The diploma is supposed to be coming from an accredited program that takes about 6 months to go through and culminates in a graduation ceremony - it's a way to get a real diploma, not just a G.E.D., and Laura will be tutoring the heck out of him (she has more time than I do, with just one baby). I'm trying to give him a little more world knowledge and general life skills...he didn't know how to do things like laundry or using the oven, a month ago.

I definitely think Elise is good for him, and he does help me sometimes (like hanging out with her while I get Jake down for a nap). But, I don't want to start pawning her off on him too often...and if he is working, as he wants to be, and going to school soon, he'll likely be out of the house more often than home, during waking hours.

His interests right now seem to almost all center around animals and technology. So I'm trying to push ideas like working at a vet's office or interning at the zoo, while G gives him comp "Assignments" - like tonight he had to re-install Windows XP on the laptop; last night he helped him reformat a hard drive.

I just have to figure out a way to get him a social life. He is around other people all the time here, which is good because he spent almost all of his time alone in Jax, but he's still not around other teens...