Friday, May 15, 2009

A Few Meanderings for the Week

Here's a glimpse of what my life was like this week.  Starting with Sunday:  Mother's Day.

On Mother's Day (May 10th), I woke up to delicious pancakes (one cut in the shape of a heart:)) in bed made my dear husband at the urgings of my beloved daughter, Molly.   After enjoying the pancakes, I was a little thirsty so I wandered downstairs for some juice.    We then quickly got ready for church as I needed to be there early to play for sacrament meeting.  I was subbing for the regular organist and was pretty prepared with the hymns she had assigned me.  Unfortunately, the bishopric decided to change the opening hymn to one unfamiliar and I had to play an extra sacrament hymn as we were waiting for the bread to arrive.  Eee-gad!   The thanks I get for being willing to fill in last minute!   Good thing I was wearing good deodorant because I was sweating!   On a different note, should I be offended because I saw some mothers with a plastic box of chocolate-covered strawberries and others (like me) with none?!  What happened to the days of old-fashioned corsages or potted little plants for ALL the mothers in the audience.  I've mostly gotten over it though because Kevin gave me this cute little purse (picked out by me:)) from going-out-of-business Joe's and we all had a great time later in the afternoon down in McMinnville picnicking with my parents and Paul, Ellen and Cash.   I didn't get any photos of the park/picnic, but I think Ellen did.  Stay tuned to Ellen's blog (right, Ellen???:) 
As we were driving in the car, Kevin was trying to get the kids to tell  some of the things they love about me being their mother.  Keenan, of course, didn't understand what was going on, but Molly came up with a few things including: "she plays with us" and "she's nice" and "she feeds us breakfast" and "she takes me to school."  Yep, I'm a chauffeur, chef and friendly play date all in one.   With all of these qualities (and more!) I think that Mother's Day should be celebrated on more than just one day of the year.

On Wednesday my tennis team wrapped up the final match of our season.  We left Sunset Athletic Club with a win and a 3rd place (out of 9 teams) positioning.  We felt pretty proud of ourselves as this was our first year in the "E" league having moved up from "F" last year.   I have played with some of these ladies for over 8 years now and it has been a great, fun ride which I hope to never have to give up.  This summer I've joined a World Team Tennis team with some of these same ladies which I do believe will also be very fun.  

On Wednesday night I also attended an orientation for a bilingual--spanish--magnet school which Molly had recently been accepted into.   This was a VERY tough decision to make as Molly would have to change schools, speak and learn to read/write ONLY spanish until 3rd grade AND be taught to do all this in a classroom where spanish will be spoken by her teacher 90% of the time!  Can you imagine?!  Well. . . we are giving it a go and committing Molly/ourselves to the next 5 years at this school and hope that Molly won't hate us for doing so.   We're trying to think of the future and the great skill/value of being bilingual.  I mean, Paul, Jesse, Scott, etc--aren't you glad you became fluent in Spanish?   I know I'm glad I learned all the Spanish and Cantonese that I did, but wish I was fluent like Molly will most likely be by the time she is 13.   I'm trying to convince myself that we are doing the right thing. . . 

On Thursday my parents came to Portland to do some temple work and spend the evening/night with us.  We had a delicious meal at Sweet Tomatoes (sorry you missed out Kevin) and then after the kids went to bed played 3 games of Settlers until 1:00 in the morning.   Love those late nights!  (Especially when I win 2 out of 3 games:))   Earlier in the evening, however, we stopped at K-Mart (grandpa forgot his toothbrush) and Grandma, Molly and I helped Keenan pick out his first big boy underwear (Yes Ellen, you've inspired us).   Keenan had used the potty a few times successfully (as shown below) and thought it might be time.  Well. . . . he went through 2 pairs of Diego underwear within the first couple of hours of wearing them and then tonight as he had just put on his last clean pair, he is running around the living room when I see a couple of brown bouncy-ball size brown pellets fall out of his underwear.  Gross!  Molly laughed loudly and Keenan took off up stairs to the bathroom.  After I emptied the remaining pellets from his underwear into the toilet I said, "That's it!  No more Diego's for you!"  . . . For a few days at least.  Potty training is an exhausting, disgusting job.  As I was picking those poop pellets up I felt like one of those dog owners who carries bags with them as they are out walking their dog in case their dog does their thing.   Only in this case, I have to shampoo the carpet too.  Ugh!  That will just have to wait til tomorrow:  "Everybody!  Wear socks!"  
You are a cute, little imp.  

And finally, American Idol (of course).  Danny's gone.  As much as I loved his You Are So Beautiful rendition, I enjoyed Kris Allen's Heartless better and voted for him Tuesday night all through the second hour of "The Biggest Loser."   Like Randy said, Kris is "current" making him a major draw for younger viewers (plus his boyish good looks can't hurt:)) and over the past several weeks his artistry has led me to favor him over Danny.   Danny--farewell to your well-tuned raspy voice.    Kris--knock Adam dead next week!   I think he can do it if Adam chooses to feature his wild, over-the-top tongue-thrusting side.  We shall see. . . 

4 comments:

  1. Big post, you go, sister. Yeah, I liked Danny's 2nd song a lot but was not sad to see him go at this point. I was predicting that Adam would go home. I think Kris will win because he has the whole of the South voting for him and most, if not all of the AI winners have been from or near the South.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still rooting for Glambert, what can I say? His rendition of Mad World was amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And oh, I can sympathize with the stress of having them change the songs on you. Especially when on the organ. Do you do the foot pedals? I took an organ class at BYU but I haven't played one with pedals since then really

    ReplyDelete
  4. Adam's rendition of Mad World WAS amazing (I downloaded the video off of I-tunes), but like Simon said, you either like him or you don't and the don'ts may big enough to not give him the win.

    Re: the organ. I don't play it. I just play the piano. I also took the organ class at BYU, but probably only learned one hymn. That instrument is hard!

    ReplyDelete