Rosie's Design Won the Patch Contest!

Rosie's Girl Scout troop will be going to the annual "Encampment" this weekend and she is very excited about it — she started packing last week. As with many GS events, there's a patch associated with it. We are new to Scouting, but it doesn't seem like they enlist for patch artwork submissions that often. However, we got a contest entry form for this event. When we originally got the flyer via email back in early March, I sort of blew it off, thinking it would be like many other contests that Rosie's entered and nothing would come of it.

Mid-March, I ran into the mom who was collecting the entries; she told me that was worried about the lack of submissions this year and whether they would have a viable option to choose from. When I was home with Rosie next, I talked her into making an entry. The text that needed to be included was daunting for her: all of "Girls Rock!" and "SU 53-3 Encampment 2012" needed to fit on the patch along with the art. If you know how big kids' writing can be, you'll understand why it seemed like it would fill the small space (2.5 in sq.). I helped out, just a bit, by lightly penciling in where I thought the text would fit best. Then Rosie did the rest, in crayon (we have markers, and colored pencils, and many other media, but she insisted).



Rosie's orginal artwork is on the left, and the resulting embroidered patch on the right.





I contacted the GS mom about Rosie's submission, because we had missed the deadline. Did she still need more entries? I got a two-word response: "SEND IT." Rosie originally drew tiny little girl-figures, much too small for the embroidery machine to work with, so the patch artist made them larger. Also, her two girls were originally more diverse, one with brown, curly hair and brown skin and the other with long black hair and pale skin — the final art limited the usable colors (there are 8 in the patch), so no brown (or pink).

This encampment is for all of the scouts in our County, so approximately 200 girls will be wearing Rosie's artwork on the patch they all receive. I think her original and the final patch are both lovely! Rosie will be so excited to have this as a keepsake of the contest that she won and of her time in Girl Scouts.

Dash's self portrait

I'm not a quitter, really

Hey everyone, I've been away for a while, I know. Partly, I've been consumed with training to become a aerobics instructor (see December's post) and partly because my life has been fairly uneventful. My kids are acting like human beings (rather than the adorable-but-slightly-alien-creatures that infants and toddlers are), doing their homework, after-school activities, chores, etc. So, normal.

Starting in April and up until last week, my daily schedule was:

• 5:15 a.m.-6 a.m.: Get up and practice aerobics choreography
• 6-6:30: Get ready for work
• 6:30-7:30: Get kids up, feed breakfast, pack lunches, head to morning care
• 7:45-5:15 p.m.: Commuting/work
• 5:15-6:45: Dinner/homework help/chores
• 7-8: Mon & Wed aerobics / Tues & Thurs Dash's Tae kwon do
•  (Weekends:  8-9 a.m. Sat & Sun, Jazzercise)

When I went to aerobics classes throughout April, the instructors would announce each class that I was a trainee and let me come on stage with them, so I was getting a lot of experience co-leading classes all month. However, through March and April, the center owner took me aside to chat a few times to discuss what a commitment that aerobics was, and how flexible my schedule was, and, really, no red flags went up at first.

It wasn't until mid-April that I started to hear rumblings from the two new instructors that were certified in March. The center just added two new classes per week, and the new instructors had assumed that they were going to be assigned to them; however, the classes were assigned to current instructors with more seniority. The new instructors would only be able to substitute for classes that the current instructors gave up to them, or they would need to travel to classes at other centers. Also, one of the instructors (with two classes per week) who said she was moving away decided to stay. On top of all this, the center owner —who had only been teaching personal training classes—started teaching aerobics classes on the main schedule again. I began to feel concerned and squeezed out. Teaching opportunities seemed much scarcer than they had when I signed on.

The math is what helped clinch my decision to put off the certification:

• When I started, there were 6 instructors and 13 classes, which is a ratio of about >2 classes per instructor. It gets messy when you get down to some instructors have 2 or 3 classes each and others have 1-1/2 (sharing with another teacher), but that's essentially it.
• What I *thought* was happening was that the one instructor was leaving, two new instructors were coming on and the center was adding two new classes. So 7 instructors, 15 classes, with essentially the same ratio, >2.
• What actually happened was this: there are now 9 instructors and 15 classes, with a ratio of 1-1/3 classes per instructor. 2 instructors have 3 classes each, leaving 9 classes for 7 instructors. 3 of those 7 instructors have 2 classes each, leaving 3 classes for the remaining 4. Two of those instructors each have a class and share one class, leaving the 2 new instructors with substitution options only.

With those two instructors getting all the substitution jobs, what would I be left with? The hard reality is: a travelling substitute, teaching at other centers, driving through rush-hour traffic at the whim of an injury, sick kid, or vacation, continuing to prepare for classes that might appear at a moment's notice.

I'm not THAT flexible. And there's a new requirement that instructors _must_ teach 4 classes per month.

I was planning to teach or substitute at my center during the week, or teach or travel as a substitute on the weekends. I just learned that the weekend substitution jobs are prime and get snapped up immediately, so it would be very unlikely that I could rely on weekend-only work. And I just can't travel during the week or I'd be having marriage issues. So, I'm putting aerobics instructor training on hold. Maybe in a year or two the teacher-to-class ratio will change? People are always relocating for jobs or love, or Bob-forbid, get injured. I did all the work and I feel great, super-fit. I know I CAN do it, and that counts for me.

For now, I keep taking classes — which I LOVE!!! — and will keep my ears pricked to changes in the schedule.

The dishwasher saga (a hand-washer's life for me)

We knew we needed to replace the dishwasher, but when exactly does buying a new appliance become a *critical* need?

Feb 14: The dishwasher starts making a funny noise. Monkeyrotica and I discuss replacing it, because we'd decided last year that we wouldn't put any more money into repairs. In 2010, we replaced its heating element, and in 2008, it flooded the house — twice.

Feb 18: We shop at Lowe's and kick around a few dishwashers. We agree on a brand and some components that we both like, but decide that we should budget and save up for it first. Instead, we buy a new ceiling fan with overhead light (the bedroom's been mighty dark) and a kid-friendly shower head for the upstairs bath.

Feb 22: Plumber arrives to fix some leaks, install new shower head. He advises that our water pressure is much too high and installs a "pressure decreasing valve."

Feb 23: Dishwasher mysteriously stops cleaning top-rack dishes and the hand-washing starts. Not a big deal yet. I assume it's a water-pressure issue and think about calling the plumber back to increase the pressure, just a bit.

Mar 7: Dash accidentally drops his toothbrush into the upstairs toilet while flushing, completely blocking it. I *actually* call the plumber and schedule him to come back for both tasks, still hoping that increasing the water pressure will fix the dishwasher (I'm going to call it DW from here on out).

Mar 9: Plumber arrives, removes toothbrush and as a courtesy, checks out the DW. Explains that the DW has its own pump that maintains water pressure separate from the house. In his opinion, the pump has ceased to work (he doesn't adjust the household pressure). Our eight-year-old Kenmore DW needs to be replaced.

Later that day, we buy a new DW through Amazon.com marketplace and take advantage of Monkeyrotica's free shipping plan. Perfect. I get a delivery window of March 15-20.

Mar 12: Old DW stops working altogether, top *and* bottom racks now.

Mar 14: I got a message that the new DW was damaged during shipping and that would add a week to the delivery estimate. I phone back to insist that since the damage was their fault, they needed to get the delivery expedited and deliver during the same window. They could not promise, but ship another one out the same day. They didn't have a tracking number yet, but tell me to call back in a couple of days to check the shipping status. I've been handwashing dishes for three weeks now.

Mar 16: I phone the shipper in the morning and give them my order number and some of the backstory, asking for the new tracking number. The guy sputters a bit and tells me there is a note on my order that the second shipment is damaged. He tells me that he will check on my order and call me back. About an hour later, he calls back and confirms that the 2nd new DW is indeed damaged and suggests that I phone the appliance dealer. Fed up with these clowns, I phone customer service and cancel the order, confirming with a nice lady named Christina that they are NOT shipping another DW and I will get my money refunded.

Not willing to wait any longer, I find a different DW dealer online and order a new DW from the new dealer. Later that afternoon, the first dealer's sales guy calls Monkeyrotica's phone number and tries to convince him that there was no DW shipped on  Mar 14 and no 2nd washer was damaged. In fact, the 2nd DW was just leaving their warehouse today. We didn't really want to cancel the order, did we?

GAH!! At least we have enough paper plates and cups to last us a while. We should have our new DW in our home, installed by a professional, in about another week.

The cuteness was distracting last night

I am *so* thankful that Jazzercise allows kids to stay while I'm taking a class, especially my kids: I brought both of them last night. Monkeyrotica was out at a happy hour, so it was up to me to help them with homework, feed them, and entertain them until bedtime. I got it all done before 7 p.m., so off to class we three went, with the admonition that they had to take turns playing games on my iPhone. The rules are when one of them lost their game, they'd have to hand the device over to their sibling.

About a third of the way through class, I caught a glimpse of them both staring into space, with my iPhone drooping in Rosie's hand. I checked in and found out that the phone's battery had powered out. Oh well, kids! You'll have to entertain yourselves.

That's when things started getting silly. Here are some of the scenes I caught whenever I peeked over at them:

• Dash curled up in a ball, Rosie draped over him
• Rosie laying on her back, Dash sitting on her belly
• Both of them playing dead/asleep (impossible at a 50db dance aerobics class)
• Piling up and sitting on multiple foam exercise mats
• Setting up foam exercise mats into a two-walled fort
• Setting up foam exercise mats into a four-walled fort
• Setting up foam exercise mats into a double-decker, four-walled fort
• Peering over the edges of their fort and collapsing into giggles if anyone made eye contact
• Knocking over their fort walls and giggling
• Shrieking when adults snuck up on their fort to scare them

They were cracking me up! If my iPhone wasn't already dead, I totally would have taken photos. By the end of class, I had so many people come up to me and tell me how adorable my kids were, it was heartwarming. One friend in class told me that she wished she were playing with them in their fort instead of taking class, they looked like they were having such a good time.

A good memory I wish to keep. :-)

Kids' health, as good as expected

Rosie had her nine-year check-up a few weeks ago (what? didn't she turn 9 in November? and yes, true, I'm just kind of a slacker with making doc appointments. anyway...) and looks great, as usual! Even though friends are always telling us, "She's so tall!" in reality, her height remains in the 58th percentile, her weight also is steady in the 70th percentile. You could probably go back to when she turned three or four and find the same numbers for Rosie. :-)

She should be riding her bike more and swimming more (repetitive motion helps develop stamina), but we'll work harder on that as it gets warmer. I'm planning to put her and Dash in their school's track club when registration opens for spring. Speaking of Dash...

We moved him from karate to a tae kwon do studio that is closer to home and doesn't hold classes in the middle of rush hour, primarily to make things easier for me — I loved that karate dojo. Hilarious, to me anyway, is that even though the TKD blue belt level (he was just promoted to blue from white belts in karate) is _much_ more advanced in TKD, they are letting him keep it. Instant promotion for Dash! He's also sporting a super-short haircut due to a bout of head-lice that threw me for a spinning loop -buzzcut-> shampoo-> bedding strip/laundry-> nit-picking- last Monday morning. Today, he's got a low-grade fever that he's had since Tuesday morning and will probably keep him out of school another day. He's in great spirits, otherwise!

And, per Grandma S's request, there you have a couple cute photos of the kids. Cheers.

Feast of Lights: flashback

[I'm reposting one of my most popular blog articles, originally posted in December 2008, in celebration of Hanukkah. Thanks to my wonderful commenters, I have the composer's name, correct lyrics and a YouTube video now! Happy Holidays to all.] 

Back when my dad worked at the National Labs, many of his coworkers came from all over the globe. Highly educated engineers, physicists, and scientists from Germany, Poland, China, India, or Russia all found important work to do in their fields alongside Americans from across the country. No matter their religion, when December came around in the '70s, there was an office Christmas Party, complete with Santas everywhere, angels and reindeer, and songs about glorifying the savior's birth. Christianity was assumed, but if you were Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim you came to the party anyway, because you were expected to or just to celebrate the spirit of the season (and there was free food!). In the time before political correctness, expecting a nod toward any non-Christian religion at a mainstream office party was too much to hope for.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my sister M. and I featured regularly in the singing at the ANL Xmas parties. We dutifully learned our songs in elementary school chorus class to prepare for the annual Christmas choral program. We were pretty good! Our little eight- and six-year-old voices were sweet and earnest. One year at his office party, my dad asked us to sing our favorite Christmas carol. After a brief conference (in which I argued for my favorite, a beautiful song in a haunting minor key), we sang this lovely song, Feast of Lights, composed by Frederick Silver:

Video credit: The Primes Girl Choir of South Florida performs "A Feast of Lights" by Fredrick Silver live during the 2010 Winter Concert "Timbrel and Harp" on December 11, 2010, at Second Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associate Director: Gretchen Fasulo.

I remember Mama lighting the Menorah,
Then covering her head she'd start to pray.
When Papa finished reading from the Torah, 

Mama, smiling down on me, would say:

May your days and nights
Be a feast of lights
The eternal flame, may it glow in you,
And the Holy One
May He know in you only love

May the light of peace
Shine and never cease
And the glow of wisdom illumine in you
May you never hate, though it's human to;
May you know love.

May you go through life
With your head up to the sky
May you never walk in shame
In sight of the light of the One
Who has no name

This I wish for you.

May your days and nights
Be a feast of lights
Have a warmth for all of humanity
For without it, life is but vanity
May you have love.

May you have faith, and
May you have strength, and
May the Lord grant
Your life will have length
May it be sweet yet strong

May your days and nights
be a feast of lights
Your whole life long. 


Of all the many unsuspecting, long-suffering Jewish coworkers at the Christmas party? There was not a dry eye.

Happy Belated Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate this season. May you know love.