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.

Tiny Angel

This evening I found out that Katie is going to be in Abilene Ballet Theater's performance of The Nutcracker! Three classes from Ballet Abilene were chosen and the students will be "Tiny Angels". When I told Katie, we were at our car after having left ballet practice. The girl screamed. She loves The Nutcracker so much that in the past I have rented a DVD from the library of the San Francisco Ballet performing it and she watched it multiple times. Also, The Nutcracker is the bedtime book that we are currently reading. 

If you plan on seeing The Nutcracker, there are four performances and Katie will perform in two, Saturday night November 19 and Sunday matinee, November 20.

I am so happy for Katie. She lives and breathes to be on the stage.

Ballet Rehearsal and Recital

This is going to be a long post. Katie had her ballet dress rehearsal Friday night and the recital Saturday night. I have a few pictures to share, so hang tight.

First I would like to share a Katie-ism. Rick got a keyboard for Katie. It is a Yamaha and is actually for adults not kids, but Rick wants Katie to learn to play the piano. The keyboard has several instrumental songs built into it. Katie likes to listen to those songs and dance around the living room. One day Rick was working in the office and Katie came racing down the hallway and barged in the office.

"Daddy, Daddy. They're playing the Knuckle Cracker."
"The knuckle cracker?" It finally dawned on Rick that she meant the Nutcracker.

Below are the pictures that I took from the dress rehearsal. I am glad I decided to take my camera with me because the night of the recital, I had no time to take pictures of Katie.

Katie outside of the Paramount Theater, the very first theater in which she has performed. The Paramount is an old style, stage theater that is quite ornate. It reminds me of the Calumet Theater in my home town.

Before the rehearsal Katie practicing on stage.

The rehearsal of Supercalifragilicious.

She really did a great job and seemed to be more into it than her fellow dancers.

The part of the routine where they join hands and dance in a circle.

After rehearsal sitting in a chair in the Paramount's lobby.

At the actual recital we did not get pictures of her dancing on stage. I was operating the video camera and Rick had the Canon. We were not allowed to use a flash, so the pictures that Rick did take (after the camera was taken off of timer mode) were blurry. However, we did take pictures before and after.

Katie practicing back stage. She is actually standing in the tunnel that runs underneath the stage.

 Curtain call. Of course our daughter chose to wave and blow kisses.

 Just in awe of all the faces looking her way.

Rick and I got her roses which we gave her after her performance. Side note:  As we were walking out of the theater, one little girl was in tears because her mom forgot to get her flowers. Aside, Rick asked Katie if she would give one of her flowers to the little girl, which Katie was very happy to do. The little girl was thankful, as was the mother. Later outside the theater we discovered that the mom had an older daughter too and when they stopped to thank us, Katie asked if the older girl wanted  flower, which the girl did, so Katie shared another. Katie has such an incredibly big heart.

 Kate and I outside on Cypress street in front of a business that was next to the theater.

Katie and her daddy

Rick made a very true statement last night. "If there were 50,000 in the audience Katie would have no qualms about going on stage to perform a solo." How very true. Katie has absolutely, none, zero, zippo stage fright. She lives to be on stage and was so very excited and proud to be able to go back on stage for the curtain call.

As for me, I was busy because we arrived an hour before the recital as required and I had to change Katie into her costume. I did her makeup and hair at home, so it wasn't so bad. Then Katie and I had to wait and wait and wait with the other 50 moms until the coordinator came to get her group. If you suffer from claustrophobia you would not have been able to last in that hallway underneath the stage. After I handed Katie over to the coordinator, I was able to take my seat with Rick. After Katie's performance, I had to high-tail it back to the dressing room to retrieve Katie; however, I could not find her. I saw several of her dance mates and their moms, but no Katie. I was told they saw her walking this way or that way. I was up on the second floor of the theater and she was seen there also. I went back down to the dressing rooms and there she was looking for me. Anyway, I had to change Katie into street clothes and we returned to watch the recital. We had to get back down to the dressing room about five songs before the curtain call. I had to change Katie back into her costume, leave her with the coordinator and head back to my seat in the audience. It was a lot of running around. I now see why some moms choose to watch the whole rehearsal the night before because you really miss a lot navigating in and out of the bowels of the theater.

Katie did a splendid job. Katie is in one of the four 3s &4s classes and each class was funny to watch. At that age the little girls had trouble remembering their dance or which way to turn, etc. Katie knew what she was supposed to do and executed her moves very well. The only thing is that at times she forgot to smile.

It was a great night and a first of many more to come. I am so relieved that she loves the stage. One little girl in Katie's group refused to go on stage the night of the rehearsal. The girl cried, kicked and screamed; however, she was on stage for the recital and looked deathly afraid the whole time.

Beauty vs Ugliness

This morning we had to run into Stamford and the post office to pick up the box that contained Katie's ballet attire.  I had ordered two different leotards, two pair of tights and one pair of leather ballet shoes.  Of course, the minute we got home, she stripped down to her skivvies so she could try on the real ballerina clothes.  And when I say "the minute we got home" I actually mean she began disrobing about 1' before the front door...outside...on the steps.  Anyway,  here's Rick's Little Doodlebug Ballerina.

 En pointe with the help of a chair and a barstool

 What a professional look on her face

Since you got to see some pictures of beauty, you are now offered a picture of ugliness, me.  To be more specific, it is a picture of my arm after a freaky fall.  Sunday night, Katie and I were painting the MOPS' sponsor boards on the living room floor.  I got up to get a pair of scissors and straddled the poster board in an attempt to step over it.  I quickly learned one foot was standing on Katie's hand.  Not wanting to break her little fingers, I lifted my foot up, lost my balance, fell forward and caught the edge of our glass topped coffee table.  The area was instantly ugly and hurt like heck.

I usually don't post pictures of bruises; however, I tend to wear tank tops and short sleeve shirts this time of the year and I hope the picture and explanation will cut down on the, "Oh my gosh!  What happened to your arm?!"   Those type of questions only encourage me to answer humorously or sarcastically.  For example, yesterday at the MOPS meeting I was tempted to answer, "It's the result of being on the Steering Team.  Another member and I had a little dust up."

Last night was a low cricket night in the house.  Tonight is another story.  I just found two in the guest bath, two in the living room and two in the kitchen.  However, one of them in the kitchen had no legs, but he was still alive and kicking, so to speak.  So that is your cricket update for today.

On the Katie front, today was the second day in a row that she did not attend Tae Kwon Do.  She has been struggling to do good things and not bad things.  She missed Wednesday because she tried to bite my hand when I grabbed hers in an attempt to foil her escape in Dollar General.  Thursday, she did it again when I attempted to get her off of the Fairy Garden's swing, so no Tae Kwon Do.  I pray that God can give her the strength to resist the urge to act out.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Tomorrow I need to register Katie for ballet lessons, which start after Labor Day.  Rick and I tossed around whether to enroll her in light of her recent attitude.  Because the classes start later, we decided to do it.  If they started tomorrow, we would not sign her up because we would be rewarding her for her bad behavior.

Below is Rick's picture for Friday.  Katie with her gap-toothed smile and her kitty towel from her Auntie Maryel.  Speaking of gifts in the mail from her Auntie Maryel (hey, that is like a poem!),  Katie also received two bottles of Love's Baby Soft perfume.  The first time she tried it I caught her applying it like bug spray.  She was quite the fragrant little girl so a shower was in order.