The Dog Ate My Homework

Halloween is our thing. We love dressing up. We love carving pumpkins. We love making our house spooky. We love burying ourselves in a big hole in the yard and jumping out at unsuspecting trick-or-treaters as they approach our door.


Each year we try to come up with cool and unique pumpkin carving ideas. We spend hours looking for the perfect pumpkins to complete our plan. We carve pumpkins like this:














This year, I carved an evil snowman made from three white pumpkins. It took forever to clean out the slimy, stringy white pumpkins. It looked great. Here is what is left of it:




Yes - my dog ate my pumpkin. When I saw him sniffing around the carved pumpkins, I covered them with a tarp. And put folding chairs on the edges. And put a cooler on top. He still managed to get under the tarp and drag out the pumpkins. He even ate the candle.

At least he didn't get these, which have been moved to the safety of the garage and will only get one night of glory:

Beyond The Dead

Every month or so, our school opens up a glass front case in front of the cafeteria and calls it the "School Store." They sell pencils, erasers, notebooks, key chains, and other little trinkets for $0.25 to $1.00. My boys look forward to these school store days so they can buy 100 tiny erasers for 50 cents.

My entrepreneur Luke has figured out a new use for the school store. He buys highlighters for a quarter and then resells them to people visiting our house for $1.00.

He has made his room a store. His desk is the display case. He has bags full of change. He has made signs of all of his inventory and what the cost is. If you are looking for a glow-in-the dark bat that cost a dollar but is being resold for three, now you know where to go.

He even has a name for his store. He wanted a Halloween name because he only wants his store to be open around holidays and Halloween was the next upcoming holiday. I suggested Ghoulish Goodies. He said, "Too lame." I suggested Dracula's Castle. He said, "Too old school." I don't even know what that means. I said, "Well what about something like 'The Other Side'?" And he said, "I know! Beyond the Dead!" I don't know if I'd shop at a store with that name, but I obviously had no acceptable options so he went with it.

He even gave me a job. He told me that I could be in charge of making the change. But, I got fired less than an hour later because I wouldn't let him have candy before dinner.

A compelling name, a varied inventory, seasonal hours, low overhead, a no-nonsense approach to managing, a 500% markup. I think I have a successful business owner in the making.

So, if you stop by for a visit be prepared to leave with something from the store. Luke is a very persuasive salesman. And he has thirteen dollars in profits to prove it.

And It Was John Who Showed Them This To Begin With

I don't know what is more annoying - this:




Or your kids watching this video over and over and then spending the rest of the week saying, "Hey, hey mom. KNIFE."

The House Where John Lives

This is the house where John lives.



This is the backyard of the house where John lives.




This is the patio in the backyard of the house where John lives.




This is the new fire pit that John built on the patio in the backyard of the house where John lives.



This is the trash can where John put his ash after having a fire in the new fire pit on the patio in the backyard of the house where John lives.

This is the garden hose that John used to put out the fire in the trash can where John put his ash after having a fire in the new fire pit on the patio in the backyard of the house where John lives.



This is what is left of the trash can after using the garden hose to put out the fire in the trash can where John put his ash after having a fire in the new fire pit on the patio in the backyard of the house where John lives.

This is proof that, even after the fire in the fire pit has been out for 24 hours, it is not safe to put ash in the trash can after having a fire in the new fire pit on the patio in the backyard of the house where John lives.

Get Rich Quick

I wouldn't describe Jack as materialistic. Although he likes to have stuff and gets excited when he thinks about the next thing he can buy, he doesn't judge people by what they do and do not have and he is just as happy with a piece of paper and a pencil than he is with his Nintendo DS.

That said, he is very interested in money, and having money, and how much things cost, and how he can get rich. Being only eight years old, his concept of "rich" is a little askew. He thinks if he had $10,000 he would be considered rich. And I guess he would be rich, for an eight year old.

Because of his desire to be rich, he is often planning and scheming. He doesn't expect the money just to fall in his lap. He knows he will have to work for it. So he spends time thinking about jobs and asking questions regarding careers and how much people get paid. He puts thought into his future career, trying to take what he loves and determine if he could get rich doing it.

A recent conversation began with him asking what was the best college in the country. When I started explaining about how many colleges there were out there and how colleges were known for being the top for different areas of study, he could see that graduating from the best college in order to get rich wouldn't be as simple as he thought.

That moved on to, "How much do you get paid to own a newspaper? Are people that own newspapers rich?"

I answered that some may be, but some may not be. It depends on how many people buy your newspaper. I guess that sounded too complicated for him, so he asked, "What is the best baseball college?"

I explained to him that there really isn't a baseball college, that you choose your college based on what you want to study and then can play baseball at that college if you make the team.

Also too complicated so he asked, "How much money does a butler make?"

I guess he's hoping to get rich through proximity.

Goooooo, Tigers!

John has been coaching Jack's baseball team for several seasons now. When he first started and I went to watch the games, the boys looked so cute and tiny, runny willy-nilly around the field with no idea where the ball was headed. Half the time, the boys would be distracted by a bug or the dirt on the field and forget that they were in the middle of a game. Sometimes, they sat right down on their butts in the middle of the field, needing a break.

It's been quite an adventure watching this team, gauging the progression of their skills, seeing their love of the game grow and their discipline for playing grow along with that love. They are still boys, however, and do sometimes still get distracted by something other than the game. At one game, a boy decided he needed to go to the bathroom and started running off the field. It wouldn't have been that big of deal if he hadn't been the batter at the time. Poor guy. I think he struck out just so he could go pee.

The boys love to practice, love to play, and have been gracious, although disappointed, when they've lost. They slowly started winning games here and there, and then this fall baseball season their play came together in succinct harmony:

Even if they never win another game, they've got this first place trophy to admire. But, given the size of that trophy, I think the desire to win will overshadow the distractions on the field.