The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Music...

This used to be my favorite time of year when I was younger. I participated in the Rotary Carol Festival every year starting when I was 5 years old. I remember carefully choosing the songs I wanted to learn, whether it was singing, piano, or flute (and I even did a speech number or two in my days)! I loved when the books would come out that showed who had all entered and when everyone would be performing. I would scan every page over and over again till I basically had the whole thing memorized and had stars beside certain people that I wanted to watch. My mom was always so good to me because I would practically take the whole 2 weeks off of school!

Sometimes it scares me when I think about Kaden. He is turning out to be a little mini-me! I love that kid though! He played the piano and sang a vocal solo in the festival this year and did amazing! I was so proud of him! He got asked to sing his song at the Grand Concert this year and received an award for both piano and vocal.

These Olsen twins sang this song at the Grand Concert as well, and they were fantabulous! For the first time, I wanted little boys of my own so that I could teach them to sing in harmony just like this. Yes, the video is sideways but you can't see anything anyways and it is the sound that is coming out of their beautiful mouths that matters!

The festival seems to be getting smaller and smaller each year, which makes me kinda sad. It caused me to think a lot about the way music has influenced my life and I really do wish I was doing more with it.

I grew a love for music at an early age! I loved loved loved to sing!! (I still love to though!)

I found this picture that I drew in grade 6 or so. Ya, definitely not an artist in the slightest!! I must have been obsessed with voluptuous lips at the time....

(Well that, and the dress is a little provocative too...)

And I even did my fair share of piano too. Everyone ALWAYS says, "I wish I would have practiced more when I was younger." Sadly I am no exception to that, but it is something I am still working on!

I was so blessed to grow up always surrounded by good music. Some of my earliest memories are waking up to the sound of my Mom's flute students warming up with a scale. I don't remember feeling so grateful at the time though!! But my mom is amazing!

Her favorite thing is having the whole family gathered together around the piano and singing together. I feel the same way!

This is one of my favorite memories of my Grandpa Cahoon! Well, this and when he would always take his teeth out and talk with his gums. Oh, and always play this game about dishes on a bush or something to that effect! Sadly, the accordion is a dying art!

I was pretty lucky to grow up in Cardston! There is such great talent, and so many opportunities to take part in. I was pretty blessed to do choir under the direction of Linda Burwell and Leslie Dittmann! Words can't even express how much I learned from those 2 great ladies!

I loved choir! These were my Junior Choir pals! Monica Prince (Bell) and Candace Olsen (Kipp).

And I was pretty dang lucky to have Katelyn with me through it all! Here is us in Edmonton at Honor Choir when we were little.

As you can tell, I went searching through some of my mom's old photos. It is so easy to see what an influence music has had in my life. That was who I was; it was a part of my identity!

I will never live this one down! I got asked to sing 'A Part of Your World' from The Little Mermaid at a Community event. I got there to do a quick dress rehearsal and realized that they had a costume for me to wear! Yup! A costume for the Little Mermaid!! I was slightly mortified. Little did I know that several of my guy friends were also in the concert as the 7 dwarves. To this very day they still call me 'cockle-shells'!!

But since my 'cockle-shell' days, I have expanded my talents to other musical areas as well. I am quite the accomplished iPhone player. Oh yes, it is a real musical instrument! Here we are performing a trio at the Family Christmas Party.

I am so grateful for the joy that music has brought into my life! It played such an integral role into helping me become the person I am today.

An Atheist can't find God for the same reason that a Thief can't find a Policeman.

I really went out on a limb this semester when my friend told me to take a Philosophy class. I don't know if I will ever really listen to him again...at least when it comes to class options. But it has really been a struggle for me. Our second unit has been all about arguments for and against the existence of God, and class has been a little one-sided. I thought I could handle all of the comments people would make, but it really started to weigh me down. One of the first days, my professor had just finished presenting an argument for the existence of God and asked how many of us out there believed that this could be true. I raised my hand, and because I always sit towards the front of the class, I didn't look around to see how many other people believed the same way I did. The professor said, "Well, we've got one person in here that believes in God. This should be interesting." I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I felt like I was a story in a New Era article. But every single class I felt like my soul was being attacked and it began to be quite overwhelming.

Last Tuesday was our last day in this unit. As I sat in class, I felt so good for the first time.

After everything was said and done, I know that this was a good experience for me. I know that my trials will make me stronger. I know that God lives and that He loves me.

The Plan of Salvation is a marvelous thing and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have.

Grow Me A Little Backbone...

So School has been super busy this semester. I knew that this semester was going to be a lot more intense than the last, so I told myself I would be firm in setting up how much tutoring I was going to do. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and set up my schedule. I was going to tutor 2 days a week and only between certain times. The semester began, and that concept flew out the window so fast my head is STILL spinning.

I haven't been really good at updating my calender on my computer, so sadly this is still lacking several appointments.

I told myself 3 weeks ago that I just couldn't take on anymore students. But then last Thursday, I said "yes" to three more. Then another one the following Monday.

I just can't say No! And it has gotten me into trouble once again....! But here comes the real kicker! Yesterday, one of my old professors contacted me and inquired about some of the classes that I was tutoring. She asked if I would be willing to tutor 2 individuals that were taking some advanced accounting courses through correspondence with Athabasca. How does she know these 2 individuals, you may be wondering? (Well you're probably not-but I will say anyways). They are colleagues of hers. Yes, colleagues. She asked if I would be willing to tutor 2 other professors at the College! Holy stress to the max! So I am going to have to revamp my schedule once again and figure out what in the world I am going to do.