It's the End of 2011??

 This mostly sums up the day I spent at my parents' house again on my way to see Husband Man's sister. We goofed around, were loud and noisy, and broke a few pieces of furniture in the process! I miss my sisters.

 Breakfast at Husband Man's sister's house! My nephew Austen sat in my lap and ate my french toast.

 Husband Man has already read one of the books he got for Christmas.

 Husband Man missed his older sister!

 And then Husband Man and his sister's husband man took apart their computer. I never knew it had so many pieces...

 Husband Man's Gramma D! She has so many fun stories to tell.

A game before bedtime.


We're traveling back home tomorrow after Sacrament Meeting. I'm grateful to have a few days before the semester starts, but at the same time I have that feeling of "If I go back, then I have to be responsible and go to school. I don't wanna."


We're having bubbly for New Years! Husband Man and I might be the only ones staying up until midnight, but that's ok! It's the last day of 2011, and it's been such a long and wonderful year. May the next year be just as wonderful and filled with learning. May I survive three more semesters of school, and may Husband Man get the internship he wants. May we continue to be blessed with the many things we have, and may we continue to grow closer to our Heavenly Parents.


And may YOU have a wonderful new year! Drink lots of bubbly and GO CRAZY!
Happy New Year! Bring it on, 2012!!

Christmas (Part Two)!

Once you get married you usually sort of get two families. That means that Christmas can come in parts. For example, on our way to visit Husband Man's older sister, we stopped to stay the night at my parents' house again. They had Christmas gifts for us too! (Besides the cross stitch!)


I'm so grateful for everything we have received this year! I know we will put it all to good use. I was spoiled!


And Husband Man feels spoiled too. My dad helped him sight in his scope today so he could shoot his new gun!

(He let me shoot it too! And I got to shoot my dad's 10/22 as well!)

Christmas!

(Warning! This post contains lots of pictures! It is Christmas after all!)

On Christmas Eve Husband Man, his dad, and I all started a game of Age of Empires. (We played the three of us against five opponents. That's always a little crazy.) When that stopped working (the connection got messed up) we lost the game, so we went and read the Christmas story. Then we played an entire game of AoE. (Those take a couple of hours...) Then we went to sleep. (At about 2 in the morning...)


On Christmas Day Husband Man was a teensy bit excited and was awake at 6:30. At 7 he ran upstairs, and a little later he dragged me out of bed. We sat at the table, ate waffles, and then Husband wanted to look at his stocking. So we went and sat on the couch, and his parents decided that since church wasn't until 10 and it was only 8:30, we could start opening presents and see how long it took.

Obviously one of the best parts of Christmas is giving gifts to other people. We just happened to find a painting that Husband Man's dad has wanted for a while, so we talked with Dan's sisters, split the cost...

...and had a very surprised father for Christmas this year!

I also had a few tricks up my sleeve...

What is Husband Man opening? Is that a box of ammunition??

Hooray! Husband Man got a gun!
I had been skulking around talking with my dad about getting him this for a few months. Husband Man is smart, so he kind of sort of figured out that that was what I was getting him for Christmas. I was bound to confuse him, though! He told me later that he was pretty sure he was getting a gun, and he was so very very very very very very very very very very very very(etc) excited!!! And then I told him that I put all the presents under the tree at his parents' house, and he looked and looked and there was no gun box... and then he was sad. He was so very sad. And then on Christmas Day he was handed a gift and it was very very heavy and it felt and sounded like ammo, and when he opened it it really was ammo, and then he was very very very confused because now he had ammo but no gun... and then I got up and left and he thought 'Maybe she's getting the gun?' and he looked under the couches but there was still no gun box, and then I came up the stairs with a gun-box-shaped present and he was so very very very very very very very very very very very very(etc) excited again!!! And so he had a very good Christmas, and I had a very good time hiding everything from him!

Husband Man's parents splurged to give us a big gift (since it's easier for them to get one big one rather than a bunch of little ones)-

I'm not sure if that will fit in our entertainment center or not!
Don't worry, I was spoiled as well! I was given many, many wonderful things by my husband!

I got a lot of fun things. And my mom made us this beautiful cross-stitch about love and our wedding day! With all of our wedding colors!!

I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture very well or not, but it's very pretty!
Overall our Christmas was fun! We've played Age of Empires every day, and eaten a TON of brownies and cookies and candy. Tomorrow we're going back to my parents' house to visit for half a day again, and then we're on to see Husband Man's older sister before going home! It was my first Christmas away from home so I missed the traditions that I'm used to, but experiencing new traditions is a lot of fun too!

(P.S.- Opening presents took about 45 minutes. That is nowhere close to the time it takes my family to open presents!)

Christmas Eve

The Christmas tree at the lodging place of my Native People:

And the tree at Husband Man's family's house:

 

(It's a very dark- I'll replace the picture when I get a better one. The camera is too cold to consider turning on...)

 I'm very grateful for the birth and mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know He is my brother and my friend. He is an example of how I should live my life. He has shown mercy unto all.

"And his name shall be called: Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

(I love this picture!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! May you have love and joy this season!

My Native People

 

This is me (blue shirt) and my sister (yellow shirt).

My sister got a pair of shorts from a friend, and was joking about how they could totally hold more than one person.

So we decided to test that theory.

My baby brother fit in there too.


Those really are some big shorts. 


I love being home for the holidays.

P.S. You can also check out a new post at this blog, too.

Liberation!

 Husband had a nap and was very cold after he woke up. He's my goober!

I am pleased to say that I am DONE WITH THIS SEMESTER!! I survived! Additionally, I managed A's and B's in all my classes!

For only having 15 credits, this semester was surprisingly harder than last semester, in which I took 17 or 18 credits. Strange? I think yes.

One thing I never did was talk to my trumpet professor. I'm hoping that we can chat at the beginning of next semester... and that things can be mended, or at least an understanding of what happened at auditions can be reached. I know, I should have done it earlier...

Since we have a graduation date of April 2013, I am looking at the classes I have left to take, and it seems like I might actually make it to graduation without going crazy like I did this semester.  I can take no more than 15 credits and be completely fine, and I don't think I'll have an overload of ridiculous, time-consuming classes like I did this time. (Knock on wood and all that superstitious stuff.) It even looks like I can go part-time for a semester and take some fun classes, like archery or something! Woohoo!


I believe I'm going to celebrate the end of the semester by gorging myself at Pizza Pie Cafe's "happy hour" where the buffet is $5. And then I believe I'm going to sit on the couch and turn into a couch potato. Or do something that I want to do.


It's a good day.

A Different Kind of Christmas Song

I have always thought that this song was so beautiful. And it brings to light a different aspect of the nativity story that we usually don't think of, and that's the hardships that Mary and Joseph had to go through to bring the Savior into the world. For example, back then, they would have gotten in trouble because Mary was pregnant and they weren't married yet. That's not acceptable like it is today. And while they were traveling to Bethlehem, its very plausible that Mary was already in labor during the journey, and to be unable to find a place to go so she could safely have the baby was a huge heartache for Joseph.


Just a few things to think about while you're celebrating Christmas this year.


Glad! "One Quiet Moment"


(Sorry you have to go to the link to hear it- it's on YouTube. I just haven't figured out the putting movies in the blog post thing yet. I did it once, but that was with Husband Man's help... When I go home this afternoon I'll ask him to teach me again, and edit the post so that you can watch it here.)

Finals Week

The best: I don't have juries! Woohoo!


The good: I only have three days left of the semester!


The neutral: I still have three days left of the semester...


The bad: I haven't even thought of studying for some of my finals yet... still have too much homework...


The ugly: My finals consist of roughly seven tests, a presentation, and two projects. That's only for fifteen credits.


The greatest: IT'S CHRISTMAS! And I get to see family again soon!!

Guess Who Played a Natural Trumpet from the Baroque Era Today?

Can you guess?? Me!!

(I think I've decided to start carrying the camera around with me, because I always miss fantastic photo opportunities like this one.)
(And in case you were wondering, I did hit myself in the face with that thing once. But only once! It's a lot longer than a cornet, which is what I've played most of this semester, and it's longer than a modern trumpet... so my muscle memory did fail me at one point, and I bashed myself in the tooth. Don't laugh. Those things are painful.)
(Hey, and in case you were wondering, the guy you can see past me is the one who has played Baroque trumpet for 40 years!!) 

The trumpet itself didn't actually come from the Baroque era, they didn't dig it up and clean it out or anything goofy like that. Its based off of the ones that existed at that time in history. (The Baroque Era was roughly 1600-1750.) The trumpet was still progressing in design at this point, and it doesn't have any valves, and finger holes and slides may or may not have been common- we're not quite sure.


So how did you play a trumpet with no valves?? That thing is so crazy looking!

I know! If you were to straighten out the Baroque trumpet and a modern trombone, the pipes would be the same length! Isn't that the coolest??

If they're the same length, how come the trumpet sounds like a trumpet and not a trombone??

The pipe for the trombone is bigger than the one for the trumpet. That's why it sounds lower. 


What about playing the trumpet with no valves...?

Oh yeah! So what happens is that there are things called partials. On a modern trumpet, it's the notes you can play without pressing any valves. The lower you play, the farther apart these "natural" notes are. The higher you play, the more partials you can play. The one I saw today essentially could play middleC-E-G-C, the arpeggio, and from there went E-F-G-A-Bb-B-C.


I have no clue if that makes sense to you, but if you want to know more, let me know in the comment box and I'll try my darndest to explain it better...?


The coolest part is that he let us get our own mouthpieces and play them! I thought it would be difficult because the proper tone for a natural trumpet isn't as bright and trumpet-y like what you might hear today if you went to a Mahler symphony or something. But it wasn't that hard! (For me anyways...)


And at the end of the forum they did to talk to us about it, they played a Baroque trumpet duet with organ accompaniment. I think the organ was supposed to be similar to a Baroque-style organ. It sounded beautiful. I loved every minute of it. (It combines two of my favorite instruments after all!)


And as an added bonus, my classes tomorrow, all of them, are cancelled! Guess who gets to sleep in too??? ME!!!  BEST DAY EVER!! (Especially compared to this semester in general!)

The Undercover Novelists

Most people know me as a music nerd (see previous post), and I count myself as one. What a lot of people don't know is that I'm a creative writer as well. I love writing. And yes, I'm a fantasy writer. I have a huge, sometimes over-active imagination (which can sometimes cause problems when watching certain movies in the theater).

Husband Man is a writer too. He's more of the science-fiction than I am, though, but we still like to read each other's works and critique them. There's something about sharing our stories with each other that makes us enjoy writing even more, even though revision is a hard thing to deal with. So even though Husband Man can't sing a note to save his life, I'm grateful that I got someone who can understand the mechanics of writing a story.


This semester I took a creative writing class that talked about the basic functions of stories and that was a lot of fun. We talked about things like putting images together to make a scene and dialogue and tension and Campbell's Monomyth, and knowing all of those things has given me new insight into my story and my writing in general. Husband Man is going to take that class next semester and I can't wait!


There's something about creating things that really appeals to me. Writing music, playing music, writing stories, taking pictures... I really like the artistic side of life. I think that's why I like random shows like Project Runway and, yes, America's Next Top Model. I like seeing the clothes they come up with, the pictures that they take, what they can do with their talent. I really only tolerate all the stupid drama just so I can see that stuff. 

I know it sounds weird, but that's how I am. But it goes the same for writing. I like seeing what I can come up with out of my imagination. My characters are real to me. I don't dictate what they do, they do it on their own and I just record it as best I can. And I love every minute of it. I'm a nerd and I don't care!


There's only one problem: When you're a writer and a full-time college student there isn't a lot of time for writing... and then you go crazy.

Who Let The Music Nerd Out?

I would write you a blog post about something interesting, but I'm busy working on a paper about the uses of parody technique between Tomas Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in the "Kyrie" of their respective masses. Victoria used his motet "O Magnum Mysterium" and Palestrina his motet "Tu Es Petrus". 

So while you're waiting in high anticipation for the next exciting installment of the ongoing saga that is the life of two Yockeyites, you could always YouTube those two motets. They are BEAUTIFUL. (Think of a motet as an unaccompanied choral piece. Don't like choral pieces? Listen to these anyways. They're great for doing homework or relaxing. Actually... maybe I should try listening to one of those the next time I have a bubble bath. A bubble bath, a bowl of ice cream, and soft motets playing in the background... Yes, that sounds about right.)


If you want something a little fuller, or if you're a goober and entirely against choral pieces, you could listen to Ralph Vaun Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". That is one of my most FAVORITE pieces ever, next to Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings". Those are a few instrumental songs that are rich in texture, and fantastic to listen to when you're relaxing and staring at Christmas lights.


Wait... Christmas lights... Now that I think about it, you probably could care less about classical music, unless it's classical Christmas tunes. Well, fine. At least bookmark the songs I mentioned and listen to them after the holidays. I promise, they're worth your while! If you want a really good Christmas song, I love the "Carol of the Bells" that the Cincinnati Pops does on the album "Christmas with the Pops". Something about the chord qualities and the juxtaposition of minor and major... and the super awesome horn lines and bass lines. I love hearing that song every time!


Uh oh- Husband Man is coming back and is going to chide me for continuing to procrastinate my music paper. Look up those songs! All of them!

Hooray Christmas!

Thanksgiving was fun. I forgot to take pictures the whole time. Mostly because the camera was usually at my parents' house and most of the action was at my grandparents' house. But here is a picture of my family's dog. He was wandering around and I told him to lay down and stop being a nuisance.

He got halfway there.
Since my people live out in the hills, we cut down the dead trees and use them as firewood to keep the house warm. (My parents don't have central heating and cooling, they didn't want that when they built the house. We use wall heaters in each room, and the fireplace in the middle of the house to keep things warm in the winter. It's pretty cool, actually.)
Anyways, while the menfolk were out cutting wood, my foster brother came in with a huge scratch on the side of his head. He'd gotten smacked with a piece of wood on accident.

He's clearly rather unhappy about it. It did hurt a lot though- I was the one who doctored the wound and it didn't look very happy.
But now it's time for CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!

(In case you were wondering, tape doesn't hold lights AT ALL.)

Honestly, I'm not a fanatic about them. I don't have very many, and I don't buy any frivolously because ever since I got married, I have a little Husband Man voice in the back of my head, and every time I think I want to buy something or make something crafty I hear that little voice ask me things like "Where will you put that?" and "What will you do with it once you've finished it?"

But there's something about Christmas lights that make me happy. I love having them up. Its the soft glow in a darkened room that makes everything feel like it's all wonderful.

We have two nativity sets, one on top of the entertainment center and the little teeny one in the above picture that you didn't notice because you were probably staring at the surfer nutcracker instead. That's Husband Man's nutcracker- I guess his family collects one for him every year, and this one was last year's. It's the only one we have, though, because let's face it- we're still college students living in a college apartment. You tell me where you're going to put 20-odd nutcrackers the height of your forearm, and we'll start talking.
If he really wanted, I suppose we could talk about putting them on the entertainment center... but that makes me nervous, because it's actually not pushed up against the wall. The tv sticks out the back of it.

So our house isn't covered with lights on the outside, and it hasn't been transformed into a hoard of Christmas paraphernalia inside, but it does have that touch of Christmas that makes me happy every time I look at it!

There's just one thing I can't decide on- is it irreverent to hang the Jesus stocking from the ceiling...?

Brown Thursday/Black Friday 2011

So last Thanksgiving we were with Husband Man's family, and they usually go to all the Black Friday sales. I had endured 19 1/2 blissful years innocent of the horrors that are Black Friday, since my people don't go to those things. (We're usually holed up in our house, waiting for the storm to pass.)


However, last Thanksgiving Husband Man's mom and older sister pointed out the benefit in going to Black Friday sales so that we could get the things we could really use as newlyweds at a cheaper price, things like Tupperware and dinnerware and sheets and even a few Christmas presents for other family. Subdued, I was taken along to my first Black Friday sale, midnight at the local Walmart.


I don't think I'll ever forget that day. There were people and shopping carts everywhere, filling the aisles of the store. I learned then just how dangerous Black Friday is, and how hard it is to get sheets without dying.


This year, with only last year's first experience under my belt, I was the one that led the expedition into Walmart.


I took two cousins, my foster brother, and my cousin's roommate. None of them had ever gone to a Black Friday sale before. When we got to Walmart, we forced our way through the crowds, trying to find the three things I really wanted to get: movies, sheets, and something else I can't mention. We'll just call it the "ko-ko". (I don't know why I picked that. Just go with it.)


As we go through Wally's, the roommate realised just how serious I was about how vicious things can be at a Walmart Black Friday sale. Originally she was going to go after the sheets, but after seeing the crowd for said sheets, she decided to go after the ko-ko instead. (It helped that I accidentally scored a spot right by the corner of the the ko-ko display.) With half an hour to go until the sale started, we left her by the ko-ko's, and moved on.


The next stop was the movies, since my foster brother and boy-cousin wanted to go after those. We got over there, and left the ad and the list of movies my mom and I wanted with them. My foster brother told me later that he spent the 25 minutes of waiting bargaining with the people around him.


Finally, my girl-cousin and I went to go wait for the sheets. There were two kinds, so she was on one end of the display and I was on the other. There were throngs of people everywhere, and we were all pressed up against each other. The women I was bunched up with chatted and laughed with me, and we all knew what the other wanted. About ten minutes before the sale started, the woman next to me, who had spent the last five or ten minutes prior whipping me in the face with her ponytail, apologized to everyone for anything she might do when the sale started. The woman across the bin from us kept rifling through the 600-thread sheets. The guy with the scissors started pushing through the crowd. My heart started beating really fast... and then the ten minutes was up.


I almost wish I wasn't as skinny as I am. The lady with the ponytail threw herself forward, and I was pushed to the side. By the time I got in there, I got a set of brown sheets. I wanted blue or beige. I ended up trading with a lady afterwards for a beige set. My girl-cousin thought I said "twin" instead of queen, so I didn't get a 600-count. Afterwards, I went to the aisle near the registers to wait for the others. I had magically lost my girl-cousin, even though I saw her two minutes before the madness began, and while I was waiting I was sure that I had left my poor relatives to sudden death in the madness that is Black Friday...

Did I mention I saw a couple people holding iPhones up to film the craziness?

Finally, though, we all managed to find each other, and saw the bounty we had all collected. We got all the movies my mom and I wanted and more, I got one set of sheets out of two, a hat, and the ko-ko. We spent almost two hours there, and managed to get out without any injuries.


Really, all it did was remind me how much I hate Black Friday. There were a few of my people who didn't really believe/like the fact that we had gone, and we decided that after last night we were done. I guess since the sale started at 10PM last night, it technically isn't a Black Friday sale, it's a Brown Thursday. Either way, I'm glad to be alive. I hate Walmart anyways, and the crazy people sales don't help. At least I got to see my old roommate! Yay!

The Long Drive for Thanksgiving

Husband Man and I went to visit my native people this week for Thanksgiving. I had classes yesterday, and so did my sister and cousin and their roommate who were driving up to join us for the big drive home. Our original plan was to leave by three. We left at five. The drive from where we live to where my native people were congregating is 11 hours. That means we didn't roll into my parent's house until 4:30 in the morning. I had been awake for 20 hours or so. I got four hours of sleep after we got here. (And I wasn't even that crabby until the last two hours of the drive!)


That's a long drive. But so worth it!


Thanksgiving is going to be especially crazy this year. My grandparents were called on a mission to the Bismark Temple, a 3 year mission, so my dad's eight siblings and their kids all came up for Thanksgiving this year. There's around 60 people here, no joke. It's so crazy!

I'm grateful for so many things, including the temple, delicious food, fantastic family and friends, and of course my husband, who helps get me out of bed for my 7:45 AM classes and keeps me in line. There are so many things to be grateful for besides that. I am truly, honestly humbled by the blessings I have in my life. My family is supportive, Husband Man's family helps support his schooling, schooling is very inexpensive at my college, and we live in a world where out of all the magnificent sunsets and waterfalls and scenery and mountains, I am one of His greatest creations of all. I hope to become an even stronger person in the year(s) to come, stronger in the gospel and stronger in myself. I'm grateful for EVERYTHING!

Happy Thanksgiving!

If You Give Your Husband A Haircut... (Part 2)

Once upon a time, there was a wife and her husband. The husband had really thick hair that stuck out at funny angles and looked like wings above his ears if he didn't get regular haircuts. Seeing the wisdom in learning to cut his hair herself to save money, the wife bought a razor and a pair of scissors. She learned rather quickly, and every three weeks or so the husband receives a haircut.


A few weeks ago, the husband really needed a haircut. His sister's wedding was coming up, so it was a very important haircut, so he wouldn't look weird in all her wedding pictures. The wife had lots of homework, so the haircut got pushed from a Tuesday to a Saturday. On said Saturday the husband went shooting with his Elder's Quorum from church, and during target practice he scoped himself in the face. He cut himself so badly that he almost needed stitches! As a result, the doctor told him to be very careful and not get it wet for a few days. This meant that the husband wouldn't get a haircut before the wedding.


This also meant that the husband wouldn't get a haircut for quite a few more weeks. Finally, the other day, the wife and the husband agreed that going to the temple looking like the husband did wasn't a good idea, so they sat down to give him a haircut. (FINALLY!) The wife must have been very excited because the first swipe with the razor turned out like this: 

(I told you his hair was long!)

I don't know bout you, but that looks just a liiiiittle too short. There's a little patch just to the right of the stripe where the wife tried to see how bad it would look if she finished the back of his head with the 1/4" razor guard like she usually does, and that looked so awful. So she resorted to using the 1/8" guard and letting the stripe blend in with the rest of his super-short haircut...

It sort of worked. The poor wife just couldn't bring herself to buzz his entire head with no guard on the razor, so the husband now has a landing stripe/racing stripe up the back of his head.


Tomorrow they go to visit family in Thanksgiving. The wife is sure this will be a great topic for conversation.

Why Women Feel the Need to Carry Handbags

I know, I'm of the female gender. Why on earth am I posting this?


Because I hate carrying a purse or handbag everywhere with me. Yeah, some bags are really cute and all, but I don't like having it with me all the time. When I go shopping, I don't want to have to make sure that my purse is still with me. If I wanted to keep track of something all the time, I'd borrow a toddler or have kids of my own. Not only that, but if I do leave my purse somewhere, chances are it has a good deal of my valuables in it, like cell phones and mp3's, not to mention a wallet that has lots of forms of ID and money. That's not something you want to misplace or have taken from you.


Poking around a little on the fabulous Google, I couldn't really find a history behind carrying a bag- most of the articles I found are men who are baffled by their significant other's obsession with bags. One of them had some pretty good theories: "The bag is a surrogate baby." Heaven knows some bags that women carry are as big or bigger than a baby, and weigh probably more than that. "These large handbags are perfect for swinging and protection." That could make sense, to carry a ginormous bag with you so you can fend off unwanted visitors. "It’s primitive DNA gene." For this one, he goes on to explain, "Women were the hoarders or safe keepers in the caves and that’s why clutching bushel like parcels is hard wired in their brains. The bag replicates that experience – it makes them feel that they are in possession of something very material and hence the comfort of the big wobbly cushiony thing near them."

I can see why a purse would be useful. Sometimes, especially in the summer, I just have a few too many things to carry in my hands. The problem with taking a purse just to carry a few things is that those few things procreate and suddenly you're carrying the kitchen sink, the garden hose, six tubes of chapstick, every cosmetic you own (except for that blush your mom gave you that you hate), and pens that ran out of ink three years ago. (And let's not talk about receipts.) It is true that if you ever needed a bandaid or pain reliever or gum or to sew a button back on your pants after a huge buffet meal, you'll probably have that in your bag.


The mystery behind female fetishes with purses will probably never be explained. I'd be willing to bet that even the women who carry them probably can't explain why they do it. All I know is that you probably won't see me with one until Husband Man and I have kids and all the diapers and Cheerios that come with them.

Our Day in San Diego

So we went to Husband Man's sister's wedding this last weekend, and since I was already missing a day of school we decided we wouldn't go back home on Saturday like everyone else. Instead we decided we would stay in San Diego and enjoy ourselves for a day before returning to the humdrum of everyday life. Fabulous idea? I think so. After all, there's so much to see in San Diego, like the zoo and Balboa Park and the Maritime Museum and the Mormon Battalion Site and Old Town and- of course- the beaches! (And so much more!)


Did we do any of that?


We went to the Battalion Site, and... that's it. Oh, and a mall. And KFC and Dominoes.


I know, I know- that is appalling. Why? you're asking, Why???


 Because it rained.


The average rainfall for San Diego in November is one inch. The single day we had to spend together in San Diego, it rained 1.4 inches.


I was SO bummed. I still am.


We did drive around after dropping everyone else off at the airport and getting our rental car. (Our rental car was a newer Chevy Impala, by the way- the nicest car I've ever driven. And it was red. It was SO awesome.) I got to see the bay, and a GINORMOUS cruise ship (which I've never seen one, it was huge!!) and I saw the Maritime Museum but we didn't go (and we should have). We saw all the big buildings, and it took me a while to get adjusted to the fact that a lot of food places in downtown San Diego weren't in their own building, but rather on the ground floor of a high rise building. I even saw an Albertsons that was the bottom floor of a skyscraper!! It blew my mind! I felt like such a country hick, haha!


The Mormon Battalion site was way cool. We went there after driving around downtown and eating lunch (my first real meal since Thursday afternoon when we left for SLC airport). I never knew that the Mormon Battalion was something that benefited the saints in their journey west to the Salt Lake Valley. I loved the entire tour (and we had most of it to ourselves!). It doesn't even matter if you're LDS or not, it's a cool place to go.


After the Battalion site we decided we were going to drive the hour to the beach and hope that the rain let up for a few minutes so we could play. On the way there we saw a mall with some stores we had gift cards to, so we pulled off the freeway and managed to find our way there. We walked around in the rain because the walkway between stores wasn't covered, and over the course of our trip to the mall the rain got worse and worse. When we'd exhausted the mall, we gave up on the beach and the rain and decided to go to the hotel, where we spent the evening watching the last half of the Matrix, then walking around to a tiny grocery store hoping to find snacks so we wouldn't have to buy food on Sunday, and then eating pizza and watching the last half of Inception. And then we went to sleep.


And then we woke up and it was all bright and sunny. And I was mad at San Diego.


And this is the only picture we got the whole day. We were standing next to the Impala, returning it, and I said "I want a pic with the Impala!" and so Husband Man fished out the camera, probably a little exasperated, and snapped this.

He took it rather quickly, now that I think about it, and didn't let me look at it to make sure he actually got us in there. It was very bright and sunny. And then he was pushing me towards the shuttle so we could run through the airport to get on the plane.


The airport was funny too, because we checked our bags and then took our all our cell phones and mp3's and the mini laptop and our shoes and our belts (but not any of my jewelry this time) and our jackets and walked through security, right? And Husband Man goes first and it beeps and they pull him aside and wave me through. He got randomly selected for a pat down! I said as I walked by, "What did you do?!" So he takes his shoes and belt and jacket and walked away, leaving me with all our little stuff to deal with alone. I remember saying out loud, "Well, now what?" And then he came back and all was well again. And then we got on a plane and had really crappy turbulence and I peed myself the entire time because I'm not a huge fan of flying. And then we made it home...

...where I did homework.


And that was our day in San Diego. The end.

Hoooomework

I really really really really REALLY want to post about our day in San Diego after Husband Man's sister's wedding, but I have homework coming out my ears.

On another thought, I've been thinking of starting a Photography Friday, where I post a picture of something that makes me smile. It's a way to keep me thinking positive when I'm being smothered with assignments and projects and papers. The only catch? I actually have to start paying attention to things and taking pictures of them...

And for your listening pleasure, here is a hilarious two minute clip from the Mnozil Brass. Enjoy.

Hooray!

Husband Man's sister is married! As of yesterday- I was too tired to stay up any later to post this. Everyone was tired after their wedding! (It made me glad I didn't do the reception the same day as the wedding...) It was so much fun though. They were married and then we had the reception with lots of talking and the throwing of the bouquet and garter and daddy-daughter dance and all that. And then they drove away in a convertible, off for their two and a half week honeymoon. Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia- if they don't have fun, then something's wrong with them! Haha- congrats to them both!!


Today Dan and I spent the day in San Diego. It rained. I'll post more about all the fun things we didn't do tomorrow (hopefully).

College: The Extra Semester

So I've been trying to cram all my on-campus classes in before the end of next year so that I can take the rest of them online and still get my degree. Stressful? I think so. Especially when a bunch of your classes are all at the same time.


The interesting and really exciting part? Husband Man went in two days ago to talk to his adviser and make sure that his classes were all lined up so he can register for next semester, and when I was creeping over his shoulder while he was reviewing what they had talked about, I saw that he had three semesters of classes lined out.


"Hey," I said- "I thought you only had two semesters left."


"Apparently not," he replied.


"....So that means I have an extra semester?"


"Yep."


WOOHOO!! I've never been so excited for an extra semester of school in my entire life!! If he gets his big internship, then he'll be here the first part of 2013 which means not only will I have an extra chance to take all my on-campus classes, but I'll be able to take the gen-ed's that I was going to take online.


Even more exciting? We might graduate together! That would be AWESOME!!


Even though I didn't sleep that great last night, and even though I have an incredibly long day ahead of me, I'm super excited for this turn of events. SUPER EXCITED!!


(PS- If anyone knows how I can turn my brain off at night, it would be helpful. Every time I rolled over (which was a lot) my brain was like "You need to do this! And this! And don't forget this! And this! And by the way I'm going to play the same movie soundtrack over and over again relentlessly! Woo!")


NaNoWriMo word count: Close to giving up

San Diego

Dan and I are going to San Diego for my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend. That means the last few days have been crazy because I've been trying to get homework lined up and when late assignments are going. I had it all lined up perfectly- getting assignments and tests done before I leave and even starting some of the projects that are due next week.


Well, that was before we took my wedding ring to be fixed across town and the car died, so we had to walk home. And the next day we had a guy come to talk to us about life insurance and we forgot he was coming, so that took away from homework time too. And today I had to spend time at the place to get my Idaho driver's license so I could have a government-issued ID with my married name on it. So now I'm forced to get what has to be done done first, and then everything else will get crammed in while we're traveling and probably the night before it's due when we get back.


See what happens when I plan things??


On the plus side, we got my ring welded together so it's all one ring, plus it's all nice and shiny and they set the big stone in properly. It looks so pretty and I'm so happy!


Plus, we're going to San Diego. We're going to leave the 15 degree weather and bitter winds here for warm San Diego. It's going to be AWESOME! Hellooooo beach! Woohoo!!


NaNoWriMo wordcount: Still a measly 42 words. I'm pretty sure it's all down the toilet right now, and there's no way I'm getting it back.

Facts About Cats

So I was looking at goofy pictures of cats yesterday and I found this picture with random facts about cats. I thought it was pretty cool. And I think it's pretty accurate too. 

I would post more, but I'm supposed to be doing homework so that I'm not stressing about it during our trip to SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA this weekend!!! Wooohooooo!! So you get a random cat post.

Ok, back to work.


(PS- Please let me know if you can't read this. It's pretty cool. I didn't know some of this stuff.)

Oh, you want a NaNoWriMo word count, too? TOO BAD! Get your own. Bahahaha....

Snow and Scopes

So today has been interesting. First of all, we didn't sleep until noon... in fact, we were up before 9 AM because Dan wanted to go to the Elder's Quorum activity. They were going out of city limits to go shooting somewhere. So he bounced out of bed this morning and had breakfast. As I meandered out of the bedroom he pointed to the crack in the blinds where it doesn't meet the edge of the window and said those dreaded words:

"It snowed last night."

Laaaame. Yesterday we went to Walmart without a coat. Today it's snowing.

So I'm sitting at home watching Tom and Jerry cartoons on YouTube and doing homework (because Husband Man said that if I did homework we could both work on NaNoWriMo so I was trying to be good) and waiting for Husband Man to come home when I get a text message from him that said, "Guess what?"


I hate guessing, so I just said, "What?"
"That's not a guess, but I'll tell you anyways. I scoped myself."
"...you scoped yourself? What does that mean?"
"I put my face too close to the scope. Recoil shoved said scope into my face. I have a nice cut just above my right eyebrow. Perfect semi-circle, they said. Not stitches bad, but close. And the worst part? I missed what I was aiming for."

(Yes, that is blood running down his face.)

My goober husband smacked himself in the face with the scope of a gun.

He did go to the clinic after the guys were all done shooting, but fortunately he didn't need stitches. Whoever put the bandaids on his face did it in such a way that it saved him from stitches, and all he got was glue.


And then we went to Coldstone for ice cream.

Confessional:

Sometimes I think about dropping out of college.

I don't think of it only when I'm struggling with homework... I've thought about it in moments of mostly sanity too. I'll think, What if I dropped out of college? Or what if I just gave up and took all the classes I wanted and didn't try to struggle to finish the entire degree? 

Besides, it's not like I know what I want to do after it's over...

Random Thursday Post

Warning! Contains tacos. Please continue at your own risk.

So last night we went to bed a whole half an hour earlier than we usually do! And not only that, but I didn't hear almost any of the alarms this morning, and so I didn't wake up until 8! So that means I didn't go to my first class today, but I got lots and lots of sleep! Yay!


It's been a lot easier to deal with today, probably because I woke up at 8, got up at about 8:20, and my next class wasn't until 9:45. So I wasn't rushed, I ate breakfast and read my scriptures and got ready and even put makeup on! Woohoo! And tomorrow is Friday and I"m done with all my stuff a half hour earlier than usual because I didn't have an organ lesson! Friday Friday Friday!!


Plus, I wanted a taco. I thought about them for two hours. Tacos sounded so tasty, (and that word in general is fun to say,) so my constant ramble of tacos for two hours must have made the Husband Man hungry for tacos because we stopped at a taco place on the way home. It was very tasty. Tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos....


PLUS, when I finished the only homework assignment I brought with me to work on today while I was sitting in the Husband Man's office for two hours waiting for him to get done with work, I sneakily worked on my story for a few minutes when he wasn't looking! So that means I actually accomplished something for NaNoWriMo! And now I'm writing a blog post instead of doing homework! Yay!


I think I'm high on sleep.


NaNoWriMo Word Count: 42 words (4959 behind)
(Maybe I shouldn't do the words behind counter... It's already depressing. Maybe I'll get a bunch of stuff written this weekend while Husband Man goes shooting without me...)

The Homework Game

My old roommate from back when I was single was texting me the other day. We were lamenting how we were always constantly forced to play the homework game.


You're probably wondering, What's the homework game?


The homework game is when you line up all the homework that you have to get done, and then you pick and choose which ones are going to get done for the next day.


But why are you choosing which ones to do? Can't you just do them all?


I could.... and then I'd fail all of the assignments because I didn't do them properly or completely. Fail all, or fail one or two? There's too many to do them all.


Why don't you have enough time to do them all? Are you just bad at time management?


Probably, yeah. But I'm not one of those people who can just sit down and do homework without a break for hours on end. It's so monotonous, and it's not always fun to do. The Husband Man tries to help me get through it by encouraging me to get things done, promising to play card games between assignments, getting me ice cream or water so I don't break the times when I do feel productive, and that's really really nice. My husband loves me!


You're a music major though, and you chose to be a BA so you didn't have to practice all the time. Why are you complaining about having so much homework?

I'm in a few classes that are very time-consuming. I'm in a Creative Writing course, which involves a lot of reading and writing (gasp!); a Music Literature class, which is pretty much a music history course, and it's fantastic and all but I have to read a chapter a day and take notes so I remember it, listen to the listening examples and take notes on those, and now I have to write a paper on a subject from our book except more in-depth. I also have a Conducting class, where I have to practice conducting and was just assigned a transposition assignment; a Music Theory class, which involves daily assignmnents and analysis and sight singing; and an LDS Hymns and Doctrine class, in which I have to give two presentations between today and the end of the semester, plus know everything that everyone else presented. Plus organ lessons and practicing five hours a week. And I really should be practicing the trumpet at least a little.


I know there are people out there who have a lot more than I do. I know there are people out there who are willing to stay up a lot later than I will to get everything done. If I want to stay awake in class and be somewhat nice to people, I have to get a decent amount of sleep. End of story. (Eating somewhat decent meals helps too.) I think that's the big difference between married students and single students- married students tend to go to bed earlier (and sometimes get up earlier too) while I always hear stories from single students who stayed up until three thirty in the morning to get their homework done and only got four hours of sleep.


I can't do that. I'd rather play the homework game... As long as you play it right, you can still get decently good grades. I think I'm still getting mostly A's and B's, and I'm trying to get all my reading done for Creative Writing so I get that grade back up again. I wish I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, hang on to the idea that someday there will be graduation... and then I get another assignment from another teacher. It's never ending.


PS- It still hasn't snowed. It has been getting colder and colder though. And I think plant might finally be succumbing to it. I haven't taken a good look though.


NaNoWriMo word count: 0 words. I'm 1667 words behind, and haven't given up yet!

Halloween

(Dan nom-ing a loaf of banana bread from a guy whose computer he fixed.) 

We aren't doing anything spectacular for Halloween, nothing except sitting at home doing homework and hoping trick-or-treater's come by. We aren't dressing up, and we missed the ward Halloween party last Wednesday (because of homework).

We did, however, carve some pumpkins we got at Albertsons.

 Mine is the one in the front! Dan's is the one with all the scars. That's why he picked it.
(I got excited to carve it, as you can see the from the knife sticking up out of mine in the last two photos.)

I learned that you should not wear your Sunday clothes to carve pumpkins.

Once Dan got most of his pumpkin scooped out he grabbed a paring knife and got to work. I didn't know what to do with mine at first. Last year I when I carved my very first pumpkin all by myself I was all cool and carved a kitty on a fence with the moon in the background. This year I decided I didn't need to get all artsy so I went for a scary face.

 Husband-Man's is on the left (he added more scars) and mine is on the right. I'm rather proud.

Happy Halloween!


BONUS! We got one whole trick-or-treater this year! Woohoo!! It was this little girl dressed up in a red skirt, coat, and devil horns, carried by her mom. Mom was the one to do the whole routine- ring the doorbell, say "trick or treat!" and pick a candy. The little girl looked like she was so over it, but mom looked rather happy as she walked away.