I begrudgingly let Katie buy electronic Monopoly (we already have two other versions) at a garage sale…but oh man did these three have fun with it! They were laughing and giggling and screaming for over two hours! I guess I got my $6 worth.
My sentiments, added emojis, and photo—but not my words…
Signed, Band Mom
🚌 A Friendly Seasonal PSA 🚌
🏈 Dear High School Football Fans,
Another season of Friday night lights is upon us. We’re all looking forward to seeing our kids play and perform. We know you’re so excited to see the football team take the field. As marching band fans, we’re excited to see our team take the field, too.
🥁 We’re all here for the same reason: to cheer on our kids and and support our schools and communities. We understand that you’re probably not in the stadium to see the marching band. But when they’re on the field for their halftime show, we ask that you kindly show respect for the band fan sitting next to you and let them listen.
🎵 Music is an auditory experience. They’re probably trying to hear their son or granddaughter or niece or friend play. Talking while that happens is like standing directly and intentionally in the line of vision of a football parent while their child is making a game-winning play.
👏🏻 On the other hand, please DO cheer for the band: clap and yell when they take the field and between songs in their show and after a soloist finishes playing and pretty much anytime they do a formation that looks particularly tricky. These are the band’s equivalent of touchdowns.
💖 Football players work incredibly hard; so do our band kids. They march and practice and play and learn drill and give up summer free time in 90-degree heat to get their “game” ready, too. There’s no “marching band madness” coverage to balance out “football frenzy” on the 11 o’clock news, and the local newspaper probably didn’t give a run-down of their show and who’s on their roster and what they’re expecting from the season. The halftime show IS their big moment.
💯 And all those formations the football team puts together on the field? The marching band has them, too. But instead of trying to make them work with eleven team members at one time, the band has to do it with 50 or 100 or more players all at once. This sounds tricky because it is.
At most high schools, members of the football team are lauded and applauded and respected and admired, which is great for them. But at a lot of those same schools, members of the marching band are made fun of. They do marching band anyway because they love it and want to be part of something bigger than themselves. The halftime show is their chance, for a few minutes, to be encouraged and cheered on.
And one more thing: if you see a marching band member after the game, tell them, “Great show tonight.”
🥰 Appreciatively,
Marching Band Fans Everywhere
(Written by Elizabeth Spencer/Guilty Chocoholic Mama)
Dinner with Anna and David at Primo!
And then taking the party home…with the dogs.
Our annual tradition of Chinese on our anniversary (we’re at 22 years!). Sometimes it’s dinner, sometimes it’s lunch. It’s usually Crab Rangoon and General Tsos chicken but today we went outside the box with coconut shrimp and it was super delish!
BTW, if Crab Rangoon is on a menu I’m getting it. And especially if it’s our wedding anniversary—we randomly had Chinese after our wedding and then randomly had it on our anniversary for the first few years so now it’s obviously a tradition!
It’s not anything crazy viral but for a little video of ours?
Any bets on how long it takes them to pee or poop on it?
Let’s just say this morning was a challenge (because KIDS). Thankfully it was just freshman orientation (half day, no Jazz Lab at 7:25) and we still managed to have smiles on our faces and Owen didn’t miss his bus!
And Owen told me they all went to the field to make their graduation year… And the school posted the photo!
First, it’s a gray rainy day so my natural light is…meh.
Second, I’ve been up since 4:30am when I rolled over and had to pee…and then couldn’t stop thinking about Owen and his new high school schedule. Let’s just say his love of all things band is throwing a wrench in things and I’m going to have to be up early to get him to school 4x/week by 7:20(ish) unless he wants to walk .7 miles to school.
Third, it’s a Monday.
Fourth, thank heavens for makeup that will last all day.
Katie’s art teacher picked a painting of hers to appear in the community art show so we went to check it out before the parade (which Owen was in).
We’ve been looking at these and researching them for a long time. Unfortunately the best ones are professional models that are expensive and huge! We finally bit the bullet for our upcoming annual end of summer party…
I loooove optical illusions…even when they drive me crazy!
Believe it or not, the circles in this image are all the same color. The only thing that differs is the color of the lines around them.
(I tested it. I opened it in my graphics program and color matched the circles.)
This image is a variation of the Munker Illusion, created by David Novick. The illusion is a vivid demonstration of the fact that we don’t directly perceive the colors of objects in the world. Instead, the perceptual system takes an educated “guess,” based on the objects’ surroundings.
Check out 11 more mind-bending perceptual illusions at Nautilus!
We ran into Kohl’s to see if they had any great clearance stuff. Then Katie saw these and was PISSED I would not let her get them.
I had to threaten to leave the cart and walk out of the store with nothing if she didn’t change her attitude.
Good times.
So, I took katie to Old Navy today and it wasn’t AS painful. But it still wasn’t fun. She did okay trying things on, and I’m trying to teach her things like “Even if you take a 14 at Old Navy, that’s just a guideline because every brand is different” — and then she tried a 16 in another brand and it was perfect.
Some things she didn’t need to try on (tee shirts) but toward the end one thing she liked I wanted her to try it on and she was like IT’S AN XS I KNOW IT WILL FIT. Yes. I said, it might, but I want you to make sure it fits how you want it and that you like it. (Because she had picked like three other things that she didn’t like once it was tried on.) But would she do it? Nope, so she had an attitude and was like FINE LET’S JUST GO. I said you could get this if you just go try it on and make sure. And she refused. Oh well.
A lot of people ask me how I can read so many books so quickly (I’ve finished 116 so far this year). I say I’m a fast reader.
So I just did a test to see.
I listened to 30 minutes of an audiobook at 1.25 speed (the fastest I can stand) and then read the same book for 30 minutes.
Audio book? 30 pages
Visual book? 60 pages
(I don’t have time for audio on a regular basis but listened on my walk this morning. I rarely listen to audio books because I have a hard time keeping my mind on task. Walking is about the only thing I can do.)
There are a bunch of websites that will test your reading speed — the one I took resulted in 387 WPM (Words per Minute). Take this quiz now to check yours!
So I took Katie school shopping and let’s just say it was…challenging.
Surprise! She didn’t like a single thing I picked out.
You’d think tennis shoes would be easy, right? She doesn’t like black. She doesn’t like bright colors. She didn’t like gray, aqua, or mauve. Oh she likes those—but nope, I’m not spending $60. She actually told me everything was mom shoes. What?
These are cute.
No, they’re mom shoes.
How are these mom shoes?
Ugh. You’re a mom—if you like them they’re mom shoes.
She finally accepted a beige pair.
And then HAD TO HAVE a pair of combat-looking boots pretty much exactly like the $60 Doc Martens she had to have last year (that still fit, mind you, but she doesn’t like them). I made her spend her own money on those. And then I had to say ABSOLUTELY NOT to a pair of black platform heels that she claimed were her most favorite shoes ever—when that’s what she said about the pink platform heels she got earlier this year. I had to keep saying “We’re filling holes in your wardrobe with things you can wear to school.”
And clothes? I think she liked one of 32 things I suggested. She just wanted 12 more Stitch t-shirts. No.
I texted Anna and told her this was her job next year.
