Piano!

thrilled!

This month, after a few years of looking for a piano, we finally found the perfect one!  And it's all thanks to Zak's amazing Craigslist skills!  I've seriously missed playing the piano regularly and my skills have severely diminished, and I had all but given up hope of getting a piano anytime soon.  Zak tried to convince me that a nice electric keyboard would be a better investment for now, but I wasn't thrilled about it.

But then Zak found this piano online and contacted the lady about it.  It was in good shape, in the family for awhile and was the right price!  It seems like every other piano we've inquired about either was in ok shape or too expensive, too far away, but we could hardly believe what a great deal this was!  We went over one night to check it out and I fell in love, it was beautiful, and kept in good shape and the lady was really concerned about the buyer being someone who would take good care of the piano because it had sentimental value, etc.  I could hardly believe my luck!  We went home and decided we'd check with moving companies to see how much it would be to move it to our place.

Zak contacted them; it was going to be almost as much as the piano and that meant it wasn't likely we'd be able to get the piano.  I was really upset.  He talked to the lady, but she was convinced that, with the help of a few guys and some moving equipment, we'd be able to do it; she needed the money and the piano out of her house.  I texted my guy friends and asked if they'd be willing to help us move the piano in that weekend.  Bryan texted back about using a moving company and before I knew it, a few texts later, he was insisting that we let him and Chad pay for the movers as an early Christmas/birthday gift--it turns out they were planning on getting me a keyboard anyways, so they wanted to do this for me.  I cried a bit at work, I was so blown away by their generosity.

A few days later we were able to move the piano into our place.  The moving company I contacted were very nice, professional and quick.  I was so thrilled, I played for about 2 hours straight that night!  Since moving it in, I have been gathering lots of piano music and trying to get back to my 'old piano skills'.  It's been rough, some things are coming slower than I'd like, but at least I have something to practice on every day!

I am seriously so happy right now.  I'm so glad Zak found this piano, and that Bryan and Chad helped us out with it.  What great friends they are!  (When Bryan came over with the cash, he gave me a hug and a kiss and said, 'Don't you know you're family by now?')  I wake up, walk out to the living room and look at my beautiful piano.  The next step is to get it tuned, I've emailed a few local piano tuners in the area, but I need to save a little before I can do it.  It's a very nice piano, the keys don't really stick, the wood is nice and the stand for holding the music is really beautiful--all cut from one piece of wood.  It's a Baldwin Acrosonic, which dates to the mid 50s or 60s, I believe.

hard to see from the flash, but it's really nice

Anyways, that's the story of my piano!  It's wonderful and I'm a very lucky and thankful lady!

complete w/a globe she gave us--it's made from stones and gems, it's crazy cool

Our Trip to CA: Sunday: Kenny's Homecoming cont., Luncheon

We woke up around 5 AM on Sunday. Kenny was due to report at the High Council meeting from 6:00-6:30 that morning, and we (Mom, Dad, Jenna, Zak, me, Grandma, Grandpa) were coming with him. We actually got there on time and it wasn't awful once we were up, but after two very long days, it was a little rough. Kenny talked about his mission in Sweden and some of the great experiences he had. It was pretty impressive to hear how much he's changed and grown, but yet, he's still the same Kenny in many ways.

After some of the men had asked questions about Sweden and the mission, we were all asked to give a little testimony about Kenny, etc. So .. that was fun. I actually had a few things I wanted to say, it was all collected in my head. I was going to talk about how it's been for me, as the older sister, to watch my younger brother turn into a man. And how proud I am of him.

Yeah, that didn't happen.

I didn't even get through my first sentence before the water works were turned on. And they were turned on fairly hard. Ugh, it was awful, so I tried to make it as short as I could. But everyone else had lovely things to say about Kenny. My poor mother actually held it together really well. It was a wonderful little meeting.

We had breakfast burritos at my parents' house while waiting for church. The night before, the choir director called my mom to ask about the song the choir was planning to sing, if anyone in our family could help. Mom volunteered me and Jenna to sing soprano, which got me pretty nervous. I haven't sung in a choral setting in awhile, let alone sing soprano (I can, I just prefer the alto parts) in our church ward, where I haven't been home for a year and a half. I texted Amy to ask if she and her family were coming to sing, and she said they would, so that help ease the nervousness of the situation.

But then Kenny asked if I could play for him. He wanted to sing a song, with one verse in English, one in Swedish. I have also not played the piano since I was home in December 2009, and I was fairly rusty. But how could I say no to him? So we sat down and practiced, I made up some interlude stuff, and it didn't sound that bad, surprisingly. I was glad it came back to me so fast, and that Kenny and I know how the other works, so we are a pretty good team together. After a few run-throughs, Jenna and I headed off to the choir practice before the church meeting.

We soon discovered that there were plenty of sopranos, so we were glad to sing the alto part. Oh, and the choir pianist didn't show up on time, so I ended up playing for the entire choir for most of the practice. What a welcome home gift, huh? But it didn't go too badly, I was just extremely nervous and insecure. And the choir director was happy; she had decided to speak the lyrics to the music if not enough people showed up to sing.

When it came time for the choir to sing in the meeting, it sounded very good and I think we got the message across well. Kenny gave a wonderful talk, and once again, it was really impressive to see him talk to eloquently and passionately about his mission. It's been different for me than my family, to have Kenny away for these past two years. I am already away from my family as it is, so it's not that I don't miss him, it's just that, well, I miss everyone. It also seemed that the past two years have gone so quickly, it's hard to believe he is back already. I still remember vividly him opening his mission call in my apartment complex's lounge with our friends around, and the Sweden party I threw for him at school. And now he's a return missionary and so grown up.

Halfway through his talk, he gave the lead-in for the song. Uh, I think it went well, I don't really remember. I had played it a few different ways at home, but when it came time, I kind of just did whatever. But I think it was nicely done, I know everyone loved hearing him sing in Swedish. He sang, "How Great Thou Art", which is apparently set to a Swedish melody. He told everyone of how he and his companion went 'musical tracking', to try to talk to people about the Church. As soon as he started talking about that, I thought, "This is SO Kenny," using his musical talents to communicate with people. Anyways, it was beautiful and he did an excellent job.

you may (or may not) find it surprising that these are only 'decent' pictures out of 20 that we took; Zak was too busy goofy, but I decided to post the nice ones

pretty hydrangeas (some are from Grandma's from our wedding)

threading the beef onto skewers

Kenny's luncheon was a pretty crazy initially, because we had to get the beef that had been marinading on skewers and over to the grandparents' to grill. And lots of other things. But Mom, Jenna, Zak and I skewered the beef and Dad started grilling it while Jenna, Zak and I helped decorate and set up.

Swedish pride!

Jenna & I were pretty creative, don't you think?

the red marks are where he served in Sweden; he's one of the only missionaries to serve in all the different areas in Sweden!

The menu included: beef teriyaki skewers, chicken teriyaki drummettes (or Hawaiian Chicken Wings, as Zak will now call them), macaroni salad (made by me!), lots of fruit with marshmallow sauce and a yogurt dip, broccoli salad, rice, Grandma's famous cookies, and lemon bars. There was a pretty nice turn-out, Mari and Amy came, so that was fun to spend some more time with them. Some people from our old church ward in Pittsburg showed up, too, so that was nice to see them. And it was a beautiful day outside, with a light breeze, and delicious food.

grilling the skewers, yum!

note: the meat is not pictured, use your imagination

Kenny-approved desserts

with Mari & Amy :)

Once everything was cleaned up, we went back to my parents' place to play cards and watch Harry Potter 6. Kenny left for the MTC in Utah the day the 6th one came out, so he had a few to catch up on before 7.2 was released later that week. We had fun sitting around, playing the game Golf with cards, and enjoying some Swedish chocolate before finally turning in; we had another busy day ahead of us...

summation of how we all felt

The Concert!

On Sunday we went up to Spokane to go see one of our favorite bands, Coheed & Cambria in concert.  We decided to get there a few hours early and spend some time exploring Spokane.  We both were curious to see what the Macy's & Harry Ritchie's Spokane branch stores looked like, so we checked them out.  It was nice, I guess, to be in a mall with more than one level!  Ours is one long mall, and the one in Idaho Falls is a small, one level mall.  So we haven't been around a lot of stores in the same place in one time.  Isn't that weird how nice that feels?  I was thrilled to spend some time in Williams-Sonoma, just looking around.  And Spokane has two malls, the one in the downtown area and one about 10 minutes away, in what appeared to be Immigrant Land (totally joking, but seriously, a Chinese/Indian/Mexican restaurant every block).  That other mall looked awful on the outside, but was a lot nicer inside, and we found our favorite store ever. 

It was this awesome reptile store that I was hesitant to enter, but it was totally awesome.  There were all kinds of lizards, geckos, turtles, snakes, etc.!  There was even a black-light room with fluorescent scorpions and frogs.  The scorpions looked like they were about to battle, but nothing happened.  There were some huge tortoises, just walking around; Zak loved them.  It made me remember being in kindergarten; my teacher had-at least one that I can recall-an ancient tortoise, and she would let it wander around the classroom all day.  It was awesome.  There were two big ones in the store and a smaller one.  But my absolute favorites were the huge, H U G E pythons/boas.  There was a gorgeous yellow 16 foot long one that I could not stop staring at.  I was just utterly amazed that that thing existed and I was half a foot away from it.  I don't remember seeing a snake that big before in my life...maybe at a zoo, but there were several very long, very big snakes, huge thick snakes in one cage.  And if we had, oh, at least $700, I would have bought it.  Because a snake that big is just awesome.  I don't know, I'm not scared of snakes (but those spiders...especially the ones that eat birds (they had some at that store!), ugh), I mostly find them fascinating.  And if I encountered one in the wild, sure I'd be scared, but they don't freak me out to look at them.  They are rad.  And ones that are thrice the height of me are truly epic.

After we walked around the malls, we had dinner at a place called Cyrus O'Leary's in the downtown area.  It was a fun, affordable dinner.  I randomly decided on a guacamole burger (so worth it), Zak had great coconut chicken.  We passed on dessert and hoofed it to the concert venue.  It was at this place called the Knitting Factory, and I guess they have several locations all over the U.S.  We had gotten our tickets online last month, and had to pick them up at will call.  Unfortunately, we had to wait 30 minutes to do that, and had to watch lots and lots of people with tickets-in-hand pass us by.  Right as we got to will call, one of the guys who worked there was shouting instructions and was all, 'You know you guys can print tickets from home, right?'  I was mad because there wasn't even an option for me to do that, or else I would've!  I hate waiting in line when people get to pass me; that's why the Fast Pass at Disneyland is the greatest invention, it makes you feel superior to all the dorks who wait there forever.

Well, we ended up getting in just fine, and since I did not (heavy on the 'not') want to be in the mosh pit area, Zak graciously suggested we go find a place on the balconies.  We found a spot on the first tier, right next to the light board, in the center.  We didn't have anywhere to sit (my poor feet), but at least the spot was great.  And there was a schedule for the night next to the light board, so we knew when everything would start.  The opening band was called 'The Wild Orchids', or the 'Wild Orchid Children', but either way they were...awful.  The drummer and guitarist were both great, but there were 3 or 4 auxiliary percussionists.  Oh, and the singer mostly scream/sang into the microphone, so everything he said was undecipherable.  And there were too many bongos/congos...and a gourd?  And there were American flags tied to the microphone stands, and I said to Zak, 'Um...didn't Aerosmith do that whole 'scarf tied to the stand' thing?'.  Yeah.  Their energy was good, the music was fine, but there was just too much going on.  It seemed like they were trying way too hard to be hipster/scene/something.  It was definitely not what I would've picked to be the opener, and about 97% of the crowd agreed with me, because there was no movement from anyone, and only applause when necessary.  After 40 painful minutes, they exited the stage.

While we waited for COCA, I amused myself by watching the people in the mosh pit area below us.  There was a trio that just made me laugh.  There were two guys and a girl with pink short pigtails, who thought they could shove everyone in order to get near the front of the crowd.  They tried it once and annoyed enough people that they moved to the other side of the room.  Awhile later, I looked down to see them trying it again, and there was almost a fight, but someone in the crowd got a security guard's attention.  Basically, the whole crowd, and most of the people in the balconies pointed at the obnoxious trio and cheered when the guards dragged the three of them away.  And two minutes later, Coheed & Cambria came on.

I have loved this band since I was a sophomore in high school, and the same goes for Zak.  Zak went to concerts a lot when he was in CT, and I have been to one concert that I really wanted to go to, the others, eh.  But despite all of his concert guru-ness, he has never seen COCA in concert before, so he was so pumped for this.  I was a bit nervous that I would lose my hearing or just not have that much fun, but I was really wrong.  Before we started dating, I remember Zak came over for one of my apartment's 'dance parties', wearing a Coheed & Cambria shirt.  When I expressed my love for them, he snootily asked if I had liked them before they 'got big', and I fired back that I was listening to them for 'x' amount of years, so yes.  Of course, he fell in love with me on the spot and the rest is history. ;)

Anyways, the concert was truly awesome.  We sang and screamed along and had a huge amount of fun.  What is cool about COCA is that they are so technically proficient, but you can tell that they love to play, and aren't just showing off their skills.  They played a great selection of songs from all of their albums, including some of our personal favorites.  It was 90 minutes of bliss, basically.  And for the second encore, the main singer/lead guitar pulled out the double-necked guitar and blew us all away.  I was so impressed with how fast everyone's hands moved up and down the guitars, and the drums.  It was just awesome.  We made a quick exit once the house lights came on, and I discovered my hearing was mostly out and my throat was very sore.  We headed for a gas station to get an energy drink for Zak, and some water for me, and headed home, hyped up from the concert. 

All in all, a really fun day spent together in Spokane.  It was really nice to be able to do something that we both had a vested interest in.  And now Zak can check Coheed & Cambria off his concert list.  As for me, I may go to one here and there, but I do want to have most of my hearing intact when I'm 30, hahaha.  And sadly, I have no pictures of the venue or the show, because we only took our IDs and keys, but it's ok.  Without the camera, we were both really able to enjoy the show.  But here are some awesome snake pictures!

look how awesome

 I tried talking to it, like in Harry Potter. It ssseemed to ressspond well to me...

 Zak's new best friend

 'Buddy' trying to get out of his habitat

these lizards just looked really funny

Three years.

Yesterday marked three years that Zak and I have been a couple.  I know, not as exciting as a wedding anniversary, but I think it's worth noting.  I'm proud of our relationship history; we stayed together despite school problems, distance, jobs, and every day complications.  I think it's pretty cool that we took the time to get to know each other before we got engaged.  At times it was frustrating, but it has been worth it in the end.  Last year, Zak proposed to me by the elephant periodic tables, and we spent the night telling our family and friends.  The year before that, we were in opposite sides of the country.  I sent him homemade chocolates and cookies and he had a beautiful rose bouquet delivered to my apartment (it completely made my day, considering I had come home from a 2 hour soul-wrenching drawing class). 

This year we had a fun evening out.  We went to a concert at school and to Idaho Falls for dinner.  The concert we went to was the school Symphony Orchestra with a special guest, Stephen Beus.  You can find his website here.  He is an amazing pianist, especially for his young age.  I heard about him about a month ago in a class (a girl showed a clip of him playing) and decided to get tickets for us.  The day before the concert, when I went to get the tickets, I found out that he was going to play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A Minor Opus 43 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of my favorite favorite pieces of music.  (You should listen to it, it's incredible.  Here is Mikhail Pletnev playing it.)  I was excited before, but now I was S U P E R  E X C I T E D. 

Last night we got dressed up (gotta love concert dress) and arrived with plenty of time.  Once the concert started, to my horror, I realized the seats we had chosen didn't let me see Mr. Beus' hands, which is half of the performance of any Rachmaninoff piece (Rachmaninoff's hands were huge; an average person usually can spread 8-9 keys, he had like an 11 finger span).  I was a bit upset, but got over it, because he was absolutely incredible.  I thought it was just perfect.  I had tears in my eyes, it was so beautiful.

The second half of the concert was just the Symphony Orchestra playing Anton Bruckner's Symphony no. 4: Romantic with four movements.  It lasted a little over an hour and, for the most part, was beautiful and interesting.  I had never heard it before, so I was happy to be exposed to something new.  Although, it did drag a little in a few places, and the final movement had several 'gotcha' moments-the orchestra would build into a crescendo only to reprise an earlier section.

We quickly left, so we would have enough time to eat.  My parents gave us a $50 gift card to Outback Steakhouse, so that is where we went.  We both have only been once, and that was a long time ago.  We had a lovely time, while waiting for food, we enjoyed the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on the tvs.  Unfortunately, we did not realize how gigantic the portions were; we were unable to finish the entirety of our meal.  Zak had the 'New York Strip' and I had a combo of a third rack of ribs and a 6 oz. sirloin steak.  Neither of us could remember the last time we had steak, so we enjoyed our meals.  We left around 10:45, and at 11:10, right as we got into Rexburg, I realized I didn't have our leftovers.  I felt so stupid and mad at myself, we each had enough leftovers for another meal!  Ughhhh. 

Overall, it was a success.  I got Zak some awesome books about the Hubble telescope and its pictures of the universe; he sweetly got me a hair product I only briefly talked about.  When I got my hair cut, my friend used Moroccan Oil on it, which makes it shiny and beautiful.  I told Zak about it that day and didn't expect anything, because it was pretty expensive.  But I guess he found a good deal and got me a bottle of it!  What a sweetheart I married. :)

Here's us in our fancy clothes before changing.