Bringing home the Christmas tree

I actually started the morning with a second trip to cut trees for the Boy Scout lot.  We had already sold about half the Noble Firs we had cut the day before Thanksgiving and some of those were questionable looking for sale. So we went off to Canby to the Hamels property and cut another 120 trees. The weather gods continued to shine upon me.  We had a record 3 inches of rain the previous day and it was still raining when I woke up. The weather cleared from 9-11:30 as we were cutting, and as I put the padlock on the gate, the clouds slowly blocked the sun. 

Anyway, I had gotten a 7-ft tree for us and a 5-ft tree for Pop. When I arrived home, I called up to Delaney to come see the tree. I had the 5-ft tree and for the brief moment when Delaney looked at the tree, the look on her face was priceless. Not a scraggly Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but it was shorter than her.  

21 shopping days left

There really was no Christmas today. I went to work, Dana went to work, and the l

Kids went to school. 

Andrew had the first night of the musical tonight. He is nervous because the older trombone players from symptonic band are waiting for him to mess up.   He did fine and I am proud of him for playing pit orchestra. Now I need him to do well on his tests tomorrow, too. 

Delaney and Joan went out to dinner at Red Robin and it was free!!!  They had an appetizer, burger and dessert and it was free because it was training night. Delaney thought that was great.

Dana and I attended Ginger's retirement party on the Portland Spirit. It was my first trip on the Portland Spirit. Cruising boats that size always look far more exciting than they turn out to be. We had a nice dinner and talked to folks from work, and not about work. Dana is always amazing in those settings.  Charming and witty, always the most beautiful there. She helps a lot with me at work. 

Sorry it is a boring day. Maybe Christmas will return tomorrow

December is off and running

It is December 1st and I figured I could write a little thought for each day of December as we edge towards Christmas and through the New Year. Maybe this is an early resolution to start 2016. 

So what are my Christmas wishes for this year:

1.  To see my children smile on Christmas morning and have a little spark in their eye for Christmas magic. 

2.  I want my wife to be surprised about one gift she unwraps and not just a knowing smile as she unwraps all the presents she has bought for herself. 

3.  To have a fun, casual, relaxed visit with my sister and her family when they come to visit.. Play cribbage, go see Christmas lights, enjoy good food and enjoy each other's company.  

4.  To have a backyard bonfire to light the way for Papa Noelle and eat jambalaya on New Year's Eve

5.  To walk the dogs on New Ÿear Day with my wife and children

6.  To go shopping on Christmas Eve to find something fun. Not desperately searching for a needed gift.

7.  To go to church on Christmas Eve and sing Silent Night with candles lit. 

8.  Snow, one day in December. 

9.  Crab sandwiches on New Years Eve, cinnamon rolls on New Year's Day.

10. Attend my kids school concert and smile as a proud parent.

There are more, but I will end my list at 10 items. Come back in January to see how I did.

Summer Memories

Some summer adventures so far to record before I forget them. 

Delaney went to Breakaway camp this year.  Aside from an overnight field trip in 5th grade or a slumber party for a friend's birthday, I am not sure she has been away from us that long.  

There was nervousness, both on the part of Delaney and us the parents. This is one of those cases where I may not understand why, but I am definitely aware there is a difference raising a boy child and a girl child.  It is interesting to me that girls social order and the formation of friend groups is so much earlier than boys. The phrase that boys mature later than boys not only applies to physical size, but understanding or at least forming friend groups, too.

Anyway, I have wandered from Breakaway Camp. Delaney and Dana were both nervous because Delaney kept saying she didn't know anyone and Dana was worried she wouldn't make friends and be the oddball of the group. Things turned out very well and she had a wonderful week.  There was canoeing, swimming, paddle boarding, beach time, endless photo opportunities, and even the food was good.  That is a miracle in itself and would definitely be a deal breaker about going to the next camp or not. There was the first night where she was greeted by zombies and then there was body surfing in the refreshing Pacific Ocean. It was a good experience with lots of free time that Delaney loved, and she wants to go back next year. 

Differences in childhood

I called my nephew the other night to wish him a Happy 12th Birthday.  It was 8:30 or 9:00, I do not really remember.  He was already asleep so I had to call him the next day.  I talked to my brother for a while and related what my children were doing and how our summer had gone so far.  I did not think much of it, but after the call I recognized how different our children' lives were based on where we live, age/gender, and different parenting styles.  It was pretty amazing to me how different they had grown and really wondered if the kids could identify with what their cousins lives would be like.

To start, Quinn was in bed.  My children enjoy the summer evenings with it staying light until 9:30 every night.  They play outside with friends, watch the sunset from the backyard, or watch movies or play games in the house.  Andrew was actually on a picnic dinner with five of his friends from school.  I had just taken for granted that we can let Andrew and his group of friends walk or bike to the store, Subway, pizza, etc and we just assume that is normal.  My brother lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles.  Doing the same thing there seems impractical and something of the past.  We live in the suburb or Portland, and I do not think it is any safer or more dangerous than Sherman Oaks, but it is just a different culture, different way of life, different behavior is expected.

Dana and I want our children to be independent and understand the world they are growing up in.  They help cook dinner every night, have chores around the house, but we still encourage them to go out into the neighborhood without us hovering behind making sure no harm can come to them.  As our children have grown older, I have embraced the fact the failure is a learning opportunity, and it is more important for my children to be kind, polite, able to communicate, and have confidence in themselves than if they have straight A's, excel at all sports, are the president of every club they join, and never have any problems.  At some point, you no longer get a trophy for showing up.  Mom and Dad will not be there to clear any and all obstacles out of the way.  At some point, my children will go forth into the world and face life just like the rest of us.

The admiration of a sister

So the other evening we were talking about the kids at high school.  The latest scuttlebutt is that two freshmen had sex while the boys friends listened outside the door.  Both Andrew and Delaney were perplexed as to why anyone would do something like that.  Both the boy behaving that way and why a girl would have sex with a boy if he was such a jerk.  Anyway, Dana said maybe the girl felt bad about herself and felt that the only way she could get attention was to have sex with boys.  And that boys sometimes just want to get their dick wet and really don't like the girl.

Now that really threw Delaney for a loop.  "Do boys really talk that way about girls" she asked Dana.

"Yes, unfortunately most boys that age do not have really good manners", she continued.  Then, Delaney turned to Andrew with all admiration, trust, and sweetness of a little sister and told her big brother that he should never talk that way about girls or she would kill him.

Silence from Andrew...

Follow up to 30-game NBA season

So, here are the playoff teams for the recently concluded NBA season.

Eastern.          Western

Atlanta.           Golden State

Cleveland.       Houston

Chicago.         Los Angeles Clippers

Toronto.          Portland

Washington.   Memphis

Milwaukie.       San Antonio

Boston.           Dallas

Brooklyn.         New Orleans

That is it.  In the interest of reviewing crazy predictions, let's look and see what would be different if there really only had been 30 games in an NBA season. 

So, if the season had ended after 30 games, all of the teams listed above would have still been in the playoffs except for two teams -- one from each conference. Phoenix fell out of the playoffs and Miami was the other playoff team after 30 games that missed the cut after the full 82-game season.  

New Orleans edged out Oklahoma City in some tie-breaker procedure -- the team we highlighted at the 30-game mark, while Phoenix had a late season losing streak to fall by the wayside. Miami was the team from the Eastern Conference that avoided being swept by the #1 seed and missing the lottery by a slim one game difference.  Projecting one step further, none of the #6-#8 seeds advanced to the second round, and they only won six games for all teams combined. 

Bring on the 30-game season!  Stop the charade of a real competition when the other 50 games are nothing more than a money grab by greedy owners. More excitement for the fans!

Funny kids growing up

Andrew declared himself the "Mayor of Friendville" last night. Erin had texted him last night and wanted to know what some guy at Wilsonville High School saw in her and why he wanted to date her. This brought on the lament, "I am like the mayor of "Friendville."

Delaney used the phrase "a bat in the cave" last night at dinner.  I am well aware that I am 49 years old and have been out of touch with the hip young lingo for a while.  However, I had not heard the term "a bat in the cave".  As a service to other dads out there that think they are hip and up-to-date on all the cool lingo, a "bat in the cave" means you have a booger that is visible, but still inside your nostril.

Just a normal night with teenagers

I arrived home from work today knowing that we had to get Delaney to soccer practice.  Delaney passed me on the stairs with cleats on, hair up and carrying two soccer balls.  "Hi Dad.  You just missed the talk about testicles.  I didn't know that people called testicles "balls".  I didn't know that they were shaped like balls.  Are you ready to go?  I don't want to be late."

Yes, it was about like that.  Just one run on sentence, kind of a stream of consciousness sort of thought coming out of her head, with laughter from upstairs as Andrew and Dana just burst into fits of laughter.

When we started with the attitude that we would answer our kids questions no matter how awkward they may be.  We were new generation parents that would answer things directly, with anatomical names, and explain things with an open mind.  Knowledge cannot hurt you know, it just can be really awkward passing that knowledge along.

More than one dinner conversation has turned to sex or who's dating who at school, and what two 7th graders who can't drive do when they are "going out".  It is funny, strange, and glad that they want to talk to us still about some things at least.  No illusions that the talk to us about everything and we are their primary source, but the communication between our kids and ourselves is better than it was for either Dana or I.

A different Mothers' Day

291 pounds.  Zero McChicken today.

It is the day after Mothers' Day and it was quite the day.  The kids and I cooked breakfast with Delaney worrying about everything the whole way.  She has watched Dana cooked who measures and weighs and chops everything beforehand and has them in little ramekins before she turns on the stove.  My cooking style is to measure things by look and then as I am stirring the pot and reading the recipe I come to that paragraph where it tells me I wasn't supposed to mix anything together until after I had browned them separately and me then saying, "I hope it turns out".

We had Dana's folks over for brunch and then we went out to wine tasting.  It did not go well.  Pop had been driving Mama crazy to begin with and then we had just made it inside the tasting room when Mama tripped and fell.  She has a black eye and a pretty good cut on the bridge of her nose from her glasses.  We got the bleeding to stop and Jean cleaned up, but by then the damage had been done.  I am not sure she will venture out any where after the latest fall.  That makes me sad.

As we drove back from the winery I thought of myself and my weight and my knees, and the fact that I have a tough time playing soccer with my children any longer.  I don.t want that.  I want to be healthy for a long, long time and be traveling through Europe when I am 80 years old.  I need to lose weight and get healthy, for me to enjoy life as I grow older.  The time to do it is now.

One last Mothers' Day note, we got Dana a new kitchen garbage can because the other one was broken.  I hope she had a good Mothers' Day and we will try again next year.

End of Soccer Season

291 pounds, two McChickens.  It is kind of a Bridget Jones diary opening.

Nothing specific to say, but I guess that is the point of a blog.  The kids soccer season has come to a close,  This was our first year of having the kids play club soccer.  Overall, I would say it was a good experience, but we also learned a lot.  Generally, the best say I can say about parents are they can be OK, but most of them are annoying.  As I say that, I realize that other parents probably think the same about me.  Essentially it comes down to what you are hoping to get out of the soccer experience.

Delaney played on all three levels of the girls' team this year.  I characterize the Red Team parents as nice and cheering their daughters on because they are happy she is just playing soccer.

The White team parents were generally nice and cheered for their daughter because they were on the highest level team.  Their daughter was a good player.  If they won, it was louder cheering.

The Navy team was the worst.  No one seemed friendly.  They cheered for their daughter, but really in their hearts, they knew that if the coach could see what they obviously overlooked, than their daughter would be moved up to the White team.  Frustration was a big part of the Navy soccer experience.

Delaney had fun, loved her coaches and got better.

Andrew got better and got game experience.  That is what the high school coach said we needed so hopefully he has done enough.  There were times that things were going well and I would get carried away and dream of winning tournaments.  Then, I would get smacked with crazy club soccer stuff like pulling him out of the game with 30 seconds to play so the right midfielder could play goalie during the penalty kick shootout because that made sense somewhere.  He is better than he was six months ago and that is what I had hoped for.

Club soccer is still more about image and I feel like I am constantly being hustled by some of the coaches.  Just because you call a tournament the "State Cup" it doesn't mean that your are the best team in the state.  Really, it means that you managed to beat 5-8 teams in your local area in a tournament.  Your team played well, no more, no less, and they happened to win the tournament that weekend.  Parents and players seem to over estimate what the result is.

I am sure we will play one more year, I just want the experience to be more fun, and have it be a little less slimy.

Not really sure what to say

I always want to write some insightful story about my life that somehow is related to all parents, but alas, today I have nothing to say.  In fact, most of my post are more ramblings about nothing than some insightful wisdom.

So tonight, it is just a stream of consciousness from today.  I drove Andrew to school and he listened to the radio on the way.  He has become fascinated with the Pop radio station morning shenanigans.  Tomorrow they listened to some girl try to figure out why the guy she dated didn't call her back after their first date.  You invited him over, cooked him dinner, had sex with him, and then he left.  I think the problem with half of these young girls they talk to on the radio is they do not know what a date is supposed to be.  How I wish I was younger again.

It is Delaney's half birthday today.  She is angling for a party for her half birthday because her real birthday this year became a casualty of school, soccer, and our anniversary.  She was late to school, had a math quiz, and soccer practice this evening.  Also had a filling at the dentist and we got her a milkshake.

Dana spent her day running around, which seems to be the case. The life of a housewife always seems so luxurious with hours of time, but by the time you get breakfast dishes cleaned, and the laundry started and the house picked up slightly, and grocery shopping completed, the kids need to be picked up from school.  She seems to be happy, but every now and then I wonder if she wished she had a career instead of children to raise.

Me, I went to work, came home, picked up kids at soccer, and now I am going to sleep.