Alarm Clocks, Raphael, and Mystery

Start music before reading if you can.  If not just read and pretend you are listening to really dramatic mystery music.



7:24 am this morning .

Beard wakes me from my slumber. 'What the F Beard?' The alarm is set for 7:30.  This had better be good. The Beard has heard crying from the other room.  My canine companion, Charlie Buckets, is also awake pacing the room and whining. 

Fine, fine. I am up. Be cool, both of you.  I start to shake the cobwebs and slowly roll to the edge of the bed.  Now I hear a faint whimpering.  Must be the boy, I think.  Probably stepped on a toy battle axe getting out of his bunk bed.  Maybe he is crying because he can't reach the Easter basket I hid on top of the oven (out of his chair assisted reach).  Hell, it could be anything with Wylie.  I should probably be grateful he didn't wake me up by turning on the bedroom light and smacking me in the foot with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Sai again (shout out to Raphael). 

I open my bedroom door and start moving towards the muffled wailing.  Should I start coffee first?  Odd, the cries don't seem to be coming from the bedroom.  Coffee can wait, kid might be in the garage with the power tools.  Never to early for Man Work but should probably have supervision. 

Shuffle, shuffle.  I slowly make my way through the living room with Charlie the crime dog at my heels.  We are going to get to the bottom of this mystery right now.  Out of the corner of my eye I pickup on some movement on the back deck.  Mental note - see what that is after saving the boy from himself.  Past the television, the washer and dryer, the kids bath, Porter's room, and into Wylie's room I go. 

Not on the bottom bunk, I check the top, empty as well.  Quick check for feet under the curtain or a closed closet door reveal no child.  The crying starts up again.  I suddenly remember the movement on the back porch.  Time to revisit.  Back past Porter's room, the kids bath, the washer and dryer, and television I thud. 

Charlie is at the sliding glass door waiting for me to catch on.  I slide the door open as the crying starts to reach a fevered pitch.  There in the middle of the back deck is the missing boy.  Pajama pants around his ankles, the morning dew covers his feet.  I notice he has mud on his legs.  'What are you doing outside Wildman?' He looks up from his feet. 'I had to go potty, I had to go potty'.  Pitiful.  It dawns on me.   Potty? Outside?  It didn't rain yesterday.  Rain turns dirt to mud.  How can he have mud on his legs?  Wait a damn minute...

 

sidenote to the nerds, Sam, reading this.  I know the pictured Turtle is not Raphael.  I did not have a pic of him in such a dramatic pose at my disposal.

 

#charlotte, #charlottechildcare, #poointheyard, #cantbetrusted

Raising wild n crazy boys and another year Bearded!

Well 'Thoughts' fans..another year has come and gone.  2013 is in the books.  Last year seemed to watch the Beard morph from a tangled mass of manliness into a well groom piece of art.  There was one full shave mid-summer which I hope to be forgiven for.  In terms of quality it would be hard to rank years but I would put that one at the top.  Watching my boy grow has been a trip.  Wylie is now the age that Ayden, our nephew, was when he stayed with us for most of a year while his mom was deployed.  Seeing the similarities and differences between the two at this age has been and will continue to be fun.  Life for these boys at our house is best summed up in these two clips.

Click to this link to watch Wylie Video then watch Ayden below!

 

If the videos played for you when reading this I hope you know me well enough to laugh.  If they did not play for you the videos were mostly educational tutorials.  Very happy Ayden, Gina, Dave, Ellie, and Vivi are in Charlotte now. 

2014 is shaping up to be a busy one here at the Buchanan household.  We found out my beautiful wife, Ericka Faye, is expecting another baby.  This one will be a boy as well.  Porter Call Buchanan seems to be the hands down favorite for names.  Wylie is going to have some competition around the house for attention. 

In addition to Porter's arrival in July the Beard and I are also going to run a marathon (1st time), a Spartan Sprint (could do in my sleep, 'the Beard'), and a Spartan Beast race (3rd time).   Goals are to not die (marathon), have fun watching my guys from work (Sprint), and beating my time from last year (Beast). 

Fingers crossed, we will also be working on a third restaurant here in Charlotte.  We love running restaurants but are really pumped to have the creative wheels turning for a new place.  It will be challenging but incredibly rewarding to hammer out an amazing place with Chef, Jed, and the rest of the crew.  Goal will be to be the best and to have fun doing it.  Period.

That about sums it up.  Oh, one more thing.  We have been without our beautiful truck since 1/25 when we took it in for a spark plug change.  Since that time 4 of the 8 plugs broke during the process (Ford 5.4L 3V Triton owners beware), a igniter spring fell into the block, a piece of the broken 5 plug fell into the block, a piston shattered, a head was removed, and two shops both denied responsibility.  At this point we will probably be about $3,000 in the hole but with a new head, new piston, 8 new plugs, and all the trimmings.  Really just want my truck back at this point.  Have been driving a Mazda 3 (Wylie was taught by my wife to call it the Panty Dropper) and a Chevy HHR.  The Beard and the Boy have been embarrassed to no end.   

Enough rambling...More to come.