Straight A's Except...

This morning, our daughter eagerly told us that she was getting her report card later today at school. We were all very excited to see what she'd done, especially since last quarter she missed getting straight A's by only 4 percentage points. This is no small feat regardless of what grade you are in but as with any parent, we were extremely proud of her past efforts and encouraged her to try a little harder for "the almighty A" as Grandpa Fred used to say.

I had lunch with Jennifer today, went to Tyson foods to help them voiceover a commercial and then made my way to pick up Kate after school. I was supposed to pick up Jake on the way so I figured the line to pick up the kids at Kate's school was going to be long so why not get him first.

I peered through the tiny window that looks into the "big room" at his school where all the kids play on cold and/or wet days. Sure enough, from all the way across the floor, he spotted me and a huge grin came across his face. As I popped through the door, his little feet churned butter (as I used to say when they were little) and he leapt into my arms at about 85mph. I was fortunate to absorb most of his weight but not before toppling over a bit.

We got our shoes & coats on and made our way to the door to pick up Kate. Sure enough, as I expected, the line for parents driving their kids home from school was long. To make matters worse, some parents are extremely slow when dropping their kids off or picking them up. I could feel my hair turning gray as the seconds became minutes...the one song on Radio Disney became four. Finally, by the time Hilary Duff was beginning to croon over the airwaves, I made it up to where Kaitlyn was standing.

There she was, with that same big grin her brother had had on his face 20 minutes earlier.

I knew we were in for a good report.

She climbed into the Sequoia and said, triumphantly...

"Look at my report card...STRAIGHT A'S!!!"

I cheered her on as I looked everything over. Sure enough, every box had either an "A" in it or "E" for excellent.

All but one...it had an "S" for satisfactory.

"Controls Talking."

An "S" this quarter and an "S" last quarter. Apparently, we still need to do a little work on knowing when to talk and when to listen.

Yep, she's definitely her mother's daughter.