No Play

Time for some grumbling............. Hubby and I were supposed to be in a play. Hubby got involved with this theater company several years ago when he was pressed into service as their piano player. They loved his work, so he was asked to play again for every musical they've done. The last time they did a musical, I joined in the cast with a very teeny tiny part so I could go to rehearsals and spend time with my hubby. Each time a play ends, Hubby says that's going to be his last play. They're so much fun, but they're also an incredible amount of work. A few weeks ago, Hubby got the call again and despite his protestations, he agreed to do another play. I figured maybe I could do the same thing - get a small part so as to be part of the cast. Since the actors need to audition with a song, Hubby was asked to be at the auditions. The first one was a Sunday late afternoon and literally no one showed up! That should have been the clue! Another audition was already scheduled for Monday night. We went again (the play is in a town 1/2 from our house) and this time three people showed up. Five men and five women are needed to stage this play. The director isn't one to give up so he asked if we could come back the following Monday if he drummed up some more actors. We said sure....he got four more people to come last Monday. Still not enough. We left the playhouse after being told by those that came to audition that they'd ask around their friends. Hubby and I both left with the impression that we'd gather again this Monday and hopefully we'd have enough people. We were ambivalent all week about whether or not we wanted the play to be staged. It really is a lot of fun and you meet some great people. But the time commitment is huge, and with a new job and a new grandchild.....we just weren't sure we wanted to do it. We showed up tonight at the appointed time of 7:30 and the place was dark......and locked. No one called or emailed us to let us know the rehearsal was cancelled. I was mad....we'd wasted our time and even worse - our gas by going down there for nothing. When we got home I got online and checked my email.....and there was an email from the director (with a time of 7:35) saying so sorry they wouldn't be able to stage the play but perhaps we could stage it in the spring and he hoped we'd be part of the cast then. No apology for not letting us know ahead of time. I don't know what happened. Hubby and I are both positive we left there with the director saying he'd see us all this Monday. But not one single person was there. So either we got it wrong, or he let everyone else know except for us. It's suspicious to me that we had an email when we got back.....like he realized he forgot and was just trying to cover his ass. Hubby sent a return email thanking the director for including us and assuring him we'd be interested next spring. I wouldn't have been so nice. Mine would have started with, "Where the hell were you?" I guess we'll never know what really happened.

A Day with Emily

Hubby and I really wanted to go apple picking today and thought it would be fun to bring Emily, who is almost 14 months now. Unfortunately, Hurricane Whoever showed up and dumped tons of rain on New England this weekend, effectively ending any outside activities for the whole weekend. We still wanted to take Emily out for the day, so we searched around online and found a place called "One Stop Fun". It's an indoor playground and advertised a toddler area. The toddler area turned out to be a small ball pit and a slide, but it was enough to keep Emily's attention for an hour.

When we first go there she was fine with all the noise and the kids running around. I was relieved because she'd never been to a place like this before and I wasn't sure if she'd like it. She did stand there for about ten minutes and just watch in wonder as kids jumped around her.

Eventually she walked close to the ball pit so I put her in it. She sat up to her chest in balls for awhile, just trying to figure out what to do.She figured out that she could make the balls move by kicking her feet, and also by pushing them around with her hands like she does with water in her bathtub.

Then she found the stairs leading up to the slide.She thought it was pretty cool that Pepere was at the bottom of the slide. She went down once or twice but it was really too big for her and she had much more fun going back down the stairs.Finally she figured out how to "swim" through the balls.

She had a great time.

From there we went to Kimball's Ice Cream Stand in Westford which is right down the street. Pepere wants to be known to his grandchildren as the "Ice Cream King" so we got some and sat outside since it had stopped raining. Emily couldn't decide if she wanted to eat ice cream or her flower. She did have a few bites of ice cream:

But really just wanted to get down and see the goats. She went home happy and dirty, which follows my motto - "At the end of the day, a dirty kid is a happy kid".

A Surprise Gift

I came home from work today and noticed, as I pulled up in front of my condo building, a big white styrofoam box sitting on the front porch of the building. What the heck was this? I got to the door and looked.....Omaha Steaks! Some lucky person got a shipment of Omaha Steaks. I leaned over closer to see which condo it belonged to, and the label said, "Karen and Tag Vennard"!!! Wow!! It was for us!! I carried the box inside, curious beyond belief to know who would send us such a gift. I wanted to wait for hubby to get home so we could open the box together, so I checked around for a card, but right on the front of the box was a note, "from Isabel Frechette". My Aunt Isy had sent us the steaks. My Aunt Isy is my Dad's brother's widow. She is somewhere in her 80's and has only one son, Michael, who is divorced and has no children. There is no other blood relative in Aunt Isy's family. Recently, she moved to Salem and I sent her a note saying if she needed anything.....a ride to the grocery store (although she still drives) or a help with anything, she could give me a call since we're neighbors now. Several weeks later her son became very ill and they didn't think he'd live. Aunt Isy called and asked if it would be okay if she put my name as her Emergency Contact Person in case something happened to her since her son was no longer capable. I said of course. She went to a lawyer and got me papers to be her Durable Power of Attorney in case of illness. We went over and got the papers and then I kept in touch with her about how her son was doing. Thankfully, he recovered but will need nursing care. So all this apparently led to her sending us a gift to say thank you for our help. I don't think we did too much, but I know it makes her feel better to show her gratitude. So now our freezer is full of steaks, hamburgers, hotdogs, pork chops, stuffed sole, stuffed potatoes......and I can't remember what else! There was also a nice cutlery set in with the meats, which is something we've been wanting to get. Thanks Aunt Isy. You're a sweet woman.

The New Job

Working in a regular job again is pretty weird. I really like having a real place to go everyday. I dont' have to wait and wonder if I'll get called in to work. I don't have to worry about my paycheck being too small. I don't have to be bored or disgusted with "kids these days" and how bratty they are. Those are all the up sides of having a "real job". I also like having co-workers. When you're subbing you're always the odd person out. Even though I've worked in the School District for many years and knew a lot of people, I was never a regular, so not included in anything. No invitations to Tupperware parties, no one ever told me when it was "Jeans Day" (so I'd show up in a skirt and be the only one without jeans on) - no Christmas party or Secret Santa Gift exchange for me. It sounds funny but you really do miss that stuff. The down side is organizing my life with the knowledge that I will be going to work every day. Right now I'm working 32 hours a week, which gives me either a couple of half days or a full day off. Once the new office is up and running I will be full time. So right now is not so bad. Tomorrow is a half day, so I'll have some time to do laundry, clean my bathroom....possibly shop for a fall jacket and some new shoes. There are too many things I need to scrunch into one half-day. The rest will just have to wait for the next day off! So far I'm happy with the job. I'm still in training and will also be in training all next week. It's a very varied job, which I will like. And a lot has to be learned "on the job". But I'm confident I'll be able to learn everything and I'm told everyone is very helpful when you're stuck. We'll see about that!!

Autumn

Yesterday was officially the first day of Autumn. The weather has been cool...... very autumn-ish. It's hard to believe summer is over and it's time for another New England winter. It's been a busy summer as usual, and it doesn't look like things are going to slow down anytime soon. Hubby and I have signed up to do a play. Hubby got started with doing plays several years ago when he was asked to fill in at the last moment for a piano player in a musical. Since then he's done several shows. A couple of years ago he was asked to not only play the piano, but to have a speaking part as well. He did a couple of shows like that. Then last year I ended out doing a very small role in a play....mostly because I didn't want to be left at home while Hubby was out two or three nights a week doing rehearsals. This time I've auditioned like everyone else and have a good chance to have a speaking part. I'm a little bit scared. Not of going up on the stage ... it's a melodrama so acting talent isn't a high priority. As long as you can be over-the-top dramatic it should be okay. I'm worried about learning my lines. I have a terrible memory so I'm going to have to come up with all sorts of tricks to memorize. It's a big commitment.....we must be crazy. I worked my first full day yesterday at my new job. Right now I'm in the Lawrence office for training. It's kind of a crappy drive.....straight down route 28, which is all lights and traffic. It takes me about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour depending on how I hit the lights. I guess that's not bad considering the commute that some people have to do. When I finally work at the Salem office my commute will be about 3 minutes. Now that's more like it. The training yesterday was pretty bad. The trainer is an extremely nice woman. I'd love to be working side by side with her on a daily basis because she's fun and easy-going. But she loves to talk....and not about the job. In our 8 hour day yesterday, she literally trained us for 45 minutes. I love to sit and chat about her kids and everything else under the sun but I'd also like to learn something! I go back there today all day and a half day Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday I'll be in Haverhill with my friend Sylvie. I'm sure that will be more informative. Our new grandson is thriving. His mom says he's eating like a pig and pooping it all out the other end! Perfect! She goes Thursday for his first check-up to make sure he's gaining weight. I'm so proud of my stepdaughter and her boyfriend. They are both very involved and have put the baby at the center of their lives.....as it should be. Time to get ready for work!!

Genius Babies

Everyone in our family knows that my granddaughter Emily is the cutest, smartest baby in the whole world.....because I tell them so all the time!

So here are two stories to prove it:

DIL Kara told me one day last week she told Emily, "time for a bath Em, splish splash". Emily went over to a big pile of books and sorted through until she found the one she wanted, turned to the page with the baby having a bath and pointed to the page!!

I was babysitting the other day and singing "A You're Adorable" to Emily as I do every time I'm with her. The letter K is "K you're so kissable" so I usually stop at that letter and make a big kissing sound. This time when I sang it to her, when I got to the J, she put her hand over her mouth in anticipation for blowing a kiss when I did the letter K! Unbelievable, yes???

And by the way, our new grandson is just as smart. Grandpa Tag was playing the guitar and Noah picked his head up off my shoulder and stared at Tag as he played. He's going to be a musician....we just know it!

Noah Frank is finally here!

We've been waiting rather impatiently for our new grandchild to arrive. Today was finally the day. Hubby had spoken with his daughter during the day on Wednesday and she said she was having contractions but they were still too far apart for her to go in. We text messaged around 10pm and got a message back that she'd call when things got going.

At 2am, we got a call from Wendy's boyfriend Allan that they were at the hospital, she was 6 centimeters dilated, and the hospital staff had told him he could call and let grandparents know they could come to the hospital.

We were a little surprised by this. We thought we'd be waiting at home until the baby was born. But if the kids wanted us at the hospital.....off we would go. We grabbed some coffee and tea and made our way to Leominster, almost an hour away. When we got there, Allan's parents were there and we settled in to wait. The nursery window was right there, so we spent some time watching the nurses care for the newborns.

Finally at 4am or so, Allan's mother went to the window to inquire how they were doing. Of course, the nurse wouldn't give out any info, but she could send the father out. (It's still so funny to think of these kids as the "father and mother".) Allan came out, looking very tired and weary, to tell us that they'd given Wendy a painkiller and it had slowed things down. She was dozing at the moment. We thought it would still be hours yet.

At 6:30, Allan came back out yelling, "It's a boy!" Once things had gotten going again, they'd gone with a vengence. Noah Frank was born about 5:45. We were delighted to find out we could accompany Allan inside to see the baby. The parade of grandparents followed him to Wendy's room, where she was sitting up in bed like a queen holding her new son.

Everything had gone incredibly well. No epidural, no episiotomy, and a minimal amount of pushing. Wendy looked wonderful, like she'd hardly had a problem. We got the chance to hold him and take many photos.