Serving at the Banquet

Tonight, Mercy church turned out in full force (46 of our little community) to serve at our local soup kitchen (for lack of a better term) that serves meals to the needy in Sioux Falls.

I took Xander with me (Matt had to work and Maia went with a sitter), and our job was to clean tables and chairs after they had been used. They served 542 people tonight. We worked hard (some people for a very long time), and had a great time serving some very grateful people.

I got to pray with a guy that he would get a job soon, hear another guy's story about how he's been drug, alcohol and nicotine free for 8 months and got baptized 5 months ago. While he doesn't have a job, he sure has confidence in God and is brimming with blessings.

An older fellow wearing a flourescent pink flowered cap with "Miami" embroidered on it was proud to show off his diamond pin. (Dime And Pin- he had a dime with a hole drilled in it hooked to a safety pin on his shirt!)

One fellow told me he sings so badly he can shut the shower down!

Oh, and I almost got punched in the face. I'm not sure why I happened to be the one in the right place at the right time, but I broke up two guys who started a verbal fight and nearly came to blows. Sweet Dave from our church, (in his 50s and about a year into his journey with Parkinsons) was right behind me making sure nothing actually got physical. It's good to know he's got my back. :)

Later Dave says to me, "You must have scared your mother to death when you were a kid." Ha! I've never done anything like that before- EVER! Except breaking up my kids when they've gotten too insane. And to be honest, I used the same tactics and language.

All these big tough guys from church were like, "why didn't you let me do that?" I don't know! It was a act-first-think-later moment. I found my knees shaking for the next half hour or so.

I know, now you're saying, "You took your kid into that environment?!" He was perfectly safe the whole time, and knew the rule- stick by my side the entire time (unless I'm breaking up a fist fight). He did well, and he felt great afterward. I was really proud of him.

Catching up

OK, I only have 2 minutes, so here's all the things I haven't blogged about in the last 3 months:

We put down a new kitchen floor. Looks great!!!

I got a new car- that yellow bug I've been dreaming of. She's so cute. Her name is Maizÿ.

Our carpets are really clean- well, the were a week ago when the carpet cleaners came.

I'm now directing not only the All City Elementary school musical in March (the Pied Piper), but also the Kids Christmas musical at church.

Matt is well on his way to winning us an all-inclusive trip to Jamaica in March (right after the ACE Musical). We are REALLY looking forward to it.

I have an AWESOME group of students this semester. Interestingly, about half of them start with the letter A- and I have 3 Annas and 3 Erins. Weird random facts.

I'll be taking 4 students to the South Dakota Music Teachers' Association student competion next WEEK. Almost all of them are ready. (worrying about one of my Annas).

Maia's hitting a growth spurt

OK, I've been reserving my decision whether to send Maia to Kindergarten next year or not, but just this week, she's hit this intellectual growth spurt. I don't know if that's a real thing, but it seems an appropriate term. Yesterday, Maia started reading. She voluntarily spent an hour tracing letters while I was teaching a lesson last night, and today, she about wore me out wanting to learn new things.

She started piano lessons (found a great book for pre-readers in the Piano Adventures series by Faber & Faber) today, and I'm just amazed at the leap she's taken in the last few weeks.

I have to say, I'm a firm believer in preschool. WOW!

Quote of the Day

Tonight, Maia requested a hard boiled egg for supper. She told Matt she wanted salt, but, "not too much salt, or I'll go into a diabetic coma."

Maia is 4.

Hair Evangelism

So, this morning, I had 2 visitors at church mention how much they like my hair (reminder of what it looks like)


One mom with 3 or 4 kids was at our big outdoor Get Mercy celebration last weekend, and when I introduced myself, she said, "I remember you! You had the Mickey Mouse shirt and that funky hair." (of course, the fact that I stood on stage the entire morning didn't hurt either!)

After church, I was talking to another couple, and the woman said, "When we pulled up to church this morning, you were standing outside, and I said to my husband, 'Look at her cool hair! This is going to be a fun church.'" That's right folks, some might call it crazy or "brave" (I haven't figured that out yet- taking a bullet for someone is brave, not dying your hair red), but I prefer to think that it's drawing people to Jesus.

New Pictures

So, our friend Leah is leaving us this week, but before she went, she took some great family photos of us. Here's a few...







I think this will work, I have more pictures saved on an album on Phanfare.

Tubers

The kids went to Grandma Marilyn's last weekend and Maia became a Tuber! Doesn't she look so brave in this picture?



Oops. She must have gotten water in her face.




Xander got to ride on this deal which was pretty cool too.
They had so much fun!


I sent them over to mom's for Friday and Saturday while I worked on my sermon for Sunday. It worked out good for all, the kids got to watch some TV, hang out on the boat and generally have a little vacation, and I finished up my prep on Friday (took about 8 hours), then Matt & I went out on a date Friday night.

Saturday was a Matt & Amy day and we had a nice time, but I'm not going into details! :)

pool fun

Look what Xander learned in swimming lessons!



It's not going to win him the olympics or anything, but he's got a good start on diving.

Maia just likes to jump off the side into my arms -she's now quite aggressive at this and I have to stand on the first lane line so that she won't jump on my head. I haven't figured out how to take a picture of this, when I'm the only grown-up of our group most pool days. I caught her quick with the camera as she ran past in this picture.

I'm sure the shot was followed by me saying, "Pull up your pants!"

First Day of Swimming Lessons

The Parks & Rec Department in Sioux Falls has a great deal on 2 weeks of swim lessons- $10 or $15 if you have your season pass. The only catch is, you have to get the kids registered before the classes fill up.

So here's my story: The Monday evening and Tuesday morning of the week before lessons start is the time to register your kid for lessons. Last year, I forgot all about it on Monday night, didn't get there until Tuesday morning, and all the classes I needed were full. So the kids didn't get lessons. I later found out that a different (less popular) pool might have been the answer to my problem, but we decided to "home school" swim lessons and it worked out fine.

So this year, I thought, I would go to the less popular pool right away, avoiding the long lines and full classes at the hip trendy pool we usually go to. Wait, let me see if I can find pictures of these two pools... OK, here's the hip trendy pool

it includes a zero depth entry, two toddler slides, and a big waterslide (not pictured)

and here's the less popular pool.

This is where they have swim meets. It's a lap pool with a diving board at one end. Not as fun for the little ones.

We live an equal distance between them.

Anyway, registration started at 5:30 Monday night, I had to teach a lesson until 5:30, but she came early, so as soon as I got her out the door, I got the kids in the car and we were headed for the pool by 5:20. Xander kept asking, "Do you think we'll get in this year?" I assured him that I had things all figured out, and we were definitely getting in this year. So we pull up to the pool, where there is only a very short line of 2 or 3 families waiting to register, get out of the car, and I THEN take the time to look at my summer activities guide only to discover to my dismay, that they don't teach preschool lessons at this pool! (it's too deep)

Now, if I would have taken a moment to think things through, I might have decided that since Xander didn't get his first batch of swimming lessons until he was 8 (and he's doing great in the water, by the way), maybe Maia would be OK missing out preschool level swimming lessons- since it's really only a matter of getting used to the water at that age, which we do just fine with on our own. Also, given her great fear of large group situations without me around, I might have just saved my $10.

But I didn't.

I loaded us all back into the car and headed for the hip trendy pool, there to be greeted by 3 lines (one for each time session) probably 50 feet long.

And it was hot.

Luckily, my kids are big enough to go and play on the playground equipment (located maybe a half block away- within eye-shot, but not close enough for those lucky moms who had to bring their toddlers and babies along). 45 minutes later, I got both kids registered for lessons, Maia in the preschool class (4-5 year-olds) and Xander in "Level III, Stroke Readiness" (I just guessed).

So anyway, we go to our first morning of lessons this morning, and they call Maia's name, she hangs on to me for dear life, cries, pouts, and eventually goes with the nice teachers (and cries most of the time). I feel guilty that I'm relieved that mine isn't the whiniest kid in the group.

They get to Level III, and don't call Xander's name. I went and checked, and after all that waiting in line, and the hassle that went with it, they never wrote Xander's name down! Luckily, they were flexible, and let him join the class anyway. I was a little nervous that he wouldn't know enough to do the class, but he told me that what he didn't know, he figured out pretty fast. I watched for a little while from outside the fence, and was relieved to see he was keeping up with the class just fine.

If there's one thing that Xander loves to do, it's swim.

This afternoon after lessons, we went back to the pool (it was still 90 degrees when the sun went down tonight), and Xander said, "Want to see me swim across the deep end and back?"

I didn't know he could do that! Sure enough! It's not pretty, but he's starting to learn how to do the American Crawl, and is definitely building his endurance.

Maia made big strides this afternoon too. She loves to jump into the water into my arms repeatedly (seriously, she could spend 9 hours doing this), and occasionally, she'll even jump to me before she can reach my hands! I know, she's so brave.

Much like Little Vikes Day Camp, I'm hoping that the next day of lessons (which isn't until Wednesday), will be a more positive and enjoyable experience for her.

Mini vacation

I'm terrible about taking pictures this summer! Sorry there's no pics to go with this long post.

We took off for the day Wednesday and went down to Yankton to stay overnight at Mom & Jim's. We picked an absolutely perfect day for it. Matt got up and on his bike at 5:30 am, and rode the 87.6 miles to Mom's place. I got the kids up and out the door by 7:30 and we were there by 9. Mom took the morning off both Wednesday and Thursday (she had meetings she couldn't miss Wednesday afternoon), so we had some time with her before she left for work.

She showed me through all her flowers, walked me through the waist-high wildflowers and grasses that constitute her front yard, then took a shower and went to work.

I did not take a shower at that point, because we were going out on the boat that afternoon... BIG MISTAKE! We'll come back to that later...

So Grampa Jim took us out on the boat and we anchored and just paddled around in the water for several hours. I sunblocked everybody up good, the wind was virtually non-existant (a strange anomoly for South Dakota), and it was a beautiful, sunny 90 degrees. Just right for bumping around in the lake all afternoon.

Nobody got sunburned, I am proud to report.

Xander's favorite activity aboard the boat is to jump off, climb up, jump off, climb up, jump off, climb up (etc.). We wore that kid out! This has been his favorite thing to do aboard Grandma's boat for years! He's finally to the age where he can do it without help and without inhaling a bunch of water every time and barfing up after each jump. (ahh.... the good old days)

Maia, as usual, was a little less adventurous. She did discover that sitting inside one of the tubes (the kind with a mesh bottom that you pull behind a motorboat), is like having her very own little swimming pool. Once she figured that out, she was happy as a clam.

I layed in the sun and soaked up the rays. I know, you're not supposed to do that, but I didn't get that much sun, my tan looks so much healthier than my pasty white skin I've sported all these years (literally 2 decades), and ah, it was so relaxing!

Matt swam around with us for a while, then got on the boat under the canopy and hung out with Jim (who does NOT swim), until weariness from the morning's ride overtook him and he zonked out for a while.

Mom called after she was done with her meetings, so we went and met her for supper at the Marina, then went back out in the boat for a little while before heading in for the evening.

One of Matt's favorite things about going to Mom's is that she gets the channel that shows Tour de France coverage, so he got to watch 2 stages during our stay, which made him really happy. Don't get him started on this topic, by the way. He's really passionate about cycling...

After bathing both kids, we had a fire in the chiminea on the deck (no marshmellows to roast), then we put them to bed.

About this time, I started to discover that I had a problem... Remember my little visit to Mom's flowers? Apparently, I was visited by a rabid crop of chiggers, but the bites didn't manifest themselves until about bedtime that night.

I have not had chiggers this bad since I was about 14 or so, and went picking chokecherries a day or two before leaving for summer camp. I remember being quite miserable then, but this was worse. Because this is now.

(If you are unfamiliar with either chiggers or chokecherries, you might not be from South Dakota)

Now, I have learned a few things about chiggers in the past few days. I'll just link you to the web page that I found about them. I was thankful to learn that they do not acutally crawl into your skin and live there as is the common understanding around here. But they are seriously ferocious.

Sadly, I am not looking so good in my bikini swimsuit as I was just a week ago. I look like I have chicken pox. That should go over well at the public swimming pool! :)

But chigger itching aside, we had a great time, and will have to try to get out there again before the summer is over and gone.

Riding bikes and nearly getting saved

The summer has been really quite uneventful. I intentionally didn't hyper-schedule the kids, and as a result, we are having a fun, relaxed summer.

Xander is starting to finally get the feel for riding his bike after another day of working on it with Matt (after about 6 weeks off- I wouldn't say he's particularly motivated to learn). Yesterday afternoon, Matt & Xander went down to the park and plugged away at it in the grass again. Then they came back up to the house and tried on the cement for a while. Xander got a couple of good crashes in, one with Dad, when the handlebars poked into his chest (OW!), and one later with me- a scraped knee on the curb when he forgot how to stop. Matt made him get right back up and on the bike after his crash, but I let him quit and come inside. Oops. Now he never wants to ride again.

Maybe.

This morning at children's church he learned that a little girl about 6 months older than Maia (making her 4 1/2 to Xander's 8 1/2) learned to ride her 2-wheeled bike yesterday (in his defense, he's an oldest child, and she has 3 older brothers). He was man enough to still ask that God would help him learn how to ride his bike as a prayer request.

Today the kids played downstairs while I had Bible study in the kitchen and Matt updated his blog, talked to his folks and read in the upstairs. The kids came up with a new game: "Slap the prince." It goes like this- Maia lays down under a blanket, Xander comes along and says, "Someone is under the blanket. I wonder who it is?" He then removes the blanket and says, "Oh a sleeping princess. I must kiss her on the forehead," which he does. Maia then opens her eyes and slaps him.

Fun game.

As I was getting Maia ready for bed tonight, she told me that her heart was breaking because she missed Jesus. I said, "You know, if you ask Jesus, he will come and live in your heart, then you never have to miss him again." I tried to explain some basic salvation stuff to her and we talked about how we all want to do naughty things sometimes. "Do you ever do naughty things?"

"No."

"Are you ever disobedient?"

"Yes."

"Are you ever mean to your brother?"

"Yes."

"Do you ever tell a lie?"

"No.......(much prodding here)....... yes." By now, she's starting to feel pretty bad about things.

"Do you want to be forgiven for all those naughty things you've done? Because Jesus will do that for you and make you feel all clean inside."

"Nah. I'll do it tomorrow. Let's have a tea party."

I guess she's used to living under the weight of sin at the old age of 4.

Maia's Camp Experience

Maia did not start off as strong as Xander when it came to being a "Little Vike." (She called it "Leaf Eriks" camp for several days.)

The first Monday when I dropped her off, she was understandably nervous. She only knew one other girl there, and that girl came with a friend, so Maia felt very alone. I prayed for her all morning, Mom called asking about her, so I know Grandma was praying for her too...

When I went pick her up, she had just finished swimming, so her hair was lank and wet, her pretty blue eyes were all red and drippy and it was obvious she'd pretty much spent the whole day crying. The counslor that brought her out said, "It was a really sad day for Maia."

When asked what the problem was, she replied, "I just missed you," or "I was so worried about you."

She actually made herself physically ill. She had a loose bowel the rest of the day, and the next morning she had a headache and upset stomach (I KNOW I exhibited these same symptoms my entire kindergarten year). I let her stay home on Tuesday, and emailed the camp director to see if we could get a partial refund or something.

Then Wednesday morning, she announced that she was ready to go back to Leaf Eriks. So I took her. She only cried a couple of times, and finished the week well, though she rarely played with other kids or participated in activities (I'm guessing at this).

Today was the second-to-last (or "penultimate" as snooty musicians say) day of camp. When I went to pick her up at the indoor activity area where I get her every day, I couldn't spot her right away. I found her shoes and sweatshirt, which implied that she was actually PLAYING WITH THE OTHER KIDS! I finally spotted her in the Little Tykes playhouse playing with some other girls. One of the counselors commented that Maia had made some new friends today.

Just in time. Tomorrow's the last day. But it's something. I hope she remembers the good feelings more than the bad ones.

Xander's Camp Experience

I sent the kids to YMCA day camp these last 2 weeks. They have a long-standing, well-established program for kids right across the river from our house, and I thought they would enjoy it. Xander went to Leif Erickson camp (some strong Norsky influence there, Papa Svale would be proud) for 6-9 year-olds, and Maia went to Little Vikes camp for 4-5 year-olds.

Xander has had an absolute blast from day one. There are 3 kids from his class there, one is in his group (they have probably 120 kids in each 2-week session, 6 sessions over all). Each "group has about 10 kids and one counselor. Xander says his counselor is the coolest because he can brandish a whip just like Indiana Jones. As a matter of fact, this counselor has the kids beleiving that he was a stunt double in the latest Indiana Jones movie. (Someday, Xander's going to have to learn when people are flat-out lying to him. Does this seem like something we should do at a "Christian" camp?).

Tonight is Xander's last night at camp. It was family night, and most days, he has gotten on a big red bus at 8:20 in the morning and been returned to us via the big red bus (one of at least a dozen that run all over the city) at 4:20 pm. Today, they stayed at camp all evening, and will spend the night and be returned in the morning.

Mostly, this would be a great idea, but last night we had a wicked thunderstorm whip through here at about 4:30 am, and I woke up and thought, "If this happens tomorrow night, I am driving into the heart of that muddy campground and finding my baby!"

I was reasonably stunned to discover this evening that the "shelter" that each group sleeps in does not even have walls. It is like a small picnic shelter with pea gravel on the ground covered with some kind of damp carpet.

"So, what happens if a thunderstorm comes through like last night?" I asked whip-bearing counselor.

"They'll be safe. We have an indoor shelter to move to if the weather gets bad."

Really? At 4:30 in the morning? Have you tried to wake a 8 year-old boy in the middle of the night lately? (geesh. I hope not! That seems creepy)

Anyway, Xander will be sleeping outdoors tonight, but I doubt I'll be getting much rest.

Scheels Awards

Matt is the proud recipeint of the 2008 "E For Excellence" award from Scheels for his 2nd passion in life (right after bikes), Youth Cold Weather clothing. His shop was the top seller last year, so we got invited to the Scheels Awards banquet in Brainerd, MN last Wednesday.

The awards were held at Maddens on Gull Lake, a lovely golf resort, which if you click on the link looks like a pretty nice resort to stay in, however, I was a little dubious when we first were shown our lodging. We drove past these:


and discovered that our room was in this building:


Much to my relief, it did not smell like Camp Pine Lake, (even though it looked like it), and though the accomodations were dated, they were nice, clean and the beds were very comfortable.

When we arrived on Wednesday evening, it was very chilly (the high in Brainerd was 49 that day... on the 11th of June!), and stormy and windy, but there was a fireplace right in our room (real wood-burning), which we weren't actually brave enough to try lighting (afraid the flue would be closed and we'd smoke up the joint). Here's a picture of the fireplace at breakfast the next morning! :)


The awards banquet itself was fine, about what you'd expect, I guess. I was TOLD it was a formal dinner, so I dressed in a formal dress (I sort of have a collection of them that I love to wear at any opportunity). Yeah, I was WAY overdressed, but oh well! I guess "formal" means a different thing to the athletic crowd than it does to the artistic crowd.

We awoke to a lovely view of the lake,
and a beautiful day, so Matt & I took some time to walk around the grounds and didn't rush home.

Maia's Birthday

Our little princess turned 4 last Tuesday, and we had a fun day. She got to open gifts from us early in the morning, which included a lot of clothes,




a net canopy thing for over her bed,


and a dress-up outfit from Xander (oops, no picture). We were going for a Sleeping Beauty costume, but there was no fooling her. It's a Rose Fairy Princess ballet dress. Now she thinks she needs real ballet shoes to go with it.

She also got this cool playhouse (a free gift from some friends)



She was pretty funny opening presents, because she felt the need to close her eyes while she opened them. Double surprise or something, I guess.


Tuesday afternoon & evening, we had almost all the family here for her party. Marie wasn't feeling up to it, but everyone else came, we had corn & black bean salsa with chips (this recipe is AWESOME! I use fresh grape tomatoes instead of canned italian style), some fresh fruit, and burgers and hot dogs on the grill. And of course, the cake. I chose to go with Dairy Queen's blizzard cake (oreo) this year after the horrible cake I made for Xander's birthday.

After the party, we sent Xander & Maia home with Grandma Georgie & Grandpa Bruce for 5 days. They had a great time, though Maia got a little homesick in the middle. We went and picked them up on Sunday.

Rock & Roll Hair

Check out my new doo. I'm a rock & roll mommy.



This haircut and color cost me less than $15, and 4 voice lessons. One of my college students, Anna, has been through beauty school and wanted to keep up lessons in the summer. I agreed to work the barter system with her, so she doesn't have to pay for lessons, and I don't have to pay for haircuts. How cool! What am I going to do when school starts again? I finally found someone who really cuts my hair well.

So, I wanted to get a funky cut because I have a class reunion coming up in July, and it's imperative that I look ultra weird for my high school reunion. I have a reputation to uphold.

The story of getting my hair colored and cut is actually quite amusing. Anna met me and the kids at Sally Beauty Supply this morning at 9:15, we picked out the color, then went back to our house and she did a "Malibu" treatment which had to stay on my hair under the dryer for about 45 minutes. We went ahead and did her voice lesson while I was wearing a bag-style old fashioned hair dryer with a hose attached. With my ears sticking out so that I could hear her sing...

Then she did the cut and started in on the color/ foiling process, which took until after my 1:00 lessons showed up. That's right. I have a young pair of sisters who come at the same time for piano lessons, one goes first, then the other. I still had foil on my head and was back under the dryer when they arrived. Never had a piano lesson like this, have you? After the color was done processing, I had the student work fingerings on her right hand while we rinsed and conditioned, then I sat in my chair and let Anna blow dry and style my hair while I finished both girls' lessons. At least it was all done by the time their mom showed up to pay.

I guess I'm just not like other piano teachers.

Circus Time

Xander's class went to the circus a few weeks ago, so I took Maia to the same matinee. We had a lot of fun. There were trapese artists, tiger & lion trainers, clowns, trained elephants, a bunch of scantily clad spinning women, a screaming ball full of motorcycles and a human cannonball among other things.

These aren't the greatest pictures, but here's a glimpse of what we saw.

Preschool Wrap-Up

Maia's last day of preschool was almost a month ago, but here's some pictures:

Maia and Miss Julie


Maia with Kelynn & Preston


Maia's class in the program doing the "Tootie Tot" (with the same actions as Jamin's version of "Singin' in the Rain" which campers will recognize- Thumbs up, feet apart, knees together, bottoms out... etc.)



Maia


Veronica


Gabe, Kelynn & Makai


Preschool was sure good for Maia this year. She'll go three mornings a week next year. We're excited to see her starting to recognize her numbers and letters (finally), and showing signs that she might actually be ready for kindergarten next fall.

Summer Has (Sort of) Begun

I suppose this is what we get for trying to make our summer start earlier by getting out of school on May 18- but it does not feel at all like summer here.

Jay Trobec (our beloved weatherman) said last night on the news, "I hope you enjoyed summer, or as we like to call it around here, Sunday afternoon..." Good one Jay!

Summer vacation means many adjustments to my schedule and the kids' lives. Matt just keeps plugging along, but doesn't have to leave quite as early for work (to take Xander to school).

I have adjusted my lesson schedule so that I only work on Mondays and Tuesdays. I went from 30 students 2 weeks ago to 8 this week. Makes my life considerably more flexible (and less profitable).

Our first week off from school was a little rough- we did teach Xander to get his own breakfast, so I can get my "beauty rest" (amazing how fast I switch to Night Owl mode when summer hits)- though Maia has been climbing into bed with me around 6:30 or so and wiggling around until I decide to finally get up, so that's nice.

We had to limit Xander's computer and video game time to 2 hours a day. It took Xander a few days to adjust to that, but we were getting sick of all of his conversations revolving around video games... We sent him outside to our terraces to play Bionicles on Sunday afternoon (you know... summer) for a while, which he enjoyed once he got the hang of it.

Everyone except Matt has been sick already. Stomach bug of some sort. Maia started it by getting sick in the night on Friday night (then proceeding to climb into bed with me- thereby passing her bug to me in the night). I got sick just in time for church Sunday morning, so Matt had to lead the hymns in first service. He says they'll appreciate me more now. :) Xander came down with it Sunday evening, and had a rough night. By Monday (Memorial Day), we were all feeling fine (though waiting for Matt to fall victim, which he never did).

Memorial Day was nice. Mom & Jim came up and we finished painting the inside of our garage. This was Jim's obsession this week. He came over last Thursday and primed both our garage and the neighbors' (in the duplex), and Monday we finished painting our garage, got some serious organization done and it looks almost sterile out there now (the lack of color is somewhat disturbing to me, but what are you going to do? I only know one person who's decorated his garage- Keith Conner- his is black inside with fog machine, laser light show and disco ball... fun, but maybe not what we're looking for here.

Last week, we had a chance to go to the park and try to get Xander on his bike. That's one of our major goals for this summer (it was our goal for last summer too, but didn't happen), getting him to learn to ride his bike. Matt & Xander spent a while working on a grassy slope trying to get his balance, which is still... undeveloped.

If we can get Maia to encounter a bug or two without freaking out, I'll consider it a successful summer with her.

I had a jewelry show for my friend Kim last week. I know, like I need more jewelry. I think I got about $500 worth of stuff for about $100 as a hostess. I'm looking forward to that coming in! I was moderately pleased with my turnout. I sent 36 invitations, and 4 people showed up, and 2 placed outside orders. If I didn't know the business, I'd think I was miserably unpopular, but that's just the way it goes in reality. I was excited that I knew 36 people to send invites to!

Big plans for the summer include sending both kids to the YMCA camp across the river from our house for a 2 week day camp. They have a very well established camp called Leif Erickson camp for kids Xander's age, and a preschool version called Little Vikes for Maia's age. They'll be going at the same time as a couple of friends, so that should help with the adjustment. I like that they can see our house from there, and that they come home to sleep every night. That will be the last 2 weeks in June.

Xander's also going to a 3 day dance camp. I think he'll have a really fun time. That's the first week in June.

Second week in June is Tour de Kota (Sunday & Monday), Maia's birthday (Tuesday), and then we're sending the kids home with Grandma Georgie & Grampa Bruce while Matt & I go to the Scheels' awards banquet in Braynerd, MN (sp?). So I guess we have a few things scheduled, but really not a huge deal.

I'm trying to avoid the hyper-scheduling of summer, and just letting summer be summer. I've got a recital to prepare for in September, and of course, the school musical in March (which I need to be preparing for already), so I'm trying to do some pre-paration.

Never Too Old To Get Nervous

Tina says I have to tell you how it went tonight (See previous post), and I'm very obedient...

I think they really liked it. My students had fun and sang well, I was proud of them. Several people came up to me inquiring about how much voice lessons cost, and how good you have to be to start. My non-musical best friend at church asked if I could make her as good at Anna (one of the students) in maybe 3 lessons?

It was mostly an older crowd. This is an invite your sister/ daughter/ daughter-in-law tradition with the Good Shepherd folks, and they represented well. We also had a good sprinkling of Mercy ladies there (I begged them to come).

I focused really hard on not speaking too quickly and tried to keep things interesting by using the students as examples frequently. I did not hold the attention of the 4-7 year old crowd (2 girls), but from age 11 and up seemed pretty well engaged the whole time.

It didn't take as long as I feared it would, but I probably presented for about an hour. That includes using some songs- some were just segments, but 4 were whole songs. I sang one song so they'd know I can practice what I preach.

The singing and accompanying were fine, I could relax into those parts, but whenever I was speaking, my knees and hands were shaking uncontrollably. I suppose it WAS my first time speaking a full message EVER. Maybe when I have to preach at church in August, I will not have such a violent nervous reaction. No, I probably will. Better program some songs into that too, so I have some moments of peace! How backwards!