Eternal Families

I am thankful for the testimony of Eternal families. I love my family so much and can't even fathom the idea of not being with them in the next life. This seems to be a reoccurring topic in my papers for this semester. The family is central to Heavenly Father's plan for us and can bring us unity and joy in this life and the next.

Be Thankful

Thanksgiving is coming up and in the rush of school and everything, I have forgotten that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I am so thankful that I get to spend this thanksgiving with Lena and Scott and Scottie and my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. I am so lucky to be able to have family close.

Today I am thankful for little reminders to be positive. While I was thinking about what to do this weekend, wondering if anything could be done, I was checking blogs. My friend Tara wrote on her blog about a little boy named Rex. He was diagnosed with DIPG, a brain tumor. He lived long enough to see his baby sister. He looks like one of the happiest little boys I have ever seen, as do his parents. So, because of him I can be positive about the fact that I am getting a college education, that I can talk to my family every day, that I have a testimony that families continue and that friends are a special part of life.

Even though I do not know him, I love Rex for what he has taught me in just a few minutes. Other things I am thankful for:

- Ice cream (I think I have become addicted to Dreyer's, which is bad because it is expensive)
- Running when it is cold outside and I can hear the leaves crunch under my feet
- Teachers who care about the fact that you were throwing up and couldn't take the test
- Little babies
- A cute little apartment
- My room mates (now and past)
- Family!
- Flannel sheets I can snuggle under on Saturdays.
- Grand pianos
- The great composers who I believed were inspired
- University of Georgia Football
- Diet coke (with caffeine please)
- Coupons (and this realization that Carl's Jr. tastes way better than Hardees and I should eat a sandwich instead of just fries when I have a chance).

So many other things, but I'll resume the list later. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy School-is-almost-done!

Halloween- Friday

So, sadly I didn't take any picture to document the momentous occassion. But last night was more fun than I expected. In all we visited ten Halloween parties in the space of 4 hours, courtesy of the Wilk and our loose definition of the word "party". Our definition is: If three's a crowd then four's a party, right?

We ended up going to our own complex party, our stake bowling party, a pastry making party, a bingo game, a whole bunch of single's wards and even a couple of family wards. In the end we snuck into another ward's party and ended up watching a movie with this guy we met earlier from our stake.

We thought it was only fitting that we watched Princess Bride since our new friend, Caleb, was dressed as Inigo Montoya.

I have a feeling Saturday night will not be as exciting, but I'm considering a cup of hot apple cider, a warm blanket and a good movie might be all I can handle today. Darn cough, why did you have to come on the weekend of one of the most anticipated weekends at BYU?

Music this semester

I am one lucky person. I have really awesome teachers this semester, including my piano teacher Mandy. Last week I had my first lesson with her, and to my great surprise, we are playing the same piece! Lob de Tranen, which means "praise of tears" is beautiful. It's mournful and touching all at the same time. It makes me so happy and sad at the same time... I love how music can do that to you. Everything is going wonderful including a cooking class where I get to make food, eat it, and be happy! I really do like my life, okay I love it.

What a great way to start the school year.

On my first day of my JUNIOR year, I was walking across university avenue. I got all the way to the other side and began to step up on the curb when my left food caught on the sidewalk lip and I face planted it, backpack and all. This wouldn't have been to big of a deal except for two things:

1) I landed on my hand, and thought I might have broken it (My first thought was, "I am so dead if I can't play piano this semester")
2) Out of the corner of my eye I see this random person dart across the street, through traffic, to come see if I was okay.

Of course number 2 got me all flustered and I was all teary eyed because I thought I would have plenty of time to compose myself before the next light changed and allowed more students over to my side of the street.

Luckily, my hand was not broken, AND I found out two other people in my ward fell the first day too. I am not alone in my clumsiness.

Name change

The change in the name of my blog came from an idea that I've seen floating around. While a blog is a small glimpse into the inner workings of a person's life, I realized that sometimes I don't find my life all that exciting. But I do find the small things, cooking, music, reading, all to be very fascinating things. Those things, along with my family are what my heart delights in most, and what creates me. So, this blog will become more of a "Julie and Julia" (Great movie) idea than always just a "here's what I did" kind of things, although there will still be as much of that as there has been (every six months of so).

Even non-teenagers do stupid things

That's right. I am OFFICIALLY twenty! But with the territory comes wisdom and maturity, right? Oh how wrong I was! I decided (along with the help of my dad) that I would dye my hair a nice dirty blonde. So off I headed to Paul Mitchell hair school. I entered the doors at ten and left at four. Yes, that means I endured 6 hours of treatment on my hair where the did a million things. On the last attempt on my hair I looked at it and through gritted teeth said, "Yes, it's lovely." In my opinion, it was not lovely. It was orangey-yellow.

But of course, people always save the day. Lena and Scott let me eat some of their dinner and my parents let me bawl on the phone to them. AND THEN my room mates invited people over from the ward to go get slushes. I have to admit, although I did not want anyone to see me, the slushie was well worth it.

Today though, my hair is "fixed". It is still blonde, but does not scream bloody murder every time I walk in the door. Lesson learned.

1. DON'T DO SOMETHING DRASTIC ON YOUR BIRTHDAY

2. IF YOU MUST, CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY ON ANOTHER DAY.

3. HAIR DYE MAKES YOUR SCALP HURT

4. LIFE IS FULL OF GOOD PEOPLE

5. IT'S OKAY TO LAUGH AT YOUR OWN MISTAKES

What I've been up to!

Nothing like a blog title like that to make some one soooo excited, huh? These last few weeks have been pretty awesome even though school is going faster and getting crazier and time seems to be running out to do all the things that MUST get done before the end of the semester. I figure memories had better be made quick, seeing as I will be leaving for University Villa complex in a couple of weeks and then home a few more after that! But here's what I've been up to:

SNOW! Yes, snow in may made me a very very sad person and when Crystal saw it I don't think much of anything could have stopped her from yelling at the sky like she did.

When I went to Lena and Scott's for memorial day, they showed me Monster, the cat. Boy was he big! But he was very fuzzy and cuddly and it was nice to have an animal to pet!

The majority of the time though, was spent at this nice park grilling burgers and dogs (hot dogs) and trying to teach Daily how to catch and throw a frisbee. I have to say Lena and Scott were not very successful, but we still had a good time. We headed back to their friend, Chris', house and played a trivia game while Lena and Scott's jeans washed and dried after getting stained in all the fun!

One of my all time favorite things about spring out here is the start of the rodeo. Crystal and her brother came along to this one and while we only got to see two barrel racers before it ended, it was still great to be able to drive to Eagle Mountain because it is so gorgeous!

And now blogger isn't working so I have to explain the rest of the weekend. Saturday night, I went out with some friends to color me mine, which is this little ceramics shop where you paint your own! It was fun, except for someone like me who has no artistic talent, it was only worth it because I got my stuff for half off. Seriously, the lamb I tried to stencil off either looks like a cloud or a white cow. But, it was still fun to be out and about and enjoying good time spent with friends.

Today was a fairytale

So I don't get out much. I just (yes just now) heard Taylor Swift's song "today was a fairytale"! SOOO GOOD! I don't know how to embed it into my blog so go look it up! Anyways, today was super fun, we actual watched ever after, so it WAS a fairytale, but mostly I realized I should go do something reckless because I only have about a month and a half (not even) until I am no longer a teenager! Yep, a bonafide real adult. Watch out world!

Jon Schmidt

My mom hears about more things in Provo than I do. I believe this is due to her amazing stalking abilities she has acquired since being on facebook. However, at times I am grateful for her abilities because they allow me to have some good experiences.

The Piano Gallery in Orem does a monthly piano teaching seminar. This past month they had Jon Schmidt come and present, and if you're wondering who Jon Schmidt is, continuing reading and then go look up his music because it is pretty cool.

He's a modern pianist who writes his own music, but sometimes he takes classical pieces and changes them to sound more modern. He started composing music when he was fifteen (maybe earlier) and he wrote a song called "dumb song" out of inspiration from a tuna fish commericial.

But during the workshop he talked about a new way of teaching which was hard to grasp, but in talking to teachers there who had used it made a big difference for their students. It's all about using the ledger lines as landmarks and not naming the notes.

Anyways, it was a good experience and I learned a lot and met some really nice people while I was there!

Rocking out

I don't know if you can actually rock out on the piano when playing a classical piece, but if you can I think I did. Last night I had a recital with a group of people who are also taking 160 piano lessons from BYU. I performed Brahms Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2. I would recommend you looking it up, because it is one of the most GORGEOUS pieces I have heard. I was almost last on the program which didn't help calm my nerves. But, I did get to hear some beautiful and fun music before I played, maybe getting ideas for a future performance. When it came time for me to play I thought, "Well I can either be nervous and bomb, or be nervous and give it all I got." I opted for number two. It's an amazing feeling to really get into the piece you play, I tried to be super expressive and wasn't really worried when I missed a couple of notes. The most amazing part was that I was relaxed during the whole piece (that never happens!) Afterwards my piano teacher, Mandy, came up and she just couldn't stop smiling (much like myself.) And THEN my old piano teacher, Nicole, told me that while I was playing she turned to Mandy and said, "What did you do with her? She sounds amazing!" Anyways, this was really just a personal victory in that my nerves didn't get in the way of my piano playing and expression. And to top it all off, Nicole made amazing angel food cake, and it was waiting to be cut when I got back :) Life is sooooo good! Now off to finals, first test looming on monday!

Time to Update!

This is me and my friend Grant from my New Testament class who I asked to ladies choice. It was a Jane Austen themed dance and they had a really nice dinner and dance instruction set up. We went with another set of friends and so it was extra fun! 

Then there are the days where we all get so bored and tired of school that we just need a girls night out so it's off to Fudruckers for a spicy chicken sandwich and a little de-stressing before the upcoming week! Give me more Saturdays please!

Every night of the week one of the room mates has to make dinner and on my night one week I made Navajo fry bread and scones. YUMMMMMYYYYY! They were delicious and so easy! Just take bread dough (I bought mine at the store) and flatten it out and fry it in oil and then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it. Oh and the Indian fry bread just fry dough bread in oil and then put all your favorite taco toppings on it! 

Happenings of last semester

Maybe I will actually remember that I have this blog. But probably not, so you'll get lots of posts like this one: Long and random

THANKSGIVING

Me and Nikki with our home made pies at Stevo's

The awesomeness that is Dinner at Lena's 

MALL ADVENTURES

Me and Nikki were bored out of our minds so we headed to the mall for some window shopping (Which doesn't seem to happen) and we got ginormo ice cream cones!

And then I proceeded to drag my ice cream cone through Nikki's hair. I know, I am very talented. 

COOKIE DECORATING

In preparation for Christmas, my FHE group got together and decorated cookies of all shapes and colors, and they tasted delicious!

Diane and Ben 

Ali 

FAMILY TOGETHERNESS

The Craigs came and visited for a while, and it was really nice to see them and we had a lot fo fun together while they were with us in Georgia.

The Craig side over in Grandma's apartment 

Watching UGA Football in the Georgia room 

Ashley looked like a real horseback-rider, but needs to get a big butt to go with the package.

And this is my cute cousin Cole. Yep, adorable.