A whole bunch of things since my last “life lately” post:
We celebrated Charlotte’s 10th birthday at the beginning of September! We hosted 5 of her friends for a slumber party. That was a crazy experience, capped off by one poor girl getting sick in the middle of the night. Definitely memorable, in many ways, whew.
It was cool that both kids had milestone birthdays this year — official teenager and turning double digits — and I feel like it’s a milestone of sorts for Jose and me as well. We truly don’t have “little” kids anymore.
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Our house has been full of various tradesmen and contractors for the last month and a half. In early September we had the entire upstairs painted — all 3 bedrooms, all 3 closets, and both bathrooms. The week after that, my long-awaited primary bathroom renovation finally began! It was amazing to see how quickly they gutted it. It took a mere 4 hours to destroy it…and 5 weeks to reconstruct it.
Jose and I slept upstairs and shared Charlotte’s bathroom while the work was going on. After 3 weeks we had a functional bathroom again — new floors, cabinets, countertops, sinks, shower, lighting, paint. They couldn’t measure for the glass until the shower was essentially finished, and then it took 2 weeks for the glass to arrive. I got a tension rod and shower curtain, which allowed us to go ahead and start using our shower again, but the glass and mirrors were finally installed yesterday!
So: 3 weeks to go from demolition back to functional bathroom, and 5 weeks total for the whole renovation. The only thing missing are towel racks, which Jose and I will install this week. I’m very happy with the result.
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The last three weeks have been heavy on travel — moreso than any time in my recent memory. It started with my trip to Toronto for the annual Modern Quilt Guild Board of Directors retreat at the very end of September, followed by Jose going to Denver, then a quick family trip to San Antonio, and finally a very quick trip for me to Long Beach last week.
Our San Antonio jaunt was prompted by the girls having a fall break from school this year, which they haven’t had before. We left on Sunday and came back Tuesday, so just 2 nights, but it was well worth it. We stayed on the Riverwalk, went to the Alamo, ate a bunch of good food, and just had time together without anything else on the calendar. It was really nice.
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What else?
Charlotte is playing soccer this fall, in a new-to-us league. The previous league did both practice and game on Saturday and there was nothing on weekdays. This league has 2 practices per week, with a game on Saturday, so it’s a bigger time commitment — but she is loving it, and her skills have visibly improved. It’s fun to see her enjoying it.
Emma has been busy with band, and is about to start sports. I spent last Saturday with her at region band auditions, where she got 1st chair (!) in the region. That was her goal going in, but you never know what might happen on any given audition day. But she rocked it! The region band clinic is next month, and since she’s 1st chair she also qualified for region orchestra in January.
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Work for me is…well, what to say. In additional to everything that had already happened this year, the federal government has been shut down since October 1 with no end in sight. In previous shutdowns, my center was much stricter on what could and couldn’t be done, which meant I spent most of the shutdown not working. (Shutdowns are fundamentally very very dumb, yet I will readily admit that it’s enjoyable to get what amounted to a week or two of paid time off).
This time, unsurprisingly, has been different. Much of NASA’s work is continuing so I’m basically working full-time, but not currently getting a paycheck. Legally, federal employees are entitled to backpay but given that the current administration could not care less about what the law says, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what to expect in terms of pay whenever the shutdown finally ends.
Frankly, it’s a shitshow — one that I am increasingly uninterested in being a part of.
Super cute photos of the fam! I’m sorry to hear about what’s going on what work, but/and grateful for the update. It’s hard to know what’s happening out in the world, and you sharing your own experience as a federal employee. I’ve never worked in a government job, but I was very CDC-adjacent during the shutdown around 2013 or so…and the difference between a complete shutdown, and “keep working but with less accountability and no guarantee you’ll be paid for it” feels really similar to what I saw some other government employees go through in the beginning of lockdown in 2020. But this chaos is completely manufactured and unnecessary, and…intentional. Yikes. I think staying fairly calm, fairly informed, fairly engaged and also fairly disengaged and crafty is probably the balance I’m aiming for. It’s really hard! But I really appreciate the way you share your experiences.
“That was a crazy experience, capped off by one poor girl getting sick in the middle of the night.” Holy smokes, that sounds not fun at all. Poor kid!
Emma first chair in the region?? That’s amazing! Does she practice a lot?
We have no district or regional band here, only state, which I think is lame. (WA is way smaller than TX obviously, but even in VA we had all-district band.) L has not been able to make the all-state band.
Emma does practice her clarinet pretty diligently, and she does private lessons once a week (during the school day). Her school also has a strong band program with 2 great directors. Last year she was 7th chair and the highest-ranking 7th grader, so she knew she had a shot at 1st this year. The region is not super huge — maybe 8-10 middle schools? — so there were around 50 clarinets. It’s very cool that she got 1st chair. Plus her band bestie got 2nd chair, so that’s also very fun.
There is no all-state for middle school to my knowledge, just region. All-state happens at the high school level, and I’ve heard anecdotally that making all-state band in Texas is insanely competitive given the size of the state. In NC we had all-district and all-state, both only in high school.
Awesome that she is finding joy and success in music! Actually no one from L’s school made all-state this year. I do wish they had a more achievable option. I think HS is the same.
I can imagine that all-state in TX is probably insanely competitive. But first chair at regions sounds like a very good stepping stone.
But, how does she get private lessons during the school day?
She gets pulled out of band class once a week for her lesson. She’s been doing this since she started in 6th grade — they highly encourage everyone to take private lessons, and they have a network of instructors who do this for kids across the whole school district. Over the summer, she continued lessons just using facetime.
I pay the instructor directly, so it is an extra cost. (I think there’s some financial help available for kids who need it, but not 100% sure.)