Keeping The Tooth Fairy Busy

Thursday September 8, 2011

Adam recently lost 2 more teeth and is keeping the Tooth Fairy busy.

Meet the Principal

Thursday September 8, 2011

I got to meet with Derek's principal recently. Derek was kicked by another student in the gym locker room. It seems this student is constantly picking on other kids and is generally a wasted sperm. Derek had been waiting in line for the water fountain and was next in line when this kid decided he wanted to drink and pushed Derek out of the way. Derek stood up to him and the kid took a swing and kicked Derek.

I emailed some photos to the principal and said I would be at school to press charges in the morning. I ended up meeting with the principal, a vice principal, and the gym teacher. They were reassuring and very responsive. They spent the day gathering information from other students and in the end agreed with everything we said. They assured me that the kid would be punished (but wouldn't tell me the specifics for privacy reasons - I call BS on that) and ended up moving the kid out of a couple classes so that Derek will not see the kid.

I told them that I know that the school tries to handle things internally and not report anything so the school doesn't look bad, but next time I was going to bring the police. I also told them that I couldn't care less about their International Baccalaureate smoke screen BS education program they are so proud of, but that I have zero tolerance for intimidation.

Everyone praised Derek for the way he restrained himself from escalating the situation. I told them that Derek always has the green light from me and, in fact, I encourage him to retaliate and I didn't care if he gets suspended, expelled, or whatever.

Piano Lessons

Thursday September 8, 2011

The boys have been taking piano lessons for years. Ms Judy has been their teacher for the past couple years. We really like her. She's probably the best teacher so far, but I wish she would be tougher on the boys - maybe some laps or some sit ups and push ups for poor effort.

Unfortunately, it looks like piano lessons will be going the way of scouting and other activities that no longer hold their interest. I'm tired of staying on them about practicing. The boys are old enough now to understand the consequences of their choices and actions. It's their life and they are the ones responsible for directing it.

Too many times I see people looking for others to motivate them or I see people getting sucked into a black hole trying to motivate someone else. Self motivation is the only motivation that's lasting. Either you fight for it and figure it out or you don't. Either way, the world moves on - with you or without you.

Of course, we will continue to be there to guide the boys and give them input, but it's up to them to follow through. We'll see how they turn out. I tell Helen that there's no guarantee that I'll want to be around them when they grow up. Of course, I fully understand and accept that the reverse is true as well.

Helen's Office

Helen pretty much takes over the dining room during the school year - transforming into her home office. I'm not convinced it couldn't all be cleaned up each day, but that's just me. If Adam is doing his schoolwork, he inevitably ends up close to Mommy, usually in her lap. 

Labor Day Weekend Cookout At Nini's

Adam rubbing Hannah's belly

I set mom up with an external monitor, keyboard, and speakers for her laptop. Now she can watch Netflix movies and hear them too.

Tech support and now grill master

Mom has Hannah and Ruby run through their tricks

Derek tries to get Ruby to do a trick

A good day to lie around

Grayson The Cat

This our cat Grayson. We can't remember exactly how long ago we got him, but we think it was about 15 years. Our last cat, Atreides, had just died and Helen found Grayson wandering the halls of her school in the cold of winter and brought him home. As far as cats go, he's pretty good. He's very sociable. All the neighbors love him. He always goes out to meet anyone walking by our house. The dogs in the neighborhood don't know how to act because Grayson doesn't get scared. He just comes up and tries to rub up against them - purring the whole time. He's slowing down now as he's gotten older and doesn't bring as many kills home. He's also spending more time inside which is annoying because he keeps using his dang litter box now. I guess it's better than going to the bathroom somewhere else in the house, but it's still a pain. Also, every once in a while we smell a musky odor and think he's spraying, but we can never find the exact location of the smell. Helen and I keep wondering to each other, "Is it time?". Unfortunately probably not just yet, but soon.  

Morning Bus Stop

Adam's new way of tormenting Lulu is to make her ride in his Tonka truck

Derek doesn't usually come down to the bus stop for the elementary school kids except when he's leaving early to go to his school, but on this day he took his new remote control car out for a spin

The kids like to get to the bus stop about 15 minutes early so they have plenty of time to play with each other

Derek's Braces

Derek got braces yesterday. Adam was eager for Derek to experience what he (Adam) has been dealing with for the last couple years. Although Adam had his braces removed recently, he still has a palate expander and tongue thrust appliance to deal with so he also had an appointment with the ortho yesterday.

Derek's RC Car

Derek has been researching remote controlled cars for a while. He finally found one on eBay that he liked and was willing to spend his money on. He had me try to win the eBay auction for it because the auction ended while he was in school. Unfortunately, I'm a novice at eBay, having never bought anything off of eBay before, and got outbid at the last second. I felt terrible, but Derek regrouped and found another car quickly on eBay that had a "buy it now" option. He was so excited and tracked the shipping progress often. When the car finally arrived he was beside himself just like it was Christmas!

Update: Unfortunately, the car seemed to have a problem with one of it's servo's that controls the steering. Derek's been able to drive the car some, but the steering is not right. It's been a real learning opportunity for Derek. He's had some ups and downs along the way. He's had to troubleshoot the problem and then work with the person that sold him the car to reach some sort of agreement. He's expecting a new servo from the seller any day now to see if it fixes his problem.

Update: The servo arrived today and Derek eagerly retreated to his room to see if it fixed his problem. Unfortunately, there was no joy in Muddville tonight. Derek came downstairs with tears in his eyes, flopped on the sofa, and said he was "done" with that car. He emailed the seller to make arrangements to return the car.

More Summer Stuff

The kids have been playing roller hockey for a couple years now. I bought some skates when they first started playing, thinking I would practice around with them, but it never really happened. However, in early August I decided I was going to try to play in the men's league in the Fall, which meant I had a lot of work to do since I've never played organized hockey in my life and most of the guys in the league have been playing since they were kids. 

I love to see the neighborhood kids playing around together. I try to take photos of these scenes whenever I can to capture the simple fleeting moments that make up childhood memories. We will blink and these kids will be grown with real life responsibilities and worries, but for this moment they are insulated. Just best buds hanging out playing a game and enjoying each other's company.