DC is gone for the first rehearsal of the symphony season. This year is exciting because of a new music director for the ASO, Philip Mann. I can't wait to hear how things went tonight!
And here is Rosebud sporting her Maestro Mann hairdo in honor of the occasion.
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
-- Jane Austen, P&P
What happens when a professional musician comes home, takes off his tux, and gets on the floor with a cheesy 1/8 size violin and 3 silly little boys? (This video was taken almost a year ago, but I just can't resist. It's too perfect for the new blog. :)
(Fluffy and the fiddle are reading from Kevin Henkes' Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.)
And Project 365 Rosebud continues! These pictures are from last week, and she is now 8 months old.
(tragedy! I need to put some weights on her head to stop her from growing so fast!)
She is now officially uninterested in my camera.
No crawling yet.
No teeth yet.
And no sleeping through the night.
(Exacto formed a stuffed-animal barrier here to keep her from falling off the bed.)
Just sheer cuteness.
Dear "Mama's Boys",
You have been a good blog, and I will miss you.
I will even keep your URL (although to be strictly honest, that is less out of sentimentality and more out of sheer terror that I will lose the posts if I try to mess with it :).
Farewell, sweet blog! Perhaps we will meet again, in the strange cached copy world of Google.
Until then I am yours truly,
etc.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dear DC,
Today is your birthday again! I won't embarrass you by publicly announcing your age (cough cough), but I want you to know--as sort of a funny birthday gift--that this new blog is dedicated to you. I thought for a long time about what it should be called. I came up with all kinds of fun ideas revolving around the theme of 4 boys and 1 girl. And those 4 boys and 1 girl are very, very important to me. But I realized that one day, they will be grown up and gone, and I will look across the table and see only you. Along with that I remembered that it was because of you that all of this wonderful, crazy life had begun.
You are the quiet backbone of our family. You have been the constant strength through the years. Some who know you have said you are one of the most Christ-like people they know, and I agree whole-heartedly. (Take this as a huge compliment that you deserve, because I think I know you better than anyone else in the world!) Yet, you often seem to be in the background. You are always providing and helping and sustaining during this time of heavy needs. By necessity my arms are busy and full with our young children, but I want to remember that sometimes those arms need to be around you, too, even now. :)
Thank you for being the most amazingly selfless person I know. You continually put my comfort and needs first. I'm pretty sure I don't deserve you, but I will spend the rest of my life trying to. Happy Birthday, Cute One!
Love, M
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Okay, everyone! Put your hands together and give "The Fiddler's Wife" a warm bloggy welcome! Yay!
It's not much to look at yet! I'll be tweaking it for awhile. But look for some catch-up posts and some keep-up posts, coming very soon.
This one is a BIGGIE!
And I really, really do appreciate this right now.
While most people go to work, DC goes to play. :) He rehearses and performs with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and one of their resident quartets, and in turn receives regular checks all year round. It is a truly beautiful thing.
During our 8 years of married student life, we often wondered if we were chasing an impossible dream. < cue "Man of La Mancha" theme > :)
Could a person REALLY support a family doing music for a living? Or would we end up paying off student loans with some menial labor job, and regretting our choice to shoot for the moon?
Once DC started in on the professional orchestra audition scene, our fears only increased. It is a brutal world. You work your little tail off learning excerpts and concerto movements, you pay to get yourself to the audition, they listen to you for a few minutes, and then you are either advanced to "the next round" of several, or you are unceremoniously sent home with the 30-100 other musicians you were competing with. It can be so debilitatingly frustrating. DC auditioned for many orchestras over the course of two years before landing the position here. He met many other brilliant and talented violinists, many from the great conservatories, who were sent home as well after 5 minutes of playing in the first round.
Can you imagine what it feels like to have spent months preparing (no, years, really!) and sometimes hundreds of dollars getting yourself to an audition, only to turn around and go home completely empty-handed? And then do that over and over and over. . . . And this for a position that may only pay a schoolteacher's salary or far less. (There's a HUGE variety in payscale for orchestra musicians). It's way too easy to start feeling a little cynical and hopeless.
His mentor Igor Gruppman said once that landing a position with a professional orchestra is like winning the lottery. It is just so unpredictable what can lead someone to win over so many other amazing players.
How grateful we were to "win the lottery" in May 2004! We were euphoric for months.
So what exactly DOES a professional orchestral player do?
Well, here in Arkansas, a professional orchestra player is part celebrity-performer / part music-"evangelist". The evening and weekend work consists of rehearsals and performances downtown.
DC on far right (the one with the gorgeous profile :)
The weekday work is mostly traveling with the quartet to elementary schools all over the state to give demos and "instrument petting zoos". The ASO has an award-winning outreach program to introduce children to classical music and to help them fall in love with it.
It really is an awesome job. Part of the time he's doing what he loves, and the rest of the time helping to teach children to love it, too.
Now, I have to confess that I almost didn't write this post. Shamefully I have been guilty many times of complaining about this very blessing. (Usually about the killer schedule during the season. Oh yeah, and the pay could of course be higher--I think everyone feels that way about their job, though, eh?). But as I see how tenuous so many jobs are right now, and knowing well that the music industry is hardly considered a realm of stable employment, I have felt very humbled and grateful.
It's not a perfect situation, and someday we'd love to have him teaching full-time at a university somewhere, and performing only part-time. But for now it is a miraculous blessing, and we thank Heavenly Father for it.
It has enabled us to buy a house, provide necessities for our chiquitos, and best of all, given us hope of a lifelong musical career for DC. Those of you who know him probably can't imagine him doing anything else.
Of all the blessings I am grateful for, this is perhaps the greatest. How can I ever be sad or complain, when I am sealed eternally to my beloved and our children? No matter what happens in this life, as long as we are faithful, our bond is permanent and unbreakable.
As my grandpa wrote in his journal -- soon after being sealed in the Mesa Temple to his beloved just before deployment to active duty in World War II -- "Now I have something that can never be taken away."
I love you, Darling. Many, many happy returns!
Tomorrow morning is one of my favorite times of the year. I love celebrating Jesus' Resurrection!
We had a wonderful trip to the Memphis temple today. We did our normal switcheroo routine, so that each of us gets to do a session, while the other enjoys the boys.
I love these pictures that DC took during his turn with the kiddos.
(My half of "enjoying the boys" was not quite as positive and full of the Spirit as you would hope, especially for just coming out of the temple. It started before we even left the parking lot--they were loudly arguing about what color the temple is! Sheesh. It was only downhill from there. My shining example of patience did hold out for about 20 minutes, though, which is longer than usual lately!)
Anyway, I think the best part, besides actually being in the temple, was the ride home. Hummer fell asleep, and the other two were watching "Wall-e" in the back seat, and so DC and I had nearly TWO HOURS of uninterrupted conversation. Now that is heaven. We talked about Benjamin, what we imagine he is doing now, why he doesn't have to experience earth life like we do, etc. We discussed decisions that need to be made regarding our sons here on earth. I asked my Darling how he thinks I am doing. Am I passing the test?
We realized that today was a very appropriate day to be in the Lord's House, performing work for the dead. As Mormons, we know that Jesus Christ, in the time between His death and resurrection, was in the Spirit World, organizing the missionary work for those in spirit prison (see 1 Peter 4:6, and D&C 138:30).
I love thinking that we spent this day before Easter helping with those missionary efforts by providing the ordinances for those children of Heavenly Father who need them to progress! Maybe Benjamin was serving alongside us today!
And now, some Easter thoughts. . . .
I hope I have written often enough about my feelings about my Savior, Jesus Christ, that anyone who even briefly reads this blog knows that I love Him with all my heart.
(Some of my favorite past posts about Him: My Truest Friend -- Ten Months -- Day 8 - {modern prophets} )
I wish that we celebrated Easter more thoroughly, more on the level that we do Christmas! One of my favorite Pres. Hinckley quotes is: ""There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter."
And so I attempted to write some of my thoughts about what Easter morning means to me. . . .
(I know it's not the best poetry but hopefully it describes the beauty and hope I feel when I think about Christ's Resurrection. The scripture following gets the job done for sure. :)
easter morning
a tomb burst open
satan's power baffled
fatal crack in death's stone
easter morning
a life gently returned
tears spent and dried
a family firmly reunited
And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness.
Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy!
And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy!
And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!
And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!
~ Doctrine and Covenants 128:23
Praise be to God for the matchless gift of His Divine Son! I will sing to Him tomorrow.
This video is so hilarious!
It reminds me of when DC was working on the grounds crew at BYU, and one afternoon when he was supposed to be asleep I heard him suddenly start laughing. He had been starting the mower in his dream and woke himself up jerking his arm up with great force.
Enjoy!
DC's wonderful sister Vauna asked about his { ahem--polish fingernails } BOOK, that we very discreetly alluded to in my last post.
{ take a moment to pick up the buttons that popped off my sweater at the very mention of my husband's BOOK }
Visit this link at AMAZON.COM to see what we were talking about.
A German publisher contacted DC about publishing his doctoral treatise. He spent some time making revisions and getting permission from the artists he interviewed, and now it is a (very expensive) book!
It's funny because we're both kind of starry-eyed about this, and spent several minutes just gazing at the page. No idea how many people will buy it--it's listed at 49 Euros! :) --but we just think it's cool anyway.
DC wants me to mention that my posting about this is NOT in any way, shape or form, suggesting that anyone should feel any pressure whatsoever to buy it. (And those of you who know DC personally know that he is the absolute least pressuring sort of person on the planet. :)
I just wanted to brag on my cutie.
And now I'll go try to restrain the paparazzi.
My baby brother Jofus tagged me with this, and I thought it would be fun to include DC--it will be more impressive that way (he's protesting :). So we're on our date, doing this together.
Green = DC (aka Gras) did it
Purple = yours truly did it
Just plain bold = we both done that
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii (waaah!)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (see #4)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (in elementary school he faked a sore throat--this is the first time he has revealed the dark secret)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (with a girl)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Learned a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (Does a caricature count?)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Ridden on a ferris wheel
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain (heck, yes)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China (been to Taiwan, though)
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (just one, though! :)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (with my sweet mommy)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (saw it in Ottawa!)
77. Broken a bone (a couple of ribs)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (on our honeymoon! :)
80. Published a book (in process of publication)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (M - OT, C - NT)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (he doesn't want to talk about it)
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person
101. Learned to play an instrument (ha! - just seeing if you're paying attention!)
Hey, this was fun! I tag . . . . . Mark and Manda to do it on one of their dates. :)
He grinned his crooked smile at me, stopping my breath and my heart. I couldn’t imagine how an angel could be any more glorious. There was nothing about him that could be improved upon.
Bella Swan, Twilight, Chapter 12, p.241
A few of you may be surprised that I love the "Twilight" series. I admit that the sensuality in the books does push the envelope as far as what I generally tolerate.
But here's why I love them so much:
They help me remember what it was like to first fall in love with the man whom I would marry. After 11 1/2 years of marriage (8 of which he was still in school), and 4 babies, sometimes daily life blurs those memories. But when I finished "Twilight" for the first time, I remembered that overpowering magnetic pull just to touch the one I love. I could feel the electric rush of our first few kisses. And it brought back memories of when we would talk for hours. When our time apart was spent counting the minutes until we were together again.
I am so lucky to have my own Edward Cullen! And, as I like to tease him, "You don't even have to suck my blood for us to be together forever!"
d.c. ~ e.c.
~He is so handsome. And in a young way. Many people meeting him for the first time have misjudged his age by about 15 years! And during the 13 years since I met him, he has changed very little. Like Edward's forever remaining 17. :)
~He cares about my feelings even more than his own.
~He is a perfect gentleman. He opens doors for me, and teaches our sons to do the same.
~He protects me. Maybe not from speeding trucks and enraged vampires, but he does handle all the spiders! (Yech).
~He has amazing musical talents. There have been memorable, romantic evenings when he has played just for me. (You would not believe how attractive a man playing Bach just for you can be!)
~I feel like Bella did when he returns from a long absence, "the strangest sense of relief — as if I’d been in pain and that pain had suddenly ceased" (Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.17).
~No, he doesn't glitter in the sun. But he does tend to sneeze when he looks at the sun! teehee
~He has amber flecks in his eyes. I like to spend a lot of time looking into them.
~I really, really like to kiss him. And I really, really love to feel his arms around me.
~He listens to me, even when I'm completely emotional, and when I ramble on and on. He wants me to be happy.
As I think about gratitude and the things my Father in Heaven has blessed me with, I place my DC at the very top of the list.
In the past year, he has proven himself to be not only as loving as ever, but amazingly steady and constant. When I was in the throes of profound grief, having to fight even to get up in the morning and face another day without my baby, he got the boys up, made them breakfast, and took them to school. He never made me feel bad for this, or like a slacker. He has been so understanding. On nights when we were supposed to be having a date but I couldn't make myself be happy enough to even enjoy a movie, he brushed my hair and let me cry. He has cried with me, prayed for me, fasted for me, given me Priesthood blessings.
Oh, yes. I am so thankful for my husband.
I hope you have your own "DC", too.
First of all, the chocolate piano.
Hopefully I don't get too technical for ya'll with this. You can always skip over this paragraph if I'm getting too much in the nitty-gritty. (I can never think of that phrase now without hearing it in Nacho Libre's voice! ha!) So, anyways. In my piano teaching, I use a method I learned from my beloved and revered teacher at BYU, Irene Peery-Fox. She adapted it from the Very Young Pianist Series, by Bastien. Basically, it's a way to introduce beginner students to all the keys, as well as developing good technique, before they ever learn scales. It's called "Group Keys", and the students learn to play 3 different exercises using only the basic 5 fingers, in all 12 keys. Once they can play them all, I give them the "Group Keys Test" to see if they are ready for scales. Fluffy spent nearly a month getting ready for this. He had to be able to tell me the number of black or white keys in the tonic chord of all the keys, and play one of the exercises for each group. He passed the test, and I made him a chocolate piano! (I did this for Exacto, too, when he passed his group keys test.)
I made it with a candy mold I found online. I specifically wanted a grand piano, so it took a little research to find. But it only cost a few dollars, the way I remember. Then I just melted chocolate chips with a little peanut butter, filled up the mold, and stuck in the fridge!
Okay, the origin of the blog nicknames. I don't know much about blog safety or any real risks that come from using our actual names, but since our boys have pretty unique names, I decided better safe than sorry. Also, it was to alleviate my conscience about not going private. :)
Benjamin doesn't need a nickname. We never have to worry about his safety. And that, indeed, is a wonderful comfort.
DC = Darling Cutie. That one is self-evident. :)
Exacto. I gave my eldest son this name for the blog because he is exact almost to a fault. If it's 9:03am, and he asks what time it is, you'd better say 9:03, and not 9 o'clock, or you WILL get corrected. He has always been this way. I remember his throwing one of his first tantrums at the tender age of 10 months. We were having a picnic, and the corners of the tablecloth kept getting blown up slightly by the wind. This was extremely frustrating for our young Exacto. He knew that in an ideal world the corners should stay down, and he screamed every time they went up! This need for exactness serves him very well at school, however wearing it can be to his very NON-exact mother. :)
Fluffy! Our second son had adorable soft hair when he was first born. He was born 15 days past his due date, and so it was already quite long--long enough to stick up in the back from his very first day on this earth. :) The most typical comment we had from people who saw him was about this fluffy hair. To this day, his hair still has issues with defying gravity, but as long as we keep it short and slick it down good, he is able to avoid the "Buckwheat" look. :)
Hummer! earned his nickname at a very young age as well. Before he could even talk, we noticed that whenever he was given bread, he would retain a piece stuck to the roof of his mouth and suck on it, humming cheerfully. This kid still sings more than he talks. He can hum hundreds of tunes, I think. He even hums the melodies to concertos and sonatas his daddy is working on. He has a ginormous range, too--he can go above the notes of the piano! He hummed through most of Benjamin's funeral, using the melodies from the songs we sang: "I am a Child of God" and "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". Several commented how moved they were by that. Sometimes I wonder if he will grow up to be a lyric tenor.
(artist: Aunt Becky)
What is his name? Gras, Flocken, Darling, etc.
How long have we been married? Eleven years last Saturday!
How long did we date? Way too long. Of course, I was 17 when we met. We had to wait at least until parental consent was no longer required! ha. Just kidding. Actually we dated a year and a half before our wedding, and eleven years since.
How old is he? 34, and boy, do I rub it in!
Who said I love you first? Can't remember. Romantic, I know.
Who is taller? He is, by exactly 3 inches.
Who sings better? Well, you know, I hate to brag.
Who is smarter? DC is way smarter. He was actually an EE major before switching to violin performance. He has a doctorate. Need I say more?
Whose temper is worse? Definitely mine. :(
Who pays the bills? Moi.
Who does the laundry? Me again. Although my darling often helps put away the clothes, especially when I'm huge and pregnant and tired.
Who cooks dinner? Me. And since food is kind of a hobby for me, I really actually enjoy it.
Who drives when we are together? Usually DC. Especially on long trips. Which suits me perfectly.
Who is more stubborn? I think a lot of people would be surprised to find how stubborn my darling can be. But it's not very often. He almost always lets me have my way. :)
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Usually me, and because it's usually me that's wrong!
Whose parents do you see more? Mine.
Who has more friends? I seem to lean on my friends more than he leans on his, but we definitely are each other's Best Friend. :)
Who wears the pants in the family? My manly husband.
Who eats more sweets? It's a tie. We are a bad influence on each other, and both tend to cave in whenever the other is partaking of sugar.
Who mows the lawn? Darling Gras.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.
Who asked who out first? Darling Gras asked me out first.
Who kissed whom first? Well, my goodness, that's kind of a personal question. :)
What is my favorite thing about him? His amazing Christ-like love for every person. I don't think I've ever heard him speak negatively about anyone. He has a celestial heart.
I tag Suzanne, Malauna, and Mom. . . .
Incidentally, Exacto won "most unique" for his microwave Valentine receptacle.
Fluffy took a break from bike-riding to create this little gem.
Valentine Morning.
Recently DC played on a faculty recital at nearby university. The piece he played for was "Race for the Sky" a four-movement work for soprano, violin and piano written in memory of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.It was a somber, moving piece. The poetry for the different movements is from various New Yorkers who expressed their emotions poignantly and sometimes anonymously in the days following the tragedy. I will include here links to the last 2 movements, as performed by G. Secrest, soprano, D. Cutie, violin, and C. Fuller, piano. Below is the text for the last movement.
Click here to listen to DC's solo, the third movement.
Today is a special day--my sweetheart turns 34! He continues to insist that that's just a vicious rumor, but it's true. :) On his birthday, allow me to praise and extol him for a while. (It's not bragging if it's true, right?) My darling is truly one of the greatest men I have ever known. You will never meet a more thoughtful, loving person. He really cares about other people and is always doing things to help. This may not sound romantic, but last night he spent a half-hour bleaching the toilet and scrubbing all around it after a little crisis that occurred. I offered to do it and even changed my clothes to grubbies, and he wouldn't let me. And this is after 10 years of marriage! To me, that is real love. We still argue about who's going to take the car without A/C, trying to get each other to take the nice car! :) He makes sure we have a date every week, and often plans creative things for us to do together. He reads with me at night, often choosing something that he knows I would really like to read (right now it's "A Tale of Two Cities"). :) 
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