Kyra's Madrigal Concert Part B

Here's Part B of Kyra's concert. This clip contains 3 numbers. The last two numbers is with all the choirs combined, so Kyra's smack dab in the middle. The very last number I only got a portion of because I ran out of disk space and it wouldn't let me record without formatting the new disk :( Kyra is playing the piano for that piece. To watch the video, click on the title and it will take you directly to YouTube. Read more!

Kyra's 1st Madrigal Concert Part A

Kyra had her first Madrigal concert at the end of October. If you'd like to view Part A, click on the title and it will direct you straight to a YouTube video of the first half of her performance. She is always on the far left or far right of the group, middle row. YouTube only allows 10 minute videos, so Part B is on the next post. Read more!

St. George Invitational Swim Meet

Adam and his swim buddies: Jared, Jessica and Samantha

Adam in mid-dive starting his 500 yard freestyle

Stroke, baby, stroke!

At the end of his lane his friends were cheering him on and posting his lap numbers underwater so he'd know how long he had to go. Trent in bathrobe, Sam posting, Jared whistling, Jessica yelling encouragement.

Adam has always been a lean kid, but now he's a lean kid with well defined muscles. He swims every day before school and every day after school.

And his coaches just advised the team that now that the "fun" St. George meet was over, they were really going to kick in the conditioning. This whole swim venture has been a wonderful, healthy thing for Adam.

Adam coming up on lap 17 getting ready to do a flip turn.

Sam showing me the welcome orange blocks, letting the swimmer know he's on his LAST lap.

Right after his 500, Adam was also slated to be the first leg of the 200 freestyle relay. I know it's hard to see, but he's the middle swimmer in mid dive.

Adam and I just got back from an invitational swim meet last weekend. On their way down to St. George, they stopped off the road a little ways to Richfield, where they had an addl swim meet with the local team there. Because our school is bigger, we had our first year swimmers compete against Richfield's varsity team. At Adam's home meets I have started to officiate -- which gets you the very best of 'seats' -- but at these other meets I have finally had the opportunity to catch him on film because I wasn't "on duty." He's been training very hard since last June and the payoffs are already beginning. He swam with the top 12 swimmers and came in 1st in his heat in the 50 yard freestyle race. Fifty yards is once up and back. He also raced for his first time in the 500 freestyle!!! It was a little overwhelming to him, but he did great. Five hundred is racing 10 times up and back. All the pictures are from the smaller Richfield meet. St. George hosted 15 schools and it was absolutely crazy. I will never attend again without some kind of ear protection. Adam raced in the 400 yard freestyle relay and the 100 yard backstroke.

If you'd like to see the video of Adam racing the 50 yard freestyle in Richfield, just click the title and it should take you straight to YouTube and his video will start.

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Halloween

I added another photo album on the right hand side. It's entitled Halloween 2008. Our days had been so full that we didn't get pumpkins until Halloween morning. The kids and I went out in the morning -- they had school off that day -- to a pumpkin patch a few minutes away. I thought for sure there would be slim pickins, but I was wrong. Acres and acres of pumpkins stretched out before us and the kids hunted and pecked and got some good ones. We came back and "slimy-ed" up to our elbows yanking out the gunk and carved without incident....except Mom. I was doing something stupid with a knife and paid for it with a gash on my finger that is still an ugly red. I didn't feel like putting together "Veggie Tales" pumpkins this year, so I opted for a snowman when I found some small pumpkins laying at my feet in the pumpkin patch. My motto was Keep It Simple Stupid. Right when the witching hour began that night it started to rain. Maybe the rain accounted for the light crowd this year, I don't know, but we didn't get more than 30 kids. Every year it's been diminishing. I used to have to plan for 500. The rain was very light and the temperature was actually balmy -- which is really strange for this time of year. So I had a relaxed evening reading on the couch with my "Halloween" music going on in the background. Jake was all pumped to roast some pumpkin seeds so I pulled a random recipe off the net. I'll share it here since it came out fantastic. 1-1/2 Tbl. butter, melted 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. garlic salt 2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce 2 c. raw pumpkin seeds Combine all, spread in shallow baking dish. Bake @ 275 deg F for 1 hour. Yummy! Read more!

A Trumpeter in the Family

Erica just had her first band concert mid-October. She took up the trumpet in September when she started school. She had decided that Beginning Band was a lot more interesting than General Music.

Another new sound is added to the usual household noise....

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Slideshow for My Girls

What started out as a simple search for pictures, led me to make this 6-minute slideshow for the 12-13 year old girls I teach on Sunday. The lesson was on "Preparing for Change" and one thing led to another and voila! I'm going to use it as a conclusion to the lesson. Disclosure: This is not wholly mine. Some of the wording comes from a PowerPoint presentation that was forwarded to me once upon a time. Click on the title and it takes you straight to the video on YouTube. Read more!