Thursday, May 26, 2011

A piano recital

Since September we have been taking Madeleine every Wednesday for 30 minutes a few streets away for her piano lesson. Her teacher is so patient and kind and we feel so blessed to have her in our neighborhood. This week was the year end recital. Every single person who played was amazing! Encouraging Madeleine to practice every evening brought back lots of memories of my own mom "encouraging" me to practice, but we already told Madeleine that she is going to continue to take lessons (whether she likes it or not!). I am just amazed at how much she learned in 9 months, she went from knowing nothing to being able to play pieces with both hands!

Lee and Madeleine


Grandpa (my dad) and Madeleine

Madeleine with Aunt Kristin (my sister) and cousin Sydney. Forgive Everett's head on the bottom right of the picture...


Grandma (my stepmom) with Everett and Madeleine. Grandma brought a corsage for Madeleine to wear! It was beautiful and it made Madeleine's night! Note Madeleine's lack of teeth, she has to eat everything on the side of her mouth, it is amusing to watch.

Madeleine with Mrs. Joy. Mrs. Joy was Madeleine's Sunday School teacher when she was 3 years old at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. Mrs. Joy lives 2 doors down from the piano teacher so every week Everett and I go play at Mrs. Joy's during Madeleine's lesson and then Madeleine joins us. We are blessed to have Mrs. Joy in our lives! (I am also in a great book club with Mrs. Joy that she started 25 years ago and is still going strong!)

Madeleine moved her corsage to her hat, it is more fashionable that way I suppose...

Click on this link to enjoy this movie of Madeleine (could not get it to load on the blog). She played two songs at her recital, both with the teacher.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Knowing your neighbors

At 3:45 pm Lee loaded the kids in the car and headed to Madeleine's softball game. I needed to leave at 5:15 pm to officiate at a wedding so I read some of my book, started a load of laundry, and watched some TV. At 5:15 I was all ready to go so I got my preacher robe and my Book of Worship and grabbed my purse and got in the car. I could not find my keys. They were not in my purse. I got out of the car and looked on the kitchen counter, but they were not there. I looked on Lee's dresser in the bedroom, but they were not there. I began to run (in my preacher high heels it was more like walked quickly) all around the house looking for my car keys. The extra key is on Lee's keyring, so I called him. Maybe he knew where they were. He had to walk to the parking lot to tell me that my keys were in the console of the car that was at the softball game 20 minutes away. The wedding started at 6 pm at the Mansion on Turtle Creek! I had told the couple that I would be there at 5:30 pm and it was already 5:20!!! Panic began to set in.

Lee offered to drive back, but I knew that I would not make it to the wedding in time. So, I called my neighbors. Three did not answer their phones, so I went next door and began to knock on doors. The first neighbor did not answer, but the next one did. I explained the situation in a very panicked voice. Just then Lee called and said that he thought that we had an extra key. So, I ran (preacher high heels so again walked quickly) back home, found the key, and was frustrated when it would open the car doors, but not turn the engine. So, back to the wonderful neighbor. She offered to drive me herself, but she was unable to leave right then so she offered to let me borrow her car.

I instilled great confidence in my wonderful neighbor when I could not figure out how to take off the parking brake and started pushing and pulling all the buttons. She reminded me about the parking brake lever and then I was off. It was 5:36 pm. I was on the freeway racing downtown when I realized that the hood was open. I must of opened it when I was pulling all of those buttons to turn off the parking brake. I had visions of the hood flying up and me crashing my generous neighbor's car. I exited the freeway, closed the hood, and arrived at the Mansion at 5:49 pm. I thanked God for the valet and ran to the top floor balcony where I officiated at a wedding of two very kind people.

As I was at the gas station filling up my neighbor's car I had many thoughts of thankfulness. Thankful (I think) that the rapture did not happen today at 6 pm, thankful that my neighbor was willing to let me borrow her car, thankful that I did not crash, thankful that there was no traffic, thankful that I live in a neighborhood where I know my neighbors well enough to ask them to let me borrow their car! I have a very thankful heart this evening...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

around our house...

Madeleine is always reading... and almost finished with first grade!


and Everett got a twin bed!


They are growing up so fast!

The cousins at the Dallas zoo

This past weekend when the weather was so nice in Dallas we went with my sister and her 2 kids to the zoo. Our kids are very close in age and have a great time together. And I am so thankful that my sister only lives 5 minutes away from me!

Austin (my nephew) and Everett.

Everett, Austin (nephew), Madeleine, Sydney (niece).

There is a new bird show, Soar, at the Dallas zoo and I was chosen from the audience to come up and take a picture of a bird as it flew towards me. It was great fun! It is hard to see the bird, he is right in front of the people, but so cool!


The girl keeps losing teeth!


Madeleine lost her 7th tooth! And it was so close to coming out that I was able to make a movie of Lee pulling it out!




So glad that Lee is willing to pull teeth because I am not!

Training Wheels OFF!

Madeleine has been riding her bike with one training wheel for a few months because taking both training wheels off did not work so well. So, after many rides around the block tonight was the night that Madeleine wanted to try to ride her bike with no training wheels. She did great!




A movie of the first successful attempt. I love proud daddy Lee's reaction!

A high five after the first successful ride.

She rode down the entire block all by herself!

A very happy and proud girl!




She has got it now! Look at her go!