A General Rundown of Events

I usually try to post at least once a week and it's been more than a week - shows I've been working hard huh! So since my last post we've had all of our Memorial Day weekend activities - Friday I had off but spent time getting my application together for CS and making potato salad with Genni (she loves cracking the eggs for me) and watching drum major auditions at West. Saturday was my parade, my students did an admirable job and I was quite pleased - of course if you can get past all of the whining "it's hot" "can't we just get a float?" "do we have to march?" "can we roll our pants up?" - try marching in a real band with wool uniforms, then I want to hear you complain! Sunday we went up to Syracuse to see the rest of Eric's family- aunts, uncles and grandmas - it was really nice to see everyone since it's been awhile. Good food and good company, of course I had my bag of Genni food just in case. I think she may have eaten an entire watermelon while we were there though - she loves her fruits and veggies!

Monday was Eric's two parades - then the Simons family and my friend Deb came over for lunch - my kitchen looked like a tornado had hit it (I very dirty food covered tornado) so I had to get up early and clean, but it was nice to relax outside with friends and food. So once Genni got up from her nap I got her all ready to go to the parade - then searched for half an hour for keys that were not anywhere near my house, they where all in Eric's car at school. So we stayed home and Genni kept saying "but I want daddy!, but I want to see the band! why can't we go to the band!" I don't think she really gets the whole keys needed to drive a car thing. I'll remember this when she's 16 and wants mine.

Then Wednesday was the band banquet - shorter than in previous years! Emily was there and played with Genni and Graham some so this is the first year I got to hear most of it - long night but nice, I'm really going to miss some of those seniors. Thursday is choir, and that brings us to tonight's Jazz Band Dinner Dance at West with Eric's band - he was complaining last night about not having a vocalist, which means that I will be singing tonight....I get so nervous! I'm sure it will be fine, but noone is more judgemental than a bunch of high school students! So now I am going to stop typing so I can find audio clips of Skylark and God Bless the Child since I have no idea how they go, Summertime will be simple - Gershwin is my favorite. Wish me luck!!

Oh yeah - pictures of Genni and Graham at the Band Banquet, actually of them hiding from getting their picture taken are coming soon!

Oh the things she can think....

In a previous post I commented on how I wish I could remember all the cute things Genni says - well I'm going to try to remember some of them now, I've been saving them up:

- On Saturday when eating rice and chicken she stated "this spoon is driving me crazy!"

- She has recently taken to adopting a southern accent on some words - yeah comes out yee-ah and cat - cee-at - (no idea how this developed!)

- She told me one day that she had to get bigger....so she could cook her own sausages.

- everything happened - "last night" even if it was this morning or 3 weeks ago.

- why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why!

- here comes a skunk! here comes a birthday cake! here comes a giant! here comes a bad guy!

- "it hurts myself!"

- at night goodnights are now - "and my room, and my door, and the fan, and my doggies, and my room, and the window, and the closet, and my music, and mommy and daddy and, and, and....just about everything in her sight line, but she says it so fast!

- She can now press play on the CD player, Stop, go back a track AND switch Cd's "all by herself", of course when one of them starting skipping "mommy why is it going uh, uh, uh, uh?" I had to explain to her again why we don't touch the backs of the CD's. I can't believe she can work a CD player better than some teachers though!

- Whenever the wind is blowing outside she freaks out! She does NOT like the wind.

- speaking of freaking out, that's what she said to me the other day - "I'm freakin' out"

- when asked to help us pick rocks out of the garden she replied "no, I might get dirty" but then proceeded to make a mess with jumping in the mud puddles made by the pressure washer....she was filthy!

- she'll walk into the living room and say "this is such a mess, we need to clean it up"

- if it's too quiet she feels the need to fill the space with snippets from a bunch of songs...Lady with the Alligator purse, Sing a Song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Ring around the Rosy, Scrub a dub, Rubber Ducky, Green Grass Grows all around - and some song about being a pizza that she must listen to at Laurelyns...there are more songs but I can't remember them all.

- Every time she see's an E she says, this is for Emily! and the M, this is for Mommy!

- we were in the car yesterday and I was saying A is for Apple, B is for Bear etc....she kept on saying Genni! instead of the other words and actually got mad at me and wouldn't talk to me when I said that her name started with G and that was the only letter her name started with...she wanted them all! Can you believe it? I just laughed at her when she wouldn't talk to me and then I gave her a talk about how to act when we are angry at people - and that ignoring them is not the thing to do.

Well that's all the snippet stories I can think of for now - I don't have school Friday and Eric does...hahaha:) We have a long weekend coming, but both of us have parades to do so it doesn't really matter. Only a few weeks of school left though!

Mother-Daughter Banquet

So last night we had a mother daughter banquet at our church - there were so many people there! I don't know where they all came from, but it was nice to see so many faces. I sang....it was ok....but I also got to hear Mary Lu Walker which was very nice. Genni enjoyed her and behaved extrordinarily well last night - to which everyone commented on how wonderful she was behaving (I though to myself, "I can't take too much credit because it could very easily have gone the other way"- I have a hard time taking compliments like that because I don't like thinking people will be blaming my parenting skills if she doesn't behave....it's a catch 22) Anyway, the other nice thing about church is there are enough adults that she feels comfortable with that I don't have to worry about where she is all the time - here she is with Cathy last night...

To recap on the weeks events: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I drove to Williamsport (well to Mansfield and then rode to Williamsport) for WSO rehearsal/concert - amazing Jazz pianist Mike Garson was the guest artist - I was very impressed. All through rehearsals we kept skipping over his improv parts, so I didn't really hear him play till the concert. Then he did this encore where he had the audience sing a D and told the conductor to bring us in at random times whenever he wanted to on D's or whatever was in he chord - and this guy just improvised in the style of Liszt for awhile - on just that chord! It was really interesting because everyone in the room was involved in the improvisation. Eric played at the choir concert Monday night, and I heard that went very well as well. So then Wednesday I had choir and Thursday was the banquet and now a nice free weekend and Friday night - I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow morning!

Vote for Genni!

I uploaded this picture for a free cute kid Easter contest online - not the best pic ever but she's not over-smiling in this picture like she tends to do now when you tell her to smile:) We only have till the 15th to vote and you can vote every day:) Vote for my girl! Follow the link:

http://www.thecutekid.com/ckgallery/votemypic/email/26915

I Have to Dance

On Saturday morning we went to West early with Eric so I could help him unload the trailer before the parade and to get Graham so we could all go to the church for work day (well play day for the kids). The custodial staff had the radio on over the PA, and it was the loudest in the hallway - so Genni walks out into the hallway and starts to dance - she stops, looks at me and says "Mommy I have to dance" - haha, OK Genni go for it - jeesh the things they say are so cute! Sometimes when I'm talking to Eric and holding onto Genni and she's trying to get my attention she'll put her hands on the sides of my face and turn my face to her and say "Mommy I need you to listen to ME." How can you refuse something like that! She also has this infectious, there's nothing in the world to worry about super enthusiastic smile, I wish I remember how to smile like that all the time, I hope she never loses that smile because it is impossible to be sad about anything when she turns on the brights. Of course there are other things she does that I thought wouldn't happen till she was a teenager - like when I tell her to do something and she doesn't do it and I tell her again and she says " I AM" with that little attitude voice - when she certainly wasn't doing it when I asked her - or when she asks daddy a question and I answer it and she says "I was talking to Daddy!" - seriously? Your only 2 1/2! She also knows how to manipulate a situation by pretending she can't hear you or asking really obvious questions to try to distract you from what she's supposed to be doing. Like when she is supposed to be helping clean up and she goes to the bookshelf and says "over here mommy? do they go over here? over here?" Hhhhhh (exasperated sigh) of course they go there Genni, you know that, now stop standing there and asking me questions and clean up! How do they learn these things?

Well as a little catch up from last week - I had lessons Tuesday, choir Wednesday and Eric's concert was Thursday - it was nice to chill out Friday night and then Saturday Genni and Graham played while West had their parade. Sunday I had church in the morning and then I had to go to Williamsport in the evening. The morning was nice but the afternoon fairly depressing and lonely. Mom and dad asked us if we wanted to go to Syracuse to see Grandma on Sunday (this was back on Thursday) and I said - well you guys can go but I can't because I have WSO rehearsal at night, and I have to be at church in the morning. Of course I wasn't thinking about it being mother's day, or that they would actually all go without me. (Eric hasn't seen his grandmother in awhile so he felt like he should go). So Eric and Genni took off before church in hopes of getting home in time for dinner and before I had to leave - unfortunately they didn't make it. So after church I had the house to myself all afternoon.

It's a busy week - I have another WSO rehearsal tonight and the concert is tomorrow night - Wednesday is choir and the Band Aides meeting - Thursday night is the mother-daughter banquet at church, I have to sing and Eric has to serve - then Friday we get to relax. Saturday I'm hoping to go take advantage of some free mulch for the landscaping. Fun times!

Catch Up

Well last week was my concert - which is why there haven't been any posts since Flashback to Easter - wow it's been awhile. So last week was busy with concert preparations (it went pretty well) and this past weekend we got the dogs rabies shots and planted the garden. It was so nice to be outside weeding and planting. I love this weather, and the trees have suddenly burst into bloom, which is just wonderful.

So I keep meaning to write an entry about the wonderful things my daughter says, but I can't always remember exactly how she worded it that made it so funny. She really is getting big though, and I can't imagine what life was like without hearing her two cents about every situation. Sometimes Eric and I can't even talk to each other in the car till I remind Genni that the adults are talking and she has to be quiet for a minute. Her and Wallace are little buddies now outside - I can weed and the two of them run around together. At least he has some redeeming qualities, to date he has destroyed - the garden hose, one of the panels of our canopy, 4 pairs of my shoes, two pairs of Eric's shoes, most of the landscaping in the front, multiple holes in the yard, not to mention all of the toys we have had to throw away from his chewing and the basement door. And that's just the stuff I remember! Anyway, back to Genni.

Genni has been sitting through church for the past 5 Sundays, I'm so proud of her. She goes running up to Gary for children's time (and I do mean running) and the whole church smiles. This past Sunday she cheered after the choir sang (yay! yay mommy!) and the whole church laughed and started clapping too. You can say that my daughter certainly lightens things up. Eric and I sit there smiling like two proud parents, especially when she sits there with the older kids for children's time. Anyone who knows my daughter knows that it is sometimes tough to keep her quiet and still at the same time. But when she goes up for children's time she sits nice and straight and quiet and listens. It's so cute!

Little Miss Independant isn't always cute though - she wants a drink "I want to hold the lid!" "what do we say when we want something" "Can I hold the lid please (please being the most high pitched word of the sentence)?" "I want to put my lotion on myself!" "I want to put it on myself" "myself, myself, by by myself!" But then when it comes to things she CAN do by herself, like go to the bathroom or use her fork, all of a sudden mommy needs to do it for her - can't she make up her mind? And then there are the "why" questions - does she even listen to the answer? By the time we get down to the last why I have nothing left to say except "because" "why?" "because I said so" - those aren't good answers but I can't think of anything else to say.


Well one of the new skills my daughter has developed is somersaults. This is very early in her doing this, now she just drops and rolls.

We went to dinner with Grandma a few weeks ago - Genni loved the lake and the whole time we were eating she wanted to go see it - Grandma and Genni were watching the boats on the lake in this picture:

Well that's it for now!