You Can Go Back

There were two reasons for my trip to the D.C. area last weekend.

My youngest brother, Chip (Peter) graduated from George Mason University in marketing.  My parents and siblings were all able to make the trip out for the big occasion and it was wonderful and I'll post more about this later.

The other reason was my high school, W.T. Woodson, had a 50th anniversary alumni band reunion.  Oh, it was such fun!
I have many pictures and many thoughts and memories I want to record and share, but to be honest I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed to think of needing to organize myself fully before getting it all down.  So I'm not going to organize myself too much.  I'm just going to begin.
And please keep in mind that I took all these pictures with my phone and they aren't very good and I feel quite badly about that.

 Okay, here's what you need to know.  In January of 1993 my family moved from the Monterey, CA area to the D.C. area.  My family settled in Fairfax, VA and I began my time at W.T.Woodson High School in the middle of my sophomore year.  I had been somewhat of a hotshot in my old band in CA, but I VERY quickly realized I was way out of my league in my new band program.  My new band director, Mr. John E. Casagrande miraculously put me in the top symphonic band having never heard me play.  I began frantic home practice like I'd never known before.  I guess it paid off.  By the time of my senior year I auditioned for and got the position of drum major for our marching band.  I loved everything about high school band.  "Mr. C." had such a positive impact in my life and I am forever grateful.  It makes me so happy to get a Christmas card from him each year.  He has told us we can call him "John" now, but NO WAY!  This man gets nothing but the utmost respect from me for the rest of my days.

And here's the other thing.  I had the most fantastic group of band friends for those 2 1/2 years that I lived in Fairfax.  Oh, they were wonderful.  We three ladies were as clean and pure as the driven snow.  The boys were perhaps a little more trouble, but in their own words today, "We couldn't get too crazy because we liked you girls and we cared what you thought of us."

For our junior year homecoming dance the six of us decided that we'd all go together and we'd draw numbers to determine who was whose date.  It worked out perfectly.  We're holding up the numbers we drew. 

 

After the concert Saturday night we had a meet and greet time in the cafeteria.  It was so good to see my friends' parents as well.  They were so supportive of all of us in high school and we thought of them as parents to us all.
If you are very observant you may have noticed my brother, Matt in the plaid shirt.  My whole family came to the concert and Matt played the Tuba for a little while at Woodson as well.

As far as the concert, I may or may not have had any business being up there on the stage.  I certainly enjoyed myself, but I may not have been worthy of my fellow alumni band members.  Many of them have continued to play regularly and several of the 80 or so participants are professional musicians or teachers.  And while I do teach my share of beginning/intermediate piano lessons each week, I don't think I was quite up to snuff.  Even still, I played my trombone heart out on those songs thinking it might be the last the time I play my trombone like that.

I can't say enough good things about how enjoyable it was to sit for hours and hours and catch up with these old friends.  I know it is not uncommon for high school friends to lose touch and then not have much in common many years later.  And truthfully, some of us don't have too terribly much in common anymore.  But there is still such a feeling of friendship and goodwill and loyalty for the great times we shared.  Perhaps that sounds kind of cheesy, but I think there is a lot of comfort in knowing that people who knew you when you were younger (and a lot sillier) still find your company worthwhile.

This is a bad picture of an old picture in a scrapbook, but do you see me?  I'm standing on the blue box with the red cape over one shoulder. 

Oh, good band times.  

You want to know something that makes me really happy?

Elinor is taking up my trombone and will be doing a summer band program at a local music store this summer.  Ahhh, it is music to my ears.  

Well, it not really music to my ears yet.  In fact it sounds pretty bad.  But it will eventually be music to my ears.  And I figure someone way back when had to listen to me when I first started.  She is giddy with excitement and she played Mary Had a Little Lamb today.  How fun for us both!

Mothers' Day 2013

Thus far it has been a marvelous mothers day.  We had nine o'clock church so there was no time for messing about with breakfast in bed.  No matter.  I opened my cards from Abe and the kids moments before heading out the door.  One was a musical card that played the "Linus and Lucy" theme when it was opened.  The little kids were in hysterics and the game of freeze dance for Faith and Cannon began.  George's job  was to open and close the card to start and stop the music.  I wondered how Abe decided on this particular card, with this particular song?  You see, if he was home more he would hear Clark playing this song on the piano.  But no matter.  Good feelings abounded.

Church was great.  Fairly uneventful, but great.

When we got home I requested a pedicure from Bethany in preparation fro my big trip this week.  And then Abe brought me up one of his glorious omlets, and then I took a serious happy nappy on the couch while the kids watched a movie.  And now I'm sitting alone in my room blogging.  Oh, yes, I'd say that is as good as mothers day can get!

As I just mentioned, I am leaving for my big trip to the D.C. area this week; Wednesday to be exact.  I do have some concerns about the well-being of my family while I'm gone.  In an effort to calm my nerves I would like to air my concerns in the hopes that addressing them will help me to see that I need not be so worried.

---George is somewhat clingy around the house with many requests for "hold me" and "I'm hungry, mama".  Will my people hold him and feed him enough?  There will be a lot of people who are capable of meeting his little needs, but they all be so distressed with their own longing for mom that he might get overlooked?
Of course not.  He is loved by all, and he has never failed to make his needs known. 

---We run a pretty tightly packed extracurricular schedule.  Swim team, tae kwon do, dance, gymnastics, softball games.  There are a many places people need to be to.  But importantly, people need to be remembered to be picked up from said places.  I need to make a detailed schedule for Abe of who needs to be where and when.  But you now that detailed scheduling isn't really my strong suit, so I'm avoiding that task.

---I am playing the trombone in my high school's 50th anniversary alumni band.  I really should have practiced more.  And now I'm experiencing what many of my piano students experience each week when they have to come to lessons not having put in enough practice.  It's humiliating--- and I'm such a hypocrite!

---My children are not done with their school work this year.  Do I just give them the week off school since I have no way to enforce anything while I'm gone and I'm quite certain Abe doesn't want to pick up that stick.  Then again, what will they do with themselves if they don't have there school work to do?  Lots of moms get worn out during the summer with having their kids home all day with nothing to do.  I'd get worn out too if the kids were there all day with nothing to do.  The school work keeps them occupied. 

---You know when you have wonderful, magical memories of a really great time in your life, and years later you back and try to recreate it and it's nothing like you remember and you feel sad?  Well, I haven't experienced that, but I'm saving a little bit of worry for it, just in case. 
Not the smartest thing, I know.

---Do I go nut-so over the next couple of days trying to arrange everything here at home for the comfort of my people while I'm gone?  Or do I keep up my normal pace and let them fend for themselves?  If I let them fend for themselves they might appreciate me more, or they might just feel annoyed that they can't find any underwear or granola bars.

---I don't enjoy flying at all.  It's not because I haven't done it much.  I have-- quite a bit.  But I don't like it.  I do like that my sister will be next to me on the flight because we're also going for my youngest brother's college graduation.  She tends to keep her cool a little better than I do.  I just need to make sure I don't watch any movies with airplane crashes before I go. 

Alright, that's enough.  I could go on, but seeing my worries written out in front of me did just what I hoped it would.  I'm worrying needlessly and if it's annoying to me, I know no one else wants to hear it.

Let's move in a more positive direction.  The Top Ten Things I love about being a mother to Clark, Bethany, Elinor, Tessa, Faith, Cannon, and George:

1.  Hugs, and LOTS of them.  Soft, little arms squeezing my neck make me deliriously happy.

2.  Reading together.  We're going to finish The Shakespeare Stealer tonight.  I love it when a chapter ends at a suspenseful point and they beg and plead for my to keep reading.  Clark says, "Mom!  I forbid you to stop!"

3.  Going to church together.  Seeing them dressed nicely (once a week at least), behaving nicely (most of the time), learning about who they really are (children of God), and being together as a family.

4.  Attending their different activities and seeing each one develop and improve in something they love and are good at. 

5.  Watching the older kids help nurture and teach the younger kids.  Clark is devoted to happiness of his little brothers.  Bethany helping the girls with their clothes and hair.  Bethany choreographing a dance for Faith and cousin, Takara.  Elinor caring for George.

6.  Likewise, seeing the utter adoration the little kids feel for the older ones.  They are their world.  Cannon has such confidence knowing how much Clark loves him.  Faith knowing she is an equal part of the powerful girl trio.

7.  I love working on academics with the kids.  Cannon is learning to write his numbers and letters.  Faith is a full-fledged reader and a whiz at her math facts.  Elinor can do it all with ease; math comes easy, and reading is such fun.  Bethany loves to read and write and she loves to arts.  Clark loves his science, and as it turns out he may be better at algebra than he thought.  We work so hard and it is so rewarding to see the results.

8.  They forgive me when I mess up.  When I'm impatient and demanding and bossy and unkind, they are quick to forgive.

9.  I love that they are respectful and obedient.  I can take them anywhere and trust that they will behave well and help out where needed. 

10.  I love that they have the best dad in the world.  He is loving, and kind, and creative, and hard-working.

Happy Mothers' Day

10 Things I Probably Shouldn't Share

1.  It occurs to me that I get honked at on a more-than-regular basis as I drive my people around town.  It is possible, but highly unlikely, that the honking has anything to do with my ravishing good looks.  The fact is, I am a distracted driver.  Distracted by all of my offspring I'm driving around.  I get a good, nasty, mean-spirited honk at least once a month. Often there is an obscene hand gesture or aggressive reciprocal cut-off in addition to the honk.  I think that is suppose to teach me some sort of lesson.  I thought this was normal, but some friends recently told me they aren't getting honked at that regularly.  Now I feel bad.

2.  The other day I needed to leave the house relatively early with all the kids.  I couldn't find the little boys' underwear.  Was it dirty? Was it buried at the bottom of the laundry pile?  Who knew?  We just put their pants on and called it good.  For the record I went that very day to buy more underwear.  I do try.

3.  The kids finished their CRT tests this week.  We homeschool but we still do the end of year testing like the public schools.  The kids reported to me that they felt they did very well on them.  I hope so.  Because I am ashamed to admit that I demonstrated some not so attractive Chinese Tiger Mother parenting techniques in the preparations for these tests.

4.  Cannon got bit by a snake today.  He and Faith found a garter snake on the way home from a neighbor's house.  Cannon bravely went for it and successfully captured the snake.  And then it bit him.  But he was so happy. He said, "I knew Clark would be so proud of me!"  The kids caught 2 other garter snakes as well this week.

5.  And because 3 garter snakes aren't enough, Clark acquired a rather large ball python this week as well.  This was not caught in the neighborhood but from some guy on KSL classifieds.  You may remember the unfortunate demise of Ledge the gopher snake last summer.  It was entirely my fault, so I pretty much had to agree to the new snake.  So now we're wierdo reptile collectors.  Whatever-- we've always been wierdo reptile collectors.

6.  A couple of weeks back a neighbor friends posted on Facebook that she had several bags of clothes she had shrunk out of.  By the numbers they seemed to be my new size that I had shrunk into.  I quickly jumped at the offer to take them off her hands.  What was I thinking?  Good fitting clothing is more than just the size number.  She is markedly shorter and more well-endowed (you know what I mean) than me.  So pretty much nothing of hers fit like it should .  Now I have all of her clothing and need someone to take it off of my hands.  Any takers?-- size 8-10.

7.  If I have to listen to Clark play "Viva la Vida", "Axel F", "Mission Impossible", or" Fireflies" one more time I think my brain will explode and ooze out of my ears.  Sorry to be so graphic, but there it is.  The deal is he has to practice the piano for 45 minutes a day.  Whether or not he improves and progresses is up to him.  He seems content where he is.  Does he play these songs because he truly loves them, or is it to torment me?  I'm not sure he even knows the answer to that question.

8.  I offended Elinor today by suggesting that should she choose to wear her hair in pigtails, it would be better to not part her hair directly down the middle of her head.  This brought almost immediate tears and a hoodie to cover up her hair.   Perhaps I shouldn't have gone there, but seriously!  Is this worth tears?  This parenting of preteen and teenage girls could be much more treacherous than I anticipated.  I'm not sure I have the emotional chops for it.

9.  I recently purchased some items from IKEA to help in the organizational flow of our home.  Best case scenario is they work out just as I have envisioned and everyone miraculously begins to take responsibility for his or her belongings and the house is neat and orderly.  Worst case scenario:  I just bought more junk to temporarily place more junk on.

10.  I drove Clark and a van full of friends to another friend's birhday game night last weekend.  I knew I hadn't been doing a good job of keeping my car presentable, but you never know just how disgustingly filthy your car is until you have to drive your teenager's friends around in it.  I was mortified, and I don't mortify that easily.
Don't tell me they didn't notice anything. 
They did. 
I immediately returned home to clean out the car.  It was too little too late, but like I said before, I do try.

The Steampunk Ball

Well, now.  That was just fun.

My ever-daring and adventurous friend Andrea threw herself an awesome steampunk ball 40th birthday party Saturday night.  She told her three children they could each invite one friend to the ball and Clark and Bethany were two of the grateful recipients of those invitations.

You may be wondering, "What exactly is steampunk?"
And that would be an excellent question and might I suggest a quick google search for a  real answer.  But I describe it as Victorian meets industrial revolution meets science fiction meets alternate history.
Makes total sense, right?  Now you have a very clear picture in your mind, right?  Or not.
We interpreted it to mean we should all wear googles.
But that was not the only look of the evening.

Here's the birthday girl and her husband David.  She admitted it might be a little unorthodox to throw oneself a birthday party, but freely admitted that no one else could do it as well as she could.
And she is totally RIGHT!  The party/ball was so much fun.  There was much vintage dancing taught by  Kimberly Grant of  Old Glory Vintage Dancers.

We had so much fun in the photo booth.  This was supposed to be our sexy look.

Fail.

Bethany and Raven were perhaps the most frequent visitors to the photo booth.

They were so darling dancing the night away.  When all the adults were complaining of tired feet they were still hopping and bopping about.

Moms and daughters.

Charming.

Clark was actually quite a good dancer.  Sometimes the boy surprises me. Bethany and Abe were partners occasionally and I was so happy to dance with my 13 year-old man child.  You know he is taller than me now.

Well that's just scary.

Now we're serious.

The music for the evening was provided by TLC Trio.  If that name sounds familiar, it should.  I put out on Facebook yesterday a link to their newest music video that Abe and Bethany are both in.  If you haven't seen it yet, you really must.  Go here

TLC Trio also did a video a little while back to "Bad Romance".  They played it at the ball Saturday night and we did the same dance the dancers are doing in the video.  And it has a steampunk style so you can see a little more of what that's all about. Go here

Here's a full body shot.  No where near as fun as the photo booth, but you had to see Abe's great calves!

The whole evening was marvelously fun and different from normal life.  Normal life is good too, but it does seem a little drab this week after the fun weekend.  

Abe served as the M.C. for the evening and besides one really horrendous Jane Austen misquote, he was charming as usual.  I think he's charming in this picture.  

Here's the one of the great things about Andrea.  She gets an idea of something she wants to do or learn how to do.  Most people have ideas like that all the time, but then they think of all the reasons they couldn't or shouldn't do it.  Not Andrea.  She just thinks about how to make it happen.  I am so grateful for her example and friendship.

Ballet & Bees

Bethany finished up her last of this season's three dance competitions.  Now, for a moment I will put aside how I feel about dance competitions to celebrate and enjoy Bethany's accomplishment.

Here is her ballet dance to "Luck Be a Lady".  The girls all have buns and identical costumes, so good luck picking her out.  She is generally on the front left side or in the middle front.


Their ballet dance scored very well with the judges, although there weren't actually any competitors for their age and category.  Which begs the question, why bother with a competition if there is no one to compete against?

I quite like her ballet dance this year.  "Luck Be a Lady" was a song my high school marching band did my senior year when I was the drum major, so it makes me feel a little nostalgic.  It also makes me want to stand up and start conducting, but I already feel a little out of place amongst many "dance moms" and I don't think that would help my cause.

But you know what else has made me feel nostalgic this week?  I've dug my trombone out of the basement in preparation for my high school's 50th anniversary alumni band concert in a couple of weeks.  Oh, yes I WILL be playing in it.  I'm flying out to Virginia for my brother's college graduation the same weekend 10 minutes down the street.  I've been practicing and my lips are not what they used to be, BUT I CAN STILL PLAY!  And it's still fun.  Maybe I need to find some community orchestra to play in?  Actually, I think I will spend my energy grooming  my trombone heiress-- Elinor.  She really wants to learn to play and I found a summer band program she can do.

But back to Bethany's dance weekend.  Here is her lyrical dance to "Secrets".  I have no advice for picking her out. 

There were competitors for this dance and Bethany's class won first place for this dance.
Very fun--if you're into competitions for dance, which I'm not really.  That being said, if we're going to compete, I do like winning.

In other news, Abe won some Salt Lake Bees tickets at work and he took Elinor, Ben (our neighbor) and Faith.

 

I went to one Bees game when I was maybe 12.  I caught a ball and had some player sign it.  I saved it for a long time thinking it was very valuable ($$$). 
You know how valuable signed balls from the minor leagues can be.

Elinor and Ben do Tae Kwon Do together, and they are frequently mistaken for brother and sister.  They are only 10 months apart in age (Elinor is older) but it is very believable that they could be older sister and younger brother.

Fun times with Daddy.

Methods of Shameless Brainwashing

Abe's younger brother Phil graduated with his bachelor's degree from BYU today.  Abe took all the kids down to Provo to spend the day at BYU brainwashing our children to want to attend BYU as well.  For the record, I have no qualms with this method of parenting and I fully support Abe's efforts.  I had some piano lessons scheduled for this afternoon and didn't think I would be able to join them, but it worked out so that George and I did meet up with the family at the convocation ceremony. 

Here were some of Abe's brainwashing methods.

1.  Take them to the BYU bookstore and shower them with gifts all things BYU.  Shirts, earrings, watch, football.

2.  Take them to the Tree of Life sculpture and revel in the goodness of the gospel.

3.  Go sit in an actual classroom and visualize yourself as an actual BYU student.

4.  Go visit your great-great grandfather's building (where your parents used to meet up for lunch) and remember that your BYU roots run deep on both sides of the family.

5.  Wear the family uniform and publicly declare your loyalties.

These are very effective methods, no?  They worked well for both my parents and Abe's parents.  Here's hoping for another generation.

This post is somewhat in jest.  Truly, I would be thrilled if my kids went to BYU, but there are other good schools-maybe not great schools ;-) and they'll find their own way and choose their own path...blah, blah, blah.  But I see no harm in keeping the expectations high, right?

Let's see... perhaps we're looking at a future graduate, class of 2023?

This was a sweet moment of the day.  Bethany fell in LOVE with her cousin Edra at the after graduation party at Philip and Katie's house.  And with good reason!  Edra was an absolutely perfect little angel!

The Joys of Childhood (and Parenthood)

A little while back we took the family to the zoo.  We bought a membership last summer but hadn't gone more than a couple of times before the winter set in.  George was asking about going to the zoo and I realized that as much as we took the older kids when they were little, we really hadn't taken the little ones much (if ever).  So we went to the zoo.  It was a little chilly, but I suppose the cold kept the other zoo patrons away.  

 George was enchanted by the whole experience.  He reminded me of Clark as a little guy.  For Clark, going to the zoo was like returning to his mothership.

George was terribly saddened when they closed the zoo carousel for lunch and he missed his chance to ride on the giraffe, but we needed to get home and I told him we'd ride it next time.

But he just couldn't get over his disappointment.  This is what George said to me several times a day, every day of the past week:  "Sad...ride...closed...giraffe".  Then I would translate it into the whole thought: "You're sad because the ride was closed and you wanted to ride the giraffe?"

"Yeah."

Actually his trip to the zoo turned him into quite the little chatterbox this week.  All week long he told me about all the animals he'd seen-- monkeys, rhinoceros, elephants, polar bears, tigers, eagles, seals.  The conversations always involved him saying the animal, me repeating what he said, and him confirming that that was indeed what he said.  It was thrilling for him to be so understood!

Today George's universe was made right again.  The kids were off (I'll explain where in another post) and I took George by himself to the zoo to ride the giraffe on the carousel at the zoo.  It was so sweet to spend that time with just George.  In a family our size it is a treat for both parent and child to have one on one time.

If I had a really nice camera (as opposed to the camera on my phone) and was a really good photographer (as opposed to point-and-shooter that I am) I would want my subjects to be children flying kites.  They are working so hard, and are so focused, and so triumphant when they are successful.  Their cheeks are so rosy and their eyes are so bright from running around.  Elinor and Faith were borrowing cousins' kites at family dinner this past Sunday.

Faith was a super helper to Abe last weekend building a new shelf for our school supplies.  Apparently all that practice building Legos translated into real life application.  She was looking at the IKEA picture-instructions and telling Abe what to do next.

Oh, I wish this was a clearer picture.  Oh, well.

Elinor is loving her softball team this year.  And they are winning a lot.  Not that it matters, but it is fun!  Elinor loves to sing songs in the dugout with the other girls.  I don't think they do too much of that in boys' baseball, but I think it's darling with the girls.  A wee bit obnoxious, but darling at the same time. 

Cannon and George love going to the games because there is a play set right near the fields and their daddy buys them Cheetos from the snack shack.  A play set and Cheetos.  What more can you ask for?

There is Faith in the pink helmet making a beeline for first base.  Sadly, she got out at first, but she has consistently hit at every game.

It's good that softball doesn't last all year because admittedly, it does wreak havoc on our evening schedule with dinner.  But man, it is so fun.

Now for a little confession.  We forget about Cannon at church.  He's only actually been left one time.  But every week we get out to the car and realize, "Oh, Cannon's not here... let's go find him".  This happened again this Sunday and I went in to retrieve him.  I found him wandering the halls with his saint of a primary teacher looking for us.  She told me that he had said to her, "Can you just give me a ride home?"

Sheesh.  Maybe we're not doing so well after all.

One more little memory from church I want recorded.  George doesn't like bread.  He will eat cinnamon/sugar toast, but no sandwiches.  When the sacrament is being passed and the bread is a row or two in front of us he quite audibly declares, "No thanks! No thanks!" and puts his hand up to block the bread tray.  I suppose this won't be cute forever, but such are the benefits of being the youngest.

Happenings - April 2013

Cannon went to a knight themed birthday party on Saturday and came home with this fantastic shield, armor and knife.  When Clark picked him up from the party, Clark told him he like that his knife looked like it was bloody.  Cannon insisted that it wasn't bloody, rather he had just painted it red. 
I suppose it doesn't say much for me as a mother but I kind of liked the idea of a bloody looking knife.

Oh, happy day!  Softball season is here again.  There will be many more pictures to come because there are many more games to come.  Elinor and Faith are on two different teams this year so we have twice the number of games.  They've been practicing for about a month and have both their opening games.  So far Faith's season is off to a more winning season than Elinor's but hopefully Elinor's team will have some better luck.
Faith's coach is serious business.  She has had practice 3 days a week for the last month and he's in it to win it!  Which is great by me because for whatever reasons, some of which I'm sure have been our children's faults, we have been a part of some seriously losing teams.  The teams and coaches have all be very nice, but let's just admit it: It's way more fun to win.

I enjoy softball season so much.  Here's why.

1.  The sunshine.  After the long, dark, bleak, depressing winter, the spring sunshine does wonders for my spirit.  Even on chilly days like the one pictured above, the fresh air does my body good.

2.  When I go to the games I just sit and watch.  I don't do dishes or laundry.  I don't check math assignments or research homeschool curriculum.  I don't tell anyone to practice a piano song.  I don't cook dinner.  I just sit and watch a relatively slow paced game and cheer like crazy when a 10 year-old girl hits the ball and runs to base.  It's glorious.  My brain and body slow down and I sit still.

3.  I absolutely LOVE the smell of the ball park.  The hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill smell so good.  I am not really tempted to eat them.  I just love the smell.  Why can I not buy a candle named "Ball Park in Spring".  I'm telling you, someone could make a killing!

Sunday afternoon we took a family outing to the cemetery to visit my mom's and Tessa's graves.  It was lovely to be together as a family and we felt so grateful for the peace the gospel brings.

On the recommendation of a friend, I got several John Bytheway talks on CD from the library for us to listen to while we drive all over tarnation in our car.  They've been so fantastic! The older kids are getting quite a kick out of them and they beat the heck out of radio commercials.

 General Conference was a couple of weeks ago and we were so happy to get to see Abe's brother-in-law, Mike and his daughter Addy for a few hours.  They were down for conference from Spokane.