New York City Girls' Trip

New York City Girls' Trip

9.06.2019

Remember when I wrote a blog post about performing my violin in Carnegie Hall?  And remember all those silly pictures I shared of my siblings and me having a fun time and making awful faces?  Well, this is the post where I share the rest of the story and pictures.  Are you ready?!

This trip to New York City in July had been planned months ahead.  It all began when my mom joined the Millennial Choirs and Orchestra in Boise and encouraged me to join as well because they were going on tour to play in Carnegie Hall -- pretty much every musician's dream venue.  Of course, the plan snowballed to include my sister.  And so a girls' trip to New York City was born!  We spent a few days exploring the city, performed in Carnegie Hall, and then hopped on a plane to Indianapolis to visit my brother Joe and his wife Karmen for two days.  It was sooo much fun!  (Even more amazing, you'd never know my sister battled breast cancer just over a year ago would ya?)

Thanks Mom for putting this all together.  It will for sure be a special memory that I will cherish for a lifetime.

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I Played My Violin in Carnegie Hall!

I Played My Violin in Carnegie Hall!

7.18.2019

Someone pinch me.  I got to check off a once in a lifetime bucket list item by performing in Carnegie Hall Friday night!!!   And with my mom nonetheless.  It still feels surreal.

I also got to fan girl over the violinist Jenny Oaks Baker in person too.  She was there just four feet from me during both rehearsal and during the concert.  The rehearsal in the cultural hall below the LDS Temple in Manhattan was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip, honestly.  All the orchestra members from all five MCO locales gathered in one place.  It was huge.  It was loud.  It was fun.  After the concert at Carnegie, we celebrated by going out for gelato at Grom.  And guess who was there in line with her girlfriends in front of us?  Jenny Oaks Baker!  So I can pretty much claim we got dessert together, right?  Haha.

I was also awed by the sopranist, Erin Morley.  After performing the Doll Aria, she stayed in character, hanging her head and arms as if she was a tired mechanical doll on stage.  The conductor didn't know what to do!  It was hilarious.  Erin is definitely a performer.

Take me back to do it all over again.  I love making music.

But that's not the end of the story...

Unfortunately, while I got to perform in Carnegie Hall on Friday night with the Idaho and Texas groups, the concert on Saturday night for the Utah and California groups was cancelled.  Break my heart!  The concert was cancelled due to a blackout in Manhattan that lasted hours.  All that sacrifice of time and money for a dream crushed.  What are the chances of that happening?  New York City hasn't seen a blackout like that in fifteen years!  It was also the first time in the history of Carnegie Hall that a concert was cancelled due to a blackout.

However, I'd like to believe it wasn't a coincidence at all.  I'd like to believe God had his divine hand in it.  After delivering the sad news of the cancelled concert, Brandon Stewart stood up and said, "We're going to leave this city with 'I Believe in Christ'... and we're going to let it rip."  The videos show just how powerful that moment was!  Thousands of people getting off dark subway routes, walking through the city, or peeking their heads through the windows of adjacent buildings stopped to watch and hear the message of hope and faith in Jesus Christ.  The message has been shared a million times over now.  Wow.

This is exactly why I feel the Millennial Choirs and Orchestra are worth my time and effort.  I get to be a part of something bigger than myself.          

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Spilling the Details About My First MCO Concerts

Spilling the Details About My First MCO Concerts

5.14.2019

Remember when I auditioned and joined the Millennial Choirs and Orchestra back in February?  Well, everything turned out better than I could have ever anticipated.

First, I have to say that the MCO repetoire has exceeded all of my expectations.  I love making music and being a part of something so much bigger than myself.  The music is legit; some of it is challenging to play -- which makes it all the more fun for me!  The repetoire's energy and emotion coupled with the solidifying testimony of the spirit is overwhelming.  It gives the production a purpose.  And since that purpose is so near and dear to my own heart, it feels worthwhile.  

The website says, "MCO was founded for the purpose of teaching and encouraging excellence in quality sacred and classical music. Its primary purpose is to fulfill the need for more refined music performance education in our communities, with a focus on God and country. Similar to the music of the masters—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms—we are bringing God back into the concert hall with the sacred/classical music that is such a rich part of the history of the world. We feel this is vital in today’s society, particularly for the youth of America."

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February: Ironically the Longest Month of the Year

February: Ironically the Longest Month of the Year

2.20.2019

^^Big brother playing Conrad's favorite game after school: Peel the Apple.  It's a type of tickling game that gets everyone laughing.^^

There are only 28 days in February.  It's the shortest month of the year.  Why then does it always feel so neverending?

This year, we are living in an ice box: a place where the snow just keeps coming down, it never melts, and the roads are icy.  Winter arrived in all its fury this February and is refusing to go away!

Okay.  Okay.  So it's really pretty.  And being "snowed in" makes justifying staying home in my sweat pants and watching too much TV kind of sweetly satisfying.  But I, a self-proclaimed sun worshiper, will never truly embrace winter no matter how hard I try.  Nope.  I'm ready to hop on my bike or hit up the park with my little sidekick!  Spring.  Where are you?!?

All this cold has spurred on some nasty illness statewide.  The actual flu virus swept through our home last week.  Jed and Levi had a wrestling tournament in Jerome on February 9th.  I'm 98% positive that's where the bug came from.

By the way, the boys wrestled well.  Even though they didn't win any trophies, they made us proud.  Jed is a scrappy thing with some grit!  And Levi just needs some more time on the mats to really figure out the sport.  The morning was a good experience for everyone and we celebrated by taking the kids out to lunch.

That evening, while Bron and I were out on a date, we got a phone call from Levi around 8:45pm saying that Jed had thrown up everywhere and that we needed to come home fast.  (Poor traumatized babysitter!)  We arrived home to find that Jed had indeed thrown up everywhere and was lying on the bathroom floor with a fever.  Poor kid.  By 10pm, everything was cleaned up and under control again.  By 8am the next day, Jed was acting like nothing had happened!  He's our chronic puker, after all.  (Meaning, when he gets upset or overtired, he throws up!)  I wasn't quite sure what to think.  And so with church canceled Sunday morning (due to winter roads), I went ahead and let him join the neighborhood kids playing in the fresh snow outside.

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