After Disneyland...

...we were home for about 1.5 weeks and then off to Portland.  David was in our favorite honor band - Music in May out at Pacific University.  Rob and I made a chocolate tasting event out of it at 2 shops that carry our bars.  We had a blast!!

All the while wondering when we would get the word when we could do this:

Welcome Ryan home from his first deployment.  After a 4 hour delay, we finally got to do this!
 

Funny story - due to the base requirements, you have to have proper military stickers on your vehicle to get on base.  There is a parking lot just outside the base for people to park.  So we parked our car there and crawled into Tabitha's Prius to get on base.  The 3 of us were pretty snug in the back seat once Ryan arrived but the ride to the parking lot from the airport on base was literally less than 2 minutes.  Guess who forgot we were in the back seat?  Tabitha drove right by the parking lot!!  We all laughed and said we really didn't want to go home with them.  Something we won't let her forget!

YIKES!!!! Unexpected Absence Again!

Sorry!!!  Life just went screaming (mostly fun) out of control.  Not to mention problems with BOTH computers (family room and office) that I just didn't get the chance to post.  Not that I didn't think about the blog.  In fact, I wondered if anyone really checks here any more.  I guess it really is just for me because I do print out these books.  Sort of a family journal. 

Any way, I will have a few posts to catch us up.  DISNEYLAND!!!  Very, very, fun!  But also very, very different.  It was just me, Rob and David.  Seth joined us there too for a few days.  We didn't have a car and spent our entire time near the resort.  Which really is an easy thing to do.

One of the most enjoyable parts for me was seeing all my friends. 

Danny, Elise and Anne.  I have not seen Anne since our high school graduation!  It was fabulous to see her!

Lynette

Cathy

Hayley and her sweet little girl, Madyson

Nathalie and Natasha



 

Spending a little time alone with this guy!

 

And getting to eat here!

Talk about magical!  Item crossed off the "bucket list".

And of course, making sure we saw Tinkerbell just for our little Lizzie.

Couldn't have asked for a better time.  Well, except for it to have been longer!

 

Talk About a Surprise...

...when Amber called me and said "Mom, what's going on?  I can't get into the neighborhood!"  At that time, I honestly had no idea what was going on.  I had heard sirens but really didn't pay too much attention to them.  Since Meadow Green Assisted Living facility is just down the way we hear sirens about once a week.

Imagine my surprise when I walked down the street and saw this!

 

Yes!  That's a real, full size bi-plane. 

And believe it or not - the pilot WALKED away from the accident.  Talk about a miracle.  A miracle on so many levels - the pilot was safe, no one was driving on the street and he didn't crash into a house.  Because you see those tree tops on the ground?  Well, they came from here.

That's OUR neighborhood!!!You can see right where he trimmed the trees.

So much excitement in our little town!

California Wishes

We have lived here for almost 20 years now!  How crazy is that?  I miss all my friends the most.  And now this sweet friend is doing cooking classes out of her home.  Man!  This makes me wish I still lived there. 

If you live in So. California you MUST take Jenny's classes.  http://jennysgatherings.com/classes/  Jenny has always been an amazing cook.  So glad she is sharing her knowledge, recipes, secrets and shortcuts.  I am determined to take one of her classes when I am in California.

Jenny is having a giveaway for a Bosch Mixer. 

And boy do I NEED one.  Mine is sooooo old (still functioning though).  We inherited it when Rob's Mom passed away in 1989.  Yup!  It's THAT old!!

Go enter to win for yourself http://jennysgatherings.com/2013/05/08/bosch-mixer-giveaway/

And while you are there check out the rest of her website.  You won't be disappointed.

Hearts are Heavy

Last night we learned our friends, Jeff and Claire Chance's daughter, Hope passed away during the night while sleeping.  I so appreciate her older sister, Mallory explaining to everyone the events leading up to Hope's passing.  If you are interested you can read about it here:  http://malloryreneeathome.blogspot.com/2013/04/hope-noelle-chance-what-happened.html

I can't imagine the pain that Jeff and Claire are going through.  Hope was such a sweet girl and was in our home often when they lived in Lynden.  Close to both of our daughters.  Here is a sweet picture of Hope and our Amber back in 2009.

Be at peace Hope.  You are loved more that you ever know.  We miss your laugh.

What Happened?

How can it possibly be 2 months since my last entry?  Well, this happened!!

 

It was quite the family affair.  Me, Amber and David were all in the orchestra.  We were literally consumed the entire month of March with dress rehearsals and performances.  10 performances in all!!  It was also a first for our family - the very first time that Mom played in an orchestra with 2 of her children.

Nice photo-bomb Michael!!  I love it!  And YOU!

The stage was literally transformed!

I've never seen anything like it at a small scale church gym stage.  Stage left - you see that small wall?  That's the orchestra pit.  It was so dark back there we had to have an additional light so we could grab our instruments.

 And here's my view from waaaaaaay back in the corner.  Yes, it was difficult to see the conductor.  Thankfully he had an additional light behind him and a really BIG baton.

We had a good time, a frustrating time, a spiritually uplifting time and an exhausting time.

This is my little corner.  What you can't see to the right of the table is another set of chimes that the timpani player used.  It literally blocked me into my corner.

 

My fabulous friends in our "corner".  Joan Rudd - piano, Rachel Hanson - timpani, me - percussion, Mary Hancock - piano

 Our wonderful conductor - Ron Elliston.  I learned SO much from him.

 You can guess what I was going to do with those mallets

 Me and my babes

 And with our friends, Will and Jenn Card

 Our other friends, The McCormick's got away without pictures!

And after the performances, this gong stayed in our entryway for an entire week before we took it back to the high school.  It was spring break.  You can bet it was a great alarm clock.

 

Here is just a quick video Rob took one night.  If you listen carefully you can here the most amazing bassoon player (Amber), trombone player (David) and me - you can here some cymbal rolls and that's me at the end on the chimes.  This particular song takes place right after the crucifixion of the Savior.

Bringing on the Smolder

Where did this boy learn to turn on the smolder?

It's a good thing David is cute!!

(He was headed to a Valentine's Dance at church)

Blog Your Heart - February

It's that time again!!  This time I'm less that 2 weeks behind.  But I honestly just adore that scrapbooker/blogger Stephanie Howell does this and encourages us to participate.  You can check out her post over here. 

If you don't know the rules, here's a quick run down.  You should do it too. 

1. blog whatever is authentic. whatever is truly on your mind and in your heart.
2. it can be serious, silly, short, long. note:no one said it has to be serious. but it should be authentic.
3. no judging allowed no snarky comments, no making fun, no passive agressive digs.if you are going to read the blogs linked below, don't be mean. nothing here is whining. it's me honestly sharing my feelings. if you feel that it's whining, then you don't have to read. :)
4. if you BYH, link back here. i'll add an inlinkz tool at the end of the post. i always read and comment on every single post.
5. feel free to use the graphic above. just make sure to link back to me. (Me being Stephanie)

Ok, here we go!!

1 - Missing this little peanut most terribly.  Her Mom sent me this picture just yesterday and it warms my heart. 

She is snuggling with a turtle we got her.  Yes, a brown turtle.  It is SO Lizzie.  Has the big droopy eyes and everything.  Each one of us gave our "love turtle" some hugs before we put it in the box and shipped it to her for Valentine's Day.  I think she likes it.  Makes this Grandma's heart happy.  She said his name is "Vallie".  Because she got him for Valentine's Day.  Why does she have to be on the other side of the country?  Thank goodness for Skype, cell phones and pictures.

2 - This girl is on the adventure and dream fulfillment of her lifetime (so far).

Tabitha (in the stripes, for those that don't know her) is on her African Adventure.  It is so amazing to see how far our sweet girl has come in the past 3 years.  We will share details on her trip when she gets back.

3 - My heart is so full for my hubby.  He works so hard.  Harder than me most days, I feel.  But we got to steal away for a very quick weekend to fly to San Francisco for the chocolate business.

It was great!  And he spoiled me too with the hotel we stayed in.

YES!!!  This is the lobby of the hotel we stayed in!!  Is this elegant or what?

4 - Grateful for medicine!!  As mentioned in the previous post, I was sick.  Still have that nasty cough where people think you must be a smoker and need to change brands or something.  But in a crazy, sort of insane way, I was kind of glad that the "keep going no matter what" attitude in me didn't keep going.  Rob and the kids sure got first hand experience of what "Mom's jobs" are around here.  They did great and pretty much kept the house together.  LOVE THEM!!!

5 - Challenging and completely out of my comfort zone!

Those bags full of percussion instruments are MINE!  The rest on the tile belong to my kids.  Yup!  I'm in a musicial production in the orchestra pit WITH 2 of my children.  NEVER in my wildest dreams did I ever think that would happen but it is.  The part out of my comfort zone?  Playing the snare drum.  It really is stretching me.

6 - Makes my heart happy when I hear my boy FINALLY got a job in his field of expertise.  Praying and hoping all hope it's the career job for him.  He needs it!!

7 - ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS thinking and praying for our soldier in Qatar!  We miss our son-in-law Ryan like crazy and email him and send him care packages.  Still counting down the days until he returns.

8 - And trying to appreciate the beauty of the area where we live just a little bit more.  It seems when we fly somewhere else and then come home we notice the beauty even more.

And there's my heart ... for now.

FINALLY....

...getting back to feeling human again.  It was announced as "MOM DOWN"!!  Yes, I got hit with that nasty head cold gunk but it decided to go further then that - I got an ear infection.  Inner ear tubes plugged - the whole shebang.  I was out for a full week.  Sleep is amazing!!!  No wonder my kids like it so much.  I think being sick also helped Rob and the kids truly appreciate what I do around here.  They were fabulous about helping and taking good care of me.

But today I'm just feeling pretty happy.  Started back at the gym this week after being sick.  It's amazing how being sick affects your return.  And best of all, the sun is out today.  I just can't get this song out of my head.

Now I should go sing to my kids!!!  Have a happy Friday!!

Birthday Mission Accomplished!!

Honestly wish we could upload PowerPoint presentaions on blogger.  You would get such a laugh out of this.  Birthday Embarrassment mission has been accomplished!!  With the help of David's band director, Steve Herrick we pulled it off.  Steve took my photos and put them in a presentation with narration and the infamous "band birthday".

Here are the pictures we used.

It was the perfect thing to embarrass ANY 16 year old boy in front of his band family.  LOVE IT!!!

How on earth can this boy be turning 16 already?

He is such a joy in our family.  And has always been "Amber's Baby"

She would take you on the mat for that one.

And the boy has a crush on this Disney Princess:

And adores his siblings!!

Happy Sweet 16 birthday to our David!!

You are growing up to be a fabulous man. 

We LOVE you!!