The plan is to have no plans--fun on a flex Friday

Jason packed two trips in 4 days this week--we were glad to get him home last night at 11pm.  At least he had a nice drive home from the LA airport in a S-W-E-E-T rental car:

Mustang GT Premium

He took Wade for a spin before returning it to Avis--very happy boys!!!!

Gospel study

I've been teaching Institute since the end of May, and I'm learning quickly that in order to stay on top of my game I need to take time to study every single day, among other things.  I haven't had that habit for a long time, and it feels good to make it a priority.

Especially during this week, when I just finished a lesson last night, have to start preparing for next week's lesson, and have to give a talk in church on Sunday.  I've felt like I've been juggling lately and having a hard time keeping everything up in the air, haha!  Thank goodness I have time to figure this all out before school starts next month when our schedules--school! seminary!--get busier!

I'm also thankful for the Church's Notebook feature on lds.org.  This morning I spent about an hour and a half reading scriptures, reading talks, making notes, and highlighting important things, all online.  And I discovered that I can print all of my notes and highlights when I'm done--GENIUS!

Rhiannon and the most awesome middle school yearbook ever

I was just a teeny bit excited when Rhiannon got accepted to be on her middle school's yearbook staff for 8th grade.  (5 years on a yearbook staff in middle school and high school makes me a little biased regarding its awesomeness, haha!)  She had to fill out forms, attend meetings, and get teacher recommendations at the end of 7th grade, AND she took zero period PE all this year so that she could do two electives, band and yearbook.

There were a lot of bonuses to this set-up:

a)  She got a ride to school with her dad at 6:15am most school mornings and really enjoyed that time with him.  (When summer vacation started up last week, Jason said it was pretty weird going to work without his sidekick!)

b)  She got to help capture her 8th grade year with words and pictures

c)  She learned a lot about being responsible and dependable, and doing quality work

d)  She learned some cool computer skills

c) and she got to spend not one but two classes with her favorite middle school teacher of all 3 years--Mrs. Connie Abshire.  Rhiannon had her for both yearbook and 8th grade US History, and she absolutely loved her!

Rhiannon helped put together several pages in the book--the intro, 8th grade roof shot, Run Across America, PE, the band pages, Music Monday and Memorable Messages.

She said this was THE hardest page for her, but she thought she did a good job typing everyone's names in correctly!

Her family paid a little extra money to put an ad in the back of the book--how cute is she!

The Roof Top page--fun!

They carried the Instagram and hashtags theme through the whole book--it was cool!

WAY TO GO, Rhiannon!!!

Band Extravaganza

On April 9th, we watched Rhiannon play in the Band Extravaganza at Burroughs High School here in town.  Both middle school bands and the big high school band crowded into the gym at the high school and played their hearts out.  It was a lot of fun!

Panoramic view of the bands.  Rhiannon's band is on the left, directed by Dan Peterson.

Getting ready to play.  The Murray band played two songs on their own and did pretty well.  Rhiannon said the Pirates of the Caribbean song would have been better if their tuba player had showed up! :/

I spy Rhiannon!

Photo bomb by Wade

A couple months ago Rhiannon brought home a letter from Mr. Peterson from the high school band director, Mr. Austin.  8th graders were encouraged to audition to play a piece with the high school band, called Emperata.  Mr. Austin bent over backwards to help us get Rhiannon in to play for him.  It was nerve-wracking until we got to the high school band room and he made her play just 5 notes of the song and said she was good to go!  We were really surprised!

Well, fast forward to the Band Extravaganza, and Rhiannon and a handful of other middle school kids had their names announced and were invited to join the Burros band for their piece.  Rhiannon said it was pretty bad because she didn't realize she was missing a piece of the music that hadn't been printed out, so she froze during some of the song.  We were proud of her for sticking through and doing her best, though!

The best piece of the night was when all 3 bands played a John Williams mash-up together.  

It was amazing.  

It was brilliant.  

It was flawless.

It was breathtaking.

And I forgot to take video of it because I was too entranced.  Boo.

Oh, well!  We're happy for Rhiannon and excited to see what experiences she'll have in the high school band next year!

Rhiannon's piano adjudication

In preparation for Rhiannon's piano honors recital that's coming in a couple weeks, she participated in a piano adjudication, or piano judging. She had a good time and the guy was really cool.  He gave her some good tips on the piano piece she'll be playing, called L'Orage.

Rhiannon really enjoyed working with this musician, Steven Vanhauwaert, because he gave her LOTS of tips on how to improve her piece and did that in a kind, energetic way.  She had a good time!

You can learn more about Steven and his group here:  Felici Piano Trio

Here's Rhiannon playing before the session:

And here's a clip of her session with Steven.  He gave her great tips on dynamics, using the pedals, and creating more drama.  It was great!  We're looking forward to her performance on May 3.

Jason did something COOL last weekend!

Jason stayed home with us for most of the Thanksgiving break, yay!  The guest bedroom is getting a painting/baseboard/crown-molding makeover, and Jason is doing about 99.99% of it.  It's going to look so good with the crown molding and the two "Aggie Maroon" accent walls!

He also took us to Thor: The Dark World, motivated the whole family (+ the dogs) to participate in a 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, and made several trips to Home Depot, all of which were breaks in between all the prep and painting he was doing.

So I was super happy that he could go have some fun, too, on Saturday at the Willow Springs International Speedway in Rosamond, CA, about an hour south of us.  Here's what Jason had to say about it, and some pictures to prove it!

On his Facebook page, Jason said, "After over 8 years of ownership, I finally gave my Infiniti a proper break in today.  I raced it at the ExtremeSports open track day at the Streets of Willow racetrack down in Rosamond.  It was an AWESOME time and I made some new friends with a local racing club.  There were a lot of great, fast cars there, but I feel like I more than held my own as a total newbie with a stock 8-year-old car.  Hope to do it again soon."

The kids and I drove down in the van as "race support" and had a good time watching all the fast, LOUD cars.  I had no idea this place existed!

Ridgecrest is famous!

Too cool. :)