All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

We started our morning like any other Sunday morning, at 6:00 AM. Tyler got ready for his 7:00 meetings, we had breakfast and scripture reading, and Tyler shoveled a path for his car to get out. While I was finishing up with Primary preparations, Tyler called me to warn me that the church might be a little cold. Our new building has been having a few maintenance problems, and while they were fixing them this week the turned off the gas and forgot to turn it back on. He told me to bundle up, which I did. By the time I got to church I saw car after car leaving the parking lot. The building was 48 degrees, and they had cancelled church. Tyler was outside directing all the cars home, so I turned around and went home.

I guess I have Primary ready for next week.

Studio Recital

My Christmas vacation has finally begun! The BYU-Idaho semester ended last week, I took my doctorate finals this week, and last night we had the studio recitals. I just have a few lessons to teach next week, but other than that I'm free!

The studio recitals went really well. This was the first time we had to split it into two recitals because of so many students (I am currently teaching 27). We had a 6:00 and 7:30 recital on the same night, which was a bit exhausting. I have a recital each December and May to give the students an opportunity to perform. Although it sometimes stresses the students out, it's such a good experience for them, and the parents love to see what we've been working on. I end up accompanying most of the students (with my limited piano skills), and we had a few helpful friends and parents accompany the rest. We also did a group number at the end of each recital. We played a four part version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." We had a few students get sick and one pianist bail at the last minute, but overall it was a success. We decided to rent the recital hall this time, and I'm so glad we did. It was a great place for the kids to perform. Tyler and my parents were a huge help with the recording, refreshments, and just helping to calm my nerves.

We ran through our group number a few times before the recital started. Many of these little kids have never played with other musicians before!

This was the group number for the 6:00 recital.

and the 7:30 recital (we had some student out of town or with other conflicts, so we actually only had 21 students total performing).

Out of My Element

I am not a brave cook. I'm not a great cook. Today for dinner I cooked an elk roast, which was a little scary. It actually wasn't too hard, and it turned out great! It was my first time ever cooking meat in a pressure cooker, but it probably won't be my last. We brought it over to my family's house, and I think most of them liked it as well (we didn't tell Andy what it was until after he scarfed down half of the roast).

On another note, we're finally decorated for Christmas!
I made an porch decoration this year with a great deal of help from my mom. I love it!

Tonight we also decorated our Christmas tree.
It's nice to have time to enjoy the holidays now that the semester is over!

Speak up Sonny!

Every once in a while I am reminded that I am a loud person. I don't think I'm particularly outspoken, but when I do talk, it is usually plenty loud. Yesterday morning I was at the gym when I saw someone from my department. I started talking to him, and when he responded to me I noticed that his voice was significantly softer than mine. It seems like most of my family is pretty loud, and I have a feeling it has something to do with our childhood. My dad has significant hearing loss, so we always have to speak louder when he's in the room. This is especially true if we are talking to him on the phone. I guess we all just got into the habit of being loud, and now we are always like that. When I was a sophomore in college I was on the phone when my roommate was in the room. She told me that she'd never heard anyone talk so loud on the phone. I don't try to be loud, it just happens. It works well for primary and teaching, however. I teaching a class with 70 students, and I never have to worry about them hearing what I say. I've also gotten into the habit of shouting out comments while the music is playing during class. It's also interesting bringing people over to my parent's house for the first time. The sheer volume level can be a little surprising until you get used to it, then hopefully you learn to relax and join in the fun.

I just don't think any of us would do well working in a library.