Jen FitzGerald

It's Friday, thank goodness. It's been a long two days. We've had a temporary technician in the office while our one employee and DH are both out of town. The guy is very nice, but he talks slow and he thinks I care about what he's doing. I know that's mean and snarky, but it's the truth. You're the IT guy, just do it and leave me out of it.

And he's sharing my space with me, which makes Jen an unhappy camper. I'm used to and enjoy my solitude. I listen to my music and once my work's done, I do what I want. Well, I don't really feel comfortable spending the day watching TV while he's here, so I've had to find other, less obvious ways of keeping busy.

And I got one--my first real proof reading gig!!! I'm so thrilled. It's for an author multi-published with Harlequin. Oh, my gosh--how exciting is that!!! I also waiting to hear back from another gal, but I don't know if I will. My theorys are, either she's just super busy or when I confirmed the cost, she flinched. That's okay. I'm pretty inexpensive as far as my research has shown, but it's still not cheap. We'll see I guess.

But the week's almost over. And this weekend is going to a non-stop whirlwind of events.

In addition to turning around a 324 page manuscript by Monday, the weekend will be filled up with a writing retreat at my dear friend Angi Morgan's house. Except I can't stay the whole weekend because it's also my annual JAG weekend and Sonshine's band banquet is Saturday night. It's also writers group weekend. I'm tired just thinking about all that driving! And we have construction everywhere right now. UGH!!!

Tonight, I head to Angi's house. Tomorrow, we car pool to our writers meeting and back to Angi's house. I have to leave there around five to get home in time to haul Sonshine to a birthday party he can only attend for 45 minutes, and then he and I will head over to the school for the banquet. (I might have skipped it, except the band director's retiring this year.) Then Sunday morning early, after I do my grocery shopping, I'll be heading eastward again to have breakfast with my JAG friends and spend the day seeing folks I haven't seen since last year at this time, and others I haven't seen in several years.


I hope you have an awesome spring weekend as well.

Catch you on Monday with all the details and pictures!

So Mother's Day was this past Sunday. DH cooked my favorite, grilled hamburgers, on Saturday night, and I got three mini-roses, one for each of the kids. And all of us are going to go see the new Star Trek film sometime next week, when the Brown-Eyed Girl has a day off.

My flowers:


The pink one on the left is from DD, the lavenderish one on the right is from the Brown-Eyed Girl, and the cream colored one in the back is from Sonshine.

The day itself was spent peacefully with me enjoying the lovely spring day and the herd of wildlife I have enticed into my backyard.


In other news...DD just finished her semester of college, and one of her classes was an art class. One of her projects was to mimic Van Gogh. I have a new piece of artwork on my wall now!


I have taken up sewing again! I don't know entirely why, but partly because I just got rid of all my fat clothes. Of course, all my patterns were sized for the larger version of me, so I needed new patterns. I now have seven new patterns to mix and match.

Second thing on the sewing agenda was taking apart a dress, whose fabric I loved and that I didn't want to just give away with the rest of my clothes. The bodice of the dress is too big, but I've sewn a casing to the skirt, slid in some elastic, and voila! a new skirt. Finished last night and wearing today!

Speaking of clothes and the slimmer me, I finally passed the 144lb. plateau I'd gotten stuck on. I'm hoping to fall into 130s range here soon.

Are you a seamstress? Have you ever laid hands on a sewing machine? What have you made??

This Monday's movie is A Royal Affair, a foreign (Danish) historical film about the relationship between the wife of King Christian VII, Caroline, and the king's physician, Johann Struensee.


Based on actual events, the movie chronicles the rise to power of Johann Struensee, a German doctor, who becomes royal physician to King Christian, who, it is believed, was mentally ill. By basically playing into the king's illness, he gained the king's absolute trust. Despite his father being a priest, Struensee was a firm believer in the Age of Enlightenment, and encouraged and helped the king to begin reforms. And as the title represents, during this time, Struensee and the queen entered into an affair

I'm not much one for foreign films (and this one did win several awards) but being second generation Danish, it piqued my curiosity. (My mom was born there and my grandmother still lives there.) The movie was slow moving, but I cut it a little slack and gave it a movie reel rating of seven because I'm a history buff and Danish. :)

Anyone seen this? A fan of foreign films in general??

Let's visit the Fort Worth Zoo! Our zoo is one of the best zoos in the country. DD and I visited the zoo last fall for the first in many many years. I think I went with one of the kids on a field trip way back in the day, but I was chaperoning kindergartners so my enjoyment of the zoo was minimal at best.

But this time--lots of fun!



The zoo was founded in 1909 with only a handful of animals and was operated by the City of Fort Worth. It's everyday operations were transferred to the Fort Worth Zoological Association in 1991.The zoo has grown by leaps and bounds over the years and now houses over 7000 creatures, both native and exotic, including the largest herpatarium--the reptile and amphibian house. FMI: Forth Worth Zoo wiki page and The Fort Worth Zoo website.

And now for some pics of the animals--cuz that's really why we go to the zoo, yeah??






Have you been to the zoo lately?? And I've gotta ask--what's your favorite zoo animal?

(Mine's the elephant.)

Today's post is about Sonshine...you remember my smart funny handsome Marching Band Boy...



Sonshine who is a junior this year wants to go to Texas A&M to study architecture. Which is awesome. However we can't afford to send him there. We've told him if he wants to go for four years, he's got to get a full ride. In order to do that, he's got to lean on his band laurels such as they are.

He's a good player. The band director has said so and she's not one to just flatter kids to their parents. If Sonshine practiced, he could be better. A lot better.

One of the obstacles Sonshine has to overcome in the next year is the change in band directors. The current band director is retiring. The problem is, apparently, the school district hasn't hired a new one. We thought they had and just haven't introduced him or her to the kids, but Sonshine no longer thinks that's the case. He now thinks it's one of the helpers the band director has utilized this past year and according to Sonshine this guy doesn't do anything.

So going into his senior year, Sonshine has a new band director--one that has been given no time to prep and plan for the upcoming year. usually by now, the show music for next year's UIL contest has been chosen. The kids have heard it. Band camps are scheduled for the summer so the kids can learn not only the music but some marching choreography--and how not to trip over each other in the process. Usually by the first game of the school year, our kids know at least a couple of movements to their music and have their marching uniforms when a lot of schools don't. Next year...not so much. The district is really screwing us over. Our school has enough disadvantages and obstacles as it is.

So all of that to say, Sonshine is going to be on his own this year to a large degree. I told him yesterday that if he wants a scholarship then A) he's going to have to get it through band, which means he has to be in band in college and I don't think he was planning on that; B) he's going to have to practice on his own A LOT this year. If the band director ends up not being up-to-par, it's going to be up to him to keep up and improve his skills; and he's going to have take on a new instrument...

An advantage of playing for a small band is sometimes you get asked to try other instruments. His primary instrument is the trumpet, but he's also played the baritone (looks like a small tuba) and the mellophone (the marching French horn. He thought about going for the sousaphone (that's the marching tuba, that's round in shape that the players have to 'wear' and that sports a really huge bell) for marching season, but with all the other changes, he's going to stick with the mellophone. Anyway, being flexible and being proficient on more than one instrument can only work to his advantage. Not only did he participate in marching band, but he's also participated in symphonic and jazz band. Though I'm sure a lot of kids do too.

Obviously there are other things he has to do to earn a scholarship, like keep his grades up and earn good/great SAT and/or ACT scores, but I think the band thing is going to be the biggest key. That and getting everything applied for and taken on time.

Ugh.

I'm putting a lot on him, because if he wants this, then he's got to step up. Unfortunately, his dad and I have never really put a lot of pressure on him, so it's going to be a learning experience for all of us.

I'm going to have to overcome a few things as well. Like putting it all on him and forgetting about it. I'll have to follow up, day after day, nagging and being the strict mom I have never been. It's going to be a tough year.