Tender Mercies

God is so gracious with His time. I stand in awe of His mercies and considerations on my behalf. Today in church, we had a missionary giving his "farewell" talk. He and his brothers were singing a song, and I was asked to accompany them. We have practiced throughout the week, and met before church today to go over it again a couple of times. I was feeling good about the whole thing.
When it came time for the number, I walked up, sat down at the piano, spread my music out, and started playing. During the introduction, the last sheet of music fell off the piano!! *Enter panic mode* I couldn't see where it landed because my head was to the left and it fell to the right. When I could, I turned my head to find the missing sheet.
Tender mercy #1: the sheet of music had landed on the bench next to me, face up, facing the right direction for me to read it.
I tried to find a place in the music to quickly reach down and pick it up, but there were none to be found. I'm nearing the end of the last page on the piano, and I see someone moving out of the corner of my eye.
Tender mercy #2: a brother from the congregation came up and picked up the sheet of music and put it back on the piano for me - at the exact moment I needed it there! I thanked him, and the music fell again!
Tender mercy #3: I was able to catch it with my left hand, because my right hand was the only one playing. I put the music back on the piano and finished the song.
Talk about having someone watching out for you! Wow! From the moment the page fell the first time, my heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. For any other pianists out there, you know how hard it is to play with shaky hands. I'm sure my face went red, and I had to make a conscious effort to breathe and to not stop playing and have a "freak out".
I am grateful today for my Heavenly Father and the tender mercies He showed me this morning. What an awesome reminder for me that He is always here, watching out for me (and all of us, for that matter), and He wants me to succeed.

Indexing Update

So, I have been trying to index 1,000 names each week... but so far I am far from my goal. I have not even been able to complete 1,000 names as of now! Regardless, I index whenever I can, and I am just happy to be able to help.

Tonight, I got an email from Family Search. Here's why they sent it (and why I'm posting about it): "You have reached a significant and rare milestone: the completion of your 1,000th batch with FamilySearch indexing."

I cannot believe that I've now indexed that many batches! That seems like so many. I am proud of myself for making the choice to index. If you haven't started yet, why wait any longer? It's fun to do, and, tho sometimes challenging, brings a sense of great accomplishment! So get signed up and get started!

Gettin' My Craft On #2

Here are more pictures of my calendar (finally). I'm not done yet, but I'm getting closer :)

February

The picture on the top left is from my brothers' scout something-or-other... and I am really bad at remembering if that's an eagle or a hawk - probably an eagle. Shoot.
The picture on the top right is an 'inside' shot of my umbrella.
Bottom left is me and my friend, Amy Lundquist. She has been the director of plays at the elementary for the last number of years. I help out with playing the music (many of you may remember my play posts). Last Feb/March we did a play called Choc-A-Block and I dressed as Willy Wonka. Good times.
Bottom right is me and my nephew Jarren and niece Chloe. Candid shot that I absolutely love!

March

Far left is our former principal, David Stephenson. For his birthday, he was given this Nacho Libre costume. Being a good sport, he put it on and walked thru the school wearing it! The teachers got a big kick out of it - his kids were embarrassed.
Middle picture is bird tracks in the snow. I don't know why, but any time I see bird tracks in the snow, or sand, it just makes me happy.
Bottom right, I don't know what kind of tree that is, but the little fuzzy things on it looked warm and inviting...
Top right, I love monkeys! One of the kids at school brought this one and gave me permission to photograph it.

April
Background pictures: I think the only one not from my yard is the top left. These are my nieces and nephews as of April of last year - Jarren on the left, Chloe on the bottom - blowing bubbles, Avery and Jordan in the middle with me. I have the cutest kids in my family!!

May

Background flowers are from my yard.
Background waterfall is in AF Canyon.
Background temple is Logan.
Behind the flowers are Linda Knowles, myself, and Pam Campbell. We went to the Logan temple together for Aunt Pam and my 3rd temple anniversary.
The cute boys are Jarren, and his new baby brother, Madden.
Grandma H and I are at the bottom - this was at her 80 birthday party.
I'm gonna keep working on the rest of the calendar, and I'll post photos when I get more done. Thanks for sharing!!

Big Movie Break...

So any of you who know my secret desires, know that one of them is: I want to be an actress in a movie - not a big role, but just be in a movie. Biggest problem with that desire: I have stage fright and do not like being in front of people - as the center of attention.
Today, I happened to catch my big break! I am anticipating the agents and movie people calling me up any minute now, wanting me to be in their shows/movies!
As today was Stake Conference, there was a choir made up of young men and young women from our stake. Since I am over music in my ward young women program, I had the opportunity to sing with this choir. By chance, I sat in one of the middle seats (in the choir chairs) and this session was being broadcast to two other buildings... so there was a camera fixed on the speaker. Because of the chair I was in, I was on the screen too!! My family was in one of the other buildings, and my mom sent me a text (before the meeting started) saying how cute I looked, and to smile, and to not make faces during the meeting (thanks Mom! Did you see me say "Hi Mom"? Hahaha- I totally did!!).
It was hard being on my best behavior for that two hour meeting... knowing that EVERYBODY in the entire stake (who was in attendance, of course) could see me and was probably watching me! As I had other friends send me texts as well, saying they saw me - I realized that I just caught my big movie break! I was on the big screen already! I didn't have to be nervous at all... just look pretty and not fall asleep or pick my nose ;)
I would like to thank all my supporters, friends/family, co-workers, anyone else who has influenced my life to help me get to realize one of my biggest dreams! You are awesome! Thank you!!

If you're not laughing by now, you should be... cuz that was pretty funny ;)

Gettin' My Craft On #1

This is going to be a multiple part series... but I'm not sure how multiple yet. Hahaha. Last November, I went up to Logan to visit my friends Laura and Linda (just like the past couple years) and our crafty item this year was a calendar. It was already printed and put together, but we got to stamp the pages and decorate them how we would.
Because of time constraints, I was only able to stamp my pages, and I am just now starting to finish it. I have printed out pictures from 2010 for each month...

Here's January:

Here's a closer shot of the page itself.

And an even closer shot of the three pictures I used.
The girl with me is a former student. We liked to "dress alike" - so here we are both wearing our "I (heart) Recess" clothes :)
The picture behind my head is one I took in my front yard. The water had dropped down and froze to create this three-tiered icicle, if you will.
The other picture is one I took on the playground. I don't have the other pictures printed off yet (which is why I don't know how many of these posts I'll be doing - LOL), but when I do and they are on my calendar, I'll be for sure posting pictures!!

Looking Back

I was going to upload photos with this post, but it would take too much time right now, and I can't find the photos I want :( So...

2010 Highlights:
(in no particular order)

• Played the music for Choc-A-Block play for Alpine Elementary - and pulled off a rather good Willy Wonka impression :)
• Two nephews born - Madden Drake on May 11, and Logan Stephen on July 1.
• First "Roomie-kin" born (that would be a child of a former roommate) - Boone Mason on September 22.
• Fell in love with Washington (state, not DC).
• New Principal at work, she is awesome!
• Not had soda since August 25 and have now lost almost 20 lbs!!
• Have been in my home ward for a year - still doing music in YW and sports for Women/YW in the (ENTIRE) stake.
• Have broken off 3 extremely unhealthy (for me) relationships with the male gender.
• Wrote a story and other poetry.
• Cut 12 inches from my hair at the end of May.
• Went to Girls Camp and had yummy marshmallows with sauerkraut :D Hee hee.
• Met my goal for indexing: I indexed over 20,800 names in 6 months!!
• Missed half a day of work due to the SWAT team being called out to my neighborhood.
• Record number of musical numbers - over 45! I think the total number was 48, but I can't remember anymore.
• Meeting and making new friends.

So much more happened, but it would be such an intensive list, you'd get sick of reading it.

I look forward to 2011; a bit unsure of what it may hold, but willing to take on the challenges it throws my way. I am definitely looking forward to continuing my friendships and trying to make the best out of every situation.