Failing miserably at this...

I can't ever seem to catch up with the blogging.  Plus it takes too much time.  So I'm bagging the whole, "new thing every day" and just updating my blog probably once a week.  Apparently I don't have time to blog with my busy engineers schedule.  So sorry all you faithful blog readers (my family) you'll just have to cope with my once a week blog entries.  No need for crying.  I'll be back soon...

I do have to say a few words about this weekend though.  After a long hard week full of homework and studying, I decided to take the entire saturday off and devote it to Snowboarding!!!  Last semester I bought a season pass to Beaver Mountain, and I finally got to use it on Saturday!  I literally boarded for 11 hours straight!  From 9am to 9pm, with about an hour for dinner.  It was AMAZING!!  I think Beaver is my new favorite resort.  There was so much powder!!  I went with Emily and some people in her ward.  They are all really good and I was surprised that I was able to keep up with them.  

Toward the end of the day, I got a little braver.   I went off jumps and wove in and out of the trees.  And those of you who know me, i've never been able to do that as well as I did on Saturday.  It was the best feeling in the word!  Four o'clock hit and everyone except me went home because OUR WARD RENTED OUT THE ENTIRE PLACE FOR NIGHT SKIING!!!!  I had never gone before and it was a blast!  It's really different snowboarding at night.  It's such a rush of adrenaline!  I fell many many times and am still sore two days later.  But I wouldn't have traded it for anything else!  Saturday was so incredibly fun!!

#123 12/18/08 Recitals and more recitals!!

Today was an awesome day!  First off, Nate came and visited me and met my family.  His grandma lives in Provo and he didn't have to be with his family till later, so he came up to South Jordan and said hello.  I felt bad for him because I had to run errands for my mom.  I first took him to Anna's piano recital at her teacher's house.  That was kind of weird.  We didn't stay long because we had to run to the middle school to watch Madelyn's violin concert.  It wasn't just her orchestra, but the 7th, 8th and 9th grade orchestras as well.  It wasn't the most fun I've had in all my life, but it still was fun!  She even played the christmas prelude music for everyone.  After that was over, we dropped the girls off and went to target to buy green raquetballs.  Seems like an easy task right?  Wrong!  I had been looking everywhere for the green ones because those are the ones my dad played with.  I bought them for my dad for Christmas.  It was really nice of Nate to drive up from Provo to see me.  oh yeah.  I also bought my first Arby's gift card for his Christmas present!

#121 12/16/08 The Lavender House

My mom loves Santa figurines.  She buys a new one every year.  She also loves to decorate our house with many lovely things.  While we were running errands, we stopped to look in this new store, The Lavender House.  This place has mom's written all over it.  Very cute and it has whatever you need for your house decorating desires.  Being that time of the year, this little shop had some Christmas decor out and of course, lots of Santas.  My mom of course wanted one of them, so I bought a Santa statue at The Lavender House for my mom.  She loves it, and even made a place for it to fit with the other 40 santas she has.  

Note:  The santa pictured looks nothing like the one I bought her...

#120 12/15/08 Snowboarding for 17 bucks!!

Earlier in the semester, I took Nate to see the Warren Miller Film, "Children of Winter".  17 dollars per person.  But we got a free Canyon's lift ticket to use this week.  Since Nate lives in Vernal and has no idea how to snowboard, I decided to take my dad with my extra ticket.  So this morning, we went skiing/snowboarding at Canyons for 17 bucks each!   Well worth the money, even though there were only 5 runs open at the time, and it was freezing cold.  So it's a good thing it was only 17 instead of the regular 50 or something like that!  

#119 12/14/08 Welcome Home Sister!

A lot of you know that my sister is on a mission.  Well right now, she actually is in a trio, so she has 2 companions.  One of which,  Sister Andersen,  came home a couple days ago. So today my family went to my sister's companion's homecoming in Daybreak.  It was so crazy to meet someone who met my sister in England!  She is a super cute girl and I could tell her and Megan got along really well.   

#118 12/13/08 John Schmidt has a sense of humor!!

It's not too hard to guess what my new thing today was.  My mom, my little sisters and I all went to the John Schmidt Christmas Concert.  When my mom told me she got tickets to it, I didn't think it would be fun.  I actually thought I would fall asleep in it.  But boy was I wrong.  The music group Noteworthy opened the show.  This group consists of 9 AMAZING SINGERS from BYU, all girls.  They have one girl that did beat boxing, one soloist, and the others just harmonize and make the song their own.  Seriously, these girls have outstanding talent!!  Go here to see them performing:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tkNZpO6QQ4 Or check out their website noteworthyladies.com

After Noteworthy, John started it off by playing a song with two hip hop dancers intrigue me with their talent.  It was probably the coolest/weirdest thing I've ever seen!  After that number, I was hooked.  John was/is a really down to earth guy, and a comedian too.  During transition from one song to the next, he would either tell a joke or a story that made everyone laugh.  He's such a goof ball, but also a brilliant musician.  Right before intermission, he called his sons out on stage and they all threw out little  souvenir balls like they do at a basketball game.  He also had his dad come out and do a little stand up comedy for us.  It was such an excellent show.  I suggested to my mom that we make it a Christmas tradition.  So next year at this time, you'll know where I'll be: JOHN SCHMIDT CHRISTMAS CONCERT!!

#117 12/12/08 I Heard the Bells on Christmas day... well sort of...

Today was the start of my Christmas break, and to celebrate, my mom took us to The Bell Choir Concert at the Conference Center.  The music at the concert was amazing!  I didn't really like the guest singer, Michael ?.  But they sang one of the songs that Ms. Hatch taught us in High School.  It took me right back to those good ol'days practicing this song.  I even remembered what bell I had to ring, and don't you worry, I heard it at the concert.  There were so many people there!  Even the incredible President Monson was entertained.  It still amazes me that when he entered the room, all 20,000 people who were talking instantly stopped.  That alone always builds my testimony.  I'm glad I'm home for Christmas and not still in Logan.  There's supposed to be a huge storm tomorrow, and I don't think I would have been able to drive home tomorrow.

#116 12/08-11/08 finals blow...

I survived finals week.  4 finals, 5 days, 2 and a half spent on only studying.  My brain is fried but I think I did ok on them.  I aced my Statics one, and know I passed my physics one, but for the others, we can only pray and wait...

#115 12/07/08 Christmas Program

I sang in our Ward Christmas Program today.  Never done that before.  We sounded like an angelic choir...ish.  The good news is that the Spirit didn't leave when we started singing.  What a relief!

#114 12/05/08 "Trackting in a Winter Wonderland..."

With the Spirit of Christmas in mind, My roommates and I went to the Institute Choirside at Skyview High School.  It was cute and reminded me of how much I love choir.  These singers were really amazing!  It included the Sky View High School Madrigals (you could tell which ones they were), the Institute Choir, The Latter Day Voices ( the advanced institute choir), and The Utah State University Choral choir.  The Choral choir was my favorite!  They were amazing!  They never went flat and made the performance fun to watch!  

But my favorite performance by far was performed by two members of the Latter Day Voices called "Trackting in a Winter Wonderland" sung to the melody of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland"  The lyrics talked about a missionary trackting in a winter wonderland and having all sorts of missionary experiences (getting dear johned, etc...) and then coming home and comforting a girl in the airport that was sending her missionary off.  (While HE's.... trackting in a winter wonderland)

Overall, what a great show!

#113 12/04/08 "We are the Champions"

Today was the Championship game vs WTF in indoor intramural soccer.  I knew this game would be a close one.  Actually to be honest, I thought we were going to lose, because we played them last time and they creamed us.  We started out the game with one more player than them.  They only had 4 players instead of 5.  By halftime, the score was 5 to 1 or 2.  We thought we had the game in the bag, but all of the sudden, we got tired and they started scoring.   Before we knew it, the game was tied!  I played the goalie and made some pretty awesome blocks.  They were all really good shooters.  

So there we were, game tied and over.  We went into a shootout to determine who the winner would be.  I was the goalie for our team.  Here's how it went down:

We shot first: made it!

they shot: went wide

We shot: Made it!

They shot: hit the post

We shot: Made it

They shot: I blocked it!  It was the best feeling in the world!

It felt so good to be dubbed Intramural Soccer CHAMPIONS!!!  It felt like the time in High School when we were State Champs but better because I actually played in this game!  

We even got a T-shirt that says "Intramural Champions"  

One of the best days of my life!

#112 12/03/08 What's that fire truck doing by the library?

When I get done with class, I have to pass the library to walk home.  It was finals week so I had expected people to be at the library, but I didn't expect there to be a line 100 people long to actually go INTO the library.  Then I realized that it wasn't a line.  There was a fire truck in front of the library.  There must have been a false alarm.  The funniest part was when if was ok to go back in, half of the people went home instead of doing more homework.