BETTER THAN HOUSEWORK: Week of June 6th

THIS WEEK
Tuesday:

So it's 8:00pm and Ben plus 5 men from our ward have been trying to move our piano from House A to our house, House B, for the last almost 2 hours. It's stuck at House A--it's a split entry like ours, but this house has a window next to the front door. They tried getting the piano out the front door but it wouldn't fit. Ben and I thought the process should take 30-45 minutes tops. At 7:00pm, one hour into the move, I put all the kids in the van and drove to House A (about a mile away) to see what the hold-up was. Six men and a piano were all out on the back deck (a deck with no stairway down to the yard!) in the rain!. Their plan was clear. They had what supplies they needed: a truck down below them and lots of rope. Was it the testosterone? The need to conquer? Sheer willpower? Who knows how it happened, but "we'll drop the piano off the deck" was the agreed upon solution to not being able to fit the piano out the front door!

Hold on. . . a bunch of young men just showed up at my door. . . huh?

. . . Later. . . Now it's 10:00pm. The kids are finally in bed and we have a piano. . . I promise to fill in the details later (and Ben will have to relay details about the piano-deck chucking part). I can't believe the whole process took 3 hours!

Wednesday:

Piano details. Nobody got injured moving the piano, but I am quite certain we'll be teased at church on Sunday about acquiring our mammoth piano. I don't feel too bad because the woman we got it from needed to be rid of the piano so she could begin a house remodel. She's fairly young and her husband died unexpectedly two years ago, when I was the new RS pres. So she didn't have any way to get it out of the house without the help of Church members. So Ben tells me that his "crew" dismantled the deck railing, backed up a trailer up onto wedges in the grass below the edge of the deck, and used ropes and 12 guys to get it down into the trailer. So sad! Moving our piano became the YM activity last night. Our home teacher, who was one of the original 6, works with the YM and had planned the activity that night. He called the YM president to tell him why he'd be late and the YM prez took the YM over to help. Service is better than a games night, right?!? A little after 9:00pm the piano was finally parked in our living room. And we rewarded the whole gang with cinnamon rolls (store-bought, but nummy) and cookies (from our home teacher--intended for the YM activity). I can't believe it took 12 guys to move the piano. I also can't believe I didn't think to take pictures. We're happy it's here and look forward to next Thursday when it gets tuned. I do have cute pics of C. "playing" the piano.

A little history lesson I learned today from "Dan The Piano Man" (local piano guy who stole the title from Billy Joel) and online sources: Our piano is a 1907 Whitney upright made by the Kimball Piano Company in Chicago. Yes, it is 101 years old. Makes Dad look like a spring chicken! I was thinking about overhauling the exterior--putting a stain on it and customizing the front of it with glass inserts (so you can see the inside parts that move as you play). But I might not have the nerve to do it now that I know it is an antique. Do I want to try preserve the integrity of this antique or customize the look??? New part-time job for me: piano restoration!

Friday:

Ben went to a welfare training/bishopric meeting last night and got home just before 10:00pm. I put the kids in bed and watched television! On TV! For like two hours! Last Comic Standing and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (on DVR-during commercials). I know! It's so rare that my day includes assuming the role of couch potato, it was fun.

By the way, I'm happy about the Barack Obama thing, hope he doesn't stick Hilary Clinton on his ticket as VP, but whatever. John Edwards' platform was more my style, boo hoo for me. McCain too, except for one important issue. His position on Iraq and dealing with terrorism don't sit well with me. I tend to like McCain's policies and think he's a smart politician, Is he trying to get on with the second coming with wars and rumors of wars? I guess I need to decide how much weight to give the war issue. Obama is fun to listen to, though, quite the speech-giver, doncha think? And he has Hawaii ties, so it's an interesting kinship I feel knowing that people were picking on him in high school for being popolo just like they picked on my for being haole! Was it Punahou or Iolani High School he went to?

This morning I dropped the girls off at my friend, Mollie's house. Then I went to R & J's school to volunteer in R's class. I don't volunteer in J's class, but I'm the parent volunteer coordinator, so I work the phones and stuff when his teacher needs help. I'm supposed to volunteer every Friday doing this reading program for R's teacher called "Read Naturally" where you work one-on-one listening to someone read a selection for one minute. That's the COLD read. Then they practice reading it, listen to me read, and read the selection again, the HOT read, for one minute. The goal is to have them read 30 more words for their HOT read than they did for their COLD read. It's interesting how different the kids are.

It's also interesting/funny to see the boys at school. Every time R. sees me in school, he runs up to give me a hug or high five "Hi Mom!" "Hey R, how are you doing?" "Good!" But when I am in J's class or I see him in the hallway, he hides behind someone or get's all shy and ducks his head down. No "Hi." Nothing. I hear his classmates say "J, there's your mom!" But do you think J. will acknowledge me? Nope! Funny kid. I usually say hi anyway and ruffle his hair or pat him on the back, but the most I've gotten from him is a shy smile. That's probably why he's such a star student. He's a completely different kid at school!

Sunday:

So I had ten kids in my primary class today. And I lived to tell about it. It was only slightly crazier than normal (usually there are 7 or 8 in the class).

OOOHH! I uploaded pictures yesterday. This one's a keeper. Ben snapped this picture of a dandelion tasting session. She's wearing J's old sweater and looks like a boy, but the face she pulled is cute.