Shoulder to Shoulder

I need Forest. I am not complete without him. But I have had to learn to be okay without him the past year and a half as work has required him to travel to Taiwan every other month. Those trips, combined with a smattering of work trips to Silicon Valley, has made his absence rather prominent. Back in May, not long after another Taiwan trip, Forest had surgery on his left shoulder which ended up having a more challenging recovery than anticipated. With post-surgery restrictions limiting the use of his left arm, I was left with all the lifting, child carrying, and lawn mowing that needed to be done. More than ever, I was learning to survive without his help. 

Although it was not fun, I'm sure it made us stronger somehow.

Here is Forest on the day of his surgery, by the time his drugs were wearing off: 

And here we are a couple of days later on our 11th anniversary, trying to soak in some peace from the temple grounds after a particularly rough day:

Eleven years of marriage has taught us a lot. One thing Forest has learned is the benefit of supplying his wife with consolation chocolate to help make life a little sweeter. Here is my favorite variety of chocolate he almost never fails to bring back from Taiwan:

And this is a bag of chocolate I must have earned one week when I was looking more defeated than usual:

Now that his shoulder is mostly healed, I have felt some of the burden lift off of mine. But I hope Forest still keeps buying me chocolate, anyway.

May The Fourth Be With You

For the first time ever, our family celebrated Star Wars on May fourth. We dressed up Ramona as Princess Leia, Mika as Rey of Jakku, Paula as Padme Amadala (warrior edition). Rey and Leia rode the bus to school that day after practicing their piano.

After school, their weapons of choice were water guns and sticks from the backyard.

In the evening, we watched about half of "The Last Jedi." I think we finished the rest of it the next day. Ramona's Rey doll sat and watched with us, too.

I would have loved to dress Wylie up as a little Yoda or Darth Vader. Maybe another time.

I love how Star Wars turned out to be such a unifying force in our family. Any story that helps pile all our kids onto the same couch and plays a soundtrack by John Williams seems alright with me.

Sam-Packed Saturday

Aunt Christie had a conference in Denver at the end of April, and brought Uncle Dan and baby June with her. We still had not met baby June, and who knows when was the last time we saw and Dan Christie? So that Saturday, we drove down to meet them for lunch and a stroll around the city.

We went to Sam's No. 3.

A balloon artist handed Mika a flower as we were walking down the sidewalk.

On the way home, we took naps in the car and stopped at Culver's for ice cream.

After that, we had my orchestra's annual potluck/meeting in Loveland. It was my idea to get it partially catered, which turned out to be a good idea, but of course then it fell on Forest to pick up the food (in addition to supervising children during the meeting). Thank you, Love.

It was a little jam-packed, but not a bad Saturday for the Dixons.

Dorkestra

For a little over a year now I have served as the secretary for the Loveland Orchestra, and my dear friend Paige has been the president. The 2017-2018 season was our first season as board members, so we had a lot to learn and a lot of volunteer hours to donate (these are unpaid positions, just like our membership as musicians in the orchestra). Let me just say--I had no idea how many logistical details go into maintaining a community orchestra and putting on seven concerts a year.

Here we are after our first concert of the season back in September--the crowd was a little sparse, perhaps in part because we didn't get the ad in the local newspaper, but we sounded great and there were no disasters.

In February was our fourth annual (and hopefully final) fundraiser gala. Again, I was a little naive about the amount of time required to organize an event like this. It was educational, successful, and completely took over my life. So many things were put on my proverbial back burner during the weeks leading up to February 3, I still shudder at the word "gala."

The crazy look in my eyes has visibly increased in the selfie we took at the gala:

Forest and Ramona came to support me at the fundraiser. They listened to me play music, filled up their plates with food, and won a couple of raffle prizes. During the silent auction, they also let me bid on a student viola, which I ended up taking home.

Ramona's raffle prizes

Our March concert was the highlight of the season for me. We got to play Brahms Symphony No. 4, which I fell in love with at one point, and it still pulls at my heart strings. Our orchestra performed it about five years ago, but this rendition was so much more gratifying to play. The group as a whole sounds much more refined, and the accuracy of my personal playing has also improved, so it was a much more fulfilling experience to present on stage. 

If Louie and I are still here in five years, he promised we could play it again.

Here we are at our final concert, at the end of April. Probably still feeling a little crazy, but so relieved to have that first season behind us with no major catastrophes. 

We presented Louie with an embroidered fleece marking the end of his 15th season as our director. Congrats, Maestro, and congrats Madame President on a fantastic season under your leadership!

We started up our next season a couple of weeks ago, and at the first rehearsal Louie asked everyone to share why they played in the orchestra as they introduced themselves. I have thinking about this a lot, and here are a few reasons why I play:

1) I grew up having a love/hate relationship with orchestra. Love won.

2) Life is better when you find moments to make something beautiful--including beautiful music.

3) Making music is a privilege that elevates my existence in a truly unique way. There is almost something ethereal about the process that makes me wonder if I attempted something similar before this life. 

In the moment, as I stood to introduce myself, this was the reason I gave:

For me and my cello, this is home.