I am praying for you Kamil.

Eva

PS: Zigi, hey maybe God thinks with all those prayers on Tuesdays you can handle more trials. I am sorry to hear that you had some hard times. Do you need a counselor? You can talk to me, or I am sure that everyone in the family has willing ear.

What to do?

What to do . . . what to do. . .
Oh, by the way, guys . . . are you praying?

Last Tuesday (my day to be prayed for) was the worst day of the week. Things just went wrong and I don't know why. . . I was looking for some miracles :) and trials appeared. But you can't have miracles without trials, right? Well, miracles didn't happened on Tuesday, but strengthen my faith to looked to God for solutions.

Today is Kamil's day to be prayed for and his family is definitively on my mind. When I drive or have a minute of quiet time, I send a prayer for Kamil's family.

Knowing that someone is praying for me each week is like have a spiritual B-day once a week :)

OK, back to the wedding and the Czech trip.

I will be at the both events whenever, wherever.

Having mom here on her 60th B-day or in Czech is a simple matter of turf.

Here, our mom will not be in control, she will be in someone else's house and will feel she is not in charge. That is incredibly frustrating for her if we do things she does not agree with.

On the other hand, in Czech she will be "all that", but we will not always "put up" with her controlling ways, and that will also create problems.

I can foresee problems either way, but if she is in my house having "adult tantrum", I have nobody but my wife to console with. But in Czech we will have each other :) :)

THE GREATEST WISH my mom has always spoken of is a wish that ALL THE CHILDREN WOULD RETURN TO HER. We can't really do that. . . but to grant that wish for ONE WEEK. . .
- a thought from Zigi's Make a Wish Foundation :)

Eva's wedding is, of course, completely different occasion. I know, once our mom is here for the wedding and/or the Mitura's family, the potential of the word getting out about our trip increases. It can be one of the children or us. . .

On the other hand, an engagement lasting a year can be torturous. . . and I am sure Eva would like to have it in the summer, so it would be even longer wait if postponed after the trip. Anyway, the decision lays with Eva and Cassey and I am pledging my support to whatever outcome.

Last thought:
My greatest excitement was when I knew ALL OF US are going. If anyone backs down. . . it won't be the same. :(

I will talk to you later,

Zigi

Eva doesn't have access to internet, but these are her words:

"I know that you have a lot of questions about my wedding. Especially about when it's going to be. But, there are other factors that need to be solved before we can have a definite date.

I don't mind your imput, but I hope you understand, that in the end I want to make my own decision. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to go online, and read the entries.

Thank you so much for all of your ideas and inputs. God bless you!!!" Eva

hello

I am feeling bad that we are having this talk. The reason is that Rene contacted all the important people and made sure we can be put on schedule. He took care of everything. Now it looks like we do not know what we want. We need to come to final decision and make commitment to it and nobody can change their minds. I thought that is what we said at the beginning already.
I think it is too bad but the reality is that our mom cannot come for Evas wedding and not cause problems.We cannot take the risk and than all the work and money will be wasted. Since we all know that all the confusion was caused by adding Evas wedding to August I wish that Evka would be active in helping to come to some kind of resolution. We do not have the time to keep thinking about it so please let us put our brains together and come up with something.
thank you
Zuzana

Ika's idea

hi everyone,

financially, it sounds good to me. We would be saving a lots of money. On the other hand it will loose everything else. It is completely different then the plan as we were working on so far. I won't be the same thing anymore. I am willing to support ika's 100% if we all will go for it. But if the wedding is going to be in Aug, we will still be in the same water. Mother gets upset and will not be interested in coming here in Nov at all....
Nevertheless, I suggest, that Ika's idea was the last new idea on what we're actually doing. Let's decide quickly, if we change it I want to call off everything I took care of as soon as possible.

Have a great day.

Rene

New Blog

Notice a new blog http://www.svatba2008.blogspot.com/

Need to have sign-in (same as our reg. account) Please, if you have any opinions or thoughts you'd like to share on Eva's and Casey's wedding, please share.

Ika

Children

I think I'm going to be planning stuff for mainly Fri pm and Sabbath am Sabbath School for the kids. I think Rebekah could handle about one hour of the program, but I wouldn't ask her to go beyond that if she gets restless. Some things that I've brought for the Fri pm and Sabbath am programs could be brought with for the kind people that are willing to watch our kids for us in the afternoon. I think the Sabbath afternoon activities for kids that need to step out could be more informal and consist of what each family likes their children to enjoy for Sabbath.

I had another question: when we have Friday night vespers at your mom's house, will the children's program be the main attraction that the adult will be in attendance for and help their children to enjoy? Is that how we will open Sabbath? Or does your family envision the children & I going upstairs to do something separately and the adults have their own vespers service? One version is more child-centered (for their interests), and one is more adult-centered. I think children can handle a VERY short adult vespers, but longer than that isn't fair for the little ones.

~Annette

Vojkovice is a very good for getting help with children. I think that nobody would like to stay in side room to miss the whole program. So I think we can find plenty people to have each child with one person so everybody can be at the program. I know I would like to hear the program.
Now I have one request. I need each of us to send $20 to Ika's address. We need to purchase several soundtracks make all the CDs for each of you get all the sheet music and than mail it to you all. What ever is not going to be used will be put into our budget funds. Please mail this money by the end of the week to this address
Ika Bennett
4829Kaye Rd.
Memphis,TN 38117
thank you
love
Zuzana

Ika, did you have chance to check out the song that I hav faxed you. What do you think?
Eva

Thank you for all of your congragulation, I am very happy myself.
It almost sounds as if I should start my blog for my wedding, because I think we have a lot of wedding planners in my family and since I am "green" in that area, I actually appreciate all of the tips I could get.
Anyways. With all the thins considered it is really hard to determine when and where the wedding will be. So at this point I don't know anything for sure. I know that that would be the main question you all would ask, and so I just want to let you all that we don't know yet (we thought we knew, but then I started talking to people and realizing the pro/con stuff and we need to put more thinking into it).

As far as Czech lyrics, I know that it would be more meaningful to people there, but to me it is so hard to sing in Czech now. And I thought that the slides might be more understandable than our singing. Just my opinion...

Eva

Wow, that is some beautiful song. Evi you should sing it. I still think that you should do the wedding in Czech in November. If I could marry again that is what I would do. Evi please let me know what I can help.
Please pray for mom she has fewer and feeling good.
Love you
Zuzana

Congrats!

Eva,

CONGRATULATIONS! We are so happy for you!

Kamil & Annette

czech or english?

Hi everyone,

I am sure people will appreciate Czech lyrics, but another aspect we need to consider, and that is that some of those songs having Czech lyrics have also some changes made in melody. I think is good idea sing as much in Czech as possible, bud don't make the decision across the board, think also how it will sound. We don't need to feel any pressure either way.
Good point, to make the choice now, so I can bring all that we will need back from Czech.

Congratulations to Eva from us as well.
Have a great day.

Rene

I Surrender All

I personally don't care if we sing it in English or Czech. People will be able to relate either way. I tried to sing it in Czech with the English version, and it was little weird in some parts (where they tie the notes together, and we would have to change where we take breaths, etc.) So, here are the words in Czech for those of you who don't have Czech hymnal, if you want to see for yourself. Also, if we do sing this in Czech, we need to decide which verse we're going to sing. (Heritage sings only 2 verses)

1. Vzdam se vseho pro Jezise, vsechno jemu v obet dam
Chci mu slouzit verne tise, jak On kdysi slouzil nam

Ref: Vse ti v obet dam, vse ti v obet dam,
vsechno tobe Spasiteli, vsechno tobe dam.

2. Vzdam se vseho pro Jezise, bud pastyrem, Pane, mym,
ved mne do sve krasne rise, nadchni svatym Duchem svym.

3. Vzdam se vseho pro Jezise. Vezmi pane srdce me,
tahni k sobe vys a vyse at je plne lasky tve.

4. Vzdam se vseho pro Jezise, rad mu svoje srdce dam.
Pan je moje spasna skryse, zachranu v nem vecnou mam.


Speaking of what we're singing in Czech and what in English, could we decide on that right now for all the songs, so that we have that info to work with, when Zuzka and I get together. Trust me, language will make a huge difference in some of the music arrangements. And also, then we'll have to have Rene gather all that music for us when he goes to Czech.

Ika

Wow, I am glad the boys are ok.
I have question about I surrender all. Are we going to sing this song in English or in Czech?
I thought since we have this song in Czech we could sing it in Czech. But we do not have to so just asking.
love,love, love
Zuzana
PS: congratulations Evca.
Great that Rene is on top of things with the program.

Evening concert

I called Karel Poloch, and the concert is scheduled to be at 5pm Nov 29, 2008. There might be a conflict with the evangelistic meetings, but, they don't have any dates yet, and Kaja promised to plan the meetings around the concert. In worse case we will have the concert at 3 or 4 pm. But for now is @ 5pm, and he understands we can't be flexible with the date.

Have a good day

Rene

Homework

Your first assignment is to get your hymnals out, and start memorizing the first 2 verses of I Surrender All. I think it's number 309 in the SDA hymnals. If any of you don't have one, or don't have the CD with the song on it, let me know, and I'll make sure you get the words. But that's a first thing everybody can start working on, while we wait for the rest of the stuff.

So, again, the assignment is I Surrender All verse 1 and 2 + chorus.

Ika

P.S. If you are learning the song with the CD, please make sure to listen where they tie the notes together, where they take breaths... Learn it correctly right for the beginning. If anybody is attempting learning any of the parts already, please, be sure to really listen to it, and concentrate. I don't want you to be learning anything incorrectly. It's a lot harder to undo bad habits than it is to learn a new one...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned on here, that we were all VERY sick with a stomach flu. I mean it was to the point, when we almost had to take the boys to the hospital for dehydration. They threw everything up, and it seemed that even when we gave them a little to drink, they would throw up a huge amount of stuff. I told Johnny, I didn't want to take them to the hospital, I'd rather just keep trying to keep them hydrated, because there in the hospital are already a lot of sick kids with the same thing, and maybe it would make it worse rather than better, especially if it's such an agressively contagious virus, and who knows how much the staff follows the basic hygiene procedures... (they said over 50% of Memphians had it). Well, we just watched the news and they said that just today two small children died here at the children's hospital from complications of that flu. So, we're very thankful for no further problems. The boys are over it today, and Johnny is dealing with the last bits of it. The bathroom is still his favorite room in the house...

Ika

On Friday evening I told Andrew about the prayer schedule so on Sabbath morning Andrew came to me and said "I already prayed for Ika and her family today". I told him that is very nice but today is Eva's day :) I think he will soon remember who is when.
Ika we will remember your family in our prayers.
love
Zuzana

web pics

if you are interested, you can take a look at some pictures.

http://www.picasaweb.google.com/rene.metz

Have a great day

Rene

Thank you Zigi for organizing the prayer week. This way it is very flexible what time of the day we have just to remember who to pray for which should not be a problem. I am personally very happy to know that on Wednesday so many people will be praying for me and my family. Wednesdays should be good days. I think if anybody has anything specific they want us to pray for they can feel free to put it on this blog. I do believe that this will bring us closer to each other. For some reason I keep thinking and hoping that our mom will be still alive in November. As we are making all of these plans let us keep in our minds the real purpose why we are doing this. Let us put extra love into this project and I know God is going to Bless our efforts and our lives.
love you
have a happy Sabbath
Zuzana

I agree with Zigi, I think it's good things to talk things out... It's kind of hard, if we are not all in touch and in tune of talking, because I don't really know how people feel about this trip except of the blog, and I want to talk to people.

Well, last month I have lost my cell phone, I was trying to email you all, but obviously did not reach everyone because I am still missing phone numbers. I don't have Zigi's, Ika's, and then none of the in-laws' numbers except of Annette (I pretty sure I have her number).

So if you call me without a message, I don't know who you are, and so if I did not respond here is reason why. I have been phone stocked, a person has been calling me and threatening, calling in the middle of night and sometimes during the day, I don't know this person, they never introduce themselves. So I don't answer strange numbers now days because of that. So I would really appreciate those numbers.

Ika, how did you like the song that I sent you, were you able to look at it?>


I better run, Casey is coming in couple of hours and I want to make curry with rice today (I hope it will be curry, and not another of my inventions). Zigi, if you get this message, call me, I want to write down your recipe for that delicious curry of yours, I would like to make it for Casey. It was absolutely out of this world the one that you and Rachel made over Christmas in Czech.


Anyways, I will go now.

Love you all.

Eva

Happy Birthday to

DANIEL

from Johnny, Ika, Ezra & Levi

ONCE in a LIFETIME

Hi everyone,

Happy delayed Valentine :)

I was thinking about the phrase in the title. . . and from time to time we will have to re-focus on that phrase. . . Once in a lifetime. . .

It may not happen again, our mom may not live to see it. . .

This opportunity we are willing to create TOGETHER is indeed unique. We are saying that this is primarily for our mom. . . but I think it is going to be a blessing for each one of us.

Our ancestors have a history of not getting along. But, what do we have that they didn't have? An ability and willingness to pray for one another. We are all Bible believing families, husbands and wives, who can pray. Joel Osteen often exhorts his congregation to stop the "curse" and turn it to a "blessing". We are a large family and we are bound to have disagreements, misunderstandings, or misinterpretations. . . But, how we deal with them is what we leave behind for others to see.

I want to pledge to do anything to make this project happen. I know, I have caused some grief to many of you over the years, and if it will make it easier I am willing to talk about it when you are ready. . . But let nothing to stop this project that will bring our families together.

Eva wrote about the prayer conference once a week. I am all for it, and someone should co-ordinate, but are we ready for it?

I have been thinking for a while about a little different approach.

There are 7 children and 7 days in a week :) Why don't we assign each day for one sibling and pray for their spouse/boyfriend, families on both sides, children, work, etc. God can work on our hearts to bring us closer to each other. . .

OK, the week starts on Sunday and the oldest one is Rene. . . using a logic with simplicity

Sunday Rene
Monday Renata
Tuesday Zigi
Wednesday Zuzka
Thursday Kamil
Friday Ika
Saturday Eva

our parents will be prayed for daily :)

I am still very much excited about this project. . .

Zigi

Hi everyone,

my suggestion is what Ika mentioned in her last post, and that is that Irma will be pretty flexible, and a week notice will be plenty for her.

As far as "Jesus Loves me" I think is an excellent idea, and we can record it raw, with just piano. It shouldn't be any major problem. And for all the kids it will be pretty easy song. It could be an extra song on our CD, or we can replace the other one. Either way is fine with me. But as I think about it more, even raw recording has some work involved. So I'd still be careful to add another song. And Tomas will have only 4 days to put the CD together.

That's all. I suggest that after Ika and Zuzu meet to put music together, we start planning a date for a practice. Remember, time is flying fast. But I believe it will be a great project, and more and more I look forward to it,

Have a great day.

Rene

Ika, i know you didn't tell her anything. that was clear from your message.
km

Irma's help

Absolutely. I think we could use Irma's help and she's a very sweet person. I really like her, and have appreciated her ever since my mission trip to Lithuania in '99. I remember her as having a beautiful smile and being a nice person--later I saw her in the US!

I'm still trying to get a vision for what ideas I have for the children's programs. I think I'd like to visit some Christian book stores and visit Sabbath School classes for Chelsea, Isaac, Daniel, and Richard's age groups so I have part of the program geared more toward the little ones (with the older ones helping the little ones enjoy their portion) and a portion geared more towards the older ones. Between songs and activities for each age level and a short time for a Bible story, I think everyone will be busy and engaged and interested. I don't have anything solid yet. If anyone has any ideas or things that they've come across that I might want to use, please let me know! (either on this blog or at: kamilann@yahoo.com). I'm also thinking of pre-recording myself playing a few songs on the piano so I don't have to worry about what instruments are available at the time. I could just play a tape--though I don't have a plan for how I would record myself yet! :-)

Love,

~Annette

Yeah, Marek tends to talk....

I didn't tell them anything, if you're concerned!!! You don't have to be worried about me, I am not that stupid! I just asked them how they like it there in Georgia, and how long do they plan to stay there, and other questions about their life. He told me (without me asking) the exact time when they are coming back to Czech, so don't worry. I didn't tell anybody anything... The reason I wrote it on here is because I thought Annette could use her help, and I know that Irma wouldn't need a notice too long in advance to be able to help... I said if we told her the week when we get there, it would be enough for her (as opposed to other people in Czech, they are not very spontaneous when it comes to helping with stuff). I don't know why it came across in that post, that I've told her...
Ika

If Irma knows, then Marek knows, if Marek knows then his mom knows, and it's a matter of minutes and mom knows too!
km

Hi

Hi everyone,

I am taking a break in between washing bedding and clothes after the boys' throwing up episodes. I am sure there is a lot more to still come. It seems that everyone in Memphis is sick with this virus.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know, especially Annette, that Marek and Irma will be back in Czech by then. Actually their return ticket is for July 1, 2008, and he said it's very unlikely that they will stay there (in Georgia / Russia) longer than that, because they miss Czech a lot, and can't wait to get back. So, this will work out perfect, if you Annette want to use Irma for the children's class and program. I am not sure if we'll be able to tell her anything right now, but I am sure she won't mind if we would tell her the week of our arrival. She is excellent with kids as I've said before, and speaks English.

OK, I've got to run for now. Please pray for the boys, they are really very very sick.

Ika

Jesus Loves Me

Actually I suggested that song to Zuzka because I thought it would be neat to have the kids just sing it the way they best can, and recordid raw. No perfection. Just piano and kids. It would probably be the only songs our boys could sing by then. But if everyone agrees that it's not a good song choice, we can get it off the list. No problem at all.

Gotta run to prayer meeting...

Ika

Song Selection:
I like the song selection. I think that it's well done. The only song I would get out of the list is one that I proposed myself--"Jesus loves me". Not sure if kids can practice and handle two songs with a CD quality. Also, do we want to take that song, instead of some other song and put it on CD? Plus, as Rene thinks that 10 songs is the route to go, that would get us closer to that number.

Prayer Conference:
Good suggestion, Evka. I think that if we want to make it happen, we'll make it happen. I could do it before Rebekah gets up--I handle Rebekah in the mornings now, to give my wife some extra time in the morning. What about evening time when Rebekah is down? What about the rest of the Metz clan?

Yeah, I think Levi is pretty happy with the songs after all. I was unloading the dishwasher this morning, and listening to the songs. When In the Presence of Jehovah played, he was just singing at the top of his lungs some random "La-la". I wish I had the camera handy...

As far as the prayer conference, I think it may be little difficult to find time where everyone is available at the exact same time for a longer period of time (I know I may have a few minutes here and there, but it's so unpredictable). Especially if the boys see me on the phone, they seem to get this thing where they get incredibly needy right at that moment... So, I am not sure if it will be possible, but I definitely think that we should be praying about it in our personal time. Trust me I pray and think about it several times a day. Just have to do it while I do something else (dishes, laundry, etc.) It's helping to focus on the real purpose of this.

OK, gotta run for now...

Ika

songs

I agree with Eva, the list of songs looks good. I can only imagine how hard ii to pull just 10 songs, especially when 6 different opinions are involved.

I am trying to catch Tomas to find out about the soundtracks. As far as "Marnotratny Syn" is concerned, I need to get a music. We never had a soundtrack done.

I am busy doing taxes, so I gotta go now.

Have a great day

Rene

Good Job ladies!

I think that Ika and Zuzu have done a great job! The song selection is really great, I think that all of us got at least one song that we really wanted, and I think that that was hard to do. So Ika and Zuzu, thank you.
I was really looking forward yesterday to see the list. (I think that all of us did). So at least now we have something to work with. I am glad, because I have most of these songs on my MP3 and that way I can start listening to them, and because I have the easiest part, soprano, I can sing them. I just don't know if I can still pull off the Holy city, if someone is in possession of the soundtrack, could you send it to me, because I really need to start practicing now, (in the car, the apartment walls are too thin, and I don't want to be blamed for mass moving out.... Plus they are big on noise complaint here...
Anyways, I want to encourage all of you to sing and practice your voices, it will make a big difference on the concert. You know, it may sound funny, but even things like singing everyday at worship time, or from the bottom of your heart in church (there are enough people to drown you out anyways) will strengthen your voice.
Now that we have the list, I would like to propose a prayer conference. Could we all talk on the phone one morning and pray. We have done it with our colporteurs after the summer, and it was great. We were all on the phone, and then the leaders prayed at the end. I think that God can bless us amazingly, ultimately, I am not doing it for mom, but for God, mom will be blessed, and happy in the process, but I hope that it can do more good than that, that it can bless people in the audience. It can show, that a "good" music sounds good too.
Anyways, I have been talking too long, I was thinking, that I should let others to speak their opinion.
Eva

So, what do you all think?

It took us nearly 2 hours just to decide on this list. I hope everyone will be somewhat satisfied. I know Levi wasn't very happy that we didn't choose We Have This Hope...

Anyway, I had a question, that maybe Rene could find out for us, when he has a chance. Does Tomas have a sountrack for Marnotratny Syn? Do you have a CD or tape with that song on it? Or does he have it, and if he does, could he send it to U.S.?

Also, my other question was, if Tomas can work with already existing soundtracks where he can use certain parts of it, cut & paste or something like that? Because some of these songs have a beautiful beginning on the sountracks, but then it has drums at the end, which we're not doing. So, could you find out if that would be a possibility or not?

So, next topic on the agenda is the structure of the morning program. Some of the songs we could use for the morning program from our list are:

Az zajde slunce
Kdyz jsem uslysel jmeno Jezis
The old country church medley
Otce Nas (?)
Zpevy Zni
What a Day (repeat)


OH, I failed to mention, Zuzka said something about Eva having a song Standing on the promises/Higher Ground, that's suppose to be really good, but I don't know it, and I am not sure what version she's talking about. If you want to fax it to me at (901)205-0492, I'll review it, and we'll decide if it's something we can use or not.

I just wanted to say how we came to the list above. We first completely eliminated all the songs that didn't get any votes. Then we wrote down songs that got 4 or more votes as 100%. Then we went song by song, and considered it based on how many votes it received. If it had 1 vote, we probably didn't give it as much thought as a song that got 3 votes. We made several lists, and finally came to a final decision that you already saw on here.

The next step for me will be to make sure I have all the songs here available to send out for practice.

Ika

We Have Reached The Decision

SONGS FOR EVENING PROGRAM/CD (Evening program may have a couple extra songs that will not be on the CD)

In no particular order:

1/ What A Day - 1st solo Zuzka, 2nd solo to be determined (pref. a guy who can sing that high)

2/ Marnotratny Syn - solo Rene, trio w/ Kamil & Ika

3/ Your Grace Still Amazes Me - Solo Kamil, duet w/Zigi; rest of the song all

4/ Learning to Lean - Maybe solo Ika

5/ In The Presence of Jehovah - solo Eva

6/ Holy City - solo Eva

7/ Each One Reach One - Zuzka solo 2nd verse

8/ Come Let Us Bow Down - Rebekah scripture reading, Chelsea & Zigi solo & duet

9/ I Surrender All

10/ I Have Decided - Rene + Kamil --> trio girls

11/ No More Night - solo Zigi

12/ Love Lifted Me - Trio girls

13/ Jesus Loves Me - ALL kids, including the twins :p)

-----------

14/ Alabaster Box - Eva backup song

The Polls Are Closed

Hey Everyone,

so, as you know, we had our deadline yesterday for song selections. Zuzka and I will have a conference in about 10-15 minutes, and through a process of elimination we will pick the songs. Then, what we will do, we'll post the list online, and ask you, if you have music for any of the songs that we don't have music sheets for. Our goal is to get everything here at my house in about two weeks. That's when Zuzka is coming over, and we'll be working on the harmonies, and making packages for everyone with the CD and sheet music.

So, if you still want to make some last minute changes you have until 11/10c to do so, or to call either one of us on the phone. We ask you to pray for us. We want everyone to be happy. Don't forget the true purpose of this. It's not for us, it's for our mom, for our dad as well, and for people that will be listening during our programs. Wouldn't that be awesome knowing that there were people who were inspired, uplifted, energized simply from seeing us perform with so much passion for God... That's MY ultimate goal.

I am impressed at how smoothly everything's been going so far. I know there may be some tension behind the scene, but that's to be expected. I just ask you to pray for our whole family, and be considerate of others' feelings, looking at them the way God would...

I am little sick right now, but it's not going to stop me in giving 100% to planning this trip. I am very excited about it!

By the way, Zuzka and I have successfully completed 3 weeks of the Bob Greene's Best Life Diet (we call it jokingly "The Oprah Diet"), and last time Zuzka weighed herself she lost 6.5 lbs and so did I. We feel great, and healthy, thanks for asking. :o)

Ika

Song Selection

Thanks Rene for the info.

I just wanted to say to you all, that Zuzka & I talked, and it's OK, if you pick more than 10 songs. I understand that it's difficult to decide from so many great selections. We'll try to pick out songs that were the most popular with all of you, and also have a few selections as a back up ( solos, duets, etc.), so that if we run into issues with some song later on in the process, we can have an easy replacement. But, I'm repeating what Kamil already said little while ago. So go, knock yourselves out, and pick songs that you really like, even if it comes up to be more than 10.

Also, remember that some of the other songs, that didn't get so many initials by them may be used in the morning program.

Ika

CD

I really don't have any idea, previously Tomas kept certain amount of money of each CD that he burned. And this is different scenario. Tomas said that the best would be to make him an offer. I don't know, thinking what he made previously based on how many CD's we've sold, it came to about 15-18,000 KC. In current exchange we are looking at $900 average. That would be $150 per person. If we sold 50 CD at the price 200 KC per CD, we'd make 10,000KC. We would have to subtract the cost of goods, but we would still come out well. And I believe we should be able to do that.

I agree to finalize 10 songs for the CD. No more, otherwise it won't be ready for the concert.

As far as both presentations, ew can finalize it later.

You have a good one.

Rene

CD

Hi Everyone,

I don't have much time, because I am getting ready to go to church, but I wanted to write this, because I think some of you will be picking their songs, and I just wanted to say this before you do.

I happen to disagree with whoever wrote that last post. Let's just put a reality check on this. How much is this CD recording going to cost us? If it's going to end up being maybe $20 per person, then yes, let's do it the way our mom wants it. But if it's going to be more like $100 or more, where we will rely on some of the CD sales to compensate us back for our expense, we'll need to take in consideration what will other people like and what will sell...

Rene, please, could you tell us at least ball park figure what we can expect as far as the price? I know Tomas didn't say, but I don't really like getting into this, not knowing how much it's going to cost us. Maybe you could tell us how much it cost for the CDs in the past to get done. And how much you think he can do it for us this time. I know that you bought some equipment for him in return for his services, so count that in as well.

So, I wonder if the price tag would change our song choices a little....

Ika

Songs, songs, songs...

I agree with Ika that it will be hard to pick only 10 songs for the CD. I propose that each one of us pick our 10 favorites and then the committee selects 14 songs for the CD. After we then obtain music, we can weed out a couple of songs whose difficulty level will become apparent and which we can then eliminate. That will also give us a chance to balance the variety of songs on the CD and if needed take again one or two songs out and that will leave us with 10 songs.

Also, my understanding is that the CD is for mom first and then for the rest of the people. So if we are doing morning program (for mom) and then evening program (with the songs from the CD for mom) they will be repeated. The CD songs should build a foundation for both morning and evening program that will meet our objective--which is time of reflection on our past as one family through songs.

I forgot to put my name on the bottom!
Kamil

OK, I think what we should do is to do one thing at a time. Let's pick songs for the evening Concert/CD. We've already established, that morning is going to be dedicated to our mom, and evening more towards everyone else. So, I would keep all the personal stuff for the morning service. So, as soon as we establish the details for the Evening Concert, then we can start working on the structure of the morning service.

I can already see, that it would be difficult to pick only 10 songs, and we'll probably go with more like 13 songs. Next thing on the agenda should be (probably starting Monday) what are your ideas about the spoken word? Who should speak, how long, what topic, etc. So, let's finish up on those songs, and then we can do the speaking, and then after that we'll start planning the morning. Is that OK with everyone?

By the way, those of you, who met Amelia (Johnny's cousin) at our wedding, she just had her second baby girl yesterday. So now Isabella has a little sister Clara. She was already 5 days past her due date, and the baby just decided to come out right when she had her bloodwork done at the hospital (to prepare for the Monday induction). Amelia had a short labor and quick delivery. And that's always good ;p)

OK, talk to you all later.

Ika

P.S. In the last email Petra told me that they ate for Jarek's Birthday at a restaurant at Frydek's Castle. She said it's really nice there, and that I have to go out to eat there with her when we come visit. (By the way, she knows nothing about our plans, I just told her we are thinking about coming for visit at the end of summer or in the fall) So, that might be worth checking out...

songs

I am just making sure I understand, !0 songs that we will pick, will be the songs on CD.

Also I have a small request, that is somewhat personal. I'd like to make a 2-3 min video clip of Richard singing his first English song "Soon and Very Soon"in the car on the way to visit Zigi in TN about 7 years ago, and then I'd like for us and our kids to sing it together. I would like to do it for sure in the morning service for mom, and if you think is good idea, we could do it as well on the concert.

Also I believe we could sing 3-5 more songs at the evening concert. Usually is around 13-16 songs on the full concert. But we don't need a soundtrack for the extra songs that will not be on CD. Also what do you think about finishing the program with song "The Holy City", we have a soundtrack for it, people love the song, and I am sure Evka wouldn't mind singing it.

That's all for tonight.\

Happy Sabbath

Rene

Sunday Deadline!!!

Hey everybody,
The deadline for adding songs is this Sunday, so hurry up!

By the way (it's me again), Zuzka and I talked today, and we'll be getting together probably two weeks from now, we'll get together on the songs, try to get a hold of all the music sheets, and write down any harmonies that need to be written down. We'll probably even put together your music packets that weekend, and then I'll mail them out. So, if anyone else would like to come over that weekend, you're welcomed. We'll be meeting at my house.

Gotta run.

Ika

Song Selection

Wow, I just tried to do the song selection, and I'll tell you, it was difficult, because I love a lot of those songs, but I had to go by my feeling what I think we can do as a family, and what I thought people would like (some of them familiar tunes, and some new)... For the morning service we'll probably do a few of the other Czech ones, right? Maybe like 5 or 6? But if I got it correctly, right now we are focusing just for the CD/evening concert, right?

By the way, to add your initials, you are editing the post SONGS with !!!

Ika

I think that is a good idea Kozi. if all of you put initials by the songs you like that will be great. You can choose 10 songs. If I understand it this is for the CD and the evening program.
ok still have a lot to do
love you and wishing you all Happy Sabbath
zuzana

Songs Selection:

Somebody suggested that we all write our list of favorite songs. Why don't we just put our initials by the songs we like, have a time frame on Sunday and then let the "committee" meet and select the songs. (We would need to know for how many songs to select.) The committee can select songs for the concerts and after that we can select songs for the CD.
KM

Board of Directors

I am so happy to see everything coming along so well. Everyone is participating in the songs selection, and hopefully by Sunday night we'll have a final list, and we can work from there.

So, in order to plan further, I've decided to delegate different responsibilites, according to your Gifts and Talents. Please, start brainstorming and if you'd like you can start preparing and planning, we'll be looking forward to hear what the plans are, and we'll probably devote a lot of time to make sure everyone is helping where needed. If you are assigned a responsibility, it doesn't mean that you're in it all by yourself. You just have to be responsible that people are doing what they are suppose to do for you.

So, here go:

Rene Metz - CD coordination/recording day coordination
Church services coordination
Hana Metz - kitchen + chore co-coordinator

Zigi Metz - Birthday Dinner coordinator
Rachel Metz - weekday fun coordinator

Kamil Metz - Adult Ministries ** (Morning Worship)
Annette Metz - Children's Ministries

Andrew Rachal - Adult Ministries ** (Evening Worship)
Zuzka Rachal - Kitchen/Chore coordinator, Music coordinator

Johnny & Ika Bennett - Budget/Treasurer
Music Coordinator (for church events)
CzechTrip '08 packet distribution

Eva Metz - Music Coordinator - worships
Chores co-coordinator

**Worships can be done by anyone, but you are responsible for making sure someone IS doing a worship.

If any of you don't feel comfortable in your position, please express yourself, and we can consider re-assigning your duty to someone else. Also, if there are any responsibilities, that I failed to assign, feel free to add them to this list.

Also, if you would like to help out in some areas you are not a coordinator of, step up, and get involved. E.g. if you'd like to do a worship one night or morning, call or email Andrew or Kamil and they will schedule you on their list. Also, I will encourage you to utilize our calendar, so if we know worships are going to be at 7 p.m. (just an example!), then you can put down Worship and the name of the person speaking that night. Right before the trip we will print out those calendars as a guideline and a reminder. So, don't be afraid to use it. It will be a helpful tool.

I hope all this is not too confusing, actually I am hoping it will bring little organization into our planning.

Ika

there is 33 songs now

look at the songs

please go look we have many more songs in our selection. I put some faster songs on it. I do not know if anybody is going to put anymore songs but since there is about 20-30 songs I have an idea.
If you want to be part of making decision in choosing the songs please do this. Put on the blob 10 of your favorite of this list so we can consider your preference. If on Sunday nobody do that we will just have to make the decision ourselves. But if everyone do that it will give us better idea what you all really like. And you can have chance to influence the decision.
have to run have sooooooooooooo much to do
thank you
love you all
Zuzana

evening concert

the evening concert can be at 5pm, I will go with what they are use to, but I think we are flexible.

Practice prior to coming to Czech:
I think after we select the songs and get some idea about what forms the songs will take that Rene, Zuzka, and Ika should get together to "practice" or really figure out how the songs should sound like. I would hate to come down and spend half of the time just to make changes about arrangements, etc. So after they would get a better idea, the rest of us can come and make a huge progress, because just like Rene, I'll be practicing in the car with a CD provided by Ika, I guess.

Surprise or not:
I wouldn't tell dad the dates we'll be there prior to our coming. Telling him means that mom will find out. When we were in Czech the last time, we called him that day and showed up that night and it worked out just fine. As far as pastor, we can only hope and see. If mom finds out, that's OK, i think we can live with it and still make it special.

Sabbath program:
I like the idea of KL in the morning and V in the evening. We could start before 6 so we have time to talk to people, get some CD's out, etc. As far as English songs, let's remember that no one had a problem, because we had Americans among us. If we sing with our spouses, that's given--English. If only siblings sing, people may wonder why we don't sing in Czech when all of us can sing in Czech. Yet I think we have plenty of Czech songs to keep good balance between English and Czech songs. CD can have both Czech and English songs.

Later,
Kamil

surprise

Let's do our best to keep it low key as much as we can. Pastor Strouhal knows to keep his mouth zipped, but as Ika said, you never know. Honestly there is really only one reason why I don't a=want mom to know, and that is she will try to organize and run both the church service and the concert as well. Knowing her, she will try to give us so many ideas and if we don't do them, she will get upset. That's why I don't want her to know, and also it will be nice surprise, but if somehow it will get out..... nothing to do about it. And dad can be surprised as well. He will tell her for sure if he knows. He is good "tlampac", so he will share the news.

CD can be mix songs. Lets pick what we want without limiting ourselves. Ika is right, if people like the melody, they don't worry about the words anyway. To me what is more important is to pick familiar songs. I don't mind 1 or 2 new songs on CD, but it is intended to be a gift to mom, and she will enjoy 2 things:
1. Evka's solos
2. Familiar melodies

Need to go

Rene

P.S. I am glad Zigi is looking out for me to make sure I am ready. I guess we will see who is ready in November :-) ;-) HEHEHEHE

Practice prior to coming to Czech:
I think after we select the songs and get some idea about what forms the songs will take that Rene, Zuzka, and Ika should get together to "practice" or really figure out how the songs should sound like. I would hate to come down and spend half of the time just to make changes about arrangements, etc. So after they would get a better idea, the rest of us can come and make a huge progress, because just like Rene, I'll be practicing in the car with a CD provided by Ika, I guess.

Surprise or not:
I wouldn't tell dad the dates we'll be there prior to our coming. Telling him means that mom will find out. When we were in Czech the last time, we called him that day and showed up that night and it worked out just fine. As far as pastor, we can only hope and see. If mom finds out, that's OK, i think we can live with it and still make it special.

Sabbath program:
I like the idea of KL in the morning and V in the evening. We could start before 6 so we have time to talk to people, get some CD's out, etc. As far as English songs, let's remember that no one had a problem, because we had Americans among us. If we sing with our spouses, that's given--English. If only siblings sing, people may wonder why we don't sing in Czech when all of us can sing in Czech. Yet I think we have plenty of Czech songs to keep good balance between English and Czech songs.

I like the idea as well, that way we can still practice a little Friday night. I don't think it's such a big deal doing songs in English. We already had so many mission trips, and nobody ever cared that we sang in English, people even bought our CDs!!! (We loved listening to Heritage Singers our whole life, and didn't care we couldn't understand 99% of it). Actually, I think it is a very pleasant change for most people, who are used to the same 'ol same 'ol. Plus, if we provide the translation on power point, it will work just fine (again, I've already made that suggestion in the beginning). I would do a lot of Czech songs in the morning service, I don't think the morning service has to be too rehearsed, not as formal, maybe sing-along type thing. And then in the evening I would do the stuff we are doing on the CD. What do you think?

Surprise: It is going to be very difficult to keep it as a surprise, because dad is already asking me, when we are coming to visit, and I told him possibly sometimes at the end of summer or in the fall, and he says to let me know as soon as we decide on the date. Plus, I have a feeling the word will get out one way or another. (Once you make reservations, the gossip will spread...) So, the question remains, is it even possible to keep it as a secret? Do you think the pastor won't slip up?
I don't know, I guess we'll have to see what happens.

I am not pushing any of the Gaither songs, I just like them, because they are the kind of style the older generation in Czech likes, and I thought maybe some of you will already know the melody, but I guess not.

OK, gotta run.

Ika

I love that very much,
I have been thinking about how we could invite dads family to that program and since the first program will be for our mom we do not have to worry about it anymore at the second one.
So Ika why don't you put in the calendar morning program KL and 6 pm Vojkovice.
Now my question. Are we going to have songs in both English and in Czech on the CD?
Zuzana

Sabbath program

I just got off the phone with pastor Strouhal, and if we are interested, we can have morning time during sermon time. The whole service is available, we can have the program just for mom, at her home church. I propose we have the program at that time, and the we can have an evening concert in Vojkovice church, where we'd invite other churches included KL. Thi will allow the presentation to be dedicated to our mom, and the concert in the evening can be more relaxed, and focused on our friends as well. In the morning time, we can have maybe 6-8 songs, share memories from our childhood, our children can have a little corner to sing to grandma and I am sure mom will love it.

For the evening concert we should also invite dad, and other members of his family(Martin, Otik, Bohdan......etc). I believe it is an excellent idea to share Jesus with them.

Also to what Evka wrote about visiting dad, my suggestion is that we visit him for Sun lunch after concert.

Let's not be affraid of english songs, I wouldn't try to create Czech lyrics, I'd rather make a power point presentation in Czech.

If we can agree on the Sabbath, that will give us some foundation. So the suggestion is to have morning presentation in KL for 45-60 min, and evening concert in Vojkovice @ 6.00 pm, but I can't be longer then 3 hrs, because there will be a hockey game @10.00pm in Frydek-Mistek ;-)

Let us know what you think about this plan.

HAve a good one

Rene

Surprising mom

Hey everyone,

I would like to share few more thoughts on surprising mom.

In order for us to have any advertisement for our presentations (possible vespers on Fri and Sat night mom's celebration) we have to announce it in some of the surrounding churches.

Since Zuzka and family, Eva and Cassey will be there, they can call it "evening with the Metz's family". It can be advertised as Christian concert/sit down (posezeni)/remember the old days/whatever else would work in churches around like Frydlant, Frydek, Vojkovice, Komorni Lhotka, Cesky Tesin, Trinec. It won't give anything away, since mom would know these children are coming for a visit. She will not have to bug you to sing something.

Same advertisement for Komorni Lhotka Saturday evening.

OR

Instead of singing Sat evening, do you think KL's pastor would give us a morning church service. . . and would it be even appropriate to do that during such a time?

NOW TO SINGING

I watched the songs on youtube and they are great. They are very easy to learn, but I think we should mix it up a little and have few more lively (happy:). Mark Lowry's song "amazing" is awesome, but getting the music is very important. Gaither's song is great when he is singing it. His voice can't be unfortunately duplicated by any of us.

LIST OF SONGS

I see a lot of English songs but not so many Czech ones. Let's throw in a few more Czech ones that meant a lot to us. Even if they are English, but already translated into Czech.

NEW SONGS

I am also in favor of finding a couple of songs that weren't introduced/translated in Czech yet. It is always nice to hear brand new song. I am sure they will appreciate it.

PRACTICING

Let's put some dates down. Rachel is scheduled 3-5 months out. If we are to meet in April we need to pencil in a date now. I am sure Kamil already knows what he is doing in April. . . Eva can request time off and fly maybe on Thurs night to get there on Fri morning so she misses work only on Fri and Ika, Zuzka, Rene are right there. . .

Eva, if you want to spend some time with Cassey, just fly him with you to the practice and "kill 2 birds with one throw" :) (no malice intended)

CD

Let's trim down the songs for the CD. Is this going to be just English, or mix CD? Zuzka and Ika get the music sheets for the music chosen so we can practice individually. Rene promised to practice in his car (not in the shower to spare Hana's ears :) :) :)) Everyone else have piano and no excuse to practice.

more to come,

Zigi

SONGS!!!

Please, through edit add songs to this list that you would like to suggest. You will have until Sunday to keep adding as many songs as you would like. Then, on Sunday, Zuzka and I will have a telephone conference, and decide very carefully on our final list. Then we will present it to you. Hope you understand that if we all had a say in the final decision, it would take months to come to an agreement. So you've got to trust us on this. And I know everyone will be disappointed in a way, I'm sure I'll be as well, I am sure we won't pick all of my suggestions, so please understand.

SONGS
Az Zajde Slunce IMB RM KM Zigi
What A Day That Will Be IMB ZR RM EM Zigi
You are holy (HS)EM
Mansion Over the Hilltop (HS)
Marnotratny Syn IMB KM ZR RM EM Zigi
Alabaster Box EM
Your Grace Still Amazes Me IMB ZR KM
He Touched Me
Learning To Lean IMB KM ZR RM EM
In The Presence of Jehovah ZR EM Zigi
Someone Is Praying For You
Kde mohu jit (Glad)
Side By Side
Holy City (Jerusalem) ZR IMB RM EM Zigi
I love you Lord
It is not Secret (HS)
God Speaking (Mandisa) IMB EM
Jak Tise Vecer Prichazi
I Bowed On My Knees and Cried Holy
Each One Reach One IMB ZR KM RM
Come Let Us Bow Down And Worship (kids) IMB ZR KM Zigi
Soon And Very Soon
I Surrender All (HS) KM ZR RM IMB EM Zigi
Do you remember the time (HS)ZR EM
Family Of God(HS)
Pan Jezis ten Bozi syn
Kdyz jsem uslysel jmeno Jezis
I have decided (HS) RM ZR EM KM Zigi
The old country church/Sweet by and by/what a fellowship/leaning (medley heritage singers) ZR EM Zigi
Happiness is the Lord(HS)
There will be peace(HS)
Plenty of room in the family(HS)EM
I never loved Him better than today(HS)
The king is coming(HS)
Otce nas
Renew Me (HS) EM
I'll Fly Away (HS) RM EM
When we all get together (HS)
God will Make a way
Standing on the promises/Higher Ground ZR EM
Adonai (HS)EM
I've got Jesus right in my heart (HS)
Peacespeaker (HS) EM
Love Lifted Me EM ZR
Precious Lord Take My Hand(HS) RM
We Have This Hope Levi Zigi
Pastyri muj
Zpevy zni KM ZR IMB Zigi
V obraz Tvuj
You Saved Me (HS) - Girls' Trio IMB
It is well EM
The rocky road (Bring It To Jesus :o)EM
No More Night Johnny B. KM IMB ZR Zigi
Your Strength is Perfect KM ZR Zigi
It's not by might, nor power Zigi :)

program

guys,
it exciting to see the planning happening, but I agree with Ika, that it can be overwhelming. My input is, that it should be concert from songs that are familiar to us, the content of the program should be the walk down memory lane. It can be done pretty simple, but part of it are the songs. The last thing we need is to put too much stress on a few people.

Songs on CD and concert will be identical, there isn't any question about it. I talked to Zuzu, and I thought it would be nice to have a chorus "Family of God", Ika you remember, that one of the first songs Richard learned here was "Soon and soon......", so we can do this one with our kids. This is what I imagine we will do. Have good time together, mom will be proud of sitting there listening to our program, we will have a great time praising and thanking God for mom's 60 years and for leading us throughout our lives.

I want it simple. That is my opinion. And honestly without being negative, some of us will not practice until we get to Czech. That's just a reality. Let's pick a simple stuff, and the result will be great. Mom will be happy and our church friends as well.
Ika don't stress too much. You have enough to do, and we all appreciate your piano playing, which by the way, I look forward to enjoy myself. It will take me back to our mission trip days.

Have a good one.

Rene

Az zajde slunce, funeral song???

I don't think Az zajde slunce has funeral words in Czech. It's actually about second coming of Jesus:

1. verse:

Az zajde slunce nad nasi zemi,
Pak prijde v slave muj Spasitel
starost a lkani vsechno pomine
az zajde slunce a skonci den...


Az zajde slunce, zarmutek zmizi, utichnou boure, nepoznam sten, tam bude radost a vecna slava az zajde slunce a skonci den.

Az zajde slunce Jezis me vezme do nebe k Otci kde doma jsem. Vitat me budou andelske sbory az zajde slunce a skonci den.

Az zajde slunce nad nasi zemi muzes byt stasten a svoboden. Priprav se drive nez bude pozde az zajde slunce a skonci den.

So, unless you believe in life after death, this is not a funeral song (the Czech lyrics aren't)

Ika

YouTube - Heritage Singers - I Have Decided

YouTube - Heritage Singers - I Have Decided

when I am thinking about the program I am imagining very friendly time together where like you said Ika we are walking on our memory lane. We share songs and talk about our past. Just have a good time. The songs can be from our past but they do not have to be. I think whatever we will do it will be special and if all of us take working on the songs to our hearts it will be even good quality. Which brings me to this thought. All of us need to take abut 15 min. each day to sing just sing anything. We need to make sure our voices are ready. So next 6 months everybody need to make sure their voice is ready. Zigi ,Ika, Evka, doyou remember the time we put program together for KL? It was so great I think everybody really enjoyed it.
So I think if we choose songs we already know from hearing it will help us to put it together.
I think we should hear from everybody what they thin about how much time we will practice so we know if we need to go with very simple songs.
love you lots
Zuzana

By the way, Az zajde slunce is either funeral song, or people sometimes sing it for the beginning or ending of Sabbath. I did not realize it, although we always sang it at the funeral, but this song is in English, and when I wanted to sing it at Weimar, they told me no, because it is funeral.

Can we start a folder with just the names of the songs, there are so many entries that I am getting really confused by the selection of songs, so if we could all put our suggestions in a folder, then we could see it better, and thus choose them better as well.

As far as the sheet music I have. I have a great arrangement for God will make a way, it is a quarter, I think it is pretty. It is like 10 or 12 pages. And then I have a hymnal song medley, and the harmonies are very unusual and cool, I could fax it, maybe to Ika, so she could look at it and give you guys second opinion.

Also, I am not sure if there was a misunderstanding, but when I was reading through the entries, I think someone said that In the Presence was an old song, but I think that people who suggested that song meant In the Presence of Jehovah, which is completely different song, actually quite nice, as far as quartet in the chorus.

As far as the laundry, I think it is excellent idea. Especially the ones who do not have children should probably try to bring enough clothes, so that we don't do laundry, those who have children might have also limited space in their luggages to bring anything extra anyways, so I am totally willing to bring enough, (Hey we all colpourted anyways, and we did laundry only once a week, or sometimes once in two weeks.)

I can't wait to see all of you, and also your babies. You know, the last time we saw each other we were 16 and now, if all of us siblings will be able to make with all of our the families, the head count will be 22. I think that's great.

I have been thinking about one thing, I really feel bad that we were not there for Dad's 60th birthday. I was wondering, how could we make him feel special? Should we have a dinner with him too, separately, of course, because I don't think mom would appreciate him at hers. What do you guys think, I really want to see him when I am there, but I don't want him to think that we prefer mom over him.

I am praying for you Ika and Johnny and boys, I don't have TV and don't read news, so I did not know, so I hope everything is okay.

We have been having snow storms, and I have not been able to get to work already three times because of the weather conditions. One night I got cought in one of the storms, after visiting my pastor's wife. I thought I will not make it home. I could not see the road, and I think it was only by the grace of God that I got home. So all of you be safe. They say that Washington state had the worst winter in last 30-40 years. So you can see the weather is not fun. But it is warming up.

I think the idea of one song for kids is just great. I think that if all the parents will work with their kids, and help them memorize, that it might mean to our mom more than anything else. Are you guys going to do it in Czech or English.

Rene, I thought you thought I was going to TN in April, it wasn't me who wrote that entry. However, I have not heard another mention of that practice again. I could possibly take time off from work, and fly, but I was thinking about it, if we practice then, you know there will be so many changes since then, I was thinking that end of the summer might be even better, but that's just my suggestion about it.

I miss you all, I really am jealous especially of those who can see each other more often than me, but I will get over it, because I will see you all this Thanksgiving. I better start saving money and create an account just for this trip :-)) Otherwise the money will just go. Have you realized how much it will cost each family. Man, my mom will get really expensive gift :-)).

I better go. I had a root canal today, and I am still numb from all the numbing stuff that Dr. gave me, so if I don't make sense, that's the explanation.,,,,....

Eva

SONGS

Az Zajde Slunce
What A Day That Will Be
Marnotratny Syn
Alabaster Box
Your Grace Still Amazes Me
He Touched Me
Learning To Lean
In The Presence of Jehovah
Someone Is Praying For You
Where Can I Go (Glad)
Side By Side
New Jerusalem (Holy City???)
God Speaking (Mandisa)
Jak Tise Vecer Prichazi
I Bowed On My Knees and Cried Holy
Swan
Come Let Us Bow Down And Worship (kids)

Music Program/CD

I can tell you honestly, that I am getting overwhelmed. I mean, I just listened to some songs on my phone, and when I focused on the piano part, I've realized it's going to be a lot of work!!! I am not sure that I will have all the time for that. It's difficult enough to try to keep our house clean and take care of the boys. I would strongly suggest that the CD and the program are identical.

I am still little confused as to what the evening program suppose to be. Because originally I thought it was suppose to be a "walk down the memory lane" type thing, but now it seems that we are doing a full blown concert. So, can we specify exactly what we are doing? In the beginning I was very excited about this whole idea, but more and more I am kind of questioning if it's not getting out of our hands, and I feel physically exhausted just reading and thinking about it. Actually I am not sure that I can be a part of such huge project, and if we don't drastically simplify it, I will have to back out of it. I guess I can see what's real, and what's not, and I think what this is becoming is absolutely not realistic. Another thing we could do, how Zigi suggested, we could maybe do a vespers type program at the church maybe on Thursday or Friday night, and that could contain our videos, our special songs (each family could do their little thing - similar to what I've suggested in the beginning), and then we could do a little song together, and that would be it. Oh, and maybe some spoken word. But at least for that all you have to do is prepare your own song, and practice one song together. And then, Saturday night we could do the concert, but I would do same amt. of songs as on the CD, so that we already have it practiced, and ready to go.

Is that to confusing to you all? Because to me it seems simple, and doable, but maybe not to you. I will make the separate post on songs, keep in mind, that it's not final, it's just what we've got so far, and we'll try to get it to a finalized list of songs by Sunday.

Ika

CD

hello everyone,

great songs, pretty much all the songs that everyone has presented here are an excellent songs. In The Presence.....is a great song. I wasn't trying to say we can't sing it. If we go with a fewer old songs and have at least 50% of new songs I am fine with it. My point is, that the concert is for mom, and CD as well. But I don't have any doubt she will like the selection that I see now on this blog. Again I like it. Next point is, will we know the songs with just one practice. Maybe we need to find out how many times before the Nov flight we can meet, also, we cannot practice during the recording time. All I have posted here is based on perfect knowledge of the songs. And this is making me nervous with the newer, less known songs, or more complicated songs.

I'd like to ask, how many times can we meet to practice?

Zuzu and Ika, based on this you should consider what we can do. Another thought, to make it easier on us, we should put on CD songs that we'll sing on the concert. How many songs are we going to sing on that concert. For a CD I suggest 10. Concert can have more, that's ok.

Have a good one

Rene

Trip

Hey ya'll,

Pretty bad storm down in TN/AR. I was glad to hear Ika and "spol" is OK. You can somewhat prepare for a hurricane, but tornado. . .

Thank you Zuzi for your concern, and NO, our internet is not "down" :) but as you know, it is still crazy around here. It should be all good in 10 days.

There is a lot of discussion going on about the song choices. It is a testament to our mom's prayer. She wanted everyone to be a musician and here we are, all musicians. . . just trying to figure out the songs. . . :)

So, if you don't already feel perplexed which song, let me throw in few more ideas. :)

ENGLISH vs. CZECH
Why don't we do two presentations? One - song in Czech with 2 or 3 in English. And the second all in English. . . Two locations, two programs.

SOUNDTRACKS (ST)
I know, we have a great resource in Tom Sosna. Let's use him, but let's not limit ourselves to him. One presentation can be with ST and the other w/out. OR both presentation with some ST's and some live music.

The reasoning is simple. We have a LOT of memories to some of the songs. If we can't have them with ST we should not dismiss them so easily. Let's use IKA, Tom, Marek, or even I am willing to play and make it simple, but powerful. IT IS ABOUT THE MEMORIES, NOT ABOUT THE WOW FACTOR. :)

Imagine this, what if we all pick a song from our childhood and describe what it meant to us and why we have listen to it over and over. This could be during the concert for our mom. Czech songs that shaped our lives (that would be 7 altogether) with another 3-5 of mom's favorite. Than we have also the "meat" in between that is meaningful, personal and mom would LOVE IT.

Ika, what don't you start a post that is editable, for the list of songs. People mentioned songs in their posts but I already forgot who mentioned what. . . Let's just dedicate one post to that. I agree with Rene, let's put a deadline on it, so we could move on. BUT if you find song that is absolutely "to die for" must, we can always have a live accompany.

Like Kamil, I will make my arrival in harmony with the best interest of this trip.

I also looked at the website of rabaka.cz and they offer a very limited vegetarian cuisine. I spoke to Milan and he said that they had some problems with their chef. I know, that Danny Laufersweiler eats out all the time and if someone would contact him, he could give us some tips. We went out with him to a place on Frydeckem namesti and that restaurant had great vegetarian choices and awesome settings.

I will write some more later.

Zigi

Here are some other songs. Listen to them and see if anything catches your interest. (I think it would be good to have some familiar songs and some new - that would also help us sell the CD better...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3iy7NcZCEo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpgFuMIgRIE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_cJFoy8QDM&feature=related


Ika

or if everybody will be there we ca do it on monday
I was just listenning to the song "in the presence of Jehovah" by heritage singers. I was determined to find it. so I took about 20 not labeled CDs and decidet to look. I took a first CD and the first song was in the presence of Jehovah. I wish all of could hear it by HS it has such a beautiful harmony and the solo sounds just perfect for Evka. Just think about it for a second
thanks
Zuzana

my question is how much time do we need for the recording. If we do it on Tuesday we will need to end by five to get our mom to the restaurant by six. In my opinion it would be good to spend time away on tuesday before mom knows we all are there and than on wednesday we can record. We wont have to rush to get out
What do you all think?
Zuzana

Kamil and his family will be there when we have scheduled family activities.
kamil

I think we should record it Tuesday, depending if everyone would be there. Also, I would probably find out how many people are planning on being at the house on Wednesday, and depending on that, if it should be just a couple of family units, then I would let mom cook that first day, that way she feels like a good hostess, but if everyone should be there, I would plan the menu starting Wednesday, so that our mom doesn't feel overwhelmed. That way also, if she asks where everybody is, we could tell her that we had some plans for Wednesday but will spend all day Thursday - Saturday with her, and hopefully that would make her feel better.

Also, if Eva or Zuzka are going to bring our mom to the restaurant on Tuesday night, then there is no need to tell Renata about the surprise, because I am not sure she can keep a secret. Her face just gives everything away... haha

So, I don't really care if we record Monday or Tuesday, but I think it will depend on Zigi's and Kamil's arrival. Everyone else will pretty much be already there.

Ika

let us talk about the schedule so I can finish the menu for the week. Is there anyway we can decide about which day we will record the CD?
zuzana

sounds good

free day

I think there isn't any problem with spending Wed just with Johnie and your boys. My thought and idea was to spend more dedicated time with mom Thurs-Sat night.

Rene

Our crazy weather made international news...

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/tornada-zabijela-a-nicila-na-jihu-spojenych-statu-fbn-/zahranicni.asp?c=A080206_065914_zahranicni_jan

Ika

Video Tutorial

Hey guys,

as I was switching the whites from the washer to the dryer, I was thinking... (we women think when we work a lot, don't we haha) Anyway, I was thinking. Would it help, if I made a video tape of myself having your very own private practice of your part? I mean, if we got together, I would have to do it one-on-one anyway. So, maybe I could record myself, if you wouldn't mind seeing my face, on our home camcorder, playing the piano, and singing your part, focusing on challenging areas, repeating them over and over again, as if you were there with me, and that way, you can pop it in when it's convenient for you, and you can practice. I think I would do it mainly for alto, tenor and maybe bass, since soprano is pretty self-explanatory. I would also like to volunteer for putting together a package for everyone with a CD and sheet music for each of the songs (and the DVD). But if you think it wouldn't really help you (the DVD), please let me know, so I don't have to waste my time. But that was a thought. I really want for this to be good. Try to put in it as much effort as you would, as if you were to sing in front of the president of the SDA church or be televised on 3ABN.

OK, another thing, which was for organizational notes for the trip - since I was doing a laundry, I thought about a pretty important info. If you are staying in Czech 8 days or less, please try to bring enough clothing so that you don't have to do laundry at our mom's house. I understand if you are staying for two weeks. I mean, I understand if you run out of children's clothing, which you didn't expect (they get dirty quicker than you expect), but please, take that in consideration, as you pack for the trip (in case we don't cover this topic anymore).

Also, if we are going to end up recording the CD on Monday or Tuesday, could we then agree on having a free day on Wednesday or Thursday, because we (Johnny, I and the kids) were planning on spending some time with dad Monday and Tuesday, and if we are going to end up recording one of those days, we will lose that time with him. I just dont' want to create any awekward situations when we get there, and I was to be up front on this with everyone. We originaly agreed to give some undivided attention to our mom, but I don't want to start expanding it to the point, when we can't do other things. So, what are your thoughts on that?

Ika

yea, let's have just kids sining one song. Uncle Zigi can sing too, but let's give one song just to the kids on the concert.

rene

for the third time I love the idea of song for our children
Zuzana

Uncle Kozi is not playing with my message I wa... Kozine prestan!!!

oh I don't really like the idea of the song for children and uncle. Ika did you mean this song to be on the CD or just for the program?
Ika we are praying for you and your family
lot of love
zuzana

I don't want to get off the topic, but I just wanted to let you all know that despite the crazy weather her in the Mid-South, we are OK tonight. Zuzka prayed for us, as we were sitting in the closet during one of the super-cells moving across our area. We were in a path of three destructive tornadoes. When we got out of our shelter, and finally got our satellite signal back, we found out that a nearby mall suffered huge damage (the Sears store was almost completely destroyed), and they are still trying to rescue people trapped inside. Many many buildings and houses were destroyed, we don't really know what's going on yet, because the weather continues to be very dangerous at this time, and of course it's dark. We are expecting another wave of bad weather in about half an hour, so we're watching the news, trying to stay safe. Over 20,000 Memphians are without electricity tonight. Airport was completely shut down for several hours, because it was in a direct path of the tornado.... And from what Annette told me today, they are expecting some major snowfall tonight. This is crazy! If you are still up reading this tonight, please pray for us before you go to bed, because I think we are suppose to be under this severe weather until 2 a.m.

Ika

songs

Zuzu also suggested "Someone Is Praying For You", it has Czech lyrics, and it fits well with mom's illness, and her life battle.

rene

That look very good. Evka told me that she will have internet tomorrow and she has couple of good songs with the sheet music so that is very great. I like what I see. What about jak tise vecer prichazi? Do you think it was more our dads favorite than moms?
I really like the song ja duverim and On se dotkl is very good choice too. I would like to see girls trio.
Ok talk to you latter
Zuzana
ps: what happened to Zigi? did they disconnected his internet because he did not pay his bill?

Songs

Here is a list of songs that I would like to see on that CD:

Az zajde slunce (all)
What A Day That Will Be (all with 2 solos)
Marnotratny Syn (1 solo & trio)

Alabaster Box (Eva solo) Already have soundtrack
Your Grace Still Amazes Me (trio or more) Already have soundtrack - and have Czech lyrics

additional suggestions:

He Touched Me (All or trio) in Czech
Learning To Lean (all) in Czech

KAMIL'S CHOICE
Where can I go (OD Rozvoje) in Czech
Side by side we stand in Czech
New Jerusalem in Czech


I would like to have a suggestion for another solo for Eva, maybe for the morning church service:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZI2gOBvBHk of course it would be accompanied by only piano and maybe guitar and maybe keyboard.

And also, I would strongly suggest a duet Zigi or Kamil & Chelsea and then for chorus everyone with all the kids (unison) Rebekah could recite the scripture in the beginning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S07XmTiiJNw (I have the song on CD, but I just wanted you to get an idea) But it's very simple!

I can't think of any other songs right now, but I'll write if I think of anything else.

Ika

I can't find Swan song. One more thing, the songs picked are very nice songs, but they are solo songs. I think, we need more songs to be sang all together. I would scratch "In the presence of Jehovah", and "I bowed On My Knees and Cry Holly". Someone mentioned a few songs from our childhood like "Az zajde slunce" "Jak tise vecer prichazi", and some other songs that relate to our time at home. I know that those aren't songs I'd pick for our family CD, but for mom's B-day CD those are songs she will listen to all the time, and I think she will appreciate it a lot.

that's all for tonight

rene

I have no problem with any of those songs. I have only concern, and that is how many of them are song that mom knows and relates to, secondly, I talked with Tomas and if we want this to be affordable, we need simple songs with a simple soundtrack. And last point is, we don't have many opportunities to meet, and some of the song require a practice, and we all know that some of us will not do it on our own.
My point? I suggest to stay with older, better know, easier, and to mom more familiar songs.

This is my 5 cents to the discussion on songs. I don't have a specific song that I have a burden to be on the concert. But please, keep it simple. Otherwise I am concern that it won't serve the purpose, and we might be taking a bigger bite then we can swallow.

Let's keep talking about it, and find the best solution.

Have a good one

Rene

dear family,
Rene this is so great you take all the time to take care of all this. Ok guys please let us get our ideas together and decide on songs. I think we all like "What the day"
Now please let us know what do you think about

Your grace amazes me (we already have the sound truck and it is without any drums)
In the presence of Jehovah
Marnotratny syn
Alabaster box (the sound truck by Cece is beautiful and has no drums)
In the garden
I bow on my knees and cried holly
Swan (I do not know what song it is)
All of the songs you can hear on You tube.
Zigi I wish you would put information on that one you played for me.
I just put a list of songs which people were talking about.
I was thinking about the song "No more night" just an idea
please put as many songs as you can remember so we have plenty to choose from
love
Zuzana

Thank you, Rene for taking the time to organize all this. I think this may be our once in a lifetime opportunity, and I know we've been planning for a long time to record a CD as a family, so why not now. I know that I will probably make the effort to go down to Chattanooga or Calhoun at least 2 or 3 times this year, so I can make sure Zuzu and Rene are on the right track as far as practice. Everyone else will have to practice on their own, and then of course we have to get together. If you really want to do it, then you need to make some effort. If you don't want to do it (because it would be a lot of work), then you need to speak up now.

Ika

CD

guys,

I just talked to Tomas, and I think he is willing to do that. There is a couple of important aspects.

1. we need to have songs picked by next week. I am suggesting Sunday as a dead line for any suggestions. Please think of songs that are simple, and familiar. The most complicated song should be "What a Day That Will Be".

2. Ika and I will work on getting piano pre-recorded and sent to Tomas, so he can do a background. If you have any suggestions to the background music, please let me know. I will be communicating with Tomas, so let coordinate it. I want to prevent any heat discussions on what yes, and what not.... I suggest we don't use drums, and ask you that we will not make it an issue. We have differences in opinions, so I want to be sensitive to this issue, and let's do it without. I hope you support that. But if there is anything else, please let me know. Tomas won't be able do do anything during summer months. We need to work on it quickly.

3.Under certain circumstances we could have our CD ready for the concert. My original thought was to make just a few CD's, but I realized, that people will like it, and they will be interested to make a copy, therefore, why not to sell the CD's after the concert. We could cover partially the expenses with production of the CD.

4. We could record our voices here in US and send the material to Tomas. He would mix the voices with the music in fall. If we couldn't record it here, we still could do it in Czech, but we would need to do it on Mon or Tue morning. In that case the CD would still be available after the concert.

5. Ticket prices are always subject to change, but I don't expect the price to drop much below $600, so if possible I'd like to encourage Kamil to be in Czech for the dinner on Tue. And if we need to record it in Czech then, we need to be there at least Mon night so we can record on Tue.

6. This leads me to the point of practice. it is very important that we meet. We need to coordinate our schedules. If Eva will come in April, we need to know when, because after 21st of April I will be in Czech. I think we need to make a decision if we are doing the CD and how much we can sacrifice. The idea to record a Cd is great, but we need to evaluate if we can do it. I hope to hear more thought on this topic.

7. I don't know the cost, it depends on how we do the recording. Also we need to decide what is the cap.

Have a great day

Rene

I would like to appologize for breaking the rule, and speaking Czech on this blog. I am so used to speaking only Czech during the day with the boys, that I sometimes forget to switch...

By the way, we went to the boys' pediatrician yesterday, and they are now exactly same height (34.5 inches) and the weight difference is now only around 1 lb. She approved of them having a soy milk and soy products instead of regular milk, and said they should probably stick with it for good (how different from Czech, where they'll discourage you as if it was a poison...)

OK, we're off to school...

Ika

Polsky/Practice/Eva's early arrival/Car rental

Polish songs:
I realized that we would sing for people that know Polish than anybody else, and that would in a way mean embarrassment for us. So we don't have to do that.

Practice:
Coming down to practice could be a costly endeavor. Solution to that is that we meet when I fly to Southern (probably in April) once again. That's the only option for me.

Eva's early arrival:
Eva could help with mom being calm, relaxed, etc. She will need to give her a good reason why she is coming in the same time as Zuzkal--simply, Casey has his Thanksgiving break during this time. The rest of us can just show up and still surprise her.

Car Rental:
This is for later, but Rene should get in touch with the rental company and tell them that we want to rent x number of cars, what kind of deal can you give us? November is not a high season month so we can negotiate.

Polsky?

Nevim jak vy, ale ja odmitam zpivat polsky! Ja se citim jako sasek jenom kdyz si to zpivam tady pro sebe. Vy si klidne zpivejte po polsku kolik chcete, ale ja se na ty pisnicky pridam k posluchacum.

Ika

I know which song you are talking about Kamil. Choc bogatstva niemam, v ziemskej tu pielgrzimce, tam daleko v gurze mam palace swe.... I don't really know how to write in Polish, because the keyboard does not have all the letters that Polacks use.
Another one that mom likes, is In the Garden, by the way it is both in Polish and in Czech, I sang it in both languages for an evangelist from Poland.
My mom told me this summer that there is one song she would like to have at her funeral, because she loved it so much, so I am kind of hesitant to mention the song..... because this is not her funeral.... The name of the song is the Swan.
Another song that she really likes from Heritage singers is "I bowed on my knees and cried Holy", she would play that song all the time, and then to the neigbors as well, really funny, because the only word she could understand was holy, but she thought it was very powerful song.
I agree with Kamil that most songs should be in Czech, I think it is matter of picking songs, many of them have Czech words and the rest we could provide. What do you think about singing one or two songs from Olga Brabcova's repertoir?
I was thinking about $5 a day for food, I think that that is more than would be needed, I don't know, we could always add more money later. Unless you are icluding some restaurants eating out. Anyways, I have to admit though, that I am not very good at knowing the prices in Czech anymore, it has been a year since I was there...
Is someone going go to Costco or Sams to get some plastic wear or do we each need to bring what we need?
I was hoping that I could stay at home, and so that would mean I would be there at least two or three days before the dinner, that would mean, mom will need to know that I will be there.
Anyhow, so that's the answer to the question where Casey and I will be staying.

Talk to you all later
Eva

From the Metz Family

Flying in:
I believe that flying on Thursday will be the cheapest day to fly on, but I don't have a problem flying earlier.

Tuesday dinner:
I agree with Rene that it should be a surprise. Zuzka can be already there with mom and bring her to the restaurant and we would all wait for her there. (That would take some skills to get our mom there. If she gets upset, it's over!)

Songs--English vs. Czech:
We need to have a folder or something to start entering potential songs, start expending on the arrangement ideas, etc. Most of the songs should be Czech, because the audience will be Czech and most of all, mom doesn't speak English. We can do a song with a couple of verses in Czech as well in English. There was a Polish song that mom really liked as well. (Something about bogastva...) Marnotratny syn is a really good idea.

Food:
I'm open to the idea of charging people per day and maybe the leftover money can be given to mom.

Take care for now.
Kamil

here is an interesting link for those of you who don't know about this:

http://www.hopetv.cz/archive.php

It's a video recording from Conference MSS Ostrava

Ika

Wow, I am VERY excited to hear that you guys are considering flying together as a whole family. I guess it would feel sort of incomplete with only Rene.

I agree that we should come up with a fee per adult, and maybe for the small kids we could come up with a smaller fee. I was thinking that maybe $5 per adult per day and & $2 per child per day would be good number, but I am not sure if it would be enough. With all of us there it would give us a budget of approximately $90 per day. Don't you think that would be enough? Or do you think it's too much? In my opinion it's not too much, because you would be getting 3 meals for your 5 bucks. And also, I think it's probably about the same amt. of money you would spend on average for your groceries here in the U.S. Rene & Hanka will probably have a better idea, if it's doable, or what would be a realistic amt. of money per day for 15 adults and 7 children.

One song suggestion I have is: "Beyond the Sunset" (Az zajde slunce). I know that's been one of our mom's favorite songs, and we would always sing it for our Friday evening worship. I can totally picture her in her long black velvet dress with that pattern...

So, what time do you want to do the dinner on Tuesday night? 6p.m.? Let's settle on that, so that we can have our first entry in our calendar. Kamil, would you please reconsider flying in earlier? I mean, we don't want to push you or anything... But how much of a difference is it going to be in the ticket price?

As far as the cake, everyone will be pitching in $10 (I am not expecting Rena to pay) Also, I think we should pay for mom's dinner and Renata and Jirka's dinner too. But the restaurants in Czech are pretty cheap, so it won't be so much.

As far as breakfasts, I don't really care, I think we should keep it simple, but also have variety. I would provide for each breakfast 1 or 2 kinds of cereal (I think it's a good idea that if you want a cereal, bring a box with you), and then slice up some bread and maybe rohliky and have some spreads with it. Maybe one each day, and then maybe just margarine and jelly for kids. I would like to see some soups for lunches, our mom can make some "killer" soups, and maybe something little more "fancy" for dinner (like dumplings with gravy, mashed potatoes with something...) But I am not an expert on dining, so you Zuzka do whatever you think would be best.

Rachel & Zigi, you guys had some ideas for the other days what we could do together as a family, could you please give some concrete suggestion, and would you possibly be willing in organizing some of the activities for during the week?

What day would you want to go do the CD? If Kamil considered flying his family in on Tuesday, could we do it on Wednesday? (considering Tom's availability). I know it would take probably all day, and I know it couldn't be done with kids around, so I was thinking that maybe our mom, Rena & maybe Vladka & somebody else from the church could come hang out with the kids for the day. Then, Thursday we could do some fun activities organized by Zigi & Rachel, and Friday do a "help" day for our mom, just help out with whatever is needed.

So, that's all from me for now...

Ezra & Levi say hi and bye.

Ika