Guest Bloggers: Daughter Updates

I asked our daughters if they would share updates on what they have been doing lately, summaries that I could share here for you, Dear Reader, so that you may catch up on their lives. Here is what they offered from the first quarter of 2025:

(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

Hillary

• In January, I took a trip to Reno, NV, to visit two of my college friends. During that trip, I also got to visit relatives Connie, Laura, and Monroe Moberg.
• In February, one of my friends came to Murfreesboro to visit, and we went to the Cody Johnson concert in Nashville with Suzanna and Jake [Suzanna's boyfriend]. Suzanna and I also ran a 5K toward the end of the month.
• In March, Suzanna and I went to the T-Pain concert in Nashville. I just returned from a long weekend in New York City visiting Abigail at her new apartment! We attended a couple Broadway shows, tried some famous restaurants, and spent time with her medical school friend group.
• And in each month this year, I have been working my life away.

Abigail and Hillary in NYC, dining out.

Hillary and Abigail in NYC, exploring the city.

Abigail

• I started the year in my rental house in Islip, NY, doing clinical rotations at a hospital on Long Island. In January, Suzanna was able to take advantage of a snow-day weekend to come to NYC, and we spent a lovely (albeit short) weekend together.
• The rest of January and February consisted of studying and celebrating time with friends, especially after I passed my clinical comprehensive examination at the end of February.
• Now March has ushered in an exciting change: I moved to Brooklyn, where I will be living for the rest of my time in medical school, finishing my clinical rotations at a hospital in the Bronx. Hillary is the first one in the family to see my new place, and we just this past weekend had a wonderful few days together enjoying the entertainment and eatables of the Big Apple.
• I continue to study for my next big exam and prepare for my upcoming graduation at the end of Summer 2025!

Suzanna and Abigail in the Big Apple, dining out.

Abigail the med student, thriving in NYC!

Suzanna

• In January, I began my sourdough bread journey by mixing up my sourdough starter, which I have named "Dough-reen." I hate Doughreen but also am determined to make a successful sourdough loaf, so I am toughing it out. That month, Jake and I went to NYC to see Abigail. I got to see the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree all lit up; I got to eat lots of amazing food; and I got lost on the subway. It was a great weekend!
• Hillary told about the Cody Johnson concert and 5K in February. I also got to enjoy lots of time reading and snuggling with Zoey during all the snow days from school.
• In March, Jake and I traveled to Cleveland, OH, for a quick weekend visiting with his family. I also discovered my love for making homemade bagels (move over, Doughreen!). Zoey turned 5 with the cutest rodeo-themed birthday party.
• I continue working daily on homework for my Ed.S. degree (education specialist, a post-master's degree, this one in school leadership), and I am finishing my fifth year of teaching high school English.

Jake, Suzanna, and Abigail in NYC.

Zoey and Suzanna, celebrating Zoey's fifth birthday!

At Long Last, Our Home Theater

Don't judge me too harshly.  One of our Christmas gifts to ourselves was a Blu-Ray Disc/DVD high-definition home theater system with surround sound speakers . . . that I just today set up.  What?!  We've been busy.  Actually, our multi-state road trip at Christmastime did keep us preoccupied, and then school/work resumed soon after we returned, and I scootched the box out of our way until I had time to get to it.  Well, now that we're on a summer break, I have time.  The girls watched today as I unpacked and sorted all the pieces of equipment, and they helped me hook up wires and troubleshoot until everything was functioning properly.  The sound is great; the picture quality is great; and the Internet connection via our home theater system means that we can view online videos on our big-screen TV, as well as select whatever movies we wish to view and download them in high definition from online movie services.  It even plays the radio and our CDs, making them sound spectacular, too.  Success!

Substitute Accompanist

Today I had another first at church: first time accompanying the adult choir.  Michael, the senior choir's director, teaches at the high school with Susan and asked her a couple days ago whether she thought I'd be willing to do that (their usual accompanist was going to be unavailable today).  So she brought home the music, I practiced it a few times, and I met the choir about 45 minutes before church this morning to run through it with them.  I watched his conducting very carefully; and at one point, he chastised the choir for not slowing down at a particular measure marked ritardando: "The conductor and the accompanist are ritard-ing, but the choir is not."  So I must have been doing something right!  It seemed to go well when they sang it during the church service, too.  It reminded me of my teen days as a church organist and an accompanist for high school choir.  Ah, memories.

Finale Concert

"Why won't Abigail stop taking my picture?!"

Suzanna's final music concert as a seventh-grader was tonight.  She played in the seventh-grade band, and later the seventh- and eighth-grade bands combined to perform a few numbers from their marching band repertoire.  Those were Suzanna's favorite numbers, so I'll share them with you, too:

Piano and Pizza

Susan returned yesterday!  (If you need to, start here and work your way backward a few days to know where she was.)  She brought gifts, too: bookmarks and pads of Poo Poo Paper for the girls, and for me a tart pan from Scandinavian store Ikea.  It's good to have her back.

Tonight we ate supper at church.  We gathered for the annual end-of-year talent night and pizza party for kids who participated in the children's choir (remember last year's?).  This was Abigail's last year being in the right age range for the children's choirs, but she didn't seem too traumatized by the transition.  She and Hillary each played piano solos, and they also sang a duet version of "Amazing Grace."  Other kids' talent included balancing acts, a violin solo, and magic tricks.  More pizza was ordered than was consumed, so we even came home with leftovers.

Professional Musicians, Good Food, and Wine with Chocolate

No Scandinavian Saturday supper again this week!  Our day was just too full of other things to do.  Here were the three main events:

First, our entire family was hired to provide music for a wedding service this afternoon at a local Catholic church.  The bride's stepdad attends our church, at which her mom heard Susan and the girls sing one Sunday.  She recommended the ladies to her daughter, who came to our house one morning with her fiancé to hear them sing and to get ideas for song options (remember?).  I played the piano while Susan and the girls sang that day, so the bride and groom ended up asking us all to provide music today: I played piano for the service and accompanied Susan and the girls, who sang the songs for the wedding.  It was our daughters' first time as wedding musicians (and they got paid, too!), and it brought back memories of the hundreds of weddings for which my sisters and I sang, played piano, or played organ during our high school years.

Whole Lotta Churchin' Goin' On, Part II

(First, read this.)  Tonight we attended a tenebrae service at our church for Good Friday.  The altar was still stripped from last night, but there were 12 tea light candles on it with one pillar candle in the middle.  The pastor enlisted 12 volunteers, each to come and light one of the tea light candles as he read aloud several verses about Jesus' disciples.  A little later, as he read about the disciples' departure from Jesus after the last supper, the volunteers took turns snuffing out their candles.  By the end of the service, the pastor had gradually shut off all the lights in the church, save for whatever back light keeps the stained glass window glowing even at night.  We sat in silence, listened to a soloist sing "Were You There," prayed together The Lord's Prayer, and then left the church in silence.

Some additional elements from the service for your edification:

• We sang "Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed"
• We sang "Ah, Holy Jesus"
• We sang "Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus"
• We sang "Go to Dark Gethsemane"
• We heard Psalm 130.
• We heard Jesus' seven last statements before death.
• We heard "Were You There?"
• We heard words of hope from 1 John 1.

P.S.  Afterward Susan and I stopped by our friends Michelle and Paul's house for a gathering in honor of many events: Good Friday, spring, belated Mardi Gras, recent birthdays, etc.  Suzanna babysat her sisters for a couple hours (they watched a Disney movie) while Susan and I enjoyed the company of adults (and some tasty snacks) on a Friday night--a rare treat.

Banding Together

Tonight was the public schools' All-City Band Concert, held in the main gym of the high school.  Here are details of how the annual event works.  Essentially, a couple songs are performed by each of the bands by grade: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9-10, and 11-12.  The night ends with all the grades taking the floor to perform one or two pep band songs together.  (This year the high school jazz band performed a few more songs after that.)  With a 6th-grader and a 7th-grader in  our family, we had to attend to hear how Abigail and Suzanna's bands sounded.  Here is photographic evidence:

Our Songbirds

Yesterday morning our family walked up the street to Trinity High School so that Abigail and Suzanna could perform in the 2011 Trinity Junior High and Elementary Solo and Ensemble Music Festival.  Suzanna first performed in the festival two years ago (remember?); and when Abigail was old enough last year, she joined her (remember?).  Hillary is still one year away from being old enough (one must be at least in fifth grade), so it was just Abigail and Suzanna again this year.  And, again, we have audiovisual evidence of their participation!  Wanna hear?

Citrus and Mustard and Meatballs

This morning an engaged couple and the bride-to-be's family came to our house to hear us sing/play through some possible wedding music for their upcoming nuptials.  The woman's mom had heard Susan and the girls singing for church one day and phoned some days afterward to inquire about their availability to sing for weddings.  After this morning, they now have some song ideas from us to share with the priest; and they'll get back to us on what music they'd like (or are allowed to use) and what combination of us they'd like to sing, play piano, etc.

This afternoon our whole family had back-to-back appointments to get our hairs cut.  Abigail and I went first because she was my helper for this week's Scandinavian Saturday supper, and we had groceries to buy and food to start fixin' as soon as possible.  Here's what we made:

Remember to click on a photo to enlarge it so that you can drool over each pic in all its detailed glory!

Read on to find out what that is and to see/read about what we served for dessert.

Simultaneous Norske Obligations in Two Cities

Last summer I was asked to serve on the board of directors for Trollfjorden Language and Cultural Camp, the Norwegian camp that our family has attended the past two summers (see 2010 and 2009).  There are generally two board meetings between summertime camp sessions: one in the fall and another in the spring.  At the fall meeting (at a board member's home near Glenburn, ND), I was elected treasurer, so I have had some money-related duties to carry out since then.  The spring board meeting was today in Minot, ND, so I made a quick up-and-back trip today without the ladies.  They couldn't come because they had an important event of their own to attend:

Hey, Nice Brass!

The next concert in the Dickinson Area Concert Association's current season was tonight: a brass and percussion group called River City 6.  We continue to be pleased with the quality of the performances offered in the concert series.  The gentlemen in this group tonight were not only very gifted musicians, but they were also funny and all-around entertaining.  We were amazed at their beautiful sound, impressive technique, and range of song styles (from classical to traditional religious to early 20th-century pop music to American musicals, etc.).  The lone percussionist, who remained in the background most of the night (supporting the two trumpets, euphonium, trombone, and tuba), got a chance to shine, too, with a xylophone solo that demonstrated his speed and dexterity with the mallets.  Time flew, and the concert ended too quickly.

Suzanna's Inspiring Solo

Tonight we attended the second of two nights of school music concerts . . . both of them for Suzanna!  She is in band class, so she performed with the seventh-grade band in last night's concert.  She is in jazz band (an extracurricular activity), and that group performed last night, too.  And she is in honor choir (another extracurricular), which performed tonight with the eighth-grade band and choir.  I'm happy to report, though, that they're pretty musical groups, so it was enjoyable to hear even the groups that Suzanna was not in--but especially fun to watch her in action in her groups, of course.

Wanna hear some of Suzanna's performance?

Pride in Daughters and Other Local Entertainers

Our daughters' former piano teacher, Mrs. Vold, moved away last summer, and we were grateful to have found a new piano teacher: Mrs. Arneson, who also plays organ and piano at our church--and who volunteered to come to our house for weekly lessons, which makes our lives much easier (i.e., no more shuttling girls back and forth, one at a time, across town to the piano teacher's house while trying to tend to other appointments and to the making of supper).  There are differences, of course, in how each of those teachers gives lessons; but one thing in common is that both have their students participate in annual piano festivals sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs (the same group that oversaw the annual piano festivals in which my sisters and I performed throughout childhood).

The girls' piano festival was held today at the university, and the results are in:

Green Overload

Just like last weekend, our Scandinavian Saturday supper tonight was preceded by a day full of errands and followed by a trip to the university for an arts performance.  Unlike last weekend, however, we managed to make several dishes for the meal.  Suzanna was my helper today, and she ended up making most of the meal!

Looks good, doesn't it?  I know you want to know what it all is, so I'll tell you:

Youth Quaker

After church at 8:00 A.M., I had to shuttle Abigail and Hillary off to the West River Community Center for a swim meet while Susan stayed behind to carry out her duties as Sunday school director.  She joined us later to work in the concessions stand all day while I stayed in the swimming pool area and kept track of the girls' times in the events booklet.

And where was Suzanna during all this, you may wonder?  Well, I'll tell you:

Sweets and Tunes

Our church is raising funds to update its organ with digital components that will improve its sound, capabilities, and longevity.  The fundraising is going quite well, actually, probably because the committee in charge has been using a variety of approaches to soliciting funds.  Their latest: a night of "Sweets and Tunes," an event held in one of the church's gathering halls this evening.  Organizers had decorated the room with strings of white lights and set the tables with lace tablecloths, fancy centerpieces, and candles.  There was a small stage set up in the middle of the room for the entertainment, which included . . . Susan and me!

Cruz Control

We have season tickets from the Dickinson Area Concert Association, and the next event in the lineup was tonight.  After supper we walked up the street to the Catholic school auditorium where tonight's concert was held.  We heard Edgar Cruz, an acoustic guitarist who plays in many different styles.  He played original songs as well as famous Latin songs, classical music, hits of the early 1900s, and rock staples.  He's versatile!  And he has a warm, easy-going presence on stage, making for a relaxing performance of easy-to-listen-to guitar music.  You can hear him here, or watch him play "Bohemian Rhapsody" here.

Suzanna the Honor Chorister

The big weekend for Suzanna arrived: she participated in all-state honor choir (remember?) yesterday and today!  She got out of school around noon yesterday to go with her music teacher to the university (we're so lucky that the event is being held this year in Dickinson--we don't have to travel!), and he turned her over to the conductor assigned to direct Suzanna and the other 99 middle-school-aged students chosen from across the state.  They performed at concerts last night and this afternoon.  Wanna hear a little bit?

Rest in Peace

My dad phoned me with sad news today: last night his brother-in-law and good friend, Kenny, passed away.  Dad and Kenny have been friends for decades.  As young men, they even played together in a band that performed at dance clubs and other events across the region--and they had a TV show in Minot!  Some time after my mom passed away, Dad married Kenny's sister Beverly, which brought Dad and Kenny back into more regular contact again.  Kenny and his wife Bea often made special trips from their home in Bowbells to Dad and Beverly's home when they knew that our family was coming to visit just so that they could see us, something that our girls remember fondly and mentioned tonight when I told them the sad news.  We'll wait to hear about funeral arrangements and, in the meantime, keep Bea, Beverly, their family members, and Dad in our prayers.