Duet in Blue

Today in church, I was privileged to play a violin duet with my (almost) 3rd grade friend, Hannah.  When we saw each other this morning, the first thing Hannah said was, "We match!"  We both had worn blue without any pre-planning. 

Several months ago, I discovered that she takes lessons so I suggested that she and I play a duet this summer.  So this week I went to Hannah's house twice to practice with her.  It was quite fun! 

As it turns out, Hannah's violin teacher was also one of my first private violin teachers I had when I was in the 4th or 5th grade and my current violin teacher went to college with Hannah's teacher.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I am taking lessons from Vance Music Studio.  Or you can find Vance Music Studio on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/vancemusicstudio/info?tab=overview. 

Hannah and I actually played two songs, but there was some trouble with my video recorder, so I only have one song recorded well.  This song is titled, "O Come Little Children."

I really enjoyed playing with Hannah and I hope we can play a duet again!

Quapaw Pow Wow

For about 4 years, Patrick, his mom, Pat Ann, and I have traveled to Quapaw, OK for the annual pow wow.  We were there this year from July 2-6 and had a fun time!  This year, Pat Ann and I made our own shawls.  We took a class at the Wichita Mid-American Indian Center and got some help hemming the fabric from my mom.  I decided to make my shawl green fabric with purple fringe and added decorative sunflowers (for the Kansas girl).  These colors will match the traditional Quapaw dress that my mom made for me a couple of years ago.  Pat Ann's favorite color is red and red and navy are associated with the Quapaw tribe, so her shawl is red fabric with navy fringe.  She does beautiful counted-cross-stitch work and decided that is how she would decorate her shawl.  She looked and looked for a buffalo (another symbol of the Quapaw tribe), but wasn't able to find a buffalo pattern.  Pat Ann settled on sewing an eagle on her shawl.  I'd say the shawls turned out beautiful!

In most Native American traditions, if you want to enter the circle of the pow wow grounds to dance, either you should be dressed in regalia or women should be wearing a shawl.  At the Quapaw pow wow, they usually have several inter-tribal dances where anyone can join in, not just the contest dancers.  This is why we wanted to make our own shawls.  Pat Ann has a beautiful black shawl that was given to her many years ago that is at least 100 years old and she was told by an expert that she probably shouldn't be using it anymore as it is beginning to deteriorate.

I have really enjoyed our trips to the pow wows.  I think my favorite part of the pow wow is the opening, where special people are asked to carry in the American Flag, Quapaw Tribal Flag, and the POW Flag.  Following the flag, is the Grand Entry where all of the contest dancers parade in showing off some of their best steps.  This year was the biggest one I've seen, yet!  Below you will see several pictures from Grand Entry.

 Patrick's great-great grandparents were original allotees, which means they were each given a piece of land from our government.  Frank and Alice Valliere also started a Catholic Mission School for the Quapaw.  Patrick's grandmother and her sister attended the school.

The last day we were in Quapaw, Patrick and I had our picture taken with the road sign entering the Quapaw land. The t-shirt I am wearing in this photo was the pow wow shirt for this year. 

Lucky Number 13

This year, June 22, Patrick and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary (13 is my favorite number, too)!  On one hand, it seems like yesterday when we married and impossible that we have been together a total of 21 years!  It sounds corny, but true, I love him more each day and each year!  We spent 3 days away from "the real world" in Kansas City.

Patrick always groans when I ask him to take a selfie of us, but he will do it.  Here we are at Kauffman Stadium at the first game of the weekend we attended.  We watched two games against the Boston Red Sox; our other favorite team.  Talking about selfies---the lady who sat next to me had a selfie stick and kept trying to use it while sitting in the seats.  Now, if you've ever been to any kind of sold out major sporting event, you know that people are pretty much packed in and she kept sticking that silly stick in the ear of the people sitting in front of us and hitting my arm with it and you can imagine what all went on.  UGH.

We got to the stadium about 4:30pm for the 6:10pm game so that we could get our Mike Moustakas bobble-heads.  He is one of my favorite players this year......OK, who am I kidding, nearly all of the starters are my favorite players this year.  (grin)    Following is a picture of "Moose" as he is being interviewed after the Royals win. 

On Sunday, June 21, Father's Day, we watched the two teams play again and Chris Young was the pitcher.  I call him "the pitcher who is Mason-sized."  (Mason is my nephew who is about 6'9" tall.)  Unfortunately, Chris Young didn't do so well in this game and the Royals ultimately lost the game.  It was kind of sad.  I guess I should have been happy since my two favorite teams each won one game, right?   The following picture is Chris Young on the mound.  We had pretty nice seats for both games; right along the left field foul pole line.

Every time we go to Kansas City, we like to go to Legends Mall, mainly to go to the Lee Outlet store and to eat at Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant.  Well, when we got to Legends, the Lee store was closed and Cheeseburger in Paradise was no longer a restaurant.  I was a bit disappointed.  That's where we were going to eat for our anniversary dinner.  As it turned out, we finished our shopping ended up eating a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Yum-O!  Patrick had never eaten there before.  I ordered a lunch special of chicken-almond salad, corn chowder soup, and a salad.  Patrick had spaghetti and meatballs.  I had never had corn chowder before and I really enjoyed it.  We shared a piece of red velvet cake cheesecake for dessert.

On our way out of town on the 23rd, we stopped at Bass Pro Shop to spend Patrick's gift card that we got on our Spring Break Trip.  Not being a big shopper, or a hunter/fisher, I think Patrick kind of dreads taking me there.  I LOVE their displays; the big fish aquarium of local fish and the waterfall area with real and stuffed animals.  Patrick teased me while we were sitting on a bench enjoying the waterfall and ducks that this is "Kimberly's kind of wilderness---sitting in the air conditioned Bass Pro Shop with no bugs and no possibility of sunburn!"  Well, I think he just may be right! (wink)

About a week before our trip, my "other mother" told me that she knew what I was getting for my gift from Patrick because he had it shipped to her house.  That was a very ornery thing to do!  Then she told my mom what it was and SHE said, "I know what you're getting, too, Pat Ann told me!"  Those girls!  Well, I had to wait to open it until we got home because Patrick didn't want to pack it on the trip.  (sigh)  It was worth the wait, though!! 

The box was wrapped in my two favorite colors......

....and included a Precious Moments figurine of two Royals fans.  There's a boy and girl and puppy dog, just like my family! 

Trying to post using my smart phone

I am practicing using a the blogger mobile app. If you see this, please comment so I can see how it works on my phone. I am trying to figure out how to moderate comments on the phone.

Well, hello, summer!

Whew--it is definitely summer in the Plains!  June 5th and the temperatures are rising!  We were spoiled by a cool and rainy April and May.  I am choosing to blog instead of mow the grass. 

I have been neglecting my blog and thought it might be fun to get back into it!  If you follow me on Facebook, you probably have already seen all of these photos, but I figured it would be good practice for me to get back into blogging.

Patrick and I really enjoyed seeing The Steve Miller Band at Hartman Area on May 28.  I am still getting used to taking pictures using my phone, so this is the best one I got that night.

Then, the very next night, at the Wichita RiverFestival, we got to see one of our newest favorite bands, Split Lip Rayfield.  They are a rockin' bluegrass band.  It is not your "traditional" bluegrass, this is mosh-pit, stand up next to the stage kind-of music.  If you don't know anything about Split Lip Rayfield, you need to know that the bass player made his own instrument out of a car gas tank.

Patrick and I then enjoyed some good, ole' fashioned cowboy music on Wednesday, June 3 at RiverFestival by the Cherokee Maidens and Riders in the Sky.

As you can see, my husband & I have an eclectic taste in music!

I couldn't pass up a snow cone at the Riverfestival.  I used to sell snow cones as a small business when I was in college.  This snow cone cost me $3!  Twenty or so years ago I sold the same thing for 75 cents! 

*I'd love to have you comment on what you are doing this summer!*

Violin Lessons

This school year has been a challenge, to say the least, as you may have guessed by my lack of posts.  My school had a big population growth due to our district's changed boundaries.  We are a "priority watch" school which means our test scores are very low.  The second grade (which is what I teach) in my building has the highest number of office referrals in my building from all the grades K-8.  So, you may imagine how busy I have been.

In late August, Patrick found a Groupon for a place called  Vance Music.  In an effort to do something for myself that would be relaxing, I began violin lessons on August 20.  This is not the first time I have taken violin lessons. 

I began learning to play in the 4th grade at my public elementary school.  (Our district has made cut backs and now instrumental music doesn't begin until 6th grade.)  I played seriously until I was in the 7th grade.  I had many opportunities and experiences; I participated in several honor orchestras even traveling to Manhattan, KS to participate in a weekend honor orchestra performance.  Once in high school, I pursued other interested and only picked up my violin occasionally.  So, it has been over 20 years since I practiced and played on a regular basis.

At Vance Music, they hold a monthly recital.  Today was my third recital, but the first time I had memorized my song.  The song is a fiddle tune called, "Larry O'Gaff."  I played it better at home with no mistakes, but it's not too bad considering it's the first time I've performed from memory.

Special guests at Open House in my classroom

My Mom has not ever been inside Gordon Parks Academy and since this is my third year teaching there, she was determined to attend Open House.  I am SO glad my parents came--it was fun to show off!  I knew that my parents were planning to attend, so I wasn't TOO surprised when they arrived.  However, Patrick SURPRISED when he popped in, too!  (He didn't want to have his picture taken.)

My dad is letting me borrow my grandmother's dala horse to display in my classroom this year for my Swedish theme. The front of the dala horse says "Valkommen" which is Swedish for "welcome."  The back of the horse says "Good bye, come again" in Swedish.

I was TICKLED to have such a great turn out this year at my Open House/Meet Your Teacher/Drop off your school supplies night.  I had 18 students enrolled the day of Open House and 10 of the families came and met me!  I now have a total of 20 students enrolled.  I think it will be a GREAT year!  We have been very busy practicing procedures this week (Wed.-Friday) so that the rest of our school year will run more smoothly.

As promised, I will try to get pictures taken and posted of the whole classroom this coming week.  It has been very crazy around my school---we added new classrooms and I'm also a mentor and bus supervisor (we have 28 buses) this year.  :)