A Song and A Car

This year the SUU choirs started what they hope to be an annual tradition, and they invited alumni to come sing in a concert with them. I was able to go, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I knew more people there than I had expected. It was fun to catch up with some of my friends, and it was fun to feel like a musician again.

The rehearsal started at 5:00 and we went for roughly an hour and a half, with a break for refreshments.  Then we sang in the concert which started at 7:00. It was a bit of a whirlwind I guess, but it really didn't feel that way, and it turned out really well.

I don't have any pictures of it, though. Terral was going to try to come, but this afternoon he got in a car crash. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but our car is out of commission. We're  hoping this will just be a blessing in disguise because the other guy's insurance should pay for our car. It needed replacing anyway, so hopefully this will help us do that.

I was pretty worried sick when Terral called me, but he took everything really well. We're grateful for our friend Adam, who happened to be at the gas station nearby and saw that Terral was in a pickle. So he stayed around for an hour while Terral talked to police, etc. and then gave him a ride home.

Spring Recital

Today was my studio's Spring Recital. Pretty much all of the day was spent preparing for the recital and teaching lessons. This was my first "solo" recital. When I started teaching voice lessons four years ago, I only had one student. My friend Kristin, who also teaches privately, let me piggyback on her recital so my student could perform. And it just sort of became a tradition that we combined for recitals. But alas, Kristin now lives in Arizona. And my studio has grown enough that it makes sense to do my own anyway.

This recital I had 5 violin students perform, and 1 voice student. I recently had 2 voice students sign up, so next time there should be a bit better balance. I also perform at the recitals (an idea I stole from Kristin) so that the parents get a chance to see my skill set (for lack of a better way to put it), and also so the kids can see that I'm willing to do what I ask them to do. Because I teach violin and voice, I switch instruments every recital. This time I sang "Lachen und Weinen". It's a lovely little Schubert song that works well with my voice.

I brought my camera, but it was all rather a whirlwind, with some students needing to leave quickly, and I didn't break it out until after most people had gone. I did get a picture of the two boys who started with me about three months ago. This was their very first recital, so it was kind of a big deal for them. I enjoy teaching all of my students, but these two are still very excited about learning something new that it makes it even more fun for me.

Ethan had fun at the recital. He thought it was so cool when all of us were tuning. But then he started getting into things he shouldn't while I was trying to make sure everything was in order, so I was very glad when one of the mothers arrived and immediately scooped him up. She kindly watched him for me until Terral came.

It was really cute to see all the other kids gathered around Ethan afterward. I tried to snap a picture of it, but they dispersed every time a grabbed the camera. One of the boys put his glasses on Ethan, and they were having fun with his reaction.

My banana oatmeal cookies were a success, and everyone seemed to enjoy the recital. Yay! And hooray for having one more thing crossed off the list. :)

Stake Conference, Shawarma, & and Screwdrivers

We had Stake Conference this morning. Heavenly Father blessed me with the ability to sing well with the choir. Ever since I lost my voice, I've had a bit of a tough time with one of the songs, but today I didn't have a problem, which was wonderful! Even so, I decided not to go to stake choir practice this evening because my voice was just a bit gravelly afterward and I either have allergies or a sinus infection.

I really enjoyed Stake Conference. The talks last night were really good too, and Terral and I found a number of things applicable to us and our current situation.

When we got home we all took a much needed nap. It ended up being longer than we anticipated, so we (actually pretty much just Terral since I was busy tackling our mountain of dishes and watching Ethan) got to work on dinner right away. It was a fabulous dinner! It was venison shawarma with practically everything home-made, including the pita bread and tahini. (In case you didn't know, Terral is pretty much the pita bread king.) We decided it was too good of a meal to not share, so Terral invited his sister Erin over.

After dinner Terral brought out Erin's snowboard to switch the bindings back so she could take it home. Ethan was so fascinated with what Terral was doing, and he of course wanted to try out the screwdriver himself. It was a philips, and I was impressed that he actually got it in the screw heads! It entertained him for quite a while. He is one persistent little dude sometimes.

He loves having company over, and he was giving Erin lots of loves. They were having lots of fun with hair. :) I have a cute video of them playing, but blogger is apparently anti-video tonight.

Oh, and the other really great thing about today was that I got to have a nice long chat with my mission bud Erika, who has the best кишки in the world! ;) We went camping together last fall and had a blast (still need to backlog about that. . . ) and we are hoping to go again sometime this summer.

So if you can't tell, we had a really nice day. I like nice days, don't you? ;)

A Night at the Opera

Let's not dwell on the fact that most of my day was spent making a meal plan, making a grocery list, and then of course grocery shopping. Ugh. So not my favorite thing. Hopefully, once I get the hang of this software I'm trying out (that is offering free membership for life this month btw) and the whole meal planning thing, it will decrease my stress rather than increase it.

On a much happier note, Terral and I went on an actual out-of-the-house date tonight! We went to see some of my SUU friends in their opera production. They did two one-acts, and the house was packed—apparently there were a couple high school groups. They even had to bring an extra chair for me.

We both really enjoyed the first act, which was The Old Maid and the Thief. It was fun for me to finally see the whole thing, because I've heard arias and scenes from it ever since I was a freshman. They did a really good job with the singing and acting. 

The second act was not so enjoyable, however. I thought everyone did well with their characters, and it was fun to hear the vocal improvements some of them had made, but the opera itself was just awful. It's called The Proposal, and basically the whole things is a woman arguing with her alter egos about whether or not she should accept John's proposal of marriage. Kind of an interesting idea, but so not entertaining in practice. 

When we got out, we looked at the clock and realized it was later than we had anticipated, and we got a little worried that Ethan had been a handful for his grandparents. We found him happy and well, though, which was a very nice surprise! We were so glad they had fun while we were gone.

All in all, it was a very good evening. I will certainly not be sorry if I never see The Proposal again, but we still got enjoy each other's company. And I was very happy that the fist act was enjoyable for both of us. Believe it or not, not everyone enjoys opera the way I do. ;)

Vox-less Fox

Yesterday was the first Sunday with our new primary presidency, and I must say I was impressed. They were organized and had such a good energy! And the primary president already knew every child's name. Wow. I still have a handful I don't feel comfortable with.

So primary went quite well. I had been feeling better (remember how we've had some sickness around here?) but I still wasn't tip top. Terral and Ethan stayed home to try to get better faster and avoid spreading the "fun". Well, I stayed after church to go to choir, and apparently that was a big mistake. After two rounds of singing time, my voice was starting to sound just a bit raspy, so I decided I would take it easy and not sing the high notes in choir. I even switched to alto the second half. By the end of choir, it was pretty obvious my voice needed some rest. Okay, point taken. I decided not to go to stake choir that evening. Well, all evening my voice got worse. And then I had a horrible coughing fit. Like, I-almost-threw-up kind of coughing. I foresaw vocal rest in my immediate future. I just didn't foresee quite so much.

When I woke up this morning, I had only the barest sliver of a voice left. A short conversation with father of a boy I babysit, and it was gone. Whenever I open my mouth, only a whisper comes out. It's the strangest thing. I'll go without talking for a while, and then I try to say something and it completely surprises me. It doesn't hurt, but I know it's not good. I'm kind of worried. Having a hoarse voice has been a rare occurrence for me (thankfully). I've never lost it so bad before. I'm hoping there is no permanent damage from this.

So, if you happen to find my voice as you're going about your day-to-day activities, will you tell it I miss it something fierce and would it please come home? I'd be awfully appreciative.

Choose the Right

We didn't sleep very well last night (Ethan kept crying in his sleep), and what with us being sleepy-heads and the blizzard-like conditions we woke up to, we were late to church. . . again. I found out during primary that I had missed a rather important announcement in Sacrament Meeting. We have a new primary presidency! For now I'm just supposed to continue business as usual, but it will be interesting to see if/what changes they make.  I'm a little bit sad because I felt like things were starting to really work well with the old presidency, but I'm excited for the change too.

Anyway, I've obviously got primary on the brain, so I thought I'd share what we did for Singing Time today.

I've been hanging on to the peek-a-boo game I made for Ethan's birthday party. The theme for primary this year is Choose The Right, and I just knew I could implement it in some sort of activity. On Saturday, I finally figured it out.

We are learning the hymn Choose the Right this month, and I decided to work on the third verse this week. After we did our Article of Faith song and I introduced the wiggle worm jar that I just made, I brought out my cardboard contraption. I had the kids put on their listening ears (they just cup their ears), and I sang the first phrase for them, and then we all sang it together.

Choose the right! There is peace in righteous doing.

Then I picked someone to come up and open up the first two trap doors and we all decided together which choice would bring peace. The first picture shows some kids cheating, and the second one is supposed to be a boy studying.

Choose the right! There's safety for the soul.

The kids were pretty quick to decide that eating a carrot was much safer than smoking a cigarette. 

Choose the right in all labors you're pursuing; Let God and heaven be your goal.

With this one we talked about how money in itself isn't bad, but if we are talking about what you want most in life—your ultimate goals—heaven should be at the top of the list.

After each choice was made, we closed the bad choices and were left with this to remind us as we reviewed the verse. (They learned the chorus last week.)

And here's a picture of the whole thing just in case you wanted to see it.

For the pictures, I just found free clip art online, zoomed in on it till it was the size I wanted, held a blank piece of paper up to the screen, and traced it with a pencil. Then I went over them all with a sharpie. That way I didn't use any expensive printer ink and I didn't have to worry about sizing the clip art or making sure it didn't go all pixelated on me.

The kids had fun with it, and I did too. It wasn't difficult to make at all, but it did take some time, so I wish I knew of someone nearby who would want to use it. Seems a shame to just throw it away. At least the cardboard was used multiple times!

Messiah

When I was in high school, I played in the orchestra for our community production of Handel's Messiah three years in a row.  It was a such a good experience, and it really instilled a love for the music in me.

The first time I attended Cedar's production, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the performance.  It was by no means perfect, but it was really, really good!  I loved listening to it and feeling that special spirit.  Every year after that, I wished I could be a part of it, but never felt that I could make the time commitment.

This year was different—no school, no student teaching, an old-enough baby, and a supportive husband.  I finally got to do it!  I auditioned for a solo, and they asked me to sing "O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion". 

The first night the house was packed.  They had to turn away over a hundred people!  The second night was very full, but there were a few empty seats.  All my pictures are from the second night.

This is me, of course. . .

 with Maestro Sun

 with my friend Linda (who went to all the practices with me)

 with my lovin' hunny

 with my fellow soloist/friends from school

Awesome

During spring semester, I was asked to sing my recital duets at several functions.  The last one was some sort of event for important people.  I never did really find out exactly what it was.  But they fed us free food, so I didn't mind not knowing. :)   After we sang, we got a surprise.  The man in charge said they'd get our certificates to us in a couple weeks.  Certificates?  "Oh, you didn't know?  We're giving you gift certificates to Milt's."  Sweet!  The certificates proved to be good for either Rusty's or Milt's, which are owned by the same people.  For those of you not familiar with Cedar, they are a couple of Steak and Seafood restaurants that I never thought I would eat at simply because they are rather expensive.  And I don't care for steak or seafood, but that's another discussion. . .  So the sum of this little story is that I sang for my supper.  And I basically got three meals out of two songs, since I got enough food at Rusty's for lunch the next day.  Really, it's five meals if you count Terral's two.  Not bad, eh?  But as cool as that is, the meal at Rusty's represents something even better.

We saved the certificate until April 29th.  We decided to use it to celebrate.  And what were we celebrating, you ask?  Some very special news.  Earlier that day we found out that I'm pregnant!  So the following pictures (unfortunately taken with a cell phone in bad lighting) are of some super happy, slightly dazed, expectant parents! 

NATSAA

Every other year the National Association of Teachers of Singing holds an Artist Award competition. Contestants prepare fourteen songs that fit specific criteria and the judges choose fifteen minutes' worth of songs.

The contest was on Friday. I placed third. : ) The guy who won has been singing professionally for three years. The girl who placed second is a second year grad student. I was one point behind her.

Yeah, I feel pretty good about that.

Milestone

This summer is the first that I have taken private voice lessons. It's been really good for me. We are having two-hour sessions, and I've been much more relaxed and focused than I ever was during the school year. As a consequence, I've made quite a bit of progress. It's been rather exciting for me! Prof. Modesitt has helped me to let go of a lot of tension, and my range has expanded. In my lesson on Tuesday, she took me up to an f''' (2 1/2 8va above middle C) during warm-ups. I never thought that would happen! It was fun finding out what I can do.