Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Amazing Shrinking Primary
Our ward has been humongous. We had almost 600 people in it. We meet in a stake center, and it goes half way back into the gym. We've had several people make the comment that it feels like they are in stake conference when they visit. Last Sunday night we had a Stake meeting in which they split the ward. We went from almost 600 people to about 375. Still a good sized ward, but we are now landlocked so we don't have to worry about it getting to big again. I'll miss the primary kids who left, but it will make things much easier. We used to have about 180 kids in primary, and now we are about at 60-65. The only problem is that the junior primary chorister is now in the other ward. I hope they call another one soon, or I'll be doing junior, senior and nursery music!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
More Music
I guess the music never ends for the McNiven clan! Last weekend on my way back from the NPAC conference I had a gig in Jackson Hole. This one had the prettiest view of all the gigs I've done there. It was a wedding at the golf and tennis club.
If any of you are looking for something to do on Thursday night, feel free to come to the BYU-Idaho University Orchestra concert! I'll be performing Telemann's Viola Concerto and the Hindemith Trauermusik with them. It's at 7:30 in the Barrus Concert Hall. It should be a big party!
If any of you are looking for something to do on Thursday night, feel free to come to the BYU-Idaho University Orchestra concert! I'll be performing Telemann's Viola Concerto and the Hindemith Trauermusik with them. It's at 7:30 in the Barrus Concert Hall. It should be a big party!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Happy Anniversary!!
Happy 1st Anniversary Tyler! Exactly one year ago we were in the Idaho Falls Temple being sealed together as husband and wife.
I love Tyler so much. This first year of marriage has been absolutely wonderful. I love him more and more each day. I wouldn't be on the computer on our anniversary, but Tyler is still sleeping, and for a very good reason. I've been out of town all week long at a conference in Denver. I got back last night, but Tyler was in Utah doing the sound for his dad's concert that was last night. Tyler was going to drive up this morning, but instead he drove all through the night to surprise me! It was the best anniversary present he could have given me. It has been so hard being away from him all week. It reminds me of those months we spent apart during our engagement when he was in Missouri and I was in Rexburg.
I love you Tyler! Thanks for a wonderful year, and I look forward to forever with you!!
I love Tyler so much. This first year of marriage has been absolutely wonderful. I love him more and more each day. I wouldn't be on the computer on our anniversary, but Tyler is still sleeping, and for a very good reason. I've been out of town all week long at a conference in Denver. I got back last night, but Tyler was in Utah doing the sound for his dad's concert that was last night. Tyler was going to drive up this morning, but instead he drove all through the night to surprise me! It was the best anniversary present he could have given me. It has been so hard being away from him all week. It reminds me of those months we spent apart during our engagement when he was in Missouri and I was in Rexburg.
I love you Tyler! Thanks for a wonderful year, and I look forward to forever with you!!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Recital Mania and a Snowy Gig
Some of this stuff is a little old, but I haven't had time to post it.
Two weeks ago my week was full of recitals. On Tuesday we had our second studio recital. I have one at the end of each semester, because it's so helpful for the kids to have something to look forward to. We could schedule a room on campus because school is still going on, so we settled this time for the Relief Society room at my church. It didn't have the best piano and the acoustics were nonexistent, but it fit all of the families, so it worked. Here are a few pictures (thanks to Abby!) from the event.
Tyler did a great job recording the event. Thanks honey!!
Abby got bored and started taking pictures of people's feet. I'm pretty sure they didn't know what she was doing!
On Friday I performed in a faculty recital with Mitch McKay and Robert Tueller. I played the Franck Sonata, which is crazy hard. I've always wanted to learn it, and now that I've performed it once I should be able to do a better job next time. Robert and Mitch played the Shostakovich Sonata, and we all played the Turina Piano Quartet with a violinist.
We like to do a little teaching before each piece since we don't do program notes for faculty recitals. Here I am blabbing away.
And for my last music story of the day. . .
This weekend I had two gigs in Jackson. I love playing there because the pay is WAY more than here. Friday night was a wedding in a church, but last night we did a wedding and reception outside. People love to get married on ranches in Jackson because they get a great view of the Tetons. That works fine if the weather is cooperative, but how often does that happen? It was pretty chilly and windy when we started playing the prelude music. By the time the ceremony started, we could see our breath. A few minutes later, little snowflakes were falling to the ground! Definitely a first for me. I couldn't feel my fingers, so I kept almost dropping my bow. Luckily the reception was in a heated tent, so I think we all managed to avoid getting frostbite.
Two weeks ago my week was full of recitals. On Tuesday we had our second studio recital. I have one at the end of each semester, because it's so helpful for the kids to have something to look forward to. We could schedule a room on campus because school is still going on, so we settled this time for the Relief Society room at my church. It didn't have the best piano and the acoustics were nonexistent, but it fit all of the families, so it worked. Here are a few pictures (thanks to Abby!) from the event.
Tyler did a great job recording the event. Thanks honey!!
Abby got bored and started taking pictures of people's feet. I'm pretty sure they didn't know what she was doing!
On Friday I performed in a faculty recital with Mitch McKay and Robert Tueller. I played the Franck Sonata, which is crazy hard. I've always wanted to learn it, and now that I've performed it once I should be able to do a better job next time. Robert and Mitch played the Shostakovich Sonata, and we all played the Turina Piano Quartet with a violinist.
We like to do a little teaching before each piece since we don't do program notes for faculty recitals. Here I am blabbing away.
And for my last music story of the day. . .
This weekend I had two gigs in Jackson. I love playing there because the pay is WAY more than here. Friday night was a wedding in a church, but last night we did a wedding and reception outside. People love to get married on ranches in Jackson because they get a great view of the Tetons. That works fine if the weather is cooperative, but how often does that happen? It was pretty chilly and windy when we started playing the prelude music. By the time the ceremony started, we could see our breath. A few minutes later, little snowflakes were falling to the ground! Definitely a first for me. I couldn't feel my fingers, so I kept almost dropping my bow. Luckily the reception was in a heated tent, so I think we all managed to avoid getting frostbite.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
A Good Day
Yesterday was a good day. Tyler was at the school all day working on a big recording project. He did all of the sound for the Rexburg Temple celebration, and yesterday he was doing the same thing for the Twin Falls Temple. While he was gone all day I worked on my own stuff. I went on a really great run. You can see where I went by going here. It was beautiful and sunny (as evidenced by the extra color on my face today!), and I had a blast. Here are some of the things I saw, in order of appearance:
- Many beautiful, humongous houses
- Our new church! It is almost finished, and we should be in by the end of the month (no more starting at 2:00PM!)
- Several wheat and potato fields
- A random cat in the middle of nowhere. What was it doing way out there? As soon as it saw me it crouched down so low in the grass I couldn't even see it. I think it was stalking me.
- More beautiful, huge houses
- A large family playing baseball at one of the church fields. They were using t-shirts and baby toys as bases. It looked like so much fun.
- The beautiful Rexburg Temple!
- A family waiting for the bride and groom to come out of the temple. What a perfect day to get married! It brought back memories of my wedding day.
- A few kids selling lemonade at the street corner. It looked really good at this point in my run.
- A boy from my ward out working in the yard. He seems to think that everything outside must be done without a t-shirt on.
- In the same yard, a large box that possibly contained a vacuum cleaner at one time. After a few seconds, two kids popped out of it! They were playing some kind of game. It was a funny sight.
- An elderly lady in my ward sitting outside in her shade, watching those two kids play.
Later that day my nephew Nathan and his mom Emily came over to play. They wanted to try out our swingset. It was so much fun! Nathan is such a cutie.
This is what our kitchen looked like when they left. I'm so glad they came to play! I hope Nathan brings his mommy over again soon!
That night Tyler and I went to the Thai restaurant (yum!!) with David and Emily, then went to a fun concert. It was 1964 The Tribute, a Beatles band. They were great, and we had a lot of fun.
It was a good day.
- Many beautiful, humongous houses
- Our new church! It is almost finished, and we should be in by the end of the month (no more starting at 2:00PM!)
- Several wheat and potato fields
- A random cat in the middle of nowhere. What was it doing way out there? As soon as it saw me it crouched down so low in the grass I couldn't even see it. I think it was stalking me.
- More beautiful, huge houses
- A large family playing baseball at one of the church fields. They were using t-shirts and baby toys as bases. It looked like so much fun.
- The beautiful Rexburg Temple!
- A family waiting for the bride and groom to come out of the temple. What a perfect day to get married! It brought back memories of my wedding day.
- A few kids selling lemonade at the street corner. It looked really good at this point in my run.
- A boy from my ward out working in the yard. He seems to think that everything outside must be done without a t-shirt on.
- In the same yard, a large box that possibly contained a vacuum cleaner at one time. After a few seconds, two kids popped out of it! They were playing some kind of game. It was a funny sight.
- An elderly lady in my ward sitting outside in her shade, watching those two kids play.
Later that day my nephew Nathan and his mom Emily came over to play. They wanted to try out our swingset. It was so much fun! Nathan is such a cutie.
This is what our kitchen looked like when they left. I'm so glad they came to play! I hope Nathan brings his mommy over again soon!
That night Tyler and I went to the Thai restaurant (yum!!) with David and Emily, then went to a fun concert. It was 1964 The Tribute, a Beatles band. They were great, and we had a lot of fun.
It was a good day.
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