Me and My Space Boots

A few weeks ago I decided to have surgery on both of my feet to fix a problem that has been bothering me for over ten years. It was nothing serious, but it did involve some sawing of the bones and screwing them back in the right place. I scheduled it for December 22nd, knowing that I would have two solid weeks off from teaching, which I thought should give me sufficient time to recover before going back to work. The surgery went pretty well, but I’ve been amazed at how much it has knocked the wind out of me! I kept falling asleep whenever I sat down, including the dinner table. The worst part has definitely been the boots. The doctor told me I would have to wear some surgical boots for a while. I was thinking it would be for about a week. I didn’t want anyone to know about it, so I figured I would be done with them by the time school starts again. In reality, I have to wear them for six weeks! They feel like wearing ski boots, and they are terribly awkward. I’m even clumsier than I was before, and they are so uncomfortable. I can’t walk without them at all, or the healing bones might break.

It’s been just over a week now, and I’m still working on making my peace with the space boots. I know I look like Frankenstein, and I hate that I can’t go to the gym, but in a month or so I’ll be very happy to have my feet fixed. I can’t say, however, that I’m looking forward to wearing them when I have to go teaching on campus starting next week!

Count Your Blessings

The other night I was really feeling sorry for myself. I’ve been quite frustrated lately at something that hasn’t been happening the way I thought it should. Patience is not one of my virtues, and apparently it is something that I should be learning. It is so hard for me to accept the fact that Heavenly Father knows the plan for me, and it is probably a whole lot better than the plan I have for me.

Anyway, I was saying my prayers and was throwing quite a pity party for myself. Suddenly a hymn came very clearly into my mind:

When upon life's billows You are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged Thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you What the Lord hath done.

I was very humbled by that, and realized how ungrateful I was being. After that I started actually counting my blessings:
- My incredibly amazing husband
- My family
- My studio
- My university job
- Tyler’s job
- The opportunity to continue my education
- Our warm home
- The list goes on and on and on. . .

By the end of my prayer I realized how blessed my life is. I felt much better about the whole situation. I have to concentrate pretty hard on my blessings to distract myself from the one thing that’s missing, but I know I have a lot to be thankful for.

I usually don’t share something this personal, but maybe this will help someone else who is feeling like maybe their life isn’t going right. Start making a list, and I guarantee you won’t ever finish the list.

In the manner of Mom

The other day I was trying to get to my classroom to teach music history, and I was running a little bit late. I kept trying to get to the right floor, but the elevator was being really strange. Half of it would go up, and half would stay down. Then I realized I left my laptop on the first floor. When I got down to the first floor, I realized I left my graded papers on the second floor, and I was trying to get to the third floor. The elevator was not working for me so I try taking the stairs, but I ended up in the basement with this guy that wanted to show me all of these interesting knick knacks that I didn’t have time for. The stairs were a huge marble staircase, which was not supposed to be there. Then I realized I was in the wrong building! I was in the Hinckley, so I had to walk down to the Taylor. By the time I got there I was already 30 minutes late, and I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. How could I forget to put work clothes on?! Then I realized I didn’t even teach in the Taylor, I teach in the Snow. ARGHH!!!!! . . . . . . .Then I woke up.

Pumpkins

We are pretty busy this week, so we decided to go a little simpler with our pumpkin this Halloween. It's not as elaborate as last year, but I still think it turned out pretty great!





One of my all-time favorite movies!

Table Rock

My siblings, Tyler, and I had big plans to go to Lagoon on the last Friday before BYU-Idaho started. We wanted to be down there when all of the younger kids were in school. Unfortunately, we didn't know that they had just started closing it during the day for the school year. Luckily Joni had the brilliant idea to hike Table Rock (although I'm sure she regretted suggesting it as soon as she did!) We had all hiked it before except Tyler, and I think he was a bit nervous. He's used to only roaming around the mountains on a horse. He ended up being the best hiker, though, and had a great time. All in all, we had a fun adventure. Someone got vertigo, someone decided to climb straight up an enormous rock face just because it was faster, someone got sic and didn't quite make it to the top, someone didn't bring any water and mooched off of everyone else, and someone was the slowest hiker even though she works out every day (Can you guess who was who?) We were sad that David and Emily didn't come, so they'll have to join us next year.

Sorry there are so many pictures! There are some family members who haven't seen these.

Oops

I guess I left out a picture from the previous post. This is supposed to go above the caption "Tyler's in training". I had to fix my mistake because I love this picture!

Pittsburgh/Kirtland/Plymouth- Catching Up

Tyler and I went back East for the first two weeks of August. I primarily went there for some Suzuki training in Pittsburgh, but since Tyler served his mission there it was a great opportunity for us to see the sights and for him to reconnect with some old friends. The Suzuki Institute there was an incredible experience. My trainer was one of the original Suzuki students in the United States, and had many lessons and masterclasses with Dr. Suzuki himself. She was incredible, and I know I am a much better teacher now because of her.

While we were in Pittsburgh we found Tyler's mission office where he worked, the mission home, took in a baseball game, and saw some amazing architecture in the city.

The Cathedral of Learning (where they filmed Ghostbusters)

This was taken almost on the top floor of the cathedral (the top floor was locked). The building was completely empty, and kind of creepy.

After the institute was over, we drove up to Kirtland for the day. We toured Historic Kirtland, went to the Jacob Morley farm, and the Kirtland temple. It was a wonderful experience.

I love those bonnets!

After Kirtland we headed over to northern Indiana to visit our good friends Matt and Julie. We had a great time staying with them and their three little girls. We really appreciate them letting us relax at their house for a few days! While we were there we went to the park.

Tyler's in training

We took a train down to Chicago for our flight home. If you've never been on a train, we recommend it. We had a great time!





Because of the flight vouchers we were using, we had to take separate flights home, and even flew out of different airports, so we had to part ways at the train station in Chicago. We met up again in Salt Lake and drove home. It was a great trip!

New instrument?

Maybe I should switch to the accordian. Seems to be easier to play Tchaikovsky, anyway.

Back to Life

I've been avoiding posting anything for a while now. As I read everything that's going on with all of you, I feel like there is nothing interesting about my life right now. I realize that is just a bit of "the grass is always greener" going on. Tyler and I really are very fortunate, and a lot of great things have been happening. I need to do better at remembering that.

That said, I'll try to catch things up over the next few weeks. I think it will be good for me to remember everything great that's been going on. Here's a brief rundown of what we are up to right now.

Lisa:
- Back to school as a doctoral student taking 2 classes at night. Only one more semester of coursework after this one!
- Teaching Music History at BYU-Idaho for the 4th year and loving it.
- Teaching an extremely full studio starting at 7:00 AM and ending at 6:00 PM.
- Released from Primary, now serving in the Relief Society presidency.
- Practicing again! Mark your calendars for March 13th!! (scroll through the concerts on the main page)

Tyler:
- Work, work, work at BYU-Idaho
- Lots of web site design training. He has been working on this for quite a while, and is getting very good at it.
- Still serving as the ward executive secretary.

As you can see, we are busy, but we try to make time to have a little fun every once in a while. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures!

Entertainment

Thanks to Julie for pointing this out, I have hours and hours of hysterical blog reading ahead of me.

Check it out!

A Little Update

We have officially survived the craziest part of the year. This summer semester has been pretty stressful taking three block classes (one of them being statistics), and I took my stats final last night. It finally feels like summer is here for me. We have managed to squeeze in a few fun activities these last few weeks, however.

Two weeks ago I played in the Grand Teton Music Festival. We play Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and it was an incredible experience. There are so many great pieces that move me like that. Since I was over in Jackson anyway, my family came over for the park's free admission weekend. We had a great time up at Jenny's Lake.


The view from our picnic area

Uh, no comment (I hope David doesn't kill me for this one!)

Best buds

Mom was put in charge of bringing . . . everything.

Sorry this one is a little fuzzy. Nathan thought it was the greatest game ever to unload the drinks from the cooler, pass them out, and collect them back again.

I promise Zach wasn't like this the whole time, but I thought this was a sweet picture.

Zach had to borrow daddy's hat.

Skipping rocks

Tyler and I are headed east this weekend. We'll be in Pittsburgh to visit Tyler's mission and for me to do some Suzuki training, then we'll be visiting some good friends for a few days. Hope your summer is going well!