Fall Festival Band Concert

Last night we went to Spencer's first band concert of the year. Since he's in wind ensemble and jazz band (in his words "The BEST bands!), he got to participate even though he's only in 7th grade. Spencer had been looking forward to this concert for quite a while, partly because he loves band, partly because he got to leave school early and have Subway for dinner with the band.

For the Fall Festival they bring the 'elite' band students from the three middle schools that feed into the high school in the early afternoon. They practice several pieces together all afternoon and evening (stopping for dinner) and then put on a concert. After the middle school bands play the high school marching band plays and they talk about how great it is to be in marching band. (They even give a spiel from the president of the band boosters.)

I forgot to take a picture of Spencer after the concert, but I did get some video of several of the middle school songs. (Just for you, grandparents!) It's pretty amazing the difference there is between 6th grade band and a band made of 7th and 8th graders!

I enjoyed the concert. Maybe not so much the little company I kept. (Ahem. Tess. And her tiny, easily lost toys.) But the music was good and they kept it to just under an hour. I think Lance felt the same way. Can't ask for much more than that!

Spencer had a BLAST. He has drunk the Kool-Aid and plans to be in marching band in high school.

Josh was just glad I let him bring his Kindle Fire. Much rolling of eyes and scowls.

Cole was glad I brought some candy as bribery. He was not glad when I made him pick up all the garbage he threw on the floor. *growl*

And Tess fell in love with the marching band's flag flippers, baton twirlers, and, especially, the drum majors, who wore capes with shiny gold sequins on the bottom and gold M's (for McCutcheon High School) on top. On the way home she declared she wanted to be a drum major for Halloween next year!

The Obnoxious-nator

I think one of the reasons I blog so much less now is that I'm home alone a lot. There's no one around the wreak the havoc that makes for good blog fodder. And while I'm quite busy, it's not the interesting kind of busy. No one wants to read about the never-ending laundry and house work, the editing, and other random stuff I do.

I have random thoughts throughout the day and often think "I should blog about that". And then I promptly forget them. I should find an app that makes it easy to record those thoughts...

The main thing on my mind as of late is Josh.

Or, as I have taken to calling him in my head,

JOSH THE OBNOXIOUS-NATOR.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this kid is NEVER HAPPY. Okay, wait, that's not quite right. As long as things are going exactly as he wants them, then he's happy. Unfortunately for Josh, he lives in a large family with other people who do not feel it is their duty to cater to his every whim. Nothing is ever good enough. It is non-stop complaining and crying whenever he is home. Except when he's playing computer; which means he's been playing computer a lot lately. Does this make me a bad parent? No, it makes me a parent who would rather have a kid with too much screen time rather than a kid who is dead because I've lost it from all the complaining.

It makes me feel like a terrible mom, but him leaving for school in the morning is sometimes the highlight of my day.

He's been a bit like this for a while, but this phase seemed to go into overdrive around his birthday. I'm hoping (praying/pleading/etc.) that it's reaching it's peak right now. It's even starting to drive Lance batty, and that's how you know things are bad because he's way more patient than I am. (Plus, he's not around the boy as much as his less-patient wife.)

The other night we went on a walk up to the school to play four square. Josh LOVES doing this. (Tess claims to hate it but still has a great time and plus sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do for family.) And I will admit, the complaining was reduced a bit during the walk. But while there?

Lance and the boys played (I opted out because my ankle is still a bit sketchy) for approximately 93 seconds before Josh burst into tears, refused to play anymore, and then walked away.

He came and cried and whined beside me for quite a while. I tried to help him, tried to talk to him, but he just ignored me and cried and whined and was generally the Obnoxious-nator. So I gave up. Because how can you help someone who refuses help? You can't.

He repeated this process several times. I got these pictures of him during the last round.

Oh mercy, the tween years are tough. All you ever hear about is how dramatic teenage girls are. No one talks about the absolute madness of tweenage boys. (And we have two in our home right now. It is fan-tastic.)

Yesterday he came home from school proclaiming that it had been the Worst. Week. Ever. Would a sleepover with best buddy Justin make it better? Yes, yes it would. Could Justin sleep over? Nope, he had baseball games.

#$#&$%!!!

That was me swearing, because Josh behaves himself with anyone other than his family around.

So I gave him some other optional activities to help turn this week around. He chose going to the dollar store to pick up Halloween costume supplies (he's going as a glow stick person) and then making s'mores in the fire pit.

The dollar store was fine.

But the s'mores? He last 2 minutes before having a meltdown and running away, refusing to come out. By this point neither Lance or I had any inclination to offer sympathy. So he stomped and slunk around the back yard and house, at one point "falling" down the porch steps and "injuring" himself. He eventually deigned to join us around the fire, only to pester and belittle his siblings. This did not go over well.

Ugh.

This is one of those things we're just going to have to slog through. I think there's a fine balance between ignoring the bad behavior but still giving him the love and attention he needs. Some days I can maintain that balance; others I can't.

Lance and Spencer are on a youth temple trip this morning, which means I've got the good part of a Saturday with this kid. Which means after I finish this I'm heading outside to do several hours' worth of yard work.

Sprained Ankle

On Monday I decided to start my redo of the upstairs kids' bathroom. I was just about done when I went to step onto the side of the tub and then *BAM*. My foot slipped, my ankle buckled, and that was that.

Actually, I didn't think it was that bad at first. I had literally 2 minutes worth of painting left, so I did that. Then I hobbled a bit. Then I decided I should probably at least wrap it up for a bit. Then it started to swell. And then I knew I was in trouble.

That night poor Lance had to come home and make dinner and wrangle kids and whatnot while I was laid up in bed with my foot on pillows. An ice pack was my best friend.

That night it was swollen pretty much all the way around my ankle - even on the top, which I don't think I've ever seen before. It just ached, but I could put weight on it so I knew it wasn't broken. Ice packs and ibuprofen were my constant companions.

I spent pretty much all of Tuesday off my feet. It was both luxurious and frustrating. Fortunately, I had planned on working on the bathroom for two days, so I didn't have any appointments or errands to run. Unfortunately, the bathroom was not done, and not being able to do anything about it drove me nuts! I did, however, get a 2 hour nap, which was pretty awesome. I worked on doughnut part stuff and edited papers.

The next day I was able to move a bit more and was even able to do a bit of touch-up paint in the bathroom. By Thursday I was able to go to the dentist and run errands for several hours, and on Friday I went to the pumpkin patch and out to lunch. Hobbling all the while, but much better!

I must've done a bit too much yesterday, because it's all achy again today. There's a fine line between making sure you move enough to regain strength and not so much that you wear yourself out. (I've always had issues with that, especially after my c-sections. You'd think I'd learn. Nope.)

Here are my lovely bruises today. Josh swears he can't tell the difference between my right (uninjured) foot and my gimpy left. Josh is a punk.

I wear an elastic brace most of the time, which helps a lot. Mainly I just feel dumb. I haven't had an injury like this since high school, and I remember recovering a lot more quickly then! (Oh the difference 20+ years makes.)

I'm hoping by next week to get back to walking a bit more and getting my 10,000 steps a day, and then jogging again by November. In the meantime, I'll keep working bit by bit on that dang bathroom!

Epic Nashville 2016

SO... I'm finally getting a chance to blog about my EPIC trip to Nashville... and I feel like I've forgotten it all. Seriously, what is wrong with me and my blogging lately?

It took us forever to decide where to go this year: different places are more expensive this time of year (Seattle), other places were deemed too hot (Texas), others were too far/expensive (Tokyo)... (Okay, Tokyo was not really in the running. But how cool would that be? Answer: very.) Nashville was cheap, within driving distance of two of us, and we hadn't been there before.

I drove the 5.5 hours from Lafayette to Nashville Thursday morning. That's the farthest I've ever driven by myself. Is that weird? I've just always had another adult or kid in the car. Anyways, it was great. I listened to music and podcasts, stopped when I wanted, shook my fists at Kentucky because the GPS signal kept getting lost. Good times. The drive wasn't that scenic, but I actually really enjoyed the time to myself!

I picked Deidra up from the airport and we eventually met up with Cyndi and Kanien at the Opry Mills Mall, which is right next to the Grand Ole Opry House. You can't go to Nashville and not see that, right?

It was... big. And brick. And that's about it. I'm not really into country music and had no desire to pay for a tour. So this picture out front? Good enough for me!

Cyndi and Kanien had a bit more fun.

Then we wandered the Opryland Resort for a while. That place is HUGE! The atrium with the garden was pretty impressive. It was nice and cool inside, which was a nice contrast to the heat outside. (Seriously, it was in the 90s the entire trip. What the what, Nashville?)

That night we ate at The Pharmacy, which is a local place that came with rave reviews. It had cooled off enough to eat in the Biergarten, and we shared giant hamburgers that were pretty delicious!

It must be said here that the whole trip was pretty much spent chatting. We chatted each night and all during our wanderings. We discussed our families, the gospel, life, the universe, and everything. And this is why I love these trips.

The next morning we parked across the river, hiked across the pedestrian bridge (HOT), and wandered downtown Nashville. Nashville is a big city in the same way that Indy or SLC are big cities. They have a skyline and business district, but there isn't the urban sprawl like in bigger cities like LA or NY. We walked down Broadway street, which has all of the honky tonk bars and touristy stuff, but since we don't drink or really listen to country, we didn't stop.

We did, however, have to stop for Elvis. Deidra was smoother with The King than I was.

I was trying to look star-struck.

But ended up goofy.

The obligatory group selfie.

We walked around the Country Music Walk of Fame and took a picture at Elvis's star, but I can't find that dang picture anywhere now!

We had a quick lunch at Acme Feed & Seed, which was this really cool place downtown, but obviously not so cool that I remembered to take pictures. Dang. It was big and industrial and country, and you could sit at big group tables or smaller ones. The food was pretty good, although the hush puppies were not as great as the ones I remember from my childhood in NC.

We spent the afternoon on the Hatch Show Print tour, which was REALLY cool. (I studied printing and stuff like this in college. I still love it.) It was fascinating to watch the letterpress printing and to learn the history of the company.

Of course one of the printers wore a kilt. It just seemed right.

The walls were covered in their designs and I took pictures of several of my favorites, but I can't find them either. I'm getting the feeling I deleted some things that I did not mean to delete. Dang.

We even got to print the red parts of a mini poster that we got to take home. The perfect souvenir!

Here's the little letterpress we got to use.

I bought a "the party is this way" poster. I'd show a picture, but it's still safely rolled up until I can get a frame and hang it up in the basement. (Deidra bought "It's a girl" and "It's a boy" posters. She used the girl one last week to announce the newest Hartwell that will be here in February. Woo-hoo!)

After the tour, in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

On our way out of town we stopped at the Goo Goo shop, where I bought a couple of boxes for my kids because candy is pretty much the perfect 'surprise' for my kids when I go on trips. (My kids always request a 'surprise' when I go on a trip. I'm about 50/50 on honoring this request.)

True story: within the first 10 minutes of being home from Nashville I realized I had left the Goo Goo Clusters and posters on the bed at the rental house. $@#@^(@$%!!!! My kids were sooooo sad. (And so was I! Actually, not sad. Mad at myself, really.) But the rental owner was so kind and mailed them to me! We got them yesterday and they were the perfect treat for FHE.

Here's Nissan stadium, as seen while walking on the bridge back to the car.

Nashville's skyline.

It was a pretty fun place to visit! And a great time of year - except for the heat. But few tourists.

That night we had dinner at a place called the Whiskey Kitchen. It came highly recommended by our rental house owner. It was... not great. Well, the food was okay. The Green Tomato BLT Deidra and I split was awesome. But the place was LOUD. And HOT. Seriously, where was the AC? We asked our waitress to please turn up the fan, so she did and then our hair and napkins flew everywhere! Maybe we're just too old and not cool enough for that kind of place. Dang.

A bit unsatisfied by dinner, we struck out for what was heralded as "The best ice cream in Nashville, if not the US": Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. That random reviewer was correct. It was SOO good. I had a scoop of Wildberry Lavender and Darkest Chocolate, and it was amazing. No pictures of the ice cream, but I did snap one of the milk bottle chandelier. Seriously, what is my thinking when it comes to taking pictures? I can't explain it.

We spent the next morning touring Andrew Jackson's Hermitage. It was really neat! Big old house, 90%+ original furnishings, interesting recorded and live tours. Andrew and his wife had a pretty rough go in life, sheesh. Makes me glad to live in this time!

You can't take pictures in the house, but it was big and impressive. The grounds were beautiful, and to the left you can see a bunch of white chairs set up for a wedding. It'd be a beautiful place for one, but it was already steamy hot before noon. I suspect it was a short ceremony!

After the hermitage we drove down to Franklin, which has a really cute downtown full of restaurants and boutiques. We at at this place called Merridee's Breadbasket and it was SO good. With the checked tablecloth, chicken salad, chips and Coke, it made for the perfect lunch. I don't know what it was about that chicken salad, but it was delicious! We each bought a slice of pie to share - key lime was the best.

We wandered up and down main street, popping into little boutiques that all started to look the same after a while. Many of them had cute pumpkins for sale, but not cute prices. (One large glass pumpkin was $240! Cole was very impressed by this when I told him about it, and he keeps bringing it up.)

The best part of Anthropology are the displays. I hope to some day have a reason to make a clothespin swag like this... (Just dyed clothespins and netting - how hard could it be?!)

Our final stop in Nashville was the Parthenon. Apparently it was built for Nashville's 100th birthday. It's a full scale replica, so pretty darn big.

But it's made out of cement, not stone, so maybe not quite as impressive as the original. It just seemed weird to have it there - I mean, why the Parthenon, Nashville?

It was fun to walk around and snap some pictures, but the craft fair that was going on right next to it was even better. There were a ton of booths selling all sorts of handmade crafts, art, carvings, etc.

I splurged and bought a little hand-blown glass pumpkin. But I didn't take a picture of it and I'm too lazy (and my ankle too sprained) for me to get up and take one.

That night we got tacos to go at Mas Tacos. It's not much to look at on the outside - in fact, it reminded me of taco places down in LA. (Bars on windows, old paint, etc.) But it was PACKED, which is always a good sign. The tacos, once we got them home, were delicious and went perfectly with the awesome salsa Kanien made.

That night we made a simple craft while we watch the General Women's broadcast. It was the perfect ending to the day.

Kudos to Kanien for finding this on Pinterest - it was the perfect craft for that night! (Read: easy and cute.)

The next morning Cyndi and Deidra were up before dawn for Deidra's flight. Kanien and I got to drive back to Lafayette together (her husband had stuff at Purdue), and it was awesome. It felt like a treat to get Kanien all to myself for that long, and then to get to have lunch and pedicures with her the next day!

The chalk wall in the house we rented.

The whole weekend felt like a treat. Nashville might not have been as impressive as DC, but any destination with this ladies is pretty much going to be a blast. I'm already looking forward to 2017! (Wherever and whenever that may be. We're so wishy-washy when it comes to planning where and when!)