Pics from Violin Solo Recital (1/25)

Miss K thought I should upload some pictures from the violin studio's Solo Concert Recital (1/25/09) to share with everyone. (And I thought I'd better get them posted before it gets too much later - the full set will be uploaded to Facebook, for anyone that is linked as a friend.)

Mr. M played Perpetuo Mobile by Carl Bohm.

Miss K played La Folia by Arcangelo Corelli.

Miss K and her violin friends

Amazing Picture

This picture is from my daughter's new camera phone - I was amazed at the quality of it and the fact that she had some settings she could play around with to take a picture like this on it. I'm posting as "large" size to give the full effect of it. (By the way, it was taken in the backyard of her violin teacher's house and she used a Sepia setting on the camera function to get the extra effect.)

I hope she will grace us with a pic or two on a regular basis!

Strike Three! They are Out!

I wish I were talking about baseball here but, unfortunately, it's all about our trees. We have this tiny grove of the most annoying trees behind our house and they have caused us nothing but trouble since we moved in. They are some sort of fast growing, thin, dense type tree that only has a life of about 10-12 years. We've been told by native Tennesseans that they do well in rocky ground.

Anyway, every time a heavy rainstorm hits with high winds one of them falls over into our driveway. (Choo and the neighbor have also removed one that died of natural causes and there is another one that has tumbled and is precariously being held up by a couple of the other trees.)

The first one fell the fall after we moved here. I had just taken Choo to the airport and driven through a nasty rainstorm to do it. When I got back to the house there was a tree, laying right across the driveway. As I was trying to figure out what to do a neighbor yelled at me from his patio (he was grilling) and said he'd be over with his chainsaw in a few minutes. After the chainsaw started, 3 more neighbors popped out of nowhere and the tree was chopped up and moved in 30 minutes. (The kids exclaimed that this would have never happened in our Chicago neighborhood!)

The second one fell during the fall of 2008 and, yes, the third one fell today!

So, Strike Three -> They Are Out! We are obtaining a quote to have them all removed and then we'll put in something different - I've been advised that we may have to backfill the embankment to make enough base for other trees to get their roots established. I'm OK with that, anything to have something different there that will be less maintenance than these have been. I'm dreaming of a maple, crepe myrtles and maybe another river birch.

NCCT Audio Available

The Audio recordings from the Nashville Conference on Church and Theology have been posted to the website. Here's the link that will take you directly to the Audio page -> http://media.churchandtheology.org/

I had planned on blogging about the speakers and the great things learned over the weekend but I probably wouldn't do it justice when you can get it straight from the audio recordings!

Choo and I were able to meet Dr. John MacArthur between the Saturday sessions and a friend snapped a picture for me. (FYI, and lest anyone thinks I'm a total geek about the conference, the shirt is from serving during last year's conference!)

NCCT

This weekend is also the Nashville Conference on Church and Theology which we parents will be attending all weekend (and our daughter will sit in a few of the sessions). Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. Bruce Ware are the speakers for the weekend.

If want to check out some information on it, click on the conference link: http://www.churchandtheology.org/index.html

After tonight's session we are really looking forward to hearing more!!

P.S. I heard that the audio for the sessions will be posted, so will let you know when that happens.

"R.F.R."

The violin studio came up with T-shirts that say R.F.R. on the front -> Ready For Ronda!

On the back is the phrase spelled out, along with the list of songs they are playing in the group classes tomorrow (like tour locations that a music group might list on their shirts). They are very cute and descriptive for this weekend as the kids have been putting in a lot of hours to get ready.

Ronda is a well-known teacher in the Suzuki violin world and is here for a weekend of group classes, master classes and teacher training. And kids, along with the work of violin playing, enjoy the day too!

Bluegrass Performance at Spaghetti Dinner

The kids are currently part of a bluegrass group organized by one of their teachers at Middle School, known as the Rudderville Ramblers. The group officially celebrates its one year anniversary this month. Our daughter has been in it since the beginning, even before, if you count the after informal picking sessions. Our son joined the group at the beginning of this school year. The group has played for a variety of events such as school events, the county fair, an area grocery store serving BBQ and performances (lots of these type places around Nashville, also restaurants with live performances), a few retirement/assisted living locations and a couple of fundraisers.

This event occurred on Tuesday - a spaghetti dinner held at school during the time of the JV & Varsity basketball games.

The kids enjoy playing with the group as it is another style of music for them to play with their violins (Miss K also sings with a couple of other girls in the group).

My husband is looking into transferring some videos of the kids performing onto the blog - we'll let you know when we get some posted.

Miss K makes introductions of the group's members between songs.

A group picture after the performance.

Getting Late...

I had one more post for today, the Touchdown Taco Dip that was made for the Super Bowl party we went to today, however, it's getting late and I've got to head to bed for work tomorrow. The nice thing about doing this blog is I'm getting back into doing something similar to when I was in high school with working on newspaper and yearbook (head photographer for both and columnist for the newspaper) and then later in life with the scrapbooking and journalling I have sometimes done. It helps to satisfy that part of me that wants to be creative and the part of me that likes to explore and learn about new things; I especially like learning about the local history of wherever we are. And, I've always enjoyed hearing people's stories, and writing them sometimes too. (Compared to the other mediums such as scrapbooking, journalling, etc. it is also better for me since it's all on the computer - something I'll write more about in a later post.)

As I walk and/or drive around our neighborhood, the kids' school, to work or around town, already I'm seeing things that might be interesting to write about, take pictures of and/or generally share. They may or may not be interesting to anyone reading this but hopefully there is at least one or a few things of interest for everyone...

The main point of this post was not about me but to mention that, for the most part, I'll be posting during the weekends or every so often as I've also got to take care of my house and family too. So, if you don't see a post for awhile, keep checking back, you never know what the next adventure is going to be...and I will be back as I'm getting hooked...

If nothing else, if I keep it up long enough, my kids will have something they can view, read, look back on, etc. when they leave home - it's not that far off... :)

Thanks

Our Saturday Adventure

We tried out a new (to us) brunch place named the Pfunky Griddle. I drive by this place every day to get to work and always thought it would be a neat place to try out. I had heard that it is a "do it yourself" pancake place - they also have sandwiches (some are paninis) and salads for lunch too. It's very small and was pretty busy when we went, although they were at the tail end of their breakfast crowd since it was noon. There wasn't a parking space at first so we drove around the block for options and then a spot opened up anyway.

Here is Miss K at our table - the restaurant has a homey feel with the painted walls, pictures and arrangements here and there.

The pancakes are "all you can eat" and they bring out 2 types of batter, a white unbleached flour batter and an organic whole grain type batter. One topping is included with your pancake order; additional toppings and/or special toppings are extra. Also, the side items like eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, etc. are also extra. Be careful on these and the drinks (may want to stick with water - OJ was $3 but it is a large) because otherwise the total bill can get pricey if not watching.

Here is Mr. M in the middle of making more pancakes. The one on the left has chocolate chips for a topping and the one on the right has pecans and a few blueberries (we shared our toppings around but it's just a taste on the sharing).
Anyone with younger children should be advised that the griddles in the tables are within arms' reach of a child so they will need extra supervision. Also, since the tables are small we found that we had to sometimes pass things over the griddle (can go around, we did that for shortest distance) - it's a little warm but our son said we just needed to use the "hover technique" (it's a reference from Psych).

All in all the kids gave this restaurant the thumbs up and they'd like to go again if we ever get the chance.

In case you want to try it out too, you'll find it at:

2800 Bransford Avenue

Nashville, TN 37204

(phone number on sign pic above)

P.S. I discovered on the way out that they have an espresso machine for specialty coffees and they also started selling scones and muffins for quick pick-up....hmmm, a new place for me to stop for breakfast if needed? Sounds yummy, I'm going to try it out during next week or two.

"We're Going on An Adventure"

"We're Going on An Adventure - we're going exploring!"

I was reminded of this "saying" yesterday. It was a phrase that my husband and I came up with when the kids were younger. (I'm sure it's not really a new saying and it's is definitely not unique but it really helped our kids.)

We would be taking the kids somewhere new and/or doing some new activity with them and they would start asking a ton of questions....where? why? what are we doing? what if....? How?, etc. They have always been very inquisitive kids and want to learn and know about everything they do. So to embark on something unknown with no information was always a little daunting to them; making them feel a little nervous and unsure. And, since we hadn't done or seen most of these activities or places either, we didn't have much information for them. So, we made it into a big game, a "We're going on an Adventure; we're going exploring or we'll be exploring..."! (Sometimes even packing a lunch and taking along notebook(s) for notes, camera for pics, binoculars, etc.) And, since they could relate this to the TV show Dora the Explorer as well as our other activities/travels, they felt better about it and, most importantly (to us), weren't as concerned about getting all the answers to their questions right away.

So, yesterday when I said we were going to try a new place for brunch, the kids started to ask a few questions and I found myself saying "we're going exploring", "we're going on an Adventure, a Saturday Adventure" (and was reminded of saying the phrase when they were younger). Now, though, they don't really get nervous or unsure of new activities or places as they are excited for the new adventures.