Suze Is Back, Alright! (duh, duh nuh nuh nuh nuh, duh, nuh nuh nuh)

Whoever gets the title song reference wins a prize! (not really, but you'll be LOVED by me)

 

Well it's been a long 4 months away from blogging, but I think it's about time I get back into the habit. We've had a crazy 4 months. Here's what we've been up to:

• Finalized our two older girl's adoptions
• Vacation in the Tri-Cities and the WA/OR Coasts
• Back to school for all 4 girls

Doesn't seem like much, but it was a fun summer for us and I can't wait to go on vacation next year!

However this season is my favorite one! I LOVE Autumn and all of the fun and excitement it brings. Back to school, Halloween, two Thanksgivings (CAN & US), my birthday, etc... Seriously this is my FAVORITE time of year.

BTW Have you discovered Pinterest yet? It is like every blogstalkers dream worst nightmare! Okay it's both. I find myself spending a lot of time on there. But I have gathered a lot of great ideas from it, so I justify it in every way.

Today I made these for my big girls: (camera phone pics - sorry!)

I got the idea from here. I saw it on Pinterest and thought it would be a GREAT idea to build a better relationship with my two older ones. Because they're adopted they still have "mom issues" and what better way to bond and attach to me, than to become pen pals! I LOVED the idea and I got right onto making them.

I just cut out some pretty paper and made a title and their name using Microsoft Publisher; a little Mod Podge to glue and seal it all up and voila! I put a letter inside to start. It says:

 Dear ______,

Would you like to be my pen pal? Instead of mailing letters to each other, we can keep them here in this notebook. I think it would be a lot of fun! 

I will write to you and then leave the notebook on your bed. Then, when you want to write me back you can begin writing on the next page and leave the notebook on my office desk when you are done.

You can write about anything! It can be funny or serious. About life, friends, boys, church, whatever! Just write about anythnig that is on your mind!

I am so excited and I hope that you are excited too!

Love,

Mom

P.S. Write back soon!

On the back I also put a quote that I liked, that I also found on Pinterest (seriously LOVE that site!)

End Of The World?

A living apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks about the second coming and what has been revealed to us in our day from the scriptures. Elder Dallin H. Oaks is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What THE? NO WAY!

So last night we had an "Urgent Chorus Meeting".

I knew exactly why, yet didn't exactly know why or how.

The suspense was killing me.

Is it killing you?

Prolly not, eh?

Well here's the deal...

We received a letter from Sweet Adelines International letting us know that Region 13 (our region's) 1st place chorus, Pacific Sound, was "disqualified from the competition and not eligible for any awards".

It so happened that one of their people onstage was ineligible to compete. So therefore they had to be disqualified.

Kudos to PSC for bringing the matter to SAI, knowing full well what the consequences would be. What an unfortunate and disappointing thing to happen to them. Apparently this has never happened in SA history and it is integrous of PSC to admit their mistake. I commend and respect them 100%.

However....(and I quote the letter)

"As a result, all placements in the competition will be adjusted. a cappella joy Chorus is named Region 13’s 2011 first place chorus and will be eligible to represent Region 13 at the international competitions held in Denver, Colorado in 2012."

 I was amazed

I was stunned

I shouted joy

I cried

I rejoiced with friends

I am humbled

Cue Freddy Mercury:

Click on Freddy for the full effect

Holy freakin' crazy!

We get to go to International competition in 18 months!!!

Revised Order of Placement as of April 21, 2011
North Pacific Region #13 2011 Chorus Contest
                        
First Place:  a cappella joy Chorus (591)
Second Place:  Spirit of Spokane Chorus (586)
Third Place:  Voices Northwest Chorus (576)
Fourth Place:   Jet Cities Chorus (558)
Fifth Place:   Olympia Chorus (537)
                        
Division A
First Place:  Rolling Hills Chorus (535)
Second Place:  RiversEdge Chorus (511)
Third Place:  Coeur d’Alene Chorus (493)
                        
Division AA
First Place:  a cappella joy Chorus (591)
Second Place:  Spirit of Spokane (586)
Third Place:  Voices Northwest Chorus (576)
                        
Most Improved
a cappella joy Chorus (591)

What's Three Plus One?

So for those of you who don't know we have another child in our home. A girl.

No....I'm not talking about the girl we're adopting from before; I'm talking about another girl.

Yup. Another.

This one is 11 yrs. going on 12 yrs old.

I know what you're thinking.....

CRAZY!

Believe me, I was thinking the same thing.

But when God tells you to do something, you do it.

That's pretty much how it all went down.......He talked. We listened.

Thankfully we did.

Now we're a family of six. (hold for applause)

Ch-Ch-Changes

I've come to realize that I crave change.

I should've known that from the amount of times a month I change my hair, or the amount of time I spend rearranging living room or bedroom furniture. You don't even want to know how much my wardrobe changes......

So often things in life that used to bring me such happiness and pleasure, I feel like burrying in the dirt and never wanting to see it again.

I know there are things in this life I can't change, like the rain in Seattle, or Daylight Savings, or the fact that I will never in my life be a natural blond with blue eyes. But I know that there are so many things that are within my control to change.

I've personally been going through a lot of change recently. Good change, but hard change. Our family has changed. Our family life has changed. Dan's priorities have changed. My priorities have changed. My sanity has changed.....and so on and so on.

One thing I've been wanting to change is this blog.

It started out as me, then I changed it into something that I'm just not; something I did to please other people. So it's time to take control and change it back.

I'll be going through some blog rennovations here soon and hopefully it doesn't upset anyone. But hopefully the right people will continue to read it.

2nd Place?........ Feels Like 1st!

This last weekend I went to Spokane with my fellow AJoy'ers to compete in our region. There were chorus's from all over Washington, Alaska, as well as northern Idaho. It was an absolute blast & I gained a lot of valuble knowledge as well.


This is the mass sing we did before the Quartet Competitions on Friday night.
Competition isn't easy for me though, cause I get very intimidated when I know people are judging me.

These were all of the new members competing this year, including ME!

So I was a bunch of nerves despite the calming herbs I took, the days previous.

Here's us about to take the stage

At the end of our performance I set myself up for severe disappointment on how we did. Not only did I feel I let my chorus down, with my personal performance, but I also felt a complete let down, cause I KNOW we've sounded better in past performances.

As I sat down in the audience after we got off stage, I had a discussion with a fellow AJoy'er and she and I both felt the same. So when it came time to announce the awards, believe me I was surprised when they announced the winner of the most improved (since last year) chorus, was none other than, US!



Woo hoo! I was more than overjoyed! I was so proud of us. We improved by 44 points from last year, which is a huge jump. Last year the chorus got most improved as well and it's seriously unheard of in Sweet Adelines for a chorus to improve as quickly as we have. So that was a HUGE accomplishment.

Then in our division (Division AA or mid-sized chorus) we took 2nd place! (last year they were 1st in Division A or small chorus) And then as a final medal we took 2nd place overall (last year they took 4th place overall). Can we say AWESOME!!!



I was jumping for joy! I tell ya, that even though we took 2nd, it totally feels like 1st to me!

Here's us wearing our medals and preparing to sing at the Show Of Champions, Saturday night.

Congratulations to my fellow chorus members. Thank you so much for treating me like your own from day one and for allowing me to have an absolute blast everytime we get together. I'm so happy I found a group of ladies I'm proud to call my sisters. I love you all!!!

AJoy Friends & Family

Before we head off to Spokane for our regional competition, we hold a sorta "dress rehearsal" show, for our friends and our family. Last night our friends and family got a look at our contest package as well as the quartets that are representing our chorus (Champagne, Frenzy & Sunbreak).

Thanks to the Thurgood's & the Thatcher's for coming to support me!

Here's video from last night's performance. (I'm the 2nd one on the left in the front row)

3rd Place A Cappella Festival 2011

We won!
Can you believe that we won something we didn't even know we were competing for?

That's just how awesome A Joy is! Are you jealous yet?

Anyways yesterday's festival was a total blast! I wish I had been there the whole day to see the rest of the acts I missed in the morning.

After having an unofficial warm-up/run through at one of our chorus member's house, we got to the festival in time to see The Baudboys perform. Man are they an awesome group of guys. They were the favs of the day. They have this bass, (Paul Eng), that has one of the yummiest voices and his range is absolutely amazing! He was my favorite. I didn't take any video, but click here for a different video of my favorite song that they did yesterday, with Paul soloing.

At the end of the festival we had the honor of listening to a cappella legends, The Coats. Now I must admitt I've never heard them before, but after yesterday I was glad to be in their presence. Even with the crappy sound system 3rd Place Commons had and with the horrible sound that resonated through the back of the food court where I was sitting with ma peeps, they still stole the stage with their awesomeness, (their tenor is AMA-ZA-ZING!). I've decided I want to be just like them when I grow up. Again I don't have any video of my own, but here's one I found on YouTube.

After a day of a cappella singing what better thing to do after, than sing sum'more! I can officially say that I've had a night of "Tag Singing"......and it's TOTALLY ADDICTING! It's like a drug!

Anyways I have 25 more days till I head off to our Regional Competition. I can't wait! It's going to be blast!

Good Old A Cappella!

In case you haven't been on planet earth lately, my chorus is singing at an A Cappella festival this Saturday, March 5th. (click the flyer above for location details)
It's a casual event and if they stick to the schedule, we'll be on the stage at 3:30pm.
Hope I'll see you there!

New Menu Items At McDonalds!

Introducing the new McFried Beef.

One 45% all-beef pattie deep fried in 65% all-vegetable oil.
Limited time only.


MixDonald's is now also prescribing drugs! Call your local restaurant to get your prescriptions refilled and try the new McFried Beef!

So my sweet little Kayla has a crazy imagination. When we're driving in the car she'll sometimes play "drive-thru" with herself. She'll pretend like she's at the window ordering a bunch of stuff and crazy stuff like trees, signs etc... Well yesterday she was playing it a different way and I thought it was totally blogworthy. Instead of "driving-thru", she "called" her order in.

Hello MixDonald's?....Yes, my ear hurts and I need some medicine......I also want a McFried Beef, umm.....some Chicken Nuggets, some umm......Fries.......some trees, a sign......

I asked her what a McFried Beef was and she just said in her cute voice, I dunno?

Maybe she's on to something, eh? Deep fried Hambugers and Pharmacy? Talk about your one stop shop!

10 Pounds!

I know it's not much, but for me, (who's been workin' her butt off for the last two weeks) it's a lot! Plus it's a third towards my first weightloss goal, which is 30 lbs.

For those who've missed the news on this one, read here.

Day 30 Of The Challenge~A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past

I took this self portrait yesterday, so it's as current of a picture as you're gonna get. No it's not your imagination that I have short, straight, red hair. It truly is that amazing. Although the picture doesn't do my awesome hair justice. It really isn't as short as it looks.
Anyways here are 3 good things that have happend in the past 7 years:

1. Meeting Dan


2. Getting my two little girls


3. Getting my big girl

Well my friends, that's the end of the challenge. It took me a while, to stay on track, but it's finally over. I'm glad that it got me writing every day (even if they didn't get posted every day). Now back to posting things out of my own brain, instead of forced topics. I apologize in advance for the un-forced randomness that will fill the pages of this blog in the future.

Adios mi amigos!

Day 29 Of The Challenge~Something that you could never get tired of doing

Singing

Here's probably the only photo I have of me singing (I know lame, eh?)
It was taken back in '04


Here's an even older clip of me singing back almost 10 years ago.

Day 28 Of The Challenge~Your favorite music

Like I've said before, my tastes in music is eclectic, but if I have to narrow it down to a favorite it's an easy job, cause I will pick uplifting music over anything the world has to offer.

A couple of years ago.....okay it was more like 10 (woozers), I made a mixed CD of all this churchy type music and I called it "Sunday Soothers". It was mostly made up of songs from EFY and other songs like that.

Since then the LDS Contemporary music genre has blossomed and you can find a lot more tasteful music by more and more artists. I'm so glad that industry has grown since I was a youth. Now my collection has grown to hundreds of songs, instead of the mere handful that I had before.

I still dream about being a part of that industry....who knows, maybe I'll be on an EFY CD someday. Until then I'll keep singing in various sacrament meetings and whatever else may come my way.

Someday though.....

Day 27 Of The Challenge~A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?

This is a picture of me last May (okay not quite a year, but I couldn't find any others). My hair is a lot shorter now and I'm a mother of 3 now, instead of just 2. Besides being (almost) a year older, I'm also a lot wiser than I was back then. It's not like a lot of time has passed, but it sure does feel like it. And then again, that picture feels like it was taken yesterday.

Day 26 Of The Challenge~A photo of somewhere you've been too

Well I haven't really been anywhere exciting, so this is a very lame post. Here's a picture of Leavenworth last year during their Maifest.

Day 25 Of The Challenge~What's in your purse?

I hate to be lame on this one, but there's currently nothing in my purse, cause I haven't used one for weeks. If I'm going somewhere I usually grab my debit card and drivers license and put it in my pocket.

Day 24 Of The Challenge~A photo of something that means a lot to you

This is a picture of the Seattle Washington LDS Temple. It's a very special place to me. It's where I received my endowment and it's where I was married to Dan for time and for eternity. It's also where my two youngest daughters were sealed to Dan and I.

Day 23 Of The Challenge~15 facts about you

1. I am totally stubborn


2. I'm a total goofy, geeky, nerd at heart


3. I am one of the funniest people I know


4. I don't like talking about myself and I'm finding this particular post challenging


5. I had a career at 19 yrs old


6. As of March 3/1/11 I will be a RETIRED Hairstylist


7. I didn't get my drivers license till I was 22 yrs old


8. Clothes and shoes make me happy (superficially of course)


9. I'm in love with the color RED


10. I took a Food Sensitivity test recently and found out I'm severely sensitive (allergic) to Apples, Pork, Cabbage, Bay Leaf, Oat & Sole as well as moderately intolerant of many other foods.


11. I've finally come to terms with the fact that I am a diabetic (I was in denial for over a year)


12. There is always a song playing in my head


13. It's a well known secret that although I'm our ward's choir director, I can't read music


14. I'm a perpetual re-organizer

I would rather poke my eyes out than finish this post off with another fact about myself, so.......that's it.

Day 22 Of The Challenge~A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Dear Me,

You promised yourself you would be thinner and healthier by now. I'm dissapointed in you. You've let me down. However let's not dwell on the negative. I know you can do this and I know that now is the time.

I'm so glad that you've joined MyFitnessPal.com. I know it's something you signed up for months ago, but it's time to really start doing it. I know that with the support of that site and your friends, that you can really do this. I'm proud of all that you've acomplished in the last week to get to this point and I'll support you all the way.

You are a strong, beautiful, loving and caring person and not only are you surrounded with people who love you, but your Father in Heaven loves you; ultimately and unconditionally. Pray to Him for guidance every step of the way and you will be able to acheive anything you set your heart on. Most of all, I love you. Remember that always.

Love,
Me

I've been inspired by the show "Heavy". It's like "Biggest Loser", but there's no money to be won and no fame in winning the contest. Just one goal: shedding the pounds!

Well I'm on a weightloss journey and you're all going to be a part of it. I'm not doing it for the fame or to win a big cash prize at the end. I'm doing it for ME. I'm not going to huff and puff my way into shedding pounds quickly either. Slow and steady wins the race and I'm going to start by tweeking my diet and excersising more. Not a big change in lifestyle, but a big change for me mentally.

My first goal is to lose 30 lbs. I'm trying to make realistic goals instead of saying, "I need to lose 200 lbs"......that's just too big a number and I know I'll get discouraged. So that's why the first goal is 30. My next goal will be 40 lbs and the next 50 lbs, until the last leg which will be a whopping 75 lbs, for a total of 195 lbs!

With your support I know that it will be even easier. That's why I've added the tracker at the top of my blog. I've already lost 5 lbs since I weighed in last time! If you'd like to join me on my journey, let me know in a comment. Then sign up on MyFitnessPal.com and add me as your friend (search for "curlysuze")

Wish me luck!

Day 21 Of The Challenge~A photo of something that makes you happy

I hate to be petty, but chocolate ALWAYS makes me happy!
Especially these little guys......mmmmmmmm chocolate!

Day 20 Of The Challenge~The meaning behind your blog name

This is pretty self explanitory.
It's my news....random daily stuff.
'Nuff said.

Day 19 Of The Challenge~Another picture of yourself

This is me about the same age as my oldest daughter is now.
Crazy!!!

Day 18 Of The Challenge~Something you crave a lot

ATTENTION