Getting Taller

Hannah has been growing so fast and will most likely be passing up her sister. Sorry Natty!

Over the summer I have bought Hannah a number of dresses and it seems that each Sunday she is down one more dress.

What?! Didn't I just buy this?

I would like to get some of my moneys worth out of her dresses and so I decided to lengthen them. This was my first attempted and it went well. My plan is to add a ruffle/length to two more dresses.

Wish me luck (or that Hannah will stop growing).

Broken Finger

I got a call from the school in October saying that I should come and pick up Natalie because she had smashed her finger while in Gym class.

I guess Natalie's class were lifting weights in P.E., except for Natalie, who was dropping them.

She dropped a 5lb dumb bell right on the end of her left hand ring finger.

The nurse on the phone said that Natalie was in a lot of discomfort and would have a hard time at school.

So I left to get Natalie.

When I got to the school the nurse wanted to bring Natalie up to the office herself so that she could talk with me. She said that while waiting Natalie's finger just kept getting bigger and turning black. She thought it might be broken.

There is a Med Express next to our apartment so I just stopped in. Yep, her finger was broken at the very tip.

You see the black line?

The doctor said that is about the spot where the bone broke.

Poor girl. No wonder she was in a lot of pain and wanted to go home.

Latrobe

Hannah and Andrew had another Taekwondo tournament on the 14th of November. Natalie decided not to go because the youth temple trip was the same weekend. Jim had to work so I drove all by myself. I hate driving to places I have never been. It's very stressful and I'm already so stressed for the kids that I'm sure this would max me out. But I did it and it worked out just great.

Hannah and Andrew did not do as well as they had hoped. In fact, they were very disappointed but when I pointed out that the new group they are competing in is a more difficult group Hannah and Andrew felt much better.
 Most tournament groups consist of 2 belt levels. The group they are in now has 5 belt level; brown, brown & black, Red, Red & black, and red decided ( which is black strip on top). Andrew and Hannah are starting at the bottom with just turned brown belts. Some of these kids have been in Taekwondo a whole year longer.
 A year makes a big difference.

But it was a huge learning experience for them and learning how to compete against kids with different sparing moves.

Hannah did place second in weapons. She wasn't going to do weapons but Master K. convinced her to try it one more time. Yeah, she did great! I'm glad she did it.

Smart, But not smart enough

My childo's remind me of a cat I grew up with, Esmeralda or Ezzy. Boy was she a great cat. She will forever be the coolest cat in my eyes. But I remember her asking for food when her bowl still had the science diet pellets in it. No she didn't want to eat the "old food" but wanted the "new food" from the bag. I would refill her bowl and she would start eating the new pellets,

My kids are like Ezzy.
They want  "new food".

The kids come home starving. No matter how big a lunch I pack, they still come home hungry. When they arrive the conversation goes something like this.

"Hello (name of child). How was your day?"

"Good, What can we have for snack?"

"The same options you have everyday."

"Can I have two snacks? How much is one snack?
Why can't we have ice cream for a snack?
What if I have two vegetables, then can I have ice cream?"

The sweeties are constantly trying to get larger helpings or trying to convince me that I need to have a wider range of snack options. They find every loop whole, penetrate the bureaucracy and can bring up red herrings faster then a major league pitcher can spit. I'ts amazing how fast their minds can fly from one thing to another. In fact it is exhausting.

Lots of times my children can get the best of me but not time. This time I was able to catch the little guy red handed.

Blueberry bagel. Seems like a harmless snack....

Do you see something funny about this blueberry bagel? Look close...
Something has been pushed into the bagel.

Yep
.
Smarties.

Totally caught and now, thanks to my blog, documented.



The finny thing about the kids wanting three or four snacks when they get home is that when the kids pack their lunch the next day, it's full of left over snacks (seems to be the carrots and pretzels) from yesterday's lunch.

Really?

I don't get it?
But Ezzy would...

Fall, Fall, Fall

    Fall in the East is beautiful! From the couple of falls I have lived out here my best guess is that around October the 18-25 is the best time to come and visit.

 Our apartment building sits on the edge of a small valley. The bottom is wide enough to have a road and a small stream. The opposite side of the valley raises taller then where we sit and it is covered in trees. It is fun to watch the leafs slowly turn colors. The yellow's turn up first then the orange and the reds.

It's beautiful.

(These pictures were taken at the beginning of the fall. I don't have pictures when the trees were at their most beautiful. Sorry, but I'm doing the best I can and I wanted to make sure I blogged even though things are not perfect. FYI)

My favorite trees are the multi colored ones. Thy leaves are yellow but the tips are bright red. It makes me feel smart to say, "Oh, look at that tree with the red blush." It's how they describe apples. And apples come from trees... that have leaves...

Not only have the leaves looked beautiful this fall, but we have had some lovely, lovely fall days. I'm happy to say that we took advantage of some of these days and took walks out among these beauty's.

Today most of the leaves are gone and on the hillsides I can spot all the pine trees. Now is the times when they get a chance to "shine".

Halloween 2015

I have done things... things I told myself I would never do as a parent... and then I forgot/did them anyways.

Children have a way of messing up your parenting ideals because they are smart, very smart. They come out of the womb that way. As parents we do not have a text book or even a pamphlet on how best to raise each particular child. My mother often said that she would be more then willing to go through labor just to get a "How To" book on each of her children. BUT somehow the child gets a book on how to make parenting a true learning lesson... mostly on patience.

I think that kids have a trump card, a magical power of sorts. I'm not talking about those chubby cheeks or the large tear fulled eyes (though those have some mighty sway) and the funny way a young child runs with their large heads and short chubby arms.

 I am talking about love. You know how in books they write about love at first sight? It's not the true form of love. In English love has a wide range of meaning. I love pizza and ice cream. I love sunsets on the beach. I love God.  I'm sure this attraction between two individuals is strong and you will go through great lengths to get to know each other but it is "true love"? No, but there is such a thing as love at fist sight.

I felt it each time I had a baby. One look... and that child was mine. I would move mountains, kill lions, spend the rest of my life caring and loving this person no matter what- even if that person wanted nothing to do with me.

Wait!!
What does love have to do with a Pagan Holiday?
I have no idea.


The point is I had to make Hannah's costume twice.

 She lost the jacket/shirt I had made so at the last minute I got my new black sweater and the glue gun. Not nearly as good, but done.

Oh I wish I were a big ugly bird...

The kids did not have school on Columbus day. I don't know why it isn't one of those days that everyone gets off. I mean really, If it wasn't for Columbus I'd still have no idea what happened in 1492. Actually come to think of it I wish my mistakes were celebrated!

In honor of Columbus Day and his great flight across the ocean we went to the National Aviary.

Last year when Granddad was visiting the Aviary, he almost got nailed by a big ugly bird. The kids made up a song to go with the memorable occasion ( hence the title of the post).

Oh I wish I were a big ugly bird
Oh I wish I were a big ugly bird
I'd aim for your head
but hit the ground instead.
Oh I wish I were a big ugly bird

or

Oh I wish I were a very pretty bird
Oh I wish I were a very pretty bird
I'd fly above you
then hit you with my poo
Oh I wish I were a very pretty bird

 Andrew is standing under the famous bird.


The aviary has a new condor exhibit. Condors are really REALLY big birds.

 Sometimes Andrew gets sassy when I'm trying to take a picture. It reminds me of Jared. I think that's why Andrew keeps doing it because Uncle Jared is kinda cool.

 It was late morning and the condors were trying to get the warmth from the sun. It was totally cool. Their wings are HUGE. Way cool....

 They kids were well behaved ( like always right?) and we all had a good time

 Except for Hannah who didn't want her picture taken. Bad idea Hannah. Now I HAVE to take a ton of pictures of just you.

ps. Natalie broke her finger at school today. Second broken bone this year :(

Scottish cows are best

Once upon a time there was a mother who wanted to take her three kids on one last trip before school started. The mother thought and thought about what she should do. It needed to be somewhere close, that didn't involve driving in the scary city and entertaining for all.

Hence entered the fairy Godmother aka Grandma who offered to pay for us to visit Living Treasures Animal Park.  What a great idea! The park was in the opposite direction of the city ( huge huge plus), a place the family had been wanting to visit and was very inexpensive. Thanks Grandma!

You are allowed to feed the animals at the park so we made sure we were there when it opened. That way we were sure to have hungry animals. Let me tell you in case you didn't know that feeding hungry animals is a lot more fun than feeding animals that are full. Full animals have the nasty habit of ignoring you.

For $2.00 you could buy a bag of baby carrots to feed the animals and with another $2.00 you could get a small silver bucket of food pellets.  I'm amazed that the animals were not more orange with all the carrots they ate.

We were able to get really close to the animals making it more fun in a lot of ways then an old plain Zoo.

 Hannah near her favorite animal.

 Robbie and Andrew feeding a Wallaby.

 This cow was by far everyone's favorite animal. Her name is Goldie and she is from Scotland. You can tell because of her accent when she moo's. Moowoo. See, Scottish mooing.

 She is a very bright cow that had figured out the fasted least amount of work in which to get her daily amount of carrots. She would see a child with a carrot, open her mouth wide and throwing her tongue to the side and waited for the carrot to be thrown into her waiting mouth.

This method was brilliant because the kids thought it was so funny and threw the carrots again and again. Anyone who says cows are dumb just haven't met Goldie yet. If I ever get a cow, I'm going to get me a Scottish one.

tournament

We went to a second tournament. I get so nervous and stressed for the kids that sometimes I think I'm more stressed out then they are. It's hard for me to see my kids pale and big eyed and when I try to catch their eyes to let them know that I'm here, your awesome and brave, and I love you all in a quick smile and two thumbs up, but they refuse to look over.

The competition for Hannah and Andrew was intense. There were a lot of kids in both Hannah and Andrew's groups. Most of the kids had been to a few tournaments and were very competitive. The last competition the kids had been in was when they were orange belts. For most this was their first competition so it was a lot more laid back. I think both Hannah and Andrew we surprised how competitive this tournament was. I"m sure they thought that they would take everything because they had been working hard and were so much better then they were in February. So it was surprising to them that they would have to work hard and focus to be able to place.

It took Hannah a little while to warm up. Forms are first. That is when they do a whole set of moves in a set order. These forms all have names. Hannah was called up first, which is a hard position to be. She really started to shine when it came to sparing and combat sparing.

Sparing is when you get to kick and punch the other person and Hannah is good at that. She is very strong and knocked over a two different girls, one of them twice. Each time Hannah looked up at me and I just mouthed, "It's OK." I noticed that Hannah held back a little. What a sweet girl she is feeling bad when she kicks a girl down.

Andrew did really well also. I think his group was a little larger then Hannah's. There are a lot of boys that do taekwando. There was one boy that was really good. He did a harder form then the other boys and was pretty darn awesome. Jim called him Bruce Lee. Andrew does spare with higher belts in class, but he has always had his speed to make things a little even. But this kid was the same size and just as quick! Andrew had to work really hard. It was a great learning experience for him. Jim called Andrew Chuck Norris.

Natalie's group was only five girls. Not a lot of girls start Taekwando at her age. It was so layed back. The girls were really nervous and not very focused on being competitive. One girl forgot part of her form, burst into tears and let the mat to her parents. The judges came over and talked to her telling her that they had all messed up or forgotten something at one time or another. Everyone was kind and helpful. It was a nice relief after watching Hannah and Andrew's

There were two gyms to use at this tournament. I'm so grateful that were in the smaller one because it was HOT. For some reason they did not have the air conditioning on. When the kids took off their sparing gear they were covered in sweat! Yuck!

 Ah. The spoils!

Steelers Commercial

Here is a link to the commercial I participated in. You won't see the viola section because the camera is looking over the top of me at the second violins.

It was nearly two hours of filming for 3 seconds in the commercial.


http://www.steelers.com/videos/videos/Wear-What-We-Wear/241b233a-cf7b-405f-aeeb-57039f5fb864

Black September

This is such a busy time at the music store. September is basically Black Friday. It's crazy with all the parents and kids rushing in to rent their instrument of choice or changing to something new or getting a larger size. And you never know which instrument will be popular this year. Then it's hurry and order more of them before you run out. We can't seem to keep enough full sized cellos, 13" viola's and we have even run out of 1/2 size basses. We had to reorder drum kits and even ordered some bass clarinets. I like that we are getting new costumers but I hate spending the money because you don't earn it back for a few years. It's a long term investment that you hope doesn't get trashed.

What makes things difficult with having bran new shinny and clean instruments is renting to the kid who doesn't listen to a thing you say and the parent does nothing to help the child act appropriately. Goodbye you lovely instrument! And when you return I will do my best to smooth out the bent bell, and clean the seized keys. Will clean off a years worth of rosin dust, and smooth the dents and scratches.Goodbye...goodbye...

Sleeping in is not always a good idea

I slept in on Saturday. 

The kids did not.

A lot can happen in those early morning hours. I think the minutes must be farther apart, because you can get more done in morning hours then you can in afternoon or evening hours. They really are not the same. And anybody who tells you the hours are the same is trying to sale you something. 

Like a clock.  

It wasn't a horrible mess and it didn't take long to clean up but I am always amazed at the things the kids come up with in the mornings.

When the girls were young you could wake up to some wonderful surprise. If I ever woke up and heard the kids up I always sprinted out of my bed to make sure there wasn't something big going on. The girls loved to take everything out of their closets and drawers and make a large pile in the middle of the room and bury themselves hoping I would have no idea where they were. Never worked, the poor dears...

Andrew has always been a little more focused on food the the girls. He would wake up hungry and if I wasn't fast enough he would take care of it. He also had a fetish for knifes. The bigger the better. The wonderful thing now is that if I sleep in Andrew brings me breakfast in bed. I've had toast, cereal, milk, water, tea, pickles, carrot sticks, salad, olives, sliced cheese. He's great!

This time it was Hannah who was up early and the weapon was scissors.

 

 Hannah made a wig and a loin cloth/grass skirt for her bear.

She made a "George Washington" wig for the tiger.

The only clean-up was all the little yarn fuzz and pieces all over the front room. Lots of little pieces... to get the hair length just right.

Spring/Summer trips

I'm trying not to worry about all the things I have missed posting about but I do want to try to get the summer activities in before Fall is here.

The truth is I have come to realize that each post is a journal entry. The other day I caught the kids all huddled around the computer laughing. Natalie had gone onto my blog and the kids were slowly going black in time reading each posts. The kiddos have remembered family stories that we haven't talked about in a while and the kids get to quote themselves and each other.

 It was an eye opener for me and it scared me to death. Oh dear! I really need to make sure I have someway of saving all this.

Back to the summer outings...
For spring break we first went north to the Hill Cumorah, the Smith Farm, printing shop, then we drove to the Falls.

I really enjoyed the Print shop! There were three stories to visit and to protect the original building the church just built the new larger building over the top. There is a building within a building.

 It was so foggy that we couldn't see a thing!!

I had forgotten that NY had received a TON of snow this winter. Most of the walkways were still buried in snow. The snow left looked like glaciers.


The outer Banks. AWESOME

Stopped at the temple on our way home.

It has been a good summer and I'm sorry to see it go.
Goodbye carefree life,
Goodbye sun.
Goodbye hot dog bun

Goodnight house
goodnight mouse...
goodnight kittens
goodnight mittens...
goodnight mush
goodnight old lady whispering hush...


Sorry guys! I wrote those first two goodbyes and it reminded me of a story I have read over and over to the kids.