Suddenly Suffereing from Soccer Mom Syndrome

Tiger has been so busy lately, it seems like all I am doing is running around and helping him with projects. Not exacty a soccer mom, but it is all a little overwhelming.

February was our Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. The boys did skits and participated in a cake contest (which doubled for pot luck dessert. Clever!). There were a lot of good cakes all made by the boys--with very little parent help. It's no secret that I don't bake, well cook at all for that matter, so Tiger came up with the idea to make pinewood derby cars out of Twinkies. By the time he was finished, we had to rename it the pinewood demolition derby. Notice the candy corn flames on the one big pile up. In March we had the actual pinewood derby. He didn't do very well and was pretty bummed. Oh well, there's always next year!

Scouting Slideshow:


Not only has he been busy in scouts, he has had one project after another at school. The first was a county fair project about Box Elder. (Thanks Carol and Kelsey for all the good info.) Second he had a science fair project that we worked on for three weeks. Tiger's favorite thing in the world is running. He decided to do his project on whether or not music effects your pace when you run.

School Slideshow:


And with spring comes, you guessed it--baseball. Currently, we are having to go to practices twice a week and his games start next week. That means baseball 4 nights a week. He loves it though, so what can I say?

Baseball Slideshow:


Last but not least, we have been in and out of the dentist office for both of the boys. Tiger had a cavity filled a while back that turned into an abscess. The same day Derek had his front teeth taken out, Tiger had one of his molars removed. The dentist gave us two options: a permanent spacer for the molar until the permanent one comes in or a retainer. We've known for about 4 years that he was eventually going to have to have the retainer to straighten his teeth, so we went for that option. He chose the tiger stripes and is trying really hard to pretend that he doesn't love having it! I also posted some pictures of my toothless two-year-old. Were getting used to his first grade smile and kind of think it's cute now.

Unsupervised Kids+Phones=Mischief

Remember way back when . . . you're parents were busy or they left you alone with a couple of your friends and the first thing you thought of doing was crank calling. Whether it was a random number chosen from the white pages or someone familiar you thought wouldn't recognize your voice, it was always a thrill to actually go through with it.

Here's the scenario you remember:

You're friend (or cousin) baited you by saying "I bet you don't dare call this number and say. . ." and you would reply "Yes I do. Dial it and I'll show you!" As you listened to the phone ring once, twice, three, four times, your heart would start to beat a little faster and your skin would start to feel a little warm. Then suddenly the ringing stopped, and on the other line . . . "Hello."

The moment of truth.

Would you be brave enough to crack the joke or chicken out and hang up?

Last night we were paying our weekly visit to my mother-in-law's to pick up the boys. As we walked in the door, her phone started ringing and Mickey asked Griffie to pick it up. Nothing out of the ordinary there. As Mickey got further into the conversation, she started saying things like "No, everything is alright here. . . It must have been one of the kids. We'll talk to them. . . It would probably be better if he talked to him when he gets here."

My ears perked up because obviously this was no ordinary phone call. Apparently someone had called 911 and dispatch was returning the call. I assumed it was either Derek or my nephew that is in kindergarten. Derek had been upstairs with no phones low enough to get his hands on. Gauge is not a very good liar, so all we had to do was ask him once. However, none of the kids are good liars when it comes right down to it, but they were all four bound and determined not to rat each other out. Mickey asked them who called and they denied doing it. Big Griff asked them who called and, still, they denied it. I asked and they started blaming each other. Tiger blamed it on Cadance and she blamed it on him. They both told Mickey "Grandma, I don't want to go to juvie!"

Finally, about twenty or thirty minutes after the phone call, there came a knock at the door. It was the sheriff they had to dispatch to come and make sure nothing was wrong. Gauge went pale white and looked like he was going to cry when Mickey told him he had to get upstairs to talk to the officer. The other three marched with their heads down in a nervous, funeral like procession. They all sat down on the couch, with their arms folded and their heads bowed in penance when the officer asked "So, which one of you called 911?"

Tiger was the first to pipe up. "It was me" he said in his tiniest, most guilt ridden voice. As I said, I seriously thought it was Gauge. Tiger KNOWS that 911 is for emergencies only--we've talked about it at home, at school, at scouts. My jaw dropped and I felt my skin get hot with anger as I listened to his confession. I was furious! I could not believe what I was hearing.

I'm sure the twenty minute ride home from Wellington later that evening was the longest he has had in his nine short years. I interrogated him all the way home and finally got it out that Cadance had tried to call someone and it lead to some kind of dare for him to call 911. I'm not sure on all the details because they are still pretty tight lipped about the actual events, but he got scared as soon as someone picked up on the other end and hung up. He didn't know they would call right back.

He learned a valuable lesson about lying, blaming others for your actions, tying up dispatch lines, and wasting a police officers valuable time. I think he's sorry and I'm pretty sure he won't do it again. I'm positive he won't try to crank call the police again. As for the crank calling part of things, I'm sure this is just the beginning.

So, what are your crank calling stories? I'm sure you have some good tales to tell. I'm going to think about mine and post in my comments some of my better jokes--when I remember what they are. :)