End of Semester Adventures...

So my posts are really long. Like really really long. So this one's gonna be short...er, with mostly pictures. In fact, I don't even know why I'm writing other than I haven't in a while. College is crazy and I get to go home in less than a week. Hooray!

Highlights of the last little while (in no particular order):

#1. My family came to see my Christmas concert. Kids! Food! Free Laundry! Restocked kitchen! Bath tub! New phone charger! Music and the Spoken Word! Father's blessing! It was a nice to take a break from everything before gearing up for finals. Oh, and the Christmas concerts went well, too.

I miss these kids....

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen???

I thought not. :)

 #2. My apartment almost burning down. The gist of it is, apparently my roommate left a dish rag in a pot on the stove and forgot about it when she left???? I have no clue. But I came home to rather upset RAs. If you want the full story, ask me. Flood. Fire. What's next? a hurricane or an earthquake?

This is what I came home to find....

 #3. I was asked to sing at an Italian Club event. Except for the fact that I couldn't here the music and the mic was shorting, it was fine. Whatever.

#4. Christmas Program: As ward choir director, I was in charge of writing it. Oh. Boy. I only did 3 choir numbers, 2 of which had congregation because I didn't want to make things any more complicated than they would be. The rest was special musical numbers. Well, it was rocky from the start when the narrator started with the wrong part of the script that had nothing to do with what we were about to sing. Oh well. I'd prayed and prayed that no matter what happened, the Spirit would be there. And it worked. Everyone else loved it and thought the whole thing went smoothly and was beautiful. Thank goodness cuz I sure was not confident. Hooray for the Spirit taking over things.

#5. Studying for finals! uh....we'll see the effects of that this week... :)

#6. Trying with all my might to shake off this ROTC dude in my ward who's leaving on a mission in 1 month and who's just desperate to get some action before he leaves. NO! He does NOT get it, and I'm waving the "NOT INTERESTED" flag right in front of his face! I've resorted to ignoring texts. Especially the 1AM ones asking if I want to "go for a walk." Gag. Maybe he'll read this. He admitted to not reading blogs, but I wouldn't put it past him. Maybe he just heard me ranting to my roommate about him. I sure hope so. I HATE drama more than just about anything.

#7. Ward trip to Temple Square! It was fun, but it made me really late to my choir Christmas party. We got a little camera crazy, but it was a blast. and the Joseph Smith movie is incredible. I'd forgotten that me and a friend took my Australians to go see it last January at the Mesa temple.

this shot took some laying upside down on the steep stairs...and then took some with my friend legit camera that can actually get the whole door...

General Conference worthy, no? :)

#8. BYU Singers Christmas Party. It started at 7. I did not get home from Salt Lake til 7:20, and it was way out in the boonies as my friend Rachel would say. Rachel and I drove for a very long time, getting rather lost on a pitch black, winding road, in the middle of nowhere on the mountain. We found it, finally. Dinner was a delicious Christmas feast. The White Elephant gift exchange was by far, the most successful one I've ever participated in. I ended up with a bagel barge. a plastic half-cylindar that can hold 6 bagels with a slit in the middle space to help you cut straight. We decided it could also be a CD holder, a hand guillotine, and most useful of all, a DOUBLE ROLL TOILET PAPER HOLDER! Camille obviously really had a hard time parting with this wedding gift. After that, we gave Dr. Staheli our gift- a beautiful marble statue of the First Vision on a wooden base- and then gathered around to sing Angels We Have Heard On High and Silent Night. As we sang, the Spirit's presence was SO strong and I had a sudden flash of us circling round the Holy Infant, singing as he slept. It was truly incredible. We ended the night kneeling in a sort of "family" prayer. This choir does more for me than I could ever explain.

P.S. Mark your calendars for March 27th! We're doing Music and the Spoken Word!