Poco a Poco: Sister

Showing posts with label Sister. Show all posts

Friday, February 28, 2014

February Is My Favorite

I know this month is short a few days, but February has gone by exceptionally fast this year!

We returned home from all the audition craziness and hit the road running!

I celebrated Valentine's Day with my Papa at his memory care facility. Being far away made me remember how important family truly is.

Ty's cousin, Meghan, came to visit, and we enjoyed canoeing and ice cream with the fam!
Brooklyn even went on her first canoe trip, but there is no photo evidence.

(Would you have taken your phone in a canoe with a crazy Weimaraner? Didn't think so.)

The very next day, our Japanese exchange student arrived!

Meet Moe!

(Pronounced Mo-eh)

Brooklyn is already quite attached.

Okay, so the main reason February is my favorite is because it's my birthday month. And the way I was raised was to celebrate all month long. (As I've aged, the celebrations have shortened to about a week. Growing up stinks sometimes, doesn't it?)

Birthday mail from Laos!

Check out how much Brooklyn has grown since my last birthday!

Did you know just how many free things you can get on your birthday? It's amazing, really. I ran out of time trying to do them all!

The morning began with a free breakfast (with my fab parents!) and continued with a free car wash, free smoothie, and a free sub! Ty was the lucky beneficiary of my free sub from Firehouse.

Then it was onto the happiest place on earth on my happy day!

(And yes, for free! My favorite cast member is awesome!)

EARS!

Please notice Ty's button.

It doesn't get any better than this, folks!

Ty's very first time on Small World!

We both maxed out the points on Buzz Lightyear!
In all honesty, the ride broke down in the middle, so we had a little extra time. :)

The main event for the day was dinner at Be Our Guest. I love this restaurant at lunch time, but I had never been for dinner due to the fact that reservations are so limited.

I was slightly disappointed with our seats, but I blame myself for not specifying.

Overall I loved the food and atmosphere. This is definitely one of my favorite places to eat at Disney.

Per Disney protocol, the chef came to our table and listed out my numerous gluten-free options. He even brought me GF dinner rolls to enjoy before the meal! I highly recommend the potato soup.

When your reservation is called, you are handed a Lumiere to help guide you to your seats.

Tale as old as time...

One of the features of this restaurant during dinner hours is that the Master of the House is present.
He is dramatically announced and shown through the dinning rooms to his study where he later greets guests.

We met him post-dinner!

Moe's homestay group just happened to be at Magic Kingdom on my birthday, so we planned to meet up with her after dinner and stay at the park late.

We may or may not have had some sweet fast-passes from our favorite cast member...

In line for Big Thunder

Space time!

So fun to share in Moe's Disney visit!

It seems I always have soaring expectations for my birthday and then wind up disappointed.

Not so this year!

I could not have imagined a more wonderful day.

We we arrived home, Moe gave me this:

My new favorite morning mug!

Several families from our church are also hosting, so we have tried to organize events together with our students. Of course we had to introduce them to Tijuana Flats!

In the midst of the celebrations and get-togethers, there has also been some sweet time of rest.

We've needed it! Big decisions are ahead, but for now it's soaking in the sun and pestering our families as much as possible!

Farewell, February! You are one fine month!

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween...

...From the Peter Pan Cast!

Oh, wait! That's my family at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party earlier this month.

We look so incredibly like the cast that I almost didn't recognize us.

Last Friday, I hosted the Annual Halloween Musicale. Ty and I also threw a party the following night. We aren't really party people, if you know what I mean. The last party we threw was a small gathering (mostly family) for my college graduation - in December. We really want to use our home to be hospitable, so we decided to throw a Halloween bash!

It was hosted by Wendy and...

...The Ghost Host (duh!)

He was such a sport at MNSSHP, but he said he didn't want to "wear a dress" at his own party. We recycled the hat from his John costume, and came up with this!

One of my favorite parts about Halloween is the themed food.

I had so much fun creating treats for our parties! Yes, the punch is teeming with sour gummy worms.

But not every edible spooky has to be sweet!

Exhibit A: Bats!

Exhibit B: Spiders!

Here's some of the gang in the photo booth! Ty and I are sitting on a bale of hay. :)

(Of course we didn't think to take pictures before a handful of wonderful folks left. Rats!)

I need to send this to Kelly; she'll get a kick out of it.

Sone is acclimating to American culture just fine.

And for today? I'm going to work as a nerdy music teacher.

Oh, wait.

Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do!

I do that every day.

At least I'll be handing out candy on this special day!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Running on Adrenaline

Literally.

Friday evening I attended a limited-time event at Disney's Hollywood Studios. In honor of Friday the Thirteenth, it was entitled, "Unleash the Villains."

We all should have guessed that it would be packed. HS parking was full, and the bus transportation was so crowded that I was having flashbacks (nightmares?) of my RunDisney experience.

Thankfully I was with my Disney pro friends. They knew alternate routes and such. We ended up parking at Epcot and walking the 2.5 miles through the back entrance and through Disney's Boardwalk just to get to HS. Beats sitting on a bus for 1-2 hours any day! (Did I mention I'd already spent 4 1/2 hours in the car driving to my teacher's house and back?)

The special fireworks show was truly incredible, and I was in even better company. But it certainly made for a late-night. It was so late, in fact, that I only snuck in 3 1/2 hours of shut-eye before my long run with this girl.

Post run! Happy, happy!

I'm fairly certain no professional would ever recommend sleep deprivation as a part of marathon training. Nonetheless, I ran my farthest yet - 14 miles! Without Mollie's accountability, I know I would have skipped out on my long run. It truly makes a difference knowing someone is up early on a Saturday and is expecting you! (It also makes a difference when you take an out-and-back route; there's really no option to quit when your car is still seven miles away.)

Of course, the monkey was fully rested and anxious to play. I took this while trying to squeeze in a 30-minute mid-morning nap.

I was a little busy squeezing in much more important things - like family time with my sister!

Photo Credit: MVL Photography

And the rest of the crew.

Photo Credit: MVL Photography

(And one of Ty and me, just for kicks...)

Photo Credit: MVL Photography

Julia left this morning to head back to Laos. It's hard having a part of your heart so far away, but it makes time together all the sweeter. Last night I had the privilege to perform with her - much like my last night in Laos. Our church hosted the annual variety show, in which we showcased my sister's songwriting talent. Once again, it was a joy creating music together!

Did I mention we arrived at the airport around 5am? Late nights and early mornings are enough to make me turn from my morning habits. Clearly there was good reason for such shenanigans. It's not every day you can snatch a few more hours with the best sister ever.

On that note, it's past my bedtime. Officially out of adrenaline.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Entering Employment

I am an employee!

Why is this a big deal?

Well, this may come as a shock to some of you, but I've never been employed.

I have always worked for myself, and that was just fine for me. My dad is a small-business owner, and he instilled a love of entrepreneurship in me from a young age. At age nine, I started a pet siting business in my neighborhood with my best friend, Tali. It was first named "First Capital Pets" in honor of my dad's business (which was similarly named, minus the animal nuances). We were really into this business - for a long time. After some brainstorming, we cleverly renamed our company "Dog-gone Purrfect Pet Sitting," and used the slogan, "Your pet can stay in the comfort of its own home."

We made iron-on Ts with our name and slogan.

We had binders with all our customers' names and numbers.

We created reference lists and rode our bikes around the neighborhood attaching these flyers on the outside of mailboxes.

We called frequent customers if we hadn't heard from them in a while. Hullo? Did you know we're still in business?

We set up a booth at our park fair.

We billed our customers with company invoices - with our letterhead and everything!

This kept us busy all through the holidays and summer break. We even had weekly jobs that gave us a steady income. We were rolling in the dough for elementary-schoolers!

We kept all this up quite well throughout middle school. As high school rolled around, I began to tire of all the work. Keeping an organized, well-oiled business is not easy! Remember also, that we didn't have licenses or vehicles. During the day, we often rode bikes or walked to our jobs, but in the evenings we relied on parents or my older sister. (Thank you, Julia!) I'm fairly certain that the only reason my parents allowed me to get my license at sixteen is that they were weary of driving to pet sitting jobs. This is proven by the fact that I was only permitted to drive in the neighborhood for the first three months after obtaining my license. By the time college rolled around, I was trying to give away pet sitting jobs. I was entirely burnt out and swore I wouldn't get a dog for years and years (famous last words!).

Backtrack to high school, when my parents began receiving questions like, "Is that your daughter who plays piano? Does she teach, too?"

And thus began my second business. I taught a few students here and there during high school, but business truly took off my freshman year of college. Since I lived at home and spent a great deal of time practicing, I was my own advertisement! Win-win! This was the perfect job for my college years; I had such little time to give, but the payoff was more than enough to cover for my car and food expenses. I don't think I will ever outgrow this job - only grow into it more as I rediscover and uncover and invent new ways to be a better teacher and business owner. I do my own bookkeeping through Excel, send regular email updates to parents, update my website, and require registration forms. I also have an updated policy list, which I require parents and students to sign, indicating they have read and understood the terms.

I love teaching, and I love being responsible for myself and my students. For whatever reason, I have had difficulty growing my home studio this year. It could be tied to my relocation. In no way have I exhausted marketing techniques or even come close my to pet sitting business self-promotion efforts.

But then I heard of a job opening. I applied, interviewed, auditioned, and signed a contract.

I became an employee for the first time.

In the meantime, something else was brewing. Next thing I knew, I had signed my second W-9.

I became employee for the second time. In two weeks!

The best part of all of this is that I get to keep my home business. Woah! Three jobs at once! (I don't want to just skim over the fact that this is all the work of Jehovah Jireh! He has truly met all our needs and more! We are blessed and thankful.)

I am now on the faculty at a local music conservatory. I will teach private lessons at the conservatory at least two days a week. They handle all of the financial side of things, and I arrive for my scheduled lessons. I am excited about this, because there seem to be performance openings for me, as well! The faculty gives concerts for the students, and I will be able to play some of my graduate repertoire.

My second job is quite interesting. Quite simply, I will be a ballet studio accompanist. The dancers will dance to my music. Today I sat down with the studio director and learned all about the ballet order of things and what time signatures I need for each segment. I am responsible for choosing and preparing the music. While I think that this will be quite a bit of work in the beginning, I feel that the experience will be well worth the trade. I am excited to broaden my skills as a pianist; additionally, it will be wonderful performance practice, since I must be performance-ready for class two nights a week.

So I guess you can say change is in the air. I love this time of year: the school supplies in the aisles, the new schedules, the new beginnings. I have had a wonderful, busy-in-other-ways spring "semester," but I am anticipating the advent of the new school year with great delight!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Tyler Thursday

Every Thursday could easily be brag day about my husband. But today is especially so, because it's his birthday.

Birthdays are big deal where I come from.

They usually last two weeks - minimum - and involve multiple celebrations.

Ty has never been one to make a big deal out of himself, so I'm going to do it for him.

Here are twenty-four reasons my husband is just perfect for me. Can't wait until you're fifty, Ty! Then I can say nearly half of what I want.

1. He loves Jesus. More than he loves me.

2. He loves me second. Nobody else is close for the tie.

3. He understands the value of our extended family. Then again, our families are rockin'.

4. He is always willing to listen, no matter what craziness comes out of my mouth. No idea is too ridiculous to him. And he doesn't laugh at me.

5. But he certainly makes me laugh! Ty's sense of humor is one of my favorite things about him. He can always make me laugh, even when I'm low or in super-productive mode.

6. He supports me in all my endeavors. He is always there to encourage me and cheer me on. This is especially the case in my musical studies. He goes out of his way to show me he cares about my passion.

7. He is a patient man. If you know anything about our dating story, you know this to be true. It remains so, and I am increasingly grateful! He always trusts the payoff will be worth the wait.

8. He loves his sisters. My mom always told me that how a man treats his sisters is how he will treat his wife. I listened, Mom. My Ty loves and looks out for his sisters always.

9. He tells me he loves me, every day. I may be covered in sweat or sick in bed.
No matter - he says so just the same.

10. He is flexible. Chances are, if I ask him to help me with something or change his plan for the day, he will do it.

11. He eats whatever I make. Some days are better than others, for sure. He always blesses the food and thanks God for me.

12. He chooses not to complain. He gently reminds me that sometimes my version of ''stating the facts'' is a bit whiney. He rarely darkens his circumstances by his descriptions.

13. He is excited about our dog. This may sound silly, but it's something that has made me love him even more. I so enjoy watching him play with Brooklyn. I can tell he's head-over-heels for her, and I know he will be a great dad one day.

14. He is a hard-worker. Ty is devoted and dedicated to whatever he sets himself. Talk about intrinsic motivation.

15. He is a servant. If something needs done or someone needs assistance, he is always quick to volunteer his time and efforts.

16. He is full of surprises! I love finding out new tidbits or hearing his spin on an old story. Invariably, I learn new things about him all the time!

17. He is loyal. He loves to follow his favorite bands from high school, purchase the soap Mamacita always bought, and reconnect with old friends. He is most loyal to his family.

18. He is level-headed. I tend to be hot-tempered. At least one of us thinks before speaking his mind.

19. He is an honorable man, above repute. A true gentleman.

20. He thinks the best of others. This is sometimes astounding to me, and then so encouraging! What a relief to let go of speculation and the anxiety which can accompany it.

21. If I'm in need of ice cream or dark chocolate, he will magically make my wishes come true.

22. He helps me escape the box. I mean the one in which I so often try to live and force everything else to follow suit. He shows me that life is wonderful and beautiful even when the daily to-do list isn't accomplished or the budget is off by five dollars.

23. He is a learner. I love that he's always talking to me about something new he heard or a new skill he learned. Whenever he is interested in something, he sure does his research. I guess we are alike in this way. (Between the two of us, we know a heck of a lot about dogs now!)

24. He's mine.

I love you, Tyler Neil!

Happy 24th birthday! I joyfully anticipate many more birthdays.