It's been a long while since we've posted and it would be tempting to try to update you on everything you've missed in the past several weeks, but to save time and in an attempt to avoid boredom, I'll just give you a brief summary:
We had a great visit to the Allen Homestead (aka, "the farm") in upstate New York to celebrate Aunt Emily and Uncle Matt's wedding. It was a beautiful, intimate wedding and a really wonderful weekend for all of us.
Happy has been asking about October, Halloween and his birthday for the past several months and now that October is finally here, he cannot get enough of spooky stories, pumpkins and ghosts. In fact, he is wearing a blanket and "whoo-ing" right now.
Chubbles is talking more and more all the time. She entertained us all tonight by counting up to 10 then racing herself around the living room...many times. The more times she did it, the fewer numbers got counted "count again? one... three... GO!" and off she runs.
We got our family pictures again a couple weeks ago by a very talented photographer friend. They're not finished yet, but she did send us one preliminary proof:
I'd like to direct your attention to my mid-section. Now normally, I'd never purposely invite you to stare at my not-so-muscular middle. This time however, you might have noticed it as soon as you saw the picture (That's certainly the first thing I saw!). So I'll save you the trouble of not asking--yes, it is a larger-than-normal belly and yes, it will continue to grow for another 6 months until we finally welcome its current occupant into the outside world.
Curmudgeon got called to teach early-morning seminary this year. Once we'd taken a couple of weeks to adjust to it they pulled a bait-n-switch. "By the way, we neglected to mention it before, but there are some dress and grooming standards for seminary teachers." Whaa?! Curmudgeon took it a lot better than I did, but we made the transition a fun one by milking his wooly beard for all it was worth during the shaving process. Anybody want to cast a vote on your favorite look?
Besides adventures in shaving, life continues much the same for us here. Happy has started playing "caves" a lot so we've got a semi-permanent blanket fort set up in the living room.
We celebrated Chubble's 2nd birthday last week. Isn't that amazing!? She is our dancer and artist, so mostly her presents revolved around markers, drawing and--the highlight for me--a tutu.
Here she is at her own little desk+chair (and wearing the tutu) with the magic color wonder markers that my sister-in-law introduced us to. Chubbles colors on everything--our walls still have some scribbles that I haven't taken care of yet, so having markers that only work on the special paper is, in my opinion, a great breakthrough.
I love this picture of the kiddos getting ready for church in their handsome clothes.
In other news, the weather has made an abrupt about-face and after more than a month of 100+ temperatures, we're finally able to turn the AC off, open the windows, and put the covers back on our beds. And I for one am relieved to be in long sleeves and to take my hair out of its constant summer-time ponytail. Downside: school starts this week, which means that Curmudgeon won't be with us during the days anymore. Sigh. He's also teaching seminary this year, so he has extra-early mornings and won't be able to bike to work. I'm thinking we'll be having early bedtime for the lot of us here.
I spent last week at the Jewell Early Music Festival Workshop. It was a great experience and has taken a few days for me to digest my feelings about the workshop. For one thing, this was the first time since Boyo was born that I've been away from my children. Sure, I saw them each morning before I left for the day, but they were always asleep before I got home and I was basically away from them for 5 days straight. (Thanks to Curmudgeon. A lot of husbands might complain or feel put-upon to do that for a full week, but not mine. He's enthusiastic, supportive and excited to spend time with the kiddos. :)
Those of you who know me well know that for the past 12 years I've had an unhealthy, unproductive relationship with my voice. I have never quite been able to get over the disappointments of college or the shattering blows to my self confidence. I've gone back and forth between heartbreaking desire, crippling fear and bitter resentment at the perceived injuries done to my nonexistent career.
At the same time, I've continued to sing here and there, even doing a public solo recital in Alaska and joining Curmudgeon in his recital at OSU. When we moved to Kansas I was determined to find a way to sing here so I began researching for a teacher. I was lucky enough to get a place with the best early music specialist in the area and we've been working together now for about six months. The improvement in my vocal health, confidence and knowledge is plain.
When I found out about the JEMSfest and immediately knew I needed to attend. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the experience will change my life. The workshop was a fun mix of vocal masterclasses and lessons, ensemble work, rehearsals with instrumentalists on period-instruments and finally, solo and ensemble recitals and a final concert including the performance of the first English opera: Venus and Adonis by John Blow. As much as I enjoyed all of the work and the rehearsals, the most important aspect of the week was making connections. Getting work in this (or any) business is 90% about who you know. Cynical as it sounds, it's been a huge boost for me to realize that.
My confidence also got a big shot-in-the-arm as I worked with other professionals who treated me not like a student and not like an amateur, but like a fellow musician. I came out of the workshop with invitations to join a number of local ensembles and I'm on "the list" now. One of the voice faculty, a professional countertenor, told me that he was so glad I was in KC and that he is going to do whatever he can to make sure I get work as a soloist around here. For the first time since I was a teenager, I feel like I am not just a pretend-musician. I feel like I just found the golden ticket...I have relationships now and there are people in my corner.
It has all been a treat. In September I'll start rehearsals with these different ensembles. I'll continue working with my own fabulous teacher and keep building my skills and repertoire. It's exciting.
Less exciting is the fact that I can't seem to make embedding audio in blogger work anymore, so if you want to hear anything, you can check out my website here on the ABOUT page. There's one recording from the workshop and I found it a little disappointing. The mic was too far away so it's a bit quiet and when I listen some major things pop out that I'd do differently next time, but it at least gives you an idea of the stuff I'm working on. That piece, by the way, is one that I transcribed from a facsimile of the original 1664 printing...pretty fun project.
I have some more photos of the slow progression of making our house a home. We repainted boyo's room. I know the angles are off, but picture yourself standing just where the door in the old picture is to get the vantage point of the new views. I know the old taupe doesn't look that bad in this photo, but you just have to remember that that photo was taken before we bought the place and by the time we moved in it had had big patches of plaster all over the walls and a halo of pain around the moulding where the contractors had repainted without taping anything. It looked awful.
And now, with the bright white, intense blue and green shades I think it's a pretty great little boy's room. Evidently Happy likes it too.
Some summer cuteness:
and Daddy keeping fit. It's about 150 degrees outside (okay, 107) and here he is hauling about 100 pounds of baby behind him. He's my superman.
We've had an alarmingly short, action-packed summer and I'm sorry to say that it is almost over!! Only 3 weeks before Curmudgeon heads back to school. Busy as we've been with family and workshops and well-deserved (I think) lounging, we have gotten some major home projects done around the house. I foolishly neglected to take photos immediately after the work and since then haven't gotten around to all the cleaning, rearranging and fussing needed to take photos of every room, but I'll present them as I clean... a little bit at a time. So first up is Chubbles room (aka the laundry room. what? she loves it!).
the laundry room when first saw the house.
The same ugly, drab taupe that filled the whole place.
Updated with fresh bright paint, fun curtains, and that same cheap IKEA rug you've seen in a million pictures from every design mommy-blog out there. But it was cheap and pretty, so there. Also, though you can barely see one of them, four gorgeous prints of fairy-tale scenes in watercolor by Edmund Dulac surround the crib. I have been carrying these prints around for almost two years meaning to put them up in her room and now they're finally up. makes me so so happy.
We're also almost finished with our entryway. Remember this?
and this? It also started with that bleak taupe color painted over a mish-mass of textured wallpaper and plaster. What a nightmare to get all of that off!
And now it's all bright, happy and colorful. Deep sigh of relief.
And for the grand finale, our cuties in character: The dour Chubbles and the always silly Happy.
We've had a great couple of weeks with Grandma and Grandpa from Ohio, Grandma and Grandma from Utah and our Okie cousins. No play-by-play narration of our visits, just a few pictures to illustrate our fun times:
reading with Grammy
an Independence Day waterfight with the Okies
water balloons, cannons and plastic cups gave our kiddos all the ammunition they needed to join in the fun.
visiting our favorite sculpture park with Grandma and Grandpa.
Happy and his cousin Bug were born six days apart and have been good buddies their whole lives.
We've been having a great time hanging out with visiting family. My sister, her husband and their three children have been staying with us and we've loved exploring with them.
We took them to the sculpture park at the Art Museum. The kids all had a great time running over the fields, crawling under sculptures, and playing on the steps of the museum.
Tomorrow is the last day of school and we are SOOOO ready for summer. There are some major benefits to Curmudgeon's career choice and 2.5 months off is one of them. His middle schoolers had their final concert of the year on Monday night. We got a babysitter so that I could go watch and now have to tell you how impressed I was. Okay...they didn't sound like professionals, but they're 12-14 years old and for some of them, orchestra class a few times a week is the only instruction they've ever had. But they played some really entertaining pieces and did them well enough to satisfy a snob like myself (even if, as Curmudgeon says they played much better in class than in the concert). More impressive still is how his students interacted with him both at the concert and when I brought the kids in to visit the next day. I can tell that they genuinely like him and enjoy being a part of his class. You're always going to have some so-and-sos who don't want to be there, don't put in any effort or just can't get through their attitude problems, but there are also those who stick it out, work hard, and by the end of the year can be proud of how much they've learned and what they have to show for it. And from the view of this outside observer, those kids really appreciate Mr. Curmudgeon and his teaching. So as frustrating as the first year is for any teacher, I think Curmudgeon should be proud of how he has done--and he should also know how proud I am of him! And now it's summer and we don't have to think about school again for 2.5 months! (well, he'll probably think about it every day and spend a great deal of time selecting and arranging new pieces, mapping out his pedagogical plans and gussying up his classroom. But the point is, he doesn't have to, and when he chooses to, that just makes him an even better teacher!)
We had an exciting Sunday here in Kansas this week.
First, the Kansas City Missouri Temple was dedicated. The service was overseen by President Thomas S. Monson, the Prophet and current president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the quorum of the twelve apostles attended also, along with Elders Hallstrom and Walker of the quorum of the seventies. For those unfamiliar with the administrative order of the church, I'll refer you here for a helpful explanation of those terms.
Alais sang in the choir for the dedication service. The dedication (there were actually three separate sessions to allow as many church members as possible to participate) was broadcast live to all the local meetinghouses because seating at the temple was so limited. It was a very special, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in such a service, especially to sing there in that tiny room right next to the prophet and his apostles. (though I'll admit, it was a little unnerving to sing right in Elder Hallstrom's ear. His chair was literally so close to me I had to keep reminding myself not to rest my hands on the back of his chair!) Little side note here, I wish I had had a chance to talk to Elder Hallstrom and his wife. They used to live in Hong Kong and I served for several months in their branch when I was there as a missionary. I don't know if they would remember me, but I certainly had several conversations with them both. If I could have picked one VIP to talk to that day, I think it would have been Sister Hallstrom. Of course, there was no opportunity at all, so I just flashed her a little smile before singing and hoped she might recognize me.
One really great thing for me was having my very good friend in the soprano section with me. Our boys play together all the time, she watches my kids whenever I have a voice lesson and we love getting to hang out together for real-life grown-up conversations while our little boys talk trucks and trains.
The meeting was joyful and the dedication so touching. There's a lot of Mormon history in this area, much of it pretty sad as the early Mormons had to flee the state to escape violent persecution. Seeing a beautiful temple standing right in Liberty, MO is hugely significant for Latter-Day Saints all over the world.
In completely unrelated news, we also had our first great adventure of the storm season. After naptime was over during that long stretch between afternoon and bedtime, we decided to take a family drive into the country. It had been a rainy day (you can see the cornerstone up there is all wet and weird-looking) but seemed to be clearing up by the time we went out driving. BUT...
...this is what we saw on our drive home. We looked out at the clouds and saw that one was starting to look pretty suspicious. We didn't have our camera with us, so I'm just borrowing this picture and video from folks who were actually prepared to capture the moment.
Crazy, huh! I'd never seen a tornado before that night and I'm really ok if I don't see one again. (Fat chance living in Kansas, right?) The video really shows just about what we saw. We were further away, so we didn't get to see all that menacing swirly detail, but we definitely saw it change shape and move and turn into that really creepy finger at the end before dissipating.
By the time we got home, there was hail the size of ping-pong balls pounding at our car and we felt lucky not to have our windshield break. We got the kids inside and spent a cozy little hour in the basement watching Sesame Street and eating macaroni and cheese. All in all, it was a pretty exciting day.
There's a new game being played around our house. The kids call it "monsters!"or sometimes "ghosts...whooo!" I call it "the dirty laundry is all over the floor again". At least the game is unbelievably cute, so I can easily get over all the clothes having to be sorted many times before actually making it into the washer.
The game is essentially what you see here. They both empty a laundry basket, put it over their heads and wander around bumping into things (and each other) while growling, whoo-ing and of course, giggling. I can't really complain about dirty clothes on the floor when they are so adorably sweet. By the way, as you can see by these shots of Happy's room, we've done next to nothing upstairs. Eventually we'll get around to painting, but the more used we get to the weird plaster patches and trim paint-halos, the less likely painting up here will be a priority. Ah well.
We continue to visit parks and playgrounds as often as we can. Girly likes the swings more and more and is starting to get brave enough to go down slides by herself, but Happy is just about too big for the toddler swings now. Poor floppy boy. I tried to teach him to hold on and pump his legs on the big-boy swing, but he thinks flopping is more fun. Who can blame him, right?
We had another great visit from Curmudgeon's folks last week. They went with us to visit the KC Temple Open House (see this post) and we made a quick stop at the mall to get Boy-o some new shoes. Right next to the shoe-store, however is a little coin-operated play station. It has become an obligatory stop whenever we go to the mall. Good thing for us, the kids don't know the things are supposed to move and make noise! (And the ice-cream truck is known as "the music truck" around our house.)
Each of the local congregations was asked to help with the public open house by volunteering to work there at certain times. We were assigned to work two weeks ago. Curmudgeon was out in the cold rain for 5 hours helping with parking; Alys was cleaning bathrooms mostly. Alys also got to go with some of the tour groups that day. Curmudgeon went later with some friends from work, then again with his parents and Happy. Happy was super quiet and well behaved with only a little preping from mom. The temple is beautiful. Open houses are not to be missed. You get to see all the rooms - janitor closet excepting.
It's very special for us to be close to a temple. When were married in the temple in Logan Utah, we made an eternal promise to each other and to God that we would be faithful to each other and that our marriage would continue throughout eternity and that the relationship that binds us to each other and our children in this life would continue infinitely beyond this life.
That, essentially, is what temples are for. In them, we can participate in sacred ordinances like marriage and baptism which bind us to God and to our families across generations. We believe the family is the most important foundation for humanity and that our families, which are so essential to our happiness in this life, will continue to be the basis for our happiness and progress in eternal life.
As we continue to attend the temple (we hope to attend often) we continue to participate in ordinances that teach us more about our relationship to God and his eternal plan for His children. The temple is sacred and that quiet and holy place is an ideal setting for prayer and contemplation.
Allow us to share a very special and personal experience with you. It was in the Columbus, Ohio temple, after participating in proxy sealing ordinances (where members are able to perform eternal marriages and seal children to parents for their ancestors) that we both got a strong feeling that we should start our own family. We had only been married a few months and had intended to wait for Curmudgeon to finish school and for Alys to work for some time before having children-- at least a couple of years. But we both (independently) felt very strongly that someone special was waiting to join our family and we shouldn't wait for our own purposes, but trust that if our Heavenly Father wanted us to have children immediately that he would provide means and help for us to do that. Less than a year later, we had our beautiful little Happy. We have been so blessed by our children. And yes, it has been difficult and sometimes we think we must be crazy to want more :) but we know that our family is the only thing that really matters. It is eternal and our children will be ours forever. That is why we have temples.
