Weekend with Great Grandma

Back home after a somewhat emotional weekend.  Hard to walk through my grandparents home knowing that it's probably the last time I'll ever get to walk through.  (They lived in the home - or the garage next to their home - for almost 70 years.)  Lots of memories, from the old piano I used to play, to the kitchen and helping Grandma bake, their tiny little bathroom with the pink tub, Grandpa's den & the smell of his shop (oh, how I love the smell of his shop), when the family would gather at Grandma's after Thanksgiving dinner to sing songs and visit, to the wringer washer out back . . .

Harder still, being present for a blessing for Grandma, tears streaming down our faces, knowing that she won't be there the next time we come to visit, and saying goodbye.  Good thing she's still within driving distance up in Idaho.  Hoping we can find a time to drive to Nampa to visit.

We also had family pictures done, spent part of the day shopping with my mom, four wheeling, horse back riding, family BBQ, a visit with my sister . . .  Pictures, and more details on the weekend to come.

"I Believe in Christ"

So, we have an amazing violinist/vocalist/pianist in our ward, named Angela, who is moving to the Y for more schooling.  (Don't judge - she's an awesome person!)  :D  Anyway, our ward music director wanted the two of us to play a piano duet in sacrament meeting before she leaves.  Angela didn't really feel comfortable doing a piano duet, but brought up the idea of a violin/piano duet.  I thought it sounded awesome.

So, we got together a week and a half ago to look over some music she had, and decided on "I Believe in Christ."  We were both super excited, but nervous too, because it's quite a difficult piece.  But, we went our separate ways and throughout the week we each practiced our parts.

Friday evening, we got together and practiced, and picked out a few more trouble spots to work on, then arranged to meet Sunday morning for one more practice.  So, I practiced some more that night, then again on Saturday morning.  I headed to the church to practice on the baby grand, (still quite nervous about the very last page) and got it down.  (This has some amazing, difficult runs in it that are played really fast.  So, you can see why I was nervous.  You'll hear them in the last couple of minutes if you listen to the recording.)

We practiced Sunday morning, and got goosebumps!  It was awesome, and we were both so excited to play in sacrament meeting.  It was fabulous!  The only downside was that the bishop announced it as a violin solo that was accompanied by me, instead of as a violin/piano duet.  But, oh well!

Anyway, since my family lives far away, and my FIL wasn't able to make it, I decided to record it during our Sunday morning practice, so that I could share it with my family.  We worked really hard on this, and I think it turned out beautifully!

Thanks, Angela, for the opportunity to play with you.  It was awesome.

You can click HERE to listen.  (Keep in mind, that I recorded this Sunday morning in the RS room while people were there setting up for our meeting.)