"Oh, Mom, by the way....."

How many times have we heard THIS?  "Oh, Mom, by the way, I need 3 dozen brownies for school.....today".  This statement comes in so many variations.  Each time, eliciting the same reaction....clenched teeth and white knuckles on the steering wheel.

David got the role of Julius Caesar in the annual Shakespeare play at Charter.  I kept asking "Do you NEED anything for a costume??"  The answer was always the same.  "Mom, don't worry about it.  No.  I don't need anything".  I'd say "Can you ASK?".

The night before the play, at 10pm, "Oh, um, Mom?  I need a white sheet.......for tomorrow......well, I actually need TWO white sheets....since I get killed in the school performance.....then there's a second show at night".  Beautiful.

(Ok, NOTHING to do with the story, but Freddy just said to me "Mom, I'm thinking of buying protein shakes to help me gain weight".  I said "Well, you could just EAT what I cook.....look at the size of your BROTHERS".  Of course, this started a HUGE conversation about how he does eat everything I cook, I just don't SEE him eat it....and he is a size 5 girls pants....because he eats everything I cook?)

I found two sheets.  The play went off without a hitch.  But do they EVER learn from their mistakes??  No. A BIG FAT NO.

I was driving the bastards to school the other day and the OGO said "Remember how you offered to buy the dum dum pops for my presentation in school?  Well, it's today.  BUT, the good news is that I don't need them until 1:00!!"  Good news??!?!?!

Then there is "Joe I-just-don't-know Frederick".  Joe is FAMOUS for this school projects.  He does always seem to wait until the last minute.  He was doing a lego sculpture of a cell.  (shouldn't EVERYTHING be built our of LEGOS?)   BUT, it's JOE.  So, the legos needed to be "glammed up" a bit.  Here's a warning....paint and glitter make a mess when applied to legos.  I got in from work at 10pm....and saw the tears.....and together, we redid the lego sculpture....scraped all the paint and glitter off....and reapplied it after sandpapering each lego.    Each and every project since then......has been done....at the last minute.  (because as noted above, they never do learn)

(from Joe's campaign for PRESIDENT!)

Teri and I were laughing about all the times we've heard "Oh, mom, by the way...." and we discovered that although our reactions and solutions are very different....the outcome is still the same.  THE SHIT GETS DONE.  Period.