January Rain Day

     Today started out foggy and wet. For nearly an hour there was unusual January thunder and lightning. I happened to be inside a tall building with big windows during that time and was treated to a wonderful view of the lightning show against the late morning storm-darkened sky. A lightning show is fabulous to watch as long as you are safely inside. Being dry instead of rain-soaked is also a nice feature, and today that was a challenge! The rain poured for hours and even blew sideways a bit. I couldn't help dreaming of some fun pink puddle duck boots and a cute pink paisley umbrella.  I managed to accomplish all my errands and attend all appointments for the day, then the rain stopped after I was done.

     Tomorrow A. has her 21st birthday. She has no classes but is on the schedule at work. I will assemble a decorated birthday table for her to come home to. Instead of a cake, this year the sweet treat will include her favorite tiramisu and cannoli desserts.

What have I done?

• The 2 Etsy shops are filling back up with curiosities, and lots more on stand-by to be listed soon. Stop in and peek around a bit. You can find the links in the right margin.
• Managed to shred lots of computer desk/file cabinet paperwork for January clean-out. Feels freeing!
• My fingers and toes are nicely polished red. Would be nice to have a sports car that same shade of red!

What do I need to do?

• Do some last minute birthday prep and wrapping.
• Continue purging unnecessary paperwork.
• Tackle my closet and organize it the way I have it in my mind.

What do I want to do?

• Have my camera in my hand more frequently so I can capture more every day magic.
• Play among the fabric in my sewing room.
• Frame some favorite family snapshots.

on to new partying

The new year is here and the celebrating is done for the holidays... but at our house the partying continues with A.'s birthday. She will be 17. I wish I could have stayed eternally age 17.

I love this image above. It speaks to me somehow. I enjoy vintage images-- and black and white is special in photos like it was in television. I think kids now miss out a lot on using imagination. They don't need to. They don't have time to.

Watch an old movie or TV show on DVD and see how your brain turns the images into color without even trying.... that's why we were so good at using imagination. We also played outside EVERY day-- it was not an event, it was life. Playing outside meant using your imagination. The things we did and played with rarely used batteries, and never used electricity. It was all powered by imagination, an endless power supply!!

What have I finished?

• sorted more books(fiction and non-fiction) and magazines to send other places to live
• moved the TV to a new location within the family room-- it seems to be a hit with everyone
• reorganizing the pantry, and finding I am shopping even more carefully than ever before

What do I need to do?

• find the top of my desk, it is suffocating under paperwork
• use the ham bone for a batch of homemade bean soup-- I never know how to make just a small pot of soup
• make some apple crisp to use up the apples before they go bad

What do I want to do?

• paint my lamps in my bedroom to be gloss black, the lampshades will be perfect
• have lunch with a friend I have not seen in 10 years or more, it may be soon if we can mesh schedules
• hang a big mirror in a spot I have been plotting out

clock as an enemy

Lately the clock has been my enemy. It ticks much too quickly each day. I need more tick tocks in an hour and in a day to do everything. Most people say that means things are simply over scheduled.

Simplify.

I like that word.

I have yet to master it.

People say to wait until you have grown kids. Then you have too much time and you wonder what you will do with all your time. Problem is, by the time my kids are all grown I will be too old to care. I thought having kids later instead of sooner was smart. It was smart for when I was younger. When I am older, not so much!

So here are some activities and thoughts that have been occupying my tick tocks of life.

1. We all survived a 12 week stretch of high school football season, which at our house means marching band season for my 14 year old daughter. Before that, we all lived to tell about 4 weeks of marching band camp. I have to say it went by super quick overall, and I actually had lots of fun. Wish I could have been at 2 places at once so I could have gotten all the other things done while also sitting in the bleachers being very proud and giving support. I somehow found the tick tock time to sew a fleece backed school colors patchwork quilt to use at the games. It will be an investment in the 3 more years of bleacher sitting that are in my future. I'll hint of frustration and let you stew about the stories of camera batteries that went dead at just the worst times or when the battery was charged all day long----- but left at home!! Maybe I can master the battery thing now that we are on to Symphonic Band for the rest of the year.

2. My oldest daughter E. (18) who has OCD and Asperger's at the high functioning end of the Autism spectrum is now a paid employee at 2 (yep, two!) places. It all happened in a short 3 week time period, after months and months of filling out piles of applications. I was so worried that she would not find a niche in the working world of people who actually get a paycheck (she has infinite volunteer hours under her belt). Let me be more specific--I knew she could but I was worried the world would not think so. Besides bursting with a universe size feeling of pride, I also now have added responsibility. *tick tock* Essentially it is like I am the one with 2 paying jobs (on top of my own paying job which can flex anywhere from 25-50 hours a week, and on call 24/7 assisting an elderly relative with Parkinson's and dementia). I am the transportation for my daughter. There's that need for cloning myself, again. Oh, and my wonderful reliable almost 15 year old car is still chugging along and has stopped counting how many trillions of times it has gone in and out of the driveway!

3. I am trying to pack away the Halloween decor and look forward to dragging out the Thanksgiving decor and on to Christmas. Here is how it goes at my house. The kids want it out. They dig and randomly succeed in making a mess of the decor by pulling favorites from the storage tubs. The rest just sits until mom takes over to do the rest. Thus, this is the year I am paring down and saving ONLY the favorites to be packed away for future seasons. The rest just takes up space -- and time! Here's a secret revealed=We have not had a Christmas tree in the house for about 4 years now. I was just on strike and didn't want to repeat the many years before when the kids wanted it ALL dragged out. They dug through stuff making a jumble of red, green and metallic but nothing really got accomplished as far as decorating the tree...and don't even get me started on the way everyone disappears when it comes time to take it all down and pack it away!! Soooo...I just didn't do a tree. It was guilt ridden tick tock time for a while but liberating too. The other day I announced casually that I want to have a Christmas tree. My daughter said, "Who are you and where is MY mother?" Stay tuned for the tick tock result of that promise on my part. Maybe my clone can do it for me. Oh, that's right, I don't have one. I need to sign up for a text alert to know when that is available....only I don't text. *Geeez*

4. I am threatening to pack away all the glass dishes, plates, bowls and cups and buy the cheapest paper products I can get my hands on. Maybe we'll get at least a month's worth supply of tick tock time saving on washing dishes. Sorry I won't be very "green" about saving trees and all, but it could be looked at it like this= I would be saving my septic tank/leach field from all the dish soap that is usually going into it in the "gray water" and I could put the used paper products on my compost pile to rot and be tilled into feeding my Victory Garden next summer. That's green. Now if I could just get my clone to do the weeding while I spend my tick tock time transporting a daughter who may, by then, be earning more than me because I am not at my job because I am using my tick tock time taking her or picking her up from her jobs in a, by then, full 15 years old car.

But...I may end up with even more pride in my pay employed daughter, some great photo memories of my musical daughter, less holiday storage tubs overall, free of dishes to be washed, a healthy organically grown garden, and maybe some extra tick tock minutes added to this old mother's days.

I hope my clone has a nice personality.

What's in a name? Find out at the end of the story...

A has been sewing. The torch has been passed. My fabrics and sewing room supplies are finally getting some attention and love after sitting dormant for far too long. I do not have time to do all the projects that swirl in my (creative?) mind. It warms my heart to see her doing what I understand. Sew. She was at my side all the while I was sewing for my own business when she was a tot. Did she pick up the skill by association?

Although I have enough fabric in this house to circle the world, A wanted some specific polka dot fabric and so we went to get more fabric. More. Oh well, it was a good cause. She picked out this multi-colored polka dotty fabric with a brown background. Back when we redid her room (when she packed away all her little girl treasures in an effort to have a more teen looking lair), she wanted this kind of fabric for decor purposes and we could not find it anywhere. Maybe she is a girl who is ahead of the trends.

She also picked this fun fabric for the lining. Lining? I thought she was going to just make a simple tote. Silly me. I told her the lining choice is an example of "inside humor"!! Bad pun, I know. It is hard to tell from the first photo but one of the polka dot colors is the same blue as the lining. She drew it all out on paper and then started measuring and cutting. That's my girl. Who needs a stinkin' store bought pattern anyway?! She made it with gusset sides and bottom and even put interfacing in between the layers for stiffness.

Now she carries it to school instead of a back pack. Last night she also sewed a small drawstring back pack to carry her gym clothes in so she does not have to go all the way back to her locker (at the other end of the building) because her class just before gym is right next to the gym. The fabric for that one is another different kind of polka dots.

Do you think there is a business in her future??

The funniest part of all of this ties in to me giving A  my Montgomery Ward sewing machine (I have other machines too from my sewing business which ended when she was a pre-schooler). It was my first real grown-up purchase...well after my 10 speed blue bike I bought with babysitting money and the stereo (with ultra modern 8-track player) I bought with my first 20 or so paychecks working about 6 hours a week. I was so proud of it, the store name prominently displayed on a small metal plate on the front. I kept it so clean and shiny that I am sure I did everything short of waxing it like a male waxing a first sports car.

This is how you know you're old= A said, "What the heck is Montgomery Ward anyway?"

Pride!... and maybe sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree

I think you may want to skip this post.
Skip this if you are annoyed by a mother proud of her daughter's achievements.


At the end of the school year I attended an award ceremony for all the 8th grade students.

I was anxiously awaiting the name of my daughter to be called and since we are in the last part of the alphabet it took some patience.

I clapped hard and loudly for each of the other parents' students as their names were called, so much so that my hands actually began to hurt.
But that is what you do because you are truly proud of other parents' students, you show support for your child's classmates.

Then they called my A's name...
7 awards.
Seven.


I was thrilled beyond words, for all her hard work and dedication had paid off.
She is a kid who never has to be told to do her homework.
Never has to be asked, "Do you have homework?" or "Have you started/finished your homework?"


But then they announced that there would be an additional award presented to several students.
About 220 are in the 8th grade class, and names of about 6 students were called out to receive a Presidential Academic Excellence Award.
A's name was at the end of the list- last part of the alphabet, remember.
She kept an A, 4.0 grade point average in all classes for 3 years + a rating of excelled or advanced in all state testing.

Some days you have these snippets of sheer joy that give you a little shiver that will never leave you, memories frozen in time.
That was what happened to me.
I was over the moon with pride and was rendered speechless as all the parents around me clapped to the point of their hands beginning to hurt and congratulated me on A's achievement.

As for the old "apple tree" saying...I was a hard working B, C, and sometimes an occasional A student.

As for my husband, he jokes that his grade cards have all disappeared for a good reason.

Maybe sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree.

So what's new?

1. I have been running my 3 kids here and there, and too much everywhere. Can that gas gauge needle be right?

2. N. got a nasty glass shard stuck in his foot and had to have it removed by his "to the rescue always" firefighter uncle. He's fine, and now has a story to tell!

3. I have been trying to keep my head up and stay positive about life and what it is handing me, in general. I have been incredibly tired and am in need of a recharge of sorts. Or at least a massage.

4. A project I have been a part of in publishing a small quantity of books for a friend's mom is getting nearer to the end. I have enjoyed the process.

5. I have 100 Paper Posies to make and send south to Georgia for a special order. A deadline to meet. Tick. Tick. Tick.

6. The clip art graphic above has absolutely nothing to do with this post, I just think it's incredibly fun.*smile*


7. I have been having repairs done almost monthly on my (surprisingly low mileage) 14 year old mom-mobile. It has to last another 10 years. Has to!

8. A random rambling post is more newsy than no post, certainly, but I have not had time nor energy to create a real post in a long while it seems. Sorry. Well, not really. I am working on the guilt of guilt. Hmm.

9. N. won second place trophy for Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby for speed and second place ribbon for car design. He competed in a group of 12 boys. I was so very proud I spontaneously cried tears streaming down my face and wiped away the tears so no one in the crowd would see.

10. A. will be able to see better soon. The new glasses are being made. It's horrible how expensive it is for something basic like your child being able to see. Her eyes declined by 5 levels since last year. ( I do not understand optometry, but I knew her eyes were LOTS WORSE!)

11. I had a yummy meal out last night with my friend. It was a treat for her birthday . We used a coupon due to expire in another day. I suspect so did all the other 800 people who were seated or waiting to be seating.

12. I am going to put on some pajamas now and crawl under my quilt. Maybe I will be able to read a chapter or two more of the Paul Shaffer or Cloris Leachman autobiographies I have been trying to find time to read.  I enjoy autobiographies. Don't tell anyone, but I sometimes even enjoy listening to talk radio when I am in the car alone. On that RARE occasion I AM alone!

my apparent cake curse

Flamingos and snowflakes?

Man, those northern-most Ohio people

are a little cuckoo!

I know that's what you must be thinking.

A. has always fancied flamingos since she was a toddler. It's one of those mysteries of parenthood, trying to decide where these attractions come from that your kids latch on to. We obviously have no live flamingos in Ohio, not even at our zoo! A. even collects flamingo Christmas ornaments.

I am endlessly amazed by how many different flamingo Christmas ornaments there are out in the world. Her attraction to these pink birds with backwards knees is even funnier because she likes to often pair them with her birthday which is in January. In OHIO!

Two days before her birthday this last week, A. made this cake. She likes to bake. I do not. Sorry, I just don't. I teased that she was baking herself a birthday cake. I half teased.
The night before her birthday as we were running around in the Mom taxi from this stop to that activity and all around town, I said we would stop at the local small grocery that has a nice bakery and A. could pick out any cake she wanted. She chose one with nice flowers and lots of pink. Surprise, surprise. Gee, I think that would go nicely with a flamingo or 2.

Silly Mom suggested that we make it more personal (and what else says "personal" than a store bought cake chosen from the slim selection on hand at 7:00 pm, bought in haste between scurrying around town, the night before a birthday?) by asking at the bakery counter if they could write her name in icing under the plastic pink "Happy Birthday" trinket.


Here is where my birthday cake curse started to take shape. I had this old feeling before, with N's last store bought "personal" cake, last August (from a different store).

We asked two very fine friendly looking young gentlemen behind the bakery/deli counter if they could simply add the name to this cake to make it complete. "It is her 14th birthday tomorrow!", I added cheerfully. The immediate invisible tension in the air made me wonder if A. wanted to shrink behind the nearby endcap display of toilet tissue to escape her hopelessly embarrassing Mom! Can you imagine? Honestly!

One young man responded truthfully, "I can't do that. I don't do that."

The other young man chimed in quickly, "I can do it. I have done it lots of times. See, the bakery girls leave at 3:30 for the day and then it's just us. We are meat cutters."

Oh dear, this is where I should have cut bait and ran to the checkout line with the cake as is, good 'nuf! But no! I let it all play out like some Saturday Night Live skit, in the presence of my extremely embarrassed almost 14 year old daughter.

The "meat cutter" says, "How about pink like the flowers?"

I respond, "Yes, perfect!" I am enthusiastically nodding my head and so is A. This could turn out just fine after all. Have a little faith, would ya!

After too much time has elapsed he proudly emerges from behind the scenes of the bakery/deli department and presents A. with the cake, again all enclosed in it's clear plastic clam shell domed lid. As he transfers it from his hands to hers he says,

~~[get ready, brace yourself]~~

"There. I did pink AND BLUE. BLUE like your coat!!!!"

We gazed at the top of the cake and our faces fell into a strange expression as we studied the name written first in pink and then over-written in blue.

WHAT?????????????????

There is no BLUE ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE else on that cake. Does he want her to wear her BLUE coat while she is blowing out her candles???????????????????

In his defense he did give me a HUGE hint of events to come when I handed over the very "personal" cake to him to alter. Remember? He did say, "We are meat cutters."

I only have myself to blame.

I should just bake. Simple. Done. I should JUST BAKE!

Here is why I have a store bought cake curse cast upon me from some karma devil. This has happened before. Before, I tell ya!

Last August, the night before N's 9th birthday I found time to run to a different store in our town to chose a "personal" cake for my one and only son. I had plenty of time. The store wasn't closing for another 20 minutes, after all. This will work.

I scanned the case of cakes waiting to be taken home to various parties by Mom's who dearly love their offspring, but apparently not enough to bake for them on their one day each year which bonds a Mother and child.

No no! Not one masculine looking cake of any size shape or flavor. Nothing without flowers. Nothing!

I explained in detail my dilemma--I inquired of the very nice looking friendly young man (with the hair net over his beard) if he could possibly write "Happy Birthday N." in icing on the top of any of these cakes and I could scrape off the flowers when I get home and smooth out the frosting. I was sure I could handle THAT! Come on, I'm not a total loser. I could even add a Hot Wheels monster truck or a macho guy action figure or something to "guy it up".

Mr. hair-netted-beard-man said yes, and so I eenie meanie minie moe'd one of the cakes and handed it off to him.

I had faith. He could do this. I could come through with a cake for N. that would be acceptable.

Well, after way too much time had elapsed (was he multi-tasking back there and sweeping up the floor? After all, it was getting closer to closing time) he emerged from behind the scenes clutching the cake in his proud little hands, handing it to me just as the voice that comes from the ceiling speakers announced, "Please take all your final selections to the check out lines as the store will close in 5 minutes."

I looked at the cake and my expression melted quicker than ice cream in August. Yes, he had skillfully written "Happy Birthday N."
....right next to the NEW BLUE FLOWERS he had painstakingly created in the same spot where he had scraped off the purple flowers.
UGGGH!!!!
Cake curse. Bad cake karma.
At least I was still N's hero because he was surprised by a new (nearly new hand me down) shiny red bike for his birthday.

Happy birthday A., my love. Your own flamingo cake was a masterpiece.
And besides, you have decided to have your party with friends in February. Maybe I have learned my lesson on store bought altered creations, and will bake for you.
Stay tuned for that one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pearls of wisdom

(A. dressed in the "cool"

junior high school fashion, or so I am told!

Converse sneakers and striped knee socks!)

Do you ever throw little pearls of wisdom in the direction of your kids? I tossed some little lustrous ideas towards my A. in the car on the way home last night from the library.

It's her 14th birthday.

How can that be even possible that 14 years have passed? When she was born, it was 2 1/2 days of labor, ending with an emergency c-sec., to meet a sweet almost 10 pound baby...Oh, and a horrible ice storm.

Every year since then there has been a snow storm or ice storm either on the day of or the day before or after her birthday. Not this year. Nope. For the first time -as they would say on Mary Poppins- the winds are changing. I am not really talking about a weather report. It is more symbolic than that.

This year she is having even more fun with school and her group of friends and all their activities than ever before. But I feel the winds are changing. She is no longer a little kid, she is a smart young woman.

So here is how the pearls of wisdom conversation went in the car last night:

__________________________________

Mom: A., you will find that after 14, the time will start to go by faster now. I don't know why it does, but it does. Before you know it you will be 16 and then 18!

A.: And then 20 and then 50?????!!

Mom: No, it seems to slow down for a while in your twenties and thirties....But then yeah, it does speed up again. But I mean the time between 14 and 18 seems to really speed right by.

A.: **silence**

Mom: You are not a little kid anymore. You are a young woman. It is the best time in your life because you get to have more responsibilities than you do as little kid but you don't HAVE TO have the crappy responsibilities of being an adult.

my boy N., age 9 1/2 -annoyed voice comes from the back seat of the car: Yes she IS still a little kid!!!

Mom: No she isn't. Not anymore.

my boy N.: **silence**

Mom: All I'm telling you is make sure to have lots of fun in these next few years while you are 14, 15, 16, and 17. You'll find you spend the whole rest of your adult life wishing you could be those ages again!

A.: But I still have to do Algebra homework.

____________________________________

As a Mom, all you can do is throw those pearls in their general direction. What they do with them is their part.

**sigh**

Stay tuned for some birthday photos to come.

a concert and quizes

I have yet to figure out how to set my camera for A's concert snapshots. For the last three years, as she has played her French horn, I have had the same ordeal!

First of all, one of the problems is that my camera wants to focus on the heads in front of me in the frame of the lens! Then, the lighting is odd due to the high ceiling and I can't figure out which setting to use, they all seem to be WRONG! Anyway, I am still documenting the moments and the event, right? -Right?- c'mon, help me feel a little less bad here about the photos being so...well... crappy!



After the concert, the 3 silly friends all went out for ice cream. J plays percussion, M plays flute and A, French horn.


These friends have been together since elementary school. They are all three smarties, or nerds, as they like to be called. They are in G.A.T.E. (gifted and talented education).

The picture above and below of A and J were taken at the party for the last Quiz Bowl match. The team came in tied for first place for the district, winning 6 of 7 matches. I loved going to these Quiz Bowl matches for A's second year on the team. Questions are read and you have to compete to buzz in against 5 people on the opposing team along with 4 other fellow team mates!!! The matches last about an hour and 100-150 questions can be presented. It is pretty fast paced. Math questions have a limit of 20 seconds in which to answer, the same as general questions. Talk about making a parent feel down right dumb!! I am endlessly amazed at the knowledge of all the 12 and 13 year olds on the team.

The coach gave the kids bags of candy tied with ribbon at the party. "Smarties" and "Nerds" because they are and "Dum Dum" lollipops and "Airheads" taffy because they aren't!! See, even the coach is a smarty!!

Now if I could just get any one of these smarties to teach this dum-dum how to set her camera for a decent concert photo of her daughter!!!!

E's best turkey yet

E. has been preparing and cooking our turkey each year for our Thanksgiving feast for many years now. It is usually a big one so we have plenty for turkey rice soup and turkey sandwiches and turkey and noodles, and... etc. This year it was about 21 pounds.

She needed lots of supervision when she started out all those years ago - around age 9. Now she needs minimal direction in the process. At age 17 she has made the best turkey yet! It was beautiful to see and deliciously moist and tasty too.

She makes the stuffing from scratch by chopping up the ingredients and adds expected things like carrots, onions, seasonings, celery... but she adds other things too to make it yummy and rather unexpected. This year it was raisins, dates and apples. Oh, and the celery was from her own garden!

E. is my child who asks, "How long do I need to microwave this leftover (fill in the blank)?"

I reply, "Until it's warm enough!" With Asperger's she seems to "miss" on some of the most common sense things, yet she "hits" when it comes to such unusual facts or trivia that most people would not know. She can ramble on and on about all kinds of science things like she has a college degree, but she cannot remember how to turn on the washing machine even though she has been shown many times.

It is a sense of pride and ownership that she does our turkey and stuffing each year. She truly is making strides in many aspects of her life, and I am always proud of her. She has a great group of friends around her and she is facing the world one day at a time. Some days are easier than others, yet who among us can deny that is true in our own lives?

N. (age 9) and A. (age 13) set the table and A. made her famous deviled eggs. When N. was little he used to think they were called doubled eggs! A. made scrumptious cinnamon chunky applesauce for the first time. We all loved it.
She also was a big help cutting up all the potatoes and sweet potatoes after I peeled them all.

We had my friend A's parents over for dinner. She and I have been best friends since age 5, she lives in Washington state and her parents still live right around the corner from us.
We have meshed the two families together as one.

A blessing.

teenage invasion

I am one of those moms that loves to have the kids (teenagers) gather at my house. That's what happened again over the weekend. Oh the roller coaster ride that is daily mom-to-teens life!

So this was the scene when the old gang was all back together again. Forget what you have heard about baby proofing a room, that's easy. The room that is teenager proofed is much more thought-filled on the part of a mom. You learn these things after the pop is spilled a few times. I wouldn't have it any other way though as I love the noise and laughter that comes with this group. First up was playing Rock Band. Loud. Is there any other way? It is fun to see them sing and play the songs from my teen age years which this Rock Band thing has made cool again! If not for that the teens would say, "Oh that old song. YUK!" But instead "my music" is on their good music list.


Amazingly A. even managed to get some reading time in, and Cali the cat and Jewel the bird looked on as the noise continued. Notice the covers on the furniture which were still trying to come off and have potential pop spill area revealed.

Throughout the night they ate and ate and ate. This goes along with teens and noise. I think teens have a missing switch which tells a brain and stomach "you are full". They went through 3 bags of pizza rolls, most of a 12 pack of pop, chips and salsa, snack mix, chips and a box of cream puffs. So good that the kids always show up with food to share. They have smart moms!! Actually they brought more food than that, and they would have easily eaten it all if it had just been put in front of them! It will be saved for some party to come soon at whichever house they gather. There are plenty of gatherings when food makes things more fun.

N. came home from a day at Scout camp and was thrilled the whole gang was there and stuff was in full swing.  N. loves to hang out with the teens --and what 9 year old little brother wouldn't? Luckily the teens happily allow him to hang out with them. No problem.

After Rock Band time was done it was time to bring out the karaoke machine and everyone got super silly!! And did I mention the noise level? Loud!

Friends hamming it up with the microphone.

Once again, a modern invention makes the old songs from my time seem cool!

It cracks me up when the teens think a song is new when it is used in a current movie or is done by a new artist as a remake. I always have to be a lame parent and say, "Hey that is actually from the 1970s and I was in (fill in the blank) grade in school during those years, and my friends were...Blah blah blah..."

Like I said- lame parent.

The singing continued until about 10:00 and then they settled in for some movie time.

And more food.

The gang all left about midnight and I sent the leftover and unopened food and pop back home with them, along with their imported entertainment devices (karaoke and Rock Band). I love that they have so much fun, and how lucky am I that all I have to provide is the home (with covered furniture) and the electricity (for all the loudness)!!

I hope they come back again next weekend. 

Just hanging out together

My A.

and her old kitty named Cali

(short for Calico)

sketch

A. (age 13, 8th grade) sits at the computer for awhile almost every day to instant message with friends. Sometimes the group is 5 or 6 or 7 people at once. Most of the group is in GATE (gifted and talented education) with her at school. They like to quiz each other on facts and trivia, you know- nerd stuff. A. prides herself on being a nerd. She is also quite the social butterfly! The talk last night was focused on one of the boys who will be bussed from the junior high to the high school for part of the day to take honors geometry classes!! YIKES!! That boy is going places, figuratively and literally!!
Today is the second day back to school for A. I have to take pause when I see her bop out the door, as wasn't it only just yesterday I was in 8th grade in that same school??? Sometimes I look in the mirror and think, "Who is this middle 40's person looking back at me? I feel so young in my mind." I never was part of a group in school like A. I was never a nerd or a social or any other titled group for that matter. I was a swimmer and a dancer and there was no group name for that.
Well anyway, one day while she was instant messaging and typing at lightning speed (oops, I mean "keyboarding" as I am told they do not call it typing anymore! That's my middle 40's language coming out.) she was also sketching at the same time. Doing her own self portrait from a photo she snapped of herself.
Don't your own kids amaze you all the time?? Mine do.

toot the horn!

Please skip this post if you are rolling your eyes about a Mother being proud of her child.

I am announcing the list of awards that A (age 13, 7th grade) received at an assembly the last Friday of school .

1. Advanced Math

2. GATE (Gifted And Talented Education)

3. Language Arts

4. Science

5. Social Studies

6. Art

7. Band (French Horn)

8. Phys-Ed

All the above classes held a 93% or higher grade throughout the entire year

9. Year Book Staff Photographer

10. A+ Mentor (tutoring other students)

11. Quiz Bowl Team

12. Perfect Attendance Record

N, age 8 1/2 going into the 3rd grade, will be tested for 2 hours on Monday to qualify for the GATE program also. I will keep you posted.

A has been in the GATE program since early elementary school.

A's last concert

A performed in her last 7th grade concert last week. She looked so grown up to me. Oh how much she has changed since 6th grade!!

She really enjoys school and says she will hate to leave junior high after next school year. She is looking forward to 8th grade but is sad to have this year come to an end. She has made so many great friends this past year. I remember that feeling of "What if my friends don't have the same classes as me next year?"
A will receive her awards for the school year in a special ceremony this coming Friday. You can bet I will post about that!!! You won't mind a little proud parent bragging, will you, as I throw my shoulders back and toot the horn?~how do you like that pun to go with these photos?

A is definitely her own person but I do see a lot of myself at that age in her. Her expressions (both facial and narrative) and likes and dislikes. It is fun and kind of strange at the same time to see yourself in your child isn't it?! One day she came out of her room wearing her hair a certain way with MY "old" (haha) hair clips. She plopped down on the couch and I just stared at her. Once I could collect my words to make them come out of my mouth I told her that it was scary how I wore my hair that same way with those very hair clips at the same age!
[Insert the Twilight Zone theme music here!]

spies among us (a re-post of an earlier story)

I know, you're thinking, "Why is Amy showing me some boring tri-fold board kid project? Borrrrrringggg!"
Well, I have never really been a die hard James Bond fan or anything but I must admit this project that my A did on the subject of ESPIONAGE was kinda cool. I know, now you're saying, "Amy, NO ONE says cool anymore!!" Well it is kinda cool. I learned some new stuff from my 7th grader.

You can click on these pics (if you so choose) to make them bigger so you can read.

A spent 2 months of research on this project which was celebrated at the GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) Independent Study Fair. I have written on this blog before that A's real parents must be searching frantically for her since she was obviously switched for our real baby in that operating room during my c-sec 13 years ago....  I joke about this endlessly.

A's first love, when it comes to casual research, is space and space exploration, etc.

And who among us does not like to pick up a 600 page book chocked full of details and facts about NASA and Mars and such for a little light reading. LOL! Too bad though, that other students in other classes had had that subject approved for their research project before it was A's turn to propose her research subject to the GATE teacher.

So. any who...A's second love for casual research is ESPIONAGE! And thus began her 2 month quest for all things perfect to include in a report and a tri-fold board presentation for the GATE Independent Study Fair.

When A went with us to Washington D.C. last summer, one of the places we went was the International Spy Museum. Oh if we could have only spent 2 days -or a week- there, A would have been even more in heaven!! Looking back, I agree that we needed more time to see and read everything. You're never too old to learn and I enjoy packing a few extra tid bits into my overloaded Mommy brain.

So the night of the Fair arrived and I tried to talk A into wearing her t-shirt she has that was purchased at the Spy Museum. She just poo-pooed Mom's idea. Ok. Fine. Whatever. We got to the school and she announced that she had forgotten something. I asked if she wanted me to run home to retrieve it. No. Then she proclaimed that she had also forgotten something else. Ok, you guessed it. I went home. But what A didn't know was that Mom had forgotten her CAMERA!!!

Back at the school with all the needed items in hand, I found the huge room full of guests to the Fair all milling about. A already had a gaggle of admirers and nerdy friends- as her little brother N likes to call them- gathered around her tri-fold board.

Mom had to go and spoil everything and start taking photos. Ughh! "Mommmm!", was the under the breath wail. Well it was her fault if you think about it....if she hadn't forgotten 2 items at home I probably wouldn't have remembered that I had forgotten the camera!

Are you still with me reading all this long long post? If you are, I will throw in some funnies along the way to (hopefully)keep your interest peaked.

That's A in the orange shirt. She just got glasses last fall. And gosh did she need them! I was a bad Mom for not believing her when she said she needed them. I wear my "Bad Mom of the Year" award just about every year. She now looks like all her fellow GATE students. On the QUIZ BOWL team she and all the others looked like it was part of their uniform to wear glasses. Remember the old saying?,"Do these glasses make me look smart?" Maybe I would feel smarter if I got some glasses.

A has a lot of boys that are friends from all through her GATE school years. She feels so comfortable around them since they have grown up together, solving the problems of the world together one school day at a time. LOL! Above, is just one of those boys. Notice=glasses!!

Among A's exhibit items were the cipher stick and cipher scroll that she made- in photo above on the table- fashioned after the examples from history's real spies that she saw at the Spy Museum. They are kinda cool (there's that word -cool- again which shows my old age). Here's how they work: you wrap a long strip of paper or cloth around a stick/ pole/tube and write on it. Then the receiver knows (because it is predetermined between the parties) what size stick/pole/tube to wrap it around to make the seemingly scrambled letters spell out a secret message. These strips of paper or fabric were secretly smuggled from sender to receiver, often crumpled up inside something.

The girl with the pony tail next to A is one of her best friends and they email and IM each other for hours every day after school. 

After taking what A deemed "enough photos", I retreated to the shadows to prevent embarrassing the 13 year old while she held court for the rest of the hour and a half of the Fair..'cuz you know a Mom hanging around can be really embarrassing!!

It's always funny how you can get strange expressions on people's faces when you snap a photo of a crowd. People with their eyes closed or with their mouth open mid-sentence. Or this person (click here) who was just about mining for gold with some drum sticks!! (If you did click back there in that last sentence, did you notice that A happened to have on the same orange shirt? The tragedy of not having a huge enough wardrobe to wear something once and then throw it away!!!)

Anyway, back to this photo...the boy in the center in red shirt is another of the boys that A has grown up with in GATE. Notice=glasses!!!

A brought a box with a lock from home that we bought at the dollar store. It is one that she and her siblings have always had fun with trying to pick the little poorly made cheesy lock. (Am I raising a gang of future cat burglars?) She brought some hair pins and invited or challenged the crowd gathered at her exhibit to try to pick the lock.

N was glad when it was all over with and he could go home and eat. An 8 year old boy needs to eat frequently or someone is bound to find their arm has been nibbled on as a source of nourishment!!!! Besides....he had had enough of all his sister's NERDY friends!! NERDS RULE!

concert

Here is A playing her French Horn in the most recent school concert . She plays well, enjoys it and has played for 2 years. She is proud to say she was chosen as the "1st chair French Horn player". The catch is...she has always been the ONLY French Horn player!!! I'm glad she wasn't chosen as the "2nd chair player"! She is my straight A student (even in band class) and must have been switched at birth because my husband and I were not straight A students!!!! She is a middle child overachiever. She wants to get the award this year for perfect attendance to go along with her honor roll awards and has told me on more than one occasion that she will go to school every day even if she is dead! That's my A!



Take a look at the kid below with the drum sticks. I didn't even realize when I took the picture that he was doing that!!!! Too funny! This was during the time A's grade waited for their turn to take center stage and play their songs.