Dear Family and Friends,
We hope you are enjoying this Memorial Day weekend. The "summer people" have moved into Stonington Borough now, and the area is starting to get pretty busy. Soon we won't be able to get into any of our favorite restaurants in the borough since most don't bother to take reservations because they are so busy. Oh well, it's a good excuse to eat at home a lot! It's so fun to sit and watch all the boating activity on the water as well. I have always thought that sailboats were so beautiful to watch, and I'm hoping to actually get to go out on one in the near future.
Did I say in my last blog that May was going to be a relaxed month? Somehow we managed to stay pretty busy. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it is already going to be June in less than a week. It's been a good month though. A few weeks ago we took a day trip to Salem, MA. It's about 2 hours drive from Stonington. Joey and I had always wanted to visit Salem for various reasons. I remember reading "The Crucible" and "The Scarlet Letter" in high school, and Joey and I both share a love for Halloween. The trip was really interesting. We got to see the memorial for the victims of the witch trials, learn more about the author Nathaniel Hawthorne and visit the House of Seven Gables, on which he based his novel. We had fun exploring and visiting the historic waterfront and enjoyed some good Indian food for dinner.
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| "The House of Seven Gables" Salem, MA |
I can't remember much about Mother's Day 2011 other than the fact that Joey and I were not getting much sleep with our little newborn. Of course it was an extremely special Mother's Day because I had just become a new mommy. This year was special too, and we were both much more awake. We enjoyed worship at Calvary in the morning, and Joey grilled hamburgers for dinner after he returned from accompanying an Evensong service with the Anglican Singers. The weather was perfect, and my parents surprised me by sending beautiful flowers from Minnesota. Clara wore her little nautical dress to church, a gift from her Grandma Ripka. Joey and I have both been blessed with wonderful mothers, and I hope one day Clara feels the same way about me.
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| Thanks for the flowers mom and dad! |
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| Happy Mother's Day 2012! |
Joey's busy church year is winding down for the summer. He will continue to plan and play services every Sunday, but the ensemble rehearsals have ended until Fall. Joey started up a chorister program at Calvary last fall and has recruited 16 wonderful kids so far. He hopes the program will continue to grow and is extremely proud of the progress the kids have made this year. They are a great group, and it's very moving to hear them sing during services. Joey has added another job title as of March 2012. He is now the Artistic Director of Calvary Music School. We are both members of the teaching faculty at CMS, but in addition to teaching piano and organ he will now oversee the artistic planning and direction of the music school. He is excited about this new role. His piano studio is continuing to grow, and he is really enjoying his students.
I have been continuing my violin lessons with Katie Lansdale, Professor of violin at the Hartt School of Music. Joey and I already have at least two recital engagements scheduled this Fall, so I am enjoying learning new music and figuring out our programming. I am also serving on the Calvary Music School board. We started meeting back in January, and it's been a really interesting process. It's great to share ideas with other board members and discover what's involved in trying to have a successful, high-quality music school. My violin studio is growing slowly but steadily. In the Fall I inherited 4 students from the school, and after doing some recruiting and networking I am hopeful that the number will be up to 10 by next Fall. I have some really wonderful students, and I love teaching them. The end-of-the year recital is June 10th, and Joey and I are looking forward to having our students perform.
Clara is doing really well. She is 13 months old now and walks everywhere. She hardly ever crawls anymore, and she sometimes attempts to run which usually results in a fall. She has a great sleep schedule going. She sleeps from roughly 10pm-8am and then stays active and happy until her afternoon nap from roughly 2-5pm. She hardly ever wakes up during the night anymore. She LOVES having books read to her. We keep her books on a toy box in the living room, and she goes back and forth from the box to the couch bringing us books to read to her. We recently bought Clara a toy grand piano. She really enjoys playing on it. Every time she plays something she turns and looks at us waiting for us to applaud. It's pretty cute. Although she isn't able to say many words yet, her recognition of words is really improving. She points at things all of the time now which helps us to be able to tell what she wants. She recognizes pictures of many different animals and can point to things that we name. She's pretty independent and wants to figure things out for herself. She also loves interacting with other kids. We take her swinging at the park a lot, and that never fails to make her really happy. Life is exciting but also a little more scary now that she is so mobile. Last week we took her to the little beach by our house, and she got to walk in the sand. She better get used to sand because we plan to spend a lot of time by the ocean this summer.
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| Check out all of that hair! |
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| Clara's first trumpet lesson with Grandad Moore |
June is going to be a very busy month for us. It begins with a trip to Cleveland, OH. Joey has been invited to give the dedication recital for a new organ at St. Pauls United Church of Christ in Parma, OH where he was organist/choir master for two years. We are really excited about the trip, because we will be able to see all of the wonderful people we got to know and love while Joey was employed there. It's a wonderful church, and we are so happy that they are going to have a nice new instrument for their worship services. We are going to drive to Cleveland and plan to break the drive up into two 5-hour days. This will be our first long car trip with Clara, and we are hoping she will manage ok.
After we return from Ohio my parents are coming to visit. We are finally moving into our permanent residence at the end of June, and my parents are going to help watch Clara so we can get organized and ready to move. Part of Joey's compensation package as Director of Music includes the church providing us with housing. We are moving into "Calvary House" which normally houses the Rector of this church and his family. It's located right next to the church. Our Rector and his wife were living in the house this year, but preferred to live off campus and were able to move into a new condo last week. Therefore Calvary House is now available for us as our private residence. The church is creating an apartment within Calvary House for us. We will have the downstairs 1/2 bath, eat-in kitchen and back deck, and the entire upstairs which includes a living room, two bathrooms and three bedrooms. The formal downstairs living room and dining room will be shared space, meaning the church may schedule those spaces for meeting and gatherings with our permission. A third room at the front of the house will become Joey's new office. Joey is having his piano from MN moved into the shared living room, and so it will also function as our teaching studio. Right now the house is empty, so the church is taking advantage of this time to do some updates to the house including adding our privacy doors, re-finishing and painting all of the wood trim, putting in some new windows and re-doing all of the wood floors. We were able to pick the paint colors for our private living room and bedrooms. It's going to look really beautiful when it is all finished and ready for us to move into. We are so excited and looking forward to making it our new home. I will be sure and post some pictures once we are settled.
Well, I think that's the news for now. Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend, and let's all be sure to take a moment to give thanks for the men and woman who have given their lives in order to protect our freedom and our country.
Thanks for reading!
Joey, Erin and Clara