September 24 Brendan has a solo!

Tuesday evening:  After the cross-country event, we drove back to Brendan's so that he could eat some pizza, take a shower and change clothes for the choir concert over at the Fine Arts Center. The concert consisted of the Middle School Choir, the High School Choir, and the Concert Choir. All of the music was written by the Beetles--it was a celebration of the 64th anniversary of the Beetles' debut in the USA.

Here is what you need to know--these pictures do not even begin to do justice to the kids that performed. Especially Brendan. It was dark in the auditorium with lights on the stage, and I am really bad at taking pictures in this environment. If only I could have shown you BRENDAN when music takes hold of him. It goes deep into his very soul and his entire body responds. It's so beautiful and sweet ... and PURE ... I hope I never forget what he looked like tonight. He is such a precious person.

Here are the best of the pictures--and these are not good (sadly)--but they are all I have!

The Middle School choir was the 3rd choir to perform. Their first number was a song by Ringo Starr that I had never heard. Dylan told me he did a song on every one of their albums--I'm not well versed on Beetle "albums"; I am just familiar with their Top 10 hits from when I was Brendan's age. Anyway, Brendan had the first solo! I think the microphone was a little intimidating to him--but he did really well after he got used to it.

Brendan is naturally musical. He has been like this since birth (practically). Music gets inside of him and he just has to express it--I don't think he could restrain himself if he wanted to! And I am so glad that he gets such joy from music.

The Middle School choir exited, but then came back with all of the choirs at the end to do a Beetle's ensemble ... quite a few of them actually.

Dear little Erin and her folks ...

Here is the combined choirs singing the last few numbers ...

Brendan really got into the music and lyrics of "Yesterday". That was always one of my favorite Beetle numbers too.

"Why she had to go, I don't know--she wouldn't say. I said something wrong, now I long for Yesterday ... oh, oh, oh Yesterday ..." Can you see Brendan's dear heart as he sings? 

At the end of the concert, the choir director asked all of the soloists to step forward for special recognition.

I was so proud of Brendan. He handled this situation so well. 

The little kids and I stepped outside after the concert so that they could run down and roll down their favorite hill outside the Fine Arts Center. The grass was a little bit wet and slippery--but that didn't deter these little ones!

What a wonderful day this was. I don't get happier than this! My heart soared with Brendan's as he sang. I love him so much. How thankful I am that I got to share this special day with this dear family.

September 24 Cross Country #224

Tuesday Afternoon:  I was invited to attend Brendan's Cross Country meet this afternoon! I was so excited to go see him run. I was able to pick up Dylan downtown at work and then we both drove over to pick Brendan up from school, and THEN we drove out to Lowell for the track meet. We got there a little bit early, which never hurts!

This event is a two-mile run on a designated path out at the Lowell High School campus. What a beautiful and huge place it is! I had never been there before and was super surprised at the size of the place.

We met Brendan's cross-country coach, a very nice gentleman, and got to see Brendan's team do their warm-ups and everything. I've never ever been to a cross-country meet in my life--so I hadn't any idea what to expect. I took a bunch of pictures--here are the best of them:

This is Brendan's coach (I forget his name):

Brendan was assigned #224 to pin onto his shirt.

I love this picture of Brendan ... he is very special to me, and gets way inside my heart!

Here is Brendan helping Coach separate the numbers for each runner ...

And they're OFF ...

This are NOT good pictures. I am really terrible at long-distance photography.

This is Brendan's second year running cross-country. He likes to run! He has always been a runner, from the time he was very young. He is not super fast--but a two mile run is quite an accomplishment. I think he is very brave to do this. I guess last year, he came in last almost every meet; but that is no longer the case.

I am so proud of you, Brendan!

Here is Brendan, nearing the end of the course ...

I was cheering him on ... he looked SO exhausted. What a courageous young man you are, Brendan!

And would you believe it? Brendan also has a choir concert this evening over at the Fine Arts Center! He even has a small solo part! (see next post)

September 21 Dearest KT

Saturday:  Yes, yes, yes. I WAS a little bit "concerned" about spending time with Kaity today. What if it went like our time Thursday? She hardly said one word! She was totally out of it! You might ask: "What's that got to do with you?" While that IS a valid question, clearly you are not understanding the heart of a grandma.

Thankfully, Kaity was AWAKE today and more her "normal" self. YAY!

I picked her up over at Diana's, refusing to go further than the breezeway because Luna was barking SO loudly it scared me half to death. Thankfully, Kaity came out and didn't insist I come in to try to get "used" to their dog. Big dogs and me just don't mix very well. Especially LOUD, big dogs.

As we were driving to my house, Kaity told me she wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with her Thursday. She told me she'd had a really hard day at school (but would not give me details) and that she hadn't been sleeping well. But she told me this with a smile and then went on to talk as she usually does as we drove. SO ... I was relieved I would have my "normal" Kaity today.

When we got inside my place, Kaity announced that she wanted me to teach her how to play Chess! So I got out my Chess board and pieces--the one that has the board that marks where the pieces go and what they are called. I think Kaity was a bit surprised there were SO MANY DIFFERENT ways to move each piece. It kind of blew her away--not in a bad way--just in a way that I could tell she was NOT going to be asking to play Chess again for a very long time.

I love this picture of Kaity. It's so her!

We also played three games of "Pick-up-sticks". Kaity won 2 and I won just one. Kaity is very good at this game, which surprised the heck out of me--because in order to win the game, you have to be SO careful not to move the other sticks. It takes patience and tenacity, which I would not have believed Kaity possessed in such abundance until she played this game with me. I'm so glad we could do this today. I love interacting and laughing with Kaity so much.

We didn't go to Altitude tonight either. I didn't ask why. I have a feeling that perhaps Kaity is growing tired of jumping there. I hope she doesn't give it up, though. It's so good for her to be physically active.

I did have a rather big box delivered from UPS while Kaity was here today. My brother has been shipping me stuff for his much anticipated visit at the end of next week (things that will not fit in a carry-on suitcase). Anyway, Kaity was rather pleased with the big box, so she played with it awhile ...

Kaity asked me if I could "ship" her somewhere. I asked her where she would like to go, and she responded "Texas!" I told her under no circumstances whatsoever would I ever ship her to Texas! It's too far away! She specifically requested El Paso (1500+ miles from here), but when I told her how far away it was, she came up with other options: Florida, Tennessee, etc. We decided that Tennessee was about as far away as would be allowed ...

Kaity scrunched herself all up and squeezed into the box! She added a blanket, pillow, her phone (naturally) ... even PACO was included--and then requested that I close the box up.

I taped her up inside and she snapped a picture of herself INSIDE the box. Goodness. I told her I changed my mind and that she couldn't go to Tennessee either.

Kaity poked breathing holes, 8 on each side of the box, so she could get some air if needed. It was hilarious to watch her squeeze herself in the box--she is not a little kid anymore; but I love it when she plays like this. It's just so ... simple ... and wholesome ... and UNtechnical. Anyway, it sure was a nice time with Kaity today. I am so thankful for her--God, You are so good to me!

September 20 Our 2nd Friday

Friday:  This is the second Friday that I've just had Cal over here to play. The other kiddos are back in school full time, so I don't see them until they get off their bus back at their house.

Here are just a few pictures of young Cal today:

We played about an hour before we ate lunch today. I was hungry enough to eat when we first arrived, but Mr. Cal was pretty intent on playing first.

When we finally DID eat lunch, I moved his chair to be near the side window where he could watch the birds feeding. Cal loves to watch the birds. One time, there were 5 or 6 little finches all perched and eating quietly. The window was open and we could hear their chirping. Cal was real quiet as he watched them. I told him that they were talking to us! I asked him what he would like to say back to them? He got a kind of smirk on his face, looked at me, and then looked right at these cute little birds and YELLED: "Get out of here!!!!" You should have seen those birds take off! Whew. Which of course, cracked Cal up! He thought it was great that he could order my little birds around. What a kid.

After lunch, I got out the bean bags and we played some games tossing the bean bags around the front room.

Cal is very intense when he has something to throw ... 

... I had set up a waste basket as our throwing focus. He had missed a dozen times and kept inching closer and closer to the basket before he would throw a bean bag. He finally sunk one! Yay, Cal. I encouraged him to gradually back away from the basket to see if he could aim and still sink a bean bag. He actually did very well!

THEN, it was time for PlayDoh. Cal loves to play with all the little gadgets I have with my PlayDoh stuff.

He decided it would be great if we could bury our race cars inside the PlayDoh. This actually pleased him very much, so he continued to bury and unbury our cars for awhile.

But then Cal was back to building PlayDoh monsters ...

He was very pleased with his yellow PlayDoh monster ...

He is showing me that his monster has "pinch-y teeth" ... see them? They are GREEN. He told me that this would make it possible for HIS monster to beat up any other monster that might come along.

I wasn't really in the mood to make a monster, so instead I made this little pink guy.

Cal thought my pink guy was pretty cute ... but in the end, Cal's yellow monster crushed him to pieces. I didn't photograph the final result.

The last 30 minutes of our time at my house is usually spent with Cal watching a video so that I can pick up all of the stuff we've gotten out. I put on "Pets 2", Cal ran and got all of our "Pet" stuffy's and settled down to watch as I cleaned up. This is a good plan! I put away almost everything we've gotten out in the back playroom, most of the front room toys, and clean up the kitchen a little bit while Cal is telling me all about the video he is watching. He is such a cutie.

Cal slept all the way back to his house. The kiddos' bus was late today by almost 25 minutes! But Erin and Aidan were finally home. I didn't realize it, but Brendan was home and in the basement the entire time I was waiting for the other kids to come home. We woke Cal up, fed everyone some healthy cantaloupe, strawberries, and cucumbers, talked about school, and cuddled with Cal. It was so nice to be with these dear ones--they are such interesting little people. Super thankful for today, Lord!