Mom is Always Right

Although, this one cost me a few dollars!! Maddie had a history project due and there were about 15 ideas to choose from. All the topics were "frontiersy" and involved poster boards, brochures, videos, etc. She was set on a nice poster board project when I noticed one was about railroad music. I told her I'd pay her $20 if she used her violin. She had mentioned that the teacher didn't like her (I'm sure he has a personal vendetta against her), but I was convinced that if she took her violin to school and played something, he'd be impressed.

She got to work and after listening to a few "Casey Jones" songs, that darn kid wrote a short "frontier" sounding song. She wrote it out on staff paper and worked it all out. It did have a "frontier" sound to it, too. She she played her newly written song and "Ashoken Farewell" for her class. The teacher recognized "Ashoken" from the Civil War series on PBS and remarked that is one of his favorites. He had never had a kid choose that option for this project. He wants her to come back and play. Apparently all the classes heard about Maddie and her violin all day.

I'm just really proud of her for doing it!! She kept her violin in the band room all day and played it for her band teacher who also recognized "Ashoken". See, I was right. If you do something very different, that might be a little embarrassing, but also shows you care about the project, you will be rewarded.

No Fooling

I still don't think I have recovered completely from last weekend. It might have changed me forever. All of spring break was nice and relaxing. I got work done around the house and enjoyed my relaxing schedule. Then Thursday night was the big movie night. The girls had made plans with friends and so it was that we went to see "The Hunger Games". It was very good. I'm glad I saw it, although I could have done without the 3am bedtime. This was problematic as the next day, we needed to head out to Orlando for the JUMP dance convention/competition with Maddie's studio dance company. Rozzie participated in this one since a girl was in Germany and Rozzie knew this dance from last year. The convention classes were all taught by world renowned dancers and choreographers - some that we knew from our love of the show "So You Think You Can Dance". The convention was held at the hotel that is actually in the Orlando airport. We checked in at our hotel "across the street" and then took the girls to the convention. Now, it is a 2 1/2 hour drive to Orlando from our house. We dropped the girls at the convention with their group and then Travis and I headed to Miami. Travis had gotten tickets to the Florida Panthers vs. the Edmonton Oilers game that night. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Orlando to Miami. We got to Miami and met up with a friend of mine from high school. Chris is a HUGE hockey fan. I haven't seen him in about 20 years. It was a great time to sit and talk and then we headed to the arena. We had tickets up in a suite - which was really sweet!!

After the game, we met up with Bill Lindsey who is a former hockey player and is now one of the announcers for the games. Travis' parents are friends with Bill's parents in Southern Utah. He is the one who got us the tickets!! It was fun to meet him. Chris noted that Bill has really good hair!!
We had a very nice time, but it was soon time to head back to Orlando (a 3 1/2 hour trip).
That was two days in a row with a 3 am bedtime. I was exhausted. I thank Travis for buying me a Diet Coke so that I could sleep in the hotel lounge undisturbed!! You can see the airport terminal in the background. You can see the socks I was knitting as I fell asleep. The knitting bag provided head support but was not very comfortable. Surprisingly, I slept like this for 2 hours.
The girls enjoyed their classes a lot. One of the teachers started in the recent remake of "Footloose". Rozzie made sure she wore make-up that day and that she got a picture with him - just them, not anyone else!! I was able to get a glimpse of my favorite choreographer, Mia Michaels. That was a treat!! This picture is nice as both Roz and Maddie are in it - 2nd from left is Roz and 2nd from right is Maddie.

Here is one more picture of Maddie in her magical leg-elongating pants!!
Finally, two weeks after the accident, Travis replaced his car. He is thrilled with his acquisition. It takes us back to our roots when we first got married. This car is about 2 years old with only 2500 miles on it. The man that owned it, just bought it for fun. Apparently he does that. It is a Honda CRZ hybrid. Travis got a good price on it and, barring any accidents, it should last him a long time. It is fun to drive a manual transmission again!! It was so rarely used that it still has the new car smell.

Now it is time to get back to General Conference and my knitting!!