Check out this article!

Come one, come all! I am participating in the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization (in the symphony orchestra)- and we have a concert this Friday! It is at Gammage at ASU, and you can find tickets through ticketmaster. This is a link to an article about the orchestra: http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2010/05/13/20100513sev-mormonchoir0515.html
I bet if you come, you will recognize more than me up there! I always see old friends when I go to rehearsals! Please come- the music is wonderful! And- we are playing with William Joseph, who is an LDS composer/pianist that I'm sure many of you have heard of.

Happy Mother's Day!

What a wonderful holiday! I just wanted to wish all you mothers a fantastic mother's day! I hope you all had a great one, and that you feel as appreciated as you should! Smile- somebody loves you!

Family Update

Check out these legs! Yummy!

Brady: 9 months. 23.5 lbs. Eating pretty much anything. He's now "army crawling" and therefore has semi-permanent carpet burns on his arms. He has started throwing tantrums- arching his back, throwing his head back, etc. He has 6 teeth, with 2 more coming very close behind. He can sit back up after laying down. (new today, actually) He "sings" all the time. He growls ALL the time. (ask anyone in our ward) He says, very clearly, Dad. He pulls the shade thing on his carseat forward and plays with it. Such a sweet boy. He is very good natured (except for the tantrums...), and loves being outside. We LOVE him to pieces!

Amber: In my last month at Gilbert High. Exactly what I've wanted, but I didn't expect it to be with such mixed emotions. I'm totally excited to be a stay-at-home mom, but I will miss teaching orchestra. Looking forward to our next adventure!

Richard: Finishing up his Associate Degree, and getting ready to move our family to BYU-Idaho! Excited to move to Rexburg and start working on a degree in Social Work. Go Vikings! (I actually don't think BYU-I has a mascot. If it does, it's probably a Cougar. However, in my heart, BYU-I will always be Ricks, so therefore I say GO VIKINGS!)

The fruits of our labors

You know how the carrots (well, anything, really) that you buy at the store are perfect? Perfect size, shape, color? Well, ours aren't like that. But, I LOVE them anyway. They are sooo much better. Check out the little funky guy in the middle. Talk about character. Seriously though, I'm so proud of our garden. Way to go, carrots and beets! Way to survive our sporadic watering!

Vegas, baby!

At the beginning of April, I took my orchestras to Las Vegas

(no, I'm not crazy... I don't think) Besides completely cleaning up at the festival (1st place, Gold Rating, Festival Sweepstakes, etc, etc, etc...), we also went to Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian- notice the gondolas below, as well as the Phantom chandelier

My last trip with GHS was fabulous, and I will miss these kiddos so much! It has been such a great experience, and I will remember my years as the orchestra director at Gilbert High School FOREVER!