Interview by Julie

"Interview Me": Get interviewed by another blogger. 

This is an interview by Julie of Good Yarns. 

1. What is your favorite teaching moment at home? It can be a big or small thing.
I really enjoy when my girls draw pictures and then tell me a story to go with the picture. The stories are so sweet. Some can be a real eye opener into their world. I also enjoy playing games with the girls. Games can be fun and teachable. Memory, Candy land, Chutes and Ladders, and Boggle Junior are all games we enjoy. Junior Monopoly is one of my favorites (albeit the dinosaur version). Emmy can be the banker and she has learned how to count and give change.

2. Tell us about your musical education and the instrument (s) you play and teach.

My instrument is voice. I started formal voice lessons when I was a teenager. I would describe my sound as light soprano (think Celtic Woman, they're my sound models :-), as in when I grow up I want to be....)

I've never had lessons on an instrument, one that requires me to read music. I learn mostly by ear. I have always felt at a disadvantage because I never learned how to read music well. Thanks to some (lots of!) practicing, I can play piano "fake book" style, following chords, and I play guitar. My note reading is improving over time too, because I have to do it. 

I went to West Virginia University for my bachelors in music (education). I took all three Orff Schulwerk levels at Eastman School of Music over the next few years as summer courses. These courses helped to solidify my path into general music. I love to sing, dance and play instruments with kids, so when I did decide to go back to work, I held out for a general music job. My job includes teaching K-5th grade and elementary choir. 

3. What is your favorite type of music...and favorite song/bands to listen to for fun.

Ah, my fave type, what kind of music don't I love...depends on my mood. Some pieces I love with my inmost being, but I do not listen to them that much: Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov is at the top of my list. The violin haunts my soul. Mars Bringer of War from the Planets by Holst is wonderful and exciting. And the moody theme to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 has never left my brain even though it's been years since I heard it in full. I love classical music that has a story to tell or a picture to paint like Respighi's Pines of Rome. 

Music I do listen to on a more occasional basis: KLOVE (contemporary christian music) radio is on almost all the time at my house. On my ipod is Thousand Foot Krutch (rock out), Toby Mac, Blue Man Group, Eric Clapton, J.J. Cale, Alison Krauss, and ZZ Top, to name a few. 

4. I told about a dirty little secret on my blog, do you have one you'd like to share?

Ugh. Truth or Dare, lol!

I love clothes. I love to buy clothes. The only problem is that I have terrible taste in clothes! I will buy 5 different colors of the same style of shirt. Once I came home with 9 different colored turtlenecks and 6 tanktops, same style, different colors. Compulsion takes over. Thanks to therapy sessions with my husband and my checkbook, I have become aware of the problem and try not to buy multiples of the same style.  

I was proud of myself yesterday. I started to load up with different colors of the same shirt, but only came home with 3 shirts, all coordinating colors but separate styles. 

5. I know your faith is very important to you. Do you have a favorite verse...and why?

I don't talk about my faith much here, but yes, it is very important to me. I have a lot of verses that I like. Just reading the bible brings a calm to my soul. Peace is something I've been striving for lately.  (Like Master Shifu in Kung Fu Panda, "Peace. Inner. Inner. InnerPeeaace.")

One verse in particular has been in my mind over the past few (stressful) months is:

          Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

--Phil. 4:6-7

I'm a worrywart, a born worrywart. It would drive me into the grave if I let it. But over the past few years I  am learning to do what I can about a problem and let go of what I can't do. 

I'm not perfect at this (or at anything), but God, thankfully, has saved me through his grace, and not by the things I do. (whoops, slipped another verse in there! :-)  (Eph. 2:8-9). 

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Thank you Julie for interviewing me. 

For those of you who might want to be interviewed, here are the directions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.