Random goings on this week

[The pitctures in this post have been randomly selected also.]

Derrill sang at church today
Someone in our branch asked me to accompany her on the piano for a musical number last week, which I was happy to do. I was thrilled actually, because it's been months and months since I last did a musical number. I mentioned this to Joy, our music director. She doesn't like to use me much because it means time away from the family. When the choir bowed out of today's performance, however, she very kindly asked if I would like to do one. [Picture from the Hellbrunn fountains: people getting hit from behind]

The week was very busy, though, and I never found time to practice. So yesterday I was trying to figure out what was a) appropriate to the topic (charity), b) interesting, c) that I could pull off on only one night's rehearsal, and preferably, d) that I hadn't done before.

As I prayed about it, I remembered a song Dad and I had sung to accompaniment years ago: John S. Tanner's rendition of the Psalm of Nephi to the tune of "I am a poor wayfaring stranger." I googled him, found the words, and practiced it for Hyrum. Hy clapped. I performed it for Joy. She said there were two notes that I needed some help on. I sang it off and on through the night until my throat hurt. [Joy at the Groton fair.]

Then I got up there today to sing. Just me, not accompaniment (ACK!) and my basso voce - the one that I pull out to sing with John Denver an octave lower. I sang with a power and vocal confidence that I have never had before. It was wonderful! My hands, legs, and back were shaking and quivering for my nervousness, though I don't think visibly. I saw some people startle at the first notes (I don't usually sound like that!) but could tell some were moved by the end. Joy said I had sung it perfectly and she had shed a tear because the Spirit was there. Hyrum clapped.

Hyrum ups his vocabulary
Pee-chee: peaches. He's been eating nothing but applesauce (an exaggeration, but not a big one) for two months now and wouldn't touch his peaches and pears mixture for a month. We're delighted he's returned to it and added a syllabel.

E-mom-ilee: Aunt Emilee, my brother's wife. What a cute phrase!

Kitty: Thank you, Monsters Inc. He both says kitty and meows when we point to a puzzle piece or picture of a kitty. It's highly adorable. [Hyrum at his first restaurant, 19 months ago.]

Yucky: It might mean diaper, it definitely means poo. He has even told us yucky when we weren't yet changing his diaper, but it hasn't been a consistent signal of bathroom intent. It's very cute. He says yucky through the whole diaper change sometimes.

He also makes an airplane sound and puts his arms up. We live near an airport, and the planes used to surprise and startle him. Now he gets excited and informs us about them. Today he did it even without an airplane going overhead.

Go and Go-go: Go is going somewhere, usually. It's also playing with cars. Go-go is yogurt, which has also been goo, gur, yo-gur (too bad that didn't last), and now is go-go or goo-goo.

We're making beginning progress of weaning him off the phrase "ga-ga" for music or computer. He's learning the sign for music and singing instead.

New freezer
Somewhat for Joy's birthday and somewhat because we've been talking about it for months, we're going to buy a deep freeze this week so we can start some meat food storage and so that, should we get pregnant again one day, Joy will have the space to store excess milk.

Dinner with Per
Last year I invited Per, my boss, and his wife to dinner. Last year he also invited us to his place so we could celebrate my graduation. We also talked about getting together over tea to discuss God's justice and mercy in relation to the salvation of the dead. We finally scratched one of those three meetings off the list last Monday.

We've planned this dinner three or four times this semester, only to push it off for Italy, for his family in town, and the last time because he had a bad headcold. He started to joke if it might not be God's will that we meet. [Hyrum has started using his hippo the way it was intended, and he's thrilled about it.]

Per and his wife Birgit came on Monday bringing flowers and some stacking blocks for Hyrum with the alphabet on them. We had first planned on serving them fried eggplant, a heavy salad, and some ham and cream cheese appetizers. The next time we tried to get together we planned on pork chops and vegetables. This time we successfully served them Emeril's New New Orleans pasta, a light salad, and the ham appetizers. It was a pleasant evening. They left promising to schedule the graduation party.

Kept the weight off
Neither of us can report losing any more weight loss since September, but we've managed to keep off the 25-30 pounds we've lost on the South Beach Diet going in to the holiday season. CELEBRATION. [Me at Niagara last June. Definitely a 'before' shot.]

Joy bread and mousse
Joy was delighted recently to discover the world's easiest bread recipe that can make either standard white bread or a sourdough bread if you leave it sitting a bit longer. She has been delightedly making it for friends and family. She also makes a delicious dark chocolate mousse. Both recipes have a whopping 4 ingredients in them. "The mousse is 3. It was nice to learn something new and quick since I haven't been doing much in that area recently." We served the mousse to Per and Birgit, and the enjoyed it.
[Joy's graduation from her Bachelor's]

Lucky Charm
Today, my former branch president asked permission to rub my not-so-bald head for good luck. It was ... interesting.