Mama Vivas - It's a Vivas Thing!

Aug 31 2010

School

The Drama Queen started her first official day of school today. She was so nervous, but at the end of the day, she popped into my office and informed me, "This was the best day ever!"

Whew…I'm so relieved!

The Smart One is taking percussion; this means we have a xylophone that we rent for his percussions class. Only, apparently it is not called a xylophone anymore; these days it is called bells.

OK.

The Talented One seems to be happy with everything. That's great since he's in his last year of high school! I want it to be a great year for him!

And B-boo…she has a pretty good schedule herself, except for one teacher. Oh my! The Good-Looking One had this teacher years ago and it seems the teacher hasn't forgotten him…or his parents, I presume.

Over all, not a bad start to school.

As for me…well, we did have a bit of chaos at our school, but the staff was amazing and handled it well. I'm actually enjoying my job these days and hubby is amazing when it comes to being Mr. Mom!

Life isn't too bad in the Vivas house right now!

Aug 29 2010

Lost Get Found

Music is strong in our family. I’m really not that musical myself, although I did play the clarinet for 8 years and was pretty good at it. I love to sing and goof off, but I’m not real sure anyone would love to listen to me sing! Hubby plays the guitar. As a matter of fact, he’s been known to serenade me. When we first started dating, he came to my work with a guitar, blanket and the hood of his car! He brought me out, sat me on the car and proceeded to play and sing to me. My boss wanted to know why one of his *girls* was being serenaded in the parking lot!

My oldest son also plays the guitar. I have fond memories of he and his friends sitting on my roof, playing their guitars and singing. (Ok, and playing spoons, but that’s another blog!)

You’ve often heard of me talk about the Talented One. He is a musical genius in my humble opinion. I know I’m his mother and so there is a different swelling of pride, but when we were in Sedona last week, he gave us a mini concert the morning before we left. The resort had a grand piano, so he played. I swelled, thinking, “That’s MY son!” He plays so beautifully. There was a lady sitting on the couch in the room; tears streaming down her face. God has indeed, blessed my son with a gift.

The Smart One has even been picking up the piano. His teacher at school asked him to join percussion this year at school so that he can play in the jazz band next year.

B-boo is more like me….not really musical, but enjoys listening! And being a part of whatever children’s production we are a part of. She’s great at organizing, setting up, keep the ball rolling, etc. Great at taking pictures. She doesn’t think she’s musically talented, but she is on the dance team.

Our latest project was the Drama Queen and Punky. They’ve been having fun recording, “The Lost Get Found,” by Brit Nicole. Today, they sang it in church. I thought I’d share it with you. I love that Punky spends so much time teaching my child and that they have so much fun together. Thank you, Punky!

Aug 28 2010

Talk about new seasons!

I will officially have THREE teenagers in my home soon. Yup, three of them…and then the Diva/Drama Queen.

It's been very quiet around my house without my niece and nephew. Definately an adjustment, but with me working full time now, the days move quickly. Because I'm not home all day, I feel the need to enjoy the moments I can with my family. Tonight was spent painting the Drama Queen's pretty little toes in prepartion for her singing with Punky tomorrow at church. She's very excited about this!

But that's not what I came to post about….you see, I WANT to enjoy those little things as much as I can, because they are growing up way too fast. My oldest son sent me at text the other day reminding me that it was his last full year of college. I will soon have a son with a college degree! As if that isn't enough, about the same time, I'll have another entering college!

But let's come back to this year; this week.

Because this week, we are the proud parents of not one, but two more drivers. Yup, the Talented One and B-boo now have their permits to drive. Unfortunately for them, our two main vehicles are sticks, so they have to learn how to drive them well before they can drive us around town.

A definite different season in our lives…

and for those who live close by…well.,..aren't you just so happy for my teens?!

Aug 22 2010

So Much!

There is just so much I could share from the past few days, I don't know where to start! I think I'll break it down into phases! You see, I just spent three fabulous days on a retreat with some of our youth and the youth leaders…amazing! It was so full of planning, resting, laughing, and hanging. Hmmm…what shall I tell you about first?

I know…I'll start with nature!

Something you may have gathered from the pictures I occasionally post is that the Talented One is not only an amazing pianist…he also has a love for…er…wild animals. And on this retreat, he found someone else to share this passion with. It's probably not a coincidence that this person also shares the same name as my son. Ha Ha!

It started out simple enough. My goofy friend and I were sitting on a swing, enjoying our peaceful moment, when I happened to glance over and see the two boys lifting up a massive rock together. I said to her, "They must be after a lizard."

I was wrong. Because a few moments later, they came over to show us this:

A few hours later, we were relaxing in the cool waters of Sedona, when my friend came up to me to inform me that the boys were pretty dangerous. HUH?

It seems they'd been exploring again, and came across a cute little baby snake. The Talented One knew it looked different, but didn't realize at the time what it actually was. Apparently they came back to the group with this cute little baby snake crawling between their fingers and such. That is, until one of our fearless leaders (because by this time, most of our leaders were fearFUL) explained to the boys that they needed to get rid of it and get rid of it now. Turns out, it wasn't a cute little harmless baby snake. It was a baby rattlesnake. (BTW…the fearless leader's son was my son's twin adventurer!)

We thought they'd manage to stay out of trouble for the rest of the day. We even managed to make it to the dark with no more wildlife incidents. For the most part. There was the moment they showed up to share another creature with us.

Before we got a good look at it, one of the leaders asked if they'd caught a scorpian….nope. It was just a little crawdad, thankfully!

It seemed their adventures were coming to a wind down…but apparently, they had enough energy for one more adventure. They came in asking for a flashlight. Ok.

And then, they came back in hysterics. Apparently there was a certain smell in the air, so they decided to investigate. See, personally, I would have gone the opposite direction, but not these two adventurers. They went after the smell…and shined their light upon…you may have an idea where I am going with this one. They stayed long enough just to snap a picture and then RAN as fast as they could!

I'm glad they were smart enough to know what a raised tale on a skunk means, because we didn't have any tomato juice!

Thankfully, we were headed home the next morning because I am not sure what kind of trouble these two would have gotten themselves into next!

Aug 19 2010

Quotable Quote #13

B-boo cracks me up! She has some serious issues when it comes to people not walking straight. It's hysterical to walk with her in a group of people because it drives her crazy to have people walking crooked in front of her. Sometimes, just to have fun, I'll purposely start walking at an angle, pushing her over a bit…and it drives her bonkers. She's a very organized teen (that's why she's been working with me all week!), even when it comes to something as simple as walking through a mall…or a store.

Take Costco, for instance. We were walking down the aisles today and I need to go left. So, I started to curve to the left; only she didn't like that. So we have the following conversation:

B-boo: "Mommmm, walk straight!"

Mom: "I am walking straight. I needed to turn left. I'm curving."

B-boo: "You're curve isn't straight! Your making a swurvy curve instead of a smooth curve."

I never knew there was such a thing as a swurvy curve. Ah…she makes me laugh…and that brings me joy.

For more joy, visit Good, True and Beautiful.