Jacob and I spent the whole week working on getting the hymns for Holy Incarnation done. They like to have musical accompaniment for the hymns they sing, but the availability of said accompaniment is spotty. I had been manually transcribing hymns into Finale (a music writing program), emailing them to dad, and then waiting to hear back about any problems. This project started out well, but I got behind when Gretchen was born and gave up instead of recovering. :/ The last time I visited, I though of a plan: record the hymns on my viola. I talked Jacob into donating his Spring Break to my cause, and we were in business.
Recording went well. Jacob and I went to church every day, locked ourselves in our makeshift recording studio, and played. Well, I played. Jacob listened and manned the computer. Justine was able to help with some of the recording at the end of the week in order to provide variation. We did about 80 hymns completely from scratch and found the rest of the hymns on a website that specializes in providing canned music for small churches. Now we just have to finish editing the ones we found online...
The girls survived my absence all week, although Olivia did shut herself in her room all day on Tuesday so that she could alternately look forlornly out the window and lie on the bed staring at the ceiling. It didn't help that she wasn't feeling well AND woke up especially early that morning. We finished recording a little sooner than planned and took Wednesday off so that everyone could recover.
Wednesday was a snow day for all the school-goers (which was especially upsetting since Tuesday was beautiful, run outside, all you need is a light jacket weather), and Justine and her boys had arrived the previous evening, so the house was a zoo. Olivia appreciated having William and James to keep her company, Gretchen appreciated the fact that Edward is smaller than her, and both girls became confident enough in my continued presence that they finally let go of me and went off to play.
I disappeared again on Thursday, but not for nearly as long, and the presence of their cousins helped both girls cope. Friday and Saturday went quickly as well, and Jacob and I declared the recording studio closed. We took down the "Do Not Enter" sign and everything.
Sunday afternoon, we packed everything back into the van and retraced our steps. We got home around 7:15 and Olivia and Gretchen were oh-so-happy to see their Daddy again. :)
And speaking of Bryan, he was apparently bored after about 11 waking hours of "Bryan time." Luckily, he worked all week, so that kept him busy while we were gone. He claims that he also managed to get ridiculously good at his latest favorite computer game.
Pictures:
Mom took some pictures on her camera, but I forgot to get them before I left, so those will go up whenever I remember to grab them. :)
Mom took some pictures on her camera, but I forgot to get them before I left, so those will go up whenever I remember to grab them. :)
My terrible mistake -- Our backyard when I left vs. Mom and Dad's front yard when I arrived:
Pictures from Jillian:
Olivia sleeping (the first one is for the hair, the second is for the location):
The cousins:
Olivia sleeping (the first one is for the hair, the second is for the location):
The cousins:
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