My Primary Piano Calling

A couple years ago when Meg moved, the family piano came to live at my place. I think I even blogged about it somewhere, but since I'm not Meg or Emi, I'm not gonna link it for you. :)Anyway, I had a feeling at that point that music was going to come back into my life, whether I practiced or not. I had taken piano lessons from the time I was 5 until I was around 12 or 13. Classical music was mostly all I played. When the piano got to my place, I sat down to play my last recital piece by Kabalevsky... what's the big deal right? LOL It looked simple enough but when I tried to play it up to tempo, I just laughed and cried at myself. Allegretto marcato? Ya right! My fingering was off, my wrists were limp and my fingers were FLAT! Sister Johanssen and Delsi would have slapped me! I tried another piece by the same composer that I had mastered and moved on from... allegro vivace? Never. So I didn't play very much. I tinkered a bit to play Winter Wonderland for Christmas and The Holy City- which is really Meg's deal. I threw in some Barry Manilow for fun. Then I got my calling in my family ward... Relief Society chorister. Ugh. Leading music. Then I had to sub on the piano a few times because we didn't have a piano player and my secret was out! I can play the piano!
I am now serving as the primary pianist. :D Its my new favorite calling in church, right after teaching Relief Society. I'm no where near my classical music playing days, but I am practicing more. There's something wrong when I look at Tchaikovsky and think "This is do-able." but then see my primary songs for Sunday and think "Crap, 3 flats? Seriously?" I love playing prelude music and hear little voices trying to sing "I know that my Savior loves me..." in a whisper. I love playing "Hello, (hello) Hello, (hello)" and "Happy happy birthday children dear..." almost weekly. So yes, someone knew exactly what He was doing when He brought the piano to my house and gave me the chance to play again.

Bugsy

So I was talking with Nancy on the phone the other day and mentioned that I was pet sitting for Aunt Emi. She had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently Aunt Emi didn't share the pet news! So meet Bugsy, the guinea pig. My sister "inherited" her from HER sister in law and now I'm taking care of Bugs while they are on vacation. I was asked if this could be a possible permanent arrangment. :) I'm going to have to say no. :/ While Bugs and I have become fast friends, I can't feed her without going into a sneezing fit... and I mean literally a sneezing fit. She loves Timothy hay. After I fed her dinner tonight, it took me almost an hour to stop the reaction. And when I say sneeze, I don't just mean a little here and there. I counted 9 sneezes in about 90 seconds. So Bugsy will be going home with Cinderella, Curious George and Christopher Robin once again.

A penny for your thoughts

"Ingratitude is like a mirror that constantly reflects back to us our problems, weaknesses, and worries. In fact, ingratitude is like those mirrors found in amusement parks and carnivals that distort reality. Failure to see the hand of God in our lives in the true perspective actually leaves us with a warped view of our real circumstances and true selves." Brent L. Top

Let the preservation begin!

My first EVER batch of freezer jam! Certainly not to be the last and definitely not difficult. I plan on doing a batch of apricot and possibly a strawberry peach. However, the problem is that peaches and strawberries are not in season at the same time. hmmm... I might have to go with the California grown peaches and Utah strawberries. Whatever. The recipe said it made 5 cups. So I bought 10 Ball freezer jars and doubled the recipe. It made about 14 cups actually so I've got the extra in a couple tupperware containers. Now I've just got to convince my mother and sister to do some green beans and pears with me... maybe I'll have to call Aunt Marilyn?

World Cup

Lest you think I watch soccer simply because I enjoy the game... CLICK IT!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ;)

Anyone else have so many sweatshirts you don't know what to do with them? And so many that you can't really wear them all? But somehow they're tethered to your heart and you can't bear to part with any of them? Maybe I'm the only one with this problem but I love a good sweatshirt. I'll wear it until its literally ragged. That's probably why some of my other ones get neglected. Moving on- after seeing the state of my favorite green Eddie Bauer sweatshirt, I decided it was time to retire it. But since I don't live with my parents anymore, there wasn't anyone to take it and say it got lost in the wash! So I went through my closet and apologized to many of my sweatshirts, explaining that their day of wear was through but they were moving onto bigger and better things. Here's what I did.
Here are two of four piles I stared with. In the mix was my favorite EB, my Darren Venu football team sweatshirt that a girl once offered to pay me for, most my MHS sports teams shirts, a tennis one and one from bebe brother's high school.

Then I got to work cutting and dicing! Sleeves first, then a slice up the side, across the shoulders, remove the hoodie and bands. If there was a logo, I tried to salvage it as best I could.

I did 9 inch squares. I ended up with 49. Perfect for a 7x7 quilt!

I laid it out on my living room floor, keeping all the logos together so you could still see most of them. Can you see my green EB about three rows from the top? Just about center? *sigh* I love that article of clothing!

And here's what it looks like! I haven't clipped it yet. I put it in the wash first to see if the fabric will curl on its own and see what happens. Why waste cramping your hands if you don't have to? Its perfect size for a lap blanket and is heavy! My awesome little Kenmore sewing machine was such a trooper through 6 layers of knit when seams came up! I'm quite excited!

On a side note, I saved 5 other sweatshirts. But just the ones that are still acceptable for public viewing :)

Family Reunion :)

Every Memorial Day I've been alive, my grandmother's side of the family has their annual reunion. For years it was held at the honeycomb rocks. Since then, its been moved around a bit and traded locations. Never quite been the same :/. But this year we returned to the little town where my grandma grew up. It was fun to drive through town and see that little has changed. (minus the monstrously ugly house that now occupies Aunt Nellie's yard) We made our trek to the outskirts of town to the family plot and proceeded to place flowers on Pop's headstone. :) It was lovely to see that my dad's cousin has been taking care of things and nice to walk through and see the ancestors. Then it was time for the annual golf swing into the unknown. I have pictures of me, my sister and my dad all taking our swing, but to save ourselves some embarrasment, I just put my master golfer bro-in-law up there so you can get an idea of the surroundings.
Then it was back to town and off to the park for Dutch oven potatoes and visiting!

The kids could crawl inside this thing and then roll down the hill haha!

Emi, Mom and Me! Until next year :)

Stand out!