MaeLyn's Musings

On Friday and Saturday, Hannah performed in her school play, Almost Maine . According to the director's notes,  " Almost, Maine is a series of loosely intertwined scenes about love and loss that take place over one night in a fictional Maine town." Because the play is made up of short scenes, without much to combine them, Hannah only appeared in one scene. In that scene, a young man encounters a woman at a restaurant that he used to date before she dumped him, and tonight she is celebrating her bachelorette party. Hannah plays the part of a waitress at the restaurant. After the young woman left him, the young man got a tattoo on his arm that he had intended to say, "Villain" because he felt like a villain for letting her go... but the tattoo parlor had made a mistake and wrote "Vill ia n" instead. At the end of the scene, after the young woman has returned to her party, the young man learns that the kind and cheerful waitress's name is "Vil...

This past weekend has been one to remember. Twenty some-odd years ago, I lived in southern California when the San Diego temple was dedicated. I remember helping with the open house, putting shoe coverings on people's feet. And I remember the dedication itself, sitting in the cafeteria of the actual temple, and President Hinkley passing through on his way to the Celestial Room, and being within a few feet of him. That was an awesome event, and ever since then, the San Diego temple has held a special place in my heart. That was where I received my endowment before I left on my mission. I was able to serve there as an ordinance worker following my mission. That was also where I was married. The San Diego temple will always be "my" temple. I hope that the Fort Collins temple will hold a similar place in my children's hearts. I was able to take them on a tour of the temple during the open house. The oldest three were able to return to help but on shoe coverings for t...

I think we first came to our attention almost a week ago. We woke up in the morning, and as usual, Ishmael was lying on our bed. At some point, Steven reached over to pet him and suddenly, "Sssssss!" Ishmael hissed at him. Now, you have to understand that Ishmael doesn't hiss. He doesn't scratch. He doesn't bite. (People anyway, apparently.) We realized that he had a sore on his side that he didn't want people touching. We assumed he'd been out and gotten into a fight with a neighborhood cat. At the time, the injured area was covered in fur so we couldn't get a good look at it, but he was eating and acting normally, so we respected Ishmael's desires and avoided petting the offending side. A few days later, Thursday evening, was when we noticed the balding spot. He had an ugly sore on his side, as though a claw or fangs had sunk deeply into his side. The fur around it was disappearing, although whether it was due to him licking it or the sore ...

I sometimes wonder what is going on inside my children's heads.  For example: This morning as we were walking to school in a drizzly rain, Peter said, "Do you know what you could do when you are feeling lonely?" Curious, I replied, "No, what?" "You could turn off all the lights and watch a scary movie." He paused, then continued. "After a while, you won't feel like you are alone anymore!" And feeling like there are ghosts or stalkers or creepy clowns or something around would be a good thing? Where does he get these ideas???

Last night, I attended my first high school football game. (That I can remember. I may have been to one before, but I can't remember it if I did.) I haven't even watched football since I was in college and my college was playing - but then I watched it on TV, not in the stadium. I'm not generally a sports fan. But last night's game kept me entertained. She wanted her jersey to say "Hanana Bread" but they got it wrong. When Hannah told me last month that she wanted to play powder puff football, my first response was probably, "Really? Whatever for?" And then when I signed the permission forms that mentioned that there was a risk of serious injury, and possibly even death, I wondered why on earth I was letting her play! But I signed them anyway, grateful that we at least have health insurance. Practices began, and kept her busy after school almost every day. I'm not sure how she juggled football practice with play practices, but somehow...

I mentioned a couple days ago (if you watched my video from Monday) that I performed my Joseph Medley in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. This is a medley that I have been working on - off and on - for a few years. It is a mashup of a bunch of songs relating to Joseph Smith. I had been working on it over the last few weeks, and finally felt like it was just about finished when I received an email from our ward music chairperson asking if I would perform a piano solo for Sacrament Meeting in a little over a week. This was the only thing that I felt I was close enough to being able to play well enough to perform with only a week's notice. I kept tweaking it over the next several days. (I think I printed out my final version on Friday!) But, with lots of practice, playing it several times a day (as you can see from the video) it turned out pretty well. I was happy with it, anyway. Just in case you are interested, the .pdf of the sheet music is here . I also attempted to produce a midi...

Monday evening, our family trekked outside with a watermelon and some rubber bands for a wholesome recreational activity, and to see if what Steven said was true: If you wrap enough rubber bands around a watermelon, it will explode. 7:00 pm   7:06 pm   7:17 pm   7:36 pm   7:44 pm   7:55pm   7:57pm   8:00:23 pm   8:00:27 pm Note: Do NOT try this indoors!!!!!