A good portion of my life has been spent playing the piano for everyone else's diva moments. Now it's my turn. I invite you to accompany ME through my life's diva and, well, not so diva-like moments. It'll be entertaining. Promise.
We took a much-needed couple of days out of town with the kids to the Children's Museum in Houston. It is FABULOUS!! We got to Houston early Monday afternoon, and made a quick stop at Marshalls after I realized I had left Shawn's swim trunks at home. What was supposed to be a quick stop ended up being a way to kill time as we waited for the thunderstorm (yes, those lucky suckers get rain 4 hours away in Houston) to quit, the power to come back on in the store, and the hotel to open for check-in. As always, Kaylee made the most of the time we had to kill....
and Aaron joined in the fun right along with her....
Shawn found the whole scene mildy amusing.....OK, maybe not.....
We got checked into the fancy, schmnansy 4 star hotel where they don't let you lift a finger to wipe the sweat of your forehead, and headed to the pool. It felt SO good - we loved it. Dinner was at the nearby mall, which, may I say, was quite a treat. It was a REAL mall, with a REAL food court, and layer upon layer of stores in so many levels you could (and we did) easily get lost in. The best part was an ice-skating rink right next to the food court. After dinner and walking and Aaron's diaper blowout (a whole nother story of which I will spare you all the gory details - suffice it to say I hadn't packed an extra outfit...) Kaylee and I dropped Aaron and Shawn back at the hotel and headed back to skate for a few hours. It was so fun! Kaylee did amazingly well for her first time skating and kept at it in spite of the falls. We spent Tuesday at the Children's Museum. I would HIGHLY recommend it if you have kids and are ever in the Houston area. We spent 6 hours there and easily could have spent 6 more. They have activitives for kids of all ages. It was so much fun to watch the kids having fun - that was Shawn and I's favorite part about the trip. Here are some highlights...
So, a few weeks ago I decided that I hadn't had enough of the Texas summer heat, and in order to get the full experience, I needed to spend some more time in the great outdoors....as in 5 brutally hot, national-weather-service-issuing-heat-advisories hot days AND nights in the good 'ol Texas countryside. The trip started out somewhat on the sleepy side after spending the day and night before putting together 20 foil dinner meals, shopping for food for 20 for the week (thankfully we only had to do 3 meals on our own), and tying up other odds and ends. Emphasis on the TYING part...here is our trusty YW Pres. the next morning after realizing the ropes to tie down the stuff to the trailer were somewhere packed INSIDE the stuff in the trailer...lucky for her (and us) she has some amazing connections in the friends department - thanks Tynan!
Off we went with our girls, gear, and camp flag in tow - doesn't it look great? (OK Jen - that made up for the ropes... :)
The heat in general was much more bearable than I thought it would be, thanks to a nice, hot breeze that was there pretty much the whole time we were, an air-conditioned lodge where we had most of the meals/classes, and a fabulous pool that had nice cool water. OK, so maybe I wasn't roughing it completely, but I would give props to anyone sleeping in a tent for a week in the middle of a Texas summer.
The girls had a blast. We had 8 girls go from our ward - Bonnie, the triplets (Adriana, Briana, Christiana), Jasmin, Heather, Aynsley, and Victoria. The stake kept them BUSY! As you can see, they loved singing....OK, Bonnie loved singing - the rest of them put up with it.
And then there was Lori who REALLY loved singing...
My bud and supply queen Sarah teachin her class...
Christiana waiting to find out her truth or dare...
the CC 1st ward babes...
some serious and dramatic business about to happen....the zip line!
Sis. Sagers makin jam with some of the gals
our campsite group - 1st ward and Sinton
scripture/devotional time
As sarcastic as I was in the beginning, I really did enjoy my time with these girls and leaders at camp - as always, girls camp is the best part of YW, and I'm so glad I got to go this year! Midnight pranks that will live on in the history of CC Stake forever (thanks to Jen), the best gosh-darn seminary movie EVER made (again thanks to Jen), being fed meals for 5 days that I DIDN'T MAKE or plan or cut up for kids (thanks to Beeville sisters), 8 wonderful YW and 4 more from Sinton who got along and helped the whole week, and more gut busting laughs and tears in one week than normally happen in one year made this week one to remember.
BTW, if you ever do make it up to Camp Karankawa, be sure to watch out for those nasty havalinas...
This post will be of special interest to you if you have a family where the husband is Bishop, the wife plays piano for everyone and their dog, and the kids are 7 and under.
An investigating couple who are being baptized this Sunday scheduled their wedding for tonight and asked Shawn to marry them. Sure, no problem. I met Amy on Sunday - really nice gal - asked if I could play piano for the wedding. Sure, no problem.
So off we go with kids in tow to the church tonight dressed in our Sunday best. We get to the church early so Shawn can get ready while I feed Aaron his dinner. Kaylee is watching all the picture taking and the pretty dresses. So far, so good. Time comes for me to start playing. Problem - do not recognize anyone to leave baby with besides Sis. Oliva who has her hands full trying to get all the photos taken. Where is Sister Brown when you need her? Seriously, I always have so much help with Aaron at church, it doesn't occur to me that perhaps I will not know anyone there (all non-member family members). Shawn takes Aaron and away I go. I play for 5 minutes or so and Kaylee comes wandering in by the piano with Aaron. Shawn follows after a few minutes and tells Kaylee to take Aaron to the nursery and play with him (I can smell trouble already). So out they go and Shawn disappears. Everything is smooth for another 5 minutes. Then the screaming starts. The groom is standing up at the front, they are about to start the processional (which we're not supposed to do anyway in the church but that's another story) and no sign of Shawn. I continue to faithfully plunk out Pachebels Canon in D, although as the screams continue it takes on a faster tempo. Up march the little girls, the bridesmaid, etc. and Shawn jumps in line just before the bride comes in. He gets them situated, gives me the nod to stop, and I walk as fast as I can around the hall and out the door to the lobby where my little girl sits holding on to her howling brother for dear life. She sees me - the face crumbles and the lips start to quiver. I send her into the wedding and take Aaron into the mothers room to try and calm him. I notice little white specks on his chin, but don't think much of it. He is calm after a few minutes and we head into the wedding where the couple got no postlude music, thank you very much.
Here's what happened WHILE I was playing. Aaron had gotten a piece of chalk in his mouth and when Shawn went out to check on them, he saw Aaron walking down the hall FOAMING AT THE MOUTH! He gets the chalk out, much to baby's distress - he was perfectly happy with the chalk - which produces the wail. All of this happened as the processional that wasn't supposed to happen was happening. Oh, and Kaylee wants me to tell you that Aaron bit her finger when she tried to get the chalk out.
So, what is the moral of this story, you ask? Well, it's simple. If you ever find yourself in the situation of the first and second paragraphs, you either say "no, sorry, I can't play if my husband is performing the ceremony because I need to watch the kids" (duh), or another acceptable alternative would be "sure, we can both help you as long as you make sure there is someone there we can trust to watch the kids" (preferably over the age of 12).
I know, I know, it seems like that's pretty much all I post about these days, but when they're as cute as this I just can't help myself. Check this out...
Kaylee can make him laugh longer and harder than Shawn or I - believe it or not he was laughing even harder before I found the camera - I LOVE IT!!
Aaron has this fascination with buckles and belts. He loves to manuever them around and try and figure out how they work. This is how we find him often around the house.
I am SLOWLY learning the ins and outs of blogging. After spending a good part of the day yesterday trying to change my template, I have lost my blogroll. After spending a good part of this morning remeding this, I am certain there are blogging buddies I have left off the current list who used to be a part of the previous list. If you are one of those buddies, please leave me a comment and let me know your address so I can add it to my list...sigh.
I am open to comments on how not to lose widget info when switching templates. I need to research this, but in the meantime if any of you blogger wizzes care to leave the info in non-blogger wizzes terminology, I would be very grateful. I am switching templates from outside sources because all the blogger ones are so boring, and html is a foreign language to me. Whenever I go to switch and copy and paste the new template in, it invariably says that one or more of my widgets are about to be deleted....WHHHHYYYYY????
and Aaron joined in the fun right along with her....
Shawn found the whole scene mildy amusing.....OK, maybe not.....
We got checked into the fancy, schmnansy 4 star hotel where they don't let you lift a finger to wipe the sweat of your forehead, and headed to the pool. It felt SO good - we loved it. Dinner was at the nearby mall, which, may I say, was quite a treat. It was a REAL mall, with a REAL food court, and layer upon layer of stores in so many levels you could (and we did) easily get lost in. The best part was an ice-skating rink right next to the food court. After dinner and walking and Aaron's diaper blowout (a whole nother story of which I will spare you all the gory details - suffice it to say I hadn't packed an extra outfit...) Kaylee and I dropped Aaron and Shawn back at the hotel and headed back to skate for a few hours. It was so fun! Kaylee did amazingly well for her first time skating and kept at it in spite of the falls. We spent Tuesday at the Children's Museum. I would HIGHLY recommend it if you have kids and are ever in the Houston area. We spent 6 hours there and easily could have spent 6 more. They have activitives for kids of all ages. It was so much fun to watch the kids having fun - that was Shawn and I's favorite part about the trip. Here are some highlights...
Off we went with our girls, gear, and camp flag in tow - doesn't it look great? (OK Jen - that made up for the ropes... :)
