Lego Amnesty Day

Yesterday was Lego "amnesty day" at our house. That has such a nice ring to it as opposed to "we have to find all the little tiny Lego pieces and put them back together" day. And still be able to keep your sanity. For anyone who has a child between the ages of 7-12, you have had a Lego amnesty day at least once.

Each Lego creation starts on a Christmas morning or after a birthday party with a box displaying an amazing picture on the front. There is also a number in large type showing how many teeny, tiny Lego pieces are in that box. I have never known it to be a nice round number. It is always 672 or 1456 pieces. Nothing that ends in 0.

Harry, Ron, and the Giant Spider
after two months

The excitement builds as we open smaller bags of Legos, carefully sort them, and follow multi-page instruction booklets to build wondrous creations. Once it is built (and hopefully for at least a week), you son or daughter or sometimes both at the same time with a minimum amount of squabbling will play with the castle, police station, or pet shop and have a great time. But slowly, it begins...

The first thing to go missing is normally one of the hats of the mini-figures or items that the hold in their hands.  One day their are still six firemen but only 5 hats, or one of the firemen do not have an ax or fire  hose to hold anymore.  The fire engine is there, but it only has half a siren.  In our case, Hogwarts was still intact, but Ron and Hermione had lost their wands, and there were fewer bottles on the shelves in the potions classroom.

The next phase of the de-construction was the intricate connecting pieces.  I love Lego and Lego bricks were designed to connect one rectangle or square brick to another and build what you imagination could conjure up.  Nowadays, with the more intricate sets, there are hinged pieces that connect sections of Hogwarts castle and it can open and close.  There is a hinged roof in the Great Hall and delicate connectors with the castle spires.  Soon, we had sections of Hogwarts that were detached, free floating, or spires had fallen down making it look more like Hogwarts after the great battle, than during the early books of Harry Potter.

The last, and inevitable stage, is pieces then get re-used into other Lego creations and you are left with a hallowed out shell of Hogwarts.  This brought us to Lego Amnesty day.  My wife and kids and I spent the better part of two hours leafing through the multi-page instruction books, looking at the pictures, figuring out what was missing, and piecing it back together.  More than once I would sort through the plastic bin of parts looking for a white, 1x2 piece.  "Is that smooth on the top or does it have the dimples?" I would ask.  I would sort and scan repeatedly as pieces blurred and then the moment of triumph as I proudly handed the piece over to my wife to be greeted with, "OK, now we need a brown 1x3 sloped piece for a roof."  What have you done for me lately.  On the good news side, after two hours, the roofs were fixed, Harry and all his mini figure friends were back together, and each had a wand and appropriate props to hold.

 The Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts castle, all characters,
dement ors, wands, etc 15 minutes after we completed it

Some advice to anyone embarking on this journey.  Sort all your pieces by color.  It is easier to find the little ones if you are only looking in the red or white pile.  If you can sort by size, that is a bonus!  It just depends on how much time you have.  I can say that I did do one thing correct and will continue to do it in the future.  On that Christmas morning, after the new Lego is assembled, take the instruction book and put it in a very safe place!

A preview of my next weekend is shown below.  It may not look like it, but that is a fire station, two fire engines, a fire boat, and about 8-10 mini figure fireman, with hats and axes and tools.  Wish me luck!

The Halloween Candy Haul

Halloween is always fun for kids!  The get to dress up in costume (or costumes if they go to multiple Halloween parties), stay up late, and go get candy at every house they can walk to in the neighborhood.  That is a pretty good deal when you are nine years old.

This year, our Halloween quest began on a clear, and not to chilly of an evening.  These are the two most important things that make Halloween fun for the parents.  Delaney was a cheerleader complete with pom-poms and Andrew was Rom Weasley from the Harry Potter books.  We had been invited over to our neighbors for a quick dinner and then the kids would set out on their candy quest together.

We left the house just a few minutes past 7:00pm and figured we had almost two hours to knock on as many doors before our trick or treaters needed to be back home.  We set off at a brisk pace with our mission objective clearly defined.  One of our friend's son had made a robot costume out of a large cardboard box, including a helmet to wear over his face and head.  He was always the last of the trick or treat line because going up and down stairs to each house was a little more challenging than he had anticipated.  It reminded me of my brother and I when we were younger.  Steve and I would always work on an elaborate costume for him to wear to school and win the Halloween contest each year.  One year he was a TV set, the next a toilet, and one year he was a package of Wrigley chewing gum.  Anyway, when it came time to trick or treat, he would dress as a soccer player, or a robber in easy to wear and walk in clothes, and I would wear the awkward, bulky costume that made it difficult to navigate steps or not trip on things.

Anyway, back to our Halloween this year.  The kids had been out an hour and had covered many houses, and even a mini haunted house set up on someone's front porch.  It had a fog machine and black lights, it was quite impressive.  The motivation began to dwindle though, as they had a good amount of candy already in their bags and they were starting to get thirty and tired of walking up and down hills.  The pace had slowed, but the lure of candy kept them going.  Once we asked if they had had enough, and the majority said yes, we headed back to home base and the pace quicken up again.

The last part of Halloween is my favorite.  the kids dumped their candy bag on the floor in the living room, and then the hard core negotiations began.  I will trade you a "Jolly Ranchers for a Junior Mints" or "I only want Snickers so will anyone trade me 3 Musketeers for Snickers"  There was also the determination about who got the most candy, which each one of my children naturally thought they had more than their sibling.

Yes, Halloween with kids is alot more fun.  I am looking forward to next year.

Soccer Weekend in the Rain

Hello Fellow Soccer Parents --

Oh boy!  Another weekend of four soccer games and all four had rain.  It was either a slight mist, light rain, steady rain, cold rain, and why haven't they cancelled the game yet rain.  Andrew's game was at 9:00am, so while it was raining steadily throughout the game, the field had not turned to a giant mud pit yet.  I was dressed in warm clothes, a good umbrella, an excellent rain coat, and a large golf umbrella, so i survived the first game relatively unscathed.  My shoes were wet, and my socks were damp, but overall, it was kind a fun bit of excitement to play a game in the rain.  But the day was early...

Delaney had an end of year tournament that included three sorter than normal games from 2:00pm to 4:30 pm.  The rain had continued all day, and the fields had been used all day too for the 3rd grade tournament, so by the time we arrived, every step was like walking through an inch deep puddle.  Some of them were mostly water, other steps had your foot sinking deep into mud.  The rain actually lightened up as the day went on, but by then the fields were too far gone.  At one point, there was a throw in, that when the girl threw the ball into the field, it landed with a load smacking sound, came to a dead stop in the middle of a mud puddle, and then even the brave hearted players timidly walked through the mud to kick it out of the puddle.

Both kids had phone, and i just worried about them not getting sick and not getting my car muddy on the ride home after the game.

The Mortgage

That is what is consuming me now. I received a layoff notice at my work yesterday. I am fired, or soon to be. I feel like I haves failed my wife and kids and put our way of life at risk. I have never been fired before, and it is a combination of despair, terrified , and failure. What now!

I know that I have to lift my chin and move on. Find a new job and keep on moving. It happens to other people all the time and most come through it a little worse the wear and a whole lot wiser. I want to be the wiser.

So what happened to me? I was so desperate to get out of my last job, that I jumped at an opportunity, ignoring my feelings of caution. I never really fit in at the new place. It was out of my area of expertise and the stretch was too much for me. I know that I am partially at fault, but I felt abandoned and untrained by the new company. I was never even introduced to people.

Right now, I simply feel lost, disoriented, and scared to death. I am going to learn, be cautious, and look out for me next time.

A Nice Autumn day

This was the scene down at the river on a Saturday in October this year. We were at the park for Andrew's two soccer games and Delaney was bored.  I asked iof she wanted to go throw rocks in the river at halftime instead of watching more of his game.

When we got to the river, we were greeted with a sight of all the ducks lined up along the shore in a row, sunning themselves.  We got pretty close before they felt it was time to move.

Once we got there Delaney and I skipped rocks in the river.  She successfully skipped a rock for the first time -- in fact, she did it three times before we got tired of the rocks and went back to the game.  Overall, a pretty nice Saturday in October.

Our backyard

This is just a quick snap shot of our backyard. There is more, for sure. The rest of the yard has two bee hives, a vegetable garden, rose bushes, a fort for the kids, blackberry bushes growing through the back fence, and a pond with gold fish swimming.

This is the newest addition to the garden. Ella the Elephant is from my farher's estate and was just too heavy to ship, so it ended up with us. The lantern is from an old neighbor's backyard that was too heavy when they moved, so once again, it ended up with us. and even the sunflowers were from a neighbor. They weren't too heavy, got too many.

So, Dana, with her vision of putting pieces together, created a peaceful garden spot.

Backyard Camping

This past weekend Delaney and two of her friends had a backyard campout. This is one of those events that is a shared experience of most American kids.

We made Coca-Cola chicken, Hobo Stew, and s'mores. The girls did songs, a skit, and recited funny poetry. Overall, it was a success -- and even the dog got to camp out with them

Riding the waves...

This is video of my daughter boogie boarding during a recent trip to San Diego.  My children did not take to swimming like I had always dreamed of, but both of them are good swimmers now.  That is my sister in the waves with her, not me.  It is funny, that as unbelievably thrilled I am to see my daughter playing and laughing in the surf, I was not there.  I always imagined that I would be the person to teach and witness all of my children's milestones such as walking, riding a bike, jumping off the diving board, hitting their first home run, and all the other simple, but significant, milestones of growing up.  What I have learned is sometimes your children need to learn from others and you need to be the cheerleader, supporter, and observer in the back of the room. 

Andrew learned how to ride a bike at the neighbors across the street.  We tried for months to give advice and coach and encourage him to pedal through the turns, make small corrections with the handlebars, but what he really needed was to be allowed to learn on his own.  He needed to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and see that there are other people who do things differently.  Just because I was not the person to impart the pearls of wisdom to him, does not make it any less of an accomplishment.  My children learn more from me about how to do things by watching me and modeling me, then putting that into practice, than they ever could from me lecturing to them.  Sometimes it works for them to have a little instruction, and then try it on their own. 

The kids don't know that just as they are learning new things, I am learning how to be a parent, too.  And it is harder than it looks.  One thing that I have learned is that it can serve you better sometimes to pick them up after they have fallen and encourage them to try again, instead of lecturing, instructing, or telling them this is the way to do things.

Just look at her in the waves.  I am proud and pleased, and the next time we go to the beach, I will be invited to come ride the waves with her.

Things kids do that have no logical explanation

There are things that my children do right now that have no logical explanation other than the fact that they are kids and that is when I shake my head and think to myself that I was that age once, too.

So, yesterday when I come home, everyone is in the kitchen helping to make dinner.  After the chopping and mixing is done, Andrew gets a glass of water.  He takes a drink, shakes his head back and forth a couple of times and then swallows his water.  I am sure I had to have the most confused look on my face because he just laughed and said "it makes a really cool noise when you do that.  Watch, I 'll do it again."

I told him' "no, that was OK" and then as I said before, shook my head and thought to myself, is that what I did when I was an eleven year old boy???

The family dog

It is not in the title, but we also have a dog.  When we first got married, we had two cats and they were friendly personable cats that let you pet them and hung out in the same room as you, but having a dog is different.  A dog truly becomes a part of your family, especially if you have kids.

To begin with, I never, ever, thought I would be a dog owner.  Growing up, my brother and I had to take care of the dogs.  My stepmother fancied herself a "dog breeder" of some kind which really meant she was amazed how much she could sell a puppy for if it was a purebred, so she decided that she would buy another Pekinese and we could sell the puppies.  Somehow two Pekineses turned into anywhere from 3-7 Pekinese dogs, and my brother and I were responsible to feed, walk, bathe, and care for the dogs.  Anyway, when I left for college, I swore I would not get a dog ever.  I even told my wife that before we got married,  Funny what you will do sometimes when you fall in love.

So, our dog is named Lulu.  Dana never wavered, always wanted a Welsh Corgi, and finally asked that the dog would be her Mother's Day present.  I had always said that the kids needed to be older so they could take care of the dog (as I enjoyed the experience so much) but my sister finally said, "if you wait until they are teenagers and are old enough to take care of the dog, they will take care of it for four years and you will take care of it for the next fourteen after they are gone."  Lulu is a Welsh Corgi and spends her days either trying to convince you to throw a ball or toy, eating, sleeping, or listening for someone to pick up their car keys and then look really sad and pitiful that you will not take her in the car.  She has staked out the spot at the top of the stairs in the central hallway as her spot.  You can see people coming from all directions and force people to step over you, too.  Why would she move?  She is the dog and the true owner of the house.  The only time she does move is during mealtime, and then she has strategically placed herself behind one of the kids who are messy eaters in case crumbs fall to the floor. She has been wonderful with the kids and that is truly the best part. Delaney will hug her and lay on her like a pillow, Andrew loves dressing her in Halloween costumes, and she checks on them when they go to bed and will wake them each morning. I started walking her each morning more as a way for me to lose weight, but now it is more for her. As soon as I get out of bed in the morning, Lulu will follow me until I have her leash in her hand. That is when they jumping starts. She has short legs, so she always comes back from the walk, tired, with her tongue hanging out.  No matter though, her favorite part is when we return home and she rolls on her back in our front yard.  She will come bounding up the stairs, drink from her water bowl, and then take up her spot at the top of the stairs and make sure the kids get out to school.  Her life is pretty good.

Yard work on the weekend

Growing up as a kid, among all my chores, the one I detested the most had to be an hour of weeding.  Nothing that I can remember was a reviled as much as the hour of weeding.  Every time my mother would set the timer and we would have to sit in the flower bed and pull weeds until the timer went "ding".  I am sure I probably spent more time digging in the dirt than actually pulling weeds out of the ground, and now that I have my own children, I am sure that I had to be one of the worst whiner, complainer, excuse makers there ever was when it came to pulling weeds.

So, this past weekend was the first nice day of spring and what was I looking forward to the most...yard work!  I clipped and pruned and cut bushes.  I planted lettuce and beets and peas in the garden and made my daughter help me as you protested in vain because she wanted to go and play with her friends in the neighborhood.  I mowed the lawn front and back and even did the edging to make it look really nice.  The only reason I stopped either Saturday or Sunday was because we had to eat dinner and it was getting dark.  So why the change?

It must be something about being able to see an accomplishment and pride of home ownership I am sure, but honestly, I enjoy it because I get to choose which weds to pull or which shrubs to prune.  I think that is it.  I also enjoy working in the garden with my children, even with all the protests of unfair child labor laws that I am forcing upon them.  Yes, I listened to them complain about how cold, tired, hungry, bored, thirsty, and just plain old wanted to play with their friends one afternoon last October as we planted tulips bulbs in the ground.  They each thought they were beautiful when they bloomed this Spring, and Andrew had even taken a bulb and soaked it in a glass of water with food color to try to change the color of the tulip.  He insists that it is a slightly darker shade of orange than the rest of the tulips.  Delaney complained this weekend as we planted peas, but I know that she will be the first to pick them off the vine and eat them a few weeks from now.

In short, I want the yard to look nice because I was taught that way and it is actually easier to take care of than an overgrown jungle.  But I want my children to learn to take of things too, and that they can grow flowers, fruits, and vegetables, with a little care.

New meanings for old words

In the past week, I have discovered two words that have disappeared from our language and been replaced with other terms.  The days of watching police shows on TV and hearing them talk about a suspect are gone.  Nowadays, police speak of "persons of interest".  There are no longer suspects that police apprehend or question about some crime.  When did that change?

• From the Channel 13 Action News website, "Las Vegas Metropolitan Police have arrested a man that was being sought as a person of interest in the first homicide of 2012."
• From Channel 2 Florida Coast News, "Police in Maine who say they suspect foul play in the disappearance of Florida firefighter Jerry Perdomo have named Daniel Porter a person of interest." 
• From the VeroCoast News, "A person of interest is being interviewed in connection to the first homicide of the year in Indian River County. Sheriff Deryl Loar Monday morning called the homicide an "isolated incident."

Aren't these people suspects who will most likely be prosecuted for a crime?  According to Dictionary.com, the term suspect is a noun meaning "a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like".  The first time I can remember hearing the term"Person of Interest" was 1996 during the bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Games and police didn't want to scare their suspect away, so they called him a person of interest.  Now, it seems that people are to scared of slander, lawsuits, or just hurting people's feelings so police or seek persons of interests and not suspects.

The other word that I found out of place in the last week or so is the term "suspended".  Rick Santorum "suspended" his campaign for president of the United States last week. Once again, according to Dictionary.com, the verb suspend means, "to come to a stop, usually temporarily; cease from operation for a time".  Baseball games are suspended when the rain comes and then play resumes when the rain passes.  Same with golf tournaments. 

• With the weather radar showing storms littering the area and the forecast expecting rain through the night, tonight’s game has been suspended due to rain. The game will be resumed Saturday night at 8:37 p.m. in the bottom of the second inning, where tonight’s game left off.  

Does this mean that Rick Santorum real start his campaign again in a few weeks or months?  In case you were wondering, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, and Michele Bachman have also suspended their campaigns too.  So, why do presidential candidates "suspend" their campaigns instead of just saying, we have stopped running for President because the voters chose somebody else.  As with all things politics, it is about the money.  There is one candidate who terminated his campaign for president last week,  Tim Pawlenty announced that after supporters of mitt Romney had helped pay off over $500,000 dollars of debt his campaign had run up, then he finally terminated his campaign. 

So, I gues the only person who has used the word "suspended" accurately in regards to their Presidential campaign was Mitt Romney.  Mitt Romney suspended his campaign for President in February 2008, and then started again in Jun 2011.  Judging by that example, hang on to your lawn signs because Santorum, Bachman, and Cain will be running again in 2016.