Author Tifani Clark

Most people have a bucket list, whether it’s written down on fancy paper, typed into their phone, or known only in their mind. Over the years, my bucket list has changed. Sometimes things that once seemed important are no longer relevant, and things I didn’t care about before have taken center stage.

This school year, I’m checking something off that had fallen off my bucket list for a time…but jumped back on this spring.

But first, I want to tell you about Mr. Hansen.

Rick Hansen was my orchestra teacher in my youth. I started with him in the 4th grade and continued with him all through high school. By the time I made it to college, he was teaching one of the orchestras on the local campus so I joined and had him for two more years. (If you’re counting, that’s 11 years.) During my senior year, I took private lessons from him. In May, Mr. Hansen retired after 40+ years of teaching. Former students were invited to attend the final concert, and I wasn’t going to miss it for anything! So, I packed up my kids (and my sister who also played with him) and drove to Idaho. I’ve played (and still play) with multiple orchestras since I left Idaho, and they’ve been fun, but man…it sure felt good to get back on stage with the Madison High School Orchestra.

We rehearsed the songs a couple of times just hours prior to going on stage, and let me say, for a bunch of “old folk” we sounded pretty good. Many of us have put on a few (or a lot) of pounds, we have a few (or a lot) more gray hairs, and our jobs take more hours than flipping burgers a few nights a week, but we’ve apparently “still got it”.

It was tradition for our high school orchestra to perform at Disneyland every other year. Since Disney was a big part of our high school days, I’m glad one of the songs we played at the final concert included Disney music.  You can see me somewhere over yonder in the 1st violin section.

Now, back to the bucket list theme. Growing up, I thought it would be fun to be an orchestra teacher. It was one of those items on my bucket list that had one foot on and one foot off for many years. I liked the idea of being with an orchestra all the time, but questioned my directing skills.

Flash Forward to 2017. At this point I’ve played in an orchestra with world-renowned artists performing with us at every concert. I’ve played at weddings. I’ve taught students in my home. I’ve played at church. I even played in a quartet for an episode of a TV show this past spring! But, after attending Mr. Hansen’s final concert I realized how much I missed orchestra in a school setting.

So, after learning of an opening for a string instructor in our school district, I decided to apply. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom and writer for years, yet the timing felt right. And, I was hired to teach beginning orchestra at a local school. Whoa…

My class has only been going for a week and a half, but I’m already loving it. This morning my students played a pizzicato piece with perfect rhythm for the first time. They were excited, I was excited, and it showed on everyone’s faces. I can’t wait for the next class!

And so, Mr. Hansen, thank you. Thank you for 40+ years of creating memories, instilling a love of music into your students, and for many, many laughs. My life is still being impacted because of my love for orchestra all those years ago.

[Heads off to check one more thing off the bucket list.]

(Here’s a clip of the 2016-2017 Madison High School Orchestra at the final concert. When I was in high school, we went twice to “Phantom of the Opera” in San Francisco with the orchestra and played the music multiple times. I’m glad he chose this for his final concert with them.)

Growing up, the only thing I remember about St. Patrick’s Day is wearing green so I didn’t get pinched on the playground. Today the holiday is more widely celebrated. And, like most holidays, has become highly commercialized. That’s fine, though. I like a good excuse to party.

When my kids were young, I read about something called leprechaun traps in a magazine. Up to that point I’d never seen or heard of one. For those who haven’t experienced it, a leprechaun trap is designed to trick a leprechaun so you can steal his gold.

We’ve mad a few traps over the years and reused favorites on other years. My kids have never actually caught a leprechaun with their trap, but the trail of gold coins (aka chocolate coins from the bulk section of our grocery store) prove that they’ve been close.

My favorite St. Patrick’s Day by far was the time the kids tried to capture a leprechaun on camera. When it came time for them to go to bed, I heard whispering in the living room where the trap had been set up. Curious, I listened in without them noticing…and I’m glad I did! The sneaky children had set up a video camera in the corner of the room and aimed it at the leprechaun trap set up on the coffee table. Not wanting to spoil the fun for them when they discovered the next morning that their parents were indeed the ones littering the floor with chocolate, my husband and I spent the next way-too-may minutes deleting their video and making a new one. Our video never caught the leprechaun in action, but you can hear a maniacal giggle in the background right before the camera gets tipped over. Then, you hear more giggling as the camera is uprighted, showing that gold coins surround the trap. The kids watched the video over and over and over and…

Okay, maybe we went too far.

The only other thing we do to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is make Dublin Coddle and Irish soda bread. Have I ever eaten this stuff in Ireland? No. I’m not Irish, and my husband’s family is only part Irish, but we can still enjoy cuisine from around the world thanks to Google.

If you’d like some clean reading for your St. Patrick’s Day holiday, check out my book A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK. Right now it’s only $1.99 on Amazon!

And, as always, if you want to stay updated on my books and other fun stuff, sign up for my newsletter.

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally got my website up and going. No more blog only. This site should help you learn about all of my books, plus keep you informed about fun and interesting things going on in my life. Because, let’s face it, I have a lot of likes.

In the next few weeks I hope to transfer some of the posts from my old blog to this new website. Wish me luck!

(Building the road behind our lot.)

(November 2005)

(Originally posted on 12/29/2014)

Today marks nine years since we moved into our first (and hopefully last) home. Building a home was something I never planned to do, but I’ll admit it was nice to move into a place where there were no mystery stains, patched walls, etc.

(View from front yard after move in.)

This home has been good to us. All but one of our kids learned to walk here, they’ve all left on their first day of school from this home, they’ve all learned to ride their bikes in the driveway, and they’ve all played in the playhouse we spent almost an entire summer building. We’ve all laughed, cried, hurt, and healed here.

(View of home after move in.)

It might not be a mansion on a hill, but this is our home and there are countless memories etched into the walls. Oh, and the mystery stains on the carpet? They’re all ours.

Playhouse

Inside playhouse (They’re so young!)

Inside playhouse

Inside playhouse

December 29, 2014  (9 Years since move in day)

Spring Yard