I would like to start by congratulating my older sister on her recent success as a violinist/fiddler. Aw heck, lets just call her a fiddler because, let's face it, it's a much cooler title than violinist (very bourgeoisie) and who doesn't want to say they have a fiddler in the family. We really are from Montana....
The afternoon was filled with anticipation as I waited for Reese to stand up and display her musical prowess. The recital began with the youngest of the young students who apparently had to pass off their "twinkle" song. This consisted of twelve or so small children getting up one at a time to play the same version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in a rather screechy, squeaky, nails-on-a-chalkboard kind of way. (I would like to take this time to formally appologize to my parents for having ever been a small child playing a stringed instrument, you are magnanimous.) Then the older students (and by older I mean aged 8-88...ish) stood up to play songs in a group. This is when my beautiful and talented sister rose and, dare I say, glided up to the stage to take her place among the other students. They began with a true classic, a song that has withstood the test of time to be know throughout the ages and beloved by all, you guessed it folks...."Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." If I never hear that song again for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. I may one day have the only children who have never heard of a twinkling little star and will probably be teased by the rest of their kindergarten classes, but I will not relent!
Their next few songs were similar musical masterpieces such as "Old McDonald" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb." But I must admit that I am impressed that Reese was able to keep up with all those kids, and the few adults. Then they played some other great fiddling songs that I don't really know the names to. All the while she was delighting us with her enchanting music Eric and Karen were playing the parts of overly excited parents at their child's first recital. They were busy pointing and smiling and taking copious amounts of pictures and even video. (I hope you post all of those here Eric!)
Really though, Reese was magnificent! I'm so proud of her for starting up the violin again and actually participating in a recital...I don't know if I would. So I just wanted to take this time to brag a little for her (you are definitely more than welcome to do so yourself Reese) and let you all know that she is definitely working on goals and achieving them! Three cheers for Clairice!!! I hope you get to play your fiddle on top of a builing in a movie some day...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Goals
It seams since Eric's and Karen's announcement, we have had a paradigm shift in our house (you didn't know I knew such big words). My goals now are how many home improvement things (that I have procrastinated over the last nine years) can I get done by June 21st. Health goals are secondary or not even on the radar. However I do play basketball twice a week (running continually for an hour)' and when they checked my blood this last month everything was good including my cholesterol which dropped to 199.
We are re-carpeting the living room this week. I painted, stained, and caulked the stairway to the basement. I am finally finishing the trim on the stairway going up, and am currently finishing the touch up paint in that area. Outside I have started working on the brick area, pruning trees & shrubs, and doing regular spring cleanup.
I had also been recently thinking about our blog. It seemed lonely. I am glad it is doing better now and why is it called a blog? Where did this term originate? What is a blog? Who is a blog?And does this have anything to do with peat (not Pete)?
With these deep thought provoking thoughts. (reference Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Britta you know what I mean) I will close and return in seen million years.
Love Dad
April showers...
I will use the old adage mentioned above as a metaphorical representation of my life. While that makes it sound that April will suck and May will be awesome it actually means that the many responsibilities raining down on me this month will blossom into a fairly easy, fun and ultimately amazing important month of May.
Tomorrow there will be exactly two weeks of school left and so that is amongst the greatest of goals, I want to finish well what has been a moderately successful semester. Also academically I am constantly planning out my future, which often involves me finding new ways to postpone the decision of a set career path. As I am about to register for fall classes I am loading myself with sociology and honors classes to fulfill as many requirements as possible... with 17.5 credits it will be a grueling but hopefully enjoyable semester. The more I think about graduate school thoughts of waiting a year to work or applying to multiple schools for multiple programs (as in multiple different programs in each school) start to creep up. These would be fine, they just are part of a systematic effort of procrastination. I also need to be researching my Honors thesis for ideas. Anybody know anything in the alley of Art as a form of Community Development?
Physically my goals have taken a conscious leave. Running is almost completely out of the question due to the time it takes though I hope to pick that back up fervently in May in the weeks leading up to the wedding. I usually get 2-3 small workouts in a week consisting of pushups, ab excercises, and dancing like a lunatic to music by myself in my room (aka aerobics). Financially I'm doing much better with minimal spending, Karen and I realize that each other's money is pretty much collectively our money. Spiritually I have upped my daily scripture dose to 3o minutes a day, which i usually break into 2-3 parts. It consists mostly of the sunday school assignment and a romp through the Old Testament. After conference, though, I plan on doing a study of the Atonement for which I am excited.
Finally wedding plans are well under way. This week we ordered envelopes and will be ordering the printing of our announcements. Friday or Saturday we take pictures and next we will be sending them out. Karen and I are super excited for our trip to Montana in just under 3 weeks, just prior to it we will be ready to move our stuff into our apartment. Once finals are over I'm pretty sure time will FLY! A week in Montana, two weeks in utah working and getting recommends, planning etc. A week in California making final arrangements and then the big day. Karen is way excited, if not a little nervous, to be going to the temple on the 26th, please pray for each of us and we'll do the same for you... come May we'll be frolicking in flowers!
Tomorrow there will be exactly two weeks of school left and so that is amongst the greatest of goals, I want to finish well what has been a moderately successful semester. Also academically I am constantly planning out my future, which often involves me finding new ways to postpone the decision of a set career path. As I am about to register for fall classes I am loading myself with sociology and honors classes to fulfill as many requirements as possible... with 17.5 credits it will be a grueling but hopefully enjoyable semester. The more I think about graduate school thoughts of waiting a year to work or applying to multiple schools for multiple programs (as in multiple different programs in each school) start to creep up. These would be fine, they just are part of a systematic effort of procrastination. I also need to be researching my Honors thesis for ideas. Anybody know anything in the alley of Art as a form of Community Development?
Physically my goals have taken a conscious leave. Running is almost completely out of the question due to the time it takes though I hope to pick that back up fervently in May in the weeks leading up to the wedding. I usually get 2-3 small workouts in a week consisting of pushups, ab excercises, and dancing like a lunatic to music by myself in my room (aka aerobics). Financially I'm doing much better with minimal spending, Karen and I realize that each other's money is pretty much collectively our money. Spiritually I have upped my daily scripture dose to 3o minutes a day, which i usually break into 2-3 parts. It consists mostly of the sunday school assignment and a romp through the Old Testament. After conference, though, I plan on doing a study of the Atonement for which I am excited.
Finally wedding plans are well under way. This week we ordered envelopes and will be ordering the printing of our announcements. Friday or Saturday we take pictures and next we will be sending them out. Karen and I are super excited for our trip to Montana in just under 3 weeks, just prior to it we will be ready to move our stuff into our apartment. Once finals are over I'm pretty sure time will FLY! A week in Montana, two weeks in utah working and getting recommends, planning etc. A week in California making final arrangements and then the big day. Karen is way excited, if not a little nervous, to be going to the temple on the 26th, please pray for each of us and we'll do the same for you... come May we'll be frolicking in flowers!
Picking up the slack
Ok, so now it's April and I feel as if I am adrift in an expansive sea of internet loneliness... where are you guys? Why aren't you writing? What are you doing? And Reese, what's that stuff between your teeth?! Seriously, check it out...
Anyway, I was thinking about how no one has written in forever so I thought I'd write something, anything just so our blog doesn't feel abandoned and neglected. We are now 1/4 of the way into this year and our goals. So how is everyone doing? I myself have fallen into the typical rutt which occurs shortly after the new year. I have been neglecting many of my goals and am feeling really lame about it. So, to combat that, I have... well, I have... actually I haven't done much to combat that. I am, however, aware of my slacking in goal reaching so I am determined to break that and yesterday I did two things to help.
1) I made myself go to the gym to work on getting back in the habit and make myself happier, and
2) I went to the grocery store and bought healthy food; lots of fruit and some veggies to snack on.
So now I'm feeling better and am full of renewed vigor and determination. A few new developments on this front. My work recently began a company Wellness program. We have to get our biometrics done, i.e. bloodwork, cholesterol, blood pressure, body fat index, etc. and then we work on improving it. Anyway, I'm apparently on the committee for this so I have to do good to be an example I guess. But this is helpfull in that I now have more reason to be better about it all. Also we had to take a wellness assessment that tells you how big of a health risk you are. I scored an 88 with 90+ being the best. So, not too bad and mostly it told me I need to work on my eating habits. (big surprise)
I know this is getting long but I have one more thing in reguards to my goals I would like to share. So, another of my goals was to serve more so I signed up to volunteer at the MS Walk this weekend. It's an event to raise awareness and money for Multiple Sclerosis. I'm really excited about it and it should be a good time! So good luck to all of you, and get writing!!! I need something to read at work!
Anyway, I was thinking about how no one has written in forever so I thought I'd write something, anything just so our blog doesn't feel abandoned and neglected. We are now 1/4 of the way into this year and our goals. So how is everyone doing? I myself have fallen into the typical rutt which occurs shortly after the new year. I have been neglecting many of my goals and am feeling really lame about it. So, to combat that, I have... well, I have... actually I haven't done much to combat that. I am, however, aware of my slacking in goal reaching so I am determined to break that and yesterday I did two things to help.
1) I made myself go to the gym to work on getting back in the habit and make myself happier, and
2) I went to the grocery store and bought healthy food; lots of fruit and some veggies to snack on.
So now I'm feeling better and am full of renewed vigor and determination. A few new developments on this front. My work recently began a company Wellness program. We have to get our biometrics done, i.e. bloodwork, cholesterol, blood pressure, body fat index, etc. and then we work on improving it. Anyway, I'm apparently on the committee for this so I have to do good to be an example I guess. But this is helpfull in that I now have more reason to be better about it all. Also we had to take a wellness assessment that tells you how big of a health risk you are. I scored an 88 with 90+ being the best. So, not too bad and mostly it told me I need to work on my eating habits. (big surprise)
I know this is getting long but I have one more thing in reguards to my goals I would like to share. So, another of my goals was to serve more so I signed up to volunteer at the MS Walk this weekend. It's an event to raise awareness and money for Multiple Sclerosis. I'm really excited about it and it should be a good time! So good luck to all of you, and get writing!!! I need something to read at work!
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