Trip to Mt. Pleasant

We took a quick afternoon trip to Mt. Pleasant to visit my dad's grave. I haven't been since the funeral so it was way overdue. That hour long drive might as well be 100 when there is not anything else taking me in that part of the state.

But I'm so glad we went.

We ate dinner at the local pizza joint before heading home again.

I hope it's not another two years.

Christmas Ballet Recital

Marisa had another ballet recital recently.

She loves it of course.... This time she says the dance was WAY too easy. (I agree)

Anyway, I tried something new and it didn't really work out. Our point and shoot camera has a feature where it will take pictures while it records.

So, I tried it. But it wouldn't focus, and it doesn't have very good image stabilization so both the video and pictures are.... not awesome, but oh well... here they are anyway.

 



Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Our first big event as a Young Women's presidency was Young Women in Excellence....

I only remember one of these from when I was a teenager and it was.... a disaster! I did not enjoy it. I played the piano and BLEW IT! It was embarrassing.

Anyway, we decided to go with a Wizard of Oz theme and we really got into it.

It was fun. Stressful... and fun. I didn't take any pictures during the event, which I'm regretting now. But the rainbow table was for their displays, the green table was the refreshments (lime punch, sweet breads and Chex mix)

Oh... and we dressed up.

My 1st counselor (the lion) was AH-MAZE-ING! She got into character and everything. My 2nd counselor (the scarecrow) had so many great things to say. I was... there. Sometimes I wonder why I got this job. I may never have an answer.

Oh well, I'm giving it the best I've got anyway.

Now here we are worrying about new beginnings and camp... CAMP!

Work

My blog is LAME lately. Sorry!

But anyway, Shane got a promotion at work a couple months ago. YAY! He moved from 3rd in command to 2nd. It's great! Often in government you have to do a lot of moving around to get where he is but he's been blessed, very lucky, and patient and hard working and hasn't moved once.

His raise barely covers what we pay for piano lessons.

Either that's a testament to the hefty piano lesson bill, or a testament to the itty bitty raise.... well, It's kind of both. After a few years it will be more noticeable the way the pay scale works. Just in time to pay for braces and cars and missions... yep... it might as well be spent already.

We're just grateful he works hard and has a good job that keeps us comfortable. And we're oh so proud of him!

Fall Piano Recital

Sorry for the two week absence. I haven't taken many pictures and my pictures is what I use to figure out what to write about. I also FINALLY got around to finishing my 2013 blog books. So much work! It's worth it but hard to get motivated. I can't believe I've done 6 years of blog books.

The kids all started taking piano lessons from a "real" teacher this fall and Roman, who is in private lessons, had his first "real" recital.

He did really well and it was quite amazing to see him go from where he started (I was really surprised about the difficulty of his piece when he first got it), to having his three page song memorized.

They dressed up in their Halloween costumes and played creepy/Halloween songs. Roman's was called Things That Go Bump in the Night.

Marisa recorded it on my phone so I could share it with everyone. Enjoy!





The other two kids are in group lessons that don't have recitals. Marisa loves it. Ezra doesn't.

I know they are all learning things I didn't know how to teach them. Somehow though... it doesn't make the enormous bill easier to pay. I still go back and forth wondering if this is an investment we really want to make. I've always played the piano but stopped taking lessons at Roman's age. I've always wished I had more training.  Shane doesn't play. I know it's a good thing, I just wonder if it's our good thing. I want our kids to play an instrument, and piano is a great starting point. I'm just so bad at being the practice police. And none of them are self motivated enough to happily practice on their own.

I guess my biggest problem is that I'm this way about anything. Marisa loves dance but the amount of time required to be on any kind of team.... she wouldn't be able to do anything else. Roman loves sports and I thought about having him try out for an accelerated basketball team (he's probably not good enough but who knows). They practice something like 4 nights a week and have games the rest.  He wouldn't have time for anything else. I wonder if any of it is worth it. First world problems, I know.