Everybody Wants To Be A Cat!

It's been an exciting week for Bridgette!  You can read her blog post about it all...she tells her story much better than I do,  I was pretty much just "The Transportation" lol ===> Everybody Wants To Be My Cats!

Monday night she auditioned for Aristocats at our local community theater...it went really well!  She had to sing 16 bars of music, she chose to sing "Blessings" by Laura Story. 

Tuesday we waited (there was a second audition night).

Wednesday afternoon she got a call asking her to come to "Call-Backs" on Thursday night.

Thursday night we went to "Call-Backs" and she read/sang for the parts of Duchess and Madame.

Friday afternoon she got the call offering her the part of Madame!  She was so excited!  It was actually the part she was hoping she'd get...she likes playing eccentric "character" roles!

 

 

Bridgette's best friend also auditioned...she got the part of Frou Frou...so here they are together!

 

 

 

A week from this coming Monday the fun starts with the first read through.  Then it's a pretty hectic rehearsal schedule M-F 5:30 - 8:30 until show time June 14, 15 & 16th...with a couple of "camp" shows the 18th & 19th.  It's going to be such a great experience for her!

 

 

Counting Our Blessings

Okay...so after yesterday's LONG post (sorry about that...and those were just highlights!) I wanted to post a short post of Blessings that we have received since Brian lost his job on Friday...not including the MANY wonderful people we have in our lives!

1. He found out that his 401K account was fully vested, meaning that we get to hang on to that money.  (Praying that we don't have to touch it, but it's nice to know it's there!)
2. Bridgette is in another wedding coming up in August...and last night she found that she will get to use her previous bridesmaid dress with some free alterations by her friend to shorten it to tea length!
3. Brian set up his first job interview - scheduled for April 30th (it would have been sooner but the lady is on vacation next week)
4. We recieved a check today for $400...dated Friday April 12th...for a "class-action" type claim regarding "the bank's" mishandling of foreclosures!

It's been a long three years!

Well as you can see, I wasn't very successful at posting in my new "Getting to Know Hymn" series.  It's been a month since my first...but I do hope to do more...eventually!  But as I'm sure others out there can relate, LIFE kind of got in the way.

Stress can play a big part in having the motivation to blog.  And the last month has been pretty stressful, because my wonderful hubby was having a rough time at his work...and without going into the gory details, this past Friday was his last day.  So, unfortunately he is now searching for a new job...LORD willing a better job! 

It's interesting looking at the long road it has been these past three years.  On this day in April of 2010 if you had told us what our life would look like in three years, we probably wouldn't have believed it.   Here's what's happened in our life since then...and all the while "life" was still business as usual...Brian still needed to work, and Bridgette and I were still homeschooling and in the fall of 2010, Bridgette began to really get involved in her drama activities.

• My dad died suddenly & unexpectedly on April 21, 2010 at the age of 67.
• We moved in with my mom shortly after that...which we were happy to do, but it brought about a stressful adjustment period.
• In July 2010 we started the process of "getting rid" of our old house, which of course we were upside down on.
• August 2010 we begin homeschooling Bridgette's first year of high school.
• In September 2010 part of the "getting rid" of our old house plan fell apart
• December 2010 Brian's parents moved here to Florida from NH...living only 10 min away!
• In January 2011 we now had legal assistance in the process of "getting rid" of the old house.
• In April 2011 my mom discovered and began "treating" a sore she had on her tongue that was causing her some problems...she initially thought that it was because she had lost quite a bit of weight since my dad had passed and her dentures were no longer fitting correctly.  It wasn't going away though.
• In May 2011 my mom recieved a tenative diagnosis of tongue cancer.
• In May 2011 we had an offer for short sale on our old house
• In the beginning of June 2011, my mom had various tests (biopsy, CT scan, PET scan etc) and was ultimately diagnosed with stage 4 head & neck cancer (mostly her tongue) and surgery & radiation/chemo treatments were HIGHLY recommended.
• On June 18, 2011 my mom had a PEG feeding tube inserted because she was no longer able to eat.
• On June 25, 2011 my mom had a 9 hour surgery to remove 60% of her tongue, which included about a 5 x 7 skin graft patch from her thigh to use for "reconstruction"...this was also the day of a big drama performance for Bridgette! My mom's doctor felt it was successful, that he had gotten everything he could find.  She recovered remarkable well in the hospital 9 days and came home on July 4th....Independence Day of all days!
• In the middle of August 2011, my mom began 32 treatments of radiation therapy (daily M-F) with a once a week low-dose of chemo.
• In August 2011 our first closing date for the short sale of our house came and went...the bank was essentially "dragging their feet"...a new closing date was set.
• On September 29, 2011 my mom finished her radiation treatments and was doing very well considering all that she had been through.  Still needing the feeding tube.
• In October 2011, my mom began working with a speech/swallow therapist who was able to help her with some exercises and get her eating some real food (as opposed to the feeding tube).
• In October 2011, our second closing date for the short sale came and went...again the bank...and a third closing date was set.
• Thanksgiving 2011, my mom actually had a small amount of Thanksgiving dinner!
• A CT scan the week after Thanksgiving 2011 showed some "spots" on the top of my mom's lungs.  Her cancer doctor, was concerned but said that they could also be a viral infection...they would rescan in a month.
• In December of 2011 our third closing date was approaching...and again the bank was moving "slower than cold molasses going uphill", but it looked as though they might actually make it this time.  They did end up approving it one week past the closing date, but unfortunately the buyer decided to back out.
• The day after Christmas 2011, my husband drove with his parents to move them out to California to live with his brother, as they were unable to find sufficient employment to be able to stay here.
• December 2011, the week after Christmas - while Brian is on the road trip - we postponed my mom's follow-up CT scan as she was not feeling well...what we thought was a "chest cold".
• New Year's day 2012...Brian is back home.
• January 2012, there is a new buyer for the house...of course the bank wants new paperwork too...but we are hopeful that things will work out this time.
• January 9, 2012 my mom still feeling pretty yucky has her follow up CT scan...after the scan she begins complaining of back pain.
• January 10, 2012 my mom stayed in bed the entire day...complaining that her back hurt to much to move...later that night (10pm ish) she throws up (not having eaten anything that day) a nasty brownish fluid...we end up taking her to to the ER.
• January 11, 2012 my mom is admitted to the hospital (after several hours of tests etc) with suspicious "leasions" on her spine and lungs.  Ultimately, it is determined that the cancer had not only spread but was growing rapidly - in her lungs and several of her vertebrae were completely replaced with cancer - esentially her back was broken.  She spent 2 weeks in the hospital...each day she found it more difficult to breathe and pretty much in constant pain  During this time we were faced with decisions about hospice, because it was projected that she had days to maybe weeks left. We of course, never ended up having to make that decision as it became obvious in the last few days of those two weeks that she would not be leaving the hospital. 
• My mom spent her last couple of days on a morphine drip...and passed away early in the morning on January 24, 2012, one month after her 69th birthday.
• January/February 2012...lots of time spent (but all went fairly well) finalizing the transfer of everything (house, car, utilities/services etc) from my mom to us.
• February 2012...the new buyer decides to back out - apparently they made the offer "sight unseen" and after finally seeing the house decided not to continue with the sale.
• February 2012 Bridgette turns 16/4 and I just didn't have the energy or motivation to do a big party like we had wanted.  I still feel badly about that.
• March 2012...we begin the process of pursuing a Deed In Liu (DIL) of foreclosure...more paperwork.
• In the meantime, sometime in April (around the time of the 2nd anniversary of my dad's death) through probably July 2012 everything starts to hit me...and I become depressed with grief for both my parents (I don't think I ever really grieved when my dad first died...it was more of a be strong for mom type thing).  It was pretty overwhelming to say the least.
• May 2012...Brian recieves a not-so-great review for the last year (somewhat understandable considering the year we had)...at 3:30 pm on his boss' last day before going to a new job. For the entire summer his department pretty much "manages" themselves...it's not the best scenario.
• In June of 2012 the bank approved our DIL and we finally began to sign all the paperwork to get it taken care of.
• July 2012 - a year later than planned, Bridgette finally gets her driver's permit!
• Later in the summer of 2012...the bank discovered an error in the original paperwork, so we had to sign another set of paperwork.
• September 2012 - we got to take a trip out to California for Brian's brother's wedding...I am doing much better by now, my grieving time is pretty much over and I am happy again.
• September 2012 - Brian's new boss comes on the scene.  Things seem to go well at first.
• Sometime in October or November 2012, Brian goes over to the old house to mow the yard and discoveres that everything has already been mowed and the door locks are changed.  It appears that this long nightmare is finally over.  But...we still wait for things to be "finalized"
• Thanksgiving/Christmas 2012...we survive our first "lonely" holidays...just the three of us.
• January 2013...we are at the mid-point of Bridgette's Junior year of high school...for the first time since we began homeschooling 7 years ago, we seem to be having a year without "event"!
• February/March 2013 - Bridgette turns 17 and also gets to take a few hours of actual "driving lessons"...it's beginning to hit me that she isn't a little girl anymore and that on her next "non-leap" birthday I'll be the mother of an 18 year old...Yikes!
• February 2013 - sudden and unexpected things are happening with Brian's job...he is not happy with the changes.
• March 2013 - things are declining at Brian's job...it's not looking good, and well, like I said without going into all the gory details of this past month, the rest is history.
• April 12, 2013 - The day Brian loses his job after 6+ years...we also recieve a package about another "correction" in the paper work that requires more signatures/notarizing etc for the whole house deal.  Here it is almost 3 years since we started TRYING to get rid of it and it's still not a "done deal"...BUT the bright point is that Brian came home in a better mood than we'd seen him for the last month or more...even though there may be more hard road ahead, it's obvious that a burden has been lifted! 

Despite how horrible things may look with these "highlights" of the past three years...God has been with us through it all!  He will continue to be with us even during this trying time of unemployment.  We've been through times of unemployement in the past (prior to these few years) and God has never let us drown...things may have been tight and scary...but our needs were always met!  I will trust him still, even though there may be times when I can't see how...things will work out.  He is good and I will continue to hang on to him and his word until we see his blessings!

Getting To Know Hymn: Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee

I wonder how many people in contemporary Christian churches today are unfamiliar with the hymns of old?

 

I am grateful, that as an adult, at my little church here in Florida, we still sing a few hymns on a weekly basis, along with more contemporary songs.  Looking back though, I don't remember exactly when my church, (as I was growing up in New Hampshire), switched over to doing mostly choruses and worship songs, but there came a point in time when singing hymns all but became a thing of the past.  It's not that they fell out of existence entirely, but choruses and worships songs were new and exciting, and people seemed to favor them more.

 

Don't get me wrong, choruses and worship songs are good and can be appropriate, but sometimes they can get kind of repetitive and give the impression that it's more about the "experience" and "warm fuzzies".   As I've gotten older I've come to appreciate the depth and fullness of what the old hymns have to say to us about who God (Father, Son & Spirit) is and what he has done for us, and the hope that we, who believe in him have for our future.

 

There are so many wonderful messages to be found within these hymns, and so I thought that I would begin a series of blog posts that I decided to call...Getting to Know Hymn.  I borrowed one of our church's hymnals a while back and went through it page by page and made a list of all the hymns I was familiar with.  My thought was that I would post about each of those hymns, including lyrics and perhaps even a video and write about what speaks to me.  I'm not sure how often I will post...I'd like to say I will do it on a weekly basis...but considering my blogging record in recent months, that may be putting too much pressure on myself!  I hope you will enjoy these posts, and be patient with me on the frequency of them.  I'd love to read your thoughts on each of the hymns I share, so please feel free to leave me  your comments about them...and I will try to visit your blog and leave a comment too!

 

First on the List is  Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee...

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,
Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee,
Earth and heav’n reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee,
Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain
Call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,
All who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us,
Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward
In the triumph song of life.

These lines..."Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!" really speak to me, especially as my husband is going through a bit of a rough time at his job right now.  But, this hymn is also special to me, because it reminds me of my dad.  He always liked "Ode to Joy"...at least a certain version of it, done by someone in the 60's or sometime, that I haven't a clue now who it was.  And Ode to Joy (by Beethoven) of course is the basic tune of this hymn.  We found this great version by Casting Crowns (even though a lot of the lyrics from the hymn aren't used) and played it as part of my dad's memorial service.  I love the images in this video too...lots of flowers and scenery, which really suited my dad.

Enjoy...

Another Very Merry Unbirthday!

Today is NOT my daughter's birthday.  

Tomorrow is NOT my daughter's birthday.

She is however turning SEVENTEEN.  Or really FOUR and a QUARTER sometime in that fraction of a nano-second between 11:59pm tonight and 12:00am tomorrow.

For those of you who aren't catching on...she's a Leap Day Baby!

SEVENTEEN...






Do you understand what this means?  It means next year, I am going to be the mother of an EIGHTEEN year old.  How is this possible?  Sigh...

At any rate...she is my most favorite Leapling EVER!  Which really isn't that hard since I've only met 3 other leaplings (all of which happened to be in Bridgette's 3rd grade Sunday School class once upon a time...so Merry Unbirthday to Colton, Kelly & Drew also, wherever you may be these days!) Really, she is my favorite.  My one and only kiddo...and I love her VERY much.  I am so blessed!

This year, we aren't celebrating until Saturday the 2nd though, as Bridgette has her weekly volunteering gig tonight, and tomorrow she is going on an overnight girl's retreat with her friend Anne Marie.  So, Saturday I am making her Giant Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcake and we are getting Chinese food.  I had written on our menu calender on the 2nd "Chinese Birthday"  So we've been joking all week that it was going to be her "2nd Chinese Birthday"!  It's corny I know...but when you're a leapling you basically have free reign to celebrate however you want!

Update On Our School Year

Here we are at the end of February...I haven't blogged since Thanksgiving!  It's been THREE months, mostly because of a lack of time, focus and desire.  I am hoping to change that...at least the focus and desire part anyway!  I am in the process of working on some post ideas and hopefully will get some of them going soon.  In the meantime, I wanted to update on our homeschool journey.

Junior year has been flying by, and will be over in just a few short months.  We have a potential last day of school on or before May 31st...providing there are no hiccups between now and then.  The really good news, as far as Bridgette is concerned, is that she is FINALLY done Algebra 1!  It took a year and a half to go through, but she finished last week!!!  So for the next few months (instead of jumping right into Geometry...we're saving that for Senior year) I am going to work on our personal finances with her.  Plan to show her how we do our bookkeeping, paying bills, balancing the bank statement...all that fun stuff.  

So what's left for this year…

We are well into the second half of American History...just getting started on WWII.  We've enjoyed reading the lessons...I'm not so sure next year will be as fun with Government & Economics...to me those just scream "Dullsville"!!   We have a several movies to watch, that are based in the 20's, 30's and 40's to go along with our history...when we get the chance, as you can see we are already a couple decades behind!

We are just about smack dab in the middle of To Kill a Mockingbird.  This is the third of four novels we are reading this year (all - except one - have been with a Total Language Plus study guide)...we still have The Giver to read beginning in April I think.  Bridgette has used TLP several times during her homeschool years, and actually requested using it this year.  Since it has worked so well for her, I decided to stick with it for her final year as well...our plan is to do another 4 books (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Oliver Twist, Lord of the Flies and Treasure Island).  I had to laugh when I picked these books, as they are all male protagonists...but some of the other options that had female protagonists were books that Bridgette had no interest in reading what-so-ever...like Pride & Prejudice.  She is definitely an Action/Adventure girl...who actually prefers fantasy and steampunk more than anything.  Her personal for fun book pile at the moment consists of Deeper by Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams, The Hunchback Assignments#4 Island of Doom by Arthur Slade, and Dark Currents (Emperor's Edge series) by Lindsay Buroker.

And last but not least (in the curriculum department) is Astronomy.  Let me just say that I'm glad we are supplementing on this one.  I have really been disappointed with our official curriculum for Astronomy...in the description, it mentions that the only controversial topic being the Big Bang Theory was being presented as a theory, not fact.  And so far, I haven't had any issues with that.  However, that is not the only controversial information we've come across...there is lots of "speculation" on time...you know, "billions of years ago" and this or that will happen "millions of years" in the future.  Being that our family pretty much holds to the young earth side of creationism...Bridgette and I just roll our eyes at each other as we read.  Not to mention that there have been a ton of errors (mostly grammatical, but also several in the answer key to both the workbook and tests).  Overall, I think Bridgette has enjoyed learning about astronomy...we just wish Apologia would have had a high school level astronomy course!

As far as extra curricular things go...Bridgette still continues doing worship team at church, but she dropped our homeschool group's drama club, in favor of a weekly theater class that was being offered to homeschoolers at our local community theater.  She is also volunteering at the community theater as a "TK" (typical kid or theater kid) helper for a theater troupe of special needs actors called Out of the Box.  Back at Christmas time they did a performance of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Bridgette had a great time being involved, so she decided to do it again when they started back up in January.  Their next performance is coming up in May...they are doing a collection of Fabulously Funny Fairy Tales...which I'm sure will be lots of fun.  Also on the theater front, Bridgette auditioned for Hello Dolly!  Unfortunately she didn't get a part, but we got tickets to go see it anyway, because it should be a great show.  She is auditioning again the end of April for their youth theater's production of Disney's AristoCats!  I'm sure I will post if she gets pick for anything with that play!

 

Bridgette and Anne Marie as Whos after the Grinch show 

with Miss Mo, the education director for the theater

 

Tomorrow we are off to the Orlando Rep to see The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle...we have yet to be disappointed by a play there...so I'm sure it will be a good one!

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

It's Thanksgiving!  There is a lot to be thankful for...even though we are missing my mom this year...and of course all the rest of our family living far away.  I honestly thought that it would be harder than it has been, being by ourselves, but we are all happy, peaceful and content...and yes thankful.

It was just the three of us and the kitties for Thanksgiving.  We made things fairly simple and somewhat non-traditional.  There was still turkey and stuffing...but instead of the usual mashed potatoes and other normal thanksgiving veggies, we had Brian's mom's macaroni casserole and a recipe from a dear lady at church...squash casserole!  And normally we would have had my mom's apple pie, but I wasn't ready to tackle pie crust (even though she would use the ready made kind), so we made apple crisp instead...it was just as good!

This was our dinner...

 

 The kitties had their Fancy Feast Grilled Turkey & Giblets

They each had their own dish, but I guess they decided it was better to share!

 

 

 

We watched the Macy's Parade, and some of the dog show.  We played "Turkey" Foot Dominoes, and tried to go out to have a campfire and roast marshmallows...but ended up making more smoke than fire...so we came back in and played some Thanksgiving Mad Libs and just about died laughing!

 

Then Brian "watched" (or rather snored through a good portion of it) the "I Want That: Hardware Special"...there are certainly some interesting gadgets and do-hickeys out there!

 

 

So from our family to yours...

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 



And tomorrow...WE DECORATE!