The Sweetheart Dance

A week or so ago, Faith's classmates elected her the queen of their class for the upcoming Sweetheart's Dance. I think Faith had mixed feelings about this. She was flattered and excited to be chosen, but it meant she would have to wear a dress.

Getting Faith to wear a dress these days is a struggle of epic proportions, but we went shopping last week and found a very pretty dress that we could both agree upon. I couldn't get her to curl her hair, though. I don't know where that stubborn tomboy streak comes from.

When she got home from school today she got ready to go.

While this picture doesn't do her justice, she was stunning. Simply stunning.


Chet came home and announced he had a date for the dance. After dinner I loaded them up and drove my youngest teens to the dance.

The first part of the night consists of introducing the court. This boy was Faith's king.

Faith was an extremely nervous girl during the entire time they walked to the stage.

In fact, she never really smiled during the whole ceremony. She pretty much looked like this the whole time.

You know what calms nerves? Friends. Best friends.

Chet introduced me to his date, and we had pictures taken. She is a very sweet girl.

His friend Sheldon was there too.

After the court was introduced and I had taken pictures, my sweet docile (cough) children told me I had to leave.

What? Leave? Why?

Apparently they thought it could be potentially embarrassing to have your camera happy mom running around the junior high dance. So I left, but I made plans. I called Jessica to see if she wanted to come with me when it was time to pick them up. If a mom is embarrassing, surely a mom and an older sister could make some toes curl!

We got back and found Faith dancing with somebody else's king.


And one of our weekend kids was dancing with her boyfriend. This picture cracked me up.

Apparently our presence wasn't too embarrassing. Chet danced with Jessica.


Then Faith danced with her.


This just might be my favorite picture of the night. I love the big smiles on their faces.

After Chet's date left, Faith convinced him to dance with her friends.

That must be one of the pros of being friends with somebody who has a cute big brother.

You know what makes school dances so fun?

Friends. Best friends.

And a camera happy mom who knows you'll be glad I was blinding you with my flash when you look back on these photos years from now!

A warning as I edit Christmas pictures

If you are 13 years old and refuse to get a haircut,


and your 12 year old sister is really bored,


she might just do this to you.


And then your mom might post about it on her blog.

Christmas Concerts

The school had their Christmas concert a couple of weeks ago. Chet played with the band, and Faith sang with the Honors Choir. There was a huge crowd, and the auditorium was packed. Jack and I ended up sitting near the back of the room with our friends. During the concerts, I was taken back in time.

I joined the band in the 6th grade. In fact, we played some of the same songs that Chet's band played. My mom, my brother, Gramma, Papa, Great-Gramma and Great-Aunt Clair came to that first concert an hour early to make sure they had front row seats. In fact, they never missed a concert in the four years I was in band. Nor did they ever fail to be there an hour early to get their front row seats. When I was old enough for marching band, they would be on the parade route and sit through hours of floats going by just to see me for a minute or so as I marched by.

Because kids are kids, I was often teased about my family being there, front and center and early for every show. I remember feeling so embarrassed and wanting to hide under my seat. I think I even asked my mom to PLEASE sit somewhere else. But Great-Gramma needed to be up front because her diabetes was blinding her and she couldn't climb stairs or weave through rows of chairs, and I had no say in the matter.

During those years I really thought my family was there because they liked music. And it was true, they did love music. My Great-Gramma was a classically trained vocalist and a concert pianist. However, if you have ever heard a 6th grade beginning band concert, you know that nobody is there simply because they are a music connoisseur. They aren't there because the music is so intricate and compelling. They are there because they love somebody on that stage. My family was there, every single time, because they loved me. (Although Jesse didn't have much say in the matter either. Attending his sister's concerts was rather compulsory for him.)

As I sat near the back of the room because I had arrived too late to snag front row seats, I thought of those concerts of the past. I thought of how Gramma and Great-Gramma and Aunt Clair are all gone now. I thought of Papa who has been unwell and unable to travel. I thought of Mom and Jesse, who are over 2,000 miles away. I wanted to cry.

Because I wish I had appreciated their presence and their support.

Because I wish I had thanked them.

But mostly I wanted to cry because I wish they could have been there to see my kids' concert. In the front row. An hour early.

And just because they loved music so much.

She can spell nachtmusic.

And she can spell voortrekker and beleaguer.



She can spell pfeffernuss, ecargot, inselburg, mynheer, and maelstrom.

Faith has studied for the school spelling bee for a few weeks now, learning a whole new vocabulary in preparation for the big event.

Today she stood up for the first round, and the moderator asked her to spell cleanser.

"Cleanser - C-L-E-N-Z-R-E - Cleanser"

Apparently, my girl can spell very well. Just don't ask her to spell in English.

Future Volunteer Firefighters

I have been knocking around an idea for a digital kit, so I called my friend Joy today, who just happens to work at our fire department. She was nice enough to let me come over after work with my camera to take some pictures of truck parts.

I brought two of my little people with me. Faith was very impressive. When I turned over a crate to stand on, a very large spider scuttled out of it and headed towards her in an aggressive manner. Silly spider, this is the girl who rode on a plane that wanted to fall out of the sky and wondered why other people screamed. She lifted up her feet that now fit my shoes and stomped it. She will make a wonderful civil service person if anybody needs critters stomped.


Kyle was, as always, completely enthralled with the trucks and machinery. He was happy to climb on the sideboard to have his picture taken. In fact, it was his idea. However, he would have been thrilled if he could have sat in the truck and imagined his future life as a firefighter. He was disappointed to realize that we don't have firemen who live in our station. Our department is a volunteer force, so they are only there when they are needed. I don't think that will quench his dream of being a cop or firefighter, though. He will just need to make sure he has a home to call his own.

Thank you, Joy, for letting me come take the pictures I needed!

On Solid Ground

A couple of weeks ago, Jack and I took Faith to the airport to send her to Vegas for two weeks of spoiling. I was able to escort her to the gate, then was allowed no farther. It was hard, but I stood there at the entrance to the loading ramp, and watched her carefully.

She just walked to the ramp door, waved goodbye one last time, and headed out on the tarmac to get on her waiting plane.


She had to walk down one set of stairs, then up another ramp to the plane, and I stood there watching with a lump in my throat. Surely she is too little to be flying alone!

As I headed back out the gates to meet Jack on the patio where you can watch planes take off, Faith called Jack to tell him she had a window seat. He told her to look out the window and she would see us. For the next twenty minutes we would watch this window, and a little hand kept reaching up and waving to us.

Notice the grey in Jack's hair. There is a lot of it. Little did we know that two weeks later this trip would give him cause to add a whole slew of new greys to his head.

We stood there and watched as the plane backed up,

taxied to the runway,
and then carried our baby west-ward on what we hoped were steady wings.

The two weeks went by quickly, and although Faith says she wasn't ready to come home, she called all of us each at least twice a day. She was having fun horseback riding, swimming, getting a manicure, shopping, riding rollercoasters, and generally being pampered by my mom and brother and sister-in-law. She was also loving spending copious amounts of time adoring baby Sophia. But she missed us, and we all missed her like crazy.

Jack and I were attending a funeral on Wednesday when Faith was supposed to be coming home. We had silenced our phones, but as the service ended we noticed that Faith had been calling us. Jack went outside to call her back, mostly worried she had missed her flight because she was supposed to be in the air. It turns out she was in the air. It seems that shortly after take-off the left side of the plane quit working somehow, and began to dipping to the left. It had to turn around and return to Vegas for repairs.When Jack called her back, Faith said "We are landing now because our plane almost crashed." All I heard was him suddenly nearly yelling "Are you okay?" A few minutes later I had spoken to Faith, who was amazingly calm even though she was worried. I spoke to the stewardess who told me they had just finished landing and would be putting her on another plane. I wasn't so sure I wanted her anywhere off the ground at that point, but there weren't a ton of options that didn't involve two days of driving to get to her.

After a change of planes, Faith made it home in a few hours without any further incidents. The little boys and Beth made signs to decorate the door.

Beth still hasn't stopped following her around and clinging to her every chance she gets. Even the dogs came running out to welcome her home.

Somewhere along the line, mine and Jack's hearts began to beat again and we gradually have gotten past the instant fear that curdled our stomachs when we heard the word "crash." Faith is back on solid ground again, and she is staying there for the time being! I am very glad she had a good time visiting some of our loved ones, but I am even more glad, and deeply grateful, to have her home in one piece!

Sometimes....

I look through my camera lens, and I see the unexpected. I was trying to catch photos of Matt playing ball on Friday, and when I was checking my settings I saw Faith strolling to me. She was lost in thought, playing with a dandelion she had found on the field, and just taking a leisurely stroll to come say hi to me. She looked up and saw the camera and just started smiling, never haltering her journey.

She is transforming before my very eyes. She hasn't grown very much in height, but she is springing into her teens in leaps and bounds. As much as I hate to see those childhood years slip away, I do enjoy this stage just as much. Most of the time.

The story can't end there, though. In some peoples' worlds, looking through their lens and seeing their young daughter calm and happy is normal, but I have a Todd. In fact, I have the Todd, the one who never passes an opportunity to earn a quick laugh. So when he called to me and I turned my lens his way, I found my young imp performing a half-time show for anybody who wanted to watch. Even on the sidelines at a ballgame, life is never dull around here.

Warning

If you are ever asked if you would like to attend Scout University with your son/daughter at University of Arkansas, run.... run very far, very quickly.

Because even if you have to run a mile in ten seconds after five sedentary years, it still won't leave you sore and aching the way the sadists running this event had our group climbing 10,000 stairs, 1,400 steep hilly grades, and five miles of non-stop hiking.

And it was all for the sake of a photo, which believe it or not, was not my idea at all. In fact, I thought the girls could go on the grassy green and jump around to get action shots, but noooooo. Someone apparently thought I needed to make up for missing Curves lately. I will post pictures and tell you about it tomorrow. For now, though, I felt it was imperative to warn you. Remember... Scout University=RUN!

The Techno Generation

We went to Nathan and Crystal's house the other night for dinner. Matt had mentioned to Crystal that I don't make fried chicken, I only bake it. Crystal took pity on my lard-deprived teenager and made yummy homemade fried chicken, homemade biscuits, and potatoes for us. (I think her question to Matt was something along the lines of "You live in ARKANSAS and you don't eat fried chicken???")

During the ice storm, they had borrowed his sister's old fashioned rotary phone because their cordless phones didn't work without power.

The phone was still there when we came over. It looks an awful lot like the one shown here. Faith fell in love with it. She loves the way it looks, and loves the way it feels. She asked if she could buy it from them repeatedly. The best moment, though, was when my child, who has been raised in the internet and non-rotary cellphone age, asked a very important question.

"How do you call people with it?"

Why Faith Can't Wear Make-Up

When I was about 13 I really started begging my mom to let me wear make-up in public. She thought I was still too young, and resisted my incessant pleading.

At that same time we were living in a house my mom rented from my grandparents. I desperately wanted a kitten, but my gramma did not like cats and told me "no" repeatedly.

Months went by with me pleading, my mom saying no, me pleading, my gramma saying no. I was outnumbered. My cries fell on deaf ears. The dejection was appalling. I was turning 14 and doomed to face each day with a bare face and devoid of feline companionship.

Then one day my gramma wanted to put lipstick on me for something, probably a Job's Daughters event. My mom resisted. My gramma said if my mom would let me wear make-up, she would let me have a kitten. I don't know how the cosmos lined up in my favor for that one, because never again has a compromise between two other people given me everything I wanted at a particular point in time. I just know I walked away dazed and slightly confused, but didn't waste any time learning how to apply make-up while cuddling my kitten.

I took some pictures of Faith today with her guitar. Our awesome friend Kevin has been teaching her to play. She wants to go on in life to sing and perform. She wants to play guitar, piano, and the flute. She wants to be a rock star. And she wants to wear make-up.
I won't let her out in public with make-up, but she likes to steal mine and put it on at home. Sometimes Jessica would doll her up too. My pretty little girl becomes absolutely stunning with make-up applied properly. So I have laid down a rule... she can't wear make-up in public until she is 50.

Today I let her put a little lipstick on for these pictures. Seeing them just reinforces to me that this rule is sound.

There isn't much she can do about it. Beyond the fact that she really is still too young to wear full make-up, she has no leverage power. Her gramma loves cats and Faith already has several of her own.

And I think she is pretty enough without it.

She rocks.

Eleven! Already?

Happy birthday, dear Faith! Happy birthday, dear Faith! Happy birthdaaaaaayyyyy...darling, dramatic, smart, beautiful daughhhhhhh-------terrrrr... Happy birthday to you!! We luv ya!!!

Faith got home from school today and we sang to her, ate cupcakes, and gave her her gifts. Faith wants to thank Papa and Leigh for the card and money, which arrived here right before she did, and she wants to thank Miss Nina for the jigsaw puzzles, and she would like to thank Hollywood for releasing the Twilight movie today. That was a really nice thing to do for her birthday! (I wanted to take her to the Third Day concert instead, but us all not feeling well made sitting in a theater vs standing at a concert a better idea.)

When the little party was over, Chet and Faith and I bundled up and headed to Harrison to catch the 5:25 viewing. I was right in guessing there might be seats available before everyone was off work. We got there at 5:20, there were about ten seats left, and the next two showings were already sold out.

We all enjoyed the movie. It is rare that I like a movie better than the book, but this is one of those rare moments. While I found the written humor in book form to be corny, it was brought out well in the movie and we all laughed a lot. There are details lost in the movie, of course, but in some ways it is a good thing simply because I don't like the underlying theme of the books. (A young girl who has never experienced any kind of adult life giving up her entire human future for her boyfriend.... uggghhhhh.....I just don't find it romantic at all.) It has been a good opportunity to have some really good conversations with both Chet and Faith as we have read the books, though, and they both really liked the movie. I had a great night with them....

and Faith said it was "the best birthday ever." Not bad for a birthday night out where all three of us were not feeling up to speed at all! Happy Birthday, Faithers! Feel better soon. To make up for missing Third Day, we are going to go see Casting Crowns and Natalie Grant in a couple of weeks. Woohoo!

Catch-up #1.. See You at the Pole

I have some video from this event, but still haven't remembered to get the batteries for the remote to transfer it.

Matt was asked to play a couple of songs at the See You at the Pole event last week. He decided to ask Faith to help him with the singing part. This was one of those life-lessons where they both learned something about practicing. They waited until the night before to even nail down their song selections, so they ended up nervous and not quite ready that morning. But in the end it came together very well, and it was a great experience. Chet was given a copy of the New Testament, and since he has a Bible of his own he decided to give it to a friend.

There were about 50 people there, and during the prayer some of the other kids that were arriving came up and joined the circle. If you have an event like this in your area, I really encourage you to go and join. Hearing all these kids pray together was really moving, and very impressive.