My Song, Part II

So I'm still struggling with what my favorite song is.
As a musician, I love music. Love all styles of music. So here's a list of my favorite song in each genre I can think of:

Oldies: Hm, something by the Beatles. That one's tough. Maybe Got to get you into my life
Country: The One by Gary Allan
Jazz: Isn't It Romantic
Big Band: Sing, Sing, Sing (with a swing)
Recent Hits: This Love by Maroon 5
"Josh's Music": Sleeping Awake by P.O.D.
Hymn: It Is Well With My Soul
Christmas Carol: In the Bleak Midwinter
Song by a Christian Artist: Jehovah by Amy Grant
Random Song: Cathedrals by Jump Little Children
U2 Song (yeah, they get their own category): Mysterious Ways

But I think my favorite song is probably "Trees of the Field." It's one that has always been a favorite, now as much as when I was 5. So that's what I'll end with:

You shall go out with joy
And be led forth with peace
The mountains and the hills will break forth before you
There'll be shouts of joy
And all the trees of the field
Will clap, will clap their hands.

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands
The trees of the field will clap their hands
The trees of the field will clap their hands
While you go out with joy.

Songs

My favorite song. Hmm.

My favorite piece of music is Beethoven's 6th. Second favorite is Copland's Appalachian Springs. I played both in one concert (and had to decide which one I liked more, because I could only play first clarinet in one...which one had better solos? I chose Beethoven, and definitely made the right decision).

My favorite song to sing to Jasmine is "You Are My Sunshine." I sang it to her before she was born, and then sang it to her in the hospital...that time I couldn't make it through the words. I had no idea how much I loved her until I tried to make it through!

But MY song?? I'll get back to you on that.

I entered another contest :)

This one ends next Monday, and she'll announce the winners on Tuesday (my birthday). I loved the sketch she gave us to work with....it was perfect for the pictures Josh took of Jasmine and I last night!
Who is 'she'? Laura Alpuche, owner of The Digi Chick (my hangout). She made an adorable Easter kit and will give one to whoever she chooses from the people who make layouts using her sketch.
Credits: Flowers: Holly McCaig's Easter Bouquet; stitching: Amanda Rockwell's Blog Freebie; all else: Tracey Lee's Denim Dreams kit
Fonts: Century Gothic, Dali
MISC: Sketch by Laura Alpuche :)

To thine own self be true

So I'm only about 12 years behind the times.
Last night Josh brought Renaissance Man home so we could watch it (his parents had it on tape). What a fun movie!
I thought it interesting, though, that I learned more about Hamlet from a Danny DeVito movie than I did from studying it in English class AND watching the Mel Gibson movie of it. Why is that?
I told Josh that I wished my teachers were like that. He reminded me, MC was. (so then I changed it and said "I wish my English teachers had been like that!") But rather than focus on the negative, I'll focus on the positive, and what really happened.
For anyone that saw Mr. Holland's Opus, Mr. Holland seemed like the most amazing music teacher ever. He got kids to do things they never imagined they were capable of doing. But to me, he was just a little better than mediocre.
I had one of the best band teachers this world has ever seen. No kidding. This guy rocked! A couple months ago I looked over my scores and sheets from Solo Festivals from 9th to 12th grade. I went from "having potential" to "wow" in 4 years. I give him the credit for that (yes, God gave me the ability to play, but MC really brought that talent out). It was because of him I went on to study music ed, and loved my time in music classes in college. (it's not his fault I stopped teaching after 2 years...maybe if I'd had a band, instead of a general music class, I would have kept going)
Any time I had to write a paper on a person who influenced my life, I would write about him. He made us work, and work hard. He didn't put up with my excuses, and he got me to stop making excuses altogether. He loved us. We knew he loved the Lord, but he didn't preach...just loved us and let that love show us the Father. He sought excellence from us in all areas, not just our musicianship.
So thank you, MC, for everything you taught me. Thank you for showing me that our mission field is whereever God puts us. Thank you for praying for us, demanding as much excellence of yourself as you did of us.

Signs of Spring

I just talked about seeing my first robin. Since then, I've seen another bunch, happily searching for worms. (so do robins migrate? I've never seen them actually flying very far)
Mom has tons of crocuses (croci?) in her garden, already showing their beautiful colors. We have green shoots, but no colors yet.
And a few more cats are visiting our yard lately. There is a female cat who lives in the barn here, owned by the other family on the property, and I think they're all eyeing her. The owner decided one litter of kittens would be fun, so she's waiting to get her fixed until after that. Goody. More animals to keep Jasmine away from!
And it just feels like spring. Even though it's still pretty cold, it's supposed to be in the low 50s all the days surrounding my birthday (next Tuesday) and since the sun is up earlier, it does feel less wintery.
Yay :)

Robin!!!

I just had to share...
Two weekends ago when we were in Toronto, we saw many flocks of geese. Pretty encouraging that they were already this far north.
But this morning I saw a ROBIN!!!!!

Spring really is coming! Yayyyyyy :) Even though this winter has been extremely mild, I'm still so ready for spring to be here. Ready to stop needing to bundle up Jasmine every time we step outside. Ready to stop scraping off the car. Ready to change from boots to sandals. It's time!! :)
And that also means my birthday is soon (1 1/2 weeks). Yay :)

Cats (again)

Jasmine has been stuffy for a few weeks now. She didn't show any other symptoms, so I was pretty sure she wasn't sick, but it didn't occur to me that allergies could show up so early in her life.
We brought her to a homeopath-type woman (natural, but not true homeopathy...), but didn't tell her what was wrong. She did a couple tests and asked, "is Jasmine allergic to pet hair?" We told her that we are both slightly allergic, so yes, it's highly likely.
She gave her medicine to overcome the allergies, which is awesome. If Josh's eye starts giving him problems again, maybe he'll go back and get some for himself.
But she said Jasmine should be away from all cat hair for a month.
Hard thing to do with two Hideous Beasts living in the house (can you feel the love?) (I'm sorry, my friends who love cats. When you step on a dead mouse barefoot and find another under your bed, and your baby can't breathe because of an allergy to them, you can probably understand why we're so fond of them. I'm not a cat lover, but I don't hate all cats, just Jerry and Reuben. Mom's cats are fine, and Kenny and Sheila's are hilarious...)
So we asked the woman who owns this house if she could take them for the month, or if she knew of somewhere else they could go.
Nope.
She said that, if she knew someone willing to take them, they'd already be there.
So she said we could leave them outside for the month (there's a barn if they need shelter) and put their food out there.
Josh got at least one out this morning, hopefully both. He's busy vacuuming right now, while I write and Jasmine sleeps. I really, really hope it helps. It's really hard for me to watch her like this.

Sugarloaf Pineapple

Since the first time Josh and I talked about how we both liked pineapple, he told me about this amazing "sugarloaf pineapple," so sweet and low in acidity that you could eat it until you were stuffed...and the core so soft you could eat all of it. He hadn't had one, but in Kauai he had something almost as sweet.
Last night when we were out grocery shopping, they had a display in the produce section for...Sugarloaf Pineapples!! They are expensive (about twice the price of a normal pineapple) and smaller, and he wasn't going to get it. I couldn't believe it! I convinced him we did need to get it, that he'd be really disappointed later.
We ate it this morning. Well, half of it. It's amazing! So soft and sweet. And you really can eat the core! It's softer and even sweeter than the part closer to the edge!

So now we're trying to figure out how to grow the stuff around here :)

A picture from the day Jasmine was born

Just because she's so beautiful and I have so many newborn pictures still to scrap!
Doesn't look like a newborn, does she? And certainly not one that spent 10 hours being pushed out!! Look at those cheeks :)
Credits: Pastel Mocha kit by Agnes YS Lahur (aka aysL - chibikko)
Fonts: Angelina
MISC: "4 hours" was made using Atomic Cupcake's awesome Chipboard action

My Plans for the Weekend

I really have to start doing exciting things on the weekend!!
This weekend, like most others, involves driving to my family's house (90 minutes away) on Saturday afternoon, church on Sunday, and taking it easy.
Pretty boring! But good...it's always fun to get time with my family (they adore Jasmine...but then again, so does everyone else!) and I like the extra time with Josh.

There might be one more unusual thing happening this weekend. My brother Kenny and I used to enjoy cooking, and trying out new recipes. We also liked to make changes (like turning perfectly good lemon merengue pies the color of tomato soup!) that brought about some interesting results. He, his wife and I did that before I met Josh, making a fabulous appetizer, some yummy chicken, and a fun, easy dessert. If he's not on call this weekend, we may do that tomorrow for our family. I emailed them and am waiting to hear back...

My New Favorite Page (for today)

I was having some serious mojo problems yesterday (which is so funny...up until yesterday, I had never, ever used the word "mojo"!), unable to make my pages do anything I wanted them to do. So I took some time and worked on Sarah's website (which is done, well, until I get some more pictures from her) and then decided to give the color challenge a try. Because I love yellow, and I love, love, love Fee Jardine's "Lazy Daisy" kit.
So I looked through Picasa, trying to find anything that really jumped out at me. And found this picture from when I was pregnant! I looked through a couple galleries of people at TDC whose work inspires me, and found a layout by Angela that I really liked. And I started to play!

Asleep

Isn't she the cutest??
Credits: MandaBean's Persimmon kit; stitching from Amanda Rockwell's Blog Freebie
Font: MarkingPen-Thin

I updated the website yesterday, putting up the majority of my digital scrapbook pages. I didn't put all the credits up there, but most are listed here...or at the very least in my gallery at TDC. It would have tripled the length of time it took to make those pages, so I decided against it :)

I'm so excited. One of my best friends, the one I've been friends with since birth (and the only guest, with her parents, at my first birthday) is pregnant! Due in September. I'm sooooo excited!! So four of the five of us of my close friends from school either already have a baby, or are expecting one. Just waiting on Sara and Josh!

My Other Hobbies (Tuesday Blog Challenge)

Wow! Angela's keeping us busy :) I love it!!

Hobbies other than scrapping. Wow, nothing I've done in awhile.
I love jigsaw puzzles. Growing up, they were great for giving me time to think about life, or just daydream, and I loved watching the picture come together. It's still a love, though I don't do them much anymore (too hard with a baby around...the cats could make it tricky too)

I learned to crochet when I worked at JoAnn's (I thought it would help me learn more about the yarns and other products people always asked me about) I made an afghan for my sister in a little over a month, and then bought yarn to make another one, for myself,with a very similar pattern. A handful of rows into it, I decided the pattern was getting very boring, so I pull it out every so often and do another 2 rows...at this rate it will be done in about 5 or 6 years!

The clarinet has gone from being a love and my major, to being a hobby (at best...we won't discuss how long it's been since I last played it) How strange...after all those thousands of hours I put into learning it and becoming proficient, it sits under the bed with my music stand and a pile of music, just longing to be played occasionally! (okay, this is just too sad. Time to stop).

One more hobby: coming up with silly names to call the cats. None of them are very nice. I really, really wish their owners would take them with them, but no such luck...still they live with us, making it so we can't sit on the furniture without sneezing, and we don't walk anywhere barefoot without looking closely to make sure they didn't bring us another mouse. yuck.

Why I Scrap (Monday Blog Challenge)

I started scrapping because it was fascinating, and there were so many cool products to use. It didn't take long before I got totally hooked, and as I looked at more of others' pages, I started improving and getting more sophisticated in my work. Then I found digital, and found my real niche.

Oh, right. Why I scrap, not my life story :)

I scrap because I don't want to forget the important things in my life. I scrap because I want Jasmine to learn who she is, where she came from in her own life, as well as her heritage. And I do it because I need a creative outlet, and learning to scrapbook has stretched my right brain more than I ever thought it could be stretched, and I love that! Now it's a hobby, a great pasttime, but it's a great learning experience and a great way to keep my memories fresh and accurate.

Papers and Layout

I did something new and exciting (to me): I made my own papers!
You can go to our website to download them! Please let me know if you like them, and I'd really love to see any layout(s) you make with them. Have fun!!


I played with them myself...here's a page I made with them, from a very early picture of Jasmine (she was 5 days old here) Isn't she cute??
Font: My Old Remington

I'm shocked, nearly speechless (but not quite)

So that layout contest that Digichick held this past weekend?
Guess who won third prize!?

Yup, someone you've never heard of.
No, me, silly :)

Sorry, had a moment of being 8 again. I just couldn't believe it.
Here it is!
We were given a sketch of a layout to follow, and the question "what is your inspiration for scrapbooking?" and we had to use something by the digichicks' designers (not hard, when I saw this kit!) Thankfully, Josh had scanned tons of pictures of his family for Grandma Hudson's 80th birthday last May, so I had a beautiful picture of her as a young child, already scanned and repaired.
Credits: stitch: Vintage kit by SBB; all else IOD Felina kit by Sally Griswold and Josie Celio
Fonts: My Old Remington; Signet Roundhand

The Digichick goes back up and I disappear :)

Oops!

Jim, thanks for the link. I sent it on to my mom...Jasmine's birthday is in a couple months (sniff!) so that might make a great present for her :)

So I haven't written or posted anything here in awhile. No excuse...just kinda forgot!

The Digichick had a 'grand reopening' celebration this past weekend, with a treasure hunt for pieces of a huge (free) kit, if you could keep from going nuts when the site slowed down to a near-stop Saturday afternoon. There was a Bingo game (didn't win), "speed scraps," "door" prizes, competetions...it was a lot of fun, but I have to say, it's nice to once again not be completely glued to the laptop! I managed to find the whole kit, so that's fun.

Here is one of the pages I made for the speed scrap (they gave us some sort of inspiration, either a quote or colors, or an ad to use as layout inspiration) and we had fun!) This is something I've wanted to do for awhile but wasn't sure how to tackle. It's hard, seeing how much she's grown, but it's fun and exciting at the same time.
Credits: Daniela Peuss' Love and Affection Kit
Fonts: Engel Einstein SH, Aljo

And here's my other one.I can't write about it more...Jasmine's ready to eat.
Credit: Angie Brigg's Bubble Gum Machine kit
Fonts: Century Schoolbook, Century Gothic