Piano Recital

Getting Back to Normal

But not quite there.... Then again, I wonder if we'll ever be considered normal around here.

It was a busy week. I spent the week doing more yoga than I've done in a very long time, and as a result am without much pain in my legs at all (yay!)

It was a pretty busy week, for most everyone. I'm pretty sure it started out normally enough -- school, preschool, errands, library (storytime is over, though), but on Thursday things got interesting. Megan missed most of the day to go to band festival (they got I's for those who remember/care about those sorts of things) and then, afterward, got to hang out at the mall (yes, during school hours) with the band. There were tales of boys following the girls around (what else do boys do at the mall?), many clothes tried on, discussions of "man chairs" and the band getting kicked out of the mall because percussionists were, well, percussionists. It made for a fun day. Caitlyn got to go to the zoo with the 4th and 5th grades for earth day. It was a fun day at the zoo, made more fun when it started downpouring. (Can that be a verb? Oh, well.)

Thankfully, her class had managed to make it into an indoor exhibit before the rain came, so she was mostly spared getting wet. I'm sure Alison and Kristen did something exciting, because Friday morning, Alison asked if anything "exciting" was going to happen again, or if it was just "boring old school."

Friday (boring old school), I took Kristen to the pool again. I don't know why I haven't been doing this all winter! It's such a great way to spend a (boring) Friday afternoon. That, and I cleaned the house to excuse everyone from chores on Saturday because it was pretty busy. I discovered that Kristen is 1) actually a really good floor "wopper" and 2) actually likes mopping the floor. Dangit, why can't everyone maintain the level of enthusiasm that a four year old has for chores? Then Friday night, Megan babysat while Russell and I went to a swanky faculty/staff/administration reception at Friends. Really good food and some interesting conversation, followed up by my favorite concert of the year: the Singing Quakers (yes, that's the choir's real name) Symphony of Spring, where they do numbers from Musicals. Not all of the numbers were equally good, but enough were fun and enjoyable that it was totally worth going. (And the price, which was free. :-)

Today's been good so far. Russell spoke in church, and did a fine job. Though they had our friend Mike speak, which made for a very, um, intellectual meeting. (Mike's a professor, too.) Amazingly, we didn't go overtime. :-D I hung out in Primary for the second week (I'll miss it next week), and at dinner we got to talking about good movie lines, which led to us talking about The Princess Bride, and so the girls decided we needed to watch it as a family and quote along. So, that's what I'm going to go do.

If It Can Be Climbed, She Will

This tree

has been in our front yard for three and a half years. No one has even thought about climbing it. Or, so I thought.

Last week, Megan decided that it really needed to be climbed, though. And proceeded to do so.



Then again, she's always been part monkey.

10 Things I/We Learned

1. It's good to have friends. Monday, we went swimming and Megan invited her friends Shayla and Brooke. They had a grand time, as did we all. Monday, also, playgroup was cancelled, but a friend of ours invited us to the park. We stayed for a good two hours talking and playing. Tons of fun. We also saw a lot of the neighbor kids -- Chase, Gunner and Layla -- which made Alison very happy. That is, until Russell let them all go down to the bridge by themselves, which got Layla into trouble with her dad. Oops.

2. It's good to practice. When one does so, one's piano lessons go much better than when one doesn't. Just so you know.

3. I am not as young as I used to be. My knee (from last week) was feeling better on Monday and Tuesday, and I thought, Wednesday morning, that I'd try a class at the Y. It was a circuit class, and I made it through the running ok; it was a bit sore, but nothing terrible. Then, I attempted to skip. A step, a hop, a very audible pop and instant pain. Limped out, got Kristen, drove home (ouch; braking, interestingly enough hurt more than accelerating) and put some heat/ice on it. And called the doctor.

4. Sometimes, going to the doctor is worth the $20. If only to find out what's going on. Turns out, thankfully, it's not my knee. I've just pulled the lower hamstring really really badly. She ordered me off of it, to take ibuprofen for the pain, and alternate ice and heat for a couple of days and then baby it for a few weeks. And to keep an eye on it, just so it doesn't become a knee injury.

5. Staying off of said leg is easier said than done. Partially because I'm a mom, and I actually do stuff. But also because staying still is just not in my nature. I have to do stuff. Which means, as soon as I feel a tiny bit better, I do something like, oh, spring clean the kitchen. See number 3 for the results of that.

6. The way to feel good about the amount you get done is by lowering your expectations of what needs to get done. Russell reorganized the bookshelves and cleaned under the couch downstairs yesterday. It was a good day.

7. The girls are wonderfully responsible children. Megan picked Alison and Caitlyn up from school on Thursday, made dinner on Wednesday and Thursday, and helped out extra around the house. Caitlyn and Alison fought less than usual for a couple of days and entertained Kristen, who was wonderfully understanding about mommy not being able to play hide-n-seek.

8. Nature is boring when you have a bad attitude. The girl scouts went on a nature walk and my group -- Caitlyn, Alison and a couple of other girls -- started complaining immediately. Eventually, I lost my patience with them, and we just walked around being grumpy for a while. But, amazingly, after they stopped bickering, things got interesting. We saw some wicked cool trees -- honey locust, which has 4 inch spikes growing out of the trunk! -- and some deer, not to mention interesting tracks. It turned out ok in the end.

9. Don't cry over make-believe problems. Yesterday I dubbed "diva day" at Chez Fox... there was many tears, most over invented crises. Alison crying over a game in which she was poor. Caitlyn crying because Megan would miss Caitlyn's 16th birthday party. Kristen crying because everyone else was. Megan laughing at everything, and saying "Imagine everyone with PMS!" which really wasn't helping the situation... Ah, girls.

10. Sometimes, movies from our childhood are still pretty okay. We watched Short Circuit. The girls liked it. It held up pretty well, 20+ years later. Not as good as, say, Princess Bride. But way better than The Last Starfighter.

Slugs

On Monday, the girls were off of school. I got up a little late, and went for a run. My knees have been bothering me on and off for a couple weeks; usually in conjunction with a Tuesday exercise class I've been going to. I stopped going a few weeks ago, and they've been a bit better. Well, on Monday, something happened to the muscle behind my knee, and I could barely hobble home. As a result, I've basically spent the rest of the week limping between the couch and the easy chair. And, unfortunately, that meant not a lot has happened.

An interesting side note: I can tell the difference in my energy level and motivation (and eating habits) when I'm not exercising. I've felt like I've been walking in a fog all week because I haven't been able to work out. Granted, I have been able to do yoga, and on the days when I've done that, I've felt immensely better. My knee's feeling better today -- almost two whole days without much pain -- and so I'm hoping that I won't have to go without exercising much longer.

So, the things I noticed in my sluggish state:

Kristen: Monday, had Sam and Sarah over for a play date/birthday party. She really liked the presents -- a GIANT stuffed lamb and some Littlest Pet Shop. It was cute to watch the three of them play together. Tuesday, she had a birthday celebration at school. I went to help pass out the cupcakes; she loved having them sing to her. Wednesday was the last story time. Sad to think that we'll only get one more year of storytimes before I'm done with them forever. Sniff. I may have to rent out some kids so I can keep going. (Either that, or become a children's librarian so I can do them). Thursday was school again... I don't think we did anything in the afternoon. Friday, I took her swimming at the Y. I don't know why we haven't been doing this more often; she loves to go swimming and we have the entire pool to ourselves in the morning. It's actually quite nice. Oh, and for the first time in three weeks, she actually stayed in Primary!

Alison: she passed off another set of words for school. She's very happy about this, though it bothers her that she's not as fast as some of her friends in getting the words passed off. She also is making a mother's day gift for me, but is taking great pleasure in not telling me what it is. And her friend Layla came over yesterday and stayed for a good four hours. They played really well together and weren't happy when I said that it was time for Layla to go home because the Austin kids were coming over. (Russell and I took Mike and Karen out for Korean food -- yum! -- and then we went to Borders -- we're such bookish people! -- and Cold Stone -- yum -- last night.)

Caitlyn: the reason she wanted to have her particular fourth grade teacher was because that teacher does plays. And, now that assessments are over, they're putting together two plays, fractured fairy tales -- Unlucky Cinderella and Once and Future Frog. Caitlyn tried out for the part of Cinderella and got it. (No surprise.) She's very, very excited, even though this boy she's kind of had a crush on for two years (but is friends with) is playing the part of the prince. She says it's kind of hard because they keep laughing during the scenes they have together. In other news, she actually had a good Wednesday this week. That's not been the case lately.

Megan: is counting down the days until Worlds of Fun (it's the 8th grade band trip): 13. She's very excited. She also found a dress for the 8th grade graduation dance for $15 (at the mall, no less), though she owes her friend Shayla the money... Hopefully, she'll be able to earn it soon. Those seem to be the two events that drive her days (or, at least, that's all I've been hearing about lately). Sure, there's the usual -- homework, homework, young womens, mom freaking out because high school is looming closer and closer, and homework -- but mostly it's the end-of-the year events that keep her interested in school.

Have a great week!

Fourth Annual Peep-a-palooza

I know we said, last year, that we'd not do any more of these. And yet, here we are, making creations and blowing up marshmallows in the microwave. To be fair, Megan and Caitlyn left fairly early into the process. But I guess as long as Alison and Kristen want to do this, we will.

Megan's Favorite Subjects

She loves to take photos, and her favorite things to take pictures of are her sisters. Amazingly, they're more than willing subjects for her. Sunday afternoon found them all outside taking advantage of the beautiful weather. These are a few of my favorites.

Kristen's "This Many"!

Kristen turned 4 today!! Yay!!

First thing, she wanted to open presents, so we let her do one before church. Alison got her to pick the present she got Kristen...


Which was her very own mirror. She liked that a lot.

She wanted a ducky cake... so this is what I came up with. Those are not edible ducks. :-) Alison and Kristen supervised, and wanted more and more "bubbles". It turned out cute, though.

After the first session of Conference, we ate something healthy really quick and then opened the rest of the presents.


Hands down, her favorite was the Elephant and Piggie book. But I didn't get a picture of her with that because she moved too fast. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!!

And then... Cake!


It was a good birthday.

Happy Easter!

It's been a few years since it was nice enough to actually take an Easter picture outside. But, today was gorgeous, so in between Conference sessions, we took a couple.

In 9 Minutes or Less

Since that's how much time I have before the next conference session starts...

Today: Kristen was SO excited about her birthday (with help and encouragement from her older sisters, of course). We decorated a ducky cake, went to Conference (have I said how much I LOVE Mack Wilberg??) and were edified (the girls were relatively good, too), opened presents, ate said ducky cake, talked about the Easter story, and now are crashing for the afternoon. Good day. (Pics up in a bit.)

Yesterday: cleaned the house, ran some errands, weeded the flower beds (Tulips are up!), and build a ladder. The girls have taken over the loft in the shed out back as their "clubhouse" and we got tired of being scared about their method of getting up and down, so Russell bought some boards and made a ladder for them along one wall. (Pictures to come as soon as I remember to take them.)

Friday: Everyone was off. Caitlyn went to the doctors -- she's perfectly healthy and fine, but no shots because I haven't remembered to get them her immunization records -- and then we went shopping for Kristen's birthday presents. I will NOT take three girls shopping again; it's amazing I came out without buying anything extra because they tried hard to get me to buy... stuff. Went over to the Austins for dinner and conversation. Fun times.

Thursday: April fools. Bleh. I celebrated by not pulling pranks on anyone. Which the girls found to be a bit confusing.

Wednesday: Library, reading, Kristen and I went to the zoo to see the chimps, penguins and petting zoo, piano, park. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. It was a gorgeous week.

Tuesday: computer guy came to fix the computer (see Monday), and the rest was just hanging around the house. I think I went to antique stores looking for candy tin lids for my kitchen, since a friend of mine took a picture of a sign I wanted in San Antonio -- she was there visiting her sister, and she's a much better photographer than I am -- and I think I'm going to get around finishing my "transformation" (sans painting the walls) of the kitchen.

Monday: discovered that, in the course of painting my toenails, knocking over a bottle of water on the computer shorts out the control function key and makes the laptop unusable. Oops. Thankfully, they replaced it free-of-charge. Also discovered that sometimes home-made-made-up-games are NOT the best activity for Family Home Evening.

And that's about it. We did some watching of movies: Megan watched Hildago on YouTube, Caitlyn watched Phantom Menace on YouTube (hmm... we watch a lot on YouTube), I watched the first disc of Masterpiece Theater's Emma, Russell found a Monty Python documentary on Netflix instant play.

It's been a good week!