Fired up! Ready to go!

The kids have been calling and responding "Fired up! Ready to go!" every time we get ready to go on an outing this summer.

We are charging through the last of June! Here are a few of our doings this summer.

We attended the Solstice Festival on June 20th, as is our habit in Blacksburg. We were all suffering somewhat from a wicked summer cold, but we got a few hours of fun out of it nonetheless.

First, the kids were thrilled to see Elsa again! Thank you, nameless volunteer, for suffering in the heat in that sequined outfit to make kids smile.

Once again, the NRV Varmints were there with their exotic/farm animal petting zoo. Here, Miles baffles a llama.

We've been watching the water catapults with interest for years now. Finally it seemed like the right time to get in the game! Well, Miles & Papa did, anyway. My cold was prohibitive for water events.

We all always enjoy belly dancing. And it seems like the right thing for the Solstice Festival. Humans need pagan revelry!

A few days later, I along with the rest of the nation were horrified to learn about the attack on Emanuel AME in Charleston. This was an attack no only on those individuals and that community, but on black churches as a whole, and on hospitality itself. The shooter was a guest at an AME church, as Miles and I had been just the week before, a recipient of hospitality. I love our friends at our local church and feel very strongly that it's about time to stand up to racism wherever it's found (even in our own institutions. especially in our own institutions). Therefore, we attended the AME church again last Sunday the 21st, and the vigil which followed on VT's campus. Miles made the following sign by himself:

I am currently long-distance watching The Episcopal Church's General Convention Proceedings in Salt Lake City, and thrilled by the election of Bishop Michael Curry and the House of Delegates passage of Resolution C019, which condemns and repents of racism while making a conscious deliberate and funded plan to fight it. I have been a proud Episcopalian this week! Considering waving an Episcopal flag this Friday. Or maybe a rainbow one...

Monday we steered southward to pay a visit to my beloved aunt and uncle in Wilmington, NC. They always puts us up with such generosity and hospitality, and we love being around them and getting to catch up over delicious wine.

And, of course, there's a definite advantage to being situated so close to the beach!

Last time we went to Wrightsville Beach, Adele was afraid of the water, and it was too chilly to go in.
What a difference 18 months makes!

Family shot

You'll be glad to know I recently ordered a new camera with my birthday money.

The kids spent ALL of Tuesday and most of Wednesday running in the waves. They believe the ocean is constantly playing a delicious joke on them and they frolicked along with it for hours at a time. We had all we could do to keep them hydrated and their sunscreen refreshed. It was a delight to be at the shore together!

Isn't my aunt and uncle's house so sweet??

At Carolina Beach on Wednesday

She just really loved this parrot at a Carolina Beach restaurant. 

Back home, we've been trying to get a grip on the beginnings of our packing by starting some deep cleaning. It's been dusty, unpleasant work! Fortunately, we can take breaks with these guys and enjoy some weather that, after NC's tropics, is truly refreshing.

This guy had a bit of an urgent care experience when he stood up into the corner of our big mailbox unit. He had a bleeding head, which scared him intensely. Thankfully, it was such a tiny wound that a little glue and some clever hair knots secured it and it seems to be healing nicely. What is life without a bit of adventure?

More outdoor pursuits: finally making use of some garage sale bought weaponry.

Miles takes revenge on the offending mailbox

Yesterday was my Sister Parish Guatemala luncheon, in which we tried to convince the congregation of the value of our relationship with the San Andres Itzapa church using delicious home cooked Guatemalan food, lovely decorations, art (see below), pictures, and testimonials. It went loooong, but it went very well. Another reason to be optimistic about our church, and to be glad that it seems we'll be staying here at least another year.

June Rambles

The longest day of the year finds us in (mostly) good spirits and in possession of a lot of happy plans. The trial of uncertainty is over. At last, I feel like I can be where I am. 

We celebrated the end of the school year, and the end of my 10 month year at work, with a playdate to the kids' favorite park with some of their favorite friends from daycare. To this day, one year through kindergarten, Miles' best friends are those he met at our precious daycare. 

Aaliyah is just in his heart. He beams when he sees her and they begin to frolic. 

Happily for Adele, Aaliyah has 3 siblings! One of whom is just a few months older than she is, and goes to daycare with her:

I'm thrilled that the whole family will come to Miles' little birthday party, planned for two weeks from yesterday.

Goodness, I have some planning to do!

Last week, frustrated at a local event that turned out to be a real bust, we went strolling as a family to Pandapas Pond, a favorite swampy hike. It's so good to have both the time and the weather for these outings. 

There has been a lot of mud and sticks and worms in their summer so far. Counting it a success. 

Last Monday we sent Jon to Seattle for a conference for 3.5 loooong days.

No, really. Days are 45% longer without Jon. I've scientifically observed it. 

Obviously I had to send him a picture immediately to demonstrated that I'd kept the kids alive that long. 

It was close, though. 

Something always goes wrong when Jon goes out of town, btw. It's like Mercury automatically goes into retrograde. We've had kids get sick and the car break, but this time the cats decided to scare me and attempt suicide. I found evidence that they'd eaten zinc lozenges and, as they'd been throwing up all week (aren't you glad you read my blog??), I took them to the vet for the first time in too long.

Yes, so, the really insane thing about how I decided to handle putting cats in boxes and kids in car seats and travelling with them all is that I decided to let them attend a pioneer themed story hour at a local historic house, cats in tow. I put their yowling selves on the porch in their boxes and brought the kids inside. Because I love stress. 

I actually thought it might be good if they did one enjoyable thing that horrible, horrible day. 

As I posted on Facebook in desperation for some adult sympathy,

The best part of today had to be when the cats were locked in the trunk with my keys, yowling, & Miles was screaming in terror in the yard bc the car alarm wouldn't stop and I needed the keys to make it stop. Oh, and Adele was buckled in. Good times.

The good part about Jon's being away is all the time we spent in the public library. I've been able to encourage Miles in reading independently- he's almost done with his "Magic School Bus" title- and Adele's been able to make her own choices. I have made some of my own. Jane Ray created the prettiest Bible story book I've ever seen with "Let There Be Light." All text is from the KJV, but the pictures just infuse magic into those old words. 

Words cannot describe my relief that Jon is home. Most other times he's been away the kids have been in school, or I've been visiting relatives. This time it was just us, at home, and that was long. enough.

So we are making plans to visit Rochester and to visit North Carolina and to celebrate Miles' birthday, and lastly, we are making plans to move... half a mile away.

In the early days of June, I was despondently looking at apartment listings, wishing we'd heard back from anyone and that I could with any confidence investigate renting any of the lovely houses for rent in our area. 

Jon heard back from only about 1/4 of the jobs he applied to, and all responses were in the negative. There was one interview, out of state, which happened on the 13 of April and from which to this day we have heard NOTHING back. Anyway. I found this lovely little house listed for something we could consider affordable, and decided it was too good to ignore. We were shown the house, but informed there was someone ahead of us with an application. I figured it was just my amusing myself, window shopping, but my heart was bitter because the owners were such great people, friends of Jon's, and it was in so many ways a perfect little house for us. Yard, big kitchen, near our current neighborhood and school. 

Well, a few days later the owner emailed me and said the person ahead of us backed out, and she'd love for us to be the renters. She even cut the rent a bit to entice us to commit, but said she had to know within a week. I was wretched; how could we commit when we could be moving to another state in a month, for all I knew? 

But somehow reason caught up with me, in the form of Jon. He suggested we find out what we'd be on the hook for if we did have to move, and the owner said she simply would need us to find a replacement. That was something I felt confident we could find, with 5 years of networks surrounding us here. And you know, it was less than a month before most of these jobs wanted the candidate to start. We came to accept that there would be no new job this year.  

Which is extremely frustrating, when we let ourselves think of it. This is almost exactly what happened in 2009 when Jon finished the MLS in the first place. Now he has two more master's degrees, with a total of three, and I'm wondering how many degrees a person has to have in this century to get a job. When will all this school pay off? Will it? It's a significant worry. But it's a worry we're shelving for now, in hope that the God who brought us to this amazing town with such tenderness and concern for our needs will not fail to provide the next rung in the ladder. When the time comes. 

For now? We're moving to our first (tiny) house at the beginning of August. 

There's a yard, a fire pit, and our lot-mates have the sweetest little dog. I'm nothing but grateful, at the moment. 

Coming of Age

I'm fresh from celebrating my 33rd birthday! Some call this the "Jesus year," but I prefer to think of it as my Hobbit coming-of-age. Hobbits mark 33 as the year of adulthood, after the "irresponsible tweens" of the 20s. I need to say to anyone who might be reading this in their 20s, the 30s are so much better. Every year of it gets better as I learn more about myself and the world around me.

I got some amazing gifts. Dad sent me my first Kindle! Jon added to my collection of Harry Potter lego figurines, and the kids made me some original art!

This is Adele's. It looks like sunshine on a field, but according to her, it's a dolphin, fish, and sheep, grazing. The ocean goes on top. Artistic license. 

This is by Miles, entitled "Solar System Like Ours."

I had a quiet, family birthday on Wednesday, ending with a delicious meal of Thai food and some high quality beer waiting for me at home.

Saturday was an old Blacksburg favorite: Wheels and Wagons, 2015 edition! As always, the event featured vehicles of every kind for kids to touch, climb on and ride, as well as balloon animals, face painting, and other attractions. But this year the Blacksburg Children's Museum was open, free, during the festival hours, so the kids spent the first part of the morning soaking up some free creative play!

I love the decor. 

They probably lingered longest at the dress-up section:

This little theater room was so cool and abstract:

Outside, as usual, the kids had their pictures taken in front of their last year's contributions to the Wheels and Wagons Art BT Bus:

...and made some new art for next year. They painted the snowplow:

And this year, watched the helicopter take off since we missed the landing. We got balloon art, climbed on some vehicles, ate hot dogs and snow cones and called it a great morning.

Later that afternoon, we made the tail end of a Gospel Music Festival that was happening just a few blocks from us, at St. Luke's and Odd Fellow's Hall. SL&OF was a black community center, built during segregation at a time when black citizens could not use town restaurants, bars, and other gathering places. There are two historically black churches, but St. Luke's & Odd Fellow's Hall (below) was for community gatherings. 

This lovely old building is right on Virginia Tech's campus. They put a tent up and, although we missed the fish fry due to nap time, we were on time for some gorgeous a capella gospel music from the Glorylanders. I really love gospel music, and this really lifted my spirit and reminded me that, despite the discouragement I'd been feeling about Jon's employment and our progress in life, I have more blessings than I know what to do with right now. 

That night, we went out! This is my year for daring to do new stuff and for embracing heady, dizzying exhilarating laughter. Karaoke certainly supplied it!

Crimped my hair for the occasion!

I met a mix of friends from church and from twitter for karaoke at a bar a town away. It was a late night. And it was unforgettable. I got up twice to sing, and a third time when someone signed up our whole group to sing. I got to see friends be uncharacteristically bold to jump up and sing songs from Johnny Cash and Guns N Roses and Eminem and Joan Jett. I got to sing a couple songs that have been bubbling up inside for a long time. What an excellent way to celebrate 33! I will be back; I have warned the regular crowd of this. 

Sunday... was a recovery day. But we did get out for some bike riding. Adele is making great progress with her tricycle, and today, Miles had his first ride on two wheels! I'll find out how it went tonight, since this is my LAST DAY AT WORK. 

In my next update, we'll let you know about some decisions we've made for next year. Stay tuned!

Course Clear!

Finis! The end of the school year just preceded the end of the year dance recital for the kids. They are in full summer now! Alas that I am not yet with them in it.  

Here is Miles at the very beginning and the very end of the year. Looks like he's seen some things this year, doesn't he?

Well, we barely got him off the bus before we were all off to dress rehearsal at the big Blacksburg High School. 9 months of ballet and tap for these kids was coming to a culmination and an end!

She is ready to go!

We were allowed to photograph and film dress rehearsal. You better believe we did!

Adele's number came first in the program. She's come a long way. I really didn't think at the beginning of the year that she'd stand on a big stage, lit by spotlights, without her teacher or parents, and dance for people for the duration of a song. But she did it. Even on Saturday, during the time she's usually napping. I was so proud.

Oh that this pic was sharper. I love it, though.

Of course, we have a video! Adele is the little one on the right. I'd just like point out that she is the youngest child in the class. 

The audience was in stitches during their dance. Not because they didn't do a good job, but because they were just so cartoonishly tiny. Some of them were chaos muppets and wanted to do the same step like 10 times more than was choreographed. Some were terrified and frozen. One girl walked off stage the wrong way at the end. We were in tears of laughter. It was adorable. I can't wait to see what she does next!

Miles' dance was one of the last. Everyone had a giggle when they lifted princesses out of pipes to the tune of the original Super Mario Brothers theme. 

Miles actually did a better job in the recital than in dress rehearsal, because he smiled the whole time in the recital. Like a real, deliberate performer. I was bursting with pride.

Yes there are two videos. Yes you have to watch them both.

(kidding)

I haven't kvelled such an enormous kvell in many months.  They were great fun to watch.

And so was the rest of the show! There were probably 15-20 dance numbers presented by kids from age 3 all the way up to 18 year olds who absolutely blew our minds with their talent and carefully honed skill. I rolled my eyes at all the kids' recital package including a trophy, but... I didn't understand how excited the little kids would be to get their first trophies after doing something hard.

Adele holds hers high, without being directed to do so. 

After the recital, we were off for some well earned frozen yogurt, the kids in matching t-shirts and still sticky with hairspray.

Church was so delightfully summery! We are in Ordinary Time, post-Pentecost. Or, as we call it in Children's Chapel, "The Great Green Growing Season." And we are growing!

Miles in one of his Goodwill-bought dresses. He loves it. 

We got summer haircuts yesterday! Well, two of us did. Miles is growing his hair out; Adele can't have hers short enough to suit her. *shrugs*

She took a lot off, thinned it and generally made me feel less like my hair was a cash crop I was growing. I feel summer ready!

And the summer pursuits have begun!

They made a Gruffalo with sidewalk chalk. Obviously. 

For my birthday, I wanted to play some Mario Brothers 3. I laugh so hard while playing that game, and Laugh was my stated intention for 2015. Jon obligingly got the Super Nintendo out, and we have been happily rediscovering the 80s and 90s together ever since.

This seemed an appropriate image for the end of our year. We have all graduated from something, into something. I will treasure the moment Adele left the stage after the dress rehearsal, when she ran straight into my arms and crowed, "Mummy I did it!!" We should all take a moment to express our triumph. It's June! We did it!

We still don't know our direction. But my prayers for patience are being answered, it seems. I'm seizing joy right now.