Tick Tock

     These moments aren't going to happen like this very many more times.  Those were the words I kept telling myself.  I turned one way and my 14 year old daughter was asleep beside me, and turned the other to see my soon to be 10 year old.  It was the first time in a long time I could remember this happening, and I was in heaven.
     I did not expect to be trying to get both of my daughters out of my bed and into their own.  I had gone into my bedroom and turned my television on simply because I wasn't interested in what was on in the living room.  The next thing I know, I have a 9 year old with me.  This is not unusual, as lots of times she will come and spend time with me, watch T.V., and just chill.  The next thing I know, I also have a 14 year old.  That was a shocker.
     My 14 year old, Rose, and I have a good relationship, and we have some really good talks.  These talks normally come when we are driving somewhere, or are somewhere with nothing to do but talk.  For her to want to spend time with her Dad at home is rare indeed.  Sure enough though, here she was.  Lauren, my soon to be 10 year old, got up to go in the living room, so I turned to give Rose my undivided attention.
     It hit me that my little girl wasn't a little girl any more.  Somewhere along the line, she grew up on me.  I started petting her hair, like I did when she was a young child, waiting on her to tell me to stop, and then get up and go.  Much to my surprise, she looked at me contentedly and smiled.  I kept petting her until I saw her reach up and take her glasses off.  She was asleep a few seconds later.  I laid there and wondered to myself if that would be the last time we would have moments like these.  They hardly ever happen now, and she is just getting older.
     Soon after, Lauren came back in and laid down.  I petted her for a minute, and she was soon asleep also. I was content with the world in that moment.  I made sure they were gone for the night, then woke them up just enough to walk them to their beds.  A few more minutes of petting and they were out for the night.  This would have been great, but what happened next just topped everything off.  As I went to go get back on the bed, my soon to be 7 year old son came up and followed me to the bed, and laid down.  It took a little more petting, but sure enough he was soon gone too.  I carried him to his bed, stopped by to give my wife a kiss, and then headed to bed again.
     As I laid there I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by what had happened.  I have been blessed with three wonderful children, and to have those kinds of moments are priceless.  I know that they will not last forever, and so each time I cherish them more and more.  I might not do much right, but if there is one thing that I hope I can say I do well, that is being a Dad.  I can't give my kids much, but when they look back I hope and pray that they can say without a shadow of a doubt that they knew their Dad loved them.  I can leave no greater legacy.

Dream A Little Dream Part 2

     We met some friends at Steak and Shake, and it was time to treat the kids again.  After they decided what they wanted to eat, I let them order a milkshake to go with their food.  This was something else that I hardly ever  get to do, so it was a good surprise, and a fun treat.  We ate and then took the short drive to the ball field for the game.
     I had planned on sitting in the box seats, the cheap seats if you will.  When we got to the stadium I was concerned, as we found out it was Rec night, and there were recreation teams everywhere.  I started wondering if we would be able to get 5 tickets together for us and our friends, or even 5 tickets at all.  My fears were not helped when I got to the ticket window and asked for 5 box seat tickets, and was told the box seats were sold out.  I asked if there were any 5 seats together anywhere, and was told to hold on.  Turns out there were some filed lever seats, so I paid the extra money for the better seats, and went in.
    When we got inside we found our seats only 4 rows behind the visitors dugout.  The kids were extremely happy, and even more so when I told them right before the game started I would take them to the concession stand and let them get snacks.  After getting nachos, popcorn, and drinks, I also let them get a bag of cotton candy to share, which pretty much left me tapped out finally.  It was fun, and well worth it.  I was happy that I finally got to spoil the kids for a change.
     That night I went to sleep satisfied.  My wife and daughter were on their way home, and me and the younger two had a great weekend together.  That night I did something I hardly ever do, and had a good dream that I remembered.  I dreamed that I had finally caught a break, and had become successful.  I remember thinking during the dream that those kinds of weekends were going to be the norm, instead of the exception.  Sunday morning I woke up to reality though.  It was fun while it lasted.  Maybe the dream can get my fire going again to try to do something.  Maybe the creative juices will start flowing again.  Maybe.

Dream A Little Dream Part 1

     As I sit here, it is 6:28 a:m on Sunday morning.  I should be unhappy being up at this time on a Sunday, but I'm not, I am totally at ease for a change.  It has been an incredible week, all is peace for the moment. and the world is good.  Let me tell you all about it.

     My wife and oldest daughter have been gone to Washington D.C. this week.  They left out Tuesday night with a group of 8th graders.  That was about the only thing that wasn't perfect about the week, that they weren't here.  Right before they were to leave, my youngest daughter had a softball game, and that's where the real fun begins.  This is her first year playing softball, and she had been struggling with her hitting.  She had hit a few balls good, but had not gotten any hits in the first two games.  Tuesday was the third game, she got three.  Not only that, but her team won in the bottom of the last inning with a walk off two run home run with two outs.  I got to see this as I was driving off to take my wife and daughter to get on their busses.

     My other two kids brought home exceptional reports from school on Wednesday, and I have to say that for the entire week they were the most well behaved children.  I'm not saying they were perfect, but I had very few problems out of either of them.  I was amazed, and proud.  I took them to our local park Thursday night and we spent about an hour walking the train tracks, throwing rocks in the creek, and them playing and being kids.  Friday night brought another softball game, another two hits, and another win.

     Saturday was the day I was really looking forward to.  Saturday was my day to spoil the kids.  I don't get to do that very often, really spoil them.  I actually had a little money saved up, thanks to getting my story published, and another unexpected check, so I knew we could really have a good time.  We weren't loaded, but this was going to be one day where I decided I wasn't going to worry about every penny, and would just let the kids have fun.

     We started out by going to the batting cages.  Lauren has really been coming on strong with her hitting, but I wanted her to get in a little extra practice.  She knocked the cover off the ball.  I think she finally got it.  I can't wait until her next game.  Matthew took three times in the cage before he could hit the ball, but that wasn't unexpected with him never seeing a pitching machine before.  The third time through though he was finally hitting the ball, at 40 miles per hour.  Of course, he said he was going to tell everyone he was hitting home runs at 70 miles per hour.  We put the bats in the car, and headed inside to buy tickets to play mini golf.
     We walked back inside, and I got to thinking about how the kids are always wanting to play video games, but I never have the money to spare.  I decided that since I DID have the money to spare this time, the kids were going to get to play.  Sure enough, my pocket ended up full of tokens.  The kids had a ball, and somehow both of them even ended up beating their Daddy at air hockey.  Then we moved on to mini-golf.
     We played 18 holes, and were pretty much the only ones on the course.  This was great, because the kids could just have fun, and not worry about holding anybody up.  Lauren finally got her hole in one, which was kind of funny because the story that I wrote, that got published, which gave us the money to do all of this, all started at this same golf course with Lauren not getting a hole in one.  Anyway, we finished up the golf, then went to on to the big city to do our dirty little secret.
     I have to confess, this is something that is probably not right, but hey, I pay my membership and membership has it's privileges.  We had about an hour and fifteen minutes until we were to meet our friends that we were going to the ball game with for dinner.  The kids were starving, and I really didn't want to go and buy them anything, only for them to not eat when we got to dinner.  We were close to our local Sam's Club, so we dropped in, did a little looking around, and the kids did a little snacking on the free samples to hold them until dinner.  Yeah, I said it, the kids snacked on the free samples to hold them over.  Anyway, we left and went to dinner after this.