Christmas vacation is traditionally
(around the Heidmann household)
a time of great organizing
and
throwing away
and
clearing out
and
demolishing.

Today was the day for Demolishing that ugly old eyesore in our back yard.

Everybody got to lend a hand… and my contribution was naturally photographic.

If you’d like to see the other 91 photos,
click here.
I thought better of loading them all onto Xanga…

We are looking forward to putting in a bar-b-que on that nice slab,
and fixing up the gazebo.
It will get lots of use and certainly look nicer.
I might even try putting some potted plants around it….
don’t wanna go crazy or anything though…

After reading my last post,
Paul said to me,
“Why would you want a Glock when you can have a Sig?”

Perhaps this is like the Mac/PC thing…

I was not aware.

Therefore to be fair to fans of both sides of this epic rivalry,
I will direct you to the following sites.

Team Glock

and

Team Sig

I’m much less partial than my guy,
but given the choice when time to purchase a larger caliber gun,
I will probably go Sig,
just to be a loyal wife.

This morning the girls and I headed out in the dark
for their first shooting competition.
It was a cold and cloudy morning.
Here are some scenes from the day.

Setting up their positions.

Bullets in the bullet box.

Bullets ready to load.

Heading down to set up targets.

A little nervous, but ready to shoot!

Waiting for the o.k. to prepare to shoot.

Getting ready.

The three target stands I spent five hours watching.

Commence firing!

I saw several of these wind direction finder doo-dads at other people’s stations. 
Thought they were cool.

This is the gun that Geneva could NOT use without a ….
bolt!
She had to run back to the office and find a bolt since this one fell out.

Meg shooting.

‘Neva shooting.

La’roo shooting.

Scoring their targets.

They had to use three different targets in today’s competition.
2 at 50 yards
2 at 50 meters
1 at 100 yards
and
1 more at 50 yards.

In an incongruously girly moment,
Megan wailed,
“I chipped a NAIL!!”

One sister helping another with her strap.

Meg checking her shot.

‘Neva taking aim.

La’Roo firing.

And I saw this banner hanging along the side of the range.
I want to join Team Glock now.
But I don’t have a Glock.

~*~*~*~*~

The girls did excellently well, in my humble opinion,
at their first competition.
Laurent scored 1045 (out of a possible 1200) with 15 bullseyes,
Megan scored 843 with 7 bullseyes,
and Geneva scored 713 with 3 bullseyes!

Their next match will be January 8th.
And, due to the fact that I shivered in the cold for 5 hours today
(did NOT know it would last from 8am to 1pm)
Paul will be taking the girls next time.
Which means no pix!

Well today was the long awaited day for Geneva and the rest of the cast of
Snoopy, the Musical!

There were some jitters to be had, of course,
but mostly excitement around our house.

After a bit of school and some hair prep,
I dropped Geneva off at the church where they were performing,
and then drove over to a nearby Boston Market
to await the rest of the family,
who were meeting me there for supper before the show.

While I sat in my van outside the restaurant,
I couldn’t help admiring this car.

I was about to take a picture with my phone
when I realized “Hey!  I have my camera with me!”

Hanging out after supper, waiting till it was time to head over to the church.

When we arrived,
the Heidmann Grands plus Jess and the four cousins
were already outside waiting.
We went in and promptly took up most of the first two rows with our
13 people.

Laurent on the boy’s end of the row.

Megan with the little girls and Paul.

The Boy, probably monologuing.

A proud grandma,
awaiting the curtain.

Paul holding a calculus seminar with his nephew.

After a fantastic show,
the cast was swarmed with appreciative
and congratulatory
mobs of fans.

Here are Frieda and Sally!

Getting a Grandpa hug!

Cousins eagerly joined Geneva on stage…

Megan was extraordinarily inspired by the production…

Jacob enjoyed meeting his sister’s colleagues and is giving a hearty
“Hah! Hah! Hah!” about something here…

A rousing dance with cousins and cast members broke out on stage…

And THIS
is the face of someone who
will
not
be
denied
her request to join MoezArt next semester.

Indubitably, theater is here to stay.

In preparation for the big
!!!Opening Night!!!
of Geneva’s theater production,
I had to spend a good deal of time with a curling iron,
creating a head of
“Naturally Curly Hair”
on a girl who has hair as straight as
an arrow:

It’s quite a bit shorter when curly!!

While I was doing that,
Megan was working the opposite magic with a flat-iron
on
Laurent’s head of long,
naturally curly hair.

They are both enjoying the change-up!

Geneva and Lisa,
hanging out inside the warm van
before church
during my choir rehearsal.

Lisa and her precious Grandma-pickles
were not to be parted!

Mom and her Vikings game.

Father-daughter dance.

A happy couple by the water.

Susan and Grandma on the patio.

Another happy couple.

And one trio.

~*~*~*~*~

Hanging around outside
I observed
Megan and Grandpa
working the Bar-B-Que:

And later,
down in the valley,
Paul, Megan and Jacob were playing some ball:

Jacob batted right hand.
Being a lefty, I was surprised.
But he said it worked better that way.

Megan started out going right handed too…

But did much better when she switched to left.

Good hit!!

And after that,
back on the patio by the house,
a rousing game of
velcro ball tic-tac-toe
broke out:

You throw a little ball with strips of velcro around it

at this padded tic-tac-toe board with velcro squares,

and the first one to get three in a row
wins.

It’s way harder than it sounds.

~*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*~

I wandered down the lakeside
to see these lazily
paddling
birds:

Such a pretty place.

~*~*~*~*~

After church yesterday we went to Sun Lakes
for some bar-b-que
and relaxation with the Heidmann Grandparents.

Pics from the day include these photos of
flowers from the patio in their
various stages of
growth.

For the last several months, my youngest daughter has been growing increasingly rapturous in anticipation of her upcoming performance in the Musical, “Snoopy” — wherein she will play the role of Frieda, the girl with red, “naturally curly hair.”

Today was the day for which she has been eagerly waiting.  Mid-morningish, she, mother and I motored off to Wal-mart, and while mother got her hair cut by a terrifyingly flamboyant young man, Geneva and I found a delightful shade of red hair coloring.  By the time we were through the checkout, the nice young man (who was no longer terrifying) was shaking out the black cape and mother, happily shorn in a perfect pixie cut, was ready to go.

We got home at 11:30, and that gave me *barely* enough time, but I managed to get her hair colored and dried and deliver her to rehearsal by 12:30.

The old look:

and the new flashy do:

Sigh.

The things we do for our craft.