Violin

I love my violin! 

And the back of it might be my favorite part..it's so smooth and pretty.  

That's not my point. 

This morning our piano tuner guy stopped by. (He's been tuning our pianos for years, and has been about 80 years old for 10 years) 

Anyway...

Every time he comes he will have all of kids play a piece on the piano for him. And he's very entertaining and will tell jokes or stories the whole time he's tuning. (some of which are not funny!)

He heard I play the violin, so he wanted to hear me play. But I was gone last time he came. 

This morning I was eating my delicious strawberry-banana smoothie when the doorbell rang.. three times.  ;)

It was Mr. R. He had brought me some music! He told me that he didn't have time to stay and hear me play today, but he would be back soon. (With which I breathed a sigh of relief, because I didn't know what to play for him! I thought I would play the piece that I did for my recital, but I haven't played that one since the recital. Thankfully I practiced it again today, and I'm ready for whenever he decides to show up again!) 

This is old music! Which I really enjoy playing! 

Some pages were torn or handwritten

(sheesh, whoever wrote that was pretty good! You ought to see my attempts at handwriting music. Or wait, you shouldn't!) 

I don't know if you can see this or not, but a full orchestral score cost $1.50! (extra piano part .30 cents)

:) 

Some etude and technic books, which are fun! 

So, I was very excited to have these. Mr. R told me someone was about to throw them away, and I'm glad he rescued them for me! 

It's a lot of fun to use used music, as you can see previous markings and the like.

Anyone want to dance? 

(Largo just sounds like a dance.)

Hi!

Why, hello friends!
This whole week has been crazy! And that is why I haven't been writing on here for a while. I was talking to my friend (she's kinda like my adopted grandma, she's so sweet and awesome!) and I was telling her about our past couple of days, and made the remark of  "I can't wait to get back to our normal state of chaos."

-We had my younger brother's 13th birthday party. (yikes! he's 13???) And I made 5 apple pies the night before. :)
-Mom and I painted the bathroom 3 times. One coat of primer and 2 of paint.
-I had to remove a bloated tick from our rabbit. (And I'm ashamed to say I freaked out and didn't want to do it. yuck!)
-We went for a gorgeous walk yesterday at Lake LaSuAn. (pronounced La Sue Ann)  Cool name, right?! It was pretty and perfect weather!
-Us girlies went to a baby shower and I jumped on the trampoline with 5 and 2 year olds who thought I was amazing. I at one point had the 2yo in my arms, a 5yo on my back, and a 5yo on each of my legs. And I was trying to jump at the same time.... They were so cute and their moms just yelled at them (and called them names). It was so sad.. but a lot of fun to give them attention!
-On saturday, everyone woke up after 11am. That was funny! (only because none of us got to bed before 12:30am the night before)
-We planted our garden.... and now to weeding!
-I got poison ivy all over. It really itches. :)

And that's about it! I'll get on here hopefully later to share some pictures of birthday parties and bathroom remodeling and bike rides. :)

Little Sister

What are little sisters for?

To lick the peanut butter fudge spatula, of course!

His mercies are new every morning

Just a few verses that were read at church this morning. They are encouraging! 

Lamentations 3:22-24

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases

His mercies never come to an end

They are new every morning

Great is your faithfulness

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul

"Therefore I will hope in Him."

The house now has numeral holes...

This week we remolded the bathroom. Mom had ordered a shower that was all one piece. The only setback was that it didn't really fit in our house. :) 

We took down the doors and all the trim to two different rooms. So the shower would fit through the doorways. With a little coaxing. 

And then the people who we hired to do this came and ripped out the old shower. 

This was all the glue and "stuff' behind the shower

This is the shower unit in the bathroom, but the measurements of it diagonally were to big for the bathroom.

They spent quite a bit of time trying to turn it and make it fit. But all in vain. How can you make a 68 inch piece fit in a 60 inch place? And they tried to tell us that taking showers laying down was the new thing. 

After I heard of their new plan, I left. I was a little concerned. :) 

So when I came back, about 45 minutes later, They had done this:

They cut a hole into the garage. That way, they could fit the in shower through the garage while it was standing up. 

They told me that Dad's face when he saw that hole was priceless. Unfortunately I was exercising downstairs and missed it. 

They had to move the shoe shelf and empty the shoes out. (I guess for a 9 people living here, there's a lot of shoes...)

 And the house was a wreck. We all wanted to watch them work so nothing got done in terms of picking up. 

 The workers are friends of ours, and they were better than a comedy act. We laughed so hard all day at all the things they said and did.  i.e. sticking the saw on the other's leg while the other was trying to screw in a nail. 

(it was a saw made specifically for drywall, and like a doctors saw made for removing casts, it won't cut your skin.) 

 And they had to empty the cleaning supply closet to make another hole in that closet. 

 (hole in the closet)

There were random drawers and piles of stuff all over the living room. :)

I don't have any more pictures, but now the shower is all in, Mom is working really hard on mudding the drywall. (I tried that, but mudding must not be my thing..I'll wait till the the painting starts!) Mom likes doing it, and is really good too. 

We will start painting prolly early next week, and soon this will be done! 

Mixed into that, we are giving a baby shower on saturday, going to my grandparents on sunday after church. and doing laundry. 

And trust me, that is not a small feat. 

Love

~Emily

Music and Roses

Just a little worried over here... my orchestra teacher handed me this music today:

:)  It's actually not to bad, but the first time I played it was with the whole orchestra, and they had played it before, so they went pretty fast. (luckily I was in the back, so it was easier to be "invisible") lol!

Time to get out the metronome. I actually "like" (in a weird way) the metronome. :)

She also gave us this:

We're playing this for the school's graduation. The only problem is its all octaves. 

Most of us either played the top or bottom note. :)

And I hit a high E flat.  Ka chow! Success! 

And this is the song that I prolly talk about a lot. 

*Drum roll*

Ghosts of Brandenburg! 

(with a lot of penciling)

 Lots of bow changes

A terrific ending. 

And we are to perform all this in just under three weeks. :D

This was the storm that brewed over our house today. It was pretty impressive. And the temperature dropped from 83 to 71. 

I planted a rose bush yesterday! 

I like roses (does anybody not?) and I had the choice of a red rose bush or pink.

I've read The Secret of the Rose series, by Michael Philips, so as I didn't feel like giving out red roses (which supposedly signify "true love") I picked pink. :) 

Hopefully the bush will grow for me! 

Did you know:

that two roses entwined together mean "marry me?"

that 13 roses indicate a secret admirer? 

Yeah, anyway, I didn't either. 

Happy Mother's Day

To all the Mom's out there!! I am so thankful for all the wonderful mom's and women who are examples in my life. My Mom especially has shown through her life, more than through her words, how to love her husband and submit to him. Even when it may not be "fun" or when she wants to.

 We were at a lake a while ago, and Ben and Lydia got some time with my camera and snapped a picture of Mom and I. 

So we take the above picture and change positions. Sit there smiling for about twenty seconds while we wait for them to find the  button. I make a silly face just because my cheeks were hurting from smiling so long. 

And of course, they snap the picture right then. 

 Lol! I'm not even gonna say anything. I look too ridiculous. 

So then we actually got a good one. :) 

I love you, Mom!! 

Turkeying around

(my spell check does not like the word "turkeying," but thats what we were doing!)
Yesterday Dad took me turkey hunting. We didn't get one, but we had a fun day. And I discovered that I definitely have a wild side. :)
First, we harassed "them turkeys" and then hung a tree stand.
The turkeys were not being cooperative. We tried stalking, driving, belly crawling, running, waiting and finally decided to hang the tree stand. I had the saw and got to cut down some trees. This is where I found my "wild side." It is really a lot of fun to see a tree fall in the woods.
And if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? 
I'm going with yes, it does.
I was pretty sore by the time we got home! Playing violin, my shoulder was sort of stiff. So I 'shook' it out and thought about how many funny things musicians do.  It's actually quite amusing. :)

Summer!!

I am done with school!!
That is so nice to be done with. My  *ahem* "plans" for the summer are as follows:
In music category:
-learn at least one violin sonata
-shifting to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th position. (which I have done in scales, but now want to do in a song, or etude or something!)
-perfect vibrato exercises. (these are crazy, and enough to drive you nuts. As it sounds like a siren. *wheea wheea wheea wheea* But they must be useful in learning vibrato!)
-and just have fun on the violin. My brother wants to learn a song with me on violin and him on piano. So I'm going to find music for that.
-start a quartet, of sorts. except I really need to find a violist. This might end up being a trio, or duet. (and I need to find music for that too... ;)
-work more on piano. I have sorely neglected that since I really love violin!
-this is really random, but if any of you like music, you might find this site helpful for sheet music: imslp.org (this site is so awesome!)
Other than music:
-crochet a baby blanket
-do some sort of sewing project
-crochet two baby girl headbands for the new babies in our church that are going to be born soon!! (that means most every sunday I could hold a baby. :) :) :)
Reading:
This is where I need your help! Would you please give me a list of your favorite books?
I have a library in town that I can make use of.... ;) Just leave a comment with your favorite book name or favorite author.
Right now I'm reading the Anne books. (for like the 7th time) And listening to Stepping Heavenward.
And I want to read The Blythe's are Quoted. 

I also am probably going to get about 45 hours of supervised driving at some point. :) I have my drivers permit, and I have to get a lot of hours. Well, I don't really have to. I turn 16 in September, and then would be old enough to get my license. When I was talking to a friend on the phone, I told her that I got my drivers permit. She freaked out and said she was glad she doesn't live in my town. (thanks for the vote of confidence!!)

So that's somewhat a rough account of what I hope to do. :) Plus, hammocks and climbing trees will be added in. Don't worry!

More from recital

I promise someday I will stop posting about recitals and concerts. someday.
But for today I have more pictures for you!

This is the whole group (well, almost, my parents were taking the pictures.) that was at the recital. 

My great grandma, grandparents, uncle, aunt, cousin, brothers and sister.

It was a lot of fun! 

I started another music piece today. It's one by Handel. But unfortunately I won't have lessons through the summer, so I'm trying to use all the information that my wonderful teacher has given me previously to learn this song. :) 

Speaking of my wonderful teacher....

She is not only a fantastic teacher, also a great friend. 

This is my Great Grandma. She's awesome and so sweet! She is a teachers helper for kindergartners. She mostly helps kiddos learn to read. So every day, at 94 years old, she'll get a ride to the school. :)  (I was wearing her dress, which she wore a long time ago.  :)  

I think that's it... :) 

Love 

~Emily

R&R

Nope, not rest and relaxation... recitals and rabbits.
or recital and rabbit.
This was my violin recital, Daniel, Matthew, and Joey's piano recital. Although there were a bunch of other kids as well. :)
It's nice to have this done with, and for the first time in my performing life, I was actually happy with the performance. I still messed up and made mistakes. But overall it went pretty well.
I played Sietz Concerto No.2 in G major, 3rd movement, Allegro Moderato.
It was a really fun piece!

 I wore my great Grandma's dress. 

She was so excited that I wanted to wear it! She was able to come as well, and that was fun! 

I'm going to try to put pictures of the boys on our family blog. I'll put a link on here when I do. 

Thanks again to Matthew for taking the pictures! 

1. We got a rabbit!!

Her name is Ruby

 

 She's 9 weeks old

I can't wait until the "new-ness" of having a rabbit wears off so I can actually hold her. :) 

Right now if you get her, someone will start the timer and you get her for 15 minutes. Then you better give her up, or else....

But I'm very happy to have a rabbit!

Love 

~Emily

Concert

I got to the Academy, and we go through the songs real fast on stage. Then we hung out in the Art room until starting time!
We get up on stage, and Mrs. M talks about concert etiquette, and then our concert master walked out.

On one of these picture's I'll tell you who's who, but this one isn't real clear. 

Mrs. M came out, and we started with "A Knights Quest." 

I don't have very many close up pictures, so I can't really tell you who's who, but in this one from left to right:

Toni Marie, Abigail, Me, Samantha (Sam), Peter. 

(Peter is the concert master)

I laughed at this one, because most of us are looking up. Probably getting ready to start a song. 

The next song was theme from Star Wars. 

Me

Peter, Olivia

The whole group! 

Then some of us switched places, and it was just the upper school orchestra. 

I'll try to name people..

left to right: Toni Marie, Abigail, Michael, Will, Peter, Olivia, Mrs. M, Maddie (not sure on spelling), Noah.

The two people on cellos are Maddie, and Brooke.

Even though this is a bit blurry....Cece on the viola, Katherine on the cello, me on the violin, Taylor on the cello.

Olivia, Sam, me. 

(apparently I scowl while playing.. :) 

Yay! Here's one from the other direction!

Mrs. M, viola "helper" (I don't know her name) Cece on viola, Brooke, Maddie, Taylor and Katherine on cello. (and yes, if you have noticed, there are two girls name Maddie) 

I think I have now named everyone....

The two songs that we played in upper school were Arlington Sketches, and Tango Mysterioso. 

The Tango was my favorite song that we did. So much fun! 

Then the choir pieces, starting with the little kids choir.

*Before the concert even started, Mrs. M told Peter to reserve seats for me, Brooke, and himself. Because after the orchestra pieces were over, we could sit down and listen for the rest of the concert. So Peter laid some music out on the seats. I put a program down, yada yada. 

We finish orchestra, put our instruments away, then discovered that people had no respect for reserved seats, and they were taken. :) 

So we stood awkwardly in the door way, around the bleachers, or hung out in the art room.*

 Matthew had spotted us and took pictures of us. 

 Peter and his brother, Noah.

This is Kayla (on the violin) I don't think there were any pictures of her in orchestra, as she was in the back. But she was a huge help in orchestra. I got to sit by her for the upper school songs, and she helped me as well as the other kids. Another girl I know in the choir, Megan. She is in the second row to the right. 

 At this part in the concert, Mrs. M asked the piano player to play the melody for a choir song. (his name is Aaron, although there aren't any pictures of him) Aaron is a piano player and composer.. I think. So, after he had played the melody, Mrs. M said "Now play it in the style of Mozart." Aaron did it... perfectly like Mozart! 

Mrs M "Now like Debussy." And when he played it like Debussy, I laughed because it was spot on. :) 

He then played it in jazz and nightclub style. Both of which were awesome! 

 This so totally a Mrs. M pose! 

 Mrs. M is pregnant with her first baby! 

So she is resigning from music director. Which is sad, because she is awesome.

Brooke and I

We had no idea someone was taking a picture. :)  I don't even know what we were laughing at! 

Chamber choir was amazing, and they sang "In Christ Alone"...possibly my favorite "hymn."

(is In Christ Alone a hymn?)

 All the people. 

At the end, the school director or boss (or someone) came up to talk. He first gave Mrs. M a tissue. :) 

He asked her husband to come up, and gave them a card and gift.

The crowd gave her a standing ovation, and she definitely deserved it! 

These two will make great parents! 

 It was a music box! 

Then he prayed for the new M family, and thanked the Lord for blessing this school with Mrs. M! 

And the concert was concluded with popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. Both of which everyone thoroughly enjoyed!

If you have carried on a lengthy conversation with me in the past school year, I'm sure I've told you about orchestra. :) So know you can "see" all the awesome people I've told you about.
We still have orchestra practice until graduation, so this doesn't mean I'm done writing about orchestra... ;) Haha!

A huge thanks to my brother, Matthew, for taking all these pictures! 

Love
~Emily