Thursday, March 22, 2007

-In memory of truly great pianist-

So last year, on February 22nd to be exact... A personal hero of mine passed away. Don't get me wrong, he's in a much better place... But I'll never forget the awe that I had when I watched him play the piano. His name was Anthony Burger. The picture below was actually taken on the cruise that he passed away on. I had seen him a few times in concert, but now... I wish I'd gone every chance I had, just to watch him play. He played with such emotion!
Oi, do I wish I could play like him!


Last Saturday another awesome pianist passed away after years of fighting cancer. His name was Roger Bennett. Roger sang/played for the Cathedral Quartet for many years. I remember as a kid going and seeing them in concert multiple times... I even remember when they announced that he had cancer and his many years fighting the disease. A few years ago, after the Cathedrals retired, and Legacy Five was started by Roger and Scott Fowler. We saw them in concert many times too. You can go to www.legacyfive.com to read more about Rogers home going. He had a journal that he kept online for people to read, when he got really bad, his wife was doing entries to inform everyone. It will be weird going to a Legacy Five concert and him not be there playing... Both will be missed!
Southern Gospel has lost two of the most talented musicians ever.

Monday, March 19, 2007

The life of a busy lady...

I know, I know... it's been forever. Lay off. Life has been crazy! So much is going on, and work will be a little lighter this week, so I decided to take this opportunity and catch whoever reads this never updated blog! BTW: Does anyone read this? If noone does, it's okay... I enjoy typing and pondering all the things that are happening and how much God has blessed us with!
Okay, so one of the big things in my life right now is, Cake Decorating. I have been going to classes, and am acutally in the Advanced Class right now. Holy cow is it hard. Flowers are the main thing in the advanced... so I wanted to share some with you. They aren't perfect by any means, but these are my FIRST try at these!
First is a daisy! The leaves are suppose to have a little bit of space between them, but my icing was a little soft. Not bad for my first try though! This is made with Royal icing, so it gets hard, and looks great on cakes! Also a favorite for the kids to eat! :)

Second, this is suppose to be a pansy, but I didn't have any yellow frosting... this wasn't that hard to make, but when I look at pictures of pansies, even if I would have had yellow frosting, it still wouldn't look like pictures of pansies do... It's super easy though!
Thirdly, this is a violet! These were taken with my cell phone, so I know they aren't great pictures...This was the tiniest flower I've made so far... It's so cute!

Here is a cake that I made in class... on the top is canonilli lace. This was my first try at it, and I kind of stunk on it, but it's so pretty with white on white. It's very poplular for wedding cakes. I did a wider lace on the left, and tighter on the right... I can't decide which I like better...


So, I put this in here because I know that my family will get a kick out of it. So, I'm walking down the isle at Wal-mart, and I'm talking to my sister on the phone... all of the sudden I see this couple walking towards me and I say "No Way" Seriously. I have to be dreaming... "I could swear that I just saw the Smallwoods" I told Nom. I let her go, and put myself in a place where I could see them again (No, I wasn't stalking) I asked them what their last name was, and she said "Smallwood" and looked at me like I was crazy. I said "Holy Cow" "I'm Emily Rowell...ehhh Hulett, well Rowell is what you would know me by" I was totally stumbling over my words I was in so much shock! This is a family that was in our church in Indiana. I played outside with thier kids after church all the time!!! They live like an hour from me, and it was totally by chance that I saw them... It was great. We stood there and talked for forever, and caught up. It was great. I think we concluded that it had been close to 12 years since we had seen each other... Yeah, totally a Wow thing!



Last, but far from the least... We got a new car!!!!!!!!! I was deeply upset... the Malibu gave out on us... it was going to be too much to replace what needed to be replaced, so we traded it and got a great deal! The new one is a 2005 Ford Freestyle. It is a mix between a van and an SUV, with a lot of simularities of a station wagon. I can fit 7 people!!! It will be so nice when we work with churches and travel on deputation and stuff like that... It's so nice! It has 18,000 miles on it. I can't wait to show it to everyone! God is so good! :)


So, this is just a couple of things that are going on... I'll post later about Phil's graduation and moving back to Illinois, and all... Please keep us in your prayers! :)


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