June Recital

It seems that with the summer schedule I'm having a hard time posting on a regular basis. It's not that I don't have anything to blog, it's just my blog list keeps getting longer!!!


Anyway, I wanted to post some video's from our June recital. Daria played fantastic and this time did 3 pieces. One was a duet with her super good friend Brooklyn. She also did a re-arrangement of the Primary song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" and a stunning piece titled "Moonlight Fantasy" by Melody Bober. I like that piece a lot.


I played Nocturne in C-sharp Minor by Chopin. A small note of history, this piece is from 1830 and is Op. Posthumous which means it was found after he died, so he may never have played it publicly. (I love history). While I made mistakes playing my piece, I'm totally ok with it. I didn't feel as anxious as I usually do but was anxious enough. Thankfully Janalen put me first, that definitely takes the edge off. This time instead of my hands shaking my right leg started to shake which was really annoying and made it very hard to concentrate and keep my foot on the pedal which I needed to use. I've finally convinced myself that it's ok if I mess up. I know I can play it at home without error and that's good enough for me. One thing I have learned about taking piano is that playing on a grand piano is such a great experience. We have a super nice piano at home, but when you sit down at a grand, the sound is 100 times better, richer, more dramatic and better dynamics. One can only dream...... All in all it was a fabulous recital. Janalen and her sister Jen who also teaches had most of their older kids do sonatinas, which were very long and difficult but I really thought it was a treat to listen. It was like a free concert. I loved it and was SOOOOO amazed at what these kids could play. Amazing!

Well May has come and gone. In fact I still can't believe we are knee deep into June! Where does the time go!

So May was fun, busy but fun. The kids participated in field day. I'm NOT sure why the school chooses to do it in May when the chance for super hot weather is pretty high. Although the past several field day's were overcast. No such luck this year. This was Dustin's first official field day. I say first official because he's been to all of Daria's and even participated in some of hers (not that he was supposed to) I remember her 1st grade year as I was taking pictures of the limbo and all of the sudden I see Dustin doing the limbo. Funny because he was two years younger than the other kids and not even in school, but you couldn't tell because he was the same size. SO, I was looking forward to watching Dustin experience his own field day. This was also the first year the school handed out ribbons for two events. FINALLY I thought to myself. For all the world's desire to be "politically correct" I hate that we've taken so much away from our kids, like "oohh, we can't give out ribbons because someones feelings might get hurt". Whatever! what ever happened to, "hey, next year I'm going to run faster than the guy who got first!" I think as long as it's not overdone our kids can learn good skills from competition, winning and losing. Anyway.. I digress (as usual). Dustin is built for athletics and the funny thing is, he doesn't even know it. He got first place in the softball throw and the 200 yard dash. He was pretty excited. I thought it was fitting since we had read the book "Ziggy's Blue Ribbon Day" the night before. Daria came in 3rd for the 200 yard dash which was awesome. when she started out she was near the end and then just passed up all the other girls. It was HOT. I had lathered the kids up with sunscreen, and lathered myself up. I even rode my bike to the school. The unfortunate thing was that I was there ALL day long and I must have forgotten to sun screen the back of my neck which got totally toasted.

Another thing we did was take a trip back home for Ken's nephew's wedding. First off I have no idea how he can be old enough to get married because I sure don't feel older. It seems just yesterday he was 12! As usual heading back home is nice. As I've said before it is a special treat to go back to the country, time slows down, everyone knows everyone and it's peaceful. This is the prettiest time of year in my book because all the crops are up. It's like green carpet laid out over the land. I love it! I think I also get the feeling that history is still alive in places like this. In the city heritage, peace, and family enjoyment seems swallowed up in activities, going here going there, cell phones, ipods, technology. Sure the country has that too, but it's still not the same. Ken's family lives in a rural area, out in the country. His parents have lived on this farm for at least 40 years and the house pretty much looks the same as it did when Ken grew up there, with a few minor changes. The nearest town or gas station is 13 miles away. Everybody lives on farms. It's a welcome site to my sore city driving, house built next to house eyes. When we arrived on a Friday night we picked up Ken's mom and drove even further down the highway to a even smaller township to watch our niece play softball at a super great softball field literally out in the middle of nowhere. Corn fields, fields, a church, a country store and a big ball field. It was nice. It was peaceful, and they one 12 to 4 I think.

I love sitting outside, it's quiet, all except an occasional holler from one of the cows, or the breeze through the trees and sometimes you can hear the cars from the highway. At night it's pitch black and all you can hear are the crickets. For some people a beach or some exotic place is their sanctuary. I think those places are nice too but being in the country for me rates right up there with being in the Rocky or Smokey Mountains.

I also love going to lunch at the sausage house. It's a famous sausage house located in the middle of nowhere, but EVERYBODY loves to eat there. You are not a stranger when you walk in. So we made our traditional trip there for lunch on Saturday with Ken's parents. Said high to many of the people there and I just sat back and watched and listened as I saw grandparents with children and grandchildren of all ages come in and eat. Old friends, old co-workers. There is something very safe and comforting about that. I remember when I first moved there I hated that everyone knew everyone, but now I think it's nice.

Another thing I like about going to the country is it's a GREAT place to take photographs. So many lines and colors it's like photographing for National Geographic. I love it. Ken's parents I'm sure think I'm weird, walking around taking pictures of old tires, farm equipment, cows, and corn fields but I love it. Here are a few I played with. The fence, which I couldn't perfect but I did like this one. The old bike and of course the lush green corn field.

The kids enjoyed the rides on the 4 wheeler and most of all feeding the cows. That is their favorite part. This time Ken drove the tractor to pick up the round bale, I went with him. The kids went with grandpa on the four wheeler to open the gate and cut the rope off the bale. The farm is an endless playground for the kids.

The wedding was nice and the dinner and dance was a blast. Daria and Dustin danced and played all night on the slick floor. Ken and I danced a few dances and Dustin even danced with me. I included a picture of Dustin with his absolute favorite cousin, Jonathon, who we won't see for awhile. He graduated a little over a week ago on a Friday, then flew off to the Marines on a Monday. I don't know what Dustin will do when he visits next time without Jonathon there. We will miss you Jonathon!!

Odds, and ends.....

This will probably be a lame post but I had a moment to spare and figured I would post. I was stalking all of your blogs (yes, all of you, my super great friends) and either it's late and I'm tired and everything seems funny or I'm just strange. Ultimately these are random thoughts that pop in my head and I think "hhmmm I should blog that"

1. I can often be found logging on to a few of your blogs while I'm on the computer just to listen to your music play lists. Silly I know, but I love some of the songs you've picked out. One day I was working out to a DVD on my computer and I must have had Ashley's (Shugee's) blog up on another tab. The workout DVD started and then all of the sudden one of my favorite songs by Rihanna started playing and I was thinking "Cool!!!! they've got some new music on this workout" Duh!!!

2. I had to run to the mall today for one item. I'm really not a huge shopper, I like to go, get what I came for and leave. Today as I passed by one store I noticed a really cool shirt in the window. For kicks I went in to get a closer look. I HATE it when the clothes on the manicans look great but when you look closer it's because they've got the darn thing pinned in the back. So obviously you think "hey! that would look great on me!" until you get it home and realize that it fits completely different than it did on the manican. False advertisement?? ha, ha

3. Speaking of malls. I particularly think it's like running the gauntlet trying to get past all of the mini kiosks without getting stopped by some sales person trying to get you to do your nails, buy soap, cell phones, or fake hair pieces. It's almost like live telemarketers only you can't hang up on them. I have to plan my route carefully and the biggest key to making it through without stopping is "DO NOT LOOK THEM IN THE EYES". I laugh because it reminds me of the movie Nanny McPhee when the oldest brother told the other kids not to look in her eyes because she must have some hypnotic powers. Too funny!!

4. A few weeks ago I finally purchased my re-usable shopping bags from my favorite grocery store. They were only .99 cents. Can't go wrong there. I was so pleased, they fit way more than a plastic or paper bag does. I keep them in my van by my center console so I won't forget to bring them in when I grocery shop. So a few days later I had to run into a totally different store. After parking I looked down at my bags and thought "Is it totally wrong to use a re-usable shopping bag with another stores name on it at a different store?" are there any etiquette rules to this whole "living green" thing? Oh well I thought, I am tired of plastic bags over running my house and the dump, so I slung that pretty puppy over my shoulders and proudly walked into the store. The funniest part was when I was checking out and I set the bag down on the bag holder. The cashier looked at it and me as if she had no clue what to do. I chuckled and told her that she could put EVERYTHING right in the green bag.

5. End of school fever. I think that I have it just as bad as my kids. It seems like the next few weeks will NEVER end. I am looking forward to summer break. I love having my kids home with our own schedule. Daria said the best part of summer break is that you get to sleep in. Now this is absolutely the funniest thing I've ever heard from a girl who probably has never slept in past 7am even on weekends. I can relate. I've never been able to sleep in. I've tried, it doesn't work. But there is something different about having to wake up early and waking up early without having a reason to. Go figure.

6. It's that time of year again. Daria and I will have another recital the first week in June. So far I'm not too stressed out about it. I suppose there is no sense in worrying about it any earlier than I need to. This time I've only got one piece. I'm not sure if Janalen planned that or if she forgot to assign me another piece but I'm not complaining or asking. I will be playing a lovely piece by Chopin, Nocturne in C sharp minor. i love this song, which is why I chose it. Somehow in the allure of the beauty of the song I didn't realize that near the end there is ONE measure where I have to get 35 notes in on my right hand in only 4 beats of my left hand. Tell me how am I going to be able to do that???? I don't think my hand can move that fast, and especially without mistakes. I think I'm a glutton for punishment, but everything is worth a try right? In some ways I feel lucky because Janalen originally wanted me to do a sonata (I think that's what it's called) but the pages scared the heck out of me! She's an amazing teacher, she can make you think you can accomplish anything!

This morning I couldn't stop yawning. You know when you yawn so much your eyes get watery. Now it's 9:45pm and I could be sleeping, but feel wide awake!!! I can't win for losin'

A wonderful Mother's Day

There are those times when you feel celebrated that for mother's comes very seldom and often is manifest within our own hearts when we see our children grow and succeed in life. I am glad we have days to celebrate one another such as Mother's Day. In fact I think birthday's are pretty cool to. I mean, life is hard, why shouldn't we be celebrated for another year of being alive and for being who we are.

I was looking forward to this Mother's Day. Why? because for at least a month and a half Daria and her neighbor friends have been secretly working on some special project for their mother's. I had no clue what it could be but most days after school and homework, the 4 girls would jet back and forth between each other's homes to work on the project. It took up Saturday's and some Saturday nights (mixed with playtime as well). Sometimes they would have things hidden in bags, sometimes they would have one of the dads tote them off to the store to buy more supplies (the girls called them the chauffeurs and financiers). The anticipation was endless.

Since our ward meets at 1pm this year, Ino said he would cook breakfast Sunday morning. I thought this meant that the three families would show up and eat. It turned out very differently. Daria and Dustin were up by 6:45am on Sunday morning and I heard the doors open and close. By 8:30a me, Jenni, and Michelle were summoned to breakfast. What we found was a table set up in Jenni's living room (she had been kicked out earlier in the morning to her parents house, so she wouldn't see the planned festivities), elegantly set with 3 plates, 3 bouquets of roses, and nice mood music in the background. Still in my pajamas I was feeling slightly under dressed. Chance, Logan, and Dustin were in their Sunday suits ready to wait on us, take our orders, and fill our water and orange juice cups. We were fed a delicious fruit plate, and all the pancakes, waffles, sausage, eggs, and bacon we could ask for if we wanted. The kids presented us with a few small gifts and left us there to chat while they ate outside and then cleaned up the kitchen. Wow! it was so amazing! I admit I was feeling pretty guilty and undeserving about enjoying this delicious special Mother's Day meal after throwing an adult tantrum the day before over kids not doing their chores. Ugh!!! whoever said mother's don't' ever loose their cool! Here are some pictures of the day. No there are none of me, I seriously looked like I rolled right out of bed. Only so many people are aloud to see me that way, and the worldwide web does not count. I wish I had a picture of Ken who spent so much time being chef.

The table

The waiters

some of the cooks

After a wonderful time at church, the celebration continued. Ken really went above and beyond the call of duty by preparing a delicious brisket and sausage on the green egg (this is about a 12 hour process), beans in the crock pot, homemade potato salad and homemade rolls. We went over to our neighbors house and enjoyed the company of 5 other families. Then came the moment we mothers had been waiting for. Our big surprise. Each of us were presented with a scrapbook, put together by each girl, comprising each of our families. It was so awesome!! Now I know why Kat spent several weeks taking pictures of every movement we made. It was so sweet and a gift I will treasure forever.

I think that this was by far the best Mother's Day I've ever experienced. It was special to think that I was being thought of all this time while Daria was making the project. Dustin also made some cute gifts and letters which of course I'll keep forever. I think one of the best parts was that the kids and husbands came up with these ideas on their own and worked very hard to make us feel celebrated.

........ I think to myself "how will I top that for Father's day??"

This past week we celebrated Daria's 9th birthday. Yes, you guessed it... "Where has the time gone!!!??" I am so amazed at the young lady that she is turning out to be. I must admit I am soaking in every moment of these young ages as I know they will not last long. I found myself reminiscing through photos of her when she was a baby, toddler, first starting school, and up until now. I admit I'm a sappy mom who misses the younger stages. After all, raising kids is the cutest and easiest from birth to about ages 4-5 I think. The biggest challenge was tantrums and lack of sleep. But, at the same time as Daria continues to grow I'm also enjoying our mother daughter relationship. Sometimes she outwits me, out challenges me and still has periodic tantrums, but most often she is a polite, loving, caring girl who has a lot more strengths than negatives. She often has a serious temperament like mine, yet she is also very light hearted. She thrives on structure and has often been found to have folded all of the laundry, cleaned her room, cleaned her fish tank and even helped Dustin clean his room, early on a Saturday morning without being asked.... so she can get a early start on "playing" all day long. I am pleased and comforted that she enjoys the gospel, the Faith in God girls program at church, family scripture study and Family Home Evening. I'm also starting to see glimpses of her mind "thinking of others." When I told the kids that our friend has cancer, Daria's first comment was "Well who is going to cook for her?" While I had a small lump in my throat, I was so thankful that she is beginning to understand others needs and the need for Christlike service.

With all her strides towards growing up Daria still loves to snuggle, and be hugged by her mom and dad. She still loves us to read her a book now and then, still loves to open the bus window as it's driving off and waive at me and motion "I love you!" in sign language. Still loves teddy bears, playing with her brother, singing, playing piano, horses, dogs, and cats. She still loves having Ken and I come to lunch with her at school, and still writes us notes now and then. So far she's still the right size for what she calls "Pick up Hugs".

If I could slow down this next year so she doesn't turn 10 so quickly I would, but then I'm reminded of a moment I had with her when she was 3 1/2. With her little purple ballet outfit on and some purple gauze butterfly wings she fluttered through the house. Standing on a stool I tried to pick her up and she said "No mom, let me down so I can fly" .......... and so we teach our children how, so one day they can fly!

Ok, enough of my sappiness....

Dustin has felt quite left out because he has not lost any teeth yet, as opposed to the rest of the kindergartners at school. I remember Daria had the same concern. Thursday Dustin got off the bus ran straight for Kat who happened to be standing there, grabbed her as he yelled at the top of his lungs "I've got a loose tooth!!!! my first loose tooth!!!" I don't think I've ever seen a boy that excited about a loose tooth. The excitement toned down later as he realized that once he looses his tooth he will look like "Uncle Louis" from Junie B. Jones. UUGGGHH, if all of you could know how much I detest Junie B. Jones!!! I told him that because I don't like Junie B. Jones books, he doesn't have to be worried about looking like her toothless uncle, he will just look like a toothless kindergartner.

I'm always amazed that Daria and Dustin are either getting along very well, or really not getting along well. On the mornings that they ride the bus it's a hot heated race to see who gets to the bus stop first in order to be first in line. On one particular day Dustin cried because he said he was trying to open the door for Daria (something he's been learning to do) when she pushed him aside to rush through the door. Now he does try hard to open doors for us but rarely if ever do I see him do it in the morning. It seemed a bit suspicious to me and had the words "I want to be first in line" written all over it. Unfortunately because this causes so much contention, both kids spent there time at the back of the line. Sometimes they compete over the silliest things. For instance, last Monday for family home evening we collected trash in our community. The kids have wanted to do this for some time and since we just had Earth Day it seemed like a perfect time. We set out with bags and gloves and enjoyed a lovely walk (seriously it was such a nice evening, a good family walk). The only glitch was that every time a piece of trash was spotted Daria and Dustin would run towards it screaming "That's mine!!! I got it first!" Oh my goodness!!! of all the things to fight over. Eventually they just grabbed the trash without complaining, but it did provide a few laughs for me.

April

April has proved to be another busy and fun month, filled with plenty of cool weathered days. Amid our normal schedule of school, church, piano, and playing we enjoyed a few events like our neighbor annual crawfish boil, which included all of our good friends from the block. We also enjoyed another "drive in" movie. Since it was pretty cool outside we actually projected the movie on the garage wall instead of garage door. That way the kids could be inside the garage and not get to cold from the night air. The adults of course sat their chairs in the cold night air since the garage was full of kids.

We also enjoyed participating in the annual Cystic Fibrosis walk to support our friends Abby and Kati. That's Daria turning around in the picture.

We have an influx of new birds in our neighborhood. This has been the only positive thing about all the trees being torn down in our city to make way for probably more nail salons, donut shops, and dry cleaners. As if we need more. Still, we are enjoying the new birds, some of which I've not seen before. Dustin had his trusty cardboard folding binoculars out last week while standing on top of a ladder in the driveway to "bird watch". We counted as many birds as we could but not knowing their variety we marked them down as "brown birds, black birds." Well I do know what Mocking birds, Sparrows, and Martins look like but beyond that it's all by color. I wish I had my camera with me the other day as I was stopped at a stop sign. There was a Red Cardinal sitting on top of the red stop sign. That would have been a perfect photo op!

On to household musings. Recently I changed my laundry soap to a more environmentally friendly soap that has no fragrance. HHmmmmm. Well, it cleans well enough but I'm telling you that it's just no fun taking clean laundry out of the washer that has no smell at all!!! Thank goodness for dryer sheets so at least when they come out of the dryer they smell fresh. Speaking of smells, so when I was cleaning the toilets I placed those toilet bowl tabs in each toilet. Ok, crazy! They are supposed to keep the bowl clean for a few months but they smell HORRIBLE! I'm half tempted to put on some gloves and dig those darn things out!

Right now my calling is Enrichment Coordinator. So this month we held one of our quarterly enrichment's, by presenting the program by Kenneth Cope called "Women at the Well". So I must say that this calling has really strengthened my testimony of the willingness of the women to serve one another. When I first came across this program (thanks Selma for mentioning it) I thought it would be easy, music and narration, how hard can that be?. Duh! I really had no idea what it would entail and I stand humbled by the countless women who I asked to do something and they willingly said yes without hesitation. The women were amazing. We had 10 sisters sing solos and some duets (this included 4 young women who sang), Michelle played the piano for every song, one sister was in charge of acquiring 14 costumes and she even made a few as well, two narrators, two sisters spent countless hours planning and putting together the stage which was no small feet in itself. This included Terry making an amazing well, Leah re-creating a garden scene (with her whole front yard!) and enlisting the help of her boys and husband to create a arbor gate, two other ladies to coordinate the practice, one to make the refreshments, and others to decorate the hall and take pictures and film, and Ken even spent time making a few old benches. All combined it was a lot of work, but every sister was thrilled at the opportunity to be a part of it and make it happen. The evening was beautiful and I hope gave the Relief Society sisters a chance to reflect on their relationship with Christ. I know mine was strengthened by the Christlike actions and help of the others who volunteered their time and talents. Here are a few pictures. I did not post any of the ladies singing as that would take to long for me to ask their permission to post their picture on the Internet. As always, privacy is a concern to me.

Book of the Decade

I’ve probably read more books this year than in my whole lifetime. Ok, not really, but I have read some amazing books so far.

Because of this I have to share some thoughts on a most remarkable book that I finished last month.

It’s not often that you come across a book that is life changing, pivotal, riveting, inspiring, and teaches you about history in a way that has never been done before. Well, I found such a book and cannot say enough about it, thus must blog about it. Bear with me!

In 2001 I remember watching an interview on the morning news with the author David McCullough about his new book “John Adams”. I remember the interview being so powerful that I said to myself that I must read that book. True to my form, I put it on my “mental list” of books to read. Fast forward to 2008 when I finally purchased and read the book.

Let me say that there is a reason it has won so many awards. First, the way McCullough writes is amazing and he has this ability with every sentence to draw you into the actual event. You are probably rolling your eyes as most people just don’t enjoy reading biographies or books on history. Believe me this would be the most incredible history book you’ve ever read. The book is taken from John Adam’s personal journals, writings, letters, as well as writings from other notable people, Yet it reads like a novel. I found it exhilarating, suspenseful, painful, and surprising. Not a page was disappointing, and that is no exaggeration. All 650 pages of it. I found it almost impossible to put down and once I was done I was saddened to not have another glimpse into the life of the Adams’s. John Adams was an incredible journalist, so much so that vivid details of the revolution and its people are stunning. I felt like I knew each person personally, and felt a sense of loss when one died, or anger when one betrayed another. Absolutely amazing.

Not only is the book amazing due to McCullough’s ability to recount history, and John Adam’s journaling, but the amazing character that John Adams was. I came away with an astounding respect for John Adams and Abigail (this lady was amazing and I often thought it would have been a treat to have known her). While we as humans can weave a tale about who we are in our journals, John Adams was in his journals exactly how others who knew him described him. This man was a pure example of integrity, he had a hard time winning friends because he was opinionated but his opinions were because he did what was right for the right reasons. Little did I know that much of America’s success for winning the war against Britain was largely due to John Adams sacrifice. This man built his life on honesty, hard work, and frugality (which caused such strife between him and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin).

I found that while I love to learn about history, I really NEVER knew what it took to win our independence. In history class you learn names, dates, and places, but the actual personal sacrifice (which is too large to teach in a classroom) is humbling. This book is a necessary gem that I will require my kids to read when they are in Junior High or High School, I felt that it was that important. As I read, page after page I reflected on who I was, what was my impact on society and the realization that these revolutionary men were in fact a type of person that we don’t see often these days. I felt for the first time ever a true feeling of what hallowed ground I live on, the United States of America.

Lastly, what interested me in the book in the first place was the great love story between John and Abigail Adams. It was, in my opinion a true love story that is attainable, not fantasy or superficial, but a real love story that words can hardly describe, but what we would all want out of our marriages. So amazing.

So to explain my title “The Book of the Decade” a friend said that to me regarding this book and I would have to agree. I highly recommend it for reading even if you are not into history. I can promise you will not be disappointed, or bored. You will read about interesting tid-bits of history that are never taught (like the fact that Jefferson and Adams claim that the declaration was not signed on the 4th but the 2nd), or that as John Adams got off the boat (literally) after returning from France was told he was the new Vice President (even George Washington did not run for President, they were requested to hold the position) or the comical remarks from Abigail encouraging John to put something in the declaration about women’s rights and freedom.

Now onto McCullough’s book “1776” which I’m told is amazing as well.

“I believe in God and in his wisdom and benevolence, and I cannot conceive that such a Being could make such a species as the human merely to live and die on this earth. If I did not believe in a future state, I should believe in no God. This universe, this all, this totality, would appear with all its swelling pomp, a boyish firework.” John Adams