Thirteen Hours

That's how long I slept last night. My week and weekend caught up to me and when Jen and Christopher left, I crawled into bed for a "nap" and woke up at 9:30 pm. I came stumbling out of our bedroom and found Jay watching The Amazing Race. He rewinded it for me and watched it again with me. After that, it was back to bed until 6:45 this morning! Funny...but I don't even feel refreshed. I'm hoping that feeling will come soon. With no school, I need to be "on" but I would love a day where I could hibernate in my pajamas and read. In the meantime, until I can find that on switch, I threw on a star wars movie and sat down to get caught up in blogland.

Friday was an incredibly busy day. I had about 10 errands to run and felt like I was just hopping in and out of my van all day. My boys were generally good sports about it but I felt bad that Seth's day off from school was filled with things that are boring for him. We got home and picked up the house for Jen and Christopher's arrival. They showed up at about 5:00 and we ordered Mexican take-out. Christopher watched all seven kids during the concert and we left him 7:15. As soon as we got out of the van to walk to the cathedral, I realized I had a major problem. My new nylons would not stay up. I had thought when I put them on that the elastic in the waist seemed timid and that brief walk demonstrated its complete failure. I held them on with one hand until we were safely inside and then, making sure no one was around to see, hiked those babies up as far as they would go. Blasted walmart brand nylons! Jen left me to go get a seat and I met the rest of the choir in a back room. Every time I stood up, those nylons slipped down and I eventually went into the bathroom and just took them off.

St. John's Cathedral

The inside - great accoustics for the audience.

I was relieved to find out I was not overdressed. My sister, Maureen, is a choir director at a high school in Utah and in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so has lots of fancy clothes. She sent a couple of concert black numbers back with Jay when we went there to interview two weeks ago. I opted for the black velvet top and skirt complete with Dana's jewelry. The men were in tuxedos and most women were wearing pearls or sparkles so I was happy with my choice.

Concert Black

Someone handed me a program and I was surprised how thick it was. It's the kind of program you get when you go see a musical or opera. I read about all of the soloists and our director, Gunther Schuller.

Gunther and me!

I was even in the program. I didn't know if I would be due to my late entry into the game but my name was at the top of the list of altos!

I'm in print!

The concert was really fun. Singing the music with the orchestra without any stops and all of the solos really brought both the Vivaldi number and the Bach piece come alive. Those men were true geniuses and the complexities of harmonies and counterpoint are phenomenal. There were no glitches, no big mistakes made and the audience seemed to enjoy themselves. I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it but sad that I just discovered this opportunity. It was kind of my break into the music scene here and now we're leaving. Maybe I'll be a little more proactive when it comes to music where ever we end up.

My one fan - thanks Jen!

Jen and I went to pick up Jay after the concert. He had to wait a little while for us but it was so good to see him after a week! He had brought home a box of See's chocolates and wanted to know all about the concert on the way back. I could tell he was tired after his twelve hour days of lectures and cases and lack of sleep from an uncomfortable bed and he crashed as soon as he was home.

Saturday, we all went to Staggering Ox for lunch before Seth had his basketball game. I thought it was really cool that they allowed these pass along cards in their restaurant.

I've always loved the Ox but now I love them even more!

Of course, they were nestled in between a gym membership raffle box and some gossip magazines but they were there!

Seth's game was hilarious. They got "crushed" again (Seth's words). I don't know what kind of basketball mom to be. The "as-long-as-they're-having-fun" mom without a care in the world or the kind that wants more bang for my buck and wished they had a coach that actually taught them how to play. I feel frustrated at his games. Seth is really excited about the game of basketball so having fun isn't a problem. But he doesn't have any direction! I took this video of him and unfortunately didn't turn on the audio but even this silent film shows perfectly Seth's style of play. It's called, "I'm open!"

Seth's open under the basket.

They can hardly contain their excitement.

At least they had a corner to play in

He spends most of his playing time "getting open" but I think only touched the ball once. But he's good on defense. Ah well...he's six, right? I picked up the mail when we got home and got a nice package from Bridget which I opened with an appropriate amount of guilt.

Thanks Bridget!

Not pictured are the yummy Hershey's truffle kisses which were quickly devoured:) Very, very sweet and thank you.

Jen and I went shopping at a warehouse store that sells mostly Costco returns and found a few things including the new Diana Krall CD!

You just don't know what treasures you'll find.

We got home and the sun was shining so we crossed the street and took all of the kids to the park for some needed outdoor play.

Sam and Jonas on some kind of teeter-totter

Gotta love the help from big cousins

Seth and Ansel work on their skills

Henry is delighted in his swing

Owen had a great time on the slides

It's been awhile since he's been outside!

Jen and Christopher went to see Annie the Musical that night and Jay and I had all of the kids. The four big boys slept in the bunk beds together, Henry was downstairs in our room and Owen and Sadie in the guest room. Jay and I caught up on all of our shows for the week (He only had three channels in his hotel room and I was gone every evening) and then talked to Jen and Christopher until after midnight when they got home.

Sunday is always busy with church. Sacrament meeting was a bit boring as they only had a youth speaker and then left 35 minutes for the high council speaker! Yikes! I felt so weary and it was all I could do to not sprawl out on the choir bench and go to sleep. After church, the boys played outside and we talked and fixed supper. The boys are such close cousins and it was fun to watch them play all weekend. They really love each other. Their close relationship will be one of the things I miss the most when we leave here.

We had dinner and then Jen and Christopher headed back home. The rest, for me, is a blur. I dozed in and out of consciousness while Jay did the dishes, did Seth's altered Science Fair experiment (more on that later), and put the kids to bed. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone else!