Mother's Day

A few days ago Geoff and I were discussing Mother's Day and I said all I would like is for him to make dinner and do the dishes.  Well, he went a 'little' above and beyond and on Saturday surprised me with appointments for a pedicure and massage!  Wow!  I really enjoyed them both (and as a note, this was the first pedicure I have ever had where the technician didn't make a comment about the size of my feet! ha ha!) and felt completely spoiled.  That evening Geoff also picked up Thai food and we all savored the delicious feast.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day where we enjoyed a laid-back morning before we attended a touching sacrament meeting centered on women of God.

I am truly enjoying my role of mother to these delightful girls, Hylie and Eliana.  They fill my days with laughter and surprises, keep me humble, and remind me what matters most in life.  I'm extremely grateful to be a mom and look forward to our third bundle of joy to join us this fall.  I'm also abundantly blessed with wonderful mothers in my life: my sweet mother-in-law, my loving grandmothers, and my dear, beautiful mother.  Each of these women exemplify selflessness, hard work, devotion, and unconditional love.  How I hope and pray to bring my children the same love my mothers give to me.

Unsolved Mystery

Okay, cue the creepy music from that classic TV program we watched as kids even though it freaked us out and kept us up at night wondering if the escapees from Azkaban were lurking in our backyards.

Last week, I was taking the girls with me to run some errands and when I entered our garage, my eye caught this:

I pulled it out and saw it was a 1,000 Brazilian note.  I never noticed it there before, so I called Geoff to see if he found it and tucked it behind the conduit--he hadn't, but he looked up the currency and found out it is worth $285 US dollars!

I left for my errands but kept feeling a little creeped out wondering how it got there, so just to be safe, I called the Morton Grove police to see if there were any recent incidents involving Brazilian money.  There hadn't, but they asked to come check things out.  An officer came by and said it was suspicious but, of course, there was nothing to be done.  They told me to keep the money (woo hoo!) and if we heard anything skeptical going on outside, to call them immediately.

I'm happy to report that absolutely nothing has happened, but I still would like to know where that money came from!  Geoff thinks it's been there ever since we moved in but I really don't think we wouldn't notice it for three years!  Plus, the people who lived here before us were from India, not Brazil!

Well, I guess now all we have to figure out is where we need to go to exchange the money and then decide how we want to splurge!  ;)

An Evening of Music

So this post is two months late but...

in March I put together an Evening of Music and invited anyone in our ward to come perform.  March was a crazy month of sickness for our family and Eliana was running a fever this particular weekend, so Geoff and Eliana stayed home while Hylie tagged along with me so I could run the event.  I was sad our whole family couldn't attend, but the evening was filled with some wonderful music.  Many individuals came to perform and some came just to listen.  We had little ones playing amazing pieces on the violin, piano, and cello, some adults performing some pretty impressive guitar solos, vocalists, pianists, and I had the pleasure of playing with a very fine violinist, Stephanie Goold.

A friend of ours recorded the numbers I was in so Geoff could hear them, so here are the YouTube posts:

Hungarian Dance

A Change in Me

Bach's Double Concerto

I can assure you, the notes out of tune on the violin duets are me!  It was so fun to get my violin out and take the time to practice and play--and what a joy it has been to play with Stephanie.

To thank the participants, I put together a little thank you treat with a classic ABBA song.

I'm hopeful to make this an annual event, we'll see how on top of it I am next winter!