Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Shows, Rockets, Haircuts & More

It has been a busy few weeks. With the end of school came the end-of-school programs and activities. We had a great time attending so many fun things. I managed to get pictures of many of them.
The Xavier Spring Showcase was excellent. Each of the grades shared things they had learned. Joe's class tap-danced and sang a song. Savannah's class did the waltz and a song. Veronica was in a group that did a medley of songs from Le Mis. They made costumes and everything. It was fabulous. It is hard for me to describe the feelings I felt during the show. I love this school and the wide variety of things our younger kids are getting to learn and participate in. It was a great show!
I wish I had a better picture. This was during "At the End of the Day." The kids were bedraggled and bitter because of the hardness of their lives. Their body language and expressions showed that. Veronica did such a great job.
Here is Savannah's waltz. The kids moved all over the stage. It was really neat.
Savannah at the end of their song "Idaho."
This is Joe after singing "America the Beautiful" and performing a tap number to "Eensy Weensy Spider."
You can see their tap shoes in this one.
There were about a dozen kids invited to perform at a Broadway Showcase with a high school group. Savannah was able to do that. They performed three nights in a row. The songs she participated in were "Do Re Mi," "Getting to Know You," and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." On the first two songs, their teacher performed with them. She's great. She is the same teacher that Veronica has for piano three days a week.

Mrs. Kokx has asked Veronica if she'd like to be the accompanist for the show choir next year. Veronica is nervous, but I think she's going to do part of it. That will be so good for her.
This is during "Getting to Know You." Savannah is in the middle.


The 8th grade read several of the classics this year. One of the books they read was "Pride and Prejudice," so at the end of the year, the 8th grade had a Pride and Prejudice Ball. It included a wonderful banquet with food that was appropriate--Veronica's contribution was a bread pudding dish. They played parlor games and danced the waltz. The teachers had decorated it beautifully and it was a really neat evening.
Here is Veronica with her friend Andee and her favorite teacher, Mrs. Corpron.
Veronica dressed up and we did her hair. It took much more than an hour to get all these little curls in it. Her hair is so thick.
But look at the end result. It looked so pretty.

Bruce cut Joseph's hair to match his own. He did a great job. I'm in favor of other people doing haircuts.

Joe looks pretty cute!
On Memorial Day, we spent several hours cleaning out the garage in preparation for a garage sale. During the clean-out, we found a rocket that Travis had purchased at NPS several years ago. Bruce spent a couple of hours getting it all put together and ready to go. We took the kids over to the big soccer field across the street and shot it off.
Here is Bruce preparing the rocket for take-off. The information said it could go up to 600 feet. Yea, right, we thought.
Everyone played on the playground equipment while Bruce prepared the rocket for launch.




Finally, it was ready for take-off.

This is the sky where the rocket was launched. It went so high we could no longer see it. We caught sight of it on its descent, but it was traveling quite a ways from where we were. The kids ran after it, but couldn't get there. A group of kids on bikes a block away stopped to watch it come down. We asked them if they saw where it went and they pointed to a row of houses another block away. We never found the rocket, but the area where it came down was at least three football fields away from where it was launched. RIDICULOUS! After about 1/2 hour of looking for the rocket, it was getting too dark, so we gave up.
At the ward auction to raise money for girls camp and scout camp, I donated a birthday cake. It fetched $55 and then I was told it was for a lady's 90th birthday. This is what I made. I thought it turned out really pretty.
Bruce donated high five's for a year. That was purchased for $25.00 by an older couple in our ward. He hasn't missed a week. When we go on vacation, he has found a substitute for the high five assignment. Veronica donated 2 dozen cookies a month for six months.
This takes in our last few weeks. Now that summer is here, I'm sure it will slow down. Maybe.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Two Pianos Find New Homes

Today was a pretty exciting day at our house. Shortly after Travis got home for lunch, we had a knock at the door. When I answered the door, one of the men standing there said they had a delivery for us. We stepped outside and there was a Bach Builders truck and trailer by the driveway and a beautiful piano sitting in the driveway.
Grandma Renae told her husband that she wanted to set aside money when she rented her Ogden condo and get the grandkids a new piano. A couple of days later, he told her that a new piano was being delivered to us. It came today. It is beautiful and sounds great. What a thoughtful thing to do. We REALLY appreciate it.
Great reactions from the kids as they got home from school. They were completely surprised and very excited.
Bruce stood at the front door for several seconds, looking around and wondering why I had a camera pointed at him. He kept saying "What? What? What?" as he looked around. Finally he saw it and this was his reaction.
It's a beautiful black piano with a matching bench.
Veronica couldn't wait to play it, of course.
One nice bonus was that we had our old piano. Travis and I almost immediately decided it would be nice to surprise Veronica's best friend Andee. She's been taking piano lessons this year at school, but the only thing she has at home to practice on is a toy keyboard. I called her mom and they were thrilled. They came right over and we loaded it in their pickup and they took it home. Her Mom got teary-eyed and hugged me. They were very grateful. So two families were surprised in a wonderful way today.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Last Week Happenings

The kids at Xavier Charter School had their first annual fundraiser--a dance-a-thon. Students danced the entire day. I made it over long enough to take a few pictures of each of them. They did ball-room, ballet, hip hop and tap. They all had matching shirts. Joe's class was doing ballroom when I got there. It was so cute. They were doing the waltz and even turning the girls.


Veronica's group was doing mostly hip hop and they could pretty much do what they wanted. Here she is with a couple of her friends.


Savannah's group was on a break while I was there, so she did a little impromptu hip hop for me so I could get a picture.


Thanks, Tawnie, for the nice dishcloths and the very nice card. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of so many people. People in the ward have been amazing, Dad and Mom were so helpful, and the cards and phone calls from so many other family and friends have been wonderful. I have to admit that I've had a hard time--slow going, pain and some rollercoaster emotions. The kindess from so many has really been appreciated.
My bishop's wife (and my friend) called last Monday and wanted to know what I would eat if I could have anything in the world. I said that I'd been craving some salmon. This is what they brought for dinner that night. SO YUMMY!
It snowed last night and the kids wanted to make a new snowfort. Unfortunately there wasn't enough snow, so they settled for snow babies.
I wanted a picture of Bruce, but couldn't make it to any of the places where he was doing something interesting, so this is Bruce in the car after I picked him up from school. Not that interesting, but he's still good-looking.

Other than these events, me recovering, the family going to work and school--this is it.


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I finish the books...for the 1st time


I finished the books and can't wait for the next one. I'm already looking forward to re-reading these just before the new one comes out next year. Talk about a departure from what I usually read. I'm usually not into fantasy, but prefer a story based in reality, but this book grabbed me almost immediately and I was addicted until I was finished. I'm going through withdrawls right now. Unfortunately, as I talk to others about the book, I'm finding that my feelings about who Bella should end up with are different than most people's. I hope I'm not going to be devastated in the end. I've already suffered enough!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Violet Lives

I'm very happy to share a picture of my thriving African Violet. During one of my trips to Utah this morning, Travis (trying to be a good and helpful husband) watered my violet the same way he waters the flowers outside--with no concern for keeping the leaves dry. By the time I got home, most of the leaves were yellow and sick and wilted and there were no flowers. I trimmed the leaves back quite a ways and have been soak watering it weekly and it is looking beautiful!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

I've Been Tagged! And I really needed a new blog!

4 Jobs I Have Had:

1. Tyson Foods - Yuck! Processing cooked chicken (until I moved into the office for a secretarial position after I graduated from high school.
2. BYU-Business Department - Word processing for various business professors. Worked with one other person in the office and she was a grumpy divorcee. Not my favorite person to work with, but I did enjoy seeing the BYU basketball players who were in the business department.
3. Church Office Building (Church Education System) - Downside was I had to wear a dress and pantyhose EVERY SINGLE DAY. Upside was that I got to have lunch with Dad EVERY SINGLE DAY.
4. Salt Lake Legal Defenders - I was a legal secretary there. I guess that is where I first developed my fascination with prosecuting cases. I worked for the defenders, but cheered most of the time for the prosecutors.

Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
1. Pride and Prejudice - I could watch Darcy walk across the meadow a hundred times.
2. The Sound of Music
3. Fiddler on the Roof
4. Newsies--Love those musicals!.

Favorite T.V. Shows:
1. Amazing Race
2.The Office
3. The Closer
4. A variety of reality shows.

Hobbies:
1. Writing
2. Cooking/baking
3. Whatever ridiculous project I immerse myself in at the moment.
4. Reading

Places I Have Lived:
1. Twin Falls, Idaho
2. Bountiful, Utah
3. Rifle, Colorado
4. Missouri

Places I've Visited:
1. Hawaii
2. Alaska
3. New York
4. Florida

Favorite Foods/Dishes
1. Tepanaki Salmon and Shrimp
2. Steak & sauteed mushrooms
3. Baked goods
4. Yummy Salads

Websites I Visit daily:
1. My email
2. Blogs
3. My bank account
4. Zuma (a few times a week)

Places I would Rather Be:
1. On another Hawaiian cruise with my family
2. On a trip to Alaska with my family
3. I'm afraid I'm stumped

People I am tagging:
1. Anyone who reads this and feels like playing.
2. Lisa, Lori, Leslie, Kara, Maria, Teresa, Kristi, Geana