Rollin' to Stardom

Two entries in one day. But I couldn't let this pass. Life is not all about me. I needed to brag on my son.

Last night, Bill and I went to see Brendan perform in his school play. He was the title character called Roll, in Sheik, Rattle and Roll. He's a wise man who does a lot of sleeping through the scenes and provides comic relief. I never thought Brendan was the drama type. He's pretty shy and doesn't enjoy performing in front of people. But, he tried out and was assigned this part. Ben, his best mate, plays Sheik. I went to the day performance, too, which was less crowded and more laid-back, to videotape the play for our families. So, between the two, I got to see him at his best. Ben had more lines, and sang a solo, but Brendan was right in there, pulling the gags and delivering the lines with confidence - and singing.

His school is so small that all the students in years 3 through 6 participated. Some were sheep. Some were stars. There were lots of angels. But there was only one Roll. He was unique and special. I was so proud! He's way too cool to be my kid.

Haircut Woes

Every few years, like when I hit a milestone birthday (I turned 41 in September - which is MUCH harder than 40), I start to wonder, will I ever have long flowing hair again? Or am I stuck with short hair for the rest of my life, another 40 some-odd years? I like short hair. Bill is quick to tell me he likes me in short hair, frequently. but sometimes I'd love to pull it back in a pony tail. Long hair is pretty. It's sexier.

So, in May, I decided to grow my hair out. I suffered through seven months of awkward stages of growth, only to hit the Christmas season and think, "Why? I want to look my best during the holidays. I think I'll get it cut." Well, of course, it had been so long since I got it cut that I was sure whether to just put in a few layers to soften it and give it some movement, or go all the way and cut it short again. I didn't know until I got to the salon.

Then I saw a picture of Whitney Houston's new do in a magazine while I was waiting. She was sporting long blond polished layers. I really liked it (can you believe it?) and showed it to my hairdresser. My fatal flaw was saying, "But I'd like the front a little shorter. I don't like it in my face." She took this to heart and cut the "fringe" as they call bangs at my eyebrows. And of course, when it dried, it was even shorter! I have been working with my new cut all morning, and am not happy. It looks like a mullet! The back and sides are still long, but with layers, so they flow better and lay nicely. But the front looks like it did when my big brother took it upon himself to cut my bangs when I was four. They look extremely short and out of proportion to everything else.

So, if you see me around town, or over the holidays, please try not to stare. I've become philosophical again as I used to about bad haircuts. It will look better in two weeks. So much for looking my best for Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas!

I am SO excited about going home for Christmas. I can't wait. This week is the real countdown for me. We don't get into San Antonio until Tuesday, because we have to stop over in Dallas for doctor visits and interviews, but still - the weather should be nice, and we'll back in familiar stomping grounds eating chicken fried steak, bbq and mexican food.

The good thing about traveling at Christmas is that it forces you to get done early, so you can enjoy the time with family. I've completed my online shopping (that's not to say that Bill has). I've complete the Christmas crafts for church, did my last week of Sunday School. I handed out teachers' gifts today. Now, I can fully appreciate the company dinner I'm going to with my husband tonight, the American ladies gift exchange and Brendan's school play on Thursday.

The bad thing about traveling at Christmas is, well, the traveling (think Planes, Trains and Automobiles). You have to pack a good sense of humor - but you can't take it on the plane! With the new restrictions, they have managed to suck all the fun out of it. I can't take any liquids on the plane, so I where my glasses the whole trip and my lips dry until they crack, and I can't get enough water in those little plastic cups, no matter how many times I ask the nice flight attendant.

Amidst all this planning, preparing and organizing, I have been blessed to spend time with Brendan before bed reading about the birth of Jesus in the four gospels while he puts the pieces of his advent calendar together, and tucks them away again. I've also been studying the Last Supper, death and resurrection stories from John with Xplore (my Sunday School group). It is so obvious that this is not the big event. This little baby came with a purpose. Jesus came to die and rise again. It gives Christmas a whole new perspective. And while I love this time of year, I'm enjoying it even more knowing that this is only one chapter of the story. The climax is yet to come - and it's a good on!

Finally Friday

It's amazing how I can fill the week and feel like I have't really accomplished anythings. Of course, I've got lots of things to do to get ready to go to Texas for Christmas (yea!), but that shouldn't keep me from writing a little. What did I do this week?

I went shopping in Hatton on Monday. I talked about that in an earlier enty. It is a beautiful place in Warwickshire, where a family could spend the day, if it wasn't cold, rainy and blustery. In the summer, they would have a petting zoo, climbing frames and inflatable slides and castles for the kids to play on, plus a tea room, an antique shop and lots of gift shops in the old barns. It's hard to find nice gift shops. they're usually tucked away in tiny villages and you have to know they're there to find them.

I bought Brendan a pair of fuzzy slippers, like mine. I was going to wait to give the to him after Christmas, but he was walking around in his stocking feet and I thought, "He needs these now." So I let him unwrap the gift. At first, he said, "Oh, shoes." But when he looked inside, he was delighted. He slipped them right on and was giddy the rest of the night about his toasty warm feet. It's great that he can still be so happy over something so small.

Since I was gone all day Monday, I had to take Brendan grocery shopping with me after school, which he hated, and I had to do the ironing while we watched the recorded episode of Lost.

I have nothing written in my diary for Tuesday. I must have worked on Sunday School. Oh, I baked apple spice cake. I like to do a double batch at a time of five inch loaves, so I can keep them in the freezer and give them to friends and teachers as gifts. I still have loads of apples to use. I had three people give me apples this year from their trees. Last year I had to beg to get any. They keep nicely in the garage, so I can still use them will into February. Brendan had drum lessons after school. He PASSED his drum exam, with merit!

Wednesday was bible study in the morning, and quick cheese sandwich with Helen and off to the pantomime with the school. We saw the Princess and the Pea in Wellingborough. There were enough adults that no one was responsible for more than six children. We had four coaches-full. The production wasn't as nice as Snow White was last year. There were no famous actors or glamorous sets or costumes, but it was still fun to boo at the villain and sing along with the frog.

Yesterday, I had breakfast (a cup of tea) with the American ladies at a coffee shop in Wyevales (a garden nursery/gift shop), those of us who are left, and caught up on the lastest gossip. Then, I ran errands in the blowing rain - the post office, several stops for materials for Christmas eve crafts that I'm preparing for the church, Tescos for Sunday School supplies and the dry cleaners to pick up Bill's trousers.

Today is the Head Teacher's review. I am on the Board of Governor's personnel committee, so I go to the school at 1:45 and help evaluate Mr. Spong's performance for the past year and set goals for him for the next year (yipes!).

Tomorrow is the Christmas Fayre at school from 12 - 2. I'm helping to set up tonight and working the Country Kitchen stall tomorrow. And Sunday I teach Sunday School. I need to have the Christmas crafts packaged to hand off to the Vicar's wife, Charlotte, because we leave next Sunday.

Okay, I'm a little busy, but with a lot of fun stuff and things I commit myself to. If I can keep the schedule straight, and take one thing at a time, I'll have plenty of time to do it all. I used to do so much more. But I kinda like this slower pace.

That was weird. I have not been able to sign onto this blog since Sunday. It's SO frustrating when technology doesn't work the way you want it to.

Anyway, I had to share this notepad that my friend, Helen, bought for me on Monday when we were shopping at the Hatton Shopping Village. Just when I think I've got UK English licked, they throw another one at me. "Twiggin'" means just catching on. I like that. I think I could use that one. I still don't know the proper way to use "take the Mickey", which I think means "take the fun out of it."

With Christmas coming, I feel even more like a woman of leisure. I go out to eat more and go shopping with friends a lot more. The American ladies had lunch to celebrate Thanksgiving at Toby Carvery, the nearest thing they have to turkey and dressing. They specialize in Sunday Roast every day of the week. You can get roast beef, ham and/or turkey, yorkshire pudding, balls of sage stuffing, mashed or roasted potatoes and lots of veg, including brussel sprouts and parsnips, all smothered in brown gravy.

My gravy was the most talked about item at our house on the day I fixed Thanksgiving dinner for our British neighbors. They couldn't understand why mine was so light. They use beef bisto in ALL their gravy, including turkey.

I went shopping on Monday, and tomorrow, I get to have minced pies with my bible study friends and then go to a pantomime with the school. I'm going as a chapperone, but the pantos are a hoot! This year we're seeing the Princess and the Pea, a live stage production with lots of audience participation for children. It's a great introduction to theatre. Usually there's a man dressed as as women and a sing-along at intermission. We get to boo the villain and cheer for the hero.

Oops, the cuckoos singing. Time to go to bed. I'll tell you more after I've seen it.

Groove to the Beat

As I write this, I'm listening to Brendan play a steady, groovin' beat on his drums upstairs. He had his first drum exam last week, and thinks he passed.

In England, they keep track of how accomplished you are by the grade you've acheived. Brendan has been taking drum lessons for a little over a year and has hopefully passed Grade 1 with the Rock School. His tutor just recieved the best teacher in England award for 2006. Brendan loves drum lessons, and even though his grade won't mean anything when we move back to America, I think it's good for him to be in a few high-stress situations. He doesn't get much at school. They don't have grades per se. They are placed on a scale of achievement in Maths, English, and Science. And they take a national standards tests every year, but the results only really count in years 2 and 6. So this year will be a big year for him, if we're still here in May.

Children move to secondary school in year 7 (6th grade). They don't have middle schools anymore. It's a big deal here, because you have to apply for a position in the schools of your choice. We went to three secondary school open evenings in October to see what they were like. I was most impressed with Northampton School for Boys. It's like university for children. But there's stiff competition for getting in. I had to fill out a questionaire on why our son would benefit form single-sex education, why this school was a good fit for him, etc... and jump through all the hoops to get things in by certain deadlines. They specialize in Music, Technology and Sport, and their facility it top-notch. I wouldn't mind staying another year if Brendan got accepted, just to give him a chance to see what school could be like. His friend Tom was accepted last year, and it took a long while for him to learn to organize and balance the extra homework and extra-curricular activities.

Brendan also has one of the lead roles in the Christmas play this year. He is a wise man named Roll. He and Ben and a girl from his year 6 class take the lead parts. He's SO excited. He's already learned his lines off by heart and he sings the songs in the shower and everywhere else. I have to make sure the video camera is charged and working for this one.

Bill's calling. I'll talk about him next time.

Beginning

While we traveled around the US, I got into a good habit of journaling at least every few days. It was a nice way to preserve our experience and keep people informed of where we were and what we were doing. I have all of those journals still in Word. I hope someday that they might become the basis for a book or a series of articles. I even continued into the first few months of moving to England, but I've let that fall by the wayside. My excuse was that I began a correspondence writing course, but one of the basic rules of writing is that you should write every day, and I did for a while, but life gets in the way, and it's easy not to.

So this is my renewed effort, made so easy by Google. I hope to share what is going on with our lives, generate ideas for stories, and make sense of the ins and outs of the publishing world.

Let me get you up to speed. I have had two articles published. One, called Road Scholars in Highways magazine (the official publication of the Good Sam Club) back in September 2006. And a small craft article on making a rustic angel ornament that should be coming out in the January issue of Crafts n' Things. I got through the non-fiction part of the writing course, and got bored with it, because I got the hang of how to submit work to publishers. Now, I write things that might really stand a chance, instead of assignments. It might turn out to be a mistake. There's probably much more to learn, but I'm raring to get going.

Last year I wrote a middle grade novel for a unpublished writer's fiction contest, called Dillon and Blue's Adventures in the Winter Coat Section. It didn't win the contest, but it gave me the push to put my work out there. I've revised it several times since, identified about twenty potential publishing houses, and am in the process of sending query letters and receiving rejection letters. I've only gotten about four letters back, so there's still hope.

This year, I dusted off a picture book manuscript that I wrote back in 2004, called A Pumpkin Named Jack, and shared it with the kids at Collingtree School during book week. They used the script as a catalyst to illustrate a page, design a cover jacket, do science experiments on gourds, and produce Powerpoint presentations. It re-energized me to see their enthusiasm. There is a picture book contest that I am getting this script ready for. It must be submitted by the end of February. Unfortunately, like all publishing companies, they want to chose the illustrator that they think will bring the book to life. So I may have to settle on author only for this venture. The winner of this contest, whose book gets published, is selected by votes. So stay tuned for instructions on how to cast yours, hopefully for mine.

Lastly, and I was so excited about this, Lark Books had expressed an interest in doing a craft book based on crafting while traveling. They responded to my query letter and asked me to send a proposal, consisting of a table of contents, an introduction, sample crafts and instructions. Unfotunately, I recently got the rejection letter that it was too broad. So I have the choice of refocusing the proposal and resubmitting it, or sending it to other publishers. Perhaps I'll do both. I don't want to let that one get away just yet.

At the writer's conference that I attended, the publishers all said that they always need crafts and seasonal stories, so I think I stand a good chance. Placement in the right hands at the right time is everything.