?

Why do we allow ourselves to continue to love people who completely destroy us?  This is a question I will ask God when I'm dead and gone. . .  Just hearing one song takes me all the way back there, and  I don't even know why I allow myself to do that.

Feeling bet-tah

I'm feeling so much better.   I wish my drain was being pulled today and not tomorrow.  Its super annoying.  I don't really feel like I can really go anywhere cause of the studied thing.   At least it is getting pulled tomorrow! Hoping I'll feel all normal again (well mostly normal anyway) after this drain comes out tomorrow.  Its annoying.

So being stuck on the couch resting, clearly Im watching a lot of tv.  The walmart commercial that has the degree deodorant ad with the tall woman and short man is about the most annoying commercial ever.  They show it like a thousand times an hour.  Dumb!!!

So this morning I was feeling way better.  I took under the task of peeling a cubing a butternut squash. Well...and hour later!  Those things aren't that easy to peel.  It might help if I had a veggie peeler.  Mom and I decided to make this crockpot chili for dinner tonight that was in the September Oxygen magazine.  The chili calls for 1 cubed butter but squash (4 cups), 1 onion, two 28 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes, 1 can of black beans,  4 cloves garlic, 1 pound cubed top round beef, and lots of seasonings (cumin, oregano, bay leaf, cayenne, etc).    I'm hoping it will be super good.  It has to cook in the crock pot for 8 hours.  Here's hoping it is yummy!!!  

I can't wait to get in the practice room and get some work done on my trombone.

I can NOT believe it is already October 10. This year is FLYING.   What in the world am I going to do in a few months when I'm not in school anymore.  Dang.

2 days later

Well its over.   The surgery wasn't too bad.  I'm really impressed with the University hospital.  We barely sat in the waiting room at all.  Clearly I was totally knocked out during the surgery, but when I woke up I couldn't stop shaking.  They had to give me a separate shot to get me to stop shaking.  That was weird.  We left the hospital about 6 hours after we got there.  Super crazy.   I'm pretty just stuck chillin for a few days.  Yesterday I laid on the couch all day, then some folks came over and we watched Star Wars.  Today I walked around a little bit. Might have over done it, but it's all good. Back to the couch again... We watched Bridesmaids today.  I saw that when it was in the theaters but I wanted to watch it again.  I'm pretty bored and pretty out of it...  

Snip Snip

Surgery today.  Not allowed to eat after midnight last night.  I feel like I'm doing alright with that.  I may or may not have over indulged after 5pm last night.  I picked my mom up from the airport and we went to Red Rocks to eat.  I had a warm goat cheese salad and southwestern tomato soup.  Here is the description not the salad: Goat cheese baked in our wood-fired oven, served with sliced tomatoes, pears and organic spring mix with rosemary pesto oil    


Yum! Right?

I had planned to go to Village Inn at like 11:15 to eat again before I couldn't eat today, but I'm old (haha) and was exhausted by 10pm.  Made a turkey sandwich and chips and salsa instead at home.

I'm hoping the recovery time for this thing doesn't take too long.  We'll see.   EEK!    

Life is just a journey, drop your worries. You are gonna turn out fine.

Where do I even begin?

Life has been a whirlwind since school started.

I finally got a bed! Amazing.  My stress level dropped about 50 notches after a few nights of finally getting off of the floor.  There was a week there I honestly thought I was going to pull my hair out.  It's crazy how much a good night's sleep can really change how you feel.

Life is good.  I don't know what to say other than that! I have some amazing friends.  I have an incredible job.  School is fantastic.  I have a church that I love and is wonderful.  The opportunities are endless.

Can I just talk about how much I love Salt Lake City?  Utah has become the love of my life.  I really need to spend more time up on the mountain.  I think it is so funny how anti-cold/snow I was before I learned how to ski.  That boy who took me to Snowbird the first time didn't know the monster he was creating! = )
I was on that mountain about 5 times a week last April and May, but for some reason I could't bring myself to go up there during the summer.  I was pretty down this summer.  No need to lie about it, but things are so looking up now.  But so besides all that, I've been up the fabulous LCC a few times lately.  My dear friend Melissa and I went to Oktoberfest at Snowbird a few weekends ago.  There is just something special about being up there.  I went  again with our mutual friend Natalie on Sunday.  Let's just say that trip was very successful. ; )  Bup Bup!  My friend Natalie cracks me up.  She and her friend Joey were definitely key in helping me make a new friend... Well so being up at LCC again made me want to go up even more. Yesterday I got in my little bug and drove up to Alta.  It took me a while to get up there in my little four cylinder VW but I eventually made it.

I had been dying to hike Cercret Lake again, and so hike I did.


Cecret Lake is the first trail I hiked in Utah last year.  My friend Robin took me and our friend Owen up there.  Last year when we got to the lake we just sat there for a long time.  I don't know how to describe what it feels like other than just to say it is truly amazing.  God created some beautiful places on this earth.

When I made it to the lake, I sat there for a while just to enjoy the beauty.

It would have been nice to have had someone to hike with yesterday, but I've never been one to not do something just because I have to do it alone.  Why wouldn't anyone want to experience beauty like this?

Being up there makes me feel so much better about life.  Not that I was feeling badly about life this past week, but being up there just feels rejuvenating and I love it.

I had to stop here and take another picture because Robin, Owen, and I stopped here for pictures a little over a year ago.

I can't believe that in a few weeks all of this will be covered with snow again! I am so looking forward to that! Crazy, huh?  Until then I am enjoying every moment of being in the sun shine that I possibly can!

I went to yoga at Centered City tonight with Melissa and Natalie.  It just felt so good.  When I got done I was so relaxed.  I really want to start doing more yoga.  After I recover from the surgery I'm having in 8 days it will definitely be added to the work out regime again.

Oh, and by the way, I'm having surgery a week from Thursday.  I'm not too sure how I feel about it.  Hopefully it won't be a terrible experience.  I will be out for the count for a hot minute.  Momma is flying up to help take care of me.  We'll see how all that goes...  I need to do some more hiking before next week!

Who wants to go???? = )

The Legacy of You

So I’m taking a 19^th Century Music Research Seminar this semester.   So clearly France had some crazy cracked out times in the 19^th century.  The opera house in France went through some pretty big changes.  The people loved art.  They wanted it all.  It was not uncommon to see ballet along with the opera.  Well there were these three famous Parisian ballet dancers that worked along with the main opera house (my dancer friends will have to forgive me for I have forgotten their names already. 

Well the first of the three ladies was the very first dancer to dance on pointe for the entire show.  She was a virtuoso. No one before her had been able to do it.  Throughout her career her father maintained her finances (that’s just what people did then).  When her father died she found that he had squandered all of her money and she was penniless.  She was never able to retire.  She danced until she no longer could, and then taught all the way until she died around 80 years old.  In her lifetime she revolutionized dance.  Because of her, dance was changed forever. 

The second famous dancer was not as talented as the first.  She was loved because she was beautiful, sexy… She danced until she was 30.  At the age of 30 she had made enough money that she moved to America and was able to support herself on the money she made in her dance career. 

The third dancer was just as good as the first.  A virtuoso.  A very successful performer, she was loved by many. She had a good career and retired after having the illegitimate child of a European prince and moved out of France.  She was then supported by that prince for the rest of her life.  She had a great career as a dancer and never had to worry about money. 

Here is the question I pose to you:

Which of these three dancers had the most successful life? 

The one that worked her entire life to get by, but because of her teaching changed the future of dance?  Would dance have been changed so if she had been able to retire at the age of 30 and never taught lessons to so many dancers? 

The second one who was loved by Paris and was able to support her self for the rest of her life? 

The third, who was the picture of virtuosity and was taken care of the rest of her life after retirement?  She had it all: a great career, children, and a generous fund to support her.  

If you know me, you know who I thought had the most successful life. 

What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? 

I want to be a revolutionary.  I want to change peoples’ lives.  I hope that one-day people will remember me as someone who made a difference…as someone who sparked excitement and motivated change.  I want to be remembered as an encourager.  

Oh the places we will go...

So school has started.  Wow.  I am one busy girl. 

 

I am so excited to be around for another year.  I am excited for everything that I will get to learn this year.  Let me tell you, I learned so much in the past year….  Let’s just say it wasn’t the easiest year of my life.  You know that saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?” Well I think whoever came up with that saying is a liar.  Whoever started that quote was trying real hard to make the best out of a situation.  That I understand.  However, I think a more appropriate statement might be, what doesn’t kill you leads to the opportunity for perseverance.  Suffering happens.  You can choose to sink in a hole, and allow that suffering to keep you from living with passion and enthusiasm.  Or, you can choose to persevere.  Suffering leads to perseverance.  Perseverance leads to building character. 

 

I’m playing a LOT of trombone this fall.  I am pumped about that.  Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Quartet, Quintet, etc.  YES!  

 

Marching band is going exceptionally well this year.  It really is a joy and a pleasure to get to do what I do here.  Life is a process.  Trust the process.  Keep trucking along.  Keep pushing. Keep making improvements.  I love it when things start to come together.  I love it when I can talk to my coworkers about new ways to explain an old concept.   I’m getting excited just sitting here typing about it. 

 

I’m going to be doing a lot of research this semester.  I’m okay with that. I can handle it.  This is going to be fun.  I’ve got enough coffee to keep me going.  = ) 

 

Me and trombone?  I’m not exactly sure what I want out of it, but you better believe I will put my heart and soul into becoming the best musician I can over the next year.