Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

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.

"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.      

Thanks for the flowers mom and dad!

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.              

Check out all of that hair!

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     

Clara is 1 year old!

Clara is 1 year old!!!

 Dear Family and Friends,

Clara turned one year old on April 20th. It's really crazy to realize that an entire year has gone by. It's been an incredible year with Clara. She has brought such joy to our lives, and we have enjoyed watching her grow and develop these last 12 months.


We decided to throw a "ballerina" birthday party for Clara last weekend with close friends and family. It was a lot of fun, and Clara enjoyed playing with other babies and children. She also enjoyed trying her first piece of cake! She wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, but she quickly figured it out and seemed to like the taste. Most of the cake ended up on the floor, but a messy bout with cake seems to be a rite of passage for one-year olds these days. Our friends and family were so kind and generous; Clara received many beautiful gifts, including two hand-made dresses from her two aunts. The party was also special for us because we realized how many new friends we have made here in Connecticut over the past several years. We feel very lucky to have close relationships with such wonderful people.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Clara destroying her cake

Birthday presents!

"What's in here?"

 This past week was also special for us because my brother Steve, and sister-in-law Christy and their three adorable kids Mariana, Madeline and Carson came for a visit from Kenosha, WI. It was their first time to the East Coast, and also the first time they were able to meet Clara. My nieces and nephew were very sweet with Clara, and it was so fun to see them all interacting. It was a great visit, and we hope they can come again in the future.

Family

Carson and Clara

Madeline, Mariana and Clara

Clara is doing quite a bit of walking these days. She is very steady on her feet unless she is tired. It seems everyday she is doing more walking and less crawling. She has figured out how to turn our radio on and off and enjoys turning music on and dancing. Her hair has suddenly gotten longer and is cute, curly and blond. She has a favorite polar bear named "Snuggie" whom she literally snuggles all of the time. It's so sweet. We look forward to watching her transition from a baby to a toddler. We are going to miss the baby stage, but the toddler stage promises to bring a lot of fun and exciting new developments.

Clara's 1 year old Portrait

Happy 1 year old!

I really can't believe that I have been posting this blog for over a year now. It's been a lot of fun and serves as a creative outlet for me. I enjoy writing and taking pictures, and I love getting feedback from those of you who follow it. I have family members who do not use facebook, so this keeps them from feeling left out. Thanks for your interest and support of this blog. I will do my best to keep going with it. The month of May looks to be relatively laid-back, which I think is what we need for a while. It's been a busy month for Joey and we are looking forward to a chance to unwind a bit.

Best wishes to you all!

Joey, Erin and Clara

Spring is in the air!

Dear Family and Friends,

Spring has come to Connecticut these last several weeks. Flowers are blooming, the sun is out and the birds are singing. The weather at night has been cool, but we have reached temperatures in the 50's and 60's during the day. Joey, Clara and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather by trying to get out of the house as much as possible. We discovered the borough playground down by the docks. It's a sweet little playground and is home to an infant swing which has been a thrill for Clara. Just the other day we took a trip to Providence, RI to check out the zoo and ended up spending time on the wonderful carousel located on the park grounds. It's been fun exploring and trying new things with Clara.

Our Clara is growing a mile a minute. She has such a cute little personality. She loves to smile and laugh. Clara has had a few major milestones in the past weeks. She is now able to stand up from the floor without holding on to anything, and even more exciting, she took 10 steps all by herself one evening. It hasn't really happened since, but I think it peaked her curiosity, and I wouldn't be surprise if one of these days she decides crawling is old news. Clara is also starting to understand the meaning of a number of words such as "dancing", "kitty", "moon" and "milk". She loves cats, and when she sees one she tries to say "kitty". Clara turns one year old on April 20th. We have a small birthday party planned at the end of this week. My brother and his wife and children are coming to visit us from Wisconsin. It will be their first trip to the East Coast and also their first time meeting Clara. We are so excited for their visit and glad that they can be here to celebrate her birthday.

Holy week was certainly a busy week for Joey. His services went well, and we had a wonderful first Easter Sunday in our new church home. After church Clara blessed us by taking a three-hour nap which allowed us to rest and recover from a busy week. That evening we enjoyed spending time with some close friends who were kind enough to invite us to their home for Easter dinner. Clara got to wear her Easter dress, a gift from my mom and dad. She looked so sweet in it, and she had fun taking eggs out of her Easter basket and throwing them all over our living room floor. So much has changed since last year. Little Clara was only four days old last Easter Sunday! (See photo)

(Clara, Easter 2011)

We hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Easter weekend. The next few weeks will be busy with visits from family and celebrating Clara's birthday. I promise to include a post all about it. Happy Spring! Let's hope it's here to stay.

Joey, Erin and Clara