Kids

Whew...kids! What would you do without them? What on Earth can you do with them? I once saw a book at B&N called "Cooking with Kids" and my first thought was "Where do find a pot big enough to hold one?"

Gross, huh? Sorry if I offend... Just the way my mind works.

Just when you think you have kids all figured out, they throw you some wacky curve. Like Dustin, for instance... Smart kid, funny kid, talented kid... does his homework and then forgets to hand it in... hands it in late for partial credit... grade point average drops...

What's up with that?

I tell him he needs to be more responsible and he gets mad at me...like it's my fault that he forgot to turn in his homework. (Wait, aren't I the guy who says all the time "Do you have any homework?")

Take Jared, for instance... Sick for the past several days...well enough to play in two basketball games a couple of days apart and then gets sick again right after. Then stays up all night worrying that people think he's short and stupid. I told him that he's always going to be shorter than some people, just like he might even be taller than some people... (some day perhaps!)

Jared is a kid who is tops in his class, who his teacher adores, and he's worried that some dorky, snot-nosed kid in his class called him "stupid." (I've met this "Wonderful" name-calling kid before and he has no right to call anyone stupid....)

Other than his constant fixation with loud music and the fact that it's all he wants to talk about, Dustin is a pretty good Son. He makes me proud on a daily basis, and he is amazing with his musical talent...but as soon as he does something nice, he quickly Dr. Jekyll's into "SURLY TEEN" and becomes all MR. Grumpy-BUTT.

Jared (or the Terminator) as we lovingly refer to him at home. Is a 24 hours a day athlete who will play any game anywhere at any time, and pity the furniture that gets into his way! He's broken car windows, knocked holes in sheet rock and thrown way too many rocks over the neighbor's fence! And then you have to stop and remember that he was the number one ranked seven year old in all of Independence for the National Pepsi Pitch Hit and Run competition. So, someday when he's a top sports star we'll all just laugh and laugh and laugh...and take out some of the repair money from his signing bonus.

I love Dustin and Jared...what can I say? They drive me crazy, but at least they're good drivers!

David