“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” --Nietzsche

Jeremy's "new" toy. I think he has a lot of work to do,
though thisis a beauty compared to ol' Rusty. 

Memorial Day turned out to be rainy and stormy all morning and afternoon. Dad had to call off the barbecue so we made plans to meet him and mom at Pancake City for a late lunch instead. Jeremy had left early that morning to pick up another toy truck but was back in plenty of time. After lunch the girls had their last dance practice, and our new sitter, Sam, came by that evening to meet the kids and have a mini "orientation." Sam is the sister to "Coach Halfmann," who taught the girls' PE class this year. She is a Truman Student and Sam is a student at Rockhurst in KC. Things are going well so far, and she is facilitating some educational activities every morning, for which I'm very thankful. Julia is doing really well with learning to read, and both she and Jenna need to keep up on their math. I think Jared goes M.I.A. most of the time, walking to King's Ridge to "hang out" with his friends or walking to the pool with them. It did rain most of the week (all ballgames were cancelled) and on one particularly stormy day, he stayed home. That afternoon, ATSU sent out a tornado warning on our loud speakers and we all went downstairs. I called home and told Jared they should go to Dee's, and if they weren't home and the door was unlocked to go on in. They did, and when John got home, I think Jared scared the daylights out of him. Thankful for our neighbors letting us use their home for shelter. I hated to tell him to walk on it but didn't know what else to do. We did not, thankfully, have a tornado but we had some really strong straight line winds that knocked down trees, power lines, and some people's roofs. A lot of the damage was in Grandma Bea's neighborhood but thankfully she, and her house, were okay. Jeremy picked the kids up afterwards and took them by to check on her and to survey some of the damage.

She did most of the work in preparing the oatmeal
(in a new birthday outfit from Gigi). 

Friday night, the girls had their dress rehearsal. This year, Julia is very early on (#10), and Jenna is very late (#63 out of 68! routines). After Julia practiced we ran home to eat dinner and then went back for Jenna to practice. We were there until after 9:30. I thought it would be easier to take some pics of the girls dancing at the rehearsal where I could walk up front and stand instead of during the actual recital, so I have some of those to post on here.



Saturday, Julia helped me to make her requested breakfast (oatmeal) and I did laundry, Jeremy's billing, paid some bills, ran Jenna back and forth to her classmate's birthday party, and then got the girls all dolled up for the recital. I have pictures from my camera to post, but in the meantime, here is one I took with my phone outside Baldwin Hall just before the recital:

Jenna ready for her hip hop routine and Julia for her jazz routine!

Since Jenna was almost at the end of the recital, we had to stay the whole time and it was over 4 hours long. It was a long night when you are mostly excited to see one dance at the beginning and one at the very end. The girls both did a great job. Julia was worried about Jeremy not making in time to see her but he did, and he went backstage before her dance so she could see he was there. She gave him a big hug. Jenna was sweet enough to stay with Julia until she went on, and then ran out to where we were sitting so she could watch her. Jenna then went back and helped Julia change clothes. I had brought some sandwiches for the girls to eat, which were gone by intermission. Jenna had to go backstage with her class then and Julia was getting antsy (and Jared looked like he was in excruciating pain just to be there), so Jeremy took Jared and Julia to Taco Bell and took Jared home. He and Julia then came back so they could see Jenna. I think Jenna really enjoyed her time backstage with all the excitement of the recital production. She had a blast doing her dance and is ready to go again (although I was hoping Jenna and Julia would maybe take a year off, but they both seem to enjoy it pretty well). Jenna seems to be interested in gymnastics, so I'm mulling it over; Julia too. Gigi came with us of course, and she was not finished packing for her trip to Florida (staying in her condo in Ft. Lauderdale with Tiffy and DD for a week; driving up to visit Melissa one afternoon and spend night). She still had a lot to get done (and doesn't move real fast) but she wouldn't have missed the girls dancing. As soon as Julia came out to us after dancing she said, "Grandma, how did I do?" They are both so sweet.

So it was a late night after the recital; I took mom home while Jeremy ran to Hy-Vee to pick up a rose for each girl which he gave them at home. After tucking everyone in and doing some things around the house, I went over to Mom's. It was after midnight and she had all her clothes laid out on her bed with her suitcase open. I helped her to get a rental car booked and she ironed. She was still ironing and trying on clothes after 2 a.m. Finally around 3:30 I went to sleep and she finished packing and showered; didn't go to bed until 5:30 in the morning (this is her mad method; we all know this is how she rolls when she goes on a trip though we don't quite get it). I felt terrible about waking her up at 7:00, and let her snooze until 7:20. We had wanted to leave at 7:30. I think we made it out of the house around 8:00. I loaded up her suitcase and carry-on while she got ready. We made it to La Plata when she realized she'd forgotten her cell phone so we turned around and went back. Eventually we made it to Liberty. We had hoped to sit down somewhere for lunch but had ran out of time so we got Arby's to go. At the airport I walked her in and helped her to get checked in. I couldn't go past security so once she cleared that I gave her a hug and sent her on her way. I knew she would be fine but she was a little apprehensive about making her connection in Houston (turns out she busted her chops to make it, sweating in the 90 degree heat while she ran to the other gate and then her 2nd flight was delayed an hour). I texted Tiffy, Meli, and Dad to let them know I'd just dropped her off and as dad said in his reply, "Thx...now its up to the Lord and United...." (She was giving United Airlines another chance after boycotting them for years when they left her stranded years ago at the Denver airport, telling her they had overbooked and didn't help her find a flight. She reminded me of the story on our drive to KC and said she walked all around the airport looking for a flight to KC. I forget which airline she said finally helped her, but eventually she found the last flight to KC that night. She said it was a good thing; she only had $5 cash on her. So United has a lot to prove this time around, I'm not sure the delay is helping their case any, although at least it was only one hour when they originally told her two). So after that long-winded tangent, I need to wrap this up! After dropping mom off I got to do some browsing/shopping at Zona Rosa and then Target in Liberty. I still had to get groceries so it was another late night for me. I've just finished up at work and I'm heading to Jenna and Julia's ballgames. Finally we have a beautiful, sunny, 70-degree day!