over the past week while our house has been painted, logan has built a gallery of photos like the following.

guess its time to re-evaluate our parenting strategy…

in case you’re unsure, it reads “once upon a time”.

hopefully its a testament to her mother’s curious accent and not how she will perform in future spelling bees…

the kids all get to show off their talents on beam, bars, floor and the parents get to ooh and aah. like every other children’s event, when its all over a prize is awarded. a gold medal with an olympic torch on it.

natalie told logan when she was a little girl she would have to demonstrate some level of proficiency in an event and then she would be given a star that could be sewn in to her leotard.

logan laughed at this and said “i just have to be there”.

a few of my own ideas…

“i’m only stepping on 3/5ths of the constitution”

“you can’t expect me to clean up every mess you leave behind”

nothing upsets white, middle-aged men like minorities or someone down on their luck crashing the party…

of course logan was disappointed she couldn’t come too, but worse yet, she tried to stay up until we got home, because in her words

two people aren’t enough for a family

she was elated in the morning when we were a family of four again.

i’m thinking my request for (just about anything) starts looking pretty reasonable in comparison…

the day logan came home from hospital after her surgery, she had to wait all day for her brother to come home. she asked repeatedly when he would be home.

when they finally got to see each other after a concerned day and a half apart it was as if each had been given the drink of water they needed after a long, hot day in the sun.

not having had that type of affection with my own siblings, i am beyond elated to see it between ethan and logan.

logan’s reason for wanting to return to school.

and her classmates didn’t disappoint.

i don’t think its possible to orchestrate the intimate, vital moments with children that are the most rewarding to both yourself and the kids.

over the past few weeks, my time with the kids has been limited more than usual, but is now beginning to return to normal.

last night every minute, including those spent parenting (serving dinner, taking showers and finishing homework) was quantity time and priceless to me.

i don’t talk to my living biological mother.

when i was twelve and homeless, i used to sleep in a boat that was stored on the bottom floor of a parking garage.

so, when i got this in my email:

BTW, did Natalie tell you we share the honor of being 9th grade high school dropouts? I almost never mention that to new acquaintances but natalie said you’re not shy about it. I should adopt that attitude! Looking forward to trading stories sometime.

i responded:

all ninth grade drop-out stories that end up with the delinquent an honorable and productive member of society should be shared, and proudly.

i’m looking forward to hearing your story.

my father would give me the lawn mower and say “don’t come back until you have earned at least two dollars”

wonder how that would fly in today’s “my child needs an escort to the bus stop” culture…

i’ve had a great experience and am going to tell all my friends! and i’ve got a big mouth.

we also, had a great experience. and while i don’t have a big mouth, i do have this web site.

ok, it was in chalk…

and maybe on a school building…

and tagged with his name…

but still, we should encourage children to write.

on friday night i got to take a sports car on an hour and a half drive through windy mountain roads.

luckily, as much as i enjoyed the drive, it was embarrassing to stop at a light and feel pity from the next lane as the young-in pondered how my family was adjusting to my mid-life crisis.

so this itch will remain unscratched until i actually hit that mid life crisis…

logan: i left it there on purpose, i wanted you to be able to look at it and enjoy it

there is one argument that says i am a sucker for my daughter. i would contend, how could you not reward such a thoughtful little person…

consider yourself warned.

she has needed this for a long time but we have deferred surgery because we wanted to be sure it wasn’t going to work itself out without intervention.

now, that we have finally made the choice to have the operation the insurance joy kicks in.

our ent physician can perform the surgery in two centers. we can’t go to the center we would like to go to because it is out of network. but while the second center is in network, they won’t guarantee that all the service providers, like the anesthesiologist, in the second center are in network.

this week the insurance company sent us a threat letter stating that we had better know all the fine print in our insurance plan or have our checkbook ready. near the top of the letter, i guess to delude themselves, they wrote:

treatment decisions are made between you and your physician or health care professional.

i guess if i’m good with paying for everything a la carte, they are correct.

of course this letter is doubly annoying because natalie has been in a months long fight with the insurance company to pay for her routine annual exam. the physician didn’t use the right code originally when submitting the claim (even thought anyone with a brain could have seen it was a routine, covered procedure). when the physician’s office resubmitted the claim as directed by the insurance company, the insurance company rejected the corrected claim as a duplicate.

i really can think of no worse way to manage health care than the system we currently have in place. and we allegedly have “good” insurance and are in good health.

my favorite because i remember when my daughter did the same thing.

my favorite because this time it wasn’t my daughter and now my kids are old enough to only complain about the tramp, not sit down and demand a return home.

my favorite because not only did we threaten to leave her behind but suggested that hungry mountain lions might be coming along shorty and she still didn’t budge.

day two in colorado, hiking in thirty degree weather.

day three in colorado, skiing in thirty degree weather with four inches of fresh powder. finally, we got the event right with the environment.

we all have sun burned noses to prove it.

ethan said he was very angry about the new program. he was angry because he thinks its being done because of just a few problem kids in the class, and he’s angry because its yet more rules.

like his father, ethan can be good on his own, but if someone creates a rule stating to be good, that’s an overwhelming temptation to break the rule.

when i asked if he got all the points possible he said “no”, he then went on to say that he is going to try and get zero points every day to demonstrate to the teacher that he disapproves of the new program.

i suggested that may not be in his best interest and explained why not, but inside i knew that when a stupid rule is created someone has to say so…