An Evening With Craig Jessop

I had such a fun gig this weekend! It's not often you play a gig that makes you want to blog.

The Fairfax Choral Society invited Craig Jessop (former long-time director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) to be their guest conductor. The way things played out, I ended up in an orchestra with many of my friends. I haven't laughed at someone in the cello section making faces at me since I was in college. Thanks for that, Kells!

Me, Kelly, Dr. Jessop, and Amber

Dr Jessop: "These girls are all OTS Alumn. These are Utah Girls."

I didn't realize how much playing under Dr. Jessop again would make me miss Salt Lake City. I played in the Orchestra at Temple Square for about 3 years and left in 2003 when I got married. It was so fun to be reminded of the days when I used to be able to participate with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and be inspired on a regular basis.

Back then I didn't realize the love I would develop for choirs and choral conducting, so it was even more inspiring to observe him from the standpoint of finding what I could learn from him as a choral conductor. His vocal warm-ups were amazing. I started taking notes on the back of a costco receipt, the only piece of paper I had in my purse at the time. I'm going to use them in Stake Choir next weekend. Even if everyone looks at me weird for making them sing: "The tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips" on the downward diatonic scale.

The program was wonderful. We played a few Rutter pieces...you can never go wrong with John Rutter. We played Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, which was kind of fun for me because I got to sing this same piece earlier this year with National Philharmonic Singers. Only this time the accompaniment had been orchestrated (it was originally written for organ). I like it better with orchestra. We also played Mack Wilberg's Requiem, which was recorded last year by the MTC and OTS and released in February. It is now on my Christmas wish list. It was so beautiful. In my opinion, you can also never go wrong with anything written by Mack Wilberg (now the new director of the MTC.) It's so funny for me to think how inspired he is and yet how bashful he is about receiving accolades from the audience. I remember back in the day, whenever he was due to take a bow he would just turn around and kind of nod, and then hurry off stage. So endearingly Mack.

During rehearsal I realized that this concert was definitely something that my friends from Ward Choir/National Philharmonic Chorale would enjoy. So I did some inviting when I got home and everyone came. The Mikkelsens and the Eskelsens were our little entourage. Having people in the audience also makes gigs more fun. We spent the entirety of intermission just gabbing. They asked about our hubbies and we told them since the guys were all home babysitting, the four of them would have to be our fan club. It was so fun to visit with dear friends who we love so much.

Beautiful music, wonderful friends. Can life get better?

For Love of NieNie and Robin Hood

There is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. It is the concept of making an effort to play with my children. The list of things that have contributed to my almost incessant contemplation of this topic is long.

We’ll start with Angie’s post. Read it. It’s poetry in a picture.

That lead me back to this article from the Ensign I read in 2005.

Shelley pointed out in one of her posts that the 4-6pm time-frame is the hardest part of the day for a stay-at-home-mom. That’s definitely true. More on this later.

Ingrid mentioned after her boys wake up from their naps, that’s when she’s due to go play cars.

….and then there’s NieNie.

I don’t know what to say other than that I am inspired by her. Her life is a celebration of life. She’s always doing things to make life fun for her kids. Like this….or this….only two examples of many. What’s more, her husband can do no wrong. I say that as a reflection of her own attitude. She absolutely has a special gift for finding all of the little things to be enjoyed about life, and highlighting them.
It’s strange, isn’t it? The things that the Lord allows to happen in life in order that we might be able to learn from those that have something to teach us? I don’t know NieNie personally, though I know her family from growing up in the tree streets in Provo, and her sister Courtney who’s been recording a beautiful log of her recovery since Stephanie’s airplane crash two months ago. I don’t know that I would have found or been interested in Stephanie’s blog had it not been for the accident, but I do know that I am not alone in being inspired by her. I think it was when they appeared on the Today Show, that Stephanie’s siblings said her blog gets around 40,000 hits a day.
Anyway, I can’t sufficiently catch you up on that story in this post, but if you’re interested, start here.

So without further ado….I introduce to you Robin Hood and Little John.

Robin Hood (the old-school version with Errol Flynn) finally reached the top of our Netflix queue a few days ago and since then, that scurvy outlaw who robs from the rich to feed the poor has been all the rage. Yesterday the boys were trying to make bows and arrows using pencils and rubber bands. Well…what kind of mom would I be not to take action? I fortunately had enough elastic left over from Peter’s Scarecrow costume…
....to make two bows. We hunted for sticks that would be strong enough in the yard this morning. The arrow tips are made out of that foamy stuff from the craft store. (I don’t even know what it’s called.)
I was starting to be impressed with myself until I tried to actually shoot an arrow. I kind of forgot that there’s more to the functionality of the bow and arrow getup than just how it looks.
We worked at it for a little while and after a couple of hours, Peter can actually make his arrow travel a good 5-8 feet.
It may be a while before Adam gets the hang of it. But for now he’s satisfied to flip the elastic on the bow, listen to it snap, and pretend.

So, what do you think? As Angie pointed out, the life of a stay at home mom is filled with things “to do.” In fact, I already know from experience that I could do and do and do all day and still never be done. (I did 6 loads of laundry on Tuesday and I still have a basket full waiting to be folded.) But remember that 4-6pm time-frame I told you about? Well, I’m going to try to use it to show my kids that I am interested in what interests them. It’s a fine line because the things “to do” still have to get done. It is very tempting to walk away when the kids are occupied with their trains or blocks, to seize the opportunity to “get something done.” I don’t pretend that I could ever really measure up to NieNie, but it’s nice to be challenged, and reminded that I could do better.

On a Baby Blessing and Gratitude

We were so blessed and grateful to have so much family able to come to Annelise’s baby blessing on Sunday.
Weston’s mom was here, as you know. Also my handsome brother Dale drove up 2.5 hours from Harrisonburg, VA.

My cousin Gary Vance and his wife Ondalynn were gracious enough to wake up before the crack of dawn to be ready with their three beautiful kids and drive an hour from Gaithersburg in order to be at our ward by 8:30am!
Weston gave a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful to him to be worthy to bless our children and family with the priesthood in our home.

…and I’m grateful for this little girl.

Fourth Photo Tag

Thanks for thinking of me, AJ. I thought this tag was kind of clever. What you do is go to your fourth folder, find the fourth picture, and post it.

This is Peter at....coincidentally, 4 days old.

Ain't he sweet?

Now I get to tag 4 people: Angie, Becky, Kelly, and Mme Dall. Let's see those pics, ladies.

Grandma Ricks

We had a great weekend with Weston’s mom who flew out for the weekend to be with the boys and to meet Annelise.
Not only did she graciously allow me to take a few dreamy naps and do my grocery shopping sans children, she came prepared with all sorts of fun Halloween craft projects for the boys….

…which they, of course,

LOVED.

In case you can’t tell, they are both saying cheese.

Isn’t this the cutest little graveyard scene? The boys went nuts with the glitter for the tree.

Thanks for a wonderful weekend, Margo. Please come again. The sooner the better!

A Conversation

Adam: Peh-tow, peese get me a wubbo-band.

Me (to myself): Oh, that's too bad. He's going to be disappointed when Peter tells him he can't because it's too high.

Peter: Yeah, sure.

It was a perilous, but successful journey.

This one was for the scissors.

Welcome, Fall!

I love, love, LOVE the fall.

It’s my all-time favorite season.

The feeling and the smell of fall is so distinctive and joyful that it always takes me back to “the good old days.” Back far enough to when I was at BYU and Fall always meant a new start, new classes, and new friends. Back even farther to the memory of lying on the floor in the living room doing homework with my brother Kirk while listening to A Winter’s Solstice, the door open and the smell of fall wafting in and enveloping us. Back even farther to when canning season was a family affair. Spending all day in the kitchen with mom and peach juice running down my arms.

You know the smell I mean? I’m not exactly sure what causes it. I can only assume it’s a by-product of the changing color of the leaves. Whatever it is, it fills my heart with joy. Last Summer (that would be 2007) was very hot and very, very long. It lasted until November. No joke. I waited and waited for the Fall with it’s distinctive smell and it never came. Heartbreaking. I was hoping this wasn’t a permanent effect of global warming, worried that I might have to rescind my love of Fall forever.

Happily, Autumn came right on schedule this year.

We’ve already taken our annual trip to the Butler’s Orchard Pumpkin Festival.

This is one of my favorite highlights of the year

….despite the fact that this year it ended up being a freaking nightmare.
Think first real outing with 3 kids. Think Rain. Think a gazillion school busses and fifty gazillion school children. Think really really long lines for every single activity. Think “I should have brought my husband.” Think being stuck in the middle of the line waiting for the tractor to take you back out of the pumpkin patch (still raining) and having no other choice than to nurse your baby while she’s still wrapped tightly in the moby and your boys fighting over which corner of the wheelbarrow they get to hold onto.

I also made the season’s first batch of pumpkin bread with chocolate chips yesterday. I had every intention of gifting the second loaf to our downstairs neighbor until the first loaf didn’t go nearly as far as I was hoping. We’ll just have to make it again. Shucks.

But my original reason behind doing a post about how much I love Fall was just to show off my newly-acquired, newly-created Autumn decorations. I went to A.C. Moore for some little things I needed for Peter’s preschool class. Sad to say, I really have turned into someone you can’t unleash in a craft store. First of all, there was a huge sale on all the Fall décor and so everything that is now on my front porch was bought at a very low price. Second of all, I made this:

I know it may not look like much to all of you seasoned floral arrangers out there, but wait till you hear my secret: There’s a pumpkin pie spice sachet hiding in the basket which gives off a heavenly scent for me to enjoy whenever I walk by or sit underneath it.

Mmmmmm.

Smiles.