Sock Monster...

March 2, 2014

I hate socks.  Allow me to clarify.  I hate my kids socks.  They wear them when they shouldn't (taking stuff to the outside garbage in the rain), don't wear them when they should (with shoes) and they leave them all over the house.  I am looking across the floor and I currently can count 3 pairs of socks haphazardly strewn about the couch and floor.  When they do take them off, they forget where they left them and then go and put on a new pair to soil.  This can happen upwards of several times per day.  I know that my sock plight is shared with pretty much every other parent on the planet, but that affords me no comfort.  I wish we could go back to the day when kids went barefoot for 9 months out of the year... actually, no I don't.  Tracen has recently developed feet that smell like road-kill.  Sometimes the only way to knock down the scent is by insisting he put on shoes.  

Tracen's indoor soccer team celebrated a near-win yesterday.  They played one of the top teams in their league and lost 2-3.  They have come a long way as a team.  There were some definite signs of improvement.  They were given no chance of hanging with these kids but just about pulled off a tie.  Thank you so much to Janelle and Dad (Leo) for coming to his game.  He really loves to have them come.

Speaking of sports, I am playing church ball this year.  We are undefeated and are in the semi-finals for region.  Deanne and the kids have come to a few of my games and it has been fun to see Tracen take an interest in his old man's sporting endeavors.  I have noticed that after the games he does a little scouting report on my efforts similar to what I do for him after his.  I guess it is just desserts.

Yesterday we went as a family to see the Lego Movie.  We were very entertained.  I appreciated the humor but I have a feeling if I had been a bit more of a Lego fan growing up that I would have enjoyed the movie even that much more.  I liked lego's well enough, but I was never one to sit down and create anything beyond what the instructions taught me to build (I was not what the movie referred to as a "Master Builder", more like "Mr. Business").  Perhaps that is why I never was very interested in architecture or engineering.  I was hopeful that after the show the kids would immediately want to go and pull out their legos and get to creating... they didn't.

Dee and I went to see Shane and Kenzie's baby, Micah, this week.  He is a handsome young lad.  It was very nice to be able to sit and talk with them in that quiet setting.  When we are all together as a part of the huge group, it is often so chaotic that we have little time to be able to visit.  I really enjoyed the hour we had with them.  They are in for a ride!  A good ride, but one that I don't envy, and one that I am glad we are mostly past at this point.  Good luck kids!  I see more and more why my eldest sister Kim was so keen on watching us enter the child rearing years, you can never really get an appreciation for parenting until you have experienced it for yourself.

Tracen completed his Science Fair project and was given the 3rd highest score for his entire grade at school.  Deanne did help him design his tri-fold and I spent an hour or two cutting out labels for his display, but for the most part it was not the nightmare I was concerned it would be.  I guess that this year is just to get them prepared for the REAL project that they will do next year in the 6th grade.  Tracen enjoyed working on the project and I was impressed with his level of self-motivation.  Deanne and I didn't have to ride him too hard to get working on it or have to produce it by ourselves - thank you Trace!   I wouldn't say that we have a budding scientist on our hands just yet, but it was nice to see him take some interest.

Deanne had the last of her vein procedures done.  Though we have been assured she will be sporting some nice gams in the future, currently they look like someone took batting practice on them.I don't think, I KNOW that Dee has a much higher pain tolerance than I do.  Other than her first night when she nearly fainted, she has hardly had any complaint and I think that she will be very happy with the results in time.

We hope all are doing well.  We are happy for Bruce and Christy in that they are getting their basement finished.  It looks like they have the framing done now. Nice.  I would also like to wish Dr. Suess  a happy Faffyfifflefimp (my attempt at "Suessing") of a birthday.  Thanks for all the wonderful nonsense you brought into the world.

Dan and Dee