laugh till you cry

or just cry. cry me a river.






A. for those of you who have never heard me talk, yes, i really sound like that. i am aware of my nasaly voice.
B. we actually DID tune those instruments. that's just how bad we sound.
C. and oh, yes. that is a lot of wall paper. is it dizzying.

the triangle of no secrets

occasionally i will feel really guilty about my pathetic and short-lived music career. between piano and violin, i probably had about $542584823 invested in my "talent" and only about $4 worth of ability. the guilt was especially difficult to swallow this most recent mother's day. in my youth, my darling angel mother dedicated herself to teaching me and my four siblings the piano. only one child prospered in the piano venture. it was not me. it was heather, our family piano prodigy. i am not the worst pianist,(david takes that title with mark only 2 tenths of a point above him) but i certainly do not have the musical ability that my dear mother sacrificed hours of time and patience to develop.

with this in mind, heather and i brainstormed of just what mother's day gift would most please my mother. unfortunately, the flux capacitor is down right now in the delorean, so we can't go back in time and practice more and work harder at violin and viola in order to become orchestra concert mistresses . as a result we came up with the second best option: a short violin/viola duet concert.

i think she was pleased.
because madonna was right when she sang, "music makes the people come together. yeah!"


we decided on this picture for our album cover. it will be entitled "heidi and heather: music to skin cats to"

our hits include "how great thou art" and "so happy together". sour notes were played, rhythms were treated as suggestions, rests were ignored. and my mother was over the moon with joy.

of course all good plans backfire. at the end of our recital she exclaimed with delight, "oh girls, we really need to sign you both up for lessons again!"

after our concert we loaded up and headed over to our favorite authentic italian restaurant, le jardin de olive to convene for our final triangle of no secrets club meeting for a longlonglong time since heather was leaving us for the bright lights of las vegas. the triangle of no secrets is an exclusive club we beck girls are in. it originated out of necessity because the beck brothers were always so horribly mean to us and we need a way to find solace in our plight. thus the triangle of no secrets was formed. in recent years it has actually expanded to the pentagon of no secrets to include sarah and christine. hopefully someday it will be complete as the hexagon of no secrets when our final member is initiated in.

we ate. waistband strengths were tested. we alienated other tables with our hardened women laughter. a few tears were shed. it was a successful meeting indeed.

29th birthday greatest hits

since i am not one to humbly let my birthday pass with minimal mention, a birthday recap:

this is what i look like when people sing to me. it's hard to look gracious when you just want to stick your face in the cake.

this is what my husband looks like when i don't let my kids blow out MY candles. you can't blame me if my quick and powerful lungs were to much for them to compete with.

the relighting of candles for the kids ceremony. dinner with the whole KC fam damily sans thomas plus katie.



my mom had a special surprise for me in one of my gifts...

...oh! to be 17 again.

picture this: it's 1997. spice girls are playing on the radio. but i wasn't listening to them. in my teens i had developed the musical interests of a 45 man. i loved the beatles and led zepellin and creedence clearwater revival. (i still go crazy for classic rock.) i wore bell bottoms and shopped at thrift stores. i carried a huge orange tote bag made of woven hemp. i drove a 1982 buick skylark. color-weather-beaten gray. and yet, somehow, by some miracle, i had a boyfriend! GASP! here's the proof. this picture was found by high school boyfriend's mother and was given to my mother a few weeks ago. in my hand are a small stack of love notes. lesson to all of you: even that weird girl you went to high school turned into a normal person.

birthday cake from my mother

birthday cake from my husband

birthday cake that i made for myself.
one cake is never enough. but, the 5 pounds of pure frosting fat that i gained during my birthday week certainly were. the best gift to yourself is always well-earned and thoroughly enjoyed weight gain.