So that was pretty weird....

Imagine me, a 40-year old mom of 3, standing in the house listening for a car horn. Instead of the car, my cell phone rings.

"I'm waiting for you!" says the voice on the phone. Excited, I say goodbye to my youngest son and to the dog. I grab my coat and purse, and run to the front door.

Once out the door, I stand on the front step, stare at the car and driver, and laugh. Because at this point, it's either laugh or cry, baby.

Why, you ask? Why is she laughing? Is it a hot date? A long lost friend? A limo waiting to take her to a fantastic concert?

None of the above. It's my daughter. She's almost 16, and driving me to the store in HER VERY OWN CAR.

Very very weird. And very very wonderful. :-)

Heard in my house today...

"Are you driving me to school today? I don't have any long pants." ~ said the 12 year old because it was cold and rainy. The answer: no.

"Yeah, mom, you could pass for an Algebra teacher." ~ said the 12 year old when I commented that his teacher was smart. His head exploded when I told him I used to teach Calc I and Calc II

"Geez, the show is setting up the plot for the next season! Come on!" ~ said the 15 year old to her younger brother

"Yes, I really really do want the BLUE one" ~ me, when car shopping online

Steak is good food

I took my youngest son to a soccer game on Saturday that was just about two hours from our house. That's two hours, each way, in the mountains, over two passes. It was a long haul for a soccer game, but a beautiful drive in beautiful weather without traffic. Sometimes I like a little road trip to clear my head.

Oh yeah, but I had a chatty 12-year old with me, so there was no clearing of my head. There was lots and lots of chatter about school and soccer and loud Beatles sing-alongs. Yes, I sang too. Fortunately his band teacher taught him a new trumpet exercise that involves holding a pen between your lips. Silently. (Have I mentioned that I love this new band teacher? She just gets better and better!)

During the game I texted a few friends to get restaurant recommendations. I figured we drove all the way there for a soccer game, we should probably do something else while we were up there. There are so many great places to eat in Vail and Beaver Creek, we should go to one!! Yes!

I got several good recommendations, one of which was for a place called the Minturn Country Club. You get to choose your own steak and they instruct you how to cook it on their indoor grills. Cool! A steak dinner and cooking lesson all in one! I was so excited I couldn't stand it!

And...This is where it gets ridiculous.

After the game I bought popsicles for both of us from the ice cream truck (he earned one, he scored a goal!) and told my son the plan.

"Mom, I hate steak. You know this." he said with all seriousness. I tried not to show my extreme disappointment. I figured that he just played over an hour of competitive soccer and should have a vote too. Sometimes I hate being fair! I told him about the side dishes. I told him about the desserts. I did everything but stand on my head. He very slowly and somberly shook his head. Not interested. No dice, no sale.

So we booted up the GPS and he started searching for a place. His whole face LIT UP and he said "There's a Denny's just 2.7 miles from here! I love Denny's!"

It's true, my kids love Denny's. I think I heard a little voice inside my head say "No steak for you!" I figured what the hell, and we went there. He did score a goal, ya know.

Post script: I was so relieved to discover later that night (looking online) that the Country Club didn't open till 5, and we were long gone by then. I'll have to learn to grill a flawless steak some other time...sans kids!!

Back to School!

Tonight I went to Back to School Night (otherwise known as BTSN) with my 7th grader, and it was fun! He's starting at a new school - the neighborhood school. It's a beautiful, recently built facility. The staff all seemed so....happy. We've spent about a million years at another school (a fantastic charter school in a really really old building, with almost no budget and many great teachers but a few surly ones too). In fact, I've been driving children to said charter school since 1995, if you can believe that. My daughter just started 10th grade there, so we still like the school, it's just time to try out the new neighborhood school!

Tangent: During the BTSN speeches, I started having unpleasant flashbacks to my own teaching experience. I spent one semester teaching high school math, 5 years ago, it was wretched and we'll never speak of it again. (Okay, maybe we will, because it would have been a GREAT time of my life to blog. I even took notes based on the premise that I might write a book someday. Not kidding.)

Back to the subject at hand...my 7th grader is totally excited about starting a new grade at a new school. He's in band class with the most fabulous teacher (and he looks like a mini version of her husband, so much so that she showed me a picture! Freaky! I told her we'll send him to HER house when we get tired of him.)

He's excited about meeting new friends. I've gotten a complete review each day of who he met, how he felt walking to school, what they ate for lunch, and how much he loves the new adventure. He's sitting at the dining room table with me doing his Algebra homework aloud. He just said "this is really helpful, thank you." We're adding positive numbers and negative numbers, and he's loving it.

Did you hear that? He loves the new adventure! I think he just might be my kid. I'll have to tell the band teacher.

Endnote: People, this is SO much better than my formal teaching experience. I get to drink champagne while I teach. Score!

The dietary habits of dogs

My dog eats rocks. There, I said it. He does. And I just can't get too choked up about it (pun intended) anymore. He might just be too stupid to live.

He likes to play with them, roll them around in his mouth, sort of like kids do with a jaw breaker candy. Sometimes he'll drop the rock on the floor in front of him and watch it intently, waiting for it to run away like a mouse would.

After play time is over, he looks at me and "gulp" - the rock is gone.


What else does he eat? Socks. Kitchen towels. Sticks. Anything wooden. Blankets. Bones. Hamburgers, up to 5 at a time, if left unattended on the kitchen table. He confiscated a lemon one day, thinking it was a yellow ball, and lost interest as soon as he tasted its lemony-goodness. Perhaps I should put lemon juice on the family heirlooms? There are WAY too many rocks in the yard to spray.

It's like having a fast, hungry toddler in the house. He hasn't needed surgery yet (knock on wood) to retrieve any unwieldy objects from his gut, but I'm expecting that someday he might.

Until then, we'll try to keep the bad stuff out of reach.