Academic Challenge

I went to Levi's 2nd academic challenge match yesterday. This one was especially fun because it was against his cousin's team (my niece). Both kids did well. Levi answered 12 right and his cousin got 4 right, including the current events question "On February 3rd, who won the Super Bowl?"

Levi's school won 61-41. They have won both of their matches now. His adviser asked me to volunteer at the next one in March.

My mom was there also and then I spent the afternoon with her, we visited 2 sets of elderly aunts & uncles, both uncles are in poor health. One is recovering from a stroke, while the other is fading due to old age (mid 90's).

I then picked up the kids from school, dropped my mom back at her house, and came home for the evening. Dinner, homework, video games & tv, bedtime snacks & stories, it was about as "normal" as it gets for us.

Working With Dad

The local drama club always comes to the pizzeria where I work every year after putting on their play. Usually we are unprepared and the order-takers and cooks are overwhelmed. Since I have a stepdaughter in the play this year, I was aware of the schedule and volunteered to show up and help out for an hour or so.

Since this was a night that I had my kids, and since they had helped buss the tables after a soccer team party a few weeks ago, I let them come along and help.

"Levi" helped set up chairs for the large group. "Bess" and "Rae" helped serve drinks, refilling soda pitchers and passing out cups, lids, and straws. All 3 kids helped fold pizza boxes while the drama kids were eating. The girls also helped driver (and part-time waitress) Kristie to take down the salad bar.

And they all 3 helped buss the tables after the drama group left, dumping pop into our "big red bucket", paper and food waste in the trash, and dishes to be washed into the dish tubs.

Kristie made over $50 in tips on the group, and she was nice enough to share $2 each with my 3 kids.

I've found that when kids know what they are doing and have tasks they are capable of accomplishing, they actually like to pitch in and work. This is especially true when they see others around them working also.

Partent-Teacher School Conferences

I think it's important to be involved in my kids education. Besides reviewing their work on the nights that they are with me, another thing I always do is to attend their school conferences.

Conferences were scheduled for last night for first grader "Rae" and fourth grader "Bess". Both girls are doing great in school and this was more of a way for me to meet their teachers and help them to understand more about the girls than a time to express any concerns.

Rae is reading very well, much better than last year, and her teacher says that her ability in math is outstanding. She does have to work on staying on task and not daydreaming.

Bess is also doing great. She is concerned that her time away from class for her ABLE or advanced classes is causing her to fall behind in social studies and science. Her teacher believes she is doing fine in these subjects but agreed to give her a little extra attention in these subjects when she returns from her advanced classes.

"Levi" didn't have conferences as he is at a different school. He did try out for a travelling basketball team on Monday and Tuesday and he was not selected, so he was a little bothered by that.

Because of the tryouts, I didn't get the kids on my usual Tuesday night. Because of the conferences, if I would have brought them to our house last night we wouldn't have gotten home until almost 9 PM, just in time to go to bed and get up early the next day for the ride back to their mom's. So I decided it was in their best interest to just spend some time with be before conferences and then head back to their mom's for the night.

I picked them up at 5:30, we had dinner at Bob Evans, and then I took them back to their mom's before my first conference at 6:45.

Saturday With Dad

Since my son stayed with his mom an extra night last weekend (for a birthday party), and since I allowed their mom to pick up all 3 a couple hours early last Sunday, I was able to pick them up for a few hours today, even though it wasn't my weekend.

I picked them up at 10:30 AM and we had an indoor soccer game at noon. Our first stop was at WalMart, to pick up some Propel water bottles. On the way in, some local Cub Scouts gave us a flier. They were collecting for a food drive and wanted us to pick up an extra item. I let the kids each pick out something to give for the food drive.

On to the soccer game, where we lost 11-7. "Levi" played goalkeeper for the first half and then scored 3 goals in the 2nd half. "Bess" also played well.

After that we went to lunch at a neighboring franchise from where I work. The kids enjoy eating there, so it was a pretty good lunch.

After that, I let them have some of the candy they got last week trick-or-treating, before I drove them back to their mother's.

It was a nice day.

Tough Choices

Unfortunately, my kids are being faced with more and more tough choices lately. And I don't know what to do about it.

My night to pick up the kids is Tuesday. A couple weeks ago "Levi" arranged to switch the night to Thursday because we had a soccer game that night. After we had already planned the change, his sisters decided to join Girl Scouts and of course the first meeting was that Thursday night.

So the girls were forced to choose between spending time with me and our family, including their baby brother "Gabe", or attending their activity. They chose Girl Scouts, which is fine.

Now this weekend Levi is invited to a birthday party. I can't drive him all the way back to the party and then pick him up and drive him all the way back. I offered to him that if he wanted to attend, his mom would have to transport him or else he could just stay with his mom the entire weekend. He chose to stay so that he could attend the party.

He will miss an indoor soccer game, and a 1-mile fun run that he has run the past 2 years.

Also coming up in the next few weeks are a Saturday morning art class the girls asked about, and tryouts (and eventually practices and games) for a travelling basketball team that Luke would like to join.

When we first divorced, their mother lived 10 minutes away in the adjoining school district, and it was no big deal to take them back and forth to activities in either area. But since she moved a little over a year ago, transportation has become a significant issue. It's a 1 1/2 hour round trip. With our busy schedules and the price of gas, I just can't be driving back and forth every day. Twice a week (Tuesday & Friday nights) is enough!

As the kids become involved in more and more activities, there will be more and more times when they have to choose. And I'm sure as they get older they will more often choose their friends over their family. And it breaks my heart.

But it is my intention to encourage them to be involved in the activities that they enjoy, as much as possible, and not to make them feel pressured or pulled in one direction.

Competition

"Levi" called me at 4PM on Friday, all in a panic because one of his molars was loose. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to lose them or not. I told him if it was loose, it was probably because he needed to lose it.

Anyhow by 5:30 when I picked them up, "Bess" had a loose molar too. She sat in the back seat and worked it and before we had completed the 45 minute drive from their mom's to my house, she had pulled it out.

Levi then went to work and got his out in the car also, but Bess was first (even though she's a year younger).

Concert With Dad

The highlight of this weekend was taking my 10 year old son "Levi" and stepson "Nolan" to their first rock concert. We went to see Sum 41, a concert previewed here in Scene Magazine.

We left home around 5 and rode the RTA downtown and then had dinner at the Tower City Food Court where Levi had his favorite, teriyaki chicken. Nolan had a ham and cheese from Arby's.

We then walked 4 blocks to the House Of Blues. We made a quick walk through and ended up in the balcony where they have just 6 rows of seats. We got the last set of 3 together, about 4 rows back in the right corner. They were very good seats, as long as the fat chick 2 rows up wasn't standing up taking pictures.

The opening act was Monty Are I. They were pretty loud and, since I wasn't familiar with any of their songs, it was difficult to hear the lyrics. Plus there was 4 bands worth of equipment on an already crowded stage. They were a high energy group and definitely had fun, and got the crowd started during their 30-minute set.

Next on the card was Amber Pacific. Their 30 minutes of music played a little clearer. They also announced that their new album, Truth In Sincerity, would be on sale for just $5! We picked this up on the way out, and we've just started to listen to it a few times. Two girls behind us from Detroit, Michigan came back from the break with Amber Pacific shirts.

I got the boys each a Red Bull in between Amber Pacific and the next band . . .

Yellowcard came out last before the headliner and played for about 50 minutes. They played a song called Keeper and I joked to Levi that they definitely must have played soccer growing up. With the gear gone from the first 2 bands, the guys from Yellowcard actually had room to move around on stage. Alot of people were definitely into the band and were singing along to the songs.

Finally it was time for the band we came to see, Sum 41. They played for almost an hour and a half, doing their most popular older songs, and about half the songs from the new Underclass Hero disk.

Lead singer Deryck Whibley entertained in between songs, introducing bass player Cone, drummer Steve-O 32, and new touring guitarist BrownTom, who replaced original band member Dave Brownsound.

Deryck took a few pages from Green Day's Billie Jo, picking 3 fans from the pit to sit side-stage during the show, and then later challenging a random crowd member to play a better guitar solo than him.

After a 75 minute set, they came out for a 2-song encore, playing crowd favorite "Fat Lip" and then ended the show with Deryck on the drums and Steve-O singing "Pain For Pleasure."

The boys and I had a great time, and of course, they wore their t-shirts the next day.