Heather Hodges

Its no great confession that the Hodges’ family loves to watch the Discovery Channel.  Some of our favorite shows are Myth Busters, Smash Lab, Deadliest Catch, Man Vs. Wild, and Survivor Man.   Just about any night of the week you could walk in and catch us cheering while we watch Jamie and Adam bust urban myths, the Smash Lap crew blowing something up, Les Stroud in another hopeless survival situation with only his multi-tool, or Bear Grylls exploring the wild and eating scorpions and sheep eye balls - raw.   Yes, my once girl friendly home has turned into a den of explosions and gross stuff.  I love being the mom of boys!!!!!

While watching Scooby Doo today, my youngest son, Elijah, told me that I should get “Life Alert”. “How old do you think I am?” I thought. But instead of taking the comment as an insult I chose to hug him and say, “Thank you for caring about me so much.” On the other hand, it is important to know Someone on call when you’ve fallen and can’t get up, no matter how old you are.

After putting the boys to bed the other night I heard them giggling and whispering about Christmas. They finally settled down and when I went to check on them, they had fallen asleep in the same bed. Wade moved Caleb back to his own bed before he had the chance to push his brother to the floor. Only in slumber can they be in such close proximity to each other without engaging in warfare. Perhaps it was the visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

Last Sunday after church, Wade and I took the boys out for Indian food at a great little cafe here in Tulsa. The food was excellent, as usual, and as we were heading home he turned into the parking lot of Circuit City unexpectedly. He told us to wait in the car as he dashed into the store “Just to look at something.” As the boys and I waited, I noticed a guy walking out of the store cradling a medium sized white box. Shortly after he got in his car a family emerged from the store. The dad was holding the same white box and the two kids were jumping up and down at his side in excitement. At that point it dawned on me, they have a Wii !!!!! We have been searching for weeks for this coveted and highly elusive electronic commodity. Every store we would enter had either just sold their last one or they hadn’t had any for weeks and didn’t know when a new shipment would arrive. So when I saw two suspicious white boxes exiting a store in succession, the boys and I jumped out of the car and headed inside. I called to the family as I passed, “Is that a Wii?” The dad responded, “Yes, but I think they are selling the last one right now, you’ d better hurry.” At this point the boys knew the cause for my sudden dash towards the store and became equally as excited as I was. As we entered the store I saw the last Wii at the counter being purchased. I sadly told the boys that it was too late, that guy over there in the black shirt was buying the very last Wii. Caleb hung his head slightly in disappointment, but my astute 5 year old, Elijah said, “But Mom, that’s Dad!” So we now in turn became the family walking out of the store, dad carrying the white box and the two kids jumping up and down at his side.

As I’ve said before, I am not a fan of video games. I think they are a colossal waste of time and encourage children (and grown men) to become sedentary trigger happy couch potatoes. However, this is the not the case with the Wii. It is a high energy, up on your feet, interactive experience for the whole family. We have had tons of fun this week and we look forward to a long winter of family game nights.

Wii Parenting Tip - Privileges are Powerful: Wade and I have found that the Wii is also a great motivating tool to encourage our sons to clean their rooms, eat their asparagus, and refrain from assault and battery on each other.

My sons stealthily moved from house to house last night in the cover of darkness as ninjas. Of course mom was close behind with the flashlight. Elijah was dressed as a garden variety ninja and Caleb was of the Teenage Mutant sort. Halloween is starting to get really fun around the Hodges home.

My baby turned 5 years old today!!!!  Where has the time gone?

This week at the Garnett Bilingual Preschool we are learning about our community helpers. A truck of Tulsa Firefighters came to the preschool to teach our students about fire safety. During the presentation, one of the visiting firefighters posed the question to the 4-5 year old class, “What would you do if your clothes caught on fire?” My brilliant son, Elijah, quickly answered, “Buy new clothes.” I guess I have a little educating to do concerning “Stop. Drop. & Roll.”

The last video game unit I had was an original Atari. My brothers and I mastered Pit Fall, Frogger, Night Driver and of course Pac Man. Since the time I was about 14, I’ve seen video games as a colossal waste of time. I’ve viewed excessive video game playing as a character flaw. I’ve passed judgment on old boyfriends and grown men for spending too much time sitting in front of a TV with a controller in their hands. But, after last night I’m singing a new song.

Some new friends had us over for dinner last night. After the very excellent meal, they broke out the Wii. It was probably the most fun I’ve had all week, and certainly the most exercise I’ve had too. I played tennis, bowled, shot rabbits with toilet plungers, and incinerated bunnies while dancing to the beat. I got a stitch in my side laughing at my sons boxing each other and then rolled in the floor when the two dads boxed. It was truly a family fun night with the adults having most of the fun. And to top it off, my arm is sore today from the exertion.

No wonder this new toy is hard to find in stores right now. Does anyone know where to put your hands on one of these little gadgets, cause we want a Wii.

There are a lot of “firsts” in life. Your fist airplane ride, first taste of Dove chocolate, first time to see a Broadway musical,  first time to smell a giraffe.  But one of the most memorable “firsts”for a lot of people is the first day of first grade.  Have a great year Caleb!!!

I live in a home of all males. Even the hamsters were boys. I say “were” because not long ago we put the hamster cage on the back porch so that everyone could have some fresh air (especially me.) The next morning the hamsters were gone. In the night, a cat or some other predator knocked the cage over and either emancipated or digested them.

Living in a house of all males has some clear disadvantages: the toilet seat is ALWAYS up, wrestling is an all-day every-day pass time, the noise level of my home is about that of a jet engine or a Creed concert, I now buy band-aids in bulk, the toy arsenal continues to grow, keeping the fridge stocked is an unattainable goal, testosterone and adrenaline flow like a river and I never know who are what is going to jump out of the closet at me.

But when the dust settles and the blood has clotted, the three guys I live with work pretty hard to treat me like a queen. I’m the only woman in their lives and I reap the benefits, hugs and kisses are abundant. Sitting next to me is a coveted spot and I have the honor of being fought over every day. They try to out-do each other to make me laugh, and they each risk their lives to show-off for me. Holding my hand walking across the parking lot is tantamount to getting the biggest scoop of ice cream. In short, my little domain may be loud, messy and sometimes bloody, but at least I get to be the Queen!