Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Dr. Who

 

This is me just messing around on my computer when I should be doing homework instead. 

It's the Little Things

Sometimes I forget about the little things in my day that make my life fun. If I always looked for the large things in my life, I wouldn't be as happy as I could be. It's the little joys in life that make each day okay. Things like what I did today, for instance. These are some of my simple things.

Doing the dishes while listening to Beethoven's 5th.

Eating Brownies

Taking Naps

Watching Movies With My Family

 

Texting My Friends

Watching the Lightning

Those are just a few of the little things I did today that made me really happy. There's one big thing in my life, though, that helps me everyday.

 

Jesus Christ. His Atonement. His Love.

Happy Sunday



Cause We're Awesome

I made this for my Music Technology class. My roommates are so fun! :)

6 Measures of Minor

I had to compose 6 measures using f# minor using ii/07 ( two half diminished 7 ) chords for piano accompaniment and solo of my major insturment. It's nothing special by any means. It's my first thing I've ever really done all by myself. I thought I'd just post it up here.

Hard, Crazy Life and Service in Rexburg

Life is crazy. I sometimes don't understand it. A lot has happened to me over the past few months or so that has really taken me for a big ride. Actually no, in the past entire year things have gone really weird. It's just how life works I suppose. It has thrown curve ball after curve ball at me and, unfortunately, I'm not the best at catching curve balls. I'm not sure that anyone is.
But even though I'm terrible at it, I'm sure that I couldn't have gone as far as things have gone without God. Sometimes I feel like simply getting out of bed and to class on time is some sort of miracle. Those are on the bad days. There have been some really good days though. I really want to start focusing on the good things that have been happening instead of the really weird or bad ones that have. It's really hard to do that though.
I'm sure that I'll be okay though. There are some great things that have happened that I'm trying to be happy about. I got a scholarship for next semester for $800. I'm really excited about that. I get to be in the Patriots and Pioneers concert. That's exciting. I'm going to see the utah symphony orchestra play this weekend. I'm going to yellowstone with my roommates on monday. There are some exciting things coming up that I really need to focus on. It will help me be positive and be happy for the people around me.
I really hope that I'll be able to help the people here in some way or another.  It's really hard to do real service while I'm going to college. I'm kinda hoping that being section leader in band and conducting sectionals and things will help me at least help people's playing ability. Not quite the way I want to help people, but it's really the only way I can think of. These people here are so wonderful that I'm not sure I can do much for them. It's really hard to help and not really feel important to these people, but I'm doing my best and I hope that I'm making and impact in at least one of these people's lives.

He Is Risen.

Happy Easter. I'm up at college, just in case you didn't know. I was asked to teach Gospel Docrine this sunday and I'm really nervous about it. But I learned a ton studying for the class. It's amazing what 6 or so hours of studying two chapters in the New Testament will do!
I know that Christ lived and died for all of us. He rose again on the third day leaving the tomb empty. I am grateful for everything He has done for me. I hope that as I teach my lesson that I will be inspired and teach what needs to be taught. I prepared as much as I could. Here goes!

Easter Message from lds.org.
http://lds.org/pages/his-sacred-name-an-easter-declaration?lang=eng

college checklist and class list

excited feeling for college? check
register for college? check
money for college? in process, almost finished.
finish scholarship? not yet. close.
pack? not yet
move in? not yet
get my books? there's a lot.. . nope not yet.
attend class? not yet
be awesome? always
get awesome grades? hopefully
decide weather or not to do color guard? its a tough choice. I'm leaning towards no at the moment, but it was so much fun.... hmm.. I'll think some more.

I'm super stoked for college and that used textbook smell mixed in with the northern "reminds me of montana" smell. Brings me right back to elementary school. I'm so stoked to get down and dirty and practice two hours a day with other piano stuff and practicing and whatnot. Homework will be a blast and a half.... if I don't fall asleep while doing it. bah!! so excited.

Here are the classes I'm taking:

• Clarinet Lessons ( so excited to see my other clarinet squeekers in master class! )
• University Band ( I LOVE the teacher! )
• Musicianship 2 (this is the one and only ultimate kick butt class in my forseen workload. wish me luck.)
• piano skills (cake!)
• music technology (I'll be okay in this one hopefully... I don't know what it intails)
• american foundations ( everyone has to take this class. It basically is to get you going to events like concerts. Since I have to go to a lot anyway, it can double count for this class! yay easy!)
• science foundations ( I always liked science. Shouldn't be too hard... however it has been 2 ish years since I've seen the word science)
• family foundations (memorizing the family: a proclamation to the world. and talk about other family-ish things. this is my religeon class for the semester. I've heard its amazing. hopefully not kick butt, but all religeon classes have a very real danger of being so.) 

There you go. 8 classes 17 credits. So excited!

Charity

Compared to most, not very many people read my blog. Maybe one or two every once in a while. And even then, it's mostly just the people looking at my "topic generator" post. Now that Rachel is gone on her mission, my dedicated reader list has gone down quite considerably. This, among many other things, makes me wonder about my life and if I'm really making a difference. How important is my life if I don't impact anyone at all? I suppose, yes, at work I help get everything done and I don't know exactly what they're going to do without me at both of my jobs, so I guess I've helped a company get their work done and an oral sugeon get all his files on a computer. ..yay. But, have I helped anyone specifically or individually? Have I made anyone happier by my just being there? And I know I probably most likely have sometime in my past, but I'm talking about this little section of life between July and April where I haven't been at school and I've been wondering exactly why I'm supposed to have spent so much time here and not at BYU-I. Perhaps I'm just rambling. But, today in relief society, it was all about charity and about how the whole purpose of eveything is to help other people and it's really important. I got to thinking, do I make an impact? Do I have charity in my heart? Let's make that a goal, eh? More charity and service and thinking of others before myself. I like that. It's a good goal. I hope I'll be able to make a difference here in twin during my break. I have less than three months to do it. ready? go!

CHRISTMAS 7 DAYS!

so... It's Christmas in a week. 7 days. That's it! oh man! I'm so excited!!! CHRISTMAS!!!! I'm excited to see family, I'm excited to not have to work christmas eve night, not to have to work the day after christmas, and everything christmasy that you can think of I'm just so excited for.
I'm also excited for the christmas program tomorrow, that I'm in charge of. I'm not going to do very well, but it'll be okay. the audience is singing a lot because I couldn't get enough musical numbers together in time. But, even though it's tough and I hate being in charge of things like this, I'm excited for the christmas awesomeness that will be the program. I hope it goes well! Wish me luck!

Applying Knowledge

I had tons of fun this weekend. So much, that my legs are still soar from all the dancing and army crawling. I'm glad I had so much fun the past three or four days. It's going to be really hard to leave in April... again. grr. I hate this. I don't like sticking around and making friends so easily and having such a great social life with people I hardly know. At BYUI, I never really had that opprotunity to be friends with good people. I never saw where the good people were to hang out with. Here, it was so easy to make friends. There it was hard. I think I've learned a lot more than I thought I would by staying here. I've learned how to make friends again. I hope that when I do go back to byui that I'll be able to apply what I've learned here, there. I think I'll be able to be happier and have a better social life. That would be fun.

Outlaw Poster

OUTLAW:

Wanted: Shady man on random street corner.

Crime: Handing out numbers to people I hardly know.

Also may be selling stolen Rolexes and/or sundials.

Reward: $12 in dimes. 

Our top artists (i.e. a google search of "Shady Guy") 

 have come up with this face:

If you see him. Please tell him to cut it out.

Also, if you are one to be taking numbers from such a man,

please just do the respectful thing and ask for my number instead.

Yes, I may just say no. But I like to know the people who have

my contact information won't be weird, creepy people. The End.

April's a long way away.

Well, it's been over a week since my last post, which doesn't really count as a post I guess since it was a shout-out to basically a whole country. Yeah, it was a little weird. Anywho, nothing interesting has happened. Well, okay. There was thanksgiving, and blackfriday, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and work, and that's about it. I mean, nothing else really goes on in my life other than working. It's a sad life I know, but at least I have jobs that I can work at for money to go back to school. That'll be nice. But that's all the way in April. I've got a looooong way to go. ..
I really want to go back now. It feels weird to not be in school. Plus being in school is easier. It keeps my brain occupied. This whole no school thing is making my brain feel like it still needs to think about things but it's frustrated because it can't think of anything to think about. I don't know if that made any sence but it kinda did to me.
I've also got lots of missionary farewells coming up shortly. That's not going to be so fun. Serving missions are great and all, but I'm afraid that the farwells are going to suck lots more than they already do because I haven't had friends around in a little while. So I'm afraid it will feel like a smack in the face when all that goes down.
"Hey, sorry, Amanda, But I have to make you friendless for a few months, and just in case you forget, we'll throw going away parties for them all one at a time later" Gee, thanks. I appreciate it.
Really though, it's great that I have so many good friends who are deciding to go on missions. Working at Target I get to mingle with lots of people who don't really live thier lives like they should who make me sad and it's nice to see the friends that I have who are out there doing what's right the best that they can.
And since I am staying home in the winter semester, I might just do the Dilettants (sp?) play staring in January. That will be loads of fun! I haven't acted for years. Not since Pirates of Penzance. I miss it terribly. I hope so much that I'll be able to do this play. It'd mean a lot to me.
I'm kinda glad I'm waiting also to miss the Rexburg winter. If Twin has this much snow I can only imagine how much Rexburg has. When I go back up there it'll be spring again and hopefully it wont be so cold! So there are a couple things to be happy about until April I suppose :)

To My Readers From The Netherlands:

In my stats, it says that this week, there were 31 page views from the Netherlands ranking the first country (even above the US) to view my blog this week. Total, there are 89 views from there in All Time. Coming slightly behind the United States. So this is a shout out to my friends from the Netherlands! GO YOU! Now, most people that get on my blog look at my "Topic Generator" post that I wrote a long time ago, so that's probably where these numbers are coming from. But if there is the slightest, tiniest chance that you happen to be a Netherlander reading this post, you should comment! That'd be really, really, really, super cool! :) 

Fun, Weekends, and Friends

I'd like to write this little post today about friends and friendships. I've lost lots of friends with my moves and lifestyle changes that come with age. Many reasons. Each time I loose a friend, I miss them. I miss a lot of people right now. Loosing friends is something that I truely hate. It's another change thing. and I just can't deal with change like a rational human being. It frightens me like no other. Whenever I think of friends that I've lost or just don't keep in touch with so much, I still feel a little sick to my stomache. It's something that I've just always had a problem with.
Though, I can cope and get through these periods of change. But I could never get through it if it wasn't for Heavenly Father. He really cares. Even about the small things.
This weekend, I was supposed to go to Rexburg. I really really really really really reallly REALLY wanted to go so that I could spend some time with my old roommates and just have a little bit of fun before the scary holiday season started. It ended up that I couldn't go and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to have any fun and it would just be holiday time and I would just be stressed with nothing fun to look back on. It's not that big of a deal, even to me, it wasn't that big of a deal. I knew that I had to work, I was just slightly bummed. But, Heavenly Father blessed me with a way to make the weekend much better. All it took was a couple of new friends. Yes! I'm making new friends. Also something I stuggle with a bit. But not as much as change.
I learned a lot of things while I stayed home from college this semester. I think I learned how to better make friends easier. It's always been something that I struggle with. But I hope that when I go back to BYUI, I'll be able to apply these things that I've learned because this has been a blast! I'm so happy for this weekend that I just had. It was so much fun!

To Reach The Unreachable Star

Today's theme was changing my life around for the Savior. In testimony meeting the testimonies all seemed to talk about how they gave more time to the Savior and their life changed for the better. In Relief Society we talked about how we do all these things like go to school and work and whatnot and we leave the left over time for the Savior sometimes.. it should be the other way around. Devote time to the Savior first and He will help you through the things that need to get done. Then there was a CES fireside with M. Russel Ballard. That seemed to talk about changing your life and living for the Savior and living the principles of the Gospel and doing something about it. Then I played The Impossible Dream on the piano and decided that I am going on a quest. Perhaps not quite like Don Quioxte or however you spell his name and go chasing windmills and such weirdnesses. But I'll fight for the right, without question or pause. I'll strive with my last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star.

My Halloweekend

It was a pretty fun little weekend I think. I didn't have to work at all which was super duper awesome. I love Target! It's a great place to work. Anyway, friday night I went to a party that one of the most awesomest coworkers was throwing. His name is Kent. Mrs. Kent and he are the best people ever! I love working with Kent. He's so tall! He can clean the shelves like no other Target team member has! He and I make work so much fun! His party was amazing too. I had lots of fun.
It's actually really odd that I had fun there. There were lots of people that I didn't know, but I talked to a lot of them. Normally it's hard for me to be at a party where I only know a couple of people, and even then not very well. But it was really easy for me to be there this time. I was suprised at myself. I was invited to another party on Saturday, but I was too worn out from being outgoing on friday. Plus I had a midterm test due. Which I rocked at, by the way. I totally got a B. Not too bad for a test with big words that I don't remember at all.
Sunday was pretty good. The piano playing on my part went well. (I'm the ward piano gal) I get really nervous when everyone sings along to my playing. I can play the prelude and postlude no problem, but the hymns make me nervous when people are singing too. Since it was combined Relief Society and Priesthood today, Brother McMurtury gave a super awesome lesson that was excited about. It was on standing alone with self esteem. Very cool.
okay vack to halloween. My costume was pretty amazing. Maybe I'll post a picture or two of it later when the pictures get onto our server.

Individualistics

I've met a few people in my life that have a philosophy that I just don't understand. Maybe you can shed some light on it? These people, I like to call, individualistics. Kinda like individuals and lunatics combined. ;) These people are ones that go against the norm ust for the sake of going against it.
One example that might help explain these types of people:
Say a girl reads Twilight because she just saw it on a shelf. She really starts to enjoy it, but then after a while she notices that everyone else absolutely adores the book. Since this girl in our scenario longs to be an individual, she no longer likes the book... just because others do.
These people I've noticed, they try so hard to be someone different than everyone else. They try and say, "well, I don't really care what other people think." But if that were true, why do you base your opinion on the opinions of others? Isn't that what you are trying to avoid doing?
Wouldn't the people who truely don't care what others think might be okay with overlapping with the popular opinion?

Love Me Tomorrow

I was listening to this song Love Me Tomorrow by Chicago while I was working at Dr. Plant's office. Luckily the stack of boxes and paper on my desk was high enough that any passers by wouldn't see my "dancing". I probably would've embarassed myself a little bit. I like to "dance" to music when I listen to it. In this blog post, the word "dancing" refers to the rythmic motions of one who is sitting, perhaps a dance one would do whilst driving.
I've been caught on more than one occasion "dancing". It really is embarrassing, but I love it too much to stop. And I know full well every time I get caught that once my catcher has left the room, my "dancing" will resume.
I'm not quite sure why I get so embarrased by it. It's not that my moves are silly, which they are. It's not that my music is outdated, which it is. It's not that I'm embarrased by what I do because I'm not embarrased to talk about it here. I think it's just the principal of the whole getting caught thing. I don't know.
So, if any of you catch me dancing in my kitchen, you are welcome to join me! It'd be fun! And if you want, I'd even let you turn the music to something a little more modern if you have to! Let's jam!

Nothing too terribly special

I just spent the whole day sleeping so I can't go to sleep. Instead, I watched Julie and Julia. Julie bloggs a lot about her trip through Julia Child's cookbook, which reminded me about my blog, so I decided to write in it. Which might tell you how bored I really am!
Unlike Julie, I'm not going through any big sort of weird cooking project of any sort, I'm not setting a hard deadline on anything that's going to take me a certain amount of time.
The only thing I can think of to blog about is the regular ''average joe'' stuff that comes with my little life I live. It doesn't make for an exciting blog, but at least it's true! and it's the only thing I know about well enough to write about.

I try to live life the best that I can. I'm a people pleaser which plays into my complete conformist tendancies. I try to be happy no matter what's going on or where I am.  Sometimes I have problems with that one.

I'm just a girl. I live in Twin Falls, Idaho. And that's it.

  

The Music Man

The Music Man is my favorite musical. It's actually President Monson's favorite musical too! I remember that because he said it at the youth cultural celebration two years ago. Can you believe it's been two years since the temple went up? goodness!
Anyway, I watched The Music Man today and loved it. I love all of the songs, I love the characters... I just love it. :) It made me very happy watching it again. I've always wanted to be in The Music Man on stage. I think I would've loved to be in that one. But I heard that someone did it in Twin just this last spring. So I doubt anyone around here will want to do it soon. I've always loved being in plays. I don't think I've been in one for two or three years. I really want to be in one this winter. I don't know what dilletantes is going to do, but whatever it is, I'm going to be a part of it. I've very much missed being in plays. I think the last play I did was Pirates of Penzance with JuMP. That is an awesome play. I'm serious. It's great. I got a CD of the broadway people doing Pirates of Penzance. It's my absolute favorite CD that I own. No joke. My favorite. Hands down.
Well, don't you all go thinking that I'm actually going to start writing in this thing called blog dilligently again or anything. Today I just felt like talking about the Music Man, but everyone I talk to (besides Tana) doesn't really care too much about musicals. So I thought I'd put it on my blog as a sort-of observated conversation with myself. Because I care about musicals. :)