Counting my blessings

This past week was cold and often the sun stayed behind a cloud but I am very thankful that it is not still January filled with instrument exploration nights.  Please, ANYTHING but to go through those again! And, February is already half over!  I am thankful for many other things today….

First, it snowed last night.  Our first substantial snow of the season.  I was already going to get to stay at home today because of President’s Day but MU cancelled classes so Steve is also home.  I imagine if I lived in Boston right now, I wouldn’t still love snow but I don’t and I do.

The snow began during my Columbia Civic Orchestra concert and it was still coming down fairly hard by the end so my car was completely covered in white when I was ready to drive home.  I am thankful for front-wheel drive and Elise’s reminder to put the car in a lower gear (she has had a LOT of practice doing that, lately).  I am also thankful for the chance to play in CCO.  We played an all-British program last night and I loved every minute of it, even the ridiculously difficult Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony. 

I am thankful for the walks I got to take last week.  One in particular was over at the park with Sarah and the three dogs .  There are about 30-40 Canada geese setting up residence in the pond and I got a nice photo of them that day.  

 

 On another walk this past week, they were flying around (daily exercise?  Goose drill teams?  “cabin” fever?) and about 10 flew directly overhead, quite close, with the sun glinted off their wings.  It was breathtaking. 

I am thankful for family.  On Monday, my father would have turned 99 and my sister, Jerri, turned a healthy 81 on Thursday.  I am glad to be close to our Southerland grandchildren and we had a wonderful visit with them on Saturday.  Emily had a mini-photo session in the morning so we joined Joe in taking Noah, Lucy, and Quinn to the St. Louis Science Center.  What a terrific place that is!  So well done, so full of interesting displays (I need to visit when I don’t have to keep an eye on an active seven-year old so I can read about everything without distraction) and it is FREE!  Good for you, St. Louis!  It was also good that we had three adults because Quinn took ALL of Joe’s attention – that boy is a RUNNER.  Lucy latched onto Steve and I kept a look-out for Noah.  Below are some fun pictures of our outing.  

 

 

 

 

 

We were home by lunch and Steve and I attended the 1:00 temple session.  After returning to the Southerlands and having a lovely nap, we helped with a delicious Valentine dinner: steak, loaded mashed potatoes, broccoli, fresh pineapple, and a coconut cream pie (gluten-free) that I had brought.  

 Steve and Noah converse in the family room

 

 Lucy wore her super cape and cuffs ALL day.  She added the sunglasses when she got home.

Speaking of food, I am thankful for it.  The Grajeda family of Mexico, Missouri (Sarah is friends with their young-adult sons) invited us for “heart-attack” tacos last Sunday.  Regular tacos but with corn tortillas that are cooked briefly in oil to make them very soft and pliable.  Mmmmm, delicious.  They had also invited the sister missionaries so we got a group shot with everyone except mom Grajeda and son Ben.  

back row:  Brother grajeda, me, Steve  front row:  Hannah, sister missionaries, Sarah

I am thankful that Sadie is not scooting her bottom any more.  I took her to the vet and she had an infected anal sac.  Yuck.  He gave her a shot and an ointment to be applied twice a day (think doggie Desetin) and she is much happier now. 

I am even thankful I was required to attend teacher collaboration meetings all day Friday, regardless of the fact that NONE of it applied to me as it was all about next year’s schedule and I won’t be around.  However, I had the foresight to bring my knitting so I just sat, listened, and knitted and finished stage one of my felting project.  I hope to work on stage two today (the actual felting process).  Weirdly enough, I was pretty peaceful to just knit although I left both the morning and afternoon meetings a bit earlier than everyone else.  All agreed that I didn’t really need to be present. 

I watched “Maze Runner” on Thursday night.  It was OK.  I won’t read the books, though.  I just skimmed the Wikipedia synopsis of all three and that is enough for me.

So many things to be thankful for.....

This was a great week

When I stop to compare last week with this week, I can't believe the difference.  Last week, at MMEA, seemed like the longest ever.  I really didn't want to be at Tan-Ta-Ra (isn't that strange?) and the time just plodded along.  This week, I have been able to spend a small amount of time each day doing things I love -  practicing, family history, working on a Blurb book, art, reading - and the week has flown by. 

It started out with a SNOW DAY!  for absolutely no reason.  How bad can 3/4 inches of snow be, for crying out loud?  But, I was not going to argue with the board office.  I loved my day off.  And, Steve and I watched Groundhog Day that night.

Wednesday night was to have been a concert with the Rock Bridge orchestra and the eighth grade orchestras from Gentry and Jefferson Middle Schools.  A recruiting-for-high-school-orchestra event.  The middle school kids would get to play in the performing arts center side by side with high school kids - what could be cooler?  Well, a fast-moving snow storm, that's what.  It hit around mid-afternoon but, even before a snowflake began to fall, all the middle schools in town cancelled their after-school/evening events.  Which meant they wouldn't be coming to RBHS.  Concert off.  I must secretly confess I was not upset by this.  I drove home in this "raging" snowstorm (admittedly, the trip took me twice as long as usual), put on my comfy clothes, and I had a lovely evening puttering and practicing. 

Thursday started out so cold that school had a late-start day (didn't impact me since I didn't teach that day).  Not surprising for early February.  But, Friday and yesterday, temperatures climbed almost to 70 degrees!  Is this just the craziest week for weather ever????  And, of course, with the precipitation and the thawing, we have been wiping a lot of paws this week. Oh, dogs.....

Look at how Bones is sleeping right now as I type this....  It is really hard to not love this hairy, disobedient-to-me dog.

 
A lot of shopping went on this week; first of month stuff.  Friday night, Steve and I watched Guardians of the Galaxy after attending a CES "Evening With A General Authority" and heard Jeffrey Holland speak.  We had a Mid-Missouri Community Orchestra rehearsal (a.k.a. RTO) Saturday afternoon followed by a birthday celebration in Centralia for a good friend that night. 
It started out with me teaching him cello in his late teens using an instrument that belonged to his grandfather.  He is one of six children and I soon met his sister who plays violin.  Both play piano - and, in fact, the whole family is very musical.  Parents, Paul and Jean, are the nicest people.  Over the years since then, the Couture family and we have had many interactions.  Elizabeth is in MMCO - Josh is too, when he has time.  Elizabeth is also in CCO and studies violin with Siri.  They are avid supporters of the local classical music scene.

Here is Josh with one of the balloon bouquets on his head.  Elizabeth is in the background. 

The evening's activities also included some dancing - English court dancing (think a la Pride and Prejudice).  Steve and I just watched Apparently, this group gets together once a month to do this kind of dancing.  It looked really fun.

MMEA

I spent most of last week at Tan-Ta-Ra Resort at Lake of the Ozarks for the Missouri Music Educator’s Conference.  Three of my Rock Bridge High School Chamber orchestra students made it into the All State Orchestra 

me, Arnold Chen (violin), Joanna Yu(viola), Alice Yu (violin)

 (the girls are not related)

and that is truly the only reason I attended.  Margaret Lawless, the Hickman orchestra director (and the violist in Prairie Strings) also had three students in the orchestra so she and I shared a room again – this was our third year. 

 

 First year, she didn’t make reservations early enough to get into Tan-Ta-Ra so we had to room in an off-site hotel that was sort of a dump.  So, for 2014, she called in time for a room on site but we were put at the top of four flights of stairs (no elevator) and, if we wanted to stay out of the bitter cold (which was the weather a year ago) we had to hike about a quarter mile of connecting walkways to get to the main events.  So, for this year, as soon as reservations could be made, Margaret called and booked us a room. AND, she pulled the “old lady” card stating that we could not handle stairs (my sprained Achilles tendon – which I had last September/October and is still swollen – came into play) so we got a perfect room – literally 100 steps and an elevator ride away from all the main events.

Since this is my last year of teaching orchestra, I really had no interest in the small number of orchestra workshops that were offered.  I did attend one for bass playing but came away unsatisfied because the presenter had opposing views on bass bows and on sitting vs. standing while playing.  I attended all the orchestra performances that were offered.  I am not sure if I mentioned that last spring, I submitted a CD of Rock Bridge Chamber Orchestra to be considered for a performance slot this year at MMEA.  After the performances I heard this year, I am not sure if RBHS could EVER be invited.  I heard amazing concerts – and all the schools were from St. Louis – a virtual juggernaut when it comes to string players.  In fact, I did some calculations and over 80% of the All State Orchestra members were from St. Louis schools.  And, I am actually relieved we did not get accepted because the RBHS Wind Ensemble did get invited and Steve Mathews, their director, has been going nuts ever since.  I know he is glad this past week is over. 

I used most of my time at Tan-Ta-Ra to relax and rejuvenate – I took a walk every morning.  

 

  I watched movies I brought (Hotel Transylvania – really cute; The Lunchbox – an Indian film that was beautifully done but had a less-than-satisfying ending.  UGH!;  and a documentary called The Fog of War that was very interesting).  I lost some brain cells when Margaret watched episodes of Dr. Phil and Love, Lust, or Run.  I read.  I knitted.  I napped.  And, by Saturday, I was REALLY ready to be done with music education stuff.  Because it was my 40^th wedding anniversary!  When I got home around 5:30, Steve and I went to dinner at Applebees (thanks to a gift card), dessert at Coldstone (thanks Kirsti and Ryan), and we bought ourselves a soup toureen for our anniversary gift. 

We woke up to a smattering of snow this morning although parts of Missouri got quite a bit more.  And, I will end with a photo of Sadie during naptime this afternoon.