Thou Shalt Not Steal

whew, i made it through another one. the last kids birthday for the year has gone off successfully. ixxie turned 7 on wednesday last week so we did her party on sunday. she didn't have a clue we had it planned cos, as usual, she was in trouble. honestly, she didn't deserve a party but i can't do for all the others & not for her even when she's been bad. that makes me look like i'm partial to the other kids. which, to be honest, i am but i can't let the family know that. she's the toughest enigma i've ever tried to crack. i've tried to help her, i talk to her, i've been the one that says we need to keep trying with her but she just keeps letting me down. i've accepted that she'll never apply herself. that doesn't mean i won't keep working on her, it just means i know i'm wasting my time. she actually got more than anyone else did for their birthdays. she needed clothes badly but whats a birthday without toys?
are you curious as to why ixxie was in trouble? you aren't gonna believe this one. you know we have a pretty decent inground pool & spend most of our summer swimming. we also have a state park about 5 minutes from us that's pretty fun to take the kids to & let them wear themselves out. everyone has 1 bathing suit. ixxie wanted to take one of her purses home a few weeks ago, it didn't even cross my mind to wonder what she had in that purse. turns out she had her only bathing suit packed in the purse & took it to school. her reasoning to me was a friend at school wears a bra & she wanted to wear her swim suit top for a bra. although before she got to wear it she lost it on the bus & a little boy took it home. the little boy told her he threw it away. her teacher informed honey of all this last week. her school has a no tolerance policy of certain things brought to school & the suit was considered a reason for reporting to her mother. otherwise i don't think she'd ever confessed what she did. i'm stumped as to what to do about this. honey insists we treat this as a theft. apparently this isn't the first thing she has lifted. honey says taking her to a store has become a problem with her sticky fingers. i think just letting her sit & watch us play in the pool for a few days should make her think twice about sneaking things from home the next time. i've explained to her that we don't have the money to replace the suit & if she can think of something i'm willing to work with her but until we can afford it she's the one that should suffer. why should everyone else not get to swim cos she doesn't have a suit? what better punishment for the suit? the store deal is something else altogether. its not like you can leave her in the car these days. i haven't actually caught her at this but if she's done it with her mother i'm sure she has no qualms over doing it with us. unlike her mother i keep her with me & may be the only reason she hasn't stole anything. or i may just not know if she did. i have had her carrying things with her & when asked she said she found it on the floor. i've explained in a store if its on the floor it still belongs to the store & made her put it down. she's not a stupid little girl & its a constant attempt to get away with whatever she can. if you have any ideas i'm open to suggestions.
i have to go now. i'm getting highly irritated with a taping i'm trying to do. the damn disc keeps skipping.
k. later.