Happy B-Day (or Macey, your mom is hilarious)

Macey sent me the following video for my birthday. He also sent me the lyrics.

 PS, As traumatic as their mother's tales were for my children, their mom is pretty hilarious :)

Celebrating our Independance

Happy Fourth of July!

Generally I am more timely in posting about the 4th. But this year, I was out there celebrating! Yes, instead of staying in town and passing time by blogging and such until the fireworks display and then wondering why I have a headache every Independence Day, the kids and I all made the big trek to Leeds (20 miles away) and participated in their annual 4th of July activities. We joined forces with the Welches and sang a 20 minute set of oldies but goodies. We were even brave enough to throw in extra instrumentation.

Bobo and Tessa played the cello and violin respectively. That was a fun switch-it-up


And I got to play the accordion. What's independence day for if not for being free to do what you want? I do feel bad that the instruments I love (e.g. organ, accordion) are not typically loved by everyone -- Just like "Jambalaya" is not loved by everyone. Anyway how fortunate am I to have friends and family who let me do what I want? :) I hope you noticed Joe on drums (which he says is where you put the people who can't play an instrument) Problem with Joe is he can play all of them, and sometimes you need somebody on percussion. -- And if you look a little closer, you can see Ben joining us on Bass Guitar (it's enough to make a momma's eyes well-up!) And check out Cameron (penny whistle, mandolin, and uke) And before I thank Jenna and Becky for setting this all up and being such fun to play with -- I need to point out Sam on banjo, with a disclaimer -- Hurry home, Macey! The kids are getting into all your stuff (your instruments at any rate.) And if you get home in the next three and 1/4 months, we'll even save a spot for you in the family band, 'cause there's always room for one more! Thank you Welch Family! That was the best 4th ever! Whoops, I almost forgot to mention Naji and Leah! They have so much fun playing together, we almost forget they're there! But then they are so cute, we remember them anyway.

Video Palooza

As promised, here is my Video Palooza representing how I spent my time from Mother's Day to Father's Day.

Like I said, I went to temple square where I attended an Organ Recital (which they don't let you record) and a Tabernacle Choir rehearsal (which they do let you record).


It was nice to see that  a choir as professional as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir still has to practice. I also liked seeing the bell ringers practice with the choir. It reminded me of my lovely sister Judy. Later, I told my mother, "If Judy practices really hard, maybe one day she can be a Mormon Tabernacle Bell Ringer." I thought I was being pretty funny 'til Mom said Judy had already considered it. Then there was the St George Powwow And the trip to the zoo where we saw Naji's favorite animals. What would a trip with Ben be like without having to punch him for trying to make me play the "circle game"? And if you've made it all the way to the bottom of this post, you're gonna find out the the Southwest Fretted Philharmonic did a short gig at the St George Rehabilitation Center. Naji recorded our two songs -- and apparently I need to give him a tripod. But hopefully we sound better than we look (P.S. Thank you, Naji, you're the best!) WOHOO, Band Practice Tonight!

Picture Palooza

It's the last day of my vacation. Tomorrow I leave this fantasy I have of being a stay-at-home mom and I go back on the prowl for child pornographers, spouse abusers, and irresponsible texters -- or whatever it is that I do in my work-a-day job.

I like to think that I didn't do much on my vacation, but it's been over a month since I've blogged. (I blogged on mother's day and skipped right over father's day -- or what I like to call "Make Naji Cry Day") The Fourth of July is just around the corner. If I don't get blogging, It will be Ground Hogs day before I know it and time to take down the Christmas Lights.

The following are pictures I've taken since last I blogged. (Stay tuned for Video Palooza -- which should be posting soon.)

1. On Mother's Day we skyped with Elder Runs Through "down ol' South America Way" -- meaning Mexico for those of you who don't watch Arrested Development. Apparently Elder RT felt the video provided by skype left much to be desired, so we took a couple of still shots to show him what he was missing.

As a post script, the kids wanted to line up tallest to shortest. Apparently they think JoJo is taller than me and Judea is the shortest of all.



















I've also taken two trips to SLC since Mother's Day (both work related). And each time I toured the pipe organs on temple square. Judea graciously attended an Tabernacle Organ Recital with me (even though she claims that all organ music sounds the same -- except for the pieces I practice over and over and over).

On my second trip, Naji and Ben were my traveling companions. Ben was great. He saved Naji from a shark and held my purse on the Hogle Zoo carousel. He even drove the scariest leg of the trip.

Naji reaffirmed that the river otter is his favorite animal -- and both boys were good about visiting temple square with me. Ben played "SLC Punk" and Naji's temper flared when he realized Joseph Smith was "murdered".

Back in St. George, the city hosted it's first annual Powwow! I got some great shots of the kids in their regalia up at pioneer park. And by "their regalia" I totally mean, Joseph was wearing Elder Runs Through feathers and buckskin shirt, cause what's he gonna do about it "way down South America Way"?

 Phew. That was like 5 blogs rolled into one. I really need to blog more frequently.

Happy Mother's Day

I've taken an entire week off from practicing the organ. I'm feeling guilty, but for most of the week I was out of town at a conference.

The worst part of being away from the kids (besides just being away from the kids) is that I tend to read. Now I am stuck in a book that I haven't finished yet, and I don't have a mother to hide it from me until my work is finished. And trust me there are things I should be doing besides reading a book.

The best thing about my trip was that I got a chance to visit with my mother. And it was a unique visit as it was the first time we've spent time together one to one in ... wow, it could be decades. My boss asked me if we ran out of things to say. Nope. It was a wonderful visit.

In honor of Mother's day, I thought I would list the top 10 things I've learned from my mother -- or from my mother's example. Starting with Number 10

• 10. Everything tastes better with horseradish on it (or as my mother says, "Horsereddish") 
• 09. Music improves your quality of life. 
• 08. Teaching your kids music takes more tenacity than I have (please note that 4 of my mother's 5 daughters play the organ) 
• 07. Getting kids to practice takes a cunning mind -- Me: "Mom, did you know I used to practice to get out of doing the dishes?" Mom: "Did you know I used to let you get out of the dishes so you'd practiced?" 
• 06. If there's not enough time in the day to get things done, get up an hour earlier. When I started getting up at 4:30 to practice, my mom started getting up at 3:30. 
• 05. Always keep something in your purse to study. You never know when you will have to sit in a doctor's office or in a car waiting for your children. Time is too precious to waste. 
•  04. When keeping your kids in line, a raised eyebrow is better than a raised voice. 
• 03. The ward choir is about worship -- not vocal prowess. 
• 02. Listening to Dad sing is way better than complaining about dad singing 
• 01. The number 1 thing I learned from my mother, I learned from my father. "If you girls can grow up to be half the woman your mother is, you'll be alright." -- Here's hoping I hit the halfway mark. :)

Remember When

Remember way back when -- when all I had to worry about was mushy trills? Those were the days. I am sick that after all the months (and in the case of the Bach piece - years) of study, I choked on performance night. I was happier with the practice runs I'd had earlier that day. I just feel like I was fighting the organ. My articulation came across legato, and for no apparent reason I made really loud, obnoxious mistakes from panicking. Perhaps this is one of the stages of performance. Because clearly I can look back a year ago and say this performance is way better than my last performance. But that bothers me too because I know that a year from now I will look back at this performance and think "wow, I am so much better now." Which brings me back to how embarrassing it is to be this limited now. Anyway, the yogurt afterwards was great.

Joecentric

The last post was Naji-centric. This post is going to be Joe centric. Joe has plumb worn me out this past week. He had concerts on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm just barely now recovering. Here are some highlights. 1) You know how I love Mozart (or you should know). 2) If you watch this video, make sure you check out his sweet solo at 1 minute 50 seconds 3) Nothing is sweeter that to see your boy in a flute choir. (Apparently this is the best way to meet girls) 4) And last but not least, here's Joe at the powwow And Joe, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I smooshed your car. And Jenna, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I forgot to ask Kevin to record your composition. Now we totally need to meet in some garden spot to make the music video.