Enduring to the End (of the semester...3 weeks left!)

although i feel i really am enduring to the end here, this semester has flown by. part of me is really excited, but i'm also kind of dreading moving again. not as much the move, just the act of moving into a new apartment while i'm working and such. fun. time really does fly- this will be my 5th semester living here already. if anyone wants to put in some extra prayers that i pass my juries and finals this semester- i won't be upset :)

EMILY'S MISSION CALL!!

so, my biggest news isn't actually my news, but my best friend emily has been living with me for 3 semesters, so i feel like it is :) she finally recieved her mission call- to Cape Verde Praia Mission, it's on these little islands of the west coast of Africa. She'll be speaking Portuguese. Emily is so thoughtful when it comes to people and social work, and i can't think of a better place for her to go save the world than a 3rd world country. i pretty much cried for an hour when she got this call. And i wonder if i'll end up going on a mission as well, i can turn my own papers in in about a year and 2 months i think- so i'm getting excited at the idea of it. we'll see. i would love to travel at this point in my life- i'm actually going to be (hopefully) going to work at the Drum Corps International Champs this November moving equipment and what not with the other percussion majors and staying down there (it's back further east) for a week. it'll be pricy, but the thought of it makes me SO excited...i don't think i can turn down that opportunity.

anyway...sorry i got sidetracked. here's us after emily rose opened her call. She has 7 brothers and sisters and a couple friends who wanted to hear all at the same time, so she kept a couple phones on her lap on speaker, and we as the roommates got to be talking to everyone else :) i think kim (her sister) is extra excited, because she just got back from her Swiss mission a little less than a year ago.

love you emily rose!!


Matchy Sunday!!

--this is just something we did for fun, and we definitely turned heads :) haha

--prety sure janae and i looked a bit matchy too on our date/concert night

sometimes we just like to pretend to nap on the couch in that 15 mins between classes

at least cami looks good in this picture

BAND GEEK PICTURES!!!

sometimes, i actually miss high school band. this helped me get back into the spirit of it all. thank you to emily for letting me borrow the harry potter glasses

NATIONAL CORN DOG DAY PARTY!!

bet you didn't know this existed. neither did i, but kim seems to be really on top of these things. we totally had a party.

and....our AMAZING PROJECT:

cami and i had to make a video for our music technology class. we decided to make it a music video, and used kim's spin-off of "Good Morning Baltimore" from Hairspray about BYU-Idaho. we're pretty proud of this, and i've made tons of new best friends from it on facebook. if you didn't see it on there, you should watch it now.

the craziness of march!!! it's concert month...

Hello everyone :)
March is an insane month because it's wrapping up the semester- there are about a million concerts to play in and go to, preps for finals and juries, and that problem of trying to stay focused as it finally warms up. School is going well for me, aside from that dictation exam this morning. i'm finally really settling in to the life of a music student and it's not bothering me to stay at school really late anymore. i have great friends in the music building and most of the time it feels like family. school is a challenge but the good thing is it really keeps me motivated to stay close to the Lord. Work is also going great- still love my job. And here's a cool thing i was talking to my mom about (she's so jealous)...Jack Weyland buys his vitamins from me, so i talk to him all the time. And now when i see him around school it's like we're best friends or something. haha. PLUS- he told me that music majors work harder than engineering majors. that makes it doctrine. here are some pix--just showing an insight to my way awesome crazy life :)

this is for you office fans. that is a legit mug :)


These pictures are of me and my long time best friend Zack. we ended up having science together, and we're pretty much like 4 year olds around each other. we had an assignment in a museum. and it was all over from there. p.s.- the best thing that happened at the museum was finding a cheeto in the mineral collection (all propped up on a tripod like it was a rock)

this dino had the funniest little hands
glow in the dark mineral room



we named the fish travis.
exploring


working with Oliwa, my friend Jenn's baby. he is the sweetest most mild tempered little guy, and he basically lives in the music building too ;)

speaking of babies- look how big my niece is getting!! taylor now has 4 teeth :) The tortise, Geo, is her best friend pretty much. i never realized what a convinient pet this would be for a child. Taylor hits her all day long and geo isn't bothered, and hey, no fur to pull out!! Taylor is kind of learning to walk right now, by standing up with her hands on the shell and moving along with Geo as she shuffles along.
congrats to my best friend Jacquie on her baptism!! this was a long time coming- it's been a big challenge for her to work issues out with her family regarding the church for the last few years, but she did it!!
another one of my favorite kids!! this is brewer, my friend kat's baby. she had him when we were in high school and i was lucky enough to help out with him- i can't believe he's 2 already!! happy birthday brew!
ward talent show!! kim and cami sang the "byu-idaho version" of Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray--it's awesome, and we are currently making a music video of the song for my music technology class

me and my favorite kim. she only has her student teaching left after next semester- i will miss her so much!! and emily's mission call arrived in Washington!! we're anxiously waiting to see where she's going! i will miss the walker sisters- they're total superstars.
cami and i are still pretty much nuts. she turned 20 yesterday and our own little apartment party with our close friends was so much fun. and john made homemade oreos. enough said.
here's a crazy story for you- Cami's car, Baby Su doesn't like to start all the time, we jump her a lot. but this last time when we had to push her, we were on ice (so it proved pretty difficult). but hillarious. caryssa and i pushed for ten minutes just fine. Cami pushed for a total of 10 seconds before slipping and falling straight into a puddle and rolling around in it trying to get out. brrr. i was laughing too hard to help her up. she was soaked..see below


here's a clip of me learning to stick fight for my next drum concert-it's a blast but it hurts when we use the full size poles and miss....


well i miss all of you and hope your lives are filled with fun and adventure!!


peace out :)

i survived mid-terms!!!

yes i did in fact survive my tests. and they were suffocating so it was a close call :)
things have been going pretty well though the past couple weeks. i had a couple concerts that i performed in (with pianist stephen beus- how cool is that) and probably the coolest thing was going to visit colette and family for valentines day. we made this wicked-awesome cake. it didn't settle as well with the stomach as it did with the eyes though :)the trip was fun, i went with cami and emily because we had people to see in gooding and burley as well. it was a short weekend trip but sometimes that's just what you need. this weekend has been good so far, i finally got to go to the idaho falls temple this semester, and it is so beautiful so i was glad to get to go again. work is still going good and the night tonight wrapped up by going to a great concert at a local little club thing "the box." oh ya, way hard core. my friends are in this band "atl atl" and they just released their first CD yesterday, so it was fun for them to come up and have dinner with all of us. the best part was leaving the concert before the other bands played to rush homework and cram a paper that was due online. haha, but that is what college is for.

speaking of college fun. the power in my bedroom and bathroom have been off for over a day now. and it's obviously not the breaker. we tried that. but trying not to die while feeling around your room by the light of a cell phone is almost fun. or showering...that's good too. good thing our window faces a brick wall instead of sunshine.

this is my friend allison (cami's little sister) she came to visit us before our weekend trip. :)

we prefer to do "non-stick cookies" but sometimes college disasters still take place. they just wouldn't come off the pan- they get mad if you forget about them in the oven.

this is the start of our trip. it was very crowded in the car Baby Su. no seriously. it really was.

so, basically the trunk is way broken. the whole bishopric tried to fix it once and failed. so what we ended up doing was squeezing our stuff through the backseat, which was quite the task in itself.

our valentines day cake!

we had a very successful time shopping at the music store!!

For my music technology class, i had to record a radio podcast. but you shouldn't give a frustrated person a microphone. they may just put the cover on their nose.

when all of us music majors were practicing just a little too late on a friday night, we decided we needed to entertain ourselves. out came the bubble wrap.

ATL ATL CONCERT NIGHT!!!

it was so great being one of "the" groupies. dinner at our house was fun, and being the ones to throw roses on stage was also great. :) fun times

me and kim with Dallin (he did a way good job)

"Pictures Through Time"

Before i get to explaining the title of this post, i have to blog a bit about one of the the coolest dates i've ever been on. Last night i got to go see the Peking Acrobats, from China. It was the MOST AMAZING show i have ever seen. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. i felt very nervous for these people the whole time. They were funny, and obviously talented. I think i was most nervous when one man broke a couple of bricks with his head (the bricks were sitting on top of another man's head). One guy stacked one chair at a time, and climbed them, until he almost was at the ceiling of the Hart Auditorium. THEN, when he got to the top, he stacked the top chair sideways, and holding onto it with one arm, put his whole body off the stack to the side. The entire audience like stood up screaming in unbelief.

It was cool for me as a musician to watch their live band. Eastern music is very different from ours, especially in the theory and analysis of it. It was so neat to see how different some of their instruments were and to watch them play. Plus, i am a total fan of the pentatonic scale, which is what they use. But i won't go into that. Here are some pictures:

These animals here had two or three people in them, and they were jumping on the ball and doing flips over each other...i was just thinking "how can they SEE anything? to be able to work that close with each other?"

"ERA PIX"

-This whole thing happened when i borrowed Emily's jacket to go grab laundry. She's much smaller than me, and when i put it on my first thought was "I practically look like a 90s boy band." this led to emily taking some photo shoots of me in all different eras and time periods. There are many more in the works, but here are some to start.

90S BOY BAND

RETRO...YEAR 2000

ROCKIN 80S

RAD PINK

I expect these to just keep getting better. The next one scheduled is a hip hop rapper, or someone inspired by lil wayne. :)

--School continues to be pretty overwhelming and usually i just don't finish all the hours i'm supposed to in a day, but it''s not bad. i really can't complain. It helps that i've been able to work a little bit on the side, and that i have a fantastic ward. My bishop is just great and helps me through the big stuff. I really love my calling this semester, as i get to teach relief society. It's a really neat experience to study and try to prepare a discussion. It's a great insight into how the spirit really works in carrying a conversation.

--Occasionally after a long day at school, my roommates and i go into this state we refer to as "out of our minds." it's the time we give up on stress and go a little bit crazy. Janae made the mistake of capturing some of these moments on film and i thought about sharing some of them with you:

--Groundhog Day:

My roommate Janae spent about ten hours on a Saturday making these adorable groundhog day treats and we had a lot of fun with them :) Our kitchen was just covered in them.

Then she decided to make Kim's with red eyes, and it reminded me of that MormonAd "Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful" :

To Jess and Dan <3...you>

"matchy creepers"--my besties cami and emily

I just wanted to point out how tall cami's boyfriend is. i mean, kim is not THAT short.

<3 to all...

-a.d.