Emily's Spring Piano Recital

Yesterday was Em's recital.  I always enjoy going to these.  She was very nervous for some reason.  The last song she played was challenging for her, so maybe that was scaring her.  But, her teacher and I both pushed encouraged her to play it as she'll never grow as a pianist if she doesn't challenge herself.

Here she is looking so grown up.

And then, I lost all control and she went bonkers for a minute.

Ok, serious and beautiful again...

And silly again....  Photo shoots are never easy.

Here she is playing at the recital.

Here are all the girls.  Stacy has 8 students now!  Isn't that amazing!!!

And here is the video of her performance:

She played Be Thou My Vision, How Great Thou Art and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.  And then, she does a duet of Chopsticks with Alissa.

She did such a great job and we are always so proud of her.

He's Married?

Every week, Noah brings home love notes from this little girl named Viola in his class. They are always cute and profess her love for her.

This week, the note took it to another level.

Apparently, they are married. Noah has no knowledge of this, which is good because my feelings would be a little hurt if I wasn't invited to his wedding.

Flash and Valley Fever (again)

Ben and Noah were watching The Flash last weekend. When I walked by the art table, I saw this drawing.

I thought, oh that's cute of Ben.  Then, come to find out, Noah did it!  I was shocked.  What 6 year old makes bubble letters.  I couldn't even master those in high school.  When Noah said it was his, I didn't believe him and had to ask Ben.  How bad is that?  But, it's a compliment to Noah, so he forgave me.

In other news...we are having Rocko issues.  We took him to the vet last week for a routine check up and to get caught up on shots.  He has a mole by his eye and we were curious about removal and what we thought was a little fatty tumor under his arm.  Then, the vet pats him on the head and says, "I'm more concerned about the lump on his eyebrow".  What lump?  It blended in with his brow bone and was about the size of a cranberry, so very easy to miss.

So, he wants to biopsy it.  Okay.  It comes back as a single organism of Valley Fever.  Oh gosh no.  Forest had Valley Fever. It's a disease prone to Arizona as it's carried by a fungus in dirt and gets spread in the wind. Dogs are sometimes on medication for the rest of their lives.  And the bad news, in 2013, the price of this medicine skyrocketed.  We paid about $8 a month for Forest.  Now, they want $85 a month!  What!  And the vet says if you are done with medicine in 18 months, consider yourself lucky.  That's $1500.  Plus $230 blood tests every 6 months.  We did find a place with cheaper medicine, but it's still a significant amount of money, and we can't say for sure that it would be done in 18 months.  This could be for the rest of his life, which on a golden retriever is typically 10-12 years.

Rocko is almost 9 years old, but he is the picture of health.  We know how dogs act with Valley Fever, no energy, no appetite, coughing, etc.  Rocko doesn't have a single symptom.  The doctor did a blood draw to confirm the results and his titer ratio of 1:64 shows he is a very sick dog.  What?  We walk 2.5 miles every day.  Forest couldn't do that when he had valley fever.  It's just very bizarre.  I mean, it isn't like Rocko is acting like he's fine for our benefit.  He's a dog.  If he's not feeling great, you know it.

We just have a lot of questions at this point.  How can we commit to over $2000 worth of medicine and blood draws for the next 18 months when our dog seems totally fine.  Humans can be carriers or have valley fever and their body doesn't register symptoms.  Can dogs do the same?  We aren't really getting a lot of answers as our vet has had 3 cases of this up here.  It's more prone to Phoenix and southern areas.

The vet also recommended teeth cleaning, mole removal, etc, which is close to $1,000 since they have to put him under for all of those procedures.

So, we go back and fourth on what to do.  We may just let him ride it out and keep giving him the best possible life we can.  We have no clue when symptoms could present themselves...a week, a month, a year.  Who knows how long he's had valley fever, and he's the happiest dog around right now....so???

Around Our House

Things have been busy around here.

We've been spending some time in the pool now that the weather is nice. Although, it turned again this weekend and it's back to rainy and cold. It'll change tomorrow though, that's how it rolls in Arizona.

Believe it or not, Noah likes being thrown like this.

We had a block party and I made fruit and a yummy fruit dip.  I don't make the dip often because it's dangerously good.  It's just a thing of cream cheese and marshmallow fluff mixed together.  Emily had never tried it and she was in love.  I learned this recipe from one of my best friends in high school, Diana Howard.  I lived a lot at their house and her Mom made it for us.  So, now I call it Mama Howard's dip.  

Ok, this is not a good picture of Mrs. Kim, but Emily had her second violin lesson and was doing some fingering and plucking this time.  She's really enjoying it so far.

Our Easter got postponed since Suzy was sick.  So, we went down the week after.  I forgot my camera, but here are some pics I took with my phone.  

Suzy had out a wonderful yummy spread of food.  It was delicious.

She also got the kids some really nice baskets.  She spoils them!

This morning Ben made his own version of paper dolls of all the Harry Potter characters.  

We love his creativity.

Around Our House

So, this is happening....

Emily has wanted to learn the violin for the past year or two. I told her she would get the chance in Jr. High. But, when we went to the open house last week, we found out they only had a band, no strings. Boo. She's been playing piano for almost 4 years and wants to continue with that, but she had her heart set on learning the violin too. I played for 3 years from 4th to 6th grade, but gave it up in Jr. High when I had to choose between violin and cheer since they were both after school activities. I chose cheer. Do I regret it? No. But, I wish I would've found a way to stick with violin.

In any case, my friend Dakri, mentioned the other day that a friend of hers might teach Alanah violin. What? I didn't know there was a violin teacher in a 25 mile radius from here. I knew this lady taught her girls, but didn't think she taught lessons for anything other than piano. It never dawned on me to ask. So, I got in touch with her and Emily's first lesson is Thursday. For now, she is having fun playing with it.

We found a place in downtown Prescott that rents violins, The Fiddle Doctor. The guy was super nice and we figure we'll rent the violin for 2 months and decide if she likes it before we spend a few hundred dollars on a new violin. But, I have to say, that I love it! Although, I squeak a lot, I remember a lot.  Much to my surprise since I haven't held a violin in over 30 years.

While we were downtown, we were came by a few homeless men.  Emily asked three times if we could give them money.  They weren't asking for money, but were clearly homeless.  Even if the one guy sat next to a box charging his wheelchair and cell phone.

So, we circled around and pulled out some money and Ben and Noah went over to give it to the 2 men.  Then, the guy asked if we had some time and wanted to make Ben something out of pipe cleaners. Sure....

He made these very cool spiders.  Ben was wearing s Spiderman shirt.  

Then, we headed to Olive Garden for dinner for the kids good grades.  Ben and Emily both got Principal's List again...all A's.  Noah got almost all O's on his report card, which is outstanding.  So, we used a gift card Gwynne and Enrique gave us.  Thanks!  The boys played with their spiders the whole time.  

Noah...you got a little spider on your shoulder.

Then, we went to Costco.  I'm in love with this $500 swing.  Sigh.

Then, we got the kids ice cream for their good grades.  I'm happy that they are happy and easy to please.

Then, today the clubhouse had their annual egg hunt.  They do it by age.  Here's Noah before he took off to gather up as many eggs as he could.

I told him to run straight for the bush, and he did.  Good job, little dude.

Here's Em and her friends.  

Here is the 10 and up group.  Ben was ready to go.

David took Ben and Noah to see the Batman vs. Superman movie this afternoon.  

Then, we dyed eggs.

We were supposed to go to my Dad and Suzy's tomorrow for Easter, but they both got sick.  Suzy got the worst of it.  So, we are going down to Phoenix next weekend instead.  Since we don't have plans tomorrow, we are going to head to church and probably have tacos for dinner.  :)

Sharlot Hall and Smoki Museums

I went on a field trip yesterday with Ben's class.  It was to the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott which is full of Prescott history.  Then, we went to the Smoki Museum which is Native American history.  I almost wasn't able to go. Noah walked out of school Monday and said he didn't feel good.  Tuesday came, the day of the field trip, Noah has a slight fever and he was coughing all night.  Luckily, David was able to work from home, so I could still go.  I'm thankful as I would've hated leaving his teacher high and dry.  My group had 10 kids, not easy to just come up with a replacement in a moments notice.

So, we started at the Sharlot Hall museum.  She was a lady from Prescott who collected lots of items pertaining to the history around here.  This is a replica of her with a real Model T.  It still works too and they use it in parades sometimes.

The stagecoach was pretty cool.  100 years ago, they would journey from Indiana to Arizona and it would take 6 months.  They'd walk 10-20 miles a day, even the kids.  How crazy is that?  We'd never survive in Pioneer days.  They need to do a reality show on that.

Here's Ben in a chair in the Govenor's Mansion.  It looked like a old shack, but I guess compared to others in the 1800's, it was prime living.  

This punch set was amazing!

This was the school house.  The kids thought it was neat that it was so small and all the grades were together.  They also liked the fireplace in the corner and the bowl used as a water fountain.

Then, we headed off to the Smoki Museum about a mile down the street.  This had lots of Indian art and the kids got to grind corn.

They also got to do the beading like the women did for jewelry, moccasins, and other items.

It was a super cool field trip.  I didn't go when Emily went a few years ago, so I'm glad I got to go with Ben.

I left at 9:45 and Noah was tired and fell asleep.  I got home at 2:15 and he woke up a few minutes after I walked in the door.  I guess he was tired if he slept for 4 1/2 hours!

Emily took a field trip today with the 6th grade gifted kids at her school down to Phoenix.  They went to the Challenger Space Center and she got to go on a journey to Mars!  I don't have pictures of that as I wasn't there, but she said it was a blast!  

Wet n Wild

It had been a long time since we got Wet n Wild season passes. It's in Phoenix, but only a 75 minute drive. The last time we got passes was 2012. You can see that post here. Look how tiny my babies are.

We decided to get them this year.  With the cost of gas being so cheap, it just makes it that much easier to go.  We usually go down once in March, April and May and that's it.  We got our $50 a ticket worth at that point.  Once it gets too hot and too crowded, we are done.  We may go again in September, but who knows.

In any case, my phone is in the locker the whole day, but we took it out for just a few minutes when we got some lunch.

These two just make me laugh...and cry...and yell.

But, they can be so cute.

And silly...

This is the only pic I got of Ben.  He wouldn't hold still.

Aunt Pam also got a season pass.  She lives about a mile from the waterpark, and meets us there.  It's so nice to have her join us and we get to visit.  

The kids love Aunt Pam!

Here's Emily being silly and Noah picking his nose.  

It was a really great day.  It wasn't very crowded.  It wasn't hot.  It was really fun.  I'm so glad we got passes and went.  I thought that we shouldn't go and we should do chores and get caught up on stuff around the house, since we just got home 6 days ago.  But, you know what, life is short.  My house will still be a mess next weekend.  Who cares?

We came home, had a yummy pasta dinner and made popcorn!  Ben has gotten into the Walking Dead, so we are watching the whole thing over with him.  We are on Season Two.  

It was a great day!