Wednesday, December 8, 2010

I heart Take Note!


I can't tell you how much I love and totally enjoying singing with my dear friends in Take Note! There is something so fulfilling about practicing and performing together. I look forward to being with these gals every week and creating beautiful music.

When I was first asked to be in the group, then Triple Trio, I was not sure if I could make time for it and if it would be worth it. It was rather quickly that I realized I was missing that part of me and singing with this group of ladies help me find it again. Now, 6 years later, I can't imagine my life without this outlet for creativity, hard work, performing, beautiful music, and good friends. I am so lucky to be part of such a wonderful group.

We have worked hard since September and now our hard work it paying off. This last Monday we had our first performances of our new Christmas program. I think it went really well, especially for our first ones. We also literally sang for our supper, or lunch as the case would have it. Last year, after having lunch at Cinzetti's all together, we ending up singing for the people in the restaurant. This year we planned ahead and made arrangements ahead of time to sing. When the head chef (or manager?) heard us singing he was impressed and offered to treat us all to lunch. That was sure nice of him. And I must admit, it tasted even better since it was free. :)

Over the next two weeks we have 5 more gigs planned. Hopefully I can get a video posted on here of some snippets of our program.

Thank you Take Note gals (past and present) for enriching my life! I love you!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Full of Thanksgiving (and turkey)

I love this time of year where I get to spend time thinking about my many blessings. When I do, I know that Heavenly Father has truly blessed me and my family. I believe that when we have an "attitude of gratitude" our hearts are changed and we recognize the abundance that we have been blessed with.

We had some wonderful options, but we decided to stay close to home for Thanksgiving. Ken's sister invited us down for a glorious feast with some of Brian's family. It was a wonderful celebration! We even stayed the night and attended the temple the next morning while Holly watched our kiddos. We then took all the kids to an afternoon showing of Tangled (so cute!) and then headed back home for a awesome leftover dinner. The kids were having such a great time with their cousins so we decided to get in some playing too and challenged Brian and Holly to a game of canasta. They killed us the first hand, but then we came back big time. We always have a blast playing games with them. It was great to have a mini-vacation and as usual, the Wenhams were the perfect hosts!

The rest of the weekend we were able to get up some Christmas decorations and spend some time together. We watched the BYU/Utah game (missed it by that much!) and I was able to sing a duet with Sarah McFadden for church on Sunday. I was so glad that she asked me and it was fantastic getting to sing with her. I was nervous because I came down with quite the chest cold and was having horrible coughing fits. I kept praying that I would be able to get through the song and be able to help invite the spirit. I think we did that.

Gratitude 2010
- my family
- my incredible husband, Ken
- watching my children learn and grow
- wonderful friends
- family nearby
- sharing the gift of music
- our comfortable home
- the free nation we live in
- being able to worship as we choose
- the gospel of Jesus Christ