Our Wedding

Happy New Year!

Hope your 2015 is off to a great start - ours is!

I really can't wait to tell you all about life in KC!  But...we should probably start at the beginning...  So, as promised, I'd like to share a bit about my our wedding.  (Yes, I intentionally left that "mistake" there. One thing I'm getting used to in married life is using new pronouns:

I = We

Mine = Ours

Me = Us

Be watching for those from here on out...since this blog is now about my life that includes my husband, so therefore, it's about OUR life!   Here ends the grammar exposition.)

I'd love to share every detail and every picture and every memory from our "Big Day," but I'll save all that for the visits we get to have in person (wink, wink...the guest room is open...ahem, cough, wink)!  For now, I'll share some highlights from my perspective (and maybe get my hubby to chime in, too!).

Highlights from wedding weekend:

• lovely bachelorette party/sleepover hosted by my amazing personal attendant - complete with fuzzy socks, hot chocolate, and cozy blankets on a super cute Christmas-light-strung deck!
• seriously perfect weather (74 and sunny...at the end of October...in Nebraska...!!!)
• morning of pampering with some of my very favorite ladies
• the music - especially the a cappella verse of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" featuring the beautiful voices of our wedding party and guests
• dancing! - our DJ, Craig Estudillo, did a great job of making everyone feel at home on and off the dance floor.
• my dad's speech - I can't really articulate what his words (and singing) meant to me...but it was very heartfelt and meant a lot. 
• the people - family and friends traveled from near and far to help us celebrate...we couldn't have asked for more! 

AND, of course:

• marrying the amazing man God so graciously picked out to be MY husband!

Bryant's highlights:

• getting to spend time with old and new family
• spending time with "the guys" the night before the wedding (Kensy, here - They were at the coop! ☺ )
• the wonderful ceremony my then-fiancée worked so hard to set up so she could become my wife
• the music - especially the a cappella verse of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" featuring the beautiful voices of our wedding party and guests (Kensy, again - He said, "You can copy that one." ☺ )
• getting to marry Kensy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (He asked for that many !'s ☺)

I know nothing and no one on this earth is perfect, but our wedding day sure seemed to come as close as it gets!

A special thanks to all who helped make it so meaningful, smooth, and wonderful!  Would especially like to thank:

• Harris Academy of the Arts - These musicians happen to be friends and former coworkers of mine...or maybe it's the other way around... ☺ Anyway, they're ultra-talented and nice and experienced and we are STILL getting compliments on their lovely playing.
• My mother-in-law (owner of GreatStitch) who not only traveled hours to be there and helped to make sure everyone was happy and healthy, but who also made this beautiful ring bearer's pillow:

The doily came from one of Bryant's grandmothers, the charms and pendants came from my two grandmothers, and his other grandmother did some hand-stitching to finish the pillow...AND his mom embroidered the back for us.  What a special piece of our day and keepsake for years to come!

• Le Cupcake - I spent some time with the owner of this lovely shop during my student teaching (before she opened the store).  We teachers always got to be her guinea pigs for all the test recipes and she even made cupcakes for my last day!  What they put together for our wedding day was so beautiful...and delicious! 
  

  

  So many yummy flavors!

  

  "The Princess Bride" themed groom's cake!

  
  
  
  
• Allison Garrett Photography - Allison is my godparents' daughter and was the flower girl in my parents' wedding...and happens to be a professional photographer!  She captured our day beautifully (check out the link to our pics - password is "berggren")!  AND I had the privilege of being a musician in HER wedding a couple weeks ago!  ☺  Here's a little taste of her work:
  
  

I could go on and on about this day.  It was truly a dream come true...and for so many reasons.  Thank you for letting me share a bit about it.  ☺  WE are so thankful for all of it...and for all of you.

Wedded blissfully,
Kensy (& Bryant)

Favorites of the day:

maple-glazed salmon and Brussels sprouts

board games

coupons

Welp, I'm back...and back at it. ☺

Oh, hey.

My arms are a little sore, but I managed to climb back up from falling off the face of the earth - phew!

Seriously, though - who knew life could get even more crazy than it already was?!

Anyway...hello, dear friends.  I hope this finds you and yours well and enjoying what's left of summertime.

Here are a few highlights from the months I was MIA:

• June - Charlie's birthday (ha)
• July - was honored to be the Maid of Honor in a wonderful friend's (absolutely stunning) wedding; lots of trips south for special family time (one for my grandpa's beautiful memorial service); calling 200+ churches across the state to schedule the 14-15 Nebraska Brass season
• August - trip to the farm to see Grandma and Grandpa; still calling churches to schedule the Nebraska Brass season...

We started another term at the studio at the beginning of this month, and therefore, I started my fifth year of teaching there.  Crazy, right?!  I did the math about 4 times, because I really couldn't believe it's been that long, already.

In honor of my quinquennial year (don't worry - I had to look that one up), AND in honor of Harris Academy of the Arts' 10 year anniversary (wohoo!!), I have a few student stories for you:

One of my brand new students this year is a precious 4-year-old boy with dimples and melt-your-heart big blue eyes.  Not only is he adorable, but he's also doing a way-above-average job, so far!  We put tabs on the pages he's supposed to practice in his books, and when I asked him what color of tab he wanted the other day, he flippantly replied, "Eh, orange, whatever" with a shrug of his shoulder.  His mom, who was also in the room, gaped at him and gave me a shrug.  It happened again for the next page, too - I asked what color of tab, and without missing a beat, he responded, "Blue, whatever."  His mom just shook her head.  I proceeded to ask him what his favorite color was, and he said, "Orange...and blue."  No "whatever" about it.  ☺

There's a vocal instructor teaching in the room next to mine this year, so my students are getting used to ignoring all the vocal warm-ups and beautiful crooning coming from next door and focusing on their own playing, instead.  While listening to the instructor lead his student through warm-ups with the piano, one 6-year-old girl had to stop and ask what was going on over there. I told her there was a voice lesson taking place, and she proceeded to ask, "How did someone learn how to sing like a piano?!"  It took me a second to realize she didn't know there was a piano in the room, and thought the notes being played on the piano were actually coming out of someone's mouth.  She kind-of laughed to herself when I told her there was actually a piano in the room, too.

We're a couple weeks into the semester, now, so the rust is wearing off, and now that school has started, everyone's really getting back into the swing of things.  It's always touch-and-go at the beginning of the year, as you can imagine.  When they come into their first lesson after summer break, I semi-jokingly ask my students if they've touched a piano since I saw them last.  The reactions to that inquiry range from deer-in-the-headlights to a-chuckle-followed-by-a-"no" to confusion to of-course-I-have's, and many in between.  I was very impressed by one student in particular last week, though, because not only had he practiced ALL of his assigned pieces, but he also learned the words...and sang them in an opera-style voice!  I told him we need to get him in for a lesson next door, sometime!

That's all I've got, for now.

To all you students and teachers out there, here's to an awesome school year ahead!

As usual, thanks for reading! ☺

Enjoy the weekend,
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

sleeping with the windows open in the middle of August - what?!

strawberry pretzel salad

garden-fresh produce

Week of ♥: 2014

Hello, all!

I had hoped to be able to say "Hope you're enjoying the warmer weather," but as I'm writing this, it's snowing outside...and has been for a few hours!  It has kind-of turned to rain-ish precipitation, now, and the ground looks like it's covered by a layer of grits.  Or maybe couscous...possibly popcorn.  Regardless of what food it resembles, it's a very wet snow.  (Cue "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?")

Anyway, I hope this finds you well!  Things are pretty great here.  

I want to share some of the Valentine's Day gifts I received last week, but before doing do, can I just say again how blessed I am by the students I teach and their families?!  Seriously.  Not only do I love what I do, but I love who I get to do it with.  (Yes, I know - that sentence ended with a preposition...) I know that's not the first time I've said it...and it won't be the last.  And no - I'm not just saying it because they seem to shower me with gifts at any given occasion. ☺

My Valentine's Day week started with a cute heart Valentine and sucker from one of my new 4-yr.-old students, as well as this coffee bean/rose petal/foam sticker/heart decoration from another student.  Those coffee beans sure do smell good!

Tuesday started with a bag of chocolates from the family I nanny for, as well as this sweet gift and card from a piano student:

Outside
(It's worth noting that this thoughtful 6-yr.-old strongly hinted that this kind of candy was his favorite and he'd cleared it with his mom to maybe have one during our lesson...haha.  I took the hint.  ☺)

Inside
(Though I initially thought he'd drawn a picture of a minion from Despicable Me for me, it turns out that's a picture of me.  I guess I wear my glasses more often than not on his lesson days.  Not sure what to say about the hair...or lack thereof.)

The next day, an equally thoughtful boy student walked in with his arms very full, exclaimed, "Happy Valentine's Day!" and presented me with some beautiful Gerbera daisies and a candy bouquet!  I thanked him again at his lesson yesterday, and told him the flowers are still alive and well.  His response, "Yessss!" with a fist clench.  ☺

This gift was unrelated to Valentine's day, but I'm including it here, anyway, because I received it in the same week.
One of my adult students took a trip to Cabo, Mexico a few weeks ago, and she brought this precious hand-painted Nativity set back for me!  She said she saw it and immediately thought, "I think Kensy would like to have that."  She was right.  ☺

On Thursday, I walked in to find a box from FTD on my piano bench.  Inside were a dozen roses...complete with a vase!

The note said they were sent a day early, so I wouldn't have to take them along on my road trip to visit the sender the next day. ☺

Lisa and I exchanged Valentine's gifts that night.  You may remember the fact that we gave each other gifts in the same little mailboxes last year...?  Well, this year, we both unintentionally gave each other striped socks (among other things).

Mine are the fuzzy ones...she sure knows the way to my heart!  ☺

THEN, on Friday, I walked in my room at the studio to find a half dozen cupcakes from my favorite cupcake shop, Le Cupcake!

These came from the same sweet, thoughtful sender as the flowers...and I took them along when I went to see him that evening.  ♥ What a yummy Valentine's day dessert!

I also received a couple Valentine's Day pictures/letters from a couple families.  They sent those out instead of Christmas cards/letters.  Great idea, huh?

In other news...

I was somewhat recently introduced to a pretty awesome company called GreatStitch and got to help them prepare for a party idea that was more recently featured on a national blog.  (I painted the table legs! ☺)  Check it (and them) out!

http://www.karaspartyideas.com/2014/02/vintage-airplane-birthday-party-cashew-brittle-recipe.html

That's the scoop, for now!  Enjoy what's left of the week and the weekend to come!

Gratefully,

Kensy

Favorites of the day:

the power of prayer (keep them coming!)

smoothies

technology

Weekend Getaway: Minnesota

Hello, hello!

I hope this finds you and yours well and staying as warm as possible!

This weekend, I took a fairly spontaneous trip to Minnesota (St. Paul area) to visit a dear friend from college.  She has had so many new and exciting things happen in her life in the recent past, and I decided to just make the trip up there to see/experience it all first hand!

So, after teaching lessons Friday evening (got done at 6:30), I headed out - armed with Google and AAA maps (no GPS for this girl), a road trip care package from my brother (complete with our favorite road trip snacks and a mix CD), Nicholas Sparks' newest book on CD (from the library), and a double-shot vanilla cappuccino smoothie from Scooter's.

The drive went really well and pretty fast, both going and coming back.  Since it was mostly dark both times, I didn't see too many sites on the road (not that there were many to be seen, anyway).  On the way out, though, I was driving through Iowa and saw a bunch of red lights blinking in unison across the horizon.  At first, I thought it was an airport, but couldn't figure out which one, because I was in the middle of nowhere...in Iowa.  I don't know how it finally occurred to me that they were the windmills, but that's what they were!  There were soooo many, though, and it was kind-of creepy to only see all those hundreds of red lights blinking simultaneously out there in the distance.

After arriving a little after 2 a.m., we proceeded to have a most lovely weekend together!  And as my mother's daughter, I documented it with pictures.  ☺

Saturday's brunch at The Good Earth included salmon with potato hash and poached eggs and pumpkin pancakes with applesauce and dried cranberries.  All the food here is made from organic and mostly local ingredients.

 Then, we made a trip to St. Olaf college where my friend did part of her master's program and where my cousin is a senior!

(for all you relatives out there...)

What a stunningly beautiful chapel!  (This is one of many windows there - pictures don't do it justice)

My cousin works at a cafe on campus where my friend used to go with other grad students a lot (though they hadn't met till now), and he made us drinks before we left.  This was my Pumpkin Spice Latte.)

A picture on the campus of Luther Seminary (where she also attended).

A delicious meal was prepared for us by my friend's thoughtful and talented boyfriend.  After supper, the night continued with lots of great conversation and a came of Scattergories.

One of the "new and exciting" things I went to experience was a litter of 7 kittens.  Need I say more...?  ☺

For now, their names are Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Ti.

Such a good (and young!) mama kitty.

Her sweet dog, Rondo, is pretty great, too!  I got to experience giving him a bath before I left on Sunday.

Since my friend is a (talented, organized, amazing) music/worship director, I took my trumpet and was able to participate in Sunday's All Saint's Day service.  It was so great to see her in her element (and hear her play organ!!), and also such a blessing to be able to be part of it all.

Afterward, we ate at a cafe that doubles as a bike shop - pretty cool...and also yummy!

A lot of people thought I was a little crazy for making this trip alone, but I really didn't think twice about it.  I figured there is no time like the present (and it was the only weekend between now and Christmas - when the kittens would be finding new homes - that worked), so I just went...and I'm so glad I did!  It was a really wonderful trip, and I feel like I got to do and see everything I wanted to.  Of course, there are lots of touristy things we didn't take time to do or see, but that doesn't matter - it's the real and meaningful "attractions" that matter most.  ☺

Also - I never shared my Halloween costume with you all!  I was originally going to dress up as something completely different (an idea I'm saving for next year, so not sharing now), but then I found this priceless sweatshirt-turned-cat-cardigan at Goodwill, and couldn't not be the Crazy Cat Lady.

That's all, folks!  Hope you have an exceptional week!

Home without a kitten or a Minnesotan accent,

Kensy

Favorites of the day:

having student evaluations done!

This is what Charlie's doing right now.

♥

Hey there!


Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's day!  Thought I'd share a few of the Valentines I received:

A chocolate apple!  I'd never seen one of these before, and embarrassingly enough, it took me a second to understand why I was getting one...  ☺

She loves piano!

I don't even care that he spelled my name wrong - love free-handed hearts from first graders.

This is from the same little guy who drew the heart above.  He and his twin sister made these chocolate dipped spoons with a heart marshmallow and sprinkles in a little heart pouch with a packet of hot cocoa mix for their class and teacher valentines (46 in all - he explained the very lengthy process and the fact that he had to write "So-and-so, you warm my heart" 23 times!).

I also received precious homemade cards from the kiddos I nanny for, as well as thoughtful cards in the mail, phone calls, etc.  Needless to say, I felt the love on Valentine's day! ☺


Wanted to share something else from my week:
I can't remember whether or not I've told you all this - I'm teaching a couple CMA (Children's Music Academy) classes this semester.  For those of you who may not remember what that entails, it's a 50-minute group piano class for 4- and 5-year-olds and their parents.  We do a different activity every 4 minutes (or so it seems) for the sake of their attention spans.  Activities include learning rhythm and note friends, playing piano songs, dancing, singing, ear training exercises, games, etc.  It's a two-year curriculum, and by the end of the class, the students will be playing at a "level one" in most piano method books.


I taught one of these classes last year, but all the students decided they'd like to take private lessons with me, instead.  So, I didn't have a class at the beginning of this school year.  This semester, however, I had a few enroll in a beginning CMA class, and I was able to pick up the continuation of another teacher's class.  Both are lots of fun to teach - one class is only little girls, and the other is all boys - each comes with its own challenges.  haha


The other night, the boys' dads came with them, so we didn't have any moms in the class.  The boys recognized this, and one said, "But the moms are the beautifulest ones!"


Another story about the same little boy: Whenever someone does something well or tries, period, we clap for them.  I usually say, "Give him a hand!"  When I say this in the class of boys, however, the one little guy says, "What?!  I can't give him my hand!  I'd have to cut it off!" or something to that effect.  So, he's trained me to say "Give him a round of applause!" instead.  The other night when I said that the first time (instead of "Give him a hand!"), I heard him whisper excitedly to his dad, "She didn't say 'Give him a hand!'!"  ☺


If you or someone you know might like to join a CMA class, feel free to come check it out!  You can go to http://harrismusicstudio.com/ or call the office for more info.!


Enjoy what's left of the week and have a great weekend!
-Kensy

Favorites of the day:

my weekend plans (seeing "The Vow" with girlfriends, then going to visit my brother!)

this new computer...again

getting a few of my great-grandma's old Valentines in the mail from my grandma

Something new...and music...and love.

Hi.


I may or may not be writing this blog from a new computer...  If I am, I'm pretty excited about it.  If I'm not, I'm still waiting for the screen to show what I've been typing for the past 10 seconds. ☺


After three different trumpet performances this weekend, I am reminded of how much I love playing and sharing my music with others.  I'm so grateful for the support of coworkers, students (and their families), friends, and family.  I had "fans" at all three performances this weekend...and they came voluntarily!  There were others who couldn't make it, but just knowing they wanted to be there makes me feel special.  Thank you to those of you who have supported me (and will continue to do so) by encouraging/tolerating my practice, "filling my bucket" with compliments, and making an effort to attend countless concerts/recitals/services/events.  Words can't express my appreciation to all of you, but especially my parents.  I hate to be completely cliché, but I can't begin to imagine where I'd be today if it weren't for them.


Additionally, I'm continually humbled by the talent that surrounds me.  How often do you get to experience your coworkers doing something they do exceptionally well...and love doing?!  Whether it's teachers at the studio, peers, friends, or other coworkers, I'm always glad for the opportunity to hear those I interact with, non-musically, on a daily basis doing what they do best, musically.  


Speaking of humbling, please take a moment to watch this 10-year-old girl's performance at Trumpet Fest this afternoon - click this to watch the video.  (She played a piece I considered performing on my senior recital...yes, in college.)


I should probably head to bed...more later.


If I don't write again before Tuesday, Happy Valentine's Day!  May you feel loved and share it with those around you.


♥,
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

having a 4-legged guest for the weekend

Cheddar's (a new restaurant here)

this new computer (duh)

next weekend's plans!