Piano Man

My dad installs hardwood floors for a living. He also finishes them. It's a family business. One that his father started over 50 years ago. He is very good at what he does. And his customers love him. He loves them too. That's the kind of man he his, he loves people. And I'm certain that's one reason his business is successful.

He doesn't advertise. Never has. Never will. His customers spread the word. They call him when they need repairs or refinishing. He has known many of them for a lot of years.

He has a customer named Al Hanserd. Dad was working in his home about 13 years ago and Al mentioned that he needed to get rid of his piano. He asked Dad if he knew anyone that would be interested in buying it. Dad told him that I played and that he would ask me if I was interested. I should also mention that my dad is forgetful. He never asked me if I was interested. But the next time he was at Al's house he noticed that he still had the piano. He asked Al if he still wanted to sell it. Al said no. He wanted to give it to me.

And that's how I became the proud owner of this beautiful old Kimball upright. I was really excited when he called me and told me about it. But was even more excited when I saw it. It is so lovely.

Since I have had it it has been moved at least six times. And sadly it has never been tuned. But amazingly it still sounds good. A few months ago one of the keys started sticking. So I decided that it was way past time to call out a piano tuner.

Enter the piano man. I totally expected a really old guy named Frank to show up at my house and tune my piano. But he was like 25. And his name was Steven. And he took my piano apart.We found a lot of things inside the piano. Some pennies, a balloon, part of a cracker. But the coolest thing we found was this.The last time it was tuned was in 1995. So the piano man thought he would need to do a pitch raise. But then was surprised to find that the piano was sharp. About 45 minutes later it was perfectly in tune with no sticky keys. My piano students will be grateful. It sounds so nice.

My dad did a job for Al a couple months ago. I told him to tell him that I am teaching piano lessons on that piano now. And to tell him that I am thankful and that I love my piano.

I should probably tell my dad that I am thankful too. Thankful that he is the kind of man that loves people. The kind of man that people love in return. The kind of man that would inspire Al to give his daughter a piano even though he's never met her.

If You Have a Date in Constantinople...

She'll be waiting in Istanbul!

And so one of the best weekends ever has come to an end. They Might Be Giants came to Atlanta. And they did a family show. So my brother Reed came from Memphis and he brought his wife, three cute girlies and a super sweet little baby man. And Reed's best good friend Gregory Dale McIlvain came as well. He also brought some cute girlies. Two very cute little ones and one very pregnant mama. My brother Kirk came also. And his bff Matt. And my cousin Matt came from Athens to kick off his spring break.

So we all converged at Ami's house to spend the weekend. And it pretty much goes without saying that there was much good food, many laughs and little sleep. It also goes without saying that the highlight of the weekend was taking our kids to their very first rock show.

We drove into Atlanta to Little Five Points which was an adventure in itself. Cowboy saw his first hobo and was thrilled about it. And thus commenced the great hobo hunt 2010. He spotted at least one per city block. The favorite was the hobo with the i-pod. We were still talking about where he might charge it when we arrived at the Variety Playhouse.

These photos aren't great. Taken with the i-phone. But anyways this is Matt and I and lots of other folks we don't know in front of the venue.

And inside. It was such a great show. The kids LOVED it!!! We loved it. They played lots of great kid music and some good stuff for the grown ups too. My favorite was Istanbul was Constantinople. The trumpet solo was A-MAZE-ING! The kids liked Dr. Worm and the seven song. "We want cake! Where's our cake!" And everyone loved the confetti that seemed to be endless. After the show the kids got their foam fingers and tickets signed by the drummer Marty Beller. Rockstar took hers to school today to show her class.

It was such a great day. Probably makes my top ten list of good days.

So Much to Blog About

So, obviously I have been a total blogger slacker. And I'm trying to get caught up. And that's why I'm posting about Halloween in January. But my lack of posts is not because there is nothing to blog about. Because there's a lot to blog about. A lot. We had a very busy fall here at lelu's house. Here's a few of the highlights. Some of them will get a post of their own eventually but most will not. We'll start with October.

Matt and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.
Caveman turned 13.
Matt's final semester of nursing school was in full swing. His clinical schedule was insane and he still held down a full time job. We did not see him. At all.
Caveman auditioned for All State chorus. Didn't make it this time. He's looking forward to next year.
Baby started going to the nursery at church. Making Sundays much more pleasant for me.
Matt's mom came for a visit from Connecticut.
School and church parties for Halloween.
And of course Halloween.

Then in November.
A weekend trip to Ami's.
Getting ready for the primary program.
Christmas shopping.
Matt is still crazy busy.
I'm thinking about starting an etsy shop. Bought lots of fabric and made lots of blankets. There will definitely be more to come on this.
Thanksgiving. Brent and Tracy came down with their kids and spent the day. We fried our turkey and ate very well. It was a great day.
November went by very fast. And is a total blur to me. I'm sure there were lots of other things that happened too. On to December...

We decorated for Christmas.
The girls had their Holiday Concert.
Matt's mom came.
We had our piano recital. A Polar Express recital. Complete with hot chocolate and Santa's sleigh bells.
Baby learned to say no. And he says it very well.
Matt took his final exams.
Matt's dad came.
My parents came.
Matt Graduated!!!! He was elected by his class to speak at graduation. He did an awesome job.
We had a party.
Caveman had a Holiday Concert.
We went to Memphis.
Kirk came home from his mission.
We came home from Memphis. For just two days. I made Christmas pj's. Seven pairs.
Went to a Christmas Partay.
We went to Alabama to spend Christmas with my family. ALL of them. Twenty kids. Twelve adults. One recently returned missionary. All under one roof.
Spent the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning in the emergency room with Matt. He has an ulcer. One that bleeds a lot apparently.
Still had a wonderful Christmas.
Kids had a lot of play dates and sleepovers.
Spent New Years Eve with good friends.

This week...
Sent the kids back to school.
Took Baby to the doctor. He has two ear infections and a sinus infection. Poor baby.
Lost two and a half hours of my life to the DMV.
Went to Maggiano's for the first time. Celebrated Davin's birthday with the Jagnandan's. That place was amazing. We ate ridiculous amounts of food and still somehow managed to bring home enough to feed a complete meal to our ENTIRE family. And it was sooo delicious. And the company was good too.
Today was a snow day. The kids got two days of school in then lucked out with a three day weekend. And boy oh boy it is cold!

So those are the highlights. Of course there was lots of driving kids to and fro, school projects, sick kiddos and the like to add the craziness. Baby keeps learning more words and Rockstar keeps losing teeth. And life is good. Really good. And I am blessed. And grateful.

Halloween

Better late than never right? Halloween was great this year. Cold and wet but still great. We went Trick or Treating with the Marlers. Then went to Red Robin for dinner, a fun tradition we started last year. After dinner we made a stop at the Pirate Ship before heading home to bed. Caveman is too cool for us and did his own thing this year. We all had a lot of fun and had TONS of candy to show for it.

I made most of the costumes this year. Cowboy's was a leftover from when Caveman was his age. And Baby's was a hand me down from Cowboy. So all I had to do was make an orange m&m, a pirate costume and a seventies super hero. No problem right? Like usual, I was pinning stuff together on the way out the door but they all looked great.



Baby was going through a serious peek a boo phase at the time.

Red Ribbon Week

It's the week at school when the kiddos get to dress up. There is a different theme each day. My kids dress up sometimes. Sometimes they don't. But this year Caveman REALLY got excited for tacky day.



Lookin good Caveman. Lookin good!

Teenage Caveman

So it happened. On the fourth of October I became the mother of a teenager. Crazy. Months later, I'm still not sure how it happened. But it did. Here's the rundown...

With a birthday in the first week of October, it falls on Conference weekend pretty often. He went to priesthood session on Saturday night, got home late and stayed up until midnight so he could turn thirteen and open a facebook account. Then he had to take a cool profile picture. Then edit the cool profile picture then search for friends and request friends. And he was up really late.

We spent his birthday watching General Conference. Then had his birthday dinner (he requested stir-fry). Then he took a nap on the couch. That hasn't happened since he was like two.



While he was napping I made cupcakes. Super chocolaty chocolate cupcakes.



He really likes chocolate so the cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate chips with chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles.



Yeah, it was a lot of chocolate.

We sang Happy Birthday,



He blew out the candles,



Then he opened his presents. He really wanted a cell phone.



We gave him some chocolate. Then told him he could have another present if he could find it. SO the girls helped him and they found it pretty quick.



He was very excited.



Over the next ten days he racked up 1500 text messages on that phone. And it this point in time I think it has permanently fused to his hand. Oh, the joys of having a teenager in the house.

Happy Birthday Caveman!!! We love you!!!!

And baby LOVED your cupcakes.

Conversation with Cowboy

The Cowboy and I have great conversations on the way to school every morning. Here's a bit of one that took place the other day.

Cowboy: Hey, Mom, why don't buwds get wolectwocuted when they stand on the powuh lines?

Me: Why don't they get what?

Cowboy: Uuumm...Wolectwocuted. That's a weally hawd wuwd to say.