Guess what?

It actually happened! Maybe I'm a bit obsessed with this. Oh well. So if you read my last entry, I mentioned at the end that I wonder if I have cute ears? It wasn't Sara this time, it was Preston. I'm combing his hair before school and he said he had big ears. I smiled and said "You have cute ears!" His ears really are cute. Especially when he gets a haircut, they just seem to pop out more. Along with his eyes! Anyways, after I said he has cute ears.....he told me I had cute ears too! I seriously didn't try to get him to say it. It was so random! I laughed at that thinking about the last entry I made. Kids are the greatest!

Sara-ism

As I'm changing Sara's diaper this morning, she looks at me for a couple seconds and then says, "I like your nose." I am not a fan of my nose! It's a bit too long and pointy especially if you're looking at my profile. So, now my daughter likes my elbows (refer to earlier posting) and my nose! I wonder what it'll be next! I just giggled at her and of course I said, "I like your nose too." I wonder if I have cute ears...

The Forgotten Warrior, by Kathi Oram Peterson

Wow, am I a slacker! I haven't posted for a while, have I? Well, I'll do some catch-up later as today I'm doing a scheduled blog book review on a book I just finished reading.


The Forgotten Warrior was written by Kathi Oram Peterson. It is a well-written story of a teenage girl who while dealing with the sickness of her mother, a sister with a handicap, and a father who once abandoned the family, along with normal teenage life is all of a sudden thrown back in time...to Book of Mormon time...the time of Helaman and his strippling young soldiers.

She is not trusted at first as she comes upon Helaman and his men. But they soon find she can fight as she has a black belt in karate that she learned from her mother. She is soon recruited to teach her methods of fighting to the worn-out soldiers. She gives them hope and courage.

She learns a lot about herself and her abilities as her faith and testimony is tested and strengthened. She also begins to learn about forgiveness. She is grateful for what her mother taught her about faith which coincides with the 2000 strippling warriors having been taught by their mothers to have faith. I liked this parrallel in the story.

I liked Kathi's style of writing. I felt like I was there watching Sydney! I liked her personality; independant, responsible, and caring yet tough. The climax was climatic which of course is the battle very well known in the B.O.M. of Captain Helaman and his young strippling warriors and the lamanites.

I'm looking forward to the next book as the story continues! To purchase the book, click on the following link. http://deseretbook.com/store/product/5017602


Also, here is some information on a contest that Kathi is hosting.


LATTER-DAY STRIPLING WARRIOR CONTEST
Nominate a youth between the ages 8 to 18 (boy or girl), who has performed a kind deed and who you believe is a Latter-day Stripling Warrior. Each person nominated will receive a Latter-day Stripling Warrior certificate signed by the author and the three heroes of The Forgotten Warrior: Sydney, Tarik, and Ximon.Entry forms and more information regarding the contest can be found on the author's website: http://www.kathiorampeterson.com/.

I have a cute elbow!

Yesterday morning I was getting Sara dressed and we were chatting the 2 year old chat and she says, "I like your shirt." I reply with "I like your shirt too." She then looks down at my shoes and says, "I like your shoes." I say, "Thank you." She says "Elcome" (for your welcome). Then she comes up with, "I like your elbow"......that's a first! I just giggled and said "I like your elbow too!" It reminded me of a time way back when I was about 10 or so and we were sitting in church and a lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me how cute my elbows were cause of all the freckles on them. What do you say to that? Thank you? I probably looked at her funny. So, I have cute elbows! It's so nice to be reminded.

New 2008 Family pics

Here's our new family pictures!

Now it's time for an update....

Wow, I have not even thought about blogging for a while! Time to catch up. It's been a busy month so far, but fun. Here is Richard raking our leaves. We don't have any trees in our yard so they've blown over from somewhere. Isn't it a great pile? (I'm being sarcastic.) The kids still had fun!

We celebrated Ethan's 8th birthday with taking him and his friends to Jump On It (the day after his birthday) which they loved. And we had cake and ice cream at the house afterwards.

I held a Christmas recital on the 5th for my piano students which turned out really nice. But boy, it's been a while since I've actually played a solo in front of anyone. Slightly nerve racking! I think the actual recital hall was a bit intimidating for my students but definitely good experience, right? Ethan even played a few songs. I was so proud of him!

Ethan was baptized on the 6th, (after his birthday party with his friends). It's so strange to think Richard and I are old enough to have an 8 year old now! But, it was so special to see him baptized. He was excited and maybe a bit nervous.

Ethan sure has had a big and busy month! In fact, the birthday, recital and baptism all happened in about a 24 hour period. It's starting to calm down a bit. At least for this week anyway. Now all the practicing and performing I've been doing with piano is done, I can actually focus on my house, kids and shopping! I helped out with a ward Christmas musical fireside on Sunday night and it was the first time I actually started to feel the Christmas spirit. Today, it hit me a bit more with the snow and the fact that I could go shopping. The kids and I decorated a gingerbread house tonight and listened to Christmas music. I do love this time of year!

Piano madness!

December is always a crazy month for me at the piano. Most of the time, I love it. For the last few years in my previous ward, I played for the choir for the Christmas musical fireside. For those of you who know the former choir director for that ward, knows how she loves challenging pieces. I always had my work cut out for me!

So after moving to a new ward, I didn't think I would do anything for anyone. There are a lot of piano players in my ward and not many people really know me. Which is fine.

A friend of mine wanted to get a group going to sing Christmas songs at enrichment nights or ward christmas parties. That sounded fun! So I said I'd play piano for them. We've got 8 women who are singing. Well, I got about 7 songs for that one to work on. Then, she wanted to have a ward Christmas musical fireside. I said I'd play. So I got 7 more to work on. Okay! I had to pass on a few to someone else, cause it was a lot to try and do. Now I have 4 for that night. So we're up to 11 songs that I'm working on.

Then my same friend asked me to play for her in relief society next sunday. I said yes (I don't think I can say no!) Plus I love the song that she's singing which is 'O Holy Night'. Then yesterday the young women asked me to play for them for a song they're singing next sunday also in relief society. Yep! Doing that one.

I have a recital that I'm holding for my piano students this Friday night and guess who's planning on playing a solo? Yep. I'm honestly thinking about backing out of that one. But, some of my students haven't really heard me play a whole lot. We'll see how much time I get to work on my song with ALL the others I'm playing. Come to think of it, I'd probably better get going and go practice! I start to get all worked up if I haven't played anything for a few hours. I was at the piano yesterday for 4 1/2 hours! Part at home and the other part at the church practicing with the groups and choir.

So that's 14 songs! I'm crazy! I do enjoy it though. I'm glad I can help out and especially play some really beautiful songs that are about the Savior. But, I am looking forward to the 15th when it will all be done! (Unless I say yes to someone else between now and then!)

I'm a dedicated fan!

I absolutely love the group Coldplay! They're a bit like U2 with a piano. So for our 9th anniversary that we celebrated this past week, Richard took me to their concert in Salt Lake on Saturday night. I was so excited! We bought their new cd 2 weeks ago so we could get to know the new songs and sing along. It was such a great concert! We had a really good time.

It was supposed to start at 7:30. But since the BYU/Utah game was still going and many of those fans were coming to the concert, they had other performers on stage until 9:00! Then they had to set up the stage for Coldplay, which meant they didn't come on stage until about 9:30. But by then, it was packed and wow was it worth the wait! They were amazing! Everyone was on their feet dancing and singing. I could have gone all night listening to them.

Then Richard insisted on getting something for the boys and for me. So we stood in line afterwards and got the boys a key ring. I know, probably cheesy, but it was one the cheaper things (you know how concert items are double the price than what their worth, right?) And he got me a cute t-shirt. We had to do it! We probably could have gotten online and got them cheaper, but then it's not authentic from the concert, know what I mean?

I love my hubby!

Gulp...I'm not playing piano?

I have always had a calling in some musical spot in the church. For as long as I can remember. Choir pianist quite a bit, RS pianist, primary chorister, choir director (better at playing piano, let me tell you!), primary pianist substitute, playing on my mission at almost every zone conference, playing piano when I was in YW's, etc. I am the most comfortable with playing piano for a calling or being involved in some musical capacity. We all have our areas of comfort when it comes to serving in the church, right?

So when we moved into our current ward last June, I told my bishop/brother (yes, you read that right, he is my bishop. Kinda weird, but fun!) that I would love any calling that involves music, cause that's what I'm comfortable with. So naturally I think I'll get it. Right? Riiiight......

The first counselor comes over to our house to talk to us about callings. I'm thinking for sure it's playing the piano in something. Nope. Mia Maid advisor. Okay. Not what I expected but I am open to new experiences, but honestly I didn't want primary or YW's. I hesitantly said yes and questioned the Lord, "why me?" "Are you sure?"

It was really tough for me in the beginning. Coming to a brand new area and ward and not knowing the YW at all was a real challenge. It would have been easier had I been in the ward a while and knew them at least a little bit. I was so nervous and had no idea how to relate to them. I had a hard time wanting to go to church and activities for a while cause I just felt out of place! And I felt I wouldn't really get to know anyone else in the ward if I'm always in YW's.

Now we've been to girls camp and quite a few weekly activites, and sat through a lot of lessons, and it's getting so much better now! So for my #15 thing I'm grateful for this month is the young women in my ward. They are amazing girls that face lots of challenges. They are fun, funny, smart and spiritual. I have been learning so much about myself and my abilities as well. I think the Lord was just saying, "it's time to try something else now." I'm grateful for that because he knows what I need to learn. I sure hope I can be as good for these girls as they are for me!

A Thankful Month

When things get tough and frustrating, it's always good to remind yourself of what you have, right? It's called 30 days of Thankful. My friend Holly is doing this on her blog and I decided to give it a go as well.

As I've been sitting here thinking about what I am thankful for, I actually got a warm feeling in my heart. I am certainly so blessed! At first I thought it would take me a while to think up some things to get to the 11th day to be caught up, but it certainly wasn't hard at all!

I have the list on my sidebar if you want to follow up. I'll try to do some short posts as well.