Chasing Andersons

I guess you can label me a traitor to blogging.  I've gone over to Facebook full force.  I've got something to say, I say it there.   I have a picture you just must see, that's where it would be.  Announcements over big things, little things, non-things all go to Facebook.

Forgive me.

Here's some stuff you missed lately if you are not floating in the Facebook universe with me.

Dance Team is over.  Super over after tonight which is the dance team banquet.  On Senior Night, her solo was so beautiful.  I held it together until she was completely done dancing, then I lost it.  Lots of tears.

February 12

"You Can't Take It With You" was the spring show and my little duckling was the star.  We went to see it all three nights.  How could we not?  She was amazing!

February 22, 23, 24

There's no picture for this, but BOTH of the kids got the Scholastic E Award. There will be lots of pictures taken at the award ceremony!



The ninth grade band, concert band and symphonic band did a concert in the Performing Arts Center while the National Art Honor Society members painted to the music in the other room.  You got to watch the art happen on screens while the music played.  The Boy was part of the art and this is what he created during the concert.  It was auctioned off at the end of the show with the money going the Salvation Army.

March 6

Finally, we had a huge day at Camp Timberlane getting The Boy's Eagle Project all done in one fell swoop.  He created a new trail, with trail markers which led to a new campsite with a firecircle.  Twenty-three people came out to lend a hand in perfect weather.  Now it's just the paperwork part of the project and he will be an Eagle.

March 9

Coming up is a pageant, some birthdays, a musical, some little shows, awards ceremonies, a prom, a graduation, many parties and a recital.  You can stay up-to-the-minute on Facebook.  Or I'll probably be back to update this in July...

Just being honest!

Calendar of Upcoming Events

The kids have a bunch of stuff happening soon.  I have been accused in the past of not giving enough advance warning, so here you go.

Tuesday, January 15th- T-Rep and Comedy Troupe Show.  The Girl will be performing her drama class midterm and The Boy will be doing some short pieces with the Comedy Troupe.  6 PM (This would qualify as not enough advance warning, granted.)

Friday, January 17th-  Home Basketball game at EHS to watch The Girl dance.  7 PM

Saturday, January 18th- Dance Team Showcase.  Dance Teams from all over will be coming to EHS to show off their dancing skills.  6 PM.

Friday, January 25th-  Home Basketball game

Tuesday, Jaunary 29th- Home Basketball game

Friday, February 1st- Something Dada Comedy Show. 7 PM.  The Boy's comedy troupe will also be performing.

Saturday, Februay 2nd- Home Basketball game

Tuesday, February 12th-  Last Home Basketball Game.  Senior night and solo dance for The Girl.

February 22nd - 24th-   "You Can't Take It With You".  EHS Drama Department Winter Show.  The Girl has a big role in it, so it is not one to miss.

Then things are quiet for a bit.  There will be choir concerts, tennis matches and the musical to come.  Fun!

Christmas Tree Day 2012

 The Anderson's had to travel into the woods a little early this year.  Three of the Anderson's are insanely busy people with schedules that must be respected.  So we went out on the last day of November (*gasp*) to find the perfect tree.

We went back to Spenser's Tree Farm in Wakeman where the last 19 of our 20 trees have come from.  It's gone through good times and bad out there with the tree selection.  But no matter what, you can't beat the prices, service and the homemade cookie for your ride home.

It's a big place.  We lost The Girl for a little while. 

 Everyone had their own opinions on what tree we should pick.  This year there were three finalists that we were trying to pick between.  The problem was they were all really far apart from each other.  There was quite a bit of walking back and forth.  But some people know how to travel.

Finally one tree was compromised on.

Not too big.  Not too small.  Not too fat.  Not too thin.

The Girl was asked to hold up the tree while The Man sawed it down.  He's laying on the ground behind the tree in these shots.  You'll just have to take my word on it.

Oh no!  Says The Girl.  This tree is Sooooo heavy!  How will I ever  hold it up?

Uh oh!  It actually is very heavy.  *Ugh*  I need help!

No worries, that's what brother's are for.

 And that's it.  The tree is down.   Hey guy down there with the saw, you okay?

 

 Never better.  Another tree conquered.

 Another successful Christmas Tree Day!  Now to just get it home and make it pretty.

 Bonus! This tree has many, many pine cones.

 Twenty years ago today, I woke up in my bed in my mother's house and realized I left my contacts at the new apartment.  I was going to need them for the day so I quickly threw on warmer clothes and drove through the snow across town.

I wasn't sure where The Man spent the night.  I was pretty sure he stayed at his parents house.  I'm not a superstitious person normally but the bride not seeing the groom before the wedding seemed like a good idea. 

Luckily when I pulled up in the driveway I could easily make out The Man's fresh footprints in the snow.  It looked like I had just missed him and that he also had showed up and then left right away.  I wondered what he forgot and had to make an early morning run for.  What a pair we were!

I don't remember standing in the apartment thinking anything like, "When I come back here I'll be a married woman."  That would make a nice detail to this story. A young woman standing right between two parts of her life taking a moment to ponder her future. What I do remember is grabbing my contacts and blowing out of there to make it back to the house.  I still needed to shower and get my hair dry before people started showing up.

This morning I woke up in the house I've lived in for the past nineteen years.  After I got the kids off to school I went back to bed to snuggle for a little while with The Man and Mamacat.  There's no snow on the ground today and no threat of flurries later.   I won't see his footprints in the snow today, but later tonight Marco will let know when he hears his truck coming home from teaching at Bowling Green.


 Twenty years later he is still my best friend and my all-time hero in cutting down Christmas trees.

More pictures from our early Christmas Tree day coming soon!

 

 

 Happy Anniversary!

Dance Team Season Arrives!

It is finally here.  The first home game of the basketball season which means it's the first dance team performance.  No worries if you can't make tonight, there are eleven more opportunities to see The Girl dance before February 12th, which is the last game.  That's 69 days away, but who's counting.

Here's the whole schedule for the season if you want to make plans to come out and see her.  The team dances at Varsity games.

http://elyriaschools.org/elyria/ehsathletics/boys-basketball/handouts/7196/78846/

The team only dances at home games.  Not included on the above schedule is the Dance Team Showcase.  The team has invited dance teams from other area schools to come and perform.  That will be Saturday, January 19th at 6 PM. 

The Man and I will always be on the home side, way at the top with the wall to our backs.  See you there!

Coming Up:  A Capella Christmas Choir Concert, Sunday December 16, 3 PM

Harvey

Tonight is opening night of "Harvey" the Elyria High School Drama Department fall show.  Neither of the kids are in the show since rehearsals and cross country overlapped.  The Boy is on running crew which means you can go see the show and not see him for the entire performance.  I haven't seen him all week because he's been busy with tech week.   The Girl helped out with painting the set on Saturdays.  She's not down with tech week stuff so I've seen her lots this week.

But there are plenty of other of my favorite kids in this show so I'll be there tonight supporting the department, all of these talented kids and, of course, my favorite crew member.   The set is supposed to be a two- sided spinning contraption.  I'm excited to see them try something so new.

Performances tonight and tomorrow and 7:30 PM.  Sunday is at 2 PM. 

Coming Soon in the Lives of the Andersons

Tomorrow is the next cross country meet.  It's in Medina which I can't remember ever going to before.  Maybe we were excused as parents to attend.  Or maybe they've  just never run there before.  The Girl runs at 10 AM.  The Boy runs at 11:40 AM.  Last week, 90% of the team got their personal best times.  Most everyone at that meet got their best times ever.  There's been a lot of finger pointing that the course was short, but what's done is done.

Tuesday, October 9th, The Girl has a choir concert at 7 PM in the Performing Arts Center.  The choir director, for some unknown reason, thinks this show is going to be huge and has scheduled a second show on Monday, October 15th, just for those people who get shut out of the first show.   I don't know anyone who clamors to get to one of these shows.  Everyone is there out of pure obligation.  I don't have a very high opinion of the choir director in the best of times, but scheduling extra shows, just in case, really knocks him down a few more pegs.

Wednesday, October 10th is a band concert, which we've never had to go to before, but this show has Comedy Troupe performing as well, so off we go.  I don't know the time yet for this show or if The Boy will actually be in any of the skits since it's supposed to be short.  Stay tuned.

And that it.  Boy Scout popcorn sales still roll on.  My shed is stacked the ceiling in the stuff.  Booth sales start tonight, but it's raining so I'm probably going to have to cancel.  Not disappointed that I won't have to stand outside on a Friday night trying to sell something nobody wants, but at the same time, every box sold gets us that much closer to the sale be over and done with.

Senior Pictures Sneak Peek

If you want to see them all (215 pictures in total), I can send you the link.  But here's just a taste of what they are like.

The next cross country meet is this Saturday, September 15th.  It's going to be out at Galion, which is the one race I do not attend.  It's too far away, too crowded and has an terrible parking situation from what I hear.  I put them on the bus an hour before dawn, say good luck, go home and go back to bed.

September 22nd's race is at Black River High which is down in Amish country.  Nice drive and a nice location to see a race.

Cross Country for Saturday September 1

The Saturday, September 1st meet is at Lorain County Community College.  The Girl runs at 9:30 AM .  The Boy runs at Noon.  The crowds will be huge.  Ask passing people to point out the starting line.  If I tried to describe where it is right here you would probably end up on the in the wrong place altogether.  Park somewhere near the tennis courts or at least on that side of the campus.  No matter where you park though, give yourself a good amount of time to walk to the starting line.  If you are staying for both races, you might want to bring a chair for chilling out between races.  There's not much to do out there but clap and cheer and there is nowhere to sit.  But don't drag a chair to the starting line.  You won't be there long.  It's also really sunny out there.  Bring a hat!

Upcoming Events:  Saturday, September 8, Cross Country meet @ Wooster
                                Saturday, September 22, Cross Country meet @ Black River

Fundraising Currently Happening  The Girl is selling cookie dough for choir.  The Boy is selling popcorn for Boy Scouts.

High School Seniors

The Boy and The Girl are ready to take on the world!

In order for everyone to stay in step with the madcap go, go, go world of these two, I will attempt to post (in a timely manner) all of their upcoming events such as cross country meets, choir concerts, basketball games, mock trial competitions, play productions, art exhibitions, tennis matches, awards ceremonies, graduation parties and the dance recital.

Soon there will also be a preview of their senior pictures which encompassed two separate days and four locations.  It was quite an experience.

Heads up:  Graduation is June 1st, 6 PM, Ely Stadium.

A few notes on Disney

I've waited too long to write about The Girl and I going to Disney World.  We've told our stories over and over at this point.  There are plenty of pictures on my Flickr and on Facebook that you can check out.  Here's my favorites.

Everyone at Disney World is wonderful.  Servers, security guards, even people waving flashlights so you walk down the right paths.  Everyone is happy to see you and offer a friendly word.  But this balloon guy took the prize.  The Girl, in a teasing way, was constantly asking for a balloon while we were in the park.  This balloon guy left her hold them all.

These balloons all had blinky lights in them too!

If you'll remember, The Girl played Rapunzel back in the winter play.  So meeting Rapunzel herself was on the top of the list.  She found where she would be appearing and waited alone in line for an hour to make it happen.  We brought her dinner in line.  Finally the two Rapunzels got some time together.

Worth every second of the wait.

Going on this trip with The Girl was an amazing experience.  We made the absolute most of it and we both realize how special and unique the whole thing was.

But this my favorite picture from that week.  While the girls were in Florida, the dudes went zip-lining.  Check out my handsome boys!

Adventures with Meg

I've said many times that we have the representation of the bear family from Goldilocks in our cats.  We have Jack who is heavy and round.  We have Mamacat who is the perfect cat size.  And we have Meg who is a walking bag of bones.

Meg's underweight status has been a concern of ours from the start.  All three of these cats eat the same thing at the same times.  Jack packs on pounds like he's trying to win a world record while his sister looked worse than cats you outside of dumpsters.  It didn't make sense.

Back before Christmas Meg started throwing up.  A lot.  Many times a day.  It was worrisome and disgusting. We found cat puke everywhere.  We would be woken up by the sound of her yakking in our room.  No one wanted her to sit on their lap.  She was that volatile.

A trip to the vet got us nowhere with the vomiting.  He prescribed hairball medicine and sent us on our way.  Hairball medicine is tuna-flavored Vaseline.  Meg would lap it up and she seemed to be getting better.  She was down to puking one every other day.  Much more manageable.

Then a few weeks ago, Meg developed scabs all over her head and neck.  She would scratch them open and they would bleed.  She was losing hair in little knots that I found all over the house.  She wouldn't let you pet her, I presume because her skin hurt.

"She's going to the vet next week", I declared.  This was a Wednesday.

The next morning, Meg had licked down to bare skin a nickel sized patch on her neck.  It was raw and disturbing to look at.  She had to get to the vet.

By that evening when everyone was home, Meg came out of wherever she was hiding for the day to show up what she had done.  All of the hair the one side of her neck was gone.  Wherever she could reach she had licked herself bare.  It was red, wet and awful.

We got into the vet the next morning.

The vet still didn't have any answers.  But he suggested it might be a food allergy and suggested we put her on a food with no grain in it.  I did a little research and our littlr cat had every classic symptom of a food allergy.

She's been on her fancy-pants catfood since May 21st.  After three days she had no more scabs and the fur on her neck started coming back.  Today she's still bony, but she feels heavier.  She hasn't puked either.  I was worried that he tubby brother might try to get her food, but we keep it away from him.  She tells us when she's hungry.  She knows without a doubt that she gets special food now and doesn't even bother with the other stuff.  It's lucky the smartest of our cats is the one who developed this.

It's going to be awhile until all of her fur comes back, but our tiniest kitten is going to be just fine.

Another Prom Picture

Here's The Boy and The Girl Who Thinks She Lives Here at prom.

Cute enough to make your eyes melt!

A Yard of Loss

Note:  This post was way too much trouble to get together than it should have been. It's taken days!

Once I had a hammock.  A colorful retreat suspended in the trees.  Here it is in happier days, back when Mamacat was still just the stray in the yard,

Here is my hammock now.  Chewed and defiled by rodents, probably of the mouse persuasion.

They ate through the ties too, just to be spiteful.  Utterly destroyed.

Once I had a lovely chiminea.  So many many many days and evenings were spent in front of it.  Plenty of hot dogs and pie iron pizzas.  Even more s'mores. 

Look at it now.  Reduced to a planter after the bottom fell out.  A clever use, yes, but it's not my fireplace.  

Doesn't even have any flowers in it.  Just a pot of dirt.

Once I had a lovely sunflower garden with majestic giants swaying in the breeze.

Now the only residents are two trees that are pushing their luck and a freak of a prickly weed that's about 100 times taller than it should be

Oh, woe is me.

Our Prom Attendee

First I couldn't find my memory card reader.  Then I remembered it was at work.  But when I went to work, I forgot the card.  Then I remembered to find the reader and grab the card, but the cord attaching the reader to the computer was missing.  I ripped my desk and then the entire office apart until I could it.  Then I didn't have the card with me anymore.

But now all of the piece are together, in one place, functioning correctly and you are rewarded with pictures of seriously handsome Boy.

Seriously.

Handsome.

Boy.

 Oh my goodness.

The plans for prom were a bit sketchy right up to the end.  How was he getting there?  Getting home?  Getting to After Prom?  Getting home from After Prom?  But eventually, he had it all ironed out.  My only part in it was getting him to Big-Beautiful-House-At-The-End-Of-The-Street.

"Do you know which house I mean Mom?"

"Ah, yep.  I sure do."

So we got him there and then girls in gowns and guys in tuxes started showing up all over the place.  More and more and more kids dressed to the nines filled the beautiful lawn.  And the owner of the home provided cold beer and cocktails for the parents while the kids visited and took pictures.  It was awesome!  Thank goodness I brushed my hair!

Here's the reason that The Boy got to go to Prom, Kate.  She's been in The Boy's art class all year and asked him to go as friends.  Awwww!

The hostess wanted a group picture of all of the kids who had shown up at her house.  They tried several locations around the property.  This is finally where they settled on.

As for The Girl, no Senior asked her to Prom which was fine because at the time she was still speaking in just whispers.  She spent the night at the friends' house and came home in the morning talking like the Man-Frog again.

The Wide Mouth Frog

Okay the title of this post relates to a joke that most people don't think is funny but cracks me up so hard I can hardly tell it.  And it's a joke that has to told out loud.  Wouldn't be funny to read at all.  So all and all, the title of this post is not getting job done.  Let's get right into the story then...

The Girl has been sick.  Coughing, sore throat, feeling crappy kind of sick.  But yesterday was Physics Day at Cedar Point so she couldn't, she wouldn't miss that.  When I dropped her off in the morning, she sounded exactly like my daughter.

What I picked up 13 hours later was a loud, raspy, deep, deep, DEEP-voiced frog woman.

Her voice was so loud and so foreign I had to stare at her all the time when she spoke or I didn't know who was speaking.  It was hilarious.  She's tried so hard to tell us about her day and what she rode and what she ate and all we could do was laugh at her.  And then she would tell us to shut up in that deep crazy voice and we would laugh harder. 

This morning she woke up with no voice at all.  Just a raspy whisper.  She's not in pain, she just sounds that way. 

I'd rather have the frog woman back.

Drowning in Pics

It's been quiet around the office for the past week.  Silent actually.  We are in a bit of limbo between tax season and getting busy doing the rest of the year stuff.  The Boss has been gone for three days.

I've kept busy during this time going through old memory cards from the camera and getting things uploaded to Flickr.  It seems that around 2009 I just up and quit caring about uploading and organizing pictures.  The memory cards are a complete mess.

So slowly, carefully, I am uploading batches and instantly organizing them into sets and collections.  Then I go right back to the card and delete the files.  I know if I don't delete right away, they'll be on the card forever because I won't be able to remember if I uploaded them or not and then I'm too lazy to go check if they are sitting in Flickr or not. 

That's probably what happened back in 2009 when I just gave up on the entire process.

But here's some love to Flickr.  Thank you for being so easy to use.  Thank you for constantly coming up with updates that somehow make things better, every time, instead of worse. Thank you for helping keep track of all of these pictures because I truly despise the idea of scrap booking and was barely on board with photo albums.  It's like you were made just for me, Flickr, and I love you for it.

PS:  I know that Flickr widget runs the most recently uploaded photos.  If you see pics in there with The Girl in braces, now you know the reason why.

National Honor Society Induction

 Much to my heart's delight, last night the kids, and almost all of their closest friends, got inducted into National Honor Society.

You know these three.  No surprise they get to share this moment as well.

My cutey girls.

I didn't think of it until we after we left, but I should have tried to get a shot with all of their crew together.  This is a small pile of them anyway.

The 88 new inductees to NHS of EHS.  If you can get this picture bigger, The Boy is right in front on the corner.  The Girl is buried in the back row.

The reception afterward was a claustrophobic affair in the auditorium lobby.  There was lots of congratulating, hugging and cookies.  We went out for ice cream afterward.

You two make me so proud.

Love, Mom

The Music Man Recap

When we were leaving to see the show Friday night, The Man made the claim that the only reason he was agreeing to go was because the kids were in it.  He hates "The Music Man".  Hates the story.  Hates the music.

On the way home, he admitted it wasn't as bad as he remembered, but he still didn't like it.  A little progress at least.

If we just focus on the school's performance itself, it was so much fun.  All of the kids did a terrific job.  The Girl was a joy to watch dance and perform.   Every "Ye Gods!" was cuter than the next.  Her dancing partner was successfully was able to lift her and at one point she jumped into his arms and he held her until the curtain closed.  I didn't get to the see The Boy since every scene change happened behind curtains, but he was back there pushing those heavy set pieces on and off.  He's got the bruises to show for it.

But let's think about "The Music Man" as a story.  One word comes to mind:  Reprehensible.  It's a show about a con man who gets away with everything through of a combination of charm and dumb luck in the form that parents blindly believe everything their children do is amazing.  A true ending would have had all that tar and feathers they were gathering put to good use.  The townspeople don't care that he's fallen for the librarian by the end of the story.   They are not even aware of that situation.  They are way too hopping mad about being swindled over paying for a fake band, and they should be.

Luckily for Professor Hill, the bright colored uniforms and shiny instruments show up.  They are more than enough distraction to keep everyone off balance.  The noise is heard as music and Harold Hill is saved.

But saved for how long?  "The Music Man Part II" would be an interesting affair I think.  Harold Hill stays in town to start his new life with the little librarian.  But the townsfolk are still expecting a band.  Eventually they are going to expect to hear music.  What will Harold do?

I guess that's why the story ends when it does.  These questions are just too big.

Anyway, here's the Girl and her stage boyfriend for two shows looking adorable.

PS:  Everything my children do is amazing.  I would fall for Professor Harold Hill's fake band right with everyone else.