Another Update: Big B, Mighty Mo, "Shots Fired", Garden, and a few other things.

This is an exciting week for BigB. Many interesting things happening....

Here is a confession.  I pushed B into voice lessons.  She didn't really want to start them, and I encouraged her to try it for the summer.  She's grown, vocally.  She's still not clamoring to practice, but she knows she's learned a lot.  She loves the lessons; she does not love practicing. This is not a case of the "new" wearing off, it has pretty much been that way since day one.  I think it would be easier if I could help at all, but I cannot. She gets to a stumbling block, and it can become a wall.  There is no one to help her move through, around or over it.  I don't know "HOW" something is supposed to sound. I can't look at the music and help with things at all.  She's gone to YouTube a few times to help answer a question bye example, and couple of times, it's helped.  And a couple of times, the example has been wrong, or inconsistent with what she was supposed to do.

She has been asking to stop the lessons, reminding me that she did what I asked of her.  I have had to begrudgingly agree, and have asked her to give it just a little more time AND to give it her 100% best, with practice and focus, at least for a few more weeks.  I  have been hoping for a turn in the tide....

Then, when practicing this past weekend MAYBE something changed.  She loved the song. She had fun with it. She felt GOOD about it.  She went to her lesson with it a little different attitude.  It was one of those times she had gone to YouTube, and as it turns out, it was one of those times when maybe she picked the wrong example. I'm not sure how she felt about it coming out her lesson, but she was obviously depressed. Ho hum.


Her church service project, collecting shoes for Soles4Souls,  is coming together.  She's gotten permission from Phillips Prep and Knollwood to collect shoes at both locations.  She's written her speech, and refined it with her youth pastor.  She's got the collection boxes.  Now it's go time.  One day soon, the principal is going to say today is the day, and she'll make her speech over the intercom system to the school.  She'll turn in her speech to Knollwood, and they'll print it in the weekly newsletter.  This Sunday, the youth pastor at our church will introduce her and her project during the services.  Whew.

Monday, she found out she had been selected as the Phillips Prep student of the month. Her being recognized in this way is a parents dream. (Pats self on back!)  It's an "all around" award, looking at academics, sports, extracurricular, general attitude and demeanor, and more. The recipients are selected by the teachers in a two part process -- nominations and voting.  Yesterday we got to go have lunch at the Admiral Semmes Hotel, and she received her plaque.  Very nice!   (My mantra about the girls being well rounded, no matter what, is paying off!)

She has basketball tryouts beginning Monday, and a piano competition coming up on November 5, and then she is singing at the church spaghetti dinner and silent auction on the 6th. She is a busy child...

MightyMo (MM)  is off on week 3 of  his new job adventure.  This week has been much  harder for him.  He is far away, in a suburb of  Los Angles, CA, in a different time zone, and working 12 hour shifts.  Due to the 3 hour time difference, when we get up in the morning, he's still sleeping, and by the time he gets off work at night, and back to his hotel, we are in bed.  The end result, we are not talking much this week.   On top of that, he is assigned to the "Behavioral Unit" in the hospital he's in.  HA!  He is locked in when he gets there, has to have a security guard escort him in and out for breaks, and has to lock up the computers he works on if he is going to leave them, even for a few minutes. He is home next week, and then his next assignment is at a prison hospital in OK. 

I did talk to MM on Monday during the day.  We found out there were "shots fired" at one of our rental houses.  A neighbor called, and then the tenant called.  The story is that someone tried to break in, and when they couldn't get the door open, they fired shots.  My first question was did they shoot the door?  (Seems like a logical question to me!)  MM didn't know, and wasn't worried about that.  (HUH?)  We are letting the tenant break the lease, because she is scared.  OK.  My cynical nature is coming out here... buy I am thinking the whole thing was staged to get out of the lease.  She is behind on her rent,  not to far, but a little. Thieves typically try to be sneaky, ie NOT draw attention to themselves by making noise that makes the neighbors and police come running.  Why in the world would they fire gun shots into the air?  Who knows.  Anyway, empty rental houses are a bit of a pain when MM is around.  I am guessing it will be somewhere close to excruciating when he is NOT around. :/


My garden seems to have just stopped.  Nothing is happening.  No veggies. Everything looks healthy. I am going to fertilize again this weekend .  Maybe a few vitamins and minerals will help.

The GG has hit a major turning point. She is much better. She has not had any pain medications for a while and she's even done a few "Geegeeish" things.  She mowed her yard. (biggy!)  I am so pleased!  The last 10 days have been great! 

That is it for now.  I am off to a gathering of the ladies I did weight watchers with.  We are going to meet to motivate. (Might be a little late, since I've gained back all but about 4 or 5 pounds of what I lost.)  I was going to try the 2 week Atkins induction, hut the thought of no bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes hurts.