The Whirlwind of May

Once again, I have so many pictures and fun things to blog about!

Jesse - in the black and white skirt on the left

Jesse is in the Top 10 at her High School!  All of the Top 10 Seniors have a 4.0, so it is quite an accomplishment.  She gets to speak at Graduation - to follow in the footsteps of her mother and Joshua.  :)

I started taking an online class from Sharon Plaskett with my friends Shauna, Teresa and Sonni.  It is called Five Elements Level 1: Room with a View.  I love the Chinese Five Elements, and Sharon has a wonderful insight into them.  I've loved the class so far.

Is this the cutest picture ever? They came walking across the field like this, and I had to have a picture.  Mary and Peter are refereeing for our local soccer club.  Peter just started this spring, and Mary has been refing for 2 years already.  They are awesome referees!

For the last day in Madrigals, the choir teacher had everyone spread out to the edges of the room, and then Mr. C turned out the lights.  They sang Prayer of the Children, their signature song of the year.  Then he gathered them in one at a time until they were in a big group hug.  Jesse and Mary said it was unforgettable.  I love this picture, especially with my friend Shelly in the middle of it!  Wish I had been there with her!

Sean Canon, a finalist with American Idol (top 50) a few years back came and put on a special concert with the choir and band kids from our high school.  Jesse and Mary were involved - both of them with the Madrigals, and Mary with the Show Choir.

Out in the hall before the performance, Jesse and Bruce are doing that slapping thing with your fingers that - well - I can't even explain it.  If you've ever done it, you'll know what I'm talking about!!  ha ha

 Mary is front and center here dancing to a swing song played by our Jazz Band.  The week before, she and Dallin spent a couple of hours learning lifts and then taught them to the rest of the show choir.  They were awesome!  Mary is so fun to watch when she is dancing!

 About halfway through the concert, a storm caused the power to go out at the High School!  We had a bit of back up lighting and power, so they used that and went on with the Concert.  That's why you can't see Jesse very well in the picture above.  She is standing on the left of the picture.  She got to sing a solo with her friend Sam and Sean Canon (at the keyboard).  She was rockin' the house!

Libby, Mary, Sean Canon, Peter and Jesse after the concert

 The next night it was Peter's turn to shine in his Orchestra Concert.

He played "It's a Gift To Be Simple" and "William Tell" on his violin with his 6th grade beginning orchestra.  We had to laugh because practicing at home he had been playing William Tell about 3 times as fast as they played it in the concert!  He got the highest achievement award from his conductor.  He was also complimented on his long bows.  Peter loves playing the violin!

The NEXT night (an award ceremony/concert almost every night!), it was Jesse's turn to be honored at the annual Senior's Night for our Ward Mutual (the Young Men/Young Women organization at our Church).  For the event, my friend Tammy puts together a slide show of pictures for each senior from pictures their parents provide.  This makes for an interesting time for the parent as they go through all the growing up years.  It's quite the experience!  Having done it three times now in four years, I'm getting to be pretty good at it!

Awesome Seniors from our Ward!!

Tori, Jesse and Alicia

Peter got to go to the Bruneau Sand Dunes with his 6th grade class.  They had a ball!  The bus broke down twice, but they had a great time anyway.  On Saturday, at Peter's soccer game, the ref stopped keeping score when Peter's team was 12 goals ahead.  Awesome possum!

On Saturday night was a night I personally have been waiting for these many years!  Well, at least the last 3 years, and the occasion was Jesse's Senior Recital!  We had announcements printed up along with her graduation announcement, which was convenient. 

Thanks to our wonderful Choir Director, she was able to play at the High School Auditorium - on the grand piano - on the stage - in the lights!  It was awesome!

Here is a small clip of her playing the finale to Etude No. 6 by Franz Liszt.

Here are the songs she played:

Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in E Major (WTC 2)............. Johann Bach

Jeux d’eau........................................................... Maurice Ravel

“River God laughing at the water that tickles him...”

Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, “Appassionata”.... Ludwig van Beethoven

Etude No. 6.............................................................. Franz Liszt

Consolation No. 3....................................................... Franz Liszt

Etude No. 23 in A Minor, “Winter Wind”................ Frédéric Chopin

It was about 45 minutes worth of playing - and she played every note memorized.  By any standard, that alone was an outstanding accomplishment.  But then you add the level of technique and the difficulty of the music, and it was fantastic!  I know I'm a little biased here, but I think all that were in the audience would agree!

Jesse dedicated Consolation No. 3 to me, saying, "My Mom is my biggest fan.", which is the honest truth!!  It was lovely - I cried through the whole thing.

Congratulations, Jesse!!

Jesse and her fabulous teacher for the last five years - Jeff Romero

Jesse and Bishop and his wife Glendi

Connor, Jesse, Dane, Kirsten, Paul and Libby after the Concert

Jesse's choir director, who has meant so much to her for the last four years.  Thank you Dan!

If that's not enough for one blog, let me add one more very happy day - Mother's Day!

 Bruce, Jesse, Mary, Peter and Libby made me a lovely breakfast.

 At the table, they set up pictures of  the boys in their chairs!  That made me cry, of course.

Thanks for the lovely breakfast!

And then later in the afternoon, we got to be on Skype with both of our missionaries!  I'll always remember the big cheer that went up when we got both of  them on the screen.  So fun!

I love this picture, especially of Jesse - look at her smile!  And Grandma's getting her two cents worth!  :)

Doesn't this make for a Happy Mother's Day!

Concerts, Graduations and Blessings!

Mary, Peter and Libby were in the Show Choir Conert last week.  This is a highlight of the year!
Mary did the following numbers with the Show Choir:

• There's No Business Like Show Business
• A Lot of Livin' To Do (from Bye-Bye Birdie)
• Rock of Ages
• Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat
• Under the Sea (from Little Mermaid)
• Seize the Day (from Newsies)

 Here is a picture of Mary in Seize the Day.  This was one of my favorite numbers!  I took a video which I was hoping to upload, but the video quality was too poor, so it didn't work out.

Mary in Seize the Day

 And then Mary did a really fun side act with her friends Kalli, Jill, Jessie, Tori, Erica and Kylie to "I Won't Say I'm in Love" from Hercules.  She was a backup singer dressed as a Greek Goddess. 

Mary had so much fun in Show Choir this year.  She did a fantastic job, and looked SO GOOD up there dancing and singing.  She didn't look like a first-year member in the least.  Congratulations, Mary!!

Peter, Libby and Mary all got to do Hakuna Matata, from Lion King.  During one part of the song, Libby did a roundoff back handspring, and then immediately following, Peter did a layout backflip with a push-off from his friend Taylor.  It was awesome!

Libby is on the left side, upside down!

Peter

Later in the week, I got to travel down to Utah this week with my Mom and Dad.  My niece Whitney graduated from Utah Valley University and they also blessed their new little baby, Penny.  I got to hold her for an hour or more while she slept.  It's great to be a great-aunt!

One of the most fun things about Penny's blessing is that Sean, Stetson's old missionary companion, and his wife Heidi were there with their little girl Evette.  They live in Texas, but they were up in Provo for a graduation, so they were able to come to the blessing!  So fun to see them!

Mis Elderes favoritos

And my other niece Lindsey, Whitney's sister, graduated from UVU also!  I'm so proud of them!  They both graduated Cum Laude.  It was great to be with my sister Julie (Whitney and Lindsey are her daughters) and her husband Bruce.  I haven't seen Bruce in a long time, so it was good to be with him.  I also got to see my cousins Annette (who graciously allowed us to stay at her house), Renea, Elaine and Sylvia.  I just LOVE these cousins.  I laugh and laugh whenever I see them.  I told Julie that we need to have an overnight reunion with them.  (A whole weekend would be asking too much!)

In the meantime, Bruce was supposed to be taking the girls on an overnight daddy-daughter campout, but Jesse and Mary had a dress rehearsal for their choir concert, so Bruce postponed it until this weekend.

Bruce was also gone to St Louis this week on business.  He got to go on a tour of the Gateway Arch.

So the kids had a day at home with neither of us there.  They did a great job of being self-sufficient!  Libby even got herself up and off to school one morning by herself because Jesse, Mary and Peter had gone to the Temple!  She is eleven, after all, so she is OK to do something like that once in awhile!  Before long, she'll be able to go to the Temple with them.

Jesse and Tyler doubled with Caleb and Macey, and they went horseback riding.  Jesse rode Strawberry, and Bruce told her that Joseph would be really proud of her!

Last night was the Young Women's Recognition Night.  Jesse conducted, and did a great job, and bearing a beautiful testimony about personal progress.  Several people commented on how poised she was.  Mary sang a musical number with two other girls, while I accompanied the song.  Mary sang beautifully!  The fact that I played this song decently was a miracle. I was handed the music 90 minutes earlier, and had never played it before.  It really was a miracle.

On the way home driving from Utah, I listened to several chapters of Our Heritage, A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I listened to the chapters from about 1833-1847.  Wow - it is so humbling to listen to what the Saints went through in those years.  I came away with a renewed understanding that sometimes in mortality, we have a boatload of problems with very few answers.  In 1838, when the Saints were driven out of Clay County, and Joseph Smith was sent to Liberty Jail, that's the situation they were in.

Do you feel like you have a lot of problems and very few answers?  Well, join the crowd.  Join the crowd that included some of the best people that ever lived on the planet.  But they persevered, and much good came from their perseverance.  Perseverance to me means that faced with daily choices to turn to the light or to turn away from it, we consistently choose light.  And if we make a mistake and choose darkness, we repent and choose light again.  We make clear and consistent course corrections to aim for the light.  Ultimately, our life and destiny will reflect those very tiny course corrections made on a moment to moment basis.  Light or darkness?  I choose light!

Appraising April

Jesse and Mary had Festival for Madrigal last week.  They sang Solemn Shore, Prayer of  the Children and Chile con Carne.  They did a fantastic job.  The judges changed the scoring system this year, and they got a 95 out 100.  After three years of Madrigals, this is Jesse's last performance of serious Madrigal songs!  That's always a sobering thought.

Josh, Calvin, Drew, Brighton, Joseph, Hunter, Josh, Connor, Travis, Freddy, Braden, Dominic, Holli, Jesse, Brianna, Sam, Amy, Kimi, Brighton, Kylie, Jill, Kalli, Mary and Elizabeth.

 Congratulations Madrigals!  I loved hearing you sing this year!

My friend Todd has been encouraging bugging me for months to read Way of the Kings, by Brandon Sanderson.  Alright, already!  He said he has read it seven times.  So I started it Tuesday night.  I read all day Wednesday and into the wee hours of the morning, all day Thursday and into the wee hours of the morning.  I finished Fri morning at 4 am!  It was a really good book, but can I confess that I was totally confused!  Have no doubt that it's entertaining - it keeps you enthralled.  But what in the world is going on?!  Anyone that is reading this and would like to discuss this book with me, please do!  No wonder Todd has read this book seven times - it would take that many times to understand it.  And add to that a cliffhanger at the end...  Aaaahhhh.

Mary got new glasses this week!  She doesn't wear them all the time, like Libby does.  She just needs them to read.

Thursday was Senior Skip Day!  Here are some fun pictures:

Mattresses stuck in Kalli's car for the sleepover

Jesse and Erica

Sophia and Jesse

Riding bikes on the Greenbelt

Erica

Sophia and Travis

Tyler (and Kayla not far behind)

Skyler, Kalli, Travis, Sophia, Kayla, Tyler, Kalli, Jesse, and Tamzen taking the picture

Friday, I taught a Raindrop class and then had a Foot Zone Open House in the afternoon.  Only Janet showed up, but it will still fun to give a FZ and receive one.  I did much better than last week - not nearly as sore, so I was happy about that.

On Saturday, Peter, Libby and Mary all went to the FX Show Choir Camp.  The dance this year will be to Hakuna Matata.  Jesse said that Joseph always wanted that to be the song.

We also got a visit on Saturday from these fine returned missionaries.

Connor and Josh

Josh has been begging me for a Raindrop, so I gave him Raindrop in the afternoon before going over to Andrew and Lisa's reception and going to the Adult Session of Stake Conference.  Bruce was supposed to meet me there, but he fell asleep and came late.  And then he wanted to leave early afterwards.  We had to have some discussions about this.  :)

Life rolls along, and we're so grateful for wonderful blessings.