"Being a part of something special MAKES you special." -- Rachel Berry, Glee

Hey there, just a quick Thursday morning update --
Joel, the kids and I have spent much of the week battling various coughs, fevers, and colds -- the kids had fevers earlier this week and last night coughed a lot throughout the night (but still slept okay, I think)... Joel was feeling yucky for a couple days... and I have been hanging in there but this morning woke up stuffy and migrainey. Ugh! We've been SO lucky the past several years that I guess it's just our turn to go through this massive yuckiness.

Annie has been going just great -- we've had several sold-out houses, and this weekend we have 4 performances, 3 of which are already sold out. It's SO exciting to be part of something like this. I feel like every time I do a big show (which I haven't, now, for 4.5 years!), I come away with some awesome new friends. It's a wonderful and exhausting experience.

Meanwhile, our yard is absolutely blanketed with oak leaves. It's been gorgeous here the last 5 days but a cloudy front has moved in and it really looks like November today. Every once in a while little mini-tornadoes of leaves pick up and spin a little bit. I remember one day last fall (it was a nice day -- the windows were open in the car) I stopped at a stop sign down the block. And a little mini-leaf-tornado started coming at our car, and a bunch of teenagers on the corner started hollering as though they thought it was going to carry them away. It blew right through the car and honestly it was a teeny bit scary! I much prefer to watch it from inside my cozy home.

It's 8:37 AM and Eddie's still sleeping, though I can hear him coughing so I bet he's waking up. I called us in sick to Bible study this morning, which is a bummer, but I would really prefer that Lucy save her energy for school this afternoon. Also we have conferences with her teacher this evening -- very exciting, can't wait! And I've got a show tonight so I'm going to try to get the house in decent order for the weekend and then relax a bit. Possibly snuggling with my Neti Pot, some kleenexes, and several tubes of Airborne and Zicam.

We recently had some family pics done -- please drop me a line if you want to see them.

Bollywood!

Hey there! That bollywood wedding dance I choreo-ed is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdW0iPBbUTo

I'm so proud! But such is the plight of the choreographer: now I really want to perform it myself. :)

Halloweenie

Our darling neighbors, the Alleys, moved last week and they got the MOST AWESOME TRUCK.
We carved pumpkins 2 weeks early. We ended up with 5 pumpkins out of our garden (#6 got harvested and then I knocked it off the retaining wall with the van -- it exploded upon impact).
We let Lucy draw the faces on the pumpkins with marker, and then Joel and I took some artistic liberties with her vision (with steak knives). If you click on the photo below to enlarge, you can see that the pumpkin on the right has 2 top choppers to represent Ed's missing ones, and the pumpkin on the left has 1 lower tooth, for Lucy's (oh, whoops, upon inspection the Lucy-tooth one is not pictured here -- sorry!). The squirrels have since done some pretty severe damage.
Here are the kids dressed for tumbling this morning:
People ask Ed whether he's a pirate, a warrior, a knight, a soldier... and he always responds "I'm a HERO." And I can't even tell you how many times I had to answer "Mama, where is my Sword of Truth?" this morning. Lots.
Aaaaand... Lucy waiting for the bus.
Joel helped her look up "Flappers" on the internet and everything.

At her school, they let the teachers choose whether or not to celebrate, and I'm surprised how delighted I am that Lucy's class is having a party. I don't really have strong feelings about Halloween (neither for nor against -- though I sure like candy! and dressing up!), but I was a bit appalled when I heard last year that some schools were prohibiting kids from dressing up at all... to the point where they said that kids with any sort of color in their hair would be sent home. I mean, it's a public school and presumably kids would be allowed to have different-colored hair any other day of the school year, but not on Halloween? At some point I feel like that's starting to infringe on civil liberties... but I also think it's a mistake to think that being respectful of diverse cultures means we don't celebrate anything. I mean, how else are we supposed to understand each other and get along in this crazy world, if we don't acknowledge what different cultures get excited about, and why? Plus I usually think more parties is generally a good thing.

It's a new week, thank goodness

Last week was not a good week for us -- I came down with some dreadful fever/achey thing on Thurs and was pretty much in a tunnel until Sunday. Thank goodness my dad was here to help with the kids and make me tea and buy me Jarlsberg and ginger snaps and caramel-coffee ice cream.
Ed has grown another inch since September. This pic is from their first tumbling class, about a month ago.

Beautiful princesses:

Update

Connor passed away yesterday afternoon -- the update is on the caringbridge site.

No Bad News

"No Bad News" is the title of a song I was choreographing last night, for Hastings HS's women's show choir. It's a fun gospel-y type piece, from The Wiz. You can YouTube it for some entertainment.

Unfortunately, that hasn't been the theme around here lately. We found out last week that one of my aunts is very, very sick.

We also found out that our 4-year-old neighbor boy, Connor, has been in an intentional, medically-induced coma for the last 7 weeks as he awaits a heart transplant. He's had 3 open heart surgeries in his life and his family's health insurance has been completely exhausted. They are a sweet, quiet family who would love to be able to see their little boy open his eyes and smile again.

And I opened up the paper today to find the obit of Josh Moon, a 13-year-old boy who'd been really involved in Ashland in the last few years. If you saw Guys & Dolls, the Ashland teens' 2008 summer camp show, he played Lieutenant Brannigan. That kid worked SO HARD to get that Irish accent right, and we were all so proud of him. He had a brain tumor.

Anyway, so my heart has been torn in two these last few days. Of course I'm so grateful for Lucy and Ed and Joel -- we carved pumpkins yesterday and I will post pics later. But I'm also really thankful for the Bible study I've been going to the last few weeks. It's really easy to get mired down in the WHY and the HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN of bad news, and I know I'm not strong enough to tough it all out on my own. Not only that, but I'm often hit with this feeling that I want to DO something to help, but haven't been able to figure it out. Through the study I've been able to pray and open myself up to God's wishes -- one of our actual prayers last week was simply, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" -- and I'm not joking, He gave me some great ideas. How about the timing on THAT! Awesome!

Anyway, one teeny little thing I can do is post some more info on Connor. If you are a bajillionaire looking for a cause, here you go:

Fundraiser for Connor
Saturday, November 7
Casa Vieja Mexican Grill
2176 West 7th Street, St. Paul, MN 55116
$10 All-You-Can-Eat Taco Bar from 1:00-6:00 PM
Raffle - silent auction - petting zoo - games - music

Donations may be sent to:
Highgrove Community Federal Credit Union
1804 7th St. W.
St. Paul, MN 55116
attn: Love for Connor Benefit

More information:
Local news story, KSTP
Connor's CaringBridge site

The tooth is out!

Lucy lost her first tooth today. I wish I'd videotaped her phone calls to both sets of grandparents, and three of her aunts.

"My tooth is loose. No, it's gone. It's out. I lost it in dance class. It fell onto my TONGUE! It's sooooo small! I can't even believe how small it is. I want to keep it one more night so I can look at it tomorrow. I love you too, do you want to talk to your sister/brother/daughter/son?"

Friday night update

Hey gang, sorry I've been real lazy. Just thought I would check in to say hello... Hello! Things are good.

Real quick:

Lucy is enjoying school (she cannot WAIT to get on that bus every day, and gets off it with a giant smile at 4pm) although every day she comes home and says she has a bad day. This mostly seems to be due to her not being able to use the computer in the room. I have no idea what the deal is with computer use -- when they get to use it and how turns are determined -- but I do know that girl loves computer time.

Ed and I are adjusting to our afternoons alone. I usually try to schedule grocery trips during the afternoons now, and Ed is only sometimes reluctant to be dragged about town. Generally he's a trooper, loving anything he can "help" with. Like holding the Cub Foods ad after I have torn all the good coupons out of it. Ed hasn't been napping since mid-summer, but he passed right out yesterday afternoon at around 3pm. I thought he was just playing in his bed, but next thing you know it's 3:30 and I'm dragging him out of a surprisingly deep slumber. Then tonight after I put him to bed, he was playing with some plastic animals while lying on his back in bed, and dropped one of the animals on his face. It hurt quite a bit (judging from the tears). Silly little man.

Oh! I should also mention, a couple weeks ago I was babysitting for a friend's 2 kids, age 4 and 1, in the afternoon. The baby was napping and Ed and Henry were playing on the main level when Ed knocked his face on a doorknob. His first breath, understandably, was just a wail -- but in his second breath, mid-cry, he whimpered "I woke up the baaaaaabbby!!!" My sweet guy.

Jean and her boyf Cameron ran the Twin Cities Marathon last Sunday and Jean kicked some serious butt, finishing under 4 hours, 15 minutes. Cameron finished too -- quite a feat considering his bum knee. Joel's sister Julie and her fiance Jeff ran the 10-mile and we got to see them, too -- I'm so proud of all 4 of them! We had a really lovely, albeit brief, visit with Joel's parents, Cameron's parents, MY parents, Ellen, and Jean's friends Rhi, Rachel and Carolyn.

Lucy's loose bottom teeth are REALLY loose and I can see one of her permanent teeth poking through already. I also think one of her top front teeth might be loose. The wiggling and subsequent pain is really bugging her, and her whining is really bugging me. Though I completely understand -- I have dreams about loose teeth and it's no fun!

My various activities (ECFE, rollerblading, volleyball, Annie, Bible study, dance classes -- to name a few) are keeping me hoppin' and keeping my house a cluttery mess. I've found some help in FlyLady.net -- she advocates not "trying to catch up" with regards to housework, but starting where you are and just cleaning for 10- or 15-minute bursts. It's helped me out a lot; though I keep falling off the wagon, the good news is the wagon is willing to stop and wait for me to get back on.

The other day Ed was talking to himself and I heard him say "Just, ahh, walk around, enjoy the fun!" He has a great future ahead of him on a theme park welcoming committee.

Today I was telling Lucy how Julie was going to drive Lu and Ed up to Monti this weekend to see Joel's parents. Lucy asked me to make sure I packed some snacks for the drive, because "Julie doesn't know that we get cranky when we don't get snacks." I do appreciate her forethought.

He makes a point

Ed: Mama what are you drinking?

Me: Coffee. Do you want some?

Ed: NO! It's STINKY!

Me: Well, you're stinky, and I keep you around.

Ed: But do you drink me?

Daddy, pass me a crab leg!

I'm not going to make this all long-winded and mushy -- not because I'm not good at getting all long-winded and mushy, because I assure you I am -- but because it's late-ish Sunday night and I've got some massive reading to dive into and also the chair at my computer is incredibly uncomfortable. But:

Happy 35th Birthday Joel!

Yes, early in the morning on Monday, 9/21, Joel turns 35. Hard to believe I've been a part of 1/3 of his life. Lots of people go on about having married their Best Friend and how their spouse is the Most Amazing this or that, and while I do have a penchant for hyperbole I'm just going to say, Boofer, I love you very very much and I am so grateful for who you are. I keep finding myself delighted to share our journey, our home, and our kids... and maybe this year you could work on those windowsills in the kitchen?

Some sadness, a little nostalgia

Posting from tumbling class!
The kids are starting tumbling today -- I know, total overkill on the enrichment activities this fall. I think the class is only 6 or 7 weeks though. And it sure is nice to get a break!

So I've been crazy-emotional the last couple weeks -- first with all of Lucy's big milestones, and then with the deaths of Patrick Swayze and Mary Travers, and the scare with Garrison Keillor. I was talking to Jean last night and I realized that all three of them are icons in, respectively, dance, music and writing -- three huge influences in my life. I've never been a huge celebrity-follower (I remember being in 7th grade and cutting out a picture of Christian Slater to hang on my mirror, just because it seemed like the thing for a 13-year-old girl to do, not because I actually cared much about him) but I really admire all three of them and, without being conscious of it, had hoped to meet them or otherwise experience them in person one day. I guess there's still hope for Mr. Keillor, especially since he lives in my city, though I'm sure his fan mail bag is overflowing at the moment.

In an additional blow to my own immortality, last night was our final softball doubleheader of the year. I hate the offseason -- it's long and cold and miserable. Our team is really close-knit -- a lot of the guys have known each other since elementary school -- and we have been playing together for the last 3 years. It's the best softball team I've ever been on. I genuinely like every single person on the team, and they're all nice people and, as a bonus, solid ballplayers. One of our girls badly sprained her ankle earlier in the season, and while she was replaced by an equally-solid, equally-nice gal, it made me realize that now that we're all nearing (or well-past) 30, it only takes one silly play with one silly injury to make it someone's last game. It might have been the 2 beers I drank, but I was hit with how young and strong and beautiful we all are, and how fleeting is this moment of our lives.

Lu and Ed just took turns on the balance beam. I remember them learning to walk on the kitchen floor, watching as their little 14-month-old inner ears caught and corrected their balance. They're so stinkin' BIG now.

Lucy seems to be enjoying school -- she's always excited to get on the bus, smiling when she hops off, and has dived right into the elementary-school culture of trading (in her case, giving away colorful tattoos in exchange for a napkin/string/paperclip parachute, a purple pencil, red marker, and a cardboard princess purse). I'm really ambivalent about the trading. I'm glad she's interacting socially with other kids, but I just hope the older kids on the bus aren't manipulating her. She told me yesterday that she gave away one of her necklaces (which is FINE, she's got a mazillion) in exchange for what looked like a flash drive. I'm sure it was someone's garbage, but it weirded me out a little -- what if someone's mom is looking for it? Also, Lucy told me the girl told her not to tell anyone, which I HATE, and we had a nice discussion about that. Lu then said that they were planning to trade back, which I okayed. I just don't know.

Today is her first show-and-tell. Each kid brings something that starts with the letter of the week -- this week it's A. Lucy eschewed her Ariel doll and the apple and avocado I offered, and instead drew a picture of an apple, cut it out, taped it to the front of one of her homemade books (several pieces of paper stapled together), and wrote "APPLE BY LUCY GRONAU" on the front. I'm so very proud.

Lucy also had her first dance class this week. The girls are adorable in their matching black leos and pink tights, and I always enjoy meeting other crazy mamas.

And my dad was in town this week to help Jean do a 24-mile training run. Marathon's in 15 days!

Wha wha wha WHAAAAT?

Holy moses, Lucy has TWO LOOSE TEETH. Her bottom middle two -- which makes me think this is actually happening.

Seriously, did she have to get TWO loose teeth only 4 days after starting school, which was only 8 days after turning 5?? Not fair to emotional, prone-to-tears Mama.

Also, a blog I read had "Funny things Mamas catch themselves saying" the other day, and this was my own personal contribution:

"Where are your pants and underwear? Did you say "they're tinkled"? Please show me where you tinkled. No, I mean, I see that you tinkled in your pants and underwear, but where were you STANDING when you tinkled? Please help me follow this trail of wet footprints. Thank you for showing me. Now please go get a rag so we can mop it up."

Also I forgot to mention that the day Lucy left for preschool, Eddie kept walking around the house singing the part of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" where Timon sings "I can see what's happening... And they don't have a clue... (etc...) Our trio's down to two." It made me cry even harder.

In fun news, Joel's sister Julie got her wedding dress! And also chose the bridesmaid dresses, and I am just delighted!

Echoing the sentiments of most Minnesotans

Conversation with Eddie this morning. He had picked up the Vikings section of the PiPress and was entranced by the large, artsy illustration of Brett Favre paddling (I think what he's technically doing is "punting," but given the football connotation I think that would confuse) a Viking boat, wearing a cheesehead with Viking horns coming out of it.

Ed: What's in that cheese?

Me: Brett Favre's head.

Ed: Cheese on his HEAD!? And HORNS!? Get that cheese off of his HEAD!

Oh, little Ed, in time you will learn: you can never fully excise the cheese.

First Day of School!

Blogger won't let me post video and Facebook won't give me photos, so here's our Lucy's first day of school! In photos!

If you want the video, join FB.

OK sorry this will be so short, but it's sooo late...


Joel made cake-cakes for the kids this morning. With blueberry syrup, nummmm...

Lucy, workin' on a puzzle just to pass the morning away. My beautiful big little girl.


The bus isn't coming for 20 minutes but we are rarin' to go. Van is parked out front, ready for Eddie and me to jump in just as soon as Lucy gets on her bus!


The kids had a conniption when I asked them to stand by the flowers. "Too many BUGS!" So.. how about by the tomatoes? "Tooo WET!!" Grrrr.




This is her bus! Doesn't she look elated?


As soon as Lucy got on the bus, Eddie started hollering "HURRY MOM!!" and we did have to make tracks to beat the bus back to school (Lucy is the last pickup and the first drop-off, which is a GIANT relief for Mom). We joined some other parents-with-cameras, one of whom had actually attempted to ride the bus, too. Ummm, no, that would be against the rules, hello!


Walking from the bus into school


First day at Nokomis! Ed wanted to go in, and then wanted to play on the playground (with about a thousand other enormous children). Instead, we had ice cream cones on the deck. I only cried a little.


Waiting at the stop 2/3 of a block up the street.


Off the bus came the Girl Of Seventy Birthdays! She said school was fine -- bits and pieces of the story have been dribbling out all night.
Mostly they sat on the rug.
Bu they did go play outside and it was REALLY hot and sweaty.
They played musical instruments.
When LUCY is a teacher, SHE is going to make sure NOBODY is talking when she is talking.
There were 2 Ethans in class and one got a time-out. The other one got his musical instrument taken away.
Lucy got tired and wanted to take a nap.
She got to lead the line.
There is NO TALKING AT ALL IN THE HALL which Lu isn't real happy about.
But she saw her friend Lily twice in the hall.
Lots of kids were wearing gym shoes.


...And she gets to go back tomorrow!

Cranberries not done yet, singer says

Well it's Ed's half-birthday today which officially makes my babies 3.5 and 5, respectively! And I, miraculously, remain the same charming 29 I was when Lu was born. Incredible!

The other day Joel looked at the wall where we measure the kids' heights every 6 months, and he pointed to the highest line and (without stooping and squinting to read the name) asked, "Who is this?" and, need I remind you, we only HAVE 2 kids so it's pretty hard to lose track of them, but I also squidged up my nose and cocked my head and looked at the line, joining Joel in disbelief that we could POSSIBLY have a child as tall as that top line.

Which, for the record, is just under 45" off the ground, which isn't all that tall for a person but is a MONSTROUS GIANT for someone who emerged from my womb a mere 5 years ago, 19" long and 8.5 lbs.

Anyway, so Lucy the 5 Year Old Wonder is beginning PreK on Thursday -- but a LOT of stuff has to happen before then: tomorrow AM I have to get 2 cavities filled; we have a conference with Lucy's teacher (during which I will be drooling out the side of my numbed-up face, HURRAY), then in the evening I have to teach the first of my Bollywood dance lessons, followed by one more dance lesson. Wednesday is ECFE registration day -- I volunteer -- and I *think* my rehearsals for Annie start that night as well. Thursday morning I'm supposed to get up at 6 to go rollerblading with some other mamas, and that afternoon is Lucy's first day!! Egads!!

Next week I start Bible study and the kids start tumbling, and Lucy is also taking dance (don't let me forget to register her!). And Joel and I are still playing softball for the next few weeks. So this next month is going to be a massive wake-up call for our lackadaisical, don't-bother-putting-my-contacts-in-until-11-AM, gee-I-guess-I-can-throw-dinner-together-at-the-last-second, sure-you-can-change-into-your-jammies-at-2pm summer schedules.

Today was a wonderful sendoff to our Summer O Fun -- we hit the State Fair (which, for you non-Minnesotans, is a BIG DEAL) yesterday with Joel's p's, they spent the night, and we woke up with a fabulous egg-and-sausage smorgasbord. After they took off, Joel and the kids and I hit our park up the road, armed with gardening gloves, trash bags, and a broom -- and we weeded the sand, broomed the sidewalks, and picked up candy wrappers, cigarette butts, broken glass and popsicle sticks until the place looked like a nice, well-kept city park again. We also met a nice gal who works in the theatre department at Central High School and who knows a gal who was in my Wilder NLP group last year*. Anyway.

After that we were hungry and hot, so we packed some lunches and hit the beach at Lake Phalen, where we met another Nokomis family (Joel and the dad had been in Daddy ECFE together last year*).

*This is how you can tell my kids are hitting school-age; I've started referring to "years" in terms of the school years. I stopped doing this when I graduated college in 1998 and it was a shock then, as much as it is now to be switching back.

The beach was great and perfect and lovely, and we got some ice cream and a pound of free grapes at Cub afterward. Joel SWEARS the kids picked Peppermint Bon-Bon -- his FAVORITE -- themselves. They didn't disagree.

We went home, I started making up the Bollywood dance, and Joel and the kids watched a movie in the basement. Then we grilled up some steaks and almost-the-last of our summer veggies (cherry tomatoes, green peps, and zukes from our garden, plus store-bought onions and mushrooms, grilled with Italian dressing -- holy Moses, it's the best treat ever). The sun set on our summer and I can tell from the 10-day forecast that fall is imminent, and even though we're going to have great pumpkins this year, and even though the trick-or-treat bag Lucy was making today is super-cute... I'm just not quite ready to let go. Well, wish me luck with the fillings.