The Death of a Giant

Today our big maple had to be cut down.

It was really sad to see such an old giant go.

At some point the tree had been struck by lightening,

and started to split.

The tree guys said it could split in half at any time and 

take out our house and the Daughter's house.

We couldn't take that chance.

We will have a lot more sun and a lot less shade.

And privacy.

Bad for the house.

Good for the garden!

Have a peek

Goodbye old friend

Here is the link to Mia's solo.

I wish I knew a better way to post it, but this is all I have.

I thought it should be saved here.

 If you have recordings of your music stuff from college

 I would love if you linked them here so 

1. We would have a record of them in our family stuff

2.Just so we could hear and enjoy them

Mia's solo

A Few Photos from the Festivities

So I didn't get near the pictures I wanted to while

 Mandy and Kayla were here.

We were too busy running like chickens every second.

And soooo tired.

Between doing stuff and the time change we were all

 pretty tired,as evidenced by these pictures. Ha!

Here is opening birthday presents.

I was so pitiful I didn't even wrap. 

All of the presents went in plastic bags.

Lame, yet functional.

It wouldn't be Kayla if there wasn't a throw pillow involved.

Mandy with a deadly weapon.

Good thing she wan't flying.

Kayla got one too.

A bit of excitement.

With The Sam

With The Mom

Add The Dad

At Como

In the tropical room with Cloe the sloth.

The sunken garden.

There were about 2 billion people in there.

I don't even know how I got a picture of 

only Dad and Kayla.

Tired and handsome Sam

Awkward Mom/Kayla selfie with a side order of Dad photobomb

I wish you could see and here the lovely stream trickling down. 

It is here. I promise!

Surprised Kayla

We went in the shops because it was shop weekend.

We crafted some cute things of which I have no pictures.
 (Mandy?, Kayla?)

We prepared music to sing in church and it was pretty.

Kayla, Mandy and Sam sang How Can I Keep From singing?.

We went to the World Music concert to hear Sam.

We went to the zoo and conservatory.

We visited Grandma k

We visited Grandpa at the cemetery.

We sang some other stuff around the piano

 (pre Mandy)(These are The Days and like songs)

We stayed up late and talked and talked and talked.

Made some Stockade plans.

Ate Chinese and Mexican and Mom"s.

Generally just hung out and enjoyed our brief time together.

And talked.

Happy Mom

Happy Mom

Happy Mom!

I can't wait for the time we can ALL be together again.

Although it is really nice in small bits too!
There is just nothing like spending time with
people with whom you have to have 
no pretence, but can just be completely
open and yourself.
Such a treat! 
Plus you guys are just plain awesome.

I have just been trying to catch up on sleep, and yet still been busy,

I had a really happy day on my birthday.

Tonight I am going to hear The Planets on handbells.

It should be interesting!

Anyhoo, I better run.
The plumber is coming today to replace our

 toilet and sump pump and fix the drain 
and move the bathroom sink.

 It should be great.

Love you all like crazy!

Mom

PS  For those of you who didn't hear, we had
 a bit of drama with our housing.
Rosalie called me on Tuesday 
and told me she was listing the house.
Aaaaaaaah!!!
Total freak out.
I did remain calm while we talked and 
mentioned that I have been laid up,
 and that my family home had been sold 
and a lot of stuff made it's way here,
 and that Sam is now a junior in high school. 
Anyway, she called me back on
Wednesday, which just happened to be my birthday,
 and told me changed her mind and she was 
going to wait for two more years.
All the relief and gratitude!
It feels like Dad's and my plan is falling into place.
Again with the happy!

Lots of randoms.

Middle schoolers are very random.  And I think it's rubbing off on me.  So here is a post of random thoughts.

I went home for the weekend and it was AWESOME! If I had any pictures I'd post them. But I don't.  So I won't I guess.  It was so good to be home, and I got a saweet car out of the deal.  Seriously.  We stopped at a gas station on the way back, and a guy was like,"Is that a Saturn? They don't make those anymore!" Made me feel like I have a collectors item.  I was so happy to be home for a few days.  It was nice.  Except now I have a lot of extra crap at my house that belongs to Kayla. ha. Oh well.

So my student teaching stuff kind of came to a head this week.  Mom called Sis. Soelberg, and then everyone and their mom was trying to get ahold of me to talk about it.  And the department chair of education from BYU-I actually came to my classroom, but awkward! because I wasn't there.  I was driving back from MN.  There weird thing is that Lauren (my teacher) never even mentioned to me.  So...I don't know what to think about that.  So I talked to Sis. Soelberg, My supervisor, area coordinator, and all the people to find a solution to this horrible placement.  It was decided I'll stay, but try to observe at other schools as much as possible.

Pretty much I'm just chugging along.  Living my life.  That's all.

I guess it wasn't as random as originally thought, but whatever.

Here is Take on Me by Aha!  It came on the radio so it's been stuck in my head all day.

Throwback...uh... Sunday?

I know most of you have already seen this video, but I re-discovered it today. I thought it was pretty happy. This was from spring of 2013, and Gabe looks really little. :)

Today

Today was a good day :D And it ended with a bang too. My voice lesson rocked! And it's because I feel like I finally made progress this week, in what you ask? Well, confidence! I am trying to become more confident and I have been really working on it and today I felt it. Everything just went my way today! You know everyone has ups and downs and today was an up. I hope that I can use this up, to make sure the next time I have a down it's not as low as the one before. I really like the person I am becoming. Honestly, If you read your scriptures and pray and take care of your body and sleep and really desire to be happy and good you can be. It's a pretty good life. 

Love you all!

An Ordinary Tuesday. Except Not. And Thankful Thursday

And Wednesday. and Friday.
Man, I am having a tough time getting this post out!

I started on Tuesday, and then ran around like a chicken
 with my head cut off and never finished it. I had so much stuff to
do, though! I had to get things in order around here, because
Kayla and Mandy were coming home for a visit.
And then Kayla is here!
 Hurrah!
And now it is Friday and Mandy will be here this afternoon.
That is why I said it wasn't quite an ordinary Tuesday,
 because I was getting things ready for the girls.
Also we were getting some really pretty snow.
I guess it wasn't so pretty if you had to drive,
but since I was warm and cozy in my home...

I always enjoy the view out the breakfast nook window.

At Christmas time I spent a lot of time listening to the Holiday Stream on MPR. 

I heard an amazing song several times that just mesmerized me.

Unfortunately, there was no play list, I had no idea who it was.

Mandy put a link on her last post to Cantus.

 I was listening to them and there was the song!

It is so beautiful!

Turn it up loudish and listen to all those vocal textures, all the layering of voices.

Lovely!

Ave Maria by Cantus

So yesterday Kayla and I went on a little craft bender.
We spent the requisite time on Pinterest then headed to Walmart and
Dollar Tree to get materials.
Do you know how hard it is to only buy a couple of craft materials?
Darn near impossible, I say.

So these are the flower initials we made. 

Can you tell one is an H and one a K?

Here is the picture from Pinterest.

We just need to hang ours in a frame. 

We are going to make some Spring wreaths

 today and go in the shops since it is shop weekend. 

Mandy needs to be picked up at 4:00 

and then Sam is singing in the world music concert.

It has been a crazy busy week.

In the interest of that I am only going to list a couple of thankfuls.

42. Mandy being born and coming to our family. Awesome!

43. Kayla and Mandy being able to come home

 for a couple of days.

44. It is above zero and we are supposed to see

 30 degrees tomorrow and maybe 40's next week.

 Praise Jesus!

That's it for now. 

I will try to catch you up on the rest of the weekend next week,

Love you!

Mom