Barbara Curtis's Blog, page 195

100 Famous Guitar Riffs

Jonny - who is now using an iPad2 to enhance his communication (more on this later) - turned me on to this incredible YouTube;

100 Famous Rock Guitar Riffs - one take

Amazing. I had so much fun listening for the ones I knew - and there were a lot!

How many did you get?

Mega-family blogs

Click below for links to blogs by families with 7-37 children:

Marc Tootle RIP

I just found out today that during the all-consuming days of our move, I missed the passing of Marc Tootle, husband and father to family friends of nine years - Dolly Stevens and Matt, Rose and Bobby Tootle.

Of the whole family, I was least acquainted with Marc. Dolly worked with my children in MANY shows - through Growing Stage - and in 2003 directed The Diary of Anne Frank with my son Matt as Peter, and then the most professional community musical theater production I've ever seen - West Side Story, which featured three Curtis brothers: Matt as Tony, Ben as Jets' Big Deal and Zach as one of the Sharks.

Matt Tootle was friends with my boys. Rose Tootle was friends/mentor of my girls. And all three Tootle children have stayed overnight with us over the years.

Though I didn't know Marc as well as Dolly and the kids, I had enormous respect for him as a husband and father. He and Dolly were high school sweethearts who married in 1978. They moved to Purcellville in 1983 and have lived in the same home ever since, giving birth to their three babies in that very house. For a vagabond like me, such stability is a sign of greatness of some sort.

In the end, Marc's liver issues, on top of heart problems, meant his options were limited. When the doctors told him and Dolly that his heart was too weak to make a liver transplant feasible, they chose the path of peace and tranquility, taking him home to die in the good company of his family.

This can never be as easy as it sounds. And yet, I am happy to know that Marc died peacefully, surrounded by those who loved him. This is a beautiful/natural/holistic way of dying which has become more elusive as our dependence on technology has increased. i pray that my leave-taking will be this peaceful and meaningful for my family.

Farewell to a faithful husband and father. Dolly and children, please know we share your grief and are praying for the repose of Marc's soul.

The Tootle Family has gone through many hardships in the past several years, including Marc's job loss and no medical insurance. I was glad to hear that a fund for funeral expenses has been established. Please email me if you would like to contribute and I will put you in touch with friend of the family who is working through a bank to account for the funds before turning them over to the Funeral Home.

There will be a memorial service for Marc Tootle Sunday, Aug. 21 at , beginning with a visitation at 2 p.m. I hope to see many friends there.

Marc Stevens RIP

I just found out today that during the all-consuming days of our move, I missed the passing of Marc Tootle, husband and father to family friends of nine years - Dolly Stevens and Matt, Rose and Bobby Tootle.

Of the whole family, I was least acquainted with Marc. Dolly worked with my children in MANY shows - through Growing Stage - and in 2003 directed The Diary of Anne Frank with my son Matt as Peter, and then the most professional community musical theater production I've ever seen - West Side Story, which featured three Curtis brothers: Matt as Tony, Ben as Jets' Big Deal and Zach as one of the Sharks.

Matt Tootle was friends with my boys. Rose Tootle was friends/mentor of my girls. And all three Tootle children have stayed overnight with us over the years.

Though I didn't know Marc as well as Dolly and the kids, I had enormous respect for him as a husband and father. He and Dolly were high school sweethearts who married in 1978. They moved to Purcellville in 1983 and have lived in the same home ever since, giving birth to their three babies in that very house. For a vagabond like me, such stability is a sign of greatness of some sort.

In the end, Marc's liver issues, on top of heart problems, meant his options were limited. When the doctors told him and Dolly that his heart was too weak to make a liver transplant feasible, they chose the path of peace and tranquility, taking him home to die in the good company of his family.

This can never be as easy as it sounds. And yet, I am happy to know that Marc died peacefully, surrounded by those who loved him. This is a beautiful/natural/holistic way of dying which has become more elusive as our dependence on technology has increased. i pray that my leave-taking will be this peaceful and meaningful for my family.

Farewell to a faithful husband and father. Dolly and children, please know we share your grief and are praying for the repose of Marc's soul.

The Tootle Family has gone through many hardships in the past several years, including Marc's job loss and no medical insurance. I was glad to hear that a fund for funeral expenses has been established. Please email me if you would like to contribute and I will put you in touch with friend of the family who is working through a bank to account for the funds before turning them over to the Funeral Home.

There will be a memorial service for Marc Tootle Sunday, Aug. 21 at Hall Funeral Home in Purcellville, beginning with a visitation at 2 p.m. I hope to see many friends there.

Josh and Hattie update - more surgery

Josh and Hattie were here on Saturday to see Ben and Anna. Hattie looks very frail but is determined as ever.

On Sunday they finally moved back to their own home from her parents (where they stay after major surgeries so more people can help her recover and so that Josh can go to work.

Everything changed again today:

Josh writes:

They were cleaning and scraping Hattie's wound of the thin dead tissue and ended up exposing one of her metal rods. She is being admitted today and they are doing surgery tomorrow to take muscle from her side and stretch it over that area and might also do a skin graft. Please pray for her. We just moved back home yesterday and we can't help but feel discouraged about this.

Family update

Tripp has been out of town and was supposed to catch a plane home from Nantucket at 8:30 am. Bad weather delayed all flights and so he missed his connection in Boston - by hours.

Was on the waiting list for 1:00 pm - but so were 20 others.

Ended up scheduled for a 3:00 flight, which was delayed until 6:00 and now 7:30. I feel so sorry for him as there is just so much work to do here and he says his laptop has run out of batteries and all the outlets are already occupied. Logan Airport is pretty small.

Another dinner without Dad. . . .

But tomorrow night is Bob Dylan. . . .

Heard today that our former landlords changed their minds and are coming home after all.

75% unpacked and feelin' groovy. . . .

Losing a child: grief and hope

As I mentioned, Maddy was asked to sing at a funeral on Saturday, and so we left our family gathering to go. I believe - and am trying to teach Maddy - that this is a singer's responsibility in a situation like this, to put her own agenda aside for a while and do her best to bring catharsis/healing/remembrance/tenderness to a sorrowful time when people gather together to mourn.

Had the funeral been for an adult, I would have allowed her to pass the task on to someone else and to put her family first since we had only five hours together. But this was for a five-year-old girl who had died as the result of injuries sustained during a skating party. I have been told she fell twice, but got up and skated on, apparently unharmed. A day or two later, she fell unconscious, was medivacced to the hospital, but her life could not be saved.

Maddy was having a hard time preparing as the last time she sang at a funeral at our church - Father Kelly's - she broke down while singing his favorite hymn - "Lead, Kindly Light." Saturday, she was to sing "Hallelujah" (Cohen), "Ave Maria" (Schubert), and "All Through the Night" which was Sara's favorite lullaby. She's also been on an emotional roller coaster with her job, moving and preparing to leave for college.

But Maddy knows that the discipline of a singer in this situation is that it's not about her - which was affirmed when we were walking towards the church and Sadie's mom Sara - whom we had never met - so graciously came out to greet us. She told Maddy that Sadie had been to hear her sing and had wanted to meet her afterwards, but that she (Sara) had discouraged her from interrupting Maddy talking with her friends.

On the way home, Maddy said "I wish I had met Sadie, Mom." I told her that even though she hadn't met her on earth, that - as Fr. Escalante reminded us during the funeral in so many ways - she has met her spiritually and can continue to do so. I also reminded her to always be looking out of the corner of her eye for someone who wants to say hello. I think this is a lesson she will never forget.

Still, through Fr. Escalante's homily, everyone in the church - and our church was packed, though most were not Catholic - knew Sadie very well. Sadie was a baptized Catholic and deeply committed Christian. Her grandparents cared for her while her mother worked and brought her to church on Sundays, where she waited after Mass to say hi to Fr. Escalante and usually ask him a question. Fr. E said the last Sunday he saw her, she had already said goodbye to him twice when he felt a tug on his vestments and turned around to find her there again.

"Sadie, are you back again?" he said.

"I just wanted to say goodbye one more time," she answered.

By all accounts, Sadie was an unusually spiritual girl. While she was only five, she was reading at a third grade level and so was able to read the Bible.

A few days before the skating party, when Sara picked her up from her grandmother's, Sadie gave her mom something she had typed out and printed up herself - a short summary of the Book of Job, which she had been reading. It went something like this: Job was a good man who loved God and had bad things happen.

Sara's Word of Remembrance about her daughter were real and raw - and I'm sure every mother in the church appreciated her complete selfless honesty. We all know that our bond of love with our children makes us vulnerable to the deepest hurts. Even if we barely know each other, we grieve intensely at the loss of someone's child.

And I know we each wonder how we could endure.

Sara - though she never would have chosen it - has become a role model for those of us who were there that day. No sugar-coating, no pretending to be a Bible scholar or a woman spiritually equipped to handle this tragedy. And yet she remembered little things Sadie had said or done in the weeks leading up to her death that would point her mom to the way out of the darkness in which she found herself cast. Most important was the slip of paper with Sadie's summary of the Book of Job, which Sara felt compelled to read and which she credits as the only thing that kept her alive. She closed by sharing Job 1:20-21:

"At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

So reassuring to see how much God loves us that even though we must go through suffering, He carefully plants seeds of hope - seeds we can discover and nurture. I have hope too that this hope will continue to grow in all of us privileged to be there Saturday to say farewell to Sadie's short life on earth.

Sara's remembrance was followed by Maddy singing - or attempting to sing - Sara and Sadie's favorite lullaby:

All Through the Night


(tune)


Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night


While the moon her watch is keeping
All through the night
While the weary world is sleeping
All through the night
O'er thy spirit gently stealing
Visions of delight revealing
Breathes a pure and holy feeling
All through the night


Love, to thee my thoughts are turning
All through the night
All for thee my heart is yearning,
All through the night.
Though sad fate our lives may sever
Parting will not last forever,
There's a hope that leaves me never,
All through the night.

Maddy didn't make it through the lullaby, but as she feared, began to cry - and as she has noted, while a musician can get away with crying, a singer can't. We had to leave quickly as she was so depleted afterwards. That's when we had the conversation in the car where she said she wished she'd had the opportunity to meet Sadie and I assured her that she certainly had today. And that she now has a very close friend in heaven.

As a Catholic convert - after 20 years of evangelicalism - I have to say how much I appreciate Church teaching on the communion of saints as it helps me understand the reality of this situation.

I've heard Christians ask, "Why do you pray to dead people?" Excuse me, but I thought all Christians knew that those who've died and risen in Christ are not dead. Neither are they on the other side of an Iron Curtain. We are not drastically separated from those now alive in God's presence. I find great comfort - and common sense - in that.

Yes, we grieve the loss of Sadie's presence on earth - and we will continue to pray for her family's comfort in their grief, but I believe Sadie saw it all Saturday and was very pleased that everyone picked up the clues she left behind.

And now the book of Sadie's life has been opened for many more to see. How many lives have been touched by this sweet girl who loved God with such purity?

"When Jesus saw [the disciples shooing the children away], he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Art Note: Jesus Welcomes the Children by Carl Heinrich Bloch

Sadie's Remembrance Page

Elisabeth Elliot on God's transforming power

Transforming Power

If God is almighty, there can be no evil so great as to be beyond his power to transform. That transforming power brings light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, gain out of loss, life out of death.

Sometimes we boggle at the evil in the world and especially in ourselves, feeling that this sin, this tragedy, this offense cannot possibly fit into a pattern for good. Let us remember Joseph's imprisonment, David's sin, Paul's violent persecution of Christians, Peter's denial of his Master. None of it was beyond the power of grace to redeem and turn into something productive. The God who establishes the shoreline for the sea also decides the limits of the great mystery which is evil. He is "the Blessed Controller of all things." God will finally be God, Satan's best efforts notwithstanding.

"If there is this love among you..." what a difference it will make in the world!

You can subscribe to a daily dose of Elisabeth Elliot here.  Or find my favorites here.

Shuttle cockpit - 360 degree view

Click the image below for a 360 degree view of the Shuttle cockpit. Just click and move your mouse in any direction to scan. Zoom in and out. Don't forget to look at the ceiling.

Your kids will love it:

HT: A Mac and a Mug o' Joe

Life back to normal - whatever that is

I'm in a heavenly place - having finally unpacked enough boxes and hung enough pictures that I feel like it's home. Ben and Anna came down from Rochester at 11:00 last night - making it in just six hours after Anna got off work - and so it helped to have an "event" to work toward. By 3:30 yesterday, I had things in great shape and Jonny was faithfully vacuuming when I left to pick up Sophia from her last day of work and take her for a haircut plus her first ever manicure/pedicure/facial.

This is kind of new territory for me as I didn't grow up with a mom who could teach me the girly side of life. Then, as a hippie I thought the beauty scene was all too bourgeoisie. Then I got involved in raising kids - and especially with special needs, it just didn't seem to fit my lifestyle.

But about six weeks ago, for some reason I splurged and treated myself to a few hours at a spa getting a facial/manicure and pedicure. What a wonderful feeling to be pampered and cared for while just relaxing and smelling all the sweet smells. I knew I wanted to do this for Sophia before she went back to school.

Maddy and Sophia have both worked so hard this summer. Being on staff at a camp for kids with a wide range of disabilities is very exhausting. Plus, Tripp and I insisted that they go to self-defense classes two nights a week. Last week was especially difficult as the camp had to move form one school to another - which threw off all the kids with autism, who need order and sameness to feel comfortable.

Maddy doesn't go off to Catholic U until August 25, but Sophia is leaving Tuesday, so right now I'm focused on her. It was pure joy to see her relax and begin to glow. I got a manicure/pedicure too, which was wonderful after all the heavy lifting. With all the massage and aromas, It is truly a healing experience

Since we knew Ben and Anna wouldn't be arriving until late, we went out to dinner and then to the grocery store to get white bread for French toast - Ben's special which he'd promised to make this morning.

Matt and Zach were here when we got home, Jonny and Justin were still awake, Ben and Anna arrived at 11:00 and we stayed up until 1:00.

So this morning we've had breakfast and the house is full of my children's voices. This house is wonderful - very open and so no matter where you are on the first floor you feel like it's all one group. Hard to explain. I'll take pictures sometime.

Kip and Sam and my six grandchildren are coming over soon. But Maddy and I have to leave at noon because she was asked to sing at the funeral of a five-year-old girl who died after being injured at a skating party. Pray for her. Singing at funerals can be very difficult as sometimes it's hard to hole back the tears. When she sang at Father Kelly's funeral three years ago, she did break down as he was the priest who received her into the church. This one will be hard as well - for such a young girl who died so unexpectedly.

Ben and Anna will be going to a wedding reception at 5 and the Walravens are off too, so I plan at that point to veg on the couch, continuing with my So You Think You Can Dance therapy.

SYTYCD therapy? Yes, the show I never watched when my kids were watching religiously some years ago, has since the move become an important part of my journey back to normalcy. I can say this now because I am feeling so great - yes, really, so great! - but for the past 11 days I have been living so on the edge, pushing myself each day to get back to normal as soon as possible - that by 7 or 8 all I could do was collapse on the couch and watch Season Six of SYTYCD which the girls had DVR'd. So there's been a lot of bonding - which is why we've always loved watching American Idol. SYTYCD is different, but I'm finding it just as compelling, if not more so.

The irony was that as I was unable to move, I was escaping through watching people move to the max.

So this weekend after everyone leaves, the girls and I are not going to do any more unpacking or work - other than feeding everyone - and we'll just finish our SYTYCD therapy/bonding experience before Sophia heads off to school on Tuesday.

Tuesday night Tripp and I and Maddy are going to the Bob Dylan concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion. How cool to have a kid who loves Bob Dylan. But then what kind of music does Maddy not love?

Thursday, Jonny has the surgery to remove that lump on the back of his head.

And I plan to get back to serious blogging. Plus I have giveaways long overdue for closure. And a few more to list.

But all in all, I am feeling back to normal. I thank you for your prayers!!! Surely they helped.