Christmas Break part Salt Lake

Today I showed my family a little bit around Salt Lake City. It was my parents, Cole, Brynne, Cache and I. So basically everyone but Jayde.
Cache really liked the Planetarium. Brynne just liked the mall.

After the Planetarium we took a tour of the Conference Center. (I had never done that before) It is way pretty.

 

And then I took more pictures

But my favorite part was looking at the lights on Temple Square. Where, oddly enough.. I took even more pictures.

And that was that. I had fun. I love the city. My father however..does not! haha :)
<3 you Dad!

Christmas Break part Roosevelt

Well, my Christmas Break in Roosevelt has come to an end. Today, my family is driving me back to Salt Lake because tomorrow morning I have Marching Band rehearsal before we get on a plane to fly to the Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. I am very excited about the bowl game. I don't know how our team will do but I think the Marching Band is going to kick some butt while in Texas. It will be awesome.

Being in Roosevelt has been nice. I get mobbed by little people every time I come home. (And that may be because Christmas is only the third time I've come home...) But they are fun. The one time I left for a few hours with Jessica, Cache was so mad! He didn't want me to leave. He said, "When you come home from college you're supposed to stay home with me!" It was the saddest and cutest thing I ever ever seen when he stood on the front porch while Jess and I drove away with a glaring scowl on his face and his finger pointing down at the ground next to him. Super cute. Way sad. When I got home that evening he said I had been gone "way too long".

The first thing I did in Roosevelt was go to the dentist. Ick! I do not like the dentist! They hurt me every time I go there. And this time I had five cavities!! What?! Yeah! I know! It was awful! So I had to make a second appointment. I sat in that stupid dentist chair for over two hours because when they were working on my teeth my gums wouldn't stop bleeding! So right now I have some.thing stuck up between my teeth and against my gums so they wouldn't bleed anymore. Which also means..... I have to go back...again.

Last Friday, Ben even drove all the way here to see me and hang out for a day. It was great. I had lots of fun showing him around (what little I could). And the little people mobbed him more than they do me so..that was.. fun. haha. It was entertaining for sure. Cache totally would NOT leave Ben alone, and Brynne went to extra measures to make sure she was super silly and giggly all day.

A couple times this week I have gone with my mom to play soccer with her, Carrie and Shanna and a couple other ladies when they do their weekly "indoor soccer" workout game..thing. Even though I am definitely no soccer player: It was fun. I have been super sore afterward though!! Both times. Those ladies have given me a workout. So Thank you Mom and Carrie. (I've been needing it too with all the goodies and highly sugared stuff I have been eating during this Christmas break!)

Christmas itself was very good too. Jayde, Cole, the Little People and I all slept downstairs (like we do every year) so that the Little People can wake up me and Jayde all night instead of Mom and Dad....
I got all the music nerd things I asked for: a music stand, tuner/metronome and a hymn book. Yep. Music nerd. I also got a Sonicare toothbrush because Santa heard about my dentist incident that happened earlier in the week...
It would have felt more like Christmas though if here had been actual snow. (that rhymes) Sadly, there was basically none. Oh sure it snowed like once while I was here, but it was gone within a few hours so that totally doesn't count.

And now, this morning, I am getting all of my stuff together and getting ready to go back to Salt Lake.. where I will then get on a plane tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

Finals Week

So.. to all of you non-music majors, I'm about to make you extremely jealous.

Finals Week, meaning: the majority of your final exams were last week so this week is pretty chill.
Seriously. Last week was a lot more stressful for me. I had the majority of my finals then. So this week (during actual finals week) I only had four. I'm including my jury in that number too. But I was very pleased with the way my jury went. Totally awesome. My private teacher has been getting on my case about dynamics, because frankly.. I had none. So after I played my two jury pieces and she told me that I had very good dynamics, I was psyched! Woo hoo! Yeah. I was very happy about that. And that took place on Monday.
On Tuesday we had a "final" time scheduled for Marching Band but all you do there is show up and run through the show.
Wednesday was even better. My final there was Sight Singing. So I walked in, the instructor says, "Hi, pick which song you want to sing." And there are only two options and they are both five measures long. Then he plays you a cadence so you know what key it's in, (which doesn't even matter because he just ended up transposing it into a lower key for me anyway) I sing it. I walk out. That's it. I think that "final" took all of two minutes. (See, I told you non-music majors that you would be jealous.)
Yesterday I had my theory final and that took a little longer because it involved a lot of part writing and error detection. Ok.. not really a lot... because it was only one page of each. The test was actually super easy.
This morning was my last test and I think the hardest too. It was hard just because there was a lot of information to cover and review. I studied quite a bit though and I don't think it was too bad. I knew most of what the test was asking. However, there was one question (of course it's the question that's worth 14 points..) that I had no idea on. I totally skipped that when I was studying somehow. So I got to it and thought, "Oh.. crap..!" I totally had to make that one up. I checked after the test and I correctly hit about haft of the points I was supposed to. So I'll take it. Overall, I felt good about it.

So there you have it. Finals week for a Music Major. One final a day (at the first of the day). And then all that time to just relax afterward.

Testimony

Today I have been listening to a lot of church music. Can I just say how much I love Pandora. Wonderful thing. I really have loved how I can sit in my room and listen to church music and feel the spirit. Music really does that for me. Add that to another reason of why I love music so much. Because nothing can touch me and let me feel the spirit the way that music does. For me, music is also the best way to express my testimony and how I feel about the gospel.

So here goes:

And this I bear in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Master Class

Master Class..right. So for those of you who don't know, a master class is where all the Music Majors on the same instrument (or taking lessons from the same teacher, I think... someone help me on that?) all attend a "class" together. Basically what the clarinets did was have a two-day mini recital. I was really nervous and did not feel as prepared for it as I would have liked to be. But it was a really good practice for me before my jury next Monday. I didn't get as scared as I usually do for a performance. Maybe because I knew quite a few people who were there? I don't know. No.. knowing the people listening to me perform makes it worse. I don't know, but it went rather ok I thought. It was really great for me to hear the other clarinetists play. I walked away from that thinking, "yeah ok. I think I can do this". With a lot of practice though, because I also got some good tips and pointers from fellow students to help me with my playing.

I can tell my playing and sound have both gotten a lot better in one semester and I am really looking forward to even more progress next semester. I feel like I have sort of hit a wall and my progress is slowing now.. But I hope that won't last much longer. I think part of that is my instrument. (Mom..... I want a new clarinet...) A bigger part though would just be the bad habits and lack of..... clarinetting that I have had in the past. A wise person told me, "you just need more time". So that's what I am going to go off of. I'll just give it more time. I look at what I have learned in one semester, and it can only improve from here.

P.S. if it were not for Mr. Cunningham helping me out my senior year.. I would feel like an even bigger idiot in the music program than I do right now. Thank heavens for a director who played the clarinet. THANK YOU C-HAM!

Aww...

 Last night Ben took me out to dinner and then to the Utah Symphony. He got reservations for dinner so when we got to our table, there was a vase waiting there for me with three pink roses that Ben got for me and had them sent there. I was quite taken back by that. It was way sweet.

But after dinner, the Utah Symphony was basically amazing. I have never been to a performance like that and it was really cool. My favorite pieces were piano concertos by Franz Liszt. They were amazing. My favorite out of the two being 'Totentanz'. It was intense and so amazing! I can't believe how fast the pianist's hands were flying all over the keys. I thought it was incredible. I also kept getting distracted by the really cool chandeliers and lighting inside the hall. It was really beautiful. .....and I'm easily distracted by lights like that. (One reason why I love the city. Fact.)
It was a way awesome night. Ben is so sweet and I had a wonderful time.

Ready? Too bad.. Go!

All moved in now and adjusting nicely.
I was lucky to have some great help on Thursday moving all of my stuff out of the dorm and over to my new place. Thanks Ben and Bryce! (These guys are in the business) Those two managed to fit everything I own in Ben's car all in one shot. Pretty impressive. (See.. in the business)

So now I'm here with my new roommates for the weekend. Melodie travels for work a lot. She left Friday. So it's been me and these guys. Kind of got thrown into the fire with the four of them, but it has been pretty good. I think I can totally handle this now.

The two German Shepards are Tucker (top left) and Elsa (bottom right). Wilbur is the small white dog, and I forgot the cat's name, but it hung out with me on my bed yesterday.

Tucker is very protective of me already. I'm going to take that as a good sign that he likes me. But he will just lay down right next to my bed and it's like he's guarding me or something. Kinda cool actually. He's a punk, but he's starting to grow on me. Tucker is like my own personal body guard. "Don't worry Mom, nothing can hurt me now!"

 Elsa is just really sweet and doesn't get into trouble. I like her :)

But I really like how this is working out for me.