Lucky # 13!

Woo Hoo - Lucky #13! E tried out as #13 for the HS Dance team tonight - and made the VARSITY team. She's been working hard, and wanting this so badly - I'm so glad all her hard work has paid off this year!

Vocal Recital - Hooray for Hollywood!

These are some images from A's vocal recital - always a great tribute to Broadway - this year the focus was "Hollywood Musicals" - A sang lots of fun songs, including "Food, Glorius Food" from Oliver, "I want it NOW" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins, "Cruella DeVil" from 101 Dalmations, "Kids" from Bye, Bye Birdie, and an AMAZING rendition of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" - so good that they are taking it to Access Broadway next year! (admire the Veruca Salt dress - I constructed it from a thrift store dress, lace, ribbon and buttons for about $10!)

Hope to have videos by the end of the summer!

Reflection - Mulan - Honors Night 2009

Strange - I thought I had successfully posted this already - but it's not out here on my blog - so we'll try again!

A. was asked to sing "Reflection" at her Middle School Honors Night by her Drama teacher (who is also the Choir teacher). Congrats to A. also on all her academic awards, including All A's, and special recognition for outstanding work in all her subjects - wa hoo!

Kudos also to the district that has been actively fundraising for scholarship funds. Although A. didn't win one - they did a random drawing for three $500 scholarships last night - one per grade for all students with a 3.0 or higher GPA.

** UPDATE ** So, this was my 2nd of 4 attempts to upload the video. When I finally gave up and embedded the video - then attempts 3 & 4 both appeared. Grrr.... Anyway - since I didn't figure anyone needed a post with the same gist 3 times - I deleted all but this one.

Goodbye Daddy....

I know it seems odd to take pictures at a burial, but I wanted to remember this day - just like other days I want to remember. It's not all about remembering the good days, and the great accomplishments. It's also about remembering the difficult times, and the sad days.

I wanted to post what my sister Margie wrote and read at the burial - it was so perfect, and so fitting:

Time

They say that time heals all wounds.

But I feel time is indifferent.

It progresses forward despite monumental changes.

We used to laugh at your response to,

“Did you miss me?”

Which was always,

“Were you gone?”

We may still laugh, but the stinging truth is

You are gone and we miss you deeply.

In the midst of new grief time does not appear to be our ally,

With every development and every event

There is an empty hole that only you could fill.

From the milestones of life: births, family holidays, graduations,

first communions, new homesteads, 70^th birthdays, etc.

to the every day happenings.

There is a persistent yearning to share life with you.

We are slowly adjusting to our new way of conversing with your spirit.

It is a hard transition from the physical interactions to the spiritual.

Ironically through patience and yes, time

you taught us the valuable lessons we needed to cope with your absence.

Prayer, faith, hope, compassion, family values, laughter and love.

At moments I want to resist the passage of time.

Selfishly I wish I could go back

To the time when you filled our world with delightful absurdities,

silliness and laughter.

To the times when you provoked our thinking and encouraged our faith.

To the moments when you held our hand, gave us long hugs

and traced the sign of the cross on our foreheads.

Time has gifted us with these precious memories of you.

Memories and characteristics that give us strength to move forward.

To take time to gift our families with these same treasures.

We remember you fondly and in time we will be with you again.

Margie Cron Martin

Congrats Bro!

My BIL Brian's graduation from OCC's Nursing program!! We are so proud!!

Sister and Fam - New House

As they await the arrival of baby #4, my sister and family just purchased a new house - across the field from their old house! Here's a pic of them on their new front porch on the day they closed. Moving will be a summer long project - the goal to be completely moved before the baby gets here!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! I won't tell you her age, but I'll give you a hint. She wore her 10th Anniversary GLMM shirt with the 10 candles on it, and added a little "x7" note at the end!

My sister Jennie and I were able to take her out to lunch to Cracker Barrel!

And I baked her favorite - spice cake - in the camper oven... it's a little lopsided, but it still tasted great!

After a yummy dinner in my sister's trailer (it rained) we said goodnight to my nieces and nephew, and mom and I headed out to the movies, and saw "Angels and Demons". It was EXCELLENT. I highly recommend it.

I spent mom's whole birthday week out at the campground with her - we scrapped and visited, and just had a relaxing week together! Thanks to my hubby and kids, who held down the fort and let me go!

Happy Memorial Day

Scenes from our Memorial Day Parade. Don't E and N look spiffy in their brand new white Drum Major uniforms? The new white jackets came in 2 weeks AFTER last season ended - so this was their first opportunity to wear them.

And oh, how I love the "featherhawks"!

Girls Weekend

I love to scrap, I love to eat, I love to hang out with my girlfriends, and I love to spend time with my daughters... so this weekend was just about perfect! Only thing that would have made it perfecter (I know, not a real word) - would have been if A. had been able to come - but she had rehearsals and couldn't go away for the weekend.

The "grown-up" girls scrap space. This was a mother-daughter weekend - so most of the young girls scrapped as well. The teen girls did homework, and played on facebook, and took naps and watched movies.

My girl E - with her laptop - supposedly doing homework - probably on facebook!

S'mores for dessert!

An incredible array of food, all weekend long - YUM.

And a toast to girlfriends - pomegranate martini's courtesy of Amy!

I wish I had "smell-o-blog"

Because, it's spring, and my front yard is in bloom, and it smells INCREDIBLE!!! My husband has been after me the past few years to cut down the wisteria. It no longer grows in a tree like it was originall trained - it takes over the yard with it's sprawling vines, and is generally a pain in the butt to the lawn mower.... but OH MY HEAVEN.... If you could smell it right now, you'd know why I lie down around it's trunk in protest whenever DH suggests "just cutting it down".

Here is the whole front yard in bloom... I love spring!

My lilacs! I think we overtrimmed them one year, and they don't bloom as well as they used to - but these are smelling great as well!

Said Wisteria.... Isn't it pretty? And it smells like grapes... like yummy purple grapes. Right when I walk out the front door. Mmmmmmmm..... I'm never letting that man cut it down! The Wisteria also attracts the giant bumble bees - you know, the ones that look like they could never fly? I just love seeing those big fat yellow bumblebees buzzing around and pollenating the Wisteria!

We had a mama Robin in residence here in our old, burned out gas lamp. She laid four eggs, and then four little chicks hatched, and squawked for food.... She finally kicked them out of the nest sometime last week. Makes me regret not taking more pictures throughout this whole process. Maybe next year - this old lamp seems to be a favorite spot for Robins.

"When the Apple Blossoms turn to Turnip Greens my little Peach"
Yep - there they are, my apple blossoms! Just love them in the spring (In the fall when all the little crabapples are all over the ground - don't 'love them so much!) But now it's spring, and they are in full bloom, and I love them!! (And they remind me of my Dad.)

Our Track Star - NOT.

OK - so you know I love this kid... but as she so succinctly explained it after coming home from track one day this season. "Mom, I feel like Danny in Grease - the coach moves me to a new event every other week, trying to find what I'm good at!"

Well, she may not be great at track, and she may have had to take 3 weeks off right as the season got underway when she sprained her ankle, but she was dedicated, and she really enjoyed it - even if the best placement she ever got in any event was 2nd to last!! And, she plans to do it again next year.... and she's settled in on an event where she'll train all next season - throwing!


Here she is mid long-jump. She had great form here.... just not great distances! I didn't get any photos of her sprinting... the girl likes to run, but isn't that fast!


Throwing the Shot-Put... harder than it looks!

Discus.... she had decent beginner distances in this event - and even beat one girl from the opposing school at this meet!

Spider Proofing and Allergies....

This fancy set up is to protect my Diet Coke from crawling critters. I often start a Diet Coke one evening, and finish it the next morning (yes, I'm not too fussy about temperature - and Diet Coke stays pretty fizzy for a day or so). Yesterday, I reach for the DC on my desk, take a big swig and AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.... there is something in my mouth that is most definitely NOT Diet Coke. I didn't actually ingest the extra protein, but in my convulsions and exclamations, I don't have any idea where the poor dead critter ended up. From now on, I'll be protecting my DC from unwanted intruders!


In other news.... meet the Hero and the Villian! After being on a Penicillin based antibiotic in March for a Sinus Infection, and then a short while later, going back onto Penicillin for my Root Canal... lo and behold, a lovely, itchy rash bloomed on my chest. I did have the presence of mind to stop taking the penicillin - but it took me another 2 weeks to drag myself to the Dr. when the rash didn't disappear.... in steps the hero "Prednisone" who will hopefully rid me of the itch. Oh, and no more Penicillin - ever. Next time the reaction might not be so mild!

Adelaide's Lament - Guys and Dolls

Adelaide's Lament has been very good to the Griswold girls! Last summer, it earned E. a Gold in the qualilfying round, and a Silver in the final round of National Showcase - on her Ice Skates. A.'s voice teacher heard which song she skated to - looked at A and said - "That would be a GREAT song for you at Access Broadway"! And so, here is A.'s Friday night performance at Access Broadway 2009. It earned her a Platinum Medal, and the 2nd place High Score Trophy! She competed for the first time in the Diva division (which means 4 or more years of voice training) and she competed in the 13-15 age category for the first time - making her one of the youngest in her group.

Annie Honeybun

I've been chastised for lack of blog posts. Sorry! I kept thinking that I needed to catch up. I'm thinking I just need to restart. So, to kick off - here's Annie at her concert last night! The video is a bit choppy for some reason. ah well.

My sister is tired of the Paparazzi

She sent me a note yesterday - "Post something new on your blog so I'm not the first thing you see".

I asked her if the fame and fortune was just too much to handle - to which she replied that the paparazzi were a huge invasion of her privacy.

I told her that she shouldn't have taken her Tuba on the radio if she couldn't handle the pressures of Fame, to which she said... "Well, you keep it up there much longer I will have to contact my agent and you will have to pay for the rights to have me on your blog! And I will have to charge you for my autograph."

So, there ya go Jennie. I put up another post! Somehow, I think this isn't exactly what she had in mind!

(More posts to come - took a blue million photos over the holidays!)