Got five minutes to spare?

I thought I'd share this with you. 

Random thoughts and a musical treat

So, I woke up at 6am today.  :(
It's a Saturday!  I don't have to get up that early on a weekday.  (6:15 is my weekday wake up time.)  I suppose my body is in a rut and doesn't get the whole "sleep in" thing anymore.  It doesn't help that there were squirrels performing a tap dance routine on my roof. 
Stupid squirrels. 

I may also be suffering from "too much to do and think about to sleep" syndrome.  Not that any of it is that big of a deal, but I live such a slow paced life that this weekend feels like activity overload.  I'm taking Kevin to take his SAT in a little bit.  That shouldn't be a big deal for me and I really hadn't thought much of it, but now that it's THE day, I'm a little anxious about it.  There's nothing I can do, it's all on him, but I'm a mom and I worry.  It's part of the job description. 

The landlord is finally coming by to look at the trees that were felled by the obnoxious amounts of snow this winter.  Of course, I have a million errands to run and really wish he would do this any other day but today, but whatever....

And the reason that I'm rushed to do all my errands today is because I'm hitting the town this afternoon to hang out with a bunch of picture-taking, bloggy-type people on the I heart faces photo walk!!  eeeeeee!!!!
Okay, so.... I'm excited because I think it's going to be fun.
I'm nervous because I'm going to meet all these bloggy people (that seemed almost two dimensional and imaginary) in real life 3-D!! 
I'm excited because I'm sure to learn a thing or two about taking good pictures.
But I'm worried that I'll suck!  (I don't truly think that I'll suck, but my mind plays tricks on me.)
I'm stressing over the fact that I want to wear cute shoes, but know I need to be comfortable and my comfy shoes are just ugly... there's no other way to put it.  
And here's the other thing.... I'm trying to plan pictures in my head.  DC is such a well-visited and photographed place that I really don't want to take lots of cliched pictures.  Boring!  But what can I do that is new and different?  And have you every noticed that everything in DC is gray?!!  God forbid that we have gray skies too!

The other things on my mind are Julia's horse show tomorrow and Grant's recital last night.

Speaking of recitals... here, for your listening pleasure (and because I'm bragging on my kid) is Grant playing his recital piece.

Silent night

I had intended for this to be at the bottom of my "What makes me happy" post, but as much as I tried yesterday, I couldn't get the video to play past the first 7 seconds. I think that Youtube and I have finally figured it out, so I'm adding a part 2 to my "happy" post.

It makes me happy to hear this guy practice piano. He's only just started this song and still has to smooth out some of the rough edges, but really, if I had half his talent I'd be thrilled.

So here's my Merry Christmas to everyone from me.

For more pics and stories about "Happiness" check out this blog... I should be folding laundry.

concerto romantique 1st movement part 1

The following videos encompass the complete version of Concerto Romantique played by Grant. The first video was recorded by Julia, the second one Grant recorded by setting it on the side of the piano, and the last few were recorded by me. I like that you are able to see different views while he plays... his hands, his face, his whole body which shows his pedaling, and a more standard upper body view.

concerto romantique 1st movement part 2

concerto romantique 2nd movement

concerto romantique 3rd mvmt. part 1

concerto romantique 3rd mvmt. part 2

Talent Show

Some backstage pictures

I just got back from the kid's school talent show. It was so much fun. There were kids playing piano, guitar and violin. Some sang, others danced and one did a karate demonstration. Kids of all ages and abilities performed. Little ones strummed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the guitar or played Yankee Doodle on the piano. Others showed us talents that we didn't know they had. I think we may have seen performances from some future superstars. Kevin's friend Christian did a short dance and another girl, Tayla, sang. (She seems to be a local, budding Christian artist complete with cd. ) A group of teenagers had formed a Celtic/Irish string ensemble that was amazing, really amazing. Grant, Quincy and Julia played pieces on the piano and all did well, but Grant really blew everyone away. So many people commented that they weren't expecting that from such a quiet kid. Others accused me of not telling them just how well he played. I don't know, what am I supposed to say? Being around him and hearing him practice everyday causes me to forget just how good he is.

Julia played Alouette and Country Dance. She also danced a colonial dance with her American Girl class. Very cute.

Quincy played moonlight sonata. She also had a small part in a play that her book club adapted from the book the Frog Princess. They wrote the play, assigned the parts, created the costumes and self directed the whole thing. It's amazing what a bunch of kids can do when you leave them alone for half an hour once a week.

Kevin did not play the guitar, but he did help by video taping the performances. The emcee kind of called him out by mentioning that three of the four Sanders were performing tonight. I hope he does decide to take that guitar out of his bedroom and perform someday.

Below are a few video clips that I took with my little camera. I'll try to get the full versions that were done with the actual video camera up sometime this weekend.