Halloween's Past

I thought it would be ultra entertaining for you to see some of our Halloweens pasts. There are lots of old goodies in here. (I couldn't find many of Will's old costume pictures, but there is a goodie in here anyway...you'll see it).

The order of these picures are as random as this post is.

This lovely gem below is Will and I's first Halloween together. We actually won 1st prize for our costumes. We were just barely engaged at the time. We stuffed a pillow in my butt, socks in my bra, Will stuffed a pillow in his shirt...and we were stunning. Love my hot pink cheeks and lips?

This one is me, as a ballerina, with two of my brothers. Ninja hi-ya! And an Arabian Shiek.

This was me during my first year of college. I played in the symphony orchestra and every year they did a Halloween concert. The first year I was Miss America. Yes I made my own sash. The only thing I wish I would have done better was had bigger hair.

Yet another fab Halloween concert at school - the following year. My friend Mel and I borrowed costumes from the theater department in the 18th century era and just, well, felt pretty. My hoop skirt knocked over someone's music stand on stage because of how huge it was.

Okay here's the gem:

That was actually not Halloween, but Will and his roommy Nate running in the Portland Starlight Run, which requires costumes. He ran a 5k in CLOGGING SHOES. Yes, he was sore for about a week and now his clogging shoes are trashed. (he used to clog when he was in college. Oh oops sorry Will!! Was I not supposed to say that? :)

Below: This one below was when I was living in Provo. That's me and my totally fun awesome roommate Veronica, and uh, exboyfriend Chris (on the left, he was Icabod Crane). We were Renaissance Maidens. Oh oh oh!! And the costume that Veronica is wearing I actually sewed! Myself! Yep one of my only past sewing projects thank you very much.

Okay this fun one was a YSA Halloween dance in 2003. I had just met Will at this time but he was living in Portland, and I was up here in Seattle. So he's not in any of these photos. I was a gypsy. The easiest costume ever I might add. Big jewelry, and scarves.

Michelle you should get a good laugh out of these because here's your hubby as the hulk!

Okay next. Me as I was meant to be - an angel. Awwe. sigh. LOL kidding. But yeah, here's me at yet another Halloween symphony concert. This one was 2002.

And last but not least, this was us last year. I was a beauty school dropout, Will was my client, and Preston was a duck. Or a chicken. No, wait, he was a duck (Noelle, I still need to give you your costume back!)

What will the Thomas family be tonight???....Well, Preston's going to be an elephant. And as far as I know, we're just chillin' this Halloween :)

Happy Halloween! Don't eat too much candy or it'll rot your teeth out.

I'm Exercising a Constitutional Right.

So I'm not usually one to get into the heat of serious political debates or topics.

Which, is kind of funny in a way, since I grew up around a dinner table where my mother would discuss her views on the latest candidates, government policies, and political leaders. She is very smart about these types of subjects and always up to date on them. She has always followed the news closely and is always up on forwarding me any emails that I should pay attention to regarding anything political.

I of course delete them without even reading because I have never had very much tolerance for email forwards of the political nature. I just have no interest in it.

And my mom knows this because I tell her this (and apologize to her too.)

So yes, I readily admit, that even though I spent a year obtaining a paralegal degree, spent many hours in a law library studying my brains out and writing appelate briefs and aced the course...that I really have no interest in following much of the political news of today. Which also explains why I pursued my music over my brief (very brief) trial run in the legal field.

However, my mother will most likely be proud to read what I am about to write.

Lately, I have stumbled across a topic that has actually effected me. It has stirred emotions within me that include surprise, anger, worry, defense. And the whole reason I am writing about it here on our blog, which is public, is to excersize my right that is at the very heart of the issue itself: Freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard people here and there bring up a certain talk by an apostle of our church, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, that was given at a BYU-Idaho devotional on October 13th to an audience of BYU-I students and faculty. You can read the transcription of the address here.

I have heard that the talk created a great amount of media buzz, much of it in a negative nature from the usual liberal media sources (which is practically 99% of our media in this nation). Normally I would say "Oh really, how interesting" and forget about it. But the fact that it has been coming up in MANY conversations lately really sparked my interest.

So this morning I went and read the talk (thank you Will for finding it and forwarding it to me).

The bravery that Elder Oaks took on to even give that talk impresses me so greatly, and the powerful words he gave still are ringing in my ears.

When I was in college, I had the fun opportunity to be in the pit orchestra for a stage musical that the theater department put on. It was a play called "1776". As you can guess by the title, it was all about the formation of the Declaration of Independence and how our country came to be. It went through detailed scenes, conversations, struggles and trials of our forefathers (particularly from the point of view of John Adams) when they were striving to gain freedom from England and establish this country. I was always deeply effected by the play (and the movie version) to see these acts and it made me feel so proud to be born into this country.

It is sad and eye-opening for me, to see "cracks" in the very foundation that this country was built upon happening right now before our eyes. It is our responsibility to protect that foundation. It is our right as citizens of this country to talk about it and defend that foundation.

Just last night, Will and I were sitting on the couch talking, and it came up between both of us how we have been so shocked lately (meaning the past few years) about how much it is okay for "minority groups" to speak their minds and insult the majority, but if the "majority groups" speak their mind and defend themselves, they are considered to be infringing on civil rights.

I think it would be safe to say that the majority of the people in the United States practice some sort of religion and have a belief in God. No matter what shape or form that type of religion takes. I remember when the attacks of 911 happened and all of a sudden, when people across our nation were terrified and saddened, there was a huge rise in church attendance, prayer (even in school squares). They even came out with some studies that showed that there was (I can't remember the exact number) but above 90% of the people of this country believed in a God.

So how is it, that the majority of the citizens of the United States who believe in God and practice religion are somehow the unpopular ones when they defend their given and fought for rights of religion freedom if they speak up on subjects that attack the very core of their beliefs?

Elder Oaks talked about the whole thing that happened with Prop 8. I like what he said. "The marriage union of a man and a woman has been the teaching of the Judeo-Christian scriptures and the core legal definition and practice of marriage in Western culture for thousands of years. Those who seek to change the foundation of marriage should not be allowed to pretend that those who defend the ancient order are trampling on civil rights."

Just because we choose to defend a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years does not mean we are fighting against civil rights. It's not about civil rights. It's about defending your religious freedoms and beliefs.

The other day, I was doing a bit of marketing research for my lullaby album, as I have been trying to get some of the major "Mommy Bloggers" out there to feature my album on their blogs and do giveaways, etc. since that is my niche audience. On my own small 'mommy blog' I asked for my readers to let me know who some of their favorite professional major mommy bloggers were. There was one that kept coming up as a suggestion, and so I checked out the blog. This blogger had hundreds of thousands of followers - which got me excited to contact her about promotions/advertising because the possible exposure for my album could be huge. But the more I read her blog, about her, I soon discovered that a good portion of her blog was dedicated to ripping my church. I read some, well, some very crass remarks about my church and my beliefs and whatnot. Of course it was offensive to me. Obviously I decided that she was not someone I even wanted to contact about marketing, despite how many followers she had. I could not support that in the least. The sad part for me even beyond that, was to see with each post that the wrote negative and hateful things about my dear religion, she had hundreds and hundreds of comments from people commending her for speaking her mind.

I am not saying that she should not speak her mind. I totally respect her freedom of speech to do that. The part that really gets me, is that if I were to leave a comment on her blog in my own defense of my religion, the backlash towards me (or anyone else doing the same thing) would be monumental and I would most likely be accused of violating her rights or whatever else they could jive up.

There is just something wrong with that picture.

Why is it okay for someone to say something bad towards a group of people, but if that group of people speak up to defend themselves they are the ones in the wrong? Why is it when Christians speak up and defend marriage, that they are accused of violating civil rights? It does not make sense to me.

So it is, with this blog, that I am practicing my own freedom of speech. I am publicy stating my support of the talk that was given by Elder Oaks. If he has come under media scrutiny for it, for standing up for things that any good person in this country SHOULD stand up for, then I'm right behind him. I'm not going to be a coward. These are my rights as a citizen of this country, so there.

The good people in this country should not have to come under retaliation for standing up for what is good.

11/1/09 Post Edit:

After reading a few of the comments, I need to clarify something here. This post was not about my opinion of alternative lifestyles. It is not about whether or not that people who have alternative lifestyles are good people or not. I have family members in fact (a brother), who practice an alternative lifestyle and I still love them and think they are good people. In fact, the blog was not about alternative lifestyles at all. If you notice above when I mentioned Prop 8, I specifically said "Just because we choose to defend a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years does not mean we are fighting against civil rights. It's not about civil rights. It's about defending your religious freedoms and beliefs. "

The heart of this post was about people in this country who are not able to exercise freedom of speech or practice freedom of religion or defend their right to do so without backlash. It was about the fact that the very foundation that this country was built upon has come under attack. And it was about the fact that sometimes being a good Christian is sometimes not popular or cool.

Weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's

My parents live about an hour and a half northwest of us. It's not exactly a short trip, but not like Utah or anything like that either.

To make it worth our while, we sometimes just go up for the entire weekend.

It's a great trade-off, because my parents get to see their only local grandchild, while we get to have free babysitters so that we can actually go out on a date night.

{Friday Night Date Night}

consisted of: spending an hour discussing what we wanted to do, not agreeing on it, and then agreeing, then changing our minds and then coming back the first idea that we had from the very beginning: Quizno Subs and a movie.

Plus Halloween snack size candy bars that we loaded into my coat pockets and snuck into the movie "The Invention of Lying".

It was loads of fun.

The best part was reminiscing about our very first date, which was almost 6 years ago to the day. We remembered how lucky we were to find each other and how all of the events leading up to our meeting were in the hands of God and timed down to the minutes in some circumstances.

Do you want to know about our very first phone conversation ever?

Will called my parents'phone (I was living with my parents at the time as I had just moved home from Utah). Expecting the phonecall from Will, I jumped up and ran down the hallway, in my socks on a slippery wood floor, to answer the phone.

Will remembers me coming to the phone laughing and the first thing I said to him, the very first time he EVER heard my voice, was me saying, "(laughing) Did you hear that??! (laughing some more)". Will: "No...what?" Me: "I totally just slipped and fell on my rear as I was turning a corner at highspeeds, in my socks, on our wooden floor to answer the phone."

And thus began a beautiful relationship.

Anyway.

Saturday, we went to the beach.

I grew up on Camano Island, and only recently have they added the most delightful state park. Well, they already had a state park, but this one is super duper better.

They have....duh duh duh....CABINS. For super affordable rentals too. With fun activites, crafts, boats to rent, library, games, you name it.

So went and checked it all out.

Preston's new winter jacket seems to a little long in the arms, a little short in the waist, and takes a mom and a grandma to put him in it.

Okay seriously the most embarrassing part of the day, was when Preston and I decided to go swing on the swings.

I was swinging, he was on my lap.

Little did I know how impossible it was to hang onto the swing with one hand while using my other hand to scoot Preston up higher onto my lap.

Yep, just like a clumsy kid on the playground, we fell backwards out of the swing. I hit my noggin, Preston got a little bonk to his head as well. He cried. I wanted to.

Our rescuer was a kind little 11 year old boy who, with huge wide eyes said,"Are you guys okay??! WHOA! I just did that last week on the same swing, only I did 2 flips and then fell on my head".

Dude.

Anyone up for an inexpensive beach vacation, meet us at the Cama Beach State Park sometime. We'd love to. Thanks for asking.

Another new blog below for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of Preston.

A Preston Post

More blogging to come. Promise.

Dear Blog,

Oh how I miss thee and long to write a post. Hopefully soon we shall reunite and fill you in on what our little family has been up to.

Until then,
Me

The Maestro Refuses to Play.

Early yesterday afternoon, Sir Preston was sitting so cutely upon the piano bench, tinkling away at the ivories so excitedly...

When I thought to grab my camera so that I could capture his absolute cuteness forever.

And this is what I got instead:

That is "the face".

It is Preston's trademark weird mouthy thing that he does. It makes him so incredibly, um, him.

Upon further coaxing from his nagging mother to smile and look at the camera, he did this:

I just heard you go "Awwwwe".

Don't let that cuteness fool you. He wasn't actually sad in that photo. (although he may have been sad about the stye on his eye).

He. Just. Wanted. DOWN.

The End.

Pumpkin Patch!

Preston went to his very first pumpkin patch yesterday. And so did I actually. I'm embarrassed to say that it was my first pumpkin patch experience too. I've done hayrides, corn mazes, haunted houses....but no pumpkin patches.

We went with our sidekicks - Camden and his mom, Erika. :)

Preston was very interested in all of the "balls".

And of course, he had to collect some rocks as well.

It was a lot of fun!

How I Find Balance

Maybe I should have called this post "How I attempt to Find Balance".

I am not perfect at this, but I am trying.

A conversation with Will last night, a recent comment from a friend, and several LDS General Conference talks have had me thinking about this for the past few days.

How do I balance my life?

Oh how I struggle with this. And yet, I seem to somehow pull it off to the outside world that I have it all together - being a professional musician, recording artist, music teacher, wife, and mom of a young child.

To have recorded and produced a new album during a year of my life when most moms are barely operating in survival mode.

News Flash: I was in survival mode.

To find the time and motivation to dedicate to losing the weight that I gained during pregnancy instead of putting it off for years.

Enlightenment: It was not easy. By any means. And it's still a struggle. I'm still working on this.

To have a healthy and loving relationship with my spouse of almost 5 years through the adjustment of becoming a new parent, through sleepless nights, exhaustion, and not always agreeing on similar parenting techniques.

Reality: It was not all roses, and we have learned a lot about each other and continue to work at our relationship every day.

Last night, Will and I sat down to do our weekly schedule, and ended up sitting on the couch for 2 and 1/2 hours just talking about a great variety of things. Running, Lost toenails, Twisted ankles, Jobs, Dream pianos, Preston, Buying a home someday, The real estate market, My parents, Our siblings, How to raise kids, How many more we wanted, When the timing would work out for us, My music career, What did I want to accomplish with it in the next year.

And more. Much more.

Will and I - we both want so much out of life.

There is so much ambition, and passion for our hobbies. And we fully support each other. I attend his races and cheer him on, and he attends my concerts and helps me produce my albums.

There was a talk a couple years ago by one of the General Authorities of our Church, where he said that for years his wife had a designated night of the week where she left the kids at home with him while she went off to participate in the community choir. It was her night and her time to shine and develop her talents. He wanted that for her, and wanted her to remember that she could still develop herself and the person that she was.

While I had most of my 20's to be single and "play", if you will, I did not find my place in music until I met Will.

I am so lucky to have met him and married him. I'm so glad he picked me.

I spent my early to mid 20's emerged in the world of Classical music at college and afterwards, performing with symphonies on concertos, practicing sometimes up to 8 hours a day on the piano. But I didn't actually start to compose my own songs until shortly before meeting Will, and then it completely blossomed from there.

As of now, I feel that I am finally in a place where I have truly found my inner musical destiny. It only took me about 30 years to find it. So in a sense, even though I have been doing music my entire life, I only feel like I've been on my true journey of where I belong for the past 5 years. It is just beginning.

The question was brought up last night, "You have to stop and think though, in 20 years from now, will we regret certain decisions we are making right now? In the grand scheme of things, certain things that matter now - will they matter in the future?"

This is where my thoughts have been lately.

Am I balancing my life properly?

Are my goals and priorities in order?

Let me just say first of all, that I think that women are strong. We have so much ability and talent, and often times we give up certain things and sacrifice a lot to be a good mother and wife.

My mom did this for us. She put her music aside while my 3 brothers and I were young children.

I often think that if I were a man, I could actually do my music career full time. I actually could pursue trying to get signed with a record label that would expect me to perform 250 times a year. I wouldn't have to take breaks in my career because of pregnancy and babies. I would have more time to practice as well, and compose - because it would be my job. I could compose all day long if I wanted - and treat it like a 40 hour work week.

Most of my music collegues are men, and they do compose 8 - 12 hours a day. They produce probably 50 times the amount of music that I do.

I often get asked by them, "Jen, why aren't you with a distributor", or "Why aren't you concertizing more?" or "It's time for you to get an agent, why you don't have one already is beyond me."

And after such questions, often, I explain that I also have to balance a home life. I am a wife. I am a mother now too. A record label would expect me to perform more than I can. An agent would want to book me too much.

"Can't you do both?" they then ask.

One such collegue suggested that in order to get some composing done, I simply lock myself in a room with headphones and a keyboard.

*This is where all mothers reading this laugh out loud and shake their heads.*

In my opinion, I am doing "both". I am accomplishing my passion in music and I'm also a wife and mother. Maybe not in the same sense that they are, but for me I'm doing the best I can to balance it all.

And over the last year and a half, as I've adjusted to new motherhood, a blossoming music career, a busy studio with many students that I teach on a weekly basis...though it's been trial and error and I'm continually trying to figure out how to "do it all" and not burn out - I think I have figured a few things out.

And I'll share these.

1. Manage Your Time the Best You Can. It was not easy when Preston was little and had cholic, and wouldn't sleep very well. I survived on very little sleep. For the first year, I did not wake at a very early hour because I was just trying to make up for the lost sleep during the night. And I did not feel guilty for this. But I would take advantage of naptimes to get things done. I also tried to combine things - such as taking Preston for lots of walks in the stroller. That time was golden for me. I was able to brainstorm, compose in my head, and also get some exercise. Now that Preston is a wonderful sleeper, I get up earlier and hit the gym.

2. Schedule Your Weeks in Advance. This way you have no room to complain that you didn't get to do something you wanted to. Will and I started doing this after we realized that our lives seemed chaotic and we just felt like we were "flying by the seat of our pants" all of the time. By scheduling our weeks, not only do we know what the other person has on the calendar that week, but we also try to schedule "fun time" in there - otherwise it won't happen sometimes. Such as date nights, family outings, Will's basketball nights with the guys, my music nights in my studio, etc.

3. Turn Off the TV. We actually don't have TV in our home. Yes, duh, we have a TV. Two in fact. But we aren't hooked up to any sort of cable or local stations. We cannot get a single channel even if we wanted to. This was done on purpose, and we have not had TV in our home for the past 4 years almost. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you are not side-tracked by TV. I know because during times past when we have had TV in our home, I have gotten addicted to certain shows, wasted hours by mindlessly surfing and watching shows when I could have been doing something else. It is a complete waste of your time and your ability, not to mention your intelligence. We do Netflix though. So we select movies we want to watch. And if there are shows that we absolutely are dying to watch, we watch them online with no commericals. Saves a lot of time and we can watch them at our convenience. Not to mention watching a show while sitting at a desk in a computer chair is not that comfortable, so it makes it easy to turn it off when you're done so you don't have to sit there any longer.

4. Just Do It. I don't know how else to say this other than if you want to accomplish something, just do it. Find a way to make it happen and do it. The only person stopping you is yourself - either because of fear, doubt, or what not. Be a DO-er. Accomplish your dreams, don't just think about them. Even financial excuses don't fly in my book. Believe me, I started my music studio out with a computer, an audio cable, and a digital keyboard. Pretty meager. And it worked.

5. Family Comes First. I know this isn't always easy when you're in the thick of a project and you are heavily in a mode of concentration. But your project will wait. This is something I've had to learn. I used to set these deadlines for myself - I had to get a project done by a certain date. And I would beat myself up trying to meet that deadline, sacrficing my family in the process. The reality is, nobody set that deadline for me but myself. I would think "Yeah, but I promised my fans that I would have it done by a certain date." The truth is, they don't care. People will wait. The world can be patient for your project, and when it does get done and emerges it will be all for the better.

6. Be Disciplined. To be honest, I don't goof off with my time too much. Yes there are days when I stay in my pajamas most of the day, or when I spend a little too much time on Facebook or writing emails. I do schedule fun time and enjoy it. But for the most part, I work. And I work hard. Will seems to think that all this music stuff that I do is "play". When he goes off on all these trail running adventures, I often tease him that I now need some "me time" as a trade since he got to have some time for himself. He then often says "Yeah but you do your music". I have to remind him that spending 6 hours through the middle of the night working in my studio is not what I consider "playing" or "me time". It is work. Yes, work that I thoroughly enjoy, but no less, work. I spend a lot of time marketing my music as well, sending cds to promotors, radio stations, emailing, doing paperwork for licensing and royalties, corresponding with other artists, keeping up my website, blogs, etc. Through all of my hard work over the past 5 years, I am proud to say that my music career is self sustaining and it pays for itself. I have no debt, I do not borrow money from our family funds either. I work hard at my music career.

7. Put God First. I know above I said to put family first, and I do mean that. But I have found that you also need to put God first as well. There was one day a few weeks ago, when I was feeling particularly stressed and like I had too many things on my plate. How was I to do them all? I took Preston for a walk in the stroller, and I prayed out loud. I just poured my heart out to Heavenly Father and told him why I was stressed out. I actually went down the list and named everything one by one. And then, in the midst of that list, I stopped because I had the amazing impression overcome me. It was "If you put God first, He will take care of the rest." I got it. I understood it and believed it and said "Okay. Thank you for that." How nice it is to know that instead of having to worry about 20 different things, that you really only need to worry about one thing and God will take care of the other 19.

Women, you are amazing. You are gifted, beautiful, and talented. You can fulfill your dreams. You can be a wife and a mother and still be yourself too. It's all about finding balance and harmony. I still workon this daily, but I can tell you that balance is found in finding out what is most important to you in your life, prioritizing those things, and "cutting the fat" with the rest that doesn't matter.

You are amazing.

You can accomplish your dreams.

You are worth it.

A Year Ago...

Today I finally saw some of the green leaves turning a slight shade of orange, and it brought me back to a year ago when we took these family photos with the beautiful fall leaves...

I can't believe how time has flown, how little Preston was and how big he is now. And wow, how short my hair was.

Preston was 5 months old in these shots.

This was him yesterday throwing rocks in the driveway. He is 15 1/2 months now.

Speaking of naps, it's about that time for him. Ciao!