Melissa's Violin Recital

Here is a recording of Melissa playing at her violin recital. 

She played Concerto No. 5 in D Major, Op. 22, 3rd Mvt, by Friedrich Seitz.  

Her good friend, Keturah,  accomplianed her on piano - all for a plate of brownies that she helped bake!

Melissa and Her Violin

Melissa has been very busy on her violin this spring. She plays with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS) Interlude Orchestra. They practice every Saturday from 10-12 in Portland. On March 12 at 7:30pm they played a concert in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall downtown Portland . Here you see the advertising around town:

Here it is at the hall in lights!Here she is on stage. Her group played three songs: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major by Franz Schubert, Amedeus! (from Symphony No. 25) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Spirit of Freedom by Tracey R. Rush.They sounded wonderful! Brian, Rachel, & I enjoyed it from our balcony seats. (Kevin and Jessica were at winter percussion practice.)Melissa also spent many hours after school practicing with the Pit Orchestra for Westview High School's production of Guys & Dolls. They had performances on two weekends: March 4,5,& 6; and March 11, 12, & 13. She said it was strange being under the stage. She never did get to actually see the show- but knew most of the lines! Here she is in the pit- the stage floor was painted purple.Here is what it looked like above for the grand finale:It is tradition for the orchestra to dress up for the final Friday performance and to come on stage to take a bow. Unfortunately that was the night of Melissa's MYS concert so she missed it. Here she is after her last performance on the 13th:

Great job Melissa! We are so proud of all your hard work!!

Tuba Girl

Melissa plays the tuba in band. She plays the Sousaphone in marching band. She is so cute in her Barret! There are only 3 tubas in the band. There are only 2 girls in the low brass section. She won't change to melophone like her brother tries to persuade her to do. She likes to play the tuba!

Her violin teacher can't believe it. "Trumpets (brass) and violins are supposed to be enemies!" She says. "That is part of being a violinist in the orchestra!" (Melissa also plays trumpet.) When ever the subject of Tuba comes up in their violin lesson she tells her this joke:

"There was a boy who was learning to play the tuba. He came home from his first lesson and his dad asked him what he learned. He said that he learned to play the note C. The next day when he came home from his lesson his dad asked him the same question again and the son answers that he learned two more notes: G and A. The next day the son came home very, very late. His dad asked, 'Where have you been?' The son answered: 'I was playing at my first Gig!'"

Her teacher thinks this is very funny. However, Melissa is very proud of the notes that she plays on the Tuba.

Summer has Come and Gone

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't blogged since May!

The School year ended with lots of concerts and recitals, the Rose Parade, and Lizzy Graduating. Summer jumped right in with Young Women's Camp for Jessica, Melissa, and Rachel; 11 yr Scout camp for Brian; Jessica getting her drivers licence; Kevin going to High Adventure; Jessica going on High Adventure; and Jennifer finishing up her spring semester at BYU Idaho and joining us at the Greenall Family Reunion! That all happened in June and July. August we breathed, laid around, Kevin worked on his Eagle Project, then Band Camp Started and we are now Back to School! 3 kids in High School and Marching Band. Rachel at Meadow Park Middle School in 7th grade, and Jennifer is home and enrolled in a few art classes at PCC, house sitting/pet sitting here and there and looking for a job. I was released as the RS Secretary a few weeks ago, and am now the 1st Counselor in the YW working with the Mia Maids. Life goes on. Here is some snap shots of some of our activities:

Symphonic Band plays for last concert of the season. Kevin on the Horn, and Jessica on the Saxophone.

Kevin sings in Concert Choir
Jessica sings Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. She also played a piano solo for "A little Night Music" the concert that took place right after the Choir Awards Concert.

Rachel Plays cello with her teacher

Lizzy graduated from High School carrying her daughter Eve. Congratulations Elizabeth! We are so proud of you for sticking with it and graduating.

Cedar Mill Stake YW Camp: Fit For His Kingdom - Boot Camp 2009

Jessica was 1st yr Counselor. Her cabin group was the Boogie Woogie Bugle Babes of company B.
Melissa was in the 3rd year cabin: Candy Stripers.Rachel was a 1st year. Her cabin was the GI JanesSisters on Bishopric Day in Oak Hills Ward OrangeRachel and her buddies Kevin High AdventureA Day at the Beach. We went to meet some friends for a bonfire to burn homework- we couldn't find them- the tide had come up and they had to leave. By the time we got there the tide had gone down. We weren't able to build a fire because we didn't bring any matches, but Rachel, Melissa, Brian and I enjoyed the scenery. Rachel and Melissa even drove the suburban!4th of July- Look we had Cousins move into town!!!! We are so happy to have Wendy, Ben, Xander, and Eliza Webster so close by!Kevin and buddies march in the 4th parade to help raise awareness for his Eagle Project: Raising money and building a percussion rack for the Westveiw Marching band.Melissa and Keturah wait in line for the opening of the latest Harry Potter Movie.We enjoyed Shakespeare in the Park two times this summer- King Lear and A Midsummer's Night Dream.The Greenall Family Reunion was a BLAST! It was at Coram Ranch by the Shasta Dam. We tie died t-shirts, had a talent show, scrapbooked, played Foosball , pool, & ping-pong, did water games in the pool, road motorcycles, built boats for a challenge, went thru Shasta Caves, floated down the Sacramento River, toured the dam, relaxed, ate great food, and enjoyed being together. The cousins had a blast together. We were even all here together for about 10 minutes so we could take this group picture (Julia was leaving for work, and Jennifer had just arrived from BYU I!)Melissa played the national anthem for one of her swim meets.Melissa and Rachel swam with the swim team this year. Melissa helped out with a younger group for one of her Personal Progress Projects. Here they are at the team tie breaker meet.Kevin made a couple of trips to the beach with his friends. He also had band buddies over to sand the rust off of the van and paint it!Time for Band Camp to start- lugging Melissa's Sousaphone down the stairs to the van.Rachel and her friends go ice skating for one last fun summer activity. So that was our Summer!

Jennifer, Dayton, and Violin

Man, Easter week seemed so long ago! So much business that week. . .


I enjoyed having Jennifer home for her spring break. She used her time catching up with her TV shows, and generally relaxing. She came to my Melodrama rehearsal on Tuesday night, so she got to see us rehearse the 2nd half where all the craziness happens (well, I guess the whole thing is crazy, but it all comes to a head at the end). Anyway it was fun to have her come watch us. I wanted to do something fun with her while she was here, and she said that she'd love to go downtown Portland and explore some art museums. So we spent most of the day on Friday (10:30-3:45pm) at the Portland Art Museum. http://portlandartmuseum.org/home/ We really enjoyed ourselves. I have no idea why we have never done this before! (I did go once with my mom to see the China exhibit long ago once when I was pregnant.) The big exhibit going on at the time was titled: La volupté du goût: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour. It was nice, but I think we both liked the contemporary exhibits the best. It was exciting for me to see real works by artists that I had studied and taught about in Art Lit over the years. I liked the huge Monet - one of the Lilly pond studies. There was also a Louise Nevelson's collage all painted black- just like we did with the kids! I loved Frank Stella's huge work- it is definitely not the same as looking at it in slides or books. So big- and our little miniatures looked just like his! I liked the Calder mobile, and they actually had a Deborah Butterfield horse statue- and I touched it! It was a fun and fulfilling day. I am so very glad that we went. Thank you Jennifer for suggesting on going!


Wednesday morning came early as Brian took a carload of winter percussion kids (including Kevin and Jessica) to the airport to fly off the Dayton Ohio at 3am. They had a real fun trip. We watched their performance online Thursday morning. Somehow things got messed up and they were announced with the title of their show 3 years ago "Amazing 7s". Other than that it all seemed to go fine. They looked good, but as they came close to the end my heart sank as one of their team members fell. (I found out later that they don't get docked for that, but judged on their recovery.) It was fun to text back and forth with the kids as we watched the scores come in. There were 70 groups in their class, which were divided into 4 rounds, 15 groups in each round. The top 3 of each- plus 4 top scoring groups got to go to semifinals that night. Since I paid for live stream for the day, we had shows going on the computer from 8am-10pm! What a variety, and mix of shows and skill! Westview ranked 10 in their round, so didn't make it any further in the competition. They scored a 82.875- the top three groups in our round getting a 91.950, 91.375, and 89.488. The group that ended up winning in the finals had a 94.875 in their first round. We were hoping the kids wouldn't be too bummed, but when they came home their spirits were high and they were bubbling over with all the fun they had, and stories to tell. They attended the professional final competition on Saturday and LOVED it! Kevin and Jessica definitely love what they do! It was good to have them home on that Sunday.

Here are some good youtube links of them performing/practicing:
The Family and Friends performance last performance before leaving for Dayton. It has some new elements added: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij0MIuP6fwI

This is a fun run to watch. It is taken by one of their leaders in the parking lot as they practice. It is cool becuase he walks around so you can see the kids faces and hear their instruments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBB5yaVSrTA

Here is another good practice cam shot - you can see Jessica in this one a little better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fUl3KoCR9s

Saturday the 18th I had Melodrama practice early in the morning- before leaving I said my goodbyes to Jennifer as Brian took her off to meet the Wiseman's for a ride back to school. At rehearsal we all got pretty nervous and decided to add 3 more rehearsals before the performance the next week.

Melissa had a violin concert at the Cedar Hill Crossing Mall that afternoon. Turns out our camera batteries were both dead so we didn't record the whole thing. We got part of the duet she played with Savannah called Ragtime Special. (I have no idea why the lighting is so bad).

Meadow Park Concerts

This has been a fun week of concerts for the Meadow Park Middle School. To make it even better, Grandma and Grandpa Greenall came up to join us!

Wednesday the 10th was the Winter Band Concert. Rachel had her first performance in the 6th grade band playing the clarinet. She even announced a number. They played selections from their Standard of Excellence Book 1: Hot Cross Buns, Au Claire De La Lune, Down by the Station, Country Walk, Good King Wenceslas, and Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

Melissa played her trumpet in the Jazz Band playing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". She played in a trumpet trio on mutes for part of it. In the Advanced Band she played Celtic Air and Dance, and Evil Ways. It was a very nice concert.

On Thursday was the Orchestra Concert. Rachel played in the beginning group on the cello. They played: Song for Christine, Natalie's Rose, Dreidel, For Pete's Sake, and Ode To Joy. The beginning group consists of two violins and two cellos.

The Advanced orchestra is a little bigger- they have 6 violins (one wasn't there)! They played: La Bamba, and Swallow Tail Jig.

The big finale number was Jingle bells, which both groups played together. It sounded great as Rachel played the melody, and Melissa played a ornamental part on top (along with the other players too of course). The school choirs performed performed after the orchestra. I hear they were good, however Grandma, Jennifer, and I didn't stay and headed off to the RS Enrichment Christmas party. We made it just in time. We missed the appetizers and dinner but got there as they were serving dessert. As we sat down the High Priest servers brought us in dinner. It was tastey! We had time to eat before the program started. It was a program titled "Sounds of Christmas". It had narration, music numbers, and slides. It was beautiful.

It was a very nice evening. Oh, one more thing. . . we have added another instrument to our family. Melissa brought home a tuba!