Ich bin gesegnet

If you were to come by my house today (which you are welcome to do anytime, by the way, unless you are a stalker in which case I'd prefer you stay away and, actually, stop reading my blog all together because stalking is weird..... Where was I? Never mind. I'll start over.

If you were to come by my house today, you would see the first true sign of warmer weather. This morning after getting the monkeys off to school, I hung he first load of the season on the line outside. Now, if you're a frequent reader, you may remember that I'm quite enamored with my clothesline. I love hanging things on it. It makes me feel all efficient and earthy and domestic and.. OK a little Amish. In any event, there are clothes drying on my line and I'm happy.

So the "real" quartet competition was last weekend in KY. How'd we do? Thanks for asking. we got 4th place out of 24 or so quartets. Not bad for our first time out. More importantly, we had a great time which included lots of laughs and very little sleep. We're going to go for it again next year with the hopes of winning and getting the chance to compete at International in Nashville in the fall of 2009.

Chattanooga was extremely fun as well. No pressure of competition but lots of good experience on stage. My sister's chorus (Tune Town Show Chorus) are a HOOT and did very well in the chorus competition, finishing first. Yeah, Tune Town! Also, big congrats to the two Tune Town quartets, Fiddlestix and Last Minute, which finished first and second respectively.

In between the two competitions, I came home, worked, had my MOPS friends over for board games, had a Saturday scrapbook day at my house, lead worship at Gospel Tabernacle and worked some more (then left for the second weekend). So once again, life is good and full and I am blessed (but tired!).

Tonight, Matt and I are taking 27 of our youth group kids along with about five other adults to Acquire the Fire downtown. I'm looking forward to it, having not been to an ATF since I was pregnant with Jacob. So I shouldn't even really be sitting here typing because I have a decent punch list of things to do before 3:00, but alas, I've missed blogging.

Please keep my aunt in your prayers. She's battling breast cancer. The scenarios are looking good, but she still has a long road ahead.

I hope the weather is as gorgeous wherever you are as it is here. I hope you take some time to think about how much God has blessed you today, despite your circumstances. I'll pop back on here when I can...

Be blessed! :-)

Won't you choo choo me home...

Hey. I'm in Nashville. Quite the jet setter, you know.

This weekend, our quartet, Kindred Sound, is singing in the region 23 competition as mic testers and for evaluation only. In layman's terms, this is our practice competition. We compete for realsies in Covington, KY in two weeks. I'm very excited because I need the practice in front of an audience (being the only Sweet Adeline's novice in the quartet). We rehearsed for hours yesterday and are sounding pretty good.

OK. That's it for now. We're leaving my sister's in NashVegas and driving to Chattanooga so I have to scoot...

Peace out.

Multitasking = blogging and watching Celebrity Apprentice

Hi.

It's me.

Yeah, I know.

I'm back though, so get off my case :-)

Wow. Life has been crazy and full and... good. I'm not even sure where to start.

This has been the first year since Caleb died that I didn't blog on his birthday (2/21). He would have been 13 this year which is really hard to believe. The day itself was really hard; more so than I thought it would be. That's all I have to say about that for now.

Business has been booming. Not only have new students been coming out of the proverbial woodwork, but I've gotten another opportunity as well. The school where I used to teach, TCS, lost their music teacher and they offered the position to me. Fortunately, it fit into my schedule nicely so I took it. I've been doing it since the end of February and we just actually put on our Easter program last night. Considering how thrown together it felt, I think it went pretty well. Anyway between lessons and this class, I'm working about 30 hours in three days each week. It's busy and tiring but good. I love what I do so I can't complain.

This past Friday, Matt, Josh and I flew to New Orleans. My mom graciously came to Baltimore to stay with the monkeys (thanks again, Mom). We were a part of a weekend in which church leaders and pastors from the NOLA area came together to pray and get mobilized for their city. There were people there from Texas, Tennessee, other parts of Louisiana and even Massachusetts as well. It was really a great weekend. Sunday, we got to spend some time doing more "touristy" things - the highlight being eating beignets and drinking cafe au laits at Cafe DuMonde! I flew home Monday, but Matt and Joshy stayed to continue to work. I'll pick them up tomorrow.

What's next? Well, spring break officially began after school today. The boys and I are going to the MOPS easter egg hunt tomorrow, the airport and then our church's Good Friday experience. Sunday is Easter, of course. Wednesday, I leave for Chattanooga via Nashville to compete for the first time with our quartet. This one is evaluation only. Our "real" competition is two weeks later in Covington, KY.

So that's the skinny for now. I've really missed blogging and want to find a way to make time for it. If that doesn't work, I have a ghost writer standing by ready to go!

Have a blessed Easter.

Peace out.

My life in bullets...

Life is...

Full. Busy. Good.

If you're interested, here's a glimpse, in no particular order, of what's been going on:

• I just got back from Ohio. We went to Sweet Adeline's Region 4 Winter Warmup. Though it was a bit overwhelming to not know anyone beside our quartet (my mom, her best friend and my sister) and a few faces from my mom's chorus, I feel like I really learned a lot about barbershop singing and even picked up some new warm ups and techniques for my voice students.
  

• I got very little sleep over said weekend so I feel like a bit of a zombie today

• Debbie Connelly is awesome. If you knew who she was, you'd be impressed that I had dinner with her. OK... I'll tell you. Debbie is the lead of "the BUZZ", the 2005 Queens of Harmony for Sweet Adelines International. They are hands down the best women's barbershop quartet ever. I already knew she had an incredible voice, but dinner with her allowed me to get to know her. She's a nut (like me) but an incredibly sweet and sensitive person at the same time. My sister and I had a wonderful time having dinner with her. Our quartet got to coach with her, too.

• We had about three inches of snow last Thursday. The boys and I had a blast. More on that later...

• I made a scrapbook for my sister for Christmas, but I just gave it to her this weekend. She LOVED it which subsequently made me happy because I worked really hard on it and it was kind of awesome.

• We're dog sitting for my BFF while she's out of town. Her dog is small and cute and I call her Claire Huxtable, though that is not her name.

• My husband leaves for New Orleans tomorrow to do some preliminary work on an event that's coming up in March. I will miss him, but will keep plenty busy while he is gone.

• I had a girls night out/MOPS reunion at my friend Heidi's house a couple of weeks ago. I got to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in awhile and it was wonderful We had so much fun.

That's it for now. I have to get ready for lessons. More later... I promise.