Just like dad

The twins have been really into imitation lately. They like to copy anything that looks like fun. A lot of times that means doing exactly what Kevin is doing, which isn't always the best thing, but it sure is cute sometimes. One day, Steve was reading the newspaper and they thought it looked like fun so they joined in on the action. Here's the pictures I took:

You might notice in the first picture that you can see our kitchen chairs on top of the table and lying flat on the floor. That's just what it takes to live with a couple of climbing monkeys.

Misheard lyrics

Now I know that I am not the only one who has done this. I hear a song on the radio and think I know the lyrics but I'm terribly, terribly wrong. Or sometimes I can't quite tell what the lyrics are but I know that it must not be what I think it is. Case in point, this song by Adele. The first time I heard it, this is what I heard:
"Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing penguins? Even if it leads nowhere."
Now, I was fairly certain that it couldn't really be a song about chasing penguins, but it took a very long time before I figured out that it was really about chasing "pavements" aka sidewalks.
There are plenty of websites out there where you can see what other people thought certain lyrics were. I found out that I am not alone in thinking it was chasing penguins.
Now I hope my sister will forgive me but I have to tell one on her. When she was in high school colorguard, they were walking over to get ready to go on the field. Their colorguard instructor was carrying a stereo with Aerosmith blaring from the speakers. My sister told us the story later about how cool it was to be strutting along behind their colorguard instructor, with all the other colorguards looking on, as the song "Do it like a lady" played. When she got to that part, Steve and I just about cracked up. I think it was either Steve or my dad who informed her that the song is actually "Dude looks like a lady." We all got a chuckle out of that as we imagined all these colorguard girls strutting their stuff to a song that is essentially about a cross dresser. It happens to all of us though. I remember when I was little I thought there was such a word as "donzerly" because of the national anthem, and the donzerly light. Luckily, we have all kinds of resources if we want to check out the lyrics before we embarrass ourselves. If we choose to do so.

Poor little Jon-Jon

One of the hazards of being a little brother is being picked on by the older brother. Jonathan learned this lesson in a hard way on Tuesday. Kevin and Jonathan were standing in the glider chair in the twins' room, then I heard a loud crash followed by an even louder scream. I went to investigate and found Jonathan on the floor crying and Kevin standing triumphuntly on the chair. As I went to comfort Jonathan I discovered that not only had he fallen, but he had landed face first on the heat vent.

It took a little while to calm him down and stop the bleeding, all the while Kevin was trying to come to me for comfort because he was upset that I yelled at him. Sorry kid, the bleeding child gets my attention first. I thought for a little while that we might be running into the instacare, but as the bleeding slowed down I realized it didn't need stitches. Jonathan now has a cut on his cheek, another one just above is lip, and at the time he had a bloody nose as well.

Ten minutes later Jonathan was jumping on the couch so apparently he was feeling fine. I took the opportunity to give Kevin the benefit of the doubt. I asked him, "Did Jonathan just fall off the chair or did you push him?" Kevin's reply was, "He just fell cause I was pushing him." Well, at least he was honest. We've had many discussions about not hurting his brothers since then. It doesn't appear to be having any effect yet though, because today he tried to close Jonathan's fingers in the door. We'll keep trying. And in the meantime I might have to hire a body guard for Troy and Jonathan.

Shameless self promotion

Every Tuesday night I have three hours of "me time". That's when I have rehearsals for Salt Lake Symphonic Winds. Two hours of rehearsal at Highland High School, plus an hour for the total commute. Steve willingly watches the kids because he wants me to keep playing my clarinet. It's a good thing to have his support too because sometimes I really feel like it's not worth the effort, but he's very encouraging.

It does take some doing to pull it off. Rehearsals start at 6:30 pm, it takes at least 30 minutes for me to get there, and Steve doesn't get home until 5:30. So on Tuesdays I try to have dinner ready right at 5:30. Sometimes I eat before he even gets home because I need to be out the door by 5:45 to make it there in time to assemble my clarinet and warm-up. It gets pretty frantic sometimes.

That other thing that makes it hard sometimes is the lack of time that I have for practicing. Actually, let me rephrase that. It's not so much a lack of time as it is a lack of venue and privacy. If the boys are here, they come from all corners of the house as soon as they hear the sound of the clarinet. Then they want to push the buttons, and blow in the mouthpiece, etc. If I wait until Kevin's in preschool and the twins are asleep, I don't dare play because of the risk of waking them up. Plus, that's when I exercise. So at some point I'll figure out how to practice more.

But despite my lack of practice it is really fun to play with a group of almost professional musicians. My college band director is the conductor, my high school band teacher plays in the group, as well as my former clarinet teacher. I sit way in the back of the 3rd clarinet section but it's still nice to be able to play. We just played a concert at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center downtown with Utah Premiere Brass. Our next concert is at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. Usually all of our concerts are on Tuesday nights just like our rehearsals, but the one at the assembly hall is on Saturday, March 14. It's rare that we actually have a concert on a weekend. So if anyone wants to come to a free concert, you're certainly invited. Is it considered bad taste to advertise for a concert on my blog? Too bad, I just did it.

This is at a concert several years ago, I think. I can't quite remember when. Nice look on my face right? Keith (sitting next to me) is retired but when he isn't travelling, he's playing with us.

6 things tag

I've been tagged by Tristan to write 6 things that make me happy.
Here are the rules: Link to the person who has tagged you. Write down six things that make you happy. Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did it. Then tell the person when your entry is complete.
So I can't be certain that there are 6 people who will read this, so if you feel like it, consider yourself tagged! Here are six things that make me happy:

1- Bedtime
2- Naptime
3- Playing the piano and clarinet
4- Carmels
5- When one of the kids get "snuggly". It's so precious.
6- During a football game when a lineman intercepts the ball or recovers a fumble and then starts to run for the endzone. My husband can verify, I get a huge smile on my face any time that happens. Just the moment of shock followed by this huge man, lumbering along is one of my favorite things to see.

Family Movie Night

So, I get quite delusional sometimes. I read these ideas in magazines and think, "That sounds awesome! We'll do that in our family!" Case in point, I read an article about doing a family movie night where you make tickets and "sell" concessions and then just watch a movie together as a family. In my mind I'm picturing all the fun that I'll have with Kevin making tickets and popcorn and then we'll all watch some cute show together and have this awesome memory. Just like the family in the magazine! (hence, the delusion)
So here's how it actually went. Started out okay. I gave Kevin a few movies to choose from and he decided we would watch Disney's Robin Hood. Great choice. We all like that movie and it's fairly short. Next, he helped me make tickets. I wrote the words on them and had him color them. Except he didn't want to color them at first, then he did but he wanted the brown crayon not the green one, then he wanted to take all the paper off the crayons and break them in half, etc. So we didn't end up coloring much.
Then I let him cut the tickets apart. He actually did really well at this part. After we made the tickets, we had dinner. Then I decided to have Kevin help me make popcorn. Instead of microwave popcorn we decided to use the stove top popper. I held the popper while Kevin turned the handle. The first batch turned out fine and he was a fantastic handle turner. The second batch we made was sugar corn. It was a little stickier so that made it harder for him to turn the handle. Once I started smelling burnt sugar I took over as popcorn maker. The sugar corn wasn't too burnt though.
After that, Kevin helped me put the popcorn in brown paper bags so we could all have our own little bag of popcorn. Needless to say, a lot of popcorn ended up on the floor. Finally we were ready to start the movie. Troy and Jonathan loved the popcorn and were just like a couple of baby birds, going from parent to parent with mouths open saying, "Eh, Eh, Eh." Until Troy discovered how fun it was to stick his entire arm in the bag of popcorn and play around with it. Something about the texture really excited him.
The twins made it about 20 minutes into the movie before they were tired and ready for bed. We took a short intermission to put them to bed. After we started the movie again, Kevin watched for about 10 more minutes before he lost interest and went to his room to play with his trains. So family movie night ended up with Steve and me watching Disney's Robin Hood and trying to clean up a thousand popcorn kernals off the floor. It wasn't what I would call a disaster or anything, but not the family fun moment I had envisioned. I think we'll try it again when the kids are a little older perhaps. And watch a ten minute movie or something.