Piano Lessons

Warning: This post is a result of me waking up at 6:15 on a Saturday morning. The rest of the world will join me in a few hours.

Recently, I saw this post on Facebook. "I really want to learn how to play the piano, who will teach me?" Without thinking, I immediately replied with one word-- ME. I instantly regretted it. I have taught piano lessons before, but never to an adult. Also, I am only here temporarily. Luckily, the girl only just "liked" my comment and never responded to my message about teaching her. This experience caused me to stop and think about teaching piano again which is when it hit me...

Why haven't I taught my husband how to play? While in Utah for the summer we have a nice grand-piano and when we leave, the keyboard we have will suffice. I brought up the idea to him and he didn't reject it. In fact, he has taken piano lessons twice before, so we didn't have to start from scratch. Andrew agreed to let me teach him piano on one condition: he gets to teach me how to properly through a frisbee. (Not my strong suit.) 

After one short frisbee lesson, I rushed Andrew to the piano. I didn't realize how much he already knows when it comes to piano. What a relief for me. In fact, I just worked with him on a few LDS hymns. He almost has "Come Follow Me" down as well as "God Be With You." 

I didn't really know how into the piano lessons Andrew would be. In fact, I thought the only time he would touch the piano was when I told him it was his lesson once a week. I was wrong. I came home from work yesterday to hear the exciting news that he had practiced! Music to my ears.

(Notice his new glasses. I am kind of biased because I did heavily influence this purchase, but don't they look great?)

Just in case you are wondering, no, there will not be a picture of me playing frisbee posted for quite some time. I still have a lot of work to go. Andrew constantly has to remind me to keep my feet planted and to flick my wrist instead of moving my entire body. Maybe when I'm not sore after playing frisbee for once I'll know I'm making progress. Wish me luck.

Scorching St. George

This weekend we went to St. George which is an annual tradition for our family. Unfortunately, Andrew and I were in school last summer, so this was his first experience going. The main reason we go is to see a play at Tuacahn which is a really fun outdoor theater. This year "The Wizard of Oz" is playing. We had an enjoyable time watching the play. My family has been to Tuacahn a number of times and compared to other shows we have seen, this was not the best, but it was still good. Andrew really enjoyed it though and had nothing to compare it to.

St. George has some great outlets, so it is always a must to hit them up. The girls went shopping while the boys played golf. We had a lot of success shopping, maybe a little too much, but I'm happy with my purchases. (The outfit pictured above is one of these purchases.) At church yesterday, Mom, Jessica, and I all wore new outfits. The boys have some funny stories about golfing. The course they golfed was apparently quite challenging for their beginner level and lots of the golf balls ended up in the water. I volunteered to go with them, just so I could drive the golf cart, but they weren't interested. (They just walk.) 

One of the prettiest buildings in St. George is the Temple. I'm pretty sure the St. George Temple is the oldest temple in Utah. The grounds of the temple are so beautifully kept and the decor is very ornate. I'm really glad we went, even though we were all pretty tired from the long drive to St. George. 

We decided to go on a hike because there is such great hiking near St. George. We went after the boys went golfing which happened to be around 11:30--the hottest time of day. According to the internet, this hike was supposed to be just over a mile long, so we weren't worried about the heat because it was just going to be a few minutes. The mile quickly turned into 3 miles and a 90 minute hike just one way. We finally realized it would be best to go back, even though we didn't make it to the Indian petroglyphs. We were nearly out of water, and still had to make the hour and 20 minute trip back. I might also add that it was nearly 100 degrees outside at this point. Dehydration started to become a concern and we cut off a lot of the trail on the way back to the car which made the journey much faster. When we made it back to the parking lot, our car was the only one there. Who in their right mind would hike during the hottest part of the day? We immediately drove in search of drinks.

There are specific restaurants we always go to while we are in St. George. Nielson's Custard is one of them even though it brings back the memory of me holding my custard upside down, and the entire thing falling out ending in tears. Fortunately, they gave me a new one. This time, I had learned my lesson and enjoyed my custard. Outback Steakhouse is usually on the list and we did go there. We also went to Brick Oven which my little sister has nicknamed "B.O" because she used to work there. They have a gluten-free pizza and Jessica is on a gluten-free diet for the next few weeks. The whole weekend I don't recall ever being hungry.

A big highlight worth mentioning is playing the game Mafia. I had played this game before, but have never really liked it. It was fun to play with my family--my parents especially. The biggest reason I have a problem with this game is because I have the hardest time lying. Even when I'm telling the truth, people think I'm lying. It was probably funniest when my Mom was the facilitator. "Okay people, welcome to the show..."

What a fun weekend! And we even made it back in time for church Sunday which is good because Andrew got a new calling... He is a Sunday School teacher for the 14 year-olds. (Good luck to him!) On the long drive, I read the book "Wonder" by: R. J. Palacio and I was surprised by how good it was. It is about a boy with a deformed face who has been home-schooled his entire life, but decides to go to a public school for 5th grade and how he is treated. I highly recommend it.

Next year can't come soon enough, "The Sound of Music" is playing at Tuacahn which is my favorite movie.