Way Back Wednesday

Well, it's Thursday evening so you know what that means ... time for Way Back Wednesday. To say this week has been incredibly busy would be an understatement. So the fact that you are reading this on Thursday and not  NEXT Wednesday is a credit to my extraordinary caring for my many fans... :)

So this is a bonus post that magically relates the past to the present.

First we have the Way Back photo ... this is Aunt Anonymous in (I believe) third grade at her viola recital in Illinois. The fact that I remember it so clearly (she played "Jolly Old St. Nicholas) is most like due to the fact that my ears were never the same after that concert.... I played the xylophone and the glockenspiel back in Illinois, but as far as I can recollect there are no photos of my first foray into music.

So now it's nearly 50 years later and I'm hearing those same squeaky strings, this time played by Lizzie. Lizzie plays the violin (and the piano) and she told me last night at dinner that she was the best violin player in the Junior Orchestra. Here's Lizzie getting ready to take her seat:

The spring concert was tonight and Lizzie (and her classmates in the third grade) performed for the first time as a group. And as a bonus, here's their first song -- "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

Way Back Wednesday

I was missing Mom today, so thought I'd post one of my favorite pictures of her, even though it's not too way, way back.

 I believe Hannah's about  two in this photo, making it about 6 or 7 years old. This is in our "old" house and you can see that we've fenced both Grandma and Hannah into the family room. Grandma came to visit the Pennsylvania Garritys (that would be Terry and I) and my guess is that this was probably related to Shelby's    high school graduation. Anyway, this is just Grandma being Grandma, chair dancing to a Wiggles (I believe Mom always referred to them The Wobbles) on the television. To Hannah's unending delight. 

Another blog!

I interrupt the action on this blog to tell you about my other (new!) blog. I am now blogging for Adoptive Families Magazine.The name of my blog is Double Vision and my screen name there is TracyRaz. Here's a link that should take you there...

Double Vision

It's strictly going to be about adoption and won't have cute kid pictures ... but you will get to read my musings on not only our adoption, but adoptions issues. I am required to update it once a month, but will probably try to update it weekly.

Okay ... and here's a cute kid pic for taking the time to read this. This is Hannah and Liz playing frisbee with Aunt Terry's dog Max:

Way Back Wednesday

This gentleman is Dr. George Port, superintendent of the Somers Central School District for all of my schooling there, and also for many of those years my mom was on the school board. So we got to know Dr. Port really well. He and my mom talked often on the phone and spent many meetings together. They were good friends and almost in-laws (I sincerely believed they were hoping!) as my sister Terry dated young George (Dr. Port's son) during high school. Which is how I know, (but have no idea why I remember) that Dr. Port liked a big bowl of ice cream as a before bed snack!

We all love Dr. Port, though, especially when he'd call the house at 6 a.m. during the winter months because that meant NO SCHOOL!!

Of course there was also the phone call during which my mom was told that a certain daughter had skipped school for senior cut day ... but since I didn't get in (too much) trouble, that was quickly forgiven.

I last saw him at my mom's funeral, sad in spirit, but happily reminiscing about there decades-long friendship that survived well beyond the school board years and a move to Florida. Terry still keeps in touch with him, so we can all find out how he and his many children (even more than us!) are doing.

This picture was taken at my parents' 25th wedding anniversary. There's Dr. Port and his wife Ann Port and my sister Beanie looking like she's all of 15 years old, which, if my math is correct, she probably is. :)

The Feminist and the Beauty Queen

Everyone who knows me (and I really mean everyone!) raised an eyebrow when I told them (usually apologetically) that Hannah was going to be in a beauty pageant. That is, a contest in which girls are objectified and then judged for their looks. As an inveterate feminist, even I raised an eyebrow at myself -- how could I let my beautiful (yes, there's no doubt about that) daughter participate in something that would be so focused on the outside of her: her hair, her outfits, her smile.

Yet, she was so intent on doing it and so sweet about NOT bugging me about it, that I said yes.

And so yesterday, Hannah (or Monahan as she's now known on the pageant circuit) participated in the Cinderella Scholarship Pageant, a "natural" beauty pageant where girls are not allowed to wear make-up (maybe some lip gloss) or have hair extensions or glitzy age-inappropriate costumes. Their clothing should be selected from something in their closet (which meant, of course, that we had to go out and buy something appropriate to put in Hannah's closet as she's really more of a leggings and tee shirt kind of girl...) and they should do their best to just act naturally -- like the young girls that they are. Oh, and they also have a talent portion with a separate crown and sash given for that and Lord knows I love to hear Hannah sing.

So, I said yes.

And Hannah won the talent competition.

She also showed poise, friendship and support to the other contestants. She showed me (in her oh-so-Hannah way) that really being a feminist is understanding yourself and your talents and presenting them in the best light. And she rocked that yesterday.

And, of course she was happy to win, even though I had to tell her that they didn't just give her a trophy for participating, but that she won the talent competition, and qualified for the state pageant!

I won, too. Last night as I was tucking her in she said her four favorite things about the pageant were her crown, her trophy, her sash and spending the day just with me.

So here are some highlights from the pageant. This is Hannah modeling her formal wear. (Yes, I'm a terrible videographer, but at least it's something...)

First up was casual wear. Hannah wore her Easter dress, but we made it casual with the addition of capri leggings and sparkly flip flops. She was very proud of her toes, which I painted the night before with dark red polish.

And here she is in her talent costume. She sang "Tomorrow" from Annie and was terrific. She sang the song holding one of her stuffed dogs, which she named Sandy for the event.

She is wearing a dress that Shelby gave her years ago for dress-up. It was a dress that Grandma Jo gave to Shelby and Hannah thought that was really cool.

(I tried to post the song video, but for some reason it will not load, so you'll just have to trust me -- and the judges -- that she was terrific!)

This was her formal/party dress. This is actually her first communion dress that I sort of dooded up for the pageant. For this one I had to recurl her hair and put a sparkly barrette in it. She looked gorgeous! (In my humble, but totally correct opinion!)

Rob was at the pageant, with his ever trusty Wall Street Journal to keep him company. Oh, and Hannah, too.

Lizzie was there, too, and you can tell by this photo that while I did Hannah's hair FIVE different times on Sunday, I did Lizzie's hair ZERO times.

After the competition portion the girls had to wait while the judges deliberated, so I took this picture of Hannah and he Cindy crown.

And then came the moment of truth! They first named the overall winner (not Hannah) but then went on to name the category winners and Hannah won for talent, which makes her eligible for the state pageant in May. Here she's getting her sash...

And here she is getting her crown:

Here are all the winners (including alternates) for the pageant:

And here is our very talented winner with her tiara, her trophy and her sash. If we decide to go to the state pageant, she will get a blue and white fabric, embroidered sash to wear there.

So that was our day. Hannah had a great time which is really the most important thing ... although I did enjoy the dunkin' decaf I gave myself as a treat for helping out for the day.

Way Back Wednesday

My laptop crashed today. A moment of silence please.
Hopefully I'll get it up and running tomorrow, but so far everything I've tried has just rewarded me with a big black screen. So I'm working on the girls' computer and the screen is SO HUGE it's hurting my eyes, so this will be quick...
Because despite my lack of favorite computer, I STILL found time to scan a WBW photo.
I love this picture because it shows that perhaps it was not my mother who had the fondness for sailor suits. That's my dad there on the right. He's standing outside his home in Lynbrook, NY with a neighbor child, Phyllis Diamondstone, who appears to be much happier to be standing for a photo than little Tommy Garrity is. Not only do I love the sailor suit, I also love the look on my father's face. He's pretty much never smiled for the camera, has he? Still cute though -- love those curls!

Happy Easter from the Raz Report! Here's a picture of Hannah, Liz and our garden bunny!

Here you can get a better look at their hairstyles. They wanted me to braid their hair before bed last night (after their bath, so it was wet) and then we had the big reveal this morning. Hannah's came out great, but Lizzie's very fine hair already has a natural curl to it, so it was fighting with the braid waves. It looked great once I pulled it back though (and of course my Mom would be so happy that their hair is NOT in their faces!!) It's still a little chilly here in Pennsylvania (these were taken at 9 a.m., right after church --the girls were troupers!) but it's supposed to warm up to about 70 making the sleeveless dresses more appropriate.

And before I get into the kitchen to start making the cream of broccoli soup and because it's Easter, here's a picture of me with my two little miracles (ad you'll notice that my hair is also not in my face!). I hope you all feel as blessed as I do on this Easter day, and always!