So Big!

It's been a while since I have shared photos of our awesome nephew Davis.  Today is a good day to do that because it's his second birthday!  The kid is getting so big and looking less like a baby and more like a boy all the time.  Here is photographic evidence:

An Uncle Again!

Today I received a text message from Susan's sister, Cassie, mother of our darling nephew Davis.  It was this photo with this message:

"Big bro to a lil sister!"

We've known for some time that Cassie and her husband Nick were expecting another child, but they just today found out its sex.  A niece!  That's great news . . . because now we can unload a lot more of our own kids' baby stuff on Cassie and Nick!  No, really, congratulations to you two and Davis, too!

Darling Davis

Susan's sister Cassie and her son Davis stayed at our house this past weekend.  They were in town for Susan and Cassie's grandma's funeral (remember?).  Although the occasion for their stay with us was not happy, it was a delight to have them as house guests nevertheless and to spend time with Davis, who changes so much between visits.  It's been a while since I have offered you pics of the little tyke, so here you go:

Scandinavian Seafood Delights

For this Scandinavian Saturday, we had special guests: Susan's sister Cassie, her son Davis, and Susan and Cassie's dad Roger.  Because of the busy-ness with the funeral yesterday and the house guests this weekend, Susan wondered if I'd like to postpone today's Nordic meal.  Instead I took on the challenge of preparing an ethnic meal that would allow our family to try new Scandinavian recipes but that would not turn off our relatives with ingredients or flavor combinations that were too out-of-the ordinary.  Suzanna was my assistant this week, and here's what we came up with:

Death in the Family

Susan's first day of school this year started with a phone call bearing sad news: her grandma Laura had died the night before.  (That's why Susan wore to school that day a necklace that Laura had rosemaled--remember seeing it in the photo a couple days ago?)  Just last November, Laura's husband (Susan's grandpa) passed away (remember?), and Laura's health declined steadily in the months thereafter.  Laura moved from a nursing home in town to one in Richardton, ND, where she lived her last few weeks with good care and individual attention.  Susan and the girls stopped there to visit with her about a week ago, and Susan's dad Roger and a couple of his sisters spent most of their time with her in her final days.  She died peacefully Tuesday night, and her funeral was today.

Abigail's Two (Out of Three) Birthdays

Abigail, our "middlest" daughter (as she refers to herself), turned 11 years old today, and she couldn't have been more excited for this day to arrive!  And why shouldn't she be excited?  Today was her second birthday celebration, and she still has one more to go!

Bye-Bye, Blonds

Looks kinda devilish here, doesn't he?

Biblical Bane, Bevy of Blonds, and Belated Birthday

Okay, today was a mixed bag.  We just returned last night from a long weekend in Missoula (remember?), so there's laundry to do and a lawn to mow and flower beds to weed and water and tasks at the office to go tend to . . . but that's all on hold for one annoying reason and one delightful one.

The Guild-ed Age

Faithful readers will recall that our daughters' piano teacher, Mrs. Vold, has them participate in an annual piano performance festival sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs. As children, my sisters and I did the same thing with our own piano teacher, so I was already familiar with how the judging and awards system would work for our daughters.

However, I was not familiar with another program in which some of Mrs. Vold's students participate: annual auditions for the National Guild of Piano Teachers. The organization has a system in place by which a student, with the aid of her teacher, chooses a personal repertoire and then plays her memorized pieces and demonstrates scales and other skills to a professional musician in a one-to-one audition. The judge rates the student's accuracy, continuity, phrasing, pedaling, dynamics, rhythm, tempo, tone, interpretation, style, and technique.

Mrs. Vold felt that Suzanna was ready to begin participating in Guild auditions this year, so Suzanna has been preparing all school year for her own private audition, which occurred today at a local church. For the past several months, Suzanna has practiced 45 to 60 minutes a day, six days a week, memorizing and then perfecting six songs and learning all the scales, chords, cadences, and tonic major and minor triads so that she could respond no matter what the judge might ask her to demonstrate. Here's what Suzanna told me about today's audition:

• Only Suzanna was allowed in the room with the judge (who traveled here from Washington, by the way)--no teacher, no parents, no observers, etc.
• "The judge called out what she wanted me to play, and I played it, and she marked things on a report card." On this report card, one wants to get C's, not A's. C = "commendable," and A = "needs attention." Out of 32 areas to be marked on the report card, Suzanna got 31 C's and 1 A.
• The judge gave Suzanna a "superior plus: top talent" rating, telling her she's ready to play in front of any audience. The judge wrote, "You had such a wonderfully prepared program. Your attention to everything--louds, softs, accents, and phrasing--was super! I loved hearing you play today. Keep up your good practice!"
• In addition to a report card with that high rating, Suzanna received a pin and a certificate with a blue star.

This is a new experience for our family, so we're still learning how it all works and figuring out what it all means--but by all accounts it seems that Suzanna did really well! We're quite proud of her, as she is of herself, and she's eager to continue next year. Her sisters, too, now know something about this opportunity and will likely wish to participate in Guild auditions when Mrs. Vold feels that each of them is ready.

One Full Year of Cuteness

I have been remiss in not posting these photos sooner . . . but better late than never! A few weeks ago, our nephew Davis celebrated his first birthday! Here are some recent photos of him. Note how much older he looks even just three months after we last saw him at Christmastime. Cute little bugger!

Davis still enjoys bath time. When he was at our house in December and it was time for his bath, he would lean back or lie down (using his mommy's hands as a pillow) and kick ferociously, kind of like pedaling a bicycle as though his life depended on it! He looks much calmer here, but I'll bet he still likes to splash and put those leg muscles to good use.

Davis' grandma (mom to Davis' daddy Nick, husband to Susan's sister Cassie) flew from ND to SC to spend a week with them and was there to celebrate with Davis. He seems to have enjoyed her company!

Ah, a Sesame Street-themed birthday party with balloons, a cute cake, an angelic boy with a devilish grin, and a huge mess. Looks like a success to me! Happy belated birthday, Davis!

Post-Conference Potpourri

So, after a long day spent in airports, I returned home last night around 10:15 PM. The conference was worthwhile; all the sessions that I attended offered me practical ideas for the courses that I teach as well as inspiration for improvements that I could make. I got a lot of work done, too: grading exams, planning for my classes, and reading (quite an array, too: UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation, On a Raven's Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard).

(Faithful Reader, do you recall "Airline Humor" from 2.5 years ago? Well, the flight attendant on the leg from Dickinson to Denver last week was a little punchy and threw in some funny lines during the safety demonstration. She told us that the seat cushions would double as flotation devices "in the unlikely event that we should even encounter any water between here and Denver and need to attempt a landing on it." Teasing about the highly cramped quarters aboard the small airplane, she let us know that, once the captain had turned off the seatbelt sign, we could "feel free to canter up and down the aisle.")

I returned home to a houseful of women with tales to tell of their own adventures whilst I was away. Suzanna and Abigail each played in the annual piano festival on Saturday (I missed it last year, too, while away for a different conference), and they both earned superior ratings. This means that, should they earn superiors again next year, they will have earned enough points for their first trophy. (That's how the system works: one superior equals five points; 15 points equals the first trophy; every 15 points thereafter equals a larger trophy. My sisters will know what I mean; we all collected superiors and trophies of our own through the years. My three trophies sit on our piano here at home; Cathy earned three, too; and Sandy took lessons long enough to earn four!) Susan was impressed with the musicality and precision of the girls' performances--and evidently so were the judges. Congratulations, Suzanna and Abigail!

On Sunday Susan and the girls attended church and Sunday school (of course), and then attended the monthly Sons of Norway meeting (and brought along Susan's grandma Laura), and then attended the next performance in the Dickinson Area Concert Association's series, this one by a group called Counterpoint, with whom all the blonde ladies were thoroughly impressed.

Here's our Sons of Norway lodge's banner.

Here's the cake that was served in celebration of our lodge's having been around for 11 years. (I asked Susan why they celebrated the 11th anniversary since we generally only make a fuss about anniversaries divisible by five. She figures they do it annually. Hey, it's a reason to eat cake.)

Lodge food.

The girls and their great-grandma Laura.

P.S. The blog Bacon Unwrapped features entries on preparing a pork loin stuffed with pork sausage and wrapped in bacon as well as on drinking bacon-flavored vodka. What's not to love about such a site? Check it out!

Norwegian Valentine

It's been a very ethnic Valentine's Day weekend: Chinese last night and Norwegian today. I read in the current issue of Viking magazine that Norwegians don't so much "do" Valentine's Day; it is regarded as a commercialized holiday whose point is to show superficial signs of love one day a year by spending money (on candy, greeting cards, flowers, etc.). Sounds pretty American to me, so maybe it isn't so inappropriate for an American Sons of Norway lodge to have a Valentine's Day celebration. That's what our lodge, Hardanger 4-652, did this afternoon/evening.

We hadn't seen our fellow Sons of Norway for a couple months--not since the Thanksgiving celebration (remember?). There was supposed to have been a Christmas celebration (remember?) at which the girls were going to sing "Jeg Er Så Glad Hver Julekveld" ("I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve"), but that was canceled due to anticipated bad weather. We missed the January meeting for some reason, but the girls were asked to provide music for today's meeting, so yesterday we practiced a couple songs for them to perform.

One was "Pål Sine Høner" ("Paul and His Chickens"), a song that I remember learning in elementary school from Mrs. Davis and later singing with my grandma at her house. Grandma Moberg had a series of decorative plates hanging on one wall with Norwegian words on each plate and pictures of a boy and chickens and a fox. I could kind of make out a "plot" from one plate to the next: something about the boy protecting the chickens from the fox and crying after losing to the crafty predator. After learning the song at school, I realized that it was what was on Grandma's plates, so she and I would sing the song together, and I would do my best to mimic her pronunciation. Well, yesterday I did my best to teach the song to the girls, and today they sang the opening verse first in Norwegian and then in English.

Yesterday we also practiced "Ain't She Sweet"--which I had them switch to "Ain't He Sweet"--and they sang that today, too, to fit the Valentine's Day mood of love (a mood not otherwise established by a song about a fox eating a boy's chickens). Susan captured some of the performance, which I share here for your edification:

I played piano for the girls and, because the usual piano player for the lodge wasn't at today's meeting, they asked me to play for them to sing the table prayer before we ate, so I did that, too. When it was time to eat, we had to find out with whom we would be eating. To encourage mingling with others, they had had us draw a half of a valentine when we entered the room. It had a number on it that matched the number written on the other half, which had been drawn by somebody else. Before we could go through the buffet line, we had to find the matching number/other half of our valentine and then sit with that person during supper.
The food was, again, delicious (chicken cordon bleu and many wonderful side dishes, plus strawberry-covered cheese cake for dessert), and the company was fine. I sat with a gentleman whose grandson is one of Suzanna's best friends (and whose daughter-in-law was one of Susan's high school classmates and currently is her colleague at the high school). The adults paired with each of our daughters were delighted to "take them in" and had compliments for Susan and me afterward on the girls' manners and visiting skills.
We played bingo afterward, and the girls were recruited to help out with the calling of the numbers, the keeping track of called numbers, the checking of cards whenever people claimed to have a bingo, and the distributing of the prizes. We went home with several prize bags ourselves, each containing various treats but, most importantly to me, Norwegian baking: rosettes and sandbakkels. The girls spent part of the time frosting sugar cookies (one of the lodge members brought the supplies thinking it would be a fun thing for the kids to do), which they distributed during bingo, and many of which they brought home with us afterward.
We had a good time celebrating Valentine's Day Norwegian-style (well, ND Norwegian-style, at least)!

The Torch Is Passed

Suzanna will begin fifth grade next week, and that's the year in our school system (as in many others) that interested students begin participating in band. At the end of May, folks from Jacobsen Music came to her school to demonstrate the variety of band instruments so that students might know what their options were when selecting what to play in band. Suzanna already knew her choice. Both Susan and I have kept our own high school band instruments, so Suzanna has grown up seeing and knowing about the flute (Susan) and the trombone (moi). She asked me in May if she could use my trombone to play in band, and I proudly handed it over to the next generation.

Last week and this week, Mr. Dykema, one of the school district's music teachers, offered a band camp for beginners, an optional way for incoming fifth graders to prepare for the upcoming year of band. Suzanna was interested in participating, so we signed her up. Kids playing like instruments were grouped together for 45-minute daily lessons: how to put together their instruments, how to make sounds come out, how to read music for each instrument, how to make specific notes come out, and how to play simple songs. Today for the first time, all the kids gathered as a large group, and the band as a whole rehearsed all the songs. This was followed by a "demonstration concert" for family and friends to hear the fruits of Mr. Dykema and the children's labors.

Can you spot Suzanna in the back of the right third of the photo? Here, let's zoom in . . .

. . . now can you see her?

Proudly displaying the program following the concert.

It's pretty impressive that, after so little time with their instruments, these kids were able to produce anything remotely recognizable as music. Mr. Dykema must be a miracle worker. Susan and I were so impressed with Suzanna when, after just two or three lessons, she was practicing the trombone at home and already playing quite well--strong sounds, notes in tune, rhythmic songs, etc. (I've gotta admit: It does make me a little teary to see our children becoming involved in music--band, piano, choir--the way we were throughout childhood and adolescence. My piano and elementary music teacher, Mrs. Davis, and my high school band director, Mr. Grubb, would be so proud! Ditto my mom! I'm sure they're all watching from Heaven and applauding.)

Last week I took Suzanna to the music store to buy slide oil for the trombone and a collapsible music stand for home practice. While there we saw a cute pin shaped like a trombone, so I bought that for her, too. She wore it on her shirt for today's concert! The ceremonial handing over of the trombone from Daddy to daughter included our having sat down a few weeks ago to go through the case together, throw out old items from my heyday as a trombonist, and remove from the outside of the case my taped-on name, which Suzanna replaced with a sticker bearing her own name. A bittersweet moment, to be sure; but it's great that the ol' trombone is getting a second life with another family member.


Our daughters tell me that, when we were at my sister's recently, she told them that she still has her alto saxophone from her own high school band days. If that's true (is it, Sandy?), and if she's willing to part with it (are you, Sandy?), we could be set when it comes time for Abigail and Hillary to acquire instruments for band: one of them plays Susan's flute and the other Sandy's saxophone. (My sister Cathy is a professional musician part-time, so if she still has her drum set from high school band, she's probably not willing to part with it--and in terms of musical instruments that the girls are likely to be practicing in our house, the eardrums of both Susan and me vote against percussion!)

Small problem: both Abigail and Hillary have called dibs on the saxophone and are resisting my pro-flute encouragement. Another twist: Abigail would like to play the guitar. In addition to the piano (which she plays currently). And the saxophone (which she will be wrestling both Sandy and Hillary for). Oh, well, there are far worse problems to be had, I suppose. It's not as though they're asking for video games or tattoos. Too much music in this household? Impossible.

Here's a little clip from the concert. It features two songs: "Lightly Row" and "DHS" (a song that the pep band might play during an athletic event to rally the fans' support for the home team). Notice how "Lightly Row" derails in the eighth measure when several musicians ignore the music and just forge ahead while the rest are holding their whole notes and observing their rests. Misreading (or not reading) the music isn't the worst offense, either; it's not listening to the rest of the band to hear that they're "off." They redeem themselves, though, with a strong finish.

Superior Pianists in Da House!

Whilst I was away in Boston (patience, kittens--a post on that trip is a-comin' soon!), Abigail and Suzanna performed in their first-ever piano festival, just as my sisters and I used to do as kids. They each prepared two piano solos to perform from memory, spending the past several weeks working on their festival pieces with their wonderful piano teacher, Mrs. Vold. On Saturday, March 8, they performed for judges at southwest ND's site (Dickinson State University) for the ND Federation of Music Clubs Festival.

I remember well this annual event from my own childhood. Mrs. Davis, the wonderful piano teacher whom my sisters and I were blessed to have, assigned us "festival pieces" to memorize and perfect in time for our regional festival in Williston (held usually at Williston State College but some years at a church instead). We would dress up and go, nervous on the entire drive to Williston. We would spend the whole day on-site, and Mom would accompany each child at his or her appointed performance time and then wait with us for the results to be posted. A "superior" rating was the highest available, worth five points--and for every 15 points earned, a pianist got a brass trophy, each one larger than the last. In my 11 years of piano lessons, I earned over 45 points, and those three trophies sit atop our piano today!

Because I wasn't present for our daughters' own festival, Susan e-mailed me the results to read while I was in Boston: "superior" ratings for both Suzanna and Abigail!! Suzanna said the day was nerve-wracking, and Abigail said she was nervous; but they both were happy with the results and thought it was fun in retrospect. Susan treated them afterward with dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants, Sanford's. Here are highlights from the judges' comments (the exclamation points are the judges', not mine):

Abigail
"A Merry March"

• "notes and rhythms excellent!"
• "staccatos were crisp and light -- great!"
• "wonderful!"

"Katie Cricket"

• "wonderful dynamics! wow!"
• "crisp and clean staccatos!"
• "excellent memory work!"
• "tempo just right!"
• "your release at the end was awesome!"
• "you played with such confidence and knew your pieces so well! hurray!"

Suzanna
"Told You So"

• "love the solid beginning!"
• "excellent memory work!"
• "release at end just right!"
• "tempo fit perfectly"
• "such wonderful, confident playing! way to go!"

"Open Seas"

• "posture and hand positions -- excellent!"
• "love the dynamic contrasts -- super!"
• "love the releases to your phrases!"
• "keep up the totally awesome playing!"

Another official (who has seen the girls at church where she, too, is a member) added these comments to the judges' comment sheets:

• "you look so lovely!"
• "thank you for the bow!"
• "thank your parents and teacher for their help and support!"

I Thought of You, Mrs. Davis . . .

Last night, all three girls were in elementary school Christmas programs (no, not "winter" programs or "holiday" programs--this community seems content with its traditions). Suzanna and Abigail go to the same public school, and their programs were one after the other. Hillary goes to kindergarten at a different (parochial) school, and her program was at the same time! So Susan saw the older girls' programs during the day and attended Hillary's at night (Grandpa Gustafson accompanied her at each). I missed Hillary's altogether but saw the other girls' programs in the evening.

It was PACKED! Suzanna and I stood at the back of the gym to watch Abigail's. When that throng trooped out, there was room for me to sit just seconds before the next crowd refilled the gym. So Abigail and I sat to watch Suzanna's program. There was a raised platform at the end of the gym with risers set on the floor in front of it. Metal folding chairs were set up in rows from that point to the back of the gym. Every kid's parents, siblings, grandparents, and neighbors must have been there to fill that place so full!

There were plots connecting the Christmas songs, so kids had speaking lines here and there. There was choreography to the songs, so kids moved and danced and gestured along with the words. And there were "messages" in each "play," so the Christmas spirit came through. In Abigail's, the kids were dressed like cats and dogs. One cat and one dog become friends, and their fellow cats and dogs can't understand it; cats hating dogs and vice versa is just the way things are supposed to be. The message was about overlooking differences. In Suzanna's, Santa Claus thinks he needs to act like The Fonz (think Happy Days) to be cool enough for "kids these days" to like (during what "these days" was this play written, anyway?!). The kids convince him that they like him the traditional way: without the leather jacket.

I couldn't help but recall elementary school programs in Tioga, ND with Mrs. Davis, our beloved music teacher who could organize and execute a well run music program involving over a hundred kids with costumes and props and sets and dancing and moving from one location to the next, all of which she orchestrated while seated at the piano and accompanying every song herself (albeit sometimes with one hand while using the other hand to give cues or point ominously at naughty children).

The girls' program was accompanied by pre-recorded music (presumably from the company that supplied the script). The music teacher pointed a remote control to start each number and sat at her chair, acting out the gestures and movements for the kids to duplicate. There was enthusiasm in the kids and true musicianship in their voices, so I have no doubt she's a good teacher. And the programs certainly drew the big crowds that I remember attending elementary school music programs. But seeing how things have changed over the years (or, at least, compared to my memories of my childhood) made me fondly recall Mary Ellen Davis and appreciate all the work it must have been for her to stage the kinds of grand music programs for which she was always known in our district.