Mandy here!

So...I don't really have much to say.  I am working hard at student teaching.  It's hard and frustrating and I want to quit a lot of times.  It's not what I was expecting at all.  I'm starting to think about what I want to do with the rest of my life though.

I will be getting a teaching job in the fall because that's the only thing I left for myself to do.  I'm trying to decide if I teach a few years, or if I go to grad school after one year.  I guess I can decide when I actually am teaching, but I've been thinking more and more about looking into performing and playing my horn for a living.  It is kind of one of the unattainable dream goals, but I feel like it's something I can do with a huge amount of work, and maybe a little bit of luck.  Maybe that's just crazy talk though.

I joined a community orchestra.  They are really bad, but it's somewhere to play so I'm happy with that for now.  It's also not a huge time commitment.

Sometimes I wonder about y ability to be a good (music) teacher.  Those kinds of teachers are so good at caring (even if they don't and are just pretending...) There is a girl who has a "Wo is me" personality.  My teacher is so good at listening.  I just want to tell her everyone's life is hard, quit complaining.  I've never been very good at that sort of thing.  I always ignore sympathy fishers...

I'm super excited for next week! I'm going down to St. George for UMEA! Hopefully it's awesome.  And it will be good to have a long weekend full of fun! and friends!

Last week I went to a Guster concert.  It was AMAZING!!! childhood dream fulfilled.  Their last song during their encore, they completely unplugged and sang Jesus on the Radio acoustically, they even pulled out the banjo.   It was some serious magic.  I've never experienced the magic that was created during that song.  On Saturday I'm going to the Utah Symphony! For Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.  No Joke, Strauss wrote pretty much the best music ever, at least for the horns :)

So to leave you here is a horn quartet of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

If that doesn't do it for you here is what I'm listening to now, it's a beautiful song, I played it for my junior recital minus the orchestra :) Another French piece...like always...

Reading a book is fun to do!

I know my day was yesterday, but I wanted to show the video I just took.  Even though the camera is pointed at Henry the whole time, you can still hear Gabe.  I think it shows their personalities in a fun way. "Run run run, jump!"

Sick

I'm sick.  I've had a little bit of a cold all week, but this morning I woke up with so much gunk in my chest and throat that I couldn't speak.  Now I just have a super low bass voice.

It's really a shame too, because Hogle zoo was having a free day today, and we were going to go with all of the other moms and kids in our playgroup.  Then we were going to have a game night with some friends this evening.  It would have been a fun day, but I didn't want to infect the whole neighborhood.  Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow.  I have a relief society activity and volleyball tomorrow evening.

Life is happy right now.

Sure, we don't have a car or a computer, or any money... haha, but those things bring convenience,  not happiness.  For the first time in my life, outside of family, I feel like I belong.  We live in a fantastic ward and community.  These are my people.  Obviously no one is perfect, but I feel like this is how Heavenly Father wants us to live, and treat each other.  I wish I could tell you about each individual person, but I'm typing on my phone, and that would be highly impractical. Each of us is good at different things and has different view points, but we all try our hardest to use those things to help and love each other.  I think I have more friends in my life right now than I have in rest of my life put together.

Another thing that makes life so happy is being a wife and a mom.  I was made for this gig.  I don't think it detracts from who I am as an individual.  I think it only adds to it, and makes me better.  Yeah, there are hard times where I just want to hide from everyone, but I am so grateful for my family.  I love that I get to play with my boys all day.  I would have a really hard time if I had to leave for work.  I left gabe at a friends house for preschool on monday, and it was only 2 hours, but it felt so weird.  He loved it by the way.  I am just so grateful for all of the people in my life, including all of you!

Love you all!

Emma

It's Not My Turn

It's not my turn to blog, but I relearned something

 that I thought was worth sharing.

One of my goals this year is to have personal

 morning prayer and scripture study.

Can I just tell you that it is a lot harder

 to be diligent about this than you would think?

It is absurdly hard!

Anyway, what I have learned is this:

My life is better (truly!) when I do it.

My life does not change. 

But my heart does.

Revolutionary!

Mom

Saturday is a special Day

Heyo!

This picture is actually from Friday, not Saturday.

Still, close enough. 

I am sure you can tell that is St. Francis Xavier, right behind our house.

I have been trying to get out and walk on the nicer days.

It was definitely a nicer day.

Dad and I went out to Lake Maria hiking.

Check out this awesome giant fungus we found in the woods!

It was a winter fun day so there was snow shoeing, disc golf,

fat tire bikes, broom ball, animal track bingo, and winter camping.

Can you tell it was really an outing for children? Haha.

Oh well.

It was still really fun.

We went on a two and a half mile hike,

leaving behind the children's loud frivolity, and it was awesome!

I sure love being in nature.

Sam wasn't with us because he was at the one act festival, 

which they won, of course.

Anyway, it was great.

Just a little peek at our day.

Hope yours was good too!

Love you,

Mom

PS I am pumped about this addition to our blog. 

Happy, indeed!

Tuesdays to Mondays

Family!

Mom and I switched days since Mondays are way better than Tuesdays for me. I have a full lesson day on Mondays now! Two home-school kids and a full after school block. Which is exciting. I started one of my new students today (I have 4 including her starting in February) and I'm really excited about teaching her, but she started with Simply Music which is similar to Suzuki. So any thoughts about helping her and me switch to a more traditional approach without us getting discouraged would be wonderful. She's an adorable human- with a great F scale. Yay!

 Mia, Mandy and I went to The Pearl Fishers yesterday! It was great. It was so nice to enjoy professional level music. (And sit in a gorgeous theater to enjoy it.) It's a teeny cast and they did a really great job. I was a little surprised by the soprano's lack of coloratura, but her technique in her middle range was to die for. Gorgeous. I may have cried a couple times...
This is the picture they use for the Pearl Fishers on the Utah Opera website:

Here's the synopsis and more info on it:

There were so many old people. And half the old ladies had scarves draped around their shoulders. Much elegance!  So opera!   They greeted each other excitedly in the bathroom too. Haha! And one of the best moments of the whole day was when Mia and I were following this older couple to the parking garage when everything was done and the man (like in his 70s-80's) stopped in front of the line of cars trying to get out to the road and opened his coat like he was flashing everyone in the line. He made a face to go with it. It was hilarious.

We had delicious soup and bread from Emma after and... we didn't take any pictures. Oops! So here's one that gave me great delight that I found browsing the internet tonight. Isn't he cute!?

It was nice to see all my sisters. I hope your Monday was happy!

Fabulous Friday

Hello Family! So if you haven't yet heard we are continuing our family prayer traditions only on the blog! We all have a day! This idea just came to me yesterday and I'm preeettty excited about it. SO, this week has been pretty darn good. First things first though, today in my Ed Psych class we talked about.... STUDENT TEACHING IN UGANDA!!!!!! Yeah, I know, I can barely believe it myself. So in case you're wondering yes it is safe and yes it would be amazing. Seriously, it's the dream. In case you don't know where Uganda is I included a picture.

And yes again... it is right next to the equator. It's not an official thing yet but my teacher Brother Wilson said it is totally possible and he would make it happen. I don't even know if they need music teachers but it sounds like an amazing opportunity. It's also at a university, but the people who talked about it in my class today said the university students are more at a freshman in high school level. I really want to go!!! The housing is completely free, I would just have to pay to get there and to feed myself. They also welcome you to bring a spouse, if they can also teach classes. But really all they require is for you to be smart almost graduated college students!!! SO COOL! Anywho, so those are my latest ambitions.  Thats really the only cool thing that is happening in my life right now but there will be more later! 

Oh P.S. This awesome kid: (The one on the left)

Left his scriptures (that also happened to have his debit card) In a cab during an emergency transfer!!! So pray that he finds them!!! 

And finally, here is a quote I think we could all use today! I love you family!

This Frenchie and her baby believe in you!

Love Mia!