The Second Annual Team Firestorm Ben's Birthday Ride

It is now March 31st, 10:00 at night.  I have two hours to get this entry posted so it will count toward March, one of the lowest blogging months ever.  That's partly because it's been one of the loveliest Marches ever and we've just been out doing stuff and enjoying the weather like crazy.  I love it when March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lamb.  Beautiful day.

We had quite the grand finale to the month today - we had many events and family outings.  I had been slightly anxious about us getting everywhere we should be at the right time with the right stuff but it actually all happened without a single major incident.  I feel safe saying that only now that everyone in the house is asleep except for me.  I wouldn't have dared to say it a moment earlier for fear of jinxing it and everything crumbling apart after all.  Okay, it wasn't actually that crazy of a day, but we did have a big morning.

I'd like to get a post in about our other events of the day but first and most importantly, today was the Second Annual Team Firestorm Ride, memorializing our friend Ben Jacobsen.  I love that Allison, his wife, celebrates Ben's birthday much more than the day he went "up the trail and around the bend." It really is such a party and it just fills me with joy to see him remembered in this way.  We meet early in the morning at the mouth of Emigration Canyon for a bike ride to the top.  This year was made twice as enjoyable as last because the temperature outside was literally twice that of last year.  Soooo much nicer.

I am the designated photographer though after looking at pictures today I've decided that I need to make it a priority to hoist myself onto a bicycle and start peddling.  I enjoy snapping pictures of this large group of people, though since I don't know everyone I'm sure I caught a few random cyclists in my pictures who were wondering what on earth some lady was pointing a camera at them for.  We weren't able to find a sitter for the kids and I had anxiety about getting them up early and  there on time but it all worked out.  They were so cute hanging out my car windows (while parked) waving at the riders and giving them all the thumbs up.

Anyway, there's just a terrific energy there and I really look forward to any time I can get together with these people.  Several who were able to join last year weren't there this year and that was sad but their hearts were there for sure.

Ben, we love and miss you.

The Incident

It's only taken me a couple of weeks to be ready to blog about this one day from the month.  Here's the text I sent my friend when it all happened:

"So....Bitty got in trouble for vandalizing school property today. When we got home she was so upset about it she had diarrhea. While I was dealing with that, Bundle pulled down her undies and pooped in the little potty by herself. Meanwhile, Stomper was making pumpkin cookies that needed to come out of the oven and Troy was calling and asking about dinner. And THAT, my friend, is motherhood."

Definitely a highlight from the month.  You know it's going to be a good afternoon when you bump into a friend who spent the morning volunteering in your daughter's class and she warns you that the teacher is going to be waiting for you after school to talk to you about your daughter's behavior.  She was so sweet, this nice mommy - she assured me that her daughter had misbehaved thoroughly enough for a chat with the teacher once and that I would be okay.  Funny - who cares about the dang naughty kids, it's the traumatized and guilt ridden moms we need to worry about!

So I prepared myself.  Took a deep breath and went to the playground, where indeed, my sweet 1st grader's teacher was waiting for me.  And had a talk with me and Bitty about vandalizing school property.  WHAT?!?!?! Oh, poor Bitty.  She was absolutely crumbling with shame and horror.  I guess she and two little friends had grabbed some crayons and decided to decorate a concrete bench on the playground during lunch recess.  It was all very innocent - I'm sure they thought it was basically like sidewalk chalk.  But it was a very big deal to the school and to her teacher.  She even had to write a letter to the principal.  I am not faulting her teacher at all - Miss Blank was never biting or belittling, just clear on the fact that coloring outside with crayons was not okay.  But it was pretty severe.  And Bitty was just crushed. You can read from the text what the afternoon was like. And to top it off, when I was able to take a breath after taking care of all those crisis I discovered that Stomper had spent my busy time trying to cheat on his homework. A banner day in the Preslar household, that's for sure.

We've recovered.  Bitty and I learned that cleaning crayon off of cement is unpleasant but not insurmountable, Stomper learned that he will die a slow death if he tries cheating again.  Bundle continues her potty training progress, so I guess it was a good day after all.

Bitty's bench-art was slightly charming, and I hoped that no one noticed me sneaking a few pictures of it before we started scrubbing it off.  The best part of the art was that the girls implicated themselves quite clearly by writing their names on their work of vandalism.  Of course, they were caught red-handed anyway, but I thought that was pretty funny. Also humorous was the fact that the little perpetrators who had to clean the crayon up were supposed to be suffering terribly as they cleaned, but they rather enjoyed it.  And every single 1st grader was gathered around us asking if they could help or complaining that we were only letting those three girls do the fun part.  Somewhat of a backfire but I loved it in a very Tom Sawyer kind of way.

Like Mother, Like Son

This may be a case of a picture being worth a thousand words - don't know if I need to even say anything more except that I don't know how many times Troy has found me in the exact same position as this. I love falling asleep reading and it's so happy to find my son doing the same thing.  He has taken a long time to find the joy of reading, but thank you Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, I find him reading all the time, WITHOUT having been prodded, begged, pushed or coerced.  It is awesome.  He's nearing the end of the series.  I have to find that next magical hook for him.  Anyway, Troy and I loved finding him here.

Wait, It's March the WHATth?

I don't think I've ever gone a whole month having posted just one blog entry before, and it looks like it's going to be a close shave here to get a few down before April is upon us.  Busy busy!  Actually it might just be "lazy lazy," but let's shoot for the best here.

So in the waning hours of March 2012 I'm trying to think of what I want to post about and remember of the happenings of this month.  I think that though there are a few good stories to tell and pictures to post I have to start with recounting a few of our trips to a park which is quickly becoming a favorite in our family. We had a mild winter, that's for sure, but it was winter none the less, which meant that we had a lot of cold, a lot of dark, and a lot of inside time.  March this year has proven to be much more lambish than lionish - warmer-than-average days, sunshine, breezes.  It's been, to use my friend TL's favorite expression, GLORIOUS.  We have taken as many chances as we could to get out and enjoy it.  Very good for the soul. And one of our most frequent outdoor stops has been Lindsay Gardens.

Lindsay Gardens is the last remaining park I'm aware of that still has the death-defying and law-suit-waiting-to-happen injury machine known as the merry-go-round.  It's old, metal, warped, and always the main attraction at the park.  Bitty especially adores the thing and can spend quite a long time just sitting on it, endlessly rotating, without ever complaining of illness.  I have sat on it for a while holding Bundle and all I can do is wrap my arms around her and close my eyes to keep my equilibrium somewhat intact.  I hate the thing.  One particular Saturday while we were there I watched in absolute amazement as dozens of kids climbed on and off of it in a continual rotation for probably 90 minutes.  I have never seen it so covered in children.  It looked a little like a silver potato chip left out at a picnic and was completely swarming with ants.

On another more recent Saturday evening we had a magical family outing there.  We were lucky enough to be the only park attendants that night and there was some kind of divine intervention going on because the kids were getting along and playing super well together.  As tough as parenting is, as totally challenged and crazy and desperate as I feel sometimes trying to manage this whole "family" thing, those times when we're all together, peaceful and happy, are the reward for all the other times that aren't like that at all.  Blog posts coming up on the latter situation shortly.  Anyway, it was a really wonderful evening together, with much time spent on the merry-go-round.  Like I said, Bitty seems to find her zen there, just sitting and turning smoothly.  Sadly, Stomper does not seem to have Bitty's consitution and after riding the merry-go-round (as Troy tested his muscles on spinning it) had to lie down on the grass for a good half hour.  He looked slightly green. Of course he had also experienced the effects of cetrifugal force and almost went into orbit during Troy's speed test, so that may have had something to do with it too.  The evening was topped off later by our family's first viewing of The Muppets.  Oh my gosh I loved that movie.  We all did, and have been singing tunes from it ever since.  Anyway, Lindsay Gardens has been a highlight this spring and will be until Summer, when the sun will heat up the merry-go-round to the setting of blazing hot and no one will touch it again until October.

 I recognize that this might possibly be the worst picture of me ever, but I was making such a funny face, demonstrating my true feelings for riding on a merry go round that I couldn't help but post it.

March the 3rd...

....was a very big day around these parts.  First and foremost, it was Troy's 42nd birthday.  And equally importantly it was the wedding day of our friends Adam and Angie.  Big day, and a wonderful one.

We sort of over-celebrated Troy's birthday due to the fact that his actual birthday would be largely taken up with wedding festivities.  So we started out by spending Friday night eating out with friends.  Just so you know, both of the phrases "eating out" and "with friends" are complete understatements.

First of all, we ate out at Lugano's.  That's a wonderful little Italian joint on 23rd East and 33rd South.  It is...beyond delicious.  We're not talking spaghetti and garlic bread here. Not that those items are undesirable, but this goes above and beyond. May I describe?  We started with an appetizer that consisted of half a fresh pear which had been caramelized on top like creme brulee, so it was sweet and crispy and juicy.  Then there was a lovely little blob of marscapone cheese on top with toasted pine nuts and a large basil leaf nestled in there and then prosciutto wrapped all around it.  One bite and you kind of had to put your head between your knees to keep from fainting away into food heaven. Such a fabulous combination of tastes and textures. We were chatting away happily until we all took a bite of the pear and it went really quiet for a moment, then we all started going, "Mmmmm...oh my gosh....Mmmmmm...."  Troy and I tried to keep it reasonable - we shared an appetizer then shared an entree (butternut squash risotto with pork loin roast and sauteed mushrooms and kale...).  And....then shared a dessert.  Pumpkin cheesecake that defies description.  Oh yeah and we had a few bites of our friends' tiramisu.  Mamma!  That's not food we need to eat very often but once or twice a year it's so much fun to indulge in a really fantastic meal.

And as for the other understatement - if you're going to indulge in a fabulous meal it's really nice if you can do it with wonderful friends.  The Griffiths. A paragraph in a blog is not going to do any justice to these friends, but I'll try to describe them by saying they were pretty much the chaperons of Troy's and my courtship and engagement.  Lifelong kindred spirits.  I don't know how else to say it.  We just love them dearly dearly and we definitely don't get enough time together.  I mean, Marianne and I try to chat on the phone now and then but generally there is some young person in one household or another needing help and attention.  To have the luxury of long uninterrupted conversation all evening long, punctuated only by the arrival of delicious food brought right to us was probably the best birthday present Troy could have asked for.  Divine.  Must happen again soon.  We were talking, oddly enough, about caloric intake.  And we decided that as much as people can over-feed our bodies we deplete our souls of the spiritual calories we need.  Good dinner with the Griffiths was a much needed calorie splurge for our inner souls.  Awesome.

Saturday itself was a whirlwind.  Getting up, enjoying a birthday breakfast of Belgian waffles, getting everyone ready to get out the door, dropping kids off at various locations, hustling down town to the wedding - very busy.  But we were so happy to be there.  In case you weren't sure, I'm talking about the wedding of my friend Adam, who's first wife was TerriLyn, my sister-friend who passed away a while ago.  And one of the absolute highlights of the day was seeing TerriLyn's parents there at the wedding, participating in the ceremony, taking the place of Adam's parents who were unable to be there.  It was absolutely touching beyond belief and brought up a well of emotion in me that was hard to contain, though not of sadness.  It just made the wedding so much deeper and more poignant, exhibiting the circle of family here.  Angie looked like a fairy princess, so beautiful, so happy.  Just absolutely alight with joy, and Adam did too.  I was so honored to be there.

After the wedding in the morning we enjoyed a birthday lunch for Troy with his parents.  Morris and Carol came over and we present Troy with his birthday gifts of the various parts needed for this neat umbrella-flash set-up thing for the camera.  I sound like a professional, I know.  We just enjoyed the afternoon together, building a fire to keep the gloomy clouds at bay before we headed out for the reception that evening.

I guess we just hadn't had enough celebrating because on Sunday evening we had a few friends in the hood come over for lasagna and salad and an amazing German chocolate cake our friend Myca made.  It was seriously out of this world. My favorite moment of the evening was when Cullen and Rick both revealed that they were unfamiliar with the story of "Where the Wild Things Are."  Really?  I wasn't aware that it was possible to grow up as an child in America and not have that story completely memorized.  Troy felt the same way.  When I heard that, he was silent for a moment and then he hopped up, grabbed our copy of Maurice Sendack's classic, and began reading.  Rick felt that as long as he was being read to, he might as well do it right so he quickly sat on the floor at Troy's feet and got read to proper.  Cullen wasn't far behind.

Wow.  What a weekend of enjoyment and celebration.  Which means we totally overate.  It was really... delicious. Happy Birthday, my wonderful husband, and happy new beginnings to Adam and Angie.

Not so much "sledding" as..."grassing."

I'll admit that when I looked at the school calendar and saw a Friday with no school just one week after a full week of half days, I wasn't too excited.  I'm a supporter of full-day school all day every week, just to make it abundantly clear.  But then I saw snow in the forecast and decided to make the most of it.  Ever since our perfectly snowy Christmas Day sledding of...what, FOUR years ago(?!?) we haven't had a sledding day like it. Or nearly as much snow. But with that wintry forecast, my parents' back yard seemed to be calling to me.  Snow!  There's going to be snow!!! Come sledding!  Stomper had a buddy coming over and I invited my friend Emily and her four boys.  I even called my dad on Thursday  morning who told me, "Come on over, there's plenty of snow!!!"  So I packed an entire laundry basket full of snow gear and and snacks and extra changes of clothes.  I hauled four kids and an extra family into my parents' yard, burst through the gate and....looked at a yard that was mostly grass. To be fair, I think the grassy parts were hidden from view from the back porch, but there were some serious bald spots.

And now I ask you, what would you do?  I'll tell you - exactly what I did.  You go sledding anyway.  And it turns out to be really really fun, if slightly muddy.

And that's just the kind of winter it's been.

(...but wait, there's more!) Blogorama Chapter 6: Bundle's Biggering

Another huge part of the last month has been the accomplishments of Bundle.  Not all of these tasks were taken on of her own will, and some were down right sneaky bait-and-switch tactics brought about by her conniving parents, but she is growing up.

All three of my children have been serious binky-users.  Serious as in we have three or four (or more) on hand at all times, and we keep them in The Binky Box (it's a proper noun).  As each of my children has aged, each one growing nearly permanently attached to the binky sprouting from their mouth, I have known with growing dread that at some point I would have to detach them from it, both physically and emotionally. It's a huge bump in the road that gets a little closer every day until one day you just have to go over it and deal with the aftershocks whatever they may be.  I try to make it a little easier for my kids by at least offering them a trade but it does end up feeling like a bit of a dirty trick.

Here's the proof:

I decided to not film her later when she was crying and asking for new binkys.  Sigh.  Actually, it was definitely not as bad as it's been with the other kids.  Not that it feels great, but I'll say this - taking away a binky is a lot easier than removing a thumb. So I'm still glad we used the binks, and Bundle seems to have made a full recovery.  She's even been falling asleep in her bed by herself the past few nights, which at our house is a major miracle.

In other aspects of toddler aging, want to know how you can tell your daughter is very into potty training? You walk into the bathroom and find this:

"Good job, Lemon Meringue!"

One last note, it only took 2 1/2 years for me to decide it was finally time for Bundle to get a haircut.  I never trimmed one single hair on her head, but when my friend Jeannie was cutting her big brother's and sister's, she had to be a part of it too.  She was so excited to get up in that chair and be a big girl too.  

Magnificent Gift: Unpublished

I received a gift this week, a gift  for which I do not have the ability to express my gratitude.  And it started with a phone call.

My big sister has been a cellist since grade school and a cello teacher since college.  She is a wonderful musician and teacher and spends incredible amounts of time and energy on her students.  I haven't actually watched her teach since we lived together at my parents' house several years ago but I do talk to her a lot about her life and students and I know how devoted to them she is.

So last week she called me and said that she had something she wanted to talk about with me and had for a while now.  She said that she really wanted to give us the gift of cello.  She wants to teach my two big kids to play and count us among her many regular students. Wow.

My first reaction was of total excitement - I have been wanting to make music a part of our lives but it just wasn't a possibility at this point.  Music was a huge part of my childhood and I was feeling kind of sad that my kids weren't getting the chance to learn and grow like I did.  Thinking of my musical childhood suddenly brought up another memory....and that would be fighting with my mom about the dreaded P-word.  Practicing. How many rounds did we go through over the years?  I can't really bear to think about it - either what I did to my mom or what I could potentially face with my children.  And suddenly...I wasn't so sure any more.  I mean, I already go the do battle with the kids over reading and homework and chores...I am constantly the bad guy.  But....my excitement took over and Troy and I accepted with great gratitude.  She even has a cello for Bitty to use. We have to rent one for Stomper but it's a small price to pay for all that we are receiving in return.

Thursday evening we had our first cello lesson.  It was such a pleasure to tell the kids about Margaret's offer after her invitation.  I swear the kids reacted the same way they did when we told them we were taking them to Disneyland.  It may have been a mistake to tell them about it more than 4 days in advance because I fielded so many questions about "when do we start when do we start when do we start" that it put "Are we there yet" to shame.  But we finally made it.

You know, it was so interesting to watch both kids, how they interacted with Margaret, how they behaved during their lesson.  Stomper was absolutely quiet and focused 100% on every single thing she said.  Bitty was giddy and tried to be funny and make jokes and kind of bounced all over the place.  But despite the differing interactions, they both ate it up and since then actually ask me to practice several times a day.  I am assuming this exuberance for rehearsal is temporary, but maybe not.  I won't hold my breath but will appreciate every happy practice session we have.  

The real surprise has been Bundle.  I brought things for her to do during the lesson but she wasn't interested.  She wanted in on the cello lessons and would not be deterred.  So Margaret found herself giving a third and very simple lesson to a three-year old.  I am not sure that we can keep Bundle from participating.  Today we had group classes and Bundle wanted in on that too.  She quietly listened and participated along with the big kids.  Weird.  And Wonderful.

I'm so grateful.  Thank you, sister, and thank you universe for sending this chance our way.

Blogorama Chapter 5: Pinewood Victory

Troy and Stomper had quite the Pinewood Derby triumph this year.  Troy definitely does not do the project for Stomper, but he does know what to do to make the wheels spin smooth and fast and with very little friction.  Stomper designs it and paints it and all that good stuff.  Troy helps him weight it just right and smooth out the axels on his...tool thingy in the garage.  Sorry, honey, couldn't remember which tool you use for this particular application.

Stomper picked a lightening bolt as his theme for his car and it looks pretty snappy.  More importantly, that little car is speedy, and Stomper has a blue ribbon for his efforts.  Hoorah.  That was fun.

Drinking his victory milk.  I love that Troy takes the time to help this be a fun experience for Stomper.  

Blogorama Chapter 4: Return of the Curly Girl

It has been quite a while since I wrote THIS about saying goodbye to my days of having naturally curly hair.  Ever since I started having babies my hair has gotten more and more limp and less and less curly.  I tried to get it to keep curling but more often than not I found myself straightening it which I actually really liked but took so much time and seemed to be just killing the curls even more.  Years ago I came across a book called Curly Girl that gave some tips and methods for taking care of your curls. I tried it for a while but gave up after a few months.  I never did really go full throttle and buy the right products and stuff. I just thought it was hopeless.

Well.  I guess at that time I told my friend Erin about it and promptly forgot about it.  But in the fall I was hanging out with Erin a bit and she started thanking me for telling her all about it, that I had started a Curly Girl revolution in her neighborhood.  Even her hairdresser had gotten in on it and had been certified in the Curly Girl technique.  Sheesh - I had no idea it was such a big deal.  She gave me some samples of the products and made me re-read the book and guess what.  I am a curly girl once more.  I am so happy.  If you have curly hair at all, read the book and do what she says.

There.  There you have my testimony of curly girl.

Actually my sister and my sis-in-law Sheri have both hopped on the band wagon as well, so over the weekend while Sheri was up here we did a lot of talking about hair do's, much to the eye-rolling of our husbands.  Actually Troy's very supportive - I think he's very happy to have a wife who doesn't hate her hair anymore.

Blogorama Chapter 3: Guests for the Weekend

I'm not going to lie - there were more than a few eyebrows that raised when I told people that my brother and his family of four were coming to stay with us for the weekend.  After all our house is the size of a matchbox and we have only one bathroom.  But despite the obstacle of limited space, we have a great time when the Romneys come to stay.

They came over President's weekend - it was the weekend between teacher appreciation week and the book fair week, so I was pretty tired.  In fact I think I caught a cold pretty much the second they pulled up, but that didn't stop us from having a really great time together.  Their arrival was awesome - when they said they were coming in the morning I thought they'd leave at 9:00 and get here at 12:00 or something, so there was laundry every where, dishes up to the ceiling, and a lot of grocery shopping to get done. Bundle just stood by the window waiting for her cousins to come, no matter how many times I told her that they weren't coming yet. Then suddenly she starts jumping up and down and shouting, "They're here! They're here!"  What?  Oh man.  When they said morning, they meant MORNING like leave at 5am and get here in time for Peter to have a full work day with his computer.  So much for the clean house and stocked shelves.  But of all the people to catch me by surprise, no one is lower stress than Sheri.  In fact we spent the day together picking up the house, putting away laundry, going shopping and just enjoying being together.

We basically spent the weekend eating good food with various combinations of family members, watching movies, going to the zoo (Sheri's exuberance for the zoo is nothing short of infectious.  She treats it like Disneyland, and that's saying something,) going to bed early and playing dress up. Okay, that last one was just the little girls. Sheri always manages to get all four girls sporting the same hairdo at some point during our visits together and this time it was a triple pony-tail deal that had them all flipping their hair around for the day.  I just love it.

So, for all you disbelievers out there, house guests at the Preslar's are totally do-able.  Okay, there has to be some tolerance for extra bodies every where you go (Stomper spent most of the weekend playing quietly alone in the attic) but even three whole days together did not make us ready to say good bye on Monday.

Blogorama Chapter 2: Valentines Day

It is almost to the point where I can no longer blog funny and endearing little stories about my kids because they can now read and will be mad at me if they find out that I've been talking about them and telling all of their most appalling secrets. But I just can't resist sharing this one thing.

For Valentines Day the kids and I had a lot of fun making these white chocolate suckers - it was the easiest thing in the world.  I have little molds and you just melt the chocolate in the microwave, pour it in the molds and stick a sucker stick in there and let them cool off.  I'm only describing them because I failed to get a picture of the finished product. The mold was of a smiley face.  So we made these little super hero capes out of paper, punched a hole in them, stuck the sucker through and you had a little super hero sucker.  On the cape we wrote "You're A Super Friend" and then they signed their names.  I thought they were rather cute.

As Stomper was working on his I noticed that he took some extra time on one in particular...oh my sweet little man.  He's always got a serious crush on someone.  He's been crushing on the same girl for a long time now - ever since second grade.  So he took the super hero cape that was for her and just covered it in hearts.  I wanted to die it was so cute. I even took a picture:

I was reminded of the year that my mom helped us make little homemade chocolates for all the kids in our classes (funny that that is what I was doing this year only mine took about 5 seconds each and she had us making all these individual things with different colored candy; they were incredible.... if memory serves, which it probably doesn't).  I was packaging up the chocolates for my friends and classmates when I came across the one for my heartthrob; one David W. whom I'm sure is traumatized to this day by the force of my elementary school crush.  I put a few chocolates in his bag and felt like it just wasn't enough, like it just didn't have that special something I needed to show my true love.  So I ran to the cupboard, threw it open and started looking for something really spectacular to put in there (because homemade chocolates just weren't enough).  What I found was a jar of peanuts. I grabbed a handful and threw them in the envelope with the other treats.

I'll never forget sitting in my classroom, happily tearing through the valentines during our party when I heard from across the room a shout and an exclamation, "Hey!  Someone put peanuts in my valentine!"  He didn't sound as pleased as I had hoped.

I will always wonder if little Emma noticed that her super hero sucker cape was the only one with a few extra little hearts, scrawled by the untidy hand of a third grader in love.

Blogorama Chapter 1: Who is that Crazy Lady?

Who is that woman? I mean, Look at her!  She has straggly hair, food on her shirt and bags under her eyes.  She looks like she's been wearing the same clothing for days in a row.  I bet if you asked her, she wouldn't have any idea what day it is today.  I bet she smells bad.  Gross. Oh, wait a second.  That's me.

Can I just tell you what an insane couple of weeks I've had?  I don't think you're going to care much, but I would like to say that I am impressed with myself for surviving.  I am tempted to tell you every last thing I've done but it won't sound like it was very difficult or exhausting at all and you won't feel bad for me.

Okay, a brief rundown.  First off, my friends Adam and Angie are getting married, and I'm so happy for them. Angie needed a shower - every bride does and we love our friend, so I threw one together.  Only....because they are both long time ward members and they both have lots of family and other people who love them, we decided that about 100 people needed to be invited.  So that was a bit of a bugger to plan and carry out and organize.  Menu, gifts, centerpieces, food assignments....whew!  Glad I had some wonderful friends to help.

That fell two days before our school's Teacher Appreciation Week.  I'm the volunteer coordinator for the PTA (I hate to say this but I recommend avoiding this job if you can, though I also advocate volunteering at your school.)  So I was in charge of instructing all the class room parents on carrying out a little appreciation for the teachers.  But then the PTA itself does a big song-and-dance for the teachers - catering lunches, breakfasts, snacks, bringing gifts, holding raffles, that kind of thing.  And I did all of that too.  After a weekend with family in town (fun - will blog in a later chapter) the next week (the one we're just ending) was the book fair, for which I had to find all the volunteers as well as plan and carry out two more meals for the teachers because this week was also parent-teacher conferences and the PTA always does meals on those days.  I was feeling bad for asking all the parents for so much help over the two-week stretch so I just asked the PTA if I could please provide the main course for the two meals and just ask for sides; usually we ask for parents to plan carry out the entirety of the meals. But they had been asked for a lot (believe me, some of them let me know) and so I just wanted to do it myself.  And it is never as simple as it seems.

My brother introduced me to a phrase that I think describes my life more often than not: Project Creep.  A project (or a meal or a sunday school lesson or a Christmas card or whatever) starts out as one small simple idea and slowly gets bigger and bigger and bigger until you find yourself at 4:55 running out the door balancing two crockpots on your hips while yelling at your kids to be nice for five minutes while you just take this little entire carload of dinner/servingwear/more dinner to the school.  And that happened I think five times in 10 days.  I'm nuts.  And weird, part of me just LOVES feeding a crowd.  But I always end up in a serious pinch when I'm trying to pull it off.

Well, that was WAY beyond "just a brief rundown."  I just had to get down what I've been up to for the past MONTH.

I have many more Blogorama Chapters to write seeing as how life did not seem to slow down during my weeks of planning and carrying out.  I have to say, I have a few friends in the neighborhood who have affectionately dubbed me "The Cruise Director" because I'm always pulling things together.  I think it's a blessing and a curse...or just a really bad habit.

Thankfully there are no photos of me during this time period.  It's for the best, really.  Okay, here are some shower pictures:

Just Thinking of Old Stories

Once again, I seem to find myself blogging in the dead middle of the night with bleary eyes, having posted nothing for many days, staying up only because I'm not in the mood to go to bed.  I know, everyone should always be in the mood to be well-rested, but some days going to bed means that tomorrow is just going to come all the quicker and I'm not ready.  So here I am.  I don't even have anything all that interesting to say - nothing exciting is going on, although I seem to be headed into the busiest and super craziest month of my entire school year.  I definitely won't be coming up for air until about March 5th.  But I was thinking about an old story I wanted to jot down because it makes me happy -

My dad has been listening to a lot of John Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson, aka "The Piano Guys."  They do have a lot of fun making music and videos and I enjoy them myself.  But my dad is hooked.  I haven't bought any actual CDs yet but he's got all of them.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I just haven't gone there myself, is all.  But I have been thinking a lot about John Schmidt - he's actually been a part of my life for a long long time.

It all started back in the summer after 8th grade. Oh my gosh - what year was that...'87?  I think so.  I went on a church trip with a whole bunch of kids and had this terrific adventure as we traveled to Havasupai Falls in Arizona.  Can you imagine doing that now?  I can't.  The trip was crazy - hours of backpacking, complicated food assignments, kids sneaking out and skinny dipping in the pools at night (Me!  With my friend/cousin Jessica - that was the best ever) a bus break-down in the middle of the night on the way home, and of course, a little romance along the way.  With "Jeremy," last name not to be revealed, since everyone occasionally Googles their own name and that can lead to problems.  Anyway, Jeremy and I kind of had this little romance over the trip, though he was uninvolved in and hopefully unaware of any skinny-dipping that occured.  We did have many nice moments sitting on the rocks that looked across the lake to the majestic and just incredibly beautiful falls and gazing in total and complete awe at them. When we returned from the trip and before I decided I didn't like him as much as I thought I did which happened just about the time my parents caught us hanging out at my house alone together...sorry, tangent - he shared a tape with me.

This was an old, beat up, recorded-over-several-times little cassette tape.  And on it was some poorly recorded music of the most beautiful piano playing I had ever heard, my favorite of course being this piece about a waterfall.  (Surely you're familiar with John Schmidt's Waterfall number....)  I listened to it over and over, even after I was done listening to it to bring back the magic of the romance.  I just loved it so much. But this tape was totally bootlegged - from what I remember about it, Jeremy got it from a friend who had stolen it from another friend by breaking into his house by climbing over the garage door or something like that. (My memory is a little hazy on that detail.)  And THAT guy had recorded it from the artist's demo tape.  Or something.  I think. Anyway, there was no name to go along with the music and so I just listened to this anonymous piano player with no idea as to who he really was.

So a couple of years go by; I'm now a sophomore at East High and spending quite a bit of after-school time there as I participate in many a theatrical production.  One day I'm walking along in the hallway on a quiet afternoon; normal people go home when school is done.  But there I am when suddenly, very quietly, I hear the strains of a familiar piece of music. I stop.  I listen more closely, realize that what I'm hearing is THE guy, THE music I've had in my tape player or at least around it since my first doomed romance at the age of 14!  I start walking quickly, looking around for who might be playing this on their ghetto-blaster (which of course was slightly larger and more unwieldy than my ipod nano where I keep my John music these days).  (Oh my gosh - another quick tangent - my spell check does not like the word ipod and tried to replace it with IZOD! Get up to date a bit, spell check!  Ha!)

Okay, ANYWAY, nowhere can I find the source of the music until I chase it all the way down to the auditorium where I run in, see this big tall gangly red-headed guy sitting at the piano and playing his heart out.  I have no idea what he was doing there; he must have had a concert or something and was practicing.  Whatever he was doing, he certainly was not expecting a young, barefooted girl to come crashing in there, eyes shining, at a full run.  But that is what I did.  When he, in utter shock, stopped playing I blurted out, "IT'S YOU!!!" (Did I mention the drama thing?)

How does one ever respond to that phrase?  I don't know, and neither did he. Yes.  It's me. And who are you?  So I tried to explain my very random and slightly illegal story of how his music came to be a part of my life.  If slightly confused and certainly alarmed he also seemed pleased by having such an energetic fan, and I think I even did come back to the theater that night or the next to listen from back stage to him perform.

Obviously he has gone on to have a neat career with his playing, and I am heartily happy for him.  I am sure he has no recollection of the incident, but I'll never forget it.  In his honor, I'll post a video of The Waterfall.