Memories from the Union University Music Department

A Facebook status today caused me to recall some great memories from college. Here are some favorites.

There was the time that the entire music faculty was meeting in that classroom adjacent to the hallway we all bummed around in (Brownie points for the number...or the tonic, LOL!). Sam Mizell, oblivious to this fact, stood up and walked over to the barely cracked door. "Watch this," he said. He then lifted one leg in slow motion and executed a move he could have only gotten from watching too many Bruce Lee movies, complete with a loud cry of "Hi-YAH!" His leg forcefully kicked the door open, to the surprise of a room full of people who held his GPA in their hands. CLASSIC.

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Voice boards were basically final exams for a voice student. Each student would pick a song from their repitore and perform it in front of the music faculty. Then the came the dreaded part - the teachers picked the second song. One semester there was this Berlioz song called "Villanelle." Three verses in French, all different. The tempo was allegretto, in cut time, with only a two-measure intro. I just knew they were going to pick that one. Dr. Roby, with his coffee-steam fogged glasses looked at me and smiled as it rolled off of Dr. Penny's lips.

I nodded to show that I understood the pain I was about to endure. Christa Friel, my ever vigilant accompanist, took that nod to mean "GO, WOMAN!" I had exactly two seconds to start singing. I started with the second verse. Then I sang the third verse. Then....I totally and completely made up a verse.

No one ever said anything about it. I either pulled it off, or they were gracious. I passed. The End.

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During an afternoon (4:10!) recital, I sang a piece that had a huge pause between part A and part B. Dr. Roby told me to use facial expressions to indicate that the song was not finished. As I was wrapping up the first verse I spotted Chris Wann. He was sitting right under a spotlight and had turned his hat around backwards; leaning forward, he had his hands held out in front of him, ready to clap as obnoxiously as possible as soon as the final note faded. I have no idea how I managed to keep a straight face as his lone clapping filled the silent room.

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Some fast funnies to end with...

Brad Bruhn and I got paired up for a class piano duet. During the performance, I finished the piece and Brad kept playing for a good two minutes.

Ben Clark got all the Proclamation guys in trouble for loudly whispering, "MARIA!" in the wrong place during West Side Story rehearsals.

Dr. Hartley accidentally had the Ninety-Nine Nuns in the Minnesota Monastery.

Anyone have others to share?

Adventures in Homemaking

Who says it's boring to be a stay-at-home mom? Where else can you see...

...a boy sleeping in his pillowcase?


...exploded potatoes (on July 4th, no less; I thought the neighbors had some incredible fireworks!)?


...a for-real shiner (he lost a fight with the side of the swimming pool)?


...a MATER cake (Happy Birthday, my big 4-year-old!)?


...kids making homemade ice-cream, and...


...eating it?


...homemade yogurt dripping whey over a sink (looks nasty but it tasted great)?


...a yogurt-eating dinosaur?


And now for a couple of pics from the Navy Lake fireworks show. Audrey and "Grandma #3," Ms. Teri:


Daddy and Audie


Daddy and Katie

A Talented Friend

A friend of mine is about to become a stay-at-home mom to a sweet little baby boy...and we have been waiting for this boy for a very long time! To assist with the inevitable income gap and to give her an outlet for her amazing creativity, her husband invested in a top-of-the-line camera. Below, and on my new profile picture, you will find just a few results from our latest sitting. If you are interested, email me and I will get you in contact with her. She is extremely reasonable - and we ALL know that I am frugal! Did I mention that she is great with kids, and comes with a husband/sidekick who takes candids during the shoot? Actually, I think that he took most of the ones below! But I'll load more when I have time.

Taming of the Mane

A while back I mentioned an awkward situation with the lady who cuts my hair. Since that time, the salon she works for raised their already high prices. So I've just been letting it grow. Okay, letting it GO is more like it.

Enter Lisa. Lisa belongs to my homeschool group and recently shared her secret past. When she quit work to be with her kiddos, she was traveling around the country doing hair shows and teaching salon owners how to run their businesses. She offered her fellow mommies "bathroom haircuts" for LESS THAN A THIRD of the price of the aforementioned salon. Could it get any better? Why, yes, yes it could. Instead of taking a beeper (old salon did not make appointments!) and waiting at my mother-in-law's house until I was summoned, I could drive THREE-FOURTHS of a mile down the road WITH my children in tow and get a fabulous haircut. As a bonus, Lisa's beautiful and sweet teen daughter fed my kids lunch! Incredible.

Normally I do not care for pictures of my mug on here, but for my curious friends I'd like to demonstrate Lisa's talents. And in the usual "before and after" fashion, I made sure to look pretty nasty in the "before" shot. *giggle*

Before



After (air drying and hitting a few spots with the curling iron)



Side View



Straight(er)



(Special thanks to my photographer, Owen.)

Old Red

My friend Shannon emailed me this week to tell me that their family dog had died. Old Red's story is pretty incredible. Shaun and Shannon got Red when they still lived in Tennessee. The dog made the move with their family to Alabama, and by God's gracious providence, he eventually made the move with them back north to Mississippi. Shannon has given me permission to share this email from January 2nd, 2003.

Hi you guys,

This is a little long, but it really happened to our family and I'm still in awe over it. I couldn't wait to share it with you.

I may or may not have mentioned to you that our dog, Red, ran away about a week before Christmas (approx. Dec. 12). We drove around the neighborhood looking for him, but to no avail. Since he still had not come home by December 20 (the day we had to leave to come home for Christmas), we guessed we wouldn't see him again.

We returned to Mobile Dec. 26, but Red still had not come home. We kept hoping that he'd return, but he didn't. So we had decided that he probably wasn't coming back. The kids and I were sadden by the loss of our dog, so we started thinking about getting a new puppy.

January 1, 2003 (my birthday) we were trying to decide what to do to sort of celebrate the day, when Shaun suggested that we go look for a puppy. I sort of brushed off the idea at first, because I had planned to give Red a couple more weeks to return. But then I decided that it was highly unlikely that he was coming back, so I agreed with my husband and suggested that we pick up a newspaper and check the classified ads for puppies for sale.

We made three phone calls as we were driving around and starting making appointments to see the puppies that were available. There was an ad for Jack Russell Terriers that peaked our interest, so we made a call to go see the puppies. It turned out to be the nearest location to us, (probably 5 miles from our house), so we decided to go there first.

The man who owned the puppies brought them outside for us to see. They were four of the cutest little puppies and we had almost decided that we wanted one of them. Then Seth, our oldest son, mentioned to the man that our dog had run away.

The man asked what the dog looked like, and I described Red to him. He told us that it sounded just like a dog he had picked up that had been hit by a car on Airport Road. He had taken the dog to the emergency vet. He said the dog had been hurt pretty badly, but he thought it had survived. He knew the lady who had taken the dog home, and he told us how to get there. We thanked the man and went to see if by chance the dog was Red.

Indeed, it was! We were so thankful that strangers had been so kind to him.

We were so glad to have Red back, but more than that, it was a great opportunity to share our faith in our Awesome God with our children. It was an opportunity to share how He cares about the things that are important to us, and that He does intervene in our daily lives. He is constantly at work around us.

Think about it. What were the chances that (1) we would decide to go look for puppies that day, and (2) we would pick an ad for Jack Russell Terriors that would take us to the man who transported Red to the emergency vet.

Needless to say we didn't buy a puppy, but we are glad to have our Red home again.

Happy New Year!

Grace & Peace,

Shannon

The Tastiest Planet and Other Adventures

Aggravation!

Here is a common sight on a Friday night at Casa Hinton. After a sing-along accompanied by both guitar and bass and multiple bedtime stories for the little ones, it is time for a bit of fun. It's about 10:00 and the coffee is brewing. The smell of delicious (previously frozen) peach cobbler lingers in the air. Friends Roger and Elisabeth now sit with Kevin and me at our homey kitchen table. Roger says....."Kill her!"

WHAT?!?! No, we are not into some new cult. We are playing Aggravation, known to some as Texas Hot Seat. The game board was a wedding gift from my grandpa. The main problem is that Elisabeth and I have not been "providentially blessed." I might dare to use the term "unlucky" for something this serious. I can't even keep track anymore....the guys probably lead by over twenty games.

So, Elisabeth, I have come up with a possible solution. I am teaching Katie and Owen to play. We can probably cheat our way into a win without them even knowing. Bwahaha!!! Seriously, though, the kids really like this game. I counted it as school, since it involves lots of counting and logic. And dice rolling. All good Baptists know how to cast lots, right? (R and E, you can easily see Owen's logic...bring 'em ALL out at once!)



Growing Pains...for ME

Audrey has been walking for about three or four weeks now. She immediately followed this up with climbing the bookshelf, climbing up on the kitchen table, throwing Katie's socks in the trash, playing in the toilet, and this:



But I don't want to take a nap!

(I wonder if Owen will still be sleeping with Spot dog when he's married?)



Pee B and J

Owen woke up on Tuesday, walked into the living room, and announced the following: "Fust I'm gonna get cwose on, den eat wunch, den go spen da night at Gwanma's house." He then proceeded to dress himself. I went to get Audrey up and dressed. When I came back he was standing in his Little Tykes chair in a puddle of pee, eating a heel of bread. He had the knife, peanut butter, and jelly out for making his "wunch." After his bath he insisted on the sandwich, so after chanting my current mantra of "choose your battles" I told him to go for it. Here he is licking the peanut butter, wet hair and all.



Eating Mercury

Katie took almost an hour to help me make gray salt dough and then sculpt her model of Mercury. Audrey took less than two minutes to climb on the table and make a crater of her own. Mmmmm.....Salty Mercury. (Kevin, there's a Simpsons reference for ya!)