Way Back Weekly

I really do want to start up with these again ... especially inspired by these two videos. They will probably be of no interest to anyone other than family, but they are pretty priceless.
We all gathered at my brother's home and on the night of or before my mother's funeral three years ago the Garrity/Rasmussen kids put on a talent show. Aunt Anonymous is usually the instigator and this one was no different, except that I am certain it helped us all get through a rough few days. I found the videos when I was looking for some early videos of Hannah singing, so it was kind of a nice little bonus. Tommy, Hannah and Liz are 8 and I think Brenna is 3.

She's a Finalist

Hannah's made it into the finals of Pottstown's Got Talent, a fund raiser that will support the Relay for Life Team in Pottstown (which supports the American Cancer Society.) This is the video that the official videographer posted and it is much better than mine (in case you saw it on facebook). He, being a professional and all, did not cut off her head like I did.
One of the judges asked her some questions after the performance. He asked her age, then her name, then her full name, then if she'd ever sung before and then if she'd ever been in any productions. Then he said that he just wanted to find out a little more about her. I think they told him after that not to ask anyone questions, because he didn't do it again.

Right now Hannah has no idea what she wants to sing for the final so she may do this song, or "This Is the Moment" or something entirely new. The problem right now is stemming from the fact that she doesn't want any of the songs that I like and all the songs she likes are completely inappropriate for an 11-year-old to sing. So we are at an impasse!

The final show is April 27 at 3 p.m. at the Sunnybrook Ballroom in Pottstown. Tickets are $10 in advance and I can hook you up. They're $15 at the door. 

Powerless

We woke up the morning of February 5th to find that the power had been snuffed thanks to an ice storm over night. Rob said we lost power at about 6:40 a.m. Yet somehow, without power, without alarm clocks and with NO SCHOOL that day, Hannah and Lizzie were both up and at 'em by 7.

We've lost power before and it's usually back on in a couple of hours. I think the longest we've been without power in this house is something like six hours. So I told the girls we'd just wear extra sweaters and wait for the power to come back on.

Little did I know that blessed event would not happen until Feb. 9 at about 2:45 p.m.

I learned many things during the power outage.
The first is that I have become completely addicted to my devices. I lost my home phone at about 9 a.m. and my cell phone started to swerve in and out of power by about 3 p.m. The internet and phone went out completely by about 7 p.m.

The second thing I learned is that my daughters are not people who like to cope with ... well ... anything. We played games, we told stories, we did crafts and when all those things were exhausted (by about 10 a.m.) they resorted to their favorite pasttime: fighting with each other and whining to me.

Yet, I was still hopeful that the power would come back. That the house would burst into light when we were hauling blankets into the family room to pile in front of the fire place that threw out zero heat. Or that it would awaken us at midnight by coming on. Or at 3 a.m. Or, you know, SOMETIME.

But the next morning we were all awake by 7 or so in a house that was still dark and 45 degrees. So we did what any family on the brink of burst pipes and frost bite would do: we went to McDonalds for breakfast. It was shortly thereafter that I was able to get us a hotel room: one room, with one king bed, into which we'd fit two adults, two children, a dog and a cat.

We were thrilled to have it. (Okay, I was thrilled with the constant stream of coffee in the lobby) It became our home until Sunday, except for the 14 million times that we went to our actual home to see of the lights were on. And to get the air mattress after I ended up sleeping on the floor the first night...

I am happy to report that we moved home Monday morning (two hour delay after the girls had been out of school since the previous Wednesday - joy!) and the house has been toasty warm since then. THe pipes were fine (I think it got as low as 35 in here, but never below freezing) AND I now know where every blanket and pillow in the house are.

In retrospect, the girls were really good in the hotel (because we had the animals we had to stay in the room or else bring them with us) and I'm sure SOME DAY we'll laugh about this.

Here's a few photos from those 105 hours.

This is the cause of all the trouble -- for much of Wednesday morning all you could hear were snapping twigs. By the time all was said and done something like 715,000 PECO customers were sitting in the dark (and cold):

The thermometer in the family room on Thursday morning:

Cash and Bella getting in a nap at the hotel. As you can see, they weren't giving up any space on the bed:

 

 Lizzie with the napping animals (I have a picture of Hannah with the animals, too, but I can't find it so pretend it's here):

An ice tree a couple of doors down from our house:

 

It's pretty for sure, but from now on, the only place I want ice is in my Dunkin' Iced Decaf!!

We survived with no lasting problems and I am ever grateful to the friends and family who opened their doors (and their showers!) to us while we were battling the elements!

Pageant Queen

This past weekend Hannah competed in a Cinderella Pageant in Lancaster, PA. Usually we do our preliminary in King of Prussia, but I thought something a little different might be in order. As usual the girls and the adults were so nice (seriously, if you ever want to do a pageant, it MUST be Cinderella -- not a tiara-ed toddler attitude in the bunch -- www.pacinderella.com!) and since there were far fewer girls, the pageant was pretty much over by 1 pm.

Here are a few pictures and, of course, Hannah singing "This is the Moment" for her talent competition.

Hannah, shortly after being crowned the overall winner and the new Lancaster Cinderella Miss:

 One of my favorite things about Cinderella is that it embraces girls of all races, sizes ad shapes. Hannah made friends with this girl, Larissa, who went on to take the Beauty title:

 And here she is with the reigning  Cinderella Teen, C. C. :

Caitlyn was also another friend Hannah made. She was the overall winner in the teen division and has already told Hannah she'd see her at states. (Teen contestants get to wear floor length gowns). This is also a picture of Hannah's beauty wear, which was the same as she wore at states last year. We'll probably get something new for states this year, if I can find something I like (and Hannah likes!) for my usual budget of under $15!

 Here's a line-up of all the older contestants:

This is Hannah modeling her (under $20) casual wear. The woman holding the microphone as Hannah introduces herself is Miss Tanya, the state director for the Cinderella Pageant and a really great lady. She struck up a conversation with Lizzie during the break for judges' deliberation and they talked about ballet. Then she thanked  her for being such a good sport so Hannah could do her thing.

Rob was there, too. And here he is with the contestant just before crowning:

And here is Hannah singing her heart out:

 Her next performance will be at the end of February as she entered Pottstown's Got Talent. She is probably going to do "On My Own" from Les Miz for that one, but we tend to make those decisions the day before so she may have learned something new by then.

Oh and let's not forget Miss Liz. She's deep in rehearsals for her dance rep company's performance at Lincoln Center in March. It will be a busy winter and spring (and summer and fall!)

A Puzzlement

Roses are red

This flower is yellow

3-D puzzles are fun

When you're calm or mellow

It's a beautiful flower

As you can see

But to put it together

Just about killed me

And while Hannah says thanks

For this beautiful present

Those of us who had to build it

Did not find it so pleasant

So Uncle Dude if you ever think

That we'd enjoy another thrill

Think again (and again)

Because you, I will kill

Christmas!!

I didn't take a lot of photos on Christmas Day because we were all involved with the cat (and trying to keep the dog away from the cat!) but we did have our usual fun with the Bentleys on Christmas Eve.

Hannah still sort of believes in the magic of Christmas and Santa and all that (especially since we have the you-must-believe-if-you-want-to-receive rule!) but didn't want to sit on Santa's lap. Until we got to Aunt Terry and Uncle Ray's house where luckily, there was the perfect Santa for her to sit on!

It's just not a Garrity Christmas celebration without crackers ... here's Lizzie wearing her crown:

Uncle Ray (and Casey) taught Hannah and Lizzie a new fist bump sequence that goes something like bump, explode, talk about it (pictured below is the talk about it part). So our Christmas Eve was educational, too!

 And, of course, no modern-day gathering is complete without someone checking their electronics. Max was smiling for the photo though, so all was good!

Christmas Day was a lot of fun for us (I have to admit to being verrrrrry tired since I was up much of the night worried that the dog would discover the cat in the closet. He barked his head off at 4 a.m. and when I checked on him he was actually NOT barking at the cat who was about two feet away from him in the closet, but rather the neighbor's light up reindeer that had been there for weeks. Good thing for him, he's handsome.

So first, here's our feast. We had turkey, stuffing (terrible -- made it from a bag of pre-seasoned breadcrumbs and won't be doing that again), cranberry sauce, turnip, mashed potatoes, glop (that's the green bean casserole but you add canned asparagus instead of green beans), sweet potatoes with cinnamon, and creamed onions. Dessert was cookies and pumpkin pie. It was all delicious (except for the stuffing) if I do say so myself.

And last but not least, here are pictures of various family members with Bella:

 

Next up is the week AFTER Christmas!

Twas the Week Before Christmas...

Christmas (and New Year's!) may be over and done, but the blogging is just beginning!! The girls had almost two weeks off (they went back to school yesterday, but then had a snow day today!) and we did a lot to keep busy. Here is the photographic evidence:

We started off our vacation with baking. I bake with the girls a lot but this year they required very little help to get things done. Here they are making snickerdoodles (which were delicious, by the way):

Lizzie also decided that Cash wasn't festive enough so she stuffed this hat and put it on him. He is a very good puppy to put up with us all -- especially in light of what happened on Christmas day (MEOW!!)

Or actually BEFORE Christmas. There's a stray that's been coming around the house and since it's been cold here we've been letting her sleep in our garage. And then our laundry room. And then one morning we let her into the house and she ran right up our Christmas Tree. I am happy to report that NO ORNAMENTS were hurt (or cats) during this extraction:

Things got really fun when the Garritys came to visit the Saturday before Christmas. We were supposed to all get together the weekend before that, but Mother Nature had other ideas, so T.A. and Tina came with Tommy and Brenna and a good time was had by all. And Ann, it really was warm enough that day to be out without a coat! (Here's the coatless Brenna with Hannah)

It was also warm enough to go sledding on the driveway. The kids were dragging each other around in the sled on the driveway and around the front yard.

The ever-thoughtful Aunt Tina wore the same outfit as Cash:

Seriously I have no words for this picture...

Then we did some more baking (actually decorating). Here's Lizzie and her gingerbread people. She made Santa and Mrs. Claus and also some Christmas cats:

 Hannah, hard at work:

 Hannah and her finished people. She made a cat and some miscellaneous people. And then she ate them.


Next post: Christmas Eve and Day (not too many pictures of Christmas Day since we were all consumed by the kitten!)