The Good The Bad The Ugly

The time off from work- good
Christmas with the family- good
Learning that my sister in law is moving home- good
white christmas - good
Hearing my docter say- The cancer is gone! good
Hearing my foot docter say- lets go non weight baring for a couple of weeks- bad
Learning that while your wife is away for a bit and you are supposed to be watching the kids your daughter gives herself a haircut- bad
Realizing you got nothing in defense- UGLY

I am a baby...I admit it.

Last week my superintendant announced that he was leaving the district. This news has hit everyone in the administration very emotional. It's not often that a large group of people feel this way toward their boss. I am going to admit this. I have cried on more than one occassion over this. Each time I think to myself .... GET OVER THIS.....it's just this man went out of his way to take care of me during my illness. I also have learned SO MUCH from him over the past years.

Today I met with him privately for probably the last time. I gave him an envelope with a letter and a family portrai enclosed. Here is my letter. AND YES I TEARED UP JUST HANDING IT TO HIM

Mr. Murray,
I wanted to take an opportunity to thank you for everything you have done for me and my family. I struggle writing this letter because as I think about everything you have done for me I have to stop and take a break because I start to tear up. I have truly been blessed to be here in Little Elm working under your guidance. Please understand that I speak for my whole family in thanking you for taking care of me during my serious illness. You always wanted to take care of me and lift any fears I may have had in making sure that my teachers and students were being taken care of at all times.
I still remember when I was first diagnosed and was in stable condition in the hospital. You took time out of your day to drive all the way to Zale Lipshey just to see me and spend about 30 minutes just to talk with me. Any time I wanted to talk about work you would shut it down and want to talk about my family and what you could do for them. How is Tracey? Are Jack and Caroline doing okay? My favorite visit and most memorable took place about 3 weeks later. School was out and everyone was gone. I was feeling better and was actually up and moving around. I was sitting in the family visitation room and the door opens and here comes someone who looks at me. He is wearing flip flops, shorts, sun glasses, and a baseball cap. He looks at me and says, “for someone so sick you sure are hard as hell to find.” I looked up and I realized it was you! I just started laughing. You spent over an hour talking with me just to check up on me. At the end of the visit you mentioned you needed to get going because your wife and daughter were down stairs waiting for you. I was shocked! You took time out of your summer to come down to see me with your family and I knew the hospital was NOT on your way to anything.
I want you to know Mr. Murray that the impact you have had on my life cannot be expressed in words. I will be grateful for the rest of my life. I know in my heart that part of the reason I am alive today is in direct relation to what you and this district have done to take care of me and my family. On behalf of my whole family I wish you nothing but the best. I will always cherish the time I spent under your guidance. You will be missed but never forgotten.
Sincerely,

Jason Huffman

Fire!

A fire starts inside a chemical plant and the alarm goes out to fire departments miles around.

After crews have been fighting the fire for over an hour, the chemical company president approached the fire chief and said, "All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved! I will give $100,000 to the engine company that brings them out safely!"

The crews try, but no one can get through. Then another fire truck, filled with a volunteer fire company of men over 65, comes roaring down the road and drives straight into the middle of the inferno. The other men watch unbelieving as the old timers hop off of their rig and heroically extinguish the fire, saving the secret formulas.

The company president walks over to reward the volunteers.

"What do you guys plan to do with the money?" the president asks the group.

The firetruck driver looks him right in the eye and answers, "Well, the first thing we're going to do is fix the darn brakes on that truck."

I'm Just Sayin'

If you could go back and talk to yourself at the age of say 15 for 30 minutes. Would your conversation deal with financial advice or relationships. Mine would be financial. Relationship wise I would not trade anything. I learned from each one. And when I met Tracey I knew after the first date she was it!
The past few evenings I have made an effort to help more with Tracey. The evenings have been much nicer. Must keep it up no matter what. Tracey deserves it.
Funny thing happened this morning- My dad installed a new shower head in our shower last week. It’s one of those that you can take in your hand and move around. This morning Tracey was in the shower and I hear a loud CLANK and Tracey says…What the hell? Then she starts laughing. She opens the door with the shower head in her hand and says….I AM GOING TO GET ONTO MY PLUMBER!!
Jack is doing so good on his multiplication tables. Jack has a big Math test today and he probably is not going to do very well on it and he is worried. But ya know….he knows the processes. He just makes mental math mistakes. We can work on that. He is not failing so we are going to be okay.
I have an appointment with a foot doctor on the 17th. Hopefully relief is on the horizon.

A letter to God

There was a man who worked for the Post Office whose job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses.

One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. The letter read:



Dear God,

I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension.

Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension payment.

Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with, have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?

Sincerely, Edna



The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars.

By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman.

The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends.

Christmas came and went.

A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God.

All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read:



Dear God,

How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me?

Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift.

By the way, there was $4 missing.

I think it might have been those bastards at the post office.

Sincerely, Edna

And Boom Goes The Dynamite

And Boom! Goes the dynamite! That is what happened last night. There is plenty of blame to go around. I have more than my share to stand up and accept. The kids had their share to take as well.
Issue #1- is that neither I nor Tracey like for our house to be messy. We don’t expect party clean but we want things to be picked up. There are two problems. It is extremely painful for me to walk on my feet. More this topic in a moment. The kids are old enough to pick up after themselves. The problem is they have yet to do it without us getting on to them. Every night it seems it is an issue. When we tell them it is time to clean up both of the kids start giving Tracey and I lip. More so Jack than Caroline.
Issue #2- My Feet- The heels of my feet are so sensitive that when I walk on them it is like knives stabbing into my foot. This has been going on since September but this past month has been the worst. It takes everything I got to make it through the day. Some days are better than others. Some days by the end of the day I am basically limited to walking with a cane and even that is labored. I wear tennis shoes to work because dress shoes are not an option. Weekends- I spend most of my time in my recliner only getting up if I have to so that my feet will be improved enough for walking by Monday.
Issue #3- Cataract Surgery- For three more days I can’t pick up anything more than 5 lbs or bend over. BUT I CAN SEE VERY WELL!!!
Issue #4- My hands- These hurt like hell as well. The tips of my fingers are very sensitive. There are many things I struggle to do. The list is long.
Because of these issues I am about as useful around the house as broken lamp. This means that too many things fall on Tracey to do and she (as anyone would) gets overwhelmed and short with me…the kids…..even the dogs at times must tread lightly. I could not do what she does.
At times I get down on myself. My whole physical situation is a beating to deal with on a daily basis. That is no lie. What I must work on is not letting this affect my mental state of mind. I get down on myself and then when the kids or Tracey snip at me for something I roar back. It goes downhill from that point as you can imagine.
Example:
Yesterday I wanted to be productive and fix lunch for the family and perhaps make some brownies for everyone to snack on the next few days. My feet were hurting but not as much as they had so I was going to make a go of it. The problem was I knew I had limited steps that I could take before my feet were done. Every time I tried to put something somewhere to work in the kitchen I found that something was already there and needed to either be put up or loaded into the dishwasher. I became more and more frustrated as I was trying work and I started banging some things as I was working in the kitchen. Tracey comes in to see what the problem is and asks me if anything is the problem? I said, “Yes, I am trying to make lunch for everyone but I can’t work in here because there is crap everywhere in here.” COULD HAVE HANDLED THAT ONE BETTER I ADMIT THAT! Tracey said, “I am only one person and I am not getting any help.” We refocused and Tracey helped me get the kitchen in order.

Last night Tracey was working with Jack on multiplication tables and Jack started getting a little difficult because he wanted to do something else. I chimed in with my thoughts and Jack yelled at me. Big mistake on his part and boom went the dynamite. Tracey got on to me for getting on to Jack and snapped back at Tracey.
So here is my vow!
Vow #1= I have got to get help on my feet. I am going to talk to my doctors today.
Vow #2- Pain or Not- I have got to get up and help Tracey with the kids more.

Cortizone Shot?

To Believe Or Not To Believe

That is the question that keeps going through Jack’s head. He desperately wants to believe that Santa Clause is real. The problem is he has some friends (two of which I am not fond of to begin with that live down the street) that are telling him there is no Santa Clause and his parents do everything. They even eat the cookies!
I am ready when the time comes to talk to Jack about the “Spirit of Santa Clause” and the joy of giving. But as long as he wants to believe in the “The Man” I am not going to crush his world of innocence. I know others are out there who think that Tracey and I should just come clean and tell him. But why do it until we have too? You don’t keep this view of the world very long so why shorten it? Also, his sister is only 6 and I don’t want him ruining it for her.
The conflict in Jacks world right now was never more evident than this past Sunday. As has become tradition my mother takes the kids for their Christmas picture then they go see Santa. On the way to see Santa Jack told Grammy that he did not need to go sit on Santa’s lap because he was going to write Santa a letter of what he wanted for Christmas.
My mother handled it beautifully. She said that was okay with her but that he needed to stay where she could see him while she went through the line with Caroline. This was a great relief to Jack. He stood back by the elevators with his head on a constant look out for anyone who might know him. He hung out looking cool.
The next morning Jack crawled into bed with me for a few moments of Daddy Time and he asked if it was okay that he chose not to sit in Santa’s lap. I told him sure! What if Santa misses my letter…there are thousands of them for him to read you know. True, but that is why Santa has all of the helpers. They keep Santa “In the know.”
I hope you’re right dad!

Now I ask you….WHY would you want to end this prematurely?

BRAVO MOMMA!

Yesterday was the big day for our parent conference. Tracey went for both of us. I was tied up at work and was not able to attend. In the past has always wanted either me to handle the meeting or at least go with her. This time however, she was ready to go and if I had gone I doubt I would have got a word in. The woman was ready to go!
She gets to the meeting and of course it is her, the principal and the teacher. I don’t want to go into great specifics but it is safe to say that the school did not come off looking very good. You can read my previous post to read the email I sent them to give them a list of our questions.
I am not sure where to start. It is not often that a parent will set up a meeting and give you much information regarding their concern because they don’t want you to have a prepared statement to their concern.
Jacks teacher is in her first year in a regular classroom. She has education experience but nothing to this level. She is going up against a mother who has 16 years of classroom experience and a father with 15 years of educational experience with 7 of those years being a campus administrator. To say that she is at a disadvantage here is an understatement. The last parent meeting we had the best defense she had was “that is how they do it here.”
So to be fair I sent her and the principal an email (you can read it below) to give them a heads up. They had four days to get ready for this meeting. IF a parent conference involved me and the teacher there was obviously a problem. I would always go in ahead of time and talk with the teacher about what was going on. If we screwed up…we screwed up. The important thing is to not make excuses to the parent in the conference. Admit our wrong doing.. Privately, before the conference, I would coach the teacher on how to handle the situation in the future so that they can learn and be better! We all make mistakes. The important thing to remember is that we learn from them. In the meeting with the parents we tell them what we are going to do in the future. I usually figure out a way to take the heat for the mistake so that the teacher feels as though they are supported and not being left out to dry. It is a win-win situation. The parent has been heard and their concerns are validated. The teacher learns how not to get in that situation again.
This did NOT happen here. As a matter of fact I don’t think the principal even talked to the teacher AT ALL before the conference. If he had he would have coached them a bit better.
This is the funniest part: In regards to how is the campus monitoring the effectiveness of tutoring and what is done if it is found to not be effective? Example: Jack makes good grades on stuff we work with him on but consistently makes 70’s and 60’s on work covered in class and tutoring.
This was actually said by Jack’s tutoring teacher who joined the meeting:
Another teacher in the third grade (who plans math for the grade level) gives the tutoring teacher a packet of work to give to the kids. If the kid needs help the tutor try’s to help the kid.
Question by us: what strategy are you using when you are working with Jack?
Tutor: Strategy?
Tracey: Yes what problem solving strategy are you using to help the kids ?
Tutor: All I get is a bunch of packets and I hand them out to the kids.

LLLLLLOOOONNNNNGGGG SILENCE as Tracey let’s this INCREDIBLE DUMB statement sink in.
She looks over at the principal he is not reacting. Tracey handled that beautifully. She gave them rope and they hung themselves.
This is too easy!
Then the principal says this: What you have to understand Mrs. Huffman is that you and your husband are much more knowledgeable than the typical parent. You are asking questions that the typical would not know to ask..
What the hell does that mean? Excuse my staff for being idiots….I got nothin’
Dude! If you are going into a parent conference and you have seen their concerns and you got a first year teacher and you are facing parents with over 30 years of experience and one of the parents was a campus administrator you better get in there and find out what the hell is going on.
NOT SMART!
And I loved how Tracey handled this statement to the principal. Any parent Mr…….. is going to come into this situation and what to know what the school is doing to ensure their child is learning.
BRAVO MOMMA! BRAVO

It Must Be Magic

So Tracey and I have been trying to set up a teacher conference with Jacks teacher for about two weeks. Our first challenge was she kept trying to set it up during the day. She knows we both work but it was worth it so Tracey was going to take a personal day and go during the teachers 45 minute conference period. HENCE THE NAME...CONFERENCE PERIOD. Then we were informed that she could only give us about 20-30 minutes. When we told her we needed more time and that we would need to meet before or after school we were informed that she does not get to school until 7:45 and she leaves at 3:45. Again a 15 minute conference.

So I sent her an email listing our questions and a little detail on each question to give her a heads up on her answers so that we could meet HER time contraints. Because in a profession where you serve the public ITS ALL ABOUT YOU!!

We contacted the principal of the campus trying to get him to help us set up a longer conference. We needed 45 minutes to an hour.

Again we were stonewalled. He would not help us at all.

So we decided that many of our questions he could answeer since HE IS THE INSTRUCTIONAL LEADER of the campus. So I sent him the exact same email we sent Tracey's teacher.

We got a call today and SOMEHOW peoples schedules opened up at Jacks school and LIKE MAGIC we got a parent conference set up on OUR TIME SCHEDULE.... What was in this magic email???? Read below.

Good Morning! I understand that you and Tracey are in the process of setting up a time to sit down and talk regarding Jack’s grades in math. I also understand there are some time constraints to being able to meet so I am emailing you to let you know ahead of time what our questions are at this time. As we were monitoring his grades in the on line grading system we had a few questions.

Grade Input- We noticed that Jack had a mid C average in math. For quite some time that is where he has been performing. In one day (this past Monday November 9th) we noticed his average dropped 5 points to a 70. When we looked at his grades several grades had been entered with obvious low grades being earned by Jack. We did get a couple but not all of the assignments that were recently added to the grade book. They said "Re Do" across the top of the paper. In the past we have noticed that when we do this with Jack and he turns it in to you his grade improves. Our concern here is with the cut off for grades being due (Thursday November 12th) do we have time to work with Jack at home and get this turned back into you to show Jack’s mastery of learning on these concepts? When we turn in a "re do" paper is a new grade given on that paper or is an alternative assignment given to Jack and a new grade based on what he earned on that assignment put into the grade book? Again, in the past we have noticed some improvement in Jack’s grades after we work with him but we are not clear on how his grade improved. Of course we have tried getting information from Jack but he is not sure either.

Grade Input Guidelines- I know there is nothing district wide mandated but at your campus is there a guideline as to getting grades into the computer prior to grades being due for report cards and progress reports? I ask this because with some of Jack’s grades that were recently put into the grade book Tracey and I fear that we don't have time to help Jack understand the concepts prior to testing. What is happening to us is we think Jack is doing well because he is rocking along working with us. Then in one day we see 5 grades being entered that are not good and we are backed up to either a report card or a test being given in a matter of days.

Please understand Tracey and I know the demands being placed on you as a classroom teacher. We just want to make sure that when we are notified of Jack’s grades that we have enough time to help Jack.

Graded Work Coming Home- There are some grades in the grade book that we do not see coming home in Jacks folder. On the other side of that we are seeing papers come home with grades on them but they are not entered into the grade book. This is causing some confusion on our part.

Monitoring the Effectiveness of Tutoring: In talking with Jack I became aware that Jack is not being tutored by you in math. Here we have a student who is not performing well consistently in math and he is being tutored by someone who is not his math teacher. My concern with this system being in place is that with Jack’s grades being what they are he is obviously not learning what he needs to. This could be for several reasons. What procedure is in place to monitor the effectiveness of tutoring? If it is determined to not be effective what procedures are in place to correct the problem? Is is possible for Jack to tutor with you? If this will not work then Tracey and I will be pulling Jack from math tutoring and he will work with us. That might be the easiest thing to do for you and Jack.

Mastery Learning- What procedures are taken as a campus when a student does not perform well on a given assignment?
• Does the student simply correct the problems missed?
• Is there a reteach of the concepts being missed by either small group instruction or whole class given the circumstances of how well the class did on the assignment.
• Is there a reteach of the concept being missed by the student and an alternative assessment being given for major grades such as test?
• Have you been given direction from either your grade level or campus administration as to the guidelines for mastery learning or is it up to the individual teacher to determine what to do when facing this situation? In talking with parents with kids in other classes it seems to us that each teacher is doing something different. While that is not optimal, if that is the system in place so be it. We are just confused as to what the procedure in place looks like at this time.
I know there is a lot of information here so you can see why I am sending this to you now. I was not sure you and Tracey could cover this much information in 15 to 30 minutes.
So in review:
• Timelines for getting grades put into the computer in a timely manner for parents so that averages don't drop 5-10 points in a day.
• How does the "Re Do" policy actually affect Jack's grade?
• Tutoring- How is it being monitored for effectiveness.
• Tutoring Part 2- If it is determined to not be effective what procedures are in place to make it effective?
• Mastery Learning- As a grade level, campus, or individual teacher, what procedure is in place to ensure mastery learning?
• Thank you for your time. I look forward to speaking with Tracey at the conclusion of your conference.

Do I Need A Shrink?

Last night we were winding down for the evening. Tracey and I were lying in bed talking. We were discussing how I was doing. For quite some time now I have been having problems with my feet and hands. I won’t go into a lot of detail but I will say both can be extremely painful. Add to this about a week ago I started having some vision problems. I see pretty clearly but it is like I am looking through fog at all times. I mentioned that I wish God would give me some relief in one area. You know…if you are going to mess with my vision then let my feet be pain free.
I have good days and bad days. Some days I function pretty well. Then again some days it is all I can do to make through my work day. When I get home I make it to my recliner and prop my feet up and there I am.
I mentioned to Tracey that I try to stay upbeat but sometimes I get a little depressed at my physical condition. She then asked me if I considered going to a counselor. Well no why would I need to do that? …. Was my thought. Because you have changed was her answer.
WOW…WOW….WOW….What do you mean I have changed?
DO I REALLY WANT TO HEAR THIS?
This led into about a 45 minute conversation of some deep soul searching. As our conversation ended and Tracey fell asleep I sat there and stared at the ceiling for about a hour. You know when everyone is asleep and you are alone with your thoughts it is amazing how much self therapy you can cover in such a short amount of time. While there are areas that I have handled very well there are areas that I have let slip as a father, a husband, a partner, and a friend.
This blog entry is my witness. From this time forward I am going to be better.

Thanks Sweety for everything.

Going To The Symphony

Jack's class went to the symphony last week. As you can tell he was dressed to impress.

Coach Huffdaddy Starts The Season Strong! WIN 51-21

I want to thank everyone for being here today. Obviously I am very pleased with today's outcome. We do have some areas we need to work on but overall I can't complain for this being our first game. Do you guys have questions?

We noticed that you altered your schedule to include Duke as your opener. Why did you go in that direction?
Well if you want to win in football you need to schedule a school that is good in basketball...he he ya know what I am saying? Seriously, I just wanted to schedule a team that appeared equal to my team talent wise. Of course that did not to turn out to be true because we beat the heck out of them. What did we have a little over 600 yards in offense?

Tell us about your defense? Overall they did well today. I wish we held them a bit more but when we were up 48-7 all of the sudden the refs started finding personal fouls to help them get down the field.

Why did you go for two when you were up 48-7. I don't like the number 49. I would rather stay at 48 or move up to 50.

You were seen eating peanuts on the sideline during the game do you have a comment on that? We were up 48-7 and I got the munchies. I just missed the hotdog guy and the cotton candy dude was nowhere to be found. Peanuts won!

Listen, it was a good start for us. I am happy with how we looked for it being our first game. I look forward to opening it up a bit more on both sides of the ball. We have a lot of work to do to get ready for UAB. Whoever that is...they have a dragon on their helmet. Hopefully with a little luck we can start out 2-0.

This is Incredible!

The Puppy Whisperer - Watch more Funny Videos

I LOVE These Types of Video Clips

Maybe its because I have been in a situation where I might not see my kids again but I choke up EVERY TIME I see a video like this one.



Tricked On Halloween - Watch more Funny Videos

No Shame In Crying After THAT!!

You
Hardest Pop Warner Football Hit Ever - Watch more Funny Videoshave got to keep your head up!

Coach Huffdaddy Accepts A Coaching Job!

Edit Note- Read Coaches Interviews Useless First

Coach Huffdaddy Approaches the Podium To Make His Coaching Decision Public

Coach HD- I would like to thank all of you for being here today. I know this is an exciting day for everyone. My record speaks for itself in that where ever I go I win so someone is going to have their furtunes turn dramatically with my decision. A lot went into this decision. Once I had this idea I must have thought about which team I was going to take over for a good 10 minutes. In the end it was a hard decision and an easy decision at the same time. Hard in that both of these teams have a history of being bad. Easy in that one of these teams is located in the North and that means cold. Huffdaddy don't do the cold anymore. Besides that university is located in Philadelphia. What a Sh#t Hole. Who wants to live there? So my decision is that I will be taking over the coaching and play calling duties on offense and defense for The SMU MUSTANGS!

Wait for applause and the flash of bulbs as I put on my SMU HAT and hold up a JERSEY with HUFFDADDY #1 for pictures.

At this time I will take questions

Can you go into a bit more detail about why you were looking at schools with the history of SMU? Sure! I was looking for a school that has a losing history. And I think we will agree that SMU fits this tradition since they came back from the death penalty.

Why a school with a losing history? Well I did this for a couple reasons. I have taken over at big schools before and quite frankly there was no challenge. They have the athletes and the recruiting pipelines are set. Year after year I was trying to decide what 5 star recuit to accept. After building up a record of 130-2and 9 National Chanmpionships with 7 of those in a row I decided to step away because it got boring. Here I can build up a school into national prominance and once again show I am a genius and at the same time get SMU to a bigger more respectable conference.

Can you go into more detail about Respectable Conference- Well yeah what are they in CONFERENCE USA? What the hell is that? Have you seen some of these teams. With the exception of Houston these teams would have a hard time beating some of the best HIGHSCHOOL teams in Texas...Anyone here seen Euless Trinity play? They got some mean Tongons! If I can recruit some of those Tongans I figure we can get that TONGAN DANCE tradition going and freak some teams out before we ever hit the field to actually play.

So what is your first step in turning things around? The first step has been taken. That is I am taking over their program. My name alone should be good for a couple of wins anyway. Next I am going to be looking at the schedule. My plan is to search real hard and find some teams worse than us? If I have dig down to division two schools I will. This give us the opportunity build confidence and for the players to get used to my calls both offensively and defensively so we will be ready to roll when conference time starts. After a couple of successful seasons we will start scheduling bigger fish to build up our quality of schedule and get us into a bigger conference.

What conference are you shooting for? The Big XII would be a natural fit.

What if the Big XII does not want to expand? Well they can either become the Big XIII or if they don't like that they can do a little trade. We move to the Big XII and one of their crappy teams like Baylor can move to our smaller conference. I think that would be a natural move. Baylor is awful and needs to admit they have not been competitive in the Big XII in the sports that matter and are not going to be for some time, Seriously, how are you going to recuit at Baylor? Come to Baylor and get the crap beat out of you by Texas, Texas Tech and Okalahoma yearly! Plus who wants to wear Gold and Green. Have you seen some of their uniform combinations? Gold on Gold with Gold Helmits? Barf. SMU is Red White and Blue...you don't get more American than that...and that mustang is pretty cool too.

Any more questions? No?

Well guys I want to thank you for coming out today and the next time we will talk will be before our first game. After that I will be doing post conferences after the games with a build up to our next game.

I hope you enjoyed this and look forward to Coach Huffdaddy's Conferences. It should be a fun season.

Coaching Interviews Are Useless

I have just about had it with coaching interviews. Why? because you get no information out of them. You either get Mack Brown version of interviews. In these interviews you hear how it's going to be a heck of a game and TEXAS is going to have to be at their best to beat this team. Then Texas goes out and beats the team 68-10.....

What happened to this was going to a ball game? Do you honestly think a team like this stood a chance against you? I mean really..call it what it is....in college you have no PRESEASON games so you schedule these lambs for slaughter so that you know what you have when you start conference games. In the mean time these schools gladly accept the game because you pay them more in that one game (say 500,000) then they can make in 5 years with their home schedule.

Then you get the coach of the Dallas Cowboys- Who is the MASTER OF SAYING A LOT AND NOTHING AT THE SAME TIME! Honest the man never answers a question. And what is worse is the media knows this and still asks the same questions. I think the media needs to revolt and agree one day to all have the same list of questions. And keep asking the same question until you get an answer. Reporter One- Why do you think Marion Barber had a hard time running the ball today when other running backs where successful and how much does his injury play into his performance? Coach answers in his traditional way of talking for five minutes and saying nothing. Reporter Two- Um yes since you really did not answer that question and it was a good question I have the same question. Repeat the process until you get something out of him. Beat him into submission.

I like Mike Leacdes interviews..say what you want about him but he does not believe in protecting players ego's. His FAT GIRLFRIENDS interview was awesome!!! He holds people accountable and if they suck he tells the whole world they sucked.

I would be this way. For fun I am going to do a little experiment that you might think is stupid but I want to put myself in that position. Am I going to go out and get a coaching job? Ummmm NO!!

I am going to Use NCAA FOOTBALL 10 and I am going to take on the team as their coach and play through a season. I am going to do a post on this blog and it will read like a pregame or post game conference and I am going to answer the questions as I wished the coaches would answer it should be kind of funny to read about. I goal is to go through an entire season. We shall see what happens.

Funny

One for the guys and one for the girls

My wife and I were watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, "Do you want to have sex?"

"No," she answered.

I then said, "Is that your final answer?"

She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, "Yes."

So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."

And then the fight started....


After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'.

So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.'

And then the fight started...

The Next Play There Would Be A 15 Yard Roughing The Passer Penalty If It Where Me

Campers!!

This past weekend has been circled on the calendar in the JDHTEACH house hold for 6 months. This past weekend was Pack 817 Fall Camp Out! Why was this so important to our family? Because it was going to be the first time EVER that we were going camping as a family. This is a journey that began back in April of this year. The SPRING camp out I missed due to recovery from pneumonia. This greatly upset Jack but he understood. Caroline did not go as well. She stayed with other family members. Tracey was not to gung ho about it because neither she nor I had grown up camping. Bugs…staying in the elements…um not so much.
The start up cost for camping can be expensive. We had no idea if Jack would even like camping so as far as we knew back in April this could be a ONE AND DONE kind of deal. So we borrowed just about EVERYTHING from some friends of ours that are seasoned campers.
Tracey and Jack came home and Jack could NOT STOP talking about all of the fun he had. In talking with Tracey she said, You know…we actually had a lot of fun! So now we were committed. We knew the next camping trip with the pack was in October so we started purchasing camping gear at special occasions. Through Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and my birth day we had purchased blow up mattresses, battery powered lanterns, and a huge tent! We had the essentials.
This time we were all going. Tracey, Jack, Caroline and ME! We had an absolute blast. We knew our camping site buddy family very well so we enjoyed getting to sit around and talk with them.
Here is what I really enjoyed about the trip!
- Everyone helped one another- We helped each other set up and take down the camp site. This makes is go by so much easier.
- The kids could run and play- Everyone watched out after the kids. You did not have to worry about where your kid was at all times. Somebody was always with them.
- Caroline had many kids to play with. There were a ton of younger siblings there and Caroline had a nice crowd to hang with.
- Jack let Caroline hang with him quite a bit. He was not bothered at all that she tagged along at times. Usually this is the case but we thought with his Boy Scout troop he would want to be “with the guys” more but he looked after Caroline very well.
- Jacks pack is a great group of boys and their parents are great. I enjoyed visiting with everyone.
- Everyone was so nice to me because they knew I had had to lay low due to exposure so they were all very welcoming.
- I enjoyed going from camp site to camp site seeing all the neat set ups people had.
- I guess since we were in tents we were camping but we were not what you would call roughing it.
Things I did not enjoy about the trip
- Restroom was 75 yards through the woods.

Things we learned this camping trip.
- Christmas Lights- Everyone puts up Christmas lights at their camp site. If offers a soft light so that at night you can see your way around the camp site.
- Mesquite Wood- Made some very good smelling and long lasting fire wood.
- We are going to get another tent the same size as the one we have. This way we can have a boy tent and girl tent with some ROOM to move. The way it was at night we were butt cheek to butt cheek.
- Packing- we are going to purchase more storage bens. No more fights putting the tent back in its tiny bag. We can also categorize stuff- Sleeping Geer, Battery Powered, Electrical. In the future when it is time to go we won’t have to search multiple crates.
- With my deep dish skillet I can cook up quite a meal at the camp site in the future.
Overall we all had a great time and we created a family memory that will last forever! I can’t wait for our next trip! We are officially CAMPERS!!

Random Thoughts My JDHTEACH

I have a bunch of randomness here.
Update about the child I referenced in my previous post. He is having one of those days today. We have no other choice but to shut the door when he is like that. I am now convinced this is not where this kid needs to be. He can’t be learning anything in this setting. Same goes for the other students in that class with him.
Jack has been doing very well handling his feelings. He still can push it but he is so much better. He sees the anger lady for a second time next week. He is looking forward to it.
I am not sure “anger lady” is the best name for her. What about the “worry lady”. That is really what she works with Jack on. How to handle his worries.
Jack is a worrier. I wish we could get him to be less of a worrier but then again he has had to face some serious situations in his 8 short years.
Jack passed his Math Benchmark….he made a 70. Man did we pump him up. Especially since the class average was not that great.
Jacks teacher makes me shake my head sometimes but I have to give her props when she deserves it. We are seeing evidence that the two other teachers are doing things differently than Jacks teacher. We have recently found out through our connections that the other two teachers have been together for many years and they don’t exactly go out of their way to help anyone new to the team. So Jack has a teacher who is in a new grade level and a new school and she is having to survive on her own. THAT….pisses me off. I HATE teachers that do that.
Obviously the principal is either unaware of this or he does not want to rock the boat.
There was a teacher at Tracey’s campus last year that was “untouchable” The principal left that grade level alone because she did not want to rock the boat.
As an administrator I don’t get this line of thinking. If you asked the teachers who worked for me I would confidently tell you they felt I valued their opinion when making decisions as to what I thought was best for kids. That does not mean they always liked my decision but they had to respect it. If something goes wrong it’s my job that is on the line. So I can’t have teachers personalities effect my decision making. Having two teachers run together and leave the other one out to dry is unacceptable and I would address it immediately.
When I got my principal job I had a group of teachers that were in my office almost daily that summer. Most of them were there to honestly help me get settled but some were there to kiss butt and to figure me out as far as what type of person I was going to be. I remember one teacher who was very vocal about how things are here at JDHTEACH Intermediate and she sure let me know how important she was to how things run. She forgot one important detail. I don’t care. Sure enough on her first walk through she was horrible. We agreed to reschedule and do it again. She sucked again and I let her know about it. We scheduled it AGAIN and it sucked again. I told her I was going to send her to classroom management classes. You would have thought I suggested she got caught stealing. She was “offended”. I told her I really did not care that she was offended. My job was to make her the best teacher she could be and to do what is best for kids. She hinted that if I was not careful she would resign. This was Friday morning. I told her I needed her resignation on my desk by 8:00 Monday morning.
Everyone was shocked that I got rid of her when others have tried.
My ship …. My rules…..if you think you can do better go get you a degree and get a job….you are in luck ….many universities offer a masters in education administration.

In other news…. The Halloween costume party we had last Saturday was a very big success. Loved all of the costumes. Everyone really got into it. We already have plans for next year.
I am seriously thinking about doing a FALL tree this year. It’s like a Christmas tree only it’s decorated in fall items…ribbons orange and gold and pumpkins ….. just thinking.
Anyone ever done a Fall Tree? I saw one the other day and it was really a beautiful tree.

Steve McNair = Sorriness

So the police reports are coming out now about text messages between Steve McNair and the young lady that killed him on July 4th. I want to say that I really feel that this is a very sad situation and that Steve McNair did not deserve to die in this way. Having said this I have a couple of questions.
Steve McNair was married and a father of four. Why is no one mentioning the word affair in their reports? They say he was dating or seeing the girl.
Why is Steve McNair getting a free pass on the fact that he cheated on his wife? I know the argument what good does it do the man is dead. I understand that but no one even uses the word AFFAIR. He was dating….seeing outside of his marriage…everything but affair. And no one is raking him over the coals just a little bit. A politician has an affair and it ruins his career. A former athlete…eh…not so much.
Police now know that McNair was seeing AT LEAST one other lady in addition to the 20 year old that killed him. Good LORD…..AT LEAST??? So that means they have evidence of more?
Is this situation just accepted? Rich man is going to have a woman on the side. What about the woman that was with you when you had nothing?
How can his wife declare she knew nothing this situation. He left his house at 12:30 in the morning. Um Steveo----where are you going at this time of night big guy and leaving me at home with the kids? I just don’t buy that she knew nothing. He is transferring money to pay this girls bills for crying out loud. I think she knew something was up but as long as she was being taken care of she kept quiet.
Then there is the He is 36 and she is 20. He is college educated and she works as a waitress with a history of “issues”. What could you possibly talk about? She was 8 when you were a rookie in the NFL. Have you read some of the text she was sending him? Whatcha doing? Where are you? I need some money to pay some bills. I am losing my mind about these bills.
WHAT A FREAKING WHIP to deal with….and what does he do? Pays it. Oh that will teach her. Obviously she must have met his physical desires but I am so sorry…. NOT WORTH IT!!!

I feel there is a percentage of SORRINESS that was Steve McNair and sense no one else will say anything I will. McNair you are sorry for doing what you did to your family.

Is This Such A Good Idea?

My office is housed in a school. In this school the class for students with major handicaps is housed. This class is about 4 doors down from my office. We also house the districts staff development center in this wing. For the most part the kids in this class are awesome. They love coming to school and they are so sweet.

Occassionally there is a student that qualifies for the class and I am not sure their placement is the best placement. There is a student that has recently joined the class that fits this discription.

On the days the student shows up for school it seems all they do is scream.... and scream A LOT! To the point that we have to close doors to try and conduct business. I cannot imagine being in the classroom and trying to teach the other kids while that is going on.

I feel for the parents of this child but as a parent of the other kids in the classroom I would want to know how in the world they can meet the special needs of my child with that amount of disruption going on in the classroom.

What can these teachers possibly provide this child that they cannot get at home? I don't have an answer. Do you keep the child at home..... go to a special school. I just don't know if this child is in the right placement.

Good Parenting or Parent Give Up?

Overall I feel Tracey and I are very good parents. Sure we have our flaws and we admit them to ourselves and we work at getting better so that when situations arise in the future we handle them appropriately. Occassionally we resort to "old school" ways but for the most part stay away from it.

Did your parents ever say "when your my age you will understand!"

Well there is one thing that would land me in the dog house with my dad faster than anything and at the time I did not understand it. Do you want to guess what it was?

That is right...disrespecting my mother. My dad would handle a lot of things but if I so much as looked at mom wrong I was toast. My sister got it too but it seemed like I had a much shorter leash.

Well now that I am a dad I get it. Nothing gets me more upset than when Jack gets disrespectful to Tracey. It's because I know NO ONE and I mean NO ONE loves that boy more than Tracey. He is her first baby. Till the day she dies that boy will be protected by her. Tracey tears up just talking about some of the stuff he says or does because it is so sweet for crying out loud.

So Jack has been having some problems handling disappointment or a challenge. He goes from being happy to pissed in the blink of an eye. We have been working with him on problem solving and how to appropriately handle disappointment with marginal success but for the most part with Jack it seems the world is coming to an end if he does not get his way.

So we have run up the white flag and admitted we need some help. So starting this month we are having Jack meet with a counselor once a month. We have done this in the past when I was sick and it seemed to really help. We shall see...financially it is impacting but I will pay whatever for the emotional security of my son.

So Good Parenting or Parent Give Up?

The RAIDERS

The other night was Jacks flag football practice. Jack loves everything about flag football. He chose practice over a school picnic for crying out loud. Jack moved over to another team this year. The good news is this team has some boys on it that he has gone to school with in the past. The bad news is the talent level is not…… well…. The boys have fun. Let’s just leave it at that.
Last year Jack’s team I think lost one game. The team he is on now did not win a game last year and got THROTTLED our first game. So we have been working with Jack on his attitude toward the game. We are here to have fun….yada yada yada.
Low and behold they WON their second game!
Now I have coached in the UPWARD program before so I get to criticize what the coach is doing.
- Just a suggestion but you should find out what your team does well and concentrate on perfecting that!
- We have some speed on the team and run the ball well. But for SOME REASON we try and throw the ball 3 out of 4 downs. I have a theory as to why but more on that in a moment.
- UPWARD provides you with a “coach’s book”. This is an awesome book. It breaks your season up into weeks and provides you with wonderful guidance on how to run a successful practice. There are tons of activities for you to choose from to help teach your team the skills they need to learn the game. Heck I know very little about teaching basketball and I used it religiously when I coached basketball last year. We went 10-0 and the boys looked GREAT toward the end of the season. They were LEARNING from those drills.

So last night I am sitting there watching practice with my dad. Dad comes by and watches Jacks practice every Thursday. We are sitting there and it’s the same thing every week.
- We start off practice some passing the football practice. What is the point when only ONE KID gets to play QB? More on that in a moment.
- We then scrimmage each other. This is not very organized. We are not practicing certain plays or anything. And it shows!
- Then they have to run a lap. Again…PURPOSE??? We are not getting gassed in games here. What are you doing?
- This is the classic- THEY PLAY FREEZE TAG!!
- This prompted my dad to look over at me and say…. I am thankful for this guy giving up his time to work with the kids but he does not know much about “TEACHING” the game.
- MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY DAD!!!
- He said didn’t I see you working with those kids on the fundamentals of basketball like “hand placement” and positioning on passes?
- This guy runs practice like a bunch of monkeys trying to hump a bowling ball?
- Who has been teaching Jack about proper technique in being a center? Lower your butt…straighten your back…head up…bend your knees! That would be ME!!! At the first game I saw Jack just bend over and basically hand the ball to the QB. What the heck? You gotta POP it in there JACK! NOW the boy is doing it right.
- We watched the kids run all over the place chasing the kid with the ball.
- I told Tracey just in passing about pursuit angles and it’s not about chasing the ball … you run to where the ball is going to be based on where the ball carrier is going. I swear all I did was just mention it.
- Next thing I know who has Jack in our living room running mini-pursuit drills. JACKS MOMMA!! YOU GO GIRL!!
Now as to my theory as to why we throw the ball so much. Would anyone like to guess who our QB is related to? That would be the coach! One of the important skills you need to be QB is arm strength. This kid does NOT have it AND THAT’S OKAY! Hey, growing up I wanted to be QB. In junior high they asked…who wants to be a QB? Heck I ran to get in line. The first drill the kid in front of me threw the ball WITH ZIP 40 YARDS! Then it was my turn. Mine had ZIP for about 20 yards hit the ground at 30 yards and rolled to a stop at 35 yards. That was the END of my career in organized football as a quarterback. BUT I was big and took up space and could MOVE! LEFT TACKLE!!!! It’s all about your skill set.
This kid can’t throw a football to save his life.
Back during the skills assessment a high school kid was taking Jack through the skills. When it got to throwing the ball Jack was not only hitting the target the ball had so much zip to it that the target started moving when it got hit. He told Jack …You have got a serious arm there! That made Jack grin!
So last night they are doing these passing drills. Jack, Will, Jacks buddy, and two other boys are ZIPPING the ball across to one another.
And then there is our quarterback….most of the time the ball never makes it to the other kid. I don’t say anything but my then my dad pipes in….
Isn’t that the kid who plays quarter back for Jacks team? (Dad looking over at the boys throwing the ball)
Yeah dad it is.
Dad….I see…..Why?
My guess is he is the coach’s son.
Dad…. A HA!!

Uncomfortable Commercials

The other night we are sitting in the den watching the Cowboy game when it came time for a commerical. Sure enough here comes a commercial for Erectile Disfunction. I look over and notice Jack paying very close attention to the commericial. Oh heck...here we go. He is hearing words like SEXUAL ACTIVITY...ERECTION..4 HOUR ERECTION...WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT....I am prepared for a ton of questions. It goes to the next commericial and ...

Jack: Dad?

Yeah Jack

Jack: Do you have to take that medicine?

NO Jack I don't

Jack: Well I was just wonderin because of all the other stuff you have to take.

No Jack that is not one of them.

TRACEY IS DIEING NOT TO LAUGH

Things Are Looking Up....Maybe

Well Jack seems to be getting a handle on the do's and don'ts in his new school. Today my mother asked him how his day was and this is how the conversation went:

Mom- How was your day Jack?

Jack: Really good Grammy I finally got another star. When I fill my star chart up I get to pick from the treasure box!

Mom- Well that is great Jack how many stars do you have?

Jack: I have TWO STARS Grammy!

Mom- Well that is great Jack. How many stars do you need to fill up your chart?

Jack: TWENTY!! (as happy as he could be!)

Mom: Well that is great news Jack!

At this rate he will pick from the treasure box some time around SPRING BREAK!!

Building Relationships

Well my blogging has slowed down a lot since the start of school. It is not due to a lack of material. It’s more like what I have been dealing with I could not organize my thoughts because it hurt too much to talk about.
It’s about Jack. I don’t want to go into all of details nor do I need to. All you have to do is read Tracey’s blog. She went into great detail. If you have not read it go to T-lady’s blog. Link is to the left. I think I did a very good job of handling it both professionally and personally. I did not show really how upset I was in how Jack was being handled by his new teacher. To her defense Jack was not exactly being an angel.
There are two major issues that I feel were at the front of the problem. First, communication…there is not communication log between the parents or the teachers for Jack’s grade level. The expectation is that if a child gets into trouble he is expected to inform the parents. In theory I guess this works but in reality it does not work. Sure enough Jack had a major issue in that he was pushing and shoving with another student. This resulted in him being sent to the office and the principal put Jack in ISS for one day. When I got the phone call from the teacher she explained to me that not only had Jack had this issue but that he had exhibited some other behaviors that were not acceptable according to me. The PROBLEM I had was that this was the first time that I was hearing about the issues. I understood that Jack had to go to the principal’s office. I did not agree with the ISS assignment but I UNDERSTOOD why the principal was doing it. I explained to the principal and the teacher that while I did not have a crystal ball I think that possibly had I or his mother known about Jack’s previous behavior perhaps we could have addressed it and we would not have been sitting there talking about my son going to ISS. The principal I think reluctantly agreed. The only sound I heard from him was an “Uh huh” when I finished my thought.
That whole situation was tough on all of us. My son was going to ISS the second week of school. At his previous school he had NEVER been to the principal’s office. He was NOT an angel. But his teachers both in first and in second grade knew what made Jack tick. This brings me to my second major issue.
Building relationships with children is critical. Before you start to withdraw (do discipline) with a child you need to have 3 or 4 deposits (note good things) with kids. It’s smiling at the door and shaking their hand or giving them a hug as they enter the classroom. If you capture a kids heart you have his mind (Flip Flippen). This is so true. If you have Jack’s heart. If he knows you love him. He will move mountains for you. We are in the third week of school and I have not heard one positive thing from the teacher about Jack. She did mention that he is honest when he screws up. He does not lie to them. Right now that is all I have to grasp on to. Jack’s teacher is a first year teacher and there are some instances where she has handled Jack well and I have made note of that in conversations and meetings. The problem I have is it is inconsistent. All I want her to do is give Jack some space and learn what makes him tick so that she can better handle him. Take the information I have given her. Call or email his teacher last year. Call the counselor at his previous school.
Some of the behaviors Jack is exhibiting he did last year. But why in one school does Jack never get to the office and in the other school he is in the office 3 times in the first 9 days of school? RELATIONSHIPS! His teachers took the time to work with Jack. They took into consideration what was going on in Jack’s life when they were dealing with some of his behaviors. The boy has issues that he deals with. Not many kids in his school have had to deal with the possible loss of their father with two additional serious hospital stays and a cancer scare with his mother before he turned 8. Jack handled it very well and kept his grades up but behavior wise sometimes he would act up. When Jack gets frustrated or feels cornered he often yells out. For instance: If he feels attention is being drawn to him he will blurt out. STOP LOOKING AT ME! His school this year calls that inappropriate behavior and disrespectful toward the teacher… result office referral. His school last year saw this as an inappropriate behavior and his teacher and the counselor would work with him on appropriately handling those situations and would note when he did handle those situations correctly….result decrease in behavior to the point it no longer existed.
The difference: One school is deal with the problem. The other school tries to understand WHY there is a problem. In other words if there is a fire at one school we use water to put the fire out. At the other school we use water to put the fire out and then we try to find out what caused the fire in the hopes that a fire does not reappear.
Jack is a little complicated boy when dealing with his emotions. He has been really down about school so far this year. This has been difficult to deal with as a parent. I have done a very good job of handling it professionally and by that I mean dealing with the school professionally and keeping my emotions in check. Tracey wants to keep talking about it and while I listen there are times I don’t want to talk about or hear about it because I get too depressed about it. I know what I need to know. I am going to talk to them about it at my assigned time. Can we please not rehash the facts over and over. I understand Tracey’s view in that she wants to talk about it because it is her baby and she wants to make sure I cover everything.
The other night was a dagger in the heart. I go into Jacks room and there he is with his momma and I have to hear from him about how his teacher does not like him and he is having trouble making friends and he is probably going to have to go back to ISS and he does not want to go back to ISS.
After me reassuring him that he was not going to ISS and that daddy was going to be meeting with the principal and the teacher and that everything was going to be okay he seemed to relax. I am not sure how much of it he actually believed.
Well yesterday was our meeting and I felt it was very productive for a couple of reasons. I had the opportunity to voice my opinion on the importance of building relationships with children and that discipline plans are there to act as a guide. It does not mean you HAVE to do anything. All I wanted them to do is start building a relationship with Jack. Take into account WHY Jack is misbehaving before we start making decisions on WHAT we are going to do now. I also got the ball rolling on a communication log between parent and teacher. This way we can deal with Jack appropriately on a day to day basis.
As a result of our behavior folder Jack had a very good day yesterday. Hopefully it was the first of many.
Wish us luck!
What did you say? How is Caroline? Please….that girl has been waiting for kindergarten for two years. She is off like a rocket!

I Am So Sorry

So on Friday I had a doctor's appointment. You see Friday was the second week of four that I am going in and getting a new drug that will help me with my Graf vs. Host issues. You see up till now they have been handling it with steriods. And I have been doing GREAT! The problem is as they decrease my steriod I get to a point where the GvH stuff starts showing up. The goal is to get me OFF of steriods. That is what this new drug hopefully is going to do.

So the treatment plan is this.

Week One- 6 hour drip through an IV. (DONE)
Week Two- 3 Hour drip
Week Three 3 Hour Drip
Week Four 3 hour drip

Friday was week two.

I have a nurse that normally tends to me. I love her! She is awesome!! She really takes good care of me. The problem was she was out yesterday so I had a substitute nurse.

Substitute nurses are REAL hit and miss. There does not seem to be an in between.

So yesterday I was supposed to be there at 12. There is an hour of premeds and then the 3 hour drip. So I was prepared to be out of there between 4 and 5 oclock.

Well I sign in and they almost immediately get me back to the nursing station. It's Friday before a long weekend so the place is PACKED. There is no rooms available so they are going to set me up in a recliner in the common area. This is an area where 6-8 recliners are set up. No big deal....I can hang and there are other people I can talk to.

Well I get in my chair and I wait...and wait...and wait...and wait.

Finally the sub nurse comes to me and says...I am so sorry they did not tell me you were here. Lets get you back and get your IV in.

This nurse SUCKED at putting an IV in. First she argued with me in a polite way of where she should put the IV in. She wanted to go into my wrist or hand. I finally had to tell her. Look, if you go into my hand or wrist my hand is going to blow up like a blow fish. You are not going into my hand.

So she goes into my arm. And she misses the vein. So she is digging around trying to hit it. This hurts like a son of a bitch. As I am trying to remain still she says..Do you always squirm this much? Gee lady I don't know...do you always gasp for air when someone is chocking the crap out you.

So we get the IV in and we get the premeds started. The premeds knock me loopy.

I fall asleep and when I wake up I notice that I am not hooked up to my medicine. I call to find out what is going on and sub nurse FORGOT ABOUT ME!!! She checked a couple of times for my meds and then got busy working with other patients and forgot about me. I lost TWO FREAKING HOURS RIGHT THERE!!!

I finally got unhooked at SEVEN. All I heard was I am so sorry....I am so sorry...

Yeah right lady....DON'T TOUCH ME!!!

You should see the bruise on my arm where she blew out the vien. YUCK

I'm Just Sayin

Opened up our AT and T bill today. They screwed us over AGAIN. For the second month in a row we have had several charges for downloads that we have not done. I lost my phone back in June and I diactivated the phone. Before I could deactivate it there was about 100 dollars of fees for downloads. At first they were giving us the heisman but they relented and took those fees off.

At and T part II- For the second month in a row they tell us they did not get our payment. We have the account electronically taken from our account. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Well two months ago we got rid of the bundle because their TV coverage was CRAP...we had nothing but problems. When you know the service guy by name and he knows the names of your dogs....he has been to your house too much. Well all of the sudden when we dropped them for TV they can't seem to keep track of our account. We even showed them where the money was deducted....didn't matter....they still did not show that we paid so we had to go toe to toe with them about the late fees. So they got rid of the late fees. Well this month the bill came and we got a penalty fee for not paying the late fee last month that we were told they took off the account. DID YOU FOLLOW THAT ONE?

So I don't give a crap anymore....I am paying the fee to disconnect from them and I went out and got T-mobil. I can't wait till they ask me why I am disconnecting them.

Answer- Your customer service- SUCKS and your billing department SUCKS

Why are my kids total angels around my parents? Makes me feel like a failure as a parent sometimes....example:

My son gets up from the table and does not take his plate to the sink at meal time at my parents- My Dad- Big Jack did you forget something? Jack turns around APOLOGIZES and gets the plate to the sink.

I ask Jack to clean his room before dinner and with all of the complaining I hear you would have thought I told him to build a V-8 hemi and install it into my car.

This happened to me TWICE this week- Traveling down the highway at 70+ on the tollway and a driver in the far left lane realizes he and or she was about to miss their exit. So they cross all three lanes of traffic and cause the rest of us to hit the brakes and almost run into one another and we fight to not hit them.

NOW I ASK YOU? WHY DOES THIS PERSON NOT JUST GOT THE MILE DOWN THE ROAD IF THAT AND EXIT AND TURN AROUND?

Funny line from Jack today when I asked him to clean his room?
WHAT? YOU CAN'T EXPECT ME TO CLEAN ALL OF THIS?
Me-Um...yeah I can. Your room...your mess.
Jack- YOUR THE MEANEST DAD ALIVE
Me- Probably so Jack....I tell you what...I will look it up and see if I am. While I am doing that....clean your room.

Editors Note- I did see on CNN where some parents were being put in jail for denying their child food. I think this qualifies as meaner than me.

The picture up top is of Caroline on her first day of Kindergarten. I LOVE this picture. Caroline got an awesome teacher. She is ON IT.

Jack has a first year teacher this year. Tracey is ready to take her to task. I am going to suggest and let her hang herself. Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves. On the other side....maybe she will figure it out? I have seen first year teachers are GREAT! This one....time will tell but the boat is leaking. They deserve an opportunity to figure out. Thinking back to my first year....WOW...not sure but I might owe all those kids an apology.

We did ask about a behavior communication folder or system because we did not see anything come home.

ANSWER? We expect the kids to tell their parents if they got in trouble at school.

Um- excuse me? Can I see a show of hands of how many kids are going to do that?

Thank You Dad For Being You

Dad,

I wanted to take this time to thank you for being you. I am who I am because of you. Your life lessons did not fall on deaf ears dad. I really did listen. Even during those hard learned lessons. I listened to everything you said. I wanted to show you how much I cared for you. That is why my son is named after you.

My whole mission in life is to pass on those lessons you taught me on how to be a good son, brother, young man and one day....a man of his own.

Today I saw how much you mean to my son. As I watched him sink into your grasp and grab your arm to put around himself I could tell that he knew that as long as he was there he felt safe. You could see his whole body just relax as he buried himself into you.

Jack loves his Pa.

I love you dad....and thanks for just being you.

This Song Hits Me

It Ain't Braggin' If You Can Back IT UP

The other day Jack was running around with his Pa doing errands. This is one thing Jack absolutely LOVES to do. Dad aka Pa was going to have coffee with his buddies at a local McDonalds and Jack went with him. I have been to these coffee's before. Basically it's a bunch of guys that are retired now and they sit around and talk about what all their grown kids and grand kids are doing.

Dad mentioned that one individual in particular was always bragging about his grandson. How big he is and what a little stud he is. He is about a year older than Jack. Neither dad nor I know how big this kid actually is because you can't tell by the pictures this guy has.

Well the other day Jack was sitting next to his Pa having a Mocha and he was sitting across from the guy who brags alot. He asked Jack..So son how old are you? Jack replied: I am 8 sir.

The guy did a double take and then looked over at my Dad.
Good Lord Jack what the hell are you feeding him?

My dad got a big giggle out of that.

Humble

Today was our districts’ convocation to officially kick off our school year. I truly believe that I am in a unique situation here in my district. I have been on campuses in other districts where everyone supports one another and everyone does whatever is asked of them. However, it is not that way across the board. This is the only district that I have been in where across the board EVERYONE supports one another and that is awesome.
I will be honest about something. I feel a bit out of place at this time. For the first time in six years I am not in charge of a campus building. I feel like a Captain with no ship. It is part of the “first” that I have been dealing with in my new position. The first spring where I am not a campus administrator, the first summer where I am not a campus administrator, now the first start of school where I am not a campus administrator.
There are many parts of the job I don’t miss. This is not one of them. The start of school is always an exciting time of year. The teachers are ready to go, the school is all clean, and everyone is excited to get the year going.
Today I had a bit of an emotional experience in that the campuses were being recognized and given banners for their testing performance at convocation. These banners will be placed on the buildings and are a huge source of pride. For the first time ever our district will be a recognized district. This is huge! If I could tell you where we were just 6 years ago….wow!
It came time to give my former campus their RECOGNIZED banner for a job well done. I am so proud of the staff. You see I had to step down for health reasons at Thanksgiving of last year. To say the campus had challenges is an understatement. Any time you change leadership of a campus it’s big. When you do it DURING the school year….HOLY COW.
Well Mr. Murray, our superintendant, starts out by saying something about the challenges this campus faced and let nothing get in their way….and he calls down the principal and staff of BRENT INTERMEDIATE. The staff comes to the stage and everyone his hooting it up. I go and stand at the bottom of the stage to congratulate everyone as they are going up the stairs to get on the stage. Then when they are all up on stage I stand off to the side and applaud and give them a thumb’s up signal. Then Mr. Murray get’s back to the microphone and he says this.
I want to recognize someone who is near and dear to all of us and without him this campus could not have done what it has done please help me recognize Mr. JDHTEACH.
I was stunned….it’s the first time I have ever been recognized like that. The staff at Brent went nuts and all of the people in the audience were clapping. All I could do was clap back and just wipe a tear that began running down my cheek.

My Son

I never want this to go unsaid,
So here in this poem, is for it to be said.
There are no words to express how much you mean to me,
A son like you, I thought could never be.
Because the day you were born, I just knew,
God sent me a blessing- and that was you.
For this I thank Him everyday,
You are the true definition of a son, in everyway.
It is because of you that my life has meaning,
Being a DAD has shown me a new sense of being.
I want you to know that you were the purpose of my life,
Out of everything I did- it was you that I did right.
Always remember that I know how much you care,
I can tell by the relationship that we share.
For a son like you there could be no other,
And whether we are together or apart,
Please do not ever forget-
You will always have a piece of my heart.

My Little Girl

Gotta hold on easy as I let you go.
Gonna tell you how much I love you though you think you already know.
I remember I thought you looked like an angel wrapped in pink so soft and warm.
You've had me wrapped around your finger since the day you were born.
You're a beautiful baby from the outside in.
Now go take on the world and remember you will always be.....

My Little Girl.

I love you Caroline.

Daddy

EEEEAAAAASSSYYYYY GIRL

Okay so Hilary seems a bit edgy here. Her butt is in the CONGO for crying out loud while her husband Bill is throwing himself a birthday party in VEGAS!!!

Bill Clinton Voice: Don't worry about sweety....she is in the CONGO! Man I love Obama.

Anyway, I think there was a mistake in the translation in that they wanted to know what OBAMA thinks.

BUT LETS SAY THERE WAS NO MISTAKE.....

She could have handled that much better and should have considering she IS the Secretary of State.

Not one of her finer moments.

A Sign Summer Is Over

Went up to QT the other day and I had my 53 cents out ready to pay for my 32 oz diet Dr. Pepper. I got to the register and the guy said, $1.03.

WHAT????

Sure enough...no more 49 cent drinks.....good bye summer

Are They Paying For That?

One or two mornings a week (depending on how my week is going) I stop off by my locat QT and get a frozen drink that I really like. The mornings at a QT are very busy. I think almost every lawn crew in North Richardson and South Plano come to this QT to load up for the day.

What I am about to describe I have seen on multiple occasions.

Four or five hispanic guys are crowed around the fountain drink station. They have their little ice chest loaded down with ice and they are filling up their ice chest with a beverage from the fountain drink station.

So is this a big deal?

How does QT charge them?

They get a drink as well?

I would not think anything of it except they cover one another so you can't see what they are doing AND they are always looking around as if to see if anyone is coming?

Observations From The Poker Tables of Shreveport

Here are my observations from this past weekends poker trip.
- I was lucky enough to be on a very kind table.
- It bugs me big time when people stay in and end up getting the cards they needed. Why does it bug me? Because they think they are a skilled poker player when all they really are is lucky.
- If it bugged me that much I guess I could have left the 4-8 Holdem and moved to either the 20-40 or no limit hold'em.
- What is the purpose of 1-2 no limit? Noone ever just post a 2 dollar big blind.
- The table I was on was great. If you showed respect to other players it was returned. Noone was out to hurt anyone. Raises were appropriate (minus lucky lady)and noone raised to just raise the pot.
- Example of respect- I got to talking to the guy next to me and I liked him. I had the hand won on the flop. He bet into me and I just called. On the turn he bet into me again! and I just called. Finally on the river he checked and I checked. After he saw my hand he said, WOw...you let me off easy. I told him I was there to have fun and not take anyones lunch money. That simpled act right there saved me at least a couple of hundred as the night progressed where he checked out to me.
= In Oklahoma Casino's the ASIAN is a big player in the poker rooms. Specifically the older AISAN.
-In Shreveport....not so much.
-The African American Male is a big player in the Shreveport poker rooms.
-The AA male dresses to the nines to go to the poker table. Very dapper.

Line of the night ( One gentleman was taking a long time to decide if he wanted to call an 8 dollar bet...like a real long time) This was the last bet and the guy had about 40 dollars invested in the pot.

After the long pause the guy next to me said, "DANG MAN MAKE A DECISION...YOU GOT 40 IN THERE WHAT'S ANOTHER EIGHT?"

Have Some Sence People!

I called home as I was leaving work today and I asked Tracey what was for dinner. I was pretty hungry. She mentioned that time had got away from her and she would have something getting started by the time I went home. It was a doozy of a day for her so she was pretty whipped.

We decided to go out. We get the eating establishment and they put us in an area where it was us and a large group of about 10 who was obviously there for happy hour. I almost said something right there but I didn't.

Well it did not take long and they started getting LOUD. It was hard for us to hear each other at our table but other than that we were fine.

Then someone let out an F-bomb and a couple B-bombs. There is no way they could not see us and I turned and glanced over at them trying to make eye contact with someone over there so they could tone down the language a bit around my kids.

I told Tracey if it continued I would talk to someone. Jack looked over at me and said, Man dad they are using some bad words over there.

Then this happened.

Lady in Group- So I am standing there in the bathroom and she looks over at me. Grabs me and we start MAKING OUT BIG TIME!!! And then LADY 2 came in and caught us but we just kept GOING AT IT!

Jack: WWWWHHHHHAAAAAAA???? Did she say she was kissing another girl???

ME: EVERYBODY UP...WE ARE MOVING!!!

Caroline: Why?

Tracey- Caroline...just get your stuff and lets go!

I went and talked to the waitress and told her why we were moving....she said, I am going to go get the manager to talk to them that is not acceptable.

I told her not to worry about it that they were having a good time but that I did not want my kids hearing their choice of topics or words. We would move and everything would be fine.

But come on.....how drunk do you have to be to cuss around little kids

His Calling?

When I was growing up I BEGGED my parents to let me play football. They refused. Their reasoning for their hard stance? They did not want me doing a contact sport such as football until my body was ready. I remember my dad telling me that if football was my calling I would catch up quickly to anyone who has been playing. Seventh grade started and sure enough I was on third string. Eighth grade stared and I moved up to second string. Then I GREW between my 8th and 9th grade year. I was 6 foot 2 inches tall and I was 175lbs. That is a human string bean but by those standards I was a beast. During summer workouts I beat the living hell out of everyone. When line ups were announced I was a starter. FINALLY!
In addition to football I was also in the band. So when high school approached I had a decision to make. Get beat up for 3 hours a day for a team that has a history of being bad OR I could concentrate on the band. A band that has a history of being great! I had the opportunity to see my sister in the band and see how much FUN they had. So my decision was very easy. BAND IT IS!!! And my mother was so happy!
My mother is hoping this is going to happen with my son. Well mom you still have time so keep hoping away. You see we took Jack to his skills assessment for his upcoming Flag Football season. It looks like the boy was born to play the game. He did great! And He LOVED IT. He talked about his experience the entire way home. He wants to cut everything out of his schedule so he can concentrate on football. He obviously is built for it but we shall see how the cutting everything else is going to go. Watching him play you can tell he just loves. He loves everything about it. The only thing we need to work on is his attitude. He becomes MACHO MAN when he plays but he does not turn it off. We usually have to knock him down a peg or two.
Practices start in two weeks…wish us luck.

Satellite Radio

So my care has satelite radio. I am loving it! One of the staions I have is ELVIS. I love Elvis. I don't live on the station but I glance by it at least once a day. One of the songs I have been dieing to hear is this one. I danced with Tracey to this at our wedding. I can't help but falling in love with you sweety.

Kindergarten Here We Come!

So with my new job I am working with Elementary Math K-4. I was looking over the Math exams for each grade level at the end of each grading period. I looked at the first Kindergarten test that will be given at the end of the first grading period in my district.

We gave the test to Caroline. It took her all of 3 mintutes and she made 100% We are ready to go!

What is THAT all about?

It seems Caroline has entered a new phase. It's the "I am going to throw a huge fit when I leave Nanna's" phase. The first time it happened was when Tracey picked the kids up earlier this week. I called home that day to check and see how things were going and Tracey was just about in tears when she got through telling me about it. I had never seen Caroline do this before so I could not grasp the true nature of what was going on.

Then I got to see the "watered down" version of it later in the week. Let's just say it was not pretty.

For several minutes I tried the Love and Logic way and it was getting no where. Then I jumped into "Old School" parenting. It sounded something like this.

This crying a squawcking because you are leaving Nanna's is a bunch of crap. You sit down in that seat with your seatbelt on and I better not hear a sound from you until we get home is that understood Caroline McKenna Huffman? (Tracey is just looking straight ahead as she is driving down the street.)

Yes daddy..

You make a peep and I will give you something to cry about!

Does any of this sound familiar to you as you were growing up?

So somem times you gotta kick it OLD SCHOOL....word..or snap...or whatever

I'm Just Sayin'

- I cannot come up with a name for my car and it bugs me. The one I want my wife has vetoed and nothing else sounds good.
- I have a serious crush on my car and I don’t know why….Like first car crush. Do you remember that feeling?
- I ate lunch today at a Mexican Restaurant and they had Mexican Soap Opera’s playing on the TV.
- Even though it was in another language I could follow what was going on.
- Soap Opera Plot- Man and Woman are sitting in a coffee shop explaining to their daughter why she needs to go to this all girls prep school. Daughter does not want to go. Even though daughter refers to the man and woman and “Momma” and “Pappi” the girl does not know that “Pappi” is really not her father. “Pappi” lives with the mom but he is not romantically involved with her because he is GAY…..DUNNNN DUHHHH. Daughter goes to prep school and befriends another girl about her age. The girl she befriends……is her unknown HALF- SISTER….DUNNN DUHHHHH. Seems mom was a little tramp about 15 years ago and she gave up a little girl for adoption. Then she met the love of her life and had another little girl about 11 months later. Then at some she divorced the love of her life.
- I could not figure out how the guy who the girl thought was her pappi but was really gay hooked up with the momma.
- When Spanish people argue their language goes even FASTER!
- There is some SERIOUS over acting on a Spanish Soap Opera.
- The actor’s facial expressions are hilarious when it is supposed to be serious.
- Many of the Spanish actresses are very well endowed and they show it off on the TV.
- The sets don’t look real.
- I am achy today. My feet, back, and knees hurt today. I might have over did it picking up the house. There was a lot of getting up and down.
- My left eye is watering like crazy today…..I wonder what that is all about? Just one eye?
- My finger tips hurt as well. It is hard to grip on to something. (I know this is related to GVH)
- Tracey comes home tonight and I am very excited. 4 days is a long time to be apart for us.
- How long is “long” for you and your significant other to be apart?
- The kids seem to be having fun over at their Nanna’s. I did not get the whole story but Caroline was riding around on a chair with wheels and fell. Somehow she bloodied her mouth up pretty good. She does still have all of her teeth so all is well. She may get a black eye but who knows right now.
- That is about all I got right now

How Did I Get So Lucky?

This past Saturday Tracey and her older sister Kirsten took off for a four day vacation to Toronto. I am so happy that Tracey is getting this opportunity. If anyone in this world deserves this opportunity it would be her. Over the past year alone she has made many sacrifices to take care of her home, children, her job and me. I am happy that she gets some time (even though it is only 4 days) to not have to worry about being a mommy or a wife. She gets to be Tracey the sister as they explore Toronto and other parts of Canada.
That means that I have 24 hour kid duty. Since our kids are getting to the age where they are pretty self sufficient I was not really worried one bit. My mother started out planning our days Saturday and Sunday and I told her to not worry about it. I am a big boy and my health and energy are pretty good right now. I will take care of it. I after all…..had a plan.
Saturday morning comes around and it is time to take Tracey over to her sisters so they can go to the airport. Everything is fine. The kids get a little teary eyed when mom actually leaves and I have to admit I was a bit teary eyed myself. But I was teary for two reasons. Yes, I was going to miss my wife. But I was teary because I was so excited for Tracey to have this opportunity.
After Tracey left I and the kids stayed and visited for about 30 minutes with Tracey’s younger sister who was in town visiting from Los Angeles. Then into the car we went to head home for the day. I knew we had a party to go to that evening that the kids were going to absolutely love so I really only was on my own for about 7 hours. As we are leaving the neighborhood the disk in the DVD player begins to skip. I hear from the back of the car this: DAAADDD….the disk is skipping make it STOP! Caroline I am driving I can’t do anything right now. Caroline: Man, mom is so better at this than you. Don’t you think so Jack. Jack: What? Caroline: Mom, Don’t you think mom is better than dad? Jack: You are nuts if you think I am going to answer that. Shortly thereafter the disk began to work again. Problem solved.
The kids were watching a good movie so I took the LONG way home and they did not either notice or care. Normally if you alter from your route Jack notices it and calls you on it. Hey I thought we were going….. where are you heading? But I heard none of this so I knew I was in the clear.
I pulled into the parking lot of Target (which the kids love) and Jack started griping….What are we doing here? I want to stay in the car and watch the movie. Caroline: Yeah me too! Me: Well okay I was going to look for a new Lego kit and some coloring posters but I guess we can just go home. Kids: NEVER MIND….I WILL GO..ME TOO…ME TOO. Off into Target we went for our treasures. After a short while we return to the car with our treasures. I look at my watch and it is about lunch time. As we are getting settled in the car I said, WHO WANTS TO GO EAT AT LUBY’S? Kids: IDO I DO I DO! Man, I am going for dad of the day here! So off to Luby’s we went. We had a GREAT lunch as we talked about many different topics. I really enjoyed the time with the kids. They love Luby’s and know their way around so they are very self sufficient.
We get home and the kids get into their treasures. And I don’t hear a thing for 2 and a half hours. No arguments…no yelling… I am able to clean the house a bit and relax and do some Face Book. I clearly scored on this one! Daddy -1 Pressure to Live Up To Mommy – 0.
Then our next door neighbor’s grandson came over to play. Off into Jacks room they went. Well Caroline grew tired of coloring and wanted to go see what the boys were doing. I will be so glad when Caroline meets some girlfriends in school. Jack does extremely well with Caroline butting in but sometimes you just want to be with the guys and today was a day that Jack wanted to be with the guys. This is when I started having to parent. After a brief discussion with Jack he agreed to let Caroline play with the lego’s . We agreed on the terms of play and off they went. We had an additional couple of hours of quiet play after that. From there Caroline began getting bored and returned to her coloring. The boys went next door to play and I returned to cleaning.
The time quickly approached to go to our party so I went over to get Jack and we got in the car and off we went to my parent’s house to pick them up. The party was for a friend of my dad’s. Growing up we went to their house many weekends. You see they lived out in the country. They had 3 kids so I have many memories of going off and doing things that I would NEVER let my kids do. For instance…I remember at the age of 8 or 9 hopping on a dirt bike with a fishing pole on one side and a Bee Bee gun on the other side. I would crank that baby up and off into the woods the five of us would ride. With some sandwiches and drinks in tow we would not return till dinner. We would have a blast and return around dark thirty on Sunday. Many times we crashed in the car on the way because we were so exhausted. The party was going to be at the daughters house of my dad’s friend. I was very excited because while I had kept up with what was going on in their lives through mom and dad I had not seen them in at least 20 years.
The daughter lives very close to where they grew up so I knew it would be in the country as well. All of us have grown up and have children of our own around the same age so I knew there would be many kids there for Jack and Caroline to play with. We get there and it is PERFECT. The house is HUGE and beautiful. It sits on about 10 acres. Complete with two ponds for fishing, a chicken coop, and a fenced in area for the kids to play and a saltwater pool. I am officially OFF DUTY!! The kids are in HEAVEN. Tiffany, the host…takes Caroline off to see the chickens and collect eggs for the evening. Jack is in the pool in a matter of minutes with the boys. I am sitting there visiting with Greg and Justin the two sons like I just spoke with them yesterday. Shortly thereafter Tiffany returns with Caroline. She gets into her suit and off to the pool she goes. Tiffany joins in on the conversation and we visited and talked about not only what we are all doing now but some of the “activities” we used to do as kids. On more than one occasion you would hear “ CAN YOU BELIEVE WE DID THAT AND DID NOT KILL OURSELVES?!?”
The time comes to go home and as I am driving home I look back and the kids are past out. I just smiled as I remember what seemed not that long ago where I was the one passed out in the back as my dad drove us home.
We get home and Jack goes into his room and Caroline into hers and I go to get ready for bed. I return to find Caroline getting her PJ’s on (check) and I go to check on Jack. He has his PJ’s on and is on his bed covered up by a blanket….OUT COLD. I tuck him in and turn out the lights. Caroline appears from her room and asks if she can sleep in my room. No problem. Then she climbs into our bed. I normally don’t allow this (the kids sleep on the floor in our room if they need to) but I did not stop her because I did not have the heart to do so and I thought this might help me sleep as I usually do not sleep well when Tracey is not next to me. As Caroline was getting situated she said, “Okay Dad…don’t take the covers and if you have to poot face the other way. WOW…YOU ARE JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER!!! At least that is what I thought.
Sunday morning arrives and Jack sleeps till 8:30. This is a RECORD! Caroline sleeps until 9:45. As Caroline gets out of bed her PJ’s are all bunched up. Her hair is going in a thousand different directions and she says this: Wow Dad, That was SOOOMMMEEE Party. What’s for breakfast? The girl is 5 and already sounds like a senior in college. We load up in the car and off to MCD’s we go for breakfast. After some much needed pancakes we return home. I make the declaration that after a 30 minute movie we will begin Operation CLEAN UP where our goal is to clean our rooms. The kids HATE this. I knew I was in for a battle but Tracey and I are determined that the kids will keep up their rooms. I was determined and ready for battle…..and a battle it was.
You see we have had many discussions on what is clean and what is not. Everything has a place and we must put things up BEFORE we get something else out. The kids have been doing a pretty good job of this when they are playing with things in communal areas such as the living room or movie room. Their room? Not so much.
After 4 hours and MANY….MANY…MANY discussions that sounded something like this…. No, that is not where that goes try it again. We were done. I did discover that under my daughters bed and behind her bed had become a black hole. This black hole had sucked in many pairs of “lost” toys, shoes, and clothes. I found myself totally reorganizing her room and closet. I did much of the same thing to Jacks room. And they HATED it. It would have been easier to send them off and me do it but they needed to be held responsible. So I just kept repeating the same thing. “Your mother and I work hard to provide you a very nice house and very nice things. We all work together to keep our home nice and neat. Your room is your responsibility. You can do this the right way and be done with it. Or you can try to take short cuts and we will clean the room 3 or 4 times. The decision is yours.” Man they HATE THAT. They know that either way they are cleaning their rooms. To add extra pressure one of Jacks friends rang the door bell and I had to tell him that Jack could not play right now but that he would be over as soon as his room was clean. The biggest obstacle for Jack was his lego’s. Fortunately for him my mother bought him a carrying case to help him organize. The other obstacle was his closet. It appeared to me he was just throwing stuff in there and hoping for the best. I had to pull it all out just to see what was in there. We got that done and his room was ready to go. He had an hour and half before it was dinner time at my parents. Off he went with I am sure a new found LOVE of freedom.
I return to the kitchen and continue my cleaning out of the fridge. As I am cleaning out the fridge I am basking in my own glory of what all I have accomplished. I was so proud that Tracey was going to come home to a clean reorganized home with kids who were thankful for their rooms. Daddy was on a role! I am expecting my dad to come over to drop something off so when I hear the front door open and shut I yell out…HEY DAD!!! But I don’t hear anything…..hummm…..DAD???? In comes Caroline with a half empty glass of water and an EMPTY sack of Blue Bonnet seeds. Tracey had recently purchased some wildflower seeds and wanted to plant them next spring in different spots in our flower beds. As Caroline drops these items off and turns to go back to her room I said, “WOW!” What is up with the seeds Caroline? Caroline: Oh, I planted them outside in front of my bedroom window.
Well I THOUGHT I had everything under control. Who knows if those seeds will take. It is the wrong time of year to plant.
Overall I have enjoyed the time I have spent by myself with the kids. I have learned a couple of things along the way. I have learned that my kids are very self sufficient when they want to be. Daddy is too lazy to be at their every beck and call so they only involve me when they have too. I have learned while playing with Lego’s with Jack that this is WAY better than any video game we can play together. The problem solving and creativity that Jack has with lego’s is amazing. You can almost SEE his mind racing as he creates his next vehicle or plane. He is really good at creating stuff. I enjoy our conversations as we build stuff together. I have learned that Caroline is a very good coloring artist. I learned that Caroline can turn anything into a song.
Me: Caroline go clean your room.
Caroline: I am oooooonnnnnnn mmmyyyy WAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYHEEEEEEEE to clean MYYYYYY ROOM.
Me: Caroline bring Daddy the phone.
Caroline: Gonna getcha….Gonna Getcha…..GOOONNNAAA GETTTTTCHHHAAAA MR. PHONE!!
I enjoyed watching Caroline in deep sleep as she lay next to me knowing that her daddy was right next to her and would protect her from the scary lightning and loud thunder. You could see on her face how at ease she was.
I was reaffirmed that by his writing the tooth fairy to split his loot with his sister that my son has a heart of gold and he loves his sister very much and as she grabbed his hand to walk out together this morning to the car and his acceptance that she loves him that much more. As Jack shot out of the car and retrieved his bag from the trunk I got to hear “Jackie…wait for me!” as Jack patiently waited for his sister to get her bag. As I walked passed him I asked “How come she gets to call you Jackie?” This is a question that he has been asked many times and as of today he has not answered. He does not even acknowledge that you asked the question!
As I am leaving and giving good bye hugs to the kids and watching them return to Nana’s house for a full day of fun I realize that Tracey will be home in one more day. It is then that I find myself asking…..

How did I get so lucky?