Spring Concerts Galore

The Spring Equinox has passed. YEA!!! We made it, we survived the winter. Bring on Spring and Summer!

Jesse had a Choir Concert last week and accompanied her friend Bailey in a solo. What fun to see her up there on stage on the Grand Piano, and she did a great job. The 8th grade girls sounded awesome; the boys' singing had something to be desired! Joseph kept saying, "I'm so glad I'm not in 8th grade...", which is humorous coming from a 9th grader. He's so mature now, you know.

Speaking of Joseph, he found a book that I bought years ago called Puzzles for Pleasure, and he has been immersed in solving these logic puzzles. He's getting good at them, and I've had fun joining him in solving a few. I guess that is pretty mature, isn't it (on Joseph's part, I mean).

Mary's Band Concert was fun because the Director had the High School bands come down and play with the middle schoolers for this concert. They sounded great! :) I thought it was a neat idea, to have them experience what it's like to play with a large band that has a good sound! Mary plays the saxophone, just like Joseph did.

Peter's 3rd grade Music Program was all about the USA, and they sang folk songs from different cultures in the USA.

I'm sure in 5 years I'll be able to use this video as bribery for anything I want. Ha haIn the meantime, I love the enthusiasm and innocence of 3rd graders!

After 3 tries, I finally made some butter that tasted good! I was glad, because I was getting worried. There's a lot of cream that comes off of this milk.

This week we started Spring Break. Friday afternoon I took the kids to the bookstore and everyone got to pick out a paperback. If this is not the most fun, I don't know what is. The ride home was QUIET, except for Libby announcing to everyone that she was done with another chapter of her Junie B. Jones book.

(NOTE:I don't care for those books myself, but that's what her teacher - whom I highly respect- is reading at school, so she likes them. I just don't get how you teach first graders correct grammar and spelling from reading a book that has very little of it from the main character? Do tell, if you have another opinion.)

The High School Parent Teacher Conferences were this week, and those are my big PAY DAYS. Not that I can take any credit for how great my boys are, but still, it makes a Mom feel happy to hear every teacher say, "Oh, he's great to have in class", etc.

Joseph's track coach said that when she first saw him run, she knew she had found a natural runner, one that makes it look effortless. He hasn't started competing yet, so it will be exciting to see how he does. He'll probably do the 1600 meter, and either the 3200 meter or the 800 meter. Joseph would prefer the 3200, because he can pace himself and get faster the longer he goes.

Crazy - that's just crazy. But the 800 is awful too. I don't have fond memories of running that!

Josh and I played a duet in Church today of "Praise to the Man". We could have used some more practice, but it turned out all right.

Our community's "Unplugged" month has been going well. I have to tell you what my four-year Primary class member, Benson, told his Mom about this. He said, "It's not (our town) unplugged, it's YOU unplugged. You're the one that unplugged the TV!" He was mad about not being able to watch movies. I thought that was so funny.

We did catch Josh, Joseph and Jesse on different occasions watching movies, saying that they were watching it "as a family" with only two of them. Ha ha So Bruce went and CUT the cord to the TV, literally! HA HA I laughed so hard when he told me. The kids couldn't believe it. Personally, I think he just wanted to do that at some point in his career as a Dad to say he had done it, and this was as good of a chance as any! :)

But it got the point across. Nobody has asked to watch any movies again. They could watch on the computer, but they haven't. It has been extremely pleasant in the evenings to have most, if not all of the family gathered around in the living room or family room reading books by the fire.

Wow, I have to pinch myself sometimes. We just milked a cow, made our own butter, and now we're sitting around the fire reading books in the evening? What century are we in??

This century, I guess, 'cause here I am letting people on every continent know about it over this "Internet" thing, and we did flip a switch to get the gas fire going!

Speaking of the Internet, have I said before that I love those guys at Google? They added a feature on Gmail that enables you to keep a simple Task list on the corner of the window while you're reading your email. You can add tasks to the list directly from email messages. Before I would just leave messages that had unfinished business marked as unread, and it made for a messy Inbox. This Task window is simple, and yet fits most of the needs I have. I love it!

Political issue of the week: Can I just say that it find it absolutely laughable and ridiculous, all this hullabaloo about the AIG bonuses. Not that the bonuses should have been given - that was a serious error on AIG's part - but the surprise on the public and the government's part that this should happen is so ridiculous and childlike in it's scope. It's just like elderly parents giving their married child money, and then being surprised and offended when they go and spend it on something that they don't approve of. Is not this really a classic problem with giving money away, that mature people should understand?! It's all such a joke! C'mon people!

I do find it VERY scary that the Congress is passing legislation to tax specific people at 90%. Yikes, who are they going to come up with next? I guess they do that a lot in a many areas, but I've never seen it quite this narrow. I wish Steve Forbes would have been supported more in his flat tax ideas. We need a FLAT TAX.

Good news from my side of the family! My brother Craig, and his wife Jaclyn, are moving back to Utah so Craig can get a Masters Degree in Environmental History. Awesome! They will fit right in with all the "younger set" that are down on the Wasatch Front going to school. Maybe they can even be invited to the "Cousin Parties" and supervise! :)

I want to thank all of you who read this blog, and also to those who comment! I love your comments.

I laugh with my friend Wendy about people who ask how everything is going. Inwardly we think, "You'd know if you read my blog....!" Ha ha

When I asked my brother Craig if he still read it, considering the length of the content at times, he replied that it was like War and Peace, or Les Miserables, that the content was so good that it was worth the saga. YOU ARE VERY NICE, CRAIG!

P.S. As Joseph said tonight, "The calf has not yet perished. We're on a roll!"