Gratitude Day 16

Today I am grateful for Classical music. That makes me sound like such an old person, but seriously, it is my fave. It is so relaxing and calming and I can fall asleep to it. And Sean loves it too, which is great :) whether it is from 400 years ago, or a new soundtrack that came out, it is my favorite thing to listen to, especially when I'm stressed. I'm so glad my parents would play classical music when we were little. Jenny and I had some awesome times dancing around the living room...

Gratitude-a-Day 29

Today I am thankful for Christmas Music!

I'm one of those people that strictly doesn't listen until Thanksgiving day at the earliest, because after that I listen every day all day and if I started any earlier I would be sick of Christmas music. And who wants that? Not I...

My top two favorites:

What are your favorites?

Gratitude-a-Day 8

Today I am thankful for music. All types (well, most types anyway). The power it has to pump you up. Calm your nerves. Put you to sleep. Remind you of people and events and memories, trigger emotions. Express feelings that words alone cannot.

I am thankful for my parents for instilling in me the importance of music, and for bringing me up in a home where sitting around the piano or guitar on a Friday night was the coolest thing we could do as a family. Thankful for Mac for teaching me all he taught me, especially about expressing the story behind the music while singing. (I've never been the same since then.) Thankful for Rachel, without whom my music collection would not be as extensive as it is. Thankful that Sean is also musical, and that it is as important to him as it is to me.

So in the words of ABBA, "Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing."

a.k.a. the motto of my life.

Gratitude-a-Day 7

For my scripture study the past year and a half or so, I've been studying the hymns; reading the history behind each, studying the lyrics and the scriptures at the bottom of each hymn. It has been a really cool experience and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Anyway, today I studied "America the Beautiful" and was overcome with the Spirit as I studied the lyrics. So today, I am thankful for our country. For the freedoms we enjoy and the pride that I feel when I see the flag waving, or sing any of the hymns about our country.

Here are the lyrics that got me this morning:

"Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

Oh, beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!"

I am also thankful for my ancestors that joined the Church and for their testimonies, and the legacy they passed down through the generations so that I could enjoy a life growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lastly, I am extremely grateful for those who have fought and are fighting for our country so that we can continue to enjoy the freedoms that we currently have.

Handprint on my heart

I don't have an awesome way to preface this, so I guess I'll start at the beginning.

Kjerstin and I went to Park City on Saturday. We got there just in time to get food, grab our tickets, find a tiny patch of grass (where we sat on her daughter's grocery cart cover thing) and hear the Utah Symphony warm up.

(before the show)

The symphony played a few pieces and then intermission. And then...


We got to see Idina Menzel live!!!!!!!!!!

I'd add more exclamation points but I think you should have gotten the point by now...

Be jealous. She was phenomenal. And hilarious. And I wish I was best friends with her. Or that I could nanny her adorable little boy.

Really, though, she is quite the entertainer. Not only does she have an incredible voice, she is goofy and silly and an elaborate story teller that gets distracted easily and I greatly appreciate that. Because that is how I am too.

Some of my favorite things she said:

"My husband complains that I see the glass half empty and he sees it half full. We spent 3 months in couples therapy arguing about it." and then she giggled.

"I had just had a baby and felt fat and like I'd never work again, and then Glee calls me and wants me to play the mother of a girl who in real life is only 15 years younger than me! Glass half full right?"

"We write songs for our little boy, and sometimes argue about 'verse, chorus, bridge?' or 'verse, bridge, chorus?' and then my husband complains that we never highlight his lovely baritone voice..."

Talking about the Jeep tours through Moab: "The drivers were crazy! You are going and you see a huge boulder in front of you and you think, 'Oh that's nice, they are going to stop and let us get out and take pictures' and then they go up and over the boulder with one tire! ...The boys were more scared than the girls, just so you know..."

"I found the sexiest Cole Porter song I could. I thought I could, you know, kill two birds with one stone. Fulfill my assignment and seduce my teacher!"

Also, she may or may not have called Beyonce a naughty word...

Among other songs, she sang a couple of songs from Wicked, one from Rent, a couple from Funny Girl (she said Barbra Streisand is one of her biggest inspirations) and she did Poker face, which she sang on Glee with Lea Michele.

She also sang a few of the songs her and her husband, Taye Diggs, wrote for their little boy. And let me tell you, watching Idina rap about a poopy diaper face is something I will never forget.

Sunday was fun, too. Kjerstin and I made a really yummy dinner


and watched a really funny movie.

All in all, a great weekend.

I still cannot get over hearing Idina Menzel sing Defying Gravity live. LIVE! Amazing.

please don't stop the music

May 11, 2011. Music Swap Day. The day of all days. The day Rachel and I finally get our computers together and swap our music.

Of course, we decide to do it last minute, on a weeknight.

And of course, neither of us cleaned up our music completely.

And of course, I forget the power cord to my computer, making it that much harder to go through music.

But we survived.

Good luck in North Dakota, Rachel! Next music swap we will be prepared...

Post script: these pictures were taken at midnight. Or later. Can't remember.