Stop and Smell the Roses

The girls before the game
Picutre of the JumboTron
Zoe cracking her peanuts
Zoe enjoying her ice cream

Great seats

Stop and Smell the Roses was an album released by Ringo Star in 1981. I took time last night to stop and smell the roses and they smelled pretty good.

Yesterday Uncle Jason called me and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the Diamondbacks game. He had four tickets so I decided to do a weekday Daddy/Daughter Date and I took all three girls to the game.

I got home early and picked-up the girls and headed off to the game. We parked and got to our seats before the first pitch. Kristine catch a rubber ball that the mascot was throwing out and the girls got their images put up on the JumboTron. The seats were amazing, we were right behind the Diamondback’s dugout.

The setting was beautiful – the roof was open and it was just a great day to be at the ballpark. But the best part was being with my girls. Kristine and Nichole were getting along, which is a rare occasion. Zoe had some cute saying like; the Diamondback’s mascot is a bobcat so Zoe said “Dad who let the Lion out of the cage?” then a moment later I said “Come on D’Backs we need to get a hit” and Zoe says “We don’t need to get a hit, they do.” And before the game I said that these are some “sweet” seats and Zoe said “No, the “suites” are up there”, pointing to the suites. Then she asked if we were going to the suite because she liked the bathrooms in the suites.

I never got any complaints about how long the game was and there was no quarreling. I did tell them that I would buy them a treat – I guess peanuts and corn nuts don’t count as treats. During the fifth inning everyone needed a bathroom break and we decided to get our treats then. Kristine told me that Nichole was enjoying the game because of the two cute boys that were sitting in front of us. That she kept commenting on how good they smelled. I guess they were wearing Hollister cologne – Nichole said it was $250 a bottle – read my previous post; they also have $60 shirts. So when I saw Nichole I had to share with her what Kristine had told me - and added that my birthday was coming up and I needed some new cologne. I told her that I will get some and wear it all the time so that when she smells it she will think of her dad and not cute teenage boys. She didn’t like that idea – I told her that $250 was a small price to pay. She also wanted to clarify that the cute boy was sitting across the isle from us and that the two boys in front of us only smelled good.

So the game ended with the D’Backs winning. We had some exciting parts of the game, a couple home runs, some great defensive plays, a stolen base and someone in the stands got hit by a foul ball. So we saw it all. But the best part was during the sixth inning when I took a moment to smell the roses and think how lucky I am to have three wonderful girls. I have to say that it smelled better than Hollister cologne.

A Budget Story for Lisa

I was at lunch today and got a text from my sister-in-law Lisa saying that she enjoyed reading my blog. But she asked if I had any good stories about the budget we implemented a while ago or was it scrapped. I had to chuckle for a moment because Penni had just given me a book to read about getting financially fit. So to answer your question - no the budget is in full force.

A little while later my phone rang and it was Penni – I was in the middle of something so I let it go to voicemail. Then she called again in less than a minute. Which is never a good sign -either this is an emergency or I am in trouble. We have very little emergencies in our family. So a couple minutes later I called her back. But now I have my budget story……………

Nichole had been planning a trip to the mall for weeks. Today the girls didn’t have any school, so Nichole wanted to go to the mall with her friends. When I first heard about her plan I didn’t see how she was going to get it past her mom. But she did – what I found out this morning was that Penni was going to take them to the mall and then stay at the mall while Nichole went with her friends. I hope Nichole sees what a good mother she has. Penni took Zoe around the mall for look for birthday suggestions and I guess Zoe has a long list of wants.

Well they were at the mall and Nichole took her clothing budget money – which was $60. At some point Penni met up with Nichole and Nichole wanted to show Penni her new purchase. Nichole had found a new shirt from Hollister for (drum roll please) $60. The emergency that I was being called about was how to handle the situation. A sixty dollar shirt – Penni’s first response was that she could get 6-8 shirts for $60. Then Penni proceeded to tell me that the shirt was not modest enough to wear by itself, that she needed another shirt under it to make it appropriate. At the end of our phone conversation Penni said that she need to walk down to See's candies and have a peice of chocolate to calm her down.

My response to Penni was to let her keep it – don’t let her take the tags off and hopefully after a night’s sleep she will make a better decision. But don’t - rip into her in the middle of the mall. Which was probably not going to happened – Penni’s biggest concern was that we have been spending lots of time teaching our girls about budgeting and not expecting to get everything that they want. And if Nichole wanted this shirt bad enough then that was her choice – and she was going to have to suffer the concequences. The concequesnce being – Mom I don’t have anything to wear – When are you going to do laundry? I only have one shirt and I wore it yesterday. When I get home I will have to take a picture of Nichole wearing her $60 shirt. I am sure she looks cute wearing it.

The Loose Tooth

I will be honest, most nights I come home to a house that someone has done something stupid and upset their mother. I walk in the house and immediately want to walk right out the back door. Well maybe it just seems that way.

Then there are those - oh so rare - occasions that I love coming home. Like last night, I open the garage door and out pops Zoe – “Dad I have a loose tooth, see” - as I notice the red spotted paper towel that she is carrying. I think that this will be number three for Zoe. Number 1 hurt so bad that Penni took her over to Uncle Jason’s office and he pulled it pain-free with the help of some numbing. Number two was pulled out at school – never knew the details. And now we have number three. Nichole and Kristine pulled there own teeth, so I never got a chance to “help”. So tonight Zoe was on a mission to get her tooth out. She quickly wanted me to call Uncle Jason and get the pain stuff. I didn’t feel that it was an emergency and didn’t want to bug him – but on the inside I have always wanted to use power tools or pliers to extract a tooth. Or even some dental floss would be great. So I called Jason and the pain free stuff was at his office – but then I heard the words that I wanted to hear. In summary because I can’t remember it word for word but I came away with the feeling that I had the green light to rip the tooth out. It put a little smile on my face.

So I get off the phone and tell Zoe the pain free stuff is at Uncle Jason’s office – I guess he doesn’t have a bottle at the house – just for fun. But I have plan B - wait here while I go get my tools. So I get the needle nose pliers, and I just wasn’t feeling it, they slipped off the tooth to easy. So then I went to the dental floss, I had a hard time getting it around the tooth. But I finally did. I had this vision of me yanking the tooth out and blood squirting out. Not a good thing. So I first tighten the floss and as I did it moved up the tooth and now I have it wrapped around the tooth and I can see that if I yank on the floss it is going to go right along the gum line. This whole time I had gotten Zoe an ice cube to suck on, my thought was that it was going to numb the pain but it really only gave her something to do and kept her mind off the tooth.

So here we are at the moment of truth, the floss is securely around the tooth. Zoe knew what is next – so I am stroking the floss like it is a long piece of hair. Because I needed to have the moment of surprise to be on my side. Going over my mind replayed should I do it – how hard should I yank – am I going to be the hero or the goat. Penni and Kristine are glued to the action and then ………. I yank on the floss…………the floss goes flying…….. and the tooth………well it just stayed were it was ……… Zoe’s face said it all …she didn’t know whether to cry or laugh ….. being a card carrying female ….. she chose to cry and fell right into her mothers arms. But I had just completed one thing on my list of 1000 things to do before I die – rip out one of my kid’s teeth.