Ikebana, Baguettes and Goodbyes

We found out this week that our good friends are getting an early separation because of the DOS roll back. It's really tragic for us because they are wonderful people to play games with, talk cloth diapers and baby carrying, and our kids play together. Now they have to sell everything so they have money to support their family of 4, soon to be 5, through a relocation and potential joblessness. So Ian and I had the bizarre experience of walking into our friends house and really looking at their stuff to buy. You want to give them all the support you can and you know that the best way to do that is to give them money...but on the same hand it's creepy to buy your friends stuff. It felt a lot like when my grandparents ask us to go around their house and make a list of what we wanted when they died. Some of my cousins couldn't do it and I completely understand why.

I have a feeling that Ian and I are going to have to do this a lot in our military years. We are going to have to make quick friendships and then just as quickly say goodbye to them or move on to another base. It tugs on the heart strings...but what can you do? Moving on to the next set of friends. And it really sucks.

In happier news, I got a 95 on my ikebana test after a lot of stressing and just a touch of freaking out. I have moved on to the next level, something level 1, it's the beginning of the advanced levels. I think that I am now what you would call a Sensei's assistant.

This is how the morning went down. I walked to the civic center, giving myself far too much time, and getting there half an hour ahead of schedule. I meet my friends, go up and register, buy the flowers, sit down and begin to unrap them. All of this done in a very methodical, zen, now I'm going to do some ikebana type mentality. That's when I realize that I forgot my pin frog and vase, full on panic. I've got 15 minutes till I have to take the test so I call my husband to see if he can drive the vase down while my friend goes to talk to the ladies in charge to give me a couple of extra minutes. Luckily, we know all the ladies in charge because they are students of our sensei (all sensei's in their own right) and I'm gonna get a few extra minutes to get the vase. I go outside and pace infront of the civic center waiting for Ian to do a drive by and drop off the vase. After that's accomplished, I run up stairs to the testing room and sit down in a flash to get ready to arrange my flowers.

 Usually, all that extra time spent before the test you get to do some thoughtful contemplation of what flowers go where and how you want things arranged. When your time is done arranging you step out into the hall and talk about how great or crappy the flowers are this time, everybody compares what they think they will be dinged on. Pretty much that means all the other students were coming over and asking me if everything was alright because all they could understand was that I was freaking out in English and rushing around. All the explaining of my thoughtlessness makes me super nervous and embarrassed. But I keep telling myself that the disaster for the day has happened and so hopefully my score wont be a disaster too. Then we are let back into the room where we see our scores and success! Then the judge explains all our scores and talks about our arrangements. She said my varigated iris leaves were leaning back a little bit too much but she complimented the length of my roses. Because the roses were so big and deep pink in the center I kept cutting them back and cutting them back because they seemed to overwhelm the arrangement. She told the advanced students to take note because even though I cut the roses shorter than the typical "1/3 the height of the subject" rule I cut the roses to the correct height for their size and color. I was super proud and got lots of congratulations.

Our judge is the woman in grey. She goes around to all the other arrangements and talking and rearranging everything to show you how to do it next time.There weren't any 100s this time. Just a few 95s. Most people get 90s and 85s. Getting an 80 is like not showing up.

This month there were a lot of abstract arrangements! They non traditional vases or they get to free form the materials. I really love these arch vases. I'm gonna have to find one.

In other news, Ian has had a pretty uneventful week inspecting Hazmat programs. He did however bake me some wicked awesome baguettes! So I think that every weekend I'm gonna make him make me bread. He went to a coworker's going away party the other night.

Bea has been scooting around being whiny this week. I think her teeth and sinuses are bothering her. She has started saying gok for dog. I'm pretty sure that's her third word. She is also very preoccupied with putting plugs into walls, the keys into the door nob, the leash on the dog, the glasses on mom, stirring pots with spoons to name a few. She really likes for us to hold her and let her stir dinner on the stove. I like to play the please and thank you game with her. I hold out my hand and say please.Then she puts what she's playing with in my hand and I say thank you. We got some cute new diapers for her. That's all the big news for now, she's not talking or walking or doing complicated arithmetic equations.

I can't remember if I shared this on the blog, but Bea found my knitting. Hilarious baby experimentation photo shoot ensues.