The crazy posting

Sorry about the upcoming post! It will be forever evidence that I am still learning how to do all this stuff.

Christmas Joy!

I am not sending out a formal Chrismas card this year, (we spent a lot on our pictures last year!) and since I have this brag set up, I thought I'd put some fun shots from this last year.


This summer we drove cross country to Utah and back to Virginia. These are some pictures from our stop at Niagra Falls and Mount Rushmore. I daresay we would do the drive again. The boys did GREAT!

Matthew was a great running back for his football team this year. You can't tell how muddy he actually is. His other teammates were not nearly as muddy after this game, but the way Matthew plays football... he became well acquainted with the mud.

This is a classic shot of what James spends a lot of his life doing. (He is on his lap top).

You know those guinea pigs I complain about all the time? Here are a couple shots of how cute they actually are so you understand why I can't get rid of them.

Jonny's is Fluffy(left), Stevie's is Snuffy(right) and Matthew's is Puss in Boots which now Peter believes is his (up at the top).

Stephen is a good little musician. This is his Spring concert for music at school. He also plays the piano now and played a duet for a concert this Christmas. (up at the top)

Peter is in heaven as the youngest of four boys who have already attained a load of toy dart guns and weapons of various sorts. This is a super long shot nerf gun, bigger than him!

Jonny won third place in the regional pinewood derby last March. Finally, just in time since it was his last year to enter,

he won the pack race in January and Stephen got second place.

Here are the brothers at the regional competitions looking cute.

Distinguished Students and My French Song

This one is for Kim. If it weren't for her gentle prodding I would never get around to additions for my blog. So I am waiting for my most recent pictures to download and I will from there figure out what to tell you all about.



I do have two occasions I want to brag, I mean blog, about but I am unknowing how to include the dramatic evidence. Perhaps before I actually post this one, I will figure it all out and you can see first: the certificates that Jonny and Stephen received from their elementary school for being chosen as "distinguished students". And second: I will include the recording of myself singing at my voice recital last Sunday. (And of course there is a recording of Peter singing "I am Iron Man, na, na, na na, na, na Iron Man" as well as the entire Power Ranger Ninja Storm theme song, on pitch.)



So in hopes that I will be able to figure out the mechanics of scanning and adding sound recordings to the post, I will elaborate on these two items.



Three times a year the teachers at Island Creek Elementary pick a student from their class who has distinguished themselves in one area or another. Jonny and Stevie both had this honor when they were in First Grade and then graciously again this Fall. It was fun to have both of them receiving their award together. Jonny's teacher's gave him an award for "writing words that knock Mrs. Markon and Mrs. A'hearn's socks off" (I should include one particular poem). Stephen's teacher gave him an award for "Excelling in Mathematics". It was great! They even got to hug the school mascot, "Cosmo the Crocodile. " Maybe subconsciously I married James so we would have smart kids.



And as for me...last Sunday I performed for the recital of all my voice teacher's students. I sang an entire French song! called Au bord de l'eau by Gabriel Faure. It is a lovely soprano song that lilts and swells with sap and I just loved singing in French (even though James said I sounded like an American with a bad French accent.) Then I sang Show Me from My Fair Lady. That one was fun because I just love musical theater and I even did the Maria from Sound of Music point- up- to- the- sky- with- my- index- finger on the super long high note I held out forever at the end of the song. I am hoping that this Spring I can swing a concert just for myself, maybe a dozen songs. I really love singing, but I have some improvement to make on breath support etc.

So I will post this without evidences and include them later. Thanks, Kim.

This last one is the one I wanted you all to see of the famous Iron Man and Power Ranger songs.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Mount Vernon Stake

This last weekend our stake presented A Midsummer Night's Dream. Matthew and Stephen and I were part of the Mechanicals which is a group of actors in Athen's putting on their own melodrama for the Duke's wedding. I played "Quince", the leader of the Mechanicals, who organizes the players and fights for dominance against the very dramatic lead actor, "Bottom" (he who later gets turned into a donkey.) Our segments were the funniest because all the characters are very silly. I loved being in the play with my boys. They did very well and had a good time. I really love Shakespeare too and am happy to have finally had a speaking part in a Shakespeare play. I hope it's not the last.

I included a cast photo. The play was set in present day Washington D.C. The Court were dressed like senators/proffessionals, the Mechanicals like working lower class people and the fairies like the homeless. We were trying to show that all classes have magic and value to them. It was fun. I am in the green hardhat like a foreman, Bottom is in the jumpsuit in front of me by Stephen and Matthew. Vanessa Rich (Croshaw) from highschool is in a blue hat holding her violin (she played music for the play) and maybe you'll recognize the flowery dress that "Thisby" wore, a man dressed up like a woman. That was Stephenie's bridesmaid dress from Colleen Covey's wedding.

After the final show, as we cleaned the church and took down the stage, a bunch of us started singing Les Mis and Phantom and Wicked. Thespians! I just love the theatre!

Just in time, I am blogging!

Here is dad, (below) crying with these lovely women, being overtaken with the love of being in Peru with this breathtaking landscape, and with the people! And this girl (left) was just little and had to carry this sheep so people would take pictures of her and give her soles. )Below left, a good shot of Cusco with Viva el Peru shaved into the side of the hill. And bottom, a picture of dad with a Christus on the hillside of Cusco in the back ground.

This is my balcony view (below) in the Villa of Urubamba and (right) is a great shot of the Sacred Valley.

I just started this blog in time to write about my fantastical trip to Peru with Kimberly, Stephenie and Georgalie. It has been 11 years since I've been out of the country and as we exited the airport in Cusco having just encountered vendors on every hand selling "trinkets", and drove out into the dry hills and dusty streets of a foreign country, the tears burst and my heart bled. I was travelling at last! I dream and dream of travelling, particularly back to Israel, but the feeling I dream of was just what was had as I realized I was in South America with a Passport and purse full of soles, to be with people of the world again at last!

I will get pictures up when I can. I must say though that I had ocassions of favoritism during the week long trip and they were the ocassions when I felt most happy and most in tune with the fact that I was with my sisters and dad in Peru! They were: walking down a dusty hill under eucalyptus trees after we had dined at Hacienda, a Latin ranch home a century old. It was spring in Peru and the air and earth were tinged with beautiful excitement (maybe it was that sip of Pisco Sour I was peered into before lunch, or the coca tea I drank to help with altitude sickness). All I know is that I felt perfectly happy and natural, and Peruvian. We did model shots for the camera, sang, something not recalled, and viewed the surrounding landscape in joy. We saw flocks of green parrots at the end of the road and walked out into a field to smile at three farmers, using scythes to cut alfalfa.

Then, in the villas of Urubamba, I awoke to the trill of birds and the mid morning light of the sun through my bedroom shutters. From the second floor balcony off my room I stood and breathed the air tinged with the neighboring farmhouse fire. The hills rolled up and down in shadow and light, green and yellow. I saw animals in the farmyard and heard voices, warm language, imperceivable but true, in the nearby. The gardens of our villa were planted with honeysuckle, foxglove, jasmine and other beautiful flowers I didn't know, that fragranced the air like paradise. A whole five days of adventure stood before me and I was at pure peace with the condition.
(I have now attached the picture at the top that shows the view from my balcony!)

Actually being at Machu Pichu was a dream! It was however a tourist attraction, until the evening of our first day. We were tipped off that we should do our best to reenter the park after it had closed and have it to ourselves. We three sneakies did just this and with excitement and fear we got past the gaurdhouse and into the ruins of Machu Picchu at sunset. We were in the windswept summits of an ancient village, alone and out of breath. We were ALIVE! Until Jorge whistled us out and wouldn't even accept our pardones and 10 sole bribe

And at last! Our night in Cusco, on our wind down back to home. We left our tourguide at the main square and with chill in the mountain air, we entered the court to the center fountain. We watched the full moon rise accenting the cathedral towers. We spoke to peddlars in Qechuan and bought more trinkets. Then we spied a family from our hike up Waynapichu the day before. A 70 year old Colombian, his son, daughter and daughters boyfriend. Our friends! We joined with them and spoke for a half hour, exchanging email and words in eachothers language. We kissed them goodbye and walked up the hill to the Monasterio, up the hill on Peru's streets, among Peruvians, with Spanish sounds and words around us and feelings of contentment and joy! Viva el Peru!