A Simple SLice of Life

Poor Nate has been coughing his head off all week. He left school early on Monday and never went back. Vicki took him to the doctor. No flu, no strep, just the croup. There’s no school tomorrow due to Parent-Teacher Conferences. The poor boy is so tired of being home sick that he was disappointed in the day off. If you know Nate, that’s saying something.

After trying two prescription cough medicines he was better by Friday evening. Now he has the homework blues because Vicki went to school to get his make-up work.

PLACES TO VISIT. We were reminiscing about our cruise at supper last night when Nate posed the question, “What state would you want to visit next?”

Jenna came right in with her answer. “I know what country I want to visit next, Venus.”

We all sort of looked at Jenna. She knew something was wrong, but since she couldn’t put her finger on it so she clarified her statement by adding, “You know, in Italy.” She was still looking confused.

Vicki jumped in, “You mean Venice since Venus is a planet!” We all had a great laugh at that.

Now Jenna has Vicki all confused between the two. (Jenna thinks she heard Venus/Venice mispronounced or mixed up by another little girl when she was a kid.)

BASKETBALL. Neither of the boys’ teams have won a game this year. They’ve played hard and well, but overall they just can’t seem to hit that basket enough. What’s been interesting is that Ben has played against a couple of players who are as tall or taller than he is. He is completely having to rethink the game because he doesn’t tower over everyone else on the court.

Take yesterday’s game for example. Ben guarded a kid who is 2-4 inches taller, a good 50 lbs. heavier, and just as fast on his feet. What I liked was watching Ben analyze the situation. Rather than get discouraged he had adapted by the end of the game and was coping with the challenge. I was proud.

HONEYMOONS. I mentioned last time that Bro. Bill is doing a sermon series on marriage. He made a reference to a honeymoon today which prompted Ben to ask, “What do you do on a honeymoon, go away and wait for them to get your house finished?”

The poor boy has obviously watched too much Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Vicki and I got a big laugh as we remembered going away on our honeymoon in 1994 only to come home to a dinky, dingy, cinderblock apartment at UT-Knoxville’s married student housing, complete with multi-colored carpeting from the 1970s.

SUPERHEROS. Our boys still have quite a bit of innocence about them. When Vicki got up from a nap this afternoon she came to the door of the bedroom and stopped. At the end of her hall to the right stood our two large boys in superhero capes: Ben wearing a red afghan and Nate a green blanket. She heard the word “flying” followed by the pounding of feet and then a red and green streak zipping by. I am so glad the boys aren’t into anything more “grown up” yet.

Joe