I have been loving this Christmas! Vince has time off he has to use and we are home together as a family. I don't remember the last time we could just relax and just enjoy our family at home. Delightful!
The only thing I really haven't been able to do is take the kids sledding. Where is the snow?!!
This past week I also made bedroom curtains, restained my nightstands, painted a wall in my bedroom and redecorated it. I use the term redecorate fairly loosely (I'm still developing decorating skills). I know--I need to have Eva take pictures and post them here. But I'm not finished yet!
I know that the 23rd of Christmas is an odd time of year to be making curtains but on the night of the 22nd a neighbor stopped by to warn us of a possible peeping Tom so we decided to take immediate precautions. We had window coverings but to be safe decided to improve them. Of course, once the curtains were finished there were other obvious things that needed improving.
Last night, warned by yet other neighbors who were helping to watch over us we caught our guy. He was caught laying down on the ground by my girls' windows. Vince stood outside with him and a neighbor while I called the police. Vince wrote a statement and the young man was taken away. It is a sad story. I feel grateful that we are cared for and protected and yet concerned at what this could become. I also feel sorrowful for his parents. When they were cuffing and patting him down I pictured a boy being cuffed. The boy I remember when we moved here. It's all so sad. I'm grateful for free agency and yet bewildered at some people's use of it. I know his parents have been working with him for years and have tried everything yet he continues to break their hearts.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
I've decided it's time for a long update. I prefer short quick blogposts but I can never seem to find the time for any posts and I guess it's been so long since I've posted that this one will be long.
Vince was released from the high council to be the young men's president in our ward. I guess it took the stake several months to let him go at our Bishop's request and even after he was released was asked to finish up some projects. It was neat to see many in our stake express sincere gratitude for his work. He LOVES working with the young men. There was a 3-week lull where he had been released and hadn't officially received his new calling yet while they put his presidency together and he was at first very excited (talking a ton, if you can believe that) and then getting super antsy. It was cute. He has always wanted to work with the young men and/or be a teacher and this is almost the first time he's ever had the opportunity. He's like a little kid and he wears the cute "little boy" grin a lot. I love it! He once got to work with Webelos for about six months but other than that he has mostly been in a bishopric or on the high council for most all of the 16 years we've been married.
I got a job at the elementary school as a literacy aide. I love it! I work for 3.5 hours each morning and then I have the afternoons off. This means that most days I work at school then come home to teach at home or take Nathan to speech. I'm still trying to figure out when I clean the house and exercise but that's going to take me some time. Working at the school has been good for me in so many ways. I work with two women that I have looked up to and respected since we first moved to Tooele. I get to put into practice teaching techniques I've been learning from the speech clinic. AND I get to take home anything I need/want to help Nathan with. Which means that Nathan and I are very busy. I can already see a difference in his reading level, mostly because of my access to leveled reading materials. It's very exciting! I think seeing his improvement makes my job most worthwhile, and then extra income is helping us keep him in speech. The opportunity for this job came just after all the major car drama which was expensive and nearly caused us to take a "break" from speech. Of course just after I was hired Vince's work had a company wide pay cut again due to the still weak economy. His cut amounts to roughly half of my new income so we have definitely been blessed.
When I started working it became obvious that I could not keep up my schedule with everything and keep house myself as much as I have been and one of the first things we started was giving every member of the family a night to cook dinner. This helped me a ton. There are six of us so they all have a day and I have two days. We've been trying this out for a couple of months now and it is kind of working. What I noticed was a nearly complete lack of vegetables when the kids were cooking. Shocking, I know. The other week a solution came to me and I spent the first day of Christmas break setting it up. For the next several months each child is going to cook four meals. Nathan's meals are things like hamburgers and grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup and salad. They get more complicated based on their skills--Ethan's making things like Enchiladas and Eva's cooking Chicken Squares. They selected their 4 dinner items--and I did recommend that Eva choose some simpler things because a lot of her stuff is going to take quite some time. Ethan selected things he could freeze ahead and wants to spend time over the break preparing 4 of each of the 4 dinners to put in the freezer. I put all the recipes in page protectors in a small binder and made 4 grocery lists--one for each week that I can just print out and then cross off things I do not need to purchase each week. Ivy's menus go something like this--1. Before school take meat our of the freezer 2. At 4:30 after your lesson, get the tall black pot and.... Very specific. In four months time they will have prepared each meal four times and over spring break we will select new menu items and start a new rotation. I'm hoping this will mean a real meal gets prepared even (or especially) when I'm not home because of speech to supervise and help.
I also prepared chore stuff which wasn't exciting for anyone. In the past I've made some fun ones but now I think we're old enough to just get things done. The trick has been in coordinating everything and everyone and I think we have a handle on that now. We'll see. Getting hired in the middle of school didn't give us any time to get organized and make plans for this stuff. I was really caught off guard.
A quick update on kids. Eva is loving school especially MESA and yearbook. She especially loved playing church volleyball and even stayed after school to participate in some volleyball after school. They do sports oddly here. She still loves violin and piano although both of us are having a little trouble with 6:15 am violin lessons. It was OK until it got colder :) Her piano is especially advanced. She is now memorizing a piece that my "great" student learned in college. She is going to begin a longer piano lesson in January.
Ethan is still learning piano and guitar and still hating piano and liking guitar. He played his guitar in FHE the other week as we sang silent night. We all enjoyed that and we'll have to get him to play more for us. He really, really wants to do sports and is counting down for junior high when he can participate in them after school. He's in the early morning advanced math class but he doesn't like it as much as he thought he would. He was looking forward to learning more advanced math but the State of Utah has a new Common Core law that makes it virtually impossible for them to teach the kids past the core curriculum. I won't get started on our opinion about that. Vince especially was a bit steamed about it. I just shrug my shoulders. The only way to get around it is to homeschool... This law even affects Eva's education in the junior high. I'll stop now. Ethan's doing great! He loves scouts and loves spending time with his friends! I think he even likes that his dad goes to most of his stuff now.
Ivy is most excited that she gets to cook once a week! She has always been interested in cooking/baking. I'll never forget her as a 5 year old going to the adult section to check out cookbooks. She did that for years and still goes over there to see if they have anything new. Monday she made chili and cornbread--from scratch. She used canned tomato sauce and canned beans but used a recipe and not a mix. She was in the kitchen a very long time because she's quite slow (at everything--Ivy just works on her own time frame) and she loved every minute. She wants to learn violin but she doesn't want to practice. She really excels on the piano. She's almost caught up to Ethan and has started playing for pleasure--which is exciting. That's when kids really start playing well. She reads all the time. Her reading scores are VERY high for her grade. But one of the assessments is a measure of how many words the student can say about a passage after they have read it. This is a huge boost to Ivy's reading score! That girl is a talker!!
Nathan is doing great. He's starting to do more chores around the house, although it is difficult because he is so busy. Homework, speech, and reading tutoring with me has him very busy. He gets to play before homework many days when we don't have speech--I send him out while I'm teaching and we work after dinner. He's learning piano but his progress is slow because I don't like to make him practice. A big part of me hates that he's taking lessons but it's what he really wants so we try to get him just enough practice to get by. He started the year at a reading level of F which is a level for the middle of first grade and he's advanced to an H now. His assessments at school don't show any improvement but I don't worry about that because I know more about the test and they wouldn't show improvement--I'll have to explain that sometime. By the end of the school year a second grader should be reading level L or M, I can't remember which. I'm hoping to get there by the end of the summer. Maybe. Eventually I believe he will catch up. It's hard work for both of us but very rewarding. The difficulty is that at an H level he has to try to read things he can't even say correctly. Which make sounding them out extra difficult.
His speech has improved a ton but when you listen to him and realize you can understand everything he can say you may not realize that he only uses words that are comfortable for him. It's sort of like running around the ball in tennis so you don't have to hit a backhand. And then there are language and grammar challenges that small children learn when they learn to talk that he missed. It's overwhelming to think about. The reading and speech interventions are symbiotic--they support each other. But I don't think I will ever believe the progress is as fast as I would like. These things just take time. And like my sweet sister said on her blog it is most often two steps forward and one step back. It seems like it's always that way unless I look at 3-6 month intervals or more. I know life isn't fair but it I don't know if I'll ever be entirely comfortable with the fact that these kids have to work so much harder than everyone else. It really isn't fair! And then by most all measures and standards they have little to show for their efforts.
So there is the long update on what's been keeping us busy!!
Vince was released from the high council to be the young men's president in our ward. I guess it took the stake several months to let him go at our Bishop's request and even after he was released was asked to finish up some projects. It was neat to see many in our stake express sincere gratitude for his work. He LOVES working with the young men. There was a 3-week lull where he had been released and hadn't officially received his new calling yet while they put his presidency together and he was at first very excited (talking a ton, if you can believe that) and then getting super antsy. It was cute. He has always wanted to work with the young men and/or be a teacher and this is almost the first time he's ever had the opportunity. He's like a little kid and he wears the cute "little boy" grin a lot. I love it! He once got to work with Webelos for about six months but other than that he has mostly been in a bishopric or on the high council for most all of the 16 years we've been married.
I got a job at the elementary school as a literacy aide. I love it! I work for 3.5 hours each morning and then I have the afternoons off. This means that most days I work at school then come home to teach at home or take Nathan to speech. I'm still trying to figure out when I clean the house and exercise but that's going to take me some time. Working at the school has been good for me in so many ways. I work with two women that I have looked up to and respected since we first moved to Tooele. I get to put into practice teaching techniques I've been learning from the speech clinic. AND I get to take home anything I need/want to help Nathan with. Which means that Nathan and I are very busy. I can already see a difference in his reading level, mostly because of my access to leveled reading materials. It's very exciting! I think seeing his improvement makes my job most worthwhile, and then extra income is helping us keep him in speech. The opportunity for this job came just after all the major car drama which was expensive and nearly caused us to take a "break" from speech. Of course just after I was hired Vince's work had a company wide pay cut again due to the still weak economy. His cut amounts to roughly half of my new income so we have definitely been blessed.
When I started working it became obvious that I could not keep up my schedule with everything and keep house myself as much as I have been and one of the first things we started was giving every member of the family a night to cook dinner. This helped me a ton. There are six of us so they all have a day and I have two days. We've been trying this out for a couple of months now and it is kind of working. What I noticed was a nearly complete lack of vegetables when the kids were cooking. Shocking, I know. The other week a solution came to me and I spent the first day of Christmas break setting it up. For the next several months each child is going to cook four meals. Nathan's meals are things like hamburgers and grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup and salad. They get more complicated based on their skills--Ethan's making things like Enchiladas and Eva's cooking Chicken Squares. They selected their 4 dinner items--and I did recommend that Eva choose some simpler things because a lot of her stuff is going to take quite some time. Ethan selected things he could freeze ahead and wants to spend time over the break preparing 4 of each of the 4 dinners to put in the freezer. I put all the recipes in page protectors in a small binder and made 4 grocery lists--one for each week that I can just print out and then cross off things I do not need to purchase each week. Ivy's menus go something like this--1. Before school take meat our of the freezer 2. At 4:30 after your lesson, get the tall black pot and.... Very specific. In four months time they will have prepared each meal four times and over spring break we will select new menu items and start a new rotation. I'm hoping this will mean a real meal gets prepared even (or especially) when I'm not home because of speech to supervise and help.
I also prepared chore stuff which wasn't exciting for anyone. In the past I've made some fun ones but now I think we're old enough to just get things done. The trick has been in coordinating everything and everyone and I think we have a handle on that now. We'll see. Getting hired in the middle of school didn't give us any time to get organized and make plans for this stuff. I was really caught off guard.
A quick update on kids. Eva is loving school especially MESA and yearbook. She especially loved playing church volleyball and even stayed after school to participate in some volleyball after school. They do sports oddly here. She still loves violin and piano although both of us are having a little trouble with 6:15 am violin lessons. It was OK until it got colder :) Her piano is especially advanced. She is now memorizing a piece that my "great" student learned in college. She is going to begin a longer piano lesson in January.
Ethan is still learning piano and guitar and still hating piano and liking guitar. He played his guitar in FHE the other week as we sang silent night. We all enjoyed that and we'll have to get him to play more for us. He really, really wants to do sports and is counting down for junior high when he can participate in them after school. He's in the early morning advanced math class but he doesn't like it as much as he thought he would. He was looking forward to learning more advanced math but the State of Utah has a new Common Core law that makes it virtually impossible for them to teach the kids past the core curriculum. I won't get started on our opinion about that. Vince especially was a bit steamed about it. I just shrug my shoulders. The only way to get around it is to homeschool... This law even affects Eva's education in the junior high. I'll stop now. Ethan's doing great! He loves scouts and loves spending time with his friends! I think he even likes that his dad goes to most of his stuff now.
Ivy is most excited that she gets to cook once a week! She has always been interested in cooking/baking. I'll never forget her as a 5 year old going to the adult section to check out cookbooks. She did that for years and still goes over there to see if they have anything new. Monday she made chili and cornbread--from scratch. She used canned tomato sauce and canned beans but used a recipe and not a mix. She was in the kitchen a very long time because she's quite slow (at everything--Ivy just works on her own time frame) and she loved every minute. She wants to learn violin but she doesn't want to practice. She really excels on the piano. She's almost caught up to Ethan and has started playing for pleasure--which is exciting. That's when kids really start playing well. She reads all the time. Her reading scores are VERY high for her grade. But one of the assessments is a measure of how many words the student can say about a passage after they have read it. This is a huge boost to Ivy's reading score! That girl is a talker!!
Nathan is doing great. He's starting to do more chores around the house, although it is difficult because he is so busy. Homework, speech, and reading tutoring with me has him very busy. He gets to play before homework many days when we don't have speech--I send him out while I'm teaching and we work after dinner. He's learning piano but his progress is slow because I don't like to make him practice. A big part of me hates that he's taking lessons but it's what he really wants so we try to get him just enough practice to get by. He started the year at a reading level of F which is a level for the middle of first grade and he's advanced to an H now. His assessments at school don't show any improvement but I don't worry about that because I know more about the test and they wouldn't show improvement--I'll have to explain that sometime. By the end of the school year a second grader should be reading level L or M, I can't remember which. I'm hoping to get there by the end of the summer. Maybe. Eventually I believe he will catch up. It's hard work for both of us but very rewarding. The difficulty is that at an H level he has to try to read things he can't even say correctly. Which make sounding them out extra difficult.
His speech has improved a ton but when you listen to him and realize you can understand everything he can say you may not realize that he only uses words that are comfortable for him. It's sort of like running around the ball in tennis so you don't have to hit a backhand. And then there are language and grammar challenges that small children learn when they learn to talk that he missed. It's overwhelming to think about. The reading and speech interventions are symbiotic--they support each other. But I don't think I will ever believe the progress is as fast as I would like. These things just take time. And like my sweet sister said on her blog it is most often two steps forward and one step back. It seems like it's always that way unless I look at 3-6 month intervals or more. I know life isn't fair but it I don't know if I'll ever be entirely comfortable with the fact that these kids have to work so much harder than everyone else. It really isn't fair! And then by most all measures and standards they have little to show for their efforts.
So there is the long update on what's been keeping us busy!!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Ethan
Ethan was selected by his teacher as CEO (Chief Example to Others) this month. Mr. B. writes:
Ethan is one weird kid! I don't mean that in a bad way.
Interesting or unique might be more politically correct terms to describe Ethan. He is a chief example to others because he things independently while respecting everyone around him. He loves to add to the conversation in the classroom and often provides ideas that I haven't even thought of.
He loves to read, and I think reading has unlocked a storehouse of funky ideas in his mind that he doesn't mind sharing with others.
He takes responsibility for his learning by completing all of his assignments without complaining. He makes our class a more interesting and fun place to be.
Way to go Ethan--we think you're great!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Another Nathan Update
A couple of weeks ago Nathan asked his teacher if he and another boy could do their work in the hall because the classroom was too noisy. I was excited for several reasons: he recognized he couldn't concentrate with the noise, he talked with his teacher about it, he successfully articulated his concern, and he recognized that someone else was also having trouble and tried to help them. It was a proud mom moment for me. Of course this summer an audiologist emphatically suggested that we get Nathan some headphones to block background noise for this very reason but the principal and teacher had some concerns so we decided to wait and see what would happen. Nathan was thrilled when I went to school the day after his teacher told me this story and scored him a set he keeps on his desk. I did have to do a bit of talking to make that happen but let me tell you a child saying they can't concentrate on their work makes my job tons easier! The first day with the headphones was good but he did say that he was annoyed with his partner during centers who kept talking to him and he was close enough that the headphones wouldn't block it out. The second day he was thrilled when he was able to block out this boy's talking. (I was excited about that too because maybe the headphones will help him be able to do that somewhat effectively without headphones someday.) I've talked with another parent volunteer and she said that when it's work time Nathan puts those headphones on and gets his stuff done. This is exciting, as he hasn't yet been able to successfully complete work at school. It looks like auditory processing testing is a given and I can't wait to see someday what else we can learn specifically about Nathan and how to make things a bit easier for him!!
His clinician at the U of U this term is amazing! Every student clinician up there has been excellent but up to this point we have been fortunate to work with 2 that really understood Nathan and developed a plan that suited his needs perfectly. This term we get to work with a third talented clinician. Her name is Amanda and I love her approach. She rarely has to redirect Nathan--he has a good time but he doesn't get too wound up or off topic. I pretty much think she's brilliant.
Sometimes progress seems slow and expensive in time and resources. During the car drama we were tempted to set an ending date for speech. That week I also had an opportunity to volunteer with Nathan's class and had a moment with the other little boy Nathan took in the hall with him that day. Let's call him Tom. When Nathan and Tom were in Kindergarten they both had trouble but Nathan was much more severe--all around. I don't know what happened between entering Kindergarten and now with Tom because I've been pretty busy working with Nathan. Nathan and Tom have similar histories. Tom has had hearing loss associated with fluid in the ears, has trouble communicating verbally and nonverbally with other people (probably confidence related), has a submucous cleft palate (fixing Tom's palate wasn't an option due to severe allergies and asthma), ... The other week when I was at school I worked with Tom a little bit and I was surprised that I couldn't understand him. Given my experience with Nathan and Ivy I can usually pick things out but I got nothing from Tom. I was shocked. I know Tom's parents have worked hard to get him help and to help him. I believe the difference is that Tom gets private therapy twice a month for 30 minutes in Salt Lake and Nathan gets therapy twice a week for 60 minutes. Last year I talked with Tom's mom about Nathan's therapy and suggested we could save money on gas by carpooling and they weren't really interested. This time I've talked to Tom's dad and offered to just take Tom and his mom with us--we're going anyway. He said to get him the paperwork and I'm praying it works out for them. It broke my heart to see and hear Tom because I know how hard it is for him. It also made me grateful that the Lord has directed us in Nathan's therapy and blessed us. It was a bit of a tender mercy to see precisely where Nathan would most likely be if we had decided the sacrifice was too great. And it was a poignant reminder of how hard Nathan has worked and how much progress we get to celebrate!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Birthday!
Last Thursday Eva turned 14! Now she can go to dances--except our Bishopric ran out of dance cards :(
It's hard to believe that in a year she'll start driving! Seriously I can't wait. I'm looking forward to another chauffer :)
We are so proud of Eva--she's a remarkable girl! I'm going to brag about her a bit :) She works so hard to develop her talents, be a good friend, help her siblings, etc. She is an accomplished musician--she gets to start playing Beethoven's Pathetique (a piece I learned in high school) and she's working on her Suzuki book 6 in violin. She loves working with the yearbook committee and participating in young women's. She's nearly finished with her first personal progress medallion. She has a beautiful testimony of our Savior and His place in her life and finds joy in reading about Him in her scriptures. We sure love having Eva in our family!!
For Eva's birthday she got an i-home, a new SD card for her camera and......her own room! We spent the weekend moving Vince's stuff into the room that will one day be a bathroom, Eva's stuff into Vince's old space, Ivy's stuff upstairs to the boys' old room and the boys downstairs to the girls' old room (yes, the one with the pink carpet--and Ethan is NOT thrilled about pink carpet :)) I'm hoping all this moving explains the late birthday blog :)
It's amazing how clean everyone's bedroom is. Everyone's! The boys really did need tons more space. Eva and Ivy each claimed that it was the other one making the mess in their room. I guess they were both right?! Maybe it's too early to tell.
In other news--a week before Eva's birthday Vince's truck broke on the way home from work. His front passenger tire was sideways. We felt super blessed that going 75 mph on a busy highway during the commute, when people drive to close, that no one bumped him and he was able to get off the road without rolling. He left a long indentation in the highway and apparently there were many sparks. After a tow, 2 new tires, 4 new ball joints, and some controller thing under the car that was damaged we have his truck back. BUT while we were waiting for that work to be done the Expedition broke down--right before the weekend. So we were a small one-car family for a weekend. The Expedition sounded Really Bad and we were thinking it might be time to say good bye or replace the transmission but our wonderful new neighbor looked at it and said it needs a new CV joint which is really not a big deal :) We were thinking Vince would fix it but after looking at his schedule and taking into account that he's not very comfortable with that plan we took the key to the mechanic and are now waiting for that vehicle to be towed. Thank goodness we had our super old 1993 Subaru to tie us over! The irony of that was not lost on me but when I pointed it out to Vince he muttered something about that one being sure to break down now. It was a bit of a stressful weekend around here....
It's hard to believe that in a year she'll start driving! Seriously I can't wait. I'm looking forward to another chauffer :)
We are so proud of Eva--she's a remarkable girl! I'm going to brag about her a bit :) She works so hard to develop her talents, be a good friend, help her siblings, etc. She is an accomplished musician--she gets to start playing Beethoven's Pathetique (a piece I learned in high school) and she's working on her Suzuki book 6 in violin. She loves working with the yearbook committee and participating in young women's. She's nearly finished with her first personal progress medallion. She has a beautiful testimony of our Savior and His place in her life and finds joy in reading about Him in her scriptures. We sure love having Eva in our family!!
For Eva's birthday she got an i-home, a new SD card for her camera and......her own room! We spent the weekend moving Vince's stuff into the room that will one day be a bathroom, Eva's stuff into Vince's old space, Ivy's stuff upstairs to the boys' old room and the boys downstairs to the girls' old room (yes, the one with the pink carpet--and Ethan is NOT thrilled about pink carpet :)) I'm hoping all this moving explains the late birthday blog :)
It's amazing how clean everyone's bedroom is. Everyone's! The boys really did need tons more space. Eva and Ivy each claimed that it was the other one making the mess in their room. I guess they were both right?! Maybe it's too early to tell.
In other news--a week before Eva's birthday Vince's truck broke on the way home from work. His front passenger tire was sideways. We felt super blessed that going 75 mph on a busy highway during the commute, when people drive to close, that no one bumped him and he was able to get off the road without rolling. He left a long indentation in the highway and apparently there were many sparks. After a tow, 2 new tires, 4 new ball joints, and some controller thing under the car that was damaged we have his truck back. BUT while we were waiting for that work to be done the Expedition broke down--right before the weekend. So we were a small one-car family for a weekend. The Expedition sounded Really Bad and we were thinking it might be time to say good bye or replace the transmission but our wonderful new neighbor looked at it and said it needs a new CV joint which is really not a big deal :) We were thinking Vince would fix it but after looking at his schedule and taking into account that he's not very comfortable with that plan we took the key to the mechanic and are now waiting for that vehicle to be towed. Thank goodness we had our super old 1993 Subaru to tie us over! The irony of that was not lost on me but when I pointed it out to Vince he muttered something about that one being sure to break down now. It was a bit of a stressful weekend around here....
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Eva Sewing
Ok. my Mom asked me to post pictures of the new dress I made, so here they are!! I was hoping this sewing project would take 10 hours so I could count it for my Integrity project, but it looks like I'm going to have to make another thing. Anyway, here the pictures of me in my beautiful new dress and haircut!!!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Big Performance
Last night was my big performance at the assembly hall--my family was really excited. For it to be over. Eva put it succinctly when she said, "Finally!" The whole thing turned into a much bigger project than I ever would have imagined and I had a few 4+ hour practices as well as my practicing at home, attempting to write modulations, key changes, and accompianments. Most of this was well over my head and I was clearly out of my league. The soloist has a beautiful soprano voice and is a fabulous performer but I think she would do better with a pianist who could play by ear--it would be a better fit for her, I think.
BUT I had a great time--especially last night! By that time it was clear there was nothing I could "do over" or "do better" so I decided on the drive in to Salt Lake that I was just going to enjoy myself and enjoy the assembly hall and enjoy being with the friends I had made during the project. And I did just that! The assembly hall is a beautiful building!! As a performer, I not only got to be on the stage but I got to go behind the stage and see the green room, and the halls and doorways leading to the upstairs seating, main floor seating, and the stage. Every door was only about 6' or so--much shorter than what we're used to, anyway, and each had a beautiful doorknob with the beehive symbol on it. The green rooms had beautiful antique looking upholstered seating and cabinets (with the fancy doorknobs) that opened to a mirror with a string of lights to check hair and make-up. We also got to go downstairs where there was a classroom and a piano for extra last minute practicing, teaching, etc. I'm not sure what they use it for. One of the people in charge (there were two couples--missionaries) took us downstairs to see the rooms where Richard Elliot and the other organists work. The three organists each have their own room and in each room is a full pipe organ and grand piano. One of the rooms also had a harpsichord. We also saw the tunnel that leads from the Assembly Hall to all the other tunnels under Temple Square. The couples that work with the performers are excellent--so nice and friendly! I want their job someday!!
I got to play on a 9 foot Steinway grand piano. It was a huge instrument and I was relieved when they said they didn't think we needed the lid open! The piano was so easy to play--it was easier than I ever would have thought to play notes softly and it was also very easy to play a nice tone. The instrument was beautifully balanced, which in rehearsal took me a little while to get accustomed to. I decided that if I had something like that to practice on I would likely want to practice all the time! It was easier (than any piano I get to play on) to make the music sound "right" on that piano.
The performance went well--for me, it was the best I'd played the full set of music in one sitting, but there was definitely still room for improvement. Still, I was happy with it, knowing I did my best with the time I had and the challenges thrown at me. For this performance, it would have been less stressful for me if I had been pursuing my personal music more aggressively through the years. Sometimes I have wondered if I regretted letting some of the skills go. I have had people ask me if I regret not getting my music degree. I can honestly say I only regretted it last night and at rehearsals for this project. Even then I didn't really feel "regret" as much as I felt inadequate. Mostly, I felt a little as Eva did, that I would be glad to finish this project and get back to what I really love doing now--being a mom and taking care of my family and helping them develop their talents. The degree I did get in college has been immeasurably valuable to me in being a mother, especially a mother to Nathan. I know that if I did not have my BSW I would not have been able to fight for and help Nathan as effectively as I have. It was fun to meet a couple of other women who have aggressively pursued their musical talents through the years--it was neat to see and hear where their musical talents have taken them and what they've been able to accomplish.
I was excited that Lisa showed up to the performance. I was a little disappointed that no one in my family (Vince and kids--my other family is too far away, of course) would be able to come and it was a special surprise when we were finished to see Lisa walking my way--she stayed with me the rest of the night and then we talked after. I love having a sister so close and being able to talk with her about things like this! She also helped me try to configure modulations and taught me some theory--thanks Lisa for being such a support!
BUT I had a great time--especially last night! By that time it was clear there was nothing I could "do over" or "do better" so I decided on the drive in to Salt Lake that I was just going to enjoy myself and enjoy the assembly hall and enjoy being with the friends I had made during the project. And I did just that! The assembly hall is a beautiful building!! As a performer, I not only got to be on the stage but I got to go behind the stage and see the green room, and the halls and doorways leading to the upstairs seating, main floor seating, and the stage. Every door was only about 6' or so--much shorter than what we're used to, anyway, and each had a beautiful doorknob with the beehive symbol on it. The green rooms had beautiful antique looking upholstered seating and cabinets (with the fancy doorknobs) that opened to a mirror with a string of lights to check hair and make-up. We also got to go downstairs where there was a classroom and a piano for extra last minute practicing, teaching, etc. I'm not sure what they use it for. One of the people in charge (there were two couples--missionaries) took us downstairs to see the rooms where Richard Elliot and the other organists work. The three organists each have their own room and in each room is a full pipe organ and grand piano. One of the rooms also had a harpsichord. We also saw the tunnel that leads from the Assembly Hall to all the other tunnels under Temple Square. The couples that work with the performers are excellent--so nice and friendly! I want their job someday!!
I got to play on a 9 foot Steinway grand piano. It was a huge instrument and I was relieved when they said they didn't think we needed the lid open! The piano was so easy to play--it was easier than I ever would have thought to play notes softly and it was also very easy to play a nice tone. The instrument was beautifully balanced, which in rehearsal took me a little while to get accustomed to. I decided that if I had something like that to practice on I would likely want to practice all the time! It was easier (than any piano I get to play on) to make the music sound "right" on that piano.
The performance went well--for me, it was the best I'd played the full set of music in one sitting, but there was definitely still room for improvement. Still, I was happy with it, knowing I did my best with the time I had and the challenges thrown at me. For this performance, it would have been less stressful for me if I had been pursuing my personal music more aggressively through the years. Sometimes I have wondered if I regretted letting some of the skills go. I have had people ask me if I regret not getting my music degree. I can honestly say I only regretted it last night and at rehearsals for this project. Even then I didn't really feel "regret" as much as I felt inadequate. Mostly, I felt a little as Eva did, that I would be glad to finish this project and get back to what I really love doing now--being a mom and taking care of my family and helping them develop their talents. The degree I did get in college has been immeasurably valuable to me in being a mother, especially a mother to Nathan. I know that if I did not have my BSW I would not have been able to fight for and help Nathan as effectively as I have. It was fun to meet a couple of other women who have aggressively pursued their musical talents through the years--it was neat to see and hear where their musical talents have taken them and what they've been able to accomplish.
I was excited that Lisa showed up to the performance. I was a little disappointed that no one in my family (Vince and kids--my other family is too far away, of course) would be able to come and it was a special surprise when we were finished to see Lisa walking my way--she stayed with me the rest of the night and then we talked after. I love having a sister so close and being able to talk with her about things like this! She also helped me try to configure modulations and taught me some theory--thanks Lisa for being such a support!
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