A Lesson in Biology

Yesterday at church I was talking to a couple of girlfriends and the subject of talking to our teenage/college boys came up.  One was expressing her amazement that her son actually wanted to be included in an old family tradition of seeing CHRISTmas lights, which he had completely lost interest in a few years ago. It was heartwarming to hear how much that little act of seeing lights and having dinner afterwards meant to her and how it was the best present he could have ever given her.

As parents, we go through all the stages of life with our children, but the beginning stages of the pulling away are always the hardest.

It's a natural thing for our children to want to figure things out for themselves, and it's also natural for them to come back after realizing they actually don't have it all figured out. We as parents, love the second one. A lot.

Last night we didn't get our usual Sunday night hang out like normal. It was a little different. My oldest son spent most of the evening writing & studying for finals this week. He was holed up in his room pounding away on his computer. I peeked in to give him a kiss at bedtime and checked with him about his schedule this week, and when we could possibly all get together for dinner and CHRISTmas shopping. Between college and his job, I try really hard to capitalize on when he can be home with us and plan to have dinner together. A sit down, face to face dinner. And the kids have this tradition of a night of shopping, buying presents for each other, which is the highlight of CHRISTmas for me.  I love the thought they put into buying the perfect gift for each other and the time we get to spend laughing and trying to keep secrets till CHRISTmas Eve.

This morning, I was reminded of my conversation at church and it helped me to realize the opportunities that are awarded to me, and to cherish those whenever they arise.

I was enjoying my early morning routine of coffee & reading the newspaper when my son came into the kitchen for breakfast. I asked how his night of studying went, we made small talk about funny You tube videos, and I laughed till my belly hurt watching the top 10 videos of some guys gagging after eating disgusting things. It was gross and hilarious, but heartwarming at the same time. I love hearing him laugh.

Afterwards, he was busy getting ready for school and packing his work uniform. Today was one of those long days where I wouldn't see him again unless I could extend my energy and caffeine to keep me up till almost midnight, because he had to go straight to work after school and would be there till close.

He had all his stuff ready to go and he paused.
And that pause lead to a question.
He asked, "Do you want to help me study?".
And I immediately and quickly responded with, "Sure!!".

Then, while I sat and watched him open his bookbag and get out several pages of notes, I was thinking of all the stuff I had to do today, all the things on my list, and wondering how was I going to finish them in time?  I was reminded that my time with my son is limited. Very limited. He is getting older and will go off to another college way too soon for this momma, so I will take whatever time I have with him, and I will cherish it.  

I spent my morning in the throes of biology, not knowing half of what I was saying nor being able to pronounce any of it correctly. All while listening to answers I have no earthly idea if they were even correct. But I know every curve of his face, every wrinkle in his nose, and every deep brown speck in his eyes. I just stared at him while he spoke of some language of microbes, archaea, bacteria & viruses and I LOVED Every. Single. Second.

Now I sit here bawling my eyes out seeing my son walk out the door with his uniform in hand, his bookbag on his shoulder, and my heart forever his. He is off to class, his job, and becoming a man. But he took time to pause today and include me in his ever-busy world and I will forever remember my lesson in biology and the sweet dimple in his cheek.

Kids, do you know what your parents are listening to??!!!

I am terrible about staying up with the times. Terrible.
I also have terrible hearing. Terrible.
When we are home, there is usually either a bang, bang, shoot 'em up game being played on the xbox or some kinda cartoon.
When I'm home alone, the last thing I want is to watch the blasted t.v. I have to turn it up so loud that it's not enjoyable even to me.
When we are all in the car together, we are usually talking. About everything or anything.
When I am in the car by myself, it is complete silence. Peace.
And I love it.

On the odd chance that I hear a song that I like, I mention it to someone like my sister, who has mounds and mounds of music, she just laughs and says, "Amy, thats been out for looooong time".
That's why I'm stuck in the 70's & 80's.

Super Bowl Sunday I like to watch the commericals and the half time show.
So I'm sitting on the couch and embarassingly have no idea who this ethnic looking band is. I'm thinking, "they have to be somebody big cause they are, you know, playing in the super bowl".

Long story short, I find out they are Bruno Mars. And apparently I've lost my mind too cause I thought Red Hot Chili Peppers were girls, eeekkkkkk!!! I'm so out of the loop.

I watched the show and really enjoyed it. I thought this was one of the better half time shows that I could remember. No wardrobe malfunctions, no twerking, no embarassing clothing, (except the RHCP w/out a shirt). All in all a good show.

Then Monday morning I wake up and for some odd reason I start singing, "oh yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah yeah, cause you make me feel like, I been locked out of heaven for too long, for too long". Thats it. I can't remember anything else.
I sing it ALL DAY. When I'm home. When I pick up the kids. When I cook supper. All day.
Then I sing it all day Tuesday. All day.
I finally decided that my small series of words is just starting to get annoying. So I decided to google the lyrics so I could learn all the words to my new favorite song.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
I was sitting at my computer with bug eyes thinking "oh no, I sang that song in Sams, Wal-mart, Winn-Dixie, Church, to my kids, oh dear."
But it said the word "heaven"...

I picked up the kids Wednesday from school and immedately said, "do you guys know the words to that song I've been singing?"
Graham says, "yeah Mom, it's a bad song".
"Why didn't you tell me?! I've been singing that darn song for two & half days!!", I asked.

Usually parent & teenage conversations go the other way around. Usually it's the parents that should know what their kids are doing, watching or listening to. But not in our household.
Because I can't hear well, I listen to the beat most of the time. I can sometimes understand a few words, but for the most part, I just hear the melody.

From now on my kids have been instructed to ALWAYS tell me if I'm humming or singing something bad or inappropriate.
So for all you that heard me, have mercy for the hearing impaired, I'm an idiot, but why they gotta make the most addictive songs have such terrible messages?

Mission Accomplished

Around the holidays I like to take the kids out window shopping so I can get some ideas of what to tell the grandparents that the kids are interested in. So Friday I decided after school we would go to the one store that the kids have been bugging us about for months, Academy Sports. We hadn't taken them to the new store since it opened and they have reminded us of it several times.
Only one small problem, I needed to stop by Hobby Lobby real quick.
I was immediately drilled with questions.
"Do we all HAVE to go in?"
"How LONG is this going to take?"
"Can I just stay in the car?"
My reply was that we were going to spend some good quality time together and have fun doing it, we wouldn't be long at all.
We paraded into the Hobby Lobby like a mother duck leading her ducklings to water. All five of us filed in. And we began our journey through the maze of standing displays to get to the back of the store. Then something went wrong, terribly wrong.
The ducklings went crazy.
As two were passing a display, something fell from the top shelf, and if you know anything about the display shelves at Hobby Lobby you know they are a booby trap waiting to happen. It was like a domino effect. One thing hit another and then two things hit three and on and on it went. It was so incredibly loud and embarrassing and did I mention loud?
Immediately the last two ducklings divert the course and act as if they have NO idea who the first two were. They were moving so fast away from the crash bang scene that they actually could be recruited as grenade throwing spies.
As I return to the scene I was happy to see my kids helping to pick up the home fashion decor while they simultaneously are declaring their innocence of not touching a thing.
Ok fine. Whatever. Let's just get our stickers and get out!
Sounds easy. Right?
Wrong.
We finally make it back to the sticker section and I begin my quick scanning looking for just the right ones. Then it's like the 3 children and 1 husband have descended upon me and multiplied. Out of nowhere they now are actually acting like they are trying to help me.
"Oh Mom look at this", "Mom look at that", "Mom do you like this?", "Mom I love these", "Mom I like this one", "Mom where is the bathroom", "Mom you won't leave me, right?" (really? did that even need to be asked? I haven't done that like, in a really long time) "Mom what time is", "Mom when are we going", "Mom....", "Mom....", "Mom....", aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!
I give very stern instructions, "Leave me alone for one minute and let me find what I'm looking for".
Yeah, that doesn't work.
So I send them off on a project idea. "Go find your favorite scrapbook paper".
Yeah, that doesn't work either.
All the while, they are up and down the aisles laughing hilariously loud and it never fails they start with some made up game that always includes grabbing, punching, tackling, tickling, or some other type of physical rough housing that I usually end up threatening them through my gritted teeth and glaring eyes. This goes on the ENTIRE time I'm trying to delicately decide on my stickers that I plan to use to make a nice, family, Christ like quote for the CHRISTmas season.
I should have just left them in the car.
I finally decide and make my way to the check out. As soon as I pay, I bolt for the door like I have no idea who these people are or why they are following me.

The short ride to Academy is full of laughter. They are having THE best time in the back seat laughing and joking- oblivious to the fact that I may not ever go back into my favorite home decor store for fear that I will be asked, "Please tell us are you alone?".

When we pull into the parking lot, I immediately get this grand idea. I look over at my husband and suggest to him that we should turn the tables. He looks puzzled. I whisper my plan. "We should go in this store that they have been wanting to go in for months and do to THEM what they do to US!". He still doesn't get it. "Embarrass them for a change".

And then it happened.
My husband's phone rings and he starts talking as he is getting out of the car.
It all happened so fast.
The kids are all piling out and quickly making their way to the store.
It all happened really fast.
I found myself leaving him behind, my partner, and committed to carrying on with our one mission. One mission.
And without really giving it much thought, I was already sold out on the idea that my behavior in this store would teach my children a lesson, a lesson it turns out they will never forget.

I started by running up to the front of the store and stopping short of the automatic doors, standing with my arms wide open, stretched as far as I could reach, with my head tilted to the bright blue sky, proclaiming with all the air in my lungs, "WOW!!!! Would you look at that!!!!"
They stopped. They looked at me funny. They looked very quizzical. They wondered.
And then the doors opened and I shouted, "OH MY LOOK!!! WOULD YOU LOOK?? WOW!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!"

The greeter man was already laughing.

And I began. "Miles, look at this". "Miles look". "Miles did you see this". "Miles where are you going?". And it was loud. And he knew exactly what I was now up to now. And before I knew it I was sold on the idea that everybody in that store would know that I was with them, all of them.
He began walking fast. Then he began the power walk. And I began to chase him as I continued to call out every single end of the aisle sale item we passed. Until I noticed. All my other family members were nowhere in sight.

I turned and made my way into the clothing section where I found my daughter hiding, looking increasingly scared and amused at the same time, until I shouted, "McKinley there you are!!!! Did you see this? Did you see these shirts? Did you see these pants? Look at this!!". And then she began to walk fast. Very fast, away from me. I of course followed and loudly was calling to her all the awesome deals on clothing that we were passing.
We crossed the isle and ran into Miles and I began to exclaim "We found you!!!" and then went on to tell him that his sister was looking at the bras. He ran. He ran away. Far far away.

All the while my husband, who was supposed to be my partner in crime, and other son had gone to the completely opposite side of the store.

I found myself alone. All alone in the toy section. No one to window shop with. No one to pick out potential CHRISTmas presents with. And honestly, for a moment I thought my joke was complete. It was funny, it made the point, it was embarrassing. Mission accomplished...for a moment.
Then I started to see all the cool things I could continue my mission with. I grabbed the biggest hula hoop, a huge rubber sword, and I tried to make the discovery kid vest fit me, I tried. The bright green kid sized binoculars were still attached to the cardboard which made it almost impossible to use, almost. And I set out on my quest, to find those ducklings.

I made my way to the front of the store, looking right, looking left. I was on a bonafied mission. I entered the large area behind the registers that stretches all the way across the store and I saw him. He made the turn from the last aisle into the clearing. He was like a doe being hunted by a ravaging hunter. I began running toward him with my large hula hoop wrapped around me and my sword flying high in the air like Braveheart would have wanted, and began exclaiming, "GRAHAM!!!! GRAHAM!!! THERE YOU ARE!!!!!THERE YOU ARE!!WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?".
He turned. He turned so fast and began his acceleration.
I too took a turn through the clothes to continue my descent upon him, quickly mazing myself through racks, and customers, charging through to find him.
My tracking skills proved right when I met him in the camping section and began to pound him with my sword skills.
He laughed at first, and then took off running when he realized that I was not going to quit.
I began chasing him, then I found Miles again. Poor Miles.

He hasn't seen my latest costume change. He begins a hearty laugh at the site of me, but then quickly realizes that I'm still up to my same tricks as I proclaim, "MIIIIIYAAAAALES!!! I got something for YOOOOU!!!!". He starts zig zagging through the shoes, then the socks, back to the clothes, and at the same time I'm beating him with my rubber sword. He makes his way back to shoes, escaping my sword, in and out of every isle, until something happens. Something I hadn't thought about.
I find him and begin chasing him up the aisle and we run into a man and his son. I immediately recognized them from school. Miles bumps into them and assumes that I will stop when I see people we know. He assumes wrong.
I am gone, long gone. I began displaying my sword slicing skills on Miles while trying bravely to hold onto my massive hula hoop and his teacher exclaims, "Get him, get Miles!" and the chase begins, again. They watch us for a few isles laughing.

I decide finally that the lesson has been taught and I'm ready to return to my family and act normal.(smiley face)
I'm ready to look at all the cool and interesting things that Academy has to offer us this holiday season.

I found them. They were huddled around their father, acting as if he was their only protector. Terrified at the sight of me. When I didn't begin shouting and instead was laughing uncontrollably they knew the joke was over.
But they now have had a change of heart.
They no longer want to look up and down every isle of their favorite store that we have been reminded over and over and over again that we haven't brought them to since it's opening.
They don't want to CHRISTmas shop.
They don't want to do anything but go to the car.
And go home.

I tried to explain to them what I was doing and why, but they didn't want to have any part of it. They even tried to say that I went overboard and had taken it too far. That the hula hoop, sword fighting, was too much. Me??
After finally convincing them to at least go check out the guns, knives and hatchets, they all eventually found their way to me and gave me a big hug and sheepishly apologized for every time they had walked into a store and embarrassed me with their behavior.

Mission accomplished.

Bet he's never been asked that before - Orthodontist

McKinley has been so excited about getting braces. She has talked about it for a couple of years. And the time finally came. She was sitting in the orthodontist chair for quite awhile getting all the right spacers put on, the brackets glued, wires ran. I had been taking pictures every step of the way so she would have all the memories. She had already told the doctor that this was a big event in her life. She even made a couple of funnies with him. She asked him if he would take her fresh chicken eggs as a form of payment. And after he thought about it a few seconds he reluctantly declined but said that he would take them as a tip. The assistant finally finished the nearly 2 hour procedure and the doctor came back to inspect every tooth and wire. After close inspection he said that she was good to go. He went over all the things to do to keep the teeth clean and healthy. Then he went over all the things that she could not do. He had a whole page of things that would be off her menu for the next 2 years which included gum, candy, popcorn, apples, taffy, corn on the cob - basically anything sticky, chewy, hard, or that had to be bitten into. After the long list her face was a little saddened. She had not thought about all the things she would have to give up for 2 years. Gosh, this was a lot. The orthodontist finally asked her if she had any questions, to which she asked..."can I get them wet?" There was a silence. I leaned down and whispered into her ear, "Sweetie, they are in your MOUTH, of course you can get them wet". And then the laughter erupted. "OH YEAH, never mind", she said. I'm sure she has some blonde in there somewhere.

The boy loves Slim Jim

My oldest son loves Slim Jims. LOVES them. He can be talked into doing just about anything with the Slim Jim as his reward. He expects one for any special occasion or even if your just making a quick trip to the local Dollar General down the street. I've tried my best to explain the lack of health benefits offered from the Slim Jim. I've showed him the contents of the Slim Jim. I've showed him the serving size of the Slim Jim. Doesn't matter. He still loves them. If you aren't mesmerized by all the gossip on the cover of the latest trash magazines, you have noticed at the checkout line, Slim Jims come in all shapes and sizes now. They have little 4 inch ones, 12 inch ones and if that wasn't already enough artery clogging goop, they have the mega stick. It's huge. Parents could use it to spank their children with this thing. But I am proud to say that I have only bought the mega stick once. And it was my husband's fault. He thought we were getting such a great deal, but somehow it doesn't sound like such a great deal when you see the calorie/fat/sodium content. Today I found myself getting the kids favorite candies for their Easter baskets. And I remembered the love Miles has for Slim Jims. So I decided I would get on his good side and stuff a 12 inch heart attack in his basket. And of course, it was his favorite thing in the whole basket. Later I was outside enjoying the warm sunshine when he came out and sat beside me with his Slim Jim and a Dr. Pepper (his two favorites). He was happy. So happy. After a minute or two of talking, I inserted into our conversation the fact that the 12 inch Slim Jim was not a one sitting snack but in fact it was more like a two sitting snack. I went on to ask him to please not eat the whole thing in this one sitting, it was the only thing that would remotely make me feel better about getting such a crappy snack. And without missing a beat he replied, "Don't worry, this is my second sitting, I was just sitting on the porch before coming out here with you". Shaking my head, and I can't help but smile. And then chuckle. At least I didn't buy the mega.