The Eclectic Mix

The youth at Sunrise had a bake sale fundraiser today. It went very well, and I think they raised more than they expected…Or at least more than Jenni expected.

I was helping out–actually, doing some semblance of youth wrangling, and handling the money. It was during this that Zoe pulled out one of those moments of parenting that give you pause.

Okay, so the setup…

The girls had their eyes on a couple of bracelets also being sold for the fundraiser. The bracelets weren’t expensive, but the girls left their money at home, and I was fronting the cash for giving change, so I didn’t want to promise anything for them.

The girls asked twice if they could get them. I said just wait, we’ll see how much money we make to see if I get back my change cash…

Zoe asked again if they could get the bracelets. I said why should I get them for them?

And Zoe said, without missing a beat, “because that’s what dads do.”

Aw, crap. She’s got it figured out. And a lot earlier than I expected.

See you tomorrow.

I know, I know. Two days without blogging. Such is the way of the beast. Blogging, thou are a fickle mistress.

Thursday–well, no real excuses. I just needed to detach from the world for a while. All of the hubbub of the car, high school prep, Girl Scout cookies and everything else just had me in a mood to unplug and avoid any semblance of responsibility.

Friday after three turned busy. Doctor appointment, getting Jenni and the girls from Luther and bringing them home, then Patrick to church to start his weekend scout camping trip to Camp Confidence (where his troop does a service project to help clean, supply, and prep the place for other campers). Then off to a new Japanese restaurant in Roseville for a farewell dinner with mom and dad.

Farewell? Yes, they’re off to their annual sojourn to Gulf Shores, Alabama for the month of February. They’ll enjoy their time on the beach, in the (relative) warmth, lots of seafood, and just a nice relaxing getaway. It’s a little depressing to think the last time I was down there was seventeen years ago, but perhaps one of these years, we’ll join them for a week or something. But don’t worry for me too much–the upside to them leaving is that I get asked to clean out the perishables from the fridge after they leave. This time, it came with extra veggies! Good times.

Today was baking day for me. A loaf of bread, about 90 lemon poppy seed muffins and another 3 dozen brownie muffins all came out of the oven or bread machine today, with another loaf of bread planned for cooking overnight–I’m in the mood for some of the english muffin bread. Oh, but I did also clean out the fridge. Started to wonder why I’ve made so many mashed potatoes over the last month or so…Gotta just see about heating it up…

Tomorrow, almost certainly, will be standard Sunday fare: laundry, and general effort around the house. We’ll pursue the usual prep for the school/work week, which finally features a five-day week for all kids.

Okay. This will stand in for a real blog entry, and catch you all up on the doin’s around here. Maybe I’ll have something better tomorrow.

See you tomorrow.

Well, it’s home. Ah, well, the car, that is. After almost two weeks, the car, and the portion of the family that it serves, is whole again.

Oh, I know it’s not over. There’s still the (not so) minor issue of getting the deductible out of the other guy’s insurance company. Oh, it’ll come. But we all know how insurance companies like to drag their feet–money and lawyers don’t mix, and that’s what that industry is made up of.

Even better is the bonus of being rid of the little clown-car rental we had. Fitting all five of us in there was a stretch, and fortunately, we only needed to do that once. So it’s nice to be back in the van, towering over traffic, with room to stretch out and not be shoulder to shoulder with my wife when we were both in the car together. Not to say I don’t like being right next to her, but it makes driving a little more difficult, what with the rubbing elbows and shoulders and all.

All told, the whole endeavor of returning our lives and conveyance back to normal is going to cost someone about $3,000, all of which could have been avoided if one person had been more careful and observant.

Ah, the little lessons of life. I hate it when life tries to teach you things the hard way.

Oh well. Off to drive the newly repaired van.

See you tomorrow.

As mentioned yesterday, we had the “orientation” for incoming freshman to Roseville Area High School tonight.

Our little boy, who most certainly can’t possibly be approaching the back side of his final year of middle school, was referred to, along with the rest of his gathered peers, as the class of 2014.

Oh, sweet jeebus, that’s in this decade (at least as most people define decades and millennia, even though it’s wrong, but we’ll get into those semantics some other time…).

The good stuff to come from tonight: We got another affirmation that moving him to Roseville was absolutely the right call–the vast list of classes and opportunities he’ll be able to avail himself of during his four years there is truly huge: much better than what I even had the chance to do and see, with the possible exception of being able to take Chinese.  The school and the administration really seem to know what the hell they’re doing, which is a refreshing change when compared to the seat-of-the-pants approach of the administration at IDDS for the other eight years of his schooling.

We’ll register for all of his classes for his entire ninth grade year before the middle of February. Then, as the cliche goes, he will be a man…

God, I hope not.

The bad stuff: he’s the class of 2014. Have I mentioned that? It’s hitting me that right around the corner are all of those life milestones: high school, driving, first date, etcetera. I’m sure there’s more, but I’m not remembering high school clearly right now…

That was the first time that anyone has so, um, publicly announced that fact. In fact, I don’t think even Patrick realized what class year he was in until it was mentioned and plastered all over his paperwork this evening.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll analyze some of the course offerings of the Roseville Area School system and it’s value to our favorite incoming freshman.

In the meantime, sit back and laugh at us, simply because you don’t have your own member of the class of 2014.  You don’t know what it means until you get there.

No. Really. Laugh. Get it out now. It’ll save us all time over the coming weeks.

See you tomorrow.

Sorry. Took the night off last night to mourn the loss as the Vikings do what they do best–fold late in the season.

And tonight, just don’t have the chops to crank out anything interesting or useful. So I’ll skip it for now and move on. Maybe gather up enough to make things interesting tomorrow, when we get to register Patrick for high school….

Eek!

See you tomorrow.