Two big events from this past week

 First of all, I met a long-lost cousin via Family Search.  Her name is Linda Dale.  She was posting Fraedrich (my mother' maiden name) information so I e-mailed her and, come to find out, our grandfathers were brothers!   She and her husband live in Des Moines, Iowa.  We had e-mailed a couple of times and she sent me a packet of Fraedrich information.  Last Friday, they were traveling home from a vacation in Branson and I invited them to stop for lunch.  We had a lovely visit.    Here we are....

The second big event was Saturday afternoon - the funeral for Marty Hook - choir director at Hickman High School for many years.  He was one of the most influential teachers for Emily, Elise, and Sarah who all sang in his ensemble.  This photo was taken at Sarah's last concert with him, her senior year. 


Below is a Facebook tribute Sarah wrote yesterday.  Emily also wrote a beautiful tribute on her blog which I cannot cut and past but here is the link.  http://emilys-little-world.blogspot.com/


11 years ago, I sang my last official Choir performance with Hickman High School's A Capella Choir directed by Marty Hook. At the end of the performance, the choir sang That Lonesome Road and as always, Mr. Hook invited Hickman Alumni to come up and sing. A tradition held for years. I was lucky enough to get to sing with my two older sisters that night. As a farewell to High School, to Hickman, to A Capella, Mr. Hook, and all the amazing memories. The tears flowed freely that night. And we three snapped a picture with the Choir director who had shaped us during some of the most formative years of our young lives.
Today, I had another opportunity to sing That Lonesome Road in a choir of Hickman Alumni including those two same sisters (as well as some dear friends). This time in memory of the life of a man who had touched so many.
The emotion was almost too much to take, and I could barely get the notes out.
To me, Mr. Hook was one of the most influential individuals in my life through high school. He awakened in me a passion for music the likes of which I had never felt. He opened my eyes to beauty I had never known or imagined, as well as the joy and magic that can only be felt when bringing music to the hearts of an audience. Introducing me to music and shaping me as a musician. Inspiring confidence. Encouraging leadership. Driving growth as he has done to young hearts and minds for years.
And today I know his heart swelled as he heard the voices of generations of his students, friends, and colleagues come together as mostly strangers, with little to no rehearsal, and make such a beautiful sound together. His heart swelled because I know, while he is no longer with us in this mortal sphere, he was there.
What a beautiful service it was with touching words of comfort and inspiration, and beautiful music abounding!
While my heart is raw and my eyes wet, I am thankful to know that he truly lives on and is honored by so many. I have no doubt his voice is raised in chorus with heavenly concourses.
Mr. Hook, you will be missed. But never forgotten.

After reading this and Emily's tribute, you can see how important he was in their lives.  So important that Emily braved four children alone and drove to Columbia to sing in the choir with Elise and Sarah.  I got to attend the funeral, both to pay tribute to this good man and to hold Larkin, who slept through it all.  It was full of musical tributes - so beautiful and so emotional.  It was full of so many musical people.  I am so glad I went.

After supper, as Emily and the kids left for St. Louis (Joe was at a business conference), I took a priceless photo on our front porch....

 

Not much to report for this week.

 Elise has completely emptied her storage unit and is about 75% moved into her apartment.

Steve and I ate out two nights in a row.  On Friday it was a J.Reuben Clark Law Society gathering.  Smokin' Chicks BBQ was the feature. Yum!  On Saturday, we attended the wedding of Aaron Anderson (Steve and Terri's youngest) and had dinner at the reception.  Thankfully, the pork loin was gluten-free.  While at the reception, we had a great visit with Matt and Joanne Durkovich.  Can you believe we have known them for 33 years?!?  Lots of memories.

For the last several months (at least 6) the project at Laura Jost's house on Thursday morning humanitarian work-days as been to glue pictures from magazines and calendars onto cardstock.  Saturday morning, we finally put all those thousands of pages into booklets (comprised of 10 page protector sheets bound together with yarn). 



Below are Judy Myers and Betty McKinley.  I pick them up every Thursday and it is usually just us three working at Laura's.  On Saturday, we were at the "quality control" table making sure all the pictures were put in right-side-up and that there were not too many pictures of the same animal.  I only found one book that had about four penguin pictures.  And another book where every photo was a landscape.  Otherwise, everyone followed the instructions fairly well.  We had a decent sized crowd show up and we got it all done in a little under three hours.

Below are Laura (right) and her daughter NoNo (yellow) and Lois Graham, another regular (when she is in town)



We put together over 300 books with at least 100 more ready to be inserted in to page protector books!  They will go to daycares and refugees and alzeheimer units.  It has been really fun.  The pictures were so beautiful.  But, I am ready to move on and to get back to quilt making.

I watched "My Life" and "Charlie St. Cloud" this week.  I liked both even though both didn't have great reviews.  They both helped you realize what is most important in life.

I added a new cello student which brings my studio up to 18. 

I started to identify items throughout the house regarding where they came from / their importance, etc.  I have done three rooms so far.  So, kids, when I die, look for the colored dots underneath to know if a piece has any significance.  If it is a fabric item, look for the safety-pinned ribbon. 

A lovely week

Wow, a relatively quiet week.... but there was something to look forward to each day.  Monday, Labor Day, was Steve's Chronicles of Narnia marathon.  We watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the morning, Prince Caspian in the afternoon, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the evening.    We had a cookout for dinner with Steven, Tamara, Melanie, and Lizzy Crippen. Both Elise and Sarah had to work, poor things. 

Tuesday night, Columbia Civic Orchestra resumed rehearsals.  So great to be back.

I got a haircut Wednesday - I always love the results that I shouldn't wait so long between cuts. 

Thursday I went to Laura Josts in the morning.  It had been three weeks since I had been able to go.  We are almost to the end of the picture book project.  A little more glue-ing (I brought home a pile to glue) and then we assemble them next Saturday.   Laura has a lady in Jefferson City who machine quilts some of the tops that Laura and I make for humanitarian giving.  Here are two of the tops I made that she finished.  They turned out lovely.



 
 Thursday afternoon was POTTERY!!!!!  Yay!!!!!

Friday, Steve and I had a fun date - all day.  First, we dropped the truck at Walmart for an oil change and then we walked down to Culver's for lunch.  I am SO happy about Culver's gluten-free buns - they are delicious.  I eat fast-food hamburgers again :).  We continued our date that night by watching Magnificent Seven (the 60's version) while I glued pictures.  I believe it was my first time to see this film and I was struck by the Bug's Life and Three Amigos parallels. 

Saturday we drove to attend the Kansas City temple.  On the way, the truck rolled over to 200,000 miles! 


 
 
And, I finished my picture glue-ing in the evening while watching "I Robot". 

 Thursday and Friday we got almost five inches of rain.  We sure needed it!

Welcome Baby Larkin!

I forgot to post some photos from a mid-August visit to the Southerlands:

Noah got a piano lesson that morning.....
 

a cute photo of Quinn and Lucy  - the iPad kids
 

 adorable baby socks for Larkin
 
 And, one of Fiona's favorite things - to watch birds from the couch

And, we now have a fourth Southerland grandchild as of Tuesday, August 30th.  Larkin Clementine arrived at 8:52 pm.  She weighed in at  7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. 

  Steve and I drove to St. Louis Wednesday morning to help with the kids that day and night since Joe was spending his time at the hospital. 


 
We fed the kids dinner and then took them all up to visit at the hospital that night.





The next morning, we got Noah and Lucy off to school


 and then took Quinn with us to pick up Grandma Vicki from the airport.  We brought her right to the hospital


We took some group photos...



 

 

Emily and Larkin were discharged Thursday noon and here is Larkin all ready to go...
 

Steve and I returned to Columbia shortly after their arrival home. 

Other events of the week:  Elise has started to move into her new place.  Steve and I helped with a few truck-loads Monday and Tuesday night.  I watched After Earth on Thursday evening.  Sometimes I will watch a movie preview and then add it to my Netflix queue where it will stay at the bottom of the list for several months.  When it finally comes to the top, I often can't remember much of why I added it.  This was the case with After Earth.  I was quite surprised with how much I liked it.  It was an M. Night Shymalan film!  James Newton Howard did the beautiful score.  Will Smith got to perform with his son in a primarily two-person movie.