New Car

Being a one car family has been fun for the past few weeks, but we are so over it.

Please welcome the newest addition to our family - a 2008 Kia Spectra.

We have been watching Craigslist daily for the past few weeks for a replacement on our old Kia that died.  We have looked at so many different cars and wasted oh so much gas money and time doing so.  But we finally found one yesterday - albiet I had to drive all the way down to Portland to look at it and buy it.

Since we have a crazy life right now with buying a new house, Will's ultra busy job, and more - the responsibility was mine to go to Portland.  Haggling over a car was something I would have normally preferred Will to do, but I had to brave and put my game face on and do this.

My best friend Erika and her 2 boys (who are the same age as our 2 boys) came with us, so that if in the event we did buy the car, I would be able to drive it back.

After many stops for potty breaks, food, crying babies and more, we finally made it to Portland.

Test drove the car, checked out every nook and cranny, talked with seller, let Will talk to him on the phone and haggle price, then I had to haggle some more and we finally got the price we wanted.

The funny thing about all of this is that the seller turned out to be LDS, and Erika found out he was her uncle's brother. Small world.

The boys and I drove the new car home and arrived in the driveway around 1:30 a.m.

We are tired, but we have a new car. Yay!

Concert Weekend Report

Well hello there and welcome to my concert weekend report~!  As you can see from the photo above, I am quite comfy in my PJs, and we are enjoying a very lazy Sunday watching General Conference, eating french toast, and messing up the house.

So Friday night's concert was at our home.  I put a private invite out to people in our ward and a few other friends, and we got about 20 people there. It was great because that was really all we had room for.

We were too busy to snap any photos during the concert, so these are actually from after everyone went home.  This next one is my view from the piano.

I got flowers from a couple of our guests - so sweet!

I played 3 songs, and then I had my mom come up and play 2 songs from her upcoming Christmas album.  She did great, and then I played another 3 songs. I really used the home concert as a practice run-through for Saturday night's concert.

People stayed afterwards and mingled, ate desserts, bought cds, etc.  It was a great night. I love hosting parties and stuff, so really it was just an excuse to do that :)

So Saturday was a bit crazy.  I honestly don't know how much more we can cram into our lives right now - with being right in the middle of buying a house and trying to get all the paperwork submitted by certain deadlines, also trying to look for a 2nd car (and only able to do so on the weekends when Will is available), and these concerts as well.  We had spent the entire day (got up early with the kids even) in Tacoma looking at a vehicle that we were considering buying, and turns out we decided to not get it. We barely got back to the island in time to drop the boys off at Grandma and Grandpa's house before turning around and heading back down to Seattle for my concert that night.

I was quite nervous for the concert on Saturday since it was being broadcast online and they usually get several hundred listeners.  But in house, there were only about 25 seats.  The other pianist that I was performing with that evening (Brad Jacobsen), and I were sitting in the back chatting about how incredibly nervous we get before performing.  We both talked about how we've blanked out, completely forgotten music or even doubted our abilities to play the piano at all, etc.

All that psyching out before performing didn't really relieve the nerves, but I think we both ended up doing a really great job.  I did make quite a few mistakes, mostly because a couple of the songs I played last night were very technically difficult. But overall I think it went well. I received a lot of compliments and people seemed to respond to my music quite well.  Will told me that each time I would go up to perform, people would sit up in their seats more, lean over to see my hands play and just really intently listen.  Will also told me that whereas the other pianists were really nice to listen to, I was also really fun to watch.  "You give people a performance" is what he said.  Will always gives me the best feedback after my concerts and I love him for that. He is not only my muse, but my eyes and ears. I don't know what I would do without him.

This is my piano student and her mom.  I have taught her for a little over 2 years, and over the last 9 months we had been doing lessons over Skype since we had moved so far away.  The Skype lessons were getting difficult though for each of us and so we are temporarily postponing lessons until we move into our new house early next year.

On the left is Brad, on the right is Joe - it was his home where the concert was and he does these broadcasts and puts on the concert series.

I am so used to playing on my piano at home, that it took a lot of adjusting to perform on Joe's piano last night. His piano has a heavier action and the upper register took a lot of pounding to get it to stand out more.  Probably another reason why I didn't feel I was playing my best, but nevertheless, still a beautiful lovely piano.

I usually watch Joe's other concerts that he broadcasts, and I always wonder who is in the audience. So I took some photos of the audience last night.  They thought it was great to be a part of the concert.

Here is me performing.

I had one gentleman ask me if I would teach him piano lessons - after he saw that one of my students was in attendance. I had to explain that I'm not currently taking any new students though.  I also had 2 fans drive all the way over from eastern WA for the concert.  That was very flattering. And Will mentioned to me that as he looked around the room, he noticed that aside from my student and her mom, most of the people who were there for me were fans.  The fact that they weren't family or friends was a big deal! Not that I wouldn't love that too, but 5 years ago I probably only would have filled the seats with family/friends. It's nice to see my music out there and being loved and recognized by more and more people.

Last of all, if you missed last night's concert and would like to watch it, you can do so here:  http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17629101

I don't have any more formal concerts lined up for a while.  It was really great to practice and get songs back into my repertoire again.  It was a great weekend - but so glad it's overwith!

Live in Concert

I have 2 concerts this weekend. The first is tonight at our home and I've invited about 22 guests.  It's sort of a warm up show to get my nerves out before Saturday night's concert in Seattle.

I just wanted to let anyone know that if you want, you can watch my Saturday night concert LIVE online on uStream at 7pm Pacific.

Here is the link:
http://www.pianohavenlive.com/

Saturday, Oct 1st. 7pm PST

Jewelry Box

There are many things I love in life, and one of them is jewelry.

Why my husband is only just now catching on to that little fact this year, I don't know.  I keep telling him, babe, listen.  What do I want for Christmas? Smelly stuff, chocolate, a Fazioli piano, or jewelry. I'm easy like that.

I finally organized my jewelry yesterday.  I have too many items to fit into my jewelry box anymore, so I now use the box that our wedding silverware came in.  Creative? Yes.  Functional?  Mostly.  

Any kleptomaniacs out there, don't get any brilliant ideas here.  You will be sorely disappointed.  While I might love jewelry, I never said I was a lover of fine jewelry.  Most of these items are bargain shopped.  The only high priced item I own is my wedding ring - which is on my finger and I never take it off.  Partly because I decided after Taylor was born I was going to get it on my finger gosh darnitt, and it's been there ever since because apparently I still haven't lost enough weight to take it off without buttering up my finger, but also because I don't want to take it off :).

Two sentimental pieces though are my princess earrings from Will - can you spot them?  And my pearl necklace that my Grandma gave me when I turned 21 (it was her's) - it is a vintage piece from the 1940's (upper right hand corner).

P.S. I have a stash of jewelry that I'm willing to donate to the first niece that wants them.  It is random necklaces, earrings, etc that I no longer want or use. I will package them up all pretty like and mail them. Let me know.

Caterpillar

There once was a caterpillar named, uh, "Caterpillar"...

He lived in a jar, not very far

from Preston's bed shaped like a car.

Then one day, Preston said "Hey!"

As he looked at his caterpillar gone brown.

I said "He's not dead, he's just sitting down with a big frown, so settle down."

But really, the caterpillar was toast,

too many days in a jar to roast,

with a 3 year old showing him to everyone to boast.

Goodbye caterpillar, it was fun.

While you were in a jar out of the sun,

Kept, admired, and loved by our little Preston.