Trick-or-Treat!

Music therapy Thursday: "But Anyway"

Inspired by fellow blogger Lindsey over at Squeezing the Day, I am sharing a favorite performance from a band I love, Blues Traveler. Listening to this song, or any of their music for that matter, never fails to transport me back to the mid-1990s when I was in college. I used to listen to Blues Traveler full blast while tooling around the campus of Jacksonville State University in my little maroon Volkswagen Jetta. Enjoy!

Creative cutie

 

Coloring has become one of Lola's favorite activities. It is also a favorite of mine for the simple fact that I can plop her down with crayons, paper and our handy-dandy purple lap desk and know she'll be occupied long enough for me to balance the checkbook or check email or Facebook. 

While Amelia was in preschool her teacher would everyday send home coloring pages that they didn't have time to complete in class. I am so glad I saved those because they have become Lola's version of school. She loves that she can sit down and do "work" like her big Cissy. 

I love that it's easy to fold a few and stash them in the diaper bag along with some crayons for those rare trips out to eat. These pages are much easier to take along with us instead of a full-size coloring book, and they will occupy both girls while they wait for their food.

Probably the best thing, though, about our stash of coloring pages is that Lola is actually learning from them. Just yesterday she was coloring a page on which a zebra with the letter Z was printed. We talked about the zebra, its colors and where they live after which we discussed why Z goes with zebra. I think she grasped most of what I was teaching her.

When Lola finally does go to preschool, I imagine Ms. Brooks, who was also Amelia's teacher, being very surprised to discover Lola not only has seen the pages they use in class but also understands the things that are printed upon them. That would be a hoot!

Oh, how she loves them!

Jeff and I took the girls on Tuesday to see three of their cousins at their final football game of the season. We didn't stay very long though because a random thunderstorm forced us out of the stadium and back home. I was so aggravated because it hasn't rained in weeks here, but the sky opted to open up on the very night we venture out to see the kids in action.

Getting out of the house on a school night is rare for us anyway because we're slaves to our routine and our world seems to crumble if we don't adhere to our schedule. However, we made an exception this week because we wanted to show our support for Carson, Kelsey and Zoey - or "the triplets" as they're more commonly known in the family.

As I drove into town Jeff remarked about every 2.5 seconds that it looked as though it was going to rain. However, I pressed on because this was our last opportunity to see the kids perform this season. Plus, Amelia was excited beyond compare to get the chance to see her cousins.

We arrived shortly after kick-off and quickly found the triplets' parents as well as Grandmaw who'd also made the drive over to see her eldest grandchildren take the field. We'd barely gotten settled on the bleachers when the rains came. At first it was very minimal, but soon umbrellas were unleashed as Mother Nature dropped her bounty upon us.

We got to see Carson decked out in his gear standing on the sideline. That's him wearing number 60 pictured below. Jeff learned from his brother Scott, the kids' dad, that Carson actually got to play the entire second half. I hate that we missed seeing him. Maybe we can catch a game next year.

We'd hoped to see Zoey and Kelsey perform with the band at half-time. Zoey plays the flute in the band, and Kelsey is a majorette. However, the band director made the decision early in the second quarter that the band would not be performing this evening. As a former band geek, I was really looking forward to seeing them marching as was Amelia who's never seen a marching band live and in person before. 

Amelia did manage to squeeze in some brief quality time with Zoey, above at left, and Kelsey while Jeff and I enjoyed some nice conversation with Scott and Grandmaw. 

Right now, these girls are Amelia's heroes. They're 13 years old, and, as far as she's concerned, very worldly and mature. She looks up to them so much and would love to seem them every day, but at present only gets to see them on holidays or if they make a random appearance at Grandmaw's house when she also happens to be there.

In about two-and-a-half years these kids will be driving at which time Amelia will be eight and likely still over-the-moon crazy about them so I am hopeful they will take it upon themselves to drive to our house occasionally to see this little lady. Don't get me wrong, Amelia also loves Carson, even though, shy boy that he is, I don't think he's ever spoke more than six sentences to her in her entire life; but it's these gals of whom she's most enamored.

I hope my girls can always have special relationships with their cousins because these three as well as Parker and Payton, who are the children of Jeff's younger brother, are the only first cousins they will ever have. I am an only child so there will be no first cousins from my side, and I am estranged from the majority of the people in my momma and daddy's families so my children will never know family from my side.

Presently, my focus is on making sure Amelia and Lola understand that regardless of what happens in the future with their extended family they will always have a loving and accepting immediate family here in our home. Having the same love and acceptance from others in their bloodlines will just be a bonus.

The Alabama heat claims another victim

A little over a week ago Amelia's class at school went on a field trip to a local farm where they enjoyed traipsing through a corn maze, petting a menagerie of animals, getting a first-hand look at how food gets from the farm to their house and playing in loose corn until they were exhausted.

Part of this trip also involved picking out their very own pumpkin. Amelia chose what I like to call a "Goldilocks" pumpkin because it was not too big, not too small but just right. She was chomping at the bit to carve it that very afternoon, but had to wait a couple of days until her daddy was available to help her tackle this endeavor. 

Amelia's job in carving the pumpkin turned out to be one that involved more supervising than actual work as she was not at all interested in digging out the guts of the pumpkin and tired very quickly of trying to carve out the design she chose with a saw that is shorter than my middle finger. So she played and bugged her sister while Jeff took on the task of creating a witch on the front of the pumpkin, which I think turned out very well.

 

The artists and their work.

A close-up of their detailed work

In the dark the pumpkin looks fabulous.

Amelia posing with her jack-o-lantern, which she thought looked "extra scary" with the jump rope draped over it. 

I wish I could report that the jack-o-lantern still looks as good as it does in these photos; but, sadly, a week of unusually warm almost 90-degree days has taken a toll on this Halloween masterpiece. As of this morning, it was looking quite limp and pitiful. See if you agree:

I promised Amelia we will get her another pumpkin to carve before Halloween. I am waiting, though, because the extended forecast calls for continued highs in the upper 70s and low 80s. I just don't see the point in Jeff and Amelia putting more effort into another pumpkin if it's just going to end up a shriveled smorgasbord for ants and flies.

Recollections of a former reporter

Before I became the domestic goddess I am today I worked as a reporter at a local community newspaper for four years and a major metropolitan newspaper for about a year. 

My time on the beat was interesting to say the least and provided me with not only a wealth of education I couldn't have gotten in college but also heaps of stories that stick with me to this very day. Some of these stories are hilarious, others infuriating, many are heart-warming, some immensely sad and a few are very eye-opening - like the story about Alyssa.

I came to tell Alyssa's story by way of an alert that came over the police scanner one afternoon. The dispatcher on duty called out a string of numbers that caught my attention mainly because they weren't the numbers I'd become so accustomed to hearing that I'd learned to tune them out. I recall turning in my office chair to look up the call numbers when my phone rang. 

I answered the phone to discover it was one of my reliable sources calling to let me know that firefighters and paramedics were on their way to answer a call that a child had been run over by a lawnmower. I remember gasping into the receiver upon hearing this information.

I got off the phone with my source and immediately began dialing up other folks I figured would be in the know in an attempt to verify the story. I didn't want to just show up on the scene of the accident because number one I wasn't eager to see first-hand such a sight and number two accidents are traumatic enough for families and friends but tend to be doubly so when a child is involved. I erred on the side of caution an opted not to make an appearance mostly for fear I might be run off by upset and anxious folks none too keen to have a reporter nosing around during such a trying time.

I did, however, manage to get the local police chief to talk to me on the record and confirm a child had been injured by a lawnmower and had been transferred to a children's hospital, but he was unable to tell me how extensive the injuries were or whether they were life-threatening.

The story, which was rather short, appeared in the next edition and could have ended there, but I continued to wonder about this child as did so many readers who called to ask if I had any more information about her. It was one of these callers who gave me the child's name, told me where her mother worked and asked if I could find out how Alyssa was doing. That's the beauty of working at a small-town newspaper: everyone knows everyone else and they're often willing to share what they know about other folks.

Finally I had the information I needed to track down this little girl and get the whole story. Thanks to my informed caller I knew Alyssa was still in the hospital, but was expected home within the week. I waited almost two weeks before calling the mother at work to ask if she'd be willing to talk with me about what had happened to her daughter.

At the time I made the call I had no children of my own, so I really couldn't relate to what this mother had been through, but I worried she would not be pleased to have a reporter calling asking her to recall for the whole community this traumatic event. I figured she'd probably hang up on me.

However, she shocked me by being willing to share her family's story. She wanted to confirm with her husband that it was okay with him, but seemed eager to tell the truth about what had happened especially since rumors and half-truths about the accident had run rampant in our little town.

I met the family a few days later at the mother's office where I got my first glimpse of Alyssa. She was a precious toddler with strawberry blonde hair and a bright pink cast on her leg. Her mom and dad explained to me that the cast was put on after doctors performed major surgery on Alyssa's ankle, foot and toes - all of which suffered extensive damage from the mower.

The accident happened while Alyssa was playing on a slide at her grandparent's home. Apparently, she landed at the bottom of the slide just as her grandfather made a pass in that area on the mower. Her foot slid directly under the mower deck where it was hit one, possibly two times, before her grandfather was able to stop the blades. 

Alyssa lost several toes, suffered some major blood loss, received serious injuries to tendons and nerves and lost the feeling in most of her foot. None of that slowed her down, though. As I talked to her parents and older sister, Alyssa crawled all over her mother's office and even pulled herself to a standing position several times and attempted to walk with that heavy cast on.

Her parents shared that the doctors wanted Alyssa to not try to walk while wearing her cast for fear she might damage the areas that were trying to heal. They also didn't want her to become accustomed to walking in the cast because they worried it might make it harder for her to work with physical therapists  to relearn how to properly walk after the cast came off.

None of those concerns deterred Alyssa. She had places to go and things to inspect cast or no cast. I recall her dad telling me they'd just given up on trying to keep her off her leg. In fact, Alyssa made it clear that she wasn't going to let what happened to her keep her from what she wanted to do because when I asked her what she was going to do when the doctors removed her cast, she replied emphatically, "I gonna walk!"

I had the pleasure of running into Alyssa and her family about three years ago at a community festival. I'd long since quit the newspaper business to stay home and raise my family but I'd never forgotten Alyssa. I introduced myself to her parents who immediately remembered me and shared that my story about them had a really positive impact on their lives. The filled me in on Alyssa's progress since the accident and even had the now pre-teen come over and show me her foot. 

I have to say her foot looked surprisingly good for having been basically mangled by a lawn mower. Alyssa shared that not having most of the toes on that foot doesn't bother her and certainly doesn't keep her from doing whatever she wants. In fact, she seemed kind of proud to have something about her that made her stand out from her peers.

I told Alyssa and her family how I'd never forgotten about them and how I'd often wondered how things turned out for them. I thanked them for letting me know, as Paul Harvey would have said, the rest of the story; and I let them know that because of Alyssa I am super careful when it comes to lawn mowers and my kids. 

Alyssa's dad seemed especially glad to hear that and said it was good to know even one person learned a lesson about mower safety from their horrible ordeal. I have to believe this was for him somewhat of a silver lining for having lived to tell about going through his own personal hell. I cannot begin to fathom living through such an experience but I will always be grateful to this family for being able to share their story so others could learn from their tragedy.

Rescue pack! Coming to the rescue?

I am not too keen on Lola's newest choice of place to perch while watching television. While I admire the great work performed by Rescue Pack from "Go, Diego, Go!" , I am not to sure I can depend on him to leap out of the television and come to her aid should she tumble off the entertainment center.

Finding her stretched out here as well as in a few other less-than-desirable places in the living room is why I no longer leave her alone in there. If I venture any farther than the kitchen, I take her with me just to be on the safe side. At the rate she's learning to climb, I just might find her on top of this center if I were to leave her alone too long.

She's a techie just like her old man

 

I wasn't anticipating we, as a family of four, would ever have four computers in the house; but that's exactly what came to pass recently when Amelia became the proud owner of her very own laptop.

Now, before anyone goes and gets on their soapbox to tell me that no parents should purchase a computer to be used only by their six-year-old, let me inform everyone that we did not buy this piece of equipment. It was a gift from Amelia's very generous great-aunt who adores this child and knows her love for and aptitude with computers. 

It's an immense blessing to us that Jeff is a computer programmer who is adept at handling software as well as hardware issues. He had this computer up and running in no time, which made Amelia one very happy little lady. I am thrilled I could leave all those issues to him because had I had to deal with them we would have been quite a bit poorer due to me having to call in the Geek Squad to work their magic.

Jeff moved Amelia's bookmarks from our desktop PC and then put all kinds of blocks and controls in place to insure she doesn't get an eyeful of naughty co-eds or dirty housewives while trying to get to PBS Kids or Nick Jr. I am so grateful for this technology because I am not at all ready to have to explain to my first grader what a gang bang is, which, honest to goodness, happened to a friend.

After getting the computer ready to go, Jeff and I then rearranged so Amelia could use it in the kitchen rather than in her bedroom - the reasoning for which is twofold: 1. Having it in a common area allows us to make sure she doesn't spend so much time on it that she falls into a stupor and we find her with drool dripping out the side of her mouth and 2, She still needs our help quite often while navigating the world wide web so having her in the kitchen makes helping her easier for us- not to mention on her voice because were she in her room she would just holler until she was hoarse rather than come find us to request assistance. 

Most of Amelia's time online is spent playing games from which she's actually learning something useful like matching, math, spelling, rhyming and reading. She doesn't actually realize how much she's learning from these games, but we do. She's just thrilled to get to play online so I decided to use this to help boost her knowledge of art and music.

Amelia loves both art and music, but unfortunately attends a school that doesn't offer in-depth instruction in either subject. Sending her to a well-funded school where she could get such an education isn't an option right now, but tapping into some of their resources is, which is exactly what I did.

The Mountain Brook School System is probably the best in our state.  I looked them up online and went to the website for one of their best elementary schools. I then located their first grade section and found a plethora of links to music and art websites that teachers at this school recommend for their students. 

I showed Amelia all the new sites she could go to and she was so excited, She dove right in checking each one out and found a few she really, really likes. I am just pleased as punch that I can make it possible for her to get an extra boost in her education - even if it's learning camouflaged as fun.