When I think about who I am there are a lot of things that come to mind. Wife, mommy, sister, friend, erratic scrapbooker, home executive, shopper, reader of lots of books, lover of food, etc... All of them make me who I am, and each has an influence on what I do every day in varying degrees. One in particular, violinist, reminds me who I am and gives me something to think about out of my daily routine. I don't take a lot of time to play, in fact I usually don't practice for weeks at a time; shhh don't tell my students:) But, maybe because I don't regularly, when I do play it just feels so great.

I have two violin students who are wonderful and come every week. I love teaching a new concept or even an old one that finally 'clicks' with a student. I almost always finish teaching feeling a little more enthusiastic about life. And occasionally I'm able to play with a volunteer symphony based out of Ogden: The New American Phillharmonic. When we first moved here I was serving in the YW organization and couldn't attend half of the rehearsals, so incidently I sat in the back of the second violins. I haven't sat in the seconds, let alone the back, since I was a freshman in college. It was actually a great learning experience and stretched my skills. I am convinced playing in the seconds is harder than the firsts, and that the back stands have a much more difficult time watching the conductor. Anyway, after about two years I've worked my way up from the back to the first stand of the seconds and now into the first violins. We've played some fantastic music from Brahms to the Polovestian Dances, and I have to say we're not too bad.

Back in the day, meaning when we lived in Rexburg and I knew everyone, I played in dozens of quartets for wedding receptions, actually including Abby and Jake's. But since we moved to Utah I haven't had the opportunity to play in a small ensemble, something that I really miss. Playing in the symphony has helped me make a few more conections and tonight I filled in with a great quartet, Strings of Elegance, for an actual wedding held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I love playing for weddings, everyone loves the music, mostly because nobody's really paying too much attention to really notice any mistakes, and the music's not too difficult. It was a wonderful change of scenery and mindset. Plus I got paid to be able to sit still, concentrate, and play beautiful music with three other great musicians for two whole hours. How often does that happen? Plus, while I was gone Brent and the girls had a daddy/daughter party with chicken nuggets, fries, and the barbie movie Mariposa. I came home and the girls were in jammies and the house was clean, maybe I should leave more often.

It took me a little while to alter my dream of being a really amazing violinist; then again I never did practice enough, and I had too much fun in college. But I'm realizing I do learn more by being a mother and wife than the self absorbed musician I probably would be. I may not be a professional, but I do have so many opportunities to enjoy the beauty of music. I'm so grateful for my parents who always encouraged me, and paid for all those lessons, and really are the ones who make it possible for me to play. I think about that every time I pick up my incredible violin. This ended up being a lot more indepth than I was planning on, but every once in awhile it's good to just be grateful.

Spring is sprung and I'm out of moisturizer!

Many of you know I'm an undercover Mary Kay consultant. *gasp* say the rest of you that didn't know. She sells makeup? Well, actually no. I just love the products and love being able to give the discount to my friends and family. Hey, that's you! Every six months I place an order for anyone who would like a 40% off the retail price, discount. All you have to do is go online to http://www.marykay.com/ and pick out what you want. Then email your orderto me at abbyb8e@yahoo.com , including your home phone number,so I can call to confirm everythinig, and your address. Then send me a check. My only stipulation is that your order, before tax, is more than $30. That way I can be sure I have a large enough order to get the discount in the first place:) Also if I'm going to be mailing it to you please add $4 for shipping. Another disclaimer: It is a long standing mary kay tradition that you don't steal each other's customers. If you already have a consultant that you order from please stick with her. But, if like many of us, you can't afford to buy these great products at full price, or your consultant has stopped selling, feel free to order from me! This is a great deal, and you can also get alot of very luxurious birthday, christmas, and bridal shower gifts at a huge discount. I'm going to be placing the order on Friday, Monday by the latest, so please get back to me before then. Thanks!

p.s. leave me a comment here so I can get an idea of whose interested. thanks again

Cousins

I love it when I get to hang out with my sisters. Usually that means we're in Idaho at my parents house, so it was a nice change to have them both come visit me at the same time here at our home. Maren and Sarah arrived on Friday afternoon and we took all 7 of the girls to olive garden, a long standing tradition. Although we did decide that this would be the last time. our poor waiter. Next time we'll go take-out. After the park and running through the sprinklers, we spent a few hours in the evening at the treehouse children's museum. We had a fantastic time playing with all of the exhibits, making kites, and dressing up as princesses. Sarah and her girls went home that night, but Maren and her crew stayed for the rest of the weekend. We had a great Modbe openhouse, thanks Maren for bringing down all those great clothes. Brent was superman and took all 5 of our little girls to the duck park and then had a pizza and movie party. What an awesome dad and uncle. When it was time for them to head back to Rexburg this morning Laura was so sad that she snuck into their van and buckled herself in. Brent had to drag her out so they could leave! At church I had several neighbors ask who Laura was yelling goodbye to. It reminds me so much of being with my cousins when I was little. There's nothing quite the same as good friends who happen to be related.

Modbe Mavens

I'm so excited. My sister Maren has recently become a Modbe Fashion Consultant and is coming to my house this weekend to throw and open house boutique for my friends and I. My other sister, Sarah, has been raving about Modbe's super cute, and extremely durable swimsuits with swimskirts, for a couple of years and I've seen their t-shirts and tanktops around also, but have never known any consultants to try any myself. Anyway, long story short, if you'd like to take a look, you're all officially invited to my 'virtual boutique' from now until Saturday. Just go to Maren's website http://www.fashionmom.mymodbe.com/ and either order from the website or email Maren at tewstaf@yahoo.com. Hope you're ready for summer!

Our Mini Vacation

What kind of summer, family vacation do you take a pregnant mommy, and an almost 4 and 2 year old on? Long hours in the car are out, hotels just equal no sleep, and who ever does all the cool stuff in their own backyard? Certainly not us. We've lived in Utah for 2 years now, but like most people haven't taken advantage of a lot of fun family activities just half an hour away in Salt Lake. So we had our family vacation from home! Brent took Friday and Monday off(which happened to be Eden's birthday as well), I went junk food shopping so we had plenty of treats, didn't do any but the bare necessity cleaning, we slept in our own beds, the girls had nap time, we didn't answer our phones unless we knew it was important, ate out or had kid food on paper plates, and had a fantastic time. It was one of the best, most stress free weekends I can remember.

On Friday we went to Gardner Village's petting zoo in the morning, complete with pony ride, and in the afternoon to historic Wheeler Farm. On Saturday we went swimming in the morning and Brent came to my Symphony concert that night. We spent Sunday on temple square and at the Church History Museum, they have a great interactive kid's exhibit, and had lunch at the Memorial Park with Brent's sister Lanna and her family. And to complete our weekend we spent Monday at Hogle Zoo and later had cake and ice cream at home for Eden's birthday. And at night when the girls went to bed extremely well because they were exhausted Brent and I would hang out and watch movies.

Like every good vacation we did have a few glitches: our car, an automatic transmission, decided that Friday on our way home was a good time to stop shifting, and subsequently we had a very slow drive home. We drove our other car the rest of the weekend, which was fine, and Brent was able to fix the leak on Tuesday for under $100; I love my husband. Also I got a head cold on top of being tired and pregnant, so it was a good thing we were taking things easy. Other than that we had a relatively inexpensive vacation with great weather, good food, great company, and lots of memories. I already have plenty of ideas for our next adventure.

You did it, you're officially on the 'inside'. welcome to my same old, not too exciting, but we like it, now private blog:) I hope no one had any problems with the switch. Now that i feel a little more secure I've got tons to blog about, but I've had no time. To name a few, we had a mini-vacation here in SLC and Eden turned two! So stay tuned for some actual posts, not just privacy related stuff!

Oops, should have checked that...

I'm sooo sorry about all of this crazy going private stuff, but in order to make it so you can check the blog I have to have your email address. bahhh. so if you didn't leave it for me in the last post would you mind doing it now? if it bothers you i can delete it as soon as I see it. I'll wait a few more days to make the blog private in order to let people see this post. thank you! By the way I was just floored by how many of you wanted to keep checking in on us, several of you I had no idea were even readers. I mean, I know my kids are cute...but I'm biased:)