My Grandmother Norma

Grandma Norma's incredible view

My precious Grandma Norma, (dad's mom) was born in Tarpon Springs, FL and has lived in either the house she started out in or lived in the house next to that for her entire life.  Her current house (the house she was raised in) is over 100 yrs old and still doing quite well. 

She is around 78 I think....seems older than that....but she's still kicking.

This summer my husband, daughter and I went down to visit her for a couple of days and I found out some very new information about her.  I didn't know that she was adopted.  I don't know if she ever found her birth mother or any other family members....she may not even be interested in knowing.  I know that her FATHER was a salesman.  He jumped from job to job, but seemed to be interested in selling lumber for construction purposes the most.  According to mom, he was a drunk, but I don't exactly know what consists as a drunk in her eyes.  Both her mom and dad believed that she shouldn't go to dances because they believed dances were of Satan.  They wouldn't allow her to play cards on Sunday because that was gambling, but they would play cards every night of the week.  This is about all I've gathered. 

My grandfather, Oscar, passed away when I was pretty little.....I'm assuming around 5 or so.  I was told that I was his light and joy.  They wanted to immediately come up and visit mom and dad when I was being born but my parents had convinced them to wait until they came home from the hospital so they could really help out at home and be able to hold me.  He was always holding me (as I've seen in pictures) and loved to play with me.  I wish I knew him better.  He was a boat builder....which is pretty funny cause our last name was Boatright.  People always want to put a 'w' in there...for Boatwright, how it was originally spelled at some point in history. 

What's funny is he hated to fish, hated to be out on the boat....it was boring to him.  But Grandma Norma LOVED being on the boat.  In fact, she was a commercial fisherman.  She would spend months at a time on the water with a neighbor friend (after Grandpa passed away), but they would come in for a time, wash clothes, fix and freeze more food, then go out for a long time again.  They mainly fished for grouper, a really ugly fish, but sometimes came in with some really interesting catches.  They've caught swordfish, sea turtles, sharks and all other manners of fish.  They would try and throw those odd ones back, but sometimes they were beyond saving.

Grandma also loved to be an artist on the side.  Always dabbling in oil paints of water, ships, crafts and wood working.  She's quite talented!  She still makes cute little Christmas crafts using sea shells, sand dollars and whatever else she can get her hands on.  She made me an elephant with seashells once....I still have that!

She still, to this day, will replace boards on her house, paint the house, you name it, she does it.  She's a tough old bird and she's smoked since she was a teen.  Go figure. 

Uncle Glenn and Mackenzie

My uncle Glenn, dads brother, lives with her now.  He has been in trouble with drinking.  Has been through 3 failed marriages, 2 of which were to the same woman.  His daughter is a "model" in Chicago and other areas.  The last picture I saw of her (on Facebook) was her in underwear and he's proud of her.  I don't know. 

About 10 years ago, my grandmother and I was sitting on her porch facing the bay and she told me that she always thought my parents, mom in particular, were always way to hard on me.  Wouldn't give me freedom.  She told them that several times also, but they felt they were right in their parenting skills.  I'll never forget that conversation, because it reinforced how I always felt about my childhood.  Now the question is, am I doing the same thing to Mackenzie?  I sure hope not!

I don't think my Grandma Norma will be with us too much longer.  She seems to think the same thing.  I'm glad we spent a couple of days with her so that she could see Mackenzie. 

She is definitely my favorite Grandma....all the neat boating stories, and all the life lessons she's learned amaze me to no end!

  

Mackenzie and Grandma Norma 

Uncle Glenn

The lights are on!

Out of 6,000 students who auditioned for the NC Honors Chorus only 160 made it.  Out of 160 students, two of my chorus students made it.

I am not bragging about this because it really is all about God using me how He sees fit.  It is a TON of work to get students ready for the audition, then if they make it, get them ready for their weekend in Winston-Salem....they learn 6 pieces alltogether and have 1 1/2 days to work together as an ensemble before their performance on Sunday morning.  That's where we are now.  It's 6:21 PM and they have been working with a couple of breaks since 9:30 AM.  Tomorrow morning they will work from 8:15-11:30 then have their performance at 1:30 PM. 

OK....all that out of the way, amidst all the hard work in preparations, my moment of glory is seeing my students come out of the first break with an understanding of how music really works, how music and emotions should run together fluidly, and how it really will make a difference in their lives.  One student, as he came out for the first break, he was absolutely BEAMING with excitement.  That is my favorite look!!

I can't wait for the performance tomorrow afternoon.....although I will hate when it's over because I always feel like it's back to the same-ole-same-ole choir that they've sung in for two years now.  But I'm always hopeful that the same excitement will filter into the rest of the group, that they can share with other students their incredible experience singing with the top voices in the state.

The lights are on....for now!

Christmas Already??

I just sat down at my puter after working for the past couple of hours on various Christmas decorations.  I now have my snow scene village on my table, Mackenzie's baby tree at the top of the stairs and thinking about getting the garland up on the staircase.  All that and I still haven't taken the Halloween flag down from the front porch!

I know a lot of you are probably thinking that I'm absolutely crazy....and I am, but you also have to realize that we have been working on the Christmas Cantata for our church chancel choir since early August, my children's choir has been working on the Christmas play for a couple of weeks now, my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade choirs have been practicing for their December 15th concert for a month and a half.  We've been saturated with planning, rehearsing and the likes.  We've even started watching our Christmas movies early so that we can even get in the mood to continue with all the rehearsals!

For the next 2 months, we will not have a weekend free to even think about decorating.  I like for my Chrismtas decs to be done before Thanksgiving cause I don't want to spend all of my time off trying to decorate the house.  That's not so crazy, is it?  Granted, we won't put the outside lights on until around Thanksgiving, but we have an ingenious way to hang those, so it won't take but 10 minutes!!

Even now, Mackenzie and I are snuggled up on the couch together watching "The Christmas Story". 

I love Christmas.  I hate all the long rehearsals, the concerts, the impromptu performances for various groups, but I love my family, I love God for sending His son, Jesus, so that He will give Himself as a sacrifice in order to save me.  This time of the year is the best!!