I will write a longer post tomorrow at some point, but I’m exhausted and we have to get up early to go do mass at the high school tomorrow. So to tide you over until then, here is our little cowgirl…

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Zoey. She lived in a comic strip world called Phoenix and her parents names were Wanda and Darryl. One Halloween her father, Darryl, got a pumpkin to carve into a jack-o-lantern. He sat Zoey in a chair nearby so she could watch this miraculous transformation. Zoey knew what a pumpkin was and happily chanted, “Punkin! Punkin! Punkin! Punkin!” until Darryl stuck the knife into the pumpkin to carve it. Then it became “PUNKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The pumpkin got a bandage on its owie and that was the end of that story.

Several years later in the real non-comic strip land of Phoenix, a Little Girl whose parents are named Mike and Karin was put in a chair nearby while her father Mike carved their pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. Karin still remembered the comic strip world of Zoey from several years ago, but she never thought it would come true. Little Girl was happy to see her pumpkin on the table. Until her papa (Mike) stuck the knife in it. Then LG started crying and yelling “PUMPKIN OWIE! PUMPKIN OWIE! NO! PUMPKIN OWIE!”

Of course, her parents were not as kindhearted as Zoey’s parents, so the pumpkin carving continued. They did explain to her that they were just taking off the pumpkin’s hat and that the pumpkin would be okay. And finally, after the pumpkin’s hat came off and she could see all the gooey pumpkin filling and seeds inside and she got to play with some of the seeds while Mike carved the jack-o-lantern face, she calmed down and didn’t cry anymore.

The moral of this story? Life is not a bowl of cherries. It’s a frigging comic strip.

Happy Halloween!

P.S. Did I mention that LG learned how to climb out of her corral today onto the sofa? Fun day today. Uh huh.

You know how kids have stalling mechanisms when you put them down for a nap or to go to sleep at night? Maybe they ask you to read another story or read the story you already read again, or sing the good night song again or ask for another kiss or another hug or whatever. Any way you look at it, it’s a stalling mechanism because they don’t quite want to go to sleep (whether they are tired or not).

Little Girl has used a few of those like asking us to read another book or ” ‘gain! ” after I sing her the good night song. But today’s stalling mechanism just cracked me up. I put her in her crib for a nap and she didn’t ask for a book or a song or out or anything like that. Instead she said, “play the panno!” (piano) She wanted out so she could go play the piano. Because of course that would be a great stalling mechanism right? lol! Well, Mama didn’t fall for it, but I wonder if Papa would have? (After all, it worked last night when we were telling her it was time for bed…lol!)

I thought we had escaped having a word that sounded like another word that rhymes with pluck. You know the word? The one that many kids say instead of “truck”? LG wasn’t making the “f” sound at all, so we got “guck” for truck. And I thought we were home free.

HA!

No it wasn’t the truck that got her. I even skipped teaching her the word truck just to make sure. But I did teach her the word frog. Yes, the lowly frog did it to us.

“FOCK!” “FOCK!”

And while it’s not quite the same as what it could have been if were truck, well it’s close enough to make you stop and wonder. Thank goodness there are no frogs in church.

She is talking non-stop. And stringing words together like crazy.

Yesterday it was:

“Read! Book! Now!”

This afternoon it was this song (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and in perfect pitch by the way):

“No no no no no no no,
No no no no no no no.
No no no no no no no,
No no no no no no no.
No no no no no no no,
No no no no no no no!”

Tonight it was looking at Daddy’s take out glass of root beer and us trying to get her to say “root beer” and her saying “COKE!” instead.

Which, I don’t know where that came from! We don’t drink Coke. In fact, we rarely drink soda at all. And even if we did, how would she know that Coke and root beer are both soda?

The words! There are so many! And where are they all coming from?

Melody is nudging at Little Girl who is holding a piece of paper and a pencil that she is scribbling on.

LG: NO!

Melody: Nudge nudge

LG: NO!

Melody: Nudge nudge

LG: NO! MINE!!!

Melody:

LG: Good girl.

This evening after we got back from the high school choir rehearsal, Rochelle, Little Girl and I were sitting at the table eating some dinner before Mike and Rochelle had to run to church for another rehearsal. (Sometimes our life seems to be one big long neverending rehearsal.) Mike was over by the piano (which is out of visual range of where LG was sitting) and either played a couple notes or bumped a couple of keys or something - enough that there was noise from the piano for a split-second. Rochelle didn’t even hear it, but LG did and said “panno!” Good ear that one has. Very good ear.

Her name was Janet. She was my choir director when I went to community college many years ago, and again when she started an evening adult choir and pulled in several of her old students from the “good old days”. I learned more from her than probably anyone else in music I’ve ever worked with. If I ever had such a thing as a mentor, she was it.

Janet died in a car accident on the Friday after Thanksgiving of 1998 driving down to Tucson for the annual Arizona State/Arizona football game. 15 months later I lost my mother, so the two women who had the greatest impact on my life were gone within such a short space of time. I still miss her. I still think about her.

I especially think of her at this time of the year, as Thanksgiving approaches. And now as we begin working with these high school students we have been blessed to meet, I think of her even more. When I co-directed the children’s Christmas choir at church with Mike every year, I know she was sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear, and helping my non-trained conducting hands move in the way they needed to get the children to sing the way we wanted them to. And I know she’ll be with me next week as we do our first mass with these teenagers.

There are people who touch your lives in such deep ways that you never forget their face, or their voice or the way they moved. She was one of them. I can still hear her voice and see her face and picture exactly how her hands moved as she conducted us. I can see the lift of her shoulder, the tilt of her head, the raised eyebrows and the smile on her face as she brought out the best in our voices. I know her sense of humor and her love of music. And I hope that I can pass on just a little bit of what she taught me.

A truly great teacher doesn’t just teach her students. She teaches her students’ students and those whose lives they touch. A truly great teacher never really dies because her legacy lives on in her students. Janet touched my life. She taught me. She helped me to grow. She brought out the best in me. And the best way that I can honor her is to do the same for these students that we will be working with, and I will Janet. I will keep your legacy alive. I will believe in them, because you believed in me.

To teach is to touch tomorrow…

You know how sometimes you are put in a situation and you wonder if you are really meant to be in that situation? And then sometimes you realize that yes you really are meant to be and are needed in that situation?

Today, we went and had our first meeting/rehearsal-ish at the high school that we are going to be leading the music for the monthly masses at. And I think we are meant to be in that situation. I think that just as it may be a blessing for us to be able to work with those kids, that at the same time we may be a blessing for them as well.

I don’t want to get into too much detail, but suffice it to say that I was feeling kind of badly about how the dismissal came down for the person who had been doing the music there, but after speaking to some of the teachers and seeing how very awesome these kids are and how much they want to be there and how happy and joyful they seemed to be in knowing that we are there to enable THEM and THEY are going to be the choir rather than being back-up singers (and that’s only the ones that were “good” enough to be allowed to do so*) for someone else, I’m not feeling badly anymore. In fact, I’m feeling really angry for them. And I’ll get over that.

But man, these are awesome kids. Just amazingly awesome. I love them all already. And I can’t wait mold them into an awesome choir and learn their personalities and who they are and what their hopes and dreams are. I take this challenge joyfully and I feel so very blessed to have been given this special gift of working with these terrific kids. And yes, I feel like we are where we are supposed to be and that they need us. And it’s nice to feel needed. Especially since I was feeling like maybe we had made a mistake in taking this on. I don’t think that anymore.

Of course the fact that the mass is a week from tomorrow is slightly stressful, but as I told the girl singers, we have nowhere to go but up, and that is where we will go.

Blessings come from so many places, and this one was kind of unexpected. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to be like. But it was good. And so it goes.

*I was told some of these singers that we had today were rejected because they weren’t “good enough”. I really can’t figure out why, because they all could carry a tune just fine. In fact, they all had lovely voices, which is why I’m kind of angry at the old music person at the moment. As I said, I’ll get over it. But no one deserves that. Even if you can’t sing, you should be treated with respect, you know? *sigh* Now is the time for healing. And that’s just what we’re gonna do.

• Yesterday, as we were dropping LG off at her grandparent’s house, she said Rochelle’s name for the first time without a prompt. But she pronounced it “Shashelle”. Which is totally what I’m going to call Rochelle from now on. ;)

• Today, after I got her up from her nap, I made a pit stop in the bathroom. Melody was on the other side of the door and LG was reaching her hand underneath the door to Melody. The next thing I know, a little paw appears under the door. Those two definitely love each other. ;)

Hope you’re all having a great Sunday!

I will try not to bore y’all with too many details. We’ve been quite busy around the HeartSongs household though!

Friday, there was grocery shopping since we were cooking dinner and dessert for my friends that night. Then Mike, who was supposed to cook dinner for us, was running late, so I had to cook dinner myself on top of making the creme brulee for dessert. How is that fair I ask you? Rochelle was running late, too, so I started dinner a little later than I had planned. Luckily, Marlene was on time and kept me company while I slaved over the hot stove making chicken fajitas. ;)

Dinner came out okay which is good because I always get stressed when I have to cook for people other than my family. And everyone liked the creme brulee, including Little Girl. Yum!

After dinner, Mike left for work, we put LG to bed and we watched While You Were Sleeping which happens to be my favorite chick flick of all time. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen it, but Marlene had only seen it once back when it came out originally and Rochelle had never seen it, so we had a good time laughing and maybe one or two of us shed a few little tears. *ahem*

This morning, we all got up early, and drove halfway to California* to sing/play at an Ordination service for an old choir friend of ours at the independent Catholic church. I stress “independent” because our friend is female and of course in the ROMAN Catholic church, there are no ordinations to the diaconate or the priesthood for females. It was pretty interesting and very moving. But honestly, the best part was when our old pastor (who is now attending this church because the bishop of our diocese is an idiot, but I won’t get into that right now) walked into the church and saw us. He didn’t know we were going to be there, and the look on his face was absolutely priceless. If only I had had a camera ready to capture it…lol!

After all that was over we went and picked up LG from her grandparent’s house where she had spent the morning playing with her older (3 1/2 yo) girl cousin. She had so much fun, she didn’t want to come home. I love that they are both old enough to play with each other now. And her cousin gave her a big hug before she left. Too cute!

After we got back home, we changed clothes and went to the church pumpkin patch to get a Halloween pumpkin. LG had a lot of fun looking at all the pumpkins!

*It really wasn’t halfway to California. Only a quarter of the way. Or it seemed like it. ;)

This morning Little Girl decided to wake me up a little after 7. I ignored her for a good 45 minutes because she would get quiet. And then play with her toys for awhile. And then get quiet. And she seemed content, so why drag myself out of bed, right? Then she started the shrieking thing which woke up her Daddy. She’s a great little alarm clock that one. (Read on …)

On my 21st birthday (October 19, 1987), the stock market crashed and it was thereafter known as “Black Monday”. Nice huh? The only good thing about that is that I always know the exact date for trivia games.

But today? On my 40th birthday? The stock market closed above 12,000 for the first time in history.

So I guess things do even out sooner or later.

I’ve started 2 posts about my birthday today. And tossed them both. I can’t say that I’m thrilled about turning 40. I kind of liked my 30s. They were a time of searching and pondering and growing and learning and changing. But now it’s time for the next phase of my life. I hope that I don’t stop growing and learning and changing, but I also hope that I’ve searched and pondered my way into a maturity befitting someone entering her 5th decade of life. I also hope I haven’t lost my sense of wonder and joy and fun.

My 30s contained the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with (losing my mother) and the most joyous (the birth of my daughter). I’d like to think things can only get better over the next 10 years.

Either way, I thank God that I’m here and that I’ve got my wonderful husband, my amazing little girl, my family and my friends (both “real life” and “internet”) to be my companions on the journey.

If age is just a state of mind, then 40 can’t be much different than 30 right? So bring it on!

P.S. This is set to post at 4:10 a.m. Arizona time - the moment of my birth!

So remember that local Catholic high school that we were going to take over the masses at? And then we weren’t. And then we might. And then who knows? Well, Mike finally got a call from the powers that be today. And it’s official. November 1 is the first mass we’ll be doing. Sure hope they get a new choir director at our church soon so that Mike doesn’t have to deal with that, too…lol! I had sorta psyched myself into thinking it wasn’t going to happen and I was really pretty okay with that. So now all I have to say basically is…

Whoa.

• We went to JoAnn’s today and I got some more fabric for the Christmas gifts I’m making. Little Girl was an angel and was charming everyone who saw her. And she kept up a running commentary on everything she saw. She is a good companion to take shopping!

• My ankle did fine. It was a tiny bit sore by the time we got home and I’m moving a lot slower than normal, but overall it was a successful trip.

• Thursday is the 11th anniversary of my 29th birthday. Unfortunately, Mike has both church rehearsal and a gig that night, so it will be just me and LG.

• Mike is taking me and LG out to lunch on Thursday, though, so he’s not totally abandoning me in my hour of need!

• Friday, I’ve got my “home girls” coming over to have dinner and watch some kind of chick flick. And I’m making creme brulee!

• And last but not least, I’m starting a new photo project on Thursday to celebrate my new decade. I’ve got a new photo blog set up to post the pictures on and I’m going to be working on a way to have a thumbnail of the day’s picture show up here. No idea how long that will take, but hopefully I’ll get it figured out quickly.