TOSVA's Gala Concert

Last week was insane-- I had three-hour choir rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday & Thursday.  And in the middle of that, Tuesday I drove my Mom to the airport (sniff, sniff).  And then Friday was the concert!

This concert was a bigger deal than usual, because it was the culmination of The Oratorio Society's 50th anniversary celebration (which has been going on for a while, to commemorate both its formation and its first concert).  I guess the board members felt we needed to do something truly spectacular, so they commissioned an original piece of music to be performed at the concert. 

Charlottesville is home to Rita Dove, who was named poet laureate in 1992.  One of her poems, "Testimonial," was recently made into a mural at the Downtown mall, so this same poem was chosen as the text.  And then they contracted with composer Adolphus Hailstork (I LOVE his last name, by the way) to set it to music.  We've been working on it since January, and it's been interesting to see our director turn into a complete stress case over this.  He always drives us really hard, but this was beyond that-- and it all made sense when he explained, "You know, if you mess up singing Mozart, Mozart probably won't care.  But Hailstork is going to be SITTING HERE LISTENING and he will KNOW if you don't get his music right!"  So, yes, there was an added tension to the whole process that I don't think anyone was really anticipating.  (That's also why we had so many extra hours of rehearsals!)

But it was also just a ton of fun.  Singing beautiful music with talented people is always fun!

For this concert, we had a full orchestra, so that was awesome.  And the Wednesday rehearsal was the first time we had Hailstork there with us, and he was so nice and gracious and complimentary about how we sounded.  He put everyone at ease.  And the soloist was INCREDIBLE. 

We started out singing "And the Glory of the Lord" from Handel's Messiah.  This was the first song the Oratorio Society performed 50 years ago, so that was a fitting tribute.  Then they invited alumni members to join us on stage and sing "He Watching Over Israel" from Mendelssohn's Elijah and the Hallelujah Chorus.  The alumnus sat back down and they showed a video of Rita Dove reading her poem and chatting with our director about its meaning, and then we sang it.  And it went wonderfully!  Then there was an intermission, during which they showed this bit that was on the local news about us (if you watch it, just skip the first half and go straight to the commercial break in the middle).  And then after intermission we performed Mozart's C-minor Mass, which I hadn't known before, but which I now absolutely love.  We did mess up a little on that-- hopefully Mozart didn't mind.  It was still wonderful.  (I don't think Craig noticed any mistakes, so there wasn't anything too obvious, I think.)

There I am, hiding behind my friend Rachel!

Good action shot of Michael

And (some of) the orchestra!

After the concert, they had a Champagne Reception held at UVA's Collonade Club.  I don't usually gets invited to fancy parties, so this was kind of exciting for me, even if I was only sipping water and snacking on crackers and brie!

They had toasts for the composer, for the conductor, for the board members, for the soloists, for the musicians, and finally for the choir members.  By the time we got out there it had cooled down just enough to be comfortable and it was a lovely evening.

Joining the Oratorio Society has been one of my favorite things in Charlottesville.



On Monday I completely lost my voice and I've spent the entire week whispering.  It's aggravating, but I am so glad I made it through the concert before this hit!

One More Picture from the Wedding

I stole this off the photographer's website-- this is our family friend Kevin Hogan, fixing my Dad's tie before the reception begins.  I can't even begin to explain how much I love this picture.

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

I feel like I barely got my life put back together from our trip, and then my parents came to visit!  It was SUPER fun to see them again, and even more fun showing them around Charlottesville!  They've been out here a couple times, but the first time they came was just a few days after we moved, and the second time was for Kendra's baptism and it was still winter time and dead and ugly.  It was WAY more fun showing off the town now that I know my way around a bit AND the trees are all green and beautiful.  Now they could get a better idea of why I love it so much here!

Nothing is ever easy, though, so to make things extra exciting, two days before they were coming my Dad called and asked if I could buy a queen-sized bed before they arrived.  (He would pay for it, I just had to do the legwork to get it here.)  (Apparently he was tired of sleeping on my sister's couch, and not particularly looking forward to sleeping on the crappy full-size mattress that we put on the floor for guests because the hide-a-bed couch that it belongs to falls apart.)  So rather than frantically cleaning house like I normally do before I have company, I was running around testing out mattresses and making room for the new one and then freaking out when they only delivered the mattress and not the box spring or frame!  (They did get everything to me a couple hours later.  It turned out they'd gotten the order numbers wrong or something.)  Naturally, the second time they delivered stuff was during some sudden burst of crazy rain-hail-and-wind storm.  It was kind of impressive watching the guy running into my house carrying a queen-sized box spring!

Four kids in a mattress shop-- what could go wrong?

Got the guest bedroom all cleared out...

...but now the rest of the basement looks like this! 😦

Anyway, that was a lot of craziness, but NOW I have an extra queen bed, so if you and your spouse want to come visit me, you'll be sleeping a lot more comfortably!  Come and visit!


With my parents here, I mostly played tour guide and ate a lot.  All my favorite things to do!  I took them to Carter Mountain, the Downtown Mall, and James Madison's Montpelier (we got perfect weather for that, so that was fortunate!).  I let them buy us dinner at some of my favorite restaurants (Citizen Burger Bar, Mellow Mushroom, and Mission BBQ, to name a few).  I showed off my perfected chocolate-peanut-butter milkshakes (the key is to make them with chocolate milk).  We sat and watched Whiplash (cleaned up) and they really liked it, so that made me happy.  It's an incredible movie, if you can find it.

Montpelier's famous temple in the background

This gorgeous garden has a wall around it to keep deer out, but don't let it fool you-- the gate is unlocked if you want to enter!

Chilling with James and Dolly Madison!  (I love Camille's "gun" hand gesture here!)

We put my Dad to work setting up Camille's big girl bed!

My Dad stuck around for a few days and then headed back to Seattle, and my Mom stayed another week longer.  (Usually I only get her to do this when I've had a baby, but Craig pointed out I couldn't keep having more kids just to get my Mom to visit longer, so somehow he convinced her to stay for a bit.)  We had fun just hanging out and talking and then eating even more.  I made her watch Arrival, since I was pretty sure she'd enjoy it (and I'd just finished reading the short story it was based on, "The Story of Your Life").  She babysat one night so Craig and I could go see A Quiet Place, which I'd been dying to see (and it was awesome).  Craig took a sick day one day and we ran up to Culpeper to visit Craig's parents (his Dad is recovering from his second knee replacement) and all us women went and got pedicures together. 

Friday night was supposed to be the Father-Son campout, but we'd gotten rain all that week, so it was canceled.  After making the trip to Culpeper and back, I was just as glad to not be sending Craig out to do any more driving.  But the kids were disappointed, so we tried to make it fun for them anyway: 

NO ONE ended up sleeping in the tent, but they had fun playing in it!

Too wet for a fire?  No problem!

S'mores by candlelight

Still delicious and sticky

Saturday we got another babysitter and my Mom took Craig and me to the Melting Pot, which is always amazing.  I sure love really good food.  And on the Monday before my Mom left, she came with me to my choir rehearsal, which was a whopping three hours long, since our concert was that week!  It was super fun to get to show off our music to her.  (We'd thought about having her come when the concert was, so she could see that, too, but I was going to be in rehearsals so much we finally decided she wouldn't actually see me at all if she came then.)

Story time with Grandma

So yes, a lot of running around and having fun.

I LOVE it when my parents come to visit!

Come back soon, Mom and Dad!

Between a Rock and a Snotty Place

After a couple months of the worst complexion I've ever had, it finally dawned on me that my allergy medicine is giving me acne!  So which is worse-- scratching my eyes out and constantly blowing my nose or looking a nearly 40-year-old with the complexion of a 13-year-old?

Fortunately for me, allergy season just ended, so trying to make this decision is purely an intellectual exercise.  Until next year.

As if it wasn't bad enough that I can't wear mascara in the spring-- why does this season want me to be so ugly???

Rhymin' and Stealin'

I was about to add a new favorite to my recipe blog and got distracted.  When I came back hours later to the computer, I found this:



67 pounds of beef
almost heavier than a leaf
I'm the best, the cheif

you think you got da money
i got it all around me
my door cost more than your floor did
my door made out a wood
i pay more than i should

2 million down the drain
das ok cuz i make i rain
just had to use my brain
and try to stay sane

yall been too kind
know try using your mind
it the time to grind



My son, the rapper!

Everything Since

The trip home from Seattle was long.  We left my parents' house around 6am (everyone was very sweet about getting up and seeing us off!) and got to stand in line for security for forever.  I realized that I've gotten spoiled with the Charlottesville and Richmond airports being so small!

That's how I feel about standing in lines, too...

Camille took a nap on the first flight

Our first flight to Dallas was fairly uneventful, and then we had a two-hour layover.  I was glad for that, since we'd have time to get food and let the kids stretch their legs.  But then that flight got delayed a bit.  And then that "bit" of a delay turned into nearly an hour.  And then we boarded the plane and the captain decided the brakes on the plane weren't good enough for the short Richmond airport runway, so we all had to get back off the plane and wait around for them to find another one before we could get on our way.  So that took at least another hour, probably longer...

Ready for blast off!  (I feel the need to point out that normally I wouldn't let my kids be this crazy out in public, but since I knew they'd have to sit still on another plane, I was pretty lax here.  Don't judge.  Well, judge all you want, but know that I don't care!)

Colton and Daddy are both napping here!

All this resulted in us landing in Richmond around midnight, and getting home around 2am.  Ugh.  Suffice it to say, I did NOT wake the kids up for school in the morning.  And it took us at least two weeks to get back to feeling like we were on east coast time again.  I have GOT to stop going to Seattle during the school year and finally take the kids for a nice, long summer trip!!!!


Since then, we've been busy, busy, busy.  I somehow scheduled all our dentist and orthodontist appointments the same week that we returned home, so the kids were only on time to school like once that whole week!  Oops.  (In my defense, I think I made those appointments before Tracy got engaged...?)

We've also been building train tracks...

Lamenting the fact that Craig's car got a flat tire...

Enjoying everything blooming....  This is one of the largest flowering dogwoods I saw around town!

Running through the sprinkler...

I love this picture so much

Also, Craig and I finally got to do one of those escape rooms with our friends the Patchetts!  I've been begging to do one of these ever since I noticed the place on the downtown mall.  We managed to finish it with only 40 seconds to spare.  And perhaps best of all, Craig enjoyed it so much that he could hardly wait to do another one!  I win!!!  

Craig and I are matching-- how cute

Our primary Easter egg hunt was delayed when the primary president had to be in the hospital, so this happened after our Seattle trip...

Everyone has been picking dandelions for mommy...

We've been getting ice cream and balloon animals at the downtown mall...

And holding sibling book clubs...

 

And dressing up in matching shirts!

Craig has been hard at work removing some dead trees from our property (dead trees not pictured). 

All the leaves popped out in about one week, and it's all so lush and beautiful I want to cry.  Unfortunately it's also taken its toll on my allergies, which are TERRIBLE (despite faithfully taking Allegra AND Zyrtec this year!).  Poor Colton has spring allergies, too, and the two of us are a mess.  It's supposed to rain on Saturday and I'm hoping that will clear out the worst of the pollen.

It's so weird to have a season that I love so very much and that apparently hates me right back.

Speaking of allergies, that was another thing we did was to have Kendra and Colton tested for various allergies.  They did not test positive to the things I thought they were allergic to (raspberries for Kendra, peanuts and seasonal stuff for Colton), but we did learn that Kendra is allergic to dust mites and cats.  (Not bunnies, thank goodness!)  They did further testing with Colton and still came up with nothing, despite the fact that he was clearly sitting there sneezing and rubbing his eyes.  The doctor recommended Claritin (and gave us several samples so I could figure out if he preferred the liquid form or chew tablets) and that helped quite a bit until this week.  Now he's a sniffing, eye-itching mess just like his mother, poor kid.

The nurse was super impressed with how well Colton (and Kendra) handled all the testing.  For a kid who gets extremely nervous about getting shots, he barely batted an eye when he actually GOT them.  Colton is much braver than he thinks he is.


I know I'm forgetting all kinds of important things, but this is what I've got pictures of!  I'm sure I'll fill in the gaps in the weeks to come!

Adam's Acceptance Letter

And while we're showing off, here's the letter that Craig wrote welcoming Adam into the Bentley Boy's Club.  It's pretty long, so Craig only read the highlights, but I think it's great in its entirety!  (And I like the logo that Ian created!)

I should also explain before you read it, that the Bentley Boy's Club has been a running joke for years now, started by Brian in response to Leah refusing to let him start a fire in the fireplace of their new home (Leah wanted to have it inspected first)...  Okay, enjoy!






April 7, 2018

Dear Adam Nilsen,

 After much deliberation and careful consideration, we are pleased to offer you a position as the fifth and final member of the Bentley Boys Club.  As you know, the BBC has struggled along for many years at 80% capacity.  We are thrilled to finally declare the Club complete.

Please provide your written acceptance within thirty days' receipt of this notice, or a different candidate may be chosen in your place.

We must admit that accepting you into the BBC brings us some trepidation.  Over the years, we have all taken on certain niches.  Namely, Brian is the athletic one.  Craig is the nice guy.  Cameron is the smart one.  And Ian is the funny one.  Our concern is that you may have us beat on all these fronts, so please be advised that swapping of sisters is strictly forbidden, despite what some members of the Club may tell you.  If you are looking for a niche yourself, the BBC is currently hiring for an event planner/master of ceremonies.  We hope you'll consider applying.

The included documentation outlines some of the bylaws, procedures, and rules for the BBC.  There is also an invoice for your initiation fee and your first six months of membership dues.  You can mail your payment directly to Craig Smith, Treasurer.

As a newly inducted member of the BBC, you are joining an elite force of husbands and fathers.  Only the finest are successful.  We are confident you will be a valued asset to the Club and look forward to your continued membership.

Sincerely,

Brian Madden (President, Founder)

Craig Smith (Treasuerer)

Cameron Richards (Chief Health Officer)

Ian Aveytua (CEO)

BBC Procedures

The following rules are set forth for all members of the Bentley Boys Club in order to ensure matrimonial bliss.  These rules do not represent the opinions of the members of the BBC, individually or collectively.

1.  No Open Flames.  Seriously.  Fire is dangerous.  You'll burn your house down.  Or the whole neighborhood.  Or the whole earth.  What do you think this is?  The Boy Scouts?  No.  It's the Bentley Boys Club, and we take safety seriously.  If you're cold, put on a sweater.  No fires, period.

2.  No Seafood.  (Adam, what you did at the bachelor party was very impressive and manly.  We are all very grateful for your kindness.  Now that you are a married man, it is time to leave these things in your past.  Men who are married to Bentley Girls don't eat fish.  (If you feel the need to occasionally indulge your saltwater appetite, it is best to do it alone.  In the dark.  Where no one will ever find out.  You'll probably find that this leaves you feeling hollow and ashamed, and you'll need to go through a series of ritual cleansings before returning to the presence of a Bentley Girl.))  In short, if you found it at the bottom of the ocean, it's best to leave it there.

3.  You are now a Mariner's fan.  Whatever allegiances or loyalties you may have previously held, and whatever sports you may have previously followed are now irrelevant.  You are a Mariner's fan, first and foremost.  You can still enjoy your old teams from time to time.  The Jazz?  The Yankees?  The Penguins?  BYU football?  That's all very well and good.  You may still have time for these hobbies on occasion.  But keep in mind that no man can serve two masters, and your loyalty must always lie with the Mariners.

4.  Be confident in your driving skills.  The Bentley Girls are all fine drivers with mostly accident-free records.  They are also extremely confident navigators who always know the difference between turning left and turning right.  They do, however, occasionally overestimate their prowess.  We just tell you this so that the first time you are yelled at, cussed at, or publicly shamed or humiliated because of something that happened behind the wheel, hold your head high.  The Bentley Boys Brotherhood has got your back.  We've all been there.

The following advice is offered to you for the care and keeping of your particular Bentley Girl, Tracy.  After many years of careful observation, we feel that you will benefit from our collective experience.

1.  Invest in dental insurance.  Tracy really likes her ice.  She REALLY likes it.  Nothing you say or do will change that, so just accept it and find her a good dentist.  You can thank us later.

2.  Black is beautiful.  We love the red shirt.  It looks great on her, and is a welcome addition to her otherwise shadowy wardrobe.  But please be careful in this regard.  We fear that if you push her too far too fast, you risk breaking her.  We suggest the following: Introduce one new colored shirt each year for the first three years of marriage.  At that point you can reassess and either continue at that rapid pace or slow down if Tracy is feeling overwhelmed.

3.  We think you already learned your lesson about gum.  Just don't go there and you won't have any problems.

4.  We, the long-standing members of the BBC, have grown accustomed to a certain level of service from Tracy in the child-care industry.  While we understand that her primary obligations will be to you and her own family from here on out, please remember that she will continue to be the favorite aunt of our children.  You're welcome to come along with her and babysit any time you like.

Finally, we share with you, our newest brother, the greatest thing about being married to a Bentley Girl.  Adam, the Bentley Girls are all fiercely loyal to the things they love.  The Mariners, Phantom of the Opera, Newsies, Arrested Development, Roger Federer...  The list goes on.  When they find something or someone that they adore, they will never stop loving it.  You have accomplished a remarkable feat in gaining the love of a Bentley Girl.  Be true to her and you will find that love returned to you a million fold!  Congratulations, and welcome to the Club!