You can take the Irish dancer out of class, but can you take the dance out of the dancer? Curly videos

I have a lot to share about the Grand Rapids adventure last weekend, but in the interest of time and because I glossed over St. Patrick's Day - I'm gonna share a few videos of Curly Irish dancing Saturday night with Tank's best friend and his best friend's sisters - one of whom is the roommate of one of my nieces (Marie's daughter). Remember that cray-cray small world/6 degrees of separation story? 

Curly's in the bright green shirt. 

Mini bowed out of performing, saying her performance at the ND show end of Jan. was her swan song. I still have to post about that. Guess who played a joke on her friend and gave the audience a good chuckle?

Tank grew up Irish dancing and performing and competing - always with his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth (back before he bit through it). His shirt tail would be partially untucked. He looked as though he'd spent the night in the pub and had just rolled in, not quite ready to perform. Foreshadow much? He'd often weep right before going on stage after forgetting all of his steps.

Picture me standing side stage:  Brush brush change, brush brush change, cut hop up two three four, etc. - where would he have been if his mother hadn't known a thing or two about dancing? Probably on year round swim team, but who even knows. 

Anyway, Tank legit hid at the party just before the dance portion began. He hightailed it to the backyard where there were heaters and a keg, saying No way to dancing. They paged him using the microphone. Still, no go. His friend did an excellent job of faking it. With his curly red hair and green outfit, who was even looking at his feet? 

***

I fly to SC later today. This coach is very interested in adding Curly to her D II roster for next year. I'm anxious to see the campus and have Curly meet the team, etc. She's not thrilled about the distance, but Coach's brother - the one with nine kids, who's two kids flew here to surprise her for her birthday, live 1 hr 45 min from Aiken. 

In the meantime, we're waiting to see if Saint Mary's (division III, so no money for athletics) of Notre Dame, where I went to school, gets creative and finds some scholarship money to make that option more affordable. 

***

Did you do anything special (like drive 3 hours and stay in a hotel to attend a party out of state) to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  Can you fake Irish dance?

Curly misses doing the performance Irish dance team. I saw kids dancing on the morning news this week and the look of exhaustion on their parents' faces when they were interviewed after the performance . . . well, Relatable. 

I do NOT miss it. 

Curly felt nostalgic after the party, so on Tuesday night while Coach and I played Code Names with the little girls, she went into the basement and facetimed her b-ball bestie, who's never seen her dance. As she showed off her moves, Kay and Rae were like IT'S SO LOUD. Coach and I:  That was the background noise to our lives for SO long.

so much: Huge hail, heartbreak, & weather hiccups *(Happy St. Pat's - lost track of my days, Irish dancing video later in the week)

Life was chaos Sunday night, and
while I was fielding calls about
 flights and cars, I was sort of
watching the Oscars. I texted
 Mini a photo of this dress.
My fav of the night.

OMG - life . . . nonstop. Some of it is my own doing. Shock. (Yes, I'm referring to my road trip to attend a St. Pat's party 3 hrs away - no regrets, but TIRED). I'm behind on commenting and responding, but caught up on reading. I've been trying to blog and comment when time allows, not concerning myself with a schedule. As a result, I sometimes feel behind and disconnected, and I've even considered waving the white blog flag, because time tends to pull me in different directions. But I'm here today, and I have things to share

Hail hell no:  What's with the crazy weather lately? We had record breaking sized hail, measuring at 5-6 inches during a storm last week. Yes,  5-6 INCHES. It was loud in my closet which is essentially in the attic, where I was putting away laundry. I wondered if it was dangerous to be in there.  

Photos someone posted of hail
 near our house. Not the
biggest pieces, but still BIG. 

A few years ago, most of our neighbors had their roofs replaced after a tornado, or a hail storm, or all of the above. We intended to wait till we could get a guy we know to do it. Preferred to give our business to someone we knew. That never materialized. A few months ago a roofer came to the door, offering to file a claim. Insurance is covering our roof - HUGE!

After this hail storm:  roofing places bombarded us with phone calls, text messages, and knock on our door. I finally hung a note over our doorbell.  OUR NEW ROOF ARRIVES APRIL 15. DON'T RING OUR BELL. WE'RE ALL SET. 

Translation:  wake up a sleeping baby in my house, and you'll be assessing more than damaged roofs. 

Hard to believe:   I'm the last one to know stuff, esp other people's business. A 'for sale' sign went in our friend/neighbor's yard in fall '24. I saw him at Curly's volleyball game. 

Me:  Mike, where are you guys going? You can't leave the neighborhood. You're our favorite neighbors. 

Mike:  We're getting a divorce.

You could've blown me over. When our kids were younger, we hung out with them. They have 3 girls. Oldest is Mini's age. Curly's between the younger two. She played volleyball with them. Our kids were on swim team together in the summers. Mike and Mary  -  the most fun, laid back, and hilarious friends. They hosted the best Halloween parties for adults and their costumes were always genius. They invited us over to have drinks on their deck during covid (some of you might recall - we got a concerning text from Ed about Lad and we bolted minutes after we arrived). Back in 2018 maybe, we invited 3 couples to an ND game before we had a kid there. We all drove in GW. Tailgating with Mike and Mary and the other couples was a blast. 

It became clear during the rest of that '24 volleyball season that Mike had a problem. He was inebriated at the games. He'd been told by doctors that he had to stop drinking. He tried rehab briefly. His liver failed and he passed away a few weeks ago. 

The 3 daughters spoke at the service on Saturday with the oldest sharing how addiction is a disease, and that they'd miss their dad so much, but the way he died doesn't change who he was or what a great dad he was. 

She really nailed it. My heart aches for them. It's still so hard to believe.

When things settle down, I'll drop off food for them. I wish they were still in their house down the street. I miss Mike waving as I drove by him while he was walking his dog.  

Oh the weather ALL OVER is frightful:  Fortunately the weather to and from Grand Rapids was fine. Yes, I went. More on that adventure later. 

Coach sent this pic on his flight
 to Delaware. "There's a person under
this blanket in the seat next to me."

Coach missed Mike's funeral, because he was teaching in Delaware. He texted me Sunday that loads of flights to Chicago were being cancelled. In my haze of a busy weekend, I'd not seen a forecast. I was clueless. He sat on the plane for 6 hours hoping they'd take off. When I went to bed, he wasn't sure he'd get home. 

Meanwhile, Reg was on his way back to Omaha after spring break. A kid 'Thomas' was driving him. He was a few hours away from campus. 

He texted me:  MOM WE WERE IN A BAD CAR ACCIDENT JUST NOW.

Thankfully he called one second later. Things weren't as bad as the text sounded. Praise the lord. Thank goodness I don't have a heart condition, but hmm - maybe I do now? No one was hurt. The authorities shut down the interstate in Iowa. Snow, blowing, slippery roads. The trifecta of bad driving weather. 

I called Tank who jumped into action and connected me with other Creighton students driving back, hoping they might be able to pick up Reg and Thomas. We decided everyone should stay in nearby hotels, and a few guys would pick up the 2 stranded guys Monday morning. Then a few more Creighton kids drove up in a Jeep, picked up Reg and Thomas, drove 35 mph on back roads, making it back to campus late Sunday night. 

I'm so grateful no one was hurt. 

This text exchange is from Monday night,
as I was drafting this. Ed flew to
Houston today for work. Ugh.

Another kid in the Tank-generated group chat was stuck in traffic about an hour ahead of Reg. He'd been sitting behind a bad accident for two hours. We suspect there was loss of life. 

I woke up in the middle of the night, surprised to see Coach asleep in the bed next to me. It would've felt more 'Trains Planes and Automobiles'-ish if  . . . 

Me:  Where are your hands?

Him: Between two pillows . . . 

Me:  THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS. 

But I thought I should let him sleep vs waking him up to recreate a beloved movie scene. Turns out he got home at 2 am. 

***

Crazy weather in your neck of the woods? Do you get roofers coming out of the woodwork after a storm?

5 Ef-Ups Friday

I'm here, on a Friday, with more things I've ef-'d up:

1. Damn gluten. 

Remember my hard time swallowing? Metallic taste? My GI ordered blood work. My numbers - NOT good. My gluten is like 2x normal (me reading lab results before a doc has met with me, but google 'splained it). 

I'm so careful - or so I thought. We eat at restaurants on occasion, so- crap shoot? I mix my own trail-mix adjacent snack:  almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and low sugar dark chocolate. 

Before buying them at Costco, I was getting pumpkin seeds in a clear container at the grocery store. Just noticed:  'manufactured in a facility . . . wheat'. Since ditching those seeds, my swallowing / sleeping has improved. The bad taste - not so much. Stay tuned 

Remember this
'gas appliance' sticker?
My kids stuck it on
 my back unbeknownst to me
when the dryer was delivered
 days before Christmas 2020. 

2. "The dryer is tired, or it's too cold for it to work right." ~ me, Dec. '25. I blame December. 

File this under lies I tell myself when I'm too busy to address anything

The dryer was broken, for months? Or several weeks. I attributed it to extreme temps. It was taking forever to dry the clothes in Dec/Jan. Coach uses a ladder to  to reach the vent on the second floor. I insisted there was too much lint. Denial. 

Coach finally suggested we get it serviced. $300 later, it's fixed. 

3. Sprayed by puke, but still smiling. 

Thursday scene from my laundry room. A doll got puke-sprayed when the 9 month old I babysit for projectiled. She has reflux or something and sometimes she blows chunks (prior to eating solids, it was liquid). 

Sprayed, but smiling.

Later, I laughed at the smiling doll on the laundry room floor on the pillow that was also soiled. 

4. DMV hell. Did I tell you my dad gave us his '04 Rendez Vous, with 150K miles on it? I went to the DMV to switch the title into my name.

Me (calling DMV):  I've tried to do this online several times (almost apologetically, because I felt like I was wasting his time - assuming I could do it online). 

Guy: Yeah, I know. It's confusing, because it looks like you can do it online - but you can't. 

Huh, maybe someone should fix that. 

I scheduled an appt. Drove there on a Saturday . . . my mom's name was on the title too. I'd failed to ger her signature. I had to come back another time. 

I drove home while listening to The Age of Innocence, deciding that the one hour round trip wasn't a total waste.  Reg shared this DMV video and I died. Highly recommend.

5.  Ouch! (no pictures of this one - you're welcome)

 Twice recently, a ripped contact lens tore completely in two when I tried to remove it. I got a piece of it. The other chunk hid in the side of my eye. No amount of side-eyeing could force that thing out. 

Scraping around for a lens remnant falls into the die-from-squeamishness fear that I suffer from. Eventually I managed to get it out without having to go to the ER. 

*****

What have you ef'd up recently? 

school options and tidbits

The school conundrum:

In the fall, I picked a woman's brain about school options for Kay. Co-ops sounded good, but that's only 1 day a week. The other 4 days are homeschool days. 

Why is homeschooling in someone else's home not a thing? 

She mentioned Jan - lives far away, but schools other people's 'troubled' kids. 

Jan's name came up again in late January when conversing with my new friend, who is so lovely. Her daughter went to college with Jan's daughter. I emailed Jan, describing Kay's issues. While we were at ND for Mini's parents' weekend, Jan emailed me:  I THINK KAY MIGHT BE A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR MY GROUP. 

Coach and I met with Jan on Tuesday. It was a hike. On the drive I told Coach 'this is silly because we don't even know how much tuition is and we'd have to find Kay transportation.'  He agreed, but - No stone unturned, etc. 

Kay and I made these GF date bars on
 Friday after school. This reminds
me why I don't keep GF
 sweets in the house. 

Jan blew us away. Impressive and inspirational. She was homeschooling her own 9 kids (youngest is a junior in hs and she attends Jan's 'school') when she noted a neighbor family struggling with destructive issues. After 3 visits to their house, saying she'd homeschool their kids - they agreed. 

For the last 15 years, she's teaches kids who've suffered crisis, displacement, or trauma along with her kids. She doesn't accept payment. WHAT? This is her ministry. She feels called. She never advertises. God sends her kids that need her. 

We agreed to pray about it, and next she'd like to meet with Kay. 

There is another family that drives from a town just north of us. Carpool possibility?  I have an outside the box thought on how to get her there. It's a stretch, but my mind's stretchy like that. 

It feels like an atmosphere that promotes personal growth with individualized attention, as in 'meet her where she's at' academically. Kay's immature and this setup feels like the right pace, like a stepping stone to get caught up on life. Also, no homework. That'll allow for her to join a swim team or something in the evenings, and to read  - maybe read more with me.  

This has weighed on us for months. I'll keep you posted. 

Other tidbits:

• Dad came home Sunday afternoon. I think? No communication from my shitsters. I was at the hospital Sunday morning when the doc said he could go once the oxygen was delivered to his house. 
• A  D2 coach reached out to Curly Saturday. School in SC. The coach wants to zoom early this week to show Curly their style of play. The plot thickens.
• Reg arrived home Friday, and as always is ready and willing to help me. 
• We watched the 2nd half of Life of Pi, Sunday night after Coach got home. He taught a class in NC for the weekend. 
• I'm hoping to sneak away to go to a party at Tank's college buddy's family's house in Grand Rapids, MI on Saturday. Um, Coach is away teaching again. Kay has science fair and one fam member is supposed to volunteer. Reg wants to do the parade, but then can be home to watch Kay and Rae. Mini's returning from a mission trip (all her friends went to Cabo) on Friday and she wants to go to road trip to the party with Tank and I. It's complicated, but I'm nothing if not a 'where there's a will there's a way' type. 

*****

Any tidbits to share? Do you have people ready and willing to help you - at work, at home? Do you think I can pull off a disappearing act on Saturday and make the road trip party thing happen? 

Hoping Dad's hospital stay is brief

HOSPITAL:  Yesterday my brother Pat called. "Ann's driving dad to the hospital." I believe Dad had a CT scan (or whatever) earlier in the day- might have pneumonia. My sisters have created a separate sib group chat without me, so I don't get messages in real time and I don't get all the details, particularly about doctor appointments, etc. Ann is a nurse and she manages all of their medical issues.  

After I finished babysitting, I sat with my mom and her caregiver, who was at their house until 6:00 pm. Marie drove down from Milwaukee to stay with my mom overnight. My brother, Mike told me Marie would be there around 6. Went straight to the hospital, knowing I'd be with Nana, but didn't communicate the change of plans. She arrived at 8:00. I said hello. She didn't respond. Then I said hello again, and she snapped "I said hello. You just can't hear." What now? Then she hid in the bedroom. When I left, I called "Bye Marie." Crickets. 

It's unfortunate that my sisters are gonna act like ass hats, but why should today be different than any other day. 

I'm hoping to see my dad this evening. Coach flies to NC this afternoon to teach a class. He'll be gone all weekend, so that's not great timing. 

When my mom facetimed him before I left, Dad sounded great - good spirits, explaining to my mom that they'd done blood work and that they were just getting him set up in a room. 

Dad:  Can you see me? 

Nana:  Yes, you look more handsome than usual.

Dad:  (laughing) I doubt that.

Nana:  I know, but I just wanted you to feel good. 

Dad:  I gotta go - this nurse is trying to work on me.

Nana:  Well, don't let her work on you too much.

Dad:  It's a HE. 

Nana chuckled:  OH!

Nana seemed much better after their chat. "He sounded good." I agreed. I assured her he just needs to stay there to get the right medicine. The caregiver told me that he had been really tired, but hadn't really been coughing. 

She also told me that Kay and Rae joined she and my mom for a walk on Friday. The girls went there after school until Lad could get them after work while we were in South Bend. The caregiver told me that my sisters sort of grunted and seemed a little 'off' when she told them that the girls had walked with them. Of course. 

Lad said when he picked them up from Nana's house, Dad said "Lad, these are good girls." Lad told Coach, I think Da's getting soft. Ha. 

I'm hopeful, and dare I say confident, that Dad'll bounce back. He'll be 86 in May. His body is failing, but his mind is sharp-ish. Nana has Alzheimer's and I noticed in the last few weeks another decline. Her body is not showing signs of slowing down. 

DELETE ANGST:  While at Nana's, I tried to delete photos from my phone. My cell is suffering with an overflowing memory. I deleted some contacts this am, thinking I was deleting the conversations. *sigh* I wave the white flag. I really do not know how to use devices - especially if it involves deleting stuff. Ugh. 

*****

This is a photo that I stumbled on when I was deleting stuff. That red donkey toy that the kids in the daycare ride on looks like he's sitting on the couch watching TV. I think someone moved him to the couch to vacuum.

 How do you store your photos? 

Fig-a-licious Fourth Week of February

I've not been great at posting the joy I've found over here in 'babies-R-everywhere,  basketball wrapped up, and the Christmas tree stand just got put away last week' land. I'm bound and determined to write a post about my FIGs. If you're unfamiliar with Elisabeth's wonderful FIG (finding joy in gratitude) movement, click here to check it out. 

Week of Feb. 22-28th

Sunday:  DELETED EMAILS  

I deleted tens of thousands of emails. I only have 13k left. Um, this might make you cringe, but I was at 90k a few short months ago. A weight lifted. 

I've worn this blouse
 before, but I
think of it as 'dressy'
 and I'd not paired
 it with jeans. I wore
this Friday night after
sharing photo options with
 Mini and she voted this as #1.

Monday:  WARDROBE OPTIONS/no shopping trips necessary  

I pulled a selection of cute tops from my closet, trying to map out (in advance) what I'd pack for Mini's upcoming parents' weekend. This is twofold joyous:  

• helpful to know what I was gonna pack in advance. 
• Also, joy in not feeling like I needed to buy anything. I'm focusing on searching my own closet and shopping Mini's castoffs. I have options. Cute options, no less. I could, and maybe I will, draft an entire post about shopping Mini's castoffs. 

Tuesday:  NO GUTS NO GLORY  

Curly's team lost. Her basketball season ended. This was sad, but her amazing high school basketball career has been a joy. Sitting in the stands, I reflected on how we struggled to win a game last year and how the varsity girls went forward and met with the AD, but only if the principal was present - in order to hold him accountable. They insisted on a legit coach this year, which meant they had to remove the guy who they'd stuck in the position. He was dreadful. It took two meetings, a promise to involve the media, and the guts (Curly!) to call the admin out when they contradicted themselves. They shook things up. The woman who coached this year was the assistant when Mini played, and she was the assistant for Curly's 1st and 2nd varsity years, one of which was her sophomore year when we took 4th in state. She agreed to be varsity coach, because she's wild about Curly. We so appreciate her as she was a gift to this team. 

Wednesday:  NAP  

I stayed up late Tues night chatting with Ed. The fact that he came to Curly's game and then came home to stay with us was joyous. I loved our chat, but I woke up stupid-early and was bleary eye'd while babysitting. Joy:  Ed watched two tots so I could nap while the 3 infants slept in the morning. A 25 minute nap is a game changer. Who knew? 

What's this? Thinning
out the bulk,
 creating shape, and giving
 her curls a chance.

Thursday:  STATIONARY BIKE, A LITERAL GIFT & KAY'S HAIRCUT

Our friends gifted us their really nice stationary bike a few years ago. When it's too cold to run, this is amazing. I'm grateful for indoor cardio. Also, Kay's haircut was causing some drama, but I leaned into the hair dresser and everyone is happy with the end result. 

Friday:  I'LL RUN IN THIS WEATHER

This day was nuts -scheduled down to the minute. I had to get both little girls to the dentist from their two different schools and then back again. Mini helped get Kay to the dentist, but the rest was on me. This was not joyful, but I learned to never schedule that way again. The weather was outstanding and I went for a run while they were getting their teeth cleaned. 

Saturday:  GOOD NEWS EMAIL

I'd reached out to a woman who homeschools a group of children - kids who've been displaced, suffered trauma, etc. She responded while we were at Mini's parent weekend, saying she thinks Kay might be a good fit for her school. We hope to meet with her this week to learn more. How much? Plus we'd have to hire someone to transport her, because it's not close to home. 

bonus good things:  

• The girls had a choir thing in the city, and moms offered to help out with transportation
• we couldn't be at the choir event, but Tank took the L there and attended it
• Lad babysat and Curly (had considered coming with us) was home to help
• despite a rough night in the hotel room:  think heating like a sauna, needing to switch to AC and finally turning the whole thing off - I managed to sleep late enough to not have a zombie brain

*****

What things are you grateful for last week? Fill in the blank:  "When my email creeps past 'X' emails, I start to unravel." Anyone in your world show a no-guts-no-glory side and live to be glad they did?  Do you have success digging around in your closet before rushing off to the mall?

Two months later . . . the gift that keeps on giving & the end of an era

Gift that keeps on giving:

Unrelated:  look how freaky
 this is. Lil Curly
 was feeding a doll and
 I was taking her
 picture . . . and then
I noticed - it's like
 she's matching
outfits with this
 mangy ass doll
 from my daycare 

A week before Christmas, I asked Lad to grab the girls for us after therapy while we were at Curly's away game. He took the girls to his house. They watched a movie. He fed them dinner. He texted us photos of the girls curled up with his dogs with a message, "I should do this more often."

I responded with, "Yes, you should. Ha ha." 

For Christmas, he gave us three weekend babysitting coupons - overnight deals! We can go away and he will watch the girls. My favorite gift. There were a few restrictions. 

• Can't be redeemed on back to back weekends. 
• Must have at least two weeks notice. 
• No more than two consecutive nights. 

Do I think the fact that he's been dating a nice girl for 3-4 months has influenced this side of him, Yes I do. 

Coach and I are heading to Notre Dame on Friday for the parents' weekend created by Mini and her 16 closest girlfriends. Lad's watching the girls. The two girls have a choir event at a church in Chicago Saturday that will mean that they're gone most of the day. That'll be a nice break for him to deal with his dogs and workout, as I've arranged for the girls to get a ride with another family. Tank is planning to go to the church to watch their performance. 

Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly. I've got some DVD movies rented from the library. There are loads of leftovers in the fridge. I think Curly will be around too. 

Sad, but bound to happen:  

Curly's season ended Tuesday. We lost. We had to keep all 5 of our girls in for the entire game. No bench. We have two starters out injured. The other team had 12 girls that they rotated in and out. We put up a good fight, even tied it - in the 3rd quarter. 

Curly was sad, of course. The end of an era. Coach told her to go down swinging. He didn't want her to lose and feel like she didn't shoot enough or rebound enough. She hit some amazing 3s and rebounded the hell outa the ball. 

A rare Ed Visit:  

Ed took his life in his hands by riding the L to the game. It was south of the city, and not the safest stretch of the L. He's hanging out at our house for a few days. So fun. I cooked dinner the last few nights, so he can take leftovers home and deliver some to Tank, who lives across the street.

Other news:  

Map of where we're
staying in FL.

I zoomed with my GI doc Wed. morning. I'm gonna try something called Reflux Gourmet to the tune of $28/ 8 ounce tube. 

Who's ready for a fun weekend vising Mini? ME!

Before heading to ND, I'm planning to make 7 layer taco dip. Maybe we can hang out in the hotel lobby and chow down. I cannot show up at an event with these girls and NOT have 7 layer dip - especially since I once packed it in my checked bag and flew with it to tailgate with them in NJ. Right? 

Oh, and I found a different Florida rental. A little further south. 3 bedrooms vs 2. Located on a small beach. A hot tub. A family room area where we can watch family movies. This is gulf side, a spot called Ruskin. 

*****

Any gift you got that keeps giving? Anything you're looking forward to this weekend?