Hooray for the boy! His self-portrait was chosen by his art teacher, Mrs. Pettey, for display at the South Area Art Show at the high school. Allen says about his work: "I'm at the beach, and the brown stuff is the sand, and the blue stuff is the water. The red stuff I put just because I wanted to fill it in." Personally, I love his pretty green eyes!
Emilyn and some girls from the 7th and 8th grade choirs got the opportunity to learn solo songs and perform them for Steven Slusher, a professor of music at Lindenwood University here. He said she had a "beautiful voice" and cautioned her only to look at the ground less often!
Anyway, then the girls all got to sing their solo songs for an audience of parents tonight. Emilyn's selection was a beautiful traditonal lullaby, "Sing Me to Sleep." (I challenge you not to tear up... I'm so strung out over house worrying and lack of sleep myself that I had to try not to bawl.)
Sing Me To Sleep
Sing me to sleep, the shadows fall
Let me forget the world and all
Tired is my heart, the day is so long
Let it soon come to evensong
Sing me to sleep, your hand in mine
Our fingers as in prayer entwine
Only your voice, love, let me hear
Singing to tell me you are near
Love, I am lonely, years are so long
I want you only, you and your song
Dark is life's shore, love, night is so deep
Leave me no more, love, sing me to sleep
Sing me to sleep with you alone
Stay with me and remain my own
Gladly my heart will know no pain
When I awake from sleep again
Sing me to sleep and let me rest
Of all the world, I love you best
Nothing is faithful, nothing true
In heaven or earth but God and you
Love, I am lonely, years are so long
I want you only, you and your song
Dark is life's shore, love, night is so deep
Leave me no more, love, sing me to sleep
I didn't have a fever today, so I have no explanation for why I was playing basketball with Betty White and Barack Obama at 5 this morning. Or for why Jack Nicholson was the ref.
Yes, dizziness and freaky dreams were the rule for me today, and I'm not feeling so hot right now as I type this... but I'm hoping it's just an odd manifestation of the little sore throat thing that Allen and Emilyn had over the weekend.
Other things are going on... Steve and Emilyn both have to have minor surgery in the coming weeks... Steve has a cancerous growth on his face that has to come off, and Emilyn needs oral surgery to attach appliances to some stubborn teeth that are refusing to come in. We'll let you know how that goes!
In Allen news, his art was just chosen for the South Area art show... We'll be going to see that in the next few days, so pictures will be forthcoming.
I'm going to speak in front of my old prof Avis' editing class next week... Kind of at a loss on what to say. As I was discussing with some friends, I kind of don't like to think about newspapers' past, and I sure don't want to think about newspapers' future... Sigh. Might be a pretty short talk.
We had dinner and dessert at Bailey's Chocolate Bar with our good friends Hania and Raul... Steve and the kids got to see their new (old) house for the first time. Beautiful old mansion in Lafayette Square. And within walking distance of the Chocolate Bar?! Sweet! Allen and Raul played with Beyblades and magnets... Then we walked down to Bailey's for the world's best hot cocoa and other assorted delights. I could eat there every week. But that probably wouldn't be a good idea, so...
And, of course, Beach Week is just a short time away... 25 days. Wow. It's weird this year because we haven't had much winter to escape from... But we're still really looking forward to our 10th trip to the beach.
Hope everything is going well with all of you!
Despite many pitfalls along the way, Emilyn triumphed with her science project, getting a B and creating a beautiful, professional-looking display of her work. We couldn't be more proud of the way she persevered through what was a very difficult assignment.
OK, Missouri isn't a maple Mecca. And again, we haven't had much winter to speak of. So I guess it wasn't too surprising that Steve and Allen's trip to the Maple Sugar Festival at Rockwoods Reservation was kind of a bust.
But the did get to taste some yummy stuff, and there was fire involved. So, not a total loss!
Steve's photos and captions:
