The Magic of an Ordinary Day

yikes

Holidays are such a blur.

There's the cooking and baking, the shopping, the wrapping.... uhg.  I'd really and truly just as well skip it all.  I swear next year we are going to Mexico and skipping all the crap.

Christmas day was the usual chaos and I was on call on the 26th but the cool thing was that I was able to do quotes and launch planes between games of hungry hungry hippos with Hannah.  That's the very cool thing about my job.

Our bathroom has been worked on during the holidays so that has been fun, too.  The construction mess is always a pain to deal with but at this point we are set to paint tomorrow and the tiler will tile over New Year's.  I still have to pick out towels and a shower curtain and stuff like that but we are almost there.  It's going to be beautiful!

Another high point to this otherwise crazy time is that two weeks ago we switched my migraine medication over to topamax and I haven't had a migraine since I started it.  Which is HUGE for me, considering I was having 2-3 a week.  Even my almost daily headaches have decreased.  The only downside is that I have been experiencing horrible fatigue with it.  It's an expected side effect and should decrease the longer I'm on it so I just have to tough it out.  I'm very encouraged, though.   

the Christmas concert

The Christmas concert at Hannah's preschool, the Prince of Peace, was on Friday night.  And although I have been a music fan and have played or enjoyed music most of my life I wasn't looking forward to it.  Because, let's face it... unless it's your kid, it's just not cute.  It just isn't.  Coming off a long week and very little sleep on Thursday (along with the requisite headache that is my constant companion these days) I was so not up for it. 

And I have to say that I am glad that I went, and even glad that I stayed past the preschooler's portion of the program, which was of course first.   I didn't have high hopes when a jazz band opened up for the pre-concert concert.  Jazz band for elementary/middle school is pretty ballsy.  They have a guy who plays with a local symphony who coordinated this whole thing and did a fabulous job.  I could imagine that whole experience would have to be like herding cats.  Seriously.

Our little Hannah has been talking about the concert for weeks now and was all excited about it and although she wasn't the most enthusiastic performer out there at least she didn't show her panties off to the entire congregation.  So it's all an improvement.

Here's Hannah... and look!  She's standing next to boys!  

   

right now I ...

• am watching one of our planes clear customs in Great Falls, Montana.  Gotta love the internet!
• just finished tucking Hannah in after she got up to use the bathroom.
• am looking forward to my Mom coming to spend the winter.  She gets here next week.
• am thankful that my nephew will be joining us for Christmas.
• am still wracking my brain on what to get my hubby for Christmas.
• am glad tomorrow's Friday.
• have a headache.  again.
• hope to be able to sleep tonight.  I'm flight coordinating and we've still got two planes in the air so that hope is a little iffy.
• am looking forward to seeing Ottmar Liebert next week with our friends Don and Candi.  
• am thankful that I am sitting here in my warm house in the mountains with my daughter in her bunk bed.  I love the quiet.  

 

 

the nutcracker

We went to the Nutcracker yesterday at Popejoy Hall.  We went to a matinee, which usually I don't care for but when you have a four year old it's the only thing that makes sense.  It was a little chaotic in the morning getting ready...Dwayne worked the night before and had to sleep fast for 3 hours, I was on call for Medflight and we are down one bathroom. 

Since we were all wearing shoes and all, I decided to take some photos.  Hannah was pretty much done with us at this point and just wanted to get going.

Here's Hannah's pretty dress that she picked out.  Sorry about the weird cast from the walls.

 

Here we are...notice Hannah's complete boredom with this whole process.  And the fact that my remote control on my camera doesn't focus too well. 

 

So it was on to Popejoy Hall.  Hannah was really good (much better than the child behind me who chitchatted throughout the entire performance.  In the real world I would have turned around and given her the stink eye, but I kept reminding myself that this was a children's ballet and a matinee to boot so I let it go).  It was Dwayne's first experience with the ballet as well.

The performance was good and it was so good to hear a live orchestra.  I played oboe in school and absolutely love it, and it was so good to hear it featured, especially in the Arabian Dance (which is in fact my favorite).  And speaking of the Arabian dance, they had a man and woman doing it and the man was just gorgeous.  A little lot more beef than I'm used to in a ballet dancer but the two of them moved as one, with lots of lifting and wrapping around each other.  It was just stunning. 

The Chocolate (Spanish) dance also had a unique flair.  As a nod to the Spanish roots here in New Mexico (I think) the males in the dance did Flamenco steps (complete with flamenco shoes) and the pounding rhythm of their feet was unexpected but very very cool. 

So it was a fun day for all and I hope to go back next year.

NEXT....

Next project, that is.

While I was having one of the rare extremely crappy days at work yesterday, Dwayne was getting plumbing quotes and starting to demo our bathroom.  Besides the usual slipshod and amateurishly dangerous electric job, there were no surprises,  And no dead rodents yet, but the wall isn't completely down yet so I personally have high hopes.

The wall, you see, had a layer of Sheetrock, a layer of plywood and then the 1 by 8 plank boards on it. No easy job taking that down. 

Here's our progress so far (and I say "we" and "our" I really mean my hubby):

note the mold or whatever it is where the former medicine cabinet is.  There used to be a water heater in this corner (that had to be charming) so I wonder if that is the source of it.

And of course, there is the obligatory two layers of vinyl flooring to deal with.

Dwayne's got the electric, plumbing and tile guys set up so we're good to go on that end.  We just need to get the walls stripped and all the tile taken out.  If I get home before 9 pm this week, I'll help so he doesn't get stuck with all the work.  I'd like to hit something with a hammer.