| May 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It's May! It's May!
 LOOK! No more fence! And, incidentally -- no more SNOW either! We are moving the fence to another part of the yard, since the doggies used this end all winter. (ICK) The new area is a little bit bigger, but part of the yard we very seldom use/used, so I think they'll like it fine. Today we had a bit of an incident -- Marzi got out and was gone for awhile. She came home okay but stinking to high heavens and just FILTHY. So into the bath with her and she's a pretty girl now. We aren't letting her out again until the fence is secure unless we're right on top of her. Talk about staying right on top, Emily's busy, busy, busy. This weekend she'll go to Anchorage to compete at "State" with her choir, her duet with Kirsten, and her solo! The duet is in German and the solo is in Italian, and she would LOVE to learn to speak French! (laughing) What a well rounded conversationalist she could be! Tonight is the awards night at North Pole High School, but she couldn't even go because she can't miss dance class this close to the recital. We imagine she would be called up for honor roll because her average is 3.34 or something like that. It was 3.0 at the beginning of the year so she's been working hard! We're proud of her. Look!!!   Marzipan has fun in the sun! May 8, 2005
 Look what I did today! Brownie Cookies 1 pkg Brownie Mix 2 eggs ˝ cup vegetable oil 1 cup chocolate chips Depending on how generous your rounded teaspoonfuls are, this makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies. Or even more! What else did I do? Well, I continued to prepare for moving furniture around into different rooms, and I worked on a little bit of last minute (okay, next to the last minute) stuff for the dance recital. I LIKE being a "House-Mom"!!! Since I moved the computer, the view out the window (different window) has changed. Unfortunately, since I moved the computer the little webcam thing has gone weird and only takes teeny pictures. So until I get that sorted, the world has to wait to see that view. Oooooooo Friday the 13th! Emily's concert last night was very nice. She was fantastic of course, but I didn't have the camera with me because... (rolling my eyes) of a few small glitches. First of all, Emily forgot her Concert Uniform, but had already left for Dance... so she called and asked if we could please get that to her by 5:30, at which time she would be leaving because she had to be at NPHS by 6:00. Well, fine. Bill delivered the uniform. He came home and we planned to leave the house at 6:15. At 6:00 the phone rang again, and Emily had left her sandals and character SHOE at dance. Which meant instead of the leisurely departure at 6:15, to arrive in PLENTY of time for the 7:00 concert, we had to drive BACK to Fairbanks to the dance studio to retrieve her forgotten slippers. We hadn't clearly understood that she already HAD one character shoe... so I went ballistic that she'd already lost one... (that is a whole 'nother issue!) Jodine and Dana were sweethearts and lent a pair, in case Emily might not have the other slipper at the school. So off we went and arrived in plenty of time to get a good seat and deliver the slipper to Cinderemilylla. It's been such a packed spring for her that the lesson learned is not to try to do too many activities too close together. And prepare ahead of time. All's well that ends well. We just don't have any pictures of her singing in her last High School Choir concert. (sniff) We also don't have a picture of her snagging and taking off with the "Outstanding Senior Girl of the Year" award she received ... leaving the "Outstanding Senior Boy of the Year" outstanding... but then the award actually stays at the school with the names of each girl and boy for each graduating class engraved on a little brass plate. Nice that Emily Dourte will be immortalized at North Pole High School, ain't it?  Both computers are now moved into the Den. The German "Schranks" (cabinet -- der Schrank) have been moved to face the front "hall walk" by the living room. These are sort of like buffets with hutches on top, which I bought in Germany in January 1984. Because the living room was completely open to the front entry there is a walkway of vinyl flooring leading from the door to the kitchen. We put the two "schranks" along the edge of the carpet with an opening between them to enter the livingroom, which will remain my sewing room for the time being. We took the corner unit of the sofas to the "transfer site" (polite English for DUMP) yesterday. The rest of today and tomorrow we will complete the "office" move, and then prepare the old office (which is actually the dining room) to become the "Audio Visual Entertainment Center" (or AVEC which is French for "with"? Guess that means the popcorn comes avec butter.) We will put the TV, Stereo, Record Player and all the videos, DVDs, CDs and Vinyl Records in there and it'll be cozy and warm for our viewing and listening pleasure! Man, if we'd done this 10 years ago, there'd have been a place for our kids to bring dates. If our kids had dated. Whatever! At any rate, we are slowly transitioning into our "retirement" home phase, and reckon that eventually we'll even move the bedroom down here and have to put in a shower with a chair in it when we can't navigate the stairs easily anymore. Like we'll be able to do that on $0 budget. (laughing) Sheesh. It's a rainy day today. Since I still haven't found the CD to reinstall the webcam, we'll just have to wait and see if tomorrow is a rainy day and maybe I can take a picture then. Moving the sofa into the old dining room is a bigger undertaking than I had anticipated... We just have SO much in that room (living room) that nothing will budge. Everything in there is so tight, I'm going to have to disassemble the sewing table to get the sofa into the old dining room. (sigh) Nothing is ever easy? Well, we'll appreciate it that much more once it is done! We'd considered doing some painting before we moved it all, but decided let's just get it MOVED. Painting can wait til later, Annie leaves soon and we'd better do some of this heavy stuff while she and Emily are still here to help. All moved! I guess it took a month, if you started counting when we took the Christmas Tree down (April 24)! I will take pictures later -- busy with recital and graduation! (POOF!) Dance Arts Academy Recital Rehearsal:       I had a very nice birthday with cards, presents, a cake and supper at the Alaska Salmon Bake. (They're still having their yearly opening special!) Annie baked a Cherry Chip cake with chocolate frosting for me and they lit every single candle on it... fortunately it was breezy so I had help blowing them all out!
  May 21, 2005 Teamcutters, Fairbanks, AK
Baccalaureate  Graduation     Ever notice how time flies, but right before payday (about 5 days, actually) it seems to drag worse than briars in a dog's tail? (sigh) Anyway, today's exciting news is that Annie and Smuckers will leave for Texas on the red eye flight tonight, so we'll probably get them to the airport about midnight. Annie has been working hard to get Bubba's quilt finished. (Bubba is the baby to be of Annie's former High School English teacher.) It's awesome, and I wish I had one just like it! Well, I have other colors in mind, but... it's awesome!  Anyhow, reports of Annie's departure will follow later (perhaps tomorrow.) Emily has been perusing the UAF Catalog for Fall Semester Courses. Her first worksheet had the green courses and the yellow courses, which we advised was frighteningly ambitious. Her second worksheet listed only the green courses she selected.
Besides, from what I have heard, these schedules don't always work out no matter how carefully laid out they may be. 12 hours is full time, and when her dance and church activities are factored in, she's going to be one very busy young woman. Pretty exciting! Well, our Annie is safe in Texas, along with Smuckers the Flying Wonder Dog. It was not quite as sad seeing her off at the airport this trip, (see Dourte's Journal, August 2004) since Smuckers went with her. Still, it was lonely knowing she wasn't sleeping in her room. I woke up at about 8 and stayed up just in case she missed her connection (she only had about 30 minutes) although all I could have done on the phone is sympathize. She made it just fine though -- and I bet she starts having fun with William and Katie REAL soon! This evening, Emily and I watched a few episodes on my birthday DVD - "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season 1 while I sorted through and straightened things up in Annie's room. I put the clothes that she left behind away neatly, gathered up about 2 loads of laundry and a trash bag FULL of trash... I swear where does it all come from? It's the same in my room... it just sort of appears there. Anyway the room will be nice and tidy when Billy gets home in about ... 3 weeks. He will get to choose which room he'd like to stay in, since Emily will only be home on the weekends. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2005 Recital Pictures
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