My beautiful piano student just passed away at 15 due to complications from anesthesia after knee surgery. It was so unexpected and tragic. I have been heartbroken so I can only imagine what her family must be going through. She was a lovely, talented and sincere person that I adored. We had so much fun sharing our passion for piano and she was my children's favorite babysitter.

For our recital last May, she asked me with her big bright eyes if she could play "My Heart Will Go On". I informed her that everyone else was playing classical pieces at my request. She was persistent and her eyes spoke her plea clearly. I couldn't say no to her - she was convinced it was what she wanted to play. I look back on that moment with tenderness and in awe of the irony. Surely it wasn't a coincidence because that is exactly what will happen. Her heart will go on in all the lives she touched. I will take a little piece of it with me all my life and return it to her in the kingdom on high. I look forward to that moment and will miss her so much between now and then. My children will miss their favorite babysitter. You loved them like a mother loves her own. You are amazing. Til we meet again darling...

I got a flight to Utah as a birthday present to visit my high school friends there and took Max along with me so he could see his cousins. Unfortunately, we're missing a Musketeer - poor Emily had the stomach flu and couldn't make it out from Colorado :-( Here are our highlights...

Costa Vida - I LOVE food and I got to eat at restaurants I haven't been to in 3+ years - Rubios, Costa Vida and Cafe Rio received lots of my money while I was there. Here's my darling friend Melanie and I at Costa Vida. She's the pregnant one who ate a small salad and I'm the non-pregnant one who downed the largest one they sell.



So Melanie without any advance notice told her cute little Kaylee that a ballerina was coming. Within three minutes of entering the doorway I was requested to perform - in a dress mind you...sorry for flashing your children Mel but you asked for it :-) Poor girl here is getting the wedgy of her life I think - they were so fun and made me feel right at home...miss you guys! Our friend Erin got us some great tickets to the Flash and it was a blast - they are great family entertainment! I still haven't gotten the cheese whiz off my coat yet.

Max got to spend some great quality time with Papa Dave who showed us a great time! We hot tubbed, skiied, went inside some killer RVs (Max asked if I could charge more for piano so we can buy one....we had a great economics lesson)

My little man can ski! I was so proud of him - Papa did a great job teaching him the technicalities and was very patiend when Max went careening down the slopes at break-neck pace. We did 6 runs and he never got hurt - just cried as we were leaving because his hands were frozen to the core but he hadn't noticed before. He was constantly stopping to take his gloves off and eat snow - natural consequence sweetie.

Craig and Cynthia drove, no, ice skated a car down from Idaho to see us - thank you thank you thank you! We had a blast snowball fighting, sledding, playing Ticket to Ride, singing carols at the piano (they have great voices) and stuffing ourselves silly. I got to chat with their first unborn child - we are definitely bonded now.

Then we headed to Grandma Jinky's new house and took the train to Temple Square. It was fareeeeezing! We didn't last long, but I got in one picture for the books.

Thanks for the ticket honey!

Michael Kors store at our outlets 30 minutes away.....happy day.

Savannah Triathlon

Well, we had our official triathlon last weekend in Savannah, Georgia. It ended up being unofficial really, because the swim was replaced with a second run due to toxic levels of migratory bird poop in the lake. I was sooooo mad then grateful that they actually test the water before-hand. Otherwise I guess we might all be vomiting by the finish line. We had so much fun getting away by ourselves. Here are some highlights.


After we had a cajun lunch on the river we went to the fountain at Forsyth Park. Hundreds of years old - made of cast iron. "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" stuff.


I got kinda thirsty.....

This one is only posted to make the next one funnier....

Me wondering when I'm going to live on the beach. I'm definitely "at one" there. One of my dreams is to have a year's time to live beachfront and finish my novel....someday.

Yeah, I'm wearing heels, but I love fashion and we could only be there for a little while. We had dinner here on Tybee Island. The second best meal I've ever had...filet mignon, parmesan mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and onion straws. And dessert - don't even get me started. We took it to go and ate it right after our race the next day. I would drive the 4 1/2 hours just to eat there - the Sundae Cafe right in between a gas station and liquor store oddly enough.

On to a ghost tour the night before the race. Heard some cool freaky stories. We were bummed we couldn't go in the haunted houses though. Lots of downtown Savannah is built on mass slave graves who died of yellow fever and other reasons. It is known as the most haunted city in the U.S.

The morning of the race - very appropriate for Halloween Day. It burnt off by race start and ended up being in the low 80s. We were glad some of the run was shaded - the water station ran out during our first mile.

Pre-Race. Transition Area.

Post-Race. I like this one for some very obvious reasons. He stayed with me the whole race - it was so fun. I finished 8th out of 26 novice contestants. Since the swim was cancelled, we ran a mile, biked 13 (maintained an average of 24 miles per hour - yay!) then ran another 3.1. I think our time was 1:32. I'm sure he could've blown by me, but was sweet enough to be right with me and even hold my hand during one of the photo ops.

Happy Halloween from Pharoah and the leading lady of his harem :-)

The whole fam at a Halloween party - Pharoah's leopard didn't keep her ears on very long :-)

Surprise! Meet our new little one.....just kidding - Ellie would LOVE one though!

This is what happens when you send an 8 year old boy to help his sister get ready for bed......they called it "Super Diaper Baby".

We did it!


Ever since my friend, Laura, did a sprint triathlon, I've been itching to do one - they sounded like so much fun, a great challenge, and perfect training for someone with what I call exercise ADD (a side effect of ballet where we change what we do every few minutes, I think)

Shane and I did our first trial run with some guys from our church. It was pouring rain and sooooo much fun! We've had a blast training together. I can't talk when I run because of my asthma so he has to talk the whole time....which isn't usually his style. I love hearing so much from him! He hung back with me since we were on some major roads and we finished in 1 hour 49 minutes - a little longer than we had hoped, but hopefully we'll shave some time off for our race in Savannah Oct 31st. This is such a great excuse for us to travel away for a few days at a time too!

Left out....

Ellie has a hard time once in a while going to bed while there is something fun going on downstairs. So, she'll come down and we'll walk her back up, then she'll sneak down and go to sleep in various inconspicuous spots....usually the bottom stair. This time, she went for a firmer surface because it was a few feet closer to us I imagine.

Daddy's Coming To My Class!

I love this picture of them - Shane came to her creative movement/gymnastics class and she was so excited. Last semester the teacher banned him because every time he came, she would just show off for him and not listen :-) We have a new teacher this time, so we'll see how long it takes for that to happen again.

Well, what else would you do with a new toilet seat before installing it? Put on your wife's wig and chase your kids around the house of course!

When I look at this picture I can feel nothing but fulfilled.

Laura and Jane's Visit

So my friend Laura came to visit from California - we calculated 17 years that we've been BFFs! So this was totally fun for us because we haven't seen each other in 3 years. We have daughters 10 days apart and the last time we were together they were a few months old. This time, they got to be buddies and it was a blast watching them interact, dining out, lounging, swimming, shopping (especially when Laura set off all the hopping gobbling turkeys down the Jo-Ann store aisle). The girl knows how to have fun anywhere. So she had to leave her one and a half year old home and come 6 months pregnant on a 4 hour plane ride with a very energetic and inquisitive 3 year old. That's a good friend :-) Here's the pictures of our girls....

They arrived late when Ellie was sleeping, but she knew they were coming and came right out when she heard them...she was excited but she is very shy at first, so outgoing little Jane jumped right into the introductions..."Hi Ellie...wanna play?" To which Ellie replied nothing but a shy coy smile while frozen in one spot from nerves.....so what else to get Ellie playing than....

tickling of course! Smart girl. That got an instant smile on Ellie's face and two seconds later....

good buddies.

So they....jumped on beds,

Watched Harold and The Purple Crayon when Ellie needed her down time.....the girl is just like her Mommy,

played ring around the rosie,

swam,

bathed...because Laura said I needed to bathe my child once in a while,

were goofballs, said plenty of silly things and potty word things and giggled to their hearts content....

and Ellie has missed her ever since. She keeps saying, "Mommy where's my sister?"

First Day of Third Grade

Max has a wonderful teacher again this year - we have so blessed with 4 out of 5 great teachers from K- 3rd (he had two teachers in Kinder because we moved, two in 1st grade because one left for an administrative position and two in 2nd grade because one had to go on medical leave). His teacher this year has just the perfect amount of expectation, dedication and care for her students. He kept saying he wanted to be home-schooled when the beginning of school was nearing, but I haven't heard that since his first day. I love this age - he is so fun and self-functioning. He knows what he needs and what he needs to do. He's my mister math whiz, chess whiz, entreprenuer and list maker. Here he is headed out the first day and with the bus stop gang - wonderful neighbors and friends.

Father's Day

Finally! Do any of you have husbands that are soooooo hard to shop for? I think after ten years of marriage I finally got him something he liked. Two nice golf shirts, Clive Cussler's new book Medusa and a really funny card this year was the ticket (well, since the big screen tv I gave him the first year we were married - what was I thinking spoiling him like that....no wonder nothing has compared!).