Summertime....and the Livin' is Crazy

/sigh. I have a Saturday now that I have absolutely zero plans for the day, until tonight which I get to catch up with my dear friend Nicholas (EEP!). It's quite refreshing. Since I have the time for lolly-gagging (aka postponing cleaning my bedroom), we can do a quick refresher course over the events of this past summer.

Summer Camp '15!
Oh boy, has this been quite the job! 8 hours everyday, working with kids K-6, but mainly with K-3. Twice a week we take my half of camp on a field trip, following with a trip to the swimming pool. The other days, we are at the "camp site" (which actually a jr high) and we rotate them through different classes and activities. I honestly don't think I've been more busy during the summer! It's a total blast hanging out with these kids, and I get to go do fun stuff as part of the job! It's been a long summer for sure, and I am very ready for camp to be over but I will totally do it again next year. These kids make me laugh and smile everyday, and though we've had our bad days, it's been worth it. Can't believe it went by so quickly, too! 2 very short weeks left and then it's back to normal VIK.

4th of July Concert
All the while I've been working full time, since the middle of May, my sister, mother and I had been learning 90 minutes worth of music to perform at a concert out in Sun City West. On a whim, they contacted my mother to see if our group Resonance Vocal Ensemble would be able to perform for them on the 4th July. Unfortunately, we do not rehearse or perform during the summer months but my mom quickly asked my sister and I if we would be down to do a solo show! Impulsively we said yes! Then reality set in. We had to be performance ready for a 90 minute show for a 800 sold out seat audience in 6 weeks!! So. Much. Rehearsing. Our concert consisted of mainly Andrews Sisters classics, solos dabbled in, and a patriotic set to finish. We had to learn everything by ear (which is my absolute LEAST favorite way of learning. Ugh. Words cannot describe). Everything is coming together about 2 weeks before the performance, and I catch a nasty head cold. 5 days before the show. Basically every singer's nightmare, considering you get all that nasty phlegm all up in your vocal folds' business. Especially for me, I basically lose it after I start to recover. Fortunately I could get through most of the songs without too much problem (I just sounded a tad hoarse) but there was one solo song that was in the lowest part of my belt, and literally no sound would come out when doing our sound check. I was freaking out just a little, but fortunately we found a solution by making a joke out of it and having my mom sing it with me. It was a great show overall, and the audience loved it and us.

We're pretty cute. 

Also our venue was legit. Sold out show!

The only real set back was that I had one gentleman ask me if I was pregnant so naturally I wallowed by eating my weight in Oreos when I got home. ;) SO THAT IS A NO, I AM NOT EXPECTING THANKS FOR REMINDING ME JUST HOW THIN I AM.

Voice Lessons
On top of all of THAT , I have been taking voice lessons with Kaarin between semesters. I need to be basically ready for my ASU audition by the time the semester starts, and there is NO way I was preparing an aria by myself. haha and I also really love voice lessons, so... :D It's been going very well. I have 4 songs I am currently studying and I love all of them...some more than others, naturally. ;) I have this one Strauss piece that is literally to die for and it's definitely my favorite one. Take a listen here if you want to listen to this magnificent piece of music. [Note: there is a long piano intro, so you gotta hang tight for like a minute, but the intro is beautiful.] This one is a close tie with "Willow Song" from Ballad of Baby Doe, which is just as drool worthy. Can I please just be Beverly Sills for a day?



Other than that, nothing else to report. I should get to cleaning my room. Maybe. ;)

First Year Anniversary: Our Love Story

Ian and Haley McHardy 
noun.
1.         The greatest couple in the history of ever.


One amazing, hard, rewarding, beautiful, busy year as flown by us. I really can't believe we've already hit our first milestone as a married couple. This is exciting stuff, guys! In honor of this momentous occasion, and just because it's my favorite story to tell, I will give you the gift of our love story.

So let's rewind to August of 2012. I had just graduated from Desert Ridge High School and was preparing to move out of the house into my own apartment in Tempe. Ian had just come home from serving a 2 year church mission in Dallas, TX. Almost exactly a week later, on August 9th, was the first rehearsal of the 12-13 season of Resonance Vocal Ensemble (a choir I had started to sing in the year before). For a few weeks until that day, my mom would casually say:
"You know, the McHardy's son Ian comes home from his mission in few weeks."
"He's so sweet and so cute"
"If he asks you on a date, you have to say yes" and so on.
This entire time I'm thinking "Yeah okay whatever mom I'm gonna marry my missionary jeez think what you want".
On Ian's side, his dad kept telling him about me:
"You know there's this girl at choir, she just graduated high school and she's really cute. You need to ask her out".
He's thinking "Yeah okay whatever dad".

Clearly, we are very opened minded people, ;)

So. The first choir rehearsal arrives. We usually do a little social before we jump into the music, since we take the summers off. I was at the food table (OF COURSE) getting some cake and next thing I know it, a young man is standing beside me talking with me about the cake; which happened to be just Velvet Cake, since the gal who made it did not use red food coloring or cocoa. We're just chatting up a storm, and it was actually refreshing since it was hard to find anyone up until that point to have an intelligent conversation with or at least not have to try so hard to keep a conversation going. After a few minutes, Lorri (the choir director AND Ian's mom) decides to get rehearsal started so we start to part ways to our seats where I say 'I'll talk to you later' and he responds, 'Oh yes, we will definitely be talking later'. *aw snap* According to Ian, he wasn't interested in his dad's dating suggestion until he saw me at rehearsal and thought "Okay! I'm sold".

Time goes on. I was in the middle of a summer fling when I met Ian so I wasn't immediately interested but by the time September hit, I was so ready for him to ask me out. After rehearsal on Sept 6th, he said to me "I want food. Do you want food? I want food". Um, okay? lol Of course I agreed and he took me to Dairy Queen, where he purposefully ordered me a large Blizzard when I said I only wanted a small, just so that it would take me longer to get through it so he could keep me longer. Sly fox.
It became a tradition every Thursday to get Dairy Queen after rehearsal.
Now about a week later we had a 9/11 memorial concert at Tempe Towne Lake and I had mentioned on Facebook a while back that I wanted to go see Les Mis at Gammage for my birthday. Guess who asked me to go to see Les Mes at Gammage for my birthday? This kid. When he asked my reaction was "SHUT UP YOU ARE NOT TAKING ME ARE YOU SERIOUS OKAY I GUESS I'LL GO". So it was a date. That Friday, the 14th, we were to go see a Broadway show .

Fast forward to that Friday. We both got dressed up, had a fancy dinner at Subway, walked around Gammage til the show started. We are seated (the best seats, 2nd level front row), the show starts and I have my hand resting on my knee closest to him, just waiting to be held, but with no avail. He is leaned forward, completely sucked into everything that is a professional performance of Les Miserable. Which was cute, but frustrating at the same time. The show is over (which was FABULOUS) and it's barely 10 PM. The night is still young! We head out to Tempe Marketplace where we chat some more at a picnic table for another hour, and Ian asks me if I've ever gone stargazing. I respond no, but I want to. What do we do? Go out to Bush Highway, sit on the back of his car, look at the stars and talk until 3 AM. No biggie. ;) He drops me off at my apartment and was *this* close to kissing me but leaves instead. I then get a text saying I forgot something. I run down to the parking lot and he's standing next to his car with my ticket. I retrieve it from him, give him a looooonnng hug, his forehead is now pressed against mine, my heart is about to beat right out of my chest.....and he turns back to his car and we say our good byes. The bait has been set.

We see each other again the next night and then on Tuesday night, where we find ourselves back out on Bush Highway, looking at the stars. Here is where he starts to inch closer to me, our faces growing nearer, until our noses are touching and we hardly speaking louder than a whisper. Finally, I simply cannot take this game anymore. I don't play games. Involuntarily, I say "screw this" and I kiss him. What a wonderful kiss that was. What a wonderful last first kiss. It goes pretty quick from there. We started to date officially later that week on birthday, said our "I love you's" 2 weeks later. Here's the kicker. Ian had sworn into the Marine Corps in October and was leaving for 3 months in December. 3. whole. stinking. lonely. months. But we got through it. I may or may not have had a countdown on my phone.

 I had started my new job at State Farm by the time he was 2/3 of the way done so it went by kind of quicker when I started to work. Finally, his boot camp graduation was here and my parents drove me to San Diego to attend his graduation and take him home for his 10 day boot leave. What a good day. :)

The first Sunday he's home, his family planned an open house for people who wanted to see him. I thought that was perfectly acceptable and normal idea. What fun! Everybody is over at his parent's house, a total of maybe about 60 ish people are there; both my sister and his sister in law Allora have their cameras taking pictures. Me? I'm thinking about how nice it is they brought their cameras so people could take a picture with Ian in his dress blues. After a bit, Taylor, Ian's best friend, shouts "SPEECH!". Everyone agrees, so he starts to talk about what he learned at boot camp and his experiences. I'm sitting off to the side of him, with his little cousin Mailani sitting in my lap. I'm thinking this entire time, WOW he is so good at public speaking he's so eloquent blah blah blah and finally Mailani goes somewhere, and next thing I know it, after his beautiful little speech he's on one knee in front of me, in front of friend and family, asking me to be his forever. I think you all know what my answer was. ;)

It was a wonderful week to follow, my sister took our engagements (WWII themed) that turned out simply beautiful!

it was great, except for the part where Ian had to leave me for another 6 months to finish up his MOS school. That was the hardest goodbye ever. We had our last date until he came home in late August. It was the longest summer of my entire life. It was good that he wasn't there physically during our engagement because I don't know if we would have been able to wait that long, if you know what I mean. lol but I was able to get wedding planning done and all Ian needed to worry about was showing up. I had been planning his arrival for Saturday August 24th. I even took part of my shift off of work so I could pick him up from the airport. THIS TURD knowing what an impulsive planner I am showed up at my doorstep 3 days early! haha As bad as it was, I had my schedule set and he messed it up. ;) I got over it quickly. 2 weeks later, on September 7th 2013, we were sealed in the Mesa AZ temple for time and all eternity, and let me tell you what a perfect day that was.

 Happy anniversary, love. Here's to many more.


     

Same old, same old...

Hello again! I apologize for neglecting at least posting ONCE during the summer; and you would have thought I had all the time in the world due to my schedule but Netflix was higher on the priority list. #sorrynotsorry
I don't really have a topic of choice today but I guess I'll just do the same old updates I always do because I am just *that* exciting where I don't have much else to blog about.

Work!

I have started my new schedule at State Farm, which is M/W/F 3:30am-9:30am, Sat 7am-1pm. Frankly, it's harder to go to bed at 8-8:30 than it is to wake up at 2:15. I am less groggy driving in to work than I was driving at 4:30. It was scary driving with my old schedule because I had to do everything in my power NOT to fall asleep! I would blast cold air in my face, sing along to the radio, but it was a constant and frightening battle. Here I am though, leaving for work around 2:40am and I am wide awake. Then again, I generally go in and out of being half asleep during majority of my shift (nobody calls about insurance at 5am) so I guess that counteracts that. At the same time, I would way rather be half out of it at my desk than going 70 mph down a very empty freeway where no one would find me till someone happened to get on the freeway like 3 hours later if I happened to crash. Yikes.

School!

School has officially started back up this week. It's been an adjustment since I am used to just bumming it all day after work. It's a good adjustment though; I was quite bored and ready to pull my hair out all summer from running out of things to do (because heaven knows we had/have no money to go on any type of vacation). I think it's going to be a good semester, and I really only have 1 demanding class which happens to be music theory. The only thing "demanding" about it is that I will consistently have homework to do and the rest of my classes don't. Even my psychology class doesn't require much. Therefore, I will have time to actually get in all of my required practice time for voice lessons and still give my cub scouts my 100%. Unfortunately though, that will have to be my limit. I can't do Resonance this semester *wahh* and will have to miss my favorite season of music--Christmas! It'll be okay. It's better to hang tight until I can actually put in the required time and effort.

BABIES.

Now don't get your panties in a bunch I am not preggers. BUT there have been soooooo maaannnnyyyy baaaaabbbiieeeess. They are everywhere. There is no escape.

But really. It's become a thing and it's kind of intense. My sister in law Allora delivered her first back in the beginning of June, which just happens to be one of the most beautiful babies I have ever laid eyes on.

PROOF:

It's a bit ridiculous. And then I have two dear friends who are in their 3rd trimester of their first pregnancies, one of whom could go into labor any time. AND THEN ANOTHER FRIEND WHO LITERALLY SPAWNED OFFSPRING LIKE 2 DAYS AGO. 

I can't handle it. 

I CAN FEEL IT COMING. 

That baby smell, ladies and gentlemen, 

is perhaps one of the most wonderful scents 

mother nature has ever created. 

So of course I get my fill of baby snuggles and I feel better about myself and come to my senses about producing any offspring in the near future. The idea of me birthing anything anytime soon is ridiculous. Not yet anyway.

Other than that, my life consists of day dreaming over beautiful dresses that I could never possibly wear and deciding what dress to order for that freakin Marine Corps Ball in about 2 months. 

I'll let you all get back to your wonderful and much more exciting lives. But be prepared! First anniversary blog post coming next week so hang tight!

Goodnight, lovelies. 

BIG NEWS!!

Oh hey. It's me again. Boy, has it been a while. Like, nearly a month. I have been really bad about being a regular update-er posting person. HOW DO I BLOG.
ANYWAY lots of big changes and big news as of late! Items of business as follows:

1) New Blog Design
You may have already noticed, but the blog has a new look and a new name. The other template and blog title wasn't very "me". It was like I was trying to be that cutesy-pootsy LDS blogger who has that stereotypical Pinterest style, which is so inaccurate. So here we are. In pink. With these cool floating lights out of focus aspect thing that I'm really digging. :D And the title is more accurate too. I am way more exciting than "Our Story Starts Here" BARF GAG EW. (no offense to anyone who that it was a good name, I thought it at one point myself)

2) SCHOOL
That is right! I have been admitted and am registered for classes at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Kinda a step back, going from university to community college but hey I'm back at school and that's what matters. I am actually quite excited. I keep looking at my text book list, anticipating to go out and get them but I know better than that. As everyone has gone to college before knows, you should not buy your textbooks till after the first day of class because your instructor might have other plans than what the materials may be, regardless of what the Student Center may tell you. I could be wrong, but that's how it was at ASU. I saved like $200 bucks by waiting. LAWLZ anywhom I'll still end up getting them at the end of this semester when people are trying to get rid of their textbooks. But yeah. I have decided I shall study Music, probably specifically Vocal Performance. Just because it's the only thing that seems to make sense to me right now and I know I'll never get tired or bored of music. I also really want to be a soloist again and FEEL like I contribute something. I used to be so confident in high school and then I hit adult life and my confidence was shot in the face with a shotgun. I also just really love making beautiful music. Thus, this is what I want to do.

3) Fringe and All the Feels
 Ian and I have been watching "Fringe" on Netflix for literally the past, oh I don't know MONTH, all day everyday because we've been addicted to it's well executed screen shots and plot structure. Seriously, if you haven't watched it DO IT NOW BECAUSE IT IS JUST SO GOOD. It's one of JJ Abram's greatest contributions to society. Other than "Super 8". Srsly tho. We've been so emotionally invested into this show and we literally just finished it earlier this evening and I don't even know what to do with myself. WAHHHHHHHH I used to never understand the whole getting-into-a-show-that-it-becomes-your-life-thing because honestly, I have always preferred movies over television. Still do, but I'm much more open minded now. UGH it was sooooo good. Just go onto Netflix and devote the next couple weeks of your life to it's glorious madness. DO IT. NOW.

4) RESONANCE CHOIR TOUR--Hollerrrr
Ian and I also just returned from choir tour this past weekend. It was a nice mini-getaway for the short tour that it was. We went up to Snowflake and sang at their Pioneer Park Fall Festival thingy. That's always fun. Then we went to a corn maze while we were there and availed in finding ALL the stamps in the maze (even though the map was SO rigged). I got a tootsie roll pop, so it was worth it. OH and we got this cute picture there was well. D'awwww

Jadyn and Taylor also got a cute one in. ;)

After that we went to the Safford-Thatcher area, where some of us went to the carnival and the rest of us went to the Gila Valley Temple so we could do sealings/baptisms. What a neat experience! That was the first time I had gone to the temple since we got married. It is such a gorgeous temple. Definitely a one-in-a-lifetime experience. Church is true guys! :) Then on Sunday, the final day, we headed towards Tucson and hit the Titan Missile Museum and the Arizona Sonaran Desert Museum on the way. Two very cool places that I could go to again on the next road trip. That evening we sang at a fireside in Tucson and it was great. Finally heading home, we grabbed some Eggee's and arrived in Mesa close to 11 PM. I am very glad I took off Monday as well because I don't think I could have gotten myself to wake up at 4 AM after that! haha Overall, great trip. I'm crossing my fingers that next tour we'll go to Europe. One can only hope!

Aye aye aye aye. I do believe that is all for now. PHEW. So yeah. Hope you lovelies have a great night.

G'night folks.