It's been awhile!

Well, Spring is finally here, and it is well over-due to update our blog!

December through March has been so action packed, it all seems a blur.

First and foremost, Scott completed his Masters of Arts in Counseling! He finished his thesis with flying colors, and as of two weeks ago was offered a job as a Personal Advocate at an insurance company! He just finished his first week of training and is ready to take on his role to help people.

As for me, life has pretty much been one giant rehearsal between work and side-gigs! From December until now, we've had eight orchestra or chamber performances, 4 field trips, 2 guest conductors, 1 string festival, and a Solo/Ensemble competition. Of all those, the String Fest pretty much took over my life for three months...and involved more planning than our wedding last July did. We had almost 700 people attend!! I never imagined I would be responsible for that many people when I finished my music degree! The string fest made it into 3 local newspapers, and we were extremely honored to have our assistant superintendent as a guest speaker. We also were joined by the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, and both high schools attended a professional rehearsal the weekend before, and then performed a combined piece together! The logistics were definitely a feat of their own: trying to fit 110 people on one stage and feeding 100 elementary/middle school students pizza in a timely fashion without injuring any instruments was quite impressive, thanks to my fabulous students and parents. I was so proud to see my students in action as they took ownership and responsibility...it made my job easier to just be in charge of knowing who had to be where in the building and when.

Now that both the String Festival and the Disney Pops Concert are over, I actually had a moment to sit down with Scott today and plan our anniversary weekend this July! I've been working hard doing extra violin gigs on the side to pay for a weekend getaway (amongst other things!), which will make our weekend that much sweeter. Since we started dating, we've always wanted to take a weekend and stay in a Bed and Breakfast. We've also been meaning to hit up Duluth for awhile.

After a surprising short search for the perfect B&B, we discovered and fell in love with the Cotton Mansion:

(sorry, picture is so small!)

Its a *beautiful* Italian Renaissance mansion (we both adore classic vintage!) that was built in 1908 that has been converted into a bed and breakfast. We decided to go all out, and after having a hard time deciding in which room to stay in (they are all so beautiful and romantic!), we went with the room that has a private terrace overlooking Lake Supperior. We debated whether or not to stay in the Carriage house, but we thought for our first stay, we should stay in the main mansion. It will be so nice to take time out of our crazy schedules for a romantic weekend to relax on focus on each other. Although months away, it is something exciting to look forward too!

Here's a picture of the room:

While we're there, we're hoping to also spend some time on the shores of Lake Superior, and perhaps even take a drive up the North Shore to Grand Marais. It should be a beautiful weekend!

Well, lots of love to all! I hope spring is treating everyone well!

Chappy Chanukah

Hello Friends,

Scott here.

It has been a while since I have updated so I thought I would give you all a little peek through the window into our life.

We have been busy little bees these days. I just finished my internship at Pride Institute and I recently finished my thesis. Now all I have left is the oral exam, which will take place on January 18th at 9:00 am. Finally I will have this degree! Other than that I have been playing in the band and playing gigs with them. We recently performed at The Fine Line. The band has been working on our first e.p, which is due out sometime soon, we are just in post-production on it.

In the meantime, I have been on the job search, which has yielded a couple of interviews, hopefully I will find something real soon. Does anyone want to hire an unlicensed therapist and offer him free supervision hours? Any bites?

Miriam has been busy with work. It is really true that an Orchestra Director's day is never done. Sometimes she leaves for work at 6:00 am and gets home at 10:00 pm. I'm really proud of her, but I hope she gets to rest.

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah! So for your viewing pleasure, I have included a fun picture for you to look at. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays,

Scotty

Almost November? How did that happen?!

Wow, I can't believe it's a week away from November 1! Things have been busy as usual.

Scott's Thesis

Well, as most of you know, Scott is in the home-stretch of finishing his masters program! The down side to that is the incredible workload that Scott has taken on the past few months researching, writing, and re-writing his thesis on a daily basis. With a mere 7 days left until his draft will be submitted for graduation approval, Scott has been working pretty much 24/7 on his paper on top of completing his internship hours.

As a result of this, Scott has proudly grown what the two of us now refer to as his "Thesis Beard". Not only is it quite impressive with its natural body and fullness, but he takes care of it daily with his "special beard soap", moisterizer, and combing it daily; consequently, it is imressively soft! And truth be told, I find that beard just plain sexy! (Must be a Jewish thing?)

G-d willing, Scott will have a chance to rest a bit before his tentative graduation ceremony in January.

Gigs, Gigs, EVERYWHERE!

Between the Wizard of Oz (WOZ) rehearsals at school, and Scott's band getting ready to play a gig next Friday, we've been gearing up for this next week! I'm playing in the pit orchestra with my students for the musical WOZ...I had forgotten what it was like to play in the pit orchestra in high school! So much time goes into it. This past week, while I couldn't stay for all of them, scheduled rehearsals went until 6pm, and after that I even had booster meetings and such. I feel like I've been living where I work. I am however, enjoying it very much! I've had such a case of the giggles lately, and at one point in rehearsal, we had to stop because I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my cheeks! I've been just plain goofy. I'm giving this up to being in sleep deprivation, and having crossed into the "slap happy" realm. Luckily, this weekend I'm planning on catching up on my sleep to gear up for those rehearsals until 8pm, and the actual performances!

While Scott, being the good husband that he is and coming to all the shows, he has his own gig with his band on Friday night. I'm a little sad because I hope for Friday or Saturday night shows from his band, Union Shakedown, so that I can attend them! Normally, his bands performances are on weeknights, and are late in the evening, which means that I'm usually asleep before they even play. Plus I have work early the next day. With every day of rehearsal in my classes being extremely important, if I'm not up to par, rehearsal is not going to go well.

So if you're not doing anything this week, perhaps you will make it to WOZ and the Union Shakedown gig!

We're going to do a 5K! The "Turkey Day Trot"

Something I've always wanted to do is a 5k. Well, this year, Scott and I decided we're going to do the Thanksgiving 5K. (There's more than one...we're doing the "Turkey Trot"...the little brother of the Thanksgiving 5K).

We've been practicing around Lake Calhoun weekly (usually 3 times a week), alternating between running and walking. The first few times we got our tushies kicked! But it has been getting easier, and I always look forward to a jaunt around the lake. Despite the weather getting colder, and our short bought of snow, we've been pretty diligent! Neither of us is running to race the other runners, or to beat a time. Really, its about the fact that we're going to complete a 5K.

Obviously, running is more fun when you have your kick-tushy running attire. Here is a picture of the two of us in our hot running gear that we sport around the lake:

WE ARE HOT.

And this picture, is the epitome of Scott. Note the headband, bushy beard, and Ninja-Turtles sweatshirt.

Well, on that note, this is Miriam signing off with a "Cheers" to the upcoming week!

It has been *BUSY*!!

Hello All!

Well, it's been awhile since either of us have made a post! So I thought I'd take a moment to give a life update.

In the last few weeks, several things have happened:

+Last week, Scott finished his Thesis rough draft!

+School started, so I am back to work, getting ready for our first concert on October 13!

+Scott has completed 500 internship hours (of 700) to count towards his graduate degree!

+We've been enjoying our first Rosh Ha'Shanah together as a married couple!

For the last several weeks, Scott would come home, absolutely exhausted from his internship, and work on his thesis until all hours. Then he'd get up the next morning, and do the same thing! I admire his work ethic, because I don't know if I would have been so diligent after being exhausted from work.

Since he finished the rough draft of his thesis this past week, we've had a little more time to spend together. He even surprised me on Friday when I got home from work with a *SUPER* clean apartment, a dozen red roses, chocolate croissants, fancy olives and cheese. AND he was cooking me tomato soup and grilled cheese! I am definitely a very lucky wife!

Then, yesterday, after Synagogue, we decided to hit up an apple orchard. It was the perfect way to spend a fall afternoon together. (You mean I actually get to see my husband once in awhile?!) We drove out to Afton Orchard in Hastings, MN. Here's a few pictures from our adventures:

On the hay ride to the apple trees.

Is that some forbidden fruit, there? You know it is by that twinkle in Scott's eye!

We are dorks...We couldn't resist these fabulous photo opportunities. and now I can say Scott is "corny"!

The beautiful sun and sky on our way home.

Other than that, we've been enjoying family time for the High Holidays. I can't believe it was only a year ago that we were celebrating our engagement at Rosh Hashana! My favorite part of Rosh Ha'Shanah services last Sunday was when our Rabbi asked us to share meaningful memories from the previous year. Scott was the first one to jump up out of his seat in front of our entire congregation, and said with two thumbs up and a giant smile "I got to marry Miriam!" It was very sweet, and it made my heart melt in that school girl kind of way --including a case of the giggles!

Previous to Sunday we had our big family get-together at my parents house. It was very meaningful to be celebrating the new year with both Scott's and my family! I think it just goes to say that a marriage is not just between two people that love each other very much, but between two families. It was a very nice way to start a new tradition with our new marriage.

So, here's to a wonderful New Year! Wishes for a cup overflowing with blessings as sweet as honey. Or as my Zayde said to Scott and I with a twinkle in his eye, "May you have lots of prosperity!"

L'Shana Tovah Tikatevu!

Miriam

Massive Update!

Hello Devoted Followers,

Scott Here.

As you all know we just got married. So what could this post ever be about? You guessed it...the honeymoon!

So, we decided to go to Cancun for our honeymoon. We were going to just stay in town, but then we found a marvelous deal that we just could not pass up.

We got a lift to the airport (thanks Peter!) at 4 in the morning (we decided to just stay up and bite the bullet instead of risking the oversleeping that we knew was going to happen if we slept. After waiting to get on the plane, which seemed like an eternity, we finally got our seats. As we took off we smelt something reminicent of poo. As luck would have it, we are in front of a row of 3 small children under the age of 7...you can see where this is going. So after taking off we are treated to 3 straight hours of screaming and fighting from the kids behind us with some of the most useless attempts at parenting from the obviously underslept and overstressed parents of these spawn.

So as we finally get to Atlanta (because anytime you fly with Delta, you are guaranteed to have a layover in Atlanta. We get a quick bite to eat and we are off to sunny Cancun. Landing in Cancun, we hop on a private coach and get to our hotel. When we get there our room was not ready and appearently they have never heard of the honeymoon package that we bought. So... instead of explaining that the room was not ready they put us in a room that was not up to snuff. When we got into the room, there was a half-drunken bottle of water in the fridge, dirt behind the lamp and hair/slime in the bathtub...please g-d let that be shampoo. Well, after some complaining to the NWA WorldVacations lady, we got the room spic and span...never underestimate a woman's wrath.

The next day and the rest of our honeymoon was absolutely fabulous. The service was excellent and the food was to die for. We had free room service 24/7. We chilled out on the beach, relaxed in the quiet pool for hours and ate and ate and ate some more. There were these shows that they had every night that were fun, for the most part. One night there was a "broadway" show which consisted of lip-synching, dancing and seizure-inducing strobe lights. We quickly made out exit as neither on of us wanted to wind up in Hospital de Cancun.

At the end of our honeymoon we got moonlight massages on the beach and facials. What the massage therapists lacked in english language skills, they sure made up for in back-fixing talent! It was very nice to say the least.

Alas, we had to head home back to real life. So, waiting for our plane (in true Scott fashion), all of the food that I had eaten had decided to exit me. Yes..I became very well aquatinted with the restrooms at Cancun International Airport. Oy Vey!

We flew back to Atlanta (of course), where our flight got "re-arranged". This basically consists of going from Gate C23 to Gate C35 to Gate C27. Quality Delta. After getting home, we unpacked and were ready to start our lives as a married couple. Touching, I know.

Now we live in marital bliss.

Please drool and yearn over these wonderful pictures.

All the best,

Scott

Song of Solomon 2:10-2:13

Tonight, Scott and I went to Byerly's to get a few olives, a cheese sample or two, and a box of Strawberries. As we were picking out a box of strawberries, I happened to come across quite a treasure!

At first, I could not believe my eyes! Yes! They were really figs! FRESH FIGS! The brown, Turkish kind that I have *never* been able to get in the United States that hadn't already perished! Not only were they not perished yet, but they were under $5 for three of them! (Decent quality figs can run up to $22/pound in the US!) This had to be good to be true!!

It was too good to be true.

Unfortunately, the beautiful figs have some bugs in them =( So, after all that, I won't be eating them.

So, instead of delicious fresh figs that I fear I will only be able to get again if I travel through the middle east, I leave you with this beautiful, romantic song of Solomon, about figs. Perhaps it will make one understand my great love for figs!

¹⁰ My lover spoke and said to me,
"Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, and come with me.

¹¹ See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.

¹² Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.

¹³ The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me."

Official Wedding Photographs!!

Tonight, Scott and I got our photos from our photographer, Sue Lund. There are so many good photos, I don't know which ones to frame!

Here is a direct link to our photos: CLICK HERE (Then click on "Miriam and Scott")

The password is: 070509 (The date of our wedding)

And, you can even conveniently buy photos from the site if there is something you wish to have!

She was an excellent choice, and we both highly recommend her!