Piano Recital--Teacher's Perspective

The piano recital was a success!!! Ten student performed--but only 7 of them are my students. I invited anyone in our community that has been "taking" piano lessons to take part. The other piano teacher didn't require her students to perform, but for my students, there is no choice. I think it is important to learn to play in front of an audience. They all received a big Symphony candy bar with a tag that says "Spring 2009 Piano Recital--'Noteworthy' Performance". This is a nice-looking group of kids!!

I didn't have as many students this year because I coached volleyball in the fall & then had Benjamin, so I didn't want to take as many afternoons teaching.

We had a lot of people in the audience--we had 37 total--all squeezed into our Relief Society room in the LDS church. Rusty actually didn't make it because Benjamin and Emmalee were sick Sunday & he stayed home to take care of them.

Piano Recital--Brienna

The last of my children to perform (Ethan said the treat wasn't worth having to perform).

Brienna has been practicing faithfully--unlike her teacher (me) with giving her lessons (oops). She really didn't need any music--I guess just having her music setting on the piano gave her comfort.
She played "Chopsticks" & "Pachebel's Canon"--excellent :)

Piano Recital--Zane

Zane decided to play in the recital because he found out there were treats for performers.

He played "Marine's Hymn" &"The Star Spangled Banner".
His haircut looks nice!

Piano Recital--Callum

Our Piano Recital was yesterday (Sunday) and 3 of the kids played. I only am putting one child per post, since the videos can take a lot of time to download.

Here is Callum.

He doesn't like to practice all the songs I assign him, prefers to play only with is left hand, and only gets a lesson once in a blue moon (maybe I need to bill & pay myself for their lessons)!
But he was all smiles! Here is his video:

He is awesome!!

Note to Self:

Pat myself on the back--Ethan was following the speed limit while driving in town!

We were in Albertson's parking lot, when Ethan was crawling along at a snail's pace. I told him we didn't need to stop and get gas (the gas station was right before the store) and he said he knew.

So I asked him why he was driving so slow. His reply:

"I'm just going the speed limit."

I looked up to see the posted speed limit. I don't think I EVER follow this! He is an obedient driver :)

Next note to self: (and Much more important!!!)

When going to town, shopping at WinCo for over an hour, filling up the the shopping cart with good bargains, piling everything on the check-out conveyor belt,

Bagging everything (neat & orderly--refrigerator stuff separate to put in coolers), using recyclable cloth bags, loading it all back into the cart (now that is a talent in itself!!)

REMEMBER TO REPLACE CHECKS IN CHECKBOOK WHEN YOU USE THE LAST ONE ON THURSDAY PAYING BILLS!!!!!

Yep--that would be me--standing at the nice little check-writing platform, with my checkbook opened to the empty-checked page (deposit only).

I knew I didn't have enough cash in my purse. WinCo does NOT take credit cards (I had used credit cards all the stores I had been to earlier in the day), their ATM machine was out or order, and I don't have a debit card.

The checker said I could run home and get more checks--I told her that wouldn't work because it would take over 2 hours for that to happen.

She asked if I had a debit card (nope), and so I said I would trade my teen aged-son for the groceries run to the credit union and get some cash.

Luckily this happened on Friday (and not today when Rusty & I were in town on our date) & the main branch is only about 3 blocks from the store, so it only took me about 15 minutes total to get back & "un-suspend" my grocery cart. They were really nice and had parked the cart in their walk-in freezer (since I had milk, fries, frozen pizzas, eggs, yogurt, etc.).

I'm breathing again :)

Finally--Thursday wasn't nearly as busy as the past week has been. It feels good to breathe again ;)

Ben has learned to crawl up & reach high for things. (notice Emmalee "loving" him)
Look Mom--I can kneel. All by myself!!
What is on this chair? The newspaper--I want it!!

Rusty took this morning off--and he wasn't sick! He rarely takes any time off, unless he is "in bed" sick!

Why did he take time off???

His pigeons came this morning!


I haven't taken any pictures of our pigeons yet, so these are just from the Internet. But he got 2 pairs--black & white ones & tan/yellow ones.


They are part of his "mid-life crisis" projects--to go with his bird dog he hopes to get this summer.

So what did I do today??? (Besides breathing). I did a couple loads of laundry, put away all the clean clothes, put some groceries away, and cleaned out our freezer shed. We have a chest freezer in one of our shed (it was supposed to be a workshop, but has food storage in it), and we needed to make room for an upright freezer.

That freezer has been in Grandpa's bunkhouse (our back yards connect, so it is really convenient to go to Grandpa's freezer to get our food). Grandpa has 2 freezers--one that they use, and one that I started out using just a couple of shelves, but then Grandpa said since they only need room for 2 of them, we could use the freezer for our family.

So we packed all the food into coolers, moved the freezer to the backyard, defrosted it, and then moved it into our "freezer" shed. Then I took a break to watch "Survivor" and then re-stocked/cleaned/organized both freezers.

It looks great! (Too bad my house isn't clean & organized like the freezers & the shed).

Friday is another day in town--Ethan has physical therapy for his knee, and then he will help watch Benjamin while I shop, shop, shop (and fill up our freezers).

Zane's first trumpet concert

Okay--the last video went well, so here is Zane's trumpet "concert".

I started videoing, but had to hand it off to Rusty so I could take some snapshots with the camera.

Too busy to Breathe!!!

That's how I have felt for the past 7 days--I've been to town too many times, and when I have been home, I am being a referee (but that would be a separate post completely).

Tonight was a special night for Brienna & Zane. Let me tell you that our little school has an awesome music program--just not a lot of money. And this is the first year that music has been offered in high school. Our elementary teacher had been teaching band (although she doesn't play a band instrument besides piano & recorder) to the 6-8 graders the past 2 years, but not very many participated.

Needless to say, our band is definitely at a beginners level--it is comprised of 6th-12th graders. But the HS students haven't had band for years. I wish I had videoed the first concert--but if I did (which I might have) I don't have it labeled on the computer. It was about 4 weeks after having Benjamin & I was mighty sore still.

It was a nice concert--the band played, then the HS choir sang and there were a few piano solos. For intermission entertainment, the 5th grade band played. Let me clarify what the 5th grade band is. For the past 3 1/2 weeks, the kids interested in taking band next year (jr. high) were asked to attend an introduction class to the instruments after school for 1 hour, 2 times a week. Zane went every day the first week to decide what instrument he liked the best (M-W was for brass, T-Th for woodwinds) and he definitely loves the trumpet.

(Here is Emmalee restless and trying to be in all the pictures)

L-R: Matthew (Zane's good buddy), Zane, Diego, & Madeline (one of my piano students).

Okay--after the intermission songs (they played 3 and were surprisingly good), then the middle school choir sang.
(Brienna is waiting patiently for it to be the band's turn again)

Brienna was in the choir last semester, but unfortunately (small school syndrome) you can only take choir 1 semester because it is at the same time as PE (required for 1 semester). And band is offered at the same time as computer/keyboarding. So the Jr. High choir had 4 girls last semester, and 3 girls this semester.

Here's Zane tooting his horn :) Maybe someday if he keeps with it, his mom & dad will buy him a trumpet & then he will be tooting his OWN horn!! ;)

After the Middle School choir, the band ended with 3 more songs. The last 2 were their favorite songs.

Here are the 8 5th graders that played tonight--There are 18 students in 5th grade, and there were a few that couldn't make it tonight. (Rusty teaches these kids)

I hope this video works--this is my first attempt of downloading video onto my blog. This was the bands last song of the evening--and when they first started learning it, they "hated" it. (Brienna probably didn't because she is super talented and learns the songs in just a few days--rarely has to practice at home for the band pieces.) But the last month or so, they have come to love this song, and they all wanted this one to be the finale.

Let me tell you the rest of the story about tonight's concert: Monday after school (now Monday I was in town all day with Emmalee & Benjamin for his 6 mo. check-up & shots. We also went "shopping" and I barely made it back to teach piano--yes, I DID remember my students this time) Brienna handed me a paper about the concert (we knew about it before, but this had details of time, etc.) and it said she needed to be there at 6:30 so she could change into the band uniform. She also needed to bring 1 doz. cookies/dessert, and to wear a white-collared shirt, black socks & shoes. We bought the black shoes last fall for the marching band, but she hadn't needed a white-collared shirt before. She has plenty of white shirts--but no collars.

The only shirts I knew we had were the boys' church shirts--Callum's (way too small), Zane's (too small), Rusty's (too big) & Ethan's (way too big). I wasn't too happy because if I had known, I could have looked for a shirt at DI (thrift store) in town. Finally I had a chance to dig through the tote of clothes for Zane to grow into. And I luckily found a shirt :) I knew I kept those clothes for a reason ;)

But as Brienna was doing her last minute hair primping, she asked if I had made the cookies/dessert for tonight. I HAD TOTALLY FORGOT!!! If it doesn't get written on my calendar, then I don't remember things like that! I wasn't happy, because Zane said he too was supposed to bring a dessert too.

So I quickly made a double batch of rice crispy treats, nursed the baby and walked over to the school--(breathe, Michelle)!

Anyways, we survived the night. In the video, you can see how restless Emmalee is and a lady held Ben for a few minutes, but about 1 1/2 minutes into the last song, he started crying, so Rusty had to get him.

I think it is time for me to go and breathe myself to sleep--Good night!!

Snickers? Mr. Goodbar? M&M?

NOPE--none of those candy bars. Ah----I remember the name his uncle gave him--all dressed with his shades, "bling" & all-important-hat-on-backwards:

MILK DUD :)

(and he likes it!)

Wasn't it just Yesterday....

....that my baby was born? He is now 6 months old!

The kids dug out the Harry Potter glasses after recently seeing the trailer for the new movie out in July (17th).

He is a great eater--loves his veggies :)

Cool Callum was just in pre-school...last year? Nope--my special guy will be a 3rd grader in the fall! Where has time gone?

My baby Zane--just a few summers ago you were born (big, always hungry & active). Yep--that's still my Zane--almost 11 years old!

Ethan & Ben look a lot alike (baby photos--I'll have to scan E's baby ones). He will soon be a senior--& then off on his own (he is counting the days--even though there are more than 370).

We just looked at Emmalee's baby scrapbook last night. She thought it was Ben's except for a few where she had bows in her hair :)

Zane & Emmalee have similar personalities--goofy, active & always on the go.

Where did my little baby girl go? She is all grown up into a beautiful young woman! What a cute outfit!!!

Wasn't it just Yesterday....that I met my hubby, and we got married?

Good thing it is only today :)