The week of blessings...

During my brief hiatus from the blogging world, my family had a really good week.

1. It started out with my birthday, on the 8th. Happy Birthday to me! It was a really nice day despite the cold temperatures. The highlights were: my closest friend here took me out to lunch and I got an amazing birthday box from my college roommate! Both these ladies made me feel so loved! The lunch was great because it was girl time- no kids, just us talking for hours! So great! The birthday package from my roommate from both my years at BYU contained about a million little things, from handmade sparkly earrings, to my favorite makeup foundation, to my favorite Easter candy. Like she could remember I love chocolate malted Robin Eggs! It's been almost 4 years since we were roommates and sadly, we've only hung out about a total of 4 days in the past four years, and she still remembers the details about me! Even though we haven't been that great about keeping in touch, I know we'll always be good friends.

2. A couple days later one of my best friends who I've known as long as I've known Brian since we all met at Interlochen, came for a visit! Juliann is also a professional horn player, currently living in New Orleans, and we hadn't seen her in about 6 months. We three were reunited last year when Brian and Juliann were in the same program at Rice which was so awesome! She got to watch Elliott transform from newborn to toddler. And we got to hang out again after 4 years apart. This girl has an amazing ability to listen, understand, and then say something so wise and intelligent, that never would have occurred to you, it's just amazing. We always have lots of laughs too.

3. The day Juliann got here, Brian got a call from his manager at work. "I've got some good news for you and some...well...I don't know how you're going to take this....we haven't been paying you enough....." What?! How often do people get a call like that?!

They somehow figured out that they haven't been paying him what they promised in his contract to pay him. He's been getting paid 16% less than he's supposed to. So from here on, he will be getting paid the correct amount and he will get all the money from the last few months that they owe him. This blessings was a direct answer to prayers. A large student loan we had to take out right after we married to get through undergrad and then buy his horn is now entering repayment. The monthly payment, for the next hundred years, is going to be about $300 a month. We had no idea how we were going to be able to make the payments. We had a short term plan of using our tax refund but I was going to have to find a job of some sort. It's amazing how money is such a tactile thing, you don't know how God is going to make it appear out of nowhere, but He does. Brian's correct paychecks will now enable us to make those payments. A complete miracle.

4. A couple days later Brian found out from work that he got clearance to take two important upcoming auditions. He had to get excused from missing a subscription series week at work- which we thought for sure there would be no way they would let him out. But they did, and now Brian will be auditioning for the Utah Symphony next month. We are very excited about the possibility of moving to such a beautiful part of the country. We don't have any family in Utah but we both think it's a cool place. He also got excused from an opera performance in May in order to audition in North Carolina. This job is appealing because it's a Principal (not Associate/Assistant like he is now) position. He would get to play all the big parts, all the big solos. I really believe Brian is completely capable of winning either or both of these auditions. It's going to be an exciting next couple of months. Yes, we like it here, and yes it would be fine to stay here but it's just a blessing to get this clearance from his work so that he can have a shot at winning bigger and better jobs.

5. And the final blessing of that week is that I was called to play in the pit for the last Kansas City Opera of the season! I didn't know if they'd ever call me again so I'm so happy to have this opportunity! I get to play 2nd horn, sitting right next to my husband! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get to play with him in a professional setting. It might be a pain finding so many babysitters but I'm really looking forward to playing my horn in an orchestra again.

I feel so lucky, so remembered, so blessed. I hope all of you have a really good week sometime in the near future.