Sings Like An Angel

April 26:  

Here is a video of the song Emma sang in sacrament meeting on Sunday.    We loved hearing her practice it for the last several weeks and we were not surprised that we got many compliments that she sounded like "an angel." 

Although she actually performed it on Sunday, I'm putting this on for Tuesday's "picture", because it took me way too many hours on Tuesday trying to figure out how to actually capture it on video.  

I know well how to take a video, but trying to do it while even semi-preserving the clear sound quality of her voice was actually rather difficult.   We decided that the poor quality video was the trade-off, so you can hear her voice without too much of the tinniness that our electronics kept adding.   

Love my Emma girl! 

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A Chorus of Angels

March 25:

On Friday,  everything came together for  the first official performance of "Savior of the World."  The cast has been practicing regularly for over three months and all three of my thespians were very excited {and nervous} about performing in front of an audience.    

Ellie's jitters translated into a nervous energy and an ear-to-ear grin the entire night.  

The performance came together beautifully.... 

and I was surprised at the high quality of the music and the acting.   

Here's a video of the final scene of the play. 

There's one more performance left!  If you're in the area, I highly recommend altering your Easter plans to include this meaningful family activity!  

Washington DC LDS Temple Visitors' Center

Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016

7:00pm 

(admission is free, but you'll want to come at least an hour early to pick up your free tickets)

A Golden Oldie

February 10: 

What does it say about me that when someone sends me a text saying that they just went to Westminster Abbey and the Tower of Big Ben...

that this song released before I was even born instantly starts running through my head?
   

Of course I then couldn't help myself from asking them if they'd also seen the "rosy red cheeks of the little children." 

Weirdly, they thought my question a little strange. 

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A Tender Mercy

Most of you know that on the evening of January 10, 2012, our world was rocked in a way we never expected when we learned that our then 16-year-old son had leukemia.   What some of you may not know, though,  is that earlier that same day I had one of the most powerful spiritual experiences of my life that, unbeknownst to me at the time, was actually preparing me for the storm that was to come later that day.     

I was reading  these words from a living apostle:      

“The most powerful Being in the universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a perfect love. God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him.”    

President Dieter Uchtdorf, “You Matter to Him,” General Conference,  October 2011

And listening to this  song: 

It was during this song that I was suddenly overwhelmed with the very distinct impression that God not only knew me, but loved me, and was very aware of me and my family.   I am not normally an emotional person at all, but this message of peace struck me with a force and realness that I had never felt before in my life and it took me several minutes before I regained my composure enough to continue with my study.   

Several hours later, in the moment when I took the fateful phone call from the pediatrician, it was this message of love and peace that flooded into my heart and I knew that we would be okay.   Not that I had any premonition that Spencer would be healed or  a thought  that things would be rosy posy, but that wherever this new challenge took us, that God was in the details and in the end we would be okay.  That powerful experience on the morning of January 10th four years ago, literally carried me through the next several months of Spencer's illness.  

It's been four years now since that fateful day, but  it is still with trepidation that we approach the anniversary of Spencer's diagnosis day each year.  So many of our memories of Spencer at his sickest were in those weeks right around Christmas and I still feel my anxiety about his health rise this time  each year.  

This year, January 10th fell on Sunday and I intentionally kept myself busy in an effort to distract myself from what day it was, but still it was there niggling in the back of my mind.  Although there is not anyone at church who could have possibly known what day it was or what this particular song would mean  to me on that day, I was totally taken off guard when I heard  the bishopric member announce the intermediate hymn for the service.    

 God knew.   

It's a children's song with a simple message, but its message is powerful and far-reaching.

It brought comfort to me four-years-ago and brought comfort to me again this year.  

God is real and He loves us. 

And I am grateful for that reminder.  

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Emma's Recital

Here's a video of Emma's voice recital from this afternoon.   The video was taken from across the room and it is hard to actually see her, but her voice comes through pretty clearly.   She was as nervous as can be singing in front of a crowd, but  in my opinion delivered one of the best performances of the day.  

I can't even tell you how exciting it is to have someone in the family who actually inherited their musical ability from Glen's side, who are known for their musicality.   Most  Crains (including me) are notoriously tone deaf, so this kind of talent is reason to celebrate!   

Way to go, Emma! 

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Christmas Week Traditions

I started writing this blogpost with the goal of telling a little about the Christmas traditions our family does and some of the reasons why we do them.  It ended up being a little lengthier than I originally anticipated, but it is my hope that by sharing them that they will not only be a record to my own family, but also provide inspiration and ideas for others who are looking for ways to add to their own traditions.   I've listed these in order by date, which is why our anniversary is listed first despite it not being as much a part of our traditional Christmas as just a recap of what we did to celebrate this year. 

Anniversary: (these aren't really traditions as much as they are just a recap of what we did for our anniversary this year) 
1.  Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe--we chose this restaurant because of its proximity to the theater and didn't really have high expectations for it, however the service was fantastic, and the food ended up tasting excellent.   Other than the really loud music they play, which made conversing a little difficult,  it was a surprisingly enjoyable place to eat and we would definitely go back there sometime.
2.  Watched "Pippin" at the National Theater--Glen was familiar with the music, but neither one of us knew the story at all.   The performance itself was amazing, the music and the acrobatics, but we were a little bothered by how risqué some of the costumes and dances were.   Half-way through we were not sure we were going to like it, but in the end we loved the story and the message.  Now we both are huge fans of the music and have yet another Broadway CD to add to our collection.  Someone recently asked me what kind of music we liked, and I had to laugh when I realized that we are total Broadway fans.   We do listen to other music (classical, a cappella, and easy listening) sometimes, but day in and day out, we mostly listen to soundtracks from Wicked, Les Mis, Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, etc.  I've got a  station on Pandora that we listen to every day, that plays a great mix of these kinds of songs.

Sunday before Christmas:
Christmas program at church--our ward always does a beautiful job of performing music and sharing messages that really help bring the spirit of Christ into Christmas.  It's one of my favorite parts of the season!
Christmas in Bethlehem dinner--I already mentioned this in a previous post, but it's something that we really enjoy doing sometime during the Christmas season.   It's a dinner that helps us reflect on the life of Jesus Christ.

Christmas Eve:
1. Last minute shopping--as hard as we try, we always still have shopping to do on Christmas Eve.  With Glen's long hours at work lately, it was an even greater necessity than usual this year.  
2. Dinner at Cheesecake Factory--a couple years ago I got fed up with trying to prepare a fancy dinner in the midst of all the other Christmas festivities,  so we threw cooking out the window and now go out every Christmas Eve.  The restaurant is always  a step up in cost and niceness from where we'd normally ever take our family and everyone gets really excited about it.    It's usually Olive Garden or Cheesecake Factory.
3. Open pajamas--  This tradition is one that carried down from Glen's family.  It started out as just everyone just opening any old random pajamas we found at the store, but over the years it's become this     epic--find everyone in the family awesome matching pajamas that outdo last year's pajamas-- kind of quest.  The tradition means a lot to me and despite the fact that one of my kids completely hates it (you probably don't have to wonder very hard who it is), this is a tradition that will continue for a long time…even to when we have grandkids someday.  
4. Christmas devotional-- We use these booklets and sing Christmas songs and read scriptures that help us remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Day:
1.  Wake up / pillage stockings / make breakfast--  We are not super early risers at our house, so little ones usually start rolling out of bed around 7:00am, while the rest of us usually make an appearance around 8:00am.
2. Eat  breakfast (see picture below)--Emma woke up extra early this year and made our  breakfast of homemade croissants, eggs, and bacon.  The croissants took two whole days to make and were perfectly flaky and delicious.
3.  Official Christmas morning pajama photo -- We are probably the only family in America that forces our children outside in their pajamas every Christmas morning,  so we can get  a decent shot of us in the natural light.  I'm pretty sure our neighbors think we're quite weird and we have an oldest son who thinks that this tradition is akin to torture of the worst kind. (see picture below)
4. Open presents -- We take turns opening presents, going around in a circle, youngest to oldest.  This year was the year of the socks, with everyone in the family receiving at least a couple packs of socks!  Weirdly, no one was disappointed by receiving socks in the slightest.   Only one child got mad / jealous  this year {same child as usual}, but luckily after an afternoon nap they composed themselves well and at least feigned gratitude from then on.
5.  Enjoy presents and intermittently snooze throughout the afternoon--With one of the kids up until 2:30am working on a treat order (caramel popcorn), then Glen had to go with her to deliver it at about 3:00am, we were all extra tired.  Snoozing came easily to all.
6.  Eat a very simple dinner-- Once again, I decided that I don't really love to bog down my Christmas with lots of cooking, so we opt for very simple food on Christmas day.   This year we had tomato/mozzarella paninis that we all helped make.   Someone chopped the tomatoes, another child spread the pesto, I sliced the bread, another one sliced the fresh mozzarella into smaller slices, another added the balsamic glaze, and another manned the panini press cooking them to golden perfection.   It was no stress for anyone and still completely delicious!
6.   Go to a movie--We don't really go to full-price movie theaters very often, so when a couple of years ago, we decided to make going to a movie together a new  Christmas night tradition for us, the whole family approved.  This year we watched  Hobbit 3.  It was a little intense in parts for Adam and Ellie, but we considered it a little prep time for Spencer's upcoming Make-a-Wish trip, which randomly looks like it's finally going to happen in a couple of months.   We're still not holding our breaths, but the process has progressed further than it ever has before and we are all VERY EXCITED about it!

The year of the sock!

Day after Christmas:
Family dinner--It's not always the day after Christmas, but sometime in the day or two around Christmas we gather all together for a family dinner with the East coast Crains.   We were sad not to have Matt and Karey this year, since they recently moved to England, but, as always, it was a blast to gather all together with those of us that do live out here.   All of my kids except Ellie  are significantly older than the rest of the cousins, so I thought it was a little odd (and pretty funny) that two of my kids came home from the day with injuries inflicted by one of their  cousins!   Adam got  a fat lip when five-year-old Davin head-butted him in the chin and Emma got a bloody nose when the same cousin accidentally  whacked her in the face with his foot while doing a somersault.   Davin is an energetic little peanut who would never hurt anyone on purpose,  which is why the injuries struck me as extra funny.

Miscellaneous Christmas:
Service--We often adopt a family for the 12-days of Christmas.  This year, though, we decided to do it a little differently and do 12 separate acts of service for others.   We are not done yet, but we hope to have completed our 12 acts before the end of Christmas break (next weekend).
Christmas cards/letters--  It really is one of my favorite parts of the season.  I love hearing from old friends, I love decorating with the cards, and I even love the process of creating the cards and writing the letters.
Treats--We usually bring plates of goodies to at least a few people and then end up eating the rest of them ourselves.
Trip to the temple lights--We usually watch a performance, visit the nativity exhibit,  and walk around outside for a while.   WE actually haven't done it yet this year, so we need to go this week.

Emma's delicious Christmas morning breakfast.  It took her two days to make those beautiful croissants!

Right before eating Christmas breakfast!

Ellie snuggling up with AnnaLisa during our Christmas Eve devotional. 

Without any living room furniture yet, we were forced to be pretty casual  during our devotional this year. 

Some kids do not like our Christmas morning pajama photo shoot very well.  Can you tell who? 

Music or Not

Most people have this innate sense about whether or not they are a good singer.  Not me, though.  There was a day when I was totally convinced that I could sing well  and if there had been an American Idol show at the time, I probably would have considered trying out.  As it was, my saintly family put up with me singing around the house at all hours and on a  regular basis even rallying my younger siblings together and directing singing performances to be recorded onto a cassette tape.  I was always the lead singer.

The first hint that I might be mistaken about my musical abilities was one day as a teen I was singing along to the radio in the car and my younger brother jumped out and walked the 2 miles to his destination, claiming that he couldn't stand to hear me sing another second.  A couple of years later, I had a roommate who stopped every one of my cheerful performances with a dirty look and a curt, "Keep your day job."  Then finally in a church choir, I became the focus of much consternation to the director with perfect pitch who couldn't decide what to do with me and my out of tune singing.  She kept shuffling my spot around and finally put me in the back corner, where I guess I wouldn't taint as many people with my off-notes.  That was when I finally realized that I was not meant to be a musician and I was crushed.

After spending 21+ years of my life thinking that I was a fabulous singer, the realization that I wasn't brought me into a sort of mourning.   I spent the next several years avoiding  singing where anyone could hear me, thinking that everyone would just be thinking that I should just "keep my day job."  Sadly I still don't sing around the house as much as I used to,  however I  have since come to a happier acceptance about my lack of ability and  do again at least love to sing with my family.  We sing a few songs together almost every day.

One day a few years ago I read a study that found that musical ability was an inheritable trait, meaning that  someone without a musical gene could become an okay, even good musician with a lot of practice, but that it would be unlikely for them to ever be skilled enough to become a professional musician.    Aha!   Reading that article comforted me immensely that not only was it not necessarily my fault that I am not a great musician, but that I was probably a much better singer than my genetics predisposed me to, because I spent so much time honing my skill as a youth.

Thankfully for my children,  Glen's  genetic lines are much more tonal than my own and our kids are, without even trying, leaps and bounds beyond where I am musically.   That combined with a couple of kids who actually love to practice their music and it's an exciting thing to see their talents developing in ways that I could only ever dream of!

Heartbreak--Eight-year-old style

Yesterday was our church Christmas program  and it was amazing.  Our choir director is one part  passionate, one part hard-working, and the other part pure talent.  It's a great combination and it's been astounding to see how she has brought the ward choir to a whole new level in such a short period of time.  My favorite was the final performance of "Peace, Peace."  The choir and primary children had parts, then the congregation joined in with, "Silent Night."  It was pure loveliness.

The only hiccup of the day was during the Primary performance of "The Nativity Song," when Ellie had a seizure at the exact moment she was supposed to hold her sign of Baby Jesus up.  Her friends were all nudging her, but because of her seizure she didn't hold up her sign until the very end of her part.  She immediately realized what had happened and was completely heartbroken.  She held it together for the rest of the performance, but collapsed in a sobbing heap into my arms the second it was over.  The poor girl sobbed for 20-minutes straight, during which I shed more than a few sympathy tears as well.  She was completely convinced that her ill-timed seizure ruined the whole performance.  We tried to reassure her by letting her know that other kids held up their signs equally as late as her just due to inattentiveness, but she was still devastated.   In true Ellie form though, before long she washed her face, found some treats in my bag to share with her friends, and went back to class and hasn't said another word about it.

 practicing her part                                         after church

Man, I sure love this girl!

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Emma's Birth Story

 In honor of Emma's 13th birthday today, here is her birth story.

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When I found out that our third child was due on Halloween, I told everybody that I hoped that she'd be born any day but that day.  But she had other ideas...

  We had moved cross country when Spencer was only 10-days old, then moved cross country again when I was 32-weeks pregnant with Cami.  After that I decided I was done with moving anytime even remotely close to having a baby and that is why we have our biggest space between Emma and Cami.   They are three years and four-and-a-half months apart.

With the bigger space between them (and the rosy eighteen months without having to buy any diapers), I was actually quite excited to be pregnant again.  As with my pregnancy with Cami, I had mild morning sickness during the first few months, but it wasn't much to speak of other than  having a strong aversion to cantaloupes.  Grocery shopping was absolutely torturous, because  I could instantly smell the cantaloupes above everything else as soon as I walked into the store, which would set off my nausea and make the whole rest of the shopping trip miserable.  Luckily the nausea only lasted the first trimester, but it was another couple of years before I could stomach eating cantaloupe again.

The rest of the pregnancy was relatively easy.  I exercised the whole way through--doing aerobics and often walking at least 4 miles a day.   In fact, a lot of the memories associated with the last month or two I spent pregnant with her were of  long walks on gorgeous autumn days.

When I went into labor naturally on the night of October 30, I still held out hope that she would be born before midnight.  Besides avoiding Halloween, the rest of our family's birthdays all fell on multiples of 5 (Glen and I on the 25th, Spence on the 30th, and Cami on the 15th) and I thought it would be cool to keep up the "tradition".

Alas, Emma had her own plan.

The clock ticked past midnight and I was still in labor, although in my labor frenzied mind I started worrying that they'd forgotten to turn the clock backs for time change that had occurred two days before.  I knew I was getting somewhat close to the end and I must have asked the nurse a gazillion times whether the clocks had been changed or not.  She assured me that they had and at some point after midnight I finally accepted that Emma was going to be born on Halloween whether I liked it or not.  (fyi--she has always absolutely loved having her birthday being on Halloween)

In the meantime Glen's mom was arriving from Colorado that night to help.  It was  before we had cell phones, so we ended up having to page her at the airport to let her know that we wouldn't be there to pick her up.  She ended taking a taxi to our house instead.

Finally at 1:40am our little pumpkin was born....very promptly on her due date.    At 7-lbs. 13-oz., she was the smallest of all my babies.  I had exercised so much during my pregnancy that I got a lot of comments from the nurses about how young and fit I looked for having three kids.  Other than being very tired from having given birth in the middle of the night and my roommate having the most annoying husband in the world, the hospital stay was pretty uneventful.

I remember Glen bringing Spence and Cami to the hospital on Halloween night.  They were in their costumes and so excited about meeting their new sister (and going trick-or-treating right afterward).

  We were between cameras at the time, so every picture we have of her as a baby was taken by someone else.  She was definitely our least photographed child, despite her absolutely loving being in the limelight.

From day one, she was my wiggliest, loudest, and most active baby.  She was cheerful as can be, but never stopped moving and got into more mischief than any of my other kids combined.  There was one week when I called poison control about her three times during the week...once for eating three entire packs of gum in one sitting.   She's thirteen now and  is a hard-working, determined , and still always has to have something to do--whether it be reading a book, cooking us breakfast, exercising, playing the piano, or singing.

Speaking of singing, I will finish up Emma's birthday post with a little video of Emma when she was 2-1/2 years-old, singing, "Families Can Be Together Forever." In addition to seeing what our ugly old bathrooms used to look like, you'll also see that non-stop motion I mentioned earlier and the fact that she is the only one of our kids to have strongly inherited the musical genes from Glen's side of the family.  She's loved to sing from the time she was little and still brings joy and beauty to our home to this day with her lovely music (clarinet, piano, and singing)!

We love our sweet Emma!  Happy 13th birthday!

For more fun Emma facts and pictures, make sure to check out her autobiography or this post that shares other fun facts about Emma and mentions how she won a big prize basket from a local girl scout troop because she was the first baby girl born on Juliet Gordon Low's birthday (the founder of girl scouts).   

6th Grade All-County Chorus Festival

When I married Glen, I made no secret of the fact that I hoped that they would inherit his naturally straight teeth, his ability to digest milk without producing noxious gas,  and his ability to sing in tune.  Crain genetics were not kind in any of those departments and I held out hope that our kids would fare a little better.   So far we're 0 for 5 on the naturally straight teeth, 3 for 5 in the ability to digest milk (with the other 2 that are too young to know yet),  and only one of my kids sings as out-of-tune as I do.

Although all of the kids are far more musically inclined than I was, it's Emma who really seems to have inherited the strong musical genes that hale from both sides of Glen's family.  She was born singing (in tune) and hasn't stopped since.  We have videos of her as a toddler, where she would sing and sing and sing, pushing siblings out of the way to make sure that the camera stayed on her.  I tried really hard to get one of those videos off of the DVD and onto the computer to show you how cute it was, but alas it defies my tech skills and you will just have to imagine a spunky little red-headed two-year-old belting out primary songs while constantly pushing past any showboat siblings that may have tried to get between her and the front of the camera.  She sang in bed, sang sitting on the potty, and sang during mealtimes.

Fast forward a decade and she is still putting those lungs to good use and gracing our home with beautiful music.  She doesn't fight for camera time anymore, since most of her siblings are only all too happy to relinquish it, but out of all of our kids she is the least shy about sharing her musical talents with others.  Not only has she already sung solos and duets in church, but she also recently started taking voice lessons and recently was very honored to be chosen to participate in the 6th Grade All-County Chorus Festival.

The festival is an annual event that has been going on for about 40 years now. Not only do they have to audition, but they also only choose a handful of students from each school.  They are required to practice at home and attend several practices (all over the county ) in smaller groups for months in advance.   Finally on April 20th all 900+ participants gathered from the over 120 elementary schools in our county and combined to form one fabulous sounding elementary school choir!

We were far  away and couldn't see her all that well, but the music was fantastic...

This song was the final song of the performance and Emma's very favorite...
(Note:  I did not actually take this video)

Forgive the shaky camera in this video I did take.   This was another of Emma's favorite songs and shows a little better of how far away we were....

We are so proud of our Emma and how hard she has worked to improve upon the musical talents she was blessed with.  Not only does she sing like an angel, but she is also proving herself to be a talented and hard working piano and clarinet player as well.

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"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. "
-Victor Hugo 

An Open Letter to Adam's Orchestra Teacher

Dear Adam's Orchestra Teacher,

With two cello players in the house, I've sat through a lot of beginning strings concerts before and have never left without a headache and the feeling that my ears were somehow damaged afterward.  There's just something about the scritchy sounds that a beginning strings player makes as they're learning the instrument that is literally painful....both to my ears and to my nerves.  

That is why I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you...  

Thank you for listening to this week after week after week (which with the accompaniment playing probably doesn't even sound half as bad as I'm sure the practices do)....


in hopes that they will someday sound like this....



You are a saint. 

Sincerely,
A Mom with Earplugs

Music Therapy

Caveat Lector (Reader Beware) - This post is being authored by Lara's husband, Glen.  Since Lara started this blog on April 14, 2007, she has encouraged me many times to be a guest poster.  Now nearly 5 years later, I am making my debut.  I completely understand if you read no further!!!

I love Lara's blog.  It makes laugh, it makes me cry, but mostly, it chronicles our life together and I treasure the blessing it is to read over past posts and reflect on our experiences.  I hope my "butting in" will not detract from the good she does through her creativity and insight she puts into every post she makes.

So for my maiden post, I wanted to talk about the influence of music in the lives of the Goolds.  Music has always played a huge part in my life.  I attribute my love of music to my mother, Sandy.  Mom is a beautiful singer.  She encouraged me and all of my siblings to learn the beauty of music at a young age.  She battled five boys and one girl through piano lessons hoping to instill her love of music to us.  I still tinker on the piano, but my love of music started at that very young age and still influences me deeply.

One of the ways mom helped us cultivate a passion for music was to give us the opportunity to experience the theater.  I remember being very young when mom and dad treated our family to a live performance of "Annie" in Denver.  Certainly hearing a live performance of "Tomorrow" was captivating enough, but I was then, and still am today, taken with the song "Maybe".  My love of music quickly extended to a love of the theater.  We would often have the opportunity to catch a show at the Playmill in West Yellowstone where seeing the likes of Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, etc.  So it was that my passion for theater and music in general was born.

One of the ancillary blessings from my two year church mission to London was the opportunity to see some of the best theater in the world on the West End.  In particular, every year for our mission's "Christmas present" the mission president would hire out the entire balcony of the Palace Theatre and all 200+ of us missionaries would pile in to be treated to a performance of Les Miserables.  It was an unforgettable experience that touched our souls in a meaningful way and  I will forever be endeared  to the touching story of Jean val Jean.    Since then I have been fortunate enough to share Les Miserables with my wife and children, who I'm happy to say have fallen right in step with a love for music and the theater and for Les Mis in particular.    

So in the recent weeks, whenever I am feeling down and need a boost, one of the things I turn to is my music.  Music has always served as a sort of  "security blanket" to me, but in all that the last several weeks have brought us, music has been nothing short of therapeutic for my soul   A couple of days ago, I was having a long, lonely night in a stream of lonely nights lately, and I turned on the 25th Anniversary performance of Les Miserables and found some solace in the music as well as in the memories!

Jean val Jean singing, "Bring Him Home" has always been the highlight of the show for me and that song in particular has held many contexts for me through the years.   Its meaning sinks deep in my heart, instills memories, and conjures emotions of the best things.  My mom sang it for my mission farewell (with a few artistic license edits) as she and my dad sent me off on my mission all those years ago.  Then, the memories of sitting with my fellow missionaries on the balcony of the theater listening to "Bring Him Home" will forever be etched in my heart.

 So it is that I wanted to add yet another context in the annals of my fond memories of the emotions the song "Bring Him Home" has blessed me with over the years.  With this post, I offer this prayer for my son, Spencer:   

We truly can't wait to bring him home. 

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UPDATE (from Lara): 

• Spence is completely exhausted.    He slept almost 12 hours overnight, then took several naps through the day.  We turned away his tutor, kept the visitors away, and let the poor kid sleep.  His blood counts are low, but not exceptionally low, so I guess it's just his body just fighting extra hard right now. 

• Pain wise he's doing much better since his surgery.  Today was the first day that he didn't grimace every time he moved, so they weaned him completely from the morphine. 

• As the nurses come in for their shifts and find out about Spencer's appendicitis, they are all shocked.  None of them had ever heard of a cancer patient being afflicted with appendicitis during treatment. 

• PLEASE call before coming to visit.  Between his grumpiness,  fatigue and the low blood counts, it's just a good idea to check with us first before coming and if you do come, PLEASE plan on making it a shorter visit.  We are not discouraging people from coming,  but because we want visiting Spence to be as pleasant for everyone as possible, it's just a good idea to check with us first.  703-776-4513    Thank you for being understanding!

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"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads."
- Doctrine and Covenants 25:12

Time Still Flies...

I've always heard that time seems to stand still when you're in a crisis situation, but after almost a month in our own crisis,  I believe that that statement is only partially true.  Although nearly four weeks have passed since Spencer's diagnosis, I still find myself reliving some of those early moments (like hearing my pediatrician say the word, "leukemia" for the first time) over and over again.  It's not that I'm dwelling on the past, more than I still feel like I'm trying to wrap my brain around it all.  

For the most part though, other than those quiet reflective moments, I've discovered that time still flies!  The days blur together and I can hardly believe that we hit our month mark later this week.  Here are some of the things (in addition to taking care of Spencer) that are keeping us busy: 

Temples and Tombs:  Third Grade Musical--Glen attended this very cute performance of the third grade musical at the elementary school.  I had helped Adam put together his costume for it, but never actually got to see him wearing it, so I was grateful for a friend who thought to take a couple pictures of him, since I always have the camera with me (whether I be at home or the hospital). 

Can you name that costume? 

He's an Egyptian rapper of course! 

District Indoor Track Meet--As a fellow runner, I was so excited when Cami decided to join her high school cross country and indoor track teams this year.  It's her first year of running  (other than a year of Girls on the Run in elementary school), and I'm so proud of how hard she's worked through the season.  It seems that almost every race is a PR for her and I look forward to watching her continue to improve in future seasons.  

This was another event that happened on my night at the hospital, so Glen was there to cheer her on.  Thank you again to friends who took pictures for us. 

Pinewood Derby--I have a confession to make and I hope you don't think less of me for it....

For as much as Adam loves everything about making his own car and racing it against his friends in his scout troop's Pinewood Derby, I find everything to do with Pinewood Derbies to be insufferably painful.  Not only are the actual races somewhat anticlimatic in that it takes 2+ hours of sitting, while each car races for a total of 10.2 seconds over 4 or so races.  But I find the actual process of making the cars about as tortuous as cleaning my fridge and for anyone who's seen the inside of my fridges, knows that that's really saying something.  So although Spencer's diagnosis came a mere two weeks before the Pinewood Derby, we honestly hadn't even given making his car a second thought at that point. 

Thank goodness for awesome friends!  I'm fairly confident that without the help of Garrett and his dad, Scott, that there's no way Adam would have been able to participate this year.  They had him over for several hours over the course of two Saturdays and helped him to create this fine looking masterpiece (probably much finer than if we'd been leading the charge).   It finished very respectably in all the races and Adam was thrilled!  This was the only one of these events that I actually attended and I can say without a doubt that it was the least stressful Pinewood Derby I'd ever been to!  Thank you to the Woodhouse family!     

 

Winter Beginning Band Concert--This is Emma's first year of playing in the school band and I won't lie and say that I was not disappointed when she followed in her big brother, Spencer's footsteps by choosing the clarinet as her instrument of choice.  Not only do I love the music of the clarinet, but it also meant we didn't have to rent or buy a new instrument. 

By pure fluke of the calendar, once again this event fell on a night when Glen was home with the kids and once again I am grateful for a nice friend who snapped these shots for me.  I guess people know me well enough, to see if I'm not there that I'll always be grateful for a picture.  Someday I hope to think about our calendar well enough in advance to actually leave the camera at home for this kind of event, but then again, that would require brainpower and forethought, two things that happen to be in pretty short supply right now!

Now if I could just figure out how to fit a few more of these into our schedule....

Ellie snuggles make everything seem a little better!

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Today's Update:

Same old, same old.  Waiting for his blood counts to go up, so we can take him home.    He's still feeling pretty good comparatively speaking.  He's still on a gazillion medications.  He's still waiting for the county to send over some school work.  We're going to start some home study seminary pretty soon.  Watched the Super Bowl with Glen tonight.  They're both happy with the outcome!

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“God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future--to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities." 

Jeffrey R. Holland

Kindergarten Spring Sing

On Thursday I got to attend the  Kindergarten Spring Sing with a bunch of very cute little 6-year-olds singing as exuberantly as they could.  It was cuteness at its best and I loved the joy and innocence their little faces radiated as they sang their hearts out to their parents. 

A few minutes into the show I watched while right in the middle of one of the songs, Ellie had a seizure.  It's still not unusual for Ellie to have several seizures per day and I'm sure that most people assumed she was daydreaming or something, but it made me teary-eyed thinking of the challenges ahead for her.  Besides her safety, I especially worry for the day when her peers will start noticing the frequent lapses. 

Oh yeah, and then there's the whole bit about my BABY finishing kindergarten that kind of got me misty-eyed too. I guess, that with two kids that are going to be in high school this fall and no more preschoolers or kindergarteners, I may have to reluctantly admit that we're getting to the middle-aged stage of life now.  Speaking of middle-aged, I would like to point out that when Glen hits the big 4-0 this Saturday, that it will be an entire year and 10 months before me! 


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♫ Musical ear? ♫

I read a study once that indicated that musical ability is 70% an inherited trait. People without the "ear" for music can practice a lot and become respectable musicians, but will probably never be concert pianists, while those with better musical genes still have to practice hard, their potential is much higher than people without the inherited "ear". 

Growing up, we as a family loved to sing. Our family home evenings would be at least half-filled with primary songs and hymns and despite the fact that the musical ear eluded 8 out of the 10 of us, we still belted out the songs with gusto.  Our rousing choruses of, "The Iron Rod," were, um, ear splitting enthusiastic and awe ahhh inspiring.

When I married Glen I was thrilled to give my kids a chance at inheriting some musical genes.   Thus far, it's looking about 50/50 (no names mentioned). 

Despite my self-deprecation about my own inabilities, we as parents, still try to make music an important part of our lives.  Taking the cue from my parents, our family home evenings and bedtime routines are music filled.  We sing hymns, primary songs, and fun preschool songs.  While I sometimes worry that somehow I'll ruin the kids' good musical ears with my enthusiastic out-of-tune singing, it is my hope that the songs become as much a part of their hearts as their minds. 

With the floundering economy recently, our school district has been proposing a number of budget cuts for the upcoming years.  While I'm sad that they will no longer be learning Chinese at the elementary school and I sure hope they don't make the class sizes too big, for selfish reasons I really, really, really hope they don't cut down music.  I view their two days a week in school music time as their only hope at proper training (and opportunities for performance).   They do take piano lessons too, but it's the singing I get excited about. 

Our school's music program is wonderful and gets the kids excited about singing.  One of the things I love is that each year each of the grades performs a musical for the parents.  It must be a ton of work for the music teachers, but it's one of the highlights of the year for me. Tonight was the 1st grade musical, Stone Soup, and it totally reaffirmed to me how much I hope that the music program stays strong through the budget cuts. 

The past couple weeks have found Adam (aka Peasant Boy Narrator) practicing his lines over and over again.  He was so dedicated to practicing that it didn't take long before  Ellie, overhearing his recitations, appointed herself his understudy, and can easily recite his three-line part word for word.

And this is mostly for the grandparents' sake, but if you want to see 30 seconds of total cuteness, here's a little video of his performance (plus about 10 seconds of the singing)... 

Translation:  "  Once upon a time, three soldiers were marching home from war.  Their names were Captain Andy, Private Charlie, and Private Max.  They were tired and hungry and were looking for a village to find some food."

♫  How often do your kids have music in school?  Is your district considering budget cuts too?  Do you have the musical ear?  What about your kids?  ♫

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