Category Archives: On the Home Front

Child’s Play

Posted on June 14, 2011 | 12 comments

Hi everyone!

One of the privileges of being a mom is the privilege of watching our children’s imagination at work when they play. 

To her great regret, Kayla doesn’t have any brothers or sisters to play with, but she uses her imagination (and sometimes the dogs) to make up for that.  I had the chance to get a peek into her play world this weekend, and wanted to share it with you.

Kayla has often said that she wants to be a teacher.  Saturday morning, she decided to play teacher, and set up her school.  When I walked in her room to check on what she was doing, I couldn’t resist grabbing the camera!

At the moment I walked in, she was taking a break.

(I admit that sparkling lemonade and pickles won’t work for everyone as a snack – it certainly doesn’t for me – but she likes them.)

Then she noticed I had the camera.

Oh no, she's taking pictures again!

 Although she wasn’t thrilled at first, she decided after a moment’s reflection that having a class photographer would be a good thing, so she continued playing. 

First she taught her class:

Then she allowed me to meet her students and view the various seating arrangements.  Since many of the stuffed animals in the class are old friends, I was happy to see them.

Three of the seven student class (originally it was a nine student class, but Darwin and Mandy high-tailed it out of the room as soon as I opened the door), Abby, Sparks and Ruffy (from right to left), were provided with the lid of the toy box as their desk, and were seated firmly between the toy box and the bed.  Kayla had furnished them with name tags, and allowed them to start work.

Ruffy, Sparks and Abby's work

 

Abby and Sparks are twins, and younger than Ruffy.  They both came from the local Build-A-Bear workshop.  Ruffy is a little older; he was bought to be a little brother to Scruffy and Fluffy by my husband when he spent a week in Boston on business once.  Scruffy (not shown – Kayla said he was the oldest and was in a different class) is the first Build-A-Bear Kayla ever owned, and is a stuffed dog.  She had slipped Scruffy (leaving his sister/twin Fluffy, a stuffed rabbit, at home) into Mark’s suitcase, and about four days into the trip, Mark told her that Scruffy kept getting in trouble by turning the TV on when Mark wasn’t in his room, so he bought Ruffy to keep Scruffy company.  Kayla loved it! 

 

The next three members of the seven student class were, again from left to right, Gatlin, Fluffy and Ana. 

 

Kayla decided to join their picture and have a little fun at the same time:

They also had been provided with name tags and had started their work:

The last member of the class, Gale, was tucked behind a wooden chest, which she was using as her desk.

I think she was apart from the others because she was smaller, and Kayla wanted her protected.  However, Gale also had managed to start on her work:

Kayla set up everything I have shown you so far on her own before she ever knew that I was going to come in and take pictures.  However, we collaborated on the final pictures, since we both decided that every class needs a class picture.   The first picture was just of the students.

Then we took one of the class with their teacher.

After that, I was forced to leave the world of my child’s imagination for the much more mundane task of doing laundry, but that was okay.  Class continued until lunchtime, at which time it abruptly came to a halt as all of the students were hastily scooped into Kayla’s closet so she could eat. 

Kids are fun!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

12 Comments

Posted in On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

Tagged , , , , ,

Hometown Heroes: The 214th Comes Home

Posted on June 13, 2011 | 5 comments

Hi Everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend!  It is unusual for me to need two or three days to put a post together, but I think this one was worth the effort.

I have written before about aspects of living in a small town, e.g. Of Waves and Pens, but last week I was privileged to observe another facet in the town where I have worked for over 20 years.  

Last year, on June 12, 2010, the Alabama Army National Guard 214th Military Police Company was deployed to Iraq for the third time, this time to help train Iraqi police officers. (The 214th’s prior deployments were in 1991, as part of Operation Desert Storm, when it was awarded the Meritorious Unit Award, and in 2003. )

364 days later, on Friday, June 10, 2011, the small town where I work turned out to welcome the first wave of returnees back home.  Originally, 170 members were deployed; over 100 of those got to come home Friday; another 57 will follow in about three weeks.  While the unit draws on individuals from my working town, the neighboring communities and one small city, the deployment of 170 people always has a serious impact on small towns and their surrounding communities.  There is an economic price since there are not as many people to buy things, but there is an even larger human price – each one of those guard members have family – husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children, aunts and uncles and cousins – who need to “hold the fort” while the members are gone.  I am sure there are sleepless nights for both the guard member and the family, wondering how things are going “over there” and hoping that nobody gets hurt.  A small town feels that pain, necessarily, more so than a larger community.  It is hard not to know someone affected by the Guard’s deployment in one manner or another; even if you don’t have a deployed member in your family, you know someone who does. 

These men and women, who choose to serve, leave their families when asked by the Army to fly halfway across the world in order to protect all of us.  They deserve our respect, and gratitude, and I was very proud of my town for showing out in force to demonstrate both.

Well before Friday, yellow ribbons started appearing all over town, welcoming home the 214th.  There was a yellow ribbon on the local hospital’s main sign:

The Local Hospital

at the antique and framing store downtown:

Local Store

 

One of the prettiest buildings used by local government had its yellow ribbons also.

as well as the town roundabout.  (The town roundabout is the latest answer to a traffic issue my town has faced for over 100 years, the circle around the courthouse square.  When a great fire came along and destroyed much of the city in the 1900’s, a newspaper article was written expressing the hope that something could be done to better enable traffic flow around what was, at the time, the County Courthouse.  The roundabout has helped some, although when I am in a particularly absent-minded mood,  I sometimes have the feeling that I may have circled the road three or four times before I hit the right exit!) 

Because of its location, the town roundabout is, in a way, the heart of the city.  It was properly decorated with ribbons was well.

Our law office had yellow ribbons on both the front and the back doors.

As did much of the rest of downtown:

Downtown

On the four-lane highway through the outskirts of town, each light post was decorated with a yellow ribbon also, while every other light post had two flags on each side of it.  A huge cliff in our area, called Patriot’s Point for the huge flag that permanently resides there, also boasted a “Welcome Home 214th” sign about halfway up the cliff – someone had to do some climbing to get there!

On the four lane and at Patriot Point

Here’s a closer look at the sign:

Patriot Point Sign

The City Sportplex decorated both of their entrances with yellow ribbons:

Entrance to the City Sportplex

Looking up at the Flag at the Sportplex

as did many other business in the area, including two funeral homes, the local community college, City Hall, and a multitude of stores.  By the time all the ribbons were up, you could definitely tell that something was about to happen!
 
And then that something did happen, on Friday about 12:30 p.m. Word came that the two air-conditioned buses carrying the returning members were approaching, and the final preparations were made. The local police stopped traffic for the parade route.
 
 People gathered at spots where they thought they would be able to see the buses and the people in the buses would see them; I chose a side road for my observation point because the next turn the buses would take from that side road was the road that would lead them to the armory. From my spot, I could see people gathering: 
 
Cheerleaders from the local schools:

Local Cheerleaders wait.

The Crowd Gathers

And other people, as well.
 
 This woman was waiting for her nephew to come back home,

Waiting for her nephew

 
 
 
as were these people beside her:
 
 
Finally, after about 20 minutes more of waiting, we started hearing sirens and cheering coming from the four lane, which let us know that they were about to arrive!  The first escort car that pulled around in front of the buses was a local radio station’s car, closely followed by a police cruiser, who was then followed by the two buses. 

The Procession begins

More people wait

Then the police car leading the buses came up the road, with its lights flashing and sirens on.

Second Vehicle in the procession

 Followed by the first bus:

Bus 1

Then, as the buses pulled into sight, the people started waving:
 

Waving hello as the buses get into sight.

Finally, the buses themselves came into view, rounded the corner and took the final turn that would lead them back to the armory, where their families were waiting for them.
 
 

Second Bus

The final road to the armory

I did not choose to go forward toward the armory to see the final reunion between loved ones;  that moment belongs to the families, and only to them, but it made me feel happy to know how many families were about to be made happy and whole again. 

I am very proud of my working town for putting together a celebration that would help these military members know how welcome they are, and how much we honor their service, but I am even prouder of the men and women coming home; their service is essential to our country’s security and I admire them for the sacrifice that they make. 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

5 Comments

Posted in On the Home Front, Reflection, working mom

Tagged , , , ,

The Miracle Cure

Posted on June 9, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone!

I hope you have had/are having a great Thursday.  Only one  more day until Friday!

This morning, I was on track and on time with everything, and then the sound I most dread in the mornings when I am in a hurry began – Kayla was crying hard out in the den.  I went out to see what was going on, and after playing 20 questions was about to lose my temper when I finally was able to translate “eee mmmm yyyyy urssssss” to “my eye hurts.”  I looked at the eye, which appeared normal, and asked several question about how it hurt, when it started hurting  and what was going on with it.  She forgot to cry in answering my questions, and seemed very pleased that I was taking her seriously.  She did feel just a hair warm to the touch, so I went on a quest for the thermometer, which failed. 

The thermometer mysteriously disappeared about two weeks ago; probably because I ended up putting in somewhere safe after walking around with it during the month I had bronchitis unable to believe that I could feel that bad and still not have a fever.

I was a little mystified by Kayla’s symptoms, and the suddenness of their onset.  On the theory that it might be sinus pressure, I had her lean over for a count of ten, and then flip her head back.  She told me nothing had changed, and then said, in her most pitiful voice, “Couldn’t you just call Ms. Hanlon at your work and tell her you are going to be late so I can go see my doctor?” 

I thought about it for a minute, but wasn’t convinced enough to sign on for a day home sick with my child, so I suggested instead that I would take her on to day camp, and then, if she didn’t feel better before their lunch at 11:00, she could call me and then I would take her home.  She looked at me with both eyes wide and said, “But then I will miss swim time!”  I said in my most sincerely regretful voice, “That’s true, honey, but if you’re sick, we need to get you looked at.”  She sat still for another minute then looked at me sideways and announced that, really, she had started to feel a little better once she flipped her head back, and she thought she better risk going to camp.

Another miracle cure accomplished!

Have a great evening everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

Tagged , , , ,

Heat Wave! (And I Ain’t Talking Basketball!)

Posted on June 8, 2011 | 4 comments

Ladies and Gentlemen, (and with apologies to my youngest sister, who says talking about it makes it worse):

IT. IS. HOT.  Pure-T fried egg on the sidewalk, 100+ degrees, thank God for air conditioning, get in the car and ride around to cool off, hot. 

Driving home on Monday, the bank sign informed Kayla and I, just for grins and giggles I guess, that, at 6:21, it was 101 degrees.  The car’s thermometer disagreed, coming in at 99 degrees.  There’s just nothing redeemable about that kind of heat. 

Our poor heat pump is doing its best, but I know it has to be ready for a break!  When we’re not home we keep the thermostat set fairly high (for us), but the heat pump is still pulling about 14 hour days to keep the house comfortable.  However, at least it is working.  Last year, in August, with similar weather, the air compressor went out.  

With the impeccable timing that home appliances, office copiers and computers have, the heat pump decided it would go out on one of the rare days when we were having company over.  Our friends were quite gracious about it, declining to comment on how hot it was in the house when even the dogs were looking for some kind of shade at 8:00 p.m. at night. 

The high today is supposed to be 96, with 88% humidity.  I don’t believe it.  They have tried to con me into thinking that the temperature would stay in the mid-90’s for two weeks, and each day it has instead inched up towards 100. 

I haven’t watched any weather reports on TV; I just check the forecast on the computer.  The reason is that infernal invention known as “the heat index.” 

The “heat index” is supposed to tell us what the outside really feels like, as opposed to what the temperature is.  According to Mike Hoffman, a weather man at WNDU, the “heat index” is “an ‘estimation’ of how a human feels during certain weather situations.”  I know how a human feels during weather like this – we feel hot!  (My observation has been that the “heat index” is always higher than, or equal to, the actual temperature.  If not, than it is called “wind chill” which is used to make us understand how much colder we are in the wintertime than the temperature would suggest.) 

I asked if we could move to Maine, (the high today in Caribou is supposed to be 58 degrees) but my husband nixed that idea, so I guess I am stuck with the heat until the weather breaks.  According to the weather channel, that looks to be sometime late next week, when the temperatures will ease back down into the low 90’s.  A veritable cold wave, no? 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

4 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , , ,

Light Switches

Posted on June 7, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!

A few years ago, the Home and Garden Channel showed a home where everything, including the lights, worked by voice command.  At the time, I thought it was a silly idea, but the older I get, and the more trouble I have with light switches, I am re-thinking my position.

For example, I was leaving the office late last Thursday, from a building where I have worked for over 20 years, and found myself playing the “guess the light switch” game yet again.  (It was 10:15 at night and I was exhausted, but still…)

I am at least, consistent – I have the same issues with light switches at home.  I lived in one house for ten years; to the day that we moved, I was hitting multiple light switches in order to get to the right light.  It goes without saying, then, that after only 5 years at our current house, I still am playing musical chairs with light switches. 

Remembering what switch goes with which light is probably simple for most people, but, this is just one of those areas that challenges me.  Of course, the  bewildering array of possible configurations, doesn’t help. 

Back Door

For example, we have two light switch panels on either side of our back door.   That means I have five switches assigned to various  lights.  I believe the set on the left controls the porch lights outside, while the panel on the right controls the lights over the dining room table and the breakfast bar.   In a further attempt to confuse the Russians (those of you who don’t remember the Cold War, please look the phrase up), the outside lights that aren’t on the porch, including the ones on the back, are controlled by a switch at the front door.

The outside porch light switch plate looks like this:

After some trial and error, we found that the switch on the right controls the four recessed overhead porch lights, while the two switches on the left side control two fans (with lights) that are outside on the porch.  This would seem to be very simple, except for the fact that there is another switch to the overhead porch lights in our bedroom. 

Another deceptively simple light switch arrangement exists for the study area of the great room:

 The simplicity of the light switch by the hats, which runs the chandelier in the study, is a sham – there is a second switch by the kitchen that is a double panel, one of which also runs the chandelier in the study.  Keeping the two of them in sync can be a challenge!  (Of course, I could learn that it doesn’t really matter whether they are in sync or not, but that is another column for another day!)

My favorite light switch is the one in the hall outside the two smaller bedrooms:

It runs a single light, in the hall, and has no brothers and sisters to help it out anywhere else.

The light panel switch in the kitchen has at least one switch that I can always identify:

The switch on the far right controls the garbage disposal.  The only reason it is easy to remember is negative reinforcement.  It doesn’t take too many times of hitting that switch by mistake and jumping startled 3 feet in the air before you start to remember what it belongs too!  The other three light switches I am hit and miss with – two of them have twins in other parts of the house, while the third does not.  Don’t ask me to tell you which!

It goes without saying, of course, that both my nine-year old daughter and my husband have no problem figuring out any of the light switches anywhere!   

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , , ,

Keeper of the Passwords

Posted on June 3, 2011 | 10 comments

Hi Everyone!

When I became a mom, I knew that the role would call for many things.  However, this morning my daughter attempted to assign a role to me that I simply cannot and will not do:  Keeper of the Computer Passwords.  I can’t keep up with my own; let alone anybody else’s!

Those of us who have seen the computer revolution blossom in front of our eyes (you know who you are –  you took classes on Basic in college; you remember when the Internet did not exist, or at least was not as ubiquitous in the American household as, say, the refrigerator is; you can remember playing games on a Commodore 64 computer that plugged into your TV to use as a monitor; and you remember when 1/2 megabyte of RAM was a lot of memory for a PC and we stored extra files on 5 1/4″ floppy discs), can remember a time when – hang on for this younger generation – you could get through life without any passwords at all!  Yes, you heard me correctly – you could go from the cradle to the grave without having to enter a password into anything more complicated than the combination lock to your bike – and you wrote that combination on your book bag so you wouldn’t forget it.  Those from a slightly later generation can remember when you could use things that were easy to remember, like your children’s name or your birthdate, for passwords or PIN numbers.  Heck, only about four or five years ago, most of us did not need to know what the words “case-sensitive” meant.

 However, somewhere as the years went on, the simplicity of the password has completely faded into oblivion.  Each organization  has its own requirements in terms of the amount of letters and/or numbers to be used in a password.  Some sites are even getting hyper-technical on me and requiring not only letters and numbers, but characters too!  People, if I can’t remember whether my original password was adam12 (or maybe that was Adam12 or ADAM12) I don’t have a hope of remembering whether I used a !, a%,  a # or (for when I lose my temper) &^%$##$%&&%%##**$ to go with it.  

I have had web sites grade me on the strength of the password I am selecting; that gives me an inferiority complex.  I never felt happy with a grade unless it was an A, and I have yet to get an A grade on any password I selected.  (If I did get an A grade, I probably wouldn’t be able to remember the password.)

I have other sites that require me to change my password periodically whether I want to or not; that’s really disturbing, because how do I know I can come up with a password that is as good as the one they are making me get rid of?  I also have to perform a series of mental gymnastics to keep track of which password to use this week. 

The logical thing to do, of course, is to find a place to store all the passwords for all of the sites in one place so you can look one up when you need it, but apparently we are not allowed to keep such a list any place where it can be easily found, which means that the odds are good that I won’t be able to remember where I put the list by the time I need it! 

So, to my daughter who won’t read this anyhow because she doesn’t have the password to our home computer (how else could I get away with writing the stories I write about us?), I must regretfully decline your offer to become Keeper of the Passwords, at least until I am able to successfully keep my own!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Nancy

10 Comments

Posted in On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , , , ,

The First Day of Summer Vacation and Other Matters

Posted on May 31, 2011 | 6 comments

Hi Everyone!

I hope each of you had a great Memorial Day weekend!  We did; we didn’t do anything special, but we got to go bowling, nap, shopping, nap, attend church, nap, eat out, nap – you get the idea! 

Today marks a change in the rhythm of our lives for the next two and a half months – Kayla’s summer vacation starts today.  Until I taught, many moons ago, I didn’t realize how much teachers look forward to summer vacation.  Until Kayla started Kindergarten, I also didn’t realize how much parents enjoy summer vacation, too.  I don’t have to fuss about homework; bed time, while still important, is not essential; and getting Kayla ready in the morning amounts to being sure she is dressed properly instead of the list of things we have to have ready for school. 

Specifically for us, too, summer vacation is different because I take Kayla to a day camp near to where I work, which means that she and I ride to and from work together.  I am looking forward to the extra time with her, although I have to resign myself to the fact that I will be listening to the Disney Channel radio for the next two and a half months, also. 

  •      Rememborizing

On the way to the bowling alley this weekend, Kayla was trying to tell us that she either remembered something or had memorized it, I am not sure which, but the word that came out was “rememborized.”  She tried again with another variation, and finally got frustrated and said “Whatever,” which in 9-year-old parlance translates to “you know what I mean so let’s get past the pronunciation and on to the discussion.”

  • Santa Claus

When we went shopping this weekend, one of the things we needed were new white church shoes for Kayla.  We noticed Sunday that her feet were hanging off both the front and the back of her old church sandals.  (She is in the middle of a growth spurt.)  As we were walking into the store, out of the blue, Kayla started talking about maybe buying some underwear also, then, remembering that she had gotten some from Santa for Christmas (yes, folks, she got a lot of other things too, and they were all toys), stopped in the middle of the road  and asked Mark and I, “How did Santa Claus know my underwear size?”  I asked her if Santa knew whether she had been good or bad, why couldn’t he know her underwear size?  She answered, “That’s just embarrassing!  

  • The Treadmill 

For Father’s Day, I got Mark a treadmill.  It came last week, a little early, so he took some time yesterday to put it together, with Kayla’s help.  She did a very good job helping him, both in reading the directions, handing him the necessary parts and sometimes getting to handle some of the tools, like the wrench and screwdriver, and even the drill (used as a screwdriver) once or twice. 

Once Mark and she got it put together, it was time to try it out, briefly.  Each of us spent about two minutes on it, just to see if it worked.  What we didn’t expect was the dogs’ reaction to it.  Tyra ignored it, but Mandy was mesmerized, and Darwin, unwilling to let his twin enjoy something without him, decided he would be mesmerized, too.  I thought maybe it was just a one day thing, but this morning, when Mark got up early to use the treadmill, the two dogs camped out by the treadmill yet again.

Mandy, Fascinated by the Treadmill

Mandy and Darwin Mesmerized by the Treadmill

You never know exactly what is going through the minds of your dogs at any particular time, except maybe feeding time, but I sure would like to know what they are thinking while they watch the treadmill! 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

6 Comments

Posted in dogs, Just stuff..., On the Home Front, Pets, working mom

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Please stop improving my life! (Part I)

Posted on May 26, 2011 | 9 comments

Hi Everyone!

How many of you are, well let us say, youthfully challenged enough to remember the VCR?  I could handle the VCR – I couldn’t program it, but at least I could use it.  You pushed the cartridge into the machine and hit play. 

Then came the DVD player – I still couldn’t program it, but as long as it was just the TV and the DVD player, I still could use it.  You put the disc in the machine and hit play.

DVD Player Photograph from http://www.wikipedia.org

Then came surround sound – and everything came to a screeching halt! 

I admit that I am technologically challenged, but once the time arrived where it took more than one remote to accomplish an entertainment task, I was in trouble.  After years of struggle, my husband finally took pity on me last year and bought a universal remote that is supposed to work by simply pressing a button on the remote that says what you want to do (for example, “watch tv” or “play a movie”), pointing the remote in the general area of the AV equipment, and everything that needs to turn off or on does so.  It works great for my husband, but I really don’t think it likes me, because I have a 50/50 shot of being successful with it.  Still, 50/50 is much better than a 100% chance of not being able to do it.

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Now the DVD player companies are beginning to introduce DVD’s and televisions that can show movies and programs in 3-D.  Enough!  I have yet to see a 3-D movie that would be incomplete if I saw it in 2-D.  Let’s think for a minute people – isn’t being able to watch 100+ channels, download the movie of your choice from the internet or place your disc in the DVD player and watch it on your TV in super-duper high-clarity High-definition with surround sound comparable to that in a theater sufficient?  Do we really need something else to keep us glued to the TV and away from more profitable activities such as reading, writing or playing games?   I say no, and that it is high time for the technologically challenged people of the world to stand up and unite!

From Print Shop Professional 2.0 with edits by me

Please, please write your local DVD manufacturer now and plead with it to stop the march of entertainment technology immediately!  Let’s draw a line in the sand and stop with Blu-Ray.  Period.  Then the innovators and inventors of this world can turn their attention to more important topics, such as energy, medical research and the riding vacuum cleaner.   

Tomorrow’s topic:  Software manufacturers that improve my life, and why they shouldn’t.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

9 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , ,

Dance Recital

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 8 comments

First Pre-Recital Picture

 Good morning Everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend!  I will give you fair warning about today’s post:  this is a Proud Parent Post, heavily laden with pictures of Kayla, because Saturday was the day of Kayla’s dance recitals.  The recitals are an EVENT!  Her dance studio has two recitals, one at 2 and one at 6:30 that last about two hours each.  There are classes in baton, jazz, tap dancing, ballet, and gymnastics for girls from age 4 to age 18 or 19 (seniors in high school.)  The teacher does an amazing job of scheduling things so that each class has a chance to perform their routines. 

There are at least three dance studios in our small town, and I think that each one picks a Saturday in May to rent the high school’s auditorium, but our recital is usually the last one.  It is an annual rite of passage from spring into summer.  (Yes, I know the calendar says it is still spring, but down here, we consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer, and as of this week have already had temperatures soaring into the low to mid-90’s.  Most of the schools in this area finish for the year in the next week.) 

Darwin Barges In

 My Mom came to visit for the recital, and took a picture of the three of us, with Kayla in her baton costume.  She took the first picture, then was lucky enough to get this one of Darwin barging in to the photo also.  Every once in a while something happens to remind me how very tall he really is, and this was one of those times.  I would guess from this picture that he is at least 5 feet tall when he stands on his hind legs! 

Anyway, with Darwin’s help we were able to get out the door and to the auditorium by 1:00 p.m., when the doors opened for audience seating.  Past experience has taught us that if you don’t show up an hour early, then you will not be able to get very good seats, and we needed end seats so that I could scoot in and out to help Kayla with her costume changes.  Since I chose to sit on the first floor of the auditorium, so I could sit with Mark and Mom, each time Kayla’s costume needed changing, I rushed up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the high school to reach the changing room, then rushed back down to get back to my seat in time to see her routine.  The multiple trips reminded me why I really hate elliptical training machines, Stairmasters and all other exercise equipment of similar ilk. 

I put Mark in charge of the camera because getting pictures during the recital is tricky between the lighting (dark in the audience, light on stage) and the movement.  He got this photo of Kayla during her baton routine.  If you look on your left, you can see the baton twirling around in a blur. 

Baton Routine

 The next routine was her tap dance routine.  She was concentrating!  (The tap dance and the closing routines were the only repeats between both recitals.)

Concentrating on her tap dance routine

 The first recital ended at 4, so the four of us (me, Mark, Kayla and Mom) hopped over to the local Pizza Hut for a very early dinner, had time to run back to the house for about 20 minutes to change costumes and freshen up her hair and make-up, and then get back to the auditorium at 5:30 for the 6:30 show.  By 5:30, a good part of the auditorium was already full, but we still managed to find end seats.  I estimate that there were between 150 to 200 people present at each of the two recitals.  For this second recital, her first routine was the jazz routine. 

Jazz

 

Jazz 2

It wasn’t until the very end of the routine that she saw Mark, who had slipped up the aisle, taking pictures, but after that suddenly she relaxed and starting smiling.  You can see this in the picture Mark took at the end of her gymnastics class’s  routine…..

Final Gymnastics Pose

And in her ballet routine…..

Ballet Dance

And in the closing!

Closing Routine!

 

So kudos to Mark for the pictures he took and kudos to Kayla for her time and effort in dancing!

Have a great day everyone!
 Nancy

8 Comments

Posted in On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , ,

Blast from the Past: 2008: Stories, Spell Check and Scorpions!

Posted on May 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Good morning everyone!

This morning I thought I would share some stories I wrote down in some letters back in 2008, when Kayla was 6 and in kindergarten.

From April 2008:

One morning, Kayla burst out into tears in the bathroom. Mark caught that call. When he went in to check, she told him that she was crying because she had brushed her hair but it didn’t look like she had brushed it at all! (Item: the hair looked fine.)

Two Sundays ago, she and I were awake and watching TV in my bedroom because Mark was asleep on the couch and I was trying hard to keep everyone (child and dogs) quiet in my room so that he could get a full nap in. I had to go into the other room to get something, and when I came back, Kayla was just walking away from my bathroom sink. I asked her what she was doing, and she said brightly, “I was going to get into your makeup, but then I decided that I didn’t want to get into trouble!”

From April 2008:

I did the funniest thing on spell check on one of my briefs the other week. I had to use the name “Schnitzler” a lot in the brief.  Schnitzler was one of those words that, to save my soul, I could not type correctly the first time, so rather than re-type it over and over, I used “SS” as an abbreviation, with the thought that when it was finished, I would use “find and replace” to replace the “SS” with Schnitzler.  FN.  It worked like a charm, except that I got slap-happy pushing buttons and ended up telling the computer to change every “ss” to Schnitzler, which left me with lots of words like “Congreschnitzler” (Congress), “ischnitzlerue” (issue) and “paschnitzler” (pass.) Spell check almost had a nervous breakdown before it was over with!

From June 2008:

The past week has been a week of weird wildlife encounters. Last Thursday, I looked out of the window after Mark and Kayla left, and saw a huge turtle on the side of the road – its shell had a diameter of at least 16 inches. I couldn’t help it; I took a picture of it.

Turtle, 2008

Yesterday, which was Wednesday, I started my day being stung by, of all things, a scorpion! Mandy, who has decided that one of her missions in life is to be my little alarm clock, waking me up by 5:20 whether I need it or not, harassed and harangued me until I got up, fed her and the other two dogs then went out into the garage like I normally do to get my Diet Coke. When I walked back in, something bit/stung my toe, and it really hurt! I couldn’t see what it was but jumped around and started screaming , which woke Mark up in a flash (Kayla slept through it) and brought him into the den to check on me. We sat down and looked at my foot, but unlike a bee sting, we couldn’t see anything. Mark announced that it must have been an ant that bit me, and went back to bed. I walked back over to the area where I had been stung, turned on the light and saw a brown form on the brown wooden floor that looked like a scorpion. I looked again, because I thought maybe it was just a leaf that the dogs had drug in from outside, and realized that it really was a scorpion.

 So next I did what any reasonable woman with a husband at home would do – I went back into the bedroom and got Mark! He looked at it, and not only agreed that it was a scorpion but also realized that it wasn’t dead yet, so he killed it for me. Never having been stung by a scorpion before, I was not at all certain what I should do, so I went and looked it up on the Internet. The information I found said that most species of scorpions in the United States are not poisonous, except for one species in Arizona. However, even so, you can have a reaction to the bite of one if you are allergic, and some of the symptoms of that type of reaction are an elevated heart rate and anxiety.

That symptom list was not helpful;  I already had an elevated heartbeat and anxiety because I had just been stung by a scorpion! It all turned out okay, although it will be a very long time before I walk anywhere in the house without my slippers on.

And on that unusual note, I will bid everyone good day!  Have a great weekend!

Nancy

FN.  To prevent any unpleasantness, the name “Schnitzler” is  changed from the actual name, but you get the idea.

Leave a comment

Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

Tagged , , , ,