Snowstorms, power outages and breaking trees is probably what we will remember this January for, but we had a few other things going on as well:
Ben - Saw his name in print, not once, but twice, this month in legitimate medical journals. Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Largynology* and Journal of the Sciences and Specialties of the Head & Neck** (you may know it just as Head & Neck). Pick yours up on news stands today.
He also got to go snowboarding as a work field trip:
Avery: Turned 8 right before our very eyes, without asking if this was okay with us. She also performed in a winter violin recital. I will put this in a seperate post due to pictures and video.
Miles: Started taking real piano lessons. Is pretty convinced he can play almost anything. He cannot, but we do not run short of confidence in this family. He also taught his old mom how to play chess.
Cruz: Conveniently naps during violin and piano lessons. All other times he can be found moving chairs and stools around the house so that he can climb cabinetry. He has already found my chocolate stash. Both of them. Has an obsession with Star Wars. He even thinks that the baby swings at the park are some type of stormtrooper girdle. He also called 9-1-1****. Then he hung up, but they called back. Interesting thing to note, that even after I gave them the explanation for the misplaced call, they asked if anyone was preventing me from speaking to them. Hopefully I'll never have to use this information but I'm glad to know that they are sophisticated like that.
Me: I don't know what to report other than I did start the year by getting pulled over but not getting a ticket. The officer claims it was because I didn't have my lights on (it was late afternoon which I guess does make it dark here, but I also have daytime running lights. okay it was raining too), but I am pretty sure he thought I was drinking or texting while driving. I was doing neither, nor was I speeding, but I did have to turn around and grab an iPad that was causing problems just a few seconds before, so my driving might have resembled someone in altered state. The first thing he said when he approached my car was, 'oh, I didn't see you had kids in the car' *****. As if that explained everything. He didn't even ask for proof of insurance or registration. The kids lost all technology privileges for three days (I didn't want to punish myself for too long).
The highlight of my month, however, had to be when the UPS man stepped in the door to drop off a large box and said, 'you stay in good shape for having so many kids, woman', just as Ben was walking down the stairs. It was probably awkward for about two seconds, but as soon as he left, I immediately went and placed another order online.
Britt: Not to be outdone by a simple encounter with the delivery guy, Britt had to go and appear on SportsCenter. Over and over and over again. Below is a picture of Britt and her boyfriend Eric and my dad at a recent Clippers game where Blake Griffin dunked, excuse me, posterized****** Kendrick Perkins. So not only was she at the game, she was directly behind the goal when it happened. She doesn't look that impressed Blake. Looks like you'll have to do better next time.
Photo courtesy of ESPN's Sportscience.
*Novel Use of a Suction-Irrigation Device to Remove Impacted Blood Clot from Airway.
**Original report of bilateral carotid body tumors with 2 rare concomitant anatomic findings, an ectopic parathyroid gland and cervical thymus. Wha?
*** Correct answer - Vocal Folds
****He actually had just pushed redial because we had reported a fire in the power lines during the snow storm.
*****Like I drive a station wagon for the heck of it.
******Word of the Month (I had to look it up): a Basketball term meaning to embarrass some one usually while slamming the ball over them. It refers to the guy who's being dunked on in basketball posters. (Source Urban Dictionary). I was pronouncing it all wrong in my mind.
7 comments:
Between the Annals book and sweet Avery's recital, I have tears coming out of my eyes from laughing. I really hope one of my kids will do violin, because I love the sound of it, especially with piano, I'm not sure I could endure through the beginning stages of practice.
Yep, vocal chords. . . not exactly what the average person would think though.
Congrats on all the stuff! Avery sounded great!
This post had me cracking up! Has the UPS guy delivered the next package yet? ;)
Love the UPS story. It's the small things that can make our day--ha ha. And I hear you on not wanting to take away electronics for too long --it's not like you'd been misbehaving! Can't wait to hear the recital in the next post.
If I owned your station wagon, I might drive it for the heck of it. Too bad the police officer had to make up such a lame excuse for trying to hit on you but realized you obviously were taken when he saw the kiddos!
I think I'll order more stuff online just so your UPS guy has job security!! Everything here comes USPS though--oh well.
Love the UPS & officer involvements. I got pulled over for speeding once on the start of a very long road trip home. The officer took one look at our full car of kids, asked where we were going and said "good luck". No ticket. So glad that law enforcement takes their hats off to us moms!
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