you will get an update soon, but not today.

Found these "bumper stickers" on facebook, couldn't resist.... Amanda and Chris, I thought of both of you for the third one, for totally different reasons. Hope you enjoy!

Yay for Chris!

My husband is amazing. Just thought I'd let everyone know. He got up this morning about two hours before me, and did dishes all morning while he let me sleep in. Now, he's in the kitchen making breakfast. He is great.

Ok, stress has been alleviated somewhat, as my recital review went well, and I passed. That in turn made me feel a bit more prepared for the actual recital too, which is good.

I've also finally picked a topic for that research paper that's due on Monday - Benjamin Britten. British composer, wrote weird songs about nannies threating the kids they were watching with lakes of brimstone if they didn't keep quiet (ok, that was one song, but still!). He was also somewhat of a pedophile, which is very creepy, especially with that previously stated song definition. Despite all of that, he wrote incredible music, even if some of it is creepy. He was also born in the 20th century, so that's something...he's at least somewhat recent...

I'm about a quarter of the way through arranging the first of my choir pieces, and it's going fairly well, although I'm not looking forward to showing this to my prof tomorrow...he tends to tear stuff apart and do it in such a demeaning way, like, what's wrong with you that you would arrange it this way??? Of course this doesn't work! Your singers will hate you if you do that! (The first two are implied, most times, the last one he actually says.) So yay for the prof and class I don't really like. :)

Also, there's going to be a mass meeting of the choral department at my school, without the choral teachers' knowledge (arranged by the dean, so he can get our impressions without them being colored by the interim professors standing right there...) This should be a good thing, since all except one person in my studio is having problems with our teacher...big problems. So we'll see what happens...

That's all for tonight, I need to get back to homework, and make my recital programs too...

Time for a real update.

Ok, so here's my reason for lack of blogging (this time) and also what my life involves right now.

Tomorrow, I have to perform for the voice faculty various selections of my recital program, which is coming up in about two and a half weeks...unfortunately, I don't know which selections. I really should have my recital program perfected by now, but I don't, and whenever I'm under stress I begin to forget the words unless I'm über confident on them...which I'm not. Some of them, yes, but not all. The review is tomorrow at 3, and I have between now and then to memorize everything perfectly...that's four french songs, two german songs, four english songs, and three italian songs to have down perfect. Again, I really should have this done already, but I don't. I suppose after tomorrow maybe I'll feel a lot better. We'll see. See, if I don't do well at the recital review, they can decide that I can't do my recital this semester, which means I'd have TWO recitals next semester, and the second one is supposed to be way longer.

In addition to all of this, I have my every day homework, a research paper to write, a book review (same length as research paper), three lesson reviews to write, a student to teach (yes, I"m teaching lessons now too), two choral songs to arrange, and a couple tests coming up. I'm a little stressed, which is really oddly out of character for me to show any stress. Probably why I'm blogging about it and not really showing it too much otherwise.

The good side of all of this...
I've worked out my schedule for next semester, and instead of having 19 credits like I have now, I'll have twelve, and they're mostly easy credits, like choir and recital lab and opera class (we just learn parts and perform an opera). So, I'm REALLY looking forward to next semester. Plus I graduate then, so that's good. :) Then on to grad school, as long as I get in..........

Pumpkin fun.

Ok, Chris and I invited our friends Matt and Heather over to carve pumpkins, and these are the results. The painted one is mine (I'm terrible at carving!) and the middle one is Chris's, the one on the end is Matt and Heathers. I believe that Matt and Heather named their's Wilma, though it was a guy, apparently, :), and Chris's was the Mac-o-lantern. I guess mine would be Cat Noir. (Yes, I know it says Chat Noir, but still...) Yay for pumpkin fun!

Ok, Chris is probably going to blog about this, but we got Mac OS X Leopord today. I have to admit, it's pretty sweet. Brings out the geek in even me, a non-geek, (well, a non computergeek, that is). It's got a great way of organizing your windows, say if you've got iTunes, the internet, a chat, and a couple homework documents open...it's like having four, or up to sixteen, seperate computers to work with, since you can put them in different spaces...essentially, they each get their own screen space. You can still have music playing in the background as you're working on another screen, but you don't have to deal with that window unless you want to. It's difficult to explain, but really cool to see. There are bunches of other cool things that they did to the system too, including it's just plain pretty now. So yeah. Cool.

Visiting Pierre.

Hi all! I know it's been awhile.
Well, I'm back in Pierre this weekend. I apologize to my friends from Pierre that I didn't let you know, as I honestly thought I wouldn't be having any downtime to hang out. As it is, it's both of my parents birthdays this week, as well as my mother-in-laws birthday today. Chris and I came home to celebrate with them. Unfortunately, my parents had a wedding to attend in Sioux Falls yesterday, so they've been gone, and should be back tonight. Thankfully, I've got tomorrow off from school, due to the holiday (columbus/native american day).

.......

Ok, so I didn't finish the post yesterday, and now I'm home. It was a great weekend, and I fully enjoyed spending time with everyone, despite being the ultimate loser of all four games my parents and Chris and I played together. I came in last on every one!!! Oh well, must have been an off day, because I've won all those games before.

:) Good to be home.

The Career Game

Ok so I took the quiz recommended to me from Psychobunny's site, and here are the results. Remember, these are my suggested careers to go into.

1.Costume Designer


2.Special Effects Technician


3.Actor


4.Psychologist


5.Animator


6.Desktop Publisher


7.Potter


8.Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator


9.Fashion Designer


10.Craftsperson


11.Set Designer


12.Art Director


13.Casting Director


14.Artist


15.Graphic Designer


16.Comedian


17.Sport Psychology Consultant


18.Medical Illustrator


19.Composer


20.Industrial Designer


21.Stylist


22.Computer Animator


23.Musician


24.Marriage and Family Therapist


25.Magician (??????)


26.Addictions Counselor


27.Archivist


28.Jeweler


29.Editor


30.Public Relations Specialist


31.Critic


32.Print Journalist


33.Writer


34.Market Research Analyst


35.Picture Framer


36.Anthropologist


37.Sign Maker


38.Translator


39.Upholsterer


40.Furniture Finisher

Hi all!
Well, school starts officially on Tuesday for me, when I have to go in for a choir audition, so I'm currently enjoying the last friday night before school starts. I'm really excited that Monday is my last day at work, though my boss didn't remember that until Thursday, which was the last shift I worked. I thought it was kind of funny, really. When I reminded him, he said that another girl was leaving the day before me and that he "felt kind of rejected". He said it with a smile on his face though. The other girl's a college student too, and we told him we were done when school started, he just forgot when that was. Oh well.

I'm taking 19 credits this semester. Hopefully I won't go crazy with it, but I'm preparing a half hour recital, on top of my regular school work. I also don't know who my accompanist is yet, though I did ask a friend and he's considering. I forgot to ask him a couple of key questions though, one of which is if he charges anything for his accompanying services??? Wow, that makes him sound like an escort. Completely off, but still amusing. I hope he gets back to me soon with a yea or nay. I need to know.

Also, there is an adorable black cat outside our building. Chris and I have both grown very attached, and (of course) we named her. Her name is Casper, and she seems to love it, because we have only to step outside and say 'Casper', and she comes running. She's a very snuggly lap kitty, though Chris has discovered he can't hold her anymore, as she was sitting on his lap, and fell in between his legs and dug in with her claws to hold on. She didn't break through fabric, or injure anything, (though I have to say the sight was nervously funny), but she did scratch his calf with her back claw and we're waiting to see if he reacts to it...he's allergic to cat saliva, cats lick their claws, claw scratch.....you get the picture. Hopefully nothing happens. In any case, I can still hold her, and we play with her almost every day outside. I know, too attached already, but it's like having a pet with no responsibility! Kind of nice. We know she gets fed, too, because not only are other people in the building feeding her, but we saw her chowing on a bird she caught the other day...that was gross.......


Ok, that's all for now. It's almost 1 am and I'm tired! I don't usually stay up this late anymore!! Goodnight.

Pigs on Parade, pt. 1

This last picture was on the side of the last pictured pig, along with a few other "seattlesque" adaptions.

Ok, so this is just a funny sign I saw in the fish market in Seattle. Never really liked the caveman commercials for Geico, but I find this play off of those quite funny.

This is me(obviously) with my hair down, which is a rare sight. This was our first free day in Seattle, and we'd gone down to the pier to take pictures. It was a lot of fun spending a week there, though if I were to do it again, we'd probably stay in a different district of seatle, since all the restaurants closed at six pm promptly, sometimes earlier, and we always had a hard time finding dinner that was affordable.

I got a haircut. This is the amount of hair that came off. Shocking, huh? Right now on my desktop is an image of flowers that I took a picture of in Pike place market. Soon I'll upload the parade of pigs pictures. That'll probably take awhile though, as there are a lot of them. A LOT of them. Ok, you ready to see me with short hair? Are you???

















Ok, so I want to make you scroll a bit. In the picture below, I'm in the international district, in the giant chinese grocery store/mall. You can kind of see everything in the background...I think we're in teakettle land.


This last picture is the picture of Chris and I on our last night in Seattle. Also probably my favorite picture of the trip of us.

My Nephew. :)

My Niece. Soon to follow, my nephew. Made with Comic Life software. :)

Psychobunny, this is for you.

I seem to remember you saying something about liking PC guy on the new mac commercials. This is a comic I read, heralding the release of Mac's new operating system, OS X Leapord. So anyway, here's the link.

http://www.applegeeks.com/index.php

P.S.
Issue #370

Shirley Temple.

These are photos of me after I did my trial run for hair for the wedding. It was all pinned up, but this is after the pins are out. I kind of like it curly. I also like the 'glow' picture, but you can't tell as much that my hair's curly.

100 random thoughts.

In order of thought:

1. I like the new Reese's crunchy bar, but it needs to be way smaller...kind of overwhelming.
2. I know by posting the aforementioned statement that I'll be hearing about how I don't eat right.
3. I have six champagne poppers on my desk, those little things that blow confetti with a bang? And I hate loud noises. :)
4. I used one anyway though.
5. I have an address book on my computer and as a separate book on my desk...I don't really use either.
6. I love buying school supplies. What am I going to do when I graduate?
7. I currently own two computers, since one of them has two funny faded stripes down the screen, and one isn't portable. They balance each other out.
8. Much of my life has been consumed by wedding planning. I have cake images in my file sorter, waiting for me to pick one, and I can't seem to decide.
9. I probably can't decide because in the long run, how important is a piece of cake?
10. I can't exactly remember the flowers I picked out for my bouquet, only the ones I picked out for my sisters.
11. I named two of the stray cats outside my apartment building. One is a Siamese looking cat, and one is a marmalade tomcat. The first's name is Oscar, the second's name is Ralph.
12. Oscar is a girl.
13. I am usually quite good at giving animals fitting names...Oscar answers to her name, and seems to love it, despite it not fitting. Ralph doesn't know his name yet, as I met him today.
14. I'm not crazy, really.
15. Despite my having named two of the many stray cats, I have yet to name the inanimate bears carved out of rock sitting on my computer.
16. I'll have to post a picture of them sometime, that's a terrible description.
17. I have eleven plants, including the one sitting outside my patio door right now.
18. One of my earliest memories is of my parents and my grandparents and I on my fourth birthday, in Arizona. My dad had a business trip and I got to go along.
19. I picked out my own cake, which in retrospect, probably tasted terrible, but I thought it was really pretty because of the giant white frosting roses on it, covering a dusky rose frosting.
20. I have a picture, or I probably wouldn't remember the exact shade of pink.
21. I want to name a daughter of mine Elsa, after my two grandmas, Elsie and Eva.
22. Chris and I both wanted to name our son Jonathan David, before we met each other.
23. I call my room clean right now, but in reality, while the floor is pristine, most of the surfaces are covered with stuff that I've simply run out of room for.
24. At least I can walk in here now...
25. I'm hungry. I need to get breakfast.
26. I've got to complete my english assignment.
27. I don't really understand my english assignment. She asks us to describe something in a phrase, and then extend it into a phrase or phrases. Extend a phrase to a phrase?
28. I'm doing it my own way, since she's going to correct them and we make another draft anyway. Maybe that'll explain it better.
29. My apple pie candle smells good, but I'm not exactly sure it smells like apple pie.
30. My desktop background changes pictures. I like the pictures, but since they've been on there since I got the computer, I'm getting kind of tired of them.
31. I don't like having people for my background though. I feel bad covering them with icons and windows.
32. I've watched certain movies in my collection too many times to count.
33. I watched 10 Things I Hate About You so much that I can quote almost all of it word for word, even the most obscure lines.
34. Such as "Yuppie greed is back, my friend."
35. I used that movie as a paper source once...legitimately.
36. The Cosby Show reminds me a lot of my family.
37. Cliff especially reminds me of my dad.
38. Denise reminds me of Sara...slightly...when she was in college, more so.
39. I have 20.25 GB of music on my computer right now.
40. That could be why I love shuffle so much.
41. It's going to be very hot at work today (73 degrees right now, 81 high).
42. Sunscreen makes it hotter, but it's still necessary, unfortunately.
43. I've got just a little over an hour till work right now, and I should be doing other stuff.
44. Like clean off the countertops in my room.
45. Or go to the laundromat to do laundry.
46. Gummies are good. (candy) (I know, bad for me.)
47. Lime green silly putty is fun.
48. I've officially lost the wick of my candle to the melted pool of wax surrounding it.
49. This is harder to do than I thought it would be!
50. Halfway.
51. All my plants grow at an angle, towards the window.
52. That's why I rotate them.
53. I have seven pictures of my little sister on my wall right now.
54. Three of them are in the christmas letter I've got tacked up there.
55. She's very photogenic.
56. I like dying our hair. Not really though.
57. 57 days till I get married to Chris.
58. Yes, that one was planned.
59. I currently have many cookbooks stacked under my desk, because I wanted to go through and type in recipes into the computer for easier searching.
60. I can't even remember how long they've been there...I think since Christmas.
61. I've taken to wearing my hair tight back in ponytails, mainly because it works for work.
62. I can hardly stand leaving my hair down anymore though.
63. I plan to get it cut after the wedding, but I don't want it short for the wedding, so I have to wait.
64. I refuse to have extensions to have an updo. Only my real hair.
65. I should own a library. There was that little one room library in the south somewhere, that I think I could compete with for number of books.
66. Probably not variety though.
67. Do you have any idea how many songs there are out there that consist of solely the word "Alleluia"? or "Hallelujah"?
68. There was a stamp sticking to the outside of my voice lesson binder. I think it was from inside my purse.
69. Apparently the continuing education school thinks that if you don't get their first e-mail, you might get their second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth, if sent to the same address.
70. I got them all, and it says not to respond. How do you get them to stop?
71. I have lotion all over my room. All kinds of it! Scented, unscented, for feet, hands, elbows, face, whatever. I should not have to buy any for years to come.
72. It's all in bottles of course. :)
73. I should ride my bike to work today. It's nice out. Though hot.
74. If anyone gets the opportunity, they should listen to the portsmouth sinfonia, and be shocked.
75. They don't sound like it, but they are all professional musicians. They just traded instruments.
76. I paint my contact cases so I can tell left from right in the dark. Nail polish works great.
77. Shark actually tastes really good. They're selling it at Hy-Vee right now, but it's too expensive.
78. Honest Tea is so good! And it comes in a multitude of flavors. The first bottled tea I actually like.
79. I hate Lipton tea.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
80. That tea that Starbucks has is really good though.
81. I kind of want to watch a movie tonight....don't know which one though.
82. I'm back from work now, by the way.
83. I sold a lot of plants today. They're cool.
84. I kind of want cereal after reading Laurie's post today.
85. I enjoy working out, but yet I almost never get myself to do just that.
86. I like biking, and I may do that tonight.
87. I am a chapstick fiend. You would not believe how many I own.
88. You probably would, actually, if I took the time to count, but I'm not going to.
89. Despite the number of chapsticks I own, my lips are chapped right now from work.
90. Shrek the Third is good, but not as good as the first two.
91. I went to the first movie three times in the theater, first with friends, then with my sister Michelle, then to take Michelle and her friends.
92. I have twenty six picture frames on my wall, and five sitting on various countertops.
93. It's 8:40, and I have to go to the mcfadden office before 9, but since I need to shower since I just got off work, who knows if I'll go.
94. They probably don't care that I stink and am covered in dirt.
95. Actually, they should.
96. I'm 21, and I'm wearing a Veggietales shirt.
97. I like black cats. I don't think they're bad luck. They're too pretty.
98. I killed six fish in three days, accidentally.
99. I thought about only doing ninty-nine posts, but that would be cruel.
100. Yay 100!
Bonus 101. Someone had better comment. This took me a long time! ;)

These are my plants. I know. Exciting post. I have been trying to post these, though, for about a month and a half, but I couldn't until all the students left vermillion and the internet got back up to normal speed again. I'm planning to do one of those "100 Things" posts soon though...working up to it. Check out Psychobunny's page to get what I'm talking about.

I find this incredibly ironic, since I went on a stint in grade school trying to learn this language...I still remember, well, most of the alphabet anyway...

You Should Learn Swedish

Fantastisk! You're laid back about learning a language - and about life in general. Peaceful, beautiful Sweden is ideal for you... And you won't even have to speak perfect Swedish to get around!

What Language Should You Learn?

Ok, so I totally thought it'd be romantic comedy....

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

My Brother's Duel (title of song)

Gabcast! My music #1


Ok, this is a link to a very poorly done soundbyte of a song I wrote. I'm sorry for the crudeness, I'm working on getting it improved.

Dealing with the Stress.

Ok, so here's what's going on in my life. I've got a vocal competition I'm entered in on Saturday. I have a presentation to do in class thursday (this one's cake). I have a five page paper due Monday. I have a ten page paper due two weeks from Thursday. I have german homework nearly every night from a prof who seems to think we have nothing better to do than to bask in German. I have voice juries, essentially my major finals, in three weeks, and finals week in four weeks. In amongst this, I am planning a wedding, and I've begun working at Ace Garden Center again. The garden center opens friday, so everyone, including me, is putting in extra hours to make sure we meet that deadline. We are also apartment hunting right now. Life is fun.

Fortunately, my boss gave me tonight off, and I admittedly skipped german, but I called a friend to find out about the homework, and there is none. So tonight, I've had somewhat of a break. Yes, I should have spent some of it working on papers and my voice stuff, but it was nice to have recuperation time. Chris and I did look at some invitations, but we didn't get very far, which is ok. Tomorrow the craziness will begin again, and much too early I might add, for me to stay up this late, but oh well. I'm enjoying my breather. I'm going to read a chapter in my book, and then go to bed.

You get to vote!

Ok, as you can all see, I've finally updated my blog. With this update, I've decided to change the picture of me from me in high school to me now. Here's the catch. I took a few in photo booth, with effects, that I may want to use. If enough of you vote, I'll probably listen to you on which one to pick. If very few vote, I'll pick it myself. So vote!

Y'all wanna see something funny?

Ok, so first of all, I got a haircut. The haircut looks nice, I like it, but it's shorter than most people have seen on me in awhile. This fact, combined with the fact that I bought those overnight curlers just for fun, yeah, well, hilarity ensues. Apparently you are only to use these things when you have extremely long hair, as I did when I was younger. In any case, I thought I"d share the pictures with all of you before I wet my hair down to tame it and go to work.







Update: Ok, so I didn't feel like showering, as I showered just before bed last night, and so here's my hair after two bands and a bit of straightening balm. :)

Woody Woodpecker

This is the woodpecker I saw outside my window today. There's a tree that grows maybe 2 1/2, 3 feet from my window, and he pecked at the base of it. When he saw me taking pictures of him, he started to play peek-a-boo, but at least this picture turned out!

Carter Burke

Yay! This is my new nephew, Carter Burke! Isn't he adorable?? He's one week and one day old today. :) Top picture is him with Cody and Susan, his parents.

Well, for all of you who didn't know, I was in an opera recently, and I thought I'd post a few pictures. The last show was last night, and while I'm sad that we won't be doing any more shows, I'm also relieved that we're done.

Also, I've got big news! I have a nephew! Susan had her baby on Thursday, March 22nd. His name is Carter Burke, after his father, Cody Burke, and he was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 inches long. I haven't gotten to see him yet, but I can't wait!


Ok, here's some pictures of the opera...hopefully pictures of Carter to follow soon!