opened the front door, looked toward the shed, past where my car was parked........where my car WAS parked....My FUCKEN CAR WAS GONE!!!!!!!!

My heart started racing, my pace quickened and I headed into the shed, the EMPTY shed, I climbed up onto the loft.... nope, empty...I felt sick as fuck.

I ran into the house, shouting to Ben to get my phone..."I`ve gotto ring Dan...Where`s the phone????"

"My fucken cars gone!!!!"

All I could hear was the beating of my heart, I ran into Dans room, still yelling to Ben to get the phone, started ranting at two blurry eyed half asleep teenagers in Dans bed, the roaring in my ears getting louder ,trying not to vomit, cry, scream, go into absolute lost hysterics..WHERE THE FUCK IS MY KID????????????

Then Ben shouted "they`re coming down the driveway now!"

I ran to the driveway, Dan CRUISED down in my car, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, "doof doof" music blaring from the cd player, a smile as big as the sunrise on his face.

He stopped, got out of the car, the other 4 kids were shitting themselves, I screamed at them "I don`t know which of you to smack in the fucken mouth first!!!"

Burst into tears and threw my arms around my shit of a son!

Fuuuuck!

My car had vomit all over it and my sleep deprived/half sloshed PROUD son tells me he "made it" to the fucken GATEWAY MOTORWAY AND BACK!!!!!!!!!!

Absolute waste of time arguing with a drunk (have I mentioned that I don`t drink ever, and I`m not particularly fond of drunks in any form), I`ll talk to him after he`s had sleep.

So I put them all to bed, made my coffee, sat down and melted down.......

A car came down the driveway, it was now 7:30am on a Saturday morning, "it must be one of the kids parents," I thought to myself as I wandered out.

A "hotted up" ute pulled in, 2 "tough" looking dudes got out of it, about my age, I asked what I could I do to help them? Hoping desperately that they`re lost and just wanted directions.

No such luck.

Old mate started at me....I was rubbing my eyes wondering what the fuck he was talking about...what mailbox?

I blinked.

Ohhhhh, I get it, he lives across the road, his mailbox got smashed for the second weekend in a row, he`s not happy and he "knows" it came from here. I agreed, it probably did come from here, not from the regular boys or my boys, but the add ons that turned up last night, I couldn`t say that it DIDN`T come from here, it was more than likely that it did, but last weekend? Only my boys were here, I know they didn`t leave the shed and I also know they aren`t into destruction for fun. Come back when they`re awake, ask them, if they know who did it, they`ll tell, if they don`t they won`t.

What more could one ask for?

This meathead wanted a confession written in blood I reckon, but he agreed to come back after the boys had had some sleep.

Oh and amongst this, have I mentioned that my house is for sale and the realtor was bringing a prospective buyer thru at 10 o`clock? No? Must have forgotten.Oh AND on Friday afternoon we`d had to get a plumber out cos as Dan had his shower, the bathroom literally filled up with shit, the fucking toilet exploded! Flooded the bathroom, the whole house smelt like shit, had shit insects floating everywhere...it was great.

*Nods* Fucking GREAT....