Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for this little boy....

 This little girl....

And the most amazing man with whom to share my life.

We are so beyond blessed.

Nerd Alert

Lindsey tagged me on Facebook in a post with this link and wrote "Randi, do you know this song? It's really popular right now."  Can we have a moment for how well Lindsey knows me?  Because, let's get real, if it's popular, I probably don't know it.  But, as it happens, they play this one at yoga.  So I do.

Boom.

If you have 3:16 minutes, it's pretty incredible.  If you don't, quit reading this and watch it.  Immediately.  Because Ohhhhhmyyyyyygooooooooooooodnessssssss.

I started to write a comment on the Facebook post.  And then I deleted it and broke my response into multiple comments, and then I decided to just write a post about it.  (It did, albeit briefly, enter my mind that this is really going to make my nerd-ness come out.  But let's get real.  It's truth, people.

"Moving on.")

People who are not vocalists often do not understand the RIDICULOUS challenges that are posed with a capella music, so let me try to break it down just a bit:

1. NO MUSIC - a capella is singing without musical accompaniment.  You don't have to be a vocalist to get this part, but JIC you didn't know. :)
2. PITCH - pitch is one's ability to sing the correct note, well, correctly.  It's also referred to as "intonation."  If you've ever heard someone say "He's flat," about a vocalist, they are referring to his pitch, and "flat" means he's just the slightest bit too low.  "Sharp" is the converse, but if someone is having intonation problems, they are ten times more likely to be flat than sharp.  Pitch comes from the musical accompaniment, but if you don't have the music, you've got to have pretty good very good pitch to start out in one key and then finish in it.  Often, vocalists will drift even just the tiniest bit.  It's not noticeable to the untrained ear, but by the time the piece is finished, it may even be a half step lower than where it started.  If you don't have good intonation (you might rethink this whole singing thing), you really should stick to music with accompaniment.
3. MULTIPLES -  So, building on pitch, when you add other voices into the mix, you require that they all, in turn, have very good excellent pitch.  If one person has the slightest inclination to sing even a fraction below the note, you've got a problem, because, as is true in life, it's easier to bring someone down than pull them up.  So you've got to have SERIOUS skill.
4. BLEND - This is one thing I struggled with when I was young.  Blend is the ability to match volume, quality, dynamic, enunciation, intonation - all of it with everyone in your group.  I know it might be hard to believe, but I was a little loud. :/ And the fewer people, the bigger the challenge.  With a song like this, there are several moving parts.  In this group, I count around 20 women, and at any given time, they may be singing 3-6 different parts, words, beats, etc.
5. DYNAMICS - The use of dynamics is the ability to vary the volume and intensity with which one sings.  It's a pretty powerful thing to hear a group of people slowly cresendo (get louder) or decresendo (get softer) at the same time in the same rate.  The ability to do so is why you get those goosebumps... And when you don't have accompaniment to help with this, you're left entirely to your voice.
6. BREATH - Breath support is one of those things people never hear about, but it's the first thing you learn in vocal training.  My first voice teacher made me lay down on the ground, place a hymnal on my stomach and keep it up for 64 counts.  I dare you to try this unless you are a vocalist or a swimmer, in which case, it's cake.  But breath with a group means you either have to coordinate your breathing, or do what we call "staggering" your breathing, which is where you sneak out and sneak back in. This is, again, harder to do the fewer people you have.

There are more, but I've got to get to the laundry, and let's face it, you skipped to the bottom anyway. 

Bottom line?  This is RIDICULOUSLY hard.  It looks easy and effortless, but behind this are hours and HOURS of preparation.  And, ridiculous skill.  I have a secret life dream to be a part of a group like this, (I LOVE LOVE LOVE a capella!) but the truth is that I'd need a LOT of work before I'd be up to par.

Parting thought: A capella music really is the unsung hero (pun intended) of vocal music.  I really wish it was more popular.  And I wish The Singoff hadn't gotten cancelled.  It was the one TV show I actually watched on TV.

Get FINANCIALLY Fit: Graduation :)

Today was graduation from our Financial Peace University class. 

When we started at the end of August, we had three credit cards (two were paid off, but we still had them open), two cars, and a student loan.  We also had a plan to save money.

And then we took this class and realized we were doing it ALL wrong.  We didn't need to save money, we needed to PAY BACK money!  And thus began our gazelle-intense journey to pay down our debt.  And the same for six other families.  Twelve weeks later:

This is SIX families.  SIX!  I am happy to say that $6,500 of that debt and two of those credit cards were ours!  It doesn't say how many cars were paid off, but if it did, ours would be up there!

Last night, Rick and I sat down and went over our goals again:

1. Establish an emergency fund of $1000 CHECK
2. Pay off Loan #1 - car.  CHECK
3. Pay off Loan #2 - credit card. GOAL: Paid off by Christmas 2013.
4. Pay off Loan #3 - other car.
5. Pay off Loan #4 - student loan.

We have only placed goals next to the loan we are currently working on in an effort to stay severely focused on the baby-step approach, but just for the heck of it, we mapped out what our debt-spending might look like if we kept this intensity up.  It was pretty exciting, and actually had us out of all non-mortgage debt much sooner than we originally anticipated.

And the REALLY great news is that we are going to have Loan #2 paid off by the end of November instead of December!  That means we jump an entire month ahead!  YAAAAAAAAAAAY!

As we celebrated our successes over breakfast with our class this morning, we all shared what was most significant about this experience.  It was neat to hear what everyone learned - things like how to shop for insurance, how to manage the debt snowball, how understand and communicate with your spouse about money, but my favorite moment was when my husband shared something like this:

We have always talked about money, struggled with money, tried to be responsible with money, but for the first time in our marriage, we have had a single, common financial goal that we are both 100% committed to, and it's working.  We are already seeing the results, and we have a plan.

This is our book, our diploma, and the $10 gift card we won!

In closing, if you have the opportunity to take this class, TAKE IT!  Even if you aren't struggling financially, I promise you you won't regret it.  You will learn something, even if feels more like marriage counseling than a finance class.  It costs to enroll, but we ended up taking the class for free, because the church reimburses all who graduate from the class at 50%, and Rick's work will reimburse all employees who take the class at 50%!  You really can't beat that.

Congrats to all our graduates!

Kindle Book: The Outsiders

THE Outsiders

by S.E. Hinton

Length: 180 pages

Format: Kindle book
Price: $6.44

Author Website: http://www.sehinton.com/

Basic Premise: Set in the 1960s, this novel follows orphan Ponyboy Curtis and his brothers as they struggle to live life alongside their rival gang, the Socs (short for "socials").  The Curtis boys and their gang, the Greasers, find themselves caught up in a murder case rife with violence and scandal.  As he tries to make sense of what has happened, Ponyboy begins to believe that there is more to life than what's in his.

My Take: 9 out of 10 (scale here)

I first read this book in college.  I was in a YAL class and I had to read nearly 40 books total, so I took a caseload of books with me when I went to South Africa.  I read this one on a particularly long bus trip to Capetown.  (Interesting note: we drove through the country of Swaziland, which is surrounded on all sides by South Africa.  We got off, got our passports stamped next to an enormous condom despenser, and got back on the bus only to repeat the process an hour later as we exited the country.  Weird.)  I don't remember being particularly impressed by it, other than liking how the beginning and ending sentences were the same.  I decided to reread it this year because we had students write a paper which compares this novel with the one we read in my class.  This is the first year I have done this project, so a reread was in order.  And I enjoyed it.  I can see why my reluctant readers - most of them, boys - gobble this book up.  It's violent, it's mature, but it's a great book, and a great lesson in the dangers of stereo-types.

I think I would love to teach this book.

Get Fit: Er...

Oh, cold weather, you are sapping me of all. my. energy.

Wanna know how many times I've worked out this week? ONCE. I can't go to yoga tonight because Rick wants to work late.  Wanna know how I feel about it? I'M RELIEVED.  Want to know when I plan to work out next? I HAVE NO IDEA.

This is the exact opposite of the sentiments I had this summer.  I wanted to work out.  I wanted to be active. But frankly, I just want to sit.  Sit.  SIT!

I am considering canceling my yoga membership, because unless I'm going 4-5 times a week, it's just not worth it, and I am barely getting 2-3 times in.  I can't walk any more because it's cold, and I'm just too dang busy to stay at school and work out in the work room.  Adding insult to injury - I've gained 3 lbs.  Maybe more.

So how do I figure all of this out?  How do I balance my kids, my husband, my housework, my meal prep, my full-time job, my (very very tiny) social life, and a workout schedule?  Do I have to chuck something?  Rearrange?

I'm frustrated.  And I'm done thinking about it.  It's Friday.  I'll worry about this later.

Kindle Book: The Laws of Gravity

The Laws of Gravity

by Liz Rosenberg

Length: 289 pages

Format: Kindle book
Price: FREE from the Kindle Lending Library

Author Website: couldn't find one...

Basic Premise: Cousins Nikki and Ari have been attached at the hip since grade school.  Now they are grown with children of their own, but have remained close - so close, in fact, that when Nikki is diagnosed with terminal cancer and told that the only hope for her survival is cord blood harvested from a family member, she turns to Ari for help.  Ari is not nearly as eager to hand over his children's cord blood as she hoped he would be, resulting in a nasty and highly-publicized court battle.

My Take: 7 out of 10 (scale here)

This book was interesting.  I was intrigued by the premise, though made considerably uncomfortable by the moral issue at stake as the novel progressed.  Any time a novel deals with a big moral issue - in this case, the question of sacrificing cord blood that may one day help heal your child to someone who needs it desperately now - I generally pick a side and camp there, maintaining a continuous inner-monologue with the characters in which I roundly abuse them and their poor decision-making skills.  But this one was harder.  The novel also followed the judge who had ultimately make the final decision, and how his heart and his head never really aligned.  The writing style was good, but I could have used more character development.  I found myself frequently thinking, "Why would she do that?" and "I wonder what drove him to that point."  I felt like the author should acquainted me with her characters a bit better - revealed more back story, been more detailed -  so that I wouldn't have to question.

To be honest, the timing of this novel was terrible.  Within the past two weeks, three friends - one of them an acquaintance, one a good friend, and the other someone I've known and been close to since childhood - have been diagnosed with cancer.  I finished it last night and did a fair amount of crying, and thinking about how very precious life is, and how thankful I am for my health and the health of my family.

Cooking with Marge: Perfect White Gravy

I don't do gravy.  Why?  For the same reason I don't do watermelon, coconut, or pickles.

It's disgusting.

However, Rick's step-grandmother, Marge (who happens to be the sweetest lady on the planet) makes delicious gravy.  I tried it once because everyone at the table (except Marge, of course) was hassling me about how I won't eat gravy and found, to my surprise, that it was delicious.  So I tried to make her chicken fried chicken (which is my husband's very favorite dish) with mashed potatoes and gravy.  The chicken fried chicken was delish (sometime I'll share that recipe too - Marge had me come early to a family dinner one day and showed me all her secrets), but the gravy...well...not so much.  We ended up throwing it away, it was so bad.  I told Marge about the experience (I don't think she's ever had a mishap in the kitchen, bless her) and she again invited me to family dinner early so I could watch her - or, that's what I thought was going to happen.  She actually made me do it.  I'm a teacher so I was wise to her ways!  I documented the procedure as best I could while cooking:

 INGREDIENTS:

These are the necessary ingredients: oil, milk, water (or stock, if you have it), beef granules, and/or chicken granules (depending on what you are serving - we were doing chicken fried steak, so we used both), and flour.  A few important points about the ingredients:

• Marge says have them all out and within close reach.  The most crucial part of the process goes very fast, so you don't want to be running around the kitchen getting stuff - you want to just be able to grab and dump.
• Marge says to eyeball the amounts.  Right....

HEATING THE OIL

Cover the bottom of a skillet with CLEAN oil.  DO NOT use the drippings from the meat.  It is lumpy and not the way Marge does things.  This is a large skillet because we were making a ton, but normally you would use a smaller skillet.  Warm over medium heat.

Stay close and test the oil.  You don't want it too hot because it will scald and brown, but you don't want it to be not hot enough, because then it the flour will mush up.  To test, drop a pinch of flour into the hot oil.  If it dances and sizzles briefly, it's ready.

If you look close, you can see the sizzling

ADDING THE FLOUR AND MILK
This is where it can all go horribly wrong if you aren't watching very carefully!  Add flour to the oil in small doses, stirring rapidly as you go.  This picture is so bad, but you can see all the bubbling and that's exactly what you want.  You want to stir and eliminate clumps as quickly as possible!  Add milk, and mix some more

If there are too many lumps, remove from heat quickly, fix the lumps, and then put it back.  Nailing this step is crucial to the success of the gravy!

ADDING OTHER INGREDIENTS
Once the mixture begins to thicken, add a small amount of water.  I say small because you can always add more if you need it, but you can't take it back.

 Add some granules and stir, stir, stir.  Reduce heat and add milk and/or water until you get the desired consistency.  Marge likes it kind of in the middle - not so thick that it's like a paste, but not so thin that it drips right off the spoon - it sort of rolls off the spoon.  Perfect.

And what a pretty plate: 1 piece of chicken-fried steak, a hearty helping of green beans and carrots, and some mashed potatoes with mmm mmm gravy!  A bit of a splurge diet-wise, but sooooooo delicious!

Family Pics: What to DO??

I can't believe how stressed out I am about getting our family pictures taken next week, but I am.

Maybe it's because, traditionally, my son refuses to look at the camera, will not smile, and usually ends up in BIG trouble afterward.

Maybe it's because I still don't have a color scheme or outfits picked out and I'm down to the weekend before.

Maybe it's because we are using a new photographer...though I don't think so - she's a friend from high school who knows what she's doing.

Maybe it's because I've lost 40 lbs and, danget, I want these pics to be good.

Maybe.

Here is a preview of past family pictures - the ones that made the Christmas card:

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2012

The last two were professional (as you could probably tell), and that's the route we decided to take from now on.  Our kiddos are growing up, and we want a good, solid family photo!

Now I just need to find the perfect outfits. :/  Taking suggestions.