La Vie en Rose

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I guess better late than never! I've been pretty busy with homework and tests and all that great stuff that goes hand in hand with college. Tests were pretty brutal, but I think I know what to do for next time, so I guess that's good! I've got some pretty good friends that I hang out with regularly, who are in my FHE group, so that's fun. I love my roommates, in spite of their dirty habits. At least I keep telling myself that...:) They are all just really good girls. Our neighbors are super cute too, and my roommate and I have gotten to be pretty good friends with them too. One of the highlights of the past month was just this past weekend: Kasee and I went to Salt Lake to see Matt Nathanson in concert! It was a blast! Good music, and it was so fun to catch up with Kasee.

My FHE group has gone to the Bean Museum now, and YES, I survived having a snake around my neck. It was terrifying. For proof:

Another HUGE highlight, a guy in my ward had two extra tickets to General Conference, so I lucked out and got to go to the Sunday morning session of Conference. That was an amazing experience, to be so close to the stand, to be in the same room with all twelve apostles, the first presidency, the Prophet. Absolutely amazing. The talks were so great this session, right?!

(Cassie [Super awesome roommate], Geoffrey, Moi at the Conference Center) BUT, about two weeks ago, it was Amy's (my best fran) birthday, and her family asked me if I wanted to go with them to visit for the weekend, so I got to go to Rexburg to see Amy and Heather. Oh my goodness can I just say how good it was to see them? I had seen them only two weeks before when they both came down for Conference weekend (Which I'm pretty sure I started crying when I saw them that time. Haha, just like I cried when I saw Kasee for the first time out here. Geesh mom, you've got strong genes.) But anyways, I spent that weekend with Amy's family and it was so fun. I absolutely love the Carpenter family- they are hilarious, and I can tell how much they love each other. I just felt so much at home with them, a home away from home. I know this experience is good for me, to meet new people, but honestly, I've found my best friends and I'm pretty sure they will always be my best friends. I'm open to new friends, always, but these girls have such a special place in my heart- I love them. Anyways, it was a really great weekend, to say the least. IN SUMMATION, I love college. I love my family, and miss them DEARLY, but, I am enjoying my time, regardless. Can't wait for Thanksgiving! (PS. The title is my ringtone at the moment, because for some reason, I am obsessed with it. ATM.)

Days Go By

College is in full swing now, yippee! I had my first test today, and yes, I took it in the testing center. It went... well, I took it! I am enjoying my classes for the most part and I am really enjoying the people around me, too! I have some really great roommates and great other friends. I feel like I'm just playing house right now, that things are going to go back to "normal" soon, whatever normal is! But I think this will be my life for the next few years! I've got my calling (FHE Committee Co-Chair) and have been visiting teaching and all that great, fun stuff. I am really excited for General Conference this upcoming weekend. I'll spend some time studying, prophet-listening, and sleeping. Please, just some sleep. But really, aside from a single moth attacking incident, I've been sleeping enough. For the average human. Except I'm extra average, therefore I need more than 6 or 7 hours. I'll get there some day. Last weekend I went with some friends to a Kalai concert, which was so great. He's hilarious, and so stinking talented. It was a blast. Then after, a big group of people went laser tagging, which was a blast. I haven't been laser tagging in years, so I came in 12th out of 18... better than I expected! HA. Thursday and Friday of last week I had a concert with the Women's Chorus and the Men's Chorus and BYU Singers and Concert Choir. It was pretty fantastic! But man, did it make me miss Mrs. Riley. I looove Sister Applonie, don't get me wrong. She is the sweetest lady and she's spunky, too. But I am so looking forward to Christmas break to go to the winter concert and giving that crazy wonderful woman a huge hug. Which reminds me, Celeste surprised me today in Womens, she came right up to me and grabbed me in a hug and said "This is from your mom!" It took almost every ounce of strength I had not to burst into tears right then and there. It was so good to see someone from home! I miss Virginia like no other. Utah is great! And it's better than constant rain, (which is occurring because VA is obviously very sad that I am gone...hence the hurricanes) but especially during the fall, I am so going to miss the trees in our front lawn turning those fantastic orange and red colors. Mom, you had better post lots of pictures :)

Call Me Irresponsible

week one of BYU. This is how it went: New Student Orientation Meeting my cute roomies Taught Sunday School lesson Met the ward Freaked out about auditions. Freaked out about American Heritage. Auditioned and passed. Loved BOM day 1. Loved Life Planning and Decision Making class. Met my freaking awesome FHE brothers. Hung out with said boys a lot this week. Enjoyed Bio 100. Auditioned, once again. This time- callback! Had lunch with my dearest sister and her dear sweet baby. (I'm more than willing to share food with my utah inhabitant siblings!) Met some cool people in classes. Felt bored by Psych 101 (Basically an overview of what to do with a psych major. whoopdeedoo.) Callback for Women's Chorus MADE women's! I like my TA for American Heritage. Seems like a very helpful guy. Watched Space Jam with two of my lovely roomies. One came home with a black eye from falling during a game of laser tag. Two of our ward guys came to give her a blessing, and I was really impressed by them. Really good guys. Homework Laundry Homework Worked on (hopefully!) my last sunday school lesson. TAUGHT the lesson. Fasted. Cooked first dinner ( easy cheesy chicken crescent rolls; thank you Tyler!) Chatted with an old friend from Spain. Ward Prayer Accidentally was out past curfew...oops! Overall, I would say this was a very good week.

Nearer My God, To Thee

Quick little tender mercy story. So tomorrow (at 11:25 MST, in case you'd like to pray for me :) ) I have a choir audition! AHHH! My first college choir audition. I might be freaking out. A lot. So I came back to my apartment to practice around 8, thinking all my roommates would be out at the orientation stuff still happening. (Don't worry, I was very active ALL day, so I didnt really miss out on anything!) Well turns out one of my suite mates had indeed come back. Well, I was distraught, and I couldnt remember which song I was going to be singing, and it was a rough hour or so. But then, I thought to pray! What a novel idea. INSTANTLY I remembered one song, and just 2 minutes later I remembered the other. Then I had the impression to go into the laundry room in the basement. I was thinking no one would be down there, hopefully, since they might all have been at the orientation thing. Well, as soon as I walked down the stairs, I saw a dark room open. I thought it weird that someone would have left their room open, so I peeked in, and there was just a teeny tiny room, leading to another room, with a piano. My goodness, did I know, at that moment, that Heavenly Father was looking out for me. I closed the two doors, and sang my heart out, more than I had in a long while. It was absolutely perfect. While this may be one of the hardest experiences I have ever endured thus far in my life, I know that my Father has a plan. What it is, I have no idea. But boy, does he have me working/stretching/reaching hard already, which is... needful :)

Praise to the Man pt 1

The past three days I spent in Kirtland, OH with around 280 14-18 year olds experiencing fantastic things.
DAY ONE.
First, we visited the Johnson farm in Hiram. We arrived at the Leesburg building at 4 am, drove a good 6 hours to Hiram, sang (FANTASTICALLY) an arrangement of Praise to the Man, which I had the honor of conducting, spent a good 4 hours in sweltering 95 degree, 90% humidity weather touring around the farm and going to classes taught by the anchors of our stake. (Taggs, Dicksons...) We then arrived at Lake Erie College and set our stuff in our dorms. Dinner and the last youth dance I'll ever attend followed that. On our way back from the dance, our stake leaders set up an extremely memorable reenactment of the tar and feathering of Joseph Smith. At the end, a single person began singing "We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet." Needless to say, it was extremely moving. Then, the worst night of sleep followed. If you can call it sleep. It was so incredibly hot, and sticky, it was pretty miserable. But I did fall into a sleep, which is more than some people can say. Anyways, the next day was so great that it didn't seem to matter
DAY TWO.
Woke up early, ate breakfast, and then rotated in our six buses around Kirtland. Our group had the opportunity to tour the temple first. It had a different feel about it; not necessarily bad, just different. After the introductory video, the curtains opened showing a magnificent view of the temple just a few yards away. It took my breath away. We walked around the temple and heard a lot about the architecture, decorations and uses of the designs in the temple. Then our leaders (Brother Dickson was my "Papa Pratt" :) had the insight to sit us down in the conveniently located park benches in the shade outside the temple and we discussed what we had heard and seen. I was grateful for their testimonies and their willingness to teach us the truth. Our tour guide was nice enough, but like many others said, there was something missing. The Spirit, obviously. We then went to the LDS Visitors Center where the Whitney Store was located. That was powerful. Our tour guide, the sweet Sister Olsen, was more than I could have asked for. She had the most sincere and unselfish spirit about her. She was so focused on bringing the Spirit, I can't imagine anyone in that room not feeling the Spirit for at least a second. She bore her testimony countless times as she talked about each room, and even invited us to share our testimonies of the Prophet Joseph. Good ol' Heather stepped in to save the day there :) (By the way, Amy, Kasee, Heather and I were all in the same group. How'd that happen?!) As we walked into the School of the Prophets, I was first startled at how small it was. I had heard that 25 to 30 men would come to hear Joseph preach, yet the room was so limited. The highlight of that room for me was the testimony of Thomas B. Marsh's vision of Christ. He said that he only saw Him for a moment, before the vision was closed, but he was overwhelmed with a powerful feeling of love that he felt just as strongly for an additional 6 months. After the tour, we went to the visitors center where we watched a beautiful video about Brother Joseph. One thing that I loved about the movie was that he seemed so real and so human. Sometimes we build him up so much in our heads, rightly so, but I also need to remember he was mortal, human, full of flaws; just like me. I also felt a sincere love for the Prophet who courageously brought forth the gospel again on the Earth. Later that evening, we had the opportunity to have a sacrament meeting in the temple. It was peaceful, yet powerful as well. I can't say that I had a vision appear to me, but just being in that room, I felt loved and felt the Spirit of the early saints and their faith. The choir sang a few songs, one being "In This Very Room" which was such a neat song to be singing in the temple where Christ appeared on the breastwork of the pulpit. I think I can say for all of the youth that it was certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Dog Days Are Over

I am a graduate. Words cannot express the joy my heart feels in that I will not ever have to be a student at Heritage High School again. No more SAT's. No more AP junk. No more mystery meat in our salads at lunch. No more gross, nasty, inappropriate make-out sessions in front of MY locker that result in my tardiness to classes. No more crude language in the hallways. No more pink spik-ed hair kids. No more unnecessary homework assignments regarding why I chose to be in environmental explorations. No more early morning club meetings. No more!

On the other hand, no more choir. No more Mrs. Riley and her hilarious/crazy antics. No more mornings and afternoons spent in the choir room. No more Jazz- no more twelve. No more small, tight-knit family feelings with these people.

I know we all say that we will keep in touch; I really hope we do! But how many people actually do that? I hope that in ten years I can look back and say that I still good friends with some of these people- because they are such good people and are so amazing.

Graduation was such a blur of a day. It rained in the morning, so we had to move inside for the ceremony. It was small and cramped, but we all graduated, which was the point. So mission accomplished, I guess. I, of course being a W, waited for a good half and hour before my line stood up (class of 430... it took a while). My name was called, I walked across the stage, shook a few hands, posed for the camera, and then walked off. That was it. I had waited SO LONG for that moment, and it was gone in a flash. I was so happy though. It was a small fleeting moment, but so worth it!

Mom planned a fun little lunch and the Cummings, Wrides and Carpenters came over- it was good food, and really good company! Then Lisa Carpenter paid for Amy, Kasee and I to get mani/pedi's at Lansdowne resort. Then Amy and I spent the night at the hotel, eating delicious foods, spending time in the jacuzzi and chilling in the room. It was a blast of a night and the perfect way to celebrate!

I'm spending my summer working (unfortunately) and doing other stuff. Like Youth Conference, trip to Palmyra, Washington state, Cedar City and all that fun stuff!

Next stop: Brigham Young University. GO COUGARS!

Off and On

There isn't much to say this week, but I did make a new years resolution to blog every Sunday, so here I am!
Oh I did get into BYU! WOO! I'm pretty excited! But now its time to make the decision. Partially I think it depends on if I get into the music therapy program at Utah State, so we'll see what happens with that. I did my best, and I felt pretty good about my audition tape. So now it all rests in the hands of... whoever decides these things.
Oklahoma is in FULL swing. So full I am to stay after school EVERY day until April 1st. awesome. My guess? We'll have plenty of weekend rehearsals too. SCORE. But I'm having a ton of fun. Its a great show and so fun.
Right now, most of my thoughts are geared towards college decisions and it is stressing me out. BAH. I know I'll have a great experience wherever I go, but I just have no idea where I'm supposed to go. But I will continue to pray. It's so difficult because I love my friends here and it would be a BLAST to be with them in college. But I also feel like I might miss out on some other opportunities at college if I only hung out with them. But I love them:( raaaaah.


AND, sweet baby Sadie Beth Weaver was born on Feb 18th, 2011! Kate had a baby? Why yes she did. And she is so stinking adorable, too! Plus, she's got a fantastic middle name... ;)

My choir went up to New York last weekend and it was lots of fun! I had some good friends around me, which made it fun. We saw Lion King, Phantom and the Bartered Bride at Julliard. All of which were amazing. AMAZING. But i have to say my favorite part was when we sang at the Weschester Children's Hospital on Friday afternoon. It was such a happy and optimistic environment, and the children who came to see us sing were so sweet and wonderful. The other two headstart teachers and I did the eensie weensie spider and twinkle twinkle with all the kids, and I actually started to get a little emotional. There was one little girl in particular, Nikki, who was clapping and trying to do the hand motions the whole time, and I talked to her a little bit after. She was such a sweet little girl, blowing kisses and saying "Bye bye!" while attempting to walk away, but then would come right back to her mom. She was such a sweet little girl.
Well, the home teachers are coming soon. Carpsies and Quad B. two of my best friend's dads. it's a pretty sweet deal.