I'm Apparently Crazy

So the last few weeks have been hectic, but fun. I've been prepping my band kids for their upcoming concerts, in two weeks that'll all be over. I hope they play as well as I know they can. I also had another wisdom tooth out, this one on the top. It was an easy pull, though, and hasn't caused me much pain or grief at all. That night (Tuesday) my roomie and I went to IHOP for pancakes. Something I had there unsettled my stomach and it gradually got worse until I puked. After that I felt much better. Guess that's the way things roll sometimes.

Wednesday I went to Grandma's for Thanksgiving. It's always great to go back to Sterling and hang out with the fam. The news only takes a few minutes to recite, and the graciousness of my family is a cool thing to watch. It's always interesting to see who Grandma and Grandpa invite to dinner. This time it was a man who Grandpa home teaches. Other than dinner we gather to play games, we even let Uncle Colby play, despite the fact that he'll bend all the rules to suit his desire to win.

On Friday night I went to Fluke's house. Nothing really unusual there. We saw the Twilight movie on Saturday morning (I still root for Jacob, but some of the others are hot!). The previews and ads are sometimes fun to watch. I made the comment that I should learn to pilot helicopters, that I had tickets to Glenn's show, and that I wanted to see some scary movie (with a boy, naturally). We laughed. Then we went shopping, which is also a normal activity for us. It seems that I can't leave Fluke's house on a weekend without some purchase I've made. When we were walking out of the mall we passed the giftwrap station and I mentioned to her that I was going to wrap her Christmas present in a Barbie gift tin. She says to me, "It scares me that you have a Barbie gift tin." And I told her that I didn't, that I would buy one for her and she replies, "Well, that's crazy. You're crazy." Lol! Like flying helicopters and me having a boyfriend isn't crazy?! *Sigh* Now I wish even more that I had those three things, a helicopter, a boy, and a Barbie gift tin.

Feelin' Alright

So, yesterday I had one of my wisdom teeth pulled. The dentist said that he'd just pull it there in his office, and that I'd be able to drive home or go back to work. That's exactly what happened, it was smooth and easy (relatively speaking). There was a young family there just before me with several boys having baby teeth removed or having other work done. Walking in was like walking into the classic kid dentist nightmare. All kinds of screaming, crying, yells of pain, and apparently kicking and hitting (from the kids) as well. There was one boy, who had his tooth pulled, in the waiting room next to me just sobbing; it took all my self-control not to burst out laughing. "Don't laugh. Laughing won't make the kid feel any better." Doc said that the kids have a pretty over-dramatic reputation, and that most of the screaming came before he even put the needle in to numb the mouth. Oh, that poor mother.

Today we had a combined rehearsal with the band kids from Edison North (I teach at Edison South) for our concert on Thursday. We started off a little rocky, but things got better pretty quickly. They sounded pretty good and with some more polishing we'll be able to deliver a pretty nice performance. Teaching band always makes me happier for some reason. I must be in the right career.

"You Make Your Own Busy"

My gramma used to say that phrase to me all the time, and she still does when I tell her I'm too busy to do something or too busy to stay longer at Thanksgiving. It's true, though. One of my make myself busy things this year was volunteering with the Mountain Crest Marching Band. Last weekend we went to St. George and Las Vegas to compete and they did a fantastic job. They were able to pull off the three best shows I've seen all season. We were thrilled when they made finals in Vegas and then placed 9th out of the top 10 bands in the region. They've really progressed farther in one year than I had thought they would. Kudos also to Davis High and Sky View for placing in the top ten as well - and also to American Fork for sweeping the show! I wonder if Michele even reads this blog...

This weekend I was at Michele's watching competitions with her. We watched several really great bands and I think that AF will provide some good competition for them. It'll be fun to watch, I think. Friday night I drove out to Jenna's place in Eagle Mountain to hang out at her Halloween party. It was pretty fun! She had the whole house decorated and had games and food and people. It was great to talk to her family again and I have resolved to spend some time out there - provided I can find it again. Eagle Mountain apparently isn't too concerned about whether or not the street signs are visible when people are driving...

Today was stake conference. Well, there was a meeting last night, too. The stake choir sang "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands" last night, and we had a string quartet playing the accompaniment rather than the organ. They all did a fabulous job! Today we sang "In Humility, Our Savior" from the hymnbook while the pianist embellished the parts. Ally and Sara in all their flute and violin glory played an obligatto of sorts as well. I think this one was my favorite. :) We also did the Mack Wilberg arrangement of "The Spirit of God". Our stake has some great guy singers and this was a good way to show them off a little. And, it makes for a neat singng experience. It's amazing, whenever I lead a church choir they always sound great. Standing in the choir isn't always as rewarding, but in front is always uplifting.

Now that marching band and stake choir are over I'm thinking things will slow down a little... ;)

Fall Frenzy

Yeah, so this week went by really fast. Yesterday my roomie and I went to a Halloween party in Highland. I dressed in a black cloak and painted my face black and roomie went as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Tangent: I learned a new skill this week - how to sew sleeves. I've sewn stuff before, but the cloak was the first time I've made anything with sleeves. Back to subject: We had a fabulous time. Friday I went to my friend's house for dinner and then a group of us went to a corn maze. I really need to learn to take a hint so I don't end up the tag-a-long for another budding romance. Blech! They were holding hands and everything! The rest of the week as spent working and running from one appointment to another. I had a cavity filled in one of my molars this week and a temporary crown put on another. That was mildly painful, but I'm glad I'm not sore any more. My poor roomie had oral surgery not too long ago and still hurts from it. She's got nasty mutant teeth, though, that require more invasive methods to fix. Glad I'm not her! This week will prove no less busy, I'm afraid. I think after marching band ends things will slow a little, but I doubt it'll make much difference. It's likely that I'll think, "Marching band is over, I can schedule that..." Ha ha, oh well. Gotta do something with my time.

Conference Week

Hey, it's been a a good week. the past few days have been pretty good. It's always great when Conference comes 'round and we can hang out and listen to our church leaders. Every time this happens I feel like I learn so much, but I can never remember what as said, except maybe a general topic from a few speakers. That's why the Conference issue of the Ensign is such a good thing for me.

Yesterday the MCHS marching band playing on the muddiest and wettest field of the season so far. I'm amazed no one was seriously injured or went prone in the mud (heard that happened to some poor t-bone player from Davis, though). I'm glad that we get another chance to improve and show our stuff on Tuesday, I don't think that they were satisfied with their performance.

General Relief Society Meetng

So Ally and I, through the grace of our good friend Michele and her neighbor Darcia, got tickets to the General Relief Society Meeting last night. They got to sing in the choir. I bet that was a fabulous experience - it was amazing to listen to them! Anyway, the whole meeting was just fantastic. It's great to have an event that is so uplifting, comforting, and encouraging that I can still feel the high today. I did wonder, though, how many women were especially pleased that it was the handsome Elder Uchtdorf that addressed us at the end of the meeting. Prior to the meeting Ally and I wandered aroung Temple Square and took pictures. I loved that, as well, since this was my first time actually seeing the Christus. How odd is it that I have been a Mormon un Utah all my life and have never seen it until now? I'll prolly write more on this later, I still need to download my pictures.

Friday night I was at the best party of all time. Even though the reason for the party had mixed emotions it was extremely good to have so many friends gather together in once place to see off Becky and Richard. We'll miss you! I was really a wonderful thing to eat sugar, sit and chat, and play Nintendo like the old days. And, us single ones got the opportunity to play with the little kids. ;)

WOAH!

I spoke too soon when posting my previous post. The Aggies won today 42-17 against Idaho! This is Utah State history!

Fall is Coming

So this is the second game in a row that I haven't been tempted to attend. I'm still supporting my dear Aggies, but have finally given in to the idea that I do not need to pay to see them play because I can already predict the outcome. I suppose I'll eventually go to one, though. It's threatening rain today, anyhow. I don't really want to sit in the rain and watch my team lose.

Tomorrow I am being set apart for my new calling as stake choir director. When I was first called I wasn't really enthusiastic about it, but now it has grown on me. Not so much the idea of people lookin' at my butt in the tabernacle as much as the idea of once again having the opportunity to use music as a medium to bear my testimony. And, because I'm in charge, I picked one of my favorite hymns (ok, it's not an official LDS hymn), "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands" as well as several of my other favorites. My friend, Sara, convinced me that a string quartet would be a cool way to accompany the choir, so we're planning that for the Saturday night session. I'm excited!

School this week has been fairly normal. Our plans for offering exploratory elective classes for our middle school kids is well underway. We solidified the classes being offered, teachers, and rooms. Monday the kids will register and hopefully by the end of next week we'll have class lists and the teachers can begin to really plan. My band students are doing well, despite having Friday Zone-Out Syndrome while my professor was observing me. Oh, well. They're still great kids.

On a side note: why is it that almost all chick flicks have romances rooted in deception of some kind? Intentional or not dishonesty doesn't seem to be the best foundation for a new relationship. But what do I know? I'm still single.

For Melissa

So this week seemed generally uneventful. Discussion has begun on setting up new exploratory and fun classes for our middle school age kids at school. We set out a survey for the kids to fill out and got requests for cooking, badminton, pyrotechnics, English, and some other more common classes. It was fun to see the results. Yesterday I felt like I spent most of my day spending money. I bought Mario Kart for Wii, bought peaches at the local farmer's market, went to DI, ShopKo, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and Wal-Mart. I am happy to report that I already have a start on my Christmas shopping. Playing Mario Kart on the Wii is hysterical fun, by the way. Come over, we'll play. ;)

Time Travels When Ya Aren't Lookin'

Hey kids, it's been a while since I posted... So, since January a ton of stuff has happened but I'll give you an abbreviated version: February was my birthday, March was boring, April I went to NYC for a fabulous week hanging out with Jenny, venturing into the city, we watched Hairspray and Wicked on Broadway and saw Michael Buble in concert. Simply amazing. Um, May was when school got out, June Ally and I went to the Glenn Beck Insiders Convention in Akron, OH, but really the highlight was historic Kirtland. July I drove to Michele's a lot, August school started again and here's September already. Nuts, huh?

Anyway, the pic above is from the Tesoro in AF, there on 100 East and what? 100 North? I had to read the sign out loud to figure out what it was saying. It made me laugh, depsite the fact I was buying gas at 10PM in the middle of a lightning storm. It was Saturday and I needed to drive the next day... what could I do? All I can say is that I am indeed grateful for stern English teachers while I was in school.

January

Why is it that January seems so boring? Is it because it is compared to December? Or February? That Civil Rights Day can't really compare to Christmas, New Year's Eve, or Valentine's Day? Or maybe because said holidays drain the coffers so much that one spends January recovering? Any way the answers fall January just has less thrills than its wintry siblings.

For me January hasn't been so bad. My little brother will be serving an LDS missions in the Texas, Dallas mission. We sent him to the Missionary Training Center in Provo on Wednesday. Turns out he doesn't look so bad in a suit and tie. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it's going to be fun to see him struggle and grow. Well, anyway, here's a pic of him in Provo.