BYU Vocal Point and Noteworthy in Concert

My kids have always loved BYU Vocal Point. (That is an understatement!) So when I heard that they were touring the Midwest and Northeast this year, I had to ask if they would consider a stop in my little corner of the world. 

And guess what? They agreed to come! They added a day to their tour just for us! This would be great news no matter the circumstances, but it's even better since Sterling is the beatboxer!!! Believe me, if you would have told a Junior High or High School Sterling that one day he would be the beatboxer in Vocal Point (his dream!) AND he would perform with the group in his high school auditorium, he would never have believed you. But it's happening on April 25th, and I can't wait!! 

I'm not sure if anyone reads my blog anymore, but if you do, you should buy tickets and come. You won't regret it!

Here are the details --

Experience BYU’s premier a cappella ensembles, Vocal Point and Noteworthy, live in concert on Saturday, April 25th.

• Where: Charleston High School Auditorium (1615 Lincoln Ave.)

• When: Two showtimes available: 6:00 PM and 8:30 PM

Early Bird Special: Buy your tickets by February 14th to save $5 automatically!

• Discounted Price: $17.85 (includes fees)

Get Tickets Now:

• 6:00 PM Show

• 8:30 PM Show

Vocal Point is BYU's renowned seven-man a cappella group, known for their dynamic performances that blend harmony, humor, and vocal percussion across a variety of musical genres. Noteworthy is BYU's all-female a cappella group known for their powerful voices, inspiring performances, and faith-centered music. Please join us for this fun, energetic, family-friendly event!

10,000 Things That Make Me Hungry

The goal was to update my recipe book. I wanted my grown kids to have access to their favorite recipes, but I also wanted to go through and remove recipes I never use, add in a few new ones, and update the recipes we know and love around here so that the instructions include all my shortcuts and modifications. It felt so overwhelming because, honestly, that job is never done. As soon as I finished printing an updated copy, there would be new recipes and further changes I wish were in there.

That's when I remembered my hungry blog! I started it in 2013, added a bunch of mostly main dish recipes in 2014, added six more in 2016 and one in 2017 and then forgot about it. But as I contemplated my recipe dilemma, I realized my blog is the answer. I can update and add to it anytime I want and no one has to print anything out or worry about it becoming outdated. 

And so in January I got to work. I made sure the recipes already on the blog were current. Then I put in almost all the rest of our tried-and-true recipes. I'll update it as I think of additions, and make changes as I find better easier ways to do things. ;) I've already been able to give out links to specific recipes upon request. It's so easy! 

So click here to enjoy my no-frills recipe blog. Please let me know if you find something you love!

Tip: in the desktop version, there is a search bar to hopefully help you find what you're looking for.

Light Pillars

We've experienced a unique phenomenon twice in the past few days. Saturday night, Sadie and Soren were out running an errand and they noticed lights shooting straight up into the sky. Sadie thought it was a little weird, but figured that some street lights were aimed in the wrong direction or something like that. The next day I saw an article talking about light pillars that had been spotted in central Illinois. I showed the kids and Sadie realized that's what she had seen on Saturday. 

Then last night, Sadie was looking out the window and she saw them again! They were so cool (the photo below doesn't do them justice at all) and we soon found that they we could see them in every direction - north, south, east and west. Some were white or pinkish, others had a tint of green. All we know is we've never seen them before, but we'd love to see them again! (The article linked above gives more information about light pillars and has several more photos.)

Snowflakes

Yesterday it snowed off and on. It was such a light snow that you could hardly tell it was snowing at all, and the air was so cold and dry that the flakes fell individually instead of clumping together. It was so cold, like single digit cold, that when the beautiful little individual flakes landed on my deck they didn't melt. I was lucky enough to get a few pictures while they lasted. The largest of these snowflakes wasn't more than 5mm wide. I've seen beautiful snowflakes like these only 2 or 3 other times over the years and it just cheers me right up and makes the miserable cold weather not quite so miserable after all.

 

Dynamite

We're still big fans of BYU Vocal Point around here. Here's their latest video, complete with three members of the BYU Young Ambassadors rockin' the dance moves! 

ReMix Revisited

Sterling attended the ReMix Vocal Academy during the summer of 2017 at BYU. It was such an amazing experience that he and Soren were excited to attend together this year.

It didn't disappoint.

Sterling was the first one we saw in the show opener.

A whole week of a cappella instruction and rehearsal, team bonding and workshops makes for a really good time. The teams were super tight and both of my boys loved every minute. They are already saving up for next year. 

Here are the numbers my boys were in:
Show Opener (all teams): Kaleidoscope

Blue Team (Sterling): Home For Me

Green Team (Soren): Pieces

Closing Mashup (all teams)

If you are interested in hearing the other team songs, here's a link to the entire ReMix session B playlist.

Sterling had the opening solo in his team song.

Soren had a solo in his team song, too. 

Sterling's team. Sterling is third in the back row.

Soren's team. Soren is first on the bottom row.

Sterling in the awesome Beatboxing showcase. (Sadly, they didn't post the video on YouTube this year.)

The boys' cousin, Trevor, was at ReMix this year, too. He had a great experience and his team song, Maps, was really cool.

Trevor is second in the back row. 

My boys are sad it's over, but they still listen to the music regularly and are in touch with their team members. It's not something they'll soon forget and was the highlight of their summer! (...especially when you compare it to getting their wisdom teeth out the following week before leaving Utah. They had to drive the 1500-miles home on a liquid/soft food diet and a regular rotation of Tylenol and ibuprofen. lol. But that's another story....)

Maximum Forte sings "The Greatest Show"

Sterling is a member of his high school a cappella group, Maximum Forte. Last weekend they competed in the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA) Midwest Quarterfinals in St. Louis. They competed against ten other teams from high schools in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.

Here is a video of the third and last song in their set, "The Greatest Show," from The Greatest Showman. This is my favorite of the three songs they performed.

The top two teams advance to the semifinals next month. Sterling's group got third place and they were really happy about that. They have a commitment that would have prevented them from competing in the next round of competition anyway so third was perfect for them. They were also awarded "Outstanding Choreography" for "The Greatest Show."

This is a great bunch of kids and I'm excited to see where they go from here!

High School Christmas Concert

The other day, I said I'd share a couple of videos from the High School Choir Christmas concert. I realized today that it's now or never if I want to get this done before Christmas!

Here are three of my favorite numbers.

Sterling had a solo in The First Noel, performed by the school a cappella group, Maximum Forte.



White Winter Hymnal is a song they got from Pentatonix. Maximum Forte learned the hand motions and it's so cool! I wish they were sitting farther back on the stage so we could see the whole group at once. They were sitting on stools really close to the audience so the camera was only able to get so much, but the sound alone makes this worth posting.



This last one is all the choirs combined, singing Variations on Jingle Bells. It's super fun. Soren is tucked behind someone near the front. Sterling is easily seen.

Sterling at ReMix

In August, I mentioned that Sterling attended ReMix Vocal Academy at BYU during the summer. It's a pretty intense and amazing A Cappella camp, run by the director of BYU's Vocal Point. There were about 120 kids at ReMix that week (session B). They were all divided into 8 different groups. Sterling was on the Blue Team.

The final concert was pretty cool! It started off with all 120 kids for the intro "Unpack Your Heart." You can't see Sterling in this video, but he was there and he was a beatboxer during this number.



That was great, but it wasn't my favorite. After the opener, each group did their own number. Sterling's group sang "There's A Place For Us," by Carrie Underwood. Again, Sterling was the beatboxer. I think he sounds pretty good!!



That was great, but it wasn't my favorite. During the concert, they had a few beatboxers come out for a demo. Sterling (in blue) was selected to participate along with a Red Team member and one of the counselors (in green).


Okay, that was awesome and was definitely one of my favorites! We all loved it and the audience was going crazy. It was pretty cool! :)

The final number was a Mashup and Sterling was the second soloist.


That piece was a favorite as well. There was so much energy and you could tell these kids had worked hard and were having a great time out there!

Sterling loved his experience at ReMix and can't wait to return - along with Soren - next summer. We're all looking forward to it! :)

Eclipse 2017: Worth the Drive

I took my kids out of school today so we could head south to see the total solar eclipse. We were only about a 2-hour drive from the path of totality. We were lucky; for the most part, traffic was light and quick and we made it to West Frankfort, Illinois with five minutes to spare. We pulled into a gas station and had some fun seeing the crescent sun shining through the grid we made with our fingers. 

Then we donned our eclipse glasses and watched as the tiny crescent got smaller and smaller. When it disappeared, we removed our glasses.

I've heard a total eclipse and people's reactions to it described different ways. For us, there was no screaming or crying just a feeling of awe. The darkened sky had a hint of yellowish green, kind of like a pending tornado but without the storm. A bright star appeared and there was a smaller star (planet?) lower in the sky that flashed and twinkled. Clouds hung low in the sky across the horizon and they took on a slightly pinkish hue, almost like a subtle sunset. The cicadas were buzzing loudly like they do in the evening. And the moon, looking more like a black hole, was surrounded with a bright white light. Yes, it was awesome.

The whole thing lasted less than 2 minutes and then the sun peeked out again as the moon slowly slid away. We were back on the road within 15 minutes of our arrival for the 2-hour drive home.

Four hours of driving for a 2 minute experience. Was it worth it? Yes, we all agreed it definitely was. Given the chance, we'd do it again. It's something we won't soon forget.

Sunflowers

Last summer, one of the farmers up the road planted sunflowers all along the street edge of his field. There must have been a quarter mile of sunflowers. It was such a happy sight every time we headed north.

As we drove along the main road the other day, we were excited to see that the sunflowers are back. No blooms yet, but it won't be long! :)

Lip Sync Battle 2017

My boys were a hit at the Youth Lip Sync Battle on Saturday. Their number was a definite crowd pleaser and lots of fun! The competition was a little stiffer than last year so they didn't bring home the trophy, but from the many comments they received afterward, they should have! :) It was all in good fun so there were no hard feelings.

I love seeing what these three come up with. The choreography is all theirs and came together pretty quickly once they decided on a song. They were having a blast! Enjoy their performance of "Once There Was A Snowman," by Inside Out.

Beatboxing Battle

We attended a showcase performance of our high school's a cappella group last week. They had a beatboxing battle and invited audience members to volunteer to go against the group's vocal percussionist. Sterling was quick to volunteer. You can see his performance below. (We edited out most of the other not-so-serious contenders.)



Sterling is pretty reserved at school so a lot of people were surprised at his ability. Someone asked me, "Does he ever do this at home?" Only all the time.

After the competition, we learned that the audio techs were instructed to turn off the sub-woofers during Sterling's turn in an attempt to rig it against him. Nice try. :)

Sorry for the terrible video taping. That would be my fault...

A Can of Worms

I've never been bitten by the genealogy bug... until now.

I just finished a four-day community course on the basics of genealogy. A lot of the material was review. I don't know a lot, but know just enough to be dangerous. I was given some good tips on narrowing down searches and various websites for getting information. On the last day of class, we had some time left at the end so I just started going through my family tree on FamilySearch.org. Oh boy. I had no idea when I identified my great grandma's youngest brother as a good place to start that I would end up so entrenched in his wife's family.

The Flynn Family, ca. 1921

I dove in last night and ended up at times with way-too-many tabs open on my computer and a web of documents, dates and people. At first, there was really nothing to go by except a few census records, but from there I identified her parents and brother. Her dad was a pretty fascinating fellow who was born in Scotland and worked as a hairdresser on 5th Avenue in New York City. There are multiple source documents for her dad and it's so cool to piece his life together and learn parts of his life story from these pieces of paper. Her mom was born in Illinois so I feel a connection on both sides.

It's still in a mess and I have to sort through a lot of things to fill in some gaps in my information, but it's so fascinating! Every new discovery is so satisfying.

Drive Your Tractor To School Day

Today's the day! It's "Drive your tractor to school" day. This is what I saw when I dropped my boys off at the high school this morning. 

Ag classes are a big thing at the high school and many of these kids have been raised on the surrounding farms. It's in their blood, so it's nice that they let them bring their vehicle of choice to school once a year.

This phenomenon is new for me. I didn't see many, if any, tractors in my suburban Utah upbringing. But in Small Town, Illinois they are everywhere. This is where my kids come from and that makes me smile.

Solo Snowflake

Our night-time temperatures one night last week were super cold, like 12º. That was sufficient to chill everything so that when it barely snowed the next day, the few snowflakes that fell didn't melt on contact. I found this stunning snowflake on my deck rail and was able to zoom in enough to get this mostly-clear picture. Isn't it pretty? The picture is straight from my phone, unedited. I think it's pretty amazing! :)

Nephi and the Brass Plates by Sam

Sam went all out on his final project for his religion class at BYU. This Lego stop-motion film was quite the undertaking! Even if you're not familiar with The Book of Mormon, you'll love this clever rendition of one of the best known Book of Mormon stories - Nephi and the Brass Plates. If you want to read the story, it starts here in 1 Nephi chapter 3. (Click next at the end of the chapter to finish reading the story in chapter 4.)

You're going to love this!! :)

The Candy Bomber

Sam is posing with one of my favorite people! I've blogged about Gail Halvorsen, a.k.a. The Candy Bomber, before. He provided so much hope to a war-torn Germany in the darkest days following World War II. I must admit that I'm a little bit jealous because Sam got to meet Mr. Halvorsen today at the BYU library and get this picture with him. Sam also walked away with a personally autographed picture.

I've posted the following video before. In it, Tom Brokaw tells The Candy Bomber's story which shows how a small act of generosity took off and ended up blessing countless lives. I'm a fan!

Cosmo - The Coolest Mascot

Jeff and the boys were in Utah last weekend. Spencer went on a BYU tour which got him pretty excited to fill out his application in a couple weeks. They were also able to spend time with Sam and enjoy several campus activities as well as time in the mountains. The main reason for their trip was to attend the Priesthood session of General Conference, which was a great experience!

One of the highlights of their trip was the BYU vs. Toledo game on Friday night. It was a close one from start to finish! BYU squeaked out the win, 55-53, with a field goal in the last 2 seconds of the game. It was definitely a nail biter, but we couldn't be happier with the results!

This video is from the halftime show. Our Cougarettes are the best, literally. They have won the Hip Hop National Championship 16 times! Throw in Cosmo, BYU's school mascot, and you're in for a real treat! This cougar can dance!! At the time of this posting, this video has over 1,300,000 views. I'm not surprised. If you're anything like me, you'll be watching it more than once! :)

In My Own Backyard

I don't know why cool bugs and spiderwebs make me smile, but they do so there you go. Here are a few fun nature sightings from my yard in the past week.

A katydid on my front porch

This guy was perched on the side of my car this morning.

This little moth was 1/2" across, if that. The next picture shows his beautiful detail.

I really need to spend more time outside!