See What?

We have been pretty lucky with our children as far as the genetics lottery goes. They seem to have inherited most of the good DNA from Scott and I. Sam is is just a bundle of recessive genes with his blond hair and blue eyes. He has a cleft in his chin which was quite Kirk Douglas looking when he was younger, but it is not as noticeable now. He even has a "geographic tongue" which scared the bejeezus out of me when he was a baby, but is now a source of amusement. Ryan has my curly hair (which he hates, much as I did at his age) and Scott's dimples. Both boys seem to have my straight teeth and, thank the Lord and Scott, they both tan!! But the inevitable has now happened and bad genetics has reared its ugly head - Sam needs glasses. He failed the vision screening at school and a trip to the optometrist yesterday confirmed that he was indeed nearsighted. And I'm not talking a little nearsighted, this child's vision was 20/200. And he claimed he couldn't see the board because of the angle he sat to the board. Oh, and when I called it a blackboard he informed me it wasn't the 1950's, that they used a "whiteboard." After that remark I told four eyes he now owed me $300 for the glasses.

Now we have set up this poll to see how long everyone thinks it will take Sam to loose his glasses. If it takes a day, there will be another poll on how long he should be grounded for.

Censored

You may have noticed that my posts are not as frequent as they used to be, and there is a reason for that...I'm being censored. In a strange parent-child role reversal, Ryan has started to monitor my postings. Lately, whenever he does something that I think is humerous, he will look at me and say "DO NOT PUT THAT ON THE BLOG!" There must be something in my reaction that says "Blogworthy". And he has implemented a random spot check policy, where he will make me show him what is on the blog for his approval. He's quite the little dictator, that one, but I will still try to sneak in a few good ones.

100 days

Sometime in the past week or two was the boys 100th day of school. I don't know when or why this became a big deal in the school year, it's not even the half way point, that would be the 90th day. But they make a big deal out of it, and do all these activities centered around the number 100. So I have made a list of the things that I have done 100 times since school started.

1. I have had to wake Ryan up 100 times, and have had to listen to him tell me 100 times that he wished he didn't have school that day.

2. I have walked the mile (round trip) to bring them to school 100 times. I haven't picked them up 100 times, since my mom does that twice a week. This 100+ miles has resulted in 0 lbs. weight loss.

3. I have told Sam 100 times to put his cereal bowl in the dishwasher.

4. I have kissed Ryan 100 times at his classroom door. Sam put the kibosh on that a long time ago.

5. I have packed 100 lunches for Ryan (50 peanut butter sandwiches and 50 cartons of yogurt). He's quite the diverse eater!

6. I have yelled "find your shoes and put them by the door" for 100 nights before school.

7. I have had to look for shoes in the morning 100 times.

8. Although he has only had it since Christmas, it feels like I have told Sam 100 times not to wear that dirty Steelers sweatshirt to school AGAIN!

9. I have had to chase after them with a water bottle 100 times to get their hair to lay down.

10. I have had 100 days to reflect on how proud I am of my boys.

Rapping

Okay, Darnell, this one's for you. After reading in your blog about Lauren's "Rap Star" episode I am inspired to relay the rap scenario that played out in our house this week.

WARNING: If you are reading this and children refer to you as anything beginning with "Grand" you probably won't get this story.

So one of Ryan's homework assignments this week is to write a rap or song using his spelling words. When I suggested writing the rap both boys looked at me and stated that I knew nothing about rap music, I only listened to "boring" music (except Bon Jovi, but I digress). Well, truth be told, I really don't know anything about rap, but when challenged to "go ahead and prove it" I tried to be up to the task. Did I go old skool and hit 'em with some Run DMC - No, not even Lauren's fave Vanilla Ice could help me, when under the gun the deep recesses of my mind came up with this little diddy:

Now this is the story all about how,
My life got flipped, turned upside down,
And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there,
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.

And so on, and so on....

Altogether now.....LAME

The boys, however, were impressed. They asked me if I made up the song, and when I tried to explain that it was from a TV show that the superhero from Hancock was in, they got really confused.

Word to the Mothers - Peace out.

My Cruise Vacation

This past weekend my Mom, sisters, and I went on a 4 day cruise to Key West and Cozumel on the Celebrity Century. Great food, great ship, and a great time had by all. We came home sunburned, bloated, and exhausted, which are always the signs of a vacation done well! It was a great start to my 40's.

The Pinewood Derby

Last Saturday the boys participated in The Pinewood Derby. This is a Boy Scout event for those unfamiliar. Each scout builds their car from a kit, and then they race it in a time trial sort of thing. Both boys placed 4th in their divisions, so we were proud of them. Ryan's car is the silver and Sam's is the camouflaged one. On a side note, Sam designed his own car this year, with no help from Scott. Scott "helped" Ryan with his. At the race, Scott was very concerned that Sam's times would not be very good. Sam average 6 mph over Scott, I mean Ryan's, car.
So there DAD!!!