Sure enough, it's my little brother! Jon's biological age is finally meeting up with the level of maturity, calm, and steadfastness he's had since about middle school. Jon's always considered things wisely, never been hasty or impulsive, and has a great sense of humor that amazingly is never at anyone else's expense. He's just a great guy.
We pretty much got along well growing up (probably because he, being the not-so-hasty younger brother who considered things wisely, thought it might just be easier in the long run to do what his older sister said--I say this with shame, not pride), except for those tentative years in high school and college where we had to share a car. First it was the oh-so-sexy Pinto station wagon with the fake wood paneled sides. Eventually the driver's side door stopped working and you had to climb in "Dukes of Hazzard" style through the open window or crawl awkwardly from the passenger side. Then we upgraded to the powder blue Chevy Cavalier over which we fought when our social calendars collided (I think the upgrade helped our social calendars a lot.)
Those fights were almost as bad as the ones we had in middle school on Monday nights. We were allowed, growing up, to watch ONE hour of TV besides the Saturday morning cartoons, and of course, we both chose to watch DIFFERENT shows that BOTH aired at the SAME time on Monday. Jon chose "That's Incredible," and I wanted to watch "Little House on the Prairie." (I know you're shocked.) Mom and Dad settled this by making us take turns--Jon's show one week and mine the next--which worked out ok until my show had one of those "to be continued" episodes. You can imagine the bribery and arguing that ensued. I'm sure Jon's residual feelings over this were one of the reasons he was the first in line when TiVo came out.
Well, this past Sunday there was no arguing--just fun. Jon and Courtney and the kids came over a little early followed by the local family--Mom and Dad, Shelley, Joan and Steve and Georgia, and those Bisset cousins--Kate & Jay, Dave and Darcy, and their mom Barbara. And Barbara is now also a GRANDmom, as Darcy & Dave's little Eva was in tow--and I got to hold her for the first time! (Which I enjoyed immensely.) Dad showed slides (yes, with a projector!), Mom made Super Sinful Sunday Pie, all contributed to a wonderful buffet, and Courtney made the yellow cake that she let me frost--so fun, and check out how much of a TORCH it is with 40 candles on top! I regret that I don't have more pictures--I guess I spent most of the time in the kitchen, and I missed the sporting group in the living room: Kate, Dave, and Barbara, and I think because Mom, Joan, and I were all taking pictures at the same time, we were not IN each other's pictures. I wish I'd snapped a few more--so sorry.
The kids were amazing. We've finally reached the point where they'll play together for long stretches of time unsupervised, and it made me SO glad I'd re-organized and cleaned the basement as a playroom because they played down there and in the back yard a lot. Of course, Anna and Aidan are two of Evelyn and Amelia's favorite people, so that makes it all the easier.
Happy birthday, Jon. You're finally growing into the man you've always been. And speaking of pictures, you can find the birthday boy in the very first picture in the very back, holding Anna. :)
You never know what you might find, but you are always welcome. It was a weekend of company (Lindsy here Th night before flying to FL, 2 musicians Fri.-Mon.) and events (RVR for me Fri.-Sat., concert for Alan on Sun.), and life was in a bit of a swirl.
Lindsy flew back from FL yesterday and when she got to our house we were all pretty punchy. She'd been traveling all day, our house was a wreck, and we still had a musician house guest, so she & the girls & I walked to the grocery store. "The fresh air, walk, and 'normal' activity will do us some good," I thought.
We weren't in the store long before Amelia disappeared. (By the way, they did NOT go to the grocery store in their underwear. The picture was taken AFTER the trip to the store. Stripping to their undies is normal. Going to the store in them is not.) So Lindsy took the cart & I took Evelyn & we split up to look for her. I found her meandering in an aisle, knelt down and did the low-tone-firm-voice-don't-ever-wander-away-from-Mommy talk, then proceeded to locate Lindsy, which proved to be even harder than finding Amelia. Afterward Lindsy said she'd had this funny visual image in her head of the bird's-eye view of us continually moving and missing one another in the aisles of the store.
At one point, I was walking swiftly down the meat aisle with a kid on each hand and I heard this "'scuse me! 'scuse me!" and had that sudden realization that the speaker was talking to ME. I turned around and this girl (who'd obviously been tailing me longer than she'd have liked) was moving towards me with Amelia's shoes in her hand. "Your daughter's got no shoes on," she said, handing them to me. I looked at Amelia's bare feet, laughed a silly, self-conscious, too-loud laugh, thanked the girl with way too much white-lady enthusiasm, and then wondered how Amelia could have walked right out of her shoes and never said boo about it.
We finally found Lindsy, got through checkout, and were walking home when Evelyn disappeared. She'd popped in to visit with the friendly, accented proprietor of the Near East Bakery, who knows us well. (He'd know us better if he accepted credit cards.) Lindsy, Amelia and I stopped and turned around in time to see Evelyn coming out of the store waving goodbye to the man. He stuck his head out the door, smiling and waving, and suddenly Evelyn stopped in her tracks. She ran back to the Near East Bakery man with her arms outstretched. He stretched his arms out to her, they embraced, and then she kissed him right on the mouth.
Ah, yes, a touch of "normal" in an otherwise pretty busy weekend. At least we got to see Lindsy!!
...invite the Smith kids! (From 2 weeks ago when Josh & Christine were over.)
Last Sunday Evelyn and I were working in the back yard together, and she came up and said, "Mom, I'm going to miss you when I get married and have my own house."
"I'm going to miss you, too."
"But you can come visit me every day and bring me flowers for my jar."
Just tucking that away. My parents are so good at bringing things when they visit--leftovers, hand-me-downs, random grocery items, yard sale bargains--and I love those things! But I'll have to remember that my daughter prefers flowers.
Pre-school! Tuesday was Evelyn's 1st day at Calvary Lutheran School (where I happened to go for K-3!) She wanted a "horse and flower" backpack, so, as a procrastinator-extraordinaire, I got out the sewing machine on Monday and she was quite excited to put it on in the morning. She picked out her clothes, her breakfast (waffles), and had no problem going to class. When we picked her up at 11:30, the note in her folder said, "We had a wonderful day. Evelyn is anxious to be the line leader." Her favorite part of the day? Snack.
Then there's Amelia. She didn't seem nervous, and was VERY excited to drag the Dora bag that Aunt Lisa gave her. (She SLEPT with it the first night. Alan and I were startled awake at 5:15 a.m. by the sound of it rolling into the bathroom.)Amelia's chose "soft oatmeal" for her 1st-day- of-school breakfast on Wednesday (which means it's made on the stovetop, not in the microwave), and, while not willing to smile or talk, was non-plussed about going to school. She went into her classroom, found her cubby, her nametag, and sat right down to do what turned out to be HER favorite part of the day, making a necklace. She goes M, W, F mornings and Ev goes every morning. No note from her teacher, but she said she has a classmate named George and when she came home, she sat right down at the bookshelf, pulled off a book and made up a whole story with her teacher as the main character. That's a good sign.
I've been very impressed with the kindness of the teachers and staff, and the principal stands at the door of the school every morning and greets each child BY NAME (K-5!) with a handshake. She also started the first welcome-back meeting with a devotional, and Evelyn's teacher started our personal parent-teacher meeting with prayer. I felt some emotion back in the spring when we were shopping for schools, but it's felt pretty natural sending them to school this week. (Doesn't hurt that they've had a good time so far!)
So thus begins a new chapter. Now I feel a little emotion. :)
So there's a parking lot across the street from our house. It used to belong to an estate recoveries business, but they moved and the place sat empty for a long time. This past summer, the neighborhood welcomed the 5th rated dance school in North America, and they spent weeks renovating & sprucing the place up. It's great!
While sending the girls for regular classes there is a little out of reach, they do host these great, free tea parties for local kids. We went last month and brought Sarah, a friend from church. The kids did a craft, were read a story by a "real ballerina", had punch & cookies in a decorated room, and then watched 1/2 hour of performances by the "big girls'" dance groups. Evelyn kept asking when it would be HER turn to dance and why SHE couldn't get out there. So I've included the video clip of her & Amelia out there for the "Zumba" demonstration. The instructor invited the dance girls and moms & dads in the audience to try this latest exercise trend, and I let the girls get out their "on stage" urges with the crowd. (I was not among them, and I'm not sure which was the more likely cause: the people who'd see me, or seeing MYSELF in that gigantic wall of mirrors.)
Just the other night, however, my friend Tamara (PE teacher at Battle Monument School, where I am back teaching 2 days a week), her teenage daughter and I tried a free Zumba class at the dance studio. It was good fun and my backside did feel like it had worked some neglected muscles the day after. Tamara's daughter, LaToya, when I asked how she like the class, said, "I kept looking at myself in that mirror and thinking I was Beyonce!" When I told this story to my friend, Laura, the other day, Laura laughed and said I should have responded, "Me, too!"
I'm bummed that I seem to have NO pictures from when Jen was visiting from NZ this summer. Her visit coincided with my weeks camping at RVR, and I guess I failed to take the camera (packing light??) Ugh. But Amelia did manage to take a few pictures (and some videos we THOUGHT were pictures) when we caught a tiny bit of Amy's recent visit. She was in town to go on the Zeigenfuse family vacation in the Outer Banks, and we got to spend a few hours with her and Laura at John & Peg's after they returned. The ties that bind are comfortable, for sure (and make you smile.)
Last week Evelyn went through a phase where all she wanted to wear were these tea towels that my ND friend, BethArlene, had made for us as a wedding present (in dark colors so they wouldn't show dirt & grime--I love that 11 years later we're still using them daily. Actually, some of them have served as valances in first our apartment and then our house. Hmmmm. Maybe these tea towels inspire creative and atypical uses!) Evelyn would bring us a towel to be tied in the back. I particularly like it paired with (during a heat wave) winter tights and plastic princess "glass" slippers. It is one of several of her choice of outfits we will have to gently explain to her will NOT be appropriate for her mornings at preschool, which start next week.
