Percussion Recital
Both Elliot and Clark are really progressing with their skills on the Marimba. For this recital Clark played the First Movement of Bach's Concerto in A Minor with Mr. Beck as his accompanist (a music teacher at Waterford who is a fabulous pianist) and Elliot played "Rhythm Song" by Paul Smadbeck. They both performed these same pieces again in a Day of Percussion competition in which Elliot took 3rd place out of 87 soloists in the state — 10 of which were college students! He was awarded 2 sets of mallets and a t-shirt — wahoo!
Scout Klondike
Clark and his troop endured cold temperatures all night as they camped and got ready for the district Klondike Scout competitions. There were 25 troops that participated and our troop took first place — Clark especially excelled at fire building where they were able to get water boiling in 1 minute 25 seconds, starting their fire with flint and steel.
Alan's Job at Corda
After 2½ years of working at Corda, one day Alan went to work and by 11:00 was on his way back home with his desk packed into a box. The company had decided to put some of their development funding into sales and so Alan along with 3 others as the most recently hired were laid off. It was a huge surprise to us, but as we have had time to ponder it, we have decided that maybe the Lord has other plans for him. He has had interviews with a couple of different companies and hopefully we will receive a job offer soon. Meanwhile we are trying to get some of those "around the house" projects knocked off the list!
Olympics
Our family loves watching the Olympics and this time we had our trusty DVR so that we could record everything and then watch what and when we wanted. That is absolutely the way to go — no commercials, zing through all the long boring stuff and watch the exciting parts over and over again — in slow motion if you want to! Okay, sorry about the commercial. While I enjoyed watching all the amazing athletes, I have to say that I am amazed at the effort and pain people are willing to go through for a chance at being 1/100 of a second faster than someone else in their sport. I would need more balance in my life...is that my excuse for not really excelling in anything? Hmm......
As opposed to Valentine's Day last year (spent all day in airports trying to get to CA) this year Alan took me out for a nice dinner at Market Street Grill. The restaurant set the table with candy conversation hearts on our napkins — it was a nice evening.
In honor of Valentine's Day (and needing a prop for Primary) I decided to try crocheting a heart pillow. Having never read a pattern before, this was a big undertaking for me, but I took on the challenge and am pretty pleased with how it turned out! The crocheting was fun — sewing the parts and pieces together was not! And a crafty month it turned out to be as I also spent some time sewing together 3 quilts for Haiti as part of a Relief Society project. One night when our family was all together, I talked everyone into sitting around the dining room table and tying a few knots so that we could get one of the quilts completely tied. It was a fun family project to do together — everyone can tie a knot!
Clark's and Michelene's Birthdays
This year Clark turned 13 years old. We have officially run out of children and now have 3 adult children and 3 teenagers. We decided to celebrate his birthday and mine together so the college kids wouldn't have to come up twice. It was a fun weekend with everyone sleeping over, going to church with us and having a Sunday birthday dinner together.
On my actual birthday, Alan as his gift to me created the most delicious Steak Diane dinner that I have ever tasted. I can still taste it....I think I might have a little thing for Brandy?
BYU Kids
Loren and Anne received the exciting news that Loren has been selected as one of the six students accepted into the BYU Psychology Graduate program for next fall! He graduates with his Bachelor's degree this April. They are very excited and of course our families are happy that they will still be living close by.
Phillip is trying to survive his "re-entry" into the post mission single college life. His graphic design classes are very demanding and he has also been involved in a relationship with his girlfriend Nichole. Unfortunately things at this point are not working out and so they have broken things off. He is glad to be home though and is enjoying his artwork and being with his family.
Madeleine is busy working and finishing her Freshman year. She spent a few anxious days trying to figure out housing and roommates for next year, but it seems she is happy with how things turned out. She is very excited to live off campus! One of the highlights of this semester was being able to be in the orchestra of a stake production of "From Cumorah's Hill."
Sister Tess Brown
Doing well — a bit anxious about the upcoming transfer. We are expecting new photos soon!