Hello to everyone!
Picking up where my last update left off, we had a crazy Thursday last week, complete with Camryn barfing all over the car. After cleaning up and getting some dinner for Jared, I headed off to the last tech/dress rehearsal before the Sherwood Chorale Spring Benefit performance. I was playing for three numbers: the Sherwood high school concert choir, the infamous 10-minute Wicked choral highlights and an opera duet (the Flower Duet from Lakme).
Being a music major, I have been bred and trained to look down my nose at pop music as an inferior, lesser species. If there's anything I have learned from this accompanying stint, it has been to give some grudging respect to pop music: the Lakme opera duet was easy, basically sight-reading (albeit sight-reading with 6 sharps), while the "Wicked" arrangement required multiple sessions of thunking out the rhythm at the piano and much sweating about making jumps, nasty page turns, lining up with everyone else's tricky rhythms and exposed cutoffs and entrances. In the course of the rehearsal period, my energy level has made me much more inclined to go to bed early than to head out for a rehearsal at night, so I have been more cranky than usual. It has especially been annoying that nobody seems to notice that showing up to weekly rehearsals, having to practice nasty-hard music and giving up an evening with my husband to rehearse for free is any kind of imposition on me. So it really made my day when after rehearsing the opera duet at the tech rehearsal, the soprano (who has sung with the Portland Opera) came up to me and gave me a hug and said, "You are just amazing. Thank you so much! I'll have to keep in touch with you in case I ever need an accompanist." Even after more donated performances than I can count, it still really makes a difference when someone recognizes what you are doing and sincerely appreciates it.
Friday..... Friday began with a trip to Target to procure last-minute items for Camryn's birthday. We had babysitting lined up for Dave to go to my performance that night, but it was also the father and son's campout so there had been debate all week over whether Dave should take Jared to that instead (Jared REALLY wanted to go, although I think that had more to do with the fact that his friend Cameron Olsen would be there and said it would be cool than with the fact that he was going to go camping). The afternoon passed by and I still did not get a final answer from Dave on whether they would go, although he said he would come home early so we could open Camryn's presents and blow out candles. After a delicious dinner of Papa Murphy's I still had not heard from Dave and he was not returning my calls, so I was preparing to take Camryn and Jared to the friends house, when Dave finally arrived home at 6:35 (my performance call was at 6:45). The part of the lab that Dave was in didn't have cell phone reception and a problem had come up at work that held him up, but he felt really bad that he was late. No problem, we still had 5 minutes to blow out candles and open presents, which we did, after which I ran out the door. Camryn was SO excited to get a new bike (with pretty streamers and a matching pack). She also got some funny-looking black and white pictures, which after some explanation, she learned were pictures of her new brother or sister. Dave stayed home with the kids and put them to bed early. My performance went well, after which I came home and baked a funfetti cake.
Saturday was the big day of Camryn's friend party! Eight preschoolers descending on our house at the same time! Yes! Our house was a mess, Jared had T-ball, and the cake still had to be decorated, but I was undeterred by any of this. Dave got up and decided that it was time to start sawing off our deck (this deterred me a bit). After we got a trampoline, we realized that for it to fit in our yard we would need a smaller deck. No problem, we would just cut our deck shorter and put the railing back on. Dave had started work on it earlier this week, but on Saturday morning before the party decided it was the time to start sawing. Now this little episode is proof to me that I actually have learned something in seven years of marriage. My initial reaction was that Dave was crazy-- there was no way that he could finish it in time, we were planning on using the yard (and deck) for the party, and why on earth would he do it now when we needed to get ready for the party? But, after discarding the option of telling him that I thought he was crazy and trying to sabotage me, I thought, "Hmmm, I really want this deck fixed and Dave is inclined to do it now, so I'm going to just let him and not say anything. He is a grown adult so I am going to let him exercise his judgment and hope that I can get ready for the party by myself." So I frosted the cake, decorated it, cleaned up the mess, put up streamers and a banner, got the games ready, did the dishes, assembled gift bags, took Jared to T-Ball, ran home to get the snacks I forgot, stopped by Walgreens to pick up forgotten items for the party, set the table up, got snacks ready, made lemonade, swept the floor and mopped. Meanwhile, despite my resolution to leave Dave alone, I was really nervous. 2:00 pm came and so did the eight preschoolers. We started with decorating treat sacks, played pin the tail on the puppy, had some snacks and then went outside. And to my utter surprise and shock, the deck was done and they had a great time playing on the trampoline and play structure. Afterward, we did the pinata on our newly smaller deck.
After the party, we cleaned up and then decided that we needed a break. So we went to Outback for dinner, after which Dave dropped me off at the hich school for my call for that night's performance. Dave and Jared came to see it. Jared went home at halftime, I mean intermission-- too many NBA playoff games have been on at our house-- and Dave and I stayed to see the guest pianist who played for the second half. Then we went home and crashed.
Sunday morning: make new visual aids for primary, agree to play for last-minute musical number, do primary, eat lunch, host choir, crash again. In spite of "crashing" on Sunday night, I made a yummy dinner of Dijon Tilapia with baked potatoes (YUM-- I think I must be craving carbs) and salad and--- hold on to your hats, everyone-- I did all the dinner dishes-- on the same night! Yes! I know it's unbelievable. Then I crashed.
So Monday came around and we were ready to recover from our weekend. Unfortunately, Jared started acting unusually tired and saying his throat hurt. I looked in his mouth and one of his tonsils was swollen so it took up almost half his throat. So we cancelled music class and took Jared to the doctor. Jared had tonsillitis, so we took him home to sleep and antibiotics. The doctor said he could go back to school today (that's just plain weird to me) and Jared was waking us up at 7:05 to make sure he didn't miss the bus today. (He gets really mad when mom and dad drive him to school and he's late. He doesn't want to miss anything.)
In pregnancy news, I'm 11 weeks today. Woo hoo, only 29 to go. I'm feeling less nauseated, but feel like I'm turning into the human vacuum cleaner. It really scares me when I can eat DAVE under the table. I try to rein myself in a bit because I still am paranoid of gaining a million pounds. So, I'm pretty much hungry all the time, and not everything sounds good, but as long as I don't let myself get an empty stomach I feel OK. I'm still feeling tired, but this week that may not have anything to do with pregnancy-- it's just been a long week. =] Now that Jared and Camryn know about the baby, they are starting to tell people, so word is getting out.
So that's our crazy weekend. I'm thinking today might be a good pajama day. =] Love,
Karen
Quotes of the week:
Right now the kids are in the middle of this dumb joke stage: I get to hear 101 variations on "Why did the chicken cross the road?", none of which make any sense. They also seem to have this great love for joking about "tooting," despite the fact that I don't recall that Dave or I have ever joked about flatulence in their presence. Hooray for 5-year-old friends.... For example:
Camryn: "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because a bee just stung him on the head." (Eruption of laughter)
Jared: "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it tooted." (More laughter)
Camryn: "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it needed a soda." (Jared: "Camryn, that isn't funny.)
Jared and Camryn must have recently seen "Over the Hedge" again at a friends house because we have Jared who wears his "Easter present" kids golf club set over his shoulder as " R.J.," while Camryn is the hyper-active squirrel "Hammie."
Jared: "The cartoon "Cyberchase" is a really good show for teaching children how to get away from bad guys."
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