The Sock Conundrum

Mismatched socks.

For years, I have heard many people talk about how their dryers eat their socks, leaving lone socks without a match.  I too have this problem.  Although I'm not sure it's my dryer.  I'm thinking aliens....

Here we go:

Seventeen pairs of lone socks!  None of them match. Thankfully, my husband and eldest son are not too particular about their socks being exactly matching. As long as they are the same color, they are OK with it.  However, none of these can even be similarly matched.  It's ridiculous!!!!

See, I think it's aliens.  You might say, "but Molly, you moved away from New Mexico.  That is where all the aliens go."  And you'd be right.... BUT, now I'm living near the nation's capital.  How many movies have you seen where Washington DC gets attacked by aliens?  Tons of times, right?  Yep, aliens, one-footed aliens.

So many stories

I've got so many stories floating about in my head, it's crazy!  I think up new stories long before I can finish writing out the old ones.  The stories come to me almost in their entirety.  Some elements have to be fleshed out, but for the most part I know the main story right from the start.

The problem is it takes much longer to write than for me to tell it in my head.  By then, a new story has begun.

Right now I've got three stories in my mind: a young adult fantasy, a chick lit story, and the middle school aged series that I started years ago.  For the series, I've got two of the stories written, but I have the next formed in my head now.

Because of the time it takes to write anything, I guess I should pick on story to work on, but it is so hard when I think up a new one and get all excited about it.

Really, I shouldn't worry about any of this because no one will ever read them, but I want to write them out anyway.  Silly, I know.

Happy Memorial Day!  My deepest gratitude for those soldiers who have fought and died so I can enjoy the freedom to write my stories, have a wonderful family, and worship God as I desire.

Attack of the worms

We've had a lot of rain the last few weeks.  I'm not complaining!  I LOVE the rain.  However, it has brought in some unusual unwanted guests.

Worms!

We have a door along side the house that isn't well sealed at the bottom and during all the rain, worms have crawled into our house.  Then, they dry up and sadly die on our family room floor.  One day after a really rainy day and night, I think there must have been about ten dead worms on the floor.

Not very smart, are they?  I'm not sure if they are escaping the rain or what, but they come into our house during the night and I wake up each morning to dead worms. 

This has been going on for about a week now.  I wonder how long they plan on coming into the house to die? 

Other new creature additions to our yard:  a frog in our ditch in the front yard.  We can't ever see him, he hops away too fast.  Lightning bugs or fireflies in the evening.  Lots of bees.  They love our clover yard.  And there is a mole or two in the back yard, but we can't catch them.  I hear they are hard to get rid of.

I find myself talking to the dead worms, the frog and the bees in the yard.  I think I might be going a little crazy. 

Reflections on our first improv night

Last night was Auntie M's first teen improv night.  I had three people who wanted to be there, but couldn't last night.  They've promised to be there next time - in two weeks.  So, we had two teens come.  Because our current location is so far out of the way and we were only meeting for an hour, the parents that brought them stayed and they also brought one sibling each along.  So, we had six people along with our big ol' family.

Lots of fun!  We played Train Station (twice), Questions Only, Party Quirks, and Two Lined Vocabulary.  The funnest part was the parents got involved and they were good!  We let the little siblings get involved at one point, but it was way too chaotic.  After about an hour and a half, we had soda and donuts and they left.

As everyone was leaving, one of the families I was expecting arrived.  They apologized for being late and commented on how far away from the main road we are.  :)  We invited them in.  This time it was an 11 year old girl (not quite a teen, but I certainly wasn't going to turn her away), her mom and her two younger sisters.  We gave them a donut and then played a couple of games, Party Quirks and Props.  It gave them a chance to see what this was all about and we had a lot of fun.

We should have the same crowd next time plus three more potentially.  Yeah! 

Some thoughts:
They are all girls.  My son might be loving that, but I think we need some more guys.  We've got to get some guys here.  I sent all the kids away with invitation to hand out to friends.  Who knows how many we could have next time. Kind of scary.  We've got to recruit some guys, though. 

There is an interest from the younger kids ages 6 - 11 for acting.  They want to participate, but they are just too young and small to do improv with the teenagers.  Perhaps I need to start a younger group as well.  Some improv, but more acting focused.

Anyway, I think it was a success.  We just need some more kids, get the kids comfortable with each other and performing in front of others, and practice, practice, practice.  Perhaps during the summer, we can have a performance for a real audience. 


We need a name for this group.... any ideas?

4th grade journal entries and The Challenger space shuttle

Some journal entries from the 4th grade.  The spelling has been cleaned up so it is readable, but the grammar is the same:

23 Jan 1986

Today was no fun and exciting.  The no fun part is what I made on my science and social studies test.  On my social studies I made a 75.5.  On my science I made a 68%.  The exciting part was that the fire trucks came.  They dryer caught on fire.  So,..... The fire trucks came.  The rest of the day was school and homework.  Sister got sick today.  I wish I would too.  It's bed time.
Good night.

24 Jan 1986

Sister is not sick, but Brother is.  Today we went to the film festival.  They had some very good movies.  They started very late.  2 of my favorites were about 2 sisters that fought a lot.  The other one is about Corduroy.  He is a bear (teddy bear).  He is looking for his lost button.  Sister is sleeping with Ellie.  As for me, I'm sleeping with Lara.  We are listening to Peter Pan on my record player.  Well, I think that it is time to go to bed.  Good night.  Bye.

Ellie was my Cabbage Patch doll and Lara was my sister's cabbage patch doll. And Sister and Brother are not the names of my sister and brother, their names have been changed to protect the innocent. lol

27 Jan 1986

Today was sad and exciting.  The exciting part was the Challenger went up into space.  The sad part was that it blew up.  It had 7 astronauts in it.  One was the first teacher in space.  They all died.  Mom said if she was asked to go into space she would do it.  But I can't think of loosing my mother.  It's bed time.  Good night.  Bye.



Writing prompt inspired by Mama Kat.

Toddler reminders

I recently had the opportunity to babysit for a friend.  I'm still new in the area and I don't know people as well as I would like, so when I offered to babysit, I wasn't sure what ages the kids were.

Due to many other activities going on that day, I only had my two youngest at home and they were super excited at being able to have friends over to play even if they didn't know who the friends were.

When the kids were dropped off, I was happy to find I would be watching a 5 year old girl (Little E) and a 1 year old boy (Little J).  My 4 year old Peanut was so thrilled to have a girl over to play with.

My living room was in play condition.  That means there were toys all over the floor and a basket of more toys sitting there.  I was glad the toys were out because the little boy cried for the first 5 minutes after getting dropped off.  When we showed him the toys, he got down and played and was happy as could be the rest of the time.  However, Little E decided my living room needed to be cleaned.  She put all the toys in the basket and pushed the basket into the hall.  She would give items sitting out to Peanut and Peanut would happily put them away.  She got my son (6 years old) to sweep the living room floor!!!

It was incredible!  Little E succeed at something I've been trying to do for years!  She can come over any time she wants!

It was fun having Little J in the house.  I discovered my home is kid-friendly, but it is no longer baby-proof.  Little J was opening cupboards and drawers.  He was going up and down the stairs.  He was a pro the stairs, but it still made me a little nervous.  He climbed on the table, over and over.  He kept me very busy.  It was so much fun, though.  I'm glad I don't have to do that every day anymore, but it was fun to do for one day.  It reminded me of my oldest when he was a tot and a good reminder of why I wanted to be done with that stage in life.  Toddlers are so busy and need constant watch.

Whew!

Auntie M's is official!

Auntie M's Children's Theater is now a registered business!  I'm very excited.

I'm not sure what to do now.

I'm trying to get the word out since our first event is next week.  I'm working on writing a play, I need to re-write three plays.  I need to set some dates, find some locations, type up some calendars, and do a bunch of other things. I've got to figure out how I'm going to advertise.  Nothing is going to work out if no one ever shows up.

I called a local community center to see if we could use their facility for one evening.  It would be an ideal place for our first event.  It was going to cost a minimum of $135.  No thanks.  I'll keep looking for other locations....

Oh well, it is official and I'm very excited!

Next Thursday is Teen Improv Night!  Donuts included!  It will be lots of fun.

Dream 3-day weekend

Writing Prompt from MamaKat!
"You have a 3 day weekend to do anything you want with your family…money is not a factor, BUT you must stay in your own state. What would you do?"

Lexington, Virginia!  Now, I've never planned a vacation in VA before, so I'm not entirely sure about everything we'd do, but I've got a pretty good start.  We would stay in a log cabin home.  I found this place that rents out real log cabins from the 1800s.  The one I've picked for our family is called the Homesteader's Cabin.  I think we could probably just spend the three days there and not need to do anything else, but since we can go and do whatever we want, we'll only spend most of the time at the cabin. :)

In Lexington, they still have a drive-in theater!  I want to take the kids there.  We'd open up the back of the van, fill it with blankets and pillows, bring lawn chairs, and food for snacking. 

Going on a hike or rafting along a lazy river.  Those sound like fun.  I think it would just be a beautiful weekend in the Shenandoah Valley.  Too bad the weekend can only last for three days.

Now, this is just awesome!!  I would love to visit Luray Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley and hear the Stalacpipe Organ.  Check out this video!!

I'm ready to go!  Whose with me?

http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/blog/

My paper's in, the kids are at school, it's time to get a haircut!

I did it!  I went and got my hair cut. 

It pretty much has been cut to my shoulders again, but this time, they added some layers and I've got more curls now.  I like it. I can't say the same thing for my daughter, though.  When I picked her up from preschool, I asked her, do you like my hair?  She starts to cry.  No!  I like it long.  Oh well.  Can't please everyone.

I'll have to get one of my kids to get a picture of my new do later.

Life doesn't stop.  I've been to the grocery store three times in two days and still I forget toilet paper!  Gotta love that, right?  I've got to head out the door again in 20 minutes to pick up my son from school and take him to the orthodontist.  Tonight he needs to be back at his school to help the soon-to-be 6th graders pick out instruments for orchestra/band next year.  Then, I take my own soon-to-be 6th grader to the school and let him see the instruments.  Exciting night!

Trip to the book sale

I took the kids to the library on Friday.  Every month on the first weekend, the local library has a book sale.  Libraries regularly weed books.  This means they pull out old books, or books they have too many copies of and not enough interest (like most libraries don't need 10 copies of the last Harry Potter book anymore), or they have books are donated to them but they don't need or want them.

I have found some great deals at our library weekend sales.  Last month I got a Richard Peck book called Fair Weather.  This month I found one called A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban.

It's about a girl named Zoe who is 10 and has dreams of being a concert pianist.  All she needs is a piano. Her mother works all the time.  Her father is a kind man, but has some major anxiety issues and never leaves the house if he can help it.  Zoe is certain if she had a piano, she would be a prodigy and play in Carnegie Hall before she is 12.  Instead of a piano, her father buys her an organ.  The organ purchase comes with free lessons for six months.  Zoe is quite disappointed.

She takes the lessons and practices the music her teacher assigns her.  After a couple of months, her teacher realizes that Zoe is a hard worker and gives her some new music with the expectation for her to give her first recital at an organ competition.  Zoe has to practice hard and faces the butterflies in her stomach when it comes to her first performance.  She meets other kids her age at the competition who all play the organ.

The story is written from Zoe's point of view and it is almost journal entry like.  There are many chapters, but they are more like journal entries.  Some of them are very short, only 3-4 words long.  Others are longer, like when she describes going to a birthday party.  It's a nice book.  Not too sweet, but you like all the characters (except for the snobby girls, but there is a set of those in every story about a middle-of-the-road girl like Zoe.)

The story of Zoe and her dreams of being a pianist and her reality of having a wheeze-bag organ is a different kind of fun story.  When it comes to the school drama, it is pretty standard formula.  She doesn't have any friends at school.  Well, she had a friend, but the friend is from a rich family and she drops Zoe so she can be friends with another girl who lives in the same rich neighborhood.  The only kid at school who likes Zoe is the weirdest boy in the class.  He calls her Goober and doesn't have many friends himself.  In the end, they become good friends.

It was a fun read and I read the entire book in an evening, so it was quick reading too.  I like quick reading books.  I don't have to think to hard about the story.  It's just a sit back and relax kind of story.  Nice.

My Hair

I don't know what to do with my hair.  It's long again.  Too long and I want to get it cut, but I'm tired of doing the exact same thing over and over and over, which is, just cut it all to about my shoulders.

This is the way it goes:
Hair gets long
Cut to shoulders
Let hair grow
Hair gets long
Cut to shoulders
......over and over for years and years.

I want to do something different, but I've never really been brave enough to do anything except cutting it to my shoulders.

Actually, I know what I would like to try, but I can't do it myself.  Someone professional would have to do it and I don't trust the hair cutting people at Wal-Mart to be able to do what I want.

See, there is an actress, who has beautifully curly, crazy hair.  I would like my hair cut like hers.   Here is my problem, I'm too embarrassed to take in a picture of her and say to them 'this is what I want.'  I shouldn't be embarrassed, right? 

I'm embarrassed at what they might think. 
I'm worried that they wouldn't be able to do the haircut the way I want it. 
And I'm scared that on me, the hair style would look ridiculous.

So, do I take the scary plunge and go with a picture of the actress and hope that it works out  OR do I just go get it cut to my shoulders again?

I want to be brave.  It's just hair, right?  It will grow.  But I'm so scared.

Love the hair!  What do you think?