It's Element ally

Leon was better on Friday and went back to school.    He was here for supper too and said that e did NOT want my homemade pizza!!!  So I said fine.  He gets  burger.  Which he dissed the next day too...  

I'm either batting a zero or he is...

So Friday night, I made a cauliflower crust pizza with pepperonis on half for me and the other half for Robb and Leon had the burger.  He asked me what my pizza tasted like and I gave him a tiny piece.  He LIKED it!!  

Hey MIKEY!!!

So he ate the rest of my slice.  Can you believe it?!!  He ate a vegetable willingly!!!

On Saturday, he and I went to his dad's restaurant and met up with Meri.  We had second breakfast until his dad got done with his work at 11. 

So Leon went home with his dad for a little while and Meri and I went grocery shopping for her kitchen.  

I took Leon to his mom's then and met back up with Meri to see a matinee.  We saw The Meg.  And a friend is right.  It was much better than Jaws and a lot more fun!  Meri and I jumped even when we KNEW what was going to happen from the preview.

I think the funnest, most upbeat part of the movie is when they played Hey Mickey, You're So Fine in another language.  

Meri and I think she needs to use that version for her America's Got Talent audition!  Or this.

 She's still contemplating many different songs, but wouldn't this be awesome?
Apparently an Armenian girl nailed it in the Voice a while ago, but Meri could SO make this her own!  She'd need a shorter version, naturally...

Sunday, I was able to relax JUST a little until Robb brought Leon and his brother home.  Finn is staying with us until Tuesday.  He's playing with ALL of Leon's toys right behind me as I type.

He gets SO aggravated when he can't figure out how to make a car again after making a man out of Leon's transformers.  And he's ticked that I can't (or won't ) figure it out for him.

You can definitely tell he was not raised in this home.

So last night, I had gotten Leon some chili dog sauce because he's been begging me to save some of my Wendy's chili for that all week.  Nope, I'mma eatin' it all...  WITH hotsauce!!!

Leon said that he actually didn't want to try chili dogs yet, instead requesting that I make cauliflower pizza again.  REALLY?!  Ok...  I made a smallish one that he ate half of and then asked for some of the pizza bread that I'd made for his brother.  There was plenty as I had anticipated that.

I think I need to figure out how to make a broccoli crust next.

So, when's the NEXT weekend?

A Pattern of Weirdness

On Saturday, I made sure all my sewing projects were ironed and hung up nicely.  I gathered them all up in a huge garment bag and hauled them to the State Fair.  As I was checking them in, I realized I'd left the shark bag on the couch at home...  

REALLY?!!!

Oh well.  The fleece was a bit fuzzy from being loved over the winter time but I'd washed it and got all the cat hair off...  sigh.

Ok.  So I have NINE things entered this year instead of the ten that I'd hoped for...  

The free viewing of the entries and their placings are in another week so I'll take pics of my entries then.  I have to anyway, otherwise Robb won't know which ones to pick up on "take it all home" day.

I got home in time to shower and get ready for a wedding that Meri was singing in.  I didn't know the bride or her mom until a couple weeks ago but I've known the dad as he was the middle school science teacher for many many years.

Meri was pretty nervous.  She sat on a chair at the front of the church next to the piano player.  The bride's mom had me sit in a reserved seat but Meri's two friends that wanted to come along had to sit behind me.  So most of the time when Meri was smiling or mouthing things to me, she was really responding to them.

You talking to ME?!

Since it was a local wedding, we saw lots of people we knew and I even hugged a few.  That'll never happen again, I'm sure.  One was a middle school history teacher that had spearheaded the Washington DC trip that Ryan went on years ago.

She was great!  I think she retired right after Ryan went to high school.  There was a pattern of retirements when Ryan finished a grade... Clear from kindergarten.

Since we didn't think we'd know anyone, we had told the bride that we wouldn't be going to the reception, so we took off.  Robb had a fantastic pork loin in the crock pot and wow did that turn out good!

On Sunday after church, he and I went to the 10:20am showing of the new Mission Impossible movie.  Who knew the movies showed so early?!  Perfect timing!  We might have to do that again before the fall church hours start back up.  We chowed down on a huge tub of buttery/salty popcorn AND it's free refill.  Looking back now, I guess we didn't eat lunch when we got home.  So that was our lunch!  

And I'm ok with that.  However I'm sure the diet needs to start again today after 1pm as I have a lunch date.

Two more days of having Meri home.  Sigh.

It's going to be weirder than this pic.

A Tornado Runs Through It

Yesterday afternoon my phone got a tornado message in our county.  I looked outside and there was a blue sky with a few tuffs of clouds here or there with no danger in sight.  And we have fields across from our house, so we can see for miles.  nothing...  I even went out on the deck and listened and watched for a few minutes.  

And then the siren uptown went off.  Since the air was so still, I figured it was a fire siren.  Someone was struggling with flames or something...  I went back in to work.

Later that evening, when Meri and I were headed out, my sister called and asked how we had fared with the tornados.  Wha?...  Apparently one town about an hour and a half away got nailed big time.  Then later on FB, some friends posted pics of this one close to our town.  

YIKES!  Those sirens WEREN'T about a fire after all!  

I need to listen and go downstairs next time...

 My tornado dreams are going to start up again... I just know it.

Oh!  Our county fair is this weekend.  And since Meri forgot to get her photos printed for the photography deadline, the Share the Fun entry was the only thing that she's doing for it.

She had signed up with one song, then last week was hit with an inspiration to write another.  And she did that one instead.  

She got a alternate State Fair ribbon, meaning if one of the three chosen for the state fair can't go, then they'll call her or another duet group.  

Meri wasn't TOO put out about not going to the state fair, but would have liked to.  She was more upset that the judge didn't write WHY she got the scores that she did.  Why did she lose a point here or there?  More comments and feedback would be good if you're a judge and reading this...  She wants to improve and can't do that if someone just writes "nice song" on the sheet.

Oh well, we headed home shortly afterwards.  

With a Bang

So I actually went out to my office last week to find something sewing related and came across this empty diary book.  Leon had wanted a journal, so I gave it to him.   APPARENTLY it wasn't the kind he'd asked me for and had a melt down..  His dad talked to him about being grateful and he later came into my room where I was sewing and showed me what he'd written in it so far.

I luv you.

I luv your food.

I luv the boox.

I luv the resturons that u take me to.

I leuv estre with you.

I luv crismis with you.

I luv the toys that you get me.

I luv woching Benji with you.

I luv goin to the library.

I luv go to the pork.

You are forgiven!

And that last word is "park" not "pork".

On Friday night, Meri and Briar came over for a fitting for Briar.  I made notes of the changes I needed to make and then we played Catan for a while.  He's starting to warm up to us.

On Saturday, Robb and I were going to drive separate cars, but the mini-van wouldn't start.  

Mental note to NOT leave the adapter plugged in...

We put the 4 baskets of sodden clothes in it anyway (our dryer is still on the fritz until the parts come) and headed off to Meri's solo/ensemble competition about 40 minutes away.  

Isn't the valley pretty? There is a ski place at the bottom where they manufacture their own snow when there isn't enough normally.  What silly people...  I want spring!!!

Meri had left already before 6 that day so we met up to catch her solo performance around 9ish.  We watched the group just before her and when she started singing, her voice was so much stronger and much more on tune than they were.  She blew me away.  If you're on FB, Robb posted the video there.  Let me know  if you want to hear it and I'll download it and send you a Youtube link.

After her song, Robb headed home to take the sodden clothes to the laundromat, leaving me at this strange high school for the entire day.  Luckily I had brought my laptop and was able to complete the photo slideshow that we'll have running at Meri's graduation party.  

Meri and I got a LOT of visiting in and we planned out even more of her grad party.  I asked to borrow mannequins from my sewing friends online and got 7 or so promised to loan us.  We're planning on displaying her high school costumes and prom dresses.  That LONG wrap around porch will be good for SOMETHING!  It'll be a walk down memory lane... 

Guess I should clean it...

We even went through all my label addresses and cleaned it up just for her party.  So it looks like maybe less than 100 paper invites will be sent, but on FB, Meri  created an "event" for the party and she invited over 300 and I invited over 100.  So far we have almost 70 going to come.  

Yay!  It'll be fun.  AND the busiest 2 months and 2 hours of my year.

Meri accidentally dropped her sweatshirt between the bleachers in the gym and the wall.  Too far down to get it and no way to get behind to grab it... So she asked a friend if she could borrow something from his trombone case to get it out.  She worked on fishing it out and suddenly looked up with horror on her face.  She'd dropped the trombone stick!

So she lay on her side reaching and reaching, FINALLY getting her hands on the stick and then fished the sweatshirt out from that angle.  Her friend still does not know what had transpired.  

And probably never will.

Meri did a duet with "formerly known as Gaston".  Meri's friend has renewed my faith in Gaston's humanity.  They didn't sing a SONG from Beauty and the Beast, but another song.  SO nice!

Then later, Chamber Choir 

and Chamber Women.  

I did record them.  Hopefully I can put them on Youtube later today.

Robb got back around this time, JUST missing Meri and Grant's duet.

Then at the end of the day, Meri's Octet sang.  It was weird to see all the kids staring at Meri throughout the entire song.  I mentioned that to Meri and she told me that she was the leader.

That makes sense...

Robb waited by the exit for Meri and I to get our things and check for the final scores.  He overheard a choir director from another school talking with the parents of his students.  

The parent was saying, "I thought our school was doing fantastic, but then along came effing XXXXX school!..." 

Meri attends effing XXXXX school!

LOL!

Needless to say, Meri's school cleaned up on the highest scores in most of the centers.

What a fantastic way to end your high school careers!

They got this.

It's a Whirlwind Life

 Wow!  I didn't get time to post for 4 days??  Where have I been?

Friday night was the viewing for my friend.

Saturday morning was the funeral.  I helped out with the serving of the luncheon at church and then headed to another town for Meri's thing.

She sang "A Change In Me" again for the State level Individual Speech Musical Theater.  She was battling a cold, since before Christmas but it was really taking it's toll on her since the play got over with.  So she didn't feel like it was her best performance and I was stuck behind the speaker playing her music and couldn't hear very well anyway, so I couldn't say.  She did not get top marks by all three judges so she won't be going to All-State, which is fine.  Her teacher was thinking she'd be more upset than she was, but Meri was just relieved it was done. 

She and I enjoyed some pops and popcorn with nacho dip in the caf until the scores were put up.
She enjoyed it when I knocked my pop into the popcorn and cheese splattering everything and then she also enjoyed it when I walked into the men's bathroom by mistake looking for paper towels.
It's great to enjoy your parents while they age...

Enjoyment for an 18 year old is rolling your eyes a LOT.

Oh mom...

Got a pic with the whole gang from our school.

After that, Meri dropped me off at the house and went to her new temp job of house/pet sitting for a friend while they're on vacation.  It's spring break here.  She's enjoying some alone time in a gorgeous house and binge watching Psych.  

On Sunday, after church, Robb and I headed to Wisconsin to see Maddy and Matthew.  We got there at dinner time and got fed REALLY well, then helped her get her weekend schoolwork done for her classroom before getting some frozen custard.  YUMM!!  and that place was decorated SO cool...

Then we headed back to their apartment for a board game.  The game they'd borrowed was "Magic Mazes".  Too fun!  You're supposed to work as a team and if you'd not doing your part, a dent can be made in the table in front of you from the others tapping a little wooden thing in front of you..  ;)  I got a dent.  and I talked too much from what I've been told.  

You're supposed to stare intensely.

The next morning, Maddy headed off to her classroom early and Matthew, Robb and I got a leisurely breakfast at a local coffee shop before heading over. 



Robb gave a presentation with his bagpipe to the kindergartners and 2nd grade.  So funny!  The kids loved it. 

After a bagpipe dance party in the gym, Maddy allowed them to touch the bagpipes with two of their fingers.  They filed past Robb to get close to them and touch them if they dare.

Then we went back to the classroom where Robb read Wee Gillis to Maddy's class with his strong pretend Scottish accent, throwing little kids into tizzies of laughter.  They practiced speaking in Scottish and Irish accents after that.  It was all grand.

Said our goodbyes, dropped Matthew off at the apartment and then drove a couple hours to where my sister lives.  I hadn't seen her for a while and it was great to get together with her, a couple of her grandkids that she babysits, her husband and a few of her kids for lunch at Red Robin. "yum"    

Got a late start heading home but instead of Robb dropping me off at the house before picking up Leon, we cut through Illinois and got him first.  We were only 30 minutes late then.  No prob!!!

Got home finally and crashed.  It's one of those evenings when you know you're supposed to do "something" but what?!  I'm overwhelmed with just taking care of the dogs for the night...  And with the recent time change, I was ready for bed at 7:30pm (old time).

LIVE IN THE NOW!

On Tuesday, we picked up Meri from her home for the week and drove to my hometown to see my parents.  Leon mostly colored on the way and he colored two pics to leave for Mom and Dad.  During our visit, we watched Meri's performance in Beauty and the Beast with them, since they hadn't been able to make it.  Unfortunately the sound on the laptop wasn't loud enough for them to hear everything but Meri sang along with her parts and they enjoyed that immensely.  

Not enough time with them but we had to leave and get Meri back to her charges, who would have accidents in the house if we didn't get her back by 5.

Then just crashed again.  We had read Leon at least 2 more Magic Treehouse books over the day.  He's really getting into them.  We're up to book #8.

And now I'm back in my office.  It's going to be long day I think...

What have you been up to?

That Thing You Do

A look through the singing career of my girl. 

Since the Irish dance thing didn't really take off, we got Meri voice lessons instead.  That seemed to really click with her.  

And it gave me opportunities to make her some performance outfits even at age 8.

and even MORE outfits to make for her!  She performed the song "Tomorrow" from the movie Annie, at the reception of my niece, Naomi.  That had been and always will be Naomi's favorite movie and Meri worked hard to learn it at her voice lessons.  Oh and she was a flower girl.

Later on, as she got into high school, she was the yodeler in a variety show.  Her choir director at school warned her to not get TOO into yodeling as it could damage her voice.  REALLY?!  maybe...

But she did a good job on it.

And I made her outfit.

Then last summer, she performed at a couple county fairs to win the honor of singing at the State Fair.

And I made her dress.

ONE of her three performances at the Iowa State Fair.  She didn't dress up for that one, but I did bring the silver dress JUST in case...  When she realized how casual the performance area was, she opted not to change her clothes.

So anyway, Meri is talented young lady who will go places.  

Probably just to her room to avoid us, but it's a place.

and then of course with the Belle play this past week.

We got a letter to attend the NHS (National Honor Society) induction of new members last night.  Meri was already a member. see below...  But they wanted people to attend and fill the audience.  So I did.  Robb stayed home with the boy.  Leon has a limited number of performances that he can stand per week.  or we can stand.  I know it has to do with standing...

But here is Meri when she was inducted a year or so ago.

and here she was last night, supporting the new members as a Senior member.

I'm proud of that girl.  

Can't wait to see what she does with the wonderful talents God has give her.

Belle-issimo!!

 As promised... PICTURES!!!

It turned out that only my mother-in-law and myself were able to attend the dress rehearsal last night.  AND I hadn't charged up my camera or cell phone...  Otherwise, there would have been at least 3 pics per minute of the play.  As it turned out, I was alternating between my camera and my cell phone.  I discovered that my actual camera takes SUCH better pictures!!!  At least in this lighting.

Meri was great!  I know exactly why she was picked for the part of Belle. 

1) her voice is fantastic  

2) her hair is perfect for the part  

3) She can be a bit odd.  JUST like Belle!

Here is her stage dad.  Can you just picture him saying, "MY daughter??  ODD?!"
 

Gaston was perfectly cast too.  Meri got to slap him!  Later though...

The Beast did a great job but you could tell he was battling a cold.  I hope it clears up before this afternoon or weekend!
 

Positively frightening!

Stunning costume.
 

The Beasts girlfriend is in the band pit and is the shaded head you see here.  She's also one of Meri's best friends.

 

 The Beast gobbling up his soup.

And only a couple pics of Meri in the pink dress.

Unfortunately that was when I was trying to save the battery power in my camera and got these with my cell phone.  darn it.

The ball gown, I'm sure, was still dropping glitter everywhere.  But it looked lovely and probably only me was staring at the hem, thinking, d.ang... it's exactly the length it should be!  

I'm so glad I added the length on the back again!

 

With Maurice again.  Meri sang the solo that she sang for the Musical Theater competition this past weekend.

 

 I'm so glad I got a recording of it this time!  Here you go!

And the townspeople, getting ready to storm the castle.

I had forgotten that the Beast in the castle fight was a different boy until here.  I thought, "Hmm.. Ethan is taller than this... isn't he?  But then again, he is sad and depressed... Maybe he's just hunched over..."
 

Then the prince came out from behind the curtain.  THIS is supposed to be a kiss as of today.  Because of their friendship and Meri's friendship with his girlfriend, it's a hug for now.  But the gf is aware that it will be a kiss for the actual productions.  Don't look!

 

Afterwards, Meri was greeted by three little girls who were enamored with Belle and got to meet her.  It seriously made Meri's year!  

 She is SO Belle...