A Return to Nathanisms

We are going on vacation soon and this evening we were discussing seating arrangements for the drive. As we made some decisions and the conversation wound down, Nathan said, "The whole time we're in Seattle, will we want to wear pants?" Kev and I completely lost it. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Yes, I know exactly what he meant (long pants as opposed to shorts) and that he was probably planning to actually say something about shorts, but he paused...and it was hilarious. Funniest thing I've heard in weeks. :-)

Patriotism Using Pipe Cleaners

My kids have really come to look forward to our yearly tradition of making a t-shirt for the 4th of July. This year's selection used pipe cleaner to stamp fireworks on the shirts. They were simple and easy to make and the kids loved how they turned out!

BFF

For almost the past year, Malia’s best friend has been Raylee. They have been in preschool together and although they weren’t in the same primary class last year, they were this year. When Malia discovered that fact, there was a fist pump and a “Yes!” involved. These two girls have gotten along amazingly well. Their personalities are very similar, they like the same things and they just love being together. I’ve only had to intervene in a moment of disagreement once in the past year and that one was just to suggest maybe they could take turns. Other than that, they have worked everything out on their own and have had surprisingly few moments of conflict. As far as a couple of 4-5 year olds go, that is pretty much a mini miracle. Raylee has even taught Malia some of the finer points of being a princess. Malia can be pretty rough and tumble (having three older brothers will do that) and Raylee has helped balance that out. I couldn’t have asked for a better first girlfriend for Malia.

Raylee and her family have been living down the street, with one of her sets of grandparents. Her dad was finishing up his last year of medical school and they didn’t know where he would be assigned for his residency so they didn’t want to buy a home or anything like that only to be there less than a year. Because of that, we’ve known all along that they would be moving, we just didn’t know where. When they were given their assignment a few months ago, I started prepping Malia for the fact that Raylee would be moving. I figured if she knew what was coming and had an idea of what it really meant, it might be easier on her. By the time Raylee left last week, Malia had a pretty good idea what moving meant.

Raylee moved last Saturday. They were able to spend a good chunk of the last couple of days together and due to our in-advance discussions, Malia has handled it really well. She’s only asked when Raylee would be living down the street from us again once. I was just about Malia’s age when my parents moved to their current home and I met a group of girls, some of whom became besties and one of whom I still keep in touch with. (This is a shout out to Lisa-my life long bestie!) Luckily for us, Raylee has only moved to Provo and her grandparents still live just down the street so while I’m old enough to know things definitely won’t be the same, at least Malia will be able to see her from time to time.

Raylee drew a picture for Malia by way of a parting gift. Raylee is on the right dressed as Rapunzel who is currently her favorite princess. Malia is on the left as Snow White which is what Malia wants to be for Halloween this year. I thought it was a sweet way of letting Malia know that the friendship goes both ways.

In moments of loneliness or boredom, Malia will sigh and say, “I wish Raylee was here.” You know what? I wish Raylee was here too.

Family Resemblance

My mom recently found a box full of photos of my dad and his family. Most of the pictures were of my dad when he was a kid and as I flipped through them, I discovered that my boys definitely resemble my dad. It isn't really apparent now, but there were several photos taken when my dad was a teen that made me realize that my boys are most assuredly a part of this family. Check it out:

 l-r: My dad-age 15, Daniel-age 15, My dad-age 13, Nathan-age 13

Those pics were taken when my dad was just the ages that Daniel and Nathan are currently. Daniel doesn't look much like my dad in his face (my brother, Adam, however is another story) but the way he stands, his posture, the shape of his body are very similar. As for Nathan, his resemblance is all in the face. It's not as noticeable in the picture we took specifically for this card, but if you could see Nathan in the second just before his smile is full, he looks even more like the picture of my dad (minus the glasses and the fact that my dad's face is thinner-one of the results of doing the hard physical labor required of a farm boy).

So I guess these kids really do belong to us. However, they would have no idea what to do if I dropped then at a farm and told them to get to work. City boys vs. country boy. I think the lives my boys lead are very different than the one my dad had growing up, but I also think they would have to look pretty hard to find a better role model.

'Tis the Season

A Tender Mercy

This evening I took dinner to one of the ladies I visit teach. She just had a baby, so food was in order. This is by no means an out of the ordinary event, but she has Celiac disease and can’t eat any gluten so there was a need for some careful planning and cooking. The out of the ordinary part of the experience was all on my side. For the first time ever, I felt a rush of gratitude for Matthew’s allergies. I’m not grateful that he has them, of course, but I’m incredibly grateful that all the struggles we’ve had have helped me be able to serve someone else who is in a similar situation. This is one of those all too infrequent moments when I can actually see how my trials have brought some good into my life.

Yet Another Childhood Trauma

Today we found an earwig in the house and Malia told us it was the “ewwest” bug she’d ever seen. She’s not wrong. Yet another creepy crawly I have issues with based on a movie, this one the original “Wrath of Khan” which gave me issues about things crawling into my ears. {shudder}

How About That? I’m the King of the Show!

One of my favorite things about doing experience gifts for our kids is that Kev and I get to do cool stuff as well. Nathan spent all of last year reminding us that he wanted to see "Newsies" when it came and it gave me super fabulous excuse to work to get tickets. Not that I wouldn’t have tried anyway, but it gave me good motivation to make it happen. And it was totally worth it! The show was amazing! Nathan and I went with all three of my sisters and Josh, one of my nephews. Tickets were in such high demand that none of us were sitting together, but that was ok. Nathan was a row in front of me and a few seats down and every time I looked at him, he looked like this:

As this was one of Nathan’s experiences, he is once again my guest blogger.

This afternoon we went and saw the Broadway across America Production of “Newsies”. Words cannot even start to describe how amazing it was. It. Was. G.R.E.A.T.!!!!! They had amazing sets. The set was three huge individual sets which all looked like the New York fire escapes. Except, then could each move forward and back, rotate, and they even had lights in them!!! They never closed the main curtain. At all. It was amazing. The sets were so tall that we could not see the top of them, as they stretched far into the ceiling. They had sets that they would lower, and the best part wasn’t even that. Each of the openings on the sets had fabric that could roll up and down like a screen. Then, to get the scenery for the specific scenes, then projected images on the rolled down fabric, and they did this in almost every scene, making it FANTASTIC!!! 

On top of that, the dancing was AMAZING. The lines were SUPER straight, they did crazy stunts (like backflips, and things like that) and they did a WHOLE NUMBER FULL OF TAP!! They danced on the chairs, tables, and all over. To make it even better, the boys all had very tight harmony. They sang the main melody ad a main harmony, then had harmony on top of both main parts. The music was great, the singing was AMAZING, then harmonies were great, and the show was just overall STUPENDOUS!!! Seeing the show made we want to go back, seeing as it was SOOOO AMAZING!! As we were walking out, mom said that now she could take me to New York and we could be happy sitting in shows all day. I happily agreed. One last thing was that my mom bought me a Newsies cap, and Newsies T-shirt, and a Newsies Shoulder bag to have as memorabilia. So, this show was VERY AMAZING, and, well, words have a hard time describing it as it is!

The Sets

The Sets With the Fabric Rolled Down and Stuff Projected On the Fabric

And now a few more pics of all us happy people.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, Daniel has become quite the band geek. He eats, drinks and sleeps music right now. Of course, it is marching band season so that fills up lots of his free hours. He is also the kid that actually likes to practice. In fact, sometimes we have to tell him to stop practicing. His sax, though a student level instrument, is only three years old and and his hand-me-down clarinet has been fulfilling its purpose. But knowing the brand and age of his current clarinet and knowing that it isn’t going to take him as far musically as he wants to go (honestly, I am astounded at the great sound he can get out of the thing), Kev and I decided to get him a new clarinet. This decision has taken us months to come to, but we just want him to have an instrument that will allow him to grow as a musician. Although we know there are others who upgrade their kid’s instrument as a graduation gift, we decided we wanted him to be able to play and enjoy it all the way through high school.

Since his birthday is in December, he gets his birthday present from Kevin and me on his half birthday. So this morning we all hopped in the car and headed to Summerhays. Daniel did not know why we were going and when we arrived and he saw Kevin’s parents were there to meet us, he was mightily confused. We went in and selected a few instruments for him to play and he was happy as a clam. He has actually played some of the professional level clarinets before, so this was not a completely uncommon thing. In fact, he and his friend Cody like to just play all those new instruments and drool…although not literally because yuck. Anyway, Daniel played and had narrowed down the assortment to the one he liked best. The one he picked was not a surprise since it is the same one he’s had his eye on since at least March. Then Kev laid the decision before him. We were prepared to walk out the door with that beautiful clarinet on the condition that it would be his Christmas and birthday presents for the next three years. We were not going to force him into this arrangement, it was a choice. Not unexpectedly, he was totally ok with the deal. He didn’t even have to stop and think about it. He knows he will still get small gifts from us and gifts from his siblings and such, but having that new instrument was worth sacrificing any big Lego sets he has his eye on. Again, not a surprise to me. Kevin’s parents were in on the deal as well-they purchased Daniel a new mouthpiece since playing the new clarinet with the old mouthpiece would be like putting a rubber band engine in a Ferrari.

He’s thrilled. And wants to practice all the time. And makes me sound even less skilled when we play together. I better get my act together musically if we’re going to play something together and not sound like I’ve run over a cat with the car. ;-)

And as a side note, while all the official payment info was in the works, Matthew got to try out a trumpet. He has wanted to play trumpet for three years now and is standing firm in that desire. He was completely stoked (yes, I realize I just blatantly revealed my status as a child of the 80’s) when he was actually able to create some sound. And Nathan test drove the pianos, very nearly drooling over an Italian-made 7 ft. grand with a price tag of $78,000. Talk about a heart attack. But he said the touch of the thing was amazing and getting a huge range of dynamics was so easy and it sounded beautiful…yeah, keep dreaming kid. But yeah, I totally get it.

A Few (Musical) Notes

Music is a big part of my life. It's the same for Kev. So it's not unexpected that our kids love music as well.

Daniel decided he wanted to take band sometime in fifth or sixth grade and decided his instrument would be saxophone. Two years ago Kev's dad passed on his old clarinet and before we knew it, Daniel was a two instrument kid. He is equally good on both and when I ask him which he would choose if he were forced to do so, he honestly doesn't know. He has spent this year splitting his time between the two instruments and part of the drama involved with his plans for high school have revolved around which bands he would be accepted into. All except the beginning bands involved an audition and he auditioned on both instruments not know where the band director would place him. Due to the fact that he has only been playing for three years (and only two for clarinet), I was honestly surprised when he was accepted into the advanced wind symphony and the advanced symphony orchestra on his clarinet and the advanced jazz band on his sax. There were definitely some hard choices involved. He finally decided on early morning seminary, wind symphony and jazz band so he could have one ensemble with each instrument. Oh, and if all that is not enough, he is teaching himself to play flute as well.

Nathan has known he wanted to play piano since he was four. He's been taking lessons for four years now and is good enough that he feels comfortable playing for choirs. In fact, he has gotten good enough that his piano teacher told me that his skill has surpassed hers and they have shifted their focus to organ. We have found a new teacher so he can continue to improve and will be able to reach the skill level that he desires. He sang with the elementary school choir until we switched schools and choir was no longer an option. This year he has been back in choir and has absolutely loved it. He is looking forward to having a full year of choir next year and one of his current piano goals is to get good enough at "The Maple Leaf Rag" that he will be able to play in the school talent show in the fall.

In addition to growing up in a musical family, I was involved in music all the way through school. I started playing violin in the fourth grade and sang in the elementary school choir. In junior high I was in the orchestra. In high school I was in choir, madrigals, orchestra and AP music theory. And as a music major at BYU, I was still eyeball deep in music. Since I got married, my musical involvement has differed depending on a variety of life circumstances. I’ve sung with a number of ward and stake choirs as well as having many (let’s face it, almost all) music callings. I’m currently the choir director (for the third time) and I don’t see myself being released any time soon…

But over about the past year, I’ve found myself longing to have more music in my life. Directing the choir is not the same as singing and I hadn’t played my violin regularly since high school. I'd love to sing with a choir again but with my kids' needs and the nagging migraines, I don't think I can commit to that yet. On top of that, I haven't had any serious vocal training in a long time and I'm not as confident as I once was. In spite of all that, a little thought in my head told me that getting my music back would help me be happier and so I pulled out my violin. I knew things would be pretty rough, not having played regularly for nearly 24 years, but my skills were even more lacking that I thought they would be. And my instrument was in desperate need of some maintenance.

Kevin took my violin to Summerhays for some touching up, and unfortunately, it was in worse condition than I thought. I knew it needed new strings and that the tuning pegs needed lubrication so they could turn, but the actual needs were new strings, new pegs because the current ones are no longer round, a new bridge and a new bow. And all that was going to cost around $300, far too much for how much the violin is worth. I was left feeling a bit glum and disappointed until Kev suggested buying a new violin instead-an entry level student violin, of course, but I honestly don’t need more than that. And you know what? When I picked up that new violin, I realized that my skills, although rusty, were not as abysmal as I thought. Having a violin in decent shape changed a lot. It was definitely a pick me up.

So for the past few months, I’ve been practicing as I find time and I’ve been playing with the boys. Piano, clarinet and violin is not a really common ensemble so finding music had been a challenge (and the fact that Daniel is better than both Nathan and I provides a challenge as well) but we’ve found a few things and are attempting to learn them. As a result, music time has become a more regular thing for me. It's not that I'm not busy anymore because if anything, my schedule is crazier. I may not be changing diapers or chasing toddlers, but I've become a carpool queen. The point is, my kids have gotten older and I'm reaching a point where I can think about what's next for me. While I don't have an answer for that yet, I do know that I want my music back. A lot of that has been set by the wayside while my focus was on raising the little folks. Now that they are more independent, I can actually sneak in some time for me (sometimes).

It has been fun playing with them. And it’s filling up a little empty part of my soul.

Now I Have Two Teenagers...

Nathan’s birthday was really low key this year. He had his friend birthday party two weeks ago since we have learned from years past that no one is available for a party on Memorial Day weekend. He met a whole new crew of kids while he was in “Annie” and he wanted to invite them all and play improv games. This group is not a small group and we do not have room for 35 or so teenagers in our living room, so we scheduled the gym at the church and held his party there. He planned all the games and everything. All I had to do was provide food. So it was a totally easy party for me.

The night before his birthday was a trip to Desert Star Playhouse. He received this trip as one of his experience gifts for Christmas but when he was hopelessly torn between two shows, we offered to take him to see one for his birthday in addition to the one for Christmas. I didn’t think this show was as funny as the last one we saw, but Nathan enjoyed it thoroughly.

On his actual birthday he received his presents from his siblings and that was about it. He got his present from Kev and me (a stack of sheet music and the Desert Star trip) in advance so there wasn’t even anything from us. I usually try to get at least some balloons and a treat of some sort, but I was really off my game this year and totally missed that. So it was low key.

We celebrated with my family this evening. Nathan has a fondness for carrot cake so that was what I made, but he didn’t even care about having it decorated this time. I guess that’s just one more sign that he’s not a little boy anymore. Everything has been so laid back that I didn’t even take any pictures. Kev snapped one while Nathan was blowing out his candles and that is all we have.

Nathan has grown up a lot in the past year. He has found his place at the middle school and is doing well there. He is learning a lot and loving the learning. He is not as stressed out about the changes in homework and such and even his teachers have mentioned that he has relaxed a lot. He has found himself a big group of friends who have the same interests and hopefully, he will be as lucky as I was in that area and will find these friends sticking with him throughout high school and even beyond. And-one of his favorite accomplishments of the past year-he is taller than I am. ;-)

The End of the School Year Whirlwind

It always seems a bit backward to me that the end of the school year is so busy. But as class work is winding down, special events are revving up and our calendar has been booked solid for the past two weeks. I’ll try to summarize all the best events.

Daniel had his final band concert of middle school. He has really enjoyed his time in band and his teacher has been great. I’m extremely grateful for her as she has helped Daniel develop his skills and his love for music. He also had his final concert of the district youth symphony, another group that he has enjoyed. At the annual awards assembly, he was selected as the outstanding student in band. Lagoon day and yearbook day finished up his middle school years. And now summer marching band is in full swing!

Nathan had his final choir concert of the year. He was especially excited because he was playing piano for two of his choir numbers. He did a fantastic job! Really, I couldn’t be prouder. He received the award for most outstanding student in Math…although it was originally presented in the 8th grade assembly because he is in 8th honors math and had to be presented again in the 7th grade assembly. He auditioned for and was invited to play a piano piece at the 7th grade assembly. He played "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." He also had his very first yearbook day. Nathan has absolutely loved this year and is pretty sad it is over.

Malia finished up preschool. She had a short program that showed off what she had learned over the year and received an award for always being happy and always looking for a mystery. She has loved preschool and her social nature has been completely content with her little group of cronies. Her final activity was a picnic at the park with all her preschool friends. She had a great time. Next up for her is kindergarten. I think she is completely ready and she is totally excited!

And Matthew…poor Matthew goes back to school next Thursday and has two and a half more weeks of school.