Posts from the road...#14

You're at bat. Life is on the mound. God owns the stadium.

They aren't all gonna be homerun pitches. Some are gonna curve, some drop, some even change up on you. Just keep your eye on the ball and tighten that grip.

Momday, Momday...

Sur-prise! Sur-prise! Sur-prise! I got home from work and the kiddos were still in the midst of their Momday. (Mom-day: noun. Every Monday A has lunch and otherwise hangs out with our little gaggle of kiddos.) Today, I got to get in on that.

And then I got to help with homework. Whoa. Me...helping them...with homework. Have I arrived? Or is this just another test along the road to official role model-dome? It was cool. I jumped right in with the editing. Change this. How about using that? Maybe use this word instead here. And I had that obligatory red pen in tow.

The circle is now complete. When I left you [school] I was but the leaner. Now, I am the master. Bring on the lightsaber battle...

Okay. Sidetrack. Where was I? Oh yea, red penning some stuff. Yep, J-Girl wrote a great summary on her summer reading book thing that I helped shape into a masterpiece. And M wrote a very cool story about a girl in a movie who didn't realize she was in a movie until the very end and the whole time thought her little sister was being kidnapped. Twisty plot stuff. Might have a little screenwriting assistant on my hands. Oh, even better, perhaps a Jedi Writer Apprentice. Sweet.

G had to color his notebook - as homework? Nice assignment. A+ for staying within the lines. Lil' A and Lil' B had their homework - on the Internet? Does not compute. What, are they in college already? C'mon, teach, lighten up on the technological dependencies. Geez.

And J-Boy's "homework" help consisted of me manning the player 2 controller on Star Wars Legos II. Twist my arm, right? And E needed help with the Lego house he was building for us, then we moved on to the really hard subject of Superheroes. I never knew the story of how Green Lantern and AquaMan teamed up to beat the lesser known evildoer, Captain Cold, until this evening. Intriguing stuff.

Look into it...

"We're going BACKWARDS!"

Holy chocolate cake, Batman! The party for J-Girl went swimmingly. Not that there was a pool involved...that's for J-Boy's 5th next week. Who's ready for a Spider-Man theme? I am! But let's swing on back to today's party...

...where, again, swimmingly. So apparently that pizza amusement park land I spoke of pre-dates time itself, so it has been around for longer than a minute...however, the kids loved it and I love that they loved it. The pizza was good. The chocolate cake was delish. The presents were adored. Monkeys were introduced. I met some of A's family and they were great. They maybe even thought I was great. That'd be great if they thought I was great.

But, as I said, swimmingly. J-Girl and the gang o' 7 ran hither and tither, going on rides - which I joined, including the crazy pirate ship that went into the ceiling and the roller coaster thing that went forward then, as E exclaimed "We're going BACKWARDS!" Oh man, those kids and their preciousness.

I also boarded a spinny-around thing with G a few times that left me dizzy, and him going again. And again. And then one more time. I guess the "I can ride anything as many times as I want without succumbing to said ride's side effects" belt shall be given to the new champion. Congrats, G! And yes, there is a belt.

And superbrother kudos to Lil' B for going the extra mile - maybe literally? - and riding shotgun for E so he could drive the bumper car one time. I see where E gets his road warrior skills. Ahem...A. I kid. I kid...or do I?

(Yes, I kid.)

Birthday Monkeys

So it's been a few days since my last post, but being one who cringes at the thought of starting up small talk, I didn't want to waste time talking about the weather, the pre-season Cowboys or the fact that my allergies have officially begun a civil war with me.

But now, today, I got something to talk about. It's J-Girl's birthday! Yea! I know we just celebrated a bday not too long ago, but with 7 kiddos, a lot of birthday donuts are gonna be eaten and shindigs thrown.

So J-Girl's the BIG 1-2. On the cusp of teenagehood. Last of the tween years. And she likes monkeys. Not sure why I threw that in there, but there ya go anyway...

...and here we go to some pizza meets super crazy amusement park land with a gaggle of kids and a group of adults in tow. I'm excited. Mostly because I get to see the kiddos again, but also because it's a pizza meets super crazy amusement park land. With a monkey or two tossed in by us for good measure. Of course.

I just want this to be the bestest birthday for her ever. We made it happen for Lil' A, so we just want to keep the streak alive. Go 7 for 7. Because these kids are awesome and they really deserve it - and birthday parties to the young ones are fun time celebrations where they get to tick one year older towards whatever age to where they think life really gets good...Ooh, 16! Ooh, 18! Ooh, 21! And then the decline happens...Oh, 25! Oh, 30. Ew, 35! Eww, 40. Not that we role models can't cut a rug and have a good time, but the majority of us have passed through that little bubble of fantasy ages we all had as kids.

But soon the younglings will come to know us wise like Yoda in the ways of the Force - and just life in general. But that comes around the "Oh, 30." stage. It did for me. Although I have always valued my mom's advice, it didn't start to completely sink in until I took off the "I know more than anyone else before me" armor. But I'm not 100% advice-spongey yet. I kept the helmet and shield. So I still know unknowable stuff.

So back to pizza meets super crazy amusement park land and the fact that we will all be celebrating in a few hours. And meeting new members of A's family. Eek! Hope they take to me...

Hey, guess what. Life's a celebration. Probably shouldn't just wait for bdays and Christmas to celebrate it. But save the extravaganzas for the milestones...like when little girls turn the BIG 1-2.

If you ever play Scrabble...

...please make sure you know what the word you are playing means. Because beating the odds, getting the "x" and then pulling from a memorized list of random words that someone at some point must have used once in the history of word usage so it somehow made it into the dictionary defeats the purpose of the game.

xi noun
1. The 14th letter of the Greek alphabet.

There. A freebie on me.

Posts from the road...#13

Okay, real quick. If you're a Metro PCS'er like myself, then there is a snazzy website you need to surf upon @ www.funformobile.com.

I must have just downloaded twenty ringtones for zero dollars and no pennies. I mean they have other stuff like games and pics to pimp out your background as well, but I'm all about the ringtones.

My text message alert is Yoda saying, "Do, or do not. There is no try." Droppin' classic Star Wars knowledge.

School Stuff

Man. School started today. One of my buddies cried when he dropped his little boy off at his very first day of kindergarten. Another guy I know was on the verge of tear droppage. I bet I may waterfall a little bit when E and J are no longer just supercool kids, but supercool students. Sniffle.

Speaking of which, today was M's first day of 8th grade. I think it's kinda something - funny maybe? - that A got to gradually grow, ahem, wiser, while raising her wonderful offspring and I'm like - BAM! Your GF has a 13-yr old in 8th grade which means "older" and me were two trains on a collision course and someone broke off the track switcher knob. I didn't get to ease into parenting like an old man into a hot bath. Nope. I jumped in daredevil style from the roof. Head first. Swan dive.

So yep. First day of school. The kiddos reportedly loved it. Which is a bit odd because I remember kids always disliking school, but if it ain't broke...right? I mean there's always recess. Or what I used to tell people my favorite subject was: the bus ride home.