Did I Mention I'm Going on a Mission?

I am.

I submitted my papers this week!

Everyone who reads this blog already knows I'm going on a mission, but I felt like I had to announce it.

I'm really, really excited, and also a bit nervous. This is way out of my comfort zone, and I am aware that it is going to be a really difficult experience.

But I know it's what I'm supposed to do, and that God and my Savior will help me through it all, and that I will find great joy in what I'm doing.

hahaha

My friends and I have been watching this video constantly. It's so funny!



"Grandpa's gonna be so hoppy when he wakes up." Haha gets me everytime!

"What's a Wedding Coordinator?"

It's what I want to be!
I love to help plan weddings! I helped my cousin Amanda choose her colors, I made her centerpieces, and I helped pick out the bridesmaid dresses. I am not visually artistic, so I can't ever be a wedding decorator, but I am good at making sure everything is done and ready, so I was thinking I'd love to be a wedding coordinator. Recently, I sort of got my chance. My cousin Garrett married a lovely girl in the Apia Samoa Temple. But he asked me to help his sister plan a reception for him in Utah. The only problem was, his sister lives in Oregon, so it was more me and my mom planning it with us asking her opinion. Here was the catch: we had $1200 to use. How does one do a reception with that amount of money and NOT make it look tacky? It was a challenge, and we did the best we could. Here is what we came up with:



We tried to have a bit of a Samoan theme by using bright colors and tropical flowers. Of course, real tropical flowers in Utah would have been very expensive, but we found these fake orange hibiscus and birds of paradise at Joann's for a dollar a stem.

The real flowers were done at Hepworth's floral. But they did not dye the roses the bright orange color they promised. Instead it was pale and it was pretty upsetting because we emphasized the word "bright" like million times.

All of these photos were taken by my friend Amanda Rumsey. She was the photographer for the night.Here is her blog, but her Facebook page shows more of her work.




It was tough work budgeting this reception out, but for what we had to work with I think we did pretty well.
Now someone let me plan their wedding who had a bigger budget. Haha

Music History

I remember when I started taking my music history classes last fall, everyone said that they would be really difficult. This has not been the case for me- I've been really blessed! Not only do I understand what is being said, I am interested in it! I recently found out that the U of U has a Masters in Music History....I may look into that someday! My recent music history class grade gives me the impression that I would be able to handle it:

Music 3206: Baroque and Classical Music History

Attendace: 10/10
Total Quiz Points (9 Quizzes): 91/90
Paper 1: 100/100
Paper 2: 95/100
Exam 1: 100/100
Exam 2: 98/100
Exam 3: 100/100
Final Grade: A

I am not bragging; I'm just so happy! In a lot of music classes(mainly piano and sight-singing), I don't have the natural ability that my classmates have. I have found my niche!

Royal Thoughts

With all of the talk of the Royal Family and Prince William and Kate's wedding, I thought I would share my thoughts on a few things.

Obviously, I am not an expert when it comes to their family, but as a little American girl, I absolutely loved princess Diana. My mom had this book full of pictures and facts about her, and my sister and I would pour over the book for hours. It showed pictures of her wedding, and of her in all of her beautiful ball gowns. It also showed a ton of pictures of her and her charity work. I thought she was the most amazing woman in the world.

Since that time, of course, I have learned a lot more about her.

I'm weird, and something I love to do is watch documentaries about her life (there are like a gazillion of them), and there are a million different opinions about everything when it comes to her life. It fascinates me.

I think the media was so cruel to her. I also think that she was not the perfect, tortured, innocent victim that so many people think. Charles had no right to marry her when he was in love with someone else, but of course he was trying to fulfill his duty as price. Diana definitely had her faults too. But I still think she was a wonderful mother, and, obviously, a caring princess.

Of course I wasn't around when Diana and Prince Charles got married

But I remember hearing about their divorce.

The main thing I remember, however, was her charity work.



I remember that one night, when I was seven and was in laying bed, I heard my mom watching the news and I went in to watch it with her. She told me Princess Diana had been in a car crash. As I looked at the pictures of the car, I was so sad. Then they announced that she was dead. I was really upset.

Bri and I dressed in black to attend the funeral (in our family room). We cried and mourned.


I remember how sad her sons looked and I think I prayed for them.


And speaking of her sons...


All of my life people have freaked out about how beautiful Prince William is...

While I think Prince Harry is WAY more attractive

I love red hair, that's probably why.




Yep, he's definitely the cutest one!
Honestly, I've always kinda been in love with him.

Where Have I Been?

First of all, I've been in rehearsals for "Die Fledermaus" every second of my life. When we weren't in rehearsal, we were practicing with the orchestra or trying on costumes or painting set or learning how to do our hair and make-up. I went about three weeks only getting five hours or less of sleep each night. I thought I was going to go insane. On the bright side, we had an awesome run. The audience like it a lot more than I thought they were going to (since, you know, it's an opera...). I also made some wonderful new friends. I will talk about that show more in another post.

The rest of my life has been spent helping my friends celebrate the new changes in their lives. All pictures were taken from facebook since I have no camera:

Amy's Bridal Shower:


Zach's Farewell:


These pictures make me happy:



And yesterday, I had to say goodbye to this kid:

It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, especially since we've spent most of our friendship fighting haha. Not really. Anyway, I'm gonna miss him!

It's a Sad Day When...

You see someone who you haven't seen in a long time and you find you have nothing to say to them when in the past you could talk about anything and everything for hours and days on end.