My Superior Girl

Mallory participated in her first piano festival this past weekend. The National Federation of Music Clubs puts on these events where students perform in front of a judge and are rated for their performance. They are kind of serious-no cameras or video, only one person can go in the room with the student, they have to introduce their pieces, etc. We didn't know what to expect but the judge Mallory had was so nice. Since I couldn't take any pictures while she played I took a few at home...

Mallory wanted to wear the tiara that had been Grandma June's. June wore it when she married my dad both here in the states and in the New Zealand ceremony. My dad brought it to Mallory when he visited a few weeks ago.

This is Laurann. She is the daughter of the teacher I work with.

This is Mal with her piano teacher, Mrs. Kandi.

Mallory got superior ratings in both categories! She performed two solos and two hymns. She was so cute when she introduced her pieces, "Good Morning, my name is Mallory Matte. For my required piece I will play The Woodpecker Song by Bober and for my choice piece I will play The Circus by Glover/Stewart." Then she had to introduce her hymns in the same way. She played Deep and Wide and For the Beauty of the Earth.

Mallory and her fellow students, Laurann and Landry. Yea! It's over and we did well!

Earthquake

I had to move to East Prairie MO to feel my first earthquake and it happened last night around 4:00 in the morning. I woke up to the house shaking and I just knew that's what it was. Paul felt it too. I got up later and googled 'earthquake east prairie mo' and found this article...

We are near a major fault here called the New Madrid Fault if you've ever heard of it. The people here have felt earthquakes in the past. Guess it wasn't a huge one. The article says 4.0 magnitude. Very surreal.

UPDATE: I wrote the previous post before going to school this morning. The earthquake was all the talk all day around town. There are a lot more articles on it now and I even saw Shep Smith do an earthquake story on our little East Prairie on the Fox Report tonight. So thankful it wasn't worse. Here's another article about it.

Arch views

The Arch

If you go to St Louis you have to visit the Gateway Arch. It's so beautiful. You can see it from so many places, especially downtown which is where we stayed. It reminded me of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You'd be heading down a street and say, "there it is!" I had been up in the arch back in the 90s when I was working in St Louis with Houlihans and Darryl's restaurants. My friend Sonya was also there on business so we met up and took the little tram to the top. I wasn't looking forward to going again and really wouldn't have but the little cars seat 5 so I thought I just should do it with Paul, the kids and my dad. I had to sit down at the top. Wasn't feeling too hot. Major wimp in my old age.

Will post more pix of the views and little tram car another day...

Winter Swim

We stayed in a nice hotel in St Lou that had an indoor pool and hot tub. The kids loved getting to go swimming in February. I enjoyed the hot tub myself. We took advantage of the fun both nights we were there!

Meet Me in St Louis

We're just back from a fun weekend in St Louis with my father. More pix to come but can you guess what we're standing next to in this photo?

Christmas Card Out Takes

Busy

I'm busy getting ready for Grandaddy's visit so here are just a few random pix of the kids!