Dress Rehearsal

Waiting to practice. Who is the only little angel not lined up properly and chatting with the girl ahead of her?

The dance for exiting the stage

While exiting, the angels have their hands in front of them and waist height. Then they go up on one foot and gracefully spread their arms. Above, Katie shows the starting position; Karli shows the spreading of arms and Evy is bringing her arms down. Pretty complete and easy sequence. . . .

. . . however, Katie decided to modify the movement. Instead of having her hands lowered and in front, she decided to start with her hands at her mouth, blow two kisses and then gracefully spread her arms. My face is turning red just thinking about it.

Hobo, Abdul Achmed and Tea

After my wordy post, this is a picture post.

Pretty fuzzy picture of a dirty Hobo. When you approach him or talk to him, he turns his head away. It is a submissive stance. He also visibly shakes when you get less than 15' from him.

Abdul Achmed with a towel, a stand-in for his favorite blankie which he ate.

A fuzzy Katie and I the day of the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea.

 Katie at the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea

Katie flying at the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea. She was playing with other children on the stage. In her hand is the back of the program where she had cast members sign their autograph. We had a showdown when she would not leave the stage to go home.

An Update to a Neglected Blog

I know that I am going to forget something, but here is the rundown of what we have been doing and what has been happening.

Hobo (the dog in the Quonset Hut):  He is slowly starting to trust Rick. He has taken a Milk Bone from Rick's hand and allowed Rick to pet him. I still wonder what was done to him to have him so fearful of humans. He sleeps in the Quonset Hut and Rick made a bed for him out of blankets. The wound on his back seems to be healing. Rick feeds him every day in an old Gandy's, red, ice cream pail. However, the other night Hobo took off with the pail and we still haven't located it. Hobo wasn't in the shop last night at feeding time which is odd. I hope he is okay.

My birthday:  It was yesterday and it was a low key day. I spent most of it cleaning. Rick is washing all of the windows in the house, which is a big project. You have to remove the inside window frame to wash one side of the glass. When I say remove, I mean he has to unscrew the entire window from the wall. I wish we had tilt out windows. Anyway, I clean the mini blinds and drapes as Rick cleans the glass. Rick also got this awesome glass cleaner which is made by/for GM for car windows. It cleans the glass in one pass with no streaks. I don't know what is in the stuff, but Cody doesn't like the smell so chances are that in a few years we will find out that the spray contains some toxic chemical that causes cancer. My big project today is to clean Katie's room. She has so many toys and too many clothes. Last night at supper she informed us that she was giving toys away because she needed to make room for the Christmas toys. I hope she won't be disappointed come Christmas morning. (See paragraph 3 in "Kate" section for further explanation.)

Back to my birthday, I received a Kindle Fire, a box of chocolates, a Farmer's Almanac for 2012 and some of Katie's old toys--the ones she is getting rid of to make room for more--and a soft, warm gorgeous merino wool sweater. I am fascinate by the fact that it is soft and not bulky yet it is very warm and comfortable. Wool sweaters that I have had before were itchy. I guess they were not merino wool.

Kate:  And of course, what would a blog post be without a mention of Katie. She is a tiny angel--if that is not poor casting, I don't know what is (see paragraph 3 in "Kate" section for explanation)--in The Nutcracker for Saturday's evening performance and Sunday's matinee. We had a dress rehearsal Tuesday night. When the little angels would walk back on stage to practice their part again and before they got in their designated spots, Katie would walk to the front of the stage and bow and blow kisses. The parents in the audience loved it. Then she decided to jazz up her exit dance by modifying her hand position and blowing kisses. The parents laughed again; however, I slid down in my seat. This is a ballet put on by a real ballet company and Katie is modifying her part. Yeah, what does the choreographer know.

A situation with a first grader on Katie's bus reached a head. Right when school started, Katie and this girl made fast friends; however, this 1st grader has morphed into a thief and a liar. We have had to go the 1st grader's house to retrieve Katie's items i.e. her wallet. Not too long ago, the 1st grader started lying about Katie's missing items and saying that "the other girls", who live down the street from us, took whatever Katie was missing. Monday, the situation escalated. The 1st grader took Katie's backpack, refused to return it to Katie and rummaged through it. The 1st grader's brother managed to get Katie's backpack from his sister and he returned it to Katie, which upset the 1st grader. She hauled off and hit her brother. When it was time for the 1st grader to exit the bus, she walked to the front, took a piece of paper out of her pocket, turned around and said to Katie, "You will never see this again." and got off of the bus. The 1st grade thief had a book that Katie made in school and which Katie can read. Rick called 1st grader's mom and her take on it was that her daughter was being a typical 6 year old. That set Rick off. What the 1st grader did was done just to be mean and per the definition and rules of the school, an incident of bullying. We have tried to work with the mother regarding this situation and the mother wasn't taking it seriously. Matter of fact when her daughter took Katie's wallet, the mother had the audacity to reprimand Katie and say that Katie shouldn't let people take her stuff. Huh? Oh I get it, it was Katie's fault that her daughter has sticky fingers. Back to the day at hand, after Rick's heated exchange with the mother, I opted to drive down to their house to retrieve Katie's book. When I arrived, mom and dad were outside and I advised them that I was there to get Katie's book. The mother informed me that when she questioned her daughter, the child said "the other girls" took it. When I repeated what the girl said before she exited the bus, which we only knew about because the bus driver told us, the mom turned on her heel and went into the house. Not a minute later, she came out with her daughter and the child handed me Katie's book. At home, Rick wrote a letter to the school and we planned to deliver it the next day to the principal. However, the principal was out on Tuesday, so Rick and I met with the superintendent of the school district. It was a very well written letter in which we demanded action in regards to the progressive bullying. Wednesday, was the first day of my tutoring gig at school. The principal, who we know outside of school, pulled me aside and wanted to talk to me, so we met in his office. The 1st grader is known by the principal and teachers because of her past issues. This incident with Katie was not the first but I understood it to be similar to what the 1st grader has done before. The principal informed me that she "was quite the liar." The solution that the school has put into practice is that the 1st grader has to sit in a designated seat at the front of the bus and wear a seat belt. The next step is a ban from the bus, which I would have preferred as the first step. The 1st grader's dad called Rick and asked that we go to him if there are any problems in the future. During the amiable conversation, he told Rick that she "was a little shit." If he admitted that to us, I can imagine that is what she is called at home. He also informed Rick that it was war at their home. So that is where the situation stands.


Speaking of war, I am having an extremely difficult time with Katie. She has decided that she is a big girl, knows all and does not need to listen to me when I tell her to do something or to stop doing something. She is pushing pretty hard and several days I have been reduced to going into the bathroom to cry. I don't know if the situation on the bus is caused this acting out or if she is just testing the boundaries. To combat her attitude, we have clamped down on her, so it has been a week of unrest in our home. Katie doesn't want to leave school because she knows that at home she will have to sit in her room. (There have been no after school activities i.e. tae kwon do.) I am relieved when she goes to school so I can have a break from the constant struggle. The situation is best summed up as, I love that little girl, but right now I do not like her; I do not want to be around her. This morning she would not get dressed for school. After a threat from Rick--why waste my breath--she got dressed then had the nerve to demand that I fix her hair. Needless to say she went to school with a Katie-made hair do and crying because it looked so bad. Pray for me. I don't know how much longer I can take this.


Sorry for the long post. As you can see, I have been busy disliking my daughter and this blog has been neglected. Which is typical for me. When I am in the middle of a bad situation, I typically will not talk or write about it when it is occurring. So when you see this blog lying on the side of the road, neglected it is a pretty safe bet that trying situations have my attention.

Hobo

A month or so ago what looks like a Great Pyrenees (a large white mountain dog) showed up at the lake. (People tend to drop off unwanted pets there. I guess the a**holes think they are being kind by dumping their animals by a water source.) The dog is very wary of humans, which is most likely the result of how it was treated by its former owners. When Rick is home, he runs over to the lake almost every night to check on our itty-bitty house and to feed the dog. Our friends and neighbors bring food to the dog when Rick is out of town. Rick calls the dog Hobo.

On Monday, Rick found Hobo in the Quonset hut. We live about a 1/4 mile from the lake and for whatever reason, the animals dumped at the lake always meander over here. There are houses that are closer, but I guess they can smell our compassion a mile, or in this case, a 1/4 mile away. Recently, something attacked Hobo and he is missing a large patch of skin/fur on his back. We are thinking perhaps it was a cougar. Not knowing if Hobo has rabies and the fact that the dog will not let you get closer than 4', we cannot get him into the trailer to take him to the vet. Monday night was the Bag o' Snakes night so when Rick was shooting rattlers, Hobo got scared and took off. Last night Hobo returned. He is in our shop and Rick is feeding and watering him. I am going to check today if our vet will do a house call and if the vet could tranquilize him so the wound on his back can be tended to.

My heart just breaks when I think about Hobo. I have not seen the dog yet because the tears start forming in my eyes just thinking about the life that Hobo has had. Rick thinks that the dog might be deaf and it is not a stretch to say the dog probably lost his hearing from being beat in the head. What is wrong with people? What did that dog do to merit such treatment from people? If he is a vicious dog and not retrainable, then put the dog down. Of course euthanizing a dog costs money, at least the cost of two cases of beer, but letting the dog fend for and fight for its life is so damn cruel. I just don't understand people and I pray that I will never understand the absolute cruelty that some display to animals. I firmly believe that if someone is cruel to animals, they are cruel to children also.

I'll keep you posted on Hobo.

Bag O' Snakes

Last night Rick went down to the Quonset Hut and from the front he heard a rattle waaaay in the back. (The shop is 100' long.) Rick investigated and found the rattler in his Grandmother's secretary desk; however, the snake managed to slither to safety, but not for long. Rick got his 45 and loaded it with snake shot bullets and headed back down to the shop. Of course Rick got him, but while hunting the 2' desk snake, he came upon two babies one of which he almost stepped on. POW! POW! Babies were headless. He came up to the house for a garbage bag for the dead snakes and when he went back down, he ran into a 5 footer and his gun was up at the house. Rick grabbed the next best thing, which is a shovel for which he had to trek to the front of the shop to get. 5 Footer made his escape. But as luck would have it, when Rick returned with the shovel he found a 4 footer curled up in the corner, so the sleeping snake got the shovel. Then Rick turns around and there is 5 Footer. Still armed only with the shovel, he used it to wedge the snake's head in the crack between the concrete floor and metal side wall. His flashlight was waning, so he came back to the house for new illumination. I accompanied him down the shop to be the official flashlight holder. Rick shot Mr. Wedged Head and managed to to get the shot into the crack without any ricochet and we had one more headless snake. Wedged Head had A LOT of buttons, so Rick cut the rattle off.

It was getting late and five headless rattlers is a productive night's work, so Rick tied off his white trash bag o' snakes and we headed back up to the house. So what did you do last night?

Fresh Breath

Lupe likes to steal wrapped hard candy from the candy dish so he can bat it around. Cody likes to eat the hard candy that Lupe steals. This explains why Cody sometimes has minty fresh or cinnamon breath. I must admit that the first time Cody ate a candy, his cinnamon scented breath had me saying, "What the hell?" that is until I saw the empty candy wrapper between his feet.

The Head Sniffer

I rarely post photos of Cody because he is a difficult dog to photograph. He also is a difficult dog to video tape. When he sees a lens pointing his way he must come and investigate, which means I have a lot of pictures up close and personal of his nose. When photographing people or such which are shorter than you, you want to get down to their level otherwise they look like they have a freakishly big head and tiny feet; however, if I try to get down to Cody's level, he comes over by me and sniffs my head--yes, the weirdo likes sniffing heads--and pushes and pokes me with his nose. But lately I have been able to get a few decent shots and I have posted them here for your viewing pleasure.

"I look like a sad sack because I just got yelled at. But when I see a person's head at my level, I just want to sniff it."

"I'm going for a walk, going for a walk, going for a walk."

"Is that big, yellow, obnoxious dog behind me?"

Cody is fascinated by Lupe all though in this picture he looks like he is disgusted with him. Perhaps Cody just realized that Lupe does not wear a shock collar.

Halloween 2011

Since Rick is out of town, I promised him that I would do a blog post about our Halloween activities. I don't have the luxury of free time today, so this post will be mostly pictures. (I can hear y'all, "Yippee! No MJ musings!)

The pumpkins Katie and I carved. Katie's is Mickey Mouse and mine, on the right, is Pluto. Katie didn't actually carve all of her pumpkin. Shortly after beginning, Katie cut herself on the finger, the index finger and between the knuckle and next joint. The blood was just pouring and Katie was scared and screaming. She began jumping up and down in the bathroom which threw the blood EVERYWHERE. She won't let me get a good look at the cut, so I took her to the emergency room. It was border line between stitches and glue, but how Katie was acting, we had to go with glue. When they put the glue in the cut, I had my arm around her and sang in her ear, a nurse kept her hand open, another nurse gripped her other hand and another nurse inserted the glue. She started kicking so I had to grab a leg. We seriously were holding her down which is very tear producing for me.

Katie wore her Monster High Frankie Stein costume to school on Friday which was Halloween party day.

Katie's Halloween class party. I made string cheese fingers and bagged grapes. I also helped at the party. Katie is the one in the background, the only one, standing.

 Katie at her table. The wig was itching her, so she had taken it off.

Waiting for the Parade of Costumes to begin. All of the grades march around the school in one big line. She must be talking about something fascinating from the looks on her two friends' faces.

She was a witch for the Team Chip party. In the picture, she is busy with the electronic game that GaGa and Pop Pop gave her.

We were invited to join friends as they were going to trick-or-treat in town. One husband hitched up his trailer and added hay so we did a hayride while trick-or-treating. In this picture there were at least another seven people that did not get in the trailer yet. We had quite the group. Katie is sitting by Nicky, the green frog.

"Quick! Run! So many houses, so little time." Last year Katie trick-or-treated at one house after the Stamford trunk-or-treat. So this year was her first year of true trick-or-treating. I am so glad that she got to experience it because I loved it as a kid.

Katie and friends, and yes the two on the right are twins. Katie was a witch and I forgot to take a picture at home. This witch costume was a different witch costume from the one she wore to Team Chip. She removed the hat because the breeze kept blowing it off. I had a plastic pumpkin for her to collect her candy in, but she wanted a Wal-Mart bag like her friends. After the hay-ride/trick-or-treating, we returned to Samantha's and Mike's house to eat the huge spread of food. We had spaghetti, nachos, fettuccine, meatballs and sweet tea.

All in all, we had a good Halloween season. The carved pumpkins didn't even last a week. Matter of fact they started to mold two days after they were carved. This was the first Halloween that we were not together as a family. It seemed incredibly weird and sad. I am thankful for Michelle and her invitation to join them and for Samantha and her husband Mike for making Katie and I feel very welcome.