Recital Weekend

November 16th:
Christa and Charity surprised me when they came knocking on the door around 9pm! I had no idea they were coming!!! We went to the Grind with Jess and Laura and had so much fun telling stories and sharing memories until curfew. Praise the Lord for such sweet friends! I am so thankful we were able to be together again! Thank you so much for making the trip, girls! :)

November 17th:
After a futile attempt to 'sleep in' I got up at 7:30 and played through my recital once. I spent most of the day cleaning the house and getting everything ready for everyone to come. I even managed to get in a 20 minute nap before Jason and Julia showed up around 3:30 or 4. Mom and Julie weren't too far behind; and then Jordan's mom and Andria, Grant, and Anna got there; and finally Grandma. We had some frozen pizza (thanks to JaJu) before going up to the White Chapel for the recital. I was VERY nervous! But it did help so much to have so many friends and family there! Mr. and Mrs. Clay also made the trip up here to surprise me for the recital. I could not believe my eyes when I saw them standing there! Wow! (Mrs. Clay is the pianist at my church in Granada, MN. She has always been my inspiration on the piano. Ever since I started playing the piano in 3rd grade, I started watching the way she played and listening to the improvisations she made to the hymns and as I got better, I began imitating her as best as I could. She has such amazing talent that I will never have, but she has had a very big part in the development of my piano-playing even though she has never given me a lesson! It was so special to have her here for the recital!) I felt pretty up-tight throughout the first half of the recital and I had the added distraction of a very large fly that kept landing on various places of my person. :P Somehow I managed to hold everything together in spite of that big gross thing, but he disappeared after the 3rd song which was very good! :) By the time I got half-way through the Mozart Sonata, I realized that I was half-way through my recital and I was actually going to make it!! At that point I actually started to have fun and sailed through the rest of the performance. After the last bow, Jordan got up and gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers (SO sweet!!!) and then we had the reception following that. I think it was around 9 when we got home. We stood around and talked and then the VoP sang for a little while because Christa and Charity had to leave right away Saturday morning. What a fun day it turned out to be!!! And Anna got to stay up till midnight! She was pretty excited about that! ;)

November 18th:
We had a big Thanksgiving meal in the apartment! Can you believe that little apartment could handle feeding a Thanksgiving meal to 13 people!? It did! :) And we had so much fun! Mom, Mom H., and Grandma brought most of the food with them. In the evening, all of the boys had a big X-Box party while all of us girls went up to the bunkhouse to play games! We played Scattergories and Guestures! (At this point, I must mention that 'altoids' is a valid answer for 'school supplies.') We found out that we had some very talented actors in our midst! Julie gave us an amazing rendition of "deer" in the headlights! :D And mom's 'knockout' and Julia's 'bump' will not soon be forgotten either!

November 19th:
We all went to church together at Norway and out to Pizza Hut afterwards. Jason, Julia, and Julie had to take off right after that. :( We got to play a little Guestures again in the afternoon so Jordan got to see how good Anna was at it! :)

Grandma and Jordan's family left Monday morning, and Mom just left this afternoon (she stayed so she could take the girls back with her for Thanksgiving Break). :(

This weekend was so wonderful! Thank you so much to everyone who came!

Mr. & Mrs. Clay, that was such a long trip for you to make just for my recital! I feel so special to have friends who love me enough to do that! Thank you for your support and prayers!

Christa and Charity, I know it was a sacrifice for you to come so far, and I am so thankful that you did! It meant so much to me to have you here! You are definitely the sweetest friends anyone could ever hope for!

Grandma, it's kind of amazing to think of when you were first teaching us the notes on the piano and how excited you were for us when we got our own piano! Thank you for always encouraging me to keep going!

Mom, thanks for paying for all of those piano lessons! ;) You are such a blessing and the encourager ever!

Jason and Julia, I'm so glad you came for the weekend! Thanks for getting the pizzas; and, Julia, thanks for making the deviled eggs (always the best!).

Julie, thank you for taking the time off from school and coming up here! I don't know if I ever could have found the right place to put those sparkly barretts if you weren't here! ;)

Jess, you were such a blessing to me last week when you came over to help me clean and you listened to me play through the recital!

Horak fam, I know that was a long trip for you all too, but I am so glad you made it!!! You are the bestest family-in-law any girl could hope for! Thanks for all the fun!

Jordan, I don't even know how to say thank you for all the patience, love, and support you've shown over the last couple of months. You never complained even when I practiced for over 30 hours in one week! And you were so sweet and patient when I would get so discouraged! :) Thank you for being such a wonderful husband! I love you!