News From the North
I had a nice Father’s Day. The only negative –
Lydia was gone most of the day working, and Jake is attending a football camp with his team. I had a nice relaxing day – even got in a nap! I wish I lived close to Dad. I would have really liked to have been at his house with my brother and sisters. I miss those family get-togethers! Happy Father’s Day to Dad! I miss you and love you!
You know those family figures that people put on the back windows of their vans and SUV’s to show you how many kids they have (and pets). Well I found some dressed in Ohio State gear and purchased nine figures to represent our family. I put them on our Suburban Saturday night. The family stretches halfway across the back window! As we drove in Minneapolis today we got the strangest looks from people as they passed us. They just had to look to see what kind of people would have seven kids. It was pretty funny.
The basketball camp the kids went to last weekend was attended by about 98% African American. Luke was the only white boy in his group. I was talking to him about the camp and he innocently tells me that there were so many black boys in his group that he had to “talk black”. I would've liked to have heard that!
The kids enjoyed the basketball camp. In their respective age groups, Jake won MVP, Isabella Best Attitude, Gabi Best Defensive Player and Luke the Hustle Award.
Isabella has a tendency to complain about her aches and pains after a game or practice. She was whining and complaining after the recent basketball camp. I jokingly said, “I’m tired of hearing you complain?” Bella, without missing a beat says, “I’m tired of having to complain.”
Isabella and two friends decided to go for a walk. Guess what supplies they took? A baseball bat and two pair of scissors for protection … and of course the Garmin in case they got lost.
I hesitate to include this story in the BLOG. Some of our family members find it funny. I, on the other hand think it is abnormal behavior – not funny! Here goes anyway … Eli is doing pretty well with his potty training. He gets a little busy and has accidents now and then. This past weekend we had an issue, but it wasn’t an accident. Lisa had left with four of the kids. I was home with Lydia and Eli. Eli stood on a barstool in the kitchen, pulled his pants down, and pee’d on a paper plate. Lydia heard the noise, thinking the faucet was on, turned and saw Eli in action. Lydia, who thought it was hilarious, came and got me. As I said, I did not find it funny. What in the world would make him pee on a paper plate in the kitchen? I asked him that very question. He said, “Because I was mad that Mommy left me here.” Now I think he made up the reason after the act, but who knows. I went to clean up the mess. That kid had a perfect aim. There wasn’t a drop of pee anywhere but on the paper plate – which was full.
Luke – “We can’t have cake. Mom said we can’t brag for food.”
I got to go to a Twins game last week. I went with a couple of the owners of the company I work for and our Ad Agency. We attended courtesy of WCCO, the local CBS affiliate. They have 6 tickets in a section called the Champions' Club. This section is right behind home plate. First you pull up under the awnings right at the stadium for valet parking. You walk into a restaurant with endless food and drinks all included with these tickets. Yes they have the typical food you’d expect at the ball park: salads, fresh fruit and cheese, smoked salmon, filet oscar, carved prime rib, pad Thai, Asian dumplings, pasta and mutton, fried pork, broiled fish, veal parmesan and several other choices. Then there was ice cream, candy, desserts, nachos and cheese, popcorn, hotdogs and other treats. This is all served an hour and a half before the game, through-out the game, and one hour after the game. If it happens to be cold, warm blankets are provided. If it is raining, complimentary ponchos are included. Get there early enough and you can watch through a window and see players warming up in the batting cages. It was quite a night. The only thing that was missing –well – baseball. The game was rained out. We had our nice meal, sat around until we received the official announcement that the game was canceled, then left. The good news – WCCO is going to provide us tickets to another game in the future. Hopefully this time I’ll get to actually watch baseball … and sit in the 7th row seat … right behind the plate. This is the third time I’ve had the privilege of using these tickets. Talk about being spoiled!
Lydia says our house is like an orphanage. She complains that there are all kinds of different kids walking in and out of the house. Kids are coming in and out without knocking. Someone new is staying all night almost every night. She never knows when someone is at our house. With seven kids, that usually means someone has friends visiting. Jake’s friends are now comfortable enough they just walk in – sometimes when Jake isn’t even here. It nice that our kids’friends enjoy coming to our house. I’d much rather have them here, than somewhere else!
Tomorrow is Isabella’s 15th birthday. Happy Birthday Isabella (even though my children rarely read my Blog). She’ll be a freshman this school year! That just doesn’t seem right. I’ll have a freshman in college, junior and freshman in high school. Wow!
Love,
JR
I had a nice Father’s Day. The only negative –
Lydia was gone most of the day working, and Jake is attending a football camp with his team. I had a nice relaxing day – even got in a nap! I wish I lived close to Dad. I would have really liked to have been at his house with my brother and sisters. I miss those family get-togethers! Happy Father’s Day to Dad! I miss you and love you!
You know those family figures that people put on the back windows of their vans and SUV’s to show you how many kids they have (and pets). Well I found some dressed in Ohio State gear and purchased nine figures to represent our family. I put them on our Suburban Saturday night. The family stretches halfway across the back window! As we drove in Minneapolis today we got the strangest looks from people as they passed us. They just had to look to see what kind of people would have seven kids. It was pretty funny.
The basketball camp the kids went to last weekend was attended by about 98% African American. Luke was the only white boy in his group. I was talking to him about the camp and he innocently tells me that there were so many black boys in his group that he had to “talk black”. I would've liked to have heard that!
The kids enjoyed the basketball camp. In their respective age groups, Jake won MVP, Isabella Best Attitude, Gabi Best Defensive Player and Luke the Hustle Award.
Isabella has a tendency to complain about her aches and pains after a game or practice. She was whining and complaining after the recent basketball camp. I jokingly said, “I’m tired of hearing you complain?” Bella, without missing a beat says, “I’m tired of having to complain.”
Isabella and two friends decided to go for a walk. Guess what supplies they took? A baseball bat and two pair of scissors for protection … and of course the Garmin in case they got lost.
I hesitate to include this story in the BLOG. Some of our family members find it funny. I, on the other hand think it is abnormal behavior – not funny! Here goes anyway … Eli is doing pretty well with his potty training. He gets a little busy and has accidents now and then. This past weekend we had an issue, but it wasn’t an accident. Lisa had left with four of the kids. I was home with Lydia and Eli. Eli stood on a barstool in the kitchen, pulled his pants down, and pee’d on a paper plate. Lydia heard the noise, thinking the faucet was on, turned and saw Eli in action. Lydia, who thought it was hilarious, came and got me. As I said, I did not find it funny. What in the world would make him pee on a paper plate in the kitchen? I asked him that very question. He said, “Because I was mad that Mommy left me here.” Now I think he made up the reason after the act, but who knows. I went to clean up the mess. That kid had a perfect aim. There wasn’t a drop of pee anywhere but on the paper plate – which was full.
Luke – “We can’t have cake. Mom said we can’t brag for food.”
I got to go to a Twins game last week. I went with a couple of the owners of the company I work for and our Ad Agency. We attended courtesy of WCCO, the local CBS affiliate. They have 6 tickets in a section called the Champions' Club. This section is right behind home plate. First you pull up under the awnings right at the stadium for valet parking. You walk into a restaurant with endless food and drinks all included with these tickets. Yes they have the typical food you’d expect at the ball park: salads, fresh fruit and cheese, smoked salmon, filet oscar, carved prime rib, pad Thai, Asian dumplings, pasta and mutton, fried pork, broiled fish, veal parmesan and several other choices. Then there was ice cream, candy, desserts, nachos and cheese, popcorn, hotdogs and other treats. This is all served an hour and a half before the game, through-out the game, and one hour after the game. If it happens to be cold, warm blankets are provided. If it is raining, complimentary ponchos are included. Get there early enough and you can watch through a window and see players warming up in the batting cages. It was quite a night. The only thing that was missing –well – baseball. The game was rained out. We had our nice meal, sat around until we received the official announcement that the game was canceled, then left. The good news – WCCO is going to provide us tickets to another game in the future. Hopefully this time I’ll get to actually watch baseball … and sit in the 7th row seat … right behind the plate. This is the third time I’ve had the privilege of using these tickets. Talk about being spoiled!
Lydia says our house is like an orphanage. She complains that there are all kinds of different kids walking in and out of the house. Kids are coming in and out without knocking. Someone new is staying all night almost every night. She never knows when someone is at our house. With seven kids, that usually means someone has friends visiting. Jake’s friends are now comfortable enough they just walk in – sometimes when Jake isn’t even here. It nice that our kids’friends enjoy coming to our house. I’d much rather have them here, than somewhere else!
Tomorrow is Isabella’s 15th birthday. Happy Birthday Isabella (even though my children rarely read my Blog). She’ll be a freshman this school year! That just doesn’t seem right. I’ll have a freshman in college, junior and freshman in high school. Wow!
Love,
JR