Ahhhhhh...the sound of quiet

Good evening, I have been given the gift of quiet. All 4 ladies are upstairs taking baths/showers and I have been left downstairs with the laptop, a hot cup of cocoa and 5 minutes of relative peace (although I am stuck watching The Sound of Music). This may be the first 5 minutes of peace I have had in the past 2 weeks and the last I will have the next 2 weeks.

The past 2 weeks...I won't say I survived Hanukkah/Christmas, but I made it through relatively unscathed. I tried teaching the girls some Yiddish so they could say the Hanukkah prayers with me....that didn't go so well, so I just let them say the English part and I handled the Yiddish part. The one night we tried both...a 30 second prayer took 5 minutes. Although, I have to admit, it was pretty funny listening to my 4 year old try to say "Baruch Ata Adonai".

Soon after Hanukkah, it was on to Christmas and a boatload of activities. I have to thank some friends who helped keep me sane by inviting me for drinks a couple of times over the past weeks. It has been a whirlwind of activity between family, friends, church, parties. etc. The girls sang 3 times over the past 2 weeks at church. And I am not ashamed to admit that I teared up watching my daughters beaming while singing in the church choir. There is nothing better than watching your kids doing something they love...and doing it well. I am looking forward to the few months as they keep getting better and start soloing.

Christmas was a blast. And when I say blast I am referring to the noise. There were some screams on Christmas morning when the girls realized that they got Ipods (Yes even Aly got an Ipod...you don't want to hear THAT screaming) and when Emily realized she got the telescope she has been dreaming about. What I didn't realize was that the telescope comes in disassembled...in about 12 boxes and 150 pieces. I should have it assembled by next Christmas!!!!

You should have seen the mayhem at my in-laws house with my 3 girls, my 2 year old niece, and all the brother and sister in laws...wrapping paper flying, boxes been thrown, the girls got so many gifts that we are still trying to figure out who gave them what. If you got Aly a Tinkerbell doll...Thank you very much. We have no idea who you are, but she loves it :-)

I spent the day taking down ALL of the Christmas decorations, Usually we wait until New Years, but as I have mentioned before, we will be jumping on an airplane on New Years night and flying to Denver. The girls all got heavy coats, gloves, scarves and hats for Christmas in anticipation of the trip. Tonight it was 7 degrees in Denver...this trip should be veryyyyyy interesting. But we are all looking forward to meeting relatives from my side of the family that we have never met. I am going to see my uncle for the first time in 38 years and finally meet my aunt and some of my first cousins. I'm wondering if I will be teary-eyed or just smiling ear-to-ear. I will keep you posted.

Well, I no longer hear the showers running, so that must mean my 5 minutes are up. I want to thank the 2 or 3 of you that read these ramblings and also thank all of you that have been part of my life these past months/years. I wont post names, but you know who you are....I could never survive these years as a DODO without the support of my friends and my family. Being a DODO is an amazing blessing...an unbelievably challenging one, but I very lucky to have several friends that know EXACTLY what I am going through. Thanks for the chats, the card games, the beers, and just being there when I needed a testosterone boost.

On to a New Year as a DODO...I hope this message finds all of you happy and healthy. I am looking forward to sharing more of my musings with you. As always, pray for this DODO...I will need all the help I can get.

Peace
Mike

WOW...2 posts in a week

Can you tell things have quieted down in the Gross household...I actually have time to type up 2 posts in 1 month. Will wonders never cease.

Anyway, we are just wrapping up the 3rd night of Christmanukkah, the girls finally opened their Hanukkah gifts ( we were busy the first 2 nights) and of course they loved them. Aly got her first ever softball bat (Daddy had tears in his eyes), Emily got the boom box she has been bugging us about and Sarah got clothes. You know your daughter has graduated into "tween" years when she looks at the label to make sure we didn't buy the clothes at Wal-Mart or Target. I guess the clothes budget just got a little bit more expensive. Oh well...only 18 years or so to go.

We have actually had some nights free recently as the girls are only doing choir right now. Don't get me wrong, we are still pounding softballs into the net in the garage....just not every night. Softball is only 6 weeks away, the girls need to be ready, holiday or no holiday (OK...a little too extreme there, but you get my point).

I have a question for all you parents of young children. Once they stop believing in the jolly guy in the red suit, how do you make them behave in December? If you can't use the "Santa wont bring you anything" threat...what else you got? :-)

I realized recently that I talk a heck of a lot about the girls but not much about me and Lisa. THAT'S BECAUSE WE GOT NOTHING ELSE GOING ON. Seriously, I am very excited about my Aztecs, they put a serious whoopin on the Mildcats of Arizona last night....what a great night. I have also started to do some mountain biking again. If I don't have a heart attack from trying to follow Eric on the trails of Otay Lake, I'll be in shape by 2014.

We are looking forward to getting together with friends in the next couple of weeks and sharing some alcohol, some stories, and some good times. We hope to see all of you in the next few weeks.

Enjoy your holidays and your families during the next few weeks. Take care of yourself and as always Peace to you and yours.

This DODO is done for the night.

Mike

Has it been 2 months???

I am an abject failure when it comes to this blogging thing. I know how anxious all of you are to hear about my trials and tribulations of being a DODO....OK, I know most of you just laugh at me when I post these ramblings and don't really care one way or another. But for the 1 or 2 that are interested, here is the latest episode of "What has happened to my life".

Lets see....what has happened in the last 2 months. Lets start with Sarah...she just finished her fall season at Chula Vista ASA. She played in an 12 and under division (She is still 8 in softball years) and did really, really well. She ended up batting .400 for the season and only struck out twice all season. And she was facing 10 , 11 and 12 year olds. She made some great friends and just loved playing for Coach Scott. Scott's daughter Dayne kinda took Sarah under her wing...it was really cute. She also recently finished her first season in lacrosse. The coach told me Sarah has a future in lacrosse (what the heck is a future in lacrosse?)...so who knows where that'll go. Currently, she is just doing choir....and lots of batting practice in the garage. Softball is just 8 weeks away.

Emily just finished her AYSO season and is still doing some camps to get ready for spring tryouts for club teams. Soccer looks like fits her best so we'll let her tryout and see where it goes. We had a great team this season. All the girls were terrific young ladies and we had an amazing group of parents. Sometimes you get a group that makes you forget about the toils of caoching and this was the group. Emily had some really great games and as befitting a 7 year old...some not so good ones. But all in all she really improved this season. She is going to play softball again (she's my daughter, does she have a choice?) but soccer may be her future. She is also doing choir and is just loving singing.

Aly is well Aly. She is doing a Lil Kickers soccer league and attending preschool. She is becoming more and more outgoing everyday. She loves to sing, dance, and create havoc among the house. She has an amzing way of making everyone do exactly what she wants...Lisa and I are in for some interesting times with this little girl. I bet most of you that know Aly think "Come on...she is the sweetest little girl, how could she cause any problems". If you only knew!!!!!!!!

As I'm sure is it is more all of you, these next few weeks will be just craziness. Since we celebrate Christmanukah, we have twice as much stuff to prepare for. The girls are very excited about our upcoming trip to Denver. We are going to see some relatives that we have never met and the whole family is just thrilled that we will be able to meet them. The girls have a 16 year old cousin named Riki that they are dying to meet. We have the usual Christmas pageants to attend, a bunch of parties etc etc etc. So you'll pardon me if I dont get a whole lot written on this in the next few weeks. I am also very busy with Bonita Valley Girls softball since I am on the Board...so even though YOU'D THINK things would be quieting down...they're not. And probably never will.

For all my friends and family that take a moment to read my ramblings and musings, thank you for taking the time to share a piece of my life. I hope all of you know how important you are to me, Lisa and the kids. For those of you I will see this holiday season, I owe all of you a hug, for those of you I wont see, know that you are in my thought sand I wish all of you the most wonderful holiday season and I look forward to speaking with you in the future.

As always, peace to you and yours...and until next time. Pray for me....for this DODO is done for the night. :-)

Mike