This Weekend in Photos

Its been a very warm weekend (hot and humid).

BJ and I had a great time in NYC Friday and Saturday celebrating our 23rd anniversary.

We went with some friends who were also celebrating their anniversary.

 I loved the sail around Manhattan.

 You get a view of the city that you wouldn't normally get unless you were in the water.

It was Fleet Week and I thought... somehow, I thought... we were going to be sailing ON a Tall Ship. Everyone laughed at me.

We actually were sailing around to SEE the tall ships. Everyone else seemed to know this but me. Furthermore,  the tall ships were no where to be found. They were all hiding, docked somewhere out of sight. HAH!

The weather was iffy all day. But it was perfect. We didn't get rained on at all. The clouds were cool to see, blowing in and around the skyline. We even got a sunset. Yay.

The night sky was beautiful too and just for the record, its very difficult to take pictures on a sailboat especially at night. My hand has gotten steadier through practice.



On Saturday we met up with Mitch for a while. He let us hang at his apartment in the heat of the day.

We found this at Central Park.

We also found a hideaway spot with a rock to sit on for our little picnic.

Yup. That's me in braids, fixing some cheese and crackers.



On Sunday the girls had a performance for a street festival. I played the piano for them. Jennah is there on the right. Isn't she the cutest?

They performed a few numbers from Anything Goes. 

Anika is in the middle with the reddish wig. They did a great job. I was a little disappointed with my performance, as usual. Its never perfect. Why can't I get my stuff perfect?

Caleigh. Hahaha. This cracked me up.

She got her face painted. I'm trying to be sure and help make memories with her. The youngest can get a little overshadowed--especially when the older ones just never leave. HAHA.

Jennah made a quick change out of her costumed and performed with a vocal jazz group. They had two very difficult pieces with really tight harmonies and I was proud of them. I wish she could be part of a vocal jazz group all year long. I wish I COULD BE A PART OF A VOCAL JAZZ GROUP all year long.

Sunday evening was our memorial day party at Cristina and Raul's house. Crazy, as usual.

Woot woot.

Photo bomb!! haha

Yay Melli moo.

I was originally going to write some complaints that need venting, because that always helps me move on. None of them having to do with the weekend, but they are just the general "getting ready for the summer" stress factors. But I remembered the great weekend and thought that it would be nice to recap that instead.

Saved by the lens. (camera lens).

Concerts and End of the School Year Stuff

I was going to post something about illegal immigrants and politics and decided against it. LOL!

There's lots going on around here. I haven't really been using my camera as much as I have over the past 5 years. I think I should recommit. Maybe I need a new lens for inspiration. The skills get rusty and I get lazy too. Need something to spark...

Anyway, we've been working on the yard and having all kinds of events and happenings here, there and everywhere. Its hard to keep track. Its SPRING right? My kids have a tendency to spring things on me last minute. I'm not really involved with the PTO (i.e. involved in all the goings-on at school) anymore, so I'm kind of in the dark about a lot. When I was involved, a greater portion of my time was spent trying to be sure parents, kids and teachers were informed about everything, as well as including communications with photos, so that if they were unable or unwilling to attend an event, they could still feel like they experienced it to some degree. Its good to make people wish they came to something. Right? No one really does that anymore in the PTO. I'm not sure if what I did for those 4 years is missed really, but my good friend, who has been faithfully a part of the PTO for probably 15 years, (go Mel) said she didn't think there would be one next year. What???!!!

Aw gee! I don't want to go back to it. Maybe I should, though. The plan was to create a vacuum so that new people would come into the picture. I guess the vacuum wasn't strong enough to suck 'em in to stay. LOL. Sad fact really. I think the fun factor is missing. Not fun during events but fun and crazy for the meetings. That went missing when we started to be accused of being a clique. Its such a fine balance. You don't want to seem exclusive, but not everyone has the ability to have fun the way we were doing it and so they didn't fit in completely. So we formed a REAL CLIQUE hahaha which is our group of friends who hang and do crazy stuff and take vacations together. And we mostly abandoned the PTO to those who didn't like our type of fun. Oh well.

So here we are at the end of the year. The kids have about 3 weeks left (give or take, depending on what grades they are in). It seems that they have a field trip every other day, or an unused inclement weather day, or sick day. Ayi yi yi. If they would just be done already!!!

Caleigh had her spring concert two weeks ago. She was excited about her "solo" for chorus, which she had auditioned for and everything, but it was a shared thing and she had about 4 lines of a verse. Why even bother? She has such a pretty voice, but that almost didn't even count as a solo. Sheesh! Next year baby. Next year. You gotta fight for it!!! Hahahaha... kidding.

Last week was the secondary school spring concert. Pictured below are my three. The two in the front (Lizzy and Anika) and the one in the back (Jennah).

The high school chorus.

Seniors had a solo piece. They choose Heartless, recorded by both Kanye West and The Fray. This was the Fray's version (But still... that's what they chose?) Anika was one of the soloists there on the right, next to Brenden and Caanan.

Lizzy and Jennah are the two on the far left on the risers.

And then there's the fabulous accompanist. I can't say that this concert felt amazingly inspirational. Oh well. But I will never forget one of my clique members in the audience cheering for me "Go Karen" and then starting the humorous chant we joke around with at our private parties "She's drunk! She's drunk! she's drunk!". O.M.G. BAAAHAHAHAHAA! Raul!! He can be completely inappropriate without even realizing it. But I will laugh about that for a long time.

The spring concert always includes an art show of the students art work.  The displayed was  very good. Anika had several pieces on display and wow, she has become quite the artist. She even had a few offers on some of her work. Pretty cool.

Next up on the agenda, Tall Ships in NYC Harbor this weekend to celebrate our 23rd anniversary, then performances which include my girls (I'll be accompanying) at a street festival in Riverhead on Sunday, then Memorial Day party with The Clique right on into June which is a whole other bag of tricks. My parents will arrive in a few weeks and Anika's graduation is on June 24th. I still need to get crackalackin on party plans and invitations etc. Egah!

One day at a time!! One day at a time!! Of course that doesn't help with planning ahead... At least I paid bills yesterday and took care of a huge pile of paperwork coming from all different sources. That was a major accomplishment (she's says while patting herself on the back).

What Was I Thinking?

Haha.

Over this past week I've lost the one little important word from my vocabulary. The word, NO! And now the consequences are that I feel just a bit stressed... all up in my neck and back. I'm fine actually. It's just that I ended up being at the school yesterday from 9 am- 8:30 pm with only an hour home for lunch. That was an unplanned day for sure and I really had a pile of things needing to be tackled.

I have so many things swarming in my head right now... mostly tasks that need to be accomplished. I should go check out pinterest!!!

That's sarcasm, but really... pinterest has, in fact, helped me with some of my tasks along the way. The ideas I've run across there , many times have been solutions to personal household dilemmas. But mostly its a time snatcher.

I guess I need to make my handy dandy list again. OH. I just felt another rush of stress, because making a list is now another thing I'll need to do. I could use a jacuzzi for a few hours (actually a work out would be more beneficial, but not nearly as relaxing).

You might just say I'm in a personal funk. I think its this "getting older" thing. My metabolism is slow. I'm much less active and don't care. I miss having that youthful zeal I once had, but I don't want to fight for it. I know the things I need to do to change some of this, but I no longer have the discipline. Oh bother.

Sooo... maybe I'll feel better about things tomorrow.

May Mommy Madness

For me it happens in May, not in March. Er... well maybe the madness can be attributed to both months. The calendar goes from 0 - 60 in about 5 seconds. And if you want to change something on me, there is a good chance that I will change it on my computer calendar and never get to sync with my phone until I've missed the change completely. (I know all about iCloud but I'm sharing my itunes account with 5 others in the house, so no thank you).

This weekend was great. I went to a woman's conference called Among Friends, hosted by Kathy Trocolli, a native Long Islander. She, along with Ellie Lafero and Donna VanLiere, were THE hilarious and ever so entertaining trio. And I do believe they felt quite comfortable to be back in NY, where they could use their wit and quips readily and have the audience right there with them erupting in laughter, applause and tears. KT's piano player was phenomenal, also.

I may or may not have been elbowed in the gut a few too many times by one of the three others who attended with me... always 10 seconds late on the jokes and 50 times too loud with the response. And... loved to tell the rest of us something that was said during one of the sessions, as if we weren't even there. Gaaahhh!

We also went out to the Blacksmith Tavern after the Friday night session to hear a live band playing 70s and 80s music. They were awesome. Ahh good times.

Mother's Day was great... although I ended up cleaning up the kitchen after the lovely breakfast made for me, running around like crazy in the morning to get kids where they needed to be for work, appropriate homes and then on to church, coming home to vacuum the enormous amount of dirt tracked in by the boyz working out in the yard for me, unloading and loading the dishwasher twice in one day and vacuuming an enormous amount of dirt tacked in again when I got home from a lovely time out for dinner. Sheesh! I had mixed emotions about whether I was really pampered or not.

Can you read what's written in the sand?

Life is good, just a little crazy, trying to squeeze everything in and be successful and responsible with the commitments.

Violets

Aren't they pretty? I even like the name Violet. But...

I made the mistake of allowing a beautiful small batch to grow in my perennial garden last year. Guess what? They took over several plants by the mid summer and now, this early spring they are everywhere!!!

Dang.

I've read that they are edible and the flowers are rather sweet. The leaves can go in a salad or be thrown in a pasta dish. No, I think I'll pass. They will also take over the lawn very easily, choking out the grass.

I'm such a great gardener... still dealing with the ragweed I allowed to grow up last spring until I realized what it was. I need to grab up all the mile-a-minute weeds just beyond our fence again too. So much work to having a nice yard. Maybe we should have left it all scraggly woods with lots of ticks. Now we have a pool to open and clean and gardens to tend and outdoor furniture to wash up for the season. (Isn't this what Adrienne means by #firstworldproblems)?

BJ came home from work last night in a rush to run over to a client's house before dark to rescue the perennials that were doomed to destruction in less than 24 hours. He brought back at least $250 worth a plants. Hooray!!!

 ...some peonies--not sure what color, but I love peonies.

 ...astilbe which are some of my favorites and we were finally able to fill in some of the front yard garden beds with lots and lots of them. Don't know what color they will be. Isn't this exciting?

...a nice big Rhododendron which works very well in our climate. Not my favorite but we had a great spot for it.

...some grasses which look very much like what I weed out of the hostas, so I'm a little skeptical, but BJ swears they are something that will have a bloom at some point. We'll see.

My daylilies are getting a little out of hand, if anyone wants some...

I've noticed a lot more cardinals visiting lately. They are my favorite bird.

So, all is well in our outdoor Kool Daze world, and so far I haven't lost any sleep worrying about the garden or weeds taking over or whatever other panic I may wake up to in the middle of the night. The deer better stay out! No munching allowed.

What Day Is It?

I just got back yesterday evening from the city. (I wish it had been from Hawaii!!!). I was photographing a Macaroni Kid event for Family Travelers and Bloggers. It was a really kool conference, with some really helpful information. One topic that was covered in a break-out session was "How to Become a Better Writer". I didn't stay to long in that session and I'm sure she gave some very helpful tips (I wasn't there for the actual conference, but rather as photographer) but when she said to limit using exclamation points to ONE PER YEAR???!!! Yeah... well I chuckled about that.

OK. Here's the real deal. I know about business. I understand many things about becoming a great business person and starting up a company and what kinds of things are needed to become successful, but I am not inspired about business. Never have been. I had my own business teaching Musikgarten and had many other business experiences along the way. I would not say that I failed at any of my business attempts, I just realized that it was not "me". I don't enjoy the business side of things. So, in those seasons, such as when I was building my music studio via  Musikgarten, there would always come a time when I decided I didn't want to continue torturing myself, and I'd move onto what was more in my arena of inspiration. There was a time in my younger life when I had 11 piano students, was the worship leader at church and sometimes taught Sunday school, wife of the pastor, I was homeschooling two of my children, had another toddler besides the two in school, and gave birth to my forth child. I think I only took off a week from teaching piano. Those were good times, but crazy crazy crazy!

I think my issue is that I don't want to be tied down to something that I have to always labor intensively to make more palatable to the public. Sure, I'm competitive... for fun i.e. beach volleyball and pictionary and scrabble, but not so much for publicity and promotion in this other world of moneymaking. I'm not sure I even like to be around those people. LOL. My favorite times of gaining publicity was when I was doing it voluntarily. Don't get me wrong. I like to make money. I enjoy the type of work I can pick up here and there or how I'm able to make my own hours and the work is always there to be done. But I don't want to have to chase it down. I don't like that driven world of chasing clients, trying to keep the clients and promoting the brand.

So, now that its Tuesday (I think), I'm going to another conference this Friday and Saturday, and this time for me. The motivation is for spiritual enrichment. That's more my style. I'm totally looking forward to the worship times, which I miss a lot!!! I want to be enraptured in God's presence and want to be moved by His amazing love. Its personal. Not so sure I'm ready to sit in a room listening to some more people talk for several "sessions" [heavy sigh]. Not sure I want to visit another a hotel room with 3 others, hoping to be able to actually sleep. I'm fighting with myself... wondering if I'll be able to get past the attitude by the time Friday comes around. I've never enjoyed conferences... probably because I know how closely related it is to promotions and PR and moneymaking. Vicious cycle.

To the City Again

Its a paying gig this time. I had to brush off my camera (and by that I mean literally--I cleaned the sensor and blew out all the collecting dust). It should be a fun time. I'm staying overnight. I'm trying to keep myself feeling relaxed about it... as my teeth chatter.

On Friday I'm going to an overnight conference with some friends. Its Kathy Trocolli among Friends. I think it will be beneficial.

There is a lot going on this month.

Terry and I have our anniversary coming up too. We are taking a trip back into the city later in the month for a sailing trip around the NY Harbor... on a tall ship... at sunset. Sooooo excited.

The school year is getting closer and closer to the end. Now its just a bunch of awards ceremonies and field trips and review for exams.

We still need to get the back yard ready for Anika's graduation. We usually start our backyard parties around Memorial Day Weekend. The garden is planted as of today. The perennials are coming up (along with the weeds). Our outdoor shower needs to be enclosed before too long so it can be used for REAL showers. Presently we have 8 people and two bathrooms. As of next week we will have 9 and by the end of June we'll have 11. Our downstairs bathroom shower tiles have caved in. Presently we continue to use the shower because duct tape is the master temporary standby. We have major bathroom renos planned but it will be very interesting if we have 11 people to one bathroom. HAH! yea. I don't think so.

Maybe a porta potty and the outdoor shower will suffice. I wonder what my parents think of that idea!!! LOL.

This one is lovely. It even has a bamboo plant for ambiance.

As for the outdoor shower, the shower is already there with hot and cold water, it just needs the enclosure for privacy. Here are some possibilities:

Gotta love this. Just stick it out in the woods more.

Ooooh. Very nice.

This is the most likely and the easiest.