A Family Secret is DISCOVERED- A Night To Remember Part III

So last night we are all sitting in the audiance watching Caroline and the other dancers perform. Jack is in his Pa's (my dad) hip pocket. He wants to sit by his Pa and be with him constantly. If Pa got up from his chair Jack was right there with him. This was really cute to watch because Jack is a MINI ME of my dad. He is built just like my dad. During intermission my dad got up to go out into the foyer to get a break from sitting in the auditorium chairs. Jack did not notice that PA got up because he was talking to Tracey during the intermission. When they wrapped up their conversation he looked over and saw that PA was gone. He paniced a bit and looked over at Tracey....Where is PA?!? He is stretching his legs. Was Tracey's reply. Jack got up and went into the foyer looking for my dad. He came back and he was a bit worried. He told Tracey "I can't find Pa!" So Tracey got up and said, "Well I will help you find him." Maybe he is in the restroom? Was Tracey's thought. They go to the foyer and Jack sees my dad outside with his back to them. Jack RUNS outside and yells PA!! As my dad turns around. Tracey is thinking OH NO!!!!

Jack sees my dad put out a cigarette QUICKLY!! Jacks world has just had a MAJOR event take place.

Jack turns around and runs off back down to our seats. Tracey is right behind him walking briskly as if trying to catch him. Jack gets our seats and says with loud authority...

HOW LONG HAS PA BEEN SMOKING????

Oh Shhh.... was my thought.

Everyone is stunned and noone really knows how to answer that question...

JACK- SO IS ANYONE GOING TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION???

Tracey catches up and says quietly....By the time I saw you dad Jack was already running up to him.

You see we have never told our kids that my dad smokes. Dad NEVER smokes around them and he only smokes when he is outside. When he is around me he does not smoke in the car even. He waits until we get somewhere and he gets out of the car.

Another reason we were not telling Jack is he knows CANCER kills people. He knows that I have had CANCER and that I am in remission. He knows through his schooling in HEALTH that cigarettes cause CANCER. AND JACK IS A WORRIER. There are two men in this world that Jack loves more than anyone. Me and HIS PA!! If PA says something it is LAW!!! End of story.

For the rest of the night Jack was GRILLING my dad about his smoking.
Pa- Promise me you will quit smoking please.
Do you know Pa that smoking causes CANCER ?
Did you know that CANCER can KILL you?
Why would you smoke anything if you know it can kill you?

Then there were the questions for Tracey and I...
Why would Pa smoke if he knows it can kill him. I don't get it.
Is Pa going to die soon?
What if Pa gets sick?
I am worried about Pa's health.

Tracey is doing her best to answer all of these questions during the recital but at the same time she is doing her best not to just start balling!!

Maybe THIS is what my did needs to get off of cigarettes and onto the gum.

Everyone please pray for Big Jack. He is truly worried about his PA. Hopefully we can get through this soon.

Teacher of Darkness Strikes Again- A Night To Remember Part II

So at the conclusion of the recital many of the dancers and "Darth Sandra" are going to a local restaurant for pizza. Knowing that the recital would not be over until 9:00 or later I was hoping Caroline would forget about it. No such luck. Plus I was exhausted. I was ready to hit the bed. Caroline REALLY wanted to go so Tracey agreed to take her for a bit. They dropped Jack and I off at the house and off they went.

Tracey and several of the dancers beat Darth Sandra to the eating establishment. When Darth Sandra entered the building I am told by Tracey that many of the girls were so excited to see her.

This is the part where I swear this woman has no freaking CLUE!!

Darth Sandra approaches Carolines table and Caroline says, HI MRS. SANDRA! and Darth Sandra acknowledges her with a smile and shakes her hand.

Then she comes back to Caroline's table (remember Caroline is so excited about her performance...This evening is ALL ABOUT HER!!)

Darth Sandra takes Caroline's hand and says: Caroline, do you know why you finished your routine quicker than some of the other girls? Caroline: No....again she is FIVE. Darth Sandra: Thats because you rushed your dance in the first part. Caroline becomes TOTALLY DEFLATED and now thinks her performance was HORRIBLE. That was the words she used when she got home to me.

Tracey could not believe she said this and sat there in stunned silence. If I was there I would have come UN FREAKING GLUED!

WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT WAS APPROPRIATE TO SAY??? CAN ANYONE ELSE HELP ME OUT HERE?

Congratulations DARTH SANDRA! You have successfully taken an event that was all about Caroline and flushed it down the toilet.

I don't use bad language in a public forum so I will refrain but I am so glad that we are done with Darth Sandra.

A Night To Remember Part I

Last night was Carolines dance recital. This is one of our favorite nights out as a family because Caroline looks so beautiful and she loves to dress up. This year the recital was at my old high school. We were excited about this because that meant the tickets were going to be much cheaper this year. ( I am going to blog about cost later)

My favorite part or parts of the show are the little ones (2yr old up to Kinder) when they come out all dressed up in their dresses and Tutu's. That is truly one of the cutest things ever. Sure they are off (again I am going to post about this later) but the parents don't care. Usually with the little ones parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are all present. Caroline had her cheering section. All of the immediate family and Caroline's great aunt came to see her perform.

It was a very cute routine. There were 5 little girls and one boy in her dance group. Sure they were not all together but that is not the point. They are FIVE. When it was done everyone in the audiance clapped loudly. They got the best applause all night. I was a very proud DADDY. My baby girl was a BALLERINA!!

Little did I know that Caroline's teacher would ruin it a few hours later.

When the Mentally Challenged Have Children

You get this.... take a good look ladies and gentleman. It get's better. It seems mom is upset with the school that sent him home when he showed up to school with this hair cut that can only be discribed as dumb ass. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this kid has a history of doing stupid stuff and mom is tired of dealing with it. This parent thought is would be a good idea to let her kid go to school looking like this. Unfortunately for the school district there is nothing in their dress code that says anything about hair cuts. I find this extremely hard to believe considering most districts have something regarding this issue in their code of conduct and have had it for at least 5 years now. There has got to be something in there that states if a kid shoes up and is wearing something that would be distracting to the learning environment (AND I THINK THIS HAIR CUT COUNTS) that they can send him home. In this example here though the parent is so stupid she has her kids picture taken and it makes national media. HEY LOOK EVERYBODY IN THE U. S. of A. I AM AN IDIOT AND TO PROVE IT LOOK AT MY KID!!! Gene pool is more like a GENE puddle.

Things That I Will Be Honest....Piss ME OFF!!

I am a pretty mild manner fellow for the most part. I get along with everyone. I am the peace keeper. Here lately it seems that I have been getting P.O.ed at people quite frequently. Now before you judge me let me list a few things and please let me know if I am out of line. There are quite a few that have something in common.

Parking Lot= I am in the process of pulling into a parking space and someone zips their smaller vehicle into the spot and gets out of their car like it is on fire running into the store.

Parking Lot= As I am leaving an eating establishment I see someone getting into their car next to mine and when they open their door you hear BAM as their door colides into the side of my car. Said BAM leaves a half dollar size dent in my door and a scape right through the paint job.

Professional Athlete- Does something that results in him being put on waivers. Has been in this country for over 10 years and still needs someone to speak ENGLISH for him to make a statement to the press. You have been in this country for over a DECADE and earned MILLIONS....LEARN THE DAM LANGUAGE A-HOLE.

Parking Lot- Driving through parking lot trying to leave (with three cars behind me doing the same thing )when one person has pulled beside another and they have decided to get out of their cars and carry on a conversation. When they see me pull up they look over at me and CONTINUE FRIGGIN TALKING!! WTH??? Wrap up the conversation and get into your dam car.

Parking Lot- Trying to pull out of my parking space at a campus when parent pulls up behind me and parks their car at the curb- IN THE FIRE LANE- and walks into the building causing me to have to do a 17 POINT turn to get out of my parking space.

I seem to be running into a lot of peopele that are clearly starring in their own movie with me just being a little ol' extra.

Rollin with the HOMIES

I think I would look very good in this.

The POWER of being THE FIRST BORN!!

The Power of Being Number One!
The school year officially comes to an end for Jack at 3:00 today. Why is this a big deal? Next year he will be going to a new school. He has known about this for a couple of months now and for the most part he is ready to go to his new school. He already knows some students that attend the school and he has some information about the school so he is not going into this school cold turkey.
Tracey wanted to have a meeting with the counselor of the new school to give her some background on Jack. Now I have been on the other end of these meetings as a campus administrator and quite honestly I did not see the need for such a meeting. But Tracey was pretty adamant that this meeting take place a couple of months ago so I let it go. I was hoping that with time she would come around to my line of thinking.
As the time passed we would talk up the new school when it was appropriate. Tracey even took the kids to schools spring carnival. Everything has been progressing well. So I was hoping that the need for a meeting would be dropped. I have no other reason than if I can get out of having to sit in an hour long meeting why not right?
Well Tracey mentioned about two weeks ago that she was setting up the meeting and needed to know the time and date that would work best for me. DANG! Was my first thought. Why was Tracey so adamant about having this meeting? Jack is doing fine. So I gave her what worked best for me and the meeting was set.
The day of the meeting comes and I am reminded that of the time and place. The time comes for me to leave and as I am pulling out of the parking lot I call Tracey to let her know I am on my way. In our conversation I make the following statement:
Me- Hey, can you tell me again why we are even doing this?
Tracey:- What do you mean?
Me: I mean why are we even having this meeting?
Tracey: We are meeting to give the counselor information about Jack and information about your health history and how that affects Jack.
Me: And you think this is necessary? Isn’t Jack doing fine?
Tracey: (Pause and silence)
Me: (Realizing that sounded really bad quickly blurted out) Okay, I will see you in a few minutes.

Well we get there and we are about 10 minutes into the meeting and I am sitting there being the silent participant mainly and letting Tracey do the talking. Then I pipe in with some information and I look over and Tracey is starting to cry. Then she says this:
Tracey: I know my Jack. Because of his size people often mistake him for a child that is older. But the fact of the matter is he is an 8 year old boy and he is MY first child. He is MY baby and I worry.
THIS IS WHY WE ARE HERE!!! Sure we are here to give information about Jack but the real reason we are here is for MOMMY!! A… HA!!
I have to admit the meeting was beneficial for everyone involved but we left the meeting and I could tell it was like a weight being dumped off of Tracey.
The POWER of being the first born child I guess I underestimated.