Back to School

A few weeks back at a church function, a family friend bent down to Judah level and asked, “So, is your mom excited that you’ll be starting Kindergarten soon?”

Judah looked up very solemnly and replied, “Nooooo…she’s gonna miss me when I’m at school!”

And he was right! The house feels pretty hollow and empty with all my guys off to school today after several weeks of togetherness that was our summer break.

Our day began bright and early at 5:45 this morning. We got the whole family up and ready because we wanted to take pictures of the big first-day-of-school event. Jericho began his Freshman year of high school this morning, Jeff returned to teaching at middle school and Judah just got dropped off at his afternoon Kindergarten class.

I knew it was coming, but I still felt a bit surprised when I found myself back in the kitchen last evening preparing school lunches.

Here we were first thing this morning.

For the record, Jericho is actually taller than me now, but I was wearing heeled sandals.

A friend from church, Cassie, a senior at Jericho’s school, had offered to pick him up for his first day and show him around campus.

A senior with her own car? Are you even kidding? He was thrilled and immediately jumped on the opportunity.

It was a bright, bright sunshiny day.

Hmmmmph. I guess now that he’s a big kid he’s too ‘cool’ to have his mom trailing him around with her camera on the first day. Whatev.

Then they drove away…and that was that. My baby is now a Freshman. **sniff, sniff**

Jeff left moments later for his first day activities, and had a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

Literal tricks. With the help of some props and some things he recently learned from an illusionist, he intends to really wow his students on their first day.

Really, I think he’s just glad to have several more audiences to practice said tricks in front of before the wedding he learned them for this Saturday.

The wedding he will be officiating.

The tricks he will be performing in lieu of the traditional unity candle.

It seems that lately, every time I turned around, there was Jeff with props in hand, practicing those tricks again.

I think he’s got it down. It will impress his students for sure.

Anyway, once daddy and Jericho were gone, Judah had approximately four hours to kill.

But do you think I could talk him into going back to bed for even part of that time?

Negative.

First it was, “Take a pitcher (his pronunciation) of me with my lunch pack!”

Then it was, “Take a pitcher of me with my pack-pack.”

Then it was 3 blessed hours and 45 long minutes of him chomping at the bit to go.

“Is it time for Kindergarten yet?”

“WheeEen do we get to GO?”

“Mom, you better check the clock.”

Lying around on the floor whining, “When is it time?”

Finally, with about 20 minutes before grandma was to arrive to see him off on his first day, I sat down to take a couple of pictures of he and I.

Betcha can’t tell he’s excited, huh?

Well, this should seal the deal

Seriously, this was him after he'd been running around like a wild child calling out, “It’s almost tiiiiiime!”

You’d have thought it was Christmas or his birthday or something!

But then, he stopped and climbed up on my lap and asked very soberly, “Mama, are you gonna miss me when I’m gone to Kindergarten?”

“Of course! This house is going to be so quiet without you!” I replied, feeling a little melancholy tug on the heartstrings. **sniff, sniff**

He gave me a big old hug around the neck. “I’ll still be your baby even when I’m all growned up.”

Awwww…little stinker. Guess he knew this was harder for his mom than it was for him.

At long last, grandma arrived.

We piled into the truck and drove to school.

We took a couple of pictures and a little bit of video footage.

Here he sports his new shoes, which upon testing them out in our front yard he breathlessly reported to us, “They make me run so fast the dirt flies up!”

Which was kind of a strange deja vu moment, because Jericho came home from his first day of Kindergarten reporting that his shoes “made him run so fast the wood chips (on the playground) flew up.” **sniff, sniff, sniff.**

These shoes were the closest thing we could find to PF FLyers, which he’s coveted ever since seeing the movie Sandlot.

He looks so little. Like he still needs his mama all day long.

T minus one minute to starting time: Is that a little bit of uncertainty upon my big brave Kindergarteners face?

Nope. Just the sun in his eyes.

At last, he eagerly and confidently jumped in line, I told him to obey all the rules, he smiled and then his teacher walked the little procession into her classroom.

At the last minute, just when I thought it would go into his class without a backward glance, my baby turned around and called out, “See ya later, mom.”

The photo was a bit blurry, but that’s okay, because I think my eyes were, too.

And that was that. My baby is now a Kindergartener. **sniff, sniff**

Tales of an Almost-Freshman

We recently had a whole slew of end-of-the-school year functions to attend.

First, there were the final Track Meets of the year.

His personal best in the high jump in track this year was 5 feet 4 inches, and he also did pretty well in high jump. He usually came home with medals for both events from each meet.

This year was also his best Cross Country season yet and at the Sports Banquet his Athletic Director gave him the award for most improved.

Here were a couple of pictures of his wrestling team.

Jericho will no doubt go on to participate in some of the same sports in high school, and for that reason didn't seem too sad to see the athletic season come to an end.

Jeff, however, might be feeling a tad melancholy.

Not only have he and Jericho spent the last 3 years riding to and from school together and getting in some good male bonding time, but Jeff has always been one of the coaches on Jericho's various teams.

He was one proud dad these past couple of years, getting to watch his son learn and excel in various sports.

But now...well, the boy is moving upward and onward. Striking out in a new arena, having recently gone out for the football team.

It's probably a good thing, then, that he's been the longtime announcer for the football games at our son's high school.

Getting to announce his own son's football games should help ease him into this new phase of our son's life. =)

:: :: :: ::

Jericho had been in student government at his school for the past two years, and they had their big awards ceremony a few weeks ago, just after the new officers were elected and their terms came to an end.

These were a couple of pictures I took just before the ceremony.

His teacher in ASB did such a great job with them both years. He really learned a lot under her, and she had a really great rapport with all the kids.

Jericho was feeling really melancholy about that chapter of his life coming to a close, because he'd made a lot of friends in that group over the past two years, and now things were changing.

Mrs. R also did a beautiful job with the Awards ceremony itself, having taken time to gather photos of each student from over the past two years worth of ASB events, and put together a collage of each student, which was displayed on the big screen behind them as she gave out their individual awards.

Mrs. R had some very nice things to say about Jericho. Among other things, she said that he was one of the politest young men she'd ever met, had great leadership skills, and also kept everyone laughing.

Now we know our son can be hilarious. At times throughout his childhood, there have been occasions in which we knew we should correct a certain behavior, but we'd look at him just as we were about to mete out the diciplinary action and there would be this impish grin on his face or, worse, barely contained laughter, and I found it absolutely impossible to discipline him when I was trying to keep from laughing myself.

As a mom, though, it was especially meaningful to me to see that others have recognized the leadership potential in him, and that they know him to be polite and well mannered kid.

I'm glad to know our son comports himself in such a way in public, because, although we've worked hard at training him and know him to be fully capable of both, mom doesn't often get to see much beyond the sibling rivalry and the petty disputes it seems I'm always handling here at home, haha.

Later, on the way home, Jericho mentioned that two of the girls in his ASB group (who are going on to a different high school) had come up to him afterwards and said that they always really appreciated that he was such a gentleman towards them.

That totally blew me away. Made me feel enormously proud of the young man he's becoming. The training that has been poured into him his entire life is finally beginning to bear fruit in his life...the boy is growing up!

Ahhhh....makes me hopeful that by the time he graduates, he will in fact be ready to be on his own!

:: :: :: ::

Perhaps the single most exciting thing for Jericho at the end of the school year was when he came home one afternoon saying that he'd been nominated for 8th Grade Court.

The court was to be announced at the dance that evening.

Obnoxious parents that we are, we took pictures of him going into the dance.

It was to be held in the outdoor commons area of the school due to the ASB having selected the theme as "Under the Stars".

I decided that this distance shot simply wasn't going to cut it for scrapbooking and blog purposes, so I asked Jeff if he could go inside and get a close up.

This was the best we got.

Jericho apparently didn't want his dad following him around. I'm pretty sure the kid on the right is saying, "Hey...no parents or teachers allowed!" haha.

Jericho DID make court, too, but to his dismay it wasn't for King.

He did, however, get an overwhelming number of votes for Court Jester.

Perhaps he should have capitalized more on being a gentleman and less on being class clown, haha.

A Wrestling Meet

It had been a pretty rough couple of weeks in our house.

Jericho's coach needed another guy in the 120's weight class, and so Jericho had to drop a few pounds to make weight.

For a lean and wiry guy like him, this was no easy task.

It involved switching to a low-sugar, low-carb, high protein diet for a few days, and running a couple of miles each morning and night on the treadmill.

Because he usually takes a pretty good size lunch to carry him through from breakfast to the end of his after school sports practices, eliminating the carbs was like torture to him.

And because I was the one packing those lunches, I was the bad guy.

It's hard to hear your kid say, "I'm starving, mom...my stomach growls all day long...I need more!" The accompanying pleading look of desperation almost did me in.

But the goal was in sight, and we knew it was important for his own personal discipline and training that he see this thing through to the bitter end.

We gave him plenty of fruits and veggies between meals to help fill the void.

And discovered that spaghetti squash makes a pretty good substitute for a pesto dish when you can't have all the carbs in the usual whole wheat pasta version.

The night before the big meet, about 8 pm, when Jericho was once again ravenous and foraging in the fruit bowl having already burned off his dinner from two hours before, I heard him rhapsodizing, "...and when the meet is over tomorrow...I'm gonna have a big ol' spoonful of peanut butter! And two hardboiled eggs! And milk! And...and...bread....I miss bread!"

Poor kid didn't even remember all the candy he got trick-or-treating, lol.

Nevertheless, after all the coaxing coaching him along to meeting this goal, by the morning of the big weigh-in we were all on pins and needles.

After weighing himself that morning, Jericho came walking into the kitchen, arms upraised in victory and yelled excitedly, "I get to have raisin bran!"

I never thought in a million years that I would ever hear my teenager utter such words...ever, lol.

Ha ha, nothing like a strict dietary restrictions to really help him get his priorities in order.

Apparently those raisins were like ambrosia after two weeks of nothing but 'health' foods and very little sweet stuff.

Anyway, despite the 85 degree temps in November (seriously...when is fall going to arrive in our desert, anyway?), the day was gorgeous.

Here was a beautiful crimson tree on his school campus which really popped against the blue, blue sky.

Love. The. Fall.



Frumpmama that I am, my crochet bag comes along to all meets. Having something to do to pass the time helps to keep my mind off the discomfort of those hard wooden bleachers.

And the little girls nearby who, along with Judah, love to play with the hilarity inducing Flarp for the entire two hours.

But when it's Jericho's turn to wrestle...I feel this unusual transformation come over me.

Truly, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of transformation.

I go from the cool-calm-collected-crocheting wrestling mom to the drop-everything-and-cheer-like-a-crazy person version of myself.

"GO GET 'EM, JERICHO!"

"THAT'S MY BOY!"

"WooHOOOOOOO!"



Those few minutes your kid is on the mat feel like an eternity.

I bob and dodge and strain to the left and right just as keenly as though I were the one on the mat, praying all the while that the other guy (in red) not hurt my baby.



Jeff, too.

That's him in the upper left corner in the blue shirt.



He's assistant coach and has to keep the book during each meet, and does a great job of it.

But when his kid gets out there...he, too, feels that transformation come over him.

He's like a crouching tiger...and it's all he can do to restrain himself as coach, to hold back and let the head coach do the yelling and to not show too much extra enthusiasm or partiality when he has an entire team of boys to encourage along.

But we needn't have worried.

This was about two swift movements before Jericho pinned his guy. "WooHOOOOO!"



Wow...that's exhausting!

Strange Things Yelled Out The Door Lately...

"Judah, get your horse out of the kitchen!" Referring to the stick-pony he'd been playing Cowboy with earlier that day, which for unknown reasons had been abandoned in the kitchen, it's reins tangled on the pantry door knobs.

"Don't torment the dog!" For so long, Judah was a little short-stuff, and our dog (though zealously protective of him) was not afraid to push him around a bit if so inclined. Now, with the clunky cast on his arm, Judah has learned that the dog moves out of the way real quick if he lifts up that arm.

"No jumping off the fence!" We have a giant roll of chain-link awaiting a project in our back yard, and though the doctor has forbidden athletic physical activity or horseplay, these sorts of things prove irresistible to him. I have also had to yell similar things about the picnic table and the swing at various times in recent weeks, as well as not sliding down our long wood-floored hallway and under the coffee table as though sliding into base in Little League.

"Don't shoot at the dog!" It sounds horrible, of course, but what I'm referring to is the boys' preference for unloading an entire clip of Nerf dart ammo at a moving target.

Poor, long-suffering Raisin usually has to employ zig-zag maneuvers to get away from the annoyance, and usually heads for the back door where she cowers knowing she has a better chance of my noticing and intervening there.

"What are you doing playing outside at 10 PM?" This is in reference to Judah's rather alarming new habit of slipping out of the house even when he's been told to get ready for bed.

Apparently, with the cast on and doctor mandated restrictions, he hasn't burned off enough steam by bedtime and just wants to run.

The fact that it's pitch black outside doesn't seem to phase him in the least.

It never has.

Which totally freaks.me.out.

And this gem, just in tonight...

"WHAT IN THE WORLD are you doing outside in your underwear, in the dark??"

I was straightening up the kitchen when I heard what I thought was the front door closing. Jeff was already long since asleep, having to get up really early to set up for a Cross Country meet at his school in the morning.

I marched over to the door (left ajar), and was stunned to see both boys coming in from dad's car...in their hot-weather, summertime p.j.s (aka underwear/boxers).

After they'd both long since been ordered to bed, mind you.

Apparently, big brother needed something out of his backpack which was left in the car, and though he can stare down a bully any day of the week, he isn't quite so brave as his younger brother when it comes to going outside after dark and had no problem whatsoever persuading his little brother to disobey.

Sooooo, in punishment for this, I did the only surefire thing I could think of...

"That's it! I'm putting this on the blog!" and ran for my camera.

Lucky for them, they both skedaddled quick as could be to their respective rooms and dove into their beds before it came to all that.

A device I plan to utilize more often to get those boys to obey...

Packing Laughs Into Lunches

Well, it's that time of year again...back to school.

And with my husband and son both back at school all day comes the age-old routine of making lunches.

And because I'm usually making these at the crack of dawn all bleary-eyed with bed-hair (soooo NOT a morning person), I make up for it by using that time to think up practical jokes to play on my guys.

Most of the time, it's writing sappy notes on their lunch bags, but I especially enjoy throwing some oddball item into their lunches just for laughs.

Whether or not they laugh I don't always find out about, but I know I laugh my head off just thinking about their reactions when they find these little surprises, and that makes it all worth it.

The trick is to pack the oddities near the bottom of the sack so that it's not a dead giveaway if they happen to peek in it before lunch.

In the past, I found that I can't very well do this every day or it would lose it's charm. Instead, I have to spread it out just long enough between times that Jericho thinks I've forgotten about my little game.

Being that school has only been in session for a couple of weeks, the only oddball thing he's found so far is a yellow onion. Packed in a plastic bag just like I would pack a sliced apple or pear.

Which I didn't find out about until way after-the-fact because after he'd laughingly told Jeff about it on their way home from school he promptly forgot all about.

A couple of days ago Jericho came home and asked, "Yeah, mom? What was with that gooey junk you put in my lunch today?"

Not having packed anything unusual, it took a few moments to figure out that he was referring to the delicious homemade peach tarts I'd made and packed into a plastic sandwich bag, which due to the tumbler-dryer effect of being in the boys backpack all day long and rendered it unidentifiable.

Naturally, he thought it was another one of my 'jokes' and tossed it.

The joke was on him, however...as he missed out on a delicious dessert! (Totally counts for bonus points in the lunch game, by the way.)

However, my all-time best caper (not counting the small jar of leftover capers, that is) was one I pulled off the last week of school in May.

Though sufficient for even his appetite, the leftover slices of pizza I packed in his lunch just didn't make the lunch sack feel quite as substantial as he seems to expect, and so, to weigh the bag down I tossed in a raw red potato.

On the way home that afternoon, he laughingly used his dad's cell phone to call what he thinks was my cell phone number (apparently punching in the number from memory), and leaves this message:

"Seriously, mom?! What was with the potato in my lunch?"

Unbeknownst to me, later that evening, Jeff receives a strange call from some mom with an unfamiliar area code. "Who IS this?"

Having not recognized the number, Jeff replied, "You've reached Jeff's phone."

"Oh." Pause. "Well, I think it must have been a wrong number or something..." the woman sounded rather puzzled. "The message left from your phone here sounded a lot like my son, but he was asking about his lunch? I dunno...nevermind." and hung up.

Later that evening, I'd long-since-forgotten about the potato, and Jericho said, "Oh, yeah...did you get my message mom?"

"Message?"

"About that potato?" he asks. "What was up with that?!"

"I didn't get a message." I replied, laughing at his facial expressions.

That was when Jeff, putting 2 and 2 together, mentioned his strange phone call and we all erupted into a fit of laughter realizing the confusion Jericho's mis-dialed message must have caused for some random mom out there, lol.

Ahhh, yes, but we just love when the hilarity keeps going, practically taking on a life of it's own.

Next up on the oddball items list...bittersweet baking chocolate.

Won't he be surprised, lol?

Spring Sports

Last Friday, Jericho had his first track meet of the season.

I quickly found out why it's called a track meet.

Just try keeping 'track' of all of one son's events around the track while your husband is working the meet calling out all the events via a megaphone...all while keeping 'track' of a rambunctious 4 year old who wants to do everything his big brother is doing, and you'll understand exactly what I mean.

For instance, one of Jericho's events is the 200 meter dash. They all line up at their respective starting points, and take off on the shot. (Jericho is to the left of the little boy on the sidelines).



Judah was fascinated with the gun that the Athletic Director used. "Is it real? Does it shoot bow-wets? Can I shoot it?" Lord, have mercy!

When he disappeared in the milling crowd moments later, I thought it was to go find the man with the gun. Instead, I found him out trying to get out on the track to run with all the big guys. If big brother could do it, then he could too (or so he thought).

I finally dragged him out of the way and managed to get a photo of another race. (Jericho in the center).



Later, Judah found his friend E, whose big brother seems to participate in all the same sports as Jericho. Together, these boys are quite a handful.

I spent my time running interference for both Judah and E, trying to keep them off the track and out of the way of the long-jumpers. E's mom was a tad preoccupied with her other son (who is about 18 months old), and who at the time of the following incident busy teething on the edge of a garbage can which happened to be his perfect mouth height. Blech.

So, it came time for Jericho to do the high jump again. I'd been trying to get a picture of him leaping over the bar...but Judah someone kept getting in the way of my picture-taking.

Finally, Judah and E were quietly playing with toys at my feet and my camera was poised and ready to go.

Jericho went loping around in a semicircle and flung himself up and over the bar...



and landed, a perfectly executed jump.

They raised the bar and he went again.



It was a beautiful thing.

And then, to my horror, on the 'overflow' pad beside the giant landing pad, I saw this



Judah apparently thought the landing pads resembled a giant bed, and thought that jumping on it would be great fun.

Embarrassed, I chased him off of it and we were just heading over to watch the 4-by-100 relay when he and E took off like a shot.

Seeing how much fun Judah'd had jumping, E had joined him and the two raced headlong back to the mat.



Before I could get them both off the thing they'd managed to each get in a couple of good belly slides.

When I finally rounded them up and told them not to do that again, I heard E say, "But...we love doing the penguin slide." Apparently that is the name for track events in their little world, lol.

Anyway, once again I missed Jericho's Kodak moment, but was pleased to learn that his team took 1st overall in that event.

To keep the little boys from causing the high-jumpers to have to stop circle back and re-run for their jumps, I dropped E off with his family and took Judah across the track where one of my friends from Bible study was sitting with her family. Her daughter was racing for another school.





I realized something for the first time: Had my friend had a son instead of a daughter, I might not have been quite so gracious about cheering on one of my boy's competitors, lol.

While we chatted, Judah played pretty well by himself, having found a motorcycle toy and rider in my purse. There may have also been a bribe of gum involved.

He even met a boy there, and though I don't recall them ever exhanging names, they were soon fast friends.

You just have to laugh when you hear little boys of this age play together. There is always this sense of urgency. "Hurry...da zombies are gonna get us!" with lots of running around and imaginative play. This little boy seemed to go along with whatever Judah thought up. "Don't step on da wrocks...only da grwass, or dey'll getcha." They pretended pretty well together for quite a while.

When they tired of that, they began hopping around like jackrabbits or kangaroos or something.

E found us again, and before long they were all turning somersaults.





But alas, the boys families soon moved on to their respective siblings next events, and having gotten distracted, I once again had to chase Judah off the track in just the nick of time.

Judah hadn't had a nap and was getting pretty cram-all-I-can-in-before-I-crash-from-exhaustion squirrelly, and it was about all I could do to keep up with him through the remainder of Jericho's events.

Jericho went back to the high jump once again because each time they raised the bar he kept clearing it.

His last growth spurt has made him all knees and elbows, but that's worked in his favor. He had the perfect lope necessary to clear 4 feet, 4 inches. He sailed right over the bar.

While waiting in line for them to raise the bar again, some athletes from other schools were asking him, "Dude what grade are you in? You're GOOD." Turns out they were all bigger 8th graders. He was the lone 7th grader making it to that level.

He attempted 4 feet 6 inches, but bumped the bar. Bummer.

Anyway, he was delighted to take 1st in the high jump overall for JV, and learned after placing in every event that this might mean he's been bumped up to Varsity for that event.

THATTA BOY, JERICHO!!

**Ahem**. Sorry for the outburst.

Anyway, in spite of all the keepin' track this mama had to do, it was a fun afternoon.

Randoms

Our craft class at church decided to get a jump on Easter gifts for the old folks home, instead of waiting until the last minute the day before things were to be delivered (as happened with Valentines).

On Monday, several of us met to paint eggs.

They looked so pretty where we set them up to dry, that I was bummed I didn't have my camera along with me.

So, at AWANA last night, I had the presence of mind to both bring my camera and remember to go get the desired photo.

It was a win-win night for me last night, I'm telling you.

The problem is, one of the men who works in the group that meets in the fellowship hall 'caught' me leaning in for close ups on the curious little shelf between the microwave and the refrigerator, and looked at me like I'd sprouted a third eye.

Don't worry, Dan. I know it looked odd, but...

Oh, nevermind.

It's hard to explain to some folks why we bloggers do the things we do.

Here they are...my preeeeetties.





:: :: :: ::

Judah recently attended the 5th birthday party of his friends, known affectionately around these parts as "The Twins".

Their mother had the genius idea to get a cardboard toy house as one of their birthday gifts and let the party guests go to town with fingerpaints all over it.

It was a beautiful thing, and kept the kids happily occupied for quite some time.

The best part is that the twins will be able to play in this work of art for weeks to come.

While there, Judah mixed the colors on his palette all by himself and remarked, "I maked teaow, mama."



And indeed he had.

The boy knows color. Especially since his older brother is a particular fan of Teal.



He also brought a craft home from AWANA last night.

"My dino is cam-o-fwa-thsjhe"



And indeed it was.

As were his hands and shirt by the time all was said and done.

In the gushing words of Tour Guide Barbie from Toy Story 2, "He's going to be an artist"

:: :: :: ::

On the way home from Bible study yesterday morning, Judah must have been feeling a bit hungry.

"I can't wait for spwring!" he says kind of out of nowhere.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because I can't wait to get a goat and some wlittle chicken nuggets."

He meant chicks.

And it was an idea that isn't yet set it stone, but let me tell you, this boy is pushing for it.

Sucker that I am, I wanted to run out and get them for him right away.

I'm happy to say that I restrained that impulse, and instead took him out for chicken nuggets.

We'll deal with the cold hard reality of just where chicken comes from at a later date.

:: :: :: ::

Lest anyone think I don't give fair 'coverage' to our other son, I give you this:



Oh, the blood, sweat and tears that I the boy went through to earn this score on his big writing assignment at school.

(Mom, you remember the agony of those nights when I was in Mr. Falcocchio's class writing up my State report? Well, NOW I understand. And appreciate alllllll that it took for you to help set me on a path to legible, coherent writing.)

One of the reasons I don't post much about Jericho anymore is that I don't want to embarrass him.

The poor kid is currently stuck in that awkward stage of life known as puberty.

Some folks in my life insist on pronouncing it (Poo-ber-ty), but I prefer the (pew-ber-ty) pronunciation. Either way, puberty stinks.

Christian comedian Daren Streblow had it right by comparing it to the "larvae stage of life".

It's a painful place to be, stuck in the murky waters between boy and man.

Especially when he can't help that his voice sounds a little like the neighing of a horse when he yells at his brother, "HEeeeEeEeeeEyyYyyy!...giIIiiIive that baAaAck!

Those vowel sounds are killer.

However, I couldn't resist the following, and told him it was fair game for "the blog".

While working in my craft room one afternoon, I heard some huffing and puffing sounds coming from the kitchen. I peeked out the door and witnessed this:



Some kid laying down all kinds of strange Ninja moves on an invisible opponet using a plastic lettuce knife.

He looked a bit sheepish when he heard the shutter clicking on my camera. "WeEeEEel...at leeEeast I'm using my IiiIimagination!"

Yeah, but could you please leave kitchen utensils in their drawer? We don't need any more trips to the ER.

But, as my grandma always used to say, "This, too, shall pass."