He Calls Me Auntie Robynn

And he’s 16-year-old Matt Harikian, the son of dear friends of ours. The guy is amazingly talented and has been wowing us all on the piano for years. When he was little, his parents could discipline him by telling him he might lose piano privileges. I don’t think that would work in my house that well……too much “YaHOOOOing!”

He was homeschooled through eighth grade and then joined University High School for intellectually gifted and talented kids. (I love how the other students always commented, “You were homeschooled? But you’re not WEIRD!”)

A few Friday nights ago he was the featured pianist in a concert the high school gave at California State University Fresno. Each student playing in the orchestra is with the high school and they did an unbelievable job, as you’ll hear. But, of course, Matt was pure genius (I’m not prejudiced) and brought the packed concert hall to its feet for a long standing ovation when it was over.

This is a lengthy piece so it had to be split into two parts (and the second part is a huge and dynamic finish). But even if you just listen while you multi-task, it will be a rich and LOVELY 12 minutes and will make you SMILE. I sat there with my jaw hanging open as I watched him. Well, okay, I admit that’s a normal look for me but but it hung even lower than usual. The film quality doesn’t do Matt justice but the music speaks for itself. He is at the piano in the middle of the video. And the one hooting at the end of the whole thing is moi. Really. I have no sense of decorum. I actually do realize that the proper way to behave at these elite affairs is not to act like a Bohemian, cough delicately into a handkerchief with pinky upraised, clap inconspicuously with a gloved hand, and use your smelling salts if you are too overcome by Bohemians offending your senses. I exist merely to prove the rule that you can dress me up but you can't take me anywhere. I'm sorry. That's a lie. It is nearly impossible to dress me up.

Without further ado, here is Matt Harikian playing the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor:

P.S. He’s a REALLY nice kid. :)

Part 1:

Part 2:

©Copyright 2010

$92.00 Richer

I know it may SEEM like I’m hawking coupons to all y’all but I came across this one today and it filled me with shock and awe. (Well, we all know what I’m full of but I was a little low so I stuffed the shock and awe in that spot.) Maybe I’m on a money saving spree because, well, I HAVE to be. Maybe you guys are ridiculously wealthy and don’t have to give it a second thought. Sumthin tells me, though, you could use a break, too.

Okay. I found this site through a friend: Restaurant.com

They are currently having an 80% off sale. 80%.

BUT ACT FAST BECAUSE WHEN THEY’RE GONE, THEY’RE GONE.

In my area they had eight pages of restaurants listed. You do have to read the fine print….sometimes there are time restrictions, and sometimes you have to spend a certain amount while you’re there. But out of eight pages, I found one restaurant we’ve gone to since I was 17. And they NEVER drop a coupon. It’s a breakfast place and it’s simple, folksy, and homey. And when Grizzly and I were merely a couple, it was no big deal and was affordable. But feeding two teens as well seriously cramps the eating out style. Well, this restaurant is on the list today. I got four $25.00 coupons.

You can only use one per month. No problem. We don’t eat out a lot. But here’s the kicker: after the discount I only paid $2.00 for each coupon. That’s $25.00 worth of food for two bucks.

Go there, enter your zip code, and you’ll get all the listings. You take it from there but don’t forget to enter their promo code which is “FLAG.” (They prompt you with it on the site, too.) I earn nothing for telling you this so don’t think it’s about me. It’s about YOU. Go forth and save!

Maybe we won’t have to take such long steps trying not to wear our shoes out.

Have fun and would you let me know if you found the deal of the century, too?

©Copyright 2010

Photo courtesy of multiple internet image listings

My Own O’Keefe

She finished it today.

My “little” girl is in finals week and everything is now done except for turning in her final project in her painting class. And it’s terrific, if I do say so myself. And I do. She utilized various brushes and techniques but at the last, it was her hands that completed the project. She calls it her finger painting. And she loves it – the feel, the smell, the oneness with her creation.

She has always been an artist from the earliest of days. I refused to teach her to color within the lines when she was tiny because I could never answer the question of “why?” to my satisfaction. Because someone drew them? Who cares? I watched her combine colors in ways I would have never imagined and frankly, many times thought wouldn’t work. They always did. I zipped my lip and let her go. If you know me, and you do, zipping isn’t my strong suit. But I didn’t want her to become ME. I wanted her to become whoever God created her to be. I thought that would be a LOT more interesting. And I wasn’t keen on lessons because I didn’t want her to become THEM, either. When she knew who she was, she’d have plenty of time to study.

She went through the prolific stage around five. “How do you like this, mommy?”

“Lovely, honey!”

“Okay, I’ll go make another one,” and five minutes later there she was again, and again, and again. We told her to work on quality. Our house isn’t that big.

Then I began to ask, “How do YOU like it?” so she could hear her own voice. And she became fiercely independent and now I have to chase her down to say, “LET ME SEE!” Unlike her mother, she does not need to know if others like her work – writing, photography, painting, music, or lyrics – to like them herself. She creates for her own expression and if others enjoy it as well? Bonus.

I wish I had half her moxie and very quiet self assurance.

And as soon as it’s sufficiently dry (oil takes awhile) and the shine is gone to her satisfaction, I’ll post a picture here. But it is the most beautiful iris and truly does put me in mind of a Georgia O’Keefe, but with her own style. If you can’t afford art, just give birth to an artist. Worked for me. :)

Thanks for letting me go on and on. Wasn’t it just YESTERDAY she was starting her first year in college and I was boo-hooing? Now she is done with that year. Wow.

I’ll be all weepy again come August. Feel free to skip reading me for the whole month. I’m sure I’ll be dreadfully boring.

©Copyright 2010

I Can’t Keep It to Myself

You know, if you’ve been hanging around for very long, I don’t promote products very often. It just ain’t what I do. I have friends that do it and do it very well. But I like this to be my spot in the world where, if I tell you it’s good, you might believe me because nobody’s paying me to say it.

Enter Groupon. I’m a Groupon Groupie. If you don’t know what it is, think Entertainment Book coupons on steroids and Belgian Chocolate. Think rugged muscles, thick wallet, intelligent, and lumberjack powerful. Imagine sensitive, carries handkerchiefs, would-take-a-bullet-for-you, and changes diapers kind of awareness of your needs. Trendy yet stable. Cutting edge with retro rising. Likes to talk. Shops for the kids. Remembers not only your birthday, but your mother’s as well. Groupon gets you. And they want you to get them.

I get them.

Groupon is in most major cities and here’s how it works. You go to their site http://www.groupon.com/, enter your email and create a password, and you’re signed up. That’s it. Each day (they skip once in awhile), there will be a deal of the day and you have 24 hours to take advantage of it. If enough people want the Groupon, you get it. It’s power through numbers – hence the name GROUP-on. If there aren’t enough responses, it’s a no-go. (Not usually a problem.) You sign up for your city or a city you visit a lot. Or want to visit a lot. And then you wait. Every day, you get an email notification. It’ll look something like this:

Something you wanna try? A place you already love? It’s yours. Last week I got Great Harvest Bread Company Groupons. I’ve discovered The Breakfast House, $12 worth of breakfast for $5 bucks. I’m set up for a night out to dinner with my hubby at Fibber McGee's. You can buy them for yourself. You can give them as gifts. But when they’re gone, that’s it. And then you wait for the next big thing.

Will you love every one of them? Nope. But if you need to save money while still having a LIFE, you’ll be waiting and watching for the scorching deals. I go to Great Harvest Bread nearly every Saturday. I’m.Already.Buying.It. Now I can go buy ten bucks worth of bread for five dollars. That’s being a good steward of the moolah – and most of us have to be. Our moolah is very watered down these days with no compensation for Grizzly’s injury. That took the braces right out of The Wild Man’s mouth before they ever got installed. Maybe your money tree isn’t bearing too well this year, either. Here’s a way to add to your yield.

And here’s the kicker. If you refer your friends and they sign up with your referral code and make their first purchase, you get a $10 Groupon credit. So you both win. I’m gonna give you my code so that when and if you sign up, I make ten bucks. I could use ten bucks. How about you? It’s a great, honest way to share a red-hot deal and get paid for doing it. (Let’s face it: Google Ads aren’t gonna change most our lives and that’s why they are GONE.) And you will have my undying appreciation for caring enough to copy and paste me in. Here you go:

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu1374507

That’s my unique number. When you sign up you’ll get one, too. Ain’t nuthin’ special about me. It’s just the deal. Except that this one’s good ALL the time – not just for 24 hours. Share yours however you want to but you’ll get the credit.

The last thing I’ll say about this is how nice it is that when you go to use it, it’s already paid for. It lets you plan ahead for where you want to go. YOU make your OWN coupon book. No thumbing through page after page of places you would never go and coupons you would never use.

Okay. I’m done with that one.

Next – Homeschoolers – You’ll Love This.

Here’s the spelling program we use. It’s free. It’s online. It’s user friendly. It can be customized to the age and stage of your child. I wish I had discovered it before it was created. Hmmm. Check out Spelling City. If you don’t know about it, I just know you’ll love it. http://www.spellingcity.com/

Your kids can play games, crosswords, hangman, etc., all while learning their word lists. They can test themselves at any time. We use Spelling Power (the huge orange tome)

for our main word and list resource, but we access other sources as well. We use Spelling City for awhile and then mix it up but we always come back. They aren’t paying me for the plug or sending me any free material. I’m simply so appreciative of what they’ve already offered I want to spread the word. And I want your kids to be able to spell. Mine, too. It’s an endangered skill. F u no wut I meen.

So that’s it. I don’t do advertising. But I reserve the right to share the good stuff with my friends. Because I make up the rules of how to play. I say what goes on around these parts.

Wow. What a power trip. I scare myself. Just send me home with my football.

©Copyright 2010

Notification of Departure

Today at baseball I was the snack mom. I had hard acts to follow. Capri Suns, Oreos, grab bags of chips. My son notified me I would NOT be the mom who brought celery and carrot sticks. I completely caved and brought entertainment food instead of nutrition. My one nod toward actual food was bottled water. Water had not yet been present at snack time. I don’t like bottled water but I didn’t have a big jug and they’re all plastic anyway.

While I watched the kids happily dive into the loot and my son maintain his reputation, a few of us parents leaned against the sagging chain link fence and talked about the scene before us.

Jack LaLanne’s name came up and how he’s always been a fitness guru.

Even now, at 95, he could run circles around me. BIG circles. I’d be out of breath just turning around and around watching him do it. John B., one of our friends, noted that Jack says he only eats soup for lunch, every day. He thinks anything else is too much.

When interviewed by Katie Couric on NBC's Today show, LaLanne said his two simple rules of nutrition are: "if man made it, don't eat it", and "if it tastes good, spit it out." Lalanne also works out for two hours each morning in a serious body-disciplining routine.

On-going, long-term research (by people paid to do on-going, long-term research) does seem to indicate that those who eat less than they need, exercise intensely every day, and stay slightly underweight live the longest.

I’ve had some time to ponder these thoughts and, based on empirical evidence, the pizza and cake I ate for lunch at a kid’s birthday party, and my scale who told me last time I got on not to try and weigh two people at the same time, I just wanted to say goodbye to you all. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dead in about half-an-hour.

Do you think it’s too late for rotten tasting soup?

The Nearly Departed,

Robynn

©Copyright 2010

Photos: Multiple Internet Sources, Katie Couric interview courtesy of Wikipedia

Blown Away by Genius

You know I don’t use videos as my stock-in-trade. They have to be really exceptionally funny, poignant, or cutting edge to qualify.

This video left me awestruck, gobsmacked, stunned, and realizing I was watching history being made. Bo brought it to me today and I’ve watched it five times. It’s a little over three minutes but you’ll always say you were there for this kid’s debut.

He is twelve-year-old Greyson Michael Chance and he performed a song for his Edmond, Oklahoma Sixth Grade Talent Show. He plays piano and writes his own music, although this was a cover of Lady Gaga’s (gag-gag, I can’t STAND her) song, “Paparazzi.” He schooled her, as the kids say, and showed her who was boss.

I dug deeper and found a few videos of him at home filming himself playing and singing his own work. He’ll be on the Ellen Degeneres show tomorrow, Thursday, May 13th. I’ll be watching. I can’t STOP watching. Who IS this child? WHERE does he get that voice in that little body? And he sounds like no one I’ve ever heard.

I’m praying his parents can help him keep his head on straight because he’s about to be embraced and adored by the world, and we all know what that does to young stars.

In the meantime, I can’t wait to get this kid’s first CD.

And I love the looks on the faces of the young girls in the audience. They’ll all be telling their kids about being in the audience. Mom and Dad are gonna have to hire a fulltime body guard for him. Crush fever just docked its boat on a twelve-year-old boy. I love him but I thank GOD he’s not mine! Yikes!

Be sure to turn up the volume for this one to get the full effect and don't miss the ending remarks from his teacher. Priceless!

©Copyright 2010

All The Wrinkled Ladies!

Okay, I found my theme song. I can’t quite celebrate it at the level Anita Renfroe does but, I’m workin’ on it!

And I got smashed today. If you haven’t had your mammos ladies, time to schedule! And I should even add, “Men. Check your ample pectorals.” There was a dude in there who had to carry around a lab sheet with breasts on it (bless his brave little heart) because guess what? Men get breast cancer, too. Probably all the GMO soy and animal hormones floating through our food chain. Okay. I won’t preach anymore. Just watch this and have a hoot and a holler. :)

(Oh, and check on the post below this one for the contest winners!)

©Copyright 2010