Monday, April 30, 2012

Music Festival and company

This weekend Washington had music on the waterfront...
it was GREAT!
It was an escape from what is our usual routine in our teensy pueblo.
People from the outside even came here!---and not just the
ones who were our company. ;)
ha!
Our company:
Andy's good buddy, Josh, and his wife Andrea who is going to have a baby in August! :)
We went attic diving and pulled out some goodies for her.
The music...well, click this link.
The music was great!
The band I paid attention to was
http://www.mandolinorange.com/

They were super!

Here is our waterfront where they played:
I wish this were a picture of the pavilion etc.
The sound was great.
We sat on a porch of a cafe across the road and we could everything well.
Then we went over to the Gazebo where the bands set up and there were tents and chairs set up!
It was all impressive, to say the least.
Josh and Andrea marveled at the smallness of it all...
Then, Sunday A.M. we all got up, cooked a huge breakfast, and they left! ;)
They went back to Blacksburg, VA.

When it's not your fault {but it is}

I am knowing more and more that life is just to teach us
new stuff each day....that is its purpose, for sure!
Friday I learned that sometimes it is clearly not your fault, but {it just is}.
{some} dollars later...
I knew I was not going to worry any longer!!
I mean --I was relieved.
Lawyers are on my list of people to stay away from...but sometimes, they
are just the people you need.
No problem, he said!
It will be dismissed!
Just go pay the guy at the front desk {some}dollars, and
I will go to court and this will be handled, he said!!
I mean is that amazing to anyone else?
All that worry, all that anguish...
and {some} dollars later, problem solved, problem solved!

He did agree with me, that getting hit in the side was not my fault.
He looked at the pictures etc.
Then he told me why they would say it was my fault {anyway}.
Totally not fair, but then again...many things are not fair!!
Who cares?
After our little chat, and the payment of a fee...
I certainly did not any more.
I was off to get a Starbucks treat and do some
Mommy shopping, and Loft had all their stuff 40% off...
So, our weekend started off {just right}.


Monday, April 23, 2012

Things {not} to do when you have PMS

Not for guys. :)

Watch the explorer channel shows where mother animals give birth and then a predator animal
eats the baby--I mean giving birth--just DOES NOT need to be filmed--no matter what
the species...
let's leave a little to the imagination...
Don't we all know that they baby giraffe comes out and is swaddled in a fuzzy, pink, monogrammed blanket?
hello!!??

Go to the ball field in the rain and cold when it is 7:15PM (hello, bed time, anyone??--at 7:15 we are going to
bed soon around here...)--and be in the rain and cold...AND YOU JUST WORKED ALL DAY!!
Did I mention {ever} that ball games are just {NOT} my deal???
Well, now I have--esp. with PMS!!!
frowns and frowns abound.

get near lots of food

do anything but the bare minimum to get through the day--
hey some people do this EVERY day--I guess I can claim a couple days per month,
no?

ummm....
oh, and one more!

Talk {out loud} at the ball field.

Yeah...that covers it. ;)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

What's been going on??

Well here is the photographic version of what we have been up to.
I finally got the chance to upload some pictures--so here they are. :)


 Elena struck this pose when she got into the boat...look familiar?  I am sure it does!  Funny thing..she has certainly never seen that movie. :)  That must be a natural thing to want to do when a person goes to the bow of a boat?? ha!
 Can you see how excited everyone was?? Look at our faces and grins!



 After baseball, at the park, playing--V-man and some friends.
 This was Elena after Steppin Out last night.  Steppin out is sort of a talent show night/fundraiser that is hosted by an {educational foundation} here in our county.  It was held at the WHS auditorium and
it featured perfomances by children at each school.  The children were picked by their music staff (whoever that person might be) at their school.   Elena's school performed a number called "hip hop bunny"
It was cute, as you can probably imagine!
Today we are off to the baseball field again, and I have to be the dugout girl..
Yikes!!
That particular sort of task --gives me anxiety.
I much prefer, if I have to be at the ball field, vamos--to be on the bleacher hollering
out encouraging things.  Yeah, that is what I like.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hold the fries {please}

I was just watching a video clip of a celeb who used to
be on my favorite soap when she was a little girl, and into her adolescence and she
was doing something that many celebrities do--that drives me crazy, and incidentally, ruins
their vocal chords.
It is called a glottal fry...and if you listen to celebrities in interviews it is easy to spot.
There is a certain vocal quality they are trying to pull off--the "I have a bit of
laryngitis/sexy gruff lady voice" and instead of crooning--they hold all of the
vocalized sounds on their vocal chords--and fry and hold--
It really makes me think of a fried egg when I hear it.
No, maybe not, b/c I like fried eggs.
These girls/women/men (usually not, but I have heard it) need
to hire a vocal coach--or a speech therapist to help rid them of this
bad habit.
Do you have glottal fry?  If you do, I would suggest not doing that
to your poor vocal chords (or folds if you want to say it the right way).
Instead of holding vowel sounds...let them flow freely.

That was sort of a soap box {mini}.

We have been having so many adventures lately that I have not posted!
Goodness! :)

I will be back soon with some good posts.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Money saver!!

Okay --I was really liking these
{sparkling waters} from Food Lion made by Knudsen brand. (3.99 for four of these sold in 10 oz.
cans)
They have organic essence of Cucumber, or Lemon, or Blueberry--and I
still do...but..
I thought on it a minute--or 45 if you add them all up-- and designed my own drink!!
Buy some Food Lion brand club soda--99cents a liter--and
buy a 1/2 gallon of Trop 50 raspberry green tea drink (very low cal, as it is sweetened with
stevia)
and make yo own sparkle beverage!!
A little of the juice goes a long way...unless your kids decide they like it too!!
Cheaper--and just as good!

{From Here} Edited

Yesterday my Mama and I went to take my children strawberry picking at a little
patch off the Black Road.
There are all these brothers and their last name is Black and they have always lived on that road
and that is the Black Road.
So, we went to pick strawberries....
Now, while we were there something happened b/t a customer and the farmer that made me think
of this passage in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.
Here is the passage:
The only useful generalization I'd hazard about rural politics is that they tend to break on the line of "insider" vs. "outsider."  When my country neighbors sit down with a new social group, the first question they ask one another is not "What do you do?" but rather, "Who are your people?" Commonly we will spend more than the first ten minutes of a new acquaintance tracing how our families might be related.  If not by blood, then by marriage.  Failing that, by identifying someone significant we have known in common.  Only after this ritual of familial placing does the conversation comfortably move on to other subjects.  I am blessed with an ancestor who was the physician in this county from about 1910 into the 1940's.  From older people I'll often hear of some memorably dire birth or farm accident to which my great uncle was called;  lucky for me he was skilled and Hippocratic.  But even a criminal ancestor will get you insider status, among the forgiving.  Not so lucky are those who move here with no identifiable family ties.  Such a dark horse is likely to remain "the new fellow" for the rest of his natural life, even if he arrived in his prime and lives to be a hundred.
So, I thought of that passage when I was witnessing the misbehavior
of a yankee on the Black road trying to purchase her quart of berries.
1.  She could not wait her turn.
2.  She grumbled aloud when someone would not hurry up.
3.  She was not minding her own business.

It seems like people of the northern persuasion who move here just cannot get it.
We really --and this is mean--do not want to make friends with you until you
AT LEAST PROVE YOU CAN BE FRIENDLY.
I mean the lady wanted to buy a quart of berries, and she went to the table.  The farmer
--who has known my family for a very long time--and I were visiting.  We were having a chat--
just a small one (30 seconds or so), and this lady kept butting in....my berry price had to be adjusted
b/c he charged me the amount for people who buy the already picked ones...you could see
it all over her face that she suspected him of giving me an undue deal..
well, he was not, but if he were that would be --NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Then we kept talking and right in the middle of it she wanted to pay--and then
she interrupted AGAIN for some cellophane.
The farmer never even looked up at her.
I mean around here we do what is called --stand there and shut up and wait your
turn.  No grumbling.  No interrupting.  Just wait.
If you do not play by that rule--you are a bother.  We don't look up.
She walked away from the table very sassy like and grumbling and the farmer
never even commented or batted an eye--not worth it.

That B. Kingsolver quote is sandwiched in there b/c I think all of this ties together.
That lady did not get it.
AND--she does not even know to stand back a bit and try to figure it out....

After I wrote this post I realized that in B. Kingsolver's book her distinction is mostly made b/t the urban folk, and the rural folk.  I think this is a fallacy in my thinking that is permanent--that Yankees are urban and Southerners are rural--and that is not the case.
One can travel in our state of N.C. and find the urban mindset---the inpatient but in folks--and 
I am sure that one could travel mas arriba del mason dixon line y find la gente bien paisana.
So, in an effort to not sound--well, to not misuse a wonderful quote that I can certainly relate to, I felt I should divulge my treadmill revelation! :)

Friday, April 6, 2012

Mama!!!! {the reporter}

Came the call the other day when Andy was probably at work...
Mama!!!
Elena came cruising into the living room to report to me that
V-man and Eva were....
Riding their tricycles on the trampoline..
hmm..
First I thought...This must be stopped at once!
"How did they get the tricycles onto the trampoline?"
"Victor put them up there"
Picture us in motion to the back door...
Then:






 That was what I saw!
Ha!
I stood and laughed to myself for a minute, how cute! And then I thought...well, it's not over the weight limit, and wheels from tricycles will certainly not ruin the trampoline...so GO FOR IT!
Then, my little {reporter} had to jump on with another tricycle and have a go at it.
I wanted to do it myself..but then that {would} have been over the weight limit, and..
I'm a rules girl! ;).

 These were taken just this afternoon.  Andy was about to leave for work and we were
enjoying some coffee..My eyes kind of look like they are full of caffeine --and with good
reason!
I have just put a set of pictures up...so I will update a bit,
quizas!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Needing a break!

I cannot remember a time when I have been so run down from school...
maybe last year this time?
Today my mind was mush, luckily the students were having fun doing springy, eggy things...so
my mind being elsewhere was not too much of a problem.
It was cold here today!  So that meant the children were running around outside shivering
in their spring clothes, and I was too.  I just wanted to be cozy under a blanket!

My mind was wandering to the beach where we will be next week--beginning Saturday.
A cold Easter at the beach can be fun, it might not be cold, but either way, we will have fun!
When I was little we went whether it was going to be cold, or not...
NorEaster or Warm Easter, we were at the beach, and I am thinking it will be the same for my
children, as I can hardly wait to get to the cottage!

We have a new addition to the family--Tommy Boy!
Andy is working this one out.  He has wanted a boat ever since we moved home, and he
finally got his wish!  We cannot wait to go riding in the river. :) Yippie!!
The deal is still in the process of working itself out, but we are {pretty sure} it is all worked out.
So I did feel comfortable posting this.

On to other matters...I have several soap box rants and news items I would like to share
or go on about, but those topics don't mix well with this one, so I will not do that right now.
I will just keep those to myself....I know you cannot wait! :) ha!

Spot on!

Spot is our family's chihuahua.  He is what we call, "an evil dictator/stuffed animal come to life".  Sometimes, after he has ...