Music Database

1 box, 4 weeks, 9 binders, and several bags later I have 713 songs in my choral database (not including duplicates & ones I got rid of).  Phew.

Next step is to get them organized by genre within voice part and find a way to store them so that I can find them when I need them.  I'm hoping this doesn't take as long as going through them, because I don't have another month to spend on this project.
Unfortunately, during the process I found other vocal and piano music that I need to go through as well, but that's going to have to wait for a while.  I'm focusing on the choral music for now.

Motivation Needed

With the baby only a couple weeks away everything is just.....slower.  So Amy's One Thing; One Week Challenge came at the perfect time.  I have one last quilt I would like to get done before she comes.  It's for my best friend from college.

This is my little guy at her apartment when we visited her in Kansas City last summer.  (Holy Cow he's grown a lot since then).  If you'll notice- in the background she's got zebra print chairs.  That's right.  Brit's got some of the coolest modern and eclectic accessories, so I wanted to make a quilt that fit her style.

I went with the red, white and black combo with a little zebra print of my own. The pattern is a little twist on a classic- it's a Triple Irish Chain.

My goal was to get all of the squares cut out- happily, I got going and even got one of the blocks done.  What do you think?  Fun, huh.  I'm hoping to get the quilt top done by the end of the week.  Wish me luck.

 

Garage Sale Season Has Officially Begun

It was only in the 30s, but I had a couple of friends that had researched out some garage sales, so I went along for the ride this morning.  We hit a bunch of duds and were starting to get a little discouraged until the very last one, and it was worth the wait.  It was an Estate Sale.  The family was selling everything from their mother's home.  This woman was a decorator, world traveler and also ran a daycare in her basement, so there were so many incredible things in this home. 

My mom served a mission in Japan many moons ago, and when we were little she had all kinds of really cool things from Japan.  Well, many moves and 5 children later most of her stuff has been ruined or pretty damaged, so I was really excited to come across a couple of Japanese dolls.  I called my mom right away to tell her about it.  This is the one I got for her.  I love the royal blue kimono. 

I also found a couple of great deals on books and toys for Nathan that will probably end up being birthday gifts.  My friends found crazy deals on plants, pictures, shelving and other toys. 

I love when you find an amazing garage sale.   It was a fun little morning.

Les Mis Love

The 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables was on TV this past week, and it was fabulous.  Les Miserables is arguably one of the greatest musicals of all-time.  You simply can't beat the plot.  Victor Hugo's a genious.  Joel and I sometimes argue and try to rank musicals.  Les Mis was the first "professional" musical I ever saw and after all these years it's still my favorite musical.

This anniversary version is great with one little irritation- they cast a Jonas Brother as Marius.  I seriously don't know what they were thinking- there wasn't anyone else in the entire theater world that could do it?  Everyone sounds outstanding and then there's Mr. Jonas.  He doesn't have any core in his voice and his acting is non-existent.  He's supposed to be in love and he looks constipated.  Don't get me wrong- he's in tune and if he were in a community version of the musical you would think he's great, but when you're singing with the best he sticks out like a sore thumb.  Everyone else is singing/acting circles around him- you almost feel embarrassed for him.

Despite the Jonas debacle, the rest of it is amazing and reminds me of why I love this musical so much.  If you haven't seen it yet it's replaying a bunch of times on PBS.  Look it up- it's worth the listen.  They even bring back original cast members for the finale. 

Lack o' Platelets

No, these are not red lifesavers- they are red blood cells, and the little yellow balls are blood platelets-apparently my body doesn't have enough of them.  Probably about 6 weeks ago my doctor told me the normal level is 150-200 and I was at 136.  Because platelet levels often decrease during pregnancy she wasn't too worried, but had my blood drawn again just to make sure.  The results came back as 128.  Still, it seemed like they were pretty stable, but just to be on the cautious side she had blood drawn again this week.  In 3 weeks I went from 128 to 102- eh, not good.  When you hit below 100 they can't give you an epidural.  The absolute lowest you can be for any kind of anesthesia is an 80, and with almost 5 weeks left in my pregnancy things aren't looking too good.

The thought of not getting an epidural flat out terrifies me (I had a lovely experience with Petosin kicking in before they could get me an epidural when I was in labor with Nathan and let's just say I NEVER want to go through that again).  I told Joel that the baby's not allowed to come out unless there are pain meds involved.  However, the bleak truth is that even if I were into the whole natural birth thing, if something were to go wrong with labor they wouldn't be able to do any anethesia for a C-Section, and there are some concerns about my blood not clotting properly and me bleeding out.

So what's the next step you say?  I'm headed back in for more blood work right away this afternoon and then they scheduled me to go see a Hematologist on Monday.  You can tell my OB is worried about it, because they got me an emergency appointment.  We'll see what the Hematologist has to say- my OB had mentioned the possibility of some type of steroids to try to help it, but I really don't have any idea what's going to happen.  Keep your fingers crossed.

A Musical of Titantic Proportions

Tara and I have been close friends since the 7th grade, and her mom has been choreographing the musicals at Baldwinsville High School (our rival high school) since we were Freshman in high school.  It's a yearly ritual to go watch the musical with Tara.  In the 16 years her mom's been doing this, the only productions I've missed have been when I was away at college in Utah or out of the country on a mission in Spain.  This year I saw a musical I hadn't ever seen before- Titantic.  If you're thinking of the movie think again, because it's nothing like it.  The musical actually tries to stick to real characters- there is no love story of Jack and what's her-buck.

I haven't completely decided how much I like the musical itself, because it is quite a downer and a pretty well-known storyline.  I'm not always a fan of walking in and knowing what's going to happen before I've even seen it.  The music itself is not exactly going to be upbeat tune-catchers that you want to sing all day.  In fact, the word eerie comes to mind when trying to describe it.  

The one thing that really impressed me was the sheer number of singing roles (mostly males).  The show is almost entirely singing, and I can't believe they had enough talent at a high school to fill all of the roles and still have a good sounding ensemble.  My hat goes off to those kids.  I know my high school would never have been able to pull off this production.  We most definitely did not have enough guys.

While I'm not sure I would want to see this musical over and over again, I thought it was well done and a good night's entertainment.


 

A Trip Down Memory Lane

A cold night in February five years ago I went out to dinner with my friends Christie and Dan.  Earlier that day Joel had left a message on my phone.  For some reason I was really nervous about calling him back and wanted to put it off.  Christie and Dan were very excited that he had called me and they refused to go into the restaurant until I called him back.  (A little known fact is that Dan had actually sung with Joel in Districts and Regionals in high school).  Luckily, Joel was working so I just left a message on his phone and we went in to eat.  Later that night Joel called me back- Christie and Dan got out of the car and stood out in the cold, so that I could talk to him.  Joel asked me out on our first date and the rest is history. 
Well, Christie and Dan are heading through Ohio on their way to the ACDA Conference in Chicago next week, and we're so excited to see them!  I finished the quilt for Christie just in time. It was supposed to be a birthday present, then a Christmas present,  and I even tried to work it in with Valentine's Day, but I was going to be really upset with myself if I didn't finish it before she got here next week, so I was thrilled to finish it this morning.  It's a little thank you for giving me that extra push to go out with Joel.

Fluffy Frosting

Today was the last day of music class, so we had a final good bye with some musical cupcakes.  I realize the kids don't know any musical notation- I just decorated them that way because I can't help my nerdy self.  How many can you name? 

I found a recipe for pudding frosting in a Krafts Food Magazine a while back and finally got around to trying it out- and it's a good one!  It's light and fluffy and doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of fat or sugar as regular frosting.  If you aren't normally a frosting lover this may be the recipe for you.

2 small pkg. Chocolate Instant Pudding

1 c. Milk

1/4 c. Powdered Sugar

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed

Whisk the pudding mix, milk and sugar together and then stir in the Cool Whip.

The only downside is that the shelf-life of the frosting is limited to about 1-2 days and it needs to stay refrigerated.  It's very yummy though.

Bon Apetite!