Long-time Quangsters know that I am not a Tweeter, but I am a thinker. Why don’t I tweet? It’s because I refuse to believe that my friends want instant updates of what I am doing all day. Instead, I compile all my thoughts into a blog post for convenient viewing. :)
My son started gymnastics yesterday, along with a few of his friends. He’s been begging me for over three years to let him take a class, but I was always hesitant, thinking that perhaps gymnastics was a little “girly.” I changed my mind for a few reasons:
- Weston’s gymnastics idol is Damien Walters, who is no girly man. [see video below]
- This isn’t a passing whim.
- There are male teachers.
- His father agreed to pay for it.
He spent 75 minutes yesterday flipping around on a trampoline, doing cartwheels, hanging upside down from bars, learning how to do flips with a harness, climbing a rope to the ceiling, and doing backward dives into a pit filled with foam cubes. I have never seen him happier. He only lost his shorts once.
I was reminded today that men are from Mars. It is true. Men and women communicate in vastly different manners. Sample conversation between Computer Geek and me in the car after dropping Weston off at his Boy Scout meeting:
Me: Crunch and Munch sounds good.
CG: [silence]
Me: Yeah, I’ve been craving Crunch and Munch since yesterday. It was over $3.50 at the grocery store. It’s only $1.00 at Walmart.
CG: Do we have anything else we need at Walmart?
Me: Just tomato juice, so I don’t know if it’s worth the drive.
CG: [silence]
Me: I guess with gas it would end up being the same.
CG: [silence]
As CG turned toward home, I felt such a sense of disappointment that he hadn’t driven to the store to get my Crunch and Munch. After some discussion during which he said, “Well why didn’t you say you wanted to go? I thought you were just saying you were craving it,” I realized that I had spoken in Womanish, but he was hearing it in Manish. I learned that the next time I need to say, “Turn left and go to the grocery store and give me some money because I am going in to buy some Crunch and Munch.”
Only twenty school days left before summer vacation!
Tomorrow (today by the time you read this) will be April Fool’s Day. I am torn between playing some cool tricks on my students and ignoring the day, lest they retaliate in kind. What about you? Do you know any good April Fool’s Day stunts? Did anyone play a trick on you today?
Speaking of mean tricks, I got pranked a little early this year. Yesterday one of my students gave me a cute sticker of a seal, which I promptly adhered to my tote box. Later, a sweet little girl in my 7th grade class also handed me a sticker. She passed it to me upside down and when I turned it over I saw it was a snake sticker! I screamed and threw the sticker down, which caused much raucous laughter on her part.
My Auntie M. gave her family members a priceless gift this week—a compilation of family updates from the last ten years. She has blessed us many times with previous family history work. The information she provides is invaluable; she is the main reason any of us extended family members even know each other. She and my mom were from a family of fifteen children so my oldest cousin is a great-grandma and my youngest cousin just started college this year. If you haven’t kept in touch with family, this might just be the time to start. Such connections are priceless.
Daughter Em allowed me to tend her two boys today while she went out job-hunting. Seven-year-old Avatar fell off his scooter the other day and ended up with stitches in a mangled ear. The next day little Chunk, who will be two in a few days, was doing a happy dance and fell against a piece of furniture and gave himself a black eye. No wonder my daughter is 5’9” and weighs about 87 pounds! (April Fool’s!--she doesn’t really weigh only 87. She’s at least 93 lbs., I am sure of it.)
CG’s daughter, Gnome, and son, Neo, are headed for Europe in a couple of months. They will be landing in Dublin, bicycling around Ireland, then heading toward England and the rest of Europe. They are so excited for the challenge. During the month of May, they are going to practice camping by living in a tent in our backyard. Their days will be spent bicycling throughout our area, getting those leg muscles ready for extended European travel. Gnome is hoping to get into school in England after their summer adventure. Bon Voyage!
My bed is calling my name and in 25 minutes it will be Friday so I am going to hurry and post my Thursday Thoughts. Goodnight everyone and this April Fool’s Day remember the wisdom of the great Jack Handey:
“One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke.”
I've only got as far as crunch and munch because I need to press on with painting, but I found it so amusing. I've learned that when Bev asks me if I'd like some supper, she really means 'your wife needs nourishing, now and if you like, you can get yourself something, too.' It took years to learn this truth.
ReplyDeleteKen: Maybe you and I can teach a class to young marrieds on how to speak to each other for maximum communication. :) I'm annoyed with myself that it has taken me this long to learn to speak Manish.
ReplyDeleteSpouse and I sometimes have these discussions. He'll say something like, "I'll bet you'd like a Big Olaf's ice cream cone."
ReplyDeleteGuess who'd like ice cream.
Or, at the grocery store...do you want pastries, peanuts, whatever snack aisle we happen to be in.
Madonna: Sounds like I need to go shopping with the Unc. If he's offering ice cream, pastries and peanuts, I want to be involved. :)
ReplyDeleteI personally think Weston's gymnastics idol should be Alexi Nemov. Even though I was young when he was in the Olympics I still knew he was SEXY! So there are manish, sexy, gymnasts. Yeah I still mention to Matt every once and a while that Alexi Nemov was one good looking guy in spandex.
ReplyDeleteLevizmom: I had to go Google him because I didn't remember him at all. Yeah, if my son turns out like him, I won't gripe.
ReplyDeleteI can so relate to the crunch and munch story. I had this thing for vanilla shakes when I was pregnant. I would say to hubby something like, "A shake would taste really good now," and he would continue to drive past the ice cream shop. From Mars for sure :)
ReplyDeleteVery cool for Weston with the gymnastics. It sounds like he'll love it!
septembermom: Yes! You know exactly what I am talking about. I have vowed to try to be more explicit so my hubby doesn't have to decipher what I really mean.
ReplyDelete