"springtime" ---i guess that includes snow?

hello everybody and welcome to the first week of my new semester!! luckily it isn't snowing...today...but let's keep our fingers crossed. i now live further from campus and don't adore the idea of continuing to fight the storm to get to class. It's my spring break this week so i will be spending it setting up my new house and getting some hours in at work, just prepping for next semester's load :) oh, and i should probably finish my state taxes...shoot...

my new living room :)

well the semester went out with a bang...it was such a crazy week but i still managed to have some fun to distract me from finals:



percussion family dinner at the snow building

PEEP WAR!!! ----this is actually the best way to celebrate easter, plus mine totally dominated.

i had several more of these that were much more gory...but i decided to spare the rest of the after shots. i know you guys are weak stomached.

new semester- new hair, sounds about right. actually i wanted the old color out of my hair (it had faded from black to kind of a weird red brown and i didn't like it)

this color my friend made up for me who works at the salon. it's what i wanted but i was really scared i was going to have purple hair when it was all through. the ingredients were as follows:

red violet, violet base, 4 color shots of red, one color shot of blue. yikes! but i'm happy with how it turned out :)

speaking of miracles--i'm really not sure how i pulled off the grades i did this semester. particularly in those classes i don't find it necessary to pay attention in. like science 101--who cares right? the subject could have been interesting...maybe...but my friend zack and i have such a hard time paying attention. all my notes i went to study before the final were just full of pictures and funny quotes. i thought i'd share with everyone how i look at my finest, in my earliest state, as zack deemed "neander-amber" these are hot hot hot.

<3

last week of the semester!!

wow this crazy semester is not slowing down at all!

this week (besides finals and one more jury) i am moving! once i get everything worked out i'm sure it will be great- i'm really excited to move into a new ward and new stake. I will be living with 5 girls i've never met- it should certainly be interesting. i'm ready for a change though, and a new semester. I'm getting excited about my new classes, i can't believe this is already my 5th semester living at this school!

ps-HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!

general conference has been so great for me this weekend. it always seems that just listening to the prophet makes you forget all frustrations in your life. also, the easter bunny visited my house :)

this made the best conference breakfast ever! yum!

here are some more picture of my favorite group- RixStix! we got the chance to play in yet another awesome concert last week and suprisingly- it was a huge stress reliever. :) i actually love playing marching bass drums

here are some pictures of my new coolest hair do- thanks to my roommate cami :) she wanted to make sure i at least looked good for my juries in case i didn't play good....

here's just a clip of funny 12 second vid that i've named "interpretive dance"

it's what happens when you put too many music majors in a small room for too long. one of my friends was playing a recorder, and another friend jumped on the piano and starting accompanying her. it just sounded like some kind of "spiritual yoga music" and people walking into class were like "what the heck..." My friend greg- who's in this vid- served a performance mission in Nauvoo singing, dancing, and playing piano. so i started to dance around the room to this music and he stood up and started lifting me in the air. it was a great class bond, and one of my friends captured just a minute of it on her phone. good times. heehee.

concerts and juries

hello everyone,

just a short update for you this week. basically i've just had concerts and dress rehearsals out the wazoo. 4 nights last week and 2 this one, followed by juries. it is really hard to stay motivated but i'm just going to have to push myself for the next few weeks. luckily, i love performing.

this is a short vid of my partner and i about a week before the RixStix concert, this number went really well :) i only got my finger jammed on stage and didn't get hit in the face.

These are pictures of my drum line after the concert. I'm acting president this semester, and Randy and i get to run it together. Randy and i wrote the piece we performed this semester and it was a huge hit (i wrote basses he wrote tenors mostly). there's a vid on youtube of it, but it focuses in on the tenors mostly. it's still really cool if you want to see the visuals: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DT0DukkLmjR8&h=0e2c79dd89684a371ca4a140333bf2be

This is a picture of our poster for the semester- i was lucky to be on it :) our percussion groups are awesome

close up

Brahms Requiem- This was a huge event in the music department. This GLORIOUS piece of music hasn't been performed here before, and hundreds of students were involved. it was a fun-filled evening for all of us.

camille (best friend from high school) and I- she did my hair and make up for my b4 the concert

kimsy and me!

we gots our choral faces on :)

Speaking of drums, this is probably the coolest thing i'm doing currently. a band needed a bass line for the concert next week, but with the lack of people, we're improvising and i'm playing all 4 :) soooo much fun

This is a video of a practice session for my solo to be judged this friday. i'm going to be picky and say it's not ready yet, but it anyone wants to catch a glimpse at what i do, here it is. actually i'm not even sure if all of you have seen a marimba :) i love this instrument.

also...i make a two second appearance in this video in the snow building :) if you know anything about solfege you'll appreciate this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kRlssgJEcs

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 :)