Our Organ Geek

Well, I've mentioned Josh in a couple of my posts but haven't really given the world a picture, well this is Josh in front of his piano at the Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown that he uses to teach up and coming Padarevsky's(sp). He is standing with the prettiest girl in the whole wide world, his mother! Note how they color coordinated before leaving home that day! Someone forgot to tell miz Marilyn that red is not a pastel color! or is it? Anyway, they make a wonderful couple even if they have a generation gap, in age only!

I have to tease Josh about his master organ, 270,000 rank Bernucci pipe and totally tubular organ. This is in the overflow room at his church and is used for a few masses each weekend, and yes Josh can even play this beauty!! I didn't dress to match Josh but I do look nice in the room decor...don't you think? This room was one of the original rooms of the original church and is a very special place for the congregation.

This is the major organ in the loft at his church. His back is to the larger chapel which was pictured in a previous blog. This organ can blast it out with all of them. When Josh was doing his final organ recital upon graduating from BYU, he did it in the cathedral of the Madeleine in SLC. Reason, has the best organ for playing Bach and other music of the time in the city of SLC. Yes, I know the mormon organ purists among you will argue that nothing is better than the tabernacle organ for music, well, that is an opinion not shared by Josh or Dr. Bush. The reason I bring this up is that while talking with Dr. Bush about the recital afterwards, I suggested to him that one of the pieces seemed to bring a great deal of "confusion" into the room. I was meaning the numerous notes created and then the echoing of the notes for seconds after having been played. Now most of you will be gasping that such a nonorganophile like myself has no right to suggest that to Dr. Bush. Well, I call him a good friend and a wonderful example of a christian human being, I can quote reasons and give examples but that isn't what I was getting at. Anyway, Dr. Bush in all of his kindness and patience with my ramblings, paused a moment and relieved the tension you are all feeling as I write this by saying, "I know what you mean, the organ can be right at home in confusion."
That enlightened me in a way to not deflate my organophilic ego. So here we are in The Holy Trinity Church listening to Josh create confusion...I mean music! One note on his poor skills in matching his leather this day(brown belt and black shoes) a definite "no-no" among the fashinistas like my daughter Ginnie. Those are his organ shoes and I don't think he was thinking he would be playing that day or I'm sure he would have run right out and bought a brown pair of organ shoes or at least wore a black belt.
In closing, have you ever wondered why they call those black pullerbobs with the white caps "stops"? Well, I'm not going to tell you. But the word seems silly when one thinks that pulling one actually starts something rather than stops it! So, I'm going to bring to your attention all the lovely "starts" that this particular organ has. It has another bank of starts on Josh's left side as well. So in conclusion , have a good day and may all your stops be starts!

Graduation time.

The pictures aren't the best but I at least got them to the blog. Daniel looks like Leonardo Da Vinci incognito with the interesting hat/cap/head protector. Chris is wearing the old version of the graduation gowns that he had and the blue one dan is wearing is the revised edition. Most of the faculty haven't changed over because they cost 800.00 dollars.
We did enjoy the opportunities and it was good to get together with our sons and family members . Life is very good to us. It seems to have so much for us to learn and try to find application. Perhaps that is a one line explanation of why we are sojourning on the earth.

Washington DC/Cleveland/

Well, we went to Wash. DC to see Josh. He is organist for the Holy Trinity Catholic church in Georgetown, Maryland and they have a very active catholic presence in the area. He has to play for masses on Sunday and Saturday. About 5 on Sunday and 2or3 on Saturday. These are the two chapels that they use. The larger is the main chapel and the smaller is the over flow. The larger chapel is the one with the major organ. He played it for us and it sounds wonderful. The smaller one has a smaller type organ that is just to the left of my picture. It is good to see religion is still a part of our social structure.














Following our visit with Josh we went to Cleveland to help Dan and Janene move from Cleveland to Gainesville Florida where Dan will be doing his residency in pediatric dentistry. It was a fun trip as Dan, Chris, Brayden and I went in Dan's car and a Penske truck that did have a governor at 70 mph. It made for interesting races down the freeway with Semi's. Most of the time we lost but it wasn't because the petal wasn't to the metal. We accidently got in 96 holes of golf along the way. The weather was semi cooperative in that it wasn't too cold to keep us from golfing but it wasn't exactly perfect the first two days, the last two was exceptional weather and lovely golf courses. We all had fun and Brayden seemed to catch the golfing fanatacism that reigns supreme witht he Smith brothers.
The graduation exercises took up an entire Sunday. It was good to get it out of the way and brings special meaning because Chris was able to give Daniel his diploma. I have tried to get a picture from my folders but haven't been able too. So much for my technical abilities or lack thereof. Needless to say it seemed like a very significant time.
So much for our last weeks activities. Life is very constant and consistent while we are in Las Vegas but it seems to be drawing us out of town more and more frequently. Our travels are appreciated especially when one is 38,000 feet in the air and taking all of 5 hours to get across the country. What wonders this must be to early settlers and pioneers. While we were in Jacksonville, we went to a movie,
Indiana Jones and the crystal skull... whatever. Very much like the original three and fun to watch. It was interesting enough that the fear of an exploding bladder hardly even surfaced until the credits started rolling. Then watch out, Katy bar the door, I've gotta get outta there fast!!! Whoa, made it just in time. My bladder will live to get bloated another day.

hawaii cont.

Hawaii....Aloha

Jackson in his tent with his sun hat on. This was on the beach at Hanama bay. He has a rash on his cheeks that waxed and waned during the whole trip. Not even the suns of Hawaii seemed to be able to make it better. He was quite miserable at times.
Chris and Brayden at Hanama Bay. We enjoyed the Sun and the snorkeling though the water was a bit cold. We all felt need to get out after a bit of time.
Coolness personified! This group definitely thought more of themselves than the rest of us did! Again at Hanama Bay.
Ms. Cami doing what she loved to do the best, play in the sand. She really enjoyed the ocean and the sand.

Last but not least, our grandchildren that were there on this evening. Chase, Ciera, Cael, Parker, Austin, Jack and Luke. We were having fun with this little group. Getting them all to quit wiggling was the greatest challenge.

Nativity Costumes...really?

He are Ginnie and Linzi modeling the latest fashions from downtown Bethlehem circa 0 a.d. They had to look long and hard for this combo but after having found it, they knew they were onto something. Below you can see that the hubbies also had a way with the fashionistas! We have a smoking jacketed attired king and a golden sequenined king/kinglet. Janene and Dan also got into the festivities but they chose a more traditional garb. Grandma Barbara, Marilyn were doing their best to look the part and trying to do very little movement. To say that our Nativities are somewhat avante garde would not be far from the truth. Maybe a better term would be neo-retro! Anyway, hope you all enjoy these. All three of you that visit here.

Xmas items and grandchildrenalia

Just bringing you up to date on our looks!. See Marilyn and Grandma, how pretty they are!
See Heather and Josh, how pretty they are?
See Linzi and Chase, Cael and Quinton, how pretty they are.
Josh, Janene, Austin and Ciera. how pretty are they?

Potty Training

I noted that when Heidi wrote about potty training, her blog received 20 comments. So, I'm thinking that my blog will have to be "hit" a great deal if I at least title my blog "Potty Training". I cannot imagine that the amount of hits were associated with the content but I am sure that there are tons of diaper changing mammas out there looking for something to reach out to in the form of potty training tips and techniques. So as not to disappoint, I will give them all one tip: Give your children Reese's pieces, not M&M's! The anecdotal evidence suggests that if one is given M&M's for prolonged periods of time(and we all know how long potty training can drag on) the possibility of getting chocolate induced diarrhea increases greatly. Now all people know what problems diarrhea can be in potty training!
OK, got your attention, now to the boring stuff. Sex! oops, that may take me off of the MBOA(moral blogs of america) list.
The family is doing well. Going to Sacratamata for Chase's baptism. Of course we have so much to take that we have broken out the large suit case for a 3 day visit. I'm hoping most of it is bulk rather than density. Anyway, Grandma Barbara is going with us and she has two sisters in the area that she will rendezvous with while there.
Next week we are going to Hawaii with Chris and family. We are looking forward to swimming with turtles, fish and octopi! We are hoping that the surfing lessons don't disable the group before we can at least have some fun. Elice is getting a lot better and we are all grateful for that. Camille is also doing very well and their efforts in the dietary arena seem to be paying off. So for the week in Hawaii, I'm sugar free(at least when others are awake). I've been known to do a bit of midnight rendezvousing with the old frigidaire! Maybe they'll be a 7-11 in the neighborhood and I can just make runs over there.
Well, I'm writing this at work and work is calling. Love to all. I'll be waiting for the 2o comments. DAD

Anniversary blues...or why no one cares!

I am not really a romantic nor do I need to have people recognize accomplishments, in fact it really bugs me when people use talks in church as the one and only time they tell their spouses that they love them.(Why should I be in on something so wonderful and special and private?) I'm starting to sound like my daughter, sorry! Anyway, we just had our 38th anniversary and had a wonderful night out the evening before so that we would be ready for all of the phone calls from our children the evening of our anniversary. Well, our expectations didn't really get fulfilled but...Daniel called to tell us about his receiving acceptance to the Univ. of Florida residency program for pedodontics....Somewhere in the conversation I congratulated him on being the only child to "remember our anniversary" though he never eluded to it one time. So maybe I do want some recognition and forced recognition is better than none at all.
Other than that I am back to being with my wife again. Feels nice to have her around and she works at the office with me which makes it even better. Most of the time we really enjoy being with each other and we've even had a couple of days that the bed didn't get made! I'm really starting to influence her for the good!
Our exchange student from Norway has consented to come to Las Vegas next year for christmas with husband and two children. We were in Norway this past summer with them and they were so kind and wonderful. We are looking forward to being with them and hopefully returning the wonderful treatment they gave us.
Our social agenda continues to be dominated by visits with children usually outside of LV. Our next four months with see us in Hawaii, Dallas, Cleveland, Florida, Wash. DC and Sacratomato. Frequent flier miles should be adding up!. The best is that each will be with family members.
I have said enough but before I end this testimonial let me say how much I love my wife. Carl

O Sole o Mio or Home Alone 135!!!

OK. So I find myself back in the old, "I know I have a wife mode but where is she"? Well, another semi-emergency baby crisis issue arises and off she goes. Plus she is going to be with Grandma Barbara for awhile. I wish I could convince my partners that I should go with her while they see all my patients and I still get paid. Now that is what I call a "PERK" with a capital PERK.
It does have some pluses that come with the loneliness. I don't have to make my bed for 6 days! Just before she comes back, I change the sheets, spruce up the pillows on the bed and no one knows the difference. Grandpa Dan once told his Older Sisters who always ironed their sheets and pillow cases, that they would "never know how nice it is to snuggle up into an unmade bed"! Now lets see, where did I get this trait from?
We made it through the holidays relatively unscathed but I started with a scratchy throat just before Josh left on New Years Day. It went on to a full blown cold with cold sores, stuffy nose and yuckiness. Marilyn came down with flu like symptoms for one day with chills and fever and then it settled in her throat with sore throat and cold symptoms for another week.
I'm outa here!