Decemburrrr

Hey y'all. It's been a while up in here so let's get to it!

Last time I checked, we had done the anniversary post...yes! That is correct. Well, let's do a month play-by-play!

Rest of September:

After our anniversary, was my birthday! Since I'm in school it's not like we can do anything super crazy, but we went to Serrano's for dinner, which was delicious. Did we do anything after that? Gosh I don't remember. I'm becoming a party pooper for my birthdays. I don't like spending that much time over it.

October:

Because I'm *that* exciting, it was a crazy blur. 17 credits worth of classes will do that to you. Well, the first of the month was general conference, which was obviously wonderful. I spent my time between sessions decorating, which was super cute.

The next weekend after that, my brother-in-law Max got married to his childhood sweetheart! It was the sweetest thing. They've known each other since they were like 7 or something like that. Bri is the sweetest and it was a beautiful day!

That led into fall break, which was a nice little break till the semester came down hard. I was mainly focusing on getting all my music learned for my recital, as well as working at rehearsals for the student lab production of Cendrillon {Cinderella} at school. Not to mention auditions for Mozart's The Magic Flute were coming up, and apparently it was custom to have the callback material learned before callbacks to show you're prepared and serious! Just add that to the list of music I had to have learned and memorized, sheesh! {By the way, I totaled up how many songs I had to have learned and memorized over the whole semester and it came out to 14. No wonder I couldn't retain anything by the last week of classes} Nevertheless, I did my best to learn the Papagena duet (since Papagena was my first, albeit very bold choice in a role that I preferred). Also, because I am not that wise of a person at times, I didn't take some advice that I had received to learn the 1st Spirit's callback material as well, and lo and behold, I got a call back for 1st Spirit in addition to Papagena. I had to learn 13 pages of music in one day! God Bless Hope Douglass, for she saved me that day. I mustered through the callback, though I definitely could have handled myself better. I take myself way too seriously at times. My Papagena callback went well, though I couldn't remember the words at some points and the music stand my audition partner and I were sharing was further away from me and I couldn't make out the words! Oops. I thought overall it wasn't bad, but I didn't think Papagena was realistic since I was competing against two grad students and another senior. A very long 3 days came and went, and Taryn texted me at like midnight telling me to check my email and LOOK WHAT I FOUND:

I could hardly believe it! I was half asleep and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me! Fortunately enough people auditioned where they could double cast the principals, so here I am on the docket! I am so excited to be part of this production, and to have a fun role! 

In the excitement of auditions and callbacks, which were held on 10/30 and 10/31, we did not celebrate Halloween this year. Which is cray, but honestly with these results, I didn't mind one bit. 

November:

The first weekend was the Marine Corps Ball. This time around was so much fun! Especially since I'm starting to remember people and we had an awesome group at our table. It was held at a Double Tree Hilton way up in North Scottsdale, and it was huge! Wayyy bigger than the last few years, which was awesome because we were so smooshed the last few times. The food, as always, was to die for. I even tried the salmon on my plate and it was actually really good! The dessert was so fancy.

This was like a chocolate mousse with a crunchy crust on the bottom. Noms.

This was a key lime cheesecake! So good!

THEN, literally the next day was the dress rehearsal for Cendrillon, and the following day the actual performance! Talk about a busy weekend! Cendrillon was a such a fun experience and was perfect as my first opera. I was La Fee (fairy grandmother) and I hammed it up, per usual. I made so many new friends and got to know people I met before way better. It makes me sad that I don't get more time here to hang out with these special people!

 These hooligans.

THEN my life went in to hyper-recital mode. All but one of my eleven songs were new this semester and I was working as I hard as I could to get it ready by November 23rd. GUH. But I made it to that evening with relatively no problems, except a minor meltdown about parking (I know, I'm such a loser haha). The recital started and I did it! It was actually super fun, and I was super relaxed, even when I had to make up a few words in my French songs. I DID IT! We had yummy sweetbreads courtesy of my in-laws and all in all it was a good night. And I couldn't have done it without my amazing accompanist Hope. She rocks my socks. And I REALLY could not have done it without my amazing voice teacher Anne Kopta:

 She is amazing and has helped me grow so much over the past year! I just love her.

 Also, I felt pretty that night sooooo shameless selfie time.

And my poster, that I designed myself with the help of Google.

My recital was the day before Thanksgiving, so I got a nice long break to relax after surviving the majority of the semester! We had Thanksgiving with my family and some extended family at my parents' new house and the community clubhouse. Yummy food and good company. The following week was the last week of classes, meaning wrapping up my finals (because my instructors were awesome like that and I only had to show up to one final during finals week!) and attending dress rehearsals for the Holiday Gala concert at ASU Gammage. I will never get used to singing on Gammage stage. It is so much fun. And the concert was a major success! Even after all the craziness, I managed to come out on top!

Straight A's, baby!

In other news, I bought this beautiful wooden table off of Facebook! It needs to have a major overhaul in sanding and repainting, but it will be nice to finally have a kitchen table again!

I have been majorly enjoying staying up late and sleeping in to an ungodly and unhealthy hour, all while systematically deep cleaning my house. Well, now I am because I have been helping my sister Ashley pack and clean her house in preparation of their move to Alabama. At first I wasn't too keen on her leaving, but I know that is where she and her family are needed right now. It was kinda hard to say goodbye, but I plan on visiting her this summer! 

Also, in another crazy turn of events, I joined Mary Kay! If you don't already have a consultant, come to me! There are reasons why I decided to join, which are valid and I feel like this will be good for me. And I'm excited to make extra money while I'm at it.

 Almost all my Christmas shopping is done, I just need to order Ian's gift and I'll be set. I'm also trying to muster the motivation to clean our room and bathroom but...I don't have any excuses. Thanks for reading, my lovelies! 

Belated Birthday Bonanza

Hello all, I haven't posted since last week so I figured I could gab about my ordinary weekend that also happened to be my birthday weekend.
I turned the big 2-0, no longer teenager milestone, second decade of life, the 20th anniversary of the blessed day I graced the Earth with my presence, on Friday the 20th. HA I turned 20 on the 20th. Awesome.
ANYWHOM, I wasn't really anticipating much, since for crying out loud, I just got back from a week long cruise where I did nothing but get waited on hand and foot. So the day started out waking up relatively early at 7 am to go to the DMV for my name change and our address change. By the time we got there around 8:30, the line was literally out the door, so we decided, EH we'll hit up Bed Bath and Beyond first. That trip was an interesting one in itself because of EVERYTHING that we received as gifts (which were all so amazing by the way, we are super grateful), we did not receive any of the basics. i.e. towels, dishes, silverware. We had been living off of 2 of plates, bowls, glasses, and cutlery . Meaning I did dishes every. single. meal. That got old pretty fast. Long story short, we have dishes and silverware! YAY! The towels are yet to be bought, but Target will be getting a visit from us shortly.
So that trip happened.
Then we went back to the DMV, waited for 20 minutes to find out that we didn't have all the documents we needed like our marriage certificate. Definitely a duh-moment but it definitely set me off since the lady at the Social Security office never said anything about bringing that with me, she said the receipt would be fine. UGH. Some people. So we went back home to get what we needed, and poor Ian had to listen to me vent but he's so good to me and listened and helped me calm down, since it really wasn't that big of a deal. (What did I do to deserve such a great guy? Beats me). We finally got back to the DMV, waited in line, and got our tasks done pretty quickly. We were out in little over an hour. :D I was pretty happy about that, and also that my picture was update and that my license now has McHardy on it. That put me in a good mood, so we went to Burlington to get me a cute outfit for later that night. ;) YES BIRTHDAY LINGERIE. Deal with it. We did get him a nice new Trump tie though too. It looks pretty studly. We got home probably close to 2, and man was I tired! I get up at 4:20 AM Mon-Thurs, I deserved a nap. So I did just that.
Hehehe. How exciting, on my birthday as well as my day off, I go to the DMV and sleep. Awesome right? It did get more exciting, I promise.
Woke up around 4. I decided we should go out to dinner at least for this occasion, and Texas Roadhouse was the place to be. After overindulging in my carnivorous habits, we grabbed some $5 movies at Walmart, went home, and watched a movie called "The Island". Ian's pick. It had Ewan McGregor in it and Scarlett Johansson, so how bad could it really? It was very intriguing to be honest! I don't want to spoil it, so I won't go into detail, but I definitely recommend it.
Then Saturday rolled around and I just worked literally all day. I won't bore you with my 8 hours of insurance-filled adventures. I was able to make it to the dinner portion of Choir Retreat though. My tummy was happy by the end of the night!
Then Sunday came about, and I love Sundays. Church and relaxation. So much relaxation, I slept in till 10. HA. Cause our ward don't start till noon. Suckahs! Our new family ward is the bomb though. I had a really good first impression. We came on a week where there was a youth spiritual number and combined RS/Priesthood. srsly tho the youth is about 70 total, easy. At least that. Ian's very excited about that. He's really good with the youth. He was a Priest adviser before he went to his Marine Corps training.
Everyone is really nice; people came and introduced themselves to us, since obviously they didn't recognize us. It's a pretty established ward in a very established stake. We stood out. We also stood out because Ian has a powerhouse voice that carries over the congregation. :) I'm getting used to it, but I love to hear him sing. Makes my heart go pitter-patter. But yeah! Major success. Then that night, Ian's parents were considerate enough to make cake and get me a gift, so we went over there for dinner and a little birthday party. So sweet. UGH I just love them.
So yeah. That was my birthday weekend. Eventful, but not in your face. I liked it. A lot.
But yeah. I'll finish up with peectures of my put-away dishes (because I'm a noob who gets excited about that), as well as the lovely cake my sister Ashley made. :D

It's red-velvet, my favorite! 

Yay dishes and glasses!!!

And the silverware...we're not total cavemen.