NANA TRIP 2009

Well, after a two year hiatus, I'm glad to announce we had a successful family outing to the Mall of America. This is a trip that we started in 2001 in honor of Nana, who passed away on April 9 of that year. Her birthday was on April 27, and Julio took Harrison and me to have a weekend of fun and celebration to honor her memory. It's been sort of an annual event ever since then, with Mom and Dad joining us the next year and ever since, and John and Jason and their families joining us whenever possible as well.

We didn't make the trip the last couple of years, first due to Bobbi's illness and passing, and last year because we were getting married on "Nana weekend". But this year, we're back to our tradition, with Mom and Dad traveling North with us, and John and his family meeting us for a late lunch on Saturday.

We had a great time but are still exhausted and have our sleep schedules completely turned around! So the following photos aren't well edited, but if I don't post them now, I'll never get them posted!

Plants v. Zombies

There's a new computer game (or something?) coming out on May 5. They have a "video" out, which appeals to children of all ages. For some reason, the song makes me smile (and Harrison LOVES it, as he is currently in a Zombie-fanatic phase, thanks to this summer's "let's make a movie" project). Maybe it will make you smile, too:

Best. Set. Ever.

Well, we made it through You Can't Take it With You this weekend, and for the first time since I took over for Bobbi, I'm not so emotionally and physically exhausted that I'll be out of commission for two solid weeks before I can think about anything else.

This is in spite of the fact that we lost 9 cast members and 7 crew members during the course of rehearsal - several actors quit because they didn't like the role they got, three of our techies were yanked by their parents as punishment for unrelated grounding-type offenses (only one set of parents contacted us about yanking their child from the show), and another one dropped out 3 days before the show opened, because his track coach said he couldn't come to our mandatory rehearsals, so he kicked himself out of the show. On Monday a girl from the senior class died of cancer, so our final rehearsals and preview were scheduled around memorial activities. She was a dear friend of many of our cast members, so there were some seriously dramatic dynamics engulfing our final week of production.

Yet with all that, it was the least stressful experience I've had with this school so far. How can that be? It must be thanks to my awesome Tech Director, who built a set that is being lauded as the best one ever. The principal and superintendant were among his fans, who came to me at intermisssion and told me how much the kids enjoyed working on the set and how much they love my Dad. I had to agree. Here's a sample of his work:

Now if I can just convince him to come back next year!

The Godfather Effect

Harrison has managed to save quite a bit of money lately. He is a few weeks away from parlaying his $7/week allowance (with a boost from birthday money not spent on video games) into $100. He is trying to figure out a way that an 11-year-old can get a job that pays well enough that he won't need allowance.

He's also come up with a plan for his money. For every $100 he saves, he's going to buy himself a video game. (What are you going to do with the rest of the money? I asked, hoping he didn't mean there are $100 video games to be had) He's going to save the rest so that in the event he comes across something he really wants, he doesn't have to wait to purchase it.

Hmmm....Jason's sense of fiscal responsibility and enterprise, combined with John's Renaissance Man zest for life (and let's not forget Karen's knack for diplomacy and Jenny's gift for organization and keeping track of everything).

I guess it's not in how you raise your child; it's all about picking the right Godparents.

Big Plans

Julio & Harrison were having a chat before bed last night (I was at rehearsal, so this is a third-hand report on the conversation). Apparently Harrison is going to be very busy once school gets out. He already has the first half of summer break all mapped out.

First, he's going to take a couple weeks to just play. Then he's going to take two or three weeks (however long it takes) to work on his science experiment. (What science experiment is that, Julio asked with some trepidation) He's going to work on finding a cure for the common cold.

After those few weeks are over, depending on how the cold cure is coming along, he's going to either get a job or start his own business, and then plant a garden. He'd like to plant some trees, but was sketchy on the details about how he would go about doing that ("do they sell tree seeds in stores?"). If they don't, he was thinking he would find a way to get fertile tree seeds and maybe sell them for his business.

How is it that Julio and I have ended up raising this Renaissance Boy/Johnny Appleseed? Must have been that first few months of his life, having Uncle John take care of him.

I just hope he doesn't get discouraged if he doesn't meet all his goals for this summer, but rather learns the value of research in establishing and pursuing such goals...