Random April (and March) Stuff

My choir has been hard at work learning Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil for our concert at the end of the month.  I'm getting so much better at sight-reading music and harmonizing below the 1st sopranos and singing in Russian.  And yet, I feel like it's not even close to enough for what this work requires-- I am going to be putting in some serious extra hours very soon.  As Michael put it, "After this, everything will seem easy!"

We participated in a small concert a couple weeks ago at a local winery-- we sang with the University Singers (who will be joining us for the upcoming concert as well, meaning we'll have 160 voices all blending in a church with gorgeous acoustics!).  Charlottesville Ballet also performed, and there were soloists from Charlottesville Opera, so that was pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, it was also FREEZING.  The temperature didn't look too bad if you just checked the weather, but the wind was just cutting through everything.  By the time we walked off the stage, my toes were going numb.  I wanted to stick around and listen to everything else, but the heater in my car (and the promise of pizza at home with my family) was too tempting.

We had a solo dancer during one of our songs, so that was cool, although I wish I could have watched her more!  If only I'd memorized the Russian...

It was a beautiful venue and a beautiful day, if it hadn't been so cold!!!

We had spring break the first week of April.  We weren't doing much, since we'd just gone on our cruise, but I did use the extra time to get Colton an EKG.  All my children seem to have sinus arrhythmia, which sounds scary but is apparently no big deal?  Anyway, my pediatrician wanted Colton's checked out, just to be sure.  It's always so weird for me to do things I'm unfamiliar with, but once the doctor had sent in the order, all we had to do was show up at the hospital and ask for an EKG!  Doesn't that seem like the kind of thing you'd need an appointment for?

But that was exactly how it went!  The only glitch was that the nurse accidentally didn't save the images, so right as we were getting in the car, she called me and asked if I could come back so she could do it once more.  The good thing about that was that I hadn't taken any pictures, so now I had the chance to rectify that.

I sent these pictures to Craig and he wrote back, "Why does everyone want to attach wires to Colton all the time???"  He concluded that he must be a cyborg, which Colton thought was awesome.  (Craig isn't wrong.  This really does seem to be a thing with Colton.) (And yes, the nurse confirmed that Colton has a sinus arrhythmia which is absolutely nothing to worry about.  Whew!  I wasn't particularly worried-- mostly because it's not in my nature to worry too much until I absolutely have to-- but as we were walking into the hospital Colton asked me what would happen if there was something wrong with his heart, and my own heart nearly broke as I realized that just because I was acting like this was no big deal didn't mean that my sensitive little guy hadn't picked up on the fact that it could be a big deal.)

Later in the day, Adam and I took the kids hiking at Walnut Creek!  We didn't take a group photo this time, but I did snap these fun shots:

I think this was my 4th time hiking here so how had I never noticed this totally creepy abandoned house before???  We all agreed it was scary and probably haunted.

These trees grew together and now it looks like the big one is giving the little one a hug!  Awww...!

The eastern redbuds were just starting to bloom, which always makes me happy!

A recent storm had snapped a whole bunch of trees, but it really mangled this one...!  Yipes!

After our hike, we made pizzas with Adam and then watched a movie, so that was a really fun afternoon!

And on a TOTALLY different note, I met up with Sarah for lunch and she happened to have a wig in her car that we needed to try out on me, and we ended up with this amazing picture:

It took Craig a few minutes to even realize that was me! 😂😂😂 And Bentley is telling me I shouldn't post this on my blog because it is too scary.  Sorry to end on this terrifying image!