Spent a little time playing with PSP on this picture I took last March.  Ever since I took it I've been wanting to touch it up.   I saw it come up on my screensaver yesterday and that reminded me, and here we have it.  Its a step out of what I usually do, but I was very happy with the way it turned out.

Okay I'm kinda looking for music for a routine for the boys.   It can be any genre, as long as its something a 9 year old and 7 year old would semi-relate to.  For examples of music we do in baton We have Lollipop, Anchors Away, Man, I feel like a woman.  Pink Panther, Push it (Corbin Bleu), Inspector Gadget, and Tah-ra-boom-de-ay, oh and a Cheetah Girls song.  So pretty much anything goes as long as the lyrics are kid friendly. 

I have rhapsody so if you have a suggestion I can type it in and check it out.  All suggestions welcome--as long as you don't take offense if it doesn't fly with my boys.  LOL

Yesterday was a nice day of just being quiet.  And then in the evening Rob and I had a date night.     I snagged a couple pictures of Kaylin before church as she was in a new dress.  I bought it at the Rummage Store for the typical twenty-five cents.  LOL  It was handmade in immaculate detail.  And just so cute and old-fashioned on her.  I particularly love the top picture of her spinning around in it. 

Rob and I tried a new beach out last night on our date night.  You would think after living here two years we would be out of new beaches, but we're not.  LOL.  This one is going to become a top 3 favorite.  The only down-side to it is $5 parking fee to the Native who owns the parking.  But the beach is just wow.  And totally deserted.  It was very much worth the $5. 

Its on the ocean, not the strait.  Out in Neah Bay.  It wasn't raining, the pictures just look like it cause we were walking fairly close to dark and out at the surf line.

It was a great place just to walk holding hands and enjoying the waves.  It would probably be my top favorite, except the wave action at Rialto is still better--due to their being a three river mouth just beside it.  Other then that it is spectacular.  Hard packed sand.  A bazillion sand dollars, and miles and miles to walk. 

Today we did a dumbed down version of school.  I just had the kids do their reading.  We are making a transition into them reading by themselves.  Zeria is reading a NickZone chapter book.  Samuel is reading a Batman graphic novel, and Kaylin is reading BoxCar Children. 

My number one goal in school right now is to get them to be children who love to read.  We are almost there...Zeria LOVES the NickZone books.  They are chapter books, but not huge, and they feature her favorite cartoon charries.  Its not what I would have chosen, but it works.  Samuel is very very visually oriented, and will spend hours looking at comic books.  He's recently realized theirs words in them.  *snort*  And so that's why school is currently comic books.  And trust me they have some mongo words in them.    Words like Glamour etc.  It is a good challenge, and enough of a challenge for now.

The kids baton coach called yesterday afternoon just to chat, and thank everyone for their hard work.  She could not sing enough praises over the boys.  Jamari in particular.  She was just amazed at how well they looked together, and has asked if she could teach them together in a private lesson, as she said they need a challenge.  She wants to teach them double batonning, in a duet.  The boys are psyched about that.  Jamari in particular.

Man that kid loves baton.

Yes, their was drama this weekend, but my kids missed most of it.  And they LOVE baton.  A long time ago Rob and I spent a lot of time talking about extra curricular activities, and one of our main concerns in doing them is that they remained family oriented.  Baton has definitely fit that criteria.   So we will work through the drama that's going to be in any thingn your involved in, and just enjoy the new talents the kids are picking up.

One of the many things that amazes me is the fact that my very very shy Kaylin.  Got up and did two major baton performances in front of 300 people Saturday night and never ever stopped smiling.  Beaming from ear to ear, and only two minor flubs in her routine.  A routine she's only practiced for less then a month, while most of the girls have worked on it for months.

What a major praise for her.   Definitely worth it.  And with us homeschooling, we needed something outside of the house as a challenge, so now we have it. 

I uploaded the videos in seperate blogs as the coding was being ornrey.  Here are individual shots of each of my twirlers.  Kaylin in her lollipop costume.   I found her skirt at Goodwill for $3 (score)

Kaylin in her team uniform.  All of the kids will eventually get these--to be warn at parades etc.  They are owned by the team which is nice cause that way we don't have to spend the $$ on them.  Zeria was supposed to get one, but unfortunately the order went ary much to the coaches extreme irritation.  So they had to pull a costume for her squad out of thin air and at the last minute. 

Rainee being silly.  She absolutely would NOT give me a normal smile.  So I told her I was putting this one up.  She just laughed at me.  Little stink. 

The boys were in another room with Rob, so I had to sneak out and take this side shot of Sam.  I actually thought it turned out very well.   Except you can't see the whole costume.  He wasn't going to perform this time.  But an extra person showed up for Rainee and Jamari's routine, and that left Jamari without a partner.  Samuel knew the routine, so the coach put him in at the last minute.  Its a good thing I had already bought his costume huh?

Zeria in her put together at the last minute costume.  The coach had these from some other time, and we thought they turned out quite cute.  Yes, she's missing a pom-pom.  That happened a lot.  LOL   Oh and costumes?   These were seen at the dress rehearsal.  The coach loved them, though they were cute.  My very protective husband thought they were cute.  And last night literally five minutes before the girls were on two (different moms)  made a HUGE scene about the costumes Zeria's squad was wearing.  And informed the girls they looked like they were performing in a bar.  *cringe*  Zeria was devastated, and mommy had to do some quick talking to get her back in performance mode.  I can see that the moms that are very pleasant during practice are going to be a bit of a issue during performances....

And the ONLY picture I have of Jamari.  *growl*  There were like 300 people there last night.  (at least)  And it was very hard to maneuver around, and I had to get five kids into costumes, and then Kaylin's costume change, and so on.  So shoot me I missed a full on frontal of ONE child.   I actually want to re-dress them this afternoon and go outside and take some nice posed shots for scrapbooks etc.  But for now this is what you get. 

It was a good but insanely busy day.

I spent several hours this morning teaching myself a Veggie Tales Song. 

Well enough to lead it tonight at Awana.  LOL  Its a very cute song, and one we will do at the Christmas Tree festival.  The song is Was he a boy like me.  Only we changed the words to child like me.  I think its going to be a success.   And mostly I led it well.  I wish I could have gotten ahold of written music, but another week of singing it over and over and I'll be quite confident leading it.

There's been a song on the radio the last couple weeks, and I finally found it tonight online.    They never announced who sang it, so it was a bit tricky.

I just love the words to it.  Their simple, and yet so profound somehow.   The video that they did is beautiful.  And I think even if your not "religious" you will enjoy it. 

So here's Point of Grace.

How You live.

Good morning

I spent this weekend in my extreme pain.  It was too close to the last bout...which was the night before my aunt came to visit.  And for the same reason.   Oh well, at least I know what I did wrong.

Its doing a lot better today, but still not all the way better.

And today's B day.  Ya know B for Baton.  Tuesday and Wednesday are these hurtles to conquer these days.  LOL  

Zeria is starting private lesson's today.  She LOVES the aerial part of baton, and it doesn't fit into team time well.  And I recently learned her coach offers private lessons, so we're going to let her do them for awhile.  Zeria is psyched.  

I finally called my mom yesterday as I hadn't heard from her in two weeks.  It was an intresting call.  EAch interaction with either of my parents stirs up the hornets nest, and reminds me of the reasons to grieve, evaluate, and forgive.  Again.

So hard.

In many, many ways my dad is doing better then my mom.

But we actually talked about that, and it was confirmed by my mom's pastor.

The perp of a crime can move past fairly quickly.  He's forgiven, he picks up the pieces.

The victim.

Well theirs a reason that word makes you sink to the depths of the earth.  The victim has to try to regroup, and just can't quite.  And there's so much.  So very much.  *sigh*

We went to my favorite beach and watched the sunset tonight.  No sunset is boring of course.  But this one just seemed extra special. 

And the rule of sunsets is you can never tell which moment is the most perfect...

Does one have to define perfection?   Its all so amazing.  So God-inspiring.

And tonight that big orange ball just slipped so very, very slowly.  Massaging out each ounce of perfection.

And all one can say is.

Thank You God.