Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

Happy holidays, everyone!


















This has been a wild year of fun, not-so-fun, and busy busy busy! We have found lots of ways to be busy as a family. Additionally, my Music Together business outgrew my personal limits of time and energy back at the beginning of the year, and while we served so many families and had a wonderful time, I'm glad for my own family that things have since scaled back. Matthew has continued teaching at UNCA, and we're both very proud of how well his program has adjusted to Mr. Richmond and his high expectations. I dove into my first full year of teaching a high school percussion program and learned TONS!


Hardest working drumline in NC.

I'm still refining what constitutes "tough enough" but not "too mean" in my teaching style. I had a blast teaching marching drumline, but I lost SOOOO much sleep during band camp. It was like college exams all over again, 3 or 4 all-nighters succeeded each time by day-long adventures in trying to stay focused and ahead of 15 or so teenage musicians. Needless to say, I'm relieved to have a break from marching for a few months.




Matthew and I have really enjoyed playing in our percussion/jazz/rock/avantgarde/wierdo ensemble Eroteme. We've had fun cooking, eating, practicing, jamming, and performing together, and we're looking forward to another year of it!

Brad...musician, friend, budding chef type person.
























Jordan, of Eroteme and of marching band assistance. Any friend of T-Mo is a friend of mine.




















2008 also marked the marriage of good friends Cameron and Rachael Juroff. Matthew and I were honored to be involved in the festivities and ceremony. Congratulations, homies! We love you! Sorry--I'm kind of ashamed to discover I have no photo of Rachael! She's too good-looking for this blog anyway...

Cameron J.























And while I'm talking of weddings, congratulations to our good friends Tony and Adrienne, who got hitched this year as well!  They were beautiful, and Matthew, Isaac, and I were honored to celebrate with them.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the event or after-party.  I'm sure Tony does (ha ha!). 

Congratulations to all the other wonderful people we know who got married or welcomed babies this year!  We don't know any non-wonderful people.  

Matthew and I took a week-long vacation to Ithaca, NY, in July . This year marked our 10th year of marriage and our 15th year of friendship. We spent the first year of our marriage there while Matthew finished his graduate degree at Ithaca College. We spent lots of time with Matthew's percussion teacher and his wife, Gordon and Christy Stout, and had a wonderful time! We also visited my former boss at CTB Appetizers and went back to some of our favorite eateries and hang-out spots.

Matthew and Kari at the overlook for Taughannock Falls. We're blocking the view of the falls, but it was really just a trickle anyway, due to the drought. So, you're not missing much.








































We are excited to return this winter for Matthew to play his vibe concerto with students at the Ithaca College percussion department. This time we're taking Isaac, and we hope he'll get to experience some real northern snowfall (though maybe not during the drive...).

While we hope to repeat a fun visit to Ithaca, some 2008 events we hope not to repeat: Kari's bike wreck with broken jaw, stitches, and all; Isaac's 2nd degree burn (courtesy of his mama's loose handling of a hot pan); various and sundry stomach bugs, and tons of poopy diapers. Things we wouldn't mind repeating in 2009: a great bunch of students (for Matthew and Kari both), a happy trip to Ithaca, Matthew playing at Bonnaroo, a fun visit to the Mountain State Fair (Isaac and I love the "Flying Bob!") and the circus (camel ride!) and lots of T-Mo Cuteness and good health.

Isaac with grandpa at the circus, checking out the cool prize...






















Camel ride!


















The cutest Halloween costume and kid-inside-costume in the universe!




































































Fun at the park several weeks after "the great wreck of 2008"--mama's jaw is only slightly crooked-er than it was before...

















I've loved getting to see all THREE of my sisters a couple of times this year. Check out the sistahs!


















Isaac is thriving! He sings ALL the time and is now much more easy-going about us singing in his presence. He is very close to being able to drum along in time with us or music on the radio. He likes to count off for playing duets, but if you're the other musician, watch out! He has a warped sense of humor. He's quite capable of doing a regular One Two Three Four count-off. But, not long ago, he was heard counting off for an Old Mac Donald duet with our friend Brad in the following manner: "One.......Two.......One...Two...OneTwoOneTwoOneTwoThreeCrash!"


Random cool picture of a hawk in our back yard, because why not...? I took this just shot before driving to the first annual Music Together Holiday sing-along and figured it was an omen. A good one, because why not...?






















Isaac no longer switches up his pronouns, and he's a precocious English-speaker for his age. He loves books. In fact, a couple of days ago, I was in my own little world putting away laundry. When I suddenly tuned into what he was doing, I realized the funny humming noises he was making were actually his first independent attempts to sound out words. And he wasn't doing half bad! Considering he was trying to read "History Rock." Speaking of that, he is showing impeccable taste in his video preferences--he enjoys old Muppets and Bugs Bunny episodes, and he's now getting into School House Rock tapes. Before long...Monty Python! Well, maybe we'll wait a few more years. But there's always Star Wars IV, V, and VI in the meantime.

Isaac is medium-potty-trained. He CAN do it...he just usually prefers not to. Oh well. He's taking one nap a day (usually). The effect of living with two educators is certainly apparent in his communication habits--he's quite opinionated and bossy, even for a 3-year-old. One of his most recent outlandish instructions to me: "I want you to give me something that is not healthy for me to eat." He loves his buddies (pictured below), and when he's not exhorting them to dance to his new favorite music (Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride), they love to take turns chasing each other and making crafts together.


Bossy!






















Thoughtful.






















Isaac and The buddies. They're trying to taste snowflakes, in case you're wondering.


















Isaac with his beloved Bobbo.



















Matthew and I are looking forward to spending the holiday weeks together doing much more "nothing" than usual before we go back to the craziness of classes and lessons in January. We love all of you and hope we have many opportunities to spend time with you this coming year! Have a 2009 full of fun, peace, and good health!

Bike Wreck - Slightly Graphic

To start with...I'm fine. However, I'm out of commission for a couple of days. I had a bicycle accident early Wednesday morning and landed on the street more or less on my chin. There weren't any other vehicles or people involed--I was going down hill and around a curve and slid through a wet patch on the road, lost control, and went off the side of the bike onto my hands and chin. Two pretty important components for teaching music classes, drumlines, etc. And lots of other jobs, I guess.

As a result, I now have 9 pretty blue stitches in my chin (right next to my scar from a bicycle wreck 20 years ago!) and a broken jaw, along with various bruises and abrasions. Here's me the a couple of hours after discharge from the emergency room:



Broken jaw sounds pretty dramatic. It's true, but I don't look as bad as it sounds--the very top part of the lower mandible on the left side (called the condyle or condyloid process) broke clean through. But, there was no displacement, so the doctor didn't see a need to wire it shut. I can talk, but I can't open my mouth wide, and I'm not allowed to eat solid food or participate in "strenuous activities" (biking, horseback riding, walrus wrestling, etc) for 6 weeks. My main concern (after I manage to dig all the tiny pebbles out of my palms and get over feeling like I tried to lift a gorilla and was almost successful) is that I get my nice braces-produced bite back eventually. And that none of my teeth go on strike. Should find out more at my face Dr. appointment on Monday. I'm sore, but it's manageable, and I have heavy-duty pain medicine if I need it.

Matthew's parents have taken Isaac home with them, and Matthew has proven himself to be an excellent blender-cook and nurse. For now, my plan is to lay around for a couple of days and plot my strategy for world domination. Don't I look conniving?

So, of course, I'm trying to take some lessons from this experience (and a couple of have been rather unpleasantly foisted upon me).

Foisted:
1) Wear gloves when biking.
2) Stay away from wet curvy slick roads when biking.
3) Ambulance rides aren't that fun. And they don't offer mirrors for you to check to see if the bottom half of your face is still attached.

Non-foisted:
1) There's a really nice guy named John who live near a wet curvy patch of road in West Asheville. If you ever have a bike wreck, try to do so near his house when he's about to leave for work. He has a cell phone, good first aid savvy, and a cheerful willingness to lend a sweatshirt to your bleeding chin, AND a bike rack on his car, which he will use to return your bike to your house when the ambulance takes you to the ER.
2) Ugly as emergency rooms are, they make your husband and son look even more beautiful than ever.
3) X-ray techs don't know much about what to do if you faint. They called a nurse. I just thought that was funny.
4) I have the most lovely family and friends in the whole world. I expect I'm not going to have to make soup for at least a couple of weeks! My humblest thanks and love to all of you!

New Richmond Blog!

In lieu of sending long mass e-mails, I've decided to try a blog. I'm going to put some back-story on here, so feel free to read backwards...Also, I'm including some photos from the last few months.

On the whole, we are doing very well. Matthew and I are psyched about autumn season again, and it's starting to feel like fall outside! We even tossed the football a bit this evening to get into the spirit.

Without further ado...

Isaac at the high school football game last night! He's surrounded by the band, which is why he's holding one ear. His mouth is full of "grandpa's crackers" (peanut-filled pretzel bites, courtesy of Grandpa Richmond), and his other hand is clutching the bowl with the rest of the crackers. We had a bit of a disagreement about earplugs. Must find a more comfy alternative.

After a too-short nap earlier in the day, the noisy and stressful ball game, which we didn't leave until an hour after his usual bed time, Isaac was nothing but a big wet melt-down by the time I got him into bed. And we left his metal water bottle, which he always sleeps with, in the bleachers, on top of everything else. Yuck. He woke up screaming twice. Poor kiddo.

So, after all that drama, we took him to the fair today... great idea, right? But he had a really good time. No meltdowns until we were in the car on the way home. We started out looking at the animals, and then we snacked and watched some of the clogging competition. I reminisced about my long-ago clogging days. No giggling! We hoped Isaac would nap in the shade, and he did lie down cooperatively, but he never actually slept. He was out of it enough for Matthew and me to eat a sausage, some chicken tenders, fries, and a funnel cake right next to him without him noticing!

After the "rest," we headed for the rides. The first thing we rode was called a Flying Bob. Bob! It's like the Himalayan, but with free floating cars that swing out as you go around and up and down. Isaac wanted to ride, but we thought it would be too fast and too loud. He watched, he insisted, he exceeded the minimum height, so we caved. I rode it with him, and he loved it! Our little thrill-seeker! We took turns taking him on things and let him go on a few rides alone, so Isaac experienced a Ferris wheel, a couple of fun-houses, a spinning dragon children's ride, a caterpillar roller coaster, a miniature train and more. And at 3:30, he was toasted, so we left. No pictures, but a good time was had by all.

Isaac is Mr. Independent these days and will throw a tantrum if you do something for him without fair warning. Like put food on his plate, help him open or close a door (closing the car door is the big thing right now). He can now operate the TV/VCR completely by himself, though he never turns the TV off when he's done. Gotta work on that. He can also do most of the processes to play a CD. Isaac was 30 pounds and 3 feet tall on his 3rd birthday. Around the time of his birthday, he suddenly almost totally gave up referring to himself in the 2nd person. He has pretty much mastered "I" and "me." He does slip up occasionally when tired or stressed.

Favorite books these days include Fun With Mrs. Thumb, wherein a cat torments a small wooden doll in her ornately furnished dollhouse. He also likes Gallop, a cool optical illusion book that he got for his birthday, and various Winnie the Pooh stories and Little Golden Books. Oh, and he loves his Blaze book that the Flaherty family gave for his birthday. Blaze Finds the Way or something like that.

This is A.C. Reynolds High School drumline, which I teach. The band is the Marching Green Stars, although the sports teams are called Rockets or Rockettes. Hmmm. At any rate, I'm quite proud of this very young drumline, which has come a long way in a relatively short time.

Eventful July!

On Monday, I put Isaac down for his nap and proceeded down to bottom of the driveway to vacuum and wash my car. About 10 minutes after I started, I was slightly startled to see the top of a little blond head cruise by the window of the car door. I laughed (mistake!) and took Isaac back to his room. I was a bit amazed that he had come all the way down the stairs and through the garage by himself, when he never really comes out of his room at all during naptime. Maybe he heard the vacuum. Anyway, he came back down about 5 minutes later, and after several treks up the stairs, speaking more firmly all the time about how I did not want him to get out of bed, come down the stairs, etc, I finally gave up. It was nearly 3 PM by this point, and I figured it was my own fault for putting him down so late. So, I put Isaac in his little Lightnin' McQueen lawn chair and proceeded to hose off the car and start washing. After several minutes, I heard a soft sound from the direction of the garage. What I saw made me laugh! Isaac had apparently fallen asleep in his chair and toppled over sideways. He was so startled to see that the world was sideways that he forgot to cry. I'll never forget the shock and puzzlement on his face (around his passy, of course) as he sat with perfect posture SIDEWAYS in his little chair. I'm glad he wasn't hurt.

Because the next day, he got hurt, and it was my fault. He was having a wonderful cheery morning, and wanted to help me make breakfast. I held up the hot egg pan as he sat on the counter so that he could pour in the "egg fall," and the bottom of the pan tapped the top of his leg. Oh, he screamed (Does it burn, mama!?) and I was so worried--at first I couldn't tell what had gotten burned, because he was clenching his hand and leg up against his tummy. Luckily it WAS just his leg, but it was a nice oval-shaped 2nd degree burn. Luckily the kitchen sink was empty, so I plopped him in and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed.

It helped to have in the back of my mind the recent story of Jolene--another mom in my playgroup--whose little boy burned the bottom of his feet on their driveway just a few days before. Not that another baby's injury made me feel better, of course...just that another mom messed up, and her boy was recovering. The area has new skin on it and is just a shrinking red area now. Ahhhh, motherhood!

Here's the leg the day after the event. You can't tell much--it's just starting to blister a bit.




Here it is a week after the burn occurred. Oozy, slimy, crusty, still fairly sore. Yuck!


Over a month later, it's all better, but I don't have a photo to show. You'll just have to trust me. Here he is a couple of days ago enjoying some fall weather and activities!

Isaac has been sitting on the potty for 30 minutes but is insisting he needs to poo again. Since he sat, he's peed twice, we read Zen Shorts ("Zen Panda Shorts"), I fell asleep for a few minutes in the hall floor, and woke up to hear him challenging himself: "Want to sing ABC's reeeeeaallly faster?"

I'm being paged...

I just came back from a great conversation with the little man, which I will transcribe as he continues to sit on the potty.

Isaac: Do you want to poo poo on theeeeeeh door?
Me: Noooooo!

Isaac: Do you want to poo poo on theeeeeeh door?
Me: Noooooo!

Isaac: Do you want to poo poo on theeeeeeh door?
Me: Noooooo!

Isaac: Do you want to poo poo on theeeeeeh door?
Me: Noooooo!

Isaac: Do you want to poo poo on theeeeeeh door?
Me: Noooooo!

Isaac: Can mama say do you want to poo poo on the door?
Me (getting grossed out finally): No.

Isaac: Can mama say do you want to poo poo on the door?
Me (wondering if I should give in just to keep it from being a big deal): No.

Isaac: Can mama say do you want to poo poo on the door?
Me (giving in): Do you want to poo poo on the door?

Isaac: Noooo. Can mama say it again?
Me (grossed out after all): No.

Isaac: We don't eat poo poo!
Me (aha! something we agree on): No, we don't.

Isaac: We don't eat mama.
Me (what??): No, we don't!

Isaac: Mama's too big.
Me (well, there's some logic...): laughing, That's right!

Isaac: If we eat mama, she will stick out of your mouth.
Me (true that!): That's right! laughing and kissing that silly kid.