Jake celebrating his win at Spinners by playing "We Are The Champions" and waving his arm in victory. Luckily no celebratory dancing was involved since it would have brought the moment down with a massive dose of white-man rhythm.

Jake got picked to run the 300m hurdles and the B team 4x400 relay in the first track meet......As a freshman. He places 4th in the meet!!!!!!!

Both the JV and Varsity won their brackets at the 2012 Aggieland Classic. Varsity actually played in the D1 division. JV pretty much manhandled whoever they played and clinched it with a win over Round Rock. Varsity beat Westwood in a nail biter.

At least I managed to get one dance 😘

It was supposed to be 53 degrees. More like 40 with wind chill. Hat purchased in self-preservation.

Got back from Charlotte today.
- I noticed that the movie Jake was going on a sort-of-double-date to was no longer showing at the time he'd planned and texted him. Got back an "Oh wow thank you very much".
- Got home and got an unsolicited hug from Taylor
- Chilled out with Matt and watched a litter Superman Batman
- Taking Jake to thebmovie and he asked me to turn the music down when he was calling Hudson. I asked him if he was embarrassed that his Dad had Jay-Z on. He replied "No, that's actually pretty chill"
- Got home as Matt was leaving with the Townsend's. He came running over and handed me a house key because he'd taken the timento make sure the place was totally locked up without being told.

One of those moments that makes you remember what's so special about being a dad. We decided to have Christmas Eve dinner at Amore's. I'd spent most of the afternoon with the kids, particularly Matt and Taylor after we'd left my folks house after brunch. At dinner it was non-stop  "Dad.....Daddy...." as the kids wanted to talk about whatever happened to pop into their brains.

It was actually humorous since it was almost like Laura was invisible. It was also difficult to have a moment of mental peace. She and I started laughing each time another "Daddy" was uttered. It could have easily been frustrating. Instead it made me realize just how little time I have left when these guys will think I'm the center of their little communication world.  It felt wonderful and I loved every little interruption.

Did u ask them about my bracket? And my rubber bands?

Nothing like feeling that pressure when your little brother beats you in something. After Matt had the  braces for a little while and got some compliments from the ortho on how he was doing, he made getting out of them ahead of Jake a goal for him. He's relishes the opportunities when a pre-pubescent 12-year old can stick it to his big brother. 

Old lime in the nuts. Ouch!

Taylor's doing the 6th grade trip to Sky Ranch this week. Gone for 3 days. I told her we got her a little dessert to help remember us.....gave her a pillow pet called Chocolate Moose.

I was explaining to Matt that if he didn't take care of something I was going to be "beau coupe pissed". Matt made a point of explaining that I didn't need to amplify that I was pissed.....pissed is pissed.

She made first chair in clarinet!!!!

We were having a family dinner and there were several games being shown on TVs scattered around the restaurant. Taylor noticed that the Rangers were playing Seattle. Here's the exchange:
Taylor: "Daddy, what's a Mariner?"
Me (not stopping to think): "Umm, its a seaman"
Taylor: "What's a seaman"
Laura: "I knew that was coming......oops"

Did I mention we were at BJ's Brewhouse?

Haven't done any updates in a while so the next few will be waaaaay off on the actual dates.

Please see note about 2 Mile time met.

Thanks.

On the way home from running a few errands with the boys, Jake talked me into another round of driving around ye parking lot. His main goal was to have Matt in the car and scare the crap out of him. He did fine in the lot, but then I kicked it up a notch and told him to drive us home. He did great although I did find myself doing the iron grip on the door armrest and had to consciously unpucker when we parked in the driveway. Just going to take a little getting used to. Matt didn't seem to be permanently damaged.

Had my first turn with Jake behind the wheel. We did the big parking lot across from the Episcopal Church. We both spent most of the time laughing. He was actually very good for this being only his second time.

Started off with a wonderful smoked salmon breakfast. Then I got to drive Jake over to TCU for a four day lacrosse camp. He was going to be gone and I was heading out to both Tampa and the Bay Area. When we were getting close to Fort Worth, he told me he was going to miss me "especially if his roommate was a jerk. That's as sweet as it gets. That evening the remaining four of us hit Flying Saucer for a little food and Spinner. When we got home, I got my presents: two really hot ties and two pairs of cufflinks, including some bike ones. The topper though was the card from Matt.

Totally made me choke up and then it did the same to Taylor when she read it. Part of it is that I simply don't think I do that good of job as a dad and I worry that they don't really know what a good dad is. Hope they keep trying to improve when they get the chance. I made the kids promise that they wouldn't "let's make Daddy cry" the goal of their cards from here on out.

Matt decided to go out for baseball this year with his Cistercian class. Only problem was that after two practices and one game we had the infamous Spring Break wrist situation. He wasn't able to play till after the first of May and then we had the bad luck of having Sunday practice get canceled two or three times. Still he stuck with it and was able to play in the last games of the season. In the very last game he got on base twice when he was patient and got walked. At the end of the game, Laura had sent me with Popsicles. Only slight problem was that they were kept cold with dry ice. For some reason, the Bomb Pops wound up being so cold that when Matt and Craig David stuck them in their mouths, the pops stuck to their tongues. Craig David was particularly proud that when he ripped it off, his tongue was bloody. In the meantime, Taylor's 5th grade softball team is kicking butt on the 6th graders. Taylor's gone something like 5 for 5 in the last couple if games and had on shot over the right fielders head that brought in three runs and got her to 3rd. They've also managed to survive brutally hot games, even outlasting one team that had on shorts, but had to forfeit (we were stll killing them).