Essence 2 week

I'm sitting here thinking I will do a quick update.  Then I look at my pictures and wonder how I will do that.  So much to do today!!

Going back to last week - I had my regular cooking for Anthony and Lori and laundry and choir music activities. 

Friday and Saturday were not regular!  

On Friday afternoon and evening I had rehearsals with Essence 2.  As I probably said before, there were three guest conductors here whose music we were singing.

Diane White-Clayton (California), Stan Spottswood (Maryland), and Roger Holland (Colorado).  INCREDIBLY gifted gospel musicians!  I have never been in the presence of such talent.

We were not as ready as we should have been because our conductor has not been well this fall, but we were whipped into shape by the end our of second rehearsal!

On Saturday morning we had a choral reading session with the three conductors, each of them introducing more of their music.  And we got to keep the music!

There was a lunch provided, then we changed into our choral outfits, got an official choir picture taken, and then our concert was at 1:00.  It was AMAZING to perform with such talent.  Some of our songs were accompanied by piano, drums, and bass guitar - also INCREDIBLE TALENT!!  I'm sorry if I keep using the same words all the time to describe this experience. I have no video, no great pictures.  But here's a collage of the pictures Dick took from his seat.  

I was exhausted afterward and glad to come home to get ready for Sunday morning.

The choir sang "Goodness of God" on Sunday morning.  A great one for Thanksgiving week. 

Dick and I went for groceries after church, picked up hoagies for lunch, then I worked on music for the next Sunday for the rest of the day.  

On Monday evening I went to Hoss's for our annual "Secret Sister Reveal" party.  We had a lot of fun!  I think we had 30 women this year.  Bigger every year!

Tuesday was music from morning to night for me.  Prep and practice during the day, choir and instrumental ensemble and praise team practices in the evening.  

I've been enjoying my cactus.  It has bloomed later this year than usual.  I had repotted it this summer and it's been rebelling ever since.  Half of it wilted and fell off, but this half of it is finally getting its act together!

 

We had a gorgeous sunrise this morning!

While I was busy with music yesterday, lots of things were happening in Charlestown, SC.  My sister Rose and her partner of two years were moving into their newly-built house.  And THEN he proposed to her!!  

My future brother-in-law is Mike Kaufman, a singer/guitar player/ former music teacher.  I have not met him yet except on Facebook, and I LOVE him!!!!   Rose went through a divorce a few years ago.  Mike lost his wife to cancer.  I can't remember how Rose and Mike met, but I'm glad they did. 

And now it's time to think about Thanksgiving.  We will have the smallest group ever tomorrow.  But it will be ok.

Short update

I think this will be a short update.  I haven't taken many pictures this past week, and I haven't done anything tremendously interesting.  Just normal things like cooking, choir practices, finger prick, a meeting to plan the children's Christmas program at church, catching up on necessary things here at home.  

I did take this cool picture of the sunrise one morning through my kitchen window.

And my last rose. 

Austin made my day when he sent me another piano video and asked me if he had improved yet.  Just six months since he got interested in piano!  This is the first minute of the song he sent me - Speed of Light. 

I discovered in my FB memories today that he actually got interested in piano way back in 2009 when Dick and I and my piano lived in Lori and Anthony's basement for a year.  Is this not the cutest picture of Anthony and Austin???

 

Today Destiny sent me some of her school pictures.  This is my favorite.  Isn't she adorable???  Plans are for them to come here for Thanksgiving.  I can hardly wait!  Elizer is with Alex in Lancaster for a few weeks right now.  I can hardly wait to have him here.  

But not this week!  I am up to my ears in music and music prep and music practice.  We're working on the cantata at church every Thursday evening.  I'm also prepping arrangements for an instrumental ensemble for the prelude that evening, December 8 - cello, two flutes, piano, guitar, bass, and drums.  I have five songs almost ready for that.  

On Sunday morning, December 15 we'll be having a children's program at church, and I have a number of songs to practice with the kids.  We'll do that during children's church the next few Sundays.  

AND Essence 2!!  Our concert is this coming Saturday.  Our schedule is as follows:  two rehearsals on Friday, 3 pm and 6 pm, a choral reading workshop with our guest conductors on Saturday morning at 9 am, then the concert at 1:00 pm.  The music is wonderful and so are the vocalists in the choir.  It's really a dream to be singing in something this professional.  But I don't feel ready.  Hopefully after two more rehearsals on Friday I will feel more ready.  

My birthday week

I'll start with a few autumn pictures I took last week.  First one is a tree somewhere in our neighborhood.  I took it when I was walking one day.

And the front of our house.  The big flowers in front got hit by frost, but my hanging geranium is still hanging on, haha!  I do still have a few roses that have not gotten hit by frost yet.

Thursday was filled with music prep and laundry.  I'm starting to feel eager for our Christmas cantata at church to be over.  It's a lot to keep prepared for both Sunday morning choir songs each week and the cantata also.  And then I'm in Essence 2, the Gospel Choir I joined this fall.  I've spent a lot of time practicing those songs.  Thankfully I have no responsibility for that choir.  

Friday was my 73rd birthday.  I got a lot of things done here at home, including making a pot of chicken corn noodle soup for the following day.  

In the evening we went to Plaza Mexican Bar and Grill for my birthday dinner with Anthony and Lori and the boys.  It was PACKED!!! This was a home football game weekend.  We had a 45-minute wait, which wasn't too bad, really.  They put us in a corner booth, tight quarters!  But we had a GREAT time!!  

Lori gave me these beautiful flowers.

We ordered the table-side guacamole cart.  It was good, but I am forever ruined since Lisa took me to Casa Tina in Dunedin last month.  Their chips and salsa and guacamole were absolutely the best I have ever eaten, and what we had here on Friday evening did not compare.   

Anthony and Lori had asked them to sing "Happy Birthday" to me and they brought me this scrumptious fried ice cream!  I never had it before, and I loved it! 

What a great birthday evening!  The flowers looked so pretty on my kitchen table.

And even prettier on Saturday morning!

We had a big day planned for Saturday.  We met Sam and Steph for lunch at Brother's Pizza in Newport near their place.  It was Sam's 47th birthday.   We have been celebrating our birthdays together if at all possible for many years.  

We each got a hoagie.  The bread was so good!

We had so much fun together, as we always do.  I do believe this was the first we've ever been with Sam and Steph without the kids.  It was their weekend with Jenn.

So, interesting fact:  This year it is THIRTY YEARS since Sam and Frank joined our family as teenage foster sons.  That fall we celebrated Sam's 17th birthday and my 43rd!   These are pictures we took on that occasion.  Please pardon the boys' lack of clothes, hahaha!  

On the left Jeremy is standing beside me, on the right Frank is standing beside Sam.  

After we said our goodbyes to Sam and Steph we drove to Reading.  Destiny and Ozzy and Elizer had gotten there from Indianapolis in the wee hours of the morning.

How about that interesting building across the street?   

Elizer was so excited to see us!  And of course we were excited to see him too.  

He wanted to go outside, so we went to the little back yard and porch and had fun with him. 

Basketball with Grandpa.

We ate some of the chicken corn noodle soup I had brought along, and then we packed some of Elizer's things.  We were taking him to his daddy and grandpa near Lancaster.  He'll be staying there for a few weeks.  They had not seen him since his birthday party in August and were really missing him.   We said our goodbyes to Destiny and her mom and Ozzy.   I didn't get any picture of them this time.  I was so disappointed when I thought of it later.  

We dropped Elizer off, then made the two-hour drive home.  Dick found the Penn State football game on the radio.  We pass the stadium on our way home, and thankfully the game was not over, so there wasn't much traffic.  It was funny to pass the stadium and be listening to the game on the radio at the same time. It was LOUD in there!!  In fact, we could hear the noise from our house five miles away!

On Sunday morning we honored our veterans.  I think there were 17 present.  Along the side were banners with the name of each vet.  

We also had Communion, and as usual, some of the young teens helped to serve the elements.  My heart is always so stirred when I watch them.  They take the responsibility so seriously.  

In the afternoon I was working here at my computer and piano on the music for next Sunday.   As I scrolled Facebook I saw this adorable picture of Frank and four of his girls enroute to visit some of his bio relatives in Wilmington, Delaware.   Beside him in the front is Jada.  In the back are Raelynn, V'anni, and Alaya.  

From 6:00-7:00 on Sunday evening I went to the practice with Essence 2.  Here's a video of another one of our songs - Redemption Medley.  In this YouTube video the composer, Stan Spottswood, explains how and why he incorporated three old hymns in this medley.  I just love what he shares, as well as the song.  I'm pretty sure our choir will sound better than this one, because we are adults and there are some incredible voices in our choir.   

  

Stan Spottswood, as well as two other composers, will be here the day of our concert.  In the morning they will be holding a choral reading workshop, which we and others will attend.  They also will conduct us as we perform their songs. 

Last of all, here is a picture of the clouds on Monday when I was taking dinner over to Anthony and Lori's place.  

Halloween week, beginning of November

Going back to last Monday (October 28.)   Our ladies group at church had a Halloween Costume party in the evening.  There were prizes for most creative, funniest, and prettiest.  I decided to pull out some things I never get to wear and try for the prettiest.  A maxi dress from my "program" days at Manheim Christian Day School, sandals from Jeremy's wedding, a fishnet shawl from somewhere ??, jewelry that granddaughter Tasha gave me, and the fascinator that I wore to watch William and Kate's royal wedding with my sisters.  I was going to wear a nice bracelet, but the shawl kept catching in it.  

Here's my fancy costume that won a prize for prettiest. 

We had a lot of fun at the party.  We played a game in which we had to tell about items we have in our house that we should, but never do, get rid of, as well as something in our house that we would never part with.  It was a great way to get to know one another better.  

      

We had choir practice on Wednesday last week instead of Thursday.  There was an incredible sunset while we were there!

I noticed that it looked beautiful coming through a window in the sanctuary, so I took a picture of it.  Looks like a painting on the wall!

On Thursday we had Trunk or Treat at church.  I stayed here at home for the first hour to give candy to the children that came by, then went up to the church to take pictures.  Lori and Anthony were there with the boys.

We served hot dogs and cider inside.

On Saturday Anthony went to a guitar show in Philadelphia.  We went with Lori and the boys to Kinzua Bridge State Park, about 2.5 hours north of us.  The past few years we have seen pictures of the gorgeous autumn leaves there and wanted to go "sometime."  But it just never happened.  Unfortunately, the leaves were way past their colors, but it was a brisk, sunny day.

A bit of history.  The bridge was built in the late 1800's as a railway to transport coal.  At some point it was made into a state park.  In 2003 a tornado came through and destroyed part of the bridge.  They have since built an observation deck and a trail on the ground.

I took this video on our way there.

We took SO many pictures!!  Here are just some of them.

Walking out to the observation deck.

Austin cracked us up.  He loved his Halloween costume so much he wore it again on Saturday.  I love his lack of caring what others think, haha!!

The wreckage below.

When they decided to go on the trail under the bridge, I decided to wait at the lodge instead.  

Here are pictures Dick and Lori took.

Austin decided he wanted to hike the whole way up the hill to the other part of the bridge.  And he did.  There he goes - I circled him in red.  

No one got a picture of him, but that's where he went. 

It was the last day before the time change, and we were back home before dark.  It was a really good day!  And we were glad we went, because they will be closing the park for three years for repairs to the bridge/observation deck. 

On Sunday morning I got a picture of this beautiful tree next to the church.

Monday started out with a gorgeous sunrise and ended with a beautiful sunset.  

And between the two I took this picture of a rose that's still blooming in November. 

I've been practicing my music for the Essence 2 choir.  Here's a beautiful song we're doing that is stuck in my head after practicing with this choir on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/UqmgGKiYLhQ?si=smSBIli_a-j_55VC