Music Madness

I thought once finals were over I would be a free woman, but it turns out I've been even busier! The holiday season has brought many opportunities for performances with the middle school so I've been spending a lot of time practicing and performing. It has been a little stressful. The teacher I have been working with has been doing her student teaching this semester so we have both been trying to juggle work with our school schedule and it has been a little crazy. I've made the programs for each of our performances, graded hundreds of assignments, organized music, decorated the auditorium for our concert at the school (I have to admit I really did enjoy that part!), and at almost every performance I have had a least one piece of music that I ended up sight reading. That's the most stressful part for me because I hate messing up in a performance and it's a lot harder to avoid when I'm seeing the music for the first time. As an accompanist, I like knowing that I can play the piece well enough that I won't distract attention from the actual performer. All in all, I think the experience has been good for me. I've learned a lot about teaching and I've been pushed out of my comfort zone enough that I've been able to progress. Some days my attitude was not that great I have to admit. :)

There are four classes I have been working with; Orchestra I (6th grade), Orchestra II (7th & 8th Grade), 6th grade choir, and the 7th-8th grade choir. I made a little video that shows each group playing a song from our Christmas concert. I was going to insert that video here but I've tried uploading it twice and it never would finish even after I left the computer on all night. Sorry! These machines are so helpful yet so frustrating at times!


After the orchestra concert Mrs. Redd gave me a really pretty bouquet of flowers and yesterday at work she gave me a beautiful copy of the Forgotten Carols book. Some of the orchestra students brought me some really cute cards because it was my last day. I'm really going to miss seeing some of them!One of our performances a few weeks ago was at the Children's Christmas Festival. I loved seeing the different themed Christmas displays and decorations they had put up. It was a magical wonderland!

There was even a North Pole! That was my favorite part by far.

Black and White

Last weekend our friends threw a party of Black and White. This was a very high class party. Actually on the invitation we received (served to us on a silver platter! Yes I mean that quite literally, and by a white gloved hand no less!) it was termed "a Black and White affair." Affair is a much more civilized term for party. hee hee. Despite what you may think, little kids are not the only ones who love to play dress up.Bridget, the hostess, asked if Casey and I could bring cheese and crackers. I decided to try my hand at cheeseball making (because cheeseballs are much fancier than regular old cheese and crackers!) and it turns out these hands of mine are just full of hidden talents. Ok so cheeseballs really aren't that difficult to make, but mine turned out quite delicious.We also had fancy drinks (grape juice with sprite (grapeinis), apple juice with sprite(appleinis), and sparkling cider to name a few...oh and ibc root beer for those who prefer) served in fancy glasses with kiwis and limes.Live entertainment was provided for part of the evenings festivities.glamorous ladies :)And our favorite part: the balloon pit!

Casey was in heaven.There were approximately 288 balloons in this little basement area.As you can see in the following video, there were a TON of balloons! It was so fun. :) Notice the green balloon that attaches itself to my head at the end. It was stuck there for like 5 minutes!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was great. I loved spending time with the people I love. It was so fun to see everyone! It was a nice break to get me rejuvenated for the last week of school before finals! We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast with the Heap family and were lucky to have almost everyone there. I helped contribute to the meal with the cute appetizers and place setting cards. We had a fun time making them!

Fall Ball

Last weekend the institute had a combined formal dance with SUU so Casey and I went a datin'! He planned a whole day of date events and it was a blast. We started out with some bouldering (surprise! haha) at Moes Valley. We both have some projects we have been working on and we both made good progress, despite the fact that I suffered a severe giggling attack while working mine. To be completely honest, I think my bulging deltoid looks a little bit humorous :) haha. I was a little hesitant about putting this picture on here but my mom assured me it doesn't look too manly. I do want to be strong, but I also do want to keep feminine looking arms. Some of the really strong girl climbers look anything but feminine!After climbing we went to the cutest little Thai food restaurant. It was delicious! And cute!
I loved it.Then of course there was the dance. We only lasted about 20 minutes at the dance (we were both quite exhausted from climbing), went to get some free cheesecake from the institute, and went back to his house to watch the movie Up. It was a great day.

My hair, which I did in a matter of about 30 minutes I might add:

my little moments of uplift and inspiration

In my institute class (Pearl of Great Price) we have been studying Joseph Smith-History. I've read it before and learned about Joseph Smith, but I don't think it has ever touched me with so much sweetness and peace as it has this past week. When I was reading the account of the First Vision I almost felt like he was there telling me the story and I could just feel it more than usual. I am so grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith. I am so grateful for the courage that he had. I am so grateful that he thought so much about and sought for the truth. I work at the middle school and it's amazing to think of a boy only 14 years old being so humble and full of faith that he could receive such life changing revelation. It almost seems unbelievable but you know what? I believe it 100%. The world is full of so much confusion and distraction, so many theories and complexities, but the gospel is the one true course that can get us through. I think sometimes I just make life way too complicated when it doesn't have to be. I feel happy when I am full of faith and relying on my Savior to get me through. It's as simple as that. Joseph Smith had incredible hardships from the time he was very young but he found a way to rely on Heavenly Father and the Savior for his support. I'm so glad I had the chance to read his testimony and realize that although our experiences are very different, the same principles still apply. I'm grateful for the way he dedicated his life to the Savior and proved to me that it's possible.

I also had the opportunity last week to go to a ward Relief Society dinner. Our stake relief society president is a kindergarten teacher and she talked to us about our individual worth as daughters of God. She is a kindergarten teacher and used comparisons from her students so I especially appreciated her talk. I can't wait to have my own students to learn from! She talked about teaching them to notice details and how we can apply the same thing in our lives by noticing the details of how we serve the people around us, strengthen our families, how we worship, etc. It was a very filling evening, literally and spiritually! (The food was amazing by the way. We ate at the Garden House and their soup was incredible!)

At the end of the evening our relief society presidency gave each of us a boquet of origami flowers they had folded. They are beautiful! I'm sure it took them hours to fold them! I'm really glad I went because I've had a hard time feeling like I fit in with the girls in my ward. I know part of it is my own fault because I occasionally give in to my shyness and insecurities instead of putting myself out there to make friends when it might be difficult. I really felt loved and part of an important sisterhood though and I know that I can learn from each of the other girls. They probably just feel shy too! :) I also really liked the quote they attached to the boquet. It said:

"Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror."

~Kahlil Gibran

More homework!! Who would've thought that was a good thing?!

I just finished another fun project for one of my classes. The challenge was to create a poster that promotes multicural education in our classrooms. I went with a sea theme and I think it turned out pretty cute! I watercolored designs on paper, then drew the sea creatures on the paper and cut them out (I cheated and looked at some clip art to get ideas for drawing them). I put them on the poster with a corny, yet appropriate for young students, poem that I made up and voila! A masterpiece. :) I'm kind of a dork and probably take way too much pride in these sorts of things...but I really had fun! Maybe a little too much. I probably spent way more time than was really necessary to get a good grade but I really wanted it to turn out nice. I think my students will approve. And be sure to notice the turtle, that's my favorite part! Who knew I could actually draw a cute turtle?!

Credit must go to Casey for the last line of the poem. I was having a hard time thinking of a good word that rhymed and worked with the message I was trying to portray and he came up with "variety". Genius :)

Now I'm afraid I must work on the boring part of the assignment and write a paper about it.

Exploring!

Today I went exploring with Casey!! I posted about it on our Cedar Kids Adventures blog and I considered doing a separate post for this one but I just can't take uploading pictures two times in a row. You are definitely welcome to look at it there! There is also a video we made of me climbing my first V5 and Casey climbing a much harder problem and some climbing pics. So yeah... check it out! :)