Halloween...a work in progress

In our front yard this morning...


Can anyone guess what this 4th grader is dressed as (for school time only)?

You can click to get a little closer.

Happy Halloween!

Julie Alexander Update

We just got a call from Greg late last night saying that they are seeing good signs of improvement for Julie after her heart attack but are remaining cautiously optimistic. Further tests showed that new capillary growth is trying to repair the area of artery that was dissected.

If you'd like to stay updated on Julie's status, you can go to the CaringBridge site, and in the "Enter website name" box, enter 'juliealexander' (no spaces).

We may be having their little children stay with us sometime after Julie is discharged from the hospital. Her doctor said that she'll have to be in bed resting much of the time. As you can imagine, having the four little ones--all 7 and under--running around the home is not the restful environment she'll need!

Already, both Greg and Julie have witnessed silver linings to this traumatic event. I'm certain there will be more!

Please keep praying for Julie, Greg and their family.

"Because the marriage bond is a sacrament, it is a source of grace and strength."
--a quote from today's Covenant of Love message from Greg and Julie's ministry, the Alexander House.

Kathleen's creations

Kathleen has gotten creative again. She figured she should dress her doll in a Halloween costume this year. (Knowng how much she LOVES treats, I'm wondering if she thought she'd rake in more candy by taking her doll trick-or-treating with her.)Presenting...
A handmade luau hula outfit.Skirt made from brown yarn; lei made with hand-cut felt flowers and thread. Oh yes, and the tube top made from (a skimpy piece of) wide ribbon.

Kathleen also likes to dress in period fashions--especially of people who she thinks did cool things. Today, as she read this book......I'm sure her gears were turning.

Because after she finished the book, she scurried around and came up looking like this.

Silhouette ideas

Between some school work with the kids today, I've been fiddling around...and not with the violin. Since I have a bit of "digital SLR envy" (I don't have one, nor do I know how to use one), I figured I'd try to make the most of my point and shoot and come up with something fun.

I took this picture of the kids last weekend.
Since I'm fairly technically inept, I printed the picture, manually traced around it on a sheet of paper taped to a window, filled it in with black, took a picture of it with my point and shoot (our scanner isn't hooked up), and cleaned it up digitally with Paint.NET (I don't have Photoshop). I couldn't tell you exactly what I did or how I did it, but I ended up with this.I think I used: effects>stylize>outline, filled it in with black, and made it cleaner and brighter with adjustments>brightness/contrast.

Then I hopped onto CafePress.com and uploaded the design so I could envision some finished projects...that only a parent (or maybe even a grandparent) could love.



Truthfully, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this silhouette image. Anyone have any ideas?

Maybe I should look into getting an SLR afterall!

Okay, back to our school work.
Kids? Kids? Anyone?

Please keep this family in your prayers

Julie Alexander, a good friend of ours and the mother of six children, just suffered a heart attack and is in the hospital. She is only in her early 40s.

From what Greg (her husband) has been told, she is suffering from spontaneous coronary artery dissection, which can occur during postpartum. Their youngest child, Javan (our godchild), is 2-1/2 months old. They are a faith-filled couple, have a beautiful family, and run their own marriage ministry--the Alexander House.

Please keep Julie and her family in your prayers. They are running more tests today to find out the extent of damage to her heart so they can assess the need for surgery.

A scary performance

The kids had another violin performance today, and they were especially thrilled since they got to wear their Halloween costumes to play for residents of a retirement home.

Mary Kate dressed as a witch--of the cutest possible kind; Jimmer is a [slightly] undercover spy--he probably didn't realize that his gun and holster were so obvious (too hot for his spy jacket); Mikey is an adventure guy; and Kathleen is a navy sailor.
We already had Mary Kate's witch costume, and the other kids created their own costumes from things they already had in their dress-up hamper. They're going easy on me this year. Thanks, kids!

Here's a clip of them playing a Halloween song one of the students created. All of the students like this song because they get to make their violins "shiver," "moan," and "screech." (Disclaimer: They only practiced this song once as a group, so it wasn't their best song--but it is timely and festive, so I'll post it.)


Mary Hattersley, who started the Blazing Bows group 20 years ago, has been nominated for Texas State Musician for 2009-2010. She teaches children both Suzuki violin and fiddle, and she's been a fixture in a number of active bands that play some popular local venues...as well as performed with Willie Nelson, the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, and Mothers of Invention. Mary is on the far right in this photo.

The kids visited with a few of the residents.

The residents kept thanking them for playing.
Our kids enjoyed themselves.
We all had a fun (and spooky) morning!

Kids: creating lunch and homeschooling their mother

Mary Kate made a butterfly lunch for herself today. Then she asked me to take a picture of it. Hmmm, blogumenting our lives is starting to rub off on her.The other kids wanted sailboat sandwiches. I got the sailboat idea from Kristin in this post.They didn't feel like embellishing them today.

Kathleen decided to make her own fruit and veggie sailboat scene instead.
I've found when we make lunch critters and creations with our food, our kids usually eat better, talk a lot more during lunch (maybe not always a good thing), and start all kinds of interesting conversations.

As I listen to them, I keep wondering, "Where do they get this stuff?"

I just received a box in the mail as we were sitting down for lunch. Kathleen carried it in the house, looked at it and said, "Oh, it weighs 11 pounds. That's the same as the heaviest lemon."

Me: "What? There is an 11-pound lemon?"

Kathleen: "Yeah, some Asian farmer grew it."

Me: "Really? Where did you learn that?"

Kathleen: "We read about it in one of our magazines."

Then, after I was reading something about St. Patrick, Kathleen asked, "Mom, when was St. Patrick born?"

Me (after looking it up): "He was born around 385 A.D."

Kathleen: "Wow, that was almost 1,000 years before spectacles were even invented!"

Me: "Uh, I guess so. When were spectacles invented?"

Kathleen: "Around 1300."

Me: "Hmmm...where did you learn that?"

Kathleen: "That's what it said at one of the museums in Canada. It showed a big slice of tree with its rings, and it pointed to the years that things happened in history."

Mikey (chiming in): "Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt used to carry 12 pairs of glasses with him when he went to war? He put them in every pocket of his uniform so if he lost a pair, he'd have another--so he'd always be able to see."

Me: "Oh, yeah."

Thank you, kids, for homeschooling your mom...and making me feel better just when I was wondering if you were learning enough!