O Holy Night & a New Artist

Yesterday I went to the final performance of the annual Singing Christmas Trees. My friend Karen had been given tickets to go. It was so fun to go to a performing arts event. That always gets me stirred up to be a part of a production. I want to dance and sing and act and play my flute! A Tiffany Colburn sang O Holy Night and it was awesome. It is pretty Disney-esque/Phantom-of-the-Opera, so don't hold that against me. If you click on the link above, be sure to listen through to the end. It hardly compares to being there in the flesh. You simply cannot reproduce live performances on a screen. Thanks for taking me, Karen!

Along those lines, I just discovered my new favorite artist:
Kari Jobe. She started performing at 3 and wanted to be a worship leader from age 10.... Click on her name, sit back, and worship.

Book Quotes

Been doing some reading lately. Skimmed through Three Cups of Tea and liked this quote in there by Helena Norberg-Hodge:

It may seem absurd to believe that a "primitive" culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned.

I'm working my way through The Creative Call, by Janice Elsheimer. I love what she said in her introduction:

I recall memorizing Beethoven's "Fur Elise" for a recital when I was nine. That hauntingly beautiful music taught me why learning a piece by memory was called learning it by heart: Only after I had committed a piece to memory was I free to explore the emotions elicited by the music. Until I knew a piece by heart, I could not put expression into it, expression that came from my heart, that breathed life into the notes and turned my playing from an exercise to an art. I often wondered how my friends who didn't have music or writing in their lives handled their deep feelings. What did they do "by heart"?

This image made perfect sense to me! In college I never wanted to perform a piece of music on the flute until I had it memorized. This has shed a whole new light on memorizing God's Word.

Happy Birthday Lara!

My cousin is just a couple weeks younger than I am. Her son, Jameson, was born 6 months ago, and apparently I'm one of the first family members to meet him! Check out our resemblance in the double-chins (bottom-right picture).... Oh, wait. We don't share genes! Lara was adopted. Well, I wouldn't know it from our matching expressions and chins in these pictures. :)
















Jameson is doing an army crawl that is pretty stinkin' cute.

I spent the night with Lara and Jameson on Monday night and we went out for Lara's birthday breakfast on Tuesday morning. It was so good to see them. Too bad Lara was sick. :( Hoping I won't catch what she's got. Her mom had something, too, and I was with her the day before. Maybe I'd better gargle with salt water again like our grandma taught us....

JE, JD and family

After visiting family in IL, I flew back to Atlanta, picked up the car, and went to see JE & family, who had just arrived in the U.S. the week before. It was so lovely to see them again! Little JD has grown a lot since I saw him during week 2 of post-utero life. It was JD's 2-month marker as well as Tracy & Matt's 6-yr anniversary the day I spent with them. I have no pictures. :(

In 24 hours I managed to meet all of Tracy's side of the family--mom, dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister, 1 sister-in-law, 2 nephews and 4 nieces! I think grandma and grandpa were just across the street but I didn't meet them. Was very sad leaving them, knowing that I won't be seeing them back on the island. While playing under the Christmas tree, JE told me "SJ, you'we my best fwiend." On the island he had started saying to me, SJ, I'm you're best fwiend. I never could get him to say it the other way around. It was hard to think that was probably the last time I'll hear him say that to me. He'll be all grown up next time we meet, and his life will have moved on. * sniff sniff *

Hello Chicago!

I think I figured out a way we can see each other...."

The voicemail was from my best friend from college. Jennie is 2 days younger than I am. We have made a habit of spending our birthdays together--even when I was in Haiti, she came there one year! She moved to Chicago last year, and since I was in IL, I couldn't stand not to get together--especially with our birthdays having just passed. However, she just had a baby 2 weeks ago, which made traveling complicated. So she came up with a plan: I take the train to Chicago! It was a perfect plan.

I was pretty nervous about getting on the train in Carlinville, IL, but it did stop for me and I had delightful, 4.5-hour trip up. I was so excited about being on the train I was about ready to go chat the snack-bar man's head off because I was dying to let it all out! And take my picture with him since the train was practically empty. Hah. Nothing like being a tourist in your own country. :) But I refrained and had a lovely time of journaling, reading, and watching shows on my laptop. They even had electrical outlets for all the passengers!

I had to get on the Chicago Metra after that to take me to Jennie's side of town, but my train was late, so I missed the 12:35 run I had hoped to catch, and had to wait another hour for the next train. While waiting, I got engrossed in a game of sudoku on my phone, and when I checked the time, it was 1:35. I jumped up, ran over to the train track, and there was my train, pulling out of the station. Unbelievable! So I had to wait another hour. I watched some episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," checking my watch every 5 minutes. Ten minutes before the train was due to leave, it occurred to me that maybe I should check the status board and make sure the train was not early. It was flashing BOARDING! I nearly missed it yet again. Whew!





















I had a precious 24 hours with Jennie & baby Grace Winifred and got to meet Daddy Ed as well. They treated me to Chicago-style pizza and it snowed! If you zoom in you can see it falling through the car window. Last time I was with Jennie we played in Portland snow. Jennie & Sarah time is never complete without a mother-load of chips 'n' salsa.

Another IL Thanksgiving

Back in May or June my cousin Kallie (1st cousin, once removed) informed her grandma (my Aunt Judy) that I would be here for Thanksgiving this year because apparently I told her 3 years ago that I would see her again when she was 9. How little did I know at that point! I definitely would not have guessed that she would remember that, nor would I have guessed a year ago that it would actually happen. It was my first time to see Aunt Judy without my Uncle Terry, who passed away in March last year. It was weird not to have him in the kitchen taking control. His famous fudge lived on, though, through his niece Amanda and granddaughter Kallie. Aunt Judy was nervous about doing the turkey, but it turned out fabulous. Her sister-in-law managed to make Uncle Terry's yummy croissant rolls.




















I got to spend a few days with my cousin Tami and her 4 girls before they drove down to Disney World for vacation. We ate at Springfield's Maid-Rite Sandwich shop, which boasts of having America's first drive-thru window.

When I wasn't out and about visiting people, I was with my grandma, enjoying life in her assisted-living home.I got to play my flute for the residents before the meals, which I thoroughly enjoyed. My Uncle Steve (mom's youngest sibling) dropped by for a visit the night before I left, and I talked his ear off. In my defense, he kept popping one question after another! :)

My great-uncle Jimmy (grandma's little brother) dropped by one day and said, "Judy told me Sarah was going to be here. I couldn't remember who she was, so I came to see her." :) He is 75 and in great health. Says he has never had a head-ache in his life. He is getting ready to drive all over the south for a month with a lady friend of his and go on a Caribbean cruise while he's at it. I got lots of stories while I was with family, which is always fun.