Piano Recital Press Release

The annual Piano Recital for the students of McGarvey Music Studio was held on December 12th at 3 PM at Apostolic Pentecostal Church.  

Students participating front row left to right were Vi Tran, Maggie Smith, Caroline Nuhn, Rebecca Simonton, Maddie Meystrik, Megan Kindell.  Middle row left to right were Nia Reed, Nicole Simonton, Laura Kirchhoff, Spencer Nuhn, Zaina Afrassiab, Sydney Flood, Sydni Martin, Glynnda McGarvey.  Top row left to right were Alexia Crabtree, Haley Cline, Allison Keen, Kaitlin Kindell, Randy Lee, Tiffany Daiprai, Micki Cullifer.  

Students of Mrs. McGarvey who were unable to participate were Janette Brown, Jackie Crabtree, Maxine Davis, Jade Kiser, Ashton Martin, Julie Morgan, and Cathy Van Huss.  Guest vocal soloist was Jaime Morgans accompanied by Mrs. McGarvey.

A January Marathon Road Trip

Several months ago when we began making plans to attend Ray’s youngest son, Trey’s, wedding, we realized that Jaime had a work conference the next week in New Orleans. So as those of you who know us well can imagine, the travel planners in us began to work. Thus, the Marathon Road trip of January 2011 was born.

Sadly, Johnathan wasn’t able to join us on this lengthy excursion because somebody has to work around here! But on Thursday evening, Jan. 6, after saying good-bye to Scott, Suzi and Cooper who were Prague-bound that morning, Vernon, Glynnda, Jaime and Heidi all piled in Jaime’s Pacifica with 10 days worth of stuff and headed to Round Rock, TX (outside of Austin). We made it just in time for Vernon to wrap up the wedding rehearsal and for Glynnda, Jaime and Heidi to rush to the hotel because they looked quite disheveled after two days in the car and were NOT letting anyone see them in such a condition. After the rehearsal dinner, everyone crashed in our hotel room and talked until way too late catching up on all of the news. We were excited to see our Texas family and you know how we can all talk!

Vernon performed a beautiful ceremony for Trey and Kristen at the Texas Baptist Children’s Home Chapel, and we all enjoyed the reception afterward especially Trey’s version of Michael Buble’s cover “How Sweet it is to be Loved by You”—He was definitely showing off his Die blood, and we were proud of him.

After saying our good-byes on Sunday, we headed to Rudy and Kim’s condo at Seascape in Galveston and lounged there until Tuesday. Heidi got to dip her fingers in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time and see dolphins and surfers and sand! It was a bit chilly but so, so memorable. There were trips to Gaido’s for dinner, marathon dominos games, movies and reading before we headed to Beaumont for a trip to “commune” with Great Grammie in the Azalea Gardens at Forest Lawn. :O)  We had dinner at Patilla’s BBQ, which is a huge Taylor tradition, with our friend Randall McCoy and then headed for the Big Easy!

Thanks to Jaime’s Alumni Relations Conference we stayed in the Omni Royal Orleans in the French Quarter. This beautiful, historic property with all the amenities and the Bentleys and Rolls Royces parked out front just made you walk a little taller. While Jaime went to her conference each day, Grammie, Papa and Heidi went on all kinds of adventures. They explored the French Quarter from top to bottom, went to the New Orleans aquarium, ate beignets at Café de Monde and each day they met Jaime for lunch and dinner. We ate at K-Pauls (with our friend Charles Alder), Pierre Maspero’s, and celebrated Glynnda’s birthday at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Of course, there was shopping to be done as well!

On our way out of Louisiana, we stopped by Charles’ home for some King Cake and a quick visit before hitting the road for Missouri. It was a fantastic marathon but like all marathons, left us wheezing and gasping for a rest! 

Lodge Holidays 2010

Every year our holiday season is jam-packed with events and is over way too fast. This year we started the season with Moberly Downtown’s living windows. Shannon and Jaime sang Christmas Carols in the Wells Fargo building for passersby while Heidi provided the real entertainment waving at everyone and showing off her toys. She is most definitely a chip off the old block and a natural entertainer! Various dinners, concerts and programs followed as they always do. We did a family photo shoot for our Christmas cards and of the kids’ Halloween costumes. Ted arrived on Dec. 22 and the preparations for Christmas Day began soon after.

Beginning December 3, Vernon began experiencing some pretty debilitating migraines, which was unusual for him. Scott took him to the ER on the 22nd and found out that they were being caused by extreme blood pressure problems. He has since started some medication and things have leveled out dramatically. Thank the Lord.

Christmas morning was especially memorable this year with Heidi and Cooper in the middle of the gift action. They were into literally everything! Highlights were Johnathan’s hunting rifle, Vernon, Glynnda and Ted’s photo books from their trip to the Holy Land, ALL of the kids’ toys, and the new Lodge logo trinkets (mugs, bags, stickies, etc.) It was a perfect Christmas morning.

All of the Moberly and St. Louis clan gathered in the afternoon for Christmas Dinner at the Lodge like always. Between marriages and new babies we’ve grown into quite a bunch.  Everyone brought his or her traditional dishes and the spread filled the Lodge kitchen with scrumptious sights and smells.

As tradition demands, the evening finds us all in the living room with Mark and Ted on dueling pianos and the rest of us belting out Christmas carols. It’s something we talk about often throughout the year and look forward to. We sound pretty decent I might add!

We, McGarveys, are especially thankful this new year for two grandbabies that are about to turn one and another year with our Papa/Daddy/Vernon. Happy New Year to all of you!

Enjoy our holiday photos!

Senior Life Article

Back in October, Dad was approached by the local daily newspaper in town about doing a profile in the Senior Life section.  A few anecdotes and pictures later, we'd cooked up his life story!  We figured that the editors would cut out whatever they didn't want and cull through the pictures we sent along.  Imagine our surprise when the Moberly Monitor-Index printed the article in its entirety!

Click the picture above to download a PDF of the article.