addendum

- to yesterday's post.

we're actually going in the show program as the "band of wonders"!

HA! how awesome is that?

about as awesome as opening my windows this morning and discovering that the neighbor's ornamental cherry popped into full bloom last night. i love spring. :)

the blog of wonders

like my subtle reference to aladdin? cause that's mostly what this post is about.

rehearsals have gone so quickly - hard to believe that opening night is only a week and a half away! the band has been practicing diligently, and following the pocahontas pattern of naming the band after the show, we are calling ourselves "the band of wonders".
and we are.

... wonders, that is. ;)

this show did not come with any instrumental score - we received a piano/vocal score with 2 previous shows' of notes scribbled on it and fully a fourth of the notes/chords/words wrong. it was intended to be performed with an accompaniment track, but the accompaniment track was worse than ... uh ... well, it's bad.

undaunted, we decided to have a band. i arranged some flute and clarinet parts, assembled a bass player and drummer who aren't into sheet music anyway, and the band of wonders was born!

tickets are still available at this site right here.

introducing: my assistant!

with two home businesses and numerous commitments filling my life, it was definitely time to employ an in-home office assistant.


ok ... so maybe my assistant won't be returning phone calls, arranging music, or even filing. but she's quite involved in office operations: attacking the printer whenever i print, chasing the mouse on my computer screen, scattering pencils, walking across the keyboard, and falling asleep on my mouse arm. usually about 20 minutes after i sit down i am immobilized - by cuteness.

i'd consider raising her salary, but she has yet to engage in an assistant-ly activity that actually increases my output.

meh. productivity's overrated anyway.

cyt christmas tea

yay, i have pictures from our cyt christmas high tea! so, yay, i can write a blog about it!
(thank you, hannah baggs, for the pictures.)

i worked in a tea room for over three years, and this apparently has qualified me to host an english high tea. now, in my experience, most people upon hearing of "high tea" think of meager fare consisting of a few continental breakfast pastries accompanied by overbrewed earl gray (palatable only with great quantities of cream and sugar).

this is not how i was taught to serve tea.

the high tea i serve is a full, 4-course meal. it is accompanied by locally blended loose leaf teas, precisely brewed for full, not bitter, flavor.

first served was the soup course ... except that fifteen minutes before our tea guests arrived, i broke a glass measuring cup into the pot of sweet potato ginger soup as i was pureeing it and had to make a new pot of soup. so we served the tea sandwich course.

no one seemed upset by the delay ... as long as there was plenty of tea!


fyi, 14 teenagers go through a lot of tea!our tea sandwich course included a few tea room recipes, and a few of our own invention ...
cucumber sandwiches
3 pepper cream cheese on rye sandwiches
egg salad sandwiches
sausage tartlettes
dilmah ceylon tea

the aforementioned out-of-order soup course ...
delicous sweet potato soup (sans broken glass)
cheddar cornmeal biscuits
jasmine green tea (at least, i think that's what we served ... it was over 2 months ago ...)
everyone's favorite: the dessert course ...
swedish toscas (courtesy of my generous mother)
cranberry scones with jam and mock devonshire cream
pumpkin bread (thanks, tessa!)
rose's tea room special blend tea
... i think i'm forgetting something ...
and the chocolate course, of course!
chocolate tea pots (a mousse-like concoction of black tea and dark chocolate)
chocolate crepes
lemon rose tea
i might have forgotten how much work it takes to serve a high tea, but i remembered really quickly!
joel was in charge of desserts.
i was in charge of most other food, presentation, and tea.
lizzie was in charge of filling water and helping out. (great job, lizzie!)
ethan was in charge of helping joel make crepes and survive the tidal waves of girliness.
he did his best, but i think joel was just too far gone ... ;)
thanks, ladies (and ethan), for a lovely time! can't wait for the next one!

... and it's going to be 60 degrees tomorrow!

remember these?

yes, those sad, blighted bulbs that i planted in haste last year. poor things. the miniature irises, little narcissus, and delicate tulips died and didn't come back all year.

but this is a new year, and spring is coming early. :)

since this picture was taken i've had about 15 yellow narcissus and 5 pansy blooms. my $1 pansies, bought and planted on a whim last october, survived the mild winter and are filling my planter with purple already!

the long overdue pocahontas post

just three weeks away from opening our next cyt show, i am finally posting pictures from our last show. :) i have such wonderful memories from pocahontas, and want to capture them on this blog before they float into irrelevance.

we rehearsed every friday and saturday at portland lutheran school in the fluorescent music room. surrounded by brightly colored posters and a faint aroma of lunches long past, we crammed 60 kids into a space made for thirty and entreated all to not play on the bleachers during practice. of course, the temptation of bleachers often proved too great to resist, but i know we all tried. :)


i can't think of any seminar, counselor, or marriage book that could equal the marital growth of music directing together. we received much practice in allowing the other to compensate for our weak areas, communicating patiently under pressure, compromising on ideas, working in active submission, and respecting each other's gifts. i only hope the kids learned half as many life lessons as we did during those 8 weeks.
we had the most awesome band! we christened ourselves "rockahontas", and proceeded to rock the hontas off everyone in attendance! :D

at the last minute, joel received the unexpected (and unexpectedly fun) assignment of sound guy. his prior sound experience was miniscule compared to the challenge of a full-blown musical! he developed some awesome skills in this area. my brother chip is experienced in sound, and helped us out a lot. joel and chip have conquered numerous alien universes together, and i think it was high time they used their amazing teamwork for the greater good of non-virtual mankind.
our artistic team, "the second best artistic team ever" (and definitely the loudest) ...

i love this next performance picture. and not primarily because of the cool lighting, awesome costumes, or great sets. i love the intensity and passion, but that's not coolest thing either.
no, my favorite part of this picture is vowel shape.
yeah ... nerdy, i know.
the strike party. exhausted, but hanging onto the last vestiges of pocahontas fun ...after the show was over, we hosted a christmas high tea for 14 of the kids from the show. 6 days after my concussion. yes, it was crazy, and yes, it was FUN!

*all show and rehearsal pictures taken by debbie booth. strike party pictures taken by audrey laws. tea party picture taken by me. :)

alright, maybe green's ok.

the warm spell hit at just the wrong time. :(
i had everything planned out - the best present i ever thought of.
my mom and i would sneak up to larch mountain on the pretext of "getting christmas presents", i would take beautiful snowy pictures of her, print them out, and give them to my dad! great idea, huh?

yeah, didn't work out that way. the tv weatherman called it an inverse something-or-other: 38 degrees in the valley, and 50 degrees at the top of larch mountain. there was no snow.

undeterred, we hiked o'er annoyingly non-white hills and shrubs to capture these:

slings 'n swings 'n things

i shot my first commercial photography assignment today.
which sounds like a really pretentious way of saying, "my friend is starting a business and i caught a few pics of his product." heh.

our friend tim just started an awesome business called "Daddy T's Slings" - they sell baby/stuffed animal slings for toddlers and young children. check them out right here. :)

endeavor church

we are planting a church. and it's SO FUN!!!

this last summer, we joined a small church plant in rockwood (the most crime-ridden, unchurched area in our state). there were 15 of us, meeting in a living room. now, in february, there are about 60. we've seen God work in amazing ways - bringing people to Christ, baptizing, worshiping together, serving our neighbors and each other ....

we meet in a repurposed office building on sunday mornings, and enjoy lunch afterward ... and sometimes flag football. (well ok, that was just this last week.)

enjoying community on a sunday morning...

worshiping together...
joel and i have really enjoyed using our gifts in ministry at endeavor. he preaches on a semi-regular basis, and loves teaching God's Word! i am currently coordinating musical worship january-june. ("coordinating" seems so much less presumptuous than "leading".) i love every step of the process - prayer, study, assembling a song set and other elements, working with the team on musical unity, and worshiping with everyone on sunday!

the great escape

first the cat did something green on the floor.
then the ants staged their hostile takeover.

and when the seismic tremors wracking mt. laundry threatened to erupt and spew molten underwear in a vesuvius-esque radius, i escaped.

and i'm not telling where.

i'm blogging again, by the way. (you probably guessed that by now.) but i'm not going to promise to back-blog since mid-december, because that's why i've been hiding from bloggerville (heh - that sounds like burgerville) in the first place.
there will be no series, no litany of catch-up posts. if i can ever ever ever edit all the family fun pictures since thanksgiving, those will be uploaded with reckless abandon.

but until then ...

what we're up to now:

• senselessly abusing prepositions.
• music directing yet another cyt show: aladdin.
• helping to plant a church in rockwood - leading worship, preaching, hugging toddlers, praying together, sharing God's love, and laughing a lot!
• (lani only): healing from my usual collection of accidental injuries.
• (joel only): finishing his application to ohsu school of nursing; waiting to hear if he was accepted into linfield or walla walla.
• (both): praying that joel will be accepted into ohsu, linfield, and/or walla walla.
• taking joy in our 4 blooming irises. spring dost cometh!

i suppose an observant reader might assume that the neglect of this blog is related to the most recent post, which would not be the case. i am mostly healed from my concussion. (but, goodness! concussions take a long time to heal!) i fully intend to blog more ... just as soon as i conduct an air RAID on the invaders and fumigate the "green stuff area".

which might not be any time soon.