The family newsletter

I don’t know that we’ve done much these past weeks. Of course, we all watched General Conference. My favorite talk was by Elder Bednar. Read it here . April and I always like to try new breakfast menus on Saturday and Sunday. Both were a gastronomical delight witnessed by the fact that nothing was left.

Sam took the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards or Big Test). He said he didn’t think it was too bad. The whole mutual went to see the Easter Pageant which was made even more fun by the addition of all the pizza they could eat. Sam has been working hard for his voice recital which will be in May. He and Gary aren’t going to the Father’s and Son’s campout for the first time ever (I think). Sam has a choir festival on that Friday and it won’t be over until evening. I didn’t see either one crying about it.

On Easter Sunday, Sam and I are singing in the choir, Stephen is speaking in his Sacrament Meeting and April has to sing for the Young Women in her ward. These events are all occurring at the same time so nobody gets to hear anybody else, well, Gary will hear Sam and I. We are going to Claye’s and Rakay’s for Easter dinner.

Thankfully the 15th (actually the 18th) of April has passed and Gary doesn’t have to spent every waking moment in his office doing taxes. It has been interesting this year with the new e-file law in effect.

Stephen was happy that the movie ATLAS SHRUGGED finally made it to the big screen. He finally got to see Dagny Taggart and the rest of the ATLAS SHRUGGED characters in living color.

Poor Lily was sick with the stomach flu from a Tuesday through Saturday. Both Lily and April were pretty miserable and I’m pretty sure that April was sick of getting thrown up on. Lily now has another cold, for the third time in about a month. Starting nursery has not been kind to her. She loves going, but always catches some disease while there.

I assume that Chris is okay. We can always keep track of where he is eating, because it gets posted on Facebook.

My work life has become pretty stressful this year, but so has everyone else’s at the school. I am immensely tired of listening to kids read because the kids all read the same story, so I get to hear it about 10 times a day. Unfortunately, practicing is the only way that kids get better at reading. We get out of school May 26 so the end is in sight. We are losing 4 teacher contracts at our school because of declining population which means there will also be less aides needed. I love the kids and I like helping them to succeed, but education is a stressful place to be these days. Schools can only do so much for kids when their home life stinks.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Lily's First Birthday!

Seven months ago, Lily turned one! Here's the just uploaded video of her birthday party. Enjoy!

The month of March

So, March is almost over. I’m not too excited about it because the heat is just around the corner. March has been a very nice and friendly month except for the days during spring break when it got a little warm.

I decided I would paint the kitchen during spring break. Surely with five days, I would be able to complete the job. Ha, ha the joke was on me--didn’t happen Now it could be that on that Tuesday I spent the whole day reading a book and on Friday I spent a chunk of the day at IKEA with Stephen, Lily and April, but still. . . So all this past week I have been working after school to get most of it done because yesterday I had a Mother/Daughter Activity here. The girls and their moms brought their favorite dish to share and then they made menus for a week’s worth of cooking. I like doing Activity Day very much. Whatever we do the girls think is fun and there is hardly any drama at all.



New kitchen color.



Table decorations for Mother/Daughter Activity

Thursday night we went to the Poston Jr High choir concert at Mountain View. Sam got the big solo. He did a great job!! What a wonderful voice he has. Sam had a successful quarter at school also.

Of course, Gary is busy working on taxes. April 15th is not too far away. I don’t think that is any consolation to him because he still has a whole lot to do. But, baseball season will soon be here.

Stephen loves teaching Sunday School in his ward. I have enjoyed having him work at Lowe’s as I have gotten some good deals on my home remodeling projects.

Chris came to Sam’s concert and then borrowed my car so he could haul around some sound equipment for a wedding. So, very reluctantly, he had to let me use his car. I don’t know what it is about guys and standard transmissions, but I didn’t enjoy it very much. Too much shifting and my left leg isn’t used to driving with a clutch.

At school, we are trying to get the kids ready for all their standardized testing. It isn’t really very much fun for either me or the kids, but only two more months in school. Starting in August, Sam will be attending Mountain View as the first 9th grade class there. Don’t even get me started on that. I wish that he would spend his 9th grade year at Poston.

We are all glad that General Conference is this week. Love to go to church at home!

My Favorite Christmas Carols

Back in the 1960's the Firestone Tire Company released a new album of Christmas Carols every year. My mom bought one almost every year. I loved to listen to those albums played on my parents' Magnavox stereo. If I had a turn table I would still listen to them. So of course, I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, etc. Frankly, I don't have much use for many of the "new" Christmas songs (except for a very few). Because they don't make 'em like they used to. So in no particular order here are my favorites:

1. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. One of the best!
2. White Christmas by Bing Crosby. I'd love to visit Holiday Inn!
3. Away in a Manager by Julie Andrews. One of those Firestone Favorites, but her whole album is available for purchase.
4. Star Carol by Anna Maria Alberghetti. Another one of the Firestone gems.
5. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Perry Como.
6. Jingle Bells by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. One of the fun songs from "A Christmas Story."
7. I'll Be Home for Christmas by Bing Crosby. The most popular Christmas carol during WWII and the Korean War.
8. Candlelight Carol by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Beautiful.
9. Let It Be Christmas by Alan Jackson. One of the new ones.
10. The Chipmunk Song by The Chipmunks. Another one from my childhood.
11. A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives. We watch "Rudolph" every year.
12. Christmas Time is Here by Jeffrey Osborne. Always reminds me of Charlie Brown.
13. Irish Carol by Julie Andrews. Same Julie Andrews album.
14. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by the Three Stooges. We had an old 45 record with some Three Stooges Christmas Songs. I found them on I Tunes. I was so happy!
15. Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters. One semester at BYU we played it continually in the Business Office Lab.
16. O Come Emmanuel by Voice Male. Emmanuel shall ransom captive Israel.
17. Oh Holy Night by Nat King Cole, Josh Groban, Martina McBride and Jeffrey Osborne.
18. Penguin, James Penguin by Brad Paisley. Brad Paisley is pretty funny!
19. Silent Night by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The one from A Christmas Story.
20. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Dean Martin. A Dean Martin Twist on a old song.


My despised list (If I don't hear these during the Christmas season, I'm happy.)

1. Santa Baby by Madonna. Gag.
2. The Twelve Days of Christmas (Except the one by Straight No Chaser. It's pretty amusing.)
3. The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot by Nat King Cole. Makes me SAD every time I hear it.
4. The Christmas Shoes. Argggg.
5. My Favorite Things. This is NOT a Christmas song.
6. Anything by Mariah Carey.
7. I Saw Three Ships. What do ships have to do with Christmas?
8. Last Christmas I Gave you my Heart. Yuck.

Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. Don't you just love the new cool title to my blog. My son Stephen made it. He rocks!

Musical Talent (and who in our family has it)

I have always loved music! I had a great time retreating to my bedroom when I was a kid, turning on the record player and pretending I was a famous singer. Well that never happened, but tonight was a real treat because Sam's school choir sang at the Mesa Temple Gardens amongst all the sparkling Christmas lights. They did a wonderful job.

I like to sing, but my voice leaves a lot to be desired. I can only hear the soprano part so that's what I have to sing even though I can't reach the high notes. My singing is limited to singing along with my I pod and singing in the ward choir.

On the other hand, two of my children, April and Sam, have beautiful voices. So I pretty much live my dream through them. When April sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" at Stephen's missionary farewell, I was so extremely happy that she had been blessed with such a beautiful voice. When I hear Sam sing at his voice lessons, I am blown away by his awesome manly voice. These two have been blessed with what I always wanted--a beautiful singing voice. So I listen to April and Sam, and am very grateful that Heavenly Father gave them musical talent. They give me chills every time they sing and I also usually cry. I'm grateful that I can enjoy their wonderful voices, especially at Christmas time when the music is so delightful!

Christmas concert at Mountain View next week and I can't wait!

Let Me Hear a Melody. . .

The music conductor Mitch Miller died yesterday. He was 99 years old. Most of you probably don't know who Mitch Miller is. I do. He was one of my mom's favorites. We had quite a few Mitch Miller albums at our house and we watched Sing Along With Mitch on T.V. Mitch Miller conducted a male chorus and they sang The Yellow Rose of Texas, The Children's Marching Song, and at Christmas--Must be Santa. I loved marching around the living room to his music--because that's what it made you want to do. When I discovered that I could actually buy Mitch Miller CD's, I bought two. Now I can march all around my house to the sound of March From the River Kwai (which is from the movie Bridge on the River Kwai which if you haven't seen you really should. Alec Guiness is fantastic in his performance as the ranking officer in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Anyway, I digress.

I actually didn't know that Mitch Miller was still alive (until yesterday that is). When I read that he had died, I had one of those "ahh" moments. The kind that I have when a recall a wonderful childhood memory. I think I will go listen to the Yellow Rose of Texas for old time's sake.