Women's Conference Choir

I had the opportunity to sing in the choir for the Church's general women's broadcast.  The one that gets shown all over the world.  A once in a lifetime opportunity.  I was told about the time commitment when I signed up, but it ended up taking a lot more time than I thought.  For 6 weeks we spent every Sunday night practicing in Park City for 2 hours.  Add the drive in and we were gone for 3 hours.  Then factor in church ending at 4:00 and you get 6 weeks of running in the door, shoving food in my face, and heading out again.  On top of those rehearsals we had a 3 hour dress rehearsal in SLC the Saturday before and then the actual performance day we had to be there at 2:00 for a 6:00 broadcast.  And then there was the time spent memorizing music to hymns I'd never heard before.  Phew!  It was definitely a time commitment.  But well worth it for sure.  It was so great to sing in a good choir again and put my voice to work.  I honestly would have rather been the rehearsal accompanist, but it was good for me to branch out I guess.

It was interesting to see some of the behind the scenes conference happenings.  I'll definitely look at the choirs that perform in conference differently.  They put in a lot of work!  They were very specific on what we wore, and worked hard to train us NOT to look at the cameras they put in your face.  Our director was Jane Fjeldsted and she was amazing.  Jake grew up in her ward and she and his mom are good friends.  I also realized I went to high school with the rehearsal accompanist.  It was fun to have those ties. 

Singing in the conference center was a great experience.  What an amazing building.  It was a great experience singing praises to God in front of so many people!  I couldn't help but imagine Mom and Linz listening in from the other side.  Maybe they all go to women's conference too?  Anyway, it was a wonderful experience and I'm grateful to the kids and Jake for surviving without me for so many Sundays.

filing in to the conference center for the dress rehearsal

the beautiful organ

how it looks from the choir seats

Our director Jane Fjelsted

the organ pipes are amazing up close

the ladies I sang with from my ward

Sage's Baptism!

All of my kids have now been baptized.  I'm so old.  Sage got baptized a few weeks ago.  She was so excited.  She picked out a pretty white dress for the occasion.  When I took her shopping I thought for sure she would choose something pricey.  But she picked a dress on the sales rack, didn't even want to try anything else on, and we left spending $30.  Tender mercies.

Her baptism day was wonderful.  She was lucky to be the only one in our ward getting baptized, so it was a meeting all for her.  Everyone talked right to her and she knew everyone who was there.  All of the family came and it was so great.  For posterity's sake, I have to add that there was a mix up on the opening song.  Aunt Alicia played the wrong song, so no one knew the words.  We all hummed our way through the first verse and then cut it off.  We made up for it by singing the correct opening song for the closing song.  It added some spice to the day, and in true Spjute fashion Alicia was properly mocked:)

Grandpa Spjute and Grandma Tracy gave great talks.  We even had some Jensen family there, which I'm sure made Mom happy.  And I'm sure Mom, Linz, and Grandpa Alan were there.  After the baptism we gathered at the house for pizza, garden veggies, and root beer floats.  The perfect ending to the perfect day!