Community and Cookie Dough

We live with my Dad.  Which is awesome.  We love living here.  

But this month he has been gone A LOT on business trips.  Which has been really fun.  Because it's like Nathan and I get to be newlyweds again living in our own apartment doing what ever at what ever time we want.  

So one Sunday night, after spending all Sunday afternoon watching about six consecutive episodes of this show: 

We made a batch of cookie dough and didn't bake any of it.  We just took the entire bowl down stairs for at least three more episodes.  And between the two of us, we ate almost all of it in one night.  

We love Community! And now we can keep up with all of the Community references that out good pals like to throw out. 

I kind of like the fact that sometimes we can be lazy couch potatoes with no regard for adult responsibilities.  I hope this isn't the last time we get to stay up all night watching TV eating cookie dough.  

Conference, Corn Maze, California

I'm getting better at taking pictures of fun stuff that we do.  Cause really, even though we are poor and busy, we mange to do some pretty fun stuff together.  

One of my favorite parts about being a cello player is playing at weddings!  It's so fun to see so many different weddings and the personal touches that the couple adds in to make their day original.  This month, I played at a beautiful wedding up Millcreek canyon surrounded by the bright fall leaves.  The bride had decorated the outdoor space with cute pumpkins and cheerful sunflowers.  It was a chilly day, but a beautiful day!  

I really enjoyed watching LDS General Conference.  On Sunday morning, we carried on my mom's tradition of hosting "Pig Breakfast", which I love.  And because my dad is pals with a member of MoTab, Nathan and I scored tickets to the Sunday afternoon session at the Conference Center.  We sat on the lower level on about the seventh row- right where all of the general authorities come in.  It was really cool to see them that close.  Conference is always great, isn't it?  I'm excited to listen and study each talk more, but on first listening, the strongest message that stood out to me was that we are not alone in hard things.  We are all here to support each other and take care of each other.  I'm so grateful for the friends and family that I have that have been there for me, especially during this past year! And also for my Father in Heaven.  I know that he knows me and loves me.  And that's why conference is great.  

Nathan and I went to the Crazy Corn Maze with Ashley and Ray.  Nathan wishes we would go to a haunted house, but I need to gear myself up for it more before we go.  The corn maze was really fun and got us into the spirit of halloween.  That night, we also rented a scary movie, and plan to continue to watch at least one scary movie a week until Halloween.  

Then it was time for another California wedding.  So we packed up our little Corolla with us and the Dutsons, and headed to Los Angeles.  We drove all day and ended up at the L.A. temple that night around 11:00 pm. This is Braxton and Natalie- asleep WAAAAAY before 11:00 pm.  

The drive was pretty rainy most of the time.  But somewhere in the middle of nowhere Nevada, the rain stopped and the sky was lit up with the most vivid rainbow I have ever seen.  A Double Rainbow!!  This picture doesn't even do it justice.  

This is us taking our turn in the back seat.  Did you know that the L.A. Temple has it's own hotel for temple patrons?  We stayed in the temple hotel that night- Nathan, Braxton and Seth (the groom-to-be) all stayed in the same room while Natalie and I shared the pull out bed in the front room.  The hotel smelled just like every old mormon church I have ever been in, but it was comfy and FREE and even if the boys stayed up all night, I think Natalie and I got some awesome sleep.  

The next day was the beautiful wedding.  Look how gorgeous the L.A. Temple is! Like I have said before, I just love temple wedding ceremonies.  Seth and Ashley's sealing was wonderful.  What a fun couple! 

This is sadly the only picture that I took of the reception.  And it turned out kind of crappy anyway! This is a picture of the top of their cake- two little blue birds with mr and mrs on them.  This wedding was cutely customized with bluebirds, buttons and beads- which totally matches Ashley's personality.  

On the way home, we stopped for a day in Las Vegas- since Natalie had never really been there before.  This is us at the M&M factory watching the free 3D movie.  We also saw the Bellagio gardens and fountain show, drank coke floats at the coke factory, ate at the Cheesecake factory, and browsed some casinos.  Not quite the best Las Vegas trip, but it was nice to break up the driving.  

The last stop before home was to visit our favorite Jeffery Hertig who goes to school at SUU in Cedar City.  He was Nathan's last mission companion and good buddy.  We wish he lived closer, but it's always a happy reunion when we get to hang out.  He fed us a delicious dinner of spaghetti with butter and cheese and chocolate pudding (college food!) and then we played Settlers of Catan- like we do most times that we hang out.  Then we finished our long drive home.  

And then we went back to normal life.  Nursing school.  Music school.  Working.  Teaching.  Homework.  

New Eyes

Yesterday, I flushed an old pair of contacts down the sink.  This happens at the beginning of each month, when the old pair starts to feel too scummy to keep trying to see through.  It's a pretty normal occurrence.  But each time I watch the slightly blue-ish lenses disappear down the drain, I feel a tiny bit nostalgic about all the things I was able to see through that particular pair.  Honestly, without the help of modern opthomology, all of the following would have been a fuzzy blur:

The "Piano Guys" Steven Sharp Nelson and John Schmidt gave a concert at Red Butte Garden that was being taped for a KBYU special.  It was such an awesome show!  The best part was that they did almost every song twice to make sure it was perfect for TV.  The fall leaves were beautiful, and we didn't anticipate how cold it would get when it got dark.  It was a good excuse to cuddle close.  :) 

We were there with my Dad and his high school pal Laurie, who actually hooked us up with the tickets.  She is a fantastic piano player, and she knew that I am a cellist.  The Sunday following the concert, we got together and "jammed" as if we were as cool as Steven Sharp Nelson and John Schmidt.

Our new pals Lacy and Brian invited us to go with them to another concert, this time at the Depot.  We heard Bryan John Appleby, who is a new favorite, Blitzen Trapper, and an old favorite The Head and The Heart. We had gone too long without a concert like this in our lives!  It was a much needed musical recharge.  And it was wonderful.  

After the concert, we headed to Dees for some post-concert yummies, and we had the pleasure of sitting next to a table of drag queens.  Word of caution to cross dressers: If you're going to dress like a woman, you need to sit like one.  No one wants to see up your mini skirt.  :) 

 

 Also with Lacy and Brian, and our other favorite newlyweds Ashley and Ray, we went to our first ever Skatin' Utes hockey game!  It was the season opener against BYU and it was really awesome!  I watched some hockey in Michigan, and love it.  The Utes have a good team and we won 12-5 or something like that.  However, our fans are lame and pretty rude.  At the end of the game, they started chanting "Just like football."  Ha.  Go Skatin' Utes! 

The only pictures of this fun day with JJ and Kaitlyn are of our long-awaited dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Without getting into the saga of how long we waited for each step of the eating dinner process, I'll just say that we got to the restaurant a little after 5:30 and didn't leave until after 9:00.  And it's not cause we stayed forever talking.  Poor service.  Good wings.  

Before the wings, though, we went on a mini hike up behind the bountiful temple to a beautiful waterfall.  With our feet in the crisp water and our lungs full of fresh mountain air, we caught up with these good friends.  

My old contacts also helped me see the season premieres of Glee, Gray's Anatomy, New Girl, The Mindy Project, SNL, and various episodes of The Voice.  I don't know how we really have time to watch this much TV, but I'm kind of disgusted with us.  

Now I have fresh contacts to wear.  I am excited to see in October! 

School, Party, Wedding, Fair

Both Nathan and I started new semesters of school.  I'm in my last semester of coursework ever, and Nathan is loving nursing school at AmeriTech.  This is him going out the door on his first day. 

BFF Ashley and all of her favorite gal pals partied Bachelorette style at Classic Skating.  I hadn't been there since I was probably 14.  But it was a blast.  We skated, sang karaoke, watched Ashley open cute presents, and ate delicious food.  

And then she got married, so we (Lynsie, Katie, Trevor, Nathan and I) piled into Lynsie's mini van and  drove to beautiful Oakland California for the big day.

We drove all Thursday night, slept in the parking lot of the hotel until the security guard said we could check in, slept some more, and then drove across the bay to San Fransisco! 

We ate clam chowder from sour dough bread bowls, walked up and down the pier, watched the darling sea lions, and walked on the sand.

Later that day, we went to Ghirardelli Square for some delicious chocolate.  We sampled the new pumpkin carmel chocolate, then the boys ordered hot chocolate and the girls ate ice cream.  We tried to find Lombard street but the GPS failed us.  Then we tried to find China Town and the GPS failed us.  But we DID find the Golden Gate Bridge.  And we walked and ran and danced all over it.  Someone took good pictures.  Not me.  

The day of the wedding was absolutely gorgeous! They had a ring ceremony on the beach where their parents paid tribute to them, they said their vows, and exchanged rings.  I should have brought tissues!  I love this couple.  

Ash, I hope you don't care that I 100% stole these pictures from your Facebook page.  But they are so pretty!  I loved your hair and your dress and your head wreath.  And Ray looked dashing, as always.  

After the ring ceremony, there was a delicious brunch on the beach.  And then we headed to the Oakland Temple for the really good part! 

Their temple ceremony was so special.  And the Oakland Temple is so beautiful.  The time spent at the temple reminded me how much I am grateful for my own temple marriage, how much I love my husband and my family, and how much I look forward to being a parent with Nathan someday.  The temple is good stuff, folks! 

After the temple, we went back to the beach to party it up.  They had a delicious dinner catered in from a local Mexican place, we drew crappy portraits instead of signing a wedding book, and we decorated flags to wave to send off the bride and groom.  Then we danced!!  It was a fantastic night! 

The next morning, we woke up, partook of the hotel's buffet breakfast, and drove 12 hours straight home.  It always seems like the drive home is much longer, doesn't it?  And yes, Nathan is eating an entire bowl full of sausage links.  :) 

The next day, for a fun date night after a long day of school, Nathan and I went to the State Fair!  It was Dairy Farmer Association Day, so they had a tent set up for all-you-can-eat ice cream!  It was delicious!! We also loved petting the sheep- they are so sweet and loving, who would have thought?  The sun set was beautiful.  And we ran into an old family friend that my parents met in Special Mutual YEARS ago.  Sweet Lynn still remembered my name AND our home phone number.  It's always nice running into him. 

Picture update

I always think blog posts with pictures are more exciting.  Here are some pictures to represent some of the fun things we're been up to lately.  Katie said something in her blog about wanting to post more pictures, because this is a time of life that should be remembered.  And I agree.  I want to post more pictures, and I should probably post more POSTS, so that I can remember our fun little early married life adventures.  

 These tasty little campfire desserts are called banana boats, and for an FHE adventure, we went with Ashley and Ray up Big Cottonwood Canyon, made a fire, roasted our 'boats and some coconut marshmallows... and somehow ended up reading make-out tips from the internet.  Ha.  Our banana boats didn't end up looking like the picture.  I think we left them in too long, cause they were a gooey melty delicious mess.

 Also lately, we have been watching the ever-fascinating Twilight series, with accompanying RiffTrax soundtrack with our good friends JJ and Kaitlyn.  We are two down, and two to go.  Riftrax makes Twilight worth watching.  :)

The last time we got together with JJ and Kaitlyn, we also made puhzukkis.  (no clue how to spell that- correctly).  Eating the wonderfully warm cookie covered in melting ice cream and toppings reminded me of many a night in Logan at the Firehouse pizza place, surrounded by friends like Bekah and Ann Phillips, Lauren and Nyle.  Good times, good memories.  Good Puhzukkis.  

 My Dad and Nathan and I, as Pass of All Passes Holders, got our Red-neck on and spent a night at the Rocky Mountain Raceway!  It was my first time ever watching anything like this, and I gotta admit, I was skeptical.  But it was a BLAST!  Okay, it was kind of loud and kind of smelly, but those things didn't outweigh the awesomeness of the 8track trains.  Three cars hooked together in a chain, going super fast around and 8track- constantly threatening to slam into each other?  I didn't know it, but this is my kind of fun!

 Also in the Red-neck category, Nathan convinced me to watch the Wrestle Mania match up between The Rock and John Cena.  Because I have known Nathan for a long time, I know that rooted deep in his heart is a love for WWE wrestling.  He knows the moves.  He knows the tag lines. He knows the back stories and the rivalries.  He was really excited about this fight.  :)  So I watched it with him.  And it was funny.  Definitely entertaining.

 Also entertaining was another night spent with Ashley and Ray, watching The Silence of the Lambs.  Up in the canyon, on the night of Banana Boats, before looking up make out tips, we were talking about our favorite scary movies, and how we hadn't seen a good scary movie in a long time.  Ray brought up Silence of the Lambs, and since neither Nathan or I had ever seen it before, we made plans to make that happen ASAP.  It was creepy!  And the fact that the wind kept rustling the front door of their (darling) apartment made it all the more fun.  Anthony Hopkins- WELL DONE!

 And I bought myself a pair of pink pants from Forever 21 for $16.  It's the first article of clothing that I have bought for myself in a LONG time.  Having new clothes, especially when you're poor and don't buy clothes very often, is so much fun.  Funny how one pair of pink pants has made me excited to pick out outfits in the morning again.  I wish I could wear them every day!

The last thing I'll post about is an epic game of Risk that Nathan and I recently played.  My family owns the game of Risk, but in my memory, we have never played it together.  I have heard the stories about the last time we played, and my Dad got so frustrated that he threw the board across the room- a story that he now denies.  My childhood bestie, Merrick, and I used to play Risk, but as I was reading the rules a few days ago, I realized that we had sort of made up our own version.  Nathan loves Risk and has been excited to play with me for a while now.  So one night, when Nathan had a nasty cold and didn't feel like doing anything for our regular date night, I pulled out Risk, read the rules, and we started to play.  The game was vicious and went on well into the night.  After midnight, we decided it would be a good idea to pause the game so that we didn't kill each other for real.  The next day, the game continued for at least another few hours before Nathan and I together annihilated the Allied Forces, and then Nathan, with an army of about 37 troops, completely swept my guys off the map.  I kind of want to play again.  But only kind of.

And those are the little things that make life pretty good these days.  I'll do better at posting more of them.

Academic Freedom!!

School started again!  And 21st grade is looking like it's going to be a tricky one!

Since I have been at the University of Utah, I have been in the wonderful Graduate String Quartet, which has been such a blessing, because it has paid for half of my tuition, and the other half of tuition, I have gotten as a stipend every two weeks.  I made some of my best friends and networking contacts through the quartet, and have gotten the opportunity to play music in some seriously cool places- Eutin, Germany, anyone?  But this spring, a sad thing happened.  Three of the four of us, me excluded, graduated- leaving me as the sole remaining member of the quartet to pass the torch.

Here are the drawbacks of being in the graduate string quartet.  As a scholarship recipient in the school of music, it is required to be in orchestra, chamber music, and private lessons.  But to graduate with a DMA in performance, it is only required to do those three classes for 2 of your 3 years in school.  So the last year of a DMA doesn't need to be filled with orchestra and chamber music, which each require at least 12 extra hours of class time a week, not to mention practice time to be prepared for class and performances.

And those extra unneeded classes would take me three more semesters to finish school, instead of just two.

And I didn't want to start over with a brand new group of quartet members for only one year- the first year is always so stressful.

And I am super sick of orchestra at the U.  It's super lame.

And I want to focus my practicing on playing solo cello stuff.  For once in my life.

And I wanted more free time to teach and pick up new students.

And I am sick of being in school.  Seriously, I'm ready to be done.

So I made a hard decision and declined my scholarship.  I doubled the amount of students I am teaching this year, and I plan to finish my coursework this semester...

Take my qualifying exams in December...

Write my dissertation in the spring...

Give my lecture recital and dissertation defense at the end of spring semester...

And GRADUATE in May!!

So for the first time since 7th grade, I am not in an orchestra.  And for the first time since my Freshman year at USU, I am not in a chamber music group.  And as strange as it feels, I'm actually kind of loving it!  I get more excited to listen to symphonies when they come up on the radio.  I get more excited for String Quartet gigs that come my way.  I am actually more excited to practice the cello.  Which is a wonderful thing.

The decision was hard, I made several people mad by doing it, and I have to be honest, I miss the SOCIAL aspect of quartet and orchestra.  But I am happy with the decision I made, and I am happy with the way this semester is going.  I am excited to learn about the Philosophy of Music Education, the Pedagogy behind Music Theory, and the basics of Musical Learning and Cognition.  I am excited to give a recital soon to make up for the one I should have given last spring.  And I am excited that so so soon, I will finally be done done done with school!!

Samson Year One

You've probably all seen most of these sweet pictures of Samson's first year alive.  But we made this movie to send to his breeder family, so I thought I would share it with the blogging world too.  This little guy warms my heart.