Proud Mamas

Last night was Ben's musical - oh, he did SO well!
The poor kid had had a rough day with his allergies so he was pretty full of allergy drugs. Then, on the way to the school he informed me that his stomach was hurting. Uh, oh! I didn't have anything to give him for that, either. But he hung in there. He had make-up put on him, which was a first. My friend, Melissa, pointed out to me today that Ben looked just like Mark Twain - must have been the bushy eyebrows and mustache!

I stayed backstage again, which was a good thing. These poor junior highers were scared half to death! At the last minute one came up to me in a panic because her dress' zipper had broken 5 minutes before the play was to begin. I managed to round up some safety pins and got her pinned into her dress. Ben did great, even though he didn't feel the best. I could be a bit biased, but it sounded to me like the audience laughed louder at his lines! Perhaps they appreciated how much of an achievement this was for him.

At intermission I rushed out to Paul and was able to get some red raspberry capsules from him for Ben. I sat backstage and prayed that he would not vomit all over the stage! He didn't - saved that for when he got home, instead. However, he was just fine this morning and went to school.

I was surprised (and secretely gratified) to see my name listed on the program under the "Thanks" column, for my work at the rehearsals and costume help. Of course, I'm not sure how big of an honor that really was because they printed the entire program with the WRONG DATE on it! It said, "April 15, 2012." Guess they had taxes on the brain! But it was a cute little pamphlet. They had pictures of all the kids in costume taken a couple of weeks ago with their names emblazoned across them. And then they had a page where all the kids signed their names. I took plenty of them so I can scrapbook most of the pages.

Paul took the pictures, including a not-very-flattering one of me when I was barreling towards him, needing the red raspberry.

So anyway, I'm really proud of Ben. He was bound and determined to be involved in this musical. And to think that I wanted him stuck backstage doing something inobstrusive. I have GOT to quit being so scared for him! I plan to jot his teacher an email this week thanking her for this. She reminded me the other day of how nervous I had been at the start of this for Ben. Lesson learned!

Ok, on to my next picture: That's Sara, Me, and Baby Allison last Sat. at the hospital. Allison was about 17 hours old in that picture. Allison presumably has a middle name, but I have yet to hear it. For most of the pregnancy, it had been decided that she would be "Allison Catherine." But then her father suddenly happened upon the realization that he could be opening up his daughter to the possibility of the nickname of "Allie Cat" and nixed the chosen middle name. They were still tossing around ideas when I left the hospital last Sat!


We spent the day in Waterloo, which was nice. Will brought along his guitar and the next thing I knew, my dad was getting out his, that he bought in the 60s and the two of them were strumming along together. I mentioned the song, "Dueling Banjos" and then this past week I heard Will picking that out. He had found that sheet music on the internet and is teaching it to himself. I need to have him give me the website so I can send it to my dad. Maybe the next time they are together they can then play that.

I need to end this post on an "up" note, so here's a story from this week: I was walking through the high school hallway on Wednesday (Ben had a matinee performance that afternoon). I passed a doorway that had some clothes thrown over the top, which was a little weird, I thought. Then, I saw the sign on the door. It said something to the effect of, "Don't expect to come in here showing too much skin, or you will be required to cover up!" I was talking to Ben's aide and she brought that up to me. She said the teacher is a Mr. Gordon (he teaches art, I found out - perhaps David will have him at some point if his interest in art continues; I am seriously thinking of enrolling him in art classes in the middle school next year) and he was just fed up with the short shorts and low cut tops of some of his students. According to his aide, immodesty is a real problem at the school, and even though there are rules in place regarding short and skirt length, nobody seems to want to enforce them. As I worked with the middle schoolers the past few weeks I even found myself bothered at times by how much cleavage some of the girls were showing. Actually, it's amazing to me how much cleavage junior highers even had! When I was the same age, even if I had wanted to show things off, I couldn't have. Nothing grew until the 9th grade...sigh...As my dad always said in an attempt to encourage me, "Early to bloom, early to rot!" At nearly 41 years of age, the wilting process has sadly begun...

Ok, that is not an "up" topic to end on. How about this laugh? David watched the play last night and he came to me later and said he enjoyed it, but then pursed his lips and told me that there were two things that he had a real problem with. I had a problem with more than two things, so I was curious as to what bothered him. He had caught the line in one of the songs about "burning our bras" and expressed to me how inappropriate he thought that was. And then, he expressed disapproval over the attire of one of the actresses. She played a biker and getting in character, she wore a low-cut tank, leather jacket, and a ripped, very short mini skirt, and high heeled boots. David shook his head and said, "Mom, that just wasn't appropriate!" "Appropriate" is his new word these days. Actually, it's not really all that funny, and to be honest, I'm appreciative of his sensitivity. But it made me smile, all the same!