Calvin – robinchartier

winter concert

The other night we all went to see Calvin perform at the middle school band and choir concert.

Calvin is in beginning band — they won’t be ready to perform until spring. Judging by the sounds I hear coming from his saxophone as he practices, that’s a wonderful Christmas gift to us all. The advanced band played Lady Gaga’s Poker Face and Taio Cruz’s Dynamite, along with a few other typical band pieces. They sounded way better than anything I ever heard from our middle school band.

Stretching her legs during intermission . . .

There’s my singer!

Hmm . . . don’t the shorter kids usually stand in the front row? In this case there were several tall boys in the front row completely blocking the kids behind them. I got a lot of awesome pictures of Tall Boy standing right in front of Calvin. Too bad I don’t know Tall Boy’s parents. I could have been their official photographer for the event.

7th & 8th grade combined choir

They sang a few songs that had nothing to do with holidays or winter, but they sounded nice. I spent most of my time zoomed in with my camera trying to time the swaying bodies to get a shot of . . .

this smiling guy.

PS

For all those worried about Calvin and his self esteem — don’t be concerned. He’s fine. His teacher couldn’t be nicer. (From looking at the work samples Calvin was turning in, he’s much nicer and more understanding than I would be). See, in the background of this picture he’s yawning his way through his flashcards. Not embarrassed at all.

Part of the issue is he isn’t confident with his math facts (and has always been that way) so when they are doing work in class he takes WAY longer to do it than anyone else. Thus, the multiplication flashcard suggestion to help him pick up speed. Hopefully increased speed will equal increased confidence and he’ll leave behind that deer in headlights look when presented a problem to solve.

The picture of him with his head in his hands and Josh mid-eyeroll was CLASSIC Calvin and pretty much summed up what math has looked like at our house for the past 6 years. If something doesn’t come easily to him he gets frustrated and gives up instead of trying to figure it out. He’d rather avoid than fight. This meeting was more of a “we’re going to make sure you keep fighting” coaching session.

So don’t worry that his confidence has been bruised or anything — he still thinks he’s plenty awesome at lots of things (whether he is or not). We’re hoping that someday he’ll be able to say that he’s awesome at problem solving, attention to detail and seeing something through to completion. It’s not about the math, but the man we’re hoping he will become.

The past few days I’ve been running around almost non-stop. Thus, the gap with no new posts. Friday afternoon we went out to lunch after church and then after the baby’s nap, Camille and I drove Calvin out to play paintball with friends from school. It’s about 30 minutes away from our house and no one had been there before and we didn’t have an address to put in the GPS. So my wonderful, directionally gifted husband looked on Google Earth and found the general area where it was supposed to be, zoomed in close and took his best guess at which patch of land might be a paintball place and put those coordinates in the GPS for me. He didn’t take Calvin himself because he works with the youth group on Friday nights (he’s been even busier than I’ve been lately).

So the 3 of us bravely set out into the great unknown to find this paintball place. I was a little nervous about finding it — positive I would be driving around in circles. As we approached the end of our route the voice said, “In .2 miles turn left into destination” and we started looking around for signs of paintball. And then we spotted it: Hallelujah! As we turned into the parking lot, we were escorted by these words, “arriving at your destination.” No joke. He had mapped the exact coordinates — even down to the correct driveway.

From there I was supposed to go to the mall and kill time with Camille for a few hours. Easy, right? Somehow I managed to pick the wrong shopping center from the list in the GPS so it took me way the heck out somewhere that I had never been before and eventually I knew I wasn’t going the right way, but by that time I decided to just go with it. Then I pulled up and it looked sort of like the middle eastern version of Eastmont mall and all the guys on the street were staring at the white girl (see? totally Eastmont!) so I decided to pick a new destination. Lesson learned: GPSs aren’t idiot-proof.

Yesterday was another day of running around. In the morning was the fabric store and the grocery store. Then I had to race off to have lunch with the boys at school. They invited me to eat with them and it sounds all nice and sweet until you understand that Saturdays are Dairy Queen days, but the Elementary School students can’t buy ice cream. It’s only for the MS/HS students/teachers/staff/parents . . . ah ha! Yep, they just use me for ice cream.

Then home to work on sewing some costumes for the Fall Festival on Wednesday (big Halloween party). Carter is dressing up as Dread Pirate Roberts (Princess Bride). He wanted to be a “bandit,” but what he described as a bandit “black fabric over my face” sounded like a Ninja to me. He kept insisting “it’s a pirate, but on land” so we found a compromise with Dread Pirate Roberts.

Caleb is going to be a Tae Kwon Do black belt, which means I only had to sew the belt. However he came home from school wanting to be a werewolf or a vampire even though I had already finished his belt. He wasn’t happy when I told him that he couldn’t change his costume and while I was cleaning the kitchen he found the black fabric that I purchased for DPR and decided he could make himself a vampire costume. With my scissors.

In between lunch and Project Runway: Halloween Episode, Josh and I headed back to school to watch the Elementary School talent show. None of the boys were in it, but they wanted us to come watch it with them. Of course they didn’t sit with us, or hardly talk to us, but Josh and I drank cappuccinos and watched the show so it was almost like a date. Except for the squirming toddler on our laps.

Today is easy until after school. Then we have a parent conference with one of Calvin’s teachers, the boys have after-school activities of watercolor (Carter) and gardening (Caleb) and then we have to run Caleb to a birthday party. Which reminds me that I have to run out and buy a birthday present now, because the stores all close between 1 and 4 or 5 around here. Not for anything special — it’s just a daily “siesta.” Open in the morning, open late at night, closed all afternoon. It’s already 11 so I need to hurry before they close!

underground city

One of the afternoons in Urgup/Cappadocia, Josh took the boys to the underground city. I didn’t go because 1) it was time for the baby to nap and we had been hiking all morning 2) supposedly the underground city is made up of all these connecting tunnels, some that you have to kneel and crawl through and I didn’t see how that would be feasible with a baby on my back (and that part sounded a little claustrophobia inducing) 3) it looked to be almost an hour away according to the map, which did not sound like a fun drive with a tired, yelly baby.

It turns out that except for the necessary nap for Camille, all the other obstacles weren’t an issue. It was only about 1/2 an hour away and the boys didn’t want to go down any of the really narrow tunnels because they were small and pitch dark, so I wouldn’t have had to worry about squeezing through tunnels with baby. Either way, I enjoyed my quiet afternoon in my cave while the boys went and explored this cave.

From what I remember reading in the guidebook, thousands and thousands of people lived in these underground cities to hide from enemies/religious persecution. I should probably google that to make sure it’s accurate, but I don’t feel like doing that right now. Josh said the craziest thing was that everything was underground, including areas where they would grow food. He couldn’t figure out how you could grow food without sunlight. Maybe they just stored food for the times they were in hiding?

They had access to plenty of grapes. Cappadocia is wine country.

I can’t say a lot of interesting things about these photos, because I didn’t take them and I wasn’t there, but I do know the story behind this one. These underground cities (there are over 100 of them, but 2 or 3 main ones open to the public) are huge with tour groups and while Josh and the boys were there, they heard a tour guide talking about this well and how it provided water for all the thousands of people that used to live underground. He then took out a small pebble or rock and told the group to listen as he reverently dropped it into the well. It fell down, down, down and the group all oohed and ahhed and nodded when they heard the “splash.”

After the tour group left, Josh took the boys over to the well, because he didn’t hear a splash and he tossed a coin in and it clattered and banged all the way down until they heard a “thunk” as it hit the dry bottom. As the boys were telling me this story, they were laughing so hard that they had tears in their eyes at the idea that the tour guide made a big production about hearing water in the well when it was so clearly dry.

Some of those areas are looking pretty narrow to me . . . maybe it was a good thing I didn’t go along.

If you want to read more about Kaymakli from someone who has more information than I do, I found this link that describes what is on each of the 4 levels that are open to the public: http://www.anadol.com/kaymakli.htm or there’s always my friend, wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaymakl%C4%B1_Underground_City

Maybe a table? A millstone? A door?
**Josh let me know that this is stone is actually part of their security system. The stone would be turned on edge, rolled to block the archway in the photo below, and wedged in place to keep intruders from entering.

The main passages had some light (you can see the wiring running in this picture, but I guess a lot of the passages are completely dark. Josh said the boys started out with the idea of exploring all the side tunnels, but decided it was too dark. In all they saw stables, a church, living areas, kitchens, granaries, wineries, ventilation shafts, everything required to maintain a city, all underground.

A very wise person recently reminded me that my children will go beyond where I take them. Ah yes, the reminder that I’m not in control of much in my life. Funny how I always seem to forget that. And the idea that in a few short years these small humans will be in charge of their own lives, earning their own money (hopefully), and having families of their own seems crazy to me in light of the fact that I still have to remind them to brush their teeth and flush the toilet.

Josh married me at 22 (I was older and wiser at 23). In 10 years Calvin will be 22. And yes, I had to remind him to brush his teeth this morning before he left for school. I also got to explain what a condom was because his friends were talking about 8th grade health class where they learn to put a condom on a banana. The kid can’t find his rugby jersey that is folded and put away on the shelf in his closet, but we think kids that age can learn to use a condom properly? Hilarious.

One area where my parents excelled was in the area of sex education. I never felt out of the loop, misinformed. or in the dark. In fact, I always felt more informed and more prepared than any of my friends. I remember being in High School and going to the assembly where they tried to scare us straight by showing us pictures of diseased private parts infected by various STDs (that was also where the banana/condom instruction took place). The photos were supposed to be shocking, but they were tame compared to the textbook my mom had at home from one of her nursing classes. Photo after photo of private parts that were cracking, swollen, ready to fall off, bug infested . . . as my mom was studying for her STD tests we would look through the book and pick out the most disgusting photos and worst looking diseases on each page. I guess my mom was homeschooling before it was cool.

Anyway, we’ve taken a similar “free access to information” approach in our family and Calvin has known all the details of the birds and the bees for a long time, but I guess when you do it that early, you don’t think to discuss birth control. So I explained that purpose of the “love glove” is to keep the sperm from getting to the egg and making a baby. And to keep people from catching diseases (too bad I didn’t have any photos to use as a visual aid). I was rewarded for my efforts with, “Gross.” Then the bus came and they were off.

I’m not going to be able to take him very far in 10 short years. Good thing he isn’t limited to that.