Ara Playing at Church

Went with my Mom and Joey to church on Sunday, I have mixed feelings about it but Ara did enjoy their swing set!

Rehearsals TCO

It's been a tense and hectic week of rehearsals. The concert is tomorrow and really hope that there will be an audience full of optimistic supporters. Losing our director/conductor so suddenly at the end of last season has put the orchestra in a difficult position. Luckily it has some dedicated members that are working to ensure it's survival. I really enjoy playing with this group. I thrive in a chamber music setting and I want to play, damn it. What? That was me being optimistically supportive!

My flute has crapped out on me, I can feel the thousand 'I told you so' coming from the thousand people who have told me I needed to have it fixed. It was still semi-playable until about.. last night. There is just simply no more mileage in my pads no matter how hard I mash down my fingers... and the foot joint has been broken into 2 pieces since last year. (gogo scotch tape) I know, I am so ghetto. I just hate to have to be without my flute for any length of time.. but it's time. This Stravinsky is difficult enough without having to compensate for leaks. I make life so much harder than it has to be sometimes!

I've got my eye on you!

Beads

Ara and I did some bead work today. She likes to pick out the beads and then I usually string them although she is getting pretty good at it! We made this bracelet and a book mark (which I was really excited about).

We also played a board game today. My sister gave it to Ara for her birthday and I put it up in the closet. I thought she wasn't ready for such an advanced game. She noticed it today up on the top shelf! I didn't see any harm in giving it a try and although we didn't 'exactly' follow the game we did have a lot of fun. It was so cute, I would say, "Ara it's your turn to pick a card" and she would carefully pick up one ladybug card. We would read the number on the card. If it said something like, "move ahead 3 spaces" she would move 3 spaces.. and then 4, and 5, and 6... all the way to 14! She is enthusiastic if nothing else.

WoW treadmill race

I thought this was an interesting little experiment. Wouldn't it be a perfect world if we LIKED doing things like running on a treadmill to power a game character! When I used to play FFXI I tried using an exercise ball as a chair. Not quite in the same league as these guys but, hey I tried right?

Speaking of, I haven't been to the YMCA this week.. and I feel it. I am missing the freedom that having a working car gives you. Not that it's life or death but it's so much more of a hassle! I missed flute club rehearsal tonight because I couldn't get there. I would have had to leave early to get to the TCO rehearsal but still it would have been good to go since I think it's the last chamber rehearsal before a couple gigs. I don't know.. I am terrible with remembering dates. I ended up practicing the Stravinsky which I REALLY needed to do anyway. I am frustrated that it is taking me so long to understand this piece. I feel like I am cramming and my brain isn't processing the information! The last two nights I have gotten less than 4 hours of sleep, so tired. Sleep. Soon. I hope.

Blurry but cute

Areon Flutes

Areon Flutes, I am so excited about this group! They won bronze at Fischoff and are really paving a path for professional flute ensembles. Check them out!

TCO Concert this Saturday

Ara needs wings

So we are in the car late afternoon and driving west facing a setting sun.

Ara says, "the sun is over there, mama you want to drive past it?"

I say, "it does look close but the sun is actually very high up in the sky"

Ara says, "but the birds could reach it!"

I smile at my brilliant girl and say, "that's good thinking, they might be able to fly so high"

I know thats a fib, but I don't want to shoot down her ideas all the time.

Ara says (more to herself than to me), "I need wings"

Five Friends "vote while you poop"

"You can literally register to vote while you poop, if you have a laptop"


I'll admit it, I registered today. Go ahead and judge I deserve it!

Ara

Just so pretty

Red dress

Purple Car Oh Purple Car

The purple car is sad...


...the transmission is dead now and it's worth more than the car so that is that.

Time for something new(er).

I have always had hand-me-down cars (I'm not complaining) but this is totally new territory to me to be looking at cars. I have a choice? Well, not really but in this situation I have more choices than I have ever had in the past.

So I have seriously weighed my options, and I've decided I would like a sparkly kinda silvery blue color! Hahahaha....haha...hah....ah.

To DO...

I am having one of those days where I am constantly remembering things I need to do.. a mental to do list. The problem is that I have the short term memory of a.. stuffed animal? I want to organize the bookshelves, find someone to watch Ara during rehearsals next week, wedding on Sat. (probably going to need a ride and ara at the ceremony?), preparations for car dying and being stranded, practice, call Bill to have my flute fixed (the tape holding the solder on the foot joint is starting to feel ghetto). Is that how 'solder' is spelled? It doesn't look right but spell check let me slide.. Look at the dinner menu this week and figure out how to make the things I planned (haha)
What is it about recipes anyway.. they always assume I have some idea of what I am doing! I want to make stuffed bell peppers tomorrow night and the recipe says to mix all the ingredients together and stuff them in the peppers but I keep wondering if I am supposed to cook the meat first? And what about the rice? It seems weird to stuff things with raw meat and rice.. I have no idea, it doesn't say to cook it first so I guess I shouldn't?

The car is dying again. Well it has always been dying but it has some new symptoms lately. The transmission is broken now or something because the car slips out of gear on turns and stops now (automatic). Also one of the tires is low. So I need to put air in the tire and decide what to do with the damn car. I hate things that break.

I have aerobics tomorrow and I've already gotten a good head start on the house so now it's time to relax a little before bed. I promised myself no physics game..

What I do instead of sleeping...

This Contraption took me waaaay too long to tweak but it was fun!

Swept Away!

Fantastic Contraption: A fun online physics puzzle game

My ingenious contraption (by that I mean a random design that somehow worked)

It's a fun game but I'm stuck on a level with steps that is making me crazy!

Bday fun

Ara and George

Ara, Today, and my Book progress!

Ara is really picking up on the letters! She has been able to recognize the letters in her name (I know I know her name isn't supercalifragilistic or anything) for some time but now she is retaining several other letters. We have been trying to work alphabet lessons into everyday life as much as possible, before meals, while we color, driving, and anywhere there is an opportunity. I am feeling pressure to make sure that my "mommy school" does not fall short of daycare.

Today we visited with my Mom at her house and then had lunch with my grandparents and Steve (Mom's significant other). I have been wanting to thank Steve for the help he gave us when Ara was in the ER and since I always forget to bring a card I thanked him over lunch. I really wanted wanted him to know what it meant to me that he made it possible for both my Mom and A to be at the hospital with us. I would have broken down if not for them! He said it was nothing and I thought about how the small kindnesses we show others can mean so much more to them than we can know.


I finished the Da Vinvi Book last night.
I have been trying to watch the Da Vinci movie today but the longest I have been able to devote to it has probably been about 10 minutes. I am feeling annoyed with what I feel are far to many plot holes and lame writing tactics from the book. The movie so far is good although I find it kind of creepy that the two main characters are so far apart in age. In the book there is a 10 year difference, the actors they chose were more like 20 years apart and I keep thinking "she could be his daughter!" Don't get me wrong, I love Tom Hanks. I would see the movie just for him but still.. a tad creepy and hard to belive (for me anyway). I did like that books descriptions of the art though. I had never looked that closely at Da Vinci's work. To be honest I would look and think.. awkward! But after reading I did what probably everyone else did and I googled the images. I feel smarter already and also.. stupid. I have the other book on the reserve shelf and now I am having second thoughts. This book was starting to test my patience for lamo suspense tricks and plot holes I don't know if I need to read another Dan Brown so soon.. I will start it anyway since I am waiting for Eclipse.

I better start the battle to get Ara's hair washed or I will never get her out of the bath and into bed!