The Closest thing to a Christmas letter

I have never been one to send out Christmas cards or letters.  I figure if I've gone this long why start now?  It's a poor excuse, I know, but I'll stick with it.  I haven't been very good this year at blogging so I thought I would give an update on what the Murdock's have been up to.  So, this will be the closest thing to a Christmas letter you will ever see from me.

Our family is doing well!  We have had a lot of changes in the past year but the transitions have been so seamless that it hasn't been dramatic.  One of the biggest changes is that we had a new Grandma join our family in July.  She is a sweetheart and has made Dad so happy!  The kids love their new Grandma Janet.  She is so full of life and has a huge heart!  We are looking forward to getting to know her better.

Matty has been super busy this past year!  I am so proud of him in so many ways.  In October he started with a new company.  It has proved to be a very good move.  He is excited to go to work and learn new things.  The bonus of this is he gets every other Friday off which will be very exciting during the summer months.  He also received a new calling.  He is apart of the High Council and has had the opportunity in speaking in different wards.  He has always been an amazing teacher so he is in his element.  He has been able to get out for a few fishing trips.  I'm hoping that he can get out more to fish next year!

Maryn started the 4th grade this year!  She is bigger than life sometimes.  She decided during the summer that she was going to run a snow cone stand.  It was a success!  She made all her syrups and had Macey as her ice girl.  She called her shop "The Cookie Jar".  She obviously wants to expand next year with ice cream and cookies.  Maryn is still taking piano and dance.  She has also been learning how to cook and cooks us breakfast quite often in the morning.

Macey started Kindergarten this past year and loves school!  She was very nervous because she is very shy at first.  She started taking piano lessons and is still dancing.  She loves to help and has been my go to girl to get things done.  She had a huge accomplishment this year in passing her swim lessons.  Another huge milestone is she has begun to read!  It's exciting to watch her figure out what the letters on the page mean.

Mason started pre-school this year and has been learning so much!  He loves school!!  He has such a funny wit about him and is very aware of everything that goes on around him even when you think he is aloof.  He is still attending speech school and doing so well!  He has come such a long way!  He is actually my biggest talker in the family.  He loves to ride his bike and loves Maya the dog even more!

I have been busy with being a mommy and taking care of my kiddos.  I have put in more time this year with creating new songs and in September decided to enter a contest for the Taylorsville's Got Talent.  I won the adult category and get to look forward to performing next year for the city festival!  I love to write and not sure anything will come about it but will enjoy it while I'm doing it.  Just in the last year I've had more confidence to share this part of me that I've been hiding for so long. I'm also so grateful to have the use of my knee back and to be able to run and exercise again.  Slowly I'm frankensteining myself back together.  I spent most of the beginning of the year in physical therapy from surgery but it was worth it!

We have been so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful friends that love us unconditionally and support us in our endeavors.  We always enjoy when we get to see family but it's never enough.  We are thankful for this past year.  There has been a lot of growth in each of us as individuals and look forward to the possibilities of a new year.  Merry Christmas everyone and so thankful for those that are apart of our lives.

Music moved to new site

Surprise!  I'm still alive!  I made the mistake of thinking I was actually going to get time after the kids went back to school.  Well that back fired.

I decided to move my music to a new site being that the one I was using has rights whatever I post on it which I think is bogus meaning that I don't have rights to my music even though I wrote it.  So the new website where you can find my music is on Sound Cloud.  I'm slowly but surely adding new things.  The process is slow.

The website is https://soundcloud.com/impunky135

I have had so much enjoyment pushing myself in writing and seeing where I can go with it.  To be honest I feel like some of these songs come from a different place and that it's not me.  So I'm thankful for the gift the God has given me in that regards.  Some are cutesie some are serious.  Some are country and others are retro.  I have not settled into one genre however I'm finding I REALLY like to write country!  Who knew?!?!

I haven't had much time to record being that life gets in the way but hopefully at some time I can get some unedited songs up until I can do them proper justice of breaking them into tracks.

Hopefully all is well in the blogger Universe!

Dance in the Rain

I finally got all my tracks laid down for Dance in the Rain.  I started getting choked up a little when I started listening to all the tracks together because what I heard in my head was playing back to me.  It's a very cool thing.  I still have mastering, tweaks on timing and effects to do but I'll still share what I have so far.  I'd like to give a little background on this song.  For years I wanted to write a song for my kids.  I wanted to do a lullaby like the Return to Pooh Corner type song.  I was coming up empty handed and getting discouraged to be honest.  After my babies had grown a little bit I switched gears and tried to think what I could tell my kids to help them as they get older.  I've always liked the saying Dance in the Rain and as I was sitting in the girls dance class one day I looked up and there was a sign that said, "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about dancing in the rain"  I light flipped in my head and the lyrics just came spilling out after this.  If there is anything that I can impart to others is that there is hope and there is beauty.  Sometimes you have to look for it but it is there.  It's so important to keep picking yourself up and keep dancing.  It's more fun that way anyway.

The link is below that you can listen to it.

http://www.podsnack.com/FDD7D6FEFB5/a1p86f0l

One Trick Pony

 I can't believe I'm doing this but I got a very rough copy of the song I just composed up on a website so that you can take a listen.  Like I said VERY ROUGH.  I haven't shared a lot of my music with people because of fear.  I think subconsciously I care too much what people think and afraid that this will be hashed to pieces.  But I'm tired of hiding a part of myself.  I've been writing for over 2 years and there is only a handful of people that have even heard my music.  I have just recently gotten more confidence to share more.  You are very vulnerable when you share something that you have created.  It's scary in a sense because you don't want to be THAT person on American Idol that no one had the heart to tell you maybe music is not your thing and be made a fool of.  In any sense, I feel compelled to write and compose.  This is something I have wanted to do all my life and it wasn't until at a certain point in my life things changed and I was given a way to express feelings and try to understand things through music.  So hopefully you'll enjoy the song.  This was just something for fun.  Sorry about the recording quality.

http://www.podsnack.com/FDD7D6FEFB5/a1p86f0l

I'm drawing a blank

I have sat down a handful of times trying to write a blog post but the words have eluded me.  It's Spring break and we have little snow flurries swirling all around.  I've been filling my time mostly taking care of my family but I've managed to squeeze in some long overdue projects that have needed to be finished.  Things have been rather busy but just normal day to day stuff so I have been drawing a blank every time I sit down to write.

I've noticed I have had a little bit of home sickness.  Never in my life have I ever felt this.  It all started when I saw a picture of Mt. Rainier and then there has been this commercial playing sending subliminal messages to take a vacation to Seattle.  I long to be around the area where I grew up.  It's a beautiful magical place and will always be home.  After a while if you're from Washington you long for the green and the trees and all the bodies of water.  It's just breathtaking.  Seven years is too long to be away.

I've finally finished with my physical therapy.  I'm not back to normal by any means and the rest is up to me to try to keep what I've gained.  I have to live with the fact that I will always be in some degree of discomfort when it comes to my knees but it's stable now.  I wish I could go back in time and not play basketball the season that I hurt it.  I actually had the choice not to play but didn't want to listen to the advice that was given to me.  I had mono and missed the first 2 weeks of practice.  But who's to say it wouldn't have eventually happened.  Hubby is always trying to teach me not to live in the past because you can't change.  Something I'm trying to be better at.

I'm at an interesting place in my life...a good place.  All my babies will be in some sort of schooling next year and I need to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.  There is the responsible thing to do and probably what I should do versus what I would love to do.  I feel like I'm a little late in the game to actually do what I want and need to be responsible but a nagging feeling keeps the fire alive for what I want.  Is it possible to have both?  That's what I'm trying to figure out.  I have lived my whole life in fear that I have ended up doing nothing and that is failure in itself that I haven't even tried.  So much of my life I have lived in fear that I don't want to be held captive anymore.  I want the inside person to be the person I portray on the outside.  It's funny what we let people see and what we struggle with inside.  In the end it really doesn't matter what we do as long as we just DO IT and not look back.  I am so good at helping people see their own potential and being so positive for them I need to do that for myself also.  Baby steps!

And this concludes my random ramblings for today.  I'll leave you with some lyrics of one of my songs...it helps me through the day.

"One hand to the future, one hand on my holster.  I'll fight you and get through with determination.  One step closer, the fantasy's over.  Breaking through to my destination in life"