shawnwright.blog

Shelby put a little outfit together today that looked hauntingly familiar... like from when I was in middle school. Perhaps there's an 80s girl trapped inside trying to break out.

Labels: Shelby

The girls had their first orchestra performance tonight at school. Even though Darby is in her third year at this school, it's her first year in the orchestra, and of course this is Shelby's first year for both this school and orchestra. As Shelby is a strings major, there will be a lot more of these for her. Darby is not a strings major, but has really been enjoying it, and so may keep doing it as well. Darby, being a piano major, has a piano recital on Friday (what, you're not watching the calendar?), so keep your eyes out for pics from that soon.

Here's a picture of Darby's orchestra (Beginning Orchestra).



Here's a picture of Shelby's orchestra (Intermediate Orchestra).



I took some video with my actual video camera, but not sure any of that footage is going to make it here. The girls neglected to let us know where to optimally sit for the best view, so in both cases the conductor obstructs our view of them.

Labels: Darby, orchestra, school, Shelby

The girls and I visited the Christmas lights in Yukon, OK tonight. I highly recommend them. Much to see. Biggest I've seen that's for sure. Plus two animated light shows. However, expect it to take awhile, the secret is out and the lines are L-O-N-G...

Labels: Darby, holiday, Shelby

We took family pictures today. The girls look beautiful as ever. I'm not super happy with how I represented the family this year. But what's done is done.

Here's a couple pictures of the girls from just before and then during pictures. I'll upload the finished product when they're ready.







UPDATE

Okay, here they are, the finished products. Just ignore the part that includes me.










As always, you can find these and many other pictures in the family album.

Labels: Darby, family, holiday, pictures, Shawn, Shelby

This morning, Shelby got to take part in a special school event commemorating today's historic anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. She bought a couple raffle tickets on Friday, and she won the opportunity to "kick down the wall". The event was covered by KWTV channel 9, our local CBS affiliate, and is supposed to air during the 5:00pm broadcast.

Normally I try to only post 2-3 pictures per blog entry and then link to the photo album for the rest. But in this case, it seemed best to convey the entire event, though they will later appear in the album. If you come back later, I may also have a video posted, and maybe a link to the TV story if I can find it.


Here's Shelby on her big day.



Here's what the "wall" looked like. It is cereal boxes decorated with graffiti by the students of Shelby's school.



Shelby in front of the wall.



Shelby at the wall.



Shelby being interviewed by channel 9.



Shelby (partially obscured by the crowd) at a presentation by one of the teachers, who showed the crowed her piece of the actual Berlin Wall acquired during a school trip to Germany back in 1990.



Shelby kicking down the wall.



As the domino effect didn't go quite as planned, Shelby had to walk along the wall, kicking it down. Here she is near the end. You can see that the rest of the middle school kids have practically joined in the rally.



Here she is being interviewed at the end.



And one more interview, with the school's media department.



And there you have it, the Berlin Wall (or a semi-replica thereof) has been kicked down. By my daughter.




Update
Here's the video from tonight's newscast courtesy News 9:



And here's a link to the same video on the News 9 site, in case there's an issue with the one I embedded. Also, there's an associated story at News 9, though both in the story and the video they got Shelby's first name wrong.

Labels: pictures, school, Shelby

Halloween came and went pretty quickly. Here are some pics from the weekend.


Friday night I went to a friend's Halloween party. I'm supposed to be a Jabbawockeez, though I think my results varied.



Here's Darby and Shelby before heading out on Saturday night, followed by a pic of each of them out trick-or-treating. Notice Darby's live pet rat in her hands, which she took with her, saying "witches always have their pet rats with them".

Labels: Darby, holiday, Shawn, Shelby

Darby and Shelby had a choir concert at school tonight. Here's a video of one of Darby's numbers.

Labels: choir, Darby, school, Shelby, video

Darby has been an altar server for four years, but today was Shelby's first day as an altar server at church. I was a little nervous about them serving together, because as siblings they argue at the most inappropriate times. Unfortunately, they HAD to serve together since Darby is a senior server and responsible for Shelby's training. But much to my delight, I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly things went between them up there.

Labels: church, Darby, Shelby

After the disappointing OU loss, we cheered ourselves up with some pumpkin carving.

Never the conformist, Shelby insisted on carving her pumpkin the old-fashioned way.



While Darby took a shot at a complex stencil.



More carving pics can be found in the album.

Labels: Darby, holiday, pictures, Shelby

Shelby is heading off to her first overnight trip, a science camp a couple hours from home with her 6th grade class. It's supposed to be rainy in OKC all week. Hopefully, down South, the weather will be more enjoyable and she won't have to break out the rain coat.

Labels: school, Shelby, trip

Shelby and her mom worked on her Halloween costume tonight. I think it turned out great!











Keep an eye on the album for updates as more photos are taken.

Labels: holiday, pictures, Shelby

We got the girls' school pictures back today. Darby doesn't like hers and wants re-takes. Thoughts?


More pictures of Darby are in the album.

Oh, by the way, that's not Shelby's real hair in the back. She's wearing a clip-on hair extension thing she got for her birthday.


More pictures of Shelby are in the album.

Labels: Darby, pictures, school, Shelby

Happy Birthday Shelby!

My little girl turned 12 today. She has entered her 13th year and I am on the cusp of having TWO (beautiful) teenage girls. God help me.

Here's a fun little animated graphic of Shelby enjoying her birthday sundae at her birthday dinner. She may be growing up, but she still eats/messes like she's five...

Labels: birthday, Shelby

I'm posting this a little late, but there are still two more shows. If you're interested and in the OKC area, come see my daughter Shelby in Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Civic Center. She is just in the children's ensemble, but it's a great show! If you need additional incentive, the two lead roles are played by former American Idol contestants.


Update
After the first show, there was a cast party where Shelby got to mingle with the entire cast, including the past American Idol participants. She had a picture taken with them as well, and after a later show had the picture autographed.



And here's the final product. Shelby, another student, the director, and the former Idols.

Labels: Shelby, theatre

Shelby chased down a duckling at the pond in front of the capitol in Washington, D.C. It had gotten out of the pond and couldn't get back in to be reunited with its mom. Pictures from the trip forthcoming.

Labels: Shelby, trip, vacation, video, Washington DC

Shelby performing with her school strings ensemble during an awards assembly. Unfortunately, my memory card ran out of space in the middle of her solo. BUT, I had another, tape-based, camera going, so I will replace this video, though it will take a bit to do the conversion.

Update
My video camera USB dock is not compatible with Vista. Dang it. I need to buy a DV cable before I can do the conversion. Grr.

Labels: school, Shelby, strings, video

Shelby performing "Popular" from Wicked during the Lyric Academy Spring Cabaret.

Labels: Shelby, theatre, video

A funny video of Shelby trying to say a tongue-twister with a stuffy nose. Previously posted to a social networking site, finally here as well.

Labels: Shelby, video

I took one look at my little one as I dropped her off at school this morning and I could tell immediately that something was wrong.

What's the matter?  I asked...

Nothing. It's just morning. And Monday.

Ah ha. I KNEW there was something wrong. She's too much like me. What she said was exactly... EXACTLY how I was feeling right at that moment.

Wow.

Labels: school, Shelby

Daughter #2 is getting her fourth pair of glasses in two years today due to losing her last pair. She loves the fashionable frames as you can see, so I'm starting to wonder if actually lost her last pair or if she just "lost" them. Hmmm...

Labels: glasses, Shelby

I enjoyed having the opportunity to see the girls try on their junior attendant dresses this evening, though I can't say it wasn't a little bit awkward considering the dresses are for their mom's (my ex-wife) upcoming wedding. Probably more humorous was either Shelby's propensity to hug the mannequins (annoyed that I didn't take a picture of that) or my embarrassment with being the only guy in the bridal shop.

Labels: Darby, Shelby

My daughter is giving up candy for lent, and this was how she said goodbye....

Labels: Shelby

For some time, I didn't get many opportunities to go to Shelby's fencing rehearsals, which are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Until just last week, Darby's piano practice was on Tuesdays, so I'd take Darby there, while Shelby went with her mother to fencing. And then on Thursdays the girls go with their mom for a couple days and I usually take care of things I can't do while with the girls.

Since Darby's piano lessons were moved to Mondays recently, I've been able to attend fencing the last couple weeks, and also as the girls' mom was out of town this week, I attended tonight, which was cool because I got to see her test, which I don't get to see very often. She tested on a new skill they recently learned (called "circle six") and passed, giving her a second stripe at her current level.



I've also updated the photo album with a few more recent fencing pics.

Labels: fencing, pictures, Shelby

As though a thousand words weren't enough...



...how about a few laughs as well...



...she thought I was going to take a picture, but soon learned otherwise.

Labels: Shelby, video

No, I'm not talking about football. I'm talking about Shelby and her fencing. Tonight she won both of her practice bouts, and in reviewing the video I made of them, I've deduced that this is one of her best scoring drives ever.



She's really starting to get decent at this stuff, though she has plenty of work to do before she can compete with some of the older (up to 12) kids with more experience.

Labels: fencing, Shelby

Shelby is a master face-maker. Silly faces, ugly faces, you name it. My digital photo albums are littered with non-smiles in otherwise good photos. She's always trying to sneak a face into a photo at the last second to the extent that I often have to take two or three pictures just to get a decent one with her smiling.

To date, I had considered this to be her "all-time ugliest face".



That is, until I found this gem on her digital camera.



Well, she's going to regret having taken that photo in a few short years (as well as some others). I promise. :)

Labels: Shelby

I must say, if there were ever a better use for a ballpark in December (aside from Fall-ball for those with the privilege), I haven't seen it. The last couple years they've been converting our downtown ballpark into a snow-tubing facility, and while it's not a cheap adventure, it's quite a lot of fun. The manufactured snow-hill slides you right into second base (and I have to wonder if that was by design), so I can't say I've ever slid into second in such style.

The girls had a blast, though Shelby was frightened to tears (literally) at first because of the height of the hill. I sort of guilt-tripped her into going through with it, but she led the way on subsequent attempts since she liked it so much. We continued our tubing fun for more than an hour before walking a half-mile to the Botanical Gardens to check out the Christmas lights.




The whole deal (and more) is part of OKC's "Downtown in December" events, which I highly recommend. If you live in the area and haven't partaken, shame on you. You can catch more pics of our adventures in the album.

Labels: Darby, OKC, pictures, Shelby, snow

Sure they can. But man, they've got to try real hard to prove it.

After going back to the mall for a second straight weekend to get yet more stuff for Shelby with her gift cards, we stopped by a McDonald's to get a couple ice cream cones. First, while waiting for the cones to be made, I caught the girls on my camera phone in video mode in a rare moment of getting along. Ever since they've started Rhythm and Movement class at school, they've been dancing with each other during idle moments with enough floor space.



Not ten minutes later, while eating her ice cream, Shelby decided that she suddenly had to visit the restroom, much to my dismay (because she was maybe a quarter finished with her just-purchased ice cream). Here's a video clip of her potty dance (note at the end, Darby trying to snag the leftover chocolate coating that fell from Shelby's cone).

Labels: Darby, Shelby, video

I got up at eight. Yes, on a Saturday. We had many things to do. First on the block was a couple of errands. The post office to pick up a package, and then the bank. I thought my post office opened up at 8:30 like on weekdays, but no. Not until ten. So we were too early. Wasted trip.

Next stop was the bank. Also too early. They didn't open until nine. So we sat there and waited the fifteen minutes for it to open. True, the drive-thru was open, but I had a different sort of transaction to make. Today, I rented a safe deposit box.

Ever since the burglary of late 2004, I've been rather concerned for the safe keeping of certain documents and other items. I contemplated getting a safe for the house, but proper and effective installation requires mounting to the floor. Even then, a determined crook (thinking there's something of greater value than papers inside) may eventually get in. Then there's the fire threat. Even high dollar home safes don't stand up infinitely well to certain kinds of fires. So when I learned how incredibly cheap it was to rent a safe deposit box, holy moly I was all over that idea. I looked it up on my bank website on a whim, and at first I thought the rate was monthly. $40/month is a bit steep for such a service. But that much annually is a freakin bargain. So within days of learning of the feasibility of that option, it is now a reality, and my important documents are safe (pun intended).

It didn't take long at the bank (maybe 20 minutes), and we then had breakfast with the girls' mom, since our late morning plans involved school clothes shopping. Much to my dismay, we spent at least a couple hours (if not a few, didn't pay that close attention) at the store spending a ridiculous amount on not as much clothes as I would have liked to walk away with. Granted the single highest dollar item was Darby's gigantic shoes (size 8.5 on a ten year old!), I was rather shocked at the sticker price when it was all totaled up. Man I hope this stuff makes it through the fall in tact.

The girls said bye to their mom and we grabbed some lunch before heading off to a movie. The girls were a bit disappointed that we didn't see a movie last night, so we took care of that today. Material Girls. How on-topic after that shopping spree. Of course the girls loved it. Especially Shelby, the biggest material girl in the house. She already wants to see it again.

After the movie, we walked around Bricktown for a bit, before catching a boat ride. Almost every time we're down there, the girls ask to ride the water taxis, but I always say no because there's always (conveniently) a huge line. Today, for reasons I'm unsure of (oh, yeah, I remember... it was a hundred degrees out), there was NO line. In fact, we were the only three people on the boat. But it worked out well. Mostly. We got a very personalized tour guide presentation, so that was cool. I'm annoyed that I forgot my camera (I almost always have it), and so had to take pics with my disappointing-when-compared-with-my-real-one camera phone (did get a couple shots, below, AND, a video of Shelby having happy birthday sung to her).







I'm also a bit peeved that I knew more about Oklahoma City economic development than our tour guide. He cited several inaccuracies, and somehow missed the news about an Oklahoma City investment group buying the Seattle Supersonics. What rock has he been living under? Tour guides are supposed to have inside info, not staler-than-Philadelphia-street-pretzels info. Sheesh. Don't get me wrong, he was a nice guy, but not so informed as he should be. Don't worry, I still tipped him, so I'm not such a bad sport about it.

Now, at least, I'm off the hook with regard to Bricktown boat rides. Following previous denials of that activity, Shelby has stopped her feet to a statement containing the words "we NEVER get to...". Now that we have, no more of that. I do have some regret about our timing. It was so freakin hot out, that we were all quite literally dripping sweat when we got off the boat. Time for some AC!

And AC we got. Another first for us in Bricktown (because of previously intolerable waits), we had dinner at Toby Keith's restaurant. Not bad. Price-wise or as far as the ambiance. And only a fifteen minute wait to get seated. Though, when we left, I noticed there was a huge crowd at the door, so our timing was good.

So now I'm just way tired. We did a lot of stuff today. I wanted to do something else this evening, but the heat has just caught up with me. I was hoping for a grander send-off for our last pre-school-year Saturday. Well, we still have Labor Day. And Shelby's birthday party next weekend. Ugh.

Labels: bricktown, OKC, Shelby, video

After I picked up the girls from their mom's today, we went to check out an open house at the Museum of Women Pilots, which was pretty cool, and I hope inspirational for the girls. Aside from the exhibits, they got to see a Black Hawk helicopter up close. They each even got to sit in the cockpit.








They also got to watch the helicopter take off from less than a hundred feet away. Of course, in the spirit of the day, it was piloted by a woman. Warning, the girls are NOT in the video. Just neat seeing a helicopter taking off.




Upon completion of a short visit to the park and then dinner, and keeping with the themes of they day, we went to the Women's College World Series, as we have for the last two years. We got to see the closing innings of the Tennessee/Arizona State game, and then watched Texas try really really hard to beat UCLA. While it looked like Texas actually played a little harder, they just couldn't score, and lost the game despite the HUGE Texas fanbase that showed up. There were more than seven thousand in attendance, which was a record for a non-championship WCWS game. While Shelby is never generally into such things, Darby was pretty into it. At least until the day caught up to her and she fell asleep (photo courtesy of Shelby).

Labels: Darby, Shelby, sports, video, Women's College World Series

Weeks after getting Shelby examined for a new pair of glasses, we finally got those picked up today (she wouldn't take the picture without her monkey case).



She also had a decent fencing practice today, winning most of her bouts, though she did get a little over celebratory about one particular point she scored.

Labels: fencing, glasses, Shelby, video

Shelby didn't have any work to do today, so she got to go to fencing practice. She had three bouts and won two of them. Here's a short video of one of her bouts.



Her improvement is noticeable when compared with a video from October 2004. She's not as timid as she once was when it comes to scoring opportunities.

Labels: fencing, Shelby, video

When we left Oklahoma it was under 40 degrees and the high that day was supposed to be like 44. Today in Tucson it got up to 78, and it was awesome. We LOVE Tucson in the Fall.



As a reward to the children for their mostly good behavior during our 16+ hour journey, after lunch today I took them to the best park in town (Reid Park), and let them enjoy themselves for a couple hours. What made it particularly swell was the fact that all of the Tucsonian children were still in school (my daughters are in the fortunate position to go to a school that takes the entire week of Thanksgiving off), so it was almost like we had the park to ourselves. There were a few below-school-age children along with their parents, but I don't recall seeing any older kids. We left right about when school was letting out locally, knowing it would probably get a lot more busy. It really is a very nice park. Several playgrounds, an awesome duck pond with a waterfall system, and a rose garden. There are ball fields and a performing arts center, but we didn't get to make use of those.

In between checking out playgrounds, the girls and I took-in the extensive rose garden. There's a gazebo in the center with some benches, where we sat a good long while and took in the peacefulness on such a nice, quiet day, with the aroma of roses filling the air. I know it sounds lame for a guy to describe it, so if it helps, Darby said it was one of the most peaceful places she had ever been to. I also used the opportune background to take cute pics of the girls.



The rest of the day was pretty much reserved for family visiting.

Labels: Darby, Shelby, trip, Tucson

Darby's end-of-season party for softball was tonight, at the new Incredible Pizza (link is not to the OKC site, but you get the point), which is basically a steroid-injected Chuck-E-Cheese meets SpeedZone. It's housed within an old WalMart building, so it's quite huge. For eight bucks you get an all-you-can-eat buffet and five bucks on a game card to play games or play mini golf or ride go-carts, or ride bumper cars, or bowl, or I'm not sure what else because the place was so huge... Anyway, the kids had a blast, as if they couldn't in such a place.

After they ate dinner I couldn't keep them in the party room to save my life. They (ALL the kids, not just mine) burst out of the there and headed for the game/ride area faster than I could keep up. When I first reached the game room, I couldn't find either child. While I did finally find Darby clamouring to the ticket-yielding games (she's into winning those "valuable prizes" like gross fake teeth), I still couldn't find Shelby at first.



Then I saw a bunch of parents gathered by the go-cart bleachers and I asked if any of them had seen Shelby. They pointed inside the go-cart raceway, where I saw that several of the girls had gotten in line, and there was Shelby, also getting ready to race.



I should have had someone take a picture of my jaw-dropped face, because I couldn't believe it. If it weren't too late I would have gone after her, because I thought for sure she'd freak out with all those other cars out there. But to my surprise she did quite well. She didn't crash once and handled the track and car like she'd done it before many times (she seemed way more focused than what is typical for her). I was amazed, considering how often she crashes when biking or skating. One of the parents suggested she had found her niche as the next Danica Patrick. I think that would give me a heart attack before the age of 40.



We were there close to three hours, which was far too long if you ask me, and of course the girls didn't want to leave. It is a pretty neat place, though I'm not sure I'd want to have a party there, as it is just so chaotic with all those kids running around (seriously, picture a WalMart entirely filled with kids running around in all directions, in many cases with food in their hands).

In fact, the one thing I really didn't like too much about the place was that they didn't stamp kids' and parents' hands with matching invisible ink patterns like the Chuck-E-Cheese does to make sure kids don't leave with the wrong adults. As much as I hate to admit it, there were a couple times when I just flat couldn't find my children in that huge place, and they would NOT stick with me (and couldn't/wouldn't hear me when I yelled for them it was so loud in there). I get very anxious about places that aren't child-tracking-friendly. Though I will say that the place was crawling with security personnel (both rented and local police) and there were security cameras everywhere. While I would never want it real-world tested, I'm sure they're prepared (or hope they are anyway) for counter-abduction scenarios.

Labels: Darby, Shelby, video

Shelby had her first fencing tournament this morning. It was in Tulsa, so we got up early and headed up there with plenty of time to spare once we got there (though not without trouble on the way back). Shelby was pretty excited about the tournament all week, right up until she was facing her first opponent. There was only one other kid there that was Shelby's size, so she was pretty handily defeated by the clearly more seasoned fencers. By the time she faced the kid her size, she was pretty discouraged. She fought hard in what I think had to be the longest bout of the tournament (~10 minutes... usually they're around three or four minutes), but she still lost. She lost all six of her bouts, but I think she got some valuable experience and will do better next time.



I also posted some photos in the album. I was very fascinated by the way the suits and swords get wired-up for scoring.

Labels: fencing, pictures, Shelby, video

Darby had a school musical tonight. It was called Father Knows Best. She did well, though she said she was very nervous the whole time. She's not one for the spotlight. Here's a clip from the show.




Shelby had her last fencing lesson before her tournament in Tulsa this weekend. She won one of her two bouts. We'll see how it goes on Saturday.

Labels: Darby, fencing, school, Shelby, video

It was a Foxy day, and I was glad to have it. But the day ain't over yet. You still have time to make the switch, so that you, too, can have a foxy day.


--
In kid news, I zipped across town after work to hopefully catch Shelby in a fencing bout. But that did not work out, as there was no bouting for her. She should most definitely be bouting on Thursday though, so I'll have to try again.

Darby has a school musical on 9 December, so you interested family types have been forewarned. It has been posted to the calendar. Contact me for details if you're going.


--
I must say that I'm not super keen on this time of year from the where-next-will-there-be-a-thanksgiving-party perspective. The kids each have one at school. There will be at least two family-related t-day gatherings. And I know there will be two work-related festive-feasting-fests.

I'm already confused about what dish I'm supposed to bring to which function. Just tonight I was trying to figure out what to do about Darby's party. Her mother sent money and goods to school with her already, but now we're getting the impression from Darby that that wasn't good enough. So I have to "have a talk with the teacher" just to get the straight story. Bleh.

Labels: Darby, fencing, school, Shelby