rain on tulips

The last day of school finally ground down today… amidst the first rain we’ve seen in more than a month! Its cold, grey, rainy, and the kids have been home for hours playing board games, guitars, computers, and there’s a pot of soup on the stove for dinner. I’m missing my nap time — think I can convince them all to lay down for an hour this afternoon? — and any hopes of attending the neighborhood end-of-school pool party are kind of being dashed by the rain.

On the other hand, the cool weather has me thinking I’m cold, I should knit a sweater (because that would happen fast enough to alleviate the cold, right?)

As the summer is gearing up, we’re happy to report that the compound bow Fuul got me for our anniversary is seeing lots of use at the local shooting range (can you say “family pass”), the neighborhood pool is heated, and JS is spending more and more time here at home, even if most of that time is spent glued to video games and guitars. (They’re all turning into teenagers, I suppose).

DA’s musical television debut should air this evening on the news; I have both the six and eleven o’clock episodes scheduled to record, and I keep checking online to see when they put the longer version up so I can share it with everyone.

DA and AE are in the living room re-jiggering “Hoist the Colours” for guitar; I think they want to take it to the next open mic night at the local coffee house.

My yard is overgrown; the brambles have started shooting out of the ivy and I’m not sure how to get them out without killing off the ivy too. And I need to do some tree and bush trimming and clean out the gutters. Woohoo.

EK’s talking is taking off… only none of us can understand 95% of what she’s saying, so I need to find her a new speech therapist for summer, to take advantage of the explosion. But its so exciting to see her making the effort!

We finally reverted this week and got a ‘landline’ phone, because the kids were running up my cell phone bills. (They keep asking me how they charge for the phone if it isn’t by the minute! Poor kids have no idea how landlines work!)

OK. Going to go check on the soup and see if it isn’t time to eat something warm and do some knitting in this chilly grey weather (here in the middle of June!). Hope you all are having a spectacular summer!

EK and CC’s class did a mini performance for their last day of preschool, with a little singing, a little instrument playing, a little dancing. I just couldn’t resist sharing the dancing! (EK’s in the lavendar shirt, CC’s in the burgundy.)

DA got to conduct the Junior High Orchestra playing ‘In Memorium’; Fuul sat in to play the guitar part that DA usually plays.

After the performance, DA received a Composer in Residence Award from the Orchestra teacher… exciting stuff!

Enjoy the performance!

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After the performance, we were approached by another parent who is a photojournalist for a local tv station, and he suggested running DA’s story past his producers. Long story short, on the 10th, the orchestra and Fuul and DA replayed ‘In Memorium’ about six times, and DA and Fuul did a videotaped interview with the tv reporter. When we find out when it will run, we will let everyone know!

DA arranged two separate pieces of music (”The Sanctuary” from the television show “Angel” and “The Feast” by his dad) and put them together into a fully orchestrated piece for violin, viola, cello, bass, and guitar. The ensemble group will be playing it tomorrow in the Solo and Ensemble competition for the school district.

(The audio and video aren’t great, but you get the idea….)

Woke this morning without a headache for the first time in 3 days… whatever this cold is thats running thru the family, its taking no prisoners.

Moving: Still unpacking. Found more things (like the lids to the tupperware and my skein-winder). Still missing some things (like the camera case and the attachments to the vacuum).

School: Have settled the kids into school routines. State testing last week. Last quarter started. On the downslope to summer. Making new friends.

New Neighborhood: lots of nice neighbors. Short driving distance to shopping and fast food and library. Walking distance to the park and pool.

New house: big. Still filled with boxes. Slowly settling in. Nothing on the walls as of yet (maybe I’ve been trained by rental not to put anything up? Need to break that habit). Nice backyard and deck. Sunny days its been getting some use. Need to get some new latches for the gates to keep little ones a little better contained when we’re out there.

Easter: Neighborhood egg hunt; everyone found something, so success. Easter bunny found everyone: card games, watches, magnetic drawing boards, Easter clothes, and the requisite candy. Much sugar rush and happiness ensued.

Knitting: finished first Cherub sock and started the second. Finished Laminaria Lace Shawl. Started Liesl sweater in Hazel Knits Lively DK yarn in Jay Blue. Pictures to come soon.

Much more going on, but thats a snapshot… more soon….

We’ve not had stairs in a home since 1999. In the past two days, DA and DS have fallen down the ones we have now. Neither were really hurt, but I hope this isn’t the start of a trend.

Fuul worked from home today, and the cable guy came by and hooked up the internet and cable in one of the three rooms we wanted; turns out the two other rooms we want to be hooked up are the only other two rooms in the house without hookups. He’ll be back next Wednesday to finish the job.

I finished cleaning up the rental house today, and picked up the last stuff tonight. Left the keys for the landlord and we’re waiting to hear if we’ll get back any of our deposit. Feel free to keep your fingers crossed for us.

As it stands now, I’ve got to get kids’ schools transferred (for after spring break — next week) and unpack the new house, then we’ll finally feel moved! But its all on the downhill side, I think!

The truck is out front. Some rooms are empty. Some are emptying. Some are not nearly so ready, but people keep taking stuff out anyway. We are planning to stay in the new house tonight.

There is no cable or internet in the new house. Ugh.

I may be somewhat MIA from the blogosphere for a few days while we get that sorted out.

There should be an ‘easy’ button you get to push when you’re trying to move that puts the rest of life on hold so you have time to pack instead of doing laundry and cooking and cleaning and running errands and going to appointments… because I’m not getting much done on any of those fronts with everything needing to be done at once, even *with* my mom here helping… and now I feel bad that she’s just wasting her time sitting here while I have to keep up with the rest of ‘regular’ life.

Wake me in April.

(click to embiggen)

Of course, now the real fun starts… replace the locks, buy a fridge, buy a washer/dryer, find out where to get our mail, move, deal with the fights about bedrooms and who shares with who and where….

In April, when I look back, this is all going to be wonderful!

CC got accepted into the preschool program, and started this morning! He was so excited! He’s going to the school closer to the new house (assuming we ever get through the closing!), so he’ll ride the bus once we’re settled in there.

We did manage to get the requisite ‘first day of school’ photo, tho!

Of course, by afternoon, when the other kids got out of school, this is what the world looked like! (a little scary, actually!) Luckily, it was all gone again by dinner! Crazy weather, anyone?

(”Brank” is what CC calls Frank from Cars. We found one for his birthday, tho it wasn’t the one he saw advertised on TV. Doesn’t seem to bother CC any, and Brank’s been a constant companion since he came out of the box Tuesday night!)