Piano Lessons

Come one come all! We are taking two to three new piano students for winter semester 2012. Piano lessons not only include weekly private instruction but music tech time and monthly master classes. Lessons are given in our home in Rexburg, Idaho. Visit RexburgMusic.com to learn more and like us on facebook

Thanksgiving and Concerts

David and I went to Utah for Thanksgiving and even did the whole Black Friday thing.  We started shopping at 11:30 PM and finally came home at 10:00 AM!  All of our Christmas shopping done in one night.  It was one of the best dates we've ever had.  It even included a 6:00 AM breakfast at McDonald's.

Thanksgiving day was fun to spend with Dana and Robert and a few other family members and friends.

Andrew and his friend, TC, Rick and Sandy (Dana's friends from the ward), Garet, Robert and Dana, Me and David, Grandpa Chambers, Grandpa Love

In December, David had concerts and recitals galore.  His composer's recital was awesome.  He composed a men's choral piece that is truly amazing.  I still am floored when I think of his dynamic personality and genuine goodness that committed more than 20 guys to come to three rehearsals a week for more than a month.  He fed them a big dutch oven dinner to thank them.  

Then, a few days later, he sang in one of the biggest concerts BYU-Idaho has done to date with guest singer, Brian Stokes Mitchell.  It was a fantastic event!  My favorite parts were The Little Drummer Boy, and Oh Come, All Ye Faithful.  Amy came to the composer's recital (We love her!) and Dana and Robert came up for both events even though they were only three days apart.  What a support team they are to us!  They even took us out to Costa Vida one night Chinese and ice cream the other.  Wahoo! 

Laundry

R.I.P. dryer numero uno

Sometimes I wonder about people who lived in the olden days.  How did they find each other in crowds without cell phones?  How did they eat without microwaves?  How did they learn anything without Google?  The question I have been wondering most of all is how they did laundry without dryers.  While I am actually well aware and very familiar with the answer to these questions, especially the latter, I am especially grateful for my new (to me) washer and dryer!  Our dryer broke right around Thanksgiving and it has been obnoxious taking loads to the laundromat or pestering our nice neighbor across the hall to dry just one more load.  She really was so kind to help us out.  I remember having to dry everything on lines or drying racks in Spain.  Our clothes were always nice and crunchy.  It was a colorful sight, but obnoxious.

The DR was even worse, we didn't even have a washer, so we either had to wash everything by hand, drag it a mile to the laundromat (which was run by one crazy Slovakian man who had one washer and dryer), or take our suitcase full of dirty clothes to church and pay one of the ladies to do it for us.  What a mess!

Hilary Weeks understands my frustrations with laundry.  It was super fun to see her at Time Out for Women this year with the girls.  This is her take on laundry:

Here are our new washer and dryer that we are so excited about:

My very favorite part is that it only takes one cycle to dry the clothes now!  Before it took three.  Wahoo!

Halloween

For the most part, this was a fairly normal day.  I taught school (check it out here!), David learned school.  We came home.  We did, however, make our appearance on the town at Arctic Circle for ice cream.  I dressed up all day at school and made David dress up with me to go out to enjoy our frozen treat.   Before leaving, we were sitting in our living room, eating dinner, when a knock came at the door.  I was ready to get up and answer it, wondering who it could be when David yelled, "You can answer it!  We have candy!"  It took me a second to realize that it would be bite-sized trick-or-treaters on the opposite side of my door.  I made way for David as he bounded to the door only to open it with none other than red and white striped (year-old) candy canes in hand.  I couldn't help but leave the room because I was giggling at the sight more than I could contain.  We made a mad dash out of there after that.

I am obviously Hermione, one of the greatest witches alive.  

David's is harder.  He carried around a baton and sheet music, which apparently we did not photograph.  He is supposed to be a disturbed composer...

I think however he should have just said he was a BYU-Idaho Music Major.  That's what their eyes look like most of the time anyway. :)

Lost with Ralfie the Camel

David's first Elder's Quorum activity turned out to be a success!  We had more than plenty of the delicious Dutch oven chili and a great turn out. We counted about 70 people. We were really grateful to everyone who came and especially to those who brought salads and desserts to share.  After dinner and a bit of socializing, everyone helped clean up and we headed off to the Straw Maze.  Here are come pictures of our outing:

Jessica & J.T.

Karen & Brandon

 

J.T. being eaten alive by the straw

Jessica, Denae, & David...J.T. was mysteriously abducted for the last 20 minutes

Brandon

There were lots of tunnels this year!  Scary!

Our new friend, Ralfie

David, Denae, & Ralfie

Nora Beard, Jessica, & J.T.

Devin & Nicole

Brandon & Karen

The brave group we faced the maze with

This camel was huge!  I was surprised by how large it was!

After the activity, our little group went back to J.T. and Jessica's place and played a game called BANG! that Devin and Nicole had.  It was super fun!  It was a great way to spend the night. :)

New Loves

We had Garet over for Sunday dinner last night, which was quite delicious, and he brought his new friend, Riley. We decided it would be great if she stuck around.  Four thumbs up from Denae and David. We had a lovely time eating (too much) spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, apple crisp, and french bean vanilla ice cream.  They even brought sparkling cider which we kept all for ourselves forgot to drink. :)  The worst best part of the night was playing games which Garet refused to loose.  He beat everyone at Nertz.  Three times in a row.  We decided to move on.  Then, he crushed us in Guesstures.  Oh well.  There can't be a plastic golden star award for everyone.  We had a great time.  Thanks for coming, guys!  

The official Guesstures winners

Enjoying the food and company

Ready to act out Guesstures cards

Random Kindness

Saturday night, David and I went to an organ recital on campus since he has to attend various performances throughout the semester.  We were running a little close on time beforehand, so we called in a take-out order to our favorite:

When we arrived, we made our way quickly up to the front to pay for and pick up our order.  To our astonishment, the girl at the counter informed us that a gentleman had recognized our name and paid for our order as he went through the line earlier.  What a wonderful surprise!  We were so excited to have such a fun random act of kindness befall us!  To the kind mystery gentleman, THANK YOU!

Sunday brought many Priesthood meetings and the annual primary program.  The kids did such a wonderful job.  The theme this year was, "I know the scriptures are true."  I could feel the testimony of these sweet little people.  It was a privilege to work with them as the pianist.

Yes, we are nerds.  Yes, we do often match for church.