I'm 40!

I found this great card for my mom's birthday last year and wrote her a message on a post-it note so she could reuse the card. It was way too funny to only send once! Well, now it's my turn to get the card, and on my 40th birthday, too! Ouch!

Shouldn't I feel a little different? My joints aren't creaking, my chest didn't just sag past my belly button, and I'm not calling teenagers whippersnappers. I thought I was supposed to feel old at 40, but this isn't too bad!

Freude, Shoner Gotterfunken...zzzzzzz

Well, the concert is over, but I keep singing the fugue all night in my dreams! I wake up with Ode to Joy running through my brain! I love Beethoven! He was truly a genius!

This was definitely one of the greatest accomplishments in my life! My friend Farhana, who is also in the choir, said that for her it ranks right up there with giving birth, but I'm not willing to go quite that far! It was an incredible feeling, though, to be a part of something so wonderful, and it was a lot less painful than having a baby!

The performance was a huge success! It was a completely sold out show, and since the Stephen's Performing Arts Center holds about 1300 people that's pretty impressive! We performed the next night in Idaho Falls and that was pretty full, too, so the attendance was great!

I am on the far right, in front of the timpani, next to my friend Gwen Lloyd.

When we went to practice yesterday, Dr. Anderson told us that Kristine Ciesinski, the professional soprano who was originally scheduled to sing with us, was sitting in the audience that night. She told him after the show that she has performed as a soloist in Ode to Joy all over Europe and the United States and ours is the best choir she has ever heard perform it! I've had SO many people tell me how much they loved it! It's been fun hearing the reviews.

My own family's reviews were a little less glowing, but they all said they loved the part with the choir singing. The kids weren't as thrilled with the 2 hours of symphony music before our 20 minutes of singing! Here are Maren, Megan, Ellie, and Emma right before it started. Devin and Chris found the third movement very relaxing and confessed to sleeping a little during the music, but they say they woke up during the choral ending. I believe them because nobody could sleep through 150 voices singing fortissimo, not to mention the booming timpani! My friend, Gwen, had her cell phone with her on the stage and her daughter texted her immediately after we finished and said that the entire floor was shaking! It was awesome! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do this, and I'm even more proud that I stuck with it even when it was scary (the tryout) and hard to learn (the entire piece)! Yeah me!

Genius!

I have now heard (and been a part of) Beethoven's 9th Symphony 4 times (2 full rehearsals and 2 performances) and every time I'm more impressed by Beethoven's genius! It is so amazing to me that someone can create music like that, so complex, with themes and parts weaving in and out. It's just incredible! The most amazing thing is that he was deaf when he wrote and helped conduct it. At the end of his performance, the audience was cheering wildly but he had lost his place in the music and was still conducting an orchestra that had stopped playing. One of the soloists had to turn him around so he could see the crowd, who waved handkerchiefs and hats so he could see their appreciation. He wrote that piece through his memory of the sounds, and once it was finished, he never really heard it. How sad but how amazing!

See, I Told You He Was An Adult!

Last Tuesday, Devin voted in his first election! How cool is that?! The volunteers who got him registered were so nice. They cheered like he was a rock star when he dropped his ballot in the box and then gave him candy to celebrate. He just turned red and smiled a little, but I knew he was dying inside! Then a man came up to him and asked if he could interview him for the Idaho State Journal! The man asked him a few questions, which Devin answered with as few words as possible. I saw the editorial today and was impressed with how good it turned out. Here's the part of the article with Devin:

"All of the poll workers broke into applause after Devin Symons cast his vote. Symons, who turned 18 in September was voting in his first election. In addition to the "I Voted Today" sticker he applied to his jacket, he was given a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup to commemorate the event.

A senior at Century High School, Symons is no stranger to homework and said he had done the requisite studying in preparation to making his selections.

"I've seen some information about the candidates," Symons said.

And how did he feel about his choices?

"I feel good about it," he said."

That's it. He's a man of few words. He's a regular Nielson male.

We wanted to make a big deal out of this momentous occasion (another conservative voter is always something to celebrate!), so we got him a cake!

He thought we were a little crazy, but he loved the cake! Hurray! Another patriot is born!

All Shook Up!

When do you get too old to dress up? We're not quite there, yet, I guess! Here we are as Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

It took me so much work to convince Del to wear the wig! It took NO convincing, however, for him to sing "All Shook Up" all night long in his best deep voice! He was quite entertaining at our ward party! I tried to get him to do the hip swinging action, but he claimed that the moves would have to be censored, so he couldn't do it.

The boys were boring and would not wear costumes and the girls changed into pajamas the second we got home, so we have no pictures of them! I am going to make the girls dress up again in a few days so I can take pictures. Maren was Elfeba from Wicked and Emma was a medieval lady, and they both looked fabulous, so I'll have to add pictures later!

She's Running Wild!

To my total astonishment, Maren decided to join Franklin Middle School's cross-country team this year! She has never been interested in running before, but she decided to give it a try. She turned out to be quite a natural! At the final all-city meet, she came in 7th out of the 4 middle schools in Pocatello and got a medal!

She hasn't decided if she wants to try it again next year but I'm sure proud of her! Good job, Maren!

What A Lotta Cabbage!!!

Emma grew this cabbage with her Grandma Nielson for a class contest. It was huge and beautiful, but she forgot to enter the contest. Oh, well. We know she's a winner!We didn't have a scale big enough so they created a counterweight system with cans of food. Quite ingenious! I think it weighed 2 cans of green beans, 3 cans of chili, 1 can of pumpkin, and 3 cans of corn! It was around 10 pounds but I can't remember the total. All I remember is that Mom and Emma spent at least 30 minutes trying to weigh it and having a great time every time it fell! Grandmas are great fun!