A Rare Treat

It's that time of year again at Carousel Studios. All the kids are ramped with excitement about the end of the year recitals. Sunday was our biggest recital where all of our classes come together and play a series of duets. Everyone did a great job!! I'm so proud of the work they put into this music.

Tonight will be the biggest night for the seniors because it's their very last recital as a student of Mrs. Betty's. It's bittersweet. Watching all the kiddo's play takes me back to the time I was a student of Mrs. Betty's. She is hands down the best teacher of all time! She pushed me and challenged me in ways I never thought possible. She'd play a recording of a song for me and say "You're going to play this!" And I'd say "In your dreams!" But she always got her way. :)

One of the songs she was determined to get me to play was Chopin's Fantasy Impromtu. For those who don't know that song, it's roughly 12 pages of pure craziness! I seriously questioned whether or not Mrs. Betty was in her right mind when she gave this piece to me.

She knew what she was doing the whole time, though. In high school I was a huge performer. I played about 7+ recitals a semester. Something changed in the past couple of years and I have a hard time doing it now. My nerves get the best of me. So here's a rare treat:

This is my Sr. recital in 2005 playing Fantasy Impromtu by Chopin.

I wish I could say I can still play that piece. It was, hands down, the hardest piece I've ever played. It took about 8 months to learn and memorize. Since 2005 only one other student has managed to play that piece. Many have tried though.

I still get nervous when I watch it. I'm thinking "don't screw up, don't screw up." When I watch it I can hear all the little mistakes, and I'm critiquing my posture. Ugh. AND I apologize for not taking a bow at the end. That was really rude of my teenage self to do. But I should definitely be proud of the work I accomplished. Now that I've grown up more musically I should re-learn the piece and see what I can do.

Mrs. Betty is sad to be saying goodbye to the seniors she has now. They've been working hard on their pieces for several months and have made Mrs. Betty very proud. Good luck seniors!!!!

Don't worry...we're still alive.

Because I'm sure you were all worried about it. I apologize for the lack of posting. Our life suddenly became unboring and more overwhelming than usual. 2011 has been the strangest year OF....MY.....LIFE. I don't remember what I've posted on and I'm too lazy to go back and read so I'm going to start at the beginning of the year and go from there.

I know I already told you about my gum surgery (which my gums look normal now, Dr. White did a GREAT job.) Megan brought in the New Year with us while we played Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. Best game I've ever played.

Then we got the privilege to counsel Scotty's younger brother through a very strange life event. I wasn't going to say anything about it, but it's so bizarre I'm going to now. I'll just sum it up in one sentence....Scotty's brother is living with his wife, AND her boyfriend. It's okay if you have to read that a couple of times. It's hard to fathom at first, but yes, you read it correctly. ...One big happy family... We tried everything we could to help him out without actually telling him what to do. It got to the point that it wasn't just consuming his life, but ours as well. And he wasn't using ANY advice from anyone. He's told a lot of people about it and has gotten a lot of sympathy, but refuses to listen to anyone. So I told the kid "I can't help someone who won't help themselves." I've lost all sympathy/empathy for him and his situation. He could easily solve the situation (yes, it would be life changing, hard, scary, sad, depressing, etc.) but he just lives with it...and then complains. If it's that big of an issue, CHANGE IT!

So there's that.

Most recently, myself and Scotty have relocated. Again. We're now back with my parents. I'm not going to go into detail as to why we had to move to protect certain parties, but it sucks. I just hope the saying "time heals all wounds" is true. This past week has been filled with unpacking, repacking, organizing, and adjusting to living in smaller quarters. I'm NOT going to complain though because we've now managed to make it half way on our loans. Well actually, we're now LESS than half way. :) It wouldn't have been possible if we were living somewhere else.

Needless to say, I'm surprised Scotty and I aren't on medication. :/ Things have been a mess. But on top of that there are LOTS of praises to be had. My best friend Andrea got engaged at the end of last year. I've been fully engaged with wedding planning for her. Her date is set for November 19th.


Scotty has some coworkers who are getting hitched later this month and Scotty is performing the ceremony! He's pretty excited. I'm also going to play the piano for them. So I'm excited too. I'm considering going into the wedding business. Hmm?

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be making a road trip to Tennessee to participate in another wedding. My good friend and college roommate, Becca. It was a blessing to get to know her in college. Too bad she lives so far away. :(




THEN my brother also got engaged recently!

Her name is Katie. We love her. They are planning on getting married in August...of THIS YEAR! Eek! So I'm going to be doing even more wedding planning.

I see grey hair in my very near future.

We recently learned, also, that our best friend Megan is moving our way! She got a job in Springdale. I was selfishly praying that she would get it. I'm hoping she loves it SO much that she'll stay here forever. :)



This is the 3 of us at the Cinque Terre in Italy. Best vacation spot EVER. Our friend Shiloh was on that trip with us (she took the picture). We had so much fun!

I don't know what it is about the 3 of us, but when we get together we have some of the strangest life experiences. So who knows what's going to happen when she moves here! Most recently the 3 of us (and another good friend, Ted) did a half marathon in OKC. I can easily say that's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. We walked most of the way, but 13.1 miles is a lot...I don't care who ya are. Ted and Megan had a little more get-up in their step so they jogged ahead of us. But Scotty and I both had a "hitch in our getalong" so we hobbled across the finish line. Did I mention that the weather was rainy with a high of 40 degrees?? And rained the WHOLE time! As soon as we crossed the finish line it started hailing. I'm praising Jesus that we made it across before that. I probably would have thrown in the towel. Here's a video of Scotty and I crossing the finish line. Scotty's in a bright green shirt and I'm in a purple coat with my hood on. Oh heck...the 2 people who are hobbling across the finish line are us.

http://www2.brightroom.com/browser.aspx?eid=78992&bib=16850&pwd=

This has been a strange, busy, emotionally overwhelming year. And it's only May. I'm kind of praying Jesus comes back this year so we can go to Heaven. I'm ready! There's a lot to look forward to, though. Again, sorry for the lack of posts. I hope this can hold you over for a while. Have a blessed week!!