This week has been a really good one. It culminated last night with me in tears of gratitude for getting this experience to live here. I know, I know! Tears of gratitude.

First off, I found my cell phone! It was in Brett's car on the side of the passenger seat. Who would ever look there?!

It's 75 here today. Seriously the most beautiful day. I used to hate when people from California would say that and now I'm doing it. I won't do it again, because I am sure I'll miss the snow really soon. Christmas morning, I'm sure I will. Just not yet.

The choir concert made me so happy. Maddie and Ali and their guy friends did a great job. I got to arrange both songs and play for them. I didn't really want to walk up and actually play for them, but writing out the music for someone else to play would have been worse! Maddie and Scott flirted it up on "Baby It's Cold Outside" to cheers and whistles from the audience. So fun.

Maddie and Scott after the concert.

Most hyper boy on the planet, Austin, and the Walters siblings. Jacob has been so fun for the girls to get to know.

We went to the Farmer's Market on Sat. and bought lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and best part, 3 bakery items from my favorite baker. She calls herself "A Bountiful Bakery" which is so fitting for us. Every time I go, she has new, delightful, mouthwatering desserts. I love it! This has become a Saturday morning ritual for us.

Christmas cards are almost done. A movie with Brett on Saturday. We decided that Saturdays between 5-8 is our weekly date night. This way, Maddie and Ali still get weekend nights to hang out with friends. Since they are still trying to get into the social scene here, and since they work so hard in school during the week, I don't want to take a weekend night away from them to babysit. So, this solves all. I love coming home at 8 anyway and putting on my jammies or sweats and curling up to a movie in bed.

Both the R.S. wreath making party and the Christmas dinner went well. I can now take a small breath and spend this week being a little elf, making toys (or buying stuff) before Spencer gets home and the kids get out of school on Friday.

Last night was a stake musical event. That's all I knew. I offered to help a friend with refreshments so I was there. I was so not prepared for this program. I could not believe the talented people performing. We had an orchestra play a Bach piece and it was amazing. I learned later that many of them are in the LA Philharmonic. Then, Manhattan Transfer type groups, bagpipes, french horn, jazz trumpet numbers, and my personal favorite, a live band playing about 4 numbers. What made it even better was this live band was so incredibly good. The guitarist is a professional guitarist in my ward and the piano guy looked exactly like Snape from Harry Potter. Think British rock guy and transport him to an LDS stake center and it was great. (Yes it was at a Stake Center, but the band was super acoustic and Christmas with light percussion, not full on drums. A stand up bass instead of an electric bass. Maddie's friend also played guitar with them and he told Maddie that the piano guy has played for Michael Jackson. Love it!

Even though I had enjoyed the entire night, the tears came when the Korean branch stood up and sang 3 Christmas songs in Korean. They sounded so beautiful. There were some white, probably returned missionaries, mixed in there singing too and they were accompanied by a 12-14 year-old boy. For some reason, this really touched me. Hearing these Korean people sing out in another language, but the same songs about Jesus Christ at Christmas. I started crying.

I realized that we can never see into the future. We have to trust that Heavenly Father CAN and that He DOES lead our lives! Why do I have to learn that lesson over and over? I know it, but sometimes I don't KNOW it. I am now realizing that all I am doing here is meeting more people I can learn from, enjoy and love. There are so many good people, good things in every place. One is not better than another, just different. I'm so grateful for this experience! I am just starting to really see all that it is and can be. I'm so grateful to Brett for being so patient with me and with our girls. He's just let us figure it out and struggle sometimes, but always staying positive and reminding us that we need to have faith. Faith=Good. Fear=Bad. Looking for the Positive=Good. Looking at Negative=Bad. Simple right? Ok then.

A troubled child

This post of Maddie's made me laugh.

A troubled child

She's so easily entertained



Just putting her two best friends down for a nap, elmo and the baby that she can barely carry.


Kate comes stumbling down the hall with her drink in one hand, baby in the other. nice.

Day 3

You know how on day one of your lost iphone, you're kind of busy and it is annoying, but you just keep going, knowing it is some00wh0ere 0clos0e by0? 00(0Kat0e i0s helping me type for a minute.)

You know how on day two of lost iphone, you are still busy and you look a bit and still can't find it? Then worry starts to creep in, but you still know it is probably under a seat or in a jacket pocket?

You know how on day three of lost iphone, you start to completely panic and look high and low and when you still don't find it, you wonder if perhaps, you actually LOST AN EXPENSIVE IPHONE??!!!

Well, it's Day 3.

The Times They Are A Changin'

I tackled the Fabric Mart with Lauren

3 things I have/had yet to do here.

1-Flower Market in downtown L.A. I am still scared a bit of finding my way around and knowing where to park, etc. You have to go at 6 a.m. when all of the florists go to get their flowers for their shops. I will do this, but wait to go with someone in the know. Great prices, freshest flowers. I just want to do it.

I have these flowers right outside my kitchen window. They didn't bloom until this month.

2-The California Market Center or the Clothing Mart.

The sample sale is held the last Friday of every month. This is apparently really fun, a little crazy, and also in downtown L.A. Basically, buyers come and see samples of everything, and decide what to carry in their stores. The samples are then sold really really cheap. The women in this ward and town know all about the sample sale. Women come back with 5 dollar boutique jackets, or a 5 dollar sweater that they later see at Anthropologie. The problem is, there is no way I can go with Kate yet, because there are stairs and people, people and stairs. I will have to wait on this a while.

3- Fabric Mart in the L.A. Fashion District-Done. Check. This is basically a few street blocks full of fabric and notions everywhere. I am in charge of the Relief Society Christmas Dinner in a few days. We had forest green tablecloths, eeh, and so the R.S. Pres, who is an interior designer, just said nonchalantly, "Why don't you just go to the fabric mart in L.A. (I think that's what it's called) and pick up some fabric for $2 a yard and make a Christmas fabric square for the 8 table tops." I decided, why not? Why wouldn't I go do that? So, today Lauren and I did it. Lauren was happy, because she thought she was in Mexico, which is her 2nd home..

After the fabric stop, I successfully got us to Santa Monica so she could shop at H&M on 3rd street. I only heard one street performer and as we came on the street, I could hear his harmonica. "So Dylanesque.." I thought to myself only to find as we got closer that he was singing The Times They are a Changin' by none other than Bob Dylan. He was good. We ate at a little deli and had a nice conversation with a gentleman wondering if Kate in her flowered ruffled shirt was a girl or a boy. Finally, gelato at my favorite gelato place in the world. Every kind of gelato imaginable.

My iphone was dead, so I didn't even have my much valued GPS. I made it anyway! Lauren has absolutely NO confidence in me or my ability to get us ANYWHERE, so she was worried the whole time that a-she wouldn't make her flight and b-that I would get lost. Wrongo Miss Lauren. Who got you to LAX on time, with no GPS, from a different way never driven before? Hmm? When the woman on 3rd street said, "Well, you can take Lincoln or just grab the 405," did I know where either of those were? No! But some people don't PANIC, do they? :)

I was so grateful to her for coming! It is so natural having her in our home, even our California home. All is well when Lauren is around.

I am missing Syd big time. At the tender age of 9, she is now on that 3-day/2-night field trip I was telling you about. She is in a cabin with adults as chaperones who she does not know. Not one of them. She is staying with girls she likes a lot, but has never played with outside of school. She is a worrier. Example: Lauren said that Syd put about 10 sticky notes around the house to remind Lauren that she had to take ibuprofin for her field trip the next day. When I dropped her off, our lunch wasn't labeled and I had to talk her off the ledge before she saw that I could actually borrow someone's pen and label it. See Syd? It's ok. We're all good.

If she comes home happy, we are celebrating in a big way. Huge triumph for Sydney! I'm missing her though, how she helps with Kate, and how she is my little companion. She's still my youngest in many ways. Love her.

To close: This is Baby Kate. Baby Kate is fascinated with Gus. She pats his belly and honks his nose and touches his hat as she says "hat!" Every day ritual to say hi to Gus. Here she is on the counter insisting on the belly pat. She then tries to pat my belly which elicits a huge, "HEY!!" from mom. This makes Baby Kate laugh. Her laugh makes mom laugh. Then I kiss her belly. More laughs all around. Gus doesn't laugh though, he just smiles.

ART

Rainy Sunday Night

A weekend away with Brett. Lauren was home with the little ones here in California. Kate didn't miss us for a minute. I knew it would be so. I still get two days to play with Lauren before we send her back to Utah. It was our 3rd year to the National Finals Rodeo with good friends. We had adjoining suites with living rooms to gather in and chat. Those moments make life sweeter.

Topics of conversation this weekend: how to kill various farm animals for food, ancient sheep castration methods, Hilton vs. Marriott, women in wranglers, massage chairs, sushi vs. Indian food, various methods of working out, anemia, each child and their eternal progression, back wounds and non super model status, piano improvisation skills, foozball techniques, how to make a horse buck, energy meridians, bicycle trips across France, stevia, and Christmas gifts.

Things discovered: When you turn on your seat warmer and also turn the heat to 90 and have it come out at your feet in the car, it is soooooo nice. It feels like your feet are next to a roaring fire at the same time as having your back turned towards the fire. Now, that is impossible, obviously, because if your back were getting warmed by the fire, your feet would have to be arched up behind your back in order for them to be that warm too. BUT IN A CAR it can be simultaneous enjoyment. Try it sometime. Sushi is actually good. Took me until 40 to figure that out. Clothes shopping is more fun with the old man than with kids. Mostly because he has money and they don't and the final decision isn't mine alone.

I played for Maddie and Scott tonight as well as for Ali and Tyler preparing for the choir concert on Friday. I love love love playing for people, especially teenagers who are in my home. That might be #3 on my most loved list. Teenagers in my home and even better, teenagers in my home singing while I accompany. We made snickerdoodles and now they are out delivering them together. Lauren is in her room on the phone and Kate is asleep. Brett flew out tonight for a trip and forgot his phone. I cannot imagine Brett without a phone. I seriously don't know what he will do.

I was given the piece I have to play for the choir at the Christmas program. HARD! Yeah! That will give me something to do and work towards. It is the mo tab's version of Angels We Have Heard on High and it morphs all of the orchestra/organ parts into one piano part. So, if the violins do a run, that turns into a very fast piano run, etc. Hard. I am happy for the challenge.

Sydney leaves tomorrow morning on a 4th grade 3 day, 2 night field trip a few hours away from here. They are sleeping in cabins and learning about lots of stuff hands on. This concept is very weird to me, seeing that she has never slept over anywhere but cousins, and most of those times, she calls me wanting to come home. I am nervous, but she doesn't know that. She is excited and I am encouraging her by telling her how awesome an opportunity this is. I hope she does well this time, because in 5th grade, the students go to Philadelphia/Washington D.C. for a week! I think I'm going to have to go with them on that one.

OK. I need to go get in bed and read my books. A conference talk first and one of my music biographies I'm currently juggling.