Sunday, March 30, 2014

what a weekend!

It was a busy, but wonderful weekend.  Hubs dad came over Friday night and we went to a fish fry before going to watch WE & co in their senior class play.  After their disastrous dress rehearsal on Wednesday, I felt it was only fair to warn the poor man that he should not be expecting Broadway quality work by any means, but we were all pleasantly surprised by the play.  Since things were such a mess on Wednesday, the kids really stepped up to the plate to pull the show together - I guess they realized they would look like utter idiots if they didn't at least have some of their lines memorized.  They did an awesome job and had the audience laughing both at the play itself and the kid's screw-ups onstage.  They had a great first performance, though there were a whole lot of lines skipped, which made the storyline a little bit confusing to the audience, but we all just rolled with it.  Then came Saturday nights performance and the kids really cut loose.  Rent-a-Grandma came and watched that one with us.  I'm so glad we went to both performances, Friday the kids stuck as close to the script as they were able (which was challenging since they hadn't memorized the script real well), but Saturday night they decided to play a bit.  Because we had seen how the whole thing was supposed to go on Friday, when they added new things on Saturday, we were really laughing, which I'm sure confused those who hadn't seen the first performance, since though what was going on onstage was funny, it certainly wasn't snort-inducing, unless you knew the kids were totally ad-libbing at spots to compensate for their personalized script adjustments. They had kids wandering into scenes that weren't supposed to be there, saying random lines, kids eating the food props onstage and all kinds of crazy stuff that sent the actors into onstage giggle fits.  There were a few unintended guffaws as well when WE's hat got tangled up in the fishing line strung across the stage to support some of the props, he was stuck there until someone got him untangled. WE also manged to accidentally kick a telephone offstage when he jumped up on a table.  It was pretty funny and everyone had a great time.  But, after having the play consume a good chunk of his life in the last 3 weeks I think WE's pretty glad it's all over.

Saturday was also music solo & ensemble.  Angel #4 sang a trio with 2 of her friends and got a '1', which is the highest score you can get.  It was a Class B song though, so it didn't qualify them to perform at the state level.  However, she also had a solo that she sang beautifully, a Class A, which she also got a '1' on which DOES qualify her for state, so she'll be singing again next month at the next level.  We're so proud of her, she's got such an incredible voice.  I'm not sure who she gets it from because neither hubs or I can sing a decent sounding note, as a matter of face, she herself, pretty much had a tin ear when she was little and could massacre a song along with the best of them.  She sure can raise the roof now though. She's got a really strong voice that tends to overpower anyone she sings with, but there's one boy in school who also had a big voice and I think it would be so awesome for the two of them to get together and really blow the walls down.  Maybe next year.  I'd also like to see her compete at musical theater, which is singing a song from a musical and adding appropriate movement along with it.  Since she's only a freshmen, she's got 3 more years of opportunity to do so many interesting things with her singing, I can't wait to see where she goes with it.  She was one of only 2 freshmen in our school who qualified to compete at state, the rest were juniors and seniors.  The other was Noah, a drummer who can really get things rolling.  He was a little concerned about how his performance was going to be on Saturday since he'd practiced so hard in the days leading up to Solo/ensemble that he literally got blisters on his fingers from holding the drumsticks, but he managed to work through the uncomfortableness and showed those judges how a wield a pair of drumsticks.

I was so proud of both of my talented kids this weekend.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Volley ball and ghost stories

Last night, WE played in a blind man's volley ball tournament.  It's volleyball with a few tweaks, like the net is set really high and is covered with a tarp so you can't see what the other team is doing.  Also, in this case, all the players were required to wear mittens.  The kids had a great time and took 2nd place, the prize being a bunch of pizzas, which they demolished right after the tournament was over.  Afterwards, they sat around and told ghost stories.  According to WE, his buddy Mitch, does a lot of camping, so knows a lot of ghost stories and he's really good at telling them.  So good, in fact, that when it was time to go home, no one wanted to be the only car on the road and run the risk of running into the faceless boy who haunts Round Lake Road or any of the other local spooks Mitch told them about.  So, the kids drove around in a caravan, going from house to house dropping off their friends.  Someone eventually had to drive home by themselves, I'm guessing it was Mitch since it was his stories that freaked everyone out in the first place.  Those kids are so stinking funny.

Angel #4 went to an overnight FFA event this weekend.  I'm not sure what she did there, but any event where you can spend the night in a hotel with a bunch of your friends is bound to be a good time.

Hubs just got back from San Antonio, TX, where he participated in the World Series of Comedy.  Angel #2 drove out there to hang out with him, but that didn't last long.  She was helping out in the comedy club where the event was taking place and met a few of the comics and it didn't take long for her to ditch her dad and go hang out with the younger, better looking (in her opinion) comics.  One of the guys made it to the finals and tonight will be competing for the chance to go on to Las Vegas.  So not only is he younger and better looking, but he's also funnier than hubs.  Her dear old dad didn't stand a chance against competition like that.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Disco Days

I'm not sure what the occasion is, but the middle school is having special "days".  Yesterday was camouflage day and today, I discovered was disco day.  When the middle school came into the lunch room, I heard loud music start.  I was back washing dishes, so the noise of the dishwasher made it so I couldn't hear what was being played, but eventually, I ran out of dirty dishes and I could hear what was being played.  Then I really began to wonder....why were the middle schoolers listening to The Hustle??  That's when I found out it was Disco Day.  So I washed dishes to the tunes of the Bee Gees and Gloria Gaynor, and then, it came on.  The disco song that defines disco songs...YMCA.   I was doing the dance in the dishwasher room, because it's physically impossible to NOT do the YMCA dance when that song comes on.  The middle schoolers were all dancing too, which made me laugh because I was their age when that song first became popular.  I can remember dancing to that song in MY school gym about a million years ago and here we are, about 35 years later, and middle school kids are still doing the YMCA dance.  Heck, some of those kids parents weren't even born yet when that song came out.  I'll just go get my cane and prune juice now, it's all over.  The Village People may all be dead of aids now or whatever happened to them, but their music lives on forever, no matter how cheesy it is.  Long Live Disco!

Monday was the girls track meeting.   I'd just gone to the boys track meeting the Monday before, and since I've had a kid in track for the last 4 years, there really isn't a whole lot I don't know about being a track parent, but I go to the meetings because I should.  Also there was Super Mom.  You remember Super Mom, don't you?  She turned a 20 minute meeting into 45 minutes - it's like she's magic, only not like David Copperfield, but in a more boring, very much less sexy way.  She spent at least 5 minutes wondering about track meets scheduled the same time as state solo ensemble and forensics, on the remote chance that her freshman daughter may possible make it to state for either of those two events and not make a meet.  Deal with it IF it happens, lady.  And don't even get me going on the trainers vs sprinter shoe discussion or the plastic vs rubberized sole debate.  I pretty much wanted to poke out my ear drums with a #2 pencil.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Spring?

It got almost up to 50 degrees today, the ice is almost all melted off the driveway and track practice started.  I am tentatively calling this the beginning of spring.  After work I went outside and chopped ice in the driveway just so I had a reason to go outside and enjoy the sun and warmth.  It's been a cold miserable winter and I'll be more than happy to see it go away.  Of course, this is only temporary, we've got an expected high of 20 degrees on Wednesday and the track team didn't actually get to practice on the track since it's still covered in snow, but I can hope.

Talk about track, WE came home very excited on Friday.  He's been named co-captain of the track team and he's pretty happy about it.  Last year the coach didn't name a captain until the awards ceremony at the end of the season, which made no sense at all, and then he named a sophomore captain, which made even less sense.  I'm glad he realized that they really need a captain at the beginning of the season to help mentor the younger kids.  This is WE's 4th year in track and he's more than ready to take on the role as captain, especially since he's experienced after being the captain of the cross country team this fall.  As if that isn't enough on his plate, yesterday, the director of the senior class play stopped by to tell him that the lead of the play had to drop out due to family issues and she was wondering if he'd take over as lead.  He's not really too keen on the idea, he previously has a small part and was perfectly happy with that, but he didn't want to let the other kids down....and it didn't help that the director is also his girlfriend's mom and he really didn't want to get on her bad side either.  Not that she would hold it against him, she knows how busy he is, but, like I told him, she wouldn't have asked you if she didn't think you could handle it.  So now he's got to learn all the lines for the lead character...oh, did I tell you the play is in 2 1/2 weeks?  This should be interesting.

Angel #4 is also in track again this year.  Middle school track isn't quite a big deal, but now that she's in high school track, she's going to be expected to put some effort into things.  She's a thrower, which means that she won't have to do as much running as some of the kids, but it's still more exercise than she's used to.  But she needs something to keep her busy and she's got a pretty good arm.  I'm getting myself into a track frame of mind so I'm ready for the first meet.  In the past, our school has only participated in one freshman/sophomore meet, but we've got a good size number of freshmen going out this year, so there are 3 f/s meets on the roster as well as 3 home meets.  Looks like I'm going to have a busy spring, I just hope the weather cooperates.  In case it doesn't, I signed up to help sell concessions, I've learned that it's a whole heck of a lot warmer hanging out in the concession stand than it is in the bleachers.  That's the kind of things you pick up on when you're an experienced track mom.

It's become obvious to me that some kids just aren't too bright.  WE and his 3 buddies, the guys who turned the computer lab into a disco a couple weeks ago, are still at it.  Today, they were placing bets on who could drink half a cup of melted butter the fastest.  WE also was going to down a raw egg, but for some reason, the teacher kept hanging around their cooking station...I can't imagine why.  I guess she's realized that sometimes senior boys need more supervision than pre-schoolers.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Snakes(?) on a plane???

So, this morning, wonderful wife that I am, I set my alarm for 3:30am and drove over snow covered, unplowed roads to get my husband to the airport so he can spend the next 2+ weeks in Hawaii.  Apparently, I'll do anything to get the whole bed to myself.  I shoveled some of the driveway before I headed off to work and really started wondering why in the heck I wasn't on the plane with him.  After this miserable winter, I've decided that we're definitely going to start living somewhere warmer in the winter after Angel #4 graduates from high school.  The problem is, I really like my house, my yard and garden, my chickens, my job and friends I have here.  I wish I could pick up the whole thing and just move it all to someplace warmer.

Hubs trip isn't all warmth and alohas though.  He just called from San Francisco, his final flight has been delayed.  A container of bees was being shipped from wherever the plane originated from, the container     tipped over and the whole cargo hold was full of bees.  They were waiting for a beekeeper to arrive to round up the bees so they could load up the passengers and get them all to Honolulu.  Hubs does get his share of weird travel stories.

My children are bound and determined to drive  me nuts.  All day Sunday, WE and Angel #4 were singing the "Do you Want to Build a Snowman?" song from the movie Frozen.  All.  Day.  WE would be up in his room and sing the first line really loudly, then #4 would respond from the kitchen with the next line and they'd go back and forth, some times they'd just sing it together.  All.  Day.   Then WE's girlfriend came over and she started doing it too.  And NO, I do NOT want to build a snowman.

Not only do I get abused at home, I get picked on at work as well.  I get free lunch at work, I keep containers at work and just put my lunch in one and take it home to eat since I'm done with work an hour before the rest of my co-workers and would have to eat by myself if I didn't.  Lately, I've just given one of my containers to Kay, one of my co-workers, who then makes a habit of waaaay overfilling my container.  It's usually so full I can't put the cover on my container.  Today, we had nachos supreme on the menu and also macaroni and cheese on the side for a 2nd option.  I gave Kay my container and asked her to give me some nachos and NO mac & cheese.  The common feeling among we lunch ladies is that the school mac & cheese is disgusting, but the kids like it, so we continue to make it.  So I grab my full container of food and head home.  It didn't take long to realize that Kay had put tortilla chips on the bottom, covered them with mac & cheese, then covered that with hamburger & cheese sauce so I didn't see the macaroni.  Macaroni and cheese nachos are gross, in case you wanted to know.  I will seek my revenge on Kay when she least expects it.  bwa-ha-ha

Tanya, yes, the general consensus is the the school librarian is wound  a little too tightly.  I'm guessing the foods teacher felt she shouldn't have to supervise four seventeen year old boys in the computer lab, but I'm guessing she never imagined they'd turn the computer lab into a disco. She told the boys that once they're allowed back on the computers they can use them for recipe searching only.  The fact that she's letting them all go back there again tells me that she wasn't too worked up over the whole thing.

This weekend was the state wrestling tournament.  Three of our wrestlers qualified, one of the boys didn't place at all, our heavyweight took a fourth and the third took first in the 170 weight class.  Yay Grant!!  We like to take a little bit of credit for Grant's great season since he was one of the boys who helped dig out the crawlspace in our basement this summer.  All that hauling of dirt up the cellar stairs bulked him right up so he could overpower the competition!