You learn something new every day.

What I learned today:

My sister is a very wise soul. & she's not afraid to share what she knows. I need to be more like that.

Love you, Bethany.

I Will Survive

So you all know I am taking like...10 music classes this semester and am hard at work learning the fine art of music theory. I want to share with you my lesson in today's ear training class: never perform in your underwear. 

Unless you are awesome.

Observe.

Retreat!

Well here is my update on the Vocal Union retreat! It was super fun and so gorgeous. We went to the Quick Water Lodge which is somewhere....in Idaho. : ) 

There are twelve of us in the group but only 10 of us could go. We basically just hung out on Friday afternoon. We played a few games before and after dinner. That was pretty entertaining. I don't know if you have ever played the game "I've never..." but its a good way to find out things about people. Everyone sits in a circle and one person stands in the middle and says something they've never done. The people in the circle who HAVE done it stand up and everyone standing (including the person in the middle) has to try and sit somewhere where they didn't sit before. So...that was fun. I found out that a lot of people have been skinny-dipping... pretty much. But BEFORE that, my friend Katie and I just walked around and took pictures of the mountains and trees.

So that night we watched Mr. Bean. Oh my goodness...what a ridiculous movie. It was fun though. Sister and Brother Brower loved it! haha. You know whats weird? Having married people in your choir. Thats gunna take some getting used to. 

Anyway, moving on. So the next morning we had to get up at 7:30...LAME! I wanna sleep in on Saturdays! Oh well...life goes on. But we all got dressed and ready to go to our morningside. Ben, probably the oldest in our choir, led us up to a clearing in the mountain where he led us in the morningside. It was so awesome because not only was the spirit strong, but it was raining, too! It was so rad! 

Well after that we rehearsed for about 2 and half hours. I won't go in to detail about that. BUT, Katie and I got to lead a kind of mini-workshop on how to scat/improv. That was way sweet. I love jazz. It was fun to be in the teaching position and everyone seemed to really enjoy it!

So anyway after that we packed up and headed home. 

It was a good experience. I'm glad I was able to go. 

The Joys of Cleaning

Alright, so its funny story time.

Ok, so, dishes have now become a mounting problem in 287 Ricks Hall. Pretty much, we are all lazy college students and never want to wash anything. I know this might come as a shock to all you at home, but I am kind of the big cleaner here in my dorm. So when the dishes pile up, I'm usually the first to be willing to clean them. So in order to solve this problem, I made a chore chart! Yay! So now everyone has a day when they put away the clean dishes, and a day when they wash the dishes.

Okay, so today my roommate brought over her friend, and while she was here, she started to...voice her opinions about our abundance of dirty dishes while we were all sitting in the living room! We could obviously hear her, hellloooo?! Well, her and my roommate left so, we all decided to brush off her rude comments and go on with life. About 20 minutes later, she returned. So, I um...was feeling kind of brave and said, "so, we were all thinking that...you should do our dishes for us. (pause for effect)..." And just as I was about to pull the whole "haha jk!" she goes, "okay! I was actually going to anyway." and she starts doing the dishes! Score! So basically, some random girl did our dishes and it was joyous to my soul. 

And...PS: I just got off the phone with MmmShlee. I love her to death! And she sent me a video of Elder Laing shaking his fist at me because I haven't sent him his letter yet. 

Early in the morning, I really miss people...

Salsa, anyone?

I made it through my first week! Woohoo! I am so proud! Only fifteen more! : )

Well classes are going well. I'm sure it'll get tougher, though.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. We (me, Adrian and Bethany) made dinner for some of our friends (Josh, Matt and Jeff). It turned out pretty good! Afterwards we went Latin dancing! So much fun. The guys were a little hesitant at first, but they got into it! Josh was pulling me across the dance floor before too long! So that was way fun. After the dancing we all headed up to the playing fields for some Ultimate where we made some more friends. I can't remember all of their names. Four roommates. Boys. Funny. That quickly turned into Ultimate Frisbee, but with a football because it was so windy. We had a grand time. It was a very successful night overall!

No date yet...but I will definitely let you know! : )

Just another beautiful day at BYUI

Alright. So heres the deal. I promised some people that I would put up some super cute pictures of my lovely cinderblock dorm and my roommates on here! Oh the joys of college living!

The beautiful garden at BYUI. My favorite!

The results of our trip to the Dollar Tree:

We decided it was about time to let people know 

that we want to be friends. : ]

I-night!!! Time to rock climb...

Roomies

The Day's Events

Alright. Here is my big college post for the day. So the day started off horribly! For whatever reason (lack of sleep most likely), I did not wake up to my alarm or I turned it off or something. Anyway, I slept right through my 7:45 Tonal Harmony class. So I flipped out, Bethany can verify that, and got ready as quickly as possible in order to make it to my 9AM class on-time. Afterward I found my professor and he told me to go to the same level class that was being offered at 10:15. Brilliant! SO...long story short, it ended up being a blessing in disguise that I missed my first class because I just dropped my 7:45 class and joined the class at 10:15! Hurray! I know you are all thinking that I now don't have to get up early anymore on M W and F...but I still do. In order to not be stuck in a lame piano class all semester, my piano teacher is letting a select few take a 7AM class on M W and F for a half hour. But once we pass off the proficiency requirements (which can happen at any point in time) we don't have to come anymore! So needless to say...I will be getting those passed off really soon. 

Alright. Moving on. So the rest of the day went as planned. My classes went well. The next big part of my day was my call back for Vocal Union. The amateur, but only jazz group on campus. It was fun! And, good news! - I just got the email telling me that I made it! So I will be in A group this semester! I am excited. It should be a good experience. Well, that about does it for today! Now my roommates and I are going to make mexican hot chocolate.

 

Oh! PS: for those of you who are interested, I have a date coming up....sometime soon! One of the boys in my ward asked me to go country/swing dancing with him here on campus. It should be pretty fun! And!--there is a boy that sings and plays guitar really well who just gave me his CD and found out I sing so....he wants me to sing with him in concerts and things of that nature! I am so excited! And both of them are super cute! If you wanna check him out (his music, not him) he has a music myspace and his name is Grant Brock. He's uh-mazing. 

: ]

I survived the first day!

So I KNOW that you are all so anxious and excited to know how my first day of school went! Well, I'll tell you. First of all, here is what my schedule was for my first day:

6AM: I wake up after going to bed at midnight (thats a habit I'm going to have to break really soon)

7AM: After a nutritious breakfast of...Cheerios, I leave my dorm and head to the music building to get some practice in for my callback before my 7:45 class.

7:45AM: Tonal Harmony 1

9AM: Diction for Singers

11:30AM: Piano 256

12:05PM: I audition for Music 155 AKA-voice lessons

12:20: I audition for jazz combos

12:45: Call backs for Collegiate Singers

1:45PM:I head back to 287 Ricks Hall to eat some lunch.

3:15PM: BOM 122

4:30: Intro to Vocal Methods

well...thats pretty much it! It was a long day and a new experience. The classes went by pretty quickly and I love how much the gospel is involved. I can already feel how much the spirit is present in all my classes. I know I will do well if I do my part in being spiritually and mentally prepared. However, I also know it won't be easy. It makes me glad that I'm starting here and not in a huge school like BYU Provo. Well, I have a lot of homework so I must sign off!

Highlights

1. I got a call back for Collegiate Singers! (I have no idea if I spelled that right)

2. Went to I-night and a dance party afterward-super fun!

3. Me and my roomies went to the Dollar Tree and bought some state-of-the-art decorations for our dorm. So cute!

Roommates

My dorm is almost complete! We got another roommate today. Her name is Bethany and she is super sweet. I've had good luck in the roommate department so far! I hope our last roommate is way awesome cuz...she'll be sharing a room with me. : )

Today was a busy day. BYU welcome devotional. Games. Auditions. Talent show. There is a lot to do on this campus. But its very empowering to be around students who all want to succeed, and staff who all want to help us succeed. I love it. Even after one day its starting to feel more like home. 

Okay I'm going to bed.

All Is Well In Rexburg

Well...I arrived safely. I just barely finished setting up my dorm at...12:01 am. : ]

I only have one roommate at the moment! We are both still awaiting the arrival of the other two. And we are both in different rooms so...we are hoping our other roommates are dang awesome. 

Saying goodbye to Mom and Dad was a lot more difficult than I expected. Its so cliche, but so true that you don't realize what you have until you watch it drive away, and realize you'll be alone for the next four months. So weird. 

Well, I must get to sleep. I have auditions tomorrow. Here's to my first day living in the beautiful Rexburg, Idaho!

I'm Back!!

Well I have decided to start this thing up again. Bethany has inspired me to type up all my thoughts, meaningless and otherwise, on this website we all know and love. And you, my devoted fans, get to read, digest and critique all of it! You should be wildly excited.

These past 9 months have been quite exciting! I got a 4 on my AP English exam, got accepted to BYU-I, graduated, dated and got dumped by an RM, and I am now in Utah with Bethany and Brandon awaiting Thursday when they, along with my parents, will leave me in Rexburg, Idaho to begin my first semester at BYU! Actually to be honest, I haven't done much since I left Simi Valley last Thursday. I've spent a plethora of minutes, maybe even hours, on my Mac taking sweet pictures of...myself. : ] 

I also got my hair cut this summer. You know, its pretty incredible how

 a hair cut can make one feel like a new person. I love it!