Piano Party

Chicago was a fascinating experience for me. It was several times larger any other city I had lived in and presented all new kinds of experiences I didn't really think I'd ever have. It was a good year, although certainly difficult with having Michael gone so much. One thing it did give me, that I was not expecting, was an opportunity to teach piano for the very first time. I didn't advertise or anything, but individuals from our church would just approach me randomly and ask if I would teach their children. I was hesitant since I had never taught before and knew I would be leaving soon- but they were eager and my rates were low so I didn't feel too bad if I wasn't that great of a teacher. I was amazed at how much I LOVED teaching. It was so fun spending time with the kids and sharing my love of music with them. They were all wonderful. Before we moved I thought the kids would enjoy a little recital of sorts just as students. I wanted their first performance to be casual and fun, without stress so I asked the parents not to join us. I'm sure some of them didn't love that, but I think it was in the best interest of the kids. Each played a piece they had worked on, memorized, and perfect for a few weeks. We also played a few music games, like music note bean bag toss. Afterwards I astounded them all with a glorious piano cake. It was so simple, but they loved it. What a great day.

Here's the cake. A simple white cake, with white frosting. The black keys are actually Kit Kat bars.

A closer look- I'm no artist so its not perfect, but they didn't cared. I used floss to score the keys.

My youngest student, Gracie. Such a doll. It was fun trying to keep her attention- she really loved playing with the pedals and enjoyed making up her own songs.

Sierra, sweet and soft. She was a diligent student and a delightful girl. My kids loved her.

Samantha- my pefectionist. This girl had a lot of energy and had my heart the moment I met her. She was disappointed that she didn't play her dynamics exactly the way she practiced, such is her drive for excellence. I can see this girl going very far in life.

Emma, Samantha's best friend. The two were peas in a pod and it was a challenged to keep one from distracting the other during lessons. Samantha has cute sense of humor and often can be found with a mischevious twinkler in her eye.

Ruth, Gracie's older sister. She is a fellow bookworm, eager to learn and grow. We often had fun, rather mature conversations together. She's a wonderful big sister and delightful student.

Nathan, a soft, quiet boy around me but I bet he's pretty lively around friends. I loved to see him interact with his mother, you could tell they had a good friendship.

Jeanie, my first student. So kind and thoughtful and loving.

The whole gang- what a fun bunch.

Valentine's Day

As mentioned earlier, February was a rough month. My man worked hard and was very tired so I knew Valentine's day wouldn't be much- but I made a little effort to make it special anyway, whether he was conscious enough to appreciate it or not. The Friday before I made a nice dinner with orzo and shrimp and rolls. Michael was going to be on call the night before Valentines day, so I knew I could count on him sleeping a lot, which is why we celebrated it early. The dinner was yummy and the kids actually did pretty well with it. The day itself was just as a predicted with a my hubby dead asleep for most of it and me trying to not let the kids drive me nuts (I really hate when he's on call Saturday nights...it makes Sunday really long and tiring for me having to do church all by myself and not even having t.v. or outings to distract the kids). I made a little effort to have a cute dinner anyway and even though I was a little stressed the kids loved it!

Can't go wrong with a heart pizza and ..do you see it? Heart pepperoni pieces. I could just die of cuteness.

Lets take a closer look shall we..? Fun. and it didn't actually take as long as you might think it would. I obviously wasn't trying that hard to make them perfect and you can fold in half and cut several pepperoni at a time. It was worth the effort.


The finished product. I woke the man up for this and once his eyes came into focus he loved it!

Five years of Bliss

Five years ago my husband and I were sealed together in the Boise temple. To commemorate this milestone my Michael arranged a weekend get away for us at Starved Rock State park. We dropped the kids off at a friends house and after getting a little sleep from being on call the night before, we first went out to Olive Garden with the kids. It may not have been as romantic with them there but it was more entertaining! Trev LOVED the bread. Every time a waiter passed by with a basket of bread he'd stand up and shout "bed, bed!" often with a breadstick in each hand and his mouth stuffed full with one as well. After our dinner we dropped the kids off and headed off on our trip. Michael didn't tell me before hand where we were going, it was fun to be surprised. There was a hot tub there for us to soak in- something we both REALLY needed and hiking trails in the surrounding area. We learned that Starved Rock was named for some rumor that the area was once the place a tribe of Native American's hunkered down and starved to death instead of giving into the enemy, another warring tribe. Eek. It was still pretty though.

There were beautiful waterfalls everywhere and the trails could take you over the top or at the bottom of many of them.


We found this hollowed out tree that looked a little dangerous...but still pretty cool.

I didn't realize 'til we were almost done that my flash wasn't on so many of these pictures are blurry. Sorry 'bout that.

One of the many overlooks. It was like a sea of trees. It was also a little chilly for May. Good thing we brought our coats!

Can I tell you how much I love this man? Love him- he's pretty awesome.

Stud.

I just thought this was kinda funny.

It was a wonderful weekend- many thanks so those who made it happen! After such a long and exhausting year Michael and I really needed some time together. General surgery is rough stuff! But thankfully its over and we're on to radiology and I will be seeing a lot more of him. I'm so happy to be married to this guy- married life has been far easier and happier than I ever could have imagined- here's to many more years to come! Love you babe!

Museum of Science and Industry

Chicago has a lot of great museums. Unfortunatly for me they are really expensive great museums. Luckily, each musuem has a free day about once a month. These days are usually jam packed with people, but hey at least I get to go with the kids and have an experience and only have to pay $20 for parking (yes, 20 dollars just to park for a lousy 2-3 hours, this city drives me nuts.)

So I heard that the museum of Science and Industry, nerdy as it sounds, it actually pretty fantastic, so on a free day I packed up the kids and off we went. It was REALLY crowded, but we managed to find enough to entertain us and even got a few pictures in before my camera died. This museum features really anything science-y. They have a weather sections with a huge wind tunnel explaining how tornados are formed, a chick farm explaining genetics, machinery and nature and way more then I can ever remember or tell about. Just know that its pretty dang cool.

The farm sections showed how modern science is helping the farming industry to increase output and be more efficient. Trev liked the plastic cows. Lynetted liked the big tractors.

The transportation was by far the hit of the day. My little girl loves trains (and its really fortunate for her to be in Chicago where you can find trains in abundance and get to sit and watch them at intersections for 15 minutes until they finally pass by). They had a large model train area that both the kids could not get enough of. There were multiple train of different sorts driving through towns, cities, forest, mountains, and more. They were so happy you'd have thought it was Christmas. Way fun.

The best I could get of the two of them in front of a steam engine. Shortly after this Lynette had an accident and we had to go home. I detest potty training- it really is the pits as my good friend Angela once put it "If I knew how hard potty training was I seriously would have reconsidered having children." Amen, sistah, amen. Well, at least until that very abrupt ending we still had a really great time.

Monkeying Around

Overall I have to say the winters in Chicago are overrated. Yes they are cold, yes you get significant amounts of snow, but it's livable. Its not like Minnesota. Or North Dakota. Or Maine. So the great thing about having expections of a terrible, horrible winter with a blizzard everyday can leave you feeling pretty grateful when you end up getting one only every two weeks. That being said, by February I was definitely starting to get cabin fever. This happens to me every year, but having the native Chicagoans warn me spring won't come for another good 3 months didn't help. Neither did the fact that we had a pretty mild January, which brought up my hopes of an early spring only to be slammed with snow in February. So I was going just a little bit crazy. Thank goodness for Monkey Bizness.

Monkey Bizness is this great little indoor play area with inflated bounce castles, little slides, and lost of cushy, comfy mounds to jump on, crawl under, and roll around in. My cousin, Natalie, met up with me there one night and we sat and talked as the kids went at it. It was so great- I wish I'd known about this earlier. Yes, there is an entrance fee, and for those that know me know I hate spending money- but this was well worth it.

Lynette had some serious time on the duck.

I mean really serious time- look at that face- playing takes a lot of concentration with a duck like that.

Nice action shot.

Peek-a-boo

Look at the stains on that shirt. That poor boy! Where is his mother?

Many good times had by all.