Sing... Sing a Song

Mar had her first choir concert of the year last week.

For starters, I'll give you a brief glimpse of her duet part:

Nice job, Mar!

We did not have the best seat in the house (which would pretty much be only the front row), so after some camera juggling, we were at least able to catch a snippet of her (I painstakingly figured out how to remove the lengthy piece of video showing the back of people's heads as we passed the camera the length of our row trying to get it).

I think it's kind of cute how she was so concerned that the other singers be where they needed to be, when they needed to be there - so much like her mamita.

For every other piece, she was standing on the top row, left side.

A bit more conducive to parental enjoyment. However, not much. This was our view:

On the program:
Aya Ngena (Zulu Folk Song)
Fair Phyllis (Mar's fave)
How Can I Keep From Singing?
Ain't No Mountain High Enough

It made me think of my choir concert days in middle school Jr. High. 

I couldn't help but show a couple of comparisons. For fun.

Note: I'm going to be perfectly honest. During those crazy Jr. High trying-to-fit-in years, some of my friends and I often sometimes occasionally wrote {not very nice} words about people in our yearbooks (thus the added doodle hearts). I don't know if it was the "thing to do" at the time (likely), but as an adult, I find it offensive and embarrassing to admit. I have oft encouraged my children to be careful of what they write, and what they let others write in their yearbooks. It could come back to haunt you! The funny thing is, those not-so-nice words were usually written about either the boys we were infatuated with, or the girls we were dying to be friends with.  The vernacular wasn't nearly as blatantly vulgar as much of the language used today - pretty much words like freak, scum, and stoner (on anyone who had their eyes half-closed). However, still defamatory and disrespectful, which I regret. The word above my head was written by someone else, but I think I crossed out my own face. Such a 7th grade thing to do.

I usually accompanied the choir for one musical selection at each concert. I remember that I never-not-once made it through an entire number without a mess-up, but to this day appreciate my choir teacher who showed such great confidence in my so-extremely-limited-you-would-be-shocked piano skills.

When I think about teachers that made a difference in my life, she is at the top of the list. I would love to find Mrs. Schmidt someday and thank her.
Mauri's cute choir teacher, Mrs. Alexander, reminds me so much of her.
I didn't snap a picture of Mrs. A, so it's on my to-do list for the Christmas Concert.

I also participated in the 7th grade Swing Choir.

I DID write the not-so-nice words on my own face on this picture. What was I thinking?

Back to Mar's concert. Here was part of her cheering section:

It was so fun to have her sisters there to support her.

You SING, girl. Sing a song.

Volleying

I love middle school sports.

Around here, anyone can participate.

Taylor played football; Lex did cross country, basketball, and track; Shi ran cross country.

(I didn't forget Britt - she was more of a choir and poms girl in middle school)

Mar decided to try volleyball this year.

I was a little nervous for her, since she's never really played before (except at our family reunion this summer), and I personally never had great experiences in all my years of church volleyball as a youth (I recall jammed fingers and balls-in-the-face more than actual play time - although I had a mean underhand serve). Even Lex - I would say the most adventurous athletically of my children - mentioned how awful she was at volleyball.

The Monday night before tryout week we headed to the church for FHE to practice up a bit.

I talked up the benefits of the C team.

(equal playing time, the girls are distributed on the 4 C teams evenly so each team has some girls with more skills and some with less, the opportunity to make new friends, etc.)

(This is the entire C team - the girls are divided up into 4 smaller teams for playing)
Note: Upon further study of these photos, I have concluded that the A/B team is probably pictured as well. All three coaches are in the pic, so my guess is that this is everybody.

So far, Mar has loved it.

I've tried to figure out the scoring and rotation (so far it's been different at every game).

Three opponents down, it's been fun to see the improvement the girls have made.

At Monday's game, there was actually more volleying going on vs. the which-team-can-get-the-most-serves-over-the-net scoring of the first games.

Mar's team played 4 games (many of the schools they play have 6 C teams, so our 4 teams have the opportunity to play more - bonus!), and they were all good, close, fun-to-watch games.

(It's also kind of fun to note how much smaller Mar is than most the girls her age... reminds me of when Shi was younger... I had to include a couple pics to illustrate my point):

Shilo's VB commentary lately: "If I would have known I would be this tall, I would have played volleyball... maybe then I'd be more coordinated!"  I think swimming takes coordination, too, don't you think? She played one Rec season of VB back in 5th grade, along with the girl on the left in the CC photo with Shi at the top of this post. Kennedy continued playing on club teams after that season and is now a varsity player for LHS.

I'm looking forward to the rest of Mar's season (with a nice long Fall Break in the middle of it).
Keep up the good work, girl!

Uplifted and Inspired

I love General Conference.

With so much to digest, I look forward to listening to and reading the inspired talks again and again.

*We have FHE material for the next 6 months (starting tonight).

*I have a plethora of topics to discuss (if only in brief moments here and there) with my husband.

*I have lots and lots (and lots) of things to work on as I strive to improve.

Today I'm thinking about gratitude and contentment.

Feeling refreshed.

{Fall}ing All Around

This morning it looked like this out my front door:

Which is funny because just a day-and-a-half ago our cute missionaries stopped by (around 4:30pm) after a bike-ride up the hill in near 90 degree weather. They were sweating buckets, so I offered them each a towel and a cold bottle of water. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen two sweatier guys in my life. Today Winter Fall is in the air (I'm hoping the snow is temporary - just give me brisk!).

I've been putting up Halloween decorations the past few days. Not that I have so much it takes me that long, but just because I've taken a piecemeal approach. I think I'm done. I've made a couple of additions this year, thanks to my favorite idea source.

Please don't look at the dirty mirror - I cleaned it after I had taken the pic.

 I found the raven printable here, and managed to eek out enough black ink from my printer (it's almost OUT) to git 'er done. I printed it on some burlap-looking scrapbook paper I've had laying around for years, and put it in an old frame I had painted black a good decade ago (after removing the ancient family picture it had held for all that time). I love the way it turned out.

 While chatting to my sister as I was running around one day, I mentioned I was looking for ravens. With real feathers. (For cheap.) I could tell she thought I was a little crazy. I had already been to Hobby Lobby and Big Lots, and was feeling pretty hopeless that I would find any.Then I walked into Michaels. Yes, they had them. They were on sale, eliminating the need for me to make several trips to redeem their one-per-customer-per-day coupons. I initially only purchased two, but then returned a couple of days later for three more. Mauri, of course, loves them. I wouldn't be surprised if she asks to keep them in her room once Halloween is over.

 I was also in the mood to make a banner for my mantle. I found this one here. I had finally purchased a yellow printer ink refill (couldn't print color for over two weeks, people), but was still squeezing every last ounce out of the black, and was thrilled that they turned out just dandy. I had some extra glitter and shimmer paper from Britt's wedding for backing. Simple and awesome.

 This scarecrow/pumpkin guy has been MIA for the past few years due to being inadvertently decapitated. Billy-my-hero helped me wood glue and nail him back together (really, a super simple fix). He brings back good memories of days-gone-by crafting and Super Saturday-ing with my seester. We call those our "Craft Days," when we couldn't wait to get together, and, while the children all entertained each other, we would sand-and-paint-and-paint-and-sand, all while laughing our guts out about the silliest things.
  Those were good times.

So maybe I put the grapevines back on his hat a little crazy. I might need my seester to come help me fix it (wink)... she has a much better eye for that stuff than I.

I know I just posted about my hallway pics... I've done a little updating:

(idea here)

Here's my creepiest addition:

I bought the skull at Michaels ($3 with my coupon), and already had the moss and the hurricane vase. (Idea from here.) I just hope I don't scare the bajeebers out of the kids that will attending our Semi-annual General Conference Luncheon this Sunday. I may have to turn him to face the wall. Or take him upstairs.

Remember my styro heads from last year? I decided to distribute them around this year.

And these cute letters were made by my ultra-crafty-and-talented MIL and FIL. Those two never cease to amaze me with the fun things they create. Adorbs.

Of course I have reused my paper bats from last year, and Mr. Freaky is hanging in his usual spot.
I'm calling it good.

Birthday Wrap-up

We spiffed the place up a bit for Lexee's birthday...

 ...it was a huge effort (wink).
You may remember this handmade banner from the epic party here.

For her birthday, Lex wanted a round-trip flight to Utah to hang out with some friends, so she had spent the week prior in Provo (Happy Birthday, Lex!). One of her BFF's Hailey scored her a ticket to "THE" game of the year -

BYU v UofU.

Since Hailey is a busy girl (school + work), Lex was lucky to have one of her BYU-I friends (Jake) "conveniently" arrive the same time she did (she "ran into him" at the airport), and hang out all week with her. They had another BYU-I friend (Nate) heading on a mission, so they were meeting up for his talk-in-church-we-don't-call-it-a-farewell-anymore, and a last good-bye before he entered the MTC that Wednesday.

Jake is entering the MTC tomorrow.

Lex was able to meet Jake's grandpa and mom. We had a chuckle over how Jake's mom asked Lex, "So what do you love about my son?" I told Lex that it seemed to me that Jake may feel that they are more than friends, and she responded with, "Oh, no, mom. He knows we are just friends. I could never be interested in him in that way." 

(hmmm... maybe he's not quite clear on that)

On Saturday night Lex got together with her Utah sibs and a few friends for dinner at The Macaroni Grill. I'm so glad she saw them while she was there. Thanks, Taylor, Lynnea, Austin, Britt, Hailey, and Jake for helping make her birthday special!

After we picked Lex up from the airport on Sunday, we snapped a few pictures before the rest of us headed off to Standards Night (since Bill has some say in when that happens, it was only scheduled on Lex's b-day because initially her plan was to come home on Monday - until we shopped ticket prices).

After Standards Night (at which, btw, someone dropped the ball and the promised refreshments didn't make an appearance. I'm not pointing any fingers, but the assignment was given to those of the male gender... since when is that a good idea?) we sang, celebrated, and had the requested multi-flavored cheesecake.

This particular cheesecake (a previously frozen Cheesecake Factory brand from Sam's Club) tasted like plastic (seriously not good), so I returned it the following day and purchased the bakery multi-flavored cheesecake. Much better.

Shi and Mar are planning on getting Lex a birthday gift sometime this week. A hoodie, I believe.

Deux Décennies

Originally I had put my post title in Español. Then I remembered that Lex is a French girl.
Thank you, Google Translate.

And this post is for her.

Twenty years ago today, we were here.

 I can't believe that this little wand-bearing, princess-hat-wearing, self-taught-haircutting...

 ...high-heeled bedazzled...

...veiled, make-upped, high-fashion-styled...

...crown-wearing, Barbie-loving...

...sponge-curled, bangled...

...constant dress-wearing, artfully accessorized...

...dress-up QUEEN...

has turned into my beautiful 20-year-old

jeans, t-shirt, and hoodie girl.

Happy Birthday, Lex!

WE LOVE YOU!

Dancing Queens

I know I said yesterday that Shilo and Cheyenne were not planning to attend the Homecoming Dance even after they had spent the day decorating for it. After some good-natured coercion from their Student Gov Advisor (and a promise they wouldn't have to purchase the $20 ticket - but don't tell anybody), and room in a group of their friends for a couple of additions, they decided last minute to go.

Shilo called me from Kohls to let me know. She had found a dress for $12, and a belt for $2.

Awesome.

Ya gotta love a $14 outfit.

 We happened to have an umbrella that went with her dress. Perfect for a rainy evening.

 I didn't get any pictures that had all the girls looking at me at the same time. Oh well.

 Girls without dates.

 Girls with dates.

They all headed off to dinner at PF Changs, then on to the dance.

Shi's oh-so-brief comments afterwards:

It was fun.

I'm glad I went.

Yes, I danced.

She had to be up bright and early for work today.

I've decided that I prefer the two-hour advance notice of attending the dance. It alleviated the typical stress and issues that I've experienced in the past from my girls having (1) the "wrong" guy ask, to (2) endlessly searching for a semi-modest-usually-requires-some-alterations dress + shoes + accessories.