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.