June 5th, 2008 by Jennine

The parents of this little boy need to be commended for raising this child right.

I had the pleasure of spending the day with him and it was a complete joy. Not only is he content to go with the flow of activity in our home, he has a charming sense of humor. This wee little guy made us laugh non-stop with his facial expressions, his no-handed push ups, his recitation of the $5 Subway commercial and his complete adoration of Elly.

This child listens when you say “No”, eats peas and carrots without grimacing and doesn’t pull away when you wipe his face.  He even picks up his toys at the end of the day.

You can just tell when a parent has invested love, time, energy and attention into a child and raised them with a vision of what a decent human being should be.

He’s a lucky kid.

June 4th, 2008 by Jennine

This week I wrote my first non-sports, non-business article for the newspaper. It was a refreshing change of pace and yet I struggled to stick only to the facts. My style of writing tends to be:

a) grammatically incorrect, and

b) primarily from the heart, not so much the brain.

In other words, I couldn’t use the words poop, fart, or snot while writing this story and the whole experience has left me repeating those words in my head all week, as if to seek some mental equalibrium. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I use these words on a daily basis but knowing that I couldn’t use them in the article made me want to all the more.

Call me a rebel at fart.

In other news, someone has honored me with a nomination for the 2008 BlogHer Hero award. Since everyone in my family denies nominating me, I want to thank whomever it was that went to the trouble of doing such a kind thing. While I don’t consider myself a hero in any way, shape or form, I obviously have the best of friends in the blog world. There’s no award better than that.

June 2nd, 2008 by Jennine

Today is the last day of school for the children and in an attempt to begin summer vacation properly, I helped the boys clean their room. Upon doing so, I discovered a few unusual things:

1. As discussed previously, Logan placed a permanent lock on his dresser drawer- without permission. I discovered that his two brothers have figured out how to bypass this lock and take BB’s from Logan’s private stash. This has resulted in Logan opening a safety deposit box at the local bank. In it, he keeps BB’s and a jumbo pack of Juicy Fruit gum, half eaten.

2. While I appreciate the sentiment, writing the words “I love mom” with a ball point pen on your pine bunk bed probably isn’t the best way to show how much you care. Nathanael and I discussed several different ways to express affection in a less destructive way, like saying I love you with Murphy’s Oil Soap and elbow grease.

3.  This room actually has a wooden floor. This was a shocking discovery since it has been completely covered with Lego pieces. For years I believed the floor was green, red, blue and yellow and terribly uncomfortable to walk on.

4. Despite the impression rough-and-tumble boys give, they actually do appreciate having flowers in their bedroom. While no one admitted it, I did overhear a conversation where one son said to the other, “When this flower dies, I know where to get more.”

5. The boy who knows where more flowers grow.

6. While cleaning this window, I discovered a complete and intact butt-print on the glass.  I’m fairly certain that this artifact is exclusive to a boy’s bedroom and makes me wonder who the lucky recipient of this assertive gesture was.

Despite all the discoveries, it came as no shock that the boys now behave differently living in a perfectly clean room. Most people appreciate order in their lives but I wasn’t expecting  them to suddenly begin turning their dirty socks the right way before sending them to the laundry room. I didn’t anticipate that they would ever walk their gum wrappers to the kitchen trash can rather than deposit them on the floor under the bed. They have even been kinder to each other.

Which is why I wrote “I love Logan, Isaiah, and Nathanael” with a ballpoint pen on their pine bunk bed.

Hey. They started it.

June 1st, 2008 by Jennine

My family I love practical jokes.

I love planning them. I love the anticipation.  I love seeing people’s reactions.

Logan fell asleep on the couch tonight. The rest of the family decided that it would be really funny to turn the couch around so that when he wakes up, he’ll be facing the living room wall and, for just a moment, be totally confused.

The hard part of this little practical joke was keeping our giggles quiet as we lifted and turned the furniture.

If you have pulled off a great prank, or have a good idea for one…leave me a comment. I’d LOVE to hear about it.

Another practical joke I love can be found here.