Damn Obnoxious!

This weekend (memorial day weekend) has been great for us. We spent three fun filled days...together. Nobody had to work. We didn't have any crappy appointments to take up our time. Joe Joe had a baseball game on Saturday. He is great at everything he does. Sunday evening, we had the opportunity to take in a fireworks display down the road from our home. it was Ryan's first and boy was that entertaining. At first, he was absolutely petrified. He ran into my arms, turned around and spent the last 25 minutes of the show screaming and clapping his hands with excitement. So that was wonderful to see. It's funny to me, that I take more pleasure now, watching my kids partake in my favorite activities that I do, participating in them myself. Boy, how the focus does shift.

This evening, April headed off to her evening job while the kids and I cleaned the shizzle out of the house. Top to bottom, this house was cleaned. They gracefully endured about three hours of my barking orders at them before they went into meltdown mode. That was the point where I decided to take them to the park and play some kickball. I derived such great joy in watching my two oldest ones running around in the sun without a care in the world, untouched by the world as of yet. Let me make note, by the way, I had an extremely hard time trying to explain to little 5 year old Emma why she had to leave her shirt on in the sweltering heat while Joe and I took ours off. So, before you know it, we were three half-naked ball kicking maniacs running around, enjoying the sun. Ryan played with the ball for about two seconds before wondering obliviously around the soccer field from garbage can to garbage can baning them with a stick. He is a perfect indicator of when we have been out in the sun long enough. I glance over at him once in a while. When his little cheeks turn rosie red, I know it's time to get them home into the air conditioning once again.

This evening was funny. After we got Ryan to bed, the older two kids and I went outside to enjoy the cool breeze, absent of the sweltering sun. Oddly enough, it was still as humid as at mid-day....DAMN IT! Anyways, I spoke to my mom on the phone while the children took turns falling off their scooters in the street, as if they were seriously trying to see who could remove more skin from their knees in a single fall. They'd gotten to the point where they were screaming and hootin' and hollerin'. I asked Joe to come over to me for a moment to tell him to, "stop being so damn obnoxious & settle down". Make note that the street is filled with people enjoying the evening as we were. So what does Joe Joe do? The little butt hole jumps on his scooter and rides down the driveway. All while screaming down the street to his little sister, "EMMA, DAD SAID WE HAVE TO STOP BEING DAMN OBNOXIOUS AND CALM DOWN A LITTLE!" I was absolutely mortified. There was nothing I could do but laugh aloud as I received the warm, inviting, excepting look of disapproval from every neighbor within earshot. Wow! The perils of being a father. It just simply doesn't get any better than that. Although, I cant imagine where I'd be if I didn't have them to embarrass me on a daily basis. Anyways.

Joe