SuperDad

Thanksgiving was last week. But I am expressing my Thankfulness this week...Thankfulness for the incredible husband and daddy that lives in our house. (Yes, I am being sappy, and proudly so.)

This week is Nutcracker Week. Banana is completely involved in rehersals...and so are we. That means long afternoons and nights at the cultural center. I'm pretty used to it by now. This is our third Nutcracker. I've spent lots of time at the CC waiting and watching. But there is something new this year. When Banana became a member of the Company, Kearsdad and I became members of the Ballet Guild (sort of the PTA of the ballet). We were told that as members of the Guild, we are expected to participate in various committees. That's only fair, okay. So we signed up for "jobs" with the Nutcracker production.

I have been completely blown away, though, by the enthusiasm and dedication of Kearsdad.

We drove home from Georgia on Friday of last week...a LONG drive. On Saturday morning, he got up and went downtown to meet a bunch of people he didn't know to help load stuff out of the Company storage facility onto trucks to take to the CC. Snow machines, props, and marley floor. (Marley floor is the padded flooring dancers dance on. It is what allows them to stand on their toes and make all those leaps and turns without falling on their rumps and breaking something. It is also very heavy.)

On Sunday, we went straight from church to the CC. Banana had rehearsal. Kearsdad began learning about the backstage production. He worked all afternoon and returned to church. He left home at 9 am and returned home at 8 pm...no Sunday nap. No complaints.

He has gone straight to the CC from work every night (and will continue to all week). He has left home every morning at 7:30, worked all day, and gone straight to rehersals. He has developed a couple of new friendships, and I've caught him cutting up with some of the dancers and teachers.

It's not unlike Kearsdad to get involved in his girls' lives...after all, he spent the summer working at horse shows for Kat. But this is somehow different. To see him become so completely involved in something that would otherwise be so foreign to him just reminds me of what a great daddy he is...what a great husband I have.

So to you, Kearsdad, I say thank you. You are a great daddy. You are a pretty good stagehand too! Even if Mother Ginger does weigh about 800 pounds! I love you!

Thanksgiving Fun

We went to Georgia for Thanksgiving...lots of driving. No major trauma or issues, much to everyone's surprise, I'm sure. But we had a good time. We went to Kearsdad's folks for most of the week, and had "Thanksgiving" with his brothers and most of their families Monday night (some of the older nieces and nephews were either working or at college). His two older brothers go to Hilton Head every Thanksgiving, so we had to have our family time early in the week. Kat and Banana had fun playing with their younger cousins. Those two are definitely a handful...especially the four year old!


It was nice to have a couple of days to just hang out and relax. There is not much else to do in town...and I took advantage of it. We did have lunch on Tuesday with a friend of mine and her husband and son. That was very nice...just wish we'd had longer. Turns out the restaurant closes at 2 and reopens at 5. We were there from 1-2. We wondered why they started vacuuming while we were still at our table. Anyway, we had a great time with them. The rest of the week we just sat around in one place or another, sometimes visiting...sometimes just sitting. On Wednesday we drove over to Kearsdad's brother's place and picked up pecans. LOTS of pecans. I came home with a box full. The girls were in hog heaven out in the country like that. They even got to drive the golf cart around the pecan orchard. It was their first driving experience. Kearsdad said he felt sick. I decided that I will NOT be the one to teach them to drive.




I took about a zillion pictures of the girls trying to get a really good one of them. Trouble was they didn't want to take pictures. They got down right snotty about it. There was much whining on their part, and threatening on mine. This was about as good as it got.



Thurday we drove up to my brother's and spent the day with my family. It turned out to be a very nice day. Once again, all the kids had a blast! My brother has two girls, 8 and 6, and 4 year old twin boys. Never a dull moment! We tried very hard to get a nice picture of all the kids together. Here are the results.




We gave up on the group shot. But we ended up with a great day. And a long drive home.


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a wonderful week with family and friends. I'm sure when I return, I'll have plenty of stories to share! God bless you all!

That's My Girl

On a lighter note...Kat had to write sentences with her vocabulary words from this week. They are words with the Latin roots primus and post. One of her words was premier. Her sentence?

"Since Boston won the World Series, they are the premier baseball team."

Baseball lives on!

Folding Laundry

So...right now the two children in my house are in my room folding laundry. It all started because I was tired of hearing older child yell, "Mooooommmmmmm!!!!! I neeed _________!!!!!" I asked younger child to go take ____ to her sister. But younger child didn't want to stop playing on this computer, so she yelled to her sister to go get it herself. That didn't go over too well. The computer game got turned off. Both children got told to start folding laundry. Then there was some sort of arguing and whining. I don't know what it was about. I didn't feel like asking. So now they are folding, ordered to silence.

It doesn't help that Sammy has chosen tonight to be a brat. Barking and whining and breaking out of his "room" After much work on my part, helping him "remember" just who is in charge here, he is lying quietly in his room now.

So now that basket of laundry I've been needing to get to has been folded. Quietly. And I am on this computer.

Sigh....see that picture over there to the left? The one that says "Sister Love"? I'm hopin' that attitude returns quickly.

Choir Practice

It's almost Christmas. That means choir practice is getting verra (very in CM language) interesting. Or stressful. Or long. Or all of those. And Mr. Worship Pastor is getting very hyper. He's really funny to watch when he gets stressed, for those of you who don't know him. He looks like he's getting mad, and he is, sort of. But not really at any of us. Just at circumstances. Or at himself. Or at the equipment.

Tonight was especially entertaining. We are practicing from the stage a lot so that we can work with the band and the lights and get the mics right, etc. So that means we can watch the children in the back of the room. (Several of us have kids who sit in the back of the worship center during choir practice.) The kids are generally very well behaved and quiet. When we are sitting in the chairs, facing front, we can't see them. But standing on the stage, they are visible to everyone.

I have noticed before that Mr. Worship Pastor often grins or laughs or makes funny waving or dancing motions...turns out he's playing with the kids. See, while we are singing, they are often dancing or making motions. Tonight, they were dancing. I mean really. Well, at least Banana was really. It was one of those moments when I wasn't sure if I should grin and say "That's my kid." or duck and hope no one noticed. We were singing a real jazzy song (The King is Coming to Town for those of you who know it...and weren't there tonight). The kids love it, and all started bouncing around. All...except Banana. She started dancing. D. A.N.C.I.N.G. Like....you-don't-do-that-in-church dancing. Oh my.

Fall Festival Cuties

LouLou, Banana, The Thinker, The Unique One, and Kat with Grace. Grace was dressed as a unicorn.

Kat driving Faith. Faith didn't last very long...she was quite neurotic and found herself tied up in the trailer most of the night. Hickory behaved much better.


Anna and Faith...again, before Faith was banished.


Grace in her costume.


Hickory was quite handsome in his bow tie.