Coming of Age

She's spent 8 long years in our house. 8 years eating our food, spending our money and controlling our TV programming. Today we decided that 8 years was long enough. It's time she starts earning her keep.

When we were kids, Handiman and I both had to pay our dues. And from the time we brought this little angel into the world, we knew we'd be old school in our approach. You might remember that we started her off easy a few months back with this:

Now it's time to bring out the big guns. Ladies and gentleman, may I present The Little Ocho in her inaugural ride on The Big Orange:

Yes, it's true that Handiman had to go behind her and fix that lovely zig zag pattern she created in our backyard but proper technique comes with practice. And we'll make sure she has plenty of that. My only regret is that we don't have a push mower.

I'm giddy with excitement

The 5 Day Weekend: I highly recommend it

Last Monday our little school took quite a hit from the nasty flu bug. We had a few confirmed cases of H1N1 and many more out with the ever elusive "flu like symptoms". By Tuesday we had over 100 students out. That might not sound like much to our friends in the public school system, but we only have about 45o students total. Not to mention, some of our teachers were becoming affected and many of them had sick kids at home too.

Thankfully, our headmaster made the difficult decision to shut down on Tuesday afternoon. This not only would allow those who are sick to recover but would hopefully keep it from spreading any further. And, oh yeah, it would give me a nice long break to recover from my JoBro Hangover.

I couldn't believe my good fortune since I had been dreading the early morning car line after a late night of rock n roll. I'm truly sorry to benefit so greatly from the suffering of so many, but boy am I lovin' this!

Since we had no warning that our weekend would be extended to 5 days, I had no time to plan projects or appointments or errands. So, it's been me & The Ocho, laying around watching TV, taking naps and doing lots and lots of nothing. I will even confess I fell off the 30 Day Shred wagon yesterday. But, no worries. Jillian and I met again this morning and she was just as sweet and enjoyable as I had remembered her.

Tomorrow we're thinking of actually leaving the house. I know. It's a bold step. But boredom is setting in for The Ocho and that's never a good thing. I have to consider though that her weekend will actually be 6 days long when all is said and done.

You see, when the flu became a very scary presence on Monday I became worried that she would end up sick right before the big JoBro surprise. And if that had happened I would have been crushed. So I did what any good parent would do. I kept my daughter out of school on the day of a big test so she wouldn't miss a rock concert. What can I say? I'm all about prioritizing. Hopefully, I can pass that trait down to future generations.

The Surprise of The Century

About a month ago I was leaving Sunday School when our teacher's wife approached me with a question.

"Does Lydia like The Jonas Brothers?"

When I replied yes, she said she might know of some extra tickets to their upcoming Nashville show and asked if I'd be interested. There were 4 of them and she was thinking that maybe Lydia would like to go with her BF Selah (daughter of my BF Nicole). I thanked her for thinking of us and told her to keep me posted. Then I forgot about it. Because of those words "I might know...".

There was no way I was getting The Ocho's hopes up over something that had a slim chance of happening. And besides I knew the concert was on a school night which was why I had dismissed us going in the first place.

Fast forward to exactly one week ago. I checked my email from work and saw a frantic message from Nicole. It read "CALL ME!!!!" So I did. She asked me if I knew anything about Jonas Brother's tickets from our friend Richelle. I told her the story and then she said something to the effect of "SHE JUST CALLED AND OFFERED US 4 FREE TICKETS TO THE JONAS BROTHERS AND I KNOW IT'S ON A SCHOOL NIGHT BUT JUST SUCK IT UP !!! WE HAVE TO GO! THE GIRLS WILL FREAK!!!!!"

And so, our plan was hatched. We decided to not breathe a word of it to our daughters. We would wait until the day of the show and surprise them. And whatta ya know, it worked.





After the big reveal, it was time to get them dressed in the outfits we had prepared. I must say that was one of the most stressful parts of this whole secret. My girl likes to dress. And she prefers to be in charge of her fashion statements. Cole found the shirts (which were all kinds of awesome) so I was just left to choose the jeans, shoes and accessories. I think we did pretty good. In fact, I know we did because as we were walking to our seats later, a girl that was probably 11 or 12 stopped the girls and told them "your outfits are AWESOME!"




Once we were ready it was off for a quick pre-concert dinner at the girl's favorite fancy restaurant.

From there we hopped in the car, cranked our Jo Bros CD up and cruised into Nashvegas. I decided when we got close to the arena to give the girls the ultimate experience and roll the windows down. We sang at the top of our lungs, screamed and waved our arms much to the amusement of fellow fans, one police officer and a few parking attendants.

After some stressful laps around the Sommet we finally found our parking lot, the only one that would accept our VIP PARKING PASS!!! Courtousy of the aforementioned greatest friend on earth, Dr. Richelle Day. The reason she passed her tickets on to us was because she had purchased the VIP package for her daughters (which included a visit to the sound check and a question & answer session with the Jo Bros). She had an extra parking pass and gave that to us as well. Seriously? Could we be any more blessed by this experience?

When we walked in our entrance (without waiting in line) we were right at our seating entrance! We also happened to run right into our generous benefactor and snapped a picture of her. There are no words to describe how grateful we are for the experience. This lady rocks!

We took our seats (which, of course, were A-MAAAA-ZING) and made sure we were armed with our concert essentials. Cotton Candy & Glow Sticks:

After an hour of opening acts (Everlife was tolerable. Honor Society was pretty good. And I do NOT want to talk about The Wonder Girls.) The Jonas Brothers finally hit the stage. Now, let me say this. I expected the screaming to be intense. And I had pretty high expectations for their show. Both expectation were HIGHLY surpassed.

Mock me if you will, but this was the best concert I have ever been to. Bar None. From the sound and musicianship, to the trampoline, smoke guns, hydraulic lift and rotating stage. It was stunning. And don't get me started on the rain that fell in the pattern of hearts. I'm still trying to figure that out. And when they played "Sweet Caroline" for all the parents, they won my heart forever.

These boys aren't just cute, talented, nice boys who love Jesus and their mama (although I am so grateful my daughter has teen stars to look up to who are all those things) but they are showmen. If we are able, I will buy tickets to every show they ever play here. Mark. My. Words.
And I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it. My sweet, reserved daughter who never sings out loud in front of anyone or dances when I'm watching was on her feet for almost the entire 2 hours. She was screaming. She was waving and clapping. She was singing. And yes, she was dancing.


She called it THE BEST! SURPRISE! EVER! and I have agree it was. When it was all said and done we were all deaf and exhausted. And yet, when I asked for a post-concert reaction shot, this is what I got:

Once it was over, the blessings continued to flow. Not only did we scoot right out of our parking lot without waiting in traffic and hit the interstate within 5 minutes, but The Ocho and I had the luxury of sleeping in this morning. The flu epidemic hit our school hard this week so our headmaster decided to shut school down for the remainder of the week. I'm sorry to rejoice in the suffering of others but it sure made the whole experience much easier to enjoy.

So, thanks Richelle for the tickets and parking pass! And thanks Mr. Wahlman for the school closing! And thanks to Nicole & Selah for being the best concert buds ever! And thanks Kevin, Joe & Nick for a night we will never forget!

Clueless

See these two?

They have NO IDEA what's coming their way today. Their moms have been keeping a very big secret from them for over a week and today after school they find out all about it. It's taken a lot of planning, a few fibs and one very kind and generous friend to make it all happen.

What is it? Tune in tomorrow to find out. But I'll give you a hint.......good things come in threes.

Perfect

I would now like to express my heartfelt love and adoration for the weekend. It was oh so good to me.


It started off just right on Friday night when I sang at a revival service in Mt. Pleasant, TN. It was a sweet time of worship and fellowship with an awesome group of believers. I'd never met most of them but felt welcomed and encouraged.


Saturday most of my Peeps headed to the Davis' houseboat for some lake fun. It was in the mid 80's with no humidity, sunny and positively gorgeous outside. The perfect day for laying in the sun, riding on a boat or swimming. Handiman and The Ocho headed out for the festivities early while I stayed at home. Why? Because I had my own version of the perfect day planned.


First, I'll have everyone know I slept until 7:30. 7:30!!! I haven't done that in months. It was all kinds of awesome.


Once I was up, it was time to face reality. I needed to catch up on housework. It's been 3 weeks since my cleaning lady has stopped by and she had a heap of work ahead of her. There were also errands to run; Target, Kroger, the dry cleaner and the shoe store. There were also loads and loads of laundry to do. Not that I count any of that as fun, but it's necessary and if I don't do it, it don't get did. Can I get an Amen?


Strangely enough I enjoyed it. I'll admit there is a certain satisfaction and contentment that comes with seeing everything on my checklist accomplished at the end of the day. There's also nothing to compare to cleaning a house with nobody in it to mess it up 5 minutes later. And I got to play the radio. Really loud.


I was done with all my chores by 3:00 and took my turn in the old recliner wasting time and mind cells watching TV. First, there was a show about weird phobias on A&E where a woman was afraid of hard or crunchy foods. Her therapist was standing over her, forcing her to bite into things like tortilla chips, corn on the cob and an apple. Good times.


Then there was the show on MSNBC about some preacher who spent a lifetime evangelizing only to suddenly decide that Hell isn't a real place and Hitler is in heaven. I could only take so much of that one before I flipped over to a re-run of King of Queens. Finally I settled in with my friends at The Food Network, which is always for me where all TV roads lead eventually.


After a trip to The Red Box I enjoyed a chick flick while eating my dinner. After that it was a 48 Hours Mystery (the husband did it. Big Surprise.) and time for The Ocho & Handiman to return.


Sunday was another beautiful day. First up was church and a great worship experience and challenging sermon about the responsibilities of wives & moms. Then it was off to lunch at O'Charley's where I enjoyed some chicken tenders & smashed potatoes that I know Jillian would never approve of. After that was a nap and watching Wizards of Waverly Place with The Ocho.


It was just the kind of weekend I needed to rest, relax and prepare for the week to come. Because I know it's going to be a doozy. ; ) Stay Tuned.

Somewhere pigs are flying

I originally wanted to entitle this post "Satan must be freezing" but I was afraid of the Google searches that might lead here. I was also trying to be sensitive to those super-spiritual friends I have. But trust me, if the saying holds true, the devil's decked out in his winter finest today because I completed Day 30 of The 30 Day Shred this morning.

Did you hear that? I did the entire 30 days. No stopping. No cheating. No resting. I did it. And I did not die.

Now, let's understand something. I didn't enjoy it. Not one single, solitary minute of it. And there were 2 mornings that I strongly considered skipping it. But ultimately I decided I would not give Jillian the satisfaction.

Level 1 was brutal in the beginning but became easier by the 2nd week. Level 2 was killer and nearly made my lungs collapse. Level 3 was what hell must be like and never, ever, ever got easier. It was just as miserable this morning as it was 2 weeks ago.

But I did every Sumo Squat, every Superman, every Jumping Lunge, every Scissor Kick and every Rock Star Jump. And the sit-ups. Sweet mercy on my soul. The sit-ups were not my friend.

So, now you're asking if I can see the results. The answer is I'm not sure. I know that I've moved down a couple of notches in my belt and my pants feel looser. I know that my arms are way stronger. And the tape measure tells me I've lost 3 inches in my waist and 2 inches in my hips!

As far as weight loss goes, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I've only lost 6 pounds so far but I know that I have to consider that I've gained muscle. I also have to consider that I had to give up my daily walk when school started. And let us not forget to consider that I have not denied myself dessert after dinner. And I've eaten fast food a couple of times. And I had Pancho's for lunch last Saturday.

So, all in all I suppose I'm on the right track. I have no intention of giving it up either. I've decided to keep going with Jillian but alternate levels during the week. And I'll keep on denying myself soft drinks, waffles with syrup and candy bars. But no worries. I'll not be going Vegan this week.

The Big League

Saturday morning Handiman left the house bright and early to go on a bike ride. It was his first one in many, many months. He used to be a pretty avid cyclist but once he had to get a real job he started putting more emphasis on sleeping in and laying around on Saturday. I wondered what had gotten into him until he explained that he had received a personal invitation from a friend (a former US Congressman) to ride with a group of guys in Franklin. La-Dee-Da.

So, off he went at 6:00 am to a very affluent neighborhood in Franklin where he met up with a group of guys to ride with. Along with his friend the politician was a very prominent Christian music producer. Turns out, another big shot Christian music legend was supposed to be there too but couldn't make it. Some guy named Steve Green.

When he got home he told me all about his brand new friends and I rolled my eyes and made sarcastic comments about how they were at home bragging to their wives they had met a home services salesman.

Little did I know, they'd met a Baseball Star.


Yep. That's Handiman later that same day. What's he doing? Why, he's throwing out the first pitch at The Nashville Sounds baseball game in front of thousands of people.

It was Faith Night at the stadium and some guys from church had plans to go. Handiman was taking The Ocho while I had plans to stay home and enjoy some peace and quiet. Our friend who had gotten the tickets had been asked when he picked them up if someone from our group could throw out the first pitch. His original pick (his brother-in-law's little boy) couldn't make it so Handiman received the call about 2 hours before the game.

The Ocho watched from the sky box and our friend Steve accompanied him to the field to take pics. From what I hear, Handiman did an outstanding job (although the announcer said it was "a little outside") and he even received a souvenir baseball, which he proudly took to church the next morning to show all of his friends. Because he is 10.

Conversations with The Ocho - The Time Zone Edition

We were driving home on Sunday when the Ocho announced that an all new "Sonny with a Chance" was coming on and she didn't want to miss it.

Me: What time does it come on?

Ocho: 8, 7 Central

Me: OK. Do you know which one of those times is for us?

Ocho: 7, I think.

Me: That's right. Whenever you see "Central Time" just remember that's for us.

Ocho: Why? What does that mean?

Me: long pause...trying to condense time zone explanation into 8 year old terms and knowing that I can't but I take a deep breath and give it a shot....Well, the US is divided into different time zones. There are 4 different sections and each one has their own zone. In California, if it's 5:00 then in Utah it's an hour later. And it's 7:00 in Tennessee and 8:00 in New York but at the same time. California's is called Pacific time, Utah's time is called Mountain time, Tennessee is Central & New York is Eastern. It's the same time of day but different hours on the clock at the same time. Do you get it? (And of course, I knew she didn't. I wasn't even sure I understood what I said.)

Ocho: .........um....Yeah, I think so.

Me: Really? Then explain it back to me.

Ocho: Well, if it's Easter in New York then Texas has Mozzarella. And "Sonny with A Chance" comes on at 7 here because in California it's specific.

Me: Forget it. What time does your show come on? Do you even remember?

Ocho: 8, 7 Central. Just like I said.

Favorite Foto Friday - Circa 2006

Closed Door, Open Window

We've been back at school for 5 days now and all is well. The Ocho L-O-V-E-S 3rd Grade. In fact, on Saturday morning she got up, plopped down beside me and said "I wish we could go to school today."

Yeah. I told her she could leave the room with that kind of attitude.

Actually, so far I'm loving it too. It's been tiring getting into a new routine but once we get to school things go pretty well. Since I'm trying to be good and have a quiet time and a workout time before school every morning, I'm setting the old alarm clock for 4:45 am. You heard me. 4:45am. Who knew it would go off that early? I certainly didn't. But in fact, it does.

This year's bringing a lot of other changes too. One of the biggest happened for the first time today. Back at the end of last year the principal brought up an idea during my exit interview. She asked me to think about it over the summer and let her know if I'd be interested. Our school has 2 separate chapel services, one for K3 - 1st grade and another for 2nd - 5th grade. Our music teacher has been leading the worship time in both chapels on top of her music and piano classes and Dr. Nichols thought it might help her out if I took over the 1st chapel duties.

I suppose I inadvertently auditioned for the job last year when I filled in a few times. Because I've lead children's music so much at church it kind of comes naturally to me, although my style was a little different than what they were used to. I figured there was no harm in it since I only did it every once in a while. But lo and behold, I guess they've decided it might be OK to get their groove on once a week since they offered me the gig.

I accepted the responsibility and officially debuted during today's first chapel service of the school year. I can't tell you how handy all those VBS and children's choir CD's are that I've collected over the years. And all those motions I've learned? Priceless.

Since I officially retired from VBS music last year and Children's Choir this year, I suppose God wasn't happy with me sitting on the sidelines. He closed the door at church and promptly opened it up wide at school. So never fear all you TSC Peeps who keep telling me I need to be leading children's music! Believe me, I will be. And what makes it even more fun is that I'm gonna have kids jumping, shouting and waving their hands in a little Presbyterian church. His wonders never cease.

It's funny what you forget

My first week back at work is over and done. We actually only had 1 1/2 days of classes since Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in endless orientation meetings. But that was all it took to remind me of what I had forgotten.

Like how crazy the first day of school is. And how much time it takes to load lesson plans into the computer. And how frustrating it can be when your bulletin board paper keeps falling down. And how much your legs hurt after standing and walking up and down the hallway all day. And how much time kindergarten assessments take. And how much first grade filing there is to do. And how tricky it is to arrange a schedule between 4 teachers who all want you to aid in their classroom at the exact same time every Friday. And how hot it is on the playground at 1:00. And how impossible it is to call names over the intercom, answer the phone & help parents in the office during dismissal....at the same time.

I also forgot how cute the 3 year olds are with their backpacks on in the morning. And how fun it is to hear brand new kindergartners try to impress you with how high they can count. And how strange last year's first graders look in their 2nd grade class. And how good it feels to hear how excited kids are for computer classes to start. And how sweet it is to get hug after hug from students telling you they missed you over the summer.

It was also nice to be reminded of how blessed I am to work with the world's sweetest, funniest faculty who all happen to love Jesus more than life.

I might whine and complain about my job sometimes but the truth is now I remember why I love it.

(I figured if I wrote all this down, I could read it in January when it's 20 below in the car line, I'm running out of patience with the kindergartners and Spring Break is a million years away. We'll see if it works.)

What 3rd Grade Looks Like

A top locker:


A fun teacher:



A new outfit:


A Selena Gomez backpack:


It seems to have all the makings of a banner year.

And because I'm the Mom and I tend to get nostalgic and weepy over moments like this, humor me while I take a second to show you how things have changed.

After a year apart, The Ocho found herself back in a class with two of her best buddies since kindergarten. Unintentionally I snapped a photo of them on orientation night that was pretty similar to one I snapped back in 2005.

Then:


Now:



Third grade's looking a little too grown up for my liking.

Double Dog Dare

Is it wrong that I kinda want to order this?

Yes. I know it is. But I'm always wanting a killer Halloween costume. And I'm always begging my family to dress up with me.

I know. I know. It would be tacky and wrong. And since we only have 1 kid at our disposal I suppose it wouldn't be very practical either.

So, let me go on record as Double Dog Daring Big Nanny to order it. Given her spot-on portryal of yet another famous yankee woman last year, she could certainly work her magic with this one. And she's got plenty of kids at her disposal.

And there's no point in making Lawnmower Man participate. You could just tell everyone he's in St. Tropez with your plastic surgeons daughter.

I know. I just crossed the line.

The Big Bang

I've lived in the Nashville area for almost 20 years and still have a long list of stuff I haven't seen and done. Yesterday I managed to mark one off. We decided back in early June to spend a family day at Nashville Shores, a water park north of the city. I've been hearing about it for decades but usually water parks aren't my thing. Among those things I'm not particularly fond of in life is being suddenly plunged into large bodies of water at lightning speed.

But then I had The Ocho. And then the Ocho got older. And then the Ocho spent a week with the Ellis family at the beach. And the Ellis family took her to her first water park.

She went on and on and on about it. So Handiman and I found a deal online (thanks to Anna Bell for the link on FB!) and purchased tickets over a month ago. We figured since we couldn't take a family vacation this year it would be a nice compensation. Of course, we had to schedule it around the Ocho's many trips to the beach with her grandparents and Handiman's work schedule so as is our custom, we ended up waiting until the last possible day of summer vacation to go. Then we sat back and watched the weather forecast predict doom and gloom all week long. We didn't see the sun or feel temperatures out of the 70's for most of the week and I was beginning to panic.

But God showed mercy on us. The sun decided to show itself yesterday and by mid-day we were in the 80's. The occasional cloud cover ended up being a blessing and the crowd wasn't as big as it probably would have been. We descended on the park around 10:30 with the intention of having big fun. And did we ever!

We started out by riding every waterslide once to find our favorites. We began with the mild tube ride, The Twin Cyclones then we moved on to the more advanced body slide, The Tennessee Twister, which would give me that "suddenly plunged into a large body of water at lightning speed" experience I was sooooo looking forward to. But I didn't drown. I actually kinda liked it. From there we got in line for Thunder and Lightning, another tube ride that's completely in the dark. The Ocho and I grabbed a twin tube while Handiman grabbed a single. We were halfway up when a lady told us that double tubes weren't allowed on the ride but we could ride The Big Scream instead, which was on the same platform.

It wasn't until we got to the top that we realized The Big Scream might not be the ride for us. But it was too late. Handiman watched from the top as The Ocho and I plunged down at a 90 degree angle and then up the other side, all the while screaming (appropriately enough) and freaking completely out. It was seriously scarier than most roller coasters I've been on. Needless to say, that one wasn't a repeater for us.

We loved Thunder and Lightning so much we rode it three times and took another turn on the others as well. Handiman rode The Music City Racer twice and won both races. He claims his method of pushing off was superior to his competition.

Besides the slides, we swam in the pool, got drenched by The Big Bucket and Handiman and the Ocho and took a ride around the lake in a kayak. Somehow we managed to pack an entire family vacation worth of fun into 4 1/2 hours.

And now, some photos.

It is virtually impossible for our family to pass one of these things without taking advantage of it. It's just who we are.

Me & The Ocho in front of our favorite ride of the day, Thunder & Lightning.

Handiman & The Ocho in front of The Big Bucket

Handiman & Ocho decided The Lilly Pads reminded them of their favorite summertime show "Wipeout" so they both took a turn. Shortly after this photo was taken The Ocho did indeed wipeout.

Handiman actually made it across but injured his arm in the process. Of course.
So, the Wood family sent the summer out with a big bang instead of a big whimper. And the fun didn't stop there, at least not for The Ocho. Afterwards we came home and packed her up for a slumber party. But not just any slumber party. This one was held at her school Principal's house and involved 10 of her closest school friends. Details on how that all came about are coming soon.

Adios Summer 2009. Thanks for the memories.