God Bless America (MCO)
Before I get into the MCO side of crazy let’s examine the first half of the week. Evelyn noticed the lonely stroller stashed in the garage. She begged everyone to push her around the block for hours with no volunteers except for Oliver. Her next brilliant idea was to strap Fergus into the stroller and take HIM on a walk. He was very prestigious sitting in the seat of honor as everyone took turns pushing him about.
Evelyn and Amelia had an orthodontist consultation for various reasons. Amelia’s left incisor is sitting behind her lower teeth, it’s mostly cosmetic. Evelyn is another story, she has a moderate underbite and narrow palate. She would have to wear headgear about 17 hours a day for a year. Her teeth are having troubles coming out they are wedged in so tightly. The cost difference was significant! Amelia to fix one tooth was $5k and Evelyn with her multitude of issues was $3k. Yikes. Sorry Amelia, your mostly straight teeth will have to suffice.
Jeremy and family arrived for a weekend visit Thursday evening. Hooray! I love having an excuse to clean bedrooms, the loft, and get the house looking better than usual. The littles were quite concerned about the cousins playing with their precious toys. We had a family discussion before the Lances arrived about sharing and allowing their cousins to play with their things. This lead into a discussion about being fun cousins that play and entertain. I was very impressed with my kids, they were the best! They played outside for hours on the tramp, with the play kitchen, playing Nerf with Pasha, and carrying babies around. Filled my heart to hear all the rumpus of cousins making memories. I called in sick Friday, more because I was on day 3 of a very nasty migraine headache. I was feeling very nauseous and light sensitive at school all Thursday. It was not fun at all.
Yulia and I went grocery shopping to Winco early Friday morning. Josie stayed home to help babysit Nadia and Nata with Jeremy. The rest of my kids went to school until 1:30 pm except Mia who came home at 11:00. Yulia and I had quite the shopping trip at Winco. I rarely go so when I do it is stock up time! We were running low of Ramen, critically low. Yulia wanted some photos of her newest pregnant belly. I snuck in some family photos for them before leaving to the combined rehearsal. The boys had a fun jam session with Phillip on drums, Jeremy on Guitar, and Everett on Keyboard. We could hear all sorts of fun sounds coming from their room…it actually sounded like music. Phillip recently learned how to do a 7/8 beat on the drum set he got to use while they messed around.
Jeremy came to see the chaos around 6:30 and volunteer. He was the bouncer Dad for the Concert Choir Men. There are several young men this year who are making life difficult for Phillip. Last week they were messing with his water bottle and poking him. Jeremy’s job was to glare meaningfully at the young men. He did a great job. Jeremy left with Evelyn and Josie when Justin stopped by to get them after children’s chorus was finished. Those kids were troopers through a very long rehearsal. Justin stopped at Walmart to get “bread, bread, bread!” along with roasted chickens for MCO dinner the next day. Jeremy said the girls were so hungry they tore into a chicken on the drive home. Mmmm, chicken. Sara and I enjoyed hearing all the kids practice. They sounded so good, especially the coconuts. I was ravenous after rehearsal, Danielle mentioned going to Jimmy John’s for sandwiches before they closed. Heck yes! We made it there before they did. I saw her walk into the lobby while I was waiting for our order. I used my cell phone light to obnoxiously wave it around, finally got her attention. That was quite fun. Later she texted me that I had used the rest of the bread and she had to pick up her order the next day! Ha ha ha!
Concert Day! We’ve not had a concert on Saturday yet. I will say it was hard to get folks to commit to attending a Saturday evening concert. There are too many activities going on Saturdays. Most of the morning was spent curling mounds of hair. Amelia’s hair took about an hour to curl. My goal was 11 am, my realistic goal was 11:30. We made the 11:30 departure time, just barely. Justin helped pack my ironing board, sewing machine, and iron. He accidentally broke a box full of vintage china tea cups, plates, and bowls when he grabbed my small ironing board from on top of the cupboards. Sad day. Phillip forgot his pocket square and extra buttons. I somehow lost the box containing all the extra buttons and earrings in the garage. We arrived early so I could get my attire corner set up. From that moment it was chaos until 8 pm. Up stairs, down stairs, stage left, stage right, in the theater, on the stage, in the holding rooms, and back again. My assistant and I took notes and photos of the problem cases while on stage for dress rehearsal then ran backstage to fix issues before the concert started. We pinned up hems, ripped out seams, handed out ties, bow ties, vests, ripped out incorrect hair bows, had girls remove earrings, bracelets, and get concert shoes on. I did a better job this semester of keeping track of items we borrowed out. I was on the livid side when the same three boys showed up in the wrong shirt again…I emailed their parent after the last concert three times to update the shirt. The boys did not show up on attire check day, but came in the wrong shirts again. They had to stand in the back row. The same two girls showed in wearing booties (half boots) even after all the drama over shoes and hems. Just roll with the punches, let the paid staff deal with those resistant parents. I loved peeking in on the kids every now and again. Phillip told me the same group of boys were smacking the back of Phillip’s head in line. I immediately told the CCM coordinator, Abbey about the boys as they were on probation. Why? Why are those boys targeting Phillip and an MCO event? Makes me sad. Amelia and Ambree were tucked in a corner between concerts eating bread and chicken. Phillip was chatting with his friends. Everett was outside reading D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Evelyn and Josie were loving time with their best MCO friends. I finally got to meet Sadie, Josie’s twin, and Anna (aka Elsa) those three are inseparable. I snuck in to watch the first concert up in the Mezzanine. I love the story line of this semester’s concert, patriotism, God, and Country. Started out with songs about America, then revolutionary war songs, and then songs about the flag. The last three songs turned to tell a story about how conditions of freedom in America allowed one truly American religion to be born. It was thrilling. Professor Stewart rewrote the First Vision song into a stunning concerto with 4 movements. Here is the concert order:
Come to Zion
To Be American
America the Beautiful (Story of Irving Berlin)
George Washington
Paul Revere’s Ride (the coconut song)
Concord Hymn (words used to the melody of Ernst Von Dohnanyi’s American Rhapsody)
I Pledge Allegiance
Stars and Stripes Forever (symphony only)
Grand Old Flag
The Vision
Hallelujah Fanfare & Redeemer of Israel
God Bless America
Some kind ladies reminded me to eat, gave me a protein bar and jerky stick. I nabbed bites of the girl’s bread, it was enough! I almost made Justin late for the concert, I tried to bring my camera in but did not have a pass so had to return it backstage. Jeremy and Yulia were there and excited! I hired two 11 year old sisters to take care of the their kids, they were supposed to come over in the morning to at least meet the kids. The girls tried their best, I hear the babies were not interested in sleeping at all. Jeremy had to leave the performance to talk the girls (and their kids) about bedtime. Jeremy was not feeling well so was hardly there, poor guy. Justin had his screen brightness all the way up just to get connected to the internet. I tried very hard not to get upset, but was upset. Later he started playing games on his phone because he was bored. On my side I was videoing some of the songs so was just as bad. LOL. I loved Grand Ole Flag with the Boise Drumline as the star performers. The song ended up sounding chaotic with so many voices, instruments, and drums competing for sound dominance. Still it was a fun song with all the kids jamming to the beat. Justin took Jeremy and Yuilia home right after the concert to get back earlier to their kiddos. The rest of us did not make it home until 11:30 pm. We were all used up emotionally and physically.
Justin was the stalwart one and went to church. The rest of stayed in our PJs all day. I made homemade chilaques verde for lunchner. Amelia requested that particular dish for her birthday dinner. We had it on Sunday as a special treat for Jeremy, Yulia, and Amelia! It was hard work to whip it all up but worth the effort. Justin fried up corn chips to help out with the burden. The Lances headed home soon after lunch. We did not get to see them as much this visit, still we enjoyed having them see us. Thank you Lances for coming! We loved every minute we got.
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