One other thing....

Somebody turned double-4 today. So, here's to me, and the year ahead.

Without a Trace

moar funny pictures

We had a good laugh over this tonight. M thought it the funniest thing she'd seen a LONG time. I'm not exactly sure WHY this is funny, but it is. It reminds me of a story from about 9 1/2 years ago.

I was pregnant with M (about 7 months along), and hubby and I, plus our two oldest, and only at the time, boys, M & E, went on a walk in the woods. M was about 15 and E was about 9. It was October, and not too cold, but cool, so we all had jackets on. We went on a different path than we'd ever taken before, so we didn't know what was ahead of us. We came to a small stream that had a log "bridge" spanning it. I wasn't too sure that I myself wanted to try to cross it, but the boys saw an adventure in the making, so M took off over the log to the other side. For some reason, he stopped on the log, right at the edge of the other side, and E had already started across. He was in more of a hurry than M to actually set foot on solid ground on the other side, so he hopped off the log onto the ground near the edge, which was covered in leaves.

Only it wasn't just leaves.

That "tiny" little stream swallowed my son whole, in the blink of an eye. Seriously, he vanished under the water without even making a ripple. I distinctly remember standing there dumbfounded saying "Oh my God". Not screaming, not really panicking or anything, just awestruck at what had just happened. One second he was traipsing across the log, the very next, gone without a trace. I truly thought aliens had just come down and plucked my first born from the planet. He was gone. I pondered jumping in after him, and was seriously just about to, when his head popped up. He came up laughing, which obviously was a HUGE relief. M helped him out on the other side, and we all just collapsed in laughter. He was, ahem, surprised that he hadn't jumped onto actual solid ground, but other than that, he thought the whole thing was pretty funny. Since it wasn't too cold, and he was, of course, soaking wet, we weren't worried about him freezing or anything, but we did turn around and head home after that, recounting the whole thing from all our various vantage points.

To this day, it is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I KNOW I could have won $100k on "America's Funniest Home Videos" had I had the foresight to bring a video camera. Of crouse, it's only funny because he was okay, but hindsight's 20/20, right?

Sort of like the poor little kitty above. He was told he could walk on top of that snow, and damned if he didn't sink straight down.

Okay, they can stay

I think I'm beginning to recover from the holidays. This year, despite my having all my shopping done in plenty of time, was possibly the worst, most stressful holiday ever. I can't really elaborate, but let it suffice to say that anything that actually causes me to LOSE my appetite must not be good. I've taken steps to alleviate that particular stress, although other sources manage to creep in. Getting back to a normal routine helps.

I have decided to let my children stay, although the ice wears thin at times. To be honest, I think they're just being kids; it's me with the problem (see above). I must have been last in line when God handed out the patience allocations. If I'm out of sorts or under pressure, my fuse can be pretty short. I don't react to the kids fighting/whining/nagging/complaining/whatever with much parental grace during these times. Which, of course, only makes them act out more. If I can manage to step back, count to at least 10, and re-evaluate the situation, I'm sure my inner Cliff Huxtable will begin to emerge. I remain jealous of how Cliff and his wife (what was her name?) could diffuse any situation involving the kids with a bit of humor and love.

Clair, that's her name.

Anyway, I'm working on it. With some professional help. Wish me luck.

Look for them on Ebay

I love my children, really I do. But there are times such as the last few days where I have to stop and wonder if they are going through one of the proverbial "stages", or if I'm just not doing my job as a parent very well, or what. Seriously, I think I may kill one or both of them. Okay, not really; don't call the police....yet.

But L (now 7 1/2 yrs) has found his stubborn side, and uses it constantly. He had a good teacher, his sister M (almost 9). L has always been a bit of a nag, but we could at least reason with him. He is now putting his foot down, then screaming about it. Oh, and he changes his mind all the time. For example, yesterday we thought we'd take the kids to a movie. We decided on National Treasure. L thought that was great at first, then changed his mind and threw a fit about how we 'make him go to movies'. Okie-dokie, then. We called up Grandmom to see if they could go over there while hubby and I went to a grown up movie. Well, L then proceeded to pitch a fit about having to do THAT. He wanted to go to the movie after all. Too bad, buddy. Hubby and I went to see Charlie Wilson's War, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and our alone time. We took them to see National Treasure today, and both kids were transfixed the whole way through, even saying "great movie!" as we left. However, the tranquility lasted about as long as it took us to get to the car.

See, they are also fighting CONSTANTLY. About EVERYTHING. Most of which is vitally important to them, but truthfully the stupidest things you could imagine. It is impossible for the two of them to do anything together lately without WWIII breaking out.

To my Mom - I am SO sorry. I now understand what my brother and I put you through. Truly I do.

Now for M. She has found her inner bitch. Lordy almighty, has she. During the whole movie fiasco yesterday, she decided to pitch a tantrum about how she never gets what she wants, and numerous variations on that theme. The world MUST revolve around her. Shouldn't she know better, at least a little bit, by age 9? She then proceeded to take out her frustrations on her little brother by kicking him HARD for no valid reason (not that there is EVER a valid reason to hit, kick, or bite your brother). Let me just say that what followed was not one of my finer mommy moments.

After we both calmed down, we had a talk that gave me hope that she can learn to control herself, however she was back to her old ways today.

I can't WAIT for school to start back tomorrow! But please do keep checking Ebay for two very cute children - you may see them there yet.

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.

Hello

"It's been such a loong tiime, I really must be going....."

I have a NEW camera! Woohoo! We were in NYC for a couple of days just after Christmas, and my yucky old Canon just sort of went kaput (well, okay, actually the battery died, and I was without a newly charged battery since it was the kind of camera that didn't use regular batteries). One simply cannot be in NYC at Christmas, with one's two young children who have never been to NYC, and NOT HAVE A CAMERA! Even numbnuts like me that usually forget to take their camera to important events.

So, DH bought me a new, very lovely little Nikon Coolpix that I'm oh-so-happy with. Might even get my photobug going. So here's a few to share.

Oh, and we saw 'Mary Poppins' on Broadway! Wonderful, wonderful show. The kids were spellbound the whole 2 hours 45 minutes. Especially M, who was really into the show itself; L, on the other hand, was probably analyzing everything he saw to figure out how they did it.

M and I made our pilgrimage to the American Girl store on 5th Avenue. What a place! Three stories of doll 'stuff'. M just didn't know what to make of the whole thing. She found some cool things she wanted for her 'Elizabeth' (see pic above), including a very nice bed, and we were on our way.

NYC at holiday time is amazing, but mostly just, well, crowded.

Time is a Subjective Matter

So, a long while ago, I agreed to be a wedding coordinator at my church. I've been to a gazillion weddings as a musician, so I thought maybe this would be something right up my alley. Until now, I haven't been able to do one (it's not like we have a ton of weddings at my church), but about a month ago I said I'd do it for this wedding yesterday. The bride and groom (B&G) are not members of my church, and are both recent immigrants from Congo. No problem; the ceremony was a traditional one, that I am familiar with.

However.......

I have come to understand that the concept of time is somewhat, ahem, different in Africa than here in the States. By that I mean that NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING got off on time. The rehearsal Friday night: they arrived an HOUR late. The wedding yesterday: they arrived an HOUR late. WTF?!?!?!?! Never mind how unbelievably RUDE this is to moi and the others involved in the ceremony - what about their guests?! Oh, but here's the kicker - even though they started an hour late, THERE WERE STILL GUESTS ARRIVING AFTER THE WEDDING STARTED!!! This is a cultural weirdness that I just don't understand. When you say you're going to do something at a certain time, do it then. Especially your own wedding, for crikey's sake. And there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it.... we just had to wait around until they arrived, watching our labor day holiday leak away from us.

I don't think I'll be coordinating any weddings anytime soon. I should just stick to playing at them. At least then I get paid if things run overtime.