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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Romeo and Juliet

The Third Scene:
ROMEO AND JULIET BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


See below for pictures and why this was performed!
Turn up your volume!

Richard III

The Second Scene:
RICHARD III BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


See below for pictures and why we performed this!
Turn up your volume! Sorry these aren't the best quality...

Merchant of Venice

Here's the first scene:
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


See below for pictures and a description of why this was performed! =)
Turn up your volume!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Catching Up, and Shakespeare Performances

Don't worry! We're still alive over here, even though we've been basically silent since July! Uggg. I can't believe we haven't even mentioned or had any pictures of our trip out West in August and Emily and Danny's wedding!!! ...Of course, most of you already know about it: you were either there, part of it, or, I've already told you everything you've EVER wanted to know about, and probably more. =) In any case, I just can't resist:
So, the first picture is of the bride and groom, and the second is the line up, age order, of all 16 cousins, plus our new cousin, Danny Villa!

After a bit of a hassle getting back to NJ because of Irene, we started school and have been running around busy ever since. Julie's in her third year of college, I'm in 12th grade, and Andrew's in 9th/10th grade.

Fast Forward five months: See scenes flying by of college applications, college semesters, a stay in NYU Hospital for more seizure testing, a friend's wedding (Julie was a bridesmaid, I played the violin for the ceremony, Dad prayed in the ceremony, Mom helped organize and make food for the reception, and Andrew served at the reception), and then, when you come up to January 24, press Play.

Throughout the semester, I've been privileged to be part of a Shakespeare performing class at co-op (for the second time!), taught by Pastor Kirk van der Swaagh. (See an older post for last year's pictures) This year, it was a first semester class instead of a second, and on January 24 we had our performances for the co-op. It was a ton of fun, of course. The first scene was from Merchant from Venice and starred: Adam Angerer, Sam van der Swaagh, and Mattie van der Swaagh (in order of who speaks). The second scene was from Richard III and starred: Bethany Seiter and Sheryl Carlson, and as extras, we employed: Pastor van der Swaagh, Adam Angerer, and Mattie van der Swaagh. The third and final scene was from Romeo and Juliet, and starred: Nikki Gvoth and Mrs. Barbara van der Swaagh. Now for the pictures:And the entire Cast:Daddy had my new DSLR camera and was taking all the pictures that are above (and more of course =) ) and Andrew stood there with my old red point and shoot camera filming them. So hopefully, I'll be posting those videos in separate posts.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Shakespeare???...

Quote of the week: (okay, first the background, then the quote.)

Yesterday, I was giving a violin lesson to a young boy in our church. He was about to embark on playing the theme of the Surprise Symphony. I thought that it would be a good time for a quick story so I related (singing included...I guess I could have let that part out) the dramatic story of why the Surprise Symphony is called the Surprise Symphony and how the composer didn't want the prince to fall asleep, etc.

So I asked my student, "Do you know who wrote the Surprise Symphony?" His friend, sitting at the table and listening in, ventured a noble guess...
"Shakespeare?"

Friday, September 16, 2011

Summer 2011 Memoirs

I woke up at 5:30 last Monday to get an early start on homework. My mom got up shortly thereafter and the two of us opened windows to enjoy the warm Labor Day air. Off in the distance, I heard geese flying over and honking to one another. It's a strange sound, really. But to me, it was familiar and emotional - it meant fall was on the way!

There have been numerous reminders that the fall is one the way and all the things with it: the drums of the highschool band are once again audible in the girls' bedroom; at Sunday lunch, pumpkin pie was once again a dessert choice; with the resumption of the school schedule, the excitement of academia once again rushes through my veins.

Of course, with the beginning of something comes the end of something else - and the something else has been one of the best summers of my life. I think I say that every summer - but that only proves with what bountiful grace, my God provides day after day exactly what I need and what I want. So instead of chronicling every detail of this amazing summer, I want to share with you a few distinct memories of this bountifully rick summer.

1) My first memory is very simple and it's of a flower. I was sitting outside on our back deck doing devotions, when a flower in my mom's flowerboxes caught my attention. It was beautiful, intricate, and perfect. I think it was a shade of purple. In that flower, I saw the handiwork of my amazing God. He transcends time and space, and yet He deigns to design and create flowers! This summer one of the books I read was Chesterton's Orthodoxy. In it, he says basically that it is the child's mind that sometimes grasps closer to the truth when it appreciates the simple, "repetitive" beauty and joy. Chesterton notes that every morning, when the sun comes up, it is God saying "do it again." When God ordained for that flower to blossom on our back deck, it was Him reveling in His own creative power and saying "Do it again." This first memory sets the backdrop for the rest, because it is this very God who cares for flowers, Whose Hand was evident throughout the whole summer, guiding, protecting, and blessing.

2) The next memory has a much less peaceful setting! It is a memory of three teenage girls rushing out the door with a rather frazzled father, who despite all his warning for a good timely plan, has had to motivate the girls out of the house. Sheryl has already chronicled several details from Bethany, Sheryl, and my day in NYC, but she did not mention the ignoble fact that we were very close to missing our bus for reasons which my memory is a little foggy on - something about dressing, breakfast, make-up, hair, etc. etc. That was the beginning of a fantastic day of adventure this summer in which we girls walked our feet off getting lost and refinding ourselves all over lower Manhanttan!

--- More was to follow, but since it never did, I have decided to post this old entry anyway.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Carlson Sightings in Kentucky and the Bronx

A little less week after Bethany Hammermaster flew home, the Carlsons were on the move again, well, at least We Three Kings Kids traversed afar. Andrew launched himself on Resica Falls Resort for a week of Boy Scout Camp, and Julie and I migrated to Kentucky for the Reformed Baptist Family Conference. Andrew's week at Camp was highly successful, receiving five merit badges, and since then has earned another one!!!! It's always exciting to hear from him at the end of camp how many he earned. Some of them he hadn't even planned on working on!!!

While he diligently whizzing through the badges, Julie and I left on July 5th at 1:30 AM with six others to make the treck down to Kentucky. Don't worry...many of us were able to sleep for a good bit of the first few hours. Eleven hours later, the conference campus came into sight and a week of amazing preaching and fellowship began. You can listen to all of the sermons on sermonaudio.com: My personal favorites were Pastor Jeremy Walker's mini series on 2 Kings 13 and the Three Arrows or Six. I would encourage you to listen to them! I found them convicting and invigorating!


(This picture is of the boys' sandwich box tower...They had the entire room watching them and donating the boxes. We all cheered when it finally toppled, but not after getting very high!)


The schedule of the conference was basically: Two morning sessions, lunch, the afternoon for games, naps, etc, dinner, an evening session, and then the rest of the evening for fellowship. Julie and I attempted racquet ball with Catherine Morrison and Jon Larrazabal as our teachers. ...Let's just say that I don't think Julie and I were...um...naturals. Actually far from it. I did accomplish PEGGING Catherine Morrison with the ball. She had a nice round welt for the rest of the week....battle scars, you know. We also played volleyball and Round Robin, both of which were tons of fun.



Also at the conference, we became good friends with Jane Taylor from Australia, whom we had met at church the previous Sunday. She was able to sign up for the conference last minute and we were able to spend the week together!
On the way back from the conference, We stopped in Pittsburg, PA to have dinner with Nathan Adamo, a friend from church who's doing an internship out there. Besides the waitress desiding some of us were done before we really were, and deciding that Stephen was only getting two vegetable sides when he should have gotten three, it was a nice time.
By the time we pulled into our driveway, it was 3:30 AM, and we were dead tired. Both car rides were two of the greatest highlights of the week. They were some of our greatest friends from church, and 24 hours in a car to laugh, tease, and become better friends...yep, it's just stupendouly amazing!


Fast forward a couple weeks....to the 20th of July, when we went to the Bronx zoo with our good friends the Larrazabals. I haven't been to the zoo in ages! For this trip, I'm going to post the pictures, that I...didn't take. Jon Larrazabal has one of those fancy cameras with the extra zoom lens, and I'll just leave it at that.




Note: Most pictures in this post are taken by Jon Larrazabal. There are a couple from my camera, but most of them are from him.