July 4, 2014 - July 6, 2014

I swear-- one of these days I am going to be caught up and on a decent schedule with this darned blog.  But until then.. you will just be surprised randomly  with various posts.. And this one happens to be about the long 4th of July weekend!

July 4th weekend was a pretty fun weekend for us.  Nothing super exciting, but I do have a few pics to share!

FRIDAY JULY 4

We spent the actual 4th of July just running errands, lounging around- I wish I could say cleaning, but NOPE..that got pushed to back burner as always.  The best part - both Damian and I were off from work so we were able to see each other several times throughout the day.

SATURDAY JULY 5
In an effort to live a more healthy lifestyle, I met up with a friend in the morning to go for a run.  It's about a 3.1 or so mile loop, but I only ran about a mile and a half to 2 miles...but it felt GOOD!  I was so proud  of myself.  Damian was off on Saturday also and I picked Madison up from a sleepover and we just hung out around the house for the majority of the day.  Damian worked in the studio quite a bit on some music.  Madison, Mayci, and I met Nicole, Gianna, Bella, Alex, Tonya, Makai, Zoey, and Zane at Manchester Community College for fireworks. Myles stayed home because Gilbert was coming over to play and Rama is probably just too cool to hang out with a bunch of old people and "babies".  But we had  SO MUCH FUN!!  I hadn't seen Makai since he was a baby and had never really met Zoey and Zane.  What cutie patooties they are and Mr. Makai has such a deep voice, he sounds like a man from far away!  And it was great to be able to see Tonya and Alex after years and years as well!  I just wish we had more time that night.  The fireworks only lasted about a half hour, yet it took us a good hour and 15 minutes to even get off of the MCC campus.  Well worth it to spend some time catching up! Makai sure did love himself some Madison... He even informed me that I NEED to have him come over to play with her soon!And both Gianna and Bella yelled at me for not having them over recently over SO CUTE!!  **and nope, I haven't scheduled that play date yet lol**

SUNDAY JULY 6
On Sunday, Ted and Abby had planned a trip to Lake McDonough in Barkhamsted.  I hadn't been there since Myles was 1 month old, so it was nice to head up that way. Damian and I didn't have any set time that we wanted to be there, s that helped meout with my stress level, since social things like this give me EXTREME ANXIETY.  We arrived by late morning and were greeted by so many family and friends: Ted, Abby, Yvette, TiTi TaTa, Melina, Niko, Monica, Jacob, Abigail, Angelina, Christopher, Natalia and her husband and sisters, Uncle Jorge... throughout the day, Zaccai, Luques, Daryl, Dalila, Iliana, Brian, TiTi Ada, Titi Ana, Amanda, Aaron, Alicia, Sammy, Nadia, Bas, TiTi Miriam, Rae-Sheilla & her new baby, Becky, Carissa, some family friends, Nilda..and several more trickled in and out throughout the day.  Unfortunately Madison, Mayci, and I left early so that I could drop Madison off at another lake in Marlborough since she had previous plans made with her friend.  But either way-- everyone had a good day.  I may or may not have forgotten to apply sunscreen to the kids and they may or may not have gotten mild sunburns.. No worries, perfect parents out there, they survived and are doing well!

Here are some pics to highlight this particular weekend, enjoy:

May 24,2014: TRR -Little Johnny Rivero; emotional moment with Madison

PopUp had come to Madison several weeks ago and let her know about a chance to be able to dance to Johnny Rivero for a Truth Revolution Records concert series for today.  She mentioned it to me briefly and  I completely forgot about it.  She then came to me about a week before telling me that I needed to talk to some parents to set up some time that she could practice a dance with them for this concert because she was able to get he CD with the song on it from PopUp.

     Once again, between my schedule(which isn't that crazy and isn't really an excuse) and flakiness, I forgot and only mentioned it to 1 mom and then forgot about it again and was never able to set up a proper time for them to get together and practice.  With that being said, on Friday Madison and I had one of our famous arguments learning opportunities, where I told her that it may be best to just call PopUp and tell him no, she would not be able to dance.  With her being the little "performer" that she is, she yelled  discussed with me how she didn't wan to let anyone down and she would practice, come up with something, and be ready to dance on her own for Saturday.  So that's what she did.  She spent hours on Friday night listening to the song and coming up with a routine.  She would come out of her room occasionally to have me film her so she could watch it back and critique herself.

Saturday morning she got up early with me, went to dance, went to the Polish National Home and hung out with Zaccai and Luques, Myles, Mayci, and I met up with her about 715p or so at the Polish National Home.

It was so nice.  Zaccai, Luques, Mama, PopUp, and the entire Truth Revolution Records crew always does a great job at setting up and manning these events.  There was even a "kids" table with coloring books and crayons-- I am 100% sure PopUp had something to do with that!!

Mayci stretching with big sister Madison

Madison in a "zone"

Johnny and the band "Heatwave":( Johnny Rivero - Congas; Zaccai Curtis - Piano; Luques Curtis - Bass; Camilo Molina - Timbal; Louis Fouche - Alto Saxophone; Jonathan Powell - trumpet) were PHENOMENAL!!  (I hope to be forgiven if I spelled any of their names wrong)

They did 2 sets and I caught myself dancing along quite a bit.  There was a song they played called, High Heeled Sneakers,(Or something like that- I don't think any of them will read this and hopefully I won't offend anyone if I got the name wrong) practically had me out of my seat dancing!  I LOVED THAT SONG!!  These musicians are incredible.  Oh what I would give to have just an inkling of their talent.  

During the 2nd set, they played a song called, Picadillo, which if I remember correctly is from an Eddie Palmieier & Cal Tjader cd called El Sonido Nuevo from around 1965-1966.  What a pretty song.  This is the song that Madison danced to.  I was so busy trying to keep Mayci from running out to dance also that I missed a portion of her dancing... eventually, I realized that I was losing my battle with Mayci and let her loose.  From what I saw of Madison, she did well!  The audience and musicians were so gracious to Madison and really boosted her confidence when she was dancing.

"Little Johnny"

Love this picture that was captured by Ed Larose who is not only an extremely talented photographer, but a fascinating artist, and an extremely close family friend!!

As Madison took her seat, Mayci decided that it was her time to get started, so once again, this was a battle I chose not to pick and up to the front Mayci went.  She danced for like 2 full songs before I finally told her she had to call it quits.

Another picture captured by Ed Larose

 She had a minor meltdown but we managed to stay right up until the end.  As soon as the last song was done, we were OUT!!  I have learned that sometimes it is safer when I have the littler kids with me to leave BEFORE everyone else starts getting up to go.  The least amount of chaos the better.  The kids were home and tucked into bed by 11:30p.  Poor Damian didn't get home until about 4:00a.  When he walked in, I got up and peeked in on the kids, who had decided on a sleepover in the girl's room--so precious!!

I feel like I do this in every blog, but I really mean it:  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU-- to all who give my kids the chance to do things like this.  We are forever grateful.  Madison was super nervous and super excited to be able to dance as a part of a TRR gig and was extremely apologetic  because it turns out that she had forgotten a bit of her choreography and had to improvise.  She beat herself up quite a bit about it because she didn't want to "ruin" anything.  I assured her that she did fine but still sent her apology to Zaccai who informed her of the same thing.  I guess we really are our own worst critic.

**********Sidenote*********** Madison and I had been talking a car ride on Sunday and she was explaining to me how she really loves the relationships she has with my sisters(her aunts) Lisa and Amanda.  (She has struggled sometimes with feeling like she doesn't quite fit in to the Curtis family since Damian is not her biological family)  I was telling her that everyone on both sides of the family love her very much and that I also love the relationship she has with my sisters.  She then starts telling me of some very important times she had the day before.  She was telling me about the few places in the world that Luques has not traveled.  I was asking her when they were talking about it.  She said that everyone was at Mama's house and she saw Luques go outside and sit on the front porch.  She went out and asked if she could sit with him(yup--she gets her creeper skills from me, haha) and he was telling her that he came outside because it was loud inside and they started talking.    And then she started telling me about her and Zaccai also had some time to just talk and she liked being able to have a "moment" with each of them.  She said to me, "It was so nice being able to just have some one on one time with them.  I love Luques and Zaccai, I hope they know that I really think of them as my uncles and I want to be close to them.  I hate that I don't get to see them very much and want to be able see them more and bond with them"

OH GOODNESS-- My eyes got all watery and we just kind of sat there in silence after that.  I hope that I have never given Madison the feeling that she doesn't belong.  All 3 of my children are MY children.. It doesn't matter to me who their father is. I am so pleased with the relationship that my sisters share with my kids, especially with Madison as she is the oldest.  I hope that Zaccai and Luques know that I have always admired how they have treated Madison since she was brought into their lives at only 4 months old.  She looks up to them and cherishes every moment spent with them. They make her feel so important and special and I love it!!  Like Madison, I too hope that EACH of my children shares a unique bond with EACH of the aunts and uncles.  THANK YOU ALL!!!!


Don't forget to check out the Truth Revolution Records website for the most current events and happenings of some pretty awesome artists!!