A Spencer Moment...

So we were eating dinner the other night, and out of nowhere, Spencer says the following:

SPENCER: Mom, I wish I was Black.
ME: Why do you want to be Black?
SPENCER: -SILENCE-
ME: IS IT BECAUSE YOUR FRIENDS, SONJE, SOLOMON, AND MICAH ARE BLACK AND YOU WANT TO BE LIKE THEM?
SPENCER: -MORE SILENCE-.....NO, ALL THE GOOD RUNNING BACKS ARE BLACK.....LT, ERNIE DAVIS (from that Disney show), WESTBROOK.....
ME: -SILENCE-
ME: -MORE SILENCE- (WELL, WHAT SHOULD I SAY, THE KID'S RIGHT?!)
ME: WELL, SWEETIE, YES THOSE RUNNING BACKS ARE ALL REALLY GOOD AND YES BLACK PEOPLE ARE REALLY FAST, BUT SO WILL YOU IF YOU KEEP RUNNING AND PRACTICING.

Poor guy, he was so BUMMED! I didn't want to shoot down his dreams. He is a fast kid, but again..... he is right. It's been 2 days and I'm still racking my brain and can't come up with 1 amazing WHITE NFL running back!

Oh the things our kids say! Rob and I had a good laugh later about the whole thing. He's such a football lover and wants to be like his favorite player-- Ladanian Tomlinson, RB for the San Diego Chargers, and he was just so cute about it! He knows so much about football that he recognizes that running backs are in fact Black. I love kids' pure honesty and how they voice their true emotions without worrying about how it all sounds. --Man, I love this kid!

Who knows, maybe Spencer will be the first? -Or maybe we'll just have to slowly transition him to QB or WR....plenty of white guy opportunities there!

Spencer Reaches 100!

Yesterday at school, Spencer reached his goal of running 100 laps at Junior Joggers. To achieve this goal it has meant that every Wednesday that there was Junior Jogger's, Spencer would give up his play time during recess and go run laps. I should mention that this started back in October and that Spencer would plan his outfit accordingly, so he would be able to run really fast.... He would also plead with me every Wednesday morning to have his lunch put in a brown paper bag or have hot lunch, so that he wouldn't have to take his lunch box back to his classroom and thus be the first on the field and have more time to run laps. He has worked so hard and ran somewhere around 50 miles. His legs and feet have hurt and he has enjoyed every minute of it. We're so proud of him for sticking to it and reaching his goal. I thought of taking a roll of toilet paper and having a finish line for Spencer to run through, but Rob thought that was a little over kill. When Spencer got home I asked him if he would have liked my idea, but with a puzzled look on his face he had no idea what the toilet paper was for. Apparently he's never watched very many races and didn't understand the concept of running and breaking the finish line. He probably would have just ducked underneath it. Oh well, I thought it would have been fun, .....maybe next year.

Witnessing an UGLY Moment

Last night I was rummaging through our storage unit for a few items. Right across from our unit was a mom, her 2 boys, and her screaming baby, who were sitting in the front of a really old, rusted SUV. As I was on the phone with Rob trying to locate something, this lady just started screaming at her kids. It's late at night, dark, (and this lady was rather large and rough looking) ---thought I should add that, but anyways, her boys, who were around 10 & 6 were apparently trying to prepare a bottle for the baby. I guess they added too much formula or something that made their mom so irate, I'm not really sure, all I know is that the mom just started shredding those boys with the most abusive and foul language. It was so bad and she was screaming at the top of her lungs. I froze. At first I was thinking, I can't believe she doesn't care that I'm standing so close and can hear what she was saying. I wanted to say something, but honestly was a little frightened of this trashy mom. Think of a mid 35-year old woman who looks like she lived out in the woods in a shack of a cabin and could split wood with her axe with one swift chop. There were a few softball bats in our storage unit, and I thought of grabbing one and going over and beating her with it. I kept trying to think of what I should do, but had a feeling that I might just make things worse for those boys and she might take out her anger on them even more after all was said and done. --Maybe that's just a cop out, but regardless...I can't get it out of my mind. I was instantly so angry and shaky and wanted to go take this lady OUT, how dare she talk to HER kids that way, but I was scared... When I got out of there I called Rob and he tried to make me feel better. I asked him what he would have done, he said he'd have called the Cops. I wish I would have. I wonder if that baby was even in a car seat. They were all shoved in the front seat. There's no way it could have seated 4 people legally. I'm so mad at myself! It was such an ugly moment! All I can think of how horrible it is for those kids. And I didn't say anything. I don't know...I guess I know what I would say and do next time if I was ever in this situation again. But the really sad thing is that I'm sure it's so common for those poor kids and for so many others kids who have shoddy parents. Today, I have made a concerted effort to speak softly and nicely to Spencer & Carter and to take my role and calling as their Mom a little more seriously.

Just thinking about it gets me all worked up again. I don't know, have you ever witnessed an ugly moment like this? What did you do? If, in the future you did, what will you do?

A Nice Surprise....

Last weekend I played in my first USTA Tournament. It was so much fun and to boot.... we even won. I had 2 doubles matches with my partner and we won them both. I had 1 singles match, my very first by the way, and barely managed to pull out a win in the tiebreaker. -Let me just say it wasn't very pretty. I was so stinking nervous! But it is just so much fun to be part of an all girls team and to play competitively at something I love. Unfortunately Rob and the boys were unable to come, because a few were sick, it was a late match, and the whole logistics of having one car just didn't work out. But when I came home Friday night, the first thing I saw when I walked in the door was this awesome poster that my boys had made. It made my whole night. Spencer explained the whole thing: which pictures he colored, and which picture Carter colored, how it was Dad's idea, and he showed me the things that he wrote, and well-- I absolutely LOVED it! I love that Rob thought of me and involved the boys, I love how they had fun doing it, and I love to be loved!

Seattle

Our Trip to Seattle

We decided to go up to Seattle and have a fun weekend before Rob had to work in Tacoma from Monday thru Thursday. So we took off Friday before Easter and drove up. This vacation was a little different than most, being that I planned what we were going to do and was in charge of all the information. I figured early on, that maps and directions are not my strength. So our first "funny" (that's what I'm choosing to call them, though maybe not so funny at the time(s)) was on our way to the hotel I wanted to stop and see Snoqualmie Falls. Well the map I had gave directions coming from downtown Seattle, so we missed our exit and ended up backtracking 6+ miles, which I was informed of a few times! But we made it and we laughed, .....see our first "funny." Snoqualmie Falls was really fun and beautiful. We enjoyed a little hike and the boys enjoyed running along the trail, climbing up trees and rocks, and daring to get really close to the edge of the lookout points. We checked into our hotel in Bellevue with a good deal I found on Expedia, yea me, and then encountered our second "funny" moment. I realize that in only half of the first day we'd had 2 of these wonderful moments, but I just really focused on the fun in downtown Seattle and forgot to mapquest directions to our hotel. Oops! Luckily, with Rob's Blackberry and his mad navigational skills we made it to our hotel with only a few turn arounds. The rest of the vacation went really smoothly, I think I just really by-passed Friday. Saturday we went to the Pacific Science Center and spent the entire day there. It was amazing and there were so many things to do as you will see in all the pics below. So many exhibits: butterfly house, Body Works, Laser shows, IMAX theatre, GPS scavenger hunt, and even a Madden tournament, which Spencer so desperately wanted to do. But you had pre-register, and I don't know how he would have faired against all those Men. We saw the Space Needle after and enjoyed some Indian cuisine for dinner. On Easter morning, the boys were lucky the Easter Bunny still came! We headed to the Museum of Flight and it was so amazing! We all love planes and enjoyed the displays, especially the WWI and WWII exhibits they had. Rob and Spencer went on a simulation ride and from the outside, all you could hear was Rob squealing with delight! They turned completely around, flipped upside down and around over and over just like the real deal. When it was over and the cockpit opened up, you could tell Spencer was relieved to be done, but had a huge smile on his face at the same time. The boys made kites, we saw Air Force One where 4 different Presidents had used the airplane, including Kennedy and Nixon. The boys took a dip in the pool and we were all exhausted after that. Monday, I took the boys to the Tacoma Children's Museum. It was a huge imagination playland! I think it was wonderful, because at all the exhibits the day before, they were not allowed to touch anything! They ran from one room to the next. And for 4 hours were thoroughly entertained. It was a great day and I was just glad to have gotten us there and back without getting lost. The end of our trip consisted of a bowling adventure where, I beat Rob, wahoo, and then on our search for where to eat dinner, our car of 6 years sputtered and died after barely making it through a busy intersection. We knew the transmission had been going out for some time, but unfortunately it gave out quite a ways from home. Well, at least it didn't up and die when I was driving home with the boys. I made it home the next day with a rental while Rob had to finish work and is due to come home today. Not quite sure what we're going to do about the car, but at least we were able to have all our fun before it quit.