Membership Denied!!

When Charming Child was much younger, I tried to always listen to kiddie music when in the car, I thought it was the responsible thing to do . . . but, sometimes 'Wee Sing Silly Songs' just grated on my nerves and I had to listen to regular radio. I tried though, to wait until she was asleep before changing the music, and I thought I was successful at doing so until the day I dropped her off at preschool, at age four, and all through the parking lot she sang, "I'm a genie in a bottle, you gotta rub me the right way!" Thank you, Christina Aguilera!! Yes, thank you Miss Christina, because after all, she was the one who always pressed eject the second the eyelids on the young child closed, uh huh!!! So, that day, after school, I once again played 'Wee Sing Silly Songs' and quite possibly we listened to 'Wee Sing Bible Songs.'

Then as she started getting older, we listened to less and less of the kiddie music. I had to keep up with all of the parents who let their children listen to regular music, as I didn't want CC to feel deprived when all of her friends knew all of the latest lyrics to the most popular songs (and quite frankly because I had about all of 'There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly' that I could take!!)

For the past few years, each time we get in the car, we turn up the radio and sing along . . .I am pretty sure CC knows every word to every song on our station . . . but, it wasn't until just recently that I realized that not only does she know every word, she is also starting to recognize that the songs usually tell stories too. See, before, I think she just sang whatever words were part of the song without realizing they had any meaning. The other day she was singing along to the song . . .well, I don't exactly know the name of the song or who sings it, I think it's 'Beautiful Girl' . . . you know the one that says, "You're way too beautiful girl. That's why it'll never work. You'll have me suicidal, suicidal, when you say it's over . . ." (or something like that . . . I'm not willing to risk waking up the sleeping child just to make sure I have the lyrics correct!) So, she singing along and dancing along and singing some more, and she asks, "What does suicidal mean?"

Then tonight, here's the kicker . . . we're driving to the opening night show of 'Annie Get Your Gun', enjoying the car ride, listening to the music . . . she's reading the inside cover of her new Hannah Montana CD and commenting on how sweet it is that Miss Montana/Cyrus dedicated her album to her Grandpa, when she starts singing the new song, 'I Wanna Be a Rockstar'. Everything was great, peaceful, beautiful . . . then she asks, "What is the Mile High Club?"

So, you'll be happy to know, I did what any responsible parent would do, any responsible parent who would rather tell their child the truth than have them hear it on the playground . . . I took a deep breath (or ten thousand) and told her, "It's the club you can join after you have gone skydiving!"

Rest assured that tomorrow when we go on our Saturday outing, we will be happily listening to 'Wee Sing Bible Songs'!!

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong, we are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

The Bible tells me so.

Oh, is that what they were saying . . .

I promise you there is a post about Little Sis coming soon, but, not tonight because you see, it requires me to post pictures and I do not have enough wine in my house right now to relax me enough to be able to deal with uploading pictures!!! Soooooooooo, for now, I have yet another theater story for you, well it's kind of a theater story, well whatever it is, it is sure to be exciting . . . this is when all of the non-gullible people log off . . .

Last night Charming Child and I went to a gourmet food party, forty-five minutes away from home might I add . . . okay, honestly who cares how far away from home you have to go to get free food, free gourmet food!! So what if the cost of the gas you spent to get to the free food is way more than driving one mile to the "gourmet" Taco Bell to buy your own food . . . sometimes you just have to go out on a limb! So, we drive through the mountains and finally get to the house, park on the street and walk up the driveway, which I am not kidding is as steep and as tall as Half Dome (which by the way, I have hiked before, though not when hungry!) CC and I trek up the driveway, and halfway there she says, "Are you sure this is the right house?" I say, "I really don't care if this is the right house or not at this point, whoever answers the door is feeding us!!" Seriously, anyone who can make it to the top of this driveway deserves a free meal!!

Well, we did indeed make it to the top, and it was the right house, and the food was fabulous!! We stayed for a few hours, then made our way to the front and as we were saying goodbye to the gracious hostess, her husband came home with their seven year old daughter and her (I believe, seven year old) friend. The girls got out of the car and we said hi to the daughter, and just then, her friend, whom I have never seen in my life, says to me, "Hey, I remember you."

"You remember me?'

"Yes, I remember your hair."

"Where do you remember my hair from?'

"From the show."

"Oh, did you see Spyquest?"

"Yes, and I remember your hair from when you were standing outside."

"I am so glad you saw Spyquest. Did you like it?"

"Yep, I really liked the song 'I need some coffee and a paper cut.' "

And, this is about the time when I laughed so hard, I almost rolled all the way to the basin of Half Dome!!

After several weeks of listening to the music from Spyquest, I guess I just assumed that everyone knew the words to the songs from the musical. So, if this little girl got 'I need some coffee and a paper cut' out of 'Come get your coffee in a paper cup' I wonder what everyone else heard?? Hmmmm . . . . Oh, out of the mouths of babes!

The Final Curtain Has Closed . . .

. . . so, I will leave you with more show pictures while I go find a damn box!!! Oh wait, first I need your help . . . look at the picture below . . . Does anyone out there know how that orange paint got on the floor right inside the door of CC's room, since paint is not allowed in the house due to the spot of blue paint inside CC's room, because not one person in my house has a freakin' clue how that paint got on the floor?? Please help me solve the mystery!!!!!

Okay, now for the show pictures . . . Enjoy!

Charming Child and a friend from school.

Friends and Cousins and Castmates, oh my!!

More flowers!

CC giving an autograph to a fan (her cousin!)

CC, Aunties, and Cousin, all facing the sun!

Final Cast Call

Pumped up and ready to go . . . one last time!

Unauthorized, blurry stage shot during the final performance! Charming Child is the orange blur behind the right hand of the blue blur on the floor towards the center of the picture!

Unauthorized, not-so-blurry stage shot. Don't spend a lot of time looking for CC . . . she wasn't in this scene!

Final, unauthorized, blurry stage shot . . . (CC wasn't in this scene either.)

Soooooo, any clue on how the orange paint got on the floor???? Stay tuned . . . Little Sis' Dogsitting Misadventures Coming Soon!

P.S. Why do all of these pictures look all perfectly spaced apart and the captions are all perfectly centered to the right of the picture in the preview, then when I hit "Publish" they get all screwed up???!!! THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO POST PICTURES!!! Sharing our lives with strangers on the web should not be this difficult!!!

Does anyone have a box to donate before I lose my ever-loving mind??!!

Tomorrow the nine show run of Spyquest will close . . . oh, what will I do with my time? Quite possibly, I may finally write the posts I've been saving in my head (which is swiftly running out of room.) You'll want to return as I have so much to tell you about Little Sis and her trip to California to dog sit Mom and Dad's beloved dog! Trust me, you'll want to stick around for that story!!

For now, I just thought I would share this bedtime conversation that took place the other night at midnight. Yes, midnight!! I have no idea why the child was still up at midnight, all I know is she came in my room at midnight and interrupted an episode of The Cosby Show to have this conversation with me, all while she is halfway hyperventilating and stretching her skin from her forehead down to her chin all for dramatic effect:

CC: I have so much to do . . . I have to clean my room and get rid of all of the babyish stuff even though I still like to play with it I have to get rid of all of it so I have more room in my bedroom!

Me: Okay

CC: What should I do? I have to get rid of all of the babyish toys even though I still like to play with them I have to get rid of them! (Still hyperventilating)

Me: I think you should go to bed and think about it while you sleep.

CC: Just tell me what to do. I can't sleep because I have to clean my room and get rid of all of the babyish stuff even though I still like to play with it!

Me: I AM NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT UNTIL AFTER SUNDAY, SO GO TO BED, Please!

(She stomps off to bed)

Fast forward five minutes . . .

CC: Can I take the bookshelf out of my closet and put it under my window so I have more room in my closet?

Me: Sure, but I am not going to help you until after Sunday.

CC: I don't need help, but what should I do with all of the old kiddie books that I don't read anymore?

Me: I don't know, I told you I wasn't going to deal with this until after Sunday.

CC: But where do you want me to put all of the old books, do you want to save them?

Me: I really don't have the brain for this right now, can we please talk about this on Sunday?

CC: You don't need to have a brain, just tell me, do you want me to box them up so you can save them?

Me: OKAY, FINE, YES, BOX THEM UP SO I CAN SAVE THEM!!!!

CC: I don't have a box.

"Before I speak, I have a few things to say!"

Inhale . . . Exhale . . . Inhale . . . .Exhale . . . Inhale . . . Exhale . . . Excuse me while I take the first few breaths I have had time to take in the past few weeks! I have missed my blog so much the past few weeks, but I have only had time to either breathe or blog, so I chose to breathe!!

Back in April I posted about Charming Child preparing for her BIG audition, which by the way she completely freaked out about when we got to the audition and didn't audition for any lead parts, I digress . . . well, it is now the middle of June (Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's out there) and we have just completed half of the nine show run of the musical Spyquest:An Agent 006 1/2 Adventure, presented by El Dorado Musical Theatre. So, I am now breathing because I have a three day break from singing and dancing and backstage monitoring!! We will be doing our last four shows next week, with closing night on June 23. (Don't you just love how I say "we" as if I'm on stage singing and dancing my little behind off like the kids??!!)

I have spent a lot of time lately questioning the decision to let Charming Child sign up for this musical . . . it has been a lot of work, from driving back and forth to and from rehearsals, to volunteering my time to fill various volunteer positions to help the show run smoothly, but now that I have seen the final result of all of the hard work, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

This truly has been an experience of a lifetime . . . Charming Child has met a lot of great children, I have made a lot of new friends, CC has gained a great deal of confidence in herself, and most of all she has had fun while learning responsibility. To top it off, the show is absolutely fabulous!!!! El Dorado Musical Theatre is most definitely, as their motto states, "Youth theatre at its best!"

I am going to end with some photos of the children (that are seriously in no particular order because I think it is less painful to get a root canal with no anesthesia than to post pictures with blogger, so since I am still trying to catch my breath, I will just be happy that I got them to post and not worry about putting them in the right order), some onstage, but mostly backstage fun . . . . (By the way, the title of this post is one of my favorite lines from the musical . . . this line is spoken by the evil Dr. Malaprop when he is stating his plan to rid the world of coffee.)

Charming Child and her friend backstage before opening night.

(Magically, her shirt and headband actually appear to match when she is onstage . . . oh the wonderful world of Hollywood tricks!!)

Charming Child hanging out in the dressing room, exhausted as can be!!

Charming Child and the Phenomenal female lead!

Onstage . . .

Listening intently to the Director's lecture . . . notice how intently the boy in the yellow and green is listening.

Charming Child and her first bouquet of flowers from fans . . . Thank you Ibeebarbie and family!

Thank Goodness for Science on a Dark Night . . .

The school year is coming to a close in a few short days. I don't know about the rest of you out there who run your life based on a school year, but this "year", for me, seemed to fly by!

Charming Child completed her final Science test of the year the other day and passed with a 97%!! Hooray!! While looking over her test, I found the following note on the back (I am copying it just as I am reading it, except of course for the names)

Dear Mrs. Science Teacher,

What I like about Science is that I learn stuff I would not know without Science. Also it is fun and it will come in handy sometime when the powers goes out I will know how to wire a lightbulb.

Something I would like to be changed is that when we are wachting movies I think we shouldn't have to write because we miss stuff because we are writing and remember stuff more when I just focuse on that. Please take some of my changes in to conciteration.

From, Charming Child

Imagine my relief when I put two and two together and realized that when she asked for covered wire and a D-Cell battery the other day, that she just simply wanted to wire a lightbulb and not, well you know, do away with anything, like the house for example!! I love school!!

Have a great day!

Now, Here's A Girl Who Is Going Somewhere . . .

Unlike her brother, Charming Child has always struggled a bit in school. Mostly she struggles with Language Arts, which makes me just absolutely crazy because L.A. was always my strength. She tries so hard though, because she is so motivated to do well, remember she is convinced she'll be attending Yale, but still she struggles.

She has, however, taught me a lot since she started Kindergarten (she's now in Fourth Grade) . . . lessons that I can carry with me forever. For example, there are multiple ways to spell the word 'cousin' and it is perfectly fine to use all of the multiple spellings in one essay! She has taught me new words such as 'tooken' and 'brang' and 'teached'! Finally, she has taught me that if you try to spell a word phonetically, and you sound it out V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y, you can create many different sounds, thus adding more letters to the word . . . try it with the word 'friend' . . . it turns into 'fuhrenduh'! See, isn't that fun? This last lesson is why I am absolutely flabbergasted that I still see the words 'becase' and 'relly' repeatedly on every single High Frequency Word test!!

In education, baby steps are so wonderful! They just make you want to sing to the world . . . trust me on this! You know when your precious little, oh let's say, Sally, starts Pre-school, you get so excited when she learns to recognize the words 'a' and 'I' . . . then in Kindergarten, you are so thrilled because Sally can write her name and the letters don't resemble swimming sperm as much as they did in Pre-school . . . then in First Grade it is spectacular when Sally can form words into written sentences . . . then in Second Grade it is wonderful when Sally learns to read fluently . . . then in Third Grade it is amazing when, not only can Sally read fluently, she can also comprehend what she is reading, as well as respond in writing about the reading . . . then in Fourth Grade you can just jump for joy and sing to the world when little Sally can write this paragraph (I use the word 'paragraph' loosely) . . .

"We have a new boy in our class. He is a foster child. I feel sorry for him, but he is mean to me. I think he likes me, my teacher thinks so too."

. . . I know, you're asking yourself, "What is so great about that paragraph?" Well, I 'll tell you . . . notice the very last word, the word 'too' . . . IT IS USED PROPERLY, AS IN ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Hang on, I'm jumping and singing!!!)

I found this paragraph in C.C.'s journal, that she left face-up and open in my car, which means it is free to read! I was so impressed, as she has struggled with the concept of 'to, two, and too' as well as 'there, their, and they're' for the past TWO years.

Watch out Yale, she's on her way!

Baby Steps!