I miss high school choir--Journal entry

I can hardly believe it's been 7 1/2 YEARS since I sang in my high school choir.

This is a video of the choir at my old high school in Texas 2010.



When I was in choir, I used to be one of those girls in the background doing a silly dance and singing backup. I always thought it would be cool to be one of the soloists that sing with power and confidence, but those are hard things for me to find in myself. I sang my "Senor Solo" at our last high school choir show ever, and that took every ounce of courage I could muster. I was the Blue Fairy from Pinoccio singing, "When you wish upon a Star." I wore my blue prom dress that happened to look like the fairy's dress in the movie.

For me, choir really started when I joined the Musical Theater and Dance class with Ms. Gillis in Junior High. It was so fun to sing AND dance. I also enjoyed the new experience of singing in small groups and ensembles. We had an awesome group and an awesome teacher. She took us to State--the only freshman choir to make it. Then I went to high school in Bremerton and the choir kind of fell apart. We started with 27 girls in the "Elite Audition-Only" girls choir. By the end of the year we only had 9 girls left because all the others dropped out of choir. On the CD of our competition at the end of the year you can hear me clearly because I'm one of 3 altos, and the other two were really shy.

I moved to Texas when I was 16. I also moved from a mediocre girls choir of 9 to an amazing girls choir of about 50. Our teacher was very strict, but I loved having her nit-pick at us until we sounded perfect. Every note, vowel, dynamic, etc...had to be PERFECT, and we were capable of doing that when she pushed us.

(This is one of the songs my new choir in Texas sang--so cool. This version was the closest I could find to the way we sang it. Nobody had cell phones to take video back then.)



I loved learning how to sight read music and use solfege to figure out the notes without a piano. ("Solfege" = Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do) We went to choral competitions with music memorized, but we also competed by looking at new music we've never seen/heard and singing the whole song a capella. Amazing! I didn't know that was possible! I learned so much from being a part of the choir in Texas.

I really wanted to be a part of the Show Choir too, but I didn't have room in my schedule for a 2nd choir class. (Instead I was focusing on Health Science classes.)

Here is the Show Choir from my school in 2010.



These days, now that I'm old and not in high school anymore I am part of a very "mature" community choir. (Median age: 65 yrs?) We wear fancy dresses and stand nicely on the risers to sing 20-30 minute songs in latin. We also mix in "normal length" songs that are really beautiful too. My favorite from the last concert is Lux Aurumque--the one I posted on the blog a few posts ago.

(I couldn't find any youtube videos, so here's a picture of us last year in St. Boniface Church. We always sing there at Christmas. It has cool echo-y acoustics.)



I enjoy this choir too, and I'm definitely learning and improving my music skills....I just miss swing dancing on stage while I sing, or wearing fun costumes sometimes. Our last choir concert was about a week ago and we got to "dance" a little. We were singing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..." and at the exciting part we got to step in place to the left and the right on the risers. After the concert we were congratulated by our conductor for doing so well on the dancing part. haha

ShapeMatch Puzzles

By Diana Weddle


We went to the craft fair on Saturday and came across this booth. Most things you just walk by and say, "Oh that's nice." But this booth caught my eye and I wanted to take home everything they had! Diana Weddle draws these amazing pictures made up of lots of little characters and then cuts them out as a puzzle. The puzzles were over our price range (cheapest was $60) but they also sold prints of the pictures for $15. It was so hard to decide on which one to pick! I loved the elephant, and the horse, and the moose. She had lots of animal shapes to choose from: dinosaur, sea horse, cat, pig, hedgehog...etc. I expect to collect a few more of her pictures in the future. They are just starting a website: http://shapematchpuzzles.com/. It doesn't have any information or links yet, but it has the picture I posted above. I would love to have some of her puzzles too, but I wouldn't want to let the kids play with it! It would just be my special puzzle that only careful hands can try.

The Monster in my closet

I found this story online and thought of Dad--it seems like something he would write. I also thought it was appropriate for the upcoming holiday.
Happy Halloween!


The Monster In My Closet

by Wil Wheaton

There is a monster in my closet. It’s standing in there behind my clothes, and it wants to come out. I don’t know where it came from, I don’t know how it got in there, but I know that it’s been there for a long time, waiting.

Mum and dad don’t believe in monsters (and until yesterday, neither did I), but during dinner tonight, I had to tell them.

“A monster,” dad said, wiping mashed potatoes off his beard. “Like, with claws and fangs? That kind of monster?”

“I haven’t actually seen it,” I said, “but I know it’s there.”

“How can you know it’s there if you haven’t seen it?” Mum asked.

“It’s like…” I thought for a moment. “It’s like when it’s cloudy, and you can’t see the moon, but it sort of glows behind the clouds, so you know it’s there.”

“So your closet was glowing, eh?” Dad said.

I shook my head. I could tell that they thought I was making the whole thing up. “No, dad,” I said, “but I could feel it in there, and --”

“And what?” He said.

“And if it comes out,” I said, carefully, “It’s going to kill us.”

“Well, I should expect so,” dad said. “Monsters are usually very serious about that sort of thing.”

Mum scowled at him. “Richard! Don’t make fun.”

Then she looked back at me and said, “you can have a night light in your room to keep the monster away.”

“And keep your closet door shut,” dad said, gravely, “everyone knows that monsters can’t open doors.”

“But --”

“But nothing. Now stop all this chattering and eat your peas before they get cold,” mum said.

I’m trying to deal with a monster, and all mum cares about is me eating my peas. Typical parents.

They walked me into my room when it was time for bed. Dad made a big production of opening the closet and looking inside. “Well, it looks like we scared it off,” he said. He didn’t notice that the lid of my toy chest was lifted up slightly, and I didn’t bother telling him. He pushed the door and it shut with a click. He shook the knob and pantomimed looping a chain around it that he secured with a pantomimed pad lock. He swallowed a pantomime key and rubbed his belly.

Mum brought in one of my old night lights, the one with the blue pony on it, and plugged it into the wall next to the bed. “There, sweetheart,” she said as she turned it on, “let’s just leave this on tonight.”

She kissed me goodnight. Then dad kissed me on my forehead.

“There’s a good girl,” he said, “sleep tight! Don’t let the monsters bite!”

“Richard!” Mum smacked him on his arm. “Sorry, sweetie, he’s just having a bit of fun.”

“Good night, mum,” I said. I tried not to frown too much at dad.

I heard them talking as they walked down the stairs.. “She just has a wonderful imagination, doesn’t she?” Mum said.

“She’s a dreamer, that’s for sure,” dad said. I heard ice clink into glasses, then, a moment later, the creak of their armchairs as they sat down to watch television.

I was starting to fall asleep when I heard it.

“Psssst.”

I thought that maybe I was dreaming, but I pulled the covers up to my neck, as tightly as I could, and listened.

“Psssst.”

It came from the closet. “Psssst. Hey, kid. Come and open the door, hey?”

I felt my eyes widen, as a chill ran down my spine.

“Come on, kid, I won’t hurt ya, I just want to get out of here. Open the door and I’ll be on my way.”

The voice -- its voice -- was gruff, but not as gruff as I thought it would be.

“No,” I said in a small voice, barely a whisper. “You… you just stay in there.”

The handle shook a bit, and I screamed. Mum and dad were in the room before I knew it.

“It’s in there!” I cried, “it’s in there and it told me to open the door and let it out!”

They looked at each other. Mum walked across the room to me and sat down on the edge of my bed. “There, there, sweetie,” she said, “you just had a bad dream is all.

“Richard, open the door and show her that there’s nothing inside but clothes and toys.”

“No! Dad! Don’t open it!” I practically screamed.

“Fear not, my petal,” he said, gallantly, “Any monsters inside this closet will get the thrashing of their lives!” He walked to the closet and knocked on the door. “Anyone in there? Hmm?”

He winked at me and shadow boxed the air in front of him.

“Richard, stoppit and just open the door. She’s had an awful fright.”

“Daddy, don’t do it,” I said, suddenly feeling like I was seven years-old again. “Please.”

He smiled and said, “it’s all right, sweetheart. Daddy’s just going to show you that there’s nothing to be afraid of, and then we can all go back to sleep.”

Mum squeezed my hand. An audience laughed on the television downstairs. Dad turned the handle on the closet door and opened it. “Now, see? There’s nothing to--”

The monster was covered in dark scales, like a lizard. Its eyes were jet black, but reflected something red in their centers. It grabbed my dad by his shoulders and bit into his neck with long, sharp, white teeth.

Dad screamed and struggled against it. Clawed hands held onto him and a spray of blood shot across the back of the closet door, black and shiny in the dim light.

It slurped and gurgled and crunched, and in a few seconds, dad stopped moving. I realized that my mum hadn’t made a sound, but had let go of my hand.

She stood up, and walked toward the monster. It dropped my dad’s body to the floor and grinned at her, dad’s blood dripping off of its teeth and running down its chest. They stood over my dad’s body and embraced.

“I’ve missed you, darling,” the monster said to my mum.

“I missed you, too, my sweet,” she said, in the same gruff voice.

“Mu-- mum?” I said. She ignored me.

“I would have come sooner, but you know that we can’t open them from the inside,” the monster said.

“Everyone knows that!” Mum said, and they laughed together. She turned to face me. Her skin was starting to crack on her face, revealing dark grey scales beneath it. Her eyes were turning black, reflecting something red in their centers.

“Come on over here and give us a hug,” she said, as sharp white fangs pushed her teeth out of her mouth and onto the floor where they bounced around like marbles. “Come and be mommy’s little monster!”

“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” I screamed.

“Stop that horrid racket and say hello to your dad -- your real dad,” she said.

I reached around for something, anything, to use as a weapon to protect myself. When I stretched out for the lamp on my night stand, the skin on my arm cracked and split open. There were grey scales underneath it.

“Oh no. No no no no no,” I said.

I reached up to touch my face, and pulled the soft pink flesh away. I felt the rough scales underneath.

“What’s happening to me?!”

I looked at my mum.
I looked at my dad.
I looked at the body on the floor.
I realized that I was ever so hungry, and my food was getting cold.
I got out of bed and joined my family for dinner.

Things as they really are

Here is the whole talk: Things as they really are By David A. Bednar

I loved this talk the first time I heard it. I feel like I really learned a lot and caused me to think about these things more than I have before. Do I really want to spend all my time watching tv or browsing online when I could be spending meaningful time with family and friends instead? Or working, or studying, or doing service... The scriptures say that, "...the natural man is an enemy to God..." It's our mission to overcome the natural man that is in each of us and become a servant of God, because that is the thing that will bring true and lasting joy in this life.

We used this talk for a youth activity a couple years ago when it was first given. We handed out a worksheet for the kids to do while they listened to the talk. They had to listen for answers to questions or fill in the blank on their page. It was a good activity and got the kids thinking and talking about how they use different kinds of media or how it affects their life.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'

I was looking on Youtube for videos of the songs my choir is singing in our concert this month, and I found something even cooler. This is one of the songs we will sing, but it's amazing how it's done. I wish I thought of it first!



If you liked that, you should listen to the next one, "Sleep."