Thoughts On The Eve of the New Year

I suppose everyone has 'resolutions', or at least good intentions to do something different during the fresh start also known as the New Year. I have resolved to not have any resolutions. I'm sick of making then breaking them, then hating myself for being such a loser that I can't even keep promises to myself. I'm pretty good at keeping those made to other people, but never to myself. Exercise, diet, writing more letters, all those resolutions in years past that were never kept.

I am, however, not getting any younger, so I really do need to take better care of myself. Just moving around more would be a good start. Not be so lazy. Get the body moving more.

My church is doing a "Year of the Bible", during which we are given a schedule that will allow us to read the entire bible in one year. I've always wanted to read the whole bible, and have made numerous starts to doing so, but always got hung up around Leviticus or Deuteronomy. Having a few hundred people doing it with me, in only about 20 minutes a day, should make this one entirely doable. I'll keep you posted on this one.

Other than that, I'm just going to take it as it comes. But I wish more than anything for a more peaceful year. As the mom of a kid that will most likely be headed to Iraq within the next two years, I hope that we find some way to start pulling troops out of there.

On that note, I will leave you with a picture of E and his girl heading out for a special dinner the other night. He couldn't wait to put those dress blues on!

Oh, and have a Merry Ducky Christmas

Who knew that each Dec 25 we celebrate the birth of our blessed savior and rubber ducky?

Get your Kleenex out

When we were down at Parris Island for E's USMC boot camp graduation, they had family day the day before the actual graduation ceremony. No one had seen their kid since they left for boot camp. A ceremony was held in the 'all weather building' at which a movie was played showing many scenes of training that the raw recruits had gone through. As soon as the movie was over, the new Marines came running into the building and lined up in formation. It had all the makings of a reveal from Extreme Makeover. There was not a dry eye in the house. Here is the reason why; it was the soundtrack behind the movie: (this is worth watching, trust me)



Utterly manipulative of the Marine Corps, but unbelievably effective. I CANNOT listen to this song without major tears.

THIS is 3rd Grade?!

My daughter, M, is a pretty smart cookie, and is in the advanced math class at school. What that means is that she is in the 3rd grade, being taught 4th and 5th grade math. Now, I was also an advanced math student back in my day, so I can handle anything thrown at me for silly old 4th grade math, right?

Uh, no.

She had a test on the Wednesday and Thursday before Christmas, and was sent home with a review packet of about 8 pages on Monday. She missed school the previous Wednesday so that we could attend E's USMC graduation in South Carolina, and she missed some of the topics. So it was up to me to figure out how to explain things to her. No problem, right?

Uh, no.

Have you ever heard of a 'factorization tree'? Do you know how to figure the LCM (least common multiple, sheesh)? If you do, then kudos to you; I am apparently backwards in my understanding of today's math education, and had to look them up. Luckily we have good old Google these days, and I pretty quickly managed to find out what they are. In case you're dying to know, a factorization tree breaks down any equation into it's prime numbers, which can be multiplied in any order to get the answer, and while the definition of LCM may be pretty self-explanatory, the process isn't, and is waaay more complicated than I would have expected for even an advanced 3rd grade math class. I don't think I did anything like it until about 6th grade or so.

So, once we figured out what these mysteries were, M seemed to catch on pretty quick, and even thought they were 'cool'. That's my girl. She's really into magic, and loves the idea that math has a lot of 'magical' processes to it.

Me too.

PS - When I chatted with her teacher the following day (found out she aced the test, btw, woohoo!), I learned the charming mnemonic 'Dirty Monkeys Smell Bad', which they use to help with long division. I wish I'd had something like that to help me remember how to do stinkin' long division in Mrs Cadwallader's 4th grade class at Wake Robin Elementary School. Might have helped just a bit. Grrrrr..... I was and still am a 'math person', but I had a tough time understanding long division.

Ooh Rah!

E's platoon at attention during the graduation ceremony. The guy in the black belt is the Senior Drill Instructor, or SDI.

Ain't he handsome?

E wouldn't go near the infamous yellow footprints. He said he'd been there once and never wants to do it again. M&L, however, were happy to oblige.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem. "
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States; 1985

He's Almost There

My oldest son, E, is currently in his last week of USMC basic training at Parris Island, SC. At this exact moment, he's on day two of the Crucible, the final challenge of boot camp. Recruits are led through a series of obstacles that test their strength, physical and mental endurance, and teamwork. It lasts for 54 hours, during which they get at most 8 total hours of sleep and little food. They march 9 miles back to base early Saturday morning, then are rewarded with the Warriors Breakfast, an all-you-can eat feast of pancakes, steak, potatoes, good food (probably makes a few sick after what they've been through). Most importantly, they also then receive their Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the USMC insignia, and they have earned the title "US Marine". I wish I could be there to see him get his EGA, but I'll see him next week. Graduation is next Friday, and we'll be able to spend time with him on Thursday for family day.

I find myself constantly thinking "what's E doing right now?" It's impossible to put it out of my mind as I hope and pray that he makes it through this. He's come too far, and done too well, to not finish.

OOH RAH! I'm so proud of him.

Currently Listening to....

Ahh, memories. And great jazz, too. Thanks, Vince.

Seasons Greetings

Picture courtesy of M :)
(btw, I love the bling on the neck of fourth elf/caroler from the left. And also the fact that no one has a NOSE)

Congratulations are in Order

..... to my kick-ass little daughter, M, who became a red belt in karate last night. She and L both study a Japanese form of martial arts (self-defense oriented) that I can't ever remember the proper name for. Anyway, she's now only about a year or so from becoming a junior level black belt!

And she looked GOOOOOD last night.

I Won, I Won!!!!!

I just love saying that....

Since I've known my hubby, every Christmas, often only a week or so before the big day because we've been so busy, we've trudged out to some tree farm, chopped down our own tree, lugged it home, strung the #$(%&# lights (I HATE stringing lights), decorated it, then proceeded to watch all the needles fall on the floor because we're too lazy to keep up the watering. Then spent days picking the needles out of the carpet because they get firmly embedded. So I started broaching the subject of an artificial tree a few years ago, with "NO" as the definitive answer, and "because I like the smell of live trees" as the reason. Even after I offered to get live greens and wreaths for the aroma, he still held firm.

Well, again this year, I posed the question, and I don't know what he'd been smoking (kidding), but the answer was "as long as you take care of it, go ahead". Huh? Did I hear that correctly? Yep, go do it. So I headed out the next day after perusing the deals online and settled on this one:


Brought it home, set it up, and all I can say is - looks fantastic! Even hubby, who won't admit defeat even when staring it straight in the eye, said "damn, it looks really good". And it does. Once all the ornaments are on it, I doubt many people will be able to tell the difference.

And I DON'T HAVE TO STRING ANY LIGHTS!!!!!!!! Or pick needles one by one out of the carpet!!!! Or wait until a convenient, nice-weather weekend to go get it!!!! Happy dance.....

The Wonderful World of ...orthodontia

So it turns out that this face, as charming, adorable, cute, and quirky as it is, needs serious orthodontic help. I mean serious. The orthodontist got very solemn after examining him and said "just about everything that can be wrong with a mouth is going wrong here". GULP.

Step one: stop the thumb sucking. Immediately. If he doesn't stop soon, the damage he's doing will be untreatable via the usual orthodontic methods. By that I mean surgery. GULP. We had a long talk with L and told him the truth - that he would need an operation if he didn't stop with the thumb. I honestly haven't seen it in his mouth since. At night, we're wrapping his hand in an ace bandage, which he's been great about, and he's just not thumb sucking during his "usual" times (TV, computer, reading) during the day. So, yay for that.

Step two: We go back in February, and if he's stopped the sucking, we'll begin what will be a very long process of fixing his mouth. As best I understand it, he has misshapen his upper jaw so that it's not nice and round anymore - it's pulled forward. He has a serious overbite, with his teeth slanted forward, and his bottom teeth are moved over to one side, leaving no room for future permanent teeth to come in. GULP.

Oh, and M will need braces, too, but not to the extent that L does. She has an open bite, and once a few more teeth come in, we'll start with braces for her.

Neither hubby or I had to have braces as a kid, so we are entering totally new territory here, people. In fact, in my day, I NEVER heard of someone 8 yrs old having braces. They are doing them much earlier now.

Donations to the L Braces Fund are now being accepted.....

Indian Food

Normally, I'm not a real adventurous eater. I'm not picky, but I don't eat "weird" things. Well, I had a gastronomic adventure yesterday evening. After the Robert Dick Recital, a few of us took him to dinner, and the restaurant of choice was a vegetarian Indian place called Udupi Palace. Wow, was I pleasantly surprised! Lots of things on the menu that I would consider yummy; I had trouble choosing! I finally settled on Dal Makhani, which is lentils cooked overnight on a slow fire with herbs (and curry). It comes with rice that you put it over, and a mild yogurt sauce to drip on top. It was soooo good! Everyone got something different, and all enjoyed their meal. If it wasn't so far away, I'd take the family. But maybe now I'll try to find an Indian restaurant near me. Yum.

Flutistically Yours

I don't know why, but I just felt the need to blog today. Lots has been going on. Yesterday, I performed Eric Ewazen's "Concerto for Flute" at the Charles Sumner School in downtown DC, as part of the Friday Morning Music Club's monthly recital series there. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this piece (in fact, Eric is composing a flute quartet, his first, for my flute quartet, Femme Flutale), and have so much fun playing it, I almost forget I'm nervous. Well, almost. There are 4 movements, and by the second, the nerves had worn off and I was just having fun. When I performed the piece back in April, the same thing happened. I can't tell you the high that comes from presenting an awesome piece of music to people, who have most likely never heard it before, since it's not a 'standard', and doing it to the best of your abilities. It is truly a rush. There were a number of people in the audience that were there JUST to hear my piece. All were flute players, one is in the National Symphony, and I was worried that that would make me more nervous, but it didn't. I tried my best to 'inhabit' the idea that they were there to hear me play well and support me, as opposed to being threatened or anxious about them being there. I continually work on my nerves while performing, and more and more, I am able to really enjoy the experience, and be "in" the music. It is addictive, really.

Today was another flute day. I went to a masterclass by renowned flutist, composer, and teacher Robert Dick. He is, to say the least, and interesting fellow. He composes music that really stretches the boundaries of what a flute can do, and is most definitely outside the limits of what we refer to as "normal" flute music. Lots of extended techniques that many call unmusical (including me at times), but there is always something to learn. His music is not my cup of tea, but I have the utmost respect for what he does. Tomorrow, he's giving a recital, and I'll be there, and I'm sure I will discover something new that the flute can do. Fascinating stuff.....

Prayers for VA Tech

My stepson attends Va Tech, and I spent a lot of time there in college; even though I didn't attend there, my first husband did, and since we dated during our college years, many a weekend was spent on that beautiful campus.

My stepson is fine, but he doesn't yet know who the victims are, and whether he knows any of them.

Please say a prayer for the victims and their families; that they find peace. Such things just shouldn't happen.