Okay--I've decided that I can't post until I get my 'chores' done. So yesterday and today I've been focused and worked hard in the mornings. I am happy to report that it has been a good thing. So with the morning completed, I can give an update.
Laundry is going, kitchen cleaned, beds done, picked up, visiting teaching completed. The piano tuner has been here and gone. He is a nice man. He's been tuning our piano for 13 years. We have a very old piano. It is older than me! It originally belonged to my grandparents, Myrna and Floyd Davis. Some of my earliest memories are of that piano in their duplex on 21st street in Manhattan Beach, California. At some point they gave it to my parents. It is the piano that I learned to play on. Every Christmas it was the platform for my mom's christmas village. We kids just LOVED that village. It had little mini lights, candles, lots of angel hair, etc. It was magical.
I guess Duff and I were married about 10 years and my other grandma, Minnie Abramowski, gave my mom her baby grand piano that my grandpa had bought for her when she was a little girl. So we were offered the upright. I remember bringing it to the Westminster house. We had to go to Utah to the house in Orem, and bring it back in a trailer. We were so excited! ( Knowing what I know now about pianos, I would NEVER have done that. I would have hired a professional mover, but we were quite poor and looked only at the most economical solution at the time.) Mike and Josh started piano with Lori Fronk. Then Natalie followed and Shaun. Now Christine is playing. About 8 years ago, we decided to have it restored. Like I said, it is an old piano and had seen better days.
It turned out sooo beautiful. He restored it to it's original look. When he called me to come and look at it before delivery, I could hardly believe it was the same piano. We were able to still use all of the keys. He had uncovered the different woods and stained them like they once were. Every time the tuner comes, he tells me, "Don't ever get rid of this piano! They don't make them like this anymore!"
I guess selfishly, I have such emotional ties to it. I remember as a child listening to my aunt play at my grandparents, and playing duets with my mom when it was at our house. Now I play duets with my own daughters. It is the foundation for my christmas village with the mini-lights and angel hair. (My kids insist I put it out every year. It is a favorite tradition.) If it could only talk, oh the stories it could tell!
The fun, the laughter, the tears, the frustration with practices, (with some pounding tantrums), the calming, the spirituality, how many times it's played Heart and Soul and chopsticks, practiced for recitals!
Just when I think I might like something a little updated, I get a funny feeling in my tummy. I can't part with it! I am sentimental--I know this about myself.
So it's staying right where it is!
( Last night Duff and Christine had the Daddy-Daughter date at YW. It was a western theme. They looked cute. Played some games, ate, and did some line dancing. She was beaming when they got home!
Made some Primary visits during the day, and one in the afternoon for a boy graduating this Sunday. They are new in the ward. A cute boy. Had a good interview with him. That is probably one of the things I LOVE doing in this calling: meeting with the kids in their homes as they graduate. He is a little scared and nervous to leave Primary--but he won't miss being in the program! None of them at that age miss that! I reassured him that I knew he was ready! That Heavenly Father set it up this way, for us to keep growing little by little. And it was time to move forward. We started a tradition a few years ago: the class or quorum presidency comes into Sr. Primary at the beginning and the child advancing comes to the front. We make a fuss over them for their 12th birthday, and then they get to break their 'stick' [that we pull out of a decorated can for participation], and then we sing a song. We took the liberty and changed some of the words to Hello, Hello. The Deacons or Beehives sing: Hello, and the Primary sings: Goodbye. Hello, Goodbye, We send you on your way! Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye, We're glad you came our way, To share with us our Primary days, And be our friend in a very special way, Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye-We send you on your way! Then the Deacons/Beehives take them to YW or Priesthood.
I had a PPI with the Bishop on Tuesday night. At the end we talked a little about an appropriate time for a release. It has been four years. I cried all the way home!
Darla and I walked while Christine was at soccer practice. It felt so California fallish. So after dinner, I just had to make some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was just the mix from Lehi Mill [which is so easy, and yet so good], and they are divine. Unfortunately, I had 3 for breakfast this morning. Then I ate blueberries to pacify my guilt! Ahhhhh....)
Laundry is going, kitchen cleaned, beds done, picked up, visiting teaching completed. The piano tuner has been here and gone. He is a nice man. He's been tuning our piano for 13 years. We have a very old piano. It is older than me! It originally belonged to my grandparents, Myrna and Floyd Davis. Some of my earliest memories are of that piano in their duplex on 21st street in Manhattan Beach, California. At some point they gave it to my parents. It is the piano that I learned to play on. Every Christmas it was the platform for my mom's christmas village. We kids just LOVED that village. It had little mini lights, candles, lots of angel hair, etc. It was magical.
I guess Duff and I were married about 10 years and my other grandma, Minnie Abramowski, gave my mom her baby grand piano that my grandpa had bought for her when she was a little girl. So we were offered the upright. I remember bringing it to the Westminster house. We had to go to Utah to the house in Orem, and bring it back in a trailer. We were so excited! ( Knowing what I know now about pianos, I would NEVER have done that. I would have hired a professional mover, but we were quite poor and looked only at the most economical solution at the time.) Mike and Josh started piano with Lori Fronk. Then Natalie followed and Shaun. Now Christine is playing. About 8 years ago, we decided to have it restored. Like I said, it is an old piano and had seen better days.
It turned out sooo beautiful. He restored it to it's original look. When he called me to come and look at it before delivery, I could hardly believe it was the same piano. We were able to still use all of the keys. He had uncovered the different woods and stained them like they once were. Every time the tuner comes, he tells me, "Don't ever get rid of this piano! They don't make them like this anymore!"
I guess selfishly, I have such emotional ties to it. I remember as a child listening to my aunt play at my grandparents, and playing duets with my mom when it was at our house. Now I play duets with my own daughters. It is the foundation for my christmas village with the mini-lights and angel hair. (My kids insist I put it out every year. It is a favorite tradition.) If it could only talk, oh the stories it could tell!
The fun, the laughter, the tears, the frustration with practices, (with some pounding tantrums), the calming, the spirituality, how many times it's played Heart and Soul and chopsticks, practiced for recitals!
Just when I think I might like something a little updated, I get a funny feeling in my tummy. I can't part with it! I am sentimental--I know this about myself.
So it's staying right where it is!
( Last night Duff and Christine had the Daddy-Daughter date at YW. It was a western theme. They looked cute. Played some games, ate, and did some line dancing. She was beaming when they got home!
Made some Primary visits during the day, and one in the afternoon for a boy graduating this Sunday. They are new in the ward. A cute boy. Had a good interview with him. That is probably one of the things I LOVE doing in this calling: meeting with the kids in their homes as they graduate. He is a little scared and nervous to leave Primary--but he won't miss being in the program! None of them at that age miss that! I reassured him that I knew he was ready! That Heavenly Father set it up this way, for us to keep growing little by little. And it was time to move forward. We started a tradition a few years ago: the class or quorum presidency comes into Sr. Primary at the beginning and the child advancing comes to the front. We make a fuss over them for their 12th birthday, and then they get to break their 'stick' [that we pull out of a decorated can for participation], and then we sing a song. We took the liberty and changed some of the words to Hello, Hello. The Deacons or Beehives sing: Hello, and the Primary sings: Goodbye. Hello, Goodbye, We send you on your way! Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye, We're glad you came our way, To share with us our Primary days, And be our friend in a very special way, Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye-We send you on your way! Then the Deacons/Beehives take them to YW or Priesthood.
I had a PPI with the Bishop on Tuesday night. At the end we talked a little about an appropriate time for a release. It has been four years. I cried all the way home!
Darla and I walked while Christine was at soccer practice. It felt so California fallish. So after dinner, I just had to make some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was just the mix from Lehi Mill [which is so easy, and yet so good], and they are divine. Unfortunately, I had 3 for breakfast this morning. Then I ate blueberries to pacify my guilt! Ahhhhh....)
