Congratulations Monica!

I have to spend some time bragging on a young lady I know, Monica. I first met her when she was 5.5 years old, at the daycare where I used to work. I began babysitting for the family, and about two years later, became their nanny. Monica's had a passion for singing the entire time I've known her, and from what I hear, she's had that passion pretty much from birth! She joined a by-audition-only choir when she was in fourth grade (I believe) and is still a member. Emily and I went to see her perform last night (one of the last big concerts she'll be a part of because she'll be graduating in June). On top of being very involved in the choir, she's also been taking AP courses in high school, to better prepare herself for college and to have a good looking transcript for college applications. I have to commend her dedication to her future because these classes are NOT easy classes! When you listen to her talk, you can clearly see her passion for what she wants she wants to do "when she grows up", and you really see what an amazing young lady she is. Basically, she wants to be a pediatrician, possibly a family doctor with some OB stuff mixed in (she needs to see what suits her in the end), but she would also dearly love to get established in medicine, and then spend a few years in Africa helping people in need, and helping spread the word on God. She'll be doing some youth ministry stuff (depending on what college she ends up at, youth ministries will either be her major, or her minor). And here's where the hard work starts to pay off for her: She got a call last night from Azuza Pacific University and she's been accepted! Of her two top choices, it's the furthest one away from HOME, so for selfish reasons, we'd like to see her get into her other choice, but we're all so very thrilled for her, and she wanted very badly to be accepted. It's hard to believe she's gone from a little girl into a young lady (18 this coming March!) in what seems like such a short time. And she could throw some whoppers of tantrums, too, so it's been fun to watch her grow into a calm, considerate adult, with a real passion for life and an understanding of what she wants to do with her life. I'm so proud of her!

Congratulations Monica, on the beautiful concert last night, and on the acceptance to APU (you know we support you 100%, but we'll miss you if you go so far away!)

The Kinders Sing!

Emily Grace's Elementary School put on a holiday assembly yesterday afternoon. Each grade performed two songs together, and then the fifth graders did some short skits and whatnot during the transition from one grade on stage to the next grade on stage. I wasn't able to videotape the first song the Kindergartners sang because of this really NICE gentleman three rows up who felt it was okay to let his two-ish year old son stand up on his lap and block everyone behind him... It's also his arm you can see in the left of the video I DID get of the second song. I don't think they gave the Kinders enough credit in their ability to learn songs as the first song was SHORT, and the second song has the whole middle portion cut out! But it's totally adorable, and you can just see Em's face (the two girls behind her are her good friends, Rachel, and Taylor). You can see Emily scanning the crowd after the song ends, looking for me!

And the "Scrooge of the year!" Award goes to....

CONNOR!


(btw, he's mad because I took the hat off HIS head to give Emily and Jared a chance to pose for pics wearing it. Oh yeah, and I DARED to make him sit still for thirty seconds to snap a few pictures)





In this one, he's realized he's got the hat back, but he's undecided as to whether or not he should happily sit for a picture (he's REALLY REALLY REALLY NOT into posing for pictures these days)


And in these next two, he think it's pretty hilarious to keep getting out of the chair and running away instead of sitting nicely for two seconds. And if I tried to pin him in the chair long enough to back away and snap a pic, he'd start with the crying again.




If you think my attempts at nice individual shots are funny, you should see the group picture attempts! HA (I'll share in a few days when Christmas cards and the enclosed pictures will have arrived, so the blog doesn't spoil the surprise...)

Author Friend

My friend, Syra, just recently got her book published and I wanted to share with everyone her website with information about the book. The website also contains her blog (she JUST started it!). Anyway, I think the book sounds like a lot of fun to read, and I look forward to getting my hands on a copy soon. I'm going to have her autograph it next time she's in town!

Check it out!
Syra's Scribbles

The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music

Okay, so maybe not the hills, but the room upstairs in the music store where Jared's preschool class had a field trip sure was! The kids had a blast getting some hands-on time with some different instruments, and they got to see how one might repair the bell of a trombone, etc. It was pretty neat to see their enthusiasm!

Max, Jared, and Allison got to test out the recorders:


Here's Jared (and Teacher Terrie!) testing out a clarinet. I don't think he was ever able to get it to make any sound:


Jared had WAY too much fun playing the little violin. He was going crazy with it!


Here's a little bit of the repair shop demonstration. Jared was VERY interested.


Look at his little face all scrunched up in concentration while he listens/watches!


When the guy finished what he was doing (soldering on a metal piece), Jared's face lit right up and was very impressed. It was pretty funny!

At the end, the kids all got Kazoo's to play and they put on a little show of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (at least, that's what it was SUPPOSED to sound like! ha ha!) Here's Katin, Jared, Amanda, and Cooper:

SEE MOM?!? I TOLD YOU SO!

Dan had the porche minivan the other night, sadly happily on his own. He was quietly LOUDLY listening to 99.9 (a country rock station). When he arrived home with lots of things for the family for himself, he very thoughtfully thoughtlessly left the radio turned up. LOUD. When the kids and I turned on the van to leave for vacation the bus stop, we were happy interested HORRIFIED to hear the words "Just buy her some (gosh darn) boobies already and be done with it!" come blasting from the radio. Which opened up a fun pleasant INTERESTING line of conversation about how people can, in fact, buy boobies, if they choose to. I told them you have to have a lot of money, and you have to go to a special doctor. Jared was insistant I was "joking him", because you don't go shopping at the doctor, you go shopping at the STORE. So today, while having a wonderful HORRIBLE time out shopping for a nice shirt to wear with my slacks to the Nutracker (tomorrow!! yay!), we saw a rack of shirts with the boob portion formed into cup shapes for the "boobies." Jared took one look at the shirts, turned to me with his hands on his hips and said, "SEE MOM?!? I TOLD YOU SO! You CAN buy boobies at the store!" He sure told me!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Hard to believe this will be our sixth Christmas with kids in the house!!!



Connor's reaching for the light-up toy they're using to get his attention, and he's strongly debating whether to be upset they're not giving it to him, or not!