Spring Time Updates

Greetings earthlings ✌

Since we last chatted I mentioned we were getting ready to move, so let's just pick up right where we left off!

FEBRUARY

The last two weeks of January going into the beginning of February was a little crazy. Marie Kondo has nothing on me because I'm pretty sure I got rid of just about anything that wasn't a necessity. Downsizing from 2600 sq ft to 1140 sq ft is serious business! Nonetheless, we were successful and we managed to move in with very little issues. There were some things that made us nervous at first (some repairs needed to be done and the apartment reeked of cigarette smoke, which we learned was coming from the neighbor thru the open living room window). 4 months later and we're quite cozy in this little home we've got. I enjoy only taking no more than an hour to clean the entire apartment, as opposed to the 3 hours it took by myself in the old house. I wish I had a little bit more room to spread out, but it's not uncomfortable so I can't really complain. Our ward has been super friendly, and is quite literally the opposite from what we came from! Our old ward was comprised mainly of young families with lots of kids and babies, where this ward has a trailer park and senior community in the boundary so most of the ward consists of grandma and grandpas! We've also learned that they LOVE music, and there is one musical number every single week (except fast Sunday). I usually stay under the radar for as long as possible--took the old ward nearly 3 years to find out I sing--this time it only took 2 weeks, and I've already sung a musical number and have been asked to sing in the adult session of Stake Conference. Meh. (Honestly it's fine, I just don't like to draw attention to myself at my place of worship since that's not what it's about). We also went and played in the SNOW. The weather this winter was crazy, being much colder than it usually is and we've been getting a lot of rain as well so that means snow! It even snowed in Cave Creek, which isn't that far out of the Valley! We drove up maybe an hour out of Phoenix and pulled off the road to the perfect fresh powder and had a blast! Max and Bri tagged along too!

MARCH

Work has been consistently INSANE officially since it's the middle of tax season and this season has been weird and stressful. I've been making all sorts of silly mistakes that have snowballed and honestly it's taken a toll on my confidence. I've gotten better and I'm hoping it stays that way?
Anyway, March was a bit of a blur--working long hours, going to friends' recitals, getting food poisoning from Olive Garden, and *finally* taking our anniversary photos. It was crazy but pretty good. {if you want to see my favorites (which are many), they are at the very end!!}

APRIL

The home stretch of tax season! Plus Ian's birthday. :) We went to dinner with his family and some of his friends at Texas Roadhouse! He even rode the saddle and loved every second of it. 😆
We also saw Wicked while it was at Gammage--I don't care who you are, if you don't like Wicked there is something wrong with you, and you should really get that checked out. It's incredible to watch every time. I haven't seen it since I was 18 (neither has Ian!), and it was so fun to watch it again but this time with my husband. I'm glad I married someone who will watch musicals with me, though I'm slowly starting him on operas...hehe We saw Silent Night at Arizona Opera and it is now one of my favorites, and Ian actually liked it! Soooo good. Slowly but surely he's coming to the dark side....

This year's Easter was an extra fun one--my brother Nathan and his 4 kids came to visit for a whole week! We got to roast hot dogs and marshmallows outside, watch movies, go to the zoo, and eat yummy food on Easter Sunday together. It had been a couple years since I'd seen them and it was too much fun. I wish they could move closer to AZ!

Ian left for the last two weeks of the month for job training in Austin, and that was a bummer (him leaving me alone for so long!). The only thing exciting to happen during that time was that Avengers Endgame came out--and that was life changing. UGH I love Marvel so much. 😭 I grieved Tony Stark's death for like two days hahaha {SPOILER SORRY if you haven't seen it by now then it's really your fault at this point} But seriously, what an incredible film!

MAY---today!

At last it was finally May, and as of May 1st, that means it's officially part 1 of slow season. There's quite literally nothing to do at work! Which is fine, considering how stressful and long tax season was/is. I've read two books in the last two weeks and I'm going to start another one today. The weather has also been surprisingly heavenly. It's gotten into the triple digits only a couple time so far this month and May is practically over. I don't mind the uncharacteristically good temperatures, and I will soak them up until the oven inevitably preheats come June for sure. In other news, I leave for Chicago in roughly 48 hours for 5 whole days! This will be my first solo trip to a destination where I will not be staying with family or be near family at all. I've traveled by myself lots of times, but I've always stayed with family so this will be a new and exhilarating experience! I'm going mainly for a vocal competition in which I advanced to the second round in my division in, but it's also going to be so fun! I've got a whole itinerary planned out (surprise surprise) and I can't believe it's finally here! I've known that I advance for nearly 3 months and waiting around for this has been driving me bonkers. I will definitely have a blog post dedicated for the trip, the details, and the pictures. 😉

Now the moment you've all been waiting for...these beautiful anniversary photos my friend Erin Watson took of us! Literally it's been like a month since I got them and I'm still swooning. I had an idea of what I was wanting and Erin majorly delivered. {Her photography page is Pretty Pixel Photography if you want to see more of her work} Here are my favs, which are basically all of them. Enjoy. 💕

Thanks for reading!

It's the Final Countdown!

Heyoooooo

So last time I checked in, March had just begun! Ian started his new job, spring break was finally here, and I was frantically preppin for my senior recital. Let's go from there!

Senior Recital 

So wow! That happened, and it was insane. And super fun. You know you've grown a lot when you get to your senior recital and you don't have a single meltdown over the music (unlike my junior recital where I was literally forgetting entire songs from anxiety HA). Instead, I had a little freak out over my makeup, which I was not happy with at all but eventually put my vanity aside and kicked butt. I went out there, had fun singing some beautiful music, and then celebrated with my friends and family! I had an AMAZING turn out, I think the organ hall was almost full! So probably a solid 50 people showed up. Even my grandparents came out from Boise for the weekend, AND my dad came in from Utah. I felt pretty darn loved. Plus, the reception was beautiful thanks to my mom and mother in law. I had been planning every detail for months and it was even better than I had anticipated. A huge weight came off my shoulders that night and I could not be prouder of myself! Sure, there were some mistakes (I'm just going to forget that I even sang Willow Song for the sake of self-esteem and forgetting that crash and burn hahahaha) but overall it was about 90% where I wanted it to be, and I'll take that win. Anyway enjoy some peeectuureess.

The rest of the weekend was filled with general conference, Easter, and family. It was one of the best weekends ever!!


End of Semester

The rest of the semester was simply filled with me scrambling to learn my part in opera scenes that I had unwisely been putting off with my recital. Looking back, I should have and could have been more prepared, and I have learned from it. We had a super fun scene that was hilarious and chaotic, which made up for the fact that our scene didn't come together musically 100%, ever. haha and I mean that in the best way possible! I was told we were really funny, and that makes up for it. Oh well. It was a good experience regardless of a seamless performance, and everyone else in the show that night was phenomenal! I'm so lucky to know so many talented people.

I was also working with Anne on picking out the "fun" stuff, aka AUDITION ARIAS! FINALLY! I love concert and recital music, but let's be real, this is the music I've been waiting to dive into! And boy, have we!

Other than that, the rest of my semester was pretty laid back. Kind of anti-climactic leading into graduation, with hardly seeing anyone until the day of! Speaking of which...

GRADUATION Festivities!!

So back in February, I was notified that I had been nominated and selected to sing the National Anthem and alma mater at undergraduate commencement! Kind of a pretty big deal, considering this was for the entire undergraduate graduating class of 2018! It was held at Chase Field, where Ian said roughly 12,000 were in attendance?? INSANE. I have never performed for an audience that large, let alone in a venue this large either, LET ALONE BY MYSELF! It was a crazy day. I went to work, met Ian at a public park, drove to Chase Field and practically missed sound check because I hadn't received any email on what I was supposed to do that day (turns out the lady who was supposed to send it to me, forgot hahahahah /cries). I'm already a stress ball, so this kinda added to it. Fortunately the gal who was like "my person"/escort/buddy was super calm and really nice (her name was Melissa) I made it to sound check where I learned that singing in that large of a space with that many speakers can make even the most competent and confident musician feel like a total GOOB. Fortunately the sound guys were also SUPER nice and gave me inner ear monitors/pack, and I felt like a total pro. After sound check, we went up to the Audi Diamond Level and were fed dinner and I felt SO COOL. You don't understand. I was on Cloud Nine! I was referred to as "The Soloist" all night and I didn't mind one bit. +50 to ego, right there. Anywho, Melissa and I make our way to the field, and I got to hang out in the dugout with Sparky for a hot sec, and then go below the field as we wait to start the procession. I got to be on the stage on field for the whole ceremony! Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm prepared, though I was a little nervous and it's time for the National Anthem and I had to nudge Michael Crow to let me through and I'm freaking out because maybe I was accidentally super rude to the president of ASU and I couldn't hear anything because of my earbuds and I get to my spot just to realize when the brass choir started that my ear buds WERE NOT EVEN ON and had to sing the National Anthem with no monitor but fortunately the ear buds themselves blocked out the reverb and I was with the timing and wasn't off and it was fine but I still was internally freaking out.

PHEW. Sorry for the run-on but it had to be done.

I then remembered to turn my pack on for the Alma Mater, which was better but I made up the words because that's just how it goes. By that point, everyone was screaming so nobody even noticed. But me.

I noticed.

heh.

I'll still considered it a success cuz they paid me $150.

Anywhere here's some more peeeectuuurresss.

 I almost forgot I did a pre-show interview so I'm now just waiting for Ellen to call me

It was definitely a 10/10 experience.

Then actual convocation came around 2 days later, but just for Herberger! It didn't feel real, but it felt very real at the same time. It's an odd experience! Part of me couldn't believe it was happening since I've been in school so long, I never thought I'd be finished! But the other part of me was like HECK YEAH I AM DONE AND I SO DESERVE THIS! Anyway, that ceremony wasn't nearly as exciting but I got to walk to it was worth it. My parents took me to lunch afterwards and we just hung out the rest of the day! Pretty good day.

HERE ARE MORE PHOTOS OF MY FACE

betcha didn't know I could float with no legs

So many wonderful experiences and opportunities, and even better people and relationships. /sigh They tell you it flies by, but you don't believe it till it does. 💗

Anyway.

Long story short, I did it.🌟

Summer Shenanigans 2017

Hey y'all. Currently jammin to some new music from Superfruit and I thought "I should write another blog post"! It's been about three months so I'm due for another one anyway.

So here we are. :D

Last time I checked, it was about a week or two before the summer workshop I did started up and lots has happened since then! So we'll just go through it.


CGCC SUMMER OPERA WORKSHOP!
Huzzah! This definitely took up a good portion of my brain space this summer. Twice a week for a few hours I went to a workshop held at the community college I used to go to and it was seriously so much fun! I strengthened some friendships I already had as well as made some new and valuable ones! I definitely came out of it a better performer than what I was when I went into it. It was also exciting to be coached by people you have never really been coached by before. I knew Jen and Jeff already because I had gone to CGCC but neither of them were my voice teachers and I don't think I ever sang in one of their masterclasses over my time there, so it was a new and educational experience for me!

I wasn't sure what to expect at first because there wasn't a definitive structure that was given to us beforehand so I went in a little nervous. I was certain there was going to be scene work because I knew there was going to be a performance at the end to show off what we had worked on, but beyond that I had no idea! We all started the class by taking turns singing a prepared aria (naturally) and then we got some coaching on a new aria of our choice. All the arias I had had already been coached with either Dale or Robert so I didn't want to do any of those, so the only one left was one I had been given ages ago and had been pretty difficult for me to do in the past. "Prendi, per me sei libero" from Donizetti's Elixir of Love. Greeeaaattt. It's exposed and way different than what I normally do EVER, but it is so beautiful which were all reasons exactly why I wanted to go for it. It still has a lot of work to do to make it truly perform-able as part of the whole role, but the improvement I made was satisfactory with all things considered. We were also put into scene groups and originally I had two scenes I was part of but one was dropped to my relief (they had me as Gilda in the Rigoletto quartet and I about passed out because that ish is like waayyyy out of my depth fo reals like call back in 5 years thaannnkss) so I was left with The Impresario Trio, which was much easier to swallow. BUT MAN that is a flippin marathon to get through! We had even cut out like a solid minute of it and it was still effin hard. It felt good in my voice which was a #blessing but figuring out how to pace myself was the real trick to singing it. Once we got the hang of it, it was my favorite thing to sing! I am all about the over the top crazy and kooky characters, and Madame Herz/Goldentrill was right up my alley. The performance went swimmingly and we all received wonderfully positive feedback about just about everything. I'm glad my voice teacher and her husband were able to come see what I had worked for.

The Impresario Trio (Logan, Me, Stacy)! 

Me:"A dog, Joe"

 Logan: "Enough about the dog, Susan" 

Stacy: "It's not a dog...hehe"

Logan *might* cry

The letter read "To whom it may concern, Nemorino is now in the army, k? lawlz, Belcore"

"My ears are ringing"       "I know, just smile through it"

Lots of laughs were had for sure and I learned a bunch. I think this was the perfect way to spend my summer, especially since this is the first summer program I have ever done!

{Girls Camp 2017}
I'm grateful that my first girls camp as YW president was ward camp. It was a wonderful experience for everyone involved and I feel like I really connected with my girls. They are so special, intelligent, beautiful souls inside and out. I would do anything for them! We held it up at Camp Brentwood about 30 min outside of Alpine, AZ. It was about 5 hours away, but it was so worth it! The weather was gorgeous the entire time, and we even got some rain! My camp directors and cooks went above and beyond in their assignments and I couldn't have picked anyone better to execute the best girls camp I've ever been to! I also got to know my first counselor and secretary much better....what happens in the tent stays in the tent. ;)

We went on a beautiful hike and stopped at this small river/creek, we had a luau with a whole roasted pig(!!!), made adorable crafts, grew spiritually together and had the best time. That was just a portion of everything we did and I won't ever forget it. :)

our little set up, the girls' tents were further down

BATTLE BUNS!

The Kakamora came and attacked us with water balloons. ;)

Luau Time!

Aside from the workshop and girls camp, I have just been hanging out at home. I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to do whatever I want for once, instead of being restricted by summer camp and the madness and stress that came with it. Yikes. It is a double-edged sword though, with so much freedom comes much boredom majority of the time. That was the only draw back...I can only watch so many movies and clean my kitchen so many times. haha

I did have fun outings though, like Wet n Wild with Kelly and Brent. Guys. My life has changed. That's my new favorite place! It's way the heck away, but it's so worth it because it's so much fun!! Ian and I made the mistake of thinking we'd be alright without water shoes or waterproof flipflops but we ended up getting small blisters on our feet by the time we left. We even had to cut the day short because of it! The pavement is HOT! Sorry guys. Next year though, we'll invest in something to protect our feet. ;) 

Now I'm just waiting for school to start in about two weeks...Getting that chorus music learned isn't that difficult, it's fairly repetitive and we only sing for like two minutes at a time. I'll have it all memorized by next week. 

OH I got a new job! You're looking at Studio 3's newest voice teacher! I'm pretty excited to start. It's like part part time, only two nights a week! I have 3 students so far who want to do a trial lesson next week, so that's exciting. Teaching privately will give us an extra $200/month with just 3 students, so it's definitely a good thing. I feel sometimes I'm not qualified to do this, but then I remember I've been at this for 4 years now and some choral ed students start teaching well before they're graduated so it should work, right? RIGHT?! Gah. It'll give me experience regardless, so that's the up side. My students also won't be over the age of like 16 so it's not like I'm teaching people my age. LOL I got this....?

Anyway. That's been the summer shenanigans I've been up to over the last few months. Hope you all have had an enjoyable summer! Goodbye, my lovelies!