This is the video that Julia and her friends worked on last weekend. Please feel free to comment (on youtube), they are getting a kick of watching the "views", likes and comments increase. I made them re-name their channel - so I set them back about 70 views - bad mom.
This is from the series the Hunger Games. I'll post more later, I just wanted to get this posted for you.
Again, it has been a while, but things are going well. Currently I am waiting to go get in carpool line to pick up several little girls to transport to a 13th, joint, birthday party.
Julia turned 13 in September and due to being cast as Betty Parris in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" we didnt' get to really celebrate. So she has joined in with two other of her friends to have a joint 13th birthday party. The whole class (20 people - boys and girls - plus two others - 20) are being transported to Edisto Beach where they will have a "dance" party followed by a game of Man Hunt.
The boys will be transported back and will leave at 10:00 pm and the girls (and several of us Mom's) will spend the night. I am in charge of lunch tomorrow. After lots of questions and turned down suggestions, I finally got from Julia that we should have Nutella and croissants and chicken salad. I have added grapes and potato chips and sodas, and I think I will have a hit of a lunch. I'm only feeding 13 girls and 5 parents, so I should be ok.
Julia did a fantastic job in The Crucible. The whole play was crafted extremely well. The directing, the set, the acting. It was great. I saw it several times and feel as if it were like stew or soup - it got better the longer it went.
The job is going well, 7th and 5th grades are going well. Legare decided he hated football this year. Could be a lazy thing. Could be that due to his birthday he was put on a team that had none of his classmates - only older school mates. He was the youngest boy on a team of 6th and 7th graders. And one of the biggest guys. And their team ended up being one of the smallest ones in the league - which means they didn't even earn a first down until the end of the season and finally scored points in one of the last games. They did win their last game though - having earned several first downs and scoring 3 touchdowns.
Anyway - time to go get in carpool line. Maybe some pictures later.
Several things to blog about...
The most ornery thing is that my 12 year old's hormone's are really starting to kick in! Did I say that they are starting to "kick in"? I really meant - they are "ROLLING OVER US ALL WITH A STEAM ROLLER". Her included.
How do I know they're kick in/rolling over us, you say? Well - she can't keep her room clean for starters (even if I give it to her clean to start with). She has also shed more tears, thrown more daggers and awful looks, has had more attitude, and given Legare more undeserved crap in the last two weeks than she has done cumulatively for the last 2 years.
I thought hormones effected you for a short period each month. Mine certainly do. But this all month long BS is for the birds.
But then, if I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, I could say it's all because of her diet. All she's eaten lately is citrus. Grapefruits at breakfast, oranges at lunch (among other things) and at snack. it's almost like she's put herself on the grapefruit diet - and she doesn't even know what a Grapefruit Diet is!
So, we are all alive. All in tact, and surviving the storm that is Julia. I know it will get better - I'm already seeing glimpses!
This is the (sleepy) face we met this morning. We went looking for puppies and were a bit disappointed when we got there and only males were left. The owner promised there was one more female puppy and that her favorite place to sleep was wedged under the ramp that went into their storage shed.
Well she was there. DEEP back against the leading edge of the ramp and DEEP asleep. We finally got her out and it was very difficult to have her break her puppy coma. We decided we loved her and wanted her. The cheer the kids gave to Bryan when we had him on speaker phone making sure this is what we wanted was one like I haven't heard. And I've heard some good ones.
So we got her home and she perked right up. Excited to see her new surroundings and her new Big Sis Willis (our adult black lab). She frolliced and romped with Willis and showed Willis a toy so they could play. And then.....
And there she has been (for about 2 hours). I hope this doesn't mean she'll be up all night.
We haven't named her yet, but we have a list started.
Anyone want to add your 2 cents to the list? We're open for suggestions.
This is what will happen when you walk backwards and hit the mug of hot water that your mother is carrying to the sink. Doing this will also make your mom cry once she has gotten a cold towel on you and mopped up the water that found its way to the floor. A trip to the drugstore for burn cream makes it feel much better. 5:00 medication will help your mother feel better later on today. (approx. 8:30 am)
.JPG)
So we've had these fish for quite a while. We've lived in this house for three years, and we had them for at least 3 before that. I didn't go out looking for fish to buy, or otherwise add to our brood, it just kind of happened.
I had a friend who gave fish as the "party favor" at her child's first birthday. My daughter was two and my son was not quite 6 weeks old. Both children got a fish that day (Tank and Orange-Orange). One died before the sun set the next day. And since it was already lovingly named by the two year old I felt obligated to get a new one. Thanks to the refractive nature of the glass bowl, she didn't realize there was only one fish until I was able to spend the twenty or so cents to replace.
Not to much time had past (several months, not quite a year), and these guys died. No big deal. And then, sweet Aunt Chelle gave each child a Beta fish while they were in her care for a weekend while we attended a football game. I can't complain - it was free babysitting. Now, my son was around 2, totally into the fish. We went through a few Beta's before I decided no more. Then, the cuteness of the children, and their willingness to spend their own money, got to me and I caved and took them to Walmart to get more fish (Cosmo and Melman). I steered the children to the "Gold" variety, helped them pick their bowls and a decorative bowl statue and we were on our way.
It wasn't until we moved in here that the fish moved in together - thanks to a slip of the bowl in the ceramic sink (my fault, not the children's). With nothing else to move Cosmo into, he and Melman became bunk mates; and have been until last week when Melman died. Upon looking back, I think it wasn't old age that took him, but the jump into the colander during his bowl cleaning that lead to me having to pick him up. I may or may not have had detergent on my hands at the time. This may or may not have killed him.
Well, Cosmo started looking sick. He just sat at the bottom of the bowl. Bryan was convinced he was on the way out too. I had changed the water after Melman's death and thought surely old age was taking the toll on him too. Then cuteness prevailed again, and Julia convinced me to splurge and I spent twenty nine cents and let her get a new fish.
So now we have Kevin. A cute goldfish variety that is silver on his bottom half with a blaze, neon orange top half. Very cute. And much smaller than Cosmo (chalking that up to being much younger). The craziest thing is that Cosmo has perked up and isn't just laying around on the bottom anymore. So instead of being on the countdown, "One Down, One to Go", kind of thing, we're back where we started. Again.
We have all decided that Cosmo was suffering from a bout of depression due to Melman's passing. Now we're all taking bets as to how much longer these guys will be with us.
Julia is doing a Power Point Presentation and needed these photographs. The bottom two are of my neighbor, reguilding the monument last fall. The other is a stock photo of the Iwo Jima monument showing the monument and the golden area that my neighbor and her guilding friends re-guilded.
These pictures are needed due to her presentation being about gold leaf guilding. Her class is learing about WWII battles, so we thought this was a pretty neat coincidence!
Pictures for Julia's Power Point.
So last night we put the kids to bed and I started my nightly couch sitting routine (trying to watch the bunch of nothing that was on TV last night, and starting to play cards on the computer). Bryan was sitting on the other couch, forcing the issue of watching the military channel because "there's nothing else on" (and sadly he was right).
As I sat, with the laptop open and on my lap - cause you know, I'm getting ready to play something, anything other than having to watch whatever it is that Bryan has chosen to watch - and I heard the "bing"on my iPhone, notifying me that I had an email. I chose to go see what the email was on the laptop. And in this day of identity theft, imagine my surprise when this comes from Apple:
"How to reset your Apple password" was the subject. The body of the email read like this:
"To reset your Apple ID password, simply click the link below. That will take you to a web page where you can create a new password.
This link will expire in three hours."
Since I haven't been to my Apple account in a few days, I got a bit nervous until it dawned on me that this must mean that Legare was trying to download a new App to his iPod Touch. While he was supposed to be going to sleep! So I called him to the den to ask him.
Luckily he didn't lie and was honest about trying to enter (multiple times) what he thought my password might be so that he could get a new App. We laughed about how iTunes ratted him out and how he should always come ask me first.
I'm glad he was being honest. I rewarded him for this by not being mad. And Bryan and I got a big kick, and good laugh, out him him being "outed" by the electronic gadgets.
That's right...the investigator typed in our Seriel number into the Pawn Shop data base, and this morning around 11:00, I got a call that she was bringing the Wii back. There were only 6 of the 18 games, and only 1 of the 5 controls, but still. They found our Wii.
And they have the name of the girl who turned it in and they're trying to find her for questioning. And because "Burglary" is the charge - a pretty hefty one considering that means it was done in the cover of night (and people were home) - they are hoping that she will crack and drop some names and details. Then maybe we can get more stuff back, our neighbors up and down the street may be able to get their iPods and cell phones, and one neighbor may actually be able to get their car back. Well, I guess all that is pretty wishful thinking. But I can dream, right?
When we got the Wii console back, the detective wanted me to boot it up. When we did, we found several new "Mii"s that were not ours. Looked like one was created by a girl - and from what I saw on the evidence bag, it's the same name as the one who turned it in. There were a few other created by people with initials that I didn't recognize and a guy's name that I didn't recognize.
All in all, as we did the list of missing items, we realized that between the old xBox, the Wii and the old Game Cube, at least 46 games were stolen. Guess that's why they needed my Vera Bradley bag.
So, a pretty odd week ends on a much more decent note than where it started. And I'll get to end the evening grilling out on driveway on this beautiful day!
Since the New Year, I've been doing a load of laundry a day (this I learned from my Momma). Doing things this way usually includes 1 load of towels a week. And believe it or not, this actually makes it feel like I'm not really doing laundry at all. I highly recommend giving it a try.
Well, last week we had a "head lice scare" and everything in the house got washed, including EVERY towel, last Wednesday.
Well, fast forward to this morning. It was time for towels again, and I thought it looked like the pile was bigger than it should be. As I begin placing the towels in the washing machine, I realized that there were WAY TO MANY TOWELS TO FIT ALL OF THEM INTO THE MACHINE (did that look like maybe I was a bit frustrated? Well, I was). After I did a quick count, I realized that my small family (2 adults, 2 pre-pubescent children) had dirtied 13 bath towels and numerous wash cloths and hand towels. This didn't even included the 3 kitchen towels I wanted to clean. With all of these smaller towels, I'll round 13 bath towels to a total number of 15 (even though, all-in-all there were more, I figured the smaller ones added up to a total of 2 bath towels.
15. That's almost 4 towels a piece. And I think most of this excess is being fueled by the children's use of towels. Is it just me, or does 13 (much less 15) seem a bit excessive?
I know what my "Parts of the Day" will be tonight around the dinner table.
Whew...the play is over. I didn't realize how much time I actually had during the day until I got it back. I miss it a bit (the play that is...I know Julia does too), and I'm so thrilled that Julia was able to be a part of a performance that was truly a great piece of art. I have uploaded a few pictures to share with you. Of course, I wasn't able to take photos during the performances (I was able to attend 3, I was backstage for 3 others). It was a fantastic first time experience.
Here goes.....
These are the directors, the main director, Mark, is an attorney by day, avid actor (you should have seen his bio) and director by night. He had a remarkable attitude and Mary, the Assistant Director and Stage Manager, was equally wonderful. This photo was taken after the final performance.
Helen Keller, the cutie with the blue bow, her "Mom and Dad and Brother" and Annie Sullivan to the left. They were wonderful. It was weird seeing "Helen Keller" being such a normal girl, smiling, laughing and giggling with the rest of the girls during the intermissions when she was able to come sit with us. Sometimes "Brother Keller", aka Tyler would come back stage and sit too. The girls loved him, he was constantly making them laugh.
Julia as her "Old Crone" character standing in the door that she opened during the play to say her lines. She was a Perkins Institute Girl (the school for the Blind that Annie Sullivan came from), and these are some of the friends she made standing with her. She started as a Perkins Girl, and ended the play as a Crone...that's why she looks so creepy. I had several people say she "looked like a booger" and some others say she was a great "Creepy Girl". She was thrilled when she "got" her Crone voice. The director told the three crones that they should play around with what they thought their crone sounded like, and bring him their interpretations. He really left it up the them to come up with the sound and then he directed their delivery.
The smiling Crone. Those are just odd shadows on the dress, there were no stains. Notice the boots. I think she was as excited about the boots as anything. We had to purchase them (the stage/wholesale discount of $11.00), so they are now in her closet. She can't wait to wear them again.
This was actually taken during the curtain call. The girls who saw me take it gave me grief for taking pictures during the performance. My defense was that there was no flash, so they shouldn't have cared, ha.
The theater is very small. There are only two dressing rooms that the principle actors used (and there were a number of costume changes for them), and since there were 9 girls, they got to have a little spot in the props warehouse. Can you say COLD. This was during the run of our unseasonal 20 degree nights. We couldn't get the space heater to get above 55 degrees. Lots of blankets were in use. This shot is in the back part of the warehouse...we didn't go back that far, I just thought it would give a great impression of the kind of place we were being housed.
Julia putting on her creepy makeup - lots of white powder and purple under the eyes and in the hollows of her cheeks.
Cute little Solomon. He was the only little boy hanging with all of the girls. He is 9. He was in charge of the dog that was in the show. He is Annie and Helen's servant that stays with them while they are in the garden house. He is in his "sleeping clothes" here..
Here's Ryan, the dog. He was precious. Much cuter than the picture shows. He was also very gas-y. Lot's of HEAVY air biscuits. Back stage mothers were also in charge of walking him during the two intermissions. We got to go through the door in the back of the warehouse and walk him in the cobblestone, foliage lined alley. He was a hit with the actors and the audiences. He was "Momma Keller's" dog in real life. He won the role after the pretty, yellow lab blew it during opening night. He was never on stage when the house lights were all the way down and when he came out the first time and the audience oohed and aahed at him, he started barking. Annie Sullivan did a great job of doing an ad lib around it.
Julia and some of the girls hanging out, waiting. In her Crone makeup.
All of the girls. Hanging out again. Waiting some more.
I'm sure I'll upload some more later, but this should do for now.
Oh, on a total other note, this week I got my hair done. I toned my blonde (I used to really be blonde without any help), and darkened it up. I like it. Only the people at my Bible Study noticed. I guess no one noticing (including husband) must mean it looks fine, otherwise I'm sure he would have said otherwise. Maybe a picture of that soon. Oooh, and of us playing in the snow we're supposed to get tonight. We NEVER get snow that sticks (2000 was the last time and 1989 before that). How exciting!
Julia actually didn't have rehearsal tonight. Or basketball. Or cotillion. We actually got to have supper as a family. And bedtime for her was 8:00, not the 11:00 or 11:30 it has been. And those times have become such the customary thing that she said she wasn't tired at 8:00. So she went to bed and read for while. That must feel like a luxury for her about now.
She's definitely been a trooper. This coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and Sunday's matinee are the final performances. It's been such a long time coming that it really is hard to think of it being almost over. Pictures will be coming soon.
Just got an email from the director of The Miracle Worker. He has posted a rough video of Saturday night's performance.
In the scene where all of the little girls are on stage, Julia is on the crutches in the back of the little girls that are on the left side of the screen. (her giving Annie the gift from the girls hasn't happened yet)
Then...when there is a boy in the upstairs window, in some scenes there are people standing in the downstairs doors...Julia is the eerie girl in the middle door.
Click HERE to see it.
1st...I found out yesterday that my daughter has officially reached the age where "just my presence" embarrasses her. I found this out when I asked what they thought of my presentation of the check for the MUSC Children's Hospital fundraiser that their school did. I was met with some "you did great"'s and even a "you didn't even embarrass me". This statement led to the conversation about when that may have started. Then my precious son blurted out that he still likes having me around.
Thank you, Legare. You are my hero.
We also discussed the workings of a typewriter. This discussion was at the tail end of the kids letting me know how much they enjoy "keyboarding" during computer class. That's when I realized that my children will probably never use a typewriter. They will never know how to properly load paper into one or understand the true meaning of using white out. They'll look at the typwriter (even the electric ones) as I used to look at the old "candlestick" telephones...just some old thing that may be fun to play and pretend with.
The same will probably hold true for lots of things....
cassette players and 8 tracks, lp/record players, walkmen, bag phones, built in car phones, computers that used to fill entire rooms, tests where you fill in the bubble for your answer, just to name a few.
Sad isn't it?
That's right, The Miracle Worker opened Friday night. So far, they've done two performances and there are 8 to go. The next 8 are made up of Thursday, Friday and Saturday night performances and Sunday matinees for the next two weeks.
Aside from the fact that I really feel as if my daughter did a fantastic job....being a blind girl on crutches handing a gift to Annie Sullivan, and then being a scary looking, crotchedy old woman with an eerie voice, the play was fantastic! The cast and director really nailed it. The story was great (as you probably know, who isn't intriged by Helen Keller?), but laced with some funny (to me) unexpected lines. I am so glad to be able to say that if you are to go just to see Julia, you won't be sitting around waiting for her to come on stage, you are really getting a great dose of theater that she just happens to be in.
There is a rumor that there will be a clip on youtube. If that happens, I will be sure to post to let you know. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the Perkin's Girls portion of the play. Julia is the cute one with the crutches.
My college alma mater is going to the ACC Football Championship game in Tampa, Florida. GO TIGERS! (Clemson Univeristy for those of you who may to be familiar).
My husband and I are lucky to have a close group of friends all going together. We are also lucky enough that one of these friends has fa
mily that lives in Tampa and her Dad has helped secure a "Suite" of seats in the stadium. We will all be spliting the cost of the tickets (there are 8 seats, 8 of us going) and the catering of food and drinks to the suite. These petite athletic boxes (as I like to call them) are enclosed and climate controlled. But since it's balmy Tampa, there is also the option of opening the window so we can enjoy the weather, the atmosphere and the sounds that go along with college football. We get to do this on December 5th.
Our wonderful team has never been to a conference championship game (our conference has only been big enough to split and have this championship game since 2005). Being conference champion used to be something that happened regularly, but we haven't been Champs in a long time (long string of coaches).
So...Tampa, here we come.
Next...out of the mouths of babes..."So Mom?" (coming from Legare), "what is a taint?"
Seriously...I got this question. I asked how he heard it used in a sentence, because he clearly asked what one was. No "It Ain't" contraction here. And I asked him to use it in a sentence.
He then said that it was on one of the "Harry Potter Puppet Pals" skits on youtube. And then he said, "You know, like Leprechaun Taints".
Hhhmmmm..... This caught me off guard. To say the least.
So after a bit of thinking, and telling him it was a word that could get you in trouble, I told him about the contraction. And then I told him how it described areas of your body. I then reiterated that it was a word that could get you into trouble. And I also let him know he should stop watching things on YouTube without my presence.
He understood the "words that can get you in trouble" concept well due to the trouble made the week after Halloween when the older boys in the neighborhood taught him the game about how you make a word by "taking the first two letters of FUn and the last two letters of duCK". He thought that game was great and took it to school to share it with others. Yay, us! We've been calling it the "Fun Duck Incident".
Well, not quite born, but definitely incubating.
We went to The Miracle Worker callback last night. After arriving and having the group of girls called upstairs for a quick video to introduce themselves and their ages, the director came down and let us know that we were there because our girls were going to be in the production.
What?! IN the production?! Oh my gosh - in the production! Julia's dream is coming true. She is going to be a "Perkin's Institute Girl" in The Miracle Worker. This is going to be a great introduction to theater for her because the role will also have her aiding in the placement of set props during the performance, being a (digitally altered) voice in Annie Sullivan's head during her nightmare sequences, and we'll find out later if she will be an understudy for Helen Keller. The director has promised at least one performance for the understudy. OH MY GOSH! That's all I can keep thinking to myself.
I am so proud of her for wanting something, researching the possibilities and following through with me to help her get there. I hope that this experience will enrich her in good ways. We'll see if this bug sticks, or if this will be enough to cool her jets.
Since we last spoke I have taken Julia to another audition. This one was for "The Miracle Worker" (you know - the story of Helen Keller). She had me put on the application that she was trying for the role of "A Perkins Institute Girl" (girls from the school Annie Sullivan came from) or Helen Keller (in that order).
That was Monday. I will admit that I think the role of Helen Keller would be a little much being that she's never been in a true theater production before. I was excited at the order she wanted me to put the roles in on the application. Well to be honest, I think she just wants to do something, anything. Right now acting may be a glamorous thing in her head, but I think given the opportunity she would really be good at it.
The director told us on Monday he would let us know one way or the other by Wednesday. That's today. I was told he would touch base by email. Around 7:00 this morning, I went online just because I was killing time while Bryan was getting ready for work (the children had a teacher work/conference day - no school - yay!) and almost overlooked the email from the director. His name wasn't familiar to me and I almost sent it to the spam folder until I read the subject line: "Callback List for the Miracle Worker".
Of course, I got excited. Then I got nervous. This could be a good letter, or a "thanks, but no thanks" letter. The opening of the letter said thanks for bringing our children, the role of Helen Keller had been cast and that the following list of girls (about 15 of them) were being called back to re-read for the Perkin's Institute girls. (still nervous)....
....so I scanned to the bottom of the list looking for her name (our last name starts with "W", remember). No Julia. Shucks.
Then it dawned on me to scan the whole list. And there her name was, right smack in the middle. I was so excited! I shared this new with Bryan. He was excited too. I was going to wait until Julia woke to share the news with her (remember - no school today).
After Bryan went down to go to work, he saw the children in the playroom and brought them back up. When I shared the news with Julia, she was very excited. No wait, she was VERY EXCITED.
So on Monday I'll be taking her back to re-read. If she gets one of the roles of the girls, it will also entail being the voices of some of the voices in Annie Sullivan's head/nightmares, and helping move set pieces on and off the stage during the performance. Oh yeah, and a possible understudy role of Helen.
So, keep your fingers crossed. We'll see what Monday brings. I'll be sure to let you know.
I've been online a bit more than normal lately. I frequent online often enough these days that I'm back to each person's blog LOTS before they've even had a chance to write something new...I think I need a new book to read.
But, I have found a fun game on Facebook - Guess a Sketch (which means I've been on FB more than lately too, which kind of scares me). Facebook just scares me in general for some reason. I shouldn't have said yes to friending some of those people who weren't my closest of friends in highschool; I've realized I don't really care if they can see what I'm writing or playing, but I do think it's kind of fun letting all of you guys know what's happening more realtime. Am I the only one that feels like this? That's the pleaser in me though, make everyone happy, sacrifice for all.
Anyway, got a phone call from the theater company that Julia wasn't chosen for a part at her audition. She seems a bit disappointed but overall ok with it. So, now she's all about auditioning for Helen Keller. I told her I'd take her to as many auditions as she wanted, she just needed to let me know when she'd had enough. I also reminded her that it takes lots of attempts -some of the most famous actors/actresses have been turned down lots. And she seems totally fine with it. I hope so. I am so proud of her though...finding it, wanting it, practicing for it. What an 11 year old she is!
