Dance Recital '08

The big dance recital was yesterday afternoon. This year the whole production was moved from the high school auditorium all the way to the Palace Theater in Lorain. The reason behind the move was that this program is now so frigging huge that we needed more space for the audience. Also the way that the tickets were handled when the show was done here at home was a complete nightmare every year. The Palace knew how to sell tickets to an unwieldy number of people... or so we thought.

I bought my tickets over the phone 15 minutes after they went on sale the first day. I had to buy eleven seats and I certainly wasn't going to wait around. They came in the mail the very next day and that was one more thing I could check off my to do list.

While we are all nestled down in our seats yesterday, a very nice woman came up to me.

"Excuse me, I think you are sitting in my seat." She is very sweet and apologetic, but I'm thinking no way sister.

She shows me her ticket and I show her mine and they are for the same seat. Exactly the same seat. I look around the theater and there seems to be people having the same conversation all over the place. Some are confused, some are getting really angry. The theater has double sold seats.

My co-seat owner and I head for the box office where there is literally a mob. Angry, angry people waving tickets and pieces of paper at one lone woman with a headset on looking on the verge of tears. Finally a official looking guy shows up and announces that if two people have tickets for the same seat then it will be first come, first serve and the theater will find a seat for the second person. My double and I shrug and smile at each other.

"That's okay," she says, "I'm sure they'll find someplace for me." So I stroll my very sassy little dress back to my seat. Behind me, voices are rising and I hear a man holler something about "outrageous incompetence". Ooooh. Not good.

I took only one picture yesterday and that was in the van on the way there.

I didn't any take pictures during the show, not because of any restrictions (there were flashing cameras the entire time), but because whenever the Girl was on the stage I started weeping copiously. Truly. During the number when she's up on pointe, I had myself worked up to one big heaving sob. I can't help it. I usually cry a little bit, but this year I was really pathetic. Proud mommy overload. She's just looks so grown up when she's dancing. She's a long way from this blurry five year old getting ready to leave for her first recital.

I did take pictures at Picture Day two weeks ago, pictures of her getting her picture taken. Here's her ballet costume.

And her jazz costume which I had to completely remake because it was entirely too big for her. Thank goodness it's black!

And here's the pointe costume along with Girl Who Thinks She Lives At My House #2.

Summertime in spades

When summer vacation starts around here, we don't mess around. School ended at 2:15 and we all came to a grinding halt. Hence that is why you get to read about the last day of school two days later.

On Wednesday they had the awards ceremony at school, which despite how they attempted to streamline the whole process it was still tediously long. They called all the kids up alphabetically, so if we were seated more near the door and less behind a wall of people, the Man and I could have slipped out exactly one minute after the program started. Next year, better planning.

The kiddos both got awards for have giant hard working brains which makes this mommy extremely proud. I'm still not exactly sure where all this big brained activity comes from. These two get grades that neither of their parents even came close to in school. Is it a twin thing? Whatever it is, I hope it lasts.

So here's the girl with her awards already poised on the couch for the next three months. The purple one is the big brain award. She also has student council, drama club and a cheesy little palm tree trophy for being in that play last month.

And the boy. Big brain, drama club, cheesy tree and again this year, perfect attendance. What is wrong with this boy? He is also camped on the couch for the summer. Right after this shot he asked me to bring him a freeze pop. Summer is here!

Secret Post: I'm not supposed to write about this but it's such a strange story that I must. I'll be very vague so no one will know what I'm talking about. There's this writer that I know who had a poem published in a fairly well known magazine. A few days ago he got a letter in the mail from someone who also tried to publish a poem in the same magazine, around the same time, about a similar topic but theirs was rejected. This other someone just wanted our writer to know that "I think my poem is better than yours". It's was a fairly polite letter in total, so it doesn't fall into the catergory of hate mail. I guess you would have to call it "Critical Mail" if anything. But in any case, it was a first.

Sunburns and a new baby

Whoa! Now that's a bad title!

Last Thursday the Girl and Boy went to an Indians game with school. They were gone forever! The game ended around 3:30, but they didn't get home until after 5 PM. The hang-up involved the stupidity of bus drivers it seems. The kids must have had a good time anyway because when I asked them if the Indians won, neither of them were sure. I already knew that they did win, but it cracks me up that they were there and didn't pay attention to the game at all!

They had to sit in the bleachers and both of them came home with sunburned faces. Every kid who went did as well. We had a Girl Scout meeting that same night and you could easily spot who went to the game. The Girl has quite a bad sunburn on her nose which started peeling today much to her dismay. She has pretty much hid her face from the world as much as she could today.

Friday night I get an unexpected call from Weaver. She just wanted to calmly as anything drop the news that she had the baby on Thursday. A little early? Yep, just a bit. I'm all down with that preemie baby and NICU scene, so here's big love and happy vibes to #4. Welcome, welcome, welcome!

Our Spring Colors

The Girl went to student council state conference and is now back again, safe and sound. She had a wonderful time. That little white sweater that we had to have lasted about 10 minutes into the dance before she got too hot and had to take it off. As for the shoes, she ended up taking a pair a mine; A nice benefit to having the same size feet right now. The shoes lasted only a little longer than the sweater before getting kicked to the side. I'm glad now we didn't go out anymore than we did to look for shoes! The purse we finally found was perfect. Now that she's home, I might take it for myself!

Spring has more than sprung around here. All the trees are in full leaf already. The baby trees are sprouting baby leaves which pleases us all to no end. A sure sign of spring is when I put my hammock up, which I did over the weekend. The Man cleaned out the gutters and The Boy had a big fire going in the fireplace. It was a very productive yard-sy weekend and probably the most we'll do outside for the rest of the season!

Spring is when our front yard is the prettiest. Here are some shots for you.

Here's the white dogwood. The rest of the year it's pretty plain, but right now it is awfully lovely. If you think my grass looks purple, it is. We actually don't have grass anymore. It's all violets. I'm not sure what our neighbors think about it, but we love how it looks this time of year. You can see it all the way down the street, the house with the purple lawn.

The Chem Lawn guy should be coming soon. Every year he looks at our lawn like it's a carpet of gold. I'm all ready for him this year...

Evil Chemical Grass Man: Good afternoon!

Me: (scowl)

Satan with Spray Gun: It looks like you've got a bit of violet problem here.

Me: I'd say that's a matter of opinion.

Earth Hating Grass Painter: How's that?

Me: I think everyone else has a grass problem.

It's not that I like weeds. Dandelions are enemy number one around here. The Man says that since I am so tyrannical on the dandelions, I've just opened the door to the violets. Maybe so, but violets are pretty!

Here's the pink dogwood. It's grown a lot since we've lived here. That "bush" in front of it used to twice as tall and was crowding it out. I have no love for that bush, which I refer to as the Pampered Weed. But our neighbors have a picture of their house when it was first built. Our house isn't there, but the Pampered Weed is. That makes The Weed over 100 years old. So I guess it can stay.

Around the Weed are tulips that planted the first fall we lived here. Last year they didn't bloom and I kept meaning to dig up the bulbs, but I didn't get to it. I guess I didn't need to anyway because this year they bloomed just fine. Some of them actually came up orange, which was new but a definite improvement over the ketchup and mustard ones.

There's also a little shrub by the front porch that turns bright, bright red right around the time the dogwoods lose their blossoms. A little better timing on everyones part would really be nice!

Girl Shopping

The Girl is going to the Student Council State Conference next week. She is leaving Thursday afternoon and will be home Saturday night. Thankfully, they have chartered a bus because the town where the conference is being held is about three hours away. I heard that in past years parents had to haul the kids all the way there and then pick them up again. Yuck!

Friday night at the conference is a fancy dinner followed by a dance. So we had to go shopping. Dress shopping. She's at this great in-between size right now: Too big for little girl clothes, too little for grown-up lady clothes. But we found a dress that was just right, a little blue sundress that is neither not too young nor too hoochy mama. But, she really didn't feel comfortable having her shoulders exposed. What she wanted was a little white, short sleeved, half sweater to wear over it.

This mythical sweater will be crazy easy to find and it will jump out at us or it will be the most impossible piece of clothing to find ever, the Grail of sweaters. This was my thought as we headed out. But the fates must have had pity on me because the first saleswoman in the first store knew exactly what we wanted and took us to the only one in her size. And it was on clearance.

"I don't like these buttons much." The Girl frowned down at the perfectly lovely buttons on the perfectly perfect sweater.

"We have lots of buttons. I'll sew new ones on that you do like!" This might have come out a bit crazed. She was now scowling at me.

"Do you think it's too baggy?" She plucked at the sides, pulling them away from her. Right now the Girl wears exclusively skin tight t-shirts. Anything with any kind of movement is deemed baggy by her.

"Nope, nope, nope. That's how it's supposed to look. It's dressy. Very pretty." I felt myself smiling like loon.

A big sigh. "You can change the buttons?"

"Oh yeah! No problem! Let's go check out now, okay?"

She agreed and the sweater looks perfect with the dress. She was right. She even thinks, as of this moment anyway, that the buttons aren't that bad after all.

Tonight we went shoe shopping. I'll make this short. We had no success. Big flop. On the way home she hits me that she thinks she need to take a bag of some type to keep all her things in during the conference.

"Do you mean a purse?" I asked finally, stopping her explanation.

"No, it doesn't exactly have to be a purse. More like a small tote."

Sure. So Sunday we are going purse shopping as well as shoe shopping part two.

She's also involved in the musical at school. They are doing "Once on this Island". I've never heard of this show, but from what I can gather from the kids it has really good music but a depressing story. Strange review, but they are enjoying it and the rehearsals are right after school so they don't get in the way with anything else.

Being a small junior high show, the kids have to provide there own costumes. More shopping, this time for peasant clothes: Muted colors with a tropical look, but not Hawaiian looking. Okay. We hit the Goodwill and after an exhaustive search we finally found a long skirt with a patched look in shades of brown and a little white peasant blouse. Perfect!

We had to find a shirt for the Boy too, who is also in the show. It went like this:

"Hey, here's a shirt. What do you think?"

"Okay."

"Do you want to try it on, make sure it fits?"

He holds it up to himself. "Nah. It's okay."

And that was it.

Stormy Weather

Friday night was the spring dance at school. The Girl was going, the Boy was headed out to camp with his troop. The weather looked bad, really bad. I wasn't keen on him going at all. Just before the boys headed out, the sun started to shine and the temperature rose. I took this as a good omen and they all set off.

The girlies went off to the dance a little while after that. About a half hour later, it started to rain. No, I mean RAIN, like an effing typhoon. The wind was shrieking, lightening flashed, the rain was coming down sideways for awhile! And my son is out there tent camping out at treeless, mud hole Amvets!

As much as I'm worried about him, that's has to wait because now I have to go pick up the girls from the dance. I was the pick-up person for the last dance and I played it all wrong then. Last time I got there right when the dance ended and got stuck in a snarl of traffic in a very dark parking lot. This time, I went a little earlier and got a parking space facing the door right where they were going to come out. Perfect. They would walk out, I'd give a little honk and we'd all be off.

So I'm waiting, waiting, waiting and they aren't coming out. Through the dark I spy the problem. There's this long line of cars and it looks like they are only letting the kids out of the building when their car is at the front of the line. The principal has a cell phone and is shouting into car windows getting kid's names. My plan is foiled! Now I have to get into this line and snake my way around the parking lot to the door. They've never done this before. It's not even raining anymore. What is going on?

I finally get to the door and they release the girls. And why did it go down like this? They had the kids in tornado position in the hall while they waited to get picked up. Like I said, it's not raining, not blowing, the stars are actually out. Ugh! Whatever. Better safe than sorry and all that. At least we can head out now. I hope the Boy is alright.

Back at home, I find the Boy sitting on the couch! When the storm blew up, they evacuated out of there double quick. I was SO relieved to see him! They boogied out of the there so fast they had to leave everything behind; tents, sleeping bags, everything! Fine by me, at least he was home because now it's starting to rain again. Enough! I'm going to bed!

9 AM the phone rings. It's the troop and they are headed back out. Could the Boy be there in the next couple of hours? He didn't seem to excited about going, but since all his stuff was out there, he really didn't have much of a choice. Saturday wasn't such a stellar weather day either with constant drizzle and sticking around forty degrees. They pitched all the tents under a pavilion, on top of gravel. I asked him what it was like sleeping on gravel. All I got was a grunt. He's not in the best of moods today for some reason!

Treize!

Thirteen is our number. I don't want to sound all "23" crazy about it, but there have been several examples of 13 being an important number to us. I know that you could take any number and drive yourself batty finding examples of it in your life: Patterns emerge, coincidences occur, planets collide. Eventually you find yourself locked up mumbling that special number to yourself and eating without utensils. But I assure you, it's not that way it is for us and the number 13.


It starts with me. I was raised on 13th Street. As an homage to his sweetie in the stands, the Man wore the number 13 on his softball jersey.


And now today these two are thirteen! Wow!



And here they are when they were thirteen days old.



I know they are thirteen days old in this picture because this is the day them came home from the hospital, April 13th.


Did I mention that they were born 13 minutes apart? Hmmm....I bet if I thought about this I COULD find more 13s....



Happy Birthday to the Girl and Boy! I've loved everyday of our 13 years together!

Now, cute kittens!

(Not that I have a good twin and a bad twin! They take turns playing both roles. Okay, not really! They are actually both wonderful people. Am I'm not just saying that because I'm their mommy!)

A Traditional Easter

For a second year we bundled off to the IX Indoor Amusement Park for a day of Easter thrills, spills and overpriced snacks. But I think that cat is out of the bag on this one because today was much more crowded than last year. Still nothing like your average Friday or Saturday out there, which I swore I would never do again. I even spit on it.

We rode the famed Crazy Mouse a couple of times. We drank too much pop, ate french fries and funnel cakes. There was a petting zoo, a dog show and many, many spinning and noisy rides to keep us happy and busy for an entire afternoon.

There is this one game there that the Man probably would sit at all day if we let him. It doesn't have a name and I've never seen it anywhere else, so you'll have to bear with this description. It's pretty simple actually: You get a bag of tokens and there's this little arm that you roll the tokens down one at a time. They land in a bin that has a wall that moves back and forth pushing the tokens to the front. Once the pile of token builds up enough, then the ones nearest the front fall off the edge, slide out the chute and that's what you win. Seems like a lot of trouble for little payoff, but there is also riding on top of the tokens little prizes that occasionally fall off the edge as well. That's the fun part. The extra tokens just keep you playing longer; it's the prizes you are after. The best prize that the man won today was a little bowling pin key chain that actually ended up being a pen that that the end lit up when you wrote with it. Doesn't seem possible that some much fun could be shoved in such a small thing!

A new thing at the Park today was an oxygen bar. Just like it sounds, you sit at bar stools with a medical-like tube going up your nose letting you breathe in 95% pure oxygen that you can "flavor" with fruit scents that you can almost taste. I didn't do it, but the Boy and the Man did. Neither of them had a high opinion of the situation, so if you ever see this, just keep going. It's not going to put you in a better mood or make colors seem brighter. Getting to keep the tubing seems like the best part for them.

We went by one vendor who was selling Italian charms. This little jewelry fad is SO over. It made me sad this whole booth with table after table of little pieces of metal that absolutely no one would want to buy.... or would they? Right there, no lie, was a charm that had the Girl's name on it. Well, not exactly her name, but her nickname AND spelled the right way. So we bought it. We'll put it on her bracelet and it will go right back in her jewelry box never to be worn again. But being that this was the first time we've ever seen anything with even close to her name on it, well, we just couldn't pass it up. And it's not like I was buying her five minutes of flavored air to breathe!

Yesterday was perogie day. A full day of making and eating homemade perogies. I have lots of good pictures and stories that I'll post tomorrow.

Day Six

Dear Man,

This is the girl. Today we went to get my pointe shoes. I had to try on a lot of pairs of shoes. But these ones were my favorites and they fit the best. They are more pink than most shoes because they're older. They are very narrow so they had been sitting in the store a long time.




We went out shopping today and had lunch at Bennigan's. I had the potato soup, which was very good. I'm not sure if I like it more than Applebee's soup.


When we got home we cut up all the Christmas cards to make into our thank you cards. We didn't have enough cards with good pictures so Grammy gave us hers.


I'm very proud of you because you did good on your lecture today. I can't until you come home. :-)

First Day of Junior High

Off to Junior High go the boy and girl! Big time 7th graders! School now starts at a blurry 7:25 AM, which means we have to get up at around 6:30! Not cool! The sleep loving Andersons are really going to struggle with this early time. The man had NOTHING nice to say about it this morning!

They came home all smiles and very excited. I hope that they have lots of positive experiences in junior high. The strange thing for them will be that they are in every class all day together, except gym. Getting sick of each other is a distinct possibility.

I'm one of the few people I know who can say this, but I loved Junior High. Elementary school was a daily horror for me and Junior High was a chance to be someone new. I didn't realize I was miserable at the time in elementary. It wasn't until I started meeting new people that I finally felt myself relax. My grades improved and so did how I felt about myself. And fewer and fewer people called me by the loathed nickname that tormented both myself and my sweet sister. ( I know you're shivering to yourself right now just thinking of it, H.) The gist of it is, there's something to be said about meeting people who haven't known you since kindergarten. I found it very liberating. And these new people, in Junior High, didn't threaten to beat you up for looking at them the wrong way or accidentally bumping into them! What a novelty!

And Junior High is just big enough that all those old "pals" were easy to avoid. I saw less and less of them, until by High School, there were barely any left at all. Who knows where they all went; just blew away I guess. Well, not all of them. Just before the YMCA closed I saw Angela H., who was one of those K - 6ers' back at the old stomping ground. I hadn't said a word to this woman since probably the last day of sixth grade. I can't recall ever seeing her after, but I guess she was around. (I looked her up in my yearbook and we graduated together. What d'ya know!) She recognized me right off. (Damn this youthful look of mine!) I didn't know who she was until she introduced herself. We had a very nice chat-- and then she called me that name. I think I actually saw red. I don't know, it's all a blur. I don't know what I said, I hope it was something polite, but I know that I cut out of there quick. Sometimes the past REALLY needs to stay the past!

3 Days Until Opening Night

Does this sound like confidence?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Yeah, I thought not. It's three more days and the freaking-out-factor is growing with every passing moment. It doesn't help at all that yesterday was the first big dress rehearsal with the band, lighting and mics working. We were supposed to be there at noon, but we didn't get working until 2 PM. I could have been cool with all that waiting around if it weren't for the fact that the girl and I had to leave at 2:30 so she could get to camp. We got to rehearse one and half songs before we had to bolt out of there. Not cool, not cool at all.

So the girl is off for a week of Girl Scout camp and spending it sleeping in a big teepee. That's right, sleeping on the ground (on a mattress) in a teepee with eleven other girls. It's a neat looking thing and I'm sure it will be a hoot to sleep in it the first couple of nights, but by the end of the week I'm wondering if the magic wears off. And I know for a fact that those bullfrogs can make a deafening amount of noise when they get going. I'm sure she'll have lots of stories when she comes home.

But now you're thinking "How can the girl be at camp for the week? What about the show?" Ah, believe me, this whole situation has been hashed to death. The final solution is that since she can not, WILL NOT, miss opening night, so we are running out to camp to pick her up, do the show and then run her back after. The show is fairly short, so she could potential be back in the teepee by 10:30, just in time for lights out. How Thursday will actually go is up to the fates now.

Last Day of Sixth Grade

This is the end. The last day of 6th grade. The last day of elementary school. The last day at Ely. The tradition is to have the whole school line up on the walk and clap the sixth graders out as they leave. Here's the beginning of the line.

And here's the girl going by. I missed the boy because instead of taking a picture, I turned off the camera! Way to miss a moment!

Here's the kids with Mrs. Russell...

And Mr. Hamker. They were the most fantastic teachers anyone could ask for!

The awards ceremony was this morning and the kids got a ton of stuff. The girl got recognized for being in the spelling bee, being on safety patrol, National Physical Fitness Award and being on the honor roll every quarter since 3rd grade. That's 16 quarters people and only eight 6th graders did it.

The boy got recognized for perfect attendance, safety patrol captain, spelling bee and also being on the honor roll 16 times in a row! I'm one proud Mama! They both got a very impressive calculator and they each gave me a flower up on stage.


Junior High, here we come!

Dance Recital '07

Put another year of dances classes in the books! This year's recital was a lovely affair, with "A Night at the Movies" as the theme. Saturday the girl had to perform in the afternoon show, which is short and showcases the older girls and then the evening show which is everybody and her cousin. Our girl was fantastic! Here's some pics!

Check out these Ely girls hanging out at dress rehearsal Friday night. It ended up being a VERY long night!

Dancing in the aisles waiting for their turn.

It's recital night! This is her jazz costume. Check out those plastic-y pants! They were too long, so I just cut them off with scissors. Time to go!

Home from recital with her flowers. This, of course, is her ballet costume. Very pretty! Congratulations sweetheart. We're all so proud of you!

Lip Sync Champions!

Performing "I'll Sue Ya!" by Weird Al, The Girl, Boy and Other Girl totally kicked it out and took first prize. Congratulations to my three favorite superstars!

Fields Trips Cold, Field Trips Hot

Fields trips fun, fields trips not! In the past week, these 6th graders of mine have had not one but two field trips. No two trips have ever been more different than these.

First, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was a cold, drizzly day in Canton. We arrived fashionably late after an almost 2 hour bus ride. The parking lot was chuck full of buses and kids from schools all over the state. There wasn't one happy face in the crowd.

First stop, athletic drill on the football field. Did I mention it was cold and drizzly. Oh yeah. Big fun. These huge smiles are only because this crew is a big ham for a camera.

Next stop, time for exploring the museum. This group was my responsibility. I guess you could say that we walked the whole place twice over without stopping much. I guess you could say that football's not our thing. I guess you could say we were bored out of our minds.

Here we found the boy in the gift shop. I picked up a really cute Christmas ornament of Santa at the Hall of Fame. How could I not buy it?

After that, we ate lunch ON THE BUS and then drove home. It was the worst field trip of all time. There's nothing more to say.

This week the field trip was Swings 'n Things. And just stop right there Brewer -- Everyone already knows your opinion of that place! This was a great field trip. The first half was fun disguised as educational lessons. The second part of the day was just running around with the place to ourselves. Sunny, warm and unlimited rides on everything. This trip more than made up for the one to you know where.

This guy and his company invented modern batting cages with net tents and ball returns. The one at SNT was the prototype when they first started. Who knew!

That's me in the bumper boats. They soaked me big time before it was over. Tomorrow is the lip sync contest. Stayed tuned for a big post about that!

Spring Fling!

The annual Spring Fling carnival was last Friday at school. Games and prizes, food and running around like fools. You know, the usual. This year was a very special to the boy and girl because when you are a sixth grader, the tradition is to get a whipped cream pie in the face from a younger student. They all look forward to this. It's one of the highlights of being a sixth grader. Weird, I know. Anyway, here's the boy getting his face-full.
And the girl getting hers. They said that the whipped cream was disgusting smelling and made them all sick. Tell the truth, none of them looked too great after all of this: A bunch of sixth graders walking around looking sticky with matted down hair.
Every that we've helped out with this, the man and I work the bracelet engraving table. The man makes the COOLEST bracelets. On mine you get a choice of your name in print or cursive with a heart, flower or star as decoration. By the end of the carnival, your hand is fairly numb from holding the engraver. Here's us hard at work for the last time. They'll have to find new engraving suckers for next year.
We had a "Flat Stanley" visiting us last week, so he came to the carnival, too. Here he is with one of the dogtags we were engraving. He got a bracelet with his name on it to take home.
Unfortunatly, for us, this last Spring Fling, probably was the worst ever thrown. First, they had it outside in the parking lot and sitting in the sun, engraving those little pieces of metal was really yucky. Also, being outside, the whole thing had an aura of tackiness, even for a cheesy school carnival. But the thing that really put a damper on it was that there was no music, no DJ. It was the quietest event you've ever been to. Every other year it's been a big, thumping dance party with games and crafts around the edges. Without music, it was downright bland. But let's not end this post on a down note. Here's more pie-in-the-face shots!

My April Fools

The girl and boy turned a whopping 12 years old yesterday! Not only was their entrance into this world dramatic, but they had the pre-natal sense to arrive on a memorable day. Not a bad start and it's been a grand 12 years since.

Yesterday we celebrated with a houseful of family and a ton of food in the brunch category, complete with funnel cakes. After presents, I used my family members as slave labor to put together key rings for the kids to give out at school today in place of the customary cupcakes or treat bags. They were a surly crew (especially my Grandma!), but the finished products were worth the complaining. The afternoon was spent playing cards, more eating, drinking bad wine and lots of visiting. It was a lovely day. It felt like a mini Christmas! Here's one of the key rings we made (sans the ring). Ely colors with an Ely Eagle on the end.

Saturday, my co-leader Denise and I went to an all-day leader training out at Timberlane. Now that might sound like a drag to you, but we love to go to these things. We went to four classes. The first taught us what kind of chemicals you can throw into a campfire to make the flames turn different colors. The green worked and looked the best. (And yes, Brewer, we were very safety conscience!) Then we took a mosaic class. Glass was flying everywhere as we snipped and cut. This is what I made and I'm pretty damn proud of it. That's a mirror in the center, but in this shot it looks like a hollow box. Weird.

After lunch, we took a basket weaving class which probably was the single most frustrating thing I have ever done. The woman who taught this class should be put up for sainthood. She had a roomful of women who had just got done breaking glass, now trying to weave uncooperative reeds. The mood was tense. It was awful to start, but it did get easier, just like she said it would. Here's my basket:

After that it was African drumming, which was more fun than I thought it would be. Nothing to break or fight with, just things to hit. We had dinner at Boccardi's and I got to play hero as I ordered pizza to go and brought it home to my hungry crew.

While I was doing all of this, the man and boy were out playing paintball. They said they had a really fun time and they both have the mandatory number of bruises to prove it. The girl spent the day out with Grandma buying spring clothes for her AND her bear Lola. Lola ended up getting more outfits than the girl!

The big birthday present this year were tickets to go see Weird Al in July. They both get to take one friend and we'll make a wild day out of it. They're so excited! July can't get here fast enough!

Nothing About Cats

I didn't get called into work today. I didn't get called into work today! Now there's plenty of days that I don't go into work, but it's my choice. Today, for the first time in months, they didn't call me. I'm feeling rejected here. A little bummed out. Here I am with nothing to do, except a bunch of stuff I don't want to do. So to delay all that, I will catch up with all of you.

First, this: One of the rarest things in the world. A halfway decent picture of me. Sure it's a little blurry and the color is funny, but if that's what it takes, so be it. This is me and the girl at the champagne brunch reception of the new Mr. and Mrs. Eric Anderson. My good friend Mindi went out and got her own Eric, so now we have a matching set. Okay, they don't match at all, except in name. But how strange was it to get that invitation in the mail? Just a tad bit unsettling, but we're all adjusting.

A few of you out there know my weakness for champagne and let's just say that they weren't stingy with making sure your glass was full. By 1 PM we were back home and I took a little nap.

The man: It's called passing out.

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Friday night, the munchkins and I went to see "South Pacific" performed by the Elyria Catholic drama department. I don't want to talk about it much except for these points--

1. South Pacific has way too much talking and way too many slow songs to ever attempted by high school students. There should probably be a law in place against it.


2. The "auditorium" at EC is the ugliest room on Earth. And I am just saying that because I'm a EHS snob.


3. Sitting on hard, benches for a long, dull musical is very hard on your back, even when you resort to sitting between the benches and have your legs up on the bench in front of you, thus making you look and feel ridiculous.


4. The live band was very nice.

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The kids and I just finished "The Last Battle" which is the last book in the Narnia series. If you've never read all of them (or any of them), I very highly recommend them. I know some people shy away from books in a series, too much of a commitment, but that's what makes these books great. You don't have to have a stellar memory to enjoy them. Each book is a story entirely on it's own, completely understandable without having knowledge or history from the stories previous to it. "The Last Battle" should be read last, but other than that, it's a free for all. I would really like to go into "The Last Battle" and discuss my theories about Susan with someone. I've read lots of online articles about her, but I would really like to have a discussion with someone else who has read them. If you've read them (or if you could please hurry up and read them), I would appreciate hearing from you! If I don't hear from somebody, I'll just have to spit out all my ideas on this blog and ruin it for everyone else. That's not a warning, it's a threat.

What Happens in Book Club...

The girl belongs to a book club after school. It really seems like a great thing on the surface: They meet once a week for an hour and they are matched up with a Junior High age girl as their sister. They get a copy of the book they are reading to keep and snacks are served. Seems just about perfect. The problem comes in with the book they've been reading since the beginning-- "Little Women". Of all the wonderful, TIMELY books that they could be reading, why oh why, are they reading "Little Women"? It's been a long, long time since I read it and I'll confess I don't remember much about it. My mom had (and I'm sure it's still somewhere in the house) a Louisa May Alcott little treasury set. I can still picture it-- four little green hard-bound books in their own case. I loved how those books looked. I know that I read "Little Women", but I remember it took me a long time. I never read the other three. Not a good sign.

When the girl came home from her first meeting with her own fat paperback of it, I was baffled. What were the organizers thinking? Come to find out they are thinking that a production of "Little Women" will be in Cleveland in the spring and they are taking the girls on a field trip to see it then. Are they reading any other books? No, just this. They have a schedule of chapters to keep up with that will take them right up to the show, I guess. That is, if there's anyone left in the club to take.

Girls have been dropping out a steady pace of a one or two a meeting since the start. My girl and her two closest pals are sticking it out, though, I'm not sure why. All they do is complain- the book is boring, the older girls spend the meeting just visiting with each other, the snacks are gross- it's all unhappiness! I think it's almost a contest between them now: Who can stand it the longest.

To help the girl keep up, I checked out the book on CDs from the library. I thought listening to it would make it easier to follow for her and it seems to be working for her. Occasionally she'll come to me with a especially thick passage that she needs me to make sense of for her. This is not a fun book to read by anyones standard.

I assume that the existence of this club was to promote a love of reading, but it seems like a giant failure to me. When she comes home all bummed out by another annoying meeting, it makes me want to do is start my own book club. But I would do it right. The first book we would read would be "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman just to let them know that I mean business and this not going to be your average book club. After that maybe "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech. Then they wouldn't know what to expect. What's it going to be next? "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" or "Pride and Prejudice"? Could be anything! But I really doubt "Little Women" would ever make my reading list!

Dance Recital Day

It's finally dance recital day! It's been months of practice, but it's all worth it. This is the first year that the girl is old enough to perform in the afternoon performance. It was a great show. The first picture is her hanging out understage with her friends from school. She's in her ballet costume. The second one is her jazz costume. We can't wait to see her again tonight. Break a leg sweetie!

As for a quick cat update, there have been no changes. She is still here, living in the shed. The neighbor kid's mom came over and cuddled and cooed over her, but then said she had to think about it. Marco is so unhappy he cries and whines all day long. The situation is becoming unbearable. As for the accusation that I'm a cat hater, it's completely untrue. This little cat would make a cat lover out of anyone. But my poor dog is very much a cat hater and he was here first, so there's no room for her here.