Tomorrow night will be the big shiny concert night for the band, the choir, and the 5th grade classes. Last Tuesday's concert went really well, the kids all sang out and the music teacher and I got mini-poinsettias. There was a car on fire in the school parking lot about a half-hour before the concert started... it belonged to one of the substitutes, and it burned up because of an electrical problem. R still likes to talk about the CAR, on FIRE, and the MOKE!
Hearing the band rehearse today reminded me of 5th grade, Mr. Hill in his powder-blue
polyester tuxedo, and the impatient tap-tap-tapping of his conductor's baton on the music stand... the plodding tempo of all of us beginner musicians trying to make it to the next measure. Elementary bands always suck. Listening to them is hilarious, and torturous. I hope my kids get to be band geeks too, really.Happy Belated Birthday to Uncle Brian! We might get your (and Missy's) birthday card in the mail along with the Christmas cards.
There are 10 days until Christmas... We have a decorated sparsely-limbed tree up. Instead of wandering around somewhere north of Palmer looking for a tree, this year K found a U-cut lot about 5-minutes' drive from here. It was pretty fun except for having to listen to a grumpy daughter moaning over and over, "Let's just go to Home DEEpo-o-o-o".
She has an appreciation for full, symmetrical, beautiful trees but those don't grow in the woods around Wasilla. So, now I just have to finish up shopping for gifts and I have to make some cookies.
We've been having some dog issues lately. Just after it started getting really cold at night, while K was in Japan, I moved the dog in and went a little OCD trying to handle the dog smell and dog hair. I didn't realize (no experience here) that he was "blowing his coat" which basically means he was shedding every hair on his body to make room for more hair. The groomer I took him to was shocked at how dry his skin was (again clueless dog-owner) and said to feed him fish oil. That craziness passed, but Chena still needed some attention I guess, because he got into garbage, knocked things off the table while we were away, ate half a loaf of bread, stole pancakes... K's got him mostly under control now - I won't take him out to do his business anymore, he just runs away from me - but he's coming back around to smelling like a nasty old forgotten towel. I think that I like to think of myself as a dog-person, and tell other people that I'm a dog-person, but I am not, at all, a dog-person. I grew up in houses full of dogs and birds and fish, but none of that prepared me for having to actually be responsible for a smelly pet who steals food and runs away.
In the parenting department... we're celebrating Little Dude's slow but steady climb to the rank of Big Boy. We haven't experienced a Category Five Fecal Catastrophe in ages, or even a Category One really, since he's figured out how to poop in the potty, consistently. Peeing is not as easy to figure out I guess but he's catching on, little by little.
The girls are still enjoying school but they're pretty thrilled that they get a couple of weeks off, starting Thursday afternoon. Ballet and soccer are on hold until next month, and Girl Scouts will take time off after Saturday. I'm a little concerned about the fighting I know will resume at 4pm on Thursday. Maybe I can have K make a little penalty-box in a corner of the kitchen, and keep one girl there while the other one helps make cookies, then switch 'em out.
No comments:
Post a Comment