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I know that I have written about it before, so I won't blather on too much, but honestly I LOVE BIRTHDAY SEASON!!!  It's seriously my favorite time of the year. It began at Christmas when my mother gave me a wrapped gift for my birthday.  Thankfully, John didn't lose it in the past two months :-)  Beautiful gold earrings.  The funny thing is, if you know me well, I wear the same earrings every single day.  White gold hoops that she gave me ten years ago.  I guess it's time to move on, and she obviously knows what I like.  Thanks, Mom! Then, two weeks ago a package arrived from Anna!  An-na!  I put the three different gifts on the piano--no peeking early! Tuesday, my friends, Katherine, Stormi and Barbara took me out to lunch where else?  Cracker Barrel!  Being on my diet, I was very good and steered away from the Country Fried Steak, although my mouth started watering when I just thought about it.  I had grilled chicken, ...

Hmmmm....glad to see he at least remembered to put a HAT on!

...when your socks don't match, and you just don't care.

Mark came home this weekend to take care of all the pre-mission business.  Doctors appointments, interviews, and paperwork.  We headed out today to take his official photo.  I think it turned out very nice: I'm amazed how much it looks like Ethan's, especially considering it was completely unintentional: There were some close runners-up for the official photo however: Mark said he didn't want them to see the "real" Mark quite yet... He prays always... Life in Pennsylvania.  If you can make it here, you can make it ANYWHERE! Tebow-ing... A lover of all of God's creatures.... Now the waiting begins.  It could be decided as early as this Thursday (four days from now), but if not this Thursday, it will be the next Thursday (over Mark's spring break).  It will be exciting to get the news!

Mark returned home this weekend to take care of pre-mission-call business.  Physicals, and interviews. I was delighted to find that he's just as excited to be home, as we are to have him home.  Here was his FB post: That awesome feeling in college when you push "Go Home" on your GPS(:

This past weekend, Glo, John and I headed back to Ann Arbor for Mark's freshman horn recital.  The three freshman hornists at the School of Music at the University of Michigan were performing on a recital, and of course we were going to be there for Mark! Words cannot describe the performance that Mark gave.  Seriously, it was one of those moments where you had to be there to appreciate how good Mark is.  I could write and write about it, and try to describe it, but it just wouldn't have the impact of the performance.  Mark was stellar to say the least, and I have no doubt now, that he will be a professional musician if that's what he chooses to do. Dory, Kathy and my mom joined us for the performance, and what a sweet moment that was.  Usually it's just our immediate family in the audience, but not this time!  In fact, Mark is so non-plussed by performing now, that while the accompanist was playing the introduction to his concerto, he was looking out ...

One of our family's favorite books is Rascal  by Sterling North.  I read it as a child, and as soon as Ethan was old enough, I passed on my worn but cherished copy.  Since then, I have bought a new copy so as to preserve mine, and the new copy has been read multiple times. Rascal was raised by a boy (the author), and the book recounts their adventures together for the first year of Rascal's life (he was later released back into the wild).  Rascal, like all raccoons I suppose, was into everything and provided perfect stories for a book.  One of our favorite scenes from the book takes place over coffee.  The author's parents were drinking coffee and subsequently adding sugar to their cups.  Rascal, not missing a beat, stole a sugar cube and in pure raccoon fashion, attempted to wash it off in a bowl of milk.  You can imagine what happened!  The sugar cube dissolved right before his eyes.  He grabbed more cubes all with the same result. ...

I had a very sad and yet very interesting experience yesterday that really made me appreciate the gospel and the beauty of the plan of salvation. A little while ago, one of the guys on the Rowing Team told us that his mom had Stage 4 Breast Cancer and that he was skipping practice to spend more time with her. Now personally, I couldn't believe this cause 1. If my Mom had breast cancer, I would pull out of school and go home to spend every moment I could with her, and 2. He hadn't made any big deal about it. He just told us and didn't expect any sympathy from us. He's a really nice guy, but it was amazing to me to see how well he was handling it. Just yesterday, he emailed us to tell us that she had actually passed away that afternoon. All of a sudden, to me everything I was doing right then just seemed so trivial. I was just about to do some extra steady state after practice when I read the email, and while I was erging I just couldn't believe all the things in life...

Don't you love it when you read something that describes you perfectly, and you realize that the people writing the article are praising you? It's been a beautiful thing to see the recent publications of books on shyness and introverts.  Have you heard of them?  One book which came out last month is called Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking , and the other is Shyness:  How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness .  Although I haven't read either of them yet, I have read articles that have discussed them, and what a relief to all of us shy and introverted people! Here's an example.  Read it and see if you feel the same.  If so, you are part of 30% of the population who fall on the introvert end of the temperament spectrum. I'm in the bathroom of the American embassy in Tokyo, and I can't leave.  Somewhere in the elegant rooms beyond, the ambassador is holding his annual holiday party  Diplomats from around...

As a young musician, I didn't enjoy the music of Beethoven.  I think I knew too much about some of his music, and too little about more of his music.  I dreaded his piano sonatas--they were technically difficult and felt "angry" to me (just look at any painting of him, and you'll see what I felt).  Being a non-orchestral player, I knew nothing about his symphonic works except for Symphony No. 5 which at the time was overplayed. As I have matured as a human being, his music hasn't really grown on me at all.  It wasn't until I heard the aforementioned symphony live last summer at Interlochen that I began to see that maybe I was missing something.  That maybe Ludwig and I had some things in common. If you follow my blog at all, you can probably see (more clearly than me perhaps) that I have been struggling with feeling happy since we moved to Pennsylvania.  I firmly believe that we are here for a reason.  Actually, we are probably here for several rea...

Last night, Johannah and I drove to Ann Arbor, and as always, I am reminded how much I love the state of Michigan, the city of Ann Arbor, and the University of Michigan.  Because the wonderful "happenings" have already begun, I'm going to keep a running tally of everything over the next couple of days. Schlotzsky's.  One of my favorite restaurants, and always a stop on our trip here.  In fact, the Schlotzsky's in Maumee, Ohio is exactly 4.5 hours from our front door in Port Matilda.  Granted, after being on my diet for the past three weeks, I woke up with a terrible stomach ache this morning, but I won't deny that it wasn't totally worth it. Seeing Mark.  He has changed.   He's no longer tall and scrawny.  He's now tall and built .  I could hardly believe how different he looked.  And one of the first things he noticed?  How good Johannah looks, having lost 11 pounds (and he didn't even know she was dieting).  What a good bi...