Beam Me Over Scotty!

I'm going to Scotland in a week.  I'M GOING TO SCOTLAND IN A WEEK!  This is a big deal for me, a homebody who has never even left the country.  It's true.  I'm quite content to stick around home.  Bucket list?  There isn't one.  My greatest travel aspirations might include road trips around the country to see the national parks.  That would be nice.

But my children are very different than me.  Well, at least two of them... so far.  The two oldest.  They get around.  If you have read my blog from the beginning, you know those two boys have lived in Taiwan, Japan, China, (Utah) and now, you guessed it... Scotland.  Glasgow to be specific.  My oldest and his wife (front center and front left in this picture of my family) are living in the West End for a year while he gets a masters in International Politics-China at the University of Glasgow.

And yes, said university looks like Hogwarts to me.

Well, it WAS founded in 1451.

Anyway, something happened last summer and now there's this...

And that's why I'm going to Scotland in a week.

Yes, my first grandchild.

A pale, blond or red headed, freckly baby girl should arrive

about the same time I do... keep your fingers crossed. 

Knock on wood.  Say a prayer.  Whatever works.  

My plans in Scotland are to be a homebody there, too.  

I need to take care of the new mama so she can take care of her new sweetie pie.

No other big plans while I'm there...

well...

Ok... maybe I could sneak out for a little while and see this:

I mean... it's located right on the university grounds.

I'm talking about The Mackintosh House, a reassemblage of interiors

from one of my favorite architects, leader in the art nouveau movement,

and legendary Glaswegian, Charles Rennie Mackintosh!

 Among his gorgeous designs:

The iconic trademark Mackintosh rose,

the 1898 Argyle chairs and the famous 1902 Hill House chair (center)!

I used to have a Mackintosh Rose poster up in my kitchen in Provo

when I attended BYU for Interior Design back when this boy I'm visiting was born.

So, it's meant to be.  I need to sneak over there...

...and maybe on the way I might come across a thrift shop or two...

or a fabric shop here and there.

There's a Cath Kidston in Glasgow.

And not that I've been cruising all over the google map of Glasgow

and obsessed with street view and checking out fabric shops called

Timorous Besties, Mandors, Remnant Kings, or Zum Zum...

or thrift shops with fascinating names like

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor... but, I digress...

Anyway.

We'll see about all that.

First, I need to concentrate on someone who

I used to think would someday look like this:

An early Victoria magazine picture cropped from an article about something vintage that I loved back in the 90s.  This beautiful little girl, whoever she is, is all grown up now.  I used to think if my son and his wife had a daughter, she might look like this.  But now I think she'll be even more fair and more blond.  We'll see, won't we?

Until then,

Cheerio and Haste Ye Back!

Ghosts of Easter Past

What I'm really loving about this Easter picture of my brothers, sister and I are those very cool, snappy white Texas blazers and narrow dark ties my brothers are wearing.  Pretty cool.  And they actually look proud to be photographed in them.

The sisters get equal strut time two years later on Easter Sunday 1965.  We are awfully proud of our Easter hats, full skirts and white gloves.  And I'm really tripping on that cool paisley print my sister is wearing.  I wonder what color it was?  How I'd love some of that yardage now!  Brad and David are synchronized in their head tilting "Aw, do I hafta get my picture taken?" pose or maybe there's a breeze blowing through the new house in Wisconsin.  Who knows?

Here's to your Easter finest.

Happy Easter!

p.s. I'm trying some silk dyed eggs as I write this.  

I'll post some pics if they turn out.

Her Nickname...? Piano Pounder

She came.  She pounded.  She conquered.

 My 19-year-old daughter flew 1200 miles home this last weekend

to compete in the Chapman Memorial Piano Competition 

sponsored by the Wisconsin Philharmonic.

She brought fellow BYU piano performance major and accompanist along.

Forrest is from Seattle.  We Packerfied him.  Ahem... but I digress.

She played the Prokofiev.  Insanely hard.  She won.

She'll be playing this piece with the Wisconsin Philharmonic

in an October concert here in southeast Wisconsin.

Here's a little bit of the beginning from a practice session.
The whole piece is 15 minutes long.

She has it memorized which always amazes me.

Everything about her piano playing amazes me... but I'm the mom.

(Keep in mind that Forrest, as accompanist, is playing something

that resembles what the rest of the orchestra would be playing.)

OK, I'm being the mom here again,

but for you music lovers out there, here's the grand finale.

Thanks for letting me brag a little.  I'm a very proud mom.

I usually stick to my creative pursuits in this blog,

but perhaps my children are my best designs of all - no doubt.
(p.s. the beautiful portraits were taken by Jenni Gilbreth)

The Four Corners

The great summer reunion of 2010 has officially come to an end.  No more chore chart.  No more waiting for the bathroom.  No more juggling three cars in the driveway.  Just good memories.

It was barely a week ago that all our children were under the same roof...

our roof in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.  What a difference a week makes. 

Now this one...

...is out in Provo, Utah being a resident assistant in the dorms at BYU... 

and squeezing piano performance in on the side.

And these two...

... are living in Nanjing, China under the Flagship Program for the next year.

If you are interested, you can read their blog here.

...and this 6'-4" goof left at midnight last night and is driving straight through to BYU to continue his junior year in Asian studies with minors in Japanese and Chinese...

...and is right now heading west on lovely interstate 80 in Nebraska

just about to hit the 100 mile stretch drawn with a straight edge...

...and this one is indeed heading for the Falls...

Menomonee Falls High School in about 10 days.

Proud of All Our Boys

The weekend seems like forever ago to me now.  (It's been a busy couple of days.)  But I don't want to neglect a shout out for some of my boyz who performed well over the weekend.  First, nobody can do a "pompous, whiny, ninny" like Frank Burns as well as my son did in the high school's version of M*A*S*H.  Lots of fun to see Keaton lose his marbles on stage... "Quack?  QUACK???  I'm a CAPTAIN, not a quack!"  Here he is with his Uncle Tooky and Aunt Rosebud who came to see the show.  Congratulations to the whole cast for a fun adventure.

Another group of boys who performed well this weekend were the members of the Menomonee Falls High School Football team who left it all on the field at Saturday's Wisconsin State Championship Division One game at UW-Madision's Camp Randall Stadium.  They were amazing, but [sniff] lost to another amazing team - Marquette University High School. 7-0.  A tough game played by two tough contenders.  Congratulations to Coach Baker and all the team members for a wonderful year - no regrets.  True champions.

Some Years it's an Obsession

Time is running out.  

Are you ready for Halloween?  

Got your costume?

Not every year results in an ambitious Halloween costume.  My kids know this.  It's really hit or miss what they'll get out of their mother.  Keaton's "Link" from Legend of Zelda costume above was one of those ambitious years when I was obsessed wandering around the Goodwill store to find just the right sweater that looked like chainmaille and just the right purse to cut up and slap around his forearms for wrist gauntlets and just the right belts for those strappy things.

All that from a cartoon picture.

Yes, there were plenty of years where we just "made do" with what we could find around the house.  Here's Princess Chelsea with the 50,000 yards of red tulle we had laying around.  Next we have Lars who was obviously on his own that year with his plastic knight's helmet, clown wig, leather cowboy vest and red satin shirt all dug from the costume boxes.  Don't know who the mummy kid is, but the one next to him/her is Nathan and he's wearing a store bought (gasp!) Tick costume.  Anybody remember the Tick?  If I recall correctly, it was a short-lived cartoon character from the early 90s.

Nathan often came up with a good costume idea that didn't take a ton of work on my part, dear boy. Here he is  striking a pose as a 70s disco guy complete with polyester pants, wing collared quiana shirt and gold chain necklace.

And here's Nate again (with Carly) in a granny wig wearing authentic dress, hat, sweater and purse dug out of my vintage stash.  Yep, some years were easier than others.  But  let's not get too past tense about it.  I'm not off the hook yet, I still have pending requests... let's see... for a full blown Matrix Neo Nehru collar long black coat... and a Star Trek uniform as previously stated, and a LED studded light up jacket for Keaton to do some cool dance moves in... the list goes on...

These Kids of Mine

By now, dear blog reader, you have met all my kids through my Halloween costume pictures.  Maybe it's time to get an updated image, so here they are:

That's big Nate (23 in a few days) on the left - maybe changing his major from Physics to International Relations.  Chelsea, the 18-year-old piano performance major stands between her two brothers.  Lars (25), the Chinese major about to graduate with his lovely wife, Spring.  These are my three oldest and they all attend BYU while the remaining three of us (Mom, Dad and Keaton) are 1500 miles away in Wisconsin.

Got Your Halloween Costume Yet?

Time's a-wasting.  Have your kids decided what they want to "be" yet?  I actually heard my 14-year-old say the other day, "What am I going to "be" this year?"  What?  Huh?  I thought I was off the costume-go-round!  Maybe he'll finally give in and be a tornado.  I once heard this idea to wrap yourself in tons of fishing line strung up with matchbox cars, doll furniture, dirty puffs of cotton batting, sticks, farm animals - you get the idea.

Here's Chelsea in 5th grade as a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.  All you need is red pajamas or sweats and add some yarn, some pom poms and a colander.

Here's cute little Nate as a cowboy.  That's probably 16 years ago.  He's a big 6'-4" brute now... a "brute" that loves ballroom dancing - hee hee.

And Let's not forget Lars as Darkwing Duck.

He always was into secret agent stuff.

Should have known that someday he would go into the biz... he's about to graduate and looking at a career in the CIA.  "Let's get dangerous!"

Keaton sure enjoyed being Draco Malfoy a whole heck of a lot more than being a deviled egg.  I know he had the perfect attitude.

18 days till Halloween... better get busy!

The Owls & Witches Come Out Tonight!

Halloween without fake fur is like a day without sunshine.  Here's a simple costume:  just take a flannel shirt, slice it up, and stick fake fur under the rips.  Voila!  You have a wolfman bursting through his shirt.  But beware of a full moon.  It makes six-year-olds in wolfman costumes even crazier!  Here's Keaton in between gnashing and growling.

We have so many cave man costumes at our house, we could clothe the entire family of six.  Over the years we've accumulated boulder necklaces, bone earrings, and more.  Here's Chelsea and I in our One Million Years B.C. outfits.  Raquel Welch, eat your heart out.

Here's Chelsea as Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl from Toy Story 2.  She was always game for a fun costume... but someone else was not...

Here's Jessie consoling little brother Keaton in his Deviled Egg costume.  I thought it was cute and so did everyone else... except Keaton who HATED it.  The only way I could get him to keep it on was to promise him that he could smash the paper mache'd egg to bits at the end of the evening.  That he did... with relish.

Oh well.  Ya win some.  Ya lose some.

Halloween Costumes!

It's that time of year again.  The time for all creative types to get busy on Halloween costumes.  And if you have kids, you know they have already started talking about what they want to "BE" this year.  The Halloween costume pressure is starting to wane in my family now that my youngest is 14.  However, that doesn't mean too much.  We have boxes and boxes of costumes in our house and everyone likes to dress up, no matter what the age... especially my husband who loves a good costume.  As a matter of fact, I remember in high school every year he would gather a large group of friends to go Christmas caroling at the mall and he would lead the way wearing a red satin cape, green shorts and tights.  Same husband once dressed up as an Oreo cookie at a Nintendo convention (believe it or not, a paid gig) and was followed around by a guy who wanted to know who the person with the nice legs in the Oreo was.  Same husband has been begging me for a Star Trek officer's uniform for years - any era: original show, Next Generation, one of the movies.  Yes, costumes are big at my house... and that won't be changing soon.

So, in honor of Halloween and creativity, this month I will be featuring pictures of Halloween costumes I have created in the past.  I'll start with my all time favorite:

The Staypuft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.  Here is Lars, (my oldest - now 25) wearing the Staypuft outfit created from foam, felt and white cotton duck.  He loved that movie - still does.  The best thing about this costume?  It wasn't ruined by the winter coat underneath - usually a requirement for our chilly Wisconsin Halloween trick-or-treating.  His two-year-old brother was Slimer, but refused to cooperate with the costume much.  Yes, don't we all have those stories...

Daughters and Daisies

My daughter left for her freshman year at college a few weeks ago.  (That's one of the reasons I have time to start a blog, but we won't go there right now.)  The last few weeks before leaving, she sorted through all her belongings right down to her overflowing "memory box" and although she left her bedroom somewhat clean, it still looked like a strong wind had blown through leaving various broken jewelry, papers and other discarded "debris" in it's wake.  Anyway, since she left I've been in her room a few times to straighten up and subject myself to the emotions that grab at a mom's heart after a kid moves out.  She is my one daughter.

I remember when we painted little daisies all over the walls of her small bedroom.  She wanted cobalt blue for the background and I was amazed how good that looked next to the old prairie style shellac woodwork with the orange undertones.  

The daisies were only about an inch across and nothing spectacular with pink, green, purple and yellow centers.  It took a long time to get the daisies placed correctly and involved hanging diagonal lines of string and lots of measuring (measure twice, paint once) so they were properly spaced and didn't disappear into the ceiling as the eye followed them around the room.  

There was a lot of trial and error and one wall had to be completely repainted.  As with all things, it was a lot harder than it looked.  

 
When she wanted to change her room to black and hot pink with musical notes only a few years later, I put her off.  No way.  Didn't she remember how hard it was to do the daisies?  Well now she's gone to college 1500 miles away and the daisies are still here.  They remind me that there were times when it was very hard to raise a teenage daughter, a lot of trial and error was involved... but like the daisies, the end result was worth it.  Miss you Chelsea.