Week of goodness

Mucho awesomeness to report from the past week.

On Thursday Susanne played her first live concert with the Pride of Indy Band and Color Guard at Garfield Park. It was a great show. I particularly liked the long medley of Civil War era music. The concert drew a crowd of a hundred or so people, and at the end the band had them all clapping in time and cheering loudly to Stars and Stripes Forever. It was very cool and fun. And I forgot to get pictures!! Ack!!

(Next time I will get pictures. The band has a pretty active schedule, opening for the ISO at two Connor Prairie concerts in August, then a Halloween concert, then a Christmas concert.)

Friday the Littles came home from Girl Scout camp, and by all reports they had a great time. Sam scored it a “nine.” (Not a ten, because she missed people.) Activities for the week included swimming in the lake, horseback riding, crafts, building a tent in the woods from natural materials, canoeing, and dance-partying. We’re super proud of them. Hopefully we’ll have pictures soon.

Saturday I met Sam’s mom and step-dad at the RCA Tennis Semi-Finals where she was being recognized for a good sportsmanship award from the National Junior Tennis League of Indy. (One boy and one girl are nominated by each participating park or club.) There was a very tight window in which the TV people would allow the kids to all be rushed out onto the court for a picture, depending on when the Quorrey Blake match ended. It almost didn’t happen, so we had to watch carefully what the nervous organizer lady was doing and pay attention to her cues. (She was very nice.) Luckily it was a go, so Sam and about forty other kids got to be recognized on the court while we watched from various places in the stands. I got some pictures, but they all turned out blurry because of some technical problems about me being a lousy lousy photographer. Hopefully we’ll see the official picture at some point.

All in all, a pretty good week. Yay for us! And yay to have kids back! And a shout out to Claudia, who should be in New Braunfels right now having a great time with her friend Cutter. Have an awesome time Claudia! We miss you and love you, and we’ll see you in a week!

Camp!

We took Jordan and Sammy to camp on Sunday. The area where the camp is located is gorgeous and I think they must be having a blast. This is what the camp newsletter said about their group yesterday:

Today was a full day for the (group's name) girls! They woke up nice and early to kick start the day by making dream catchers with (counselor's name). Then had a yummy lunch which included some of the best Mac and cheese ever. Then the girls went swimming with (counselor's name) before showering. Congrats to all the new dragonflies and salamanders! After dinner, they cleaned the showers and went horseback riding. Tonight they will be finishing up their dream catchers. Nighty night Camp __________, we love you!


Sammy and Jordan when we dropped them off:

This Week

Sunday Jamie took Claudia and Jordan to a sprinkler party and it sounds like they had a really good time. Jamie and Claudia both had friends there to hang out with. There weren't any kids Jordan's age, and Sam was at her mom's, but she had the sprinklers to play in. I didn't get to go because I had band rehearsal from noon to five in preparation for an upcoming concert.

Today my parents are arriving! They're planning to stay through Sunday. We'll have a nice visit but they're from Austin which is many, many shades cooler than Indianapolis so as far as activities go, I have no idea what we're going to do while they're here.

When they leave on Sunday Claudia's going to go with them. They'll head to Memphis to spend a week hanging out there and visiting my mom's family and then they'll head to Texas and Claudia's going to spend a week with her friend, Cutter's family and then she'll fly back to Indianapolis. Also next Sunday, Sammy and Jordan go to camp for a week!

Jordan and Bobo

Jordan found her label maker today. She likes to label things. A lot.



So Bobo's been walking around for hours with a label on his head that says, "hello".

Photos!

Various painting, protest and tennis photos.

Sicko!

This week I asked Claudia if she wanted to go to see the new Harry Potter movie. No, she said, she wanted to go see Michael Moore's Sicko!. So we went to the (one?) arthouse in Indianapolis Wednesday night to see the 8:00 showing, discussing propaganda, manipulation and the U.S. healthcare system on the way to the theater. American 12-year-olds, even awesomely intelligent ones like Claudia, who watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report religiously, don't have a lot of background data in their brains to go into a movie like that cold.

I was in my theater seat about a minute and he had me crying, the manipulative bastard. But seriously, some of the anecdotes were really actually frightening and heartbreaking and I'm sold on the fact that the system needs some serious improvement, which, really, I already felt. But some of this stuff is far more alarming than I realized and I feel a lot less safe.

Moore was persuasive and brought up some interesting points, but I just can't trust him. I wonder, who is this British doctor you're interviewing to let me know doctors there do ok? Is he really representative of the majority of doctors working in systems of socialized medicine? You're showing me that Canadian citizens aren't waiting a long time in the ER, but what about people needing non-emergency tests and procedures?

Jamie emailed me this Slate article with a note saying he thought it was a balanced and thoughtful response. So do I.

Friday

I was off work so we got up, and due to poor grocery management at our house this week, hit McDonald's for breakfast (has anyone else started to suspect they're putting something addictive in those Cinnamon Melts?!?) and then headed across town to do round one of tennis matches.

All three girls are in tennis lessons this summer and on most Fridays, they play matches. Jordan and Claudia are in one of the beginner classes, so their matches ran from 8:30 to 10:00. After we finally found the place, they played while Sam and I watched.

Then we headed back across town to run some errands I had to get done yesterday, including picking up my migraine medicine from the pharmacy so I could try to get rid of the migraine I had all day yesterday. Then it was back to the McDonald's drive-through for lunch, because again, no groceries and no time to get any, and then we headed back across town to take Sammy to her match session at 1:00 (Sam's now in the intermediate class, so her matches ran from 1:00-3:00). Sam's mom and stepdad were there, and Sam was happy about that. So we watched Sam play and then stopped for gas, icees and candy, because I felt that we hadn't ingested quite enough crap yet that day (yes, I'm feeling pretty guilty about their diet for the day at this point) and then back across town to get ready for an anti-war rally we participated in downtown, which is, again, all the way across town, at 4:30.

After the rally, Jamie arrived home from work with groceries for dinner and then took the little girls swimming while I made dinner and watched the power point presentation Claudia made me to explain emo rock. It was so cool!

We decided to ditch our usual Friday night pizza in favor of something a little more nutritional to mitigate the junk from the rest of the day--roasted salmon, steamed broccoli, baked potatoes and water. Oh, and I threw together a strawberry short cake which wasn't too terrible with the fresh strawberries.

God, what a day, but it was worth it. All three girls have improved in tennis and Jordan's and Sam's swimming has improved a lot this year with Jamie taking them so often.

Goodbye Space Cowboy

I recently had to get new plates for my car, because of moving to Indiana and all. Too bad. Texas plates are way cooler than Indiana plates.

See, the Texas plate features a cowboy and a space shuttle. Ooooooh, cowboy and space shuttle!!!



The Indiana plate is just very lame. It features an--I don't know--farmhouse or something and what Jamie said, in trying to appeal to my overly-jingoistic nature, are "amber waves of grain" depicted in artwork reminiscent of cheesy, earnest, 1970's greeting cards. Oh, we're in the heartland, now. Pass the corn.



So. We're official now, I guess we're here to stay.

Gay Rural Scene

Jordan and I are reading Nancy Drew mysteries together. She wanted the old ones, not the new ones so some of the phrases and words are unknown to her and she asks a lot of questions. So, increasing vocabulary=good. The other day Nancy found a painting with a "gay rural scene" in an attic and Jordan said, "what?" and I said, "rural. It means out in the country, not in the city". She said, "I know that. What do you mean, gay?" and I told her "Oh! That means happy". And she said, "Ooooh! Ok!".

I thought it was pretty funny and the fact that Jordan's definition of gay isn't only "happy" makes me happy.

This week

I was off work this week Monday-Wednesday and Jamie was off work Wednesday through today. On my time off, I took Claudia and Jordan to tennis on Monday. When we were leaving Jordan closed her thumb in the car door, so that required a trip to our now-familiar imaging center for an xray. Luckily, it wasn't broken and she's fine, now, but poor baby, it was good and smashed. I also took Jordan swimming, cleaned house (ok, not really), cooked stuff, shopped for the holiday, worked on our patio (I'm trying to create shade with plants and be very frugal about it, which means I'm planting things from seeds and then have to actually take care of the plants) and practiced clarinet. Jamie spent a lot of time taking kids swimming, to the library, to the mall (twice!) and cleaning (really), and studying for his upcoming exams. Oh, and he went to see that new Bruce Willis movie last night after the kids were in bed. He said it was fun and stupid.

Tonight we had one of the girls' friends over for pizza/salad/fruit salad/soda night and then we all ate klondike bars on the way to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to see the Nature Holds My Camera exhibit.



Jamie was more interested in the American artists, Claudia wanted to see the Warhol that is no longer there and I was really excited to see them projecting art onto a wall in the contemporary section because that's what I want to do in our living room, so I spent some time talking to one of the docents about it. The video exhibit was interesting, but not mind-blowing or anything. The kids liked it, though, so it was all good.

In the museum lobby:





In front of the crazy mirror in the video exhibit:





Jordan next to flooring in the contemporary section that's supported by thousands of little tiny plastic men.



Outside the museum on the way home:

July 4th

This year we did pretty much the same thing we did last year (traditions!!), except that Sam was at her mom's this year.

Jordan painted a tshirt and a hat







Claudia painted me and Jamie each a shirt (she didn't want to do one for herself),

Jamie's:



Mine:



We popped confetti balloons and those fireworks things that pop when you throw them on the ground. The kids baked and decorated red white and blue cupcakes and the flag cake we make every year (but this year I made the pound cake from scratch and it was fabulous, if I do say so).







(that's Claudia in her new shirt from Threadless that she's very in love with right now).

For dinner we had watermellon, fried chicken, lemonade and corn on the cob (thank you for the corn holder things, Beverly and Walter!). After dinner we drove downtown to go to the Canal Fest, which apparently got rained out, and to watch the fireworks from on top of a building.

Photos

Night hike photos:










Claudia's new haircut.

Last Week

Wow, it's been a week since I posted to the blog! But it was an eventful week.

Last Sunday, in spite of a bunch of rain, we went to the Fisher's Freedom Festival and afterwards we watched fireworks. I have no idea why they do this thing not on July 4th every year. Weird, but we had a pretty fun time.

My car was in the shop all week, so Jamie and I shared a car. That's always not fun, but what are you gonna do?

Friday I was at home all day so I took all three girls to their tennis match day. Then that night we did the Blue Moon Night Hike at Ritchey Woods Nature Preserve. We missed it last year so I jumped on it this year right when they started taking reservations back in April, I think. It was only $2.00 per person and when you get there they have a fire and roasting sticks ready and you can bring whatever you want to cook for dinner or snacks. We took drinks and stuff for smores and hotdogs. Then the Preserve employee gives a talk on the woods and wildlife there and after that, she led us on a 45-minute hike through the very dark woods. She did owl calls (but the owls didn't answer back), we heard coyotes and saw a million lightening bugs (so beautiful). There was also a pioneer graveyard so I want to go back during the day because I love exploring cemeteries.

Saturday I had to work most of the day and then last night we went to a barbeque at some friends' house. I say "barbeque" as in, we went to a party where they served grilled meats. Jamie says here that means barbeque sauce was used. We took our fabulous jalapeno potato salad (I got the recipe out of my mom's Peachtree Tea Room cookbook. Don't tell my mom I have it!!), the schmancy three-chocolate cookies we make and my friend, Jennifer's cranberry-orange coconut cookies we call crack smackers because they're so awesomely good, and salsa.

Today we were too wiped out for church so we've been just mostly hanging out. Jamie studied for his actuarial exams and took Jordan to the library and he's going to take her swimming later. I took Claudia for a haircut and her hair turned out so cute!! She wants to dye it blue so we consulted a former blue-haired family member, Jason, on how to go about it. I've never colored my hair before so I'm completely clueless on the subject. According to Jason it's a major pain in the ass and Leah suggested maybe just dying the bottom four inches or so. I think that's a good idea. Another friend of mine suggested I take her to a salon. Another good idea!

This week I'm off work Monday-Wednesday and Jamie's off Wednesday-Friday. I was planning on taking Claudia and Jordan to Marble Falls next week to see their dad, but you may have noticed that Marble Falls has been in the news a lot lately as an area with a bit of a flooding problem and their dad's parents' house flooded twice last week. So since their dad lives with his parents, it's not a good time to visit.

Drive In!

Last night we were going to go to a Latino art and music festival but I got the date wrong--it's actually in July. So instead we went to a small town near Indianapolis to go to a drive in movie.

We took snacks, an ice chest with drinks, lawn chairs and blankets to sit on (we should have taken more blankets because it got really cold!). When we got there they had big band music playing on all the speakers and it was like a huge tailgate party while everyone waited for the Earth to rotate to a point where the movies could begin. Almost immediately the littles ran over to play on the playground they had set up below the screen.

We got to see a double feature--Evan Almighty and Shrek the Third. The only bad part of the whole deal was that the movies were both just absolutely dreadful. I mean, Evan Almighty might be the worst movie I've ever seen (leaving out movies like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Coven, of course). There were huge problems with the plot, the jokes were beyond unfunny, and most of it had just been done to death and back again. If you've had the misfortune of seeing The Santa Clause or The Shaggy Dog, you've seen it all already. Jamie said for him, the pinacle of suckitude in Evan Almighty was at the very end (and yes, I'm going to tell you the end because I don't want you to see this movie)when Evan was summoned away from his family's picnic by God who was standing under a nearby tree and Evan excuses himself from the picnic and didn't bring his wife over to meet God. He was just, "uh, honey, would you fix me a sandwich and I'll be right back?". And then, troglodyte-like, he scurries over to have a Special Moment of alone time with God.

Jordan and I ended up falling asleep during Shrek but what I saw of it was the badness, and this was confirmed by Jamie and Claudia. Jamie said it was completely unfunny and wants to know what's up with all the unfunny comedies lately.

So, it was a super fun experience (but we're really tired this morning because we didn't get home until 2:00 am!).

Sprinkler!

I'm so excited! I went to the hardware store this week and bought a garden hose, a sprinkler and an adapter for our kitchen faucet that allows us to attach the garden hose there. It was all super cheap and it works! The little girls had a blast playing in the sprinkler at Grandma and Grandpa Rieger's house so that's the first thing we did when I brought it all home.

These were just about the last two one-piece swim suits they had at Target (too bad we didn't shop for them back in February when they started selling them)!

Tennis!

Sam, Jordan and Claudia are taking tennis lessons this summer, every Monday and Wednesday morning and then some Fridays they get to play matches. Jamie was on vacation this week and I was off work on Monday so we both got to watch their lessons (Jordan and Claudia are in the same class and Sam's is right after theirs).



Claudia's being taught to serve correctly and the little girls are starting off with a bounce serve.




This is Claudia laughing at a discussion she and Jamie were having while watching Sam's class.



Here's Claudia being annoyed by Jordan. This is a nice shot of her black nail polish!



Just a nice photo of Jordan (well, without the finger, that is).



Action shot of Sammy hitting the ball!



And I thought this was a nice photo of Sammy out on the court.