Josh finally got some work this week, thanks to the generosity of our friend Lane. He has a Jersey cow that he uses as a nurse cow for raising calves, and circumstances were such that he needed to have someone milk her (Natalie is her name) for a few months. With the milk he gets, he will nurse four calves and sell them in a few months for a handsome profit. It's a very generous deal from Lane, and we're very grateful that Josh will have some cash flow. It's like a part-time job to do the milking twice a day on your own, so this is an adjustment, but he's been doing very well!
Today, one of Josh's best friends for the past eleven years, Drew, gave his Farewell talk in our ward, and he'll be leaving on Tuesday for his mission in Iowa. He has spent countless hours at our house just hanging out over the years, so I feel like our family has a small part in sending him out as well as his own. Josh also received his Duty to God Award today. Congratulations Josh!
Joseph and Jesse have been busy with Choir happenings. They sang in Solo & Ensemble Festival last week. Joseph sang a duet with Amanda called "When I Close My Eyes" that was beautiful. Jesse and her best friends Kalli sang "I'm a Wanderer", which is a spiritual. They got a high enough score that they got to do a repeat performance at the high school choir concert. Jesse also accompanied for three people, including Joseph and Amanda.
The High School Choir concert was awesome! The Madrigals sang an extremely technical song called "The Sounding Sea", and it was one of the highlights of the evening. Mary also had a Middle School concert the week before that, and she had fun doing that.
She had such a busy month of February playing the piano and the organ, that it was a miracle she got through it. She had Piano Festival (which she got a "Superior" rating on - Yeah!), the Solo & Ensemble Festival, which I just talked about, she accompanied the congregation on the organ, and she played for the choir too. Good thing she loves to play the piano and sing!
Mary also played in Piano Festival (and got a "Superior" also - Wahoo!), and sang "The Call" in the Middle School Solo & Ensemble Festival. She sang beautifully - I was so proud of her. Mary had some time off of soccer and track (yes, I know - two sports is crazy) this week because of a hurt knee. We have been putting Lemongrass, Marjoram and PanAway essential oils on it, and they have helped it heal much more quickly than it would otherwise.
Peter has had two outdoor soccer games, with Bruce as his Coach. He plays goalie for half the game, trading off with other players. He also played in Piano Festival - one song called "Race Across the Serenghettti" and another called "Un Poco Espanol", and he got an Excellent rating.
Libby played "A Knight's Tale" and "Bewitching Boogie" for Piano Festival and got a "Superior" rating! Way to go Libster! She also had a gymnastics performance last weekend, and she was the only one to do several hard moves. She is going to start soccer this week, and now soccer and gymnastics are on the same day!
Bruce Josh and Joseph have had a great time playing for an Indoor Soccer League, and I've had a ball being their #1 fan. They have a really good team, so watching them is a clinic in soccer every week. Their last game was this week, so now they're thinking of signing up for a new round of play, which I hope they do!
I gave a lesson today in Relief Society about Service, which was really fun. I enjoy teaching RS!
The Lord has been blessing us in so many ways, and we are so grateful.
Family of Fifteen: The adventures of a happily married mother and father, 6 amazing children, 4 rock-star in-laws and 3 grand-chlidren!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Our Family's Got Talent!
I started to write this a month ago, but never finished, so I'll post it now:
While this title may raise some eyebrows, it simply must be the title of this blog, because I have to report that three of our children participated in _________ (the name of our town)'s Got Talent last weekend! Fifty-two contestants auditioned for the finals, and twenty-two made it in, three of which were Josh and his friend Connor, Jesse and Libby. Josh played the piano while Connor sang "Go the Distance" from Hercules, Jesse played the Revolutionary Etude by Chopin, and Libby did a gymnastics floor routine to "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Libby was the youngest solo contestant, and she did great on her routine. It wasn't quite as good as what she had practiced, but to get out in front of a crowd of 300-400 people and perform is brave, and she did it! Two days before she did a back-handspring on her own, so she added that to the routine. She stumbled on it during the performance, but it was fun that she even attempted it!
Jesse's number was amazing! Her fingers were flying up and down the keys. Unfortunately, before she started the piano was moved to the middle of the stage, and the top was left down and there was no microphone on it, so you could hardly hear the piano at all. It was such a disappointment. Bruce had nightmares that night about not going up on the stage and fixing it right in the middle of the performance. But we didn't think of it while she was performing, and I will explain in just a moment why we think that happened.
Josh and Connor were the next to last performers. The arrangement Josh played is actually an arrangement for piano, and they took an arrangement for voice and put them together, even adding a whole last page that they made up on their own. This made a big difference, because when Connor wasn't singing, the attention switched to Josh on the piano, and his part was just as exciting, so the energy never went down during the performance. Two other women with beautiful voices had sung earlier, but they both sang to recordings, and when they weren't singing, it was just awkward, watching them pass the time up on the stage. In addition, "Go the Distance" is a familiar song to many in the audience, and since the audience had a vote and many in the audience were young kids, I think that helped. Also, Connor and Josh are well known because of the MAD Boys (an acapella group that they performed and recorded a CD with in High School), so that helped also. Interestingly enough, Connor's microphone got a short in it right when he started singing. It kept cutting out, but Connor just kept singing without missing a beat, and Josh did the same playing. I was amazed at how they acted cool as cucumbers and it didn't affect their performance in the least. It turns out that they didn't even know! They couldn't tell at all that it was happening, but we couldn't tell that in the audience, so it sort of earned the audience's respect right off the bat. So the long and short of it is, they won the whole thing! They won the top prize, which was $500 in cash! They were thrilled, of course! They split the cash and have put it away for mission funds. Connor already has his call to the Manchester New Hampshire mission, and Josh will start processing his papers in April.
So it was a character building experience for Jesse! She handled it SO WELL. I was more proud of her for how she handled the disappointment than if she had won. She did have to go out to the car right after it ended and pull herself together, but by the time we got home, she went to the piano and played the Etude for us again while we gathered around and did our own cheering for her. Bruce came home and said that one of the ladies there said that she had played the same piece when she was a teenager. She said it was one of the hardest pieces she ever learned, and that she played it about 1/2 the tempo that Jesse had played. She was impressed! I think what really happened is that if Jesse had performed at full capacity, it would have been too close of a contest. It was Joshua's night to win, and Jesse had a character building experience - and WOW, did she handle it well! She will have other nights and other "wins".
The last three weeks have also been a big transformation as far as eating goes. I saw some videos put out by the Gerson Institute that really galvanized me into action. The videos talk about how they heal all sorts of very serious disease, even life-threatening ones, by changing the diet to fruit and vegetable juices. One of the facts they gave (and this was in the early '90's) was that if you practiced medicine in the State of California, if you treated cancer with anything other than surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, you would loose your license. So when patients at the Gerson Institute would go back to their doctors and tell them that they were cured, the doctors would say, "Well, keep on doing what you're doing, but I don't want to know about it." What a truly dismal state of affairs. Sadly, I don't think much has changed in twenty years on the doctor side of things, but I think things have changed tremendously on the patient side. People have choices and they are researching and figuring out a better way to live!
So the action I have taken is to go to much more of a diet that follows the Word of Wisdom. (Why do we - mostly meaning me -- need an outside source to confirm that the Word of Wisdom is wise???) Another impetus was that Bruce has been having severe congestion in his nose and sinus area. It is not getting infected, which is due to the oils that we use, but we haven't been able to pin point what's causing all the mucus formation.
I found a great website that has the education, the research and the recipes that I have been looking for. It is www.whfoods.org. I wrote a seven page document in the last couple of weeks that details what substitutions you can make to eat healthier. It is fun to have done that.
I have good news - I am a new Young Living Exectutive! This a level in YL that I've been striving to meet for awhile, so I'm very excited!
Joseph and Jesse sang a trio in Sacrament Meeting today. It was a beautiful arrangement of Come Thou Fount with the words being the lyrics from "Oh How Lovely was the Morning". It was very nicely done!
Peter scored 2 or 3 goals yesterday in his indoor soccer team. He is a great player! Bruce is coaching his indoor team, and has already started practices for Spring outdoor soccer.
Mary did a great job on her Festival songs yesterday. She played a Jazz piece and then a Clementi Sonatina for her numbers. Jesse, Peter and Libby also played, and they did great!
Have a good week, everyone!
While this title may raise some eyebrows, it simply must be the title of this blog, because I have to report that three of our children participated in _________ (the name of our town)'s Got Talent last weekend! Fifty-two contestants auditioned for the finals, and twenty-two made it in, three of which were Josh and his friend Connor, Jesse and Libby. Josh played the piano while Connor sang "Go the Distance" from Hercules, Jesse played the Revolutionary Etude by Chopin, and Libby did a gymnastics floor routine to "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Libby was the youngest solo contestant, and she did great on her routine. It wasn't quite as good as what she had practiced, but to get out in front of a crowd of 300-400 people and perform is brave, and she did it! Two days before she did a back-handspring on her own, so she added that to the routine. She stumbled on it during the performance, but it was fun that she even attempted it!
Jesse's number was amazing! Her fingers were flying up and down the keys. Unfortunately, before she started the piano was moved to the middle of the stage, and the top was left down and there was no microphone on it, so you could hardly hear the piano at all. It was such a disappointment. Bruce had nightmares that night about not going up on the stage and fixing it right in the middle of the performance. But we didn't think of it while she was performing, and I will explain in just a moment why we think that happened.
Josh and Connor were the next to last performers. The arrangement Josh played is actually an arrangement for piano, and they took an arrangement for voice and put them together, even adding a whole last page that they made up on their own. This made a big difference, because when Connor wasn't singing, the attention switched to Josh on the piano, and his part was just as exciting, so the energy never went down during the performance. Two other women with beautiful voices had sung earlier, but they both sang to recordings, and when they weren't singing, it was just awkward, watching them pass the time up on the stage. In addition, "Go the Distance" is a familiar song to many in the audience, and since the audience had a vote and many in the audience were young kids, I think that helped. Also, Connor and Josh are well known because of the MAD Boys (an acapella group that they performed and recorded a CD with in High School), so that helped also. Interestingly enough, Connor's microphone got a short in it right when he started singing. It kept cutting out, but Connor just kept singing without missing a beat, and Josh did the same playing. I was amazed at how they acted cool as cucumbers and it didn't affect their performance in the least. It turns out that they didn't even know! They couldn't tell at all that it was happening, but we couldn't tell that in the audience, so it sort of earned the audience's respect right off the bat. So the long and short of it is, they won the whole thing! They won the top prize, which was $500 in cash! They were thrilled, of course! They split the cash and have put it away for mission funds. Connor already has his call to the Manchester New Hampshire mission, and Josh will start processing his papers in April.
So it was a character building experience for Jesse! She handled it SO WELL. I was more proud of her for how she handled the disappointment than if she had won. She did have to go out to the car right after it ended and pull herself together, but by the time we got home, she went to the piano and played the Etude for us again while we gathered around and did our own cheering for her. Bruce came home and said that one of the ladies there said that she had played the same piece when she was a teenager. She said it was one of the hardest pieces she ever learned, and that she played it about 1/2 the tempo that Jesse had played. She was impressed! I think what really happened is that if Jesse had performed at full capacity, it would have been too close of a contest. It was Joshua's night to win, and Jesse had a character building experience - and WOW, did she handle it well! She will have other nights and other "wins".
The last three weeks have also been a big transformation as far as eating goes. I saw some videos put out by the Gerson Institute that really galvanized me into action. The videos talk about how they heal all sorts of very serious disease, even life-threatening ones, by changing the diet to fruit and vegetable juices. One of the facts they gave (and this was in the early '90's) was that if you practiced medicine in the State of California, if you treated cancer with anything other than surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, you would loose your license. So when patients at the Gerson Institute would go back to their doctors and tell them that they were cured, the doctors would say, "Well, keep on doing what you're doing, but I don't want to know about it." What a truly dismal state of affairs. Sadly, I don't think much has changed in twenty years on the doctor side of things, but I think things have changed tremendously on the patient side. People have choices and they are researching and figuring out a better way to live!
So the action I have taken is to go to much more of a diet that follows the Word of Wisdom. (Why do we - mostly meaning me -- need an outside source to confirm that the Word of Wisdom is wise???) Another impetus was that Bruce has been having severe congestion in his nose and sinus area. It is not getting infected, which is due to the oils that we use, but we haven't been able to pin point what's causing all the mucus formation.
I found a great website that has the education, the research and the recipes that I have been looking for. It is www.whfoods.org. I wrote a seven page document in the last couple of weeks that details what substitutions you can make to eat healthier. It is fun to have done that.
I have good news - I am a new Young Living Exectutive! This a level in YL that I've been striving to meet for awhile, so I'm very excited!
Joseph and Jesse sang a trio in Sacrament Meeting today. It was a beautiful arrangement of Come Thou Fount with the words being the lyrics from "Oh How Lovely was the Morning". It was very nicely done!
Peter scored 2 or 3 goals yesterday in his indoor soccer team. He is a great player! Bruce is coaching his indoor team, and has already started practices for Spring outdoor soccer.
Mary did a great job on her Festival songs yesterday. She played a Jazz piece and then a Clementi Sonatina for her numbers. Jesse, Peter and Libby also played, and they did great!
Have a good week, everyone!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Games Report
Nobody wanted the break to be over. We just played and had the best time. Telestrations has been the hit game so far. We played twice on Christmas Day and laughed so hard!! The game is basically like the telephone game, where you whisper something to the person next to you and it goes around the circle and you see what you end up with. In this game instead of whispering, you alternate between drawing a word and guessing what was drawn by the person next to you. We actually took pictures of two of the drawings, but you have to look at the progression going down, not left to right. On the left is one word, and on the right is another.
You won't laugh nearly as hard as we did - it was one of those things where you had to be there, but I tell you, when we saw Bruce reveal that he had written "Fun", we laughed until we were crying. Fun? How is Josh supposed to draw "Fun"?? And when Jesse put "Ugly Man", there were more tears going down faces.
We have gone to the late church schedule. Hallelujah! Since we don't get to sleep in on Saturdays a good part of the year (because of soccer games), I love sleeping in on Sunday. One of life's little luxuries that I am grateful for.
Josh is still looking for work. He has applied at a lot of places, but nothing has come up yet. He will keep looking!
Joseph gave a great talk in Church today on Faith. He used a lot of material from True to the Faith, Preach My Gospel, the scriptures and conference talks. He spent about 5 hours researching material and another five hours putting it together for the talk. He said he only included about 1/2 of what he had written down, and even at that his talk was still 12 minutes long. The counselor in the bishopric had to tap on his leg to tell him to stop. :) I told him afterward to not give Joseph 3 minutes. He's got to have more time than that!
Jesse made the commitment to learn Jeux d'eau (by Ravel) for Festival in about 6 weeks. She has learned 7 out of 13 pages. This is the hardest piece she has learned yet by far. She knows the first 7 pages really well, but they are not a tempo yet. A tempo is an eighth note equals 144 bpm, and there are 32nd notes all over the song. Craziness!! I love hearing her playing this song.
Mary had to do a project for science class in which they had to model an element, and her group is "Neon". She made a vest out of purple felt. She did it by making her own pattern from butcher paper and sewed it herself! I was really proud of her.
Peter has been playing the Wii like crazy. So has Bruce. I won't make any more comment on that. Ha ha Peter has made a goal to read the Book of Mormon this year. Yeah!
Libby surprised me this week. I was getting her piano pieces ready for Festival. I made a guess at what level she was on and played through some of the songs and thought that they would be challenging, but she could do it. When I played them for her, she listened and then sat down and played through one of them. She learned the whole song in about 10 minutes, playing it all the way through, a tempo, no problems. Wow! Needless to say, I went back to the store and picked a book that was at the next level for her. Festival songs are not supposed to be terribly hard, but if you can sight read them and play them in ten minutes, that's too easy! She's only eight, but she's really moving along in piano.
Libby also performed at halftime for the boys basketball game on Friday. She did her Gymnastics routine. She got lots of compliments afterward because she did so well!
I did 3 Raindrops this week within a twenty-seven hour period! In case you haven't heard of the Raindrop Technique, it's a method of applying essential oils to the feet and to the back, incorporating massage and reflexology techniques. One lady I work with has had wonderful results with the Raindrop. She gets one every two weeks. I incorporate the oils that come up on the Compass for her, and she takes NingXia Red Juice on a regular basis. (Contact me if you want to know more NingXia - I have a good website for it, but it has my full name on it, so I don't want to give it out on this public blog.) It has been a tremendous blessing for me to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord in bringing some healing to her life.
A few months ago, at Bruce's work, they announced that they wanted to reduce the on-site workforce by 20%. Bruce promptly signed up for it and got it approved. At the end of last year he cleaned out his cubicle, and now works completely from home. This makes sense, since his team is all in Vancouver and Israel. If you wonder if globalization has taken place, let that be an indicator. So we can live on our 2 1/2 acres, have our little farm here in Idaho and be close to great outdoor recreation and beautiful rural surroundings while Bruce works from his office in our home with Israelis in Tel Aviv. It's a beautiful life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)