My marathon

I started playing the flute in 9th grade (most started in 6th grade) and I taught myself how to play with some help from my band teacher the summer before. My journal entries from that time are all about what goals I had and playing each day to reach them. Then I played in a flute choir and took a few private lessons in college for a year. I really enjoyed it but didn't have some of the basic skills such as counting mastered very well. So for the past 6 years I have been taking flute lessons again and I have had lofty goals for myself. One was to be able to play a really extensive piece memorized with my teacher playing piano. With recitals in the winter and spring I have probably played a dozen times now in front of an audience in this venue and I can now make it through the entire song, not lose breath and I have memorized a Debussy piece! as well as keep counting to stay together with piano--difficult esp when nervous!!!! This is me playing Prelude to the Afternoon of a faun by Claude Debussy. --minus the middle half due to time constraints for the recital. Enjoy! Now I would like to work on enjoying the audience more but that is a way off I think:)http://www.motionbox.com/videos/d498deb1191be3c35c

Doing

I can usually find no shortage of things to do to keep me busy. Today I am fondly thinking of all the places I have lived and found activities to do in and around. Just the other day I was telling the kids about when I lived at the top of a very long hill in Council Bluffs, Iowa and how my Dad would take a running start in the car to make it up, which I remember taking a few tries to do in the icy winters we had there. In the summer we kids would ride our bikes down the hill, oh so fast, with our legs flying out like we were ready to take off with wings. I actually hit the curb with such speed that I bit through below my lip once. Then when we moved to Bemidji my parents bought us ice skates(I actually have memories of doing this in Iowa too but at parks) and my Dad would flood the front yard and we had our own personal pond. One Christmas we all got Nordic cross-country skiis and we would go on the trails very close to where we lived by the Concordia language village. I have taken these skiis with me wherever I lived after I got married and used them in Pocatello on a golf course that they groomed with trails. Tim got a pair as well and then they went in storage. Not much snow in Seattle close to where we lived and we didn't go and do much in the way of getting out and enjoying it. But we did visit the beach and we had a great walking path and bike trail close to our house there. But the skiis stayed in storage. We moved back to MN and for the first time yesterday I pulled them out of the garage, tried on the old boots and made my way to the park/lake across the street. It was a beautiful day. The conditions were just right. It had snowed a few days ago. February snow is so good for skiing and it was still cold enough to not be sticky. The no-wax glide bottle was frozen (purchased in Pocatello) and after a brief thaw and application to the skiis that had been dug out of the garage cobwebs and brought in the house, I was off! I have been looking forward to this all week. I could just tell it was going to be perfect. I arrived at the edge of the lake, and no one was around except the busy city traffic and freeway nearby. I looked up as I had a feeling I wasn't alone as the birds were all a twitter and this guy/gal Eagle had probably just finished a meal of fish.

Well there is no better greeting than that for a good morning! So off I went and someone else had broken a trail before me so I hopped right on to the frozen ice and skiied around the trail. It didn't go all the way around the lake so I made more trail on the other side. Now it is said that cross-country skiing is one of the best aerobic excersises to do. It doesn't seem like one does much but I was sweating and shedding layers after 20 minutes. Another 30 minutes later and trying to take photos of myself, I headed for home. I had a marvelous time and it is a gray day today so I am going to surround myself with these photos!

ringing in the new year

The boys and I rang in 2010 with our traditional "bubbly" and episodes of Mythbusters on Netflix after a couple rounds of Scrabble Slam! card game--thanks Grandma and Grandpa:)

just for me

A few moments to myself at the end of the year. I made an artichoke ricotta pizza and lemon poppy seed bundt cake--yummm, while watching "Under the Biltmore clock", an American Playhouse movie which is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Myra meets his family". Very good.

Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade

Here is one of the links to Ben playing in the Edina High School Band parade. He marches two rows in front of the white tubas to the left of the center yellow line of the road. I know they all look alike but that's where he said he was! http://www.wgntv.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=e5c15fcb-b026-4683-b4a6-69e21501d1bc&src=front

This is why. . .

I'ts that time of year when sales abound and taunt and the desire for a new winter sweater popped out of my closet! So off I went to Macy's and looked and looked for an hour, finally settled on one and tried it on. Something just wasn't quite right so I left it and begged my daughter to come back with me later on that day to see if she liked it on me. I thought her ideas of what looks good on me might help see what I was having trouble with. She wouldn't do it. Farmville, an old episode of Heroes and talking with her friend on the phone was more important. So after dinner Tim and I went out to learn how to use our OnStar from the car dealer and he asked if he could help with what was bothering me. "Just a silly sweater", I said. He drove right to the mall when I had just decided to forget it and 20 minutes before closing watched as I tried it on and then saw exactly what was wrong with it for my body type and then helped me sum up what does flatter my shape in the most perfect way. He even branched out and helped with pants and that is even harder for me to find the right fit. Anyway, it is "New Moon" release week and maybe I am a little love sick but . . . I love him.

Lauren's backyard summer projects

This girl is doing every bit as much as Ben did for his Eagle project! Way to go Lauren:)http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbId=2275448
Remember to hit the button to the top right to view in full screen--easier to read