Recital

The Princess had a violin recital this evening. She did a great job. It was a last minute request. Her violin teacher had been asked by another teacher if she would like to have some of her students perform in a recital she was having. I hope you understood that last sentence because I'm too tired to go back and explain it. Like I said the Princess played beautifully ... I was very impressed. I however did not do so great. We were supposed to be at the church where the recital was to take place at 5:00 pm, but we didn't get there until 5:30 pm because I forgot to bring the directions of how to get there, so I had to do it by memory. What I remembered the teacher telling me was that it was St Paul's Episcopal Church on 36Th and Bull streets ... but, I couldn't find the Episcopal church ... Long story short it ended up being St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheren at 31st and Bull streets, Ugh! Lucky us, the recital hadn't started and we actually got there before her teacher did. All the students were great ... we then came home, left the camera with the Queen so she could download the performance and watch it, and went to Chick-fil-leg (that's what P2 calls Chic-fil-A) to get something to eat. We get back home and I ask her Royal Highness how she liked the performance and she says, "It sounds great, its much better if you close your eye and listen!" I say "Oh, was the lighting bad, can you even see her?" she responds "Uh, just watch and you'll understand why I'm saying that." I now share the video with you so you can see how we will always be able to remember this recital!

Unlike pictures you take pictures you take with your camera, videos cannot be flipped so that you can see them properly. So, keep the camera in the upright position. Sage advise from the Queen.

Tennis

The boys started tennis lessons the other day. They had a good time. I enjoyed watching them even though I was getting tore-up by the sand gnats. Here are some of the pictures that I took.

The Princess In Concert

The Princess performed in a spring concert for a youth orchestra group she has been involved with since September. The concert was excellent and she did a great. She is the Lyric Strings I and Lyric Strings II group. These groups prepare them for the Chamber Orchestra and then from there they work towards getting into the Youth Orchestra.

Here are a few clips from the concert. The sound quality isn't the best ... It sounded much better live. She is the one in between the two girls in the front ... the bow of the girl to the left is going back and forth in front of her head. This clip is "Ding Dong The Wicked Witch Is Dead." They also did "If I Only Had A Brain." Those were her two favorite pieces ... At least I think they were ... They were the only pieces I ever heard her practicing.



This next one is "Fiddler Tunes No.3"



Same piece.



The End! (she's the one in front of the older blonde lady)



We were very happy that Papa and Grandmother were able to come up to see the concert! I think they really enjoyed it.



We've had to get up early almost every Saturday morning since September to go to practices, so we're looking forward to sleeping in this Saturday.

Casting Crowns

This is one of my favorite Christian Contemporary Music groups and this song "Voice of Truth" is my favorite song of theirs.

Happy Birthday Jill

This is Lola Jill. It's her birthday today. She's the youngest of my four older sisters and definitely the shortest. Standing at a mere 4' 11" she's possibly the funniest of my sisters ... let's put it this way, I'm usually at a full side splitting laugh within 5 minutes of talking to her. Something else you should know about her is she has the voice of an angel ... I could listen to her sing anything.

She's a great Sister and Aunt!

We love you Midge! Best wishes and many happy returns!

MOONLIGHT IS BACK!!!!

There’s a new episode of Moonlight on tonight, so don’t bother to call the Royal Household between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. est., cause we aint answering the phone!

Count Your Many Jobs, Name Them One By One

Have you ever tried to count all the places were you have worked? Back in the early nineties my cousins Lew, Debbie and I were sitting up late one night and started counting how many jobs we'd had. I was surprised at how many jobs I'd had up to that point in my working life. I remember that Lew and Debbie had worked twice as many jobs as I'd had, and we were all around the same age. They had several 1 or 2 day jobs, and that helped to push up their totals. It might surprise you how many jobs you've had. It might surprise you what few jobs you've had. Here's my attempt at recreating my job history. I'm not going to count the many jobs mowing grass and babysitting.

1. Sweeping the 7-11 parking lot every Saturday with my friend Richie ... we made $5.00 each.
2. Blackbeards Seafood Restaraunt -Bus Boy
3. McDonalds - Cook/Cashier
4. Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) - Custodian
5. McDonalds - Cook/Cashier
6. Escambia Treating Company - Framer, drilled holes in logs that were being made into telephone poles.
7. Storehouse Markets - Cashier and Freezer stocker
8. 7-11 - Cashier/Clerk
9. Noi Sirius - Chocolate factory worker in Iceland.
10. Griffis Steel - Worked under the name Stanley - mechanic assist, all around gofer
11. St. Mark's Hospital - Switchboard Operator, registration clerk
12. North Florida Regional Medical Center - Outpatient Registration clerk
13. Walt Disney World Co. - Resort reservationist
14. St. Mark's Hospital - Registration Clerk/Switchboard Operator
15. Ward Cove Packers- Salmon Processor in Alaska
16. St. Mark's Hospital - Registration Clerk/Information Systems Tech/Posting Accounts Receivable/Coder
17. ZCMI Mall - Photographer Took pictures of kids sitting on Santa's lap.
18. Medicode, Inc. (now Ingenix) - Customer Service rep.
19. Deseret Book - Book Seller
20. St. Joseph's Hospital - Coder
21. KForce - Coder
22. Southeast Georgia Health System - Coder

Jobs 17-19 were part time jobs while working at job 16. Job 21 was part time while working at both 20 and 22. St. Mark's Hospital is the place I worked at for the greatest length of time. I think I worked for them for a combined total of 12 years ... I have 2 five year pens that I received from them.

That's all of the jobs I can remember. There might have been a few others. Most were good, a few have been great, and I can think of only 1 that was bad.

New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie

This is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie.


I found the recipe in the Mrs. Fields Cookie Book a few months ago.

I received the book about 15 years ago as a freebie from a book club I belonged to. Tell you the truth I think I only made one recipe from it in all the time I've had it. The book is full of all of these fancy pantsy cookie recipes and I don't make fancy pantsy cookies, I just eat them. I can't really tell you why this ccc is different than other chocolate chip cookie except it does seem to taste better than the mainstream ccc. It does have a longer baking time and at a lower temperature, and the ingredient make up is a little different than most ccc recipes. Anyway, I'm sharing the recipe ... try it you'll like it.






Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2tsp vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Combine flour, soda and salt. Mix together and set aside.
In another bowl or mixer blend together butter and sugars. Add eggs then vanilla and mix until light and fluffy(a touch of fancy pantsy).
Add flour mixture and chocolate chips , and blend at low speed until just mixed. Do not over mix. Bake for 22-24 minutes.

Our Morning Visitor

Here is our morning visitor. He created quite a stir while we were trying to get the kids off to school and while parents were dropping kids of for preschool.












He is the neighbor's puppy/dog that has been trying to escape their back yard for several weeks. As you can see he finally succeeded this morning.















We knocked on the neighbor's door, but they had already left for work, so I was holding the rascal off until all of the kids got into the house. One of the mothers dropping her kid off was concerned with what I was going to do with him after everyone arrived. I told her I was going to let him go, but that wasn't going to work for her so, she went to the back of her SUV and pulled out the kennel that you see our visitor sitting in. Who rides around with a spare kennel in the back of their vehicle ... well, she would ... they have a ton of animals at their house, so I'm sure its handy to have one in the car.




We left a note on the neighbor's door that we have their dog. I hope, for the dog's sake that they come home for lunch, because all we have on our animal menu is cat food. Anyway our visitor is happy (see his smile), safe and anxiously awaiting the arrival of his owners.

*****UPDATE*****

HE IS A SHE. Her owner came home for lunch and rescued her. She has broken free again and has been put back into the kennel. Oh well, she'll be okay ... most people enjoy spending time with us, so I can only imgine that its even 7 times better for a dog. Of course we don't put people who visit us into a kennel.

"I'm tired!"

Last night It was getting late and I had to pry the youngest prince from the computer. He was not happy about not being able to finish his game on PBSkids.org (he says it just like that) and he wasn't happy that he had to get a bath. After much drama, he finally gets in the tub and then yells at me (we are the LOUD family), "I'm tired!" I say to him, "Well it's late and that's why we need to get you bathed so you can go to bed and get some sleep." He looks slowly up at me and says , "I'm not tired, I'm tired of you!" I couldn't help but bust out laughing which just made him more mad. He is now tired of me! Oh well, I think thats better than beign fired. About a year and a half ago he started telling me and the Queen "Your Fired!" when he wasn't getting his way with us. Then he progressed to telling us in those situations "You're off the planet!" Oooh, so far away! Then he started keeping it local by telling us "You're out of the family!" I wonder if I'm wearing him down, because "I'm tired of you" seems a little lame. I doubt it ... it's not in his make up. It won't be long before he cracks us up with another funny statement born out of his strong-willed nature!