Piano Recital

Here I am in all my piano playing glory... or lack thereof. I practiced my little heart out, but I still made lots of mistakes, BUT the point is that I know how to play with my left hand and my right hand in the C position. I'm way excited for myself, but I don't know how much more progress I'll make on my own. We'll see. I think I'll stick with the C position for a bit longer before I try to learn more. It's harder to teach myself than I expected.

Enjoy, and thanks for coming by to watch. If you watched, please leave a comment, even if you have nothing to say, just say hi, I want to get a feel for who actually reads this blog of mine.

Carla, the pool lady

Our apartment has a swimming pool. A big pool with a deep end and a baby pool. We LOVE it. Kaci and I spend the bulk of our day there. We 2 to 3 times a day, in the morning after breakfast and our trip to the park, we go before or after lunch to get good and tired for our afternoon siesta, and then we go in the evening with Brad (if he's home and has time). It's right across the street from our front door.

We have a pool lady. She sits under an awning, wears a whistle, brings toys, and brings treats. That's right. Every time you go swimming you can get a treat before you leave. Cookies, chips, fruit snacks, granola bars, kool-aid... whatever your heart desires (or your mom's heart desires... occasionally) :)

Kaci has mastered blowing bubbles, holding her breath and going underwater, kicking to get from one end of the big pool to the other (long or short) with floaties on, and entering and exiting the pool by herself. I'm loving it!

Fourth of July EXTRAVAGANZA

We went BIG this year. Between the miscarriage, healing, sickness, Brad's dizzy spells, Kaci's crying fits, Brad's busy schedule, and crazy raining and cold weather we were over due for some serious fun. So, I planned an EXTRAVAGANZA!

We went camping at Burke Lake Park in Northern Virginia. I planned it Call family style. Tons of food, tons and tons of food and hanging out by a lake. In honor of our 3 year anniversary we went camping and had a mondo taco salad. This lake was HUGE, we walked and walked and walked but didn't even make it half way around. We played a lot along the way. Kaci loved being outside all day. She also really liked the tent. She's really into making forts at home, so she thought the tent was amazing.







The next day we went to DC for the parade, festivals, and fireworks. It was a long day, but fun. Lots of people, but they were all super nice. We sat next to the Washington Monument across from the White House for the fireworks. To my surprise, Kaci loved the booms and the colors. She'd say "boom! boom, boom, boom!" and "whoooaa!" She'd also say different colors. She's really starting to pick up on that. It was a huge show. The booms echoed forever because of all the big buildings. It was like surround sound out there.


(kaci waving to people in the parade)

Fireworks

My Fancy Piano

Our hundred year old piano needed a new look.
The plan since we got it (back in FEB) was for Brad to paint it shiny black while I was in Arizona. Well, he tried to bail on me while I was there, so I just kept telling him how excited I was about it and how wonderful it would look and that I would do it myself if he didn't. He said it would take him 100 hours. I told him he should of started the day I left! He came through in the end, and I surprised him with shorter hair. So we are both happy as can be!



Now that I have a fancy black piano that looks amazing, I've decided to have a virtual piano recital. Consider this your official invite!

when: Sunday, July 12th.

where: Here, on the blogspot.

time: 5-10 minutes!

Hope you can come!

3 years ago today!

I was doing this:




Today I'm sitting in my unmentionables blogging while my little one watches Surfs Up and Brad toils away at grad school. If I had my wedding dress here in VA I think I'd put it on and prance around a little bit.

So what have we done?

We read the entire Old Testament for couple scripture study!

That's right! What a great way to celebrate 3 years! It was great to learn more about all the ancient prophets and the lifestyle back then. It was challenging at times, but we did it and it didn't take 5 years (that was our worse case scenario). Personal scripture study is good, but doing it with my husband has been a lot of fun. I think we'll always remember doing this. I hope we always remember how much we laughed, fell asleep, talked, and learned together. I think we're going to start the New Testament so that we can read the entire Bible together.

I love being married to Brad. He really is more than I could have ever possibly deserved or wished for in a husband! Here's to another year of playing, wishing, scheming, surviving, parenting, cooking, cleaning, laughing, and creating!

I'm Back!

We got a big old huge ancient monitor at the Mercy House Thrift store today for 7 bucks! They were having a half off day and there were zillions of people there, but we made it out alive and for cheaper than we had ever hoped! A new fancy flat screen monitor is 100 dollars, that's why I said I thought I was going to be off line for a while. But I'm back and thrilled to death! Now on to those posts I talked about!!

p.s. I don't know if I mentioned before how crazy people are about thrift stores here. We have 5 within 10 miles and they compete! People drive up in nice cars and fancy clothes, I guess most of those people are antique shopping, or bidding rather as each store has a silent auction going at all times. Anyhow, I love it because it is totally normal to shop at the thrift stores and to brag about the stuff you find in everyday conversation with just about anyone here. Growing up, thrift store shopping was nothing to be proud of unless it was Halloween and you were finding crazy clothes for your costume, I quite like it now!