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Posts Tagged ‘kids’
Today, our daughter Miss J graduates from high school.
With honors.
Time to Celebrate a Job Well Done!
Congratulations, Miss J! We are SO proud of you!!
I talked with Darling Daughter on the phone for a bit yesterday afternoon, and while I was cooking dinner Beloved asked, “What’s going on with DD?”
“She’s fine,” I said. “She has a meeting at the Elk’s lodge this evening she has to attend; she’s inducting some new members.”
“Are they aliens???” asked The Young One*.
It took me a minute, then I burst out laughing.
“Honey, they’re being inducted, not abducted.”
A Really Smart Kid
*When he saw me writing this, I was instructed to inform you that he has all As and Bs at school and was reading Reason Magazine at dinner. Consider yourselves duly informed that my kid really is very smart.
The text of two instant message conversations, about the same subject – the first with Oldest Son, the second with Darling Daughter. Both express surprise, excitement and some measure of disgust.
Both are a great example of the differences between men and women.
Me: Did you know that [Name Redacted] has a little girl now?
Oldest Son: No, I didn’t.
Me: Know what they named her?
Me: Bella.
Oldest Son: …
Oldest Son: I don’t know how to respond to that. Please tell me it was more thought out than “lololol my wife lurvs teh Twilight.”
~~~~~~
Me: Hey – did you know [Name Redacted] has a baby girl now?
Darling Daughter: He does?!!?
Darling Daughter: Oh, thats exciting!
Me: yup, born sometime last year. And you will never guess what they named her.
Darling Daughter: What?
Me: You’re gonna hurl…
Darling Daughter: Bella!?!
Me: YES
Darling Daughter: *EXORCIST VOMIT EVERYWHERE*
Darling Daughter: WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Darling Daughter: In the next couple of years there are going to be 2 billion baby Bellas
Darling Daughter: That’s so disturbing!
Me: ROFL – yes it is
Darling Daughter: I’m gonna name my baby “Illiterate”
Darling Daughter: We’ll call her “Illi!”
At which point I became incapable of speech, I was laughing so hard.
~~~~~~
I raised both of these people. Sort of makes you think about the whole “nature” versus “nurture” thing, doesn’t it?
It’s amazing what you can do with those three things.
No, there will be no recipe today, although I almost always post one on Mondays. But I didn’t really cook this weekend, for more than one reason. First, Beloved had to extend his business trip to California and won’t be home until Tuesday. Secondly, Saturday afternoon, The Young One came up to me and said, “Mom? Um, there’s this project I, um, have to do for science? And it’s, um, due sorta, um, on Monday.”
Swell.
The project was to do a poster board-type thing about an element from the periodic table. Yeah…just edge-of-your-seat type of stuff, especially when it’s a totally obscure particularly well-known element like Rhenium (Re, atomic weight 75, atomic mass 186). Nickel-based superalloys for the use in jet engines contain up to 6% of rhenium, making jet engine construction the largest use for the element, with chemical industry catalytic uses being next-most important. Because of the low availability relative to demand, rhenium is among the most expensive industrial metals, with a price average of 2009, exceeding US$6,000 per kilogram.
HEY! You can wake up now!
The project entailed listing the name, symbol, atomic weight and mass as well as the properties and practical applications of the element on a 10″ x 10″ (yes, 10 inch by 10 inch) piece of white board that MUST include a 3-dimensional rendering representing the element or it’s use(s).
If anyone cares to bitch-slap The Young One’s science teacher (who I think graduated from college 3½ hours ago) for assigning my son a very rare element whose only real commercial use is in jet engines or as a catalyst for processing unleaded gasoline and which MUST be rendered in 3D on this postage stamp-sized media, I will be more than happy to hold your coat. And buy you a steak dinner.
Oh, yeah – did I mention this was the first weekend in four months with temperatures in the 40s and sunny, blue skies? A weekend I spent braving the sweating, frenzied masses at the only (abysmally understaffed) craft store in town? Where I spent $37 on this project? Then spent an entire day of said gorgeous, sunny weekend with my loving offspring, whose interest in the project was remarkably absolutely non-existent, trying to figure out just what we were going to do with $37 worth of cardboard, poster board, glue, glitter, paint, Styrofoam and markers?
Well, we got through it, and if I may say so myself, we might not have a clue as to scale and construction, but for a couple of clueless klutzes, I think we did a half decent job.
I mean, really – could you make half a jet turbine engine out of poster board, glitter paint and glue?
Gee, I hope I get a good grade on it…
The Spin Cycle this week is Giving Thanks. Jen, the lovely and witty arbiter of all things Spinning, is participating every day this week, which I thought was an excellent idea so I will join her. At least through Wednesday – after that, I’m taking a brief bloggy vacation. Soooo…
What I Am Grateful For #1
These People
The fruit of my loins and the loves of my life, I do not know what I would do without The Young One, Darling Daughter and Oldest Son. They may not comb their hair, adjust their bra straps or shave, but there is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful and proud that these incredible people call me “Mom.”
Be sweetie, you guys – Mother loves you.