There Goes My Life...

A little girl’s dream.

This is one of those posts that I just don’t know where to start. I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.

A few weeks ago I saw a casting call for a 8-9 year old brunette for a lead role in a music video.  I had never considered anything like that before, but I decided to send in a few headshots of Molly.  Imagine my shock when I received an email saying that she had been chosen, and that I would be contacted soon regarding the shooting schedule and wardrobe.  It was still hard to believe, and Chris and I decided not to mention it to Molly until I heard back from the director.  We wanted to know it was really going to happen before we told her.  Well, long story short, it was the real deal, and a week or 2 later Molly and I found ourselves being introduced to her video parents one Saturday morning.

Any nerves I might have had evaporated as soon as we arrived. All the guys (and girls) in the crew were so nice to Molly. They made her feel at ease right away.  They all made a point to introduce themselves to me and engaged me in conversation throughout the day even though I was just the kid's mom.  I could tell right away that they were a great group of guys.

All of Molly’s scenes were shot that Saturday.  There were more scenes shot around Nashville on Sunday, but we were done after Saturday.

Here are a few more images from behind the scenes.

Molly waiting between scenes:

Filming argument scene between Molly’s parents:

Filming family playing with dog in backyard:

Scenes at the park:

Molly had to have a photo with her video parents, Daniel and Mindy.  Seeing them together made it easy to see why Molly was selected to play the role of their daughter.

So now about the artist/music.  The artist is Stephen Cochran (photo by Molly).

The song is Pieces.  The song is about a veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress.  This song is about saving veterans lives.  It is a powerful message, and I feel blessed that Molly is getting to be a part of it. On Memorial Day we will be attending the premiere in Nashville. Earlier this week a sneak peek was released.

I can’t wait for the world to see it!  I have seen the finished video, and it is just awesome.  I am so proud of Molly. She did such a wonderful job. 

I do have to share this sweet story.  I figured that she would tell all her friends at school that she was going to be in a country music video.  I asked her if she told them when I picked her up that When I picked her up from school I asked her if she did.  She said she just told her teacher because she didn’t want her friends to think she was bragging. I love my sweet girl.  However, I will be sharing with everyone her performance when it is released.  I think we moms are allowed to do that. :-)

I am so thankful that she had this opportunity and that she and I got to share it together.

Teacher Appreciation ‘12.

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week.  Of course I am late posting about it.  But just in case you haven’t done anything special for your kiddo’s teacher this an idea.  This subway art is from the girls over at eighteen25.  It is actually from last year, but I loved it so much I decided to do it again.

I found the frames at Hobby Lobby last week (on sale!).  I wanted a red frame,and I thought these were fun.  Maybe not the quality of an Organic Bloom, but more in my budget for teacher-gift-giving X 3.

FYI – the artwork is sized for 16x20, but I resized to 8x10.  I printed it on Canon Matte Photo Paper.  It is by far my favorite presentation type paper. 

End of Year Awards Day.

Don’t you just love it when you think you are on time for something just to arrive and find out that you are late and have missed what you came for.  Does that only happen to me?  This morning was the end-of-school year awards day.  The quarter isn’t over so they didn’t give out honor roll awards (which Elizabeth and Molly should both be receiving), but they gave out all the other awards. When I arrived a couple minutes before 8:00 this morning, they were announcing perfect attendance.  I slid in a spot on the bleachers and asked the mom next to me if they started early.  She said they started at 7:45.  WHAT?!   Awards day always starts at 8:00!  At least that is what I thought.  I even asked Elizabeth this morning, and she said 8:00 because they went to the classroom first. Apparently today was different. From now on I will always double check.

So I missed Elizabeth receiving her 4-H award for being an outstanding member.  I don’t know if she realized we weren’t there or not.  At least I got to get her photo afterwards.

I did get there just in time to see Stewart receive his award for having Perfect Attendance for the entire school year. 

Elizabeth had perfect attendance  for the year until last week when a stomach bug got her.  The kids have had a great year.  Elizabeth has made High Honor Roll every quarter, and Molly has made Honor Roll ever quarter.  Molly missed High Honor Roll by just one point last quarter, but I think she is on her way to getting making it this quarter.  She has worked so hard, and I am so proud of her.  All three kiddos have also brought home classroom awards during the school year also.  I would love them regardless, but it is such a joy to see them reach their goals and be rewarded for all their hard work.

May Photo a Day.

OK, so I’ve tried the 365 Photo a Day thing (more than once), and I am a major failure.  I always start off strong, but then I miss one day and it’s over.  This year I have seen lots of my friends on Facebook and Twitter posting their Instagram photos for the day from Fat Mum Slim’s monthly list.  Well, today my friend Robin posted the list, and I decided to go for it.

I downloaded Instagram to my phone,  (Yes, I was one of the last people on the planet without the app on my phone) and took my first photo for the month of May.

May 1 is Peace. 

So I thought about a place I thought was peaceful.  Right now it is my front porch.  I love sitting in the front porch swing in the evenings.  We live in the country, so it is quiet. And since it’s the first of May it’s not too warm yet.  Plus unlike our back deck, there always seems to be a breeze on the front porch.

So there is Day 1.  My peaceful spot.

Want to join me?  Here are the details, and below is the list for May.

Missing the past.

Today I went shopping. One of the stores I needed to visit was in a mall that I don’t go to very often.  When Elizabeth and Molly were little, we were there all the time.  In recent years there have been new malls built, and we seldom go to the old mall anymore.  In fact the first time we had been there in years was last month during the kids’ spring break.  Today I found myself there again.  I was looking for Molly a pair of pajamas, and I decided to go to JCPenney.  While I was there, I decided to make a stop at the restroom.  (I know you’re thinking where am I going with this.)  On my way to the restroom I passed the portrait studio and customer service and for a minute I was taken back to the days when I pushed a double stroller through that walkway time and time again. I remembered that was the entrance that I often used because I could usually find a parking place close to the door.  That was important back in those days when I was trying to get two little ones inside.  I remembered a conversation that Elizabeth and I had outside that door one day when we were shopping.  She was 2 and it was so funny that I made a scrapbook page about it.

Today I met my friend Anna Catherine for lunch. I told her about my mommy moment, and I found myself tearing up.  Tonight when I told Chris about it, I cried.  Usually when I am out shopping by myself I enjoy it.  I enjoy being able to get in and out quickly, and I enjoy not hearing the bickering from the backseat. 

Today I missed it. 

I felt alone.  I miss those days when I had little ones in tow. It’s funny, but I miss having to backtrack through the mall to look for that lost shoe or sock.

It was hard at the time.

It’s a lot easier now.

It’s also a lot more lonesome.

So if you’re still in this stage.  If it drives you crazy when the kiddos constantly ask you why.  If you are exhausted by the time you have unpacked the stroller from the back of the SUV and made a pit stop at the restroom to change yet another diaper before you even get to the first store.  If you are embarrassed that by the time you leave the store that the sales clerk knows your little one’s name because you have had to get onto him so many times. 

Just know that one of these days you are going to miss it.

You are going to miss having to unwrap their food.  You’re going to miss them wanting you to carrying them instead of riding in their stroller.  You’re going to miss the smiles of the nice elderly couple on the elevator who tells you how many grandchildren they have.

You’re going to miss the days they drive you, “bananas, too!”

Huck and Jim.

I feel a little bit today like I have gotten my life back.  For the past 3 months it has seemed every spare minute (and even the ones I couldn’t spare) have been spent on Huck & Jim. In case you didn’t know, a couple years ago I came involved in Carriage House Players, my town’s community theater group.  Until this year, I have only been onstage.  I thought I did a lot of work on each of the shows I have been a part of.  I worked hard to learn my lines, tried to always be at rehearsal, sewed costumes for my girls and me, baked whatever was asked, served refreshments, provided set props and even did a little set construction.

As plans were being made for the 2012 season, the directors (there are currently 3) asked for volunteers to assist with the four productions scheduled for 2012.  Their hope was to get more people involved with directing so that in the future they would have more directors. I volunteered to assist with Huck & Jim, the first show of the year.  I knew schedule wise it would work best for me since the winter is my slowest time of the year business wise, and is also the slowest time kid activity wise.

We read several different scripts, but Brenda, the director, couldn’t find one that she loved.  So she asked her friend and fellow director, Mickey, to write a script for her.  The story he wrote was far better than any of the scripts we had found.  Rather than trying to include all the many adventures of Huck Finn, it concentrated more on the relationship between Huck and the runaway slave, Jim.

It was such a touching story, and I am so excited for Mickey that it is on its way to being published.  I cannot wait until groups across the country are performing his creation and audiences are entranced by this heartwarming story.  I am so happy that I got to be a part of the original production.

Like I started out this post by saying.  I feel that I have gotten my life back in a sense.  I thought I had worked hard on productions before, but I really had no idea how many hours directors put into these shows. Saturdays, Sundays and late nights. I missed night after night of getting to tuck the kids into bed. Family meals were impossible.  Most nights I would find Chris asleep on the couch when I got home. Everyone in our family made sacrifices for Huck & Jim to happen.  The kids have spent hour after hour at the museum.  One day Molly and Stewart were so exhausted that they napped on the concrete floor.

This was a great learning experience for me.  I learned things that will hopefully help me when I am on stage next time.  I had my first experience running light and sound (I enjoyed that very much, BTW).  I came away with a much greater respect for those who work so hard behind the scenes. 

I’m very proud of the show we put together.  Even after all the hard work it entailed, I am looking forward to wearing the assistant director hat again in the future.  Just not in the very near future. :-)

The last days of an egg hunter.

I think this was the first years that none of the kiddos had an egg hunt at school.  They didn’t even have what I would call Easter parties.  They all had some sort of organized Easter activity in their classroom, but not a full-out-parents-are-invited party.  So for that reason, I have no school Eater photos this year.

We did have our church egg hunt on Saturday as is the tradition.  It is for kids newborn-3rd grade, so that means that this was Molly’s last year to get to hunt.  We had to have a group photo of her and her girlfriends who have been friends since birth.  Their last hunt. :-(

Molly made sure she went out with a bang.  There isn’t a prize for finding the most eggs, but I think she would have won it if there was! 76 eggs!  They were falling out of her basket!

There was a twinge in my heart when they divided up the kids and I realized that Stewart was hunting with the big kids this year. That just didn’t seem right. He managed to do pretty good.

Their haul.

So that’s it for Miss Molly.  At least we have 2 more years with Stewart. Sigh.

Easter Photo Lesson.

Should I go ahead and vow now to not even attempt Easter photos next year?  I really don’t know why I put everyone through it.  Every year it is pretty much the same.  At least this year I didn’t get out the tripod and try for the family pic. Even with my best efforts of getting everyone’s Easter frocks out the night before, we were still running late for church services.  There was certainly no time for a photo shoot regardless of how short it might have been.  We had some time to kill between church and lunch, so we went home to take some photos before everyone changed into play clothes.

I really just wanted one good one of the kiddos.  I knew I wanted it in front of my irises which are beautiful this year. We tried with the kiddos sitting in front of them, but that just did not work.  Stewart was slumping and oh-so-photogenic Molly looked as if she were in severe pain.  After several tries I finally told them to just stand up.  That’s when all the sweet sisterly love came out. Elizabeth was in the middle and put her arms around Stewart and Molly’s shoulders. Apparently her arm was acidic to Molly because it could not touch her.  After many words of joy, this was the best we could do.

That would have to do. Then Chris asked didn’t I want one with the kids? Well, sure I guess. Click, lick, click.   There is actually a good one of me.  Oh, wait, Stewart has his fake smile going and Elizabeth has her eyes closed.  Delete a few off the now full card and let’s try again. This is the best we managed of those.

So now for Chris and the kids. Well, as you can see Molly is looking at the ground and Elizabeth has her eyes closed.

So my lesson?  Just stick to scheduling an Easter session with my own kids.  Or maybe just a spring one. Let the Easter pics looks something like this.

Who am I kidding?!  I will be out there in front of the irises again next Easter morning. I will just add them to the ever growing collection of  painful family photos that we will laugh about years from now.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  We did despite what the photos might say!

Reflections.

I am always amazed by how in a split second everything around you can change.  As we were coming home from Elizabeth’s first middle school tennis tournament on Wednesday evening, I received a text from my friend Raven telling me that our mutual friend, Tonia, had lost her husband that afternoon in a car accident.  I literally felt sick to my stomach.  It was if someone had punched me in the stomach.

This scrapbook world is a funny thing.  Chris used to laugh and tell people that there was a whole other world that he never knew existed before I started scrapbooking.  Thanks to the internet I “know” so many precious friends even though we have never met in real life.  Tonia is was one of those friends.  I say was because as of yesterday, we are no longer just online friends.

Raven and I texted for for the rest of the night.  We all 3 live in Tennessee, and Tonia just happens to live in between Raven and me.  So we decided we would meet the next morning and go to see our friend. Raven was the fortunate one who had gotten to spend time with Tonia’s precious family before this tragedy.  I had not.  I was supposed to meet their family later this month when they were going to travel to Fayetteville so that I could do family portraits for them.  I was so excited about finally getting to meet.

Little did I know when we talked about scheduling their session that I would find myself a few days later standing on their front porch holding a loaf of banana bread.  (That’s what we southerners do)To see Tonia recognize me and then throw her arms around me told me that I made the right decision to drive the 2 hours to a “stranger’s” house.

Thanks to Facebook even though I had never met Tonia’s husband, I knew exactly what he looked like.  I knew that he was a great dad and that he and Tonia were best friends.  Even though we had never met their relationship reminded me so much of the one Chris and I share. The people I met while I was in their home, and the things that I heard about Jeff Sherrill’s life made me wish that I would have had the opportunity to know this man.  It was obvious the impact he had on so many people’s lives. All the comments on FB about him are a testament to the friend he was to so many.

I have cried so many tears for Tonia and her precious children. I told Chris last night that I just didn’t know what I would do if tomorrow he was gone. He said, “You would know that I couldn’t love you more, and that I couldn’t have been happier.” I think that is all we can ask.  I know talking to Tonia yesterday that she knows Jeff could not have loved her more and that he could not have been happier.  It was so obvious in the many, many photos I saw in their home.  I hope that brings that knowledge brings her peace and comfort as she faces the coming days.

Vocabulary words in action.

This is Read Across America Week and Stewart’s school is busy, busy, busy with activities.  Last week the kids chose a word from a list of vocabulary words.  Today they had a Word Parade where they dressed as their vocabulary word and the rest of the elementary students tried to guess the word.

It was no surprise to me that Stewart chose the word “freeze.” Of course he had ideas of his own and insisted that we paint his face white with some leftover Halloween face paint. You can’t really tell it in the photo, but he also has glitter all over his face.  He looked pretty icy! 

While we were waiting for the parade to start another mom shared with me that her daughter had told her that no one chose the word humongous, and my very helpful son suggested to his pregnant teacher that she could be that word. Nice.  Luckily, his adorable pregnant teacher who he absolutely loves has a sense of humor.

Also on the agenda for Read Across America Week is a field trip to Nashville to TPAC to see the stories of Eric Carle come to life.  Our school has the best field trips.  Chris and I are both going on this one.  It should be lots of fun!