Thursday, October 27, 2005

My Meggie Moodle

Yesterday, the Middle School Music Teacher, Mrs. N., asked Grace, "Have you been teaching your sister how to sing her vowels? She sings really well."

Grace told Mrs. N. no, she hasn't been teaching Meghan, but when Meghan is on the computer, Grace has heard her singing.

Mrs. N. also saw Meghan in the hall and asked her if she will be joining Chorus in the second half of the year because she sings really well.

Way to go, Meggie!

In the first half of 6th Grade, the school has what is called the "Wheel". For nine consecutive (school) days, a student will attend an elective, such as Computers, Chorus, Technology or Band, etc.. After the ninth day, the student goes on to the next assigned elective for the next nine consecutive days, and so on, until the end of the first half of the year. PE is included in these classes, but the student has to take it 4 "times", as opposed to, say, 1 time for Orchestra.

I wasn't sure Meghan was interested in Chorus, and I thought she might be interested in something else besides Chorus, like Computers or something. I suggested that she check everything out first before making a decision on what class to pick for the second half of the year. I told her that the most important thing is to pick something that she really enjoys or has a great interest in, not what I would like to see her doing.

As the time approached for her to be in Chorus, she told me, "You know I live for Music! You gave me the karaoke machine, and I sing all the time, and Daddy gave me the guitar and I play that and I listen to my cd's a lot. I really want to take Chorus!"

I told her that was fine.

During the nine days she auditioned to be in a little ensemble. She was accepted.

Two down, two to go. Hee hee.

Actually, I didn't want to push her with the music stuff. I wanted to see if she would be interested in something else.

Mrs. N. is a great voice teacher. Meghan's singing voice has changed a LOT in the last 11 days. Amazing. Simply amazing.

I'm living vicariously through my children. *Sigh*

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The Rolling Stones

I think I'm tired, now. Bob and I have made two trips to South Florida in the last week-and-a-half. It's a 4 to 4 1/2 hour trip one way. So, counting all the hours driving, and then all the hours "playing", adds up to one tired chick. Or hen.

One weekend we're in Ft. Lauderdale, and 9 days after that we're in Miami. Craigie babysat both times. The Ft. Lauderdale trip was for a "Service Quarterly"; the business end of AA. We had fun when we snuck out and toured the area.

On Monday we went to Miami to see the Rolling Stones! Now THAT was fun! The American Airlines Arena was packed with die-hard Stones fans, young and old, wearing mouth-and-tongue logo shirts. The roar of the audience was deafening, as Mick came out on stage. At 60 some-odd years old, he still has an enormous amount of energy! The band played some new songs, and some old songs, when at that point I realized just how long they've been around! I was in awe, plain and simple. Good times were had by all.

We first arrived in Miami at 4:00 pm, and needed to find a hotel room. We meandered out to South Beach and looked there for a while. Lots of Art Deco hotels and condos and sidewalk cafes and nightclubs. A little stroll to the beach that wasn't very crowded and then a walk on the streets helped us decide that we should get a hotel room near the airport. $300.00 a night for a room is a little steep for us.

I wasn't as impressed with Miami as I was with Ft Lauderdale.

I realized that evening when we were at a hotel next to the airport, that 16 years prior, almost to the day, I was having my last drink there. Nice way to celebrate! Rolling Stones! Woo-WOO! Woo-WOO! Woo-WOO! Woo-WOO!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Some Stuff

Once again, Grace has passed the first leg of All-State Chorus auditions. She will receive her music in the next few days so she can practice for the second (and last) round in a month or so.

Carolyn has received Star/Citizen of the Month two months in a row and was able to make a pizza at Pizza Hut both times. The "Star" kids from each class went for lunch. Her picture was in the local rag.

Meghan just eked out a B in Gifted Math, which is more difficult than Advanced Math. It was a tough First Quarter for her -- new school, changing classes, etc. I'm sure she'll feel more comfortable and confident in the weeks to come, and grades will go up.

Emily is in Brownie Girl Scouts. She had one troop meeting so far. The troop is new and very small. I hope more girls attend eventually. Emily already said that she wasn't thrilled. I told her to give it a chance.

Poor Bob is reluctantly (HAH!) adapting to his new-found freedom - no kids to watch during the day! First time since forever! Except, of course, when I was a stay-at-home-mom.

Things are changing at the Festival and I may have a few more responsibilities assigned to me. Cool. They like me. Cool. They appreciate me. Way cool.

Bob and I went to Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend, and Craigie babysat. I haven't been there since 1989, when I was drinking. What an experience! South Florida is WAY different from West-Central. There's Mo' MONEY! Yachts and huge cruise ships and mansions and canals, more palm tress and coconut trees and yachts (oh yeah, did I mention yachts?). I did get to purge some deep-seated junk while I was there, survived, and now we're getting ready to go down to Miami early next week for the Rolling Stones concert (!!!).

Craigie is tan. :) He also did well babysitting. He laid down the law and everything. The house was CLEAN when we got home!

Grandpa's coming!!!!!!! All the girls are excited! And Bob, too!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Experimenting

New construction in our backyard - there's a pond at the bottom of the pic, which lies between my backyard and the backyards of those houses over there. I was trying to get a shot of the rainbow, which there are plenty of in Florida, especially during rainy season. Just in front of those dark clouds were blue skies.

I would LOVE to have an expensive digital camera and play with it and come up with some awesome photos, but I have kids to raise and gasoline to pay for and a job to drive to and fake food to buy and if I wanna buy real food I'll have to pay for more expensive gas to get to an out-of-the-way place to get it.

I think there may be a reason why we haven't sold the Virginia place. If a hurricane took Florida off the map, we could finish what we started doing before we moved here, and that is, become a little more self-sufficient - grow some food organically, finish getting off the power grid by going solar, raise chickens for their eggs and the occasional chicken dinner, and become a little more organic. We would still have to buy expensive gas to get to town, but maybe by then an alternate power supply will be available to move vehicles faster than a horse can pull a buggy.

And of course, this is all just a dream, because I have to WORK.

I like Florida, though. Now. I didn't used to because of the way I was living, but you can't beat the palm trees and the white sands and the turquoise water.

The kids like having neighbors to play with, too. They were pretty lonely in them thar heels.

Hey - doesn't the back of Carolyn (on the left) look like the back of Coral when she was a kid? I noticed that a few months ago when Craig was staying with us.

Meghan is a great skater!

Emily(front) Carolyn (braid ponytail) and neighbors on the first day of school. The first time ever walking to school!



I'll try some more later...