I Can Only Give You Country Walks in Springtime

Wednesdays are busy but may I just give a happy 20th anniversary wish to my husband Bill. Saying yes to you was the single best decision of my life. What would I do without you? You looked for and found the best in me. I knew it was right from the start when I was my very best self when I was with you. It doesn't seem like it could possibly be twenty years, two babies, two houses and one cabin later. You are still the giggly college kid from Northern Illinois.

Here's to the next twenty and beyond.

That's All. . . click to hear

Spring Forward

Spices of Life

Mary Graduates Book 5 and 6 

Anyone for a Coffee on the Porch? 

Concerts to Celebrate

Calvin's Percussion Ensemble Piece Second to Last

Things are cooking along here at the Kotrba residence. Spring is on the way in theory. Calvin and Mary have both had a lot going on academically and musically. Calvin checked off his ACT tests and Mary is doing some extra summer math to put herself a year ahead.

Last weekend was our Suzuki Association of Minnesota Graduation day. As graduation chairperson I'm happy to report that everything went off without a hitch thanks to our most awesome committee.
I had 22 students perform and Mary graduated from Books 5 and 6. I was proud of everyone, of course, but Mary deserved some big credit. She has been working her tail off. She played beautifully and flawlessly. I'll be celebrating my whole studio on my studio news blog ASAP.

We've had some snow around here. A lot of snow. School was cancelled on Monday. In a new trend, administrators are predicting snow storms now and calling off snow before the first flurry. This is totally wimpy and not in the spirit of Minnesota, but, now that I have a teen age driver I'm all over that. The thought of a whole parking lot of teens descending upon a snow and ice covered city all at once with no ice scrapers in their cars and no plows running. Yep. It reminds me of the parking lot of a Texas dance hall at 2:00 a.m. when the bar closes. You wanted to be the first one out, that's for sure.
Growing up, my mom was a teacher and when you heard the phone ring at 5:00 a.m. you shut off your alarm and went back to sleep if you weren't too excited. Now we all get texts and emails website updates.

On the snow day, I cleaned my oven and the freezer. That was a bad one.

I'm grateful for a school district that promotes student achievement in the arts. The Eastview Wind Ensemble Percussion performed Calvin's 2018 percussion ensemble piece, "City of Seasons" at the percussion ensemble concert and also last night at the band concert. Mr. P introduced the piece and said some very flattering remarks about Calvin's composition skills and how composition shows the depth of understanding of music. Bill and I each took video. Side note. . . earlier on the program was Funeral March of a Marionette. Bill and I had just been talking about our NIU convocation experiences and there shows up Stephen Squires on the Eastview Program. He was our freshman theory teacher, wind ensemble director and he accompanied Bill on his senior recital. Small world news.

So--it's just a journal update here--nothing profound to share--but it's my blog and now and then I get to just brag about my kids. To be fair. . . I work very hard to support everyone else's kids too. There's just a lot of great kids in the world to celebrate.

Click here for a link to Mary's Invention
Click here for a link to Calvin's Percussion Ensemble Piece
Click here to see all my YouTube videos