Furry Friend

One of the things Marshall & Shaylen enjoy is dog-sitting our former piano teacher's dog, Piper. Piper is with us for the month of February. She's a cute little American Dingo. She loves to watch you while you eat and makes it seem like she's never been fed. It's pretty hard to resist giving her treats.

"Are you going to eat all of that?"

Harp Master Class

Shaylen had the opportunity this past week to participate in a Master Class hosted by Manchester Community Music School. The guest clinician was Natalie Severson. Natalie was very sweet & down to earth, so Shaylen enjoyed working with her immensely. Shaylen's harp was used by those students that typically work with a pedal harp and Natalie used it for her recital at the end of the Master Class. She said it had a lovely tone!

When At Auntie's

Steve & Stephanie, Jared & Caleb are visiting a college in WI this week which means we get David, Ethan & Lydia. We've continued on with scheduled school, but I've also enjoyed spoiling them a bit.

Cookies & decaf coffee make school go by more quickly!

Shaylen's Winter Harp Recital

Vers la Source en la Bois by Marcel Tournier

Harp Concerto in Bb Major by G.F. Handel

2017's Christmas Tree Hunt

We went to a new Christmas tree lot this year over in Maine. Their selection was amazing. The difficulty didn't come in finding a tree that looked decent, it was in narrowing it down to just one! I think the Archambault Tree Farm was definitely a winner for us and we'll go back again next year.

Happy Birthday to the Twins!

Can they already be 14?!?! It seems impossible that this much time has gone by already. Ever wish you could just hit the pause button? I sure do! These kids are a tremendous blessing to both of us.

Check out this Chocolate Whoopie Pie Cake! Taigen made it!

New Seattle Seahawks gear from Sherry!

Shaylen LOVES cheering on the Seahawks with Taigen.

Crazy Cutey Patutey Season

I had a bunch of scrap paper which was uniform in size. These scraps were left over from making photo booth strip envelopes for customers. What could I do with them? I decided to try my hand at making note pads. Surely I could print them, bind them together with padding compound and then sell them! I decided to give it a try.

Boy, did they take off! I have been selling notepads by the dozen! They started taking off immediately as Lunchbox Loveys (to include in your kids' lunchbox), but then folks started ordering personalized ones for their teachers and coworkers as thoughtful gifts for Christmas. This made for some pretty long nights and lots of printing (and a bunch of help tying baker's twine by the kids and packaging by Taigen). Let's just say that all of my white scrap paper is gone and I've ordered lots more in hopes of getting me through the Christmas season!

Marshall's 2017 YOC Field Trip - Part 3

Our last stop for this year's field trip was at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. I could instantly tell why this one was saved for last. The room itself was impressive, but the organ...WOW.

This is an 1864 E. & G. G. Hook organ. We have an organ builder on the YOC Committee. He and his dad came with us and they were just one hair shy of shaking with excitement over this organ. It was neat to hear a bit of its history and then send the kids off for an organ crawl inside with the organ technician that maintains this beauty! The following pictures Marshall took with my phone (I opted to stay out).

You can see out into the hall in this picture.

Don't look down!!!

You cannot be afraid of heights inside this organ!

Marshall had been saving his Vierne piece for this final stop on the field trip. We knew it to be an historic and wonderful organ that needed a bigger piece. The co-chairs of the YOC were assisting Marshall with the stops...and I think they pulled all of them. It sounded phenomenal!

Marshall's 2017 YOC Field Trip - Part 2

Our second stop was the beautiful St. Joseph, Holy Family Parish in Worcester, MA. They not only have a beautiful historic building (it was shocking to hear that they were actually considering tearing it down years ago), but a beautiful 1928 Casavant pipe organ. It looked small, but the sound it produced was significant.

Marshall's 2017 YOC Field Trip - Part 1

Every fall, the Young Organist Collaborative organizes a field trip for the students to go and see, play, and explore some of the great organs in New England. This year's field trip was a phenomenal experience for Marshall. Because there are a lot of photos and a few videos, I will break this post into three parts, since we went and saw three separate organs.

The first organ was in Auburn, MA at the Pakachoag Church. It is a 1997 Dobson pipe organ. Isn't it beautiful?!?! It had a sweet sound to match. We had a special treat in that the organ builder himself was there to talk about it.