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I've got a problem......I can't seem to control my obsessions.
So I've commented on Crash's blog (Twilight review) about exiling myself into my laundry room to read the Twilight series. I had just started reading the first book when my teenage daughters talked me into going to watch the movie with them, I love movie, so I finished the book last night. I'm starting on the second book.
See, that's where my obsessions set in...because I really love reading, and when I pick up a good book to read, I can't put it down. It practically consumes all my time; eating, sleeping, waking hours. I get really engrossed in the reading, that everything else is forgotten. To add to that I've discovered the fun of blogging...logging on, read other people's posts for the day, comment on them if I feel witty, read some more posts, get off, read more Twilight {well, now it's New Moon}, get back on to the blogging world, read more posts...so the cycle goes on and on. The laundry that was supposed to be done, well, I did the washing and drying part, or at least the machines did those parts but now I have pile of clean laundry to fold and put away but I'm not even paying attention to that.
I couldn't have picked the worse week to get into my obsessions...this being Thanksgiving week. I still need to do last minute shopping for Thanksgiving dinner but I'm not even in the mood, I'd rather read or blog {how sad is that?}. I'm not even going to mention the state of my house right now. I belong to the same card making group Girl in a Swirl belong to and I'm supposed to the one demonstrating for our next card night...I have three projects to demo, all to do with Christmas ornaments, but I haven't even started making any samples to show off to the ladies yet on what they would be making that night {two weeks from now, which is fast approaching}. Also, I will be attending a Craft Fair two days after our Card Night...you think I'm prepared for anything to sell at the Craft Fair? Nope.
Then again maybe these two obsessions may be good for me. I suppose if I wanted so badly to be immersed in the blogging and reading the vampire books, I should discipline myself to at least try and get started on some of the projects I need to get done. Well, knowing my kids, they'd probably take over the computer so maybe I can use their monopolozing the computer as a way of curbing my blogging obsession to give me enough time to at least make a great Thanksgiving dinner for my family and make some really great Christmas cards and ornaments.
Speaking of which, it's time for me to put on my chauffeur hat and go pick up my kids from school. Ciao!!
11/22/08
Ramblings of the day..lol
Last night my family and I attended a beautiful Christmas(yes, Christmas before Thanksgiving) concert called "Birthday of a King"at BYUH, put on by three groups; University Chorale, BYUH Brass Ensemble, and Ko'olauloa Children's Chorus. My fifteen year old daughter, Jen, is in the KCC so of course I was really excited to go see their first Christmas Performance.
Actually, the director of the University Chorale is also the director of the BYUH Brass Ensemble and this was her concert so she invited the Children's Chorus to come join them. I should add that the Ko'olauloa Children's Chorus will be going to New York this coming June to participate in the Carnegie Hall Festival so every practices, performances or concerts they did, do and will do up to the time they leave for the trip are considered preparation for the big event so it is mandatory that every member of the choir whose going on the trip to participate in all the performances they have here in Hawaii.
So, like I said I was really excited to see them perform (I always get excited when I am about to see people sing, and of course I get more excited to see one of my own offspring performs). The concert was set for 7:30 p.m. and because I didn't want to be late, I told my family we have to be at BYUH no later seven o'clock. I actually have dinner prepared and ready by 5:30, this is record for me since I usually didn't have dinner on the table til about seven. My boys were really cooperative, they even got their chores done without complaints. I was actually patting myself of the back here since everything was going soooo smoothly. Even my husband, who is usually late for everything except for work, was even ready on time. Usually getting four boys and a toddler ready to go somewhere takes a lot of nagging and yelling on my part, but last evening, there was not even a whine or yelling (from me, of course) was heard anywhere. By seven were already on the way to the concert. We even got there early enough that we were able to find parking closest to the BYUH Auditorium where the concert would be. We even got seatings of our choosing...isn't that wonderful? Of course being there on time, I was able to go around and chat up friends and people I knew to catch up on life. About ten minutes before the concert started, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my camera. I asked a friend of mine whose kids are also in the choir if she can take pictures, she also forgot her camera...hmmm. "It's ok, I'll just use camera on my phone", I thought. Nope, I did not have my phone with me either, I gave it to my 17 year old daughter who was going to a school dance last night. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment not to mention the pending frustration now. Luckily, there was somebody there whose been asked to come video tape the whole thing so I felt better thinking I can buy the dvd later.
7:30 p.m came and the director came on stage and welcome everyone and did a little description on the concert and the lighting effects was beautiful. They started the first number with the Brass Ensemble doing a prelude music on O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and while they were playing their beautiful brass instruments, the University Chorale walked up the stage from the aisles singing the first verse of the song and by the time they got up on the stage they were close to the end of the first verse and when they finished the verse and started on the chorus, the Children's Choir entered the auditorium and walked down the aisle singing the chorus along with the other choir as they made their way up to the stage...oh, it was soooo beautiful to see the kids and it sounded heavenly to have the two choir and the brass ensemble doing the beautiful number together. When that first song ended, both choirs and brass did another number, called Angel's Carol, another beautiful number {I wish I had recorded the whole thing so I can play it back on here, oh well...}.
When the second number was done, the Brass Ensemble and University Chorale exited the stage while the KCC stayed behind to sing the third number all by themselves. Now that was a very fun and exciting number...they started with one of the kids introducing the song {I'm Gonna Sing with the Spirit} and then he started the song off with a solo part...aww, that was a teary moment, something about a child singing solo always brings tears to my eyes. {To me, children are the closest to heaven here on earth and when they sing, they sound like angels.} The choir then joined in and this song was one of those bringing-down-the-house-joyful-song kind, with the kids swaying and doing their hand motion and a lot of Hallelujia to it. It was beautiful...of course, I'm partial to that since my daughter is singing in that choir. {Sorry folks, I wish I have some picures to show you.} After this number they had the kids sat down in the audience and my daughter left with some of the kids so I thought they've probably gone around to enter the stage again from the back for when they perform again. {The KCC director had emailed all parents to let us know that the kids will be performing three numbers, two at the beginning and one at the end.} So, when my daughter was gone I thought she would be entering the stage later, but she came back a few minutes later, out of her choir uniform. She told me that the last number they will be singing, they will be singing from the audience not on the stage and it's optional if they want to sing that number or not. Since she doesn't want to sing from the audience, she might as well change out of her uniform...made sense. So the concert went on as it was, mostly the Brass Ensemble and University Chorale alternating between themselves. Halfway through the concert, I just realized something.
As I scanned the auditorium, majority of the audience were friends and families of the Ko'olauloa Children's Chorus. That was when the realization hit me that the University Chorale/BYU Brass Ensemble Director used the children's choir to get people to come to her concert. She knew that if she had the KCC performed in her concert, the kids' family would make it a point to have anyone they know attend otherwise it would have been a really sad sight indeed to see a concert with an audience of maybe about ten or so people. {pfftttttttttt....how dare she!}
That just totally ruined the mood for me...don't get me wrong the rest of the numbers were beautiful indeed but I wasn't as enthusiastic about them as I was earlier...the thought just kept going through my mind that was a backhanded trick on her part. "I wonder how the KCC director feels about this", I thought to myself. As it turned out the last number that the children's choir was supposed to join in was second to the last number and it wasn't even a whole verse, the director had asked the audience to join in on that song too.
Well, I was only too happy when the concert was finally at an end...when I went out to tell my friend about my discovery, she laughed and told me she and another mom had just been talking about that very thing.
I was really bothered by that discovery...and when I'm bothered about something, I usually ramble about it to my hubby, so you can see this was what I was doing on our way to our car. My hubby, in his attempt to keep the peace, responded, "just look at it this way honey, we have been uplifted by wonderful spiritual music". {He has a point there....but did he have to be sooo darn positive.}
We got to the car and he suddenly remembered that his Elder's Quorum was having an activity in the BYUH Gameroom so he decided we should least make an appearance. By then it was around 8:30 and when we got to the gameroom, the activity was long since over.
Now, he turned to me and said, "I've been looking forward to this activity all week to attend and you made me completely forgot about it."
"What? You're blaming me now for something you never mentioned til now? I've never heard anything about an Elder's Quorum activity, why didn't you tell me this on Sunday, at least I would have written it down and reminded you."
"Because I had already made it a point to remember it and you made me forget by dragging me to a boring concert."
"WHAT?!!"
Then it another thought occured to me so I smiled my sweetest smile, with dimples and all and said sweetly, too sweetly, I think....
"Honey, look at it this way, at least you have been uplifted by wonderful spiritual music tonight", and walked away with a satisfied grin on my face.
Walking back to the car again, I heard him saying to our daughter Jen that he didn't mean to say the concert was boring, the number her choir sang was beautiful but everything else was not as good. Well, we decided to rent a movie, go home, make some hot chocolate and enjoy a nice family moment.
There you have it, my ramblings for the day...
Actually, the director of the University Chorale is also the director of the BYUH Brass Ensemble and this was her concert so she invited the Children's Chorus to come join them. I should add that the Ko'olauloa Children's Chorus will be going to New York this coming June to participate in the Carnegie Hall Festival so every practices, performances or concerts they did, do and will do up to the time they leave for the trip are considered preparation for the big event so it is mandatory that every member of the choir whose going on the trip to participate in all the performances they have here in Hawaii.
So, like I said I was really excited to see them perform (I always get excited when I am about to see people sing, and of course I get more excited to see one of my own offspring performs). The concert was set for 7:30 p.m. and because I didn't want to be late, I told my family we have to be at BYUH no later seven o'clock. I actually have dinner prepared and ready by 5:30, this is record for me since I usually didn't have dinner on the table til about seven. My boys were really cooperative, they even got their chores done without complaints. I was actually patting myself of the back here since everything was going soooo smoothly. Even my husband, who is usually late for everything except for work, was even ready on time. Usually getting four boys and a toddler ready to go somewhere takes a lot of nagging and yelling on my part, but last evening, there was not even a whine or yelling (from me, of course) was heard anywhere. By seven were already on the way to the concert. We even got there early enough that we were able to find parking closest to the BYUH Auditorium where the concert would be. We even got seatings of our choosing...isn't that wonderful? Of course being there on time, I was able to go around and chat up friends and people I knew to catch up on life. About ten minutes before the concert started, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my camera. I asked a friend of mine whose kids are also in the choir if she can take pictures, she also forgot her camera...hmmm. "It's ok, I'll just use camera on my phone", I thought. Nope, I did not have my phone with me either, I gave it to my 17 year old daughter who was going to a school dance last night. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment not to mention the pending frustration now. Luckily, there was somebody there whose been asked to come video tape the whole thing so I felt better thinking I can buy the dvd later.
7:30 p.m came and the director came on stage and welcome everyone and did a little description on the concert and the lighting effects was beautiful. They started the first number with the Brass Ensemble doing a prelude music on O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and while they were playing their beautiful brass instruments, the University Chorale walked up the stage from the aisles singing the first verse of the song and by the time they got up on the stage they were close to the end of the first verse and when they finished the verse and started on the chorus, the Children's Choir entered the auditorium and walked down the aisle singing the chorus along with the other choir as they made their way up to the stage...oh, it was soooo beautiful to see the kids and it sounded heavenly to have the two choir and the brass ensemble doing the beautiful number together. When that first song ended, both choirs and brass did another number, called Angel's Carol, another beautiful number {I wish I had recorded the whole thing so I can play it back on here, oh well...}.
When the second number was done, the Brass Ensemble and University Chorale exited the stage while the KCC stayed behind to sing the third number all by themselves. Now that was a very fun and exciting number...they started with one of the kids introducing the song {I'm Gonna Sing with the Spirit} and then he started the song off with a solo part...aww, that was a teary moment, something about a child singing solo always brings tears to my eyes. {To me, children are the closest to heaven here on earth and when they sing, they sound like angels.} The choir then joined in and this song was one of those bringing-down-the-house-joyful-song kind, with the kids swaying and doing their hand motion and a lot of Hallelujia to it. It was beautiful...of course, I'm partial to that since my daughter is singing in that choir. {Sorry folks, I wish I have some picures to show you.} After this number they had the kids sat down in the audience and my daughter left with some of the kids so I thought they've probably gone around to enter the stage again from the back for when they perform again. {The KCC director had emailed all parents to let us know that the kids will be performing three numbers, two at the beginning and one at the end.} So, when my daughter was gone I thought she would be entering the stage later, but she came back a few minutes later, out of her choir uniform. She told me that the last number they will be singing, they will be singing from the audience not on the stage and it's optional if they want to sing that number or not. Since she doesn't want to sing from the audience, she might as well change out of her uniform...made sense. So the concert went on as it was, mostly the Brass Ensemble and University Chorale alternating between themselves. Halfway through the concert, I just realized something.
As I scanned the auditorium, majority of the audience were friends and families of the Ko'olauloa Children's Chorus. That was when the realization hit me that the University Chorale/BYU Brass Ensemble Director used the children's choir to get people to come to her concert. She knew that if she had the KCC performed in her concert, the kids' family would make it a point to have anyone they know attend otherwise it would have been a really sad sight indeed to see a concert with an audience of maybe about ten or so people. {pfftttttttttt....how dare she!}
That just totally ruined the mood for me...don't get me wrong the rest of the numbers were beautiful indeed but I wasn't as enthusiastic about them as I was earlier...the thought just kept going through my mind that was a backhanded trick on her part. "I wonder how the KCC director feels about this", I thought to myself. As it turned out the last number that the children's choir was supposed to join in was second to the last number and it wasn't even a whole verse, the director had asked the audience to join in on that song too.
Well, I was only too happy when the concert was finally at an end...when I went out to tell my friend about my discovery, she laughed and told me she and another mom had just been talking about that very thing.
I was really bothered by that discovery...and when I'm bothered about something, I usually ramble about it to my hubby, so you can see this was what I was doing on our way to our car. My hubby, in his attempt to keep the peace, responded, "just look at it this way honey, we have been uplifted by wonderful spiritual music". {He has a point there....but did he have to be sooo darn positive.}
We got to the car and he suddenly remembered that his Elder's Quorum was having an activity in the BYUH Gameroom so he decided we should least make an appearance. By then it was around 8:30 and when we got to the gameroom, the activity was long since over.
Now, he turned to me and said, "I've been looking forward to this activity all week to attend and you made me completely forgot about it."
"What? You're blaming me now for something you never mentioned til now? I've never heard anything about an Elder's Quorum activity, why didn't you tell me this on Sunday, at least I would have written it down and reminded you."
"Because I had already made it a point to remember it and you made me forget by dragging me to a boring concert."
"WHAT?!!"
Then it another thought occured to me so I smiled my sweetest smile, with dimples and all and said sweetly, too sweetly, I think....
"Honey, look at it this way, at least you have been uplifted by wonderful spiritual music tonight", and walked away with a satisfied grin on my face.
Walking back to the car again, I heard him saying to our daughter Jen that he didn't mean to say the concert was boring, the number her choir sang was beautiful but everything else was not as good. Well, we decided to rent a movie, go home, make some hot chocolate and enjoy a nice family moment.
There you have it, my ramblings for the day...
11/20/08
And this post goes out to.......
Before I even started darkening the doorway of the blogging world, I have been a "star"(lol) on one of the faithful members of the blogging world so I think it only fair that I devote this whole post to her.
I gotta tell ya, she's quite the gal who can put up with such a bold person like I am. My first impression of her was that she was a snob. (Of course the fact that she was new to my ward, not to mention the island, never crossed my mind that she would be shy.) See, I first saw her at our ward party about three years ago: while her husband was walking around greeting and meeting new people, she was sitting at their table not even making eye contact with anyone, hence the snob notion came to mind. I, on the other hand, was in some way anxious to meet a new person and making new friends but of course I can be so dense sometimes that it completely escaped my mind that I should make the first move and welcome her to our ward.
The first real encounter, as in communication encounter, was at a RS Home Enrichment night. I was asked to teach the ladies a really fun and cute art/craft project and there were two or three other tables set up for other projects that night and she chose my table and project to be her first visit that night. She turned out to be the fastest learner at the table and before the night was over, she was promoted to being my assistant (wink, wink). I think the second official time we met again was at one of my son's baptism and then later on at ward camp. I tell ya, once we started chatting, we couldn't stop, we had so much in common. (Of all the friends I have, she was the only one who like me does not like housecleaning. You can see why she's my friend? I'm not saying that we're slob, we just don't see the point in spending hours cleaning our houses when ten seconds later, the house will end up looking like it was before we started cleaning.)
So, at camp, we got to know each other really well, enough for me to ask her to come to my ladies' night out. Our kids we found out are really close in age and have become really close friends too.
Anyhoo, moving on....we decided we would get together at her house to make some fun arts/crafts projects for Christmas. One of the projects required velcro so my new friend volunteered to pick up the velcro from the store since she will be in town. So here we were at her house, all our materials we needed for our projects laid out on her table when she pulled out the velcro, looking very proud of herself for her contribution to our projects. Ok, the projects we had were all paper products and would need gluing and guess what kind of velcro she has? Yes, a sew-on velcro. You see where I'm going with this, right? We needed the glue-on velcro since we were working with paper products. Well, all I could do was just stare at the velcro, with different thoughts going through my mind and all I could think about was how in the world are we going to use sew on velcro on papers? So of course me with my uncontrolled tongue blurted out..."English is your first language, isn't it?", before I pointed out that she had bought the wrong kind of velcro. I know, very RUDE of me but I just couldn't help myself. But being the sweet person that she is, she bursts out laughing..now you see why I like her? She doesn't mind laughing at herself. I did feel bad for being so bold and rude like that so when I got home, I told my husband what I said. He looked at me with total unbelief on his face, shaking his head and mumbling something about how I could be so bold as to say something so insulting to someone I have just befriended.
Well, a couple days later we got together at my home and she told me how she told her family about what I said and her family thought that was the funniest thing they have ever heard. My husband didn't think it was funny. To this day, whenever I said I'm going to my friend's house or she is coming over, my hubby would smile and cringe at the same time. He smiles because he thinks my spending time with my new friend will keep me out of trouble (as if I'm a troublemaker), some of her goodness will rub off on me and he is always hoping I may learn a thing or two from her. But he cringes at the same time because he is always worried I might say something incredibly rude and insulting.
So here goes.....Girl in a Swirl. Here's to you.
I gotta tell ya, she's quite the gal who can put up with such a bold person like I am. My first impression of her was that she was a snob. (Of course the fact that she was new to my ward, not to mention the island, never crossed my mind that she would be shy.) See, I first saw her at our ward party about three years ago: while her husband was walking around greeting and meeting new people, she was sitting at their table not even making eye contact with anyone, hence the snob notion came to mind. I, on the other hand, was in some way anxious to meet a new person and making new friends but of course I can be so dense sometimes that it completely escaped my mind that I should make the first move and welcome her to our ward.
The first real encounter, as in communication encounter, was at a RS Home Enrichment night. I was asked to teach the ladies a really fun and cute art/craft project and there were two or three other tables set up for other projects that night and she chose my table and project to be her first visit that night. She turned out to be the fastest learner at the table and before the night was over, she was promoted to being my assistant (wink, wink). I think the second official time we met again was at one of my son's baptism and then later on at ward camp. I tell ya, once we started chatting, we couldn't stop, we had so much in common. (Of all the friends I have, she was the only one who like me does not like housecleaning. You can see why she's my friend? I'm not saying that we're slob, we just don't see the point in spending hours cleaning our houses when ten seconds later, the house will end up looking like it was before we started cleaning.)
So, at camp, we got to know each other really well, enough for me to ask her to come to my ladies' night out. Our kids we found out are really close in age and have become really close friends too.
Anyhoo, moving on....we decided we would get together at her house to make some fun arts/crafts projects for Christmas. One of the projects required velcro so my new friend volunteered to pick up the velcro from the store since she will be in town. So here we were at her house, all our materials we needed for our projects laid out on her table when she pulled out the velcro, looking very proud of herself for her contribution to our projects. Ok, the projects we had were all paper products and would need gluing and guess what kind of velcro she has? Yes, a sew-on velcro. You see where I'm going with this, right? We needed the glue-on velcro since we were working with paper products. Well, all I could do was just stare at the velcro, with different thoughts going through my mind and all I could think about was how in the world are we going to use sew on velcro on papers? So of course me with my uncontrolled tongue blurted out..."English is your first language, isn't it?", before I pointed out that she had bought the wrong kind of velcro. I know, very RUDE of me but I just couldn't help myself. But being the sweet person that she is, she bursts out laughing..now you see why I like her? She doesn't mind laughing at herself. I did feel bad for being so bold and rude like that so when I got home, I told my husband what I said. He looked at me with total unbelief on his face, shaking his head and mumbling something about how I could be so bold as to say something so insulting to someone I have just befriended.
Well, a couple days later we got together at my home and she told me how she told her family about what I said and her family thought that was the funniest thing they have ever heard. My husband didn't think it was funny. To this day, whenever I said I'm going to my friend's house or she is coming over, my hubby would smile and cringe at the same time. He smiles because he thinks my spending time with my new friend will keep me out of trouble (as if I'm a troublemaker), some of her goodness will rub off on me and he is always hoping I may learn a thing or two from her. But he cringes at the same time because he is always worried I might say something incredibly rude and insulting.
So here goes.....Girl in a Swirl. Here's to you.
11/17/08
Finally!
I have finally made it out to this blogging world. My friend has been telling about blogging for the longest time but at the time I guess I just wasn't ready or not blog-literate yet..lol. But now that I've finally made it out here, I think I'm gonna like it here. I am still getting the feel for this other side of the cyber world so bear with me til I can get footing. I'll be back for some real posts after I do some virtual "unpacking"....Laura, I'm gonna need some of your blogging organization here...HELP!
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