Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Special Music at Church

Last Sunday, DD (in the middle), one of her friends, and her band director were the special music at church.  Both girls are in 6th grade and have been playing for about a year and a half.  The director is a very special guy, directs all of the bands at the middle school, and can pick up and play about anything.  He even gave the girls extra credit for their extra practicing and playing.  Here's the video clip.  Enjoy!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Another Month and Another Post

Ok, just who exactly stole October?  It was right here, just a few seconds ago.  You know, October in all its colorful glory with the leaves lightly falling and sun spakled sidewalks.  You remember, being able to go out for a walk without 3 layers of clothes.  Well, goodbye, October.  Goodbye.  November is here and boy, is it cold.

And of course, the leaves are all still here.  They're just all on the ground now.  Yes, I will be spending my Sunday afternoon raking and blowing leaves.  And probably one last round of mowing the grass.  Then the mower will be moved to the back of the garage and the snowblower pulled to the front.  Not much of an even exchange, if you ask me.

October was a very full month.

One of the best things that happened in October was that I joined a women's volleyball league.  Now you may remember that I had double knee replacement surgery in April.  It was very successful and I've been strengthening my knees/legs by walking (until it got so f.... cold that I couldn't do it without looking like the Micheline man).  So I started in late August looking into playing volleyball.  Well, I found a couple of leagues at a few bars, but most of them were wrapping things up 'cause they play outside in a sand court.  I finally found an inside league, but they were full up.  They took my name as a substitute, but I've never heard from anyone.  Then I saw an ad in the weekly paper looking for women to play volleyball.  I called right away and gave the guy my contact information.  He told me a coach would be calling me to give me more information.  I waited for 4 weeks, but finally someone called.  So, we've now played 4 matches:  won 2, lost 2.  I have done okay considering I'm 50 years old and haven't played since high school.  I've made some good plays and some bad plays.  But no more than the average 20 year old on the team (who also played on a high school team).  None of us old farts dive after the ball, so I'm not expected to do that, either.  The league runs through March, so I'm looking forward to alot of good games and fun.

I've been quilting like crazy, but don't have any pictures right now to show for it.  I've done two Christmas Irish Chain tops, one a throw for a present, and one a bed sized for me.  I'll try to have pictures up soon.

Halloween was in October at some point and DD went trick or treating as an Amish girl.  I grew up right in the middle of an Amish community (although not part of it), so I'm pretty familiar with Amish life and customs.  So when DD and I went back last summer to Indiana where I grew up, I took her around to Amish country and she loved the whole back to nature idea.  We happened across an Amish girls black hat at a craft fair and the idea took off from there.  I bought her a pair of heavy black knee socks, an inexpensive pair of boys dress shoes from WalMart, and made her a dress and apron.  Here she is.


Also in October, DD had a few days off from school, so I played hookey too (alright, I took vacation days).  On Friday we went to downtown Milwaukee and went to the Discovery World museum.  Its an interactive science museum right on Lake Michigan.  Very cool (and I'm not much for museums).



DD lying on a bed of nails


DD in front of jellyfish tank


Petting Sting Rays (you can't see the rays)

 




















DD has also been participating in gymnastics for the past 2 months.  Its put on by the Parks and Rec program and she finished the last practice last week.  She's better than the little kids, so they put her in with the other middle school and high school girls.  It has made it very challenging for her.





 This last picture is a video, so you should be able to click on it and see her on the uneven bars.  No routine, just playing around.

So that was October.  I'll try to get the pictures of my new quilts up before Christmas, but I can't promise!