Oops! I did it again!
Or should I say "eeps?" (Hi Lisa!) Okay, so this time it has been way over a month since I've posted. In fact, this is quite embarrassing, I hadn't even looked at my own blog and missed a comment by Jenny. I'm flattered that my babbling is more interesting to read than research for a master's thesis. I think. Anyway, good idea on the pics Jenny. It is quite late, but I'll try to find a few fun extended family pictures to post.
Wow, what a busy weekend we've had and Mara wins the prize for most patient 2-year-old EVER. Saturday night we went to see Nikki perform in Beauty and the Beast at the high school. It was great! While there were a few glitches I was very impressed with the quality for a high school performance. This director doesn't believe in doing anything halfway so costumes and scenery were amazing. It was an almost three hour performance and each time a song ended or the lights went down, Mara turned to me and said, "do it again." At the end, when I had to break the news that the play was over, she became quite angry, repeating "do it again" several times accompanied by slapping me with the light-up rose in her hand. While I find the temper tantrum a big concern, I was amazed at her interest in the play and her ability to sit still for such a long time. There will be three more performances this coming weekend so Nikki will still be gone from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. for 6 more days. Well, make that 1 a.m. the next day for actual performance days. (Cast parties--what happened to the one-big-cast-party-on-the-last-night concept?)
Yesterday we traveled to Longmont to enjoy Bobby's last performance in Stars of Tomorrow. It was a wonderful performance for which he took second place in the senior category. I personally think he should have taken first but the winner was great as well. (I'm sure I have no bias--he is just a great violin player.) It is so hard to watch Nikki and Bobby as they do all of these high school things for the last time. I can't believe we have so few months left before they both take off for their adult lives. How could they possibly have grown up so quickly? They are supposed to be "the babies." I tear up everytime I think how close we are to the end of an era for our family.
However, I digress. Once again, Mara sat for an almost three hour event, though not quite so still and enthralled this time around. I was intrigued to watch her little hands trying to imitate what the violin players were doing during the performances. I've assumed we'd give her piano lessons like her big sisters but maybe I need to revisit that.
After the talent event in Longmont we headed down to Erie to meet some new friends. I have been spending much too much time lately reading and communicating on the Yahoo groups associated with Chinese adoption. It is a habit I'm trying to corral because though I do learn some new things, it is very time consuming. Meanwhile, one of the groups I've been involved with is for people all over the world whose dossiers went to China in December. In one of those, "it's a small world after all" moments, I came in contact with other families here in the northern Colorado area that will be traveling to China about the same as Jeff and I. Last night one couple invited all of us all over for dinner. It was a good time to meet new people and spend time with old friends as well, since the Collins are one such family and they were also at the dinner. We enjoyed sharing our experiences with people still waiting on their first adoption and activities like this help pass the time while the CCAA is moving ever so slowly toward our referral.
On February 7th we enjoyed seeing Nikki perform in the All State Choir Concert. We were so proud that she was chosen to participate and she had a wonderful time spending three days with the best of the best in her chosen musical field. The kids arrived in Ft. Collins on Sunday, February 5 for a two-night stay at the Hilton Hotel. They spent all day Monday and Tuesday preparing for a beautiful performance on Tuesday evening. Mara made it through the entire performance with barely a peep. (Though she did NOT sit still. My muscles were screaming the next day from trying to keep her from kicking the seat in front of her in time to the music.)
I realize I'm going backwards in time here but the week before All State Choir, Nikki participated in the All City Band Concert. The chosen participants spent 4 or 5 evenings (I'm not sure because Nikki was gone for play practice each evening throughout January and apparently just took a break from this to practice with the band. I didn't even know she was doing it until she told me about the upcoming performance.) On the day of the performance, the students spent the entire day practicing at the Union Colony Civic Center with guest conductors from around the country. It was an impressive concert and once again, Mara sat through the entire performance, with only one small ordeal when she bumped her head and started to cry. Unfortunately, that was at a crucial point when all was silent waiting for a song to begin.
So you can see that Nikki is a very busy young lady we seldom see, unless we go to her performances. I'm so looking forward to the play being over next weekend so she can be home more. I want to spend some time with her before she moves out!
And you can see that Mara is a veteran cultural events audience member. I'm very proud of her ability to make it through these events and excited to see the level of interest she has in music and the arts.
Katelynn received word last week that she has been accepted into a study abroad program that will have her traveling to Shanghai for an 8-week stay this summer. Congratulations, Katy!! I'm very happy for her and very excited but I'm also quite sad that her last summer as a college student won't be spent with us. We'll miss you! But it is an excellent opportunity for her to really get to know China and an opportunity to practice that Chinese language she's been slogging through this year at school. Just don't decide you want to make it your permanent home, please.
Jenny, I have to agree with your theory that there is a huge difference in work ethic between generations. I would also have to say that it is family based. Jeff and my brothers all have a good work ethic, learned from parents. But there are an awful lot of people out there with the attitude "I'm owed a living whether I work for it or not." I'm sure there must be a large influence from the media but I can't help you out with any scientific studies proving such. At this point, over a month after your comments, I'm sure you have found much to work with. Did you ever find the e-mail you'd sent to yourself or did you indeed have to start over? The agony and the ecstasy of electronic research. Keep me updated on what you find out. Since we still have two more kids to instill with a good work ethic, this is very interesting to me.
Well, there is no solid news on referral dates. Rumor has it that referrals for May 14-June 16, 2005 dossiers will be in this week. If that does come to pass, that means the CCAA is back to doing a month at a time. If that holds up, we could get a referral as early as August. I still hold out my personal hope that they will decide to catch up a bit and do some 6 week or 2 month referral batches and we'll get our referral even earlier. That's what I'm praying for. The CCAA has been known to change on a dime, so anything can happen.
This is long--hope you've all held out. I'll try to take our life in shorter doses from here on. I'm posting some Christmas pictures and some Beauty and the Beast shots as well. I apologize for the quality of those. Trying to take them quickly without a professional quality camera results in less than wonderful pics.
posted by Laurie @ 12:49 PM
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