Bags for sale!

As many of you know, I have taken up the hobby of sewing fun, colourful tote bags as a way of making extra money for a trip that Jeff and I are planning for Easter break 2011 in Mexico. I recently have had a few (non-facebooking) people ask if the bags I sell are posted on any other website other than facebook, and until now they haven't been. In any case, here they are!

For any interested onlookers, these bags are all handmade by me, pre-washed and dried (so they are totally machine washable), and backstitched to the point that I'd dare you to carry your anvil collection in them and see if they rip (they won't). I sell them for $20 each, and if you need them to be shipped I'd be happy to do it, just add $5 per bag. I may even cut you a deal if you buy multiples. ;o)

I have found them super handy as school bags, overnight bags, beach bags, etc. I know other people use them as reusable grocery bags, dance/yoga bags, diaper bags.... and the list goes on. Basically you can put whatever you want in them. They fit my MacBook nicely, and I often pile textbooks, binders, and anything else I need to tote around in them on a daily basis. The straps are a bit short to wear as a messenger bag (although it has been done), but are very comfortable to wear on one shoulder. The pictures are actually a bit deceiving in that sense - lots of people who have bought bags have commented that they were pleasantly surprised at how big they were.

And without any further ado, here they are! Please note that for some of these designs I have several in stock (but of course just took a picture of one of each). I also have some fabric yet to be sewn, so if you see one you like but you want it with blue on the other side instead of pink, for example, just ask and I may be able to accommodate your requests.

Thanks for looking! (Click on the pictures to enlarge for detail)

Some of my favourite new bags!

Misc. patterns

Fleur de lis patterns - pink/brown and red/white/gold

The blue/green paisley series

Some of the funkiest, most colourful IKEA fabrics in my collection

The florals - Pt. I

The florals - Pt. II

The polka dots!

The reds

The ridiculous pile of bags needing to be sewn (many have been sewn since this picture was taken... still, daunting!)

Jason's travels

So my friend Jason won a place in the top 6 of a travel competition this past month, and now he's heading off on an incredible South American adventure! I just got the link to his blog, so in case anybody is interested, you can read about his travels here (also linked to the right). Travel safe, friend!

Travel plans = addictive!

41 days until New Zealand! How exciting! Travel planning is always so much fun. In fact, it's *almost* as fun as the trip itself! Well.... close enough. :o) I love imagining the possibilities of what each travel experience could entail, and then actually budgeting, saving, and making it happen.

The next travel plan after New Zealand is Easter break in Mexico 2011! Jeff and I have been building vacation packages online for the past few hours and now I'm in total travel mode! On our list:

- swimming in underground cenotes on the Coba Mayan Encounter

- parasailing

- partying in Cancun at Senor Frogs, Daddy'O's, Coco Bongo, The City, etc.

- snorkelling at Xel-Ha

- day excursions to Tulum and Chichen Itza

- lounging around in our hotel pool(s) with swim up bars and all-inclusive food/drinks.... ahhh!

- cruising the strip in Cancun for neat shopping, markets, souvenirs, etc.

No real updates otherwise... just felt like sharing the excitement of travel planning!

Better (4 months) late than never, right?

Holy slacker, Batman! I went to update this blog and I realized that my last post was on January 6th... could this qualify for the longest kiwilauren absence yet? Almost 4 months.... yikes! So much has happened. Here are some of the highlights:

- I directed my first musical ("Alice in Wonderland") and it was a hit!

- I took a trip to Calgary/Banff/Edmonton over February break and went skiing, shopping, picture-taking, and visiting friends

- My choir and my Level 2 band won scholarships at our local Music Festival, and all 3 of my bands that I entered scored A's for their performances (yay, girls!)

- I spent a week in the Cayman Islands visiting a friend (AMAZING!) - I snorkelled, held a sting ray, took hundreds of awesome underwater pictures, and got a crazy tan (darn bathing suit tan lines! Should've gone naked!)

- I was hired to play saxophone and flute in the pit band of St. Mary's musical "Honk!" - rehearsals start tomorrow... should be a good time again (I played "Fiddler on the Roof" last year), and I'll make a few extra $$ to toss in the travel fund (yay!)

I've also been selling a ton of handmade bags on facebook and making some extra $$ for my potential trip to Mexico next Easter with my boyfriend Jeff. On my aforementioned trip to Calgary over the February break I bought a bunch of really cute fabric from IKEA, and on the advice of a few friends who I had sewn bags for as Christmas/birthday presents, I decided to start selling my bags. It took off, and now I'm having fun experimenting with different colours, patterns, etc. and seeing where it goes. :o) If anyone needs or wants a new bag (or some easy birthday presents!), check them out on facebook in the group called "Buy My Bags."

And now, in BIG NEWS (!!!!!), I just booked my flights to New Zealand this past week! YAYAYAYAYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!! I land in Auckland on July 7th and I will be carousing about the country until August 16th. SO excited! It has been almost 3 years (can you believe that?!) and now I'm finally on my way back to kiwi land!!!! There will be many adventures to be had. Fish, Sam, Rich, Kirsten - maybe a weekend trip to Castlepoint? Let's talk!

LOVE!

Kiwi Experience contest entry has arrived!

In case you missed my last post, I have entered a competition with Kiwi Experience to win an incredible prize package that includes 2 flights to NZ, 2 travel passes for the entire country, 20 nights accommodation for 2, 2 return Interislander ferry passes, and 20 of their favourite Kiwi Experience activities, plus a camera to top it all off! This prize is worth thousands of dollars, and is SO right up my alley, especially considering the fact that I'm coming to NZ in July anyway!

So, if you feel so inclined (please!) to go vote for my entry on www.kiwiexperience.com, follow this link and sign up for an account (I promise they don't e-mail you unless you sign up to receive their newsletter), then post a comment in the box under my video explaining why you think I'm a "legend", as this is the theme of the competition.

The video can be found on the Kiwi Experience website at:

http://www.kiwiexperience.com/Communities/Pages/DisplayPost.aspx?PostId=1229

Thanks in advance for your help!

Also, you can check out the video here before you vote so you can see what you're voting for! :o)

2010... the year of the kiwiland return!

Hello friends! So here I am again, after yet another deplorable 3-month hiatus from Lauren's Kiwi Adventures. I've kept up with most of you in other online areas (yay, facebook!), so I suppose this isn't much of an update per se, but here I am anyway. I have to admit, I've kind of missed this place!

In recent news, I had a great Christmas holiday. I headed out east to Falcon Lake, MB (about a 10-hour drive from where I live) on the 26th to meet up with 4 of my closest friends from IMC who had made the trek from Brandon, Winnipeg, and 2 different cities in North Dakota. We had rented a gorgeous cabin for 3 nights, and spent all of our time relaxing, skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing, and definitely lounging around in the hot tub on our deck! Our American friends were held up a bit on the way there because the highways out of Fargo were closed for a few days, so they ended up missing our first night at the cabin, but we made up for lost time once they got there. :o) It was an action-packed and yet relaxing 3 days... beautiful scenery, loads of laughs, and great friends!



I came back from MB on New Year's Eve and spent a quiet night in with my boyfriend Jeff. I had driven for 8 hours that day, and I didn't start my trip home until 1pm so I drove most of the way in the dark (ahh, yes, Canadian winters.... sun sets at 4:30pm these days)... but Jeff brought over a pizza and we watched a movie, and it was glorious. In fact, it was so relaxing that we actually fell asleep before midnight, and woke up at about 12:10 to say "Happy New Year!" How anti-climactic! Haha. But in reality, it was exactly what I needed. A great start to 2010 indeed!

So yes, in case you haven't done a double take yet, I did say "boyfriend" in that last paragraph. It's the first time I've said that since the summer of 2008 so the term feels a bit strange, but to be honest it's pretty good. Jeff and I have been together for a month now so it's still very new, but so far things are going really well and we're just enjoying spending time with each other. He's really a great guy, very easy to talk to, quick-witted, thoughtful, etc. etc. (insert swoony commentary here). He's also not a big fan of pictures/Internet social networking, etc. so there won't be much on here about him.... but there you have it. He has at least been introduced. :o)

So I go back to work on Wednesday. The school year is flying by, and before you know it, I will be making my return to New Zealand! It's absolutely crazy to think about how quickly my countdown is diminishing... it has been 26 months since I left NZ, and now only 6 months left until I'm back there! Amazing. I am currently plodding away at a Kiwi Experience competition entry as well, hoping to win a huge prize package for 2 including flights, travel passes, accommodations, activities, etc. I made a video set to "Jump Around" by House of Pain, which promptly had the audio removed upon uploading to www.kiwiexperience.com/YouTube because of potential copyright infringement, so I've been trying to work around that (by posting to Facebook and sending on the link to the people at Kiwi Ex, burning my project to DVD and mailing it to NZ, etc.) but just in case I've created another video for the contest, this time on www.animoto.com. That site is INCREDIBLE, and if you're into iMovie/photo and video montage type things, you should definitely check it out! Stay tuned for more info on the competition... I could really use your help to win the prize (even though I only blog once every 3 months!). :oD

Enough blabbering for now. Catch you fine folks soon! Love!

Picniking just for fun

Yes, I'm still here, I'm still alive, and life is still grand. I have become an incredible blog slacker, but at least I keep up on Facebook (to say the least!)!

Work is fabulous again this year, and my newest project is acting as the Musical Director for our school's production of "Alice in Wonderland" - the cast list was posted yesterday and I'm excited about a lot of the roles we cast! It will be an awesome challenge with what I predict to be just as awesome rewards at the end. :o)

Thanksgiving weekend is coming up (but never soon enough! Hurry, Friday!), and so in the spirit of the holiday, I will list a few things that I am thankful for today:

1. My parents and my sister. They are amazing.

2. My health. It's here, it's strong, and it's allowing me to continue my fitness regime that I had started in the spring (but abandoned over the summer due to being out of town for nearly 2 months and allowing my gym membership to expire).

3. My friends who treat me wonderfully and make me feel special and important.

4. My dog who keeps me feeling like a 10-year-old inside.

5. My students who make me laugh every day.

6. My comfy bed (although I think I need to spend more time sleeping in it... I'm exhausted today!).

7. Music in every sense of the word. Being able to create is one of the most important things in my life.

8. Meeting new people to spend time with.

9. Technology, which allows me to do cool things like create and burn DVDs of my students' computer assignments so that we can have a "movie night" (during class time), complete with popcorn, to watch everyone's presentations.

10. The gorgeous fall colours in Saskatchewan, and the great friends who will explore it with you, camera in hand.

Life is good.

Have some Picniked photos (www.picnik.com). :o) Happy Tuesday!

Back after a 3 month hiatus... with pictures!

My goodness. This has been the worst blog slack to date! It has been nearly 3 months, and I'm back. A lot has happened in that time, and life has been chugging along as usual! I finished up the school year on a positive note with a visit from my dear friend Heath from New Zealand (yay!), then I packed up and headed down to International Music Camp for 3 weeks. After IMC I spent 2 weeks in Saskatoon teaching at band camps there, then I sang at my friends Kirby and Adam's wedding... then, after spending a week at the lake with my mom, I packed up and did a 4-day back country hike in Banff, Alberta. Gorgeous!!!

Now I'm back and am ready(ish) to start a new school year. Here are just a few photo highlights from the past 3 months (out of order because I forgot how the blogger upload thing worked!):

Kirby and Adam's wedding - July 31st, 2009

Twin Lakes, Banff, AB

Shadow Lake, Banff, AB

Haiduk Peak - we camped under this peak on our 2nd night on the trail

Whistling Pass, Banff, AB - full of whistling, screaming marmots! Cool.

Haiduk Lake, Banff, AB - we stopped here for lunch on hiking day 2.

The complete picture - poles, pack, mountains, trees...

Catching up with my old roommate Scott in Saskatoon - Aug 2009

Meeting my friend Jessica's daughter Madelyn - Aug 2009

Canoeing on Brightsand Lake with mom - Aug 3, 2009

Heath's SK visit - June 21st, 2009 :oD

1... 2... 3... JUMP! IMC 2009

Dressed up for Tim and Christine's IMC wedding reception - July 2009

With the girls at IMC - July 16th, 2009

With Ginger and Savannah @ IMC - July 2009

I'm not sure I have the time or energy to update on everything from the past 3 months, nor do I think you'd all like to read every detail... so I'll let the pictures do the talking. :o)

Aside from the more impending "back-to-school" time, the next big thing that I'm getting really excited about is my trip back to New Zealand in less than a year now. Can you believe it has been 2 years since I was there last?! Time flies. I haven't booked any flights yet, but will do that at some point throughout the year when I (hopefully) find a really great seat sale. I can't wait to see all of you! I might be bringing my friend Hannah with me, if all things go according to plan. Nothing is certain yet.

Well, there you have it. A random smattering of updates. Students come back to school on Wednesday, I'm singing at my brother-in-law's sister's wedding on the 29th, my friend Quenton is being ordained on Sept. 1st, my friend Danny is coming home from Calgary for the September long weekend.... there's always something going on! Life certainly hasn't slowed down any, and that's just the way I like it. :o)

Until next time... let's not leave 3 months in between!

Fitness update (with a side of Heath and IMC)

I started the fitness regime on April 18th, and since then I have worked out every day except one, which is now a total of 41 days, not including today (I'll be leaving for the gym after I publish this post).  The one missed day (ARGH!) was last Saturday, due to my friend Allison's wedding in Saskatoon - the day was just crazy from beginning to end, and the gym is only open until 5pm on weekends anyway so squeezing it in was just unfortunately not possible.  Of the past 41 workout days, I've been to the gym for all of them except 4 I think, and on those days I've done other forms of exercise.  The first 3 of those days were because I was out at the lake without access to a gym (but I brought my bike and running shoes), and I decided to forgo yesterday morning's gym workout as last night I spent 12 hours at the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life, and I only slept for 2.5 of those hours; the rest was spent walking around the track with a crowd of other people who had raised $$ for the event.

I am noticing a change in how my clothes fit.  I bought a new dress for Allison's wedding last weekend, and it's a size smaller than anything I've worn in the past few years.  My favourite dress pants for work are starting to feel baggy and fall down.  When I put my hand on my stomach during band or choir to demonstrate some breathing technique, I notice that it feels flatter, and I can start to feel ab muscles.  I haven't made any big changes in my diet, but the consistency of my workouts are starting to pay off.

That being said, it's now 3:46pm and I am going to ride my bike to the gym so I can get a good workout in before the gym closes at 5pm.

And on a non-fitness related note, I leave for IMC 4 weeks from today!!!!!!  YAAAAAAY!!!!!!!  Bring on the summer!!!!  Oooooh!!!  And in only 2 weeks, my friend Heath from New Zealand will be flying to SK to visit me!!!!   AAAAHHH!!! :oD  I haven't seen him since we sang together in Wellington Youth Choir, over a year and a half ago.  He's in Whistler right now visiting his brother, and we booked him a flight a few weeks ago, so now our reunion is almost here!  It will be another 13 months until I go back to NZ too, so this visit is almost perfectly in the middle.  I can't wait!

I will post a couple pics of Relay for Life once I upload them from my camera.

Hugs!

..... and the livin' is easy....

I recorded a small CD (6 tracks) with my friend Graham this weekend in Lloydminster, and we had a ton of fun hanging out and making music together.  Here's one of my favourite tunes from the session, or "sessiob," as we began calling it after Graham's unintentional misspelling of the word while saving the tracks to his computer.... which led to more intentional misspellings.... which led to our CD title, "The Lauron and Grayum Sessiobs".... long story, funny if you were there. :o)  Anyway, here's the Gershwin classic, "Summertime," a la Lauren and Graham (recorded yesterday in Graham's living room):

Summertime - Lauren Campbell and Graham Pritchard

Let me know what you think!

"I'm so absent-minded.... it's 'Fiddler on the Week' roof. I mean....

..... 'Fiddler on the Week' roof!" (This was an exact quote from me earlier this week, when trying to explain why I was so exhausted and goofy.)

It is indeed "Fiddler on the Roof" week! I'm playing soprano saxophone and flute in the pit orchestra for St. Mary High School's production, and it's actually a ton of fun. The show closes tomorrow night, and it has been a good run. The grade 12 student that is playing Tevye is just FANTASTIC. I guess he has a call-back for the National Theatre School, which is exciting but not surprising. The guy is incredible. His delivery of his lines is just perfect, and his comedic timing is amazing. Sitting in the pit night after night and hearing the same lines over and over, one would expect to become bored or less entertained just because the scenes become obviously predictable.... but somehow Tevye keeps it fresh, night after night. There are some very strong performers in the show in general. It's tons of fun, and the audience response has been great! I'm pretty exhausted, but it has been fun. The band was hired very last-minute (long story...) and we managed to put together the entire show (a 200-page score) in a week and a half. Whew. It has been a marathon (or a sprint?!) and we're almost at closing night! Incredible.

This morning marked Day 21 of the fitness plan, with not one missed workout. Woop! 49 more days to go until IMC!!!!! :o)

TGIF!!!! Happy weekend, everyone!

Don Ross = Guitar God! (Plus Fitness Days 8-12)

Don Ross.  AMAZING.  My friends Graham and Justin and I went to Saskatoon on Monday to see Don Ross play at the Broadway Theatre.  Tickets were only $20, which was crazy considering the level of talent..... the dude plays the guitar like I have never seen anyone play the guitar before.  Brooke Miller played the concert with him and was surprisingly incredible (and I say surprising only because a friend, before the show, commented that "anyone will look like a hack on the guitar next to Don Ross".... but she was really great).  The whole thing was just amazing.  I bought 3 CDs, 2 of Don Ross and 1 of Brooke Miller.  Unfortunately my very favourite tune by Don Ross was not on any of the CDs available for purchase, but apparently it's available on amazon and iTunes.  And, of course, YouTube:

Don and Brooke were both incredibly funny too, and their back and forth banter was super entertaining.  The quote of the night goes to Don, who told the crowd about a shirt that a friend of his had made that read, "If you fear the banjos, the banjos have won."  There was also another shirt made by the same said friend that had a picture of a 9-pound hammer and the caption, "Banjo mute."  Amazing.  Haha.  (Sorry, Bela Fleck!)

Also, while I'm at it, fitness days 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are done.  :o)  Early morning workouts are no longer painful and I feel like I have more energy overall and am much more patient and optimistic in my classes at school.  I've really been enjoying my students a lot over the past couple weeks and I think part of it really does have to do with the refreshed feeling I get after going to the gym before work.

12 days down, 58 to go. :o)

Fitness Days 6 & 7

Also done.  Today is Day 8 and I'm going to hit the gym before I get into the zillion other things I have planned for today.  I have to admit, although the goal of going to the gym for 70 days straight is lofty, it feels good to have stuck to it through the first week (even when it meant 2 days of getting up at 5:30am because I knew I was busy after work and wouldn't be able to make it then), and it's fun to have a challenge to prove to myself that I can do it.

On a totally unrelated note, yesterday I brought 6 wine bottles to school and spent one period of grade 7 science talking about acoustics and resonance with my girls, and how it is affected by physical space (i.e. the more open space inside the chamber, the lower the pitch of an instrument will be, etc.).  So then we took those wine bottles and tuned them to a pentatonic scale by adding or subtracting water and played "Amazing Grace."  The school's Green Club was judging each homeroom class' recycled structures that we were to be building this week, and the homemade recycled musical instrument was ours.  We even ended the song with a chord (5-1-3, or second inversion).  It was absolutely hilarious and fun, and the girls loved it.  We videotaped it and I'd love to post it here but privacy laws won't allow me to post material with my students in it, which is really too bad because they were so cute.  I've always wanted to do something like that (although my original plan was to perform "Fur Elise" at a Greystones variety night fundraiser, but that plan never did pan out.... so "Amazing Grace" with grade 7s took its place!). :oD

Today I'm rehearsing with a pit orchestra for the musical "Fiddler on the Roof."  I'm playing alto sax (probably, or maybe bari) for the St. Mary High School's production which starts in 2 WEEKS.  Oy.  We've got our work cut out for us!  It should be fun though - I've always been onstage and never in the pit, so this will be a different experience for me.  Pretty awesome though I think.  We'll see how it comes together soon I suppose!  We've got a very small core group of music teachers and semi-professional musicians, so I'm thinking we'll be able to pull it off.

9 weeks until IMC!!!!

(PS - Top photo = Danielle and me at the Forks in Winnipeg over Easter break.  Photo immediately above = Kaleigh and me in Brandon over Easter break.  1, 2, 3, JUMP!)

Fitness Days 4 & 5

Done.  Today and tomorrow will mark 1 week!

Skittles vodka photo recipe (and Fitness Day 3)

Have you ever wondered how to make vodka infused with the delicious taste of Skittles?  Have you ever wanted to "taste the rainbow?"  Well, look no further my friends.  Here, in picture form, is the recipe for Skittles vodka, as documented by Ivy, Aaron, and me last weekend in Saskatoon (also posted in an album on Facebook).

To begin, you must assemble your materials:

- 1 bag of Skittles

- 1.14L bottle of vodka (we used Smirnoff)

- 5 bowls

- 5 plastic water bottles

- a funnel

- coffee filters

- a measuring cup or other container (to use during the filtration process)

- 5 glass bottles to store the finish product

- a freezer (to store the vodka overnight before serving)

- Sprite for mixing :o)

(We used a 320g bag of Skittles)

Step 1.  Separate the Skittles into 5 bowls in their respective colours

Step 2.  Divide the vodka into approximately 5 equal parts and pour into the 5 plastic bottles.  Put the Skittles in the vodka.

Step 3.  Shake well!

Step 4.  Allow the Skittles to soak until the entire candy has dissolved.  Shake sporadically to ensure that the Skittles haven't gotten stuck in a huge lump at the bottom of the bottle.  The process of dissolving the Skittles will take several hours.  Soaking overnight is recommended.

Step 5.  Using the funnel and approximately 4 coffee filters per colour, filter the vodka into a measuring cup or another container.  This process is also tedious.  Remember, patience is a virtue. :o)

Step 6.  Filter each colour, and "ooh" and "ahh" over how much sugary sludge you are removing from your alcoholic concoction.

Step 7.  After the colours have all been filtered, pour the vodka into bottles and arrange the colours in the obligatory ROYGBIV order. :o)

Step 8.  Put the bottles in the freezer for a few hours.  We left them in overnight.

Step 9.  Test all of the colours, making note of your favourites so you can claim them for yourself as you and your friends divvy up the final products.  *Note: straight vodka burns.  I recommend mixing with Sprite!

Enjoy!

(PS - I went to the gym this morning at 6:30am.... Fitness Day 3 done!)

Fitness Day 2

Fitness Day 2: Done.

I think posting my gym visits on the blog keeps me accountable to someone (or something), so please excuse the repetition of this theme.  I'm also keeping a calendar with star stickers on it as a visual thing, which is exciting in a kind of kindergartenish way.  2 stars down, 68 to go.... every day until June 27th (not including that day, as I will be driving to IMC).  Oy.  Baby steps.

Fitness Day 1

I went to the gym today, almost immediately after returning home from a 6-hour drive from Hamiota to PA (I even made it on one tank of gas.... I love my new Matrix!).

I was exhausted from six hours alone on the long, straight, open roads, but I went to the gym.  I promised!

Photo updates to come shortly on the Manitoba trip, and a delicious recipe for Skittles vodka!

Fitness goal #1

I used to be in great shape when I was in high school, grade 11 specifically. Over the past 6-7 years since then I have grown through a series of amazing experiences, relationships, travel opportunities, education, friendships, etc. etc. And as my character grew, so did my pant size. Haha. Anyway, I still fancy myself somewhat athletic (ok, quite athletic I think, as I used to play everything from softball to speed skating and only stopped due to repeated knee injuries), and so I figure now I don't have any excuse not to get back in shape. Sure, my job as a first year teacher is exhausting and sometimes I just don't feel like going to the gym after a long day of teaching noisy (but wonderful) bands and other classes. But I figure that if I just suck it up and get there, I will accomplish something. Thus, fitness goal #1 is born:

I want to go to the gym every day between now and my first day of work at IMC (June 27th or 28th... whatever that Saturday is). I realize that this is a bit of a lofty goal, but never being one to pace myself much, I figure I can go hard at it for 9-10 weeks and see where it takes me.

I was having this conversation with my Auntie Diane tonight about how I really am healthy, and all of my internal numbers (cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.) are just peachy, and my desire to hit the gym has everything instead to do with my outward appearance (and of course, that feeling of productivity and accomplishment that one feels after a good workout). I miss my fit days! And really, with a conscious and consistent effort, I know I can get back there. I'm in Winnipeg visiting friends and family right now, and should be back to PA on Saturday or Sunday. So, starting then, I will go to the gym (or do something active like go for a run or a bike ride or something if I'm out of town and thus not near my gym) every day until June 27th.

Watch me go!

PS - Kick me in the pants if you hear me complaining. :op

Tubas and Greystones

As per usual, it has been too long since I've updated. This past weekend I attended the 50th anniversary Greystone Singers reunion at the U of S, which was HUGE and incredible and musically rewarding and historically significant, etc. etc. etc. I'm just about ready to go to bed here, so I'll make it quick, but basically what the day entailed was one rehearsal from 1-3:30pm, a banquet, lots of visiting, a nearly sold-out concert, and a dance at the end of it all to celebrate our reunion with such great friends. I sang with the Greystone Singers from September 2003 - April 2008..... 5 years, save my one semester that I was in NZ..... so I was able to catch up with a ton of my former choir mates from any number of those years. The massed choir consisted of members of the Greystone Singers from 1958 to present.... 220 auditioned singers. INCREDIBLE. We put together 12 songs in less than 2 hours, and had an absolute blast singing together and under the direction of 5 past GS conductors, including Bob Solem, who directed the group for a whopping 31 years. AMAZING. Truly. You should have heard the sound of that group.

This write-up doesn't do the event justice, really, but I am fading fast and I need to get to bed. It is report card week at school. Oy vey. This, too, shall pass!

And on that note, I shall leave you with this. I have to admit that I find this outrageously hilarious:

I told my students that I would wake up this morning with grey hair and wrinkles.....

....... but they didn't believe me when I told them that I was turning 80. And, save for one rather clueless student (and I say that with love, of course), they also didn't believe me when I told them that I was turning 42. Their guesses were very close. 22, 25, 23, 27, etc.

But, ladies and gentlemen, I am 24. Officially. As of 12:05pm today.

Happy birthday to me! :o)

Another year gone, and many more lessons learned and things discovered. The biggest things that I have discovered this year are that it is never wrong to love, and that at this point in my life I feel that I have truly found myself in the profession that brings me the most joy imaginable. Pretty good year, I'd say.

Arohanui. <3