Notes

1) There's an older lady in our ward (I've known her since I was a little girl), who was a high school music teacher for years, and whenever I talk to her she's always going to, or has just been to, a concert, or a play, or an exhibit - she really gets around. A month or two ago I said to her - next time you hear about a good concert, would you let me know? So she called me the next night and asked 'were you serious about wanting to go to a concert?' and I said 'yes!' She told me about the concert series the classical radio station sponsors every year that celebrates a particular composer, and this year it was Beethoven. On Thursday night, I met her at the station's studio auditorium for a Beethoven trio concert. The trio (piano, violin, cello) played four works (so the concert was about an hour and a half) - and I was in heaven. I had forgotten how much I love classical music, especially live. It was the pianist I particularly loved. We picked seats in the front row off to the side, so we could watch her hands, and I just grinned and breathed happy for a whole one and a half hours. This music was my first love really, and something deep down inside me felt like it was finally being satisfied. There's so much beauty, emotion and such perfect precision in Beethoven - and the violin and cello just made my soul soar. So all in all a fabulous evening - even if I was the only person without grey hair (well, a total head of grey hair) and wrinkles in the audience :)

2) We're spring cleaning at our house at the moment, and as much as I usually dread the work associated with the 'spring clean', I've been quite enjoying it this year. Mum does such a thorough job of things, and each cupboard always looks so nice and new when we're finished with it. We had abby and james and jessima over for a bit on Saturday, as well as a few people in our ward, and the gardens got re-mulched and fertilized (although I could have done without that smell), and more cupboards on the inside of the house got cleaned out too. It was a fun day. So Mum, even though we roll our eyes and give you a hard time, I really appreciate you're pushing us all through the spring cleaning. It make the house a nicer place to live in and I really appreciate it :)

3) I was a little disappointed with the end of the India Jones movie :( I won't ruin it for people by going into detail, but that kiss? the worst one in movie history I think! It was fun to have an outing with Bethy, Ben and Oliver though :)

4) Can I just say something nice about my dad? He's been on a specific eating plan for the last several weeks now (and he's losing so much weight!) but it means that he has to eat a very specific list of food, and can't deviate from it at all. Dad - who likes to cook, and always cooks on Sundays - cooked a lovely dinner last night, even though he couldn't eat it. And that wasn't the first time he's done it! Now that's selflessness! It was really delicious, and I love him for that and the millions of other selfless service acts he does every day!

5) My sister Jessima is looking fatter and fatter every day! It's so exciting :) I can't wait to meet little Jenna/Jackson in September! They're buying prams and cotts and nappies and baby things, and I'm getting very excited about the whole thing. I know Abby and Bethany will do a good job too, but I plan to be the very best Aunty in the whole world, so I guess they'll just have to settle for second place!

6) Work has been crazy busy lately, and sometimes I wonder about how much time I spend at work. I'm hoping this is just a 'time and season for everything' thing, and that I won't always be doing this. But for now I'm enjoying it, and am so grateful that I enjoy it so much - considering the time allocation! This week I'm off to Mt. Isa for three days - it's a mining town that's truly in the middle of the Australian outback! I'm looking forward to seeing it because I love to travel, and I've been loving all these little Australian towns I've been visiting lately. I think you can really start to understand the flavour of a country when you visit it's outback towns.

7) Remember how excited I was to have completed the first day of my goal chart with 100%? Well, day 2 wasn't so successful I'm afraid. And then day three was a little less successful again. In fact, I finished Week 1 as a complete failure *sob*. I'm very grateful that it's Monday again though :) There's something about Mondays that make me feel like maybe you can handle starting again :) And I love it that Mondays come after Sunday, because at the end of a Sunday, I always feel like re-doubling my efforts to become a better person. I'll still have to try really hard today, but we all already know I can handle day 1, so I think tomorrow, day 2, will be the real test! Thanks for the Sister Hinckley quote mum - I really liked it :)

Okay, that's it for now - I'd really better get on and do some work now! let the comments begin (you all know that's the real reason I write entries, right? And that includes you Peta!)
Love you all!

xo Tammy