My "less is more" Week

Last week, one of my very best friends came to visit me from Florida. We use to be roommates in college, then later, we were next door neighbors for over 3 years. I was so sad when she moved away. (She'll say, I moved away first, but atleast my move was still within the state!!) It was wonderful to see and talk with her again.

This last week or so, I've really slowed down. I haven't worked on my projects. I have emailed people less. I haven't spent as much time on my computer. Instead, I've spent more time with my family. It wasn't anything I planned, but it's been a great week.

I took my youngest to the zoo. It was so much fun. This was the first time I've only taken one child! Since it was just the 2 of us, I even splurged for the train ride, and the carousel. It was fun. I also got to go to an activity for our church group which involved all the women getting together in a friend's backyard to eat dinner and socialize. I love those kinds of activities! Afterwards, we shared the extra bounties from our home gardens (I had lots of cucumbers to share...) as well as some testimonies of the bounties of the gospel in our lives. It was very uplifting. I always enjoy going to those activities.

Today I spent time weeding in the back yard. The weeds are still taller than our vegetable garden (yes, this includes the corn), but I'm making progress. If I only look at the little places I'm weeding in, I can see a lot of progress. I suppose that's how my life is right now. It doesn't seem like I'm making any noticeable differences, but if I look in those small areas I'm working on, I can see the difference.

Today, I spent some time trying to iron out a quarrel between my kids. Because I actually took the time to talk to both of the contendors, I enjoyed a special moment with each of them. Hopefully the contentions will lesson, but I won't get my hopes up!

The LDS Music Fest

What a wonderful time it was to go to the fest, to perform, and to be with friends. I got to hear Alex Boye perform for the first time, and it was incredible. I really like the uplifting spirit that was there during his concert- it was all very inspiring.

I also got to meet so many new friends. There is a new group I met that came up from Las Vegas area- Musically Inclined, and it was fun to get to know them better. We went out to lunch, and that was fun as well. My mom came for my performance in the evening. She tried to record my performance with her camera in movie mode. I'll try to maybe post it, though the screen will only be about an inch high!

Sunday, she also recorded my performance, but with a little better camcorder, so I'll try to post that as well. Jessica Perry and I did the duet we performed at Women's Conference... so fun! I just love to get to do that. Any one have an excuse for us to come do it again? =)

Anyway, it was a great weekend, and I had a lot of fun. My husband was sweet enough to watch the kids the whole time, so it was a little mini-vacation as well. Now I feel rejuvenated, and ready for.... well, you know, the regular, I guess!

BTW, if anyone really wanted to watch that little TV spot that I did, you can watch the clip at: http://www.kjzz.com/entertainment/hometeam/26881229.html.

My TV debut

Well this morning was my first big TV debut. It really didn't go too bad. I have learned some interesting things about myself though. When I am really excited about something, I don't sleep very well, though I feel very AWAKE. Right after whatever it is that I'm doing i.e. appearing on TV, singing at Women's Conference, etc. I am almost totally exhausted! Again, I was so tired when I got home. I couldn't believe it.

The taping was a fun experience. The TV show was LIVE, so it was neat to see how everything was done. Julie (de Azevedo) Hanks looks like a natural all the time, and does a great job of filling in the gaps, and looking beautiful. Our segment wasn't very long, only about 7 minutes with Sam Payne performing a song for 3 of those minutes. It was just enough time to explain a little about the festival, and how a mother of 6 (expecting 7) can stay connected to the world through technology. It really is a pretty cool thing. Sometimes I just take it for granted that people all over the world can visit my website, or play songs that I've written all over the world. It really is a cool feeling.

When I got home this morning, my 3 year old rushed up to me and said, "We saw you on TV! I waved and said hi to you, but you didn't answer. It made me cry." How precious. It was just so sweet. I had to tell him that I wasn't actually IN the TV, and that if I could have seen him waving, I would have definitely waved back!

I'm looking forward to singing this weekend. I've written 3 new songs that I will be performing on Saturday for the pre-concert from 6-7:30. It's has been a fun few weeks. I really do enjoy having so many fun things going on in my life. I never know where it will all take me, but I'm sure enjoying the journey!

Learning by Doing

Today my daughter had a new opportunity of babysitting for a new family in our ward. She was asked to watch their 3 children for almost the whole day (8-5). In addition to this new experience of being mom for the day, she also was blessed to take care of their 7 year old autistic boy. She did a really great job. She was obviously a little tired and worn out from the day, but she came home full of a new found respect for me and all I do as a mom.

Tonight I had to go to a 'Meet the teacher' type thing at the Elementary School. It's quite a task to meet 4 teachers in time only allotted for 2! A challenge, I must say, that I did well. I actually got to get a pretty good feel for all my children's teachers, and even talked to 2 of them specifically about my children. Whew. At any rate, I asked my son to babysit thinking my daughter would be totally exhausted from babysitting all day (which she was), and to my amazement- she actually OFFERED to babysit tonight (my son wasn't excited to). She was thankful that our kids are so easy to tend. I told her that you learn by doing. It also helps that you know your own routines and can adjust as one child comes at a time.

I had a "learn by doing" experience just yesterday. I got to do an interview for a radio show that will air this Sunday on KOSY 106.5. I am part of a LDS Musicians Festival that will be performing Aug 15-17, and I got to help give the details about that. Although I have performed in many musicals, drama presentations, giving talks, etc., I had never interviewed for radio before. Because I wasn't really prepared with what I would say, I became completely tongue tied, and couldn't speak. It wasn't until I told Joan Peterson, "Let me say what I'm trying to say OFF the record..." that I could again begin speaking clearly. Of course Joan kept recording, and hopefully my message was received. Thank goodness for all the editing that is done behind the scenes. Hopefully I can use this experience, and realize that these kinds of things get better with time! The good news is, my CD is now on KOSY's playlist, and they will play "Living Water" right after our interview. Hopefully once people hear the song, some will request it again, and the CD can be heard. Another blessing.

This next monday, I get to talk about the Music fest once again, except this time, it will be LIVE (no editing) at the KJZZ studio for Julie De Azevedo's Monday Morning Show (9 am). I'm hoping my experience with the radio station will help me. I'm very nervous but I've learned some things. I'm going to prepare a little more for what I'm going to say. I'll also try to pretend no else is watching!!!! Wish me luck as I learn by doing!

New Design

When I was first married, I didn't even know how to "control-c" (cut) and "control-v" (paste) on a word processor. My father was a computer programmer, and because I thought he spent too much time on the computer, I didn't want to have anything to do with programming. I just wasn't interested.

After I wrote my first 12 piano songs, I was very impressed with a website, Sally DeFord's, which offered free shee music to download. I didn't have any plans for the songs I'd written, and didn't even know if they were good or not. I asked my husband, who works with computers, if he knew how to do a website, and he handed me a binder with some class notes on it and the title, "HTML". That was my beginning.

Since that time, I've learned HTML, CSS, PHP, Visual Basic, SQL and database design, javascript, and now Flash. I actually really enjoy it. I'm not very good with graphics yet, but I do enjoy photography, and can get around in Paint Shop Pro pretty well. What I'd really like to get into is making movies. I have written some neat songs, that I think would make great music videos. Of course everything takes money, and I don't even own a digital camcorder yet. Hopefully Christmas this year!

At any rate, I have been learning flash, and think I have a design that will work nicely to organize all my music. It has a music player as part of it, so that it's now possible to listen to music while you are browsing other songs. It's still a little tricky to figure out how everything works, i.e. you have to click on the arrows to open up the folders, you have to push your down arrow to scroll in the lyrics box, but hopefully it's not too bad. I've decided to just put a testpage for now that others can test for me. If it's too difficult, maybe I can figure out something else, but I'd love anyone's feedback. You can find the page at: www.kerbymusic.org/testpage.html.

As for me, I am doing well, I keep feeling a bit more energized. I wrote a really neat song, I'd love to share but needs to be arranged and orchestrated first. I'm hoping to have it done enough to perform at our next LDS Musicians Festival August 16th and 17th. I'll be performing 3 new songs Saturday evening, and then some more mellow, Sabbath type songs, including the duet from my CD on Sunday the 17th. More information is to come, but I'm really looking forward to an opportunity to perform again!