Proposals 101

When proposing to a lady, there are several factors to take into consideration.

1) There must be a girl.


2) There must be a guy.


3) There must be a ring (a proper fit is helpful).


4) It's all about location, location, location!!!
Here are a few examples.

The beach is always a nice setting, with the waves providing soothing natural music.

A deserted parking lot provides a secluded spot for dancing after she says yes.

A converted railroad bridge can enhance the sweet moment of surprise.

The hilltop overlooking the city is the perfect place to enjoy a post-proposal kiss.

The ideal place to propose is a place where the girl is least likely to suspect it- such as, my personal favorite...

The Ice Cream Aisle in Safeway!!!

Caution: If choosing to propose in a store...

choose your aisle carefully. Some aisles are more photogenic than others!

(I.E. Not the toilet seat aisle.)

However you choose to propose, remember to have fun!

Many thanks to my fellow Joy School Alum for enjoying such a fun and proposal-filled St. Valentine's Day!

***No proposals were accepted in the making of this post. ***

Picky-Picky: No Longer Just a Cat

I've noticed that I have friends who are either the pickiest eaters ever or are willing to eat anything. (Myself, I fall somewhere in the middle. I am picky about some things, but I always stand by my rule to try something twice.) It still amazes me how picky some eaters are.

What brought this subject to mind is the self-given task of cooking dinner next week for Mister E and I. He is the kind of person who will eat anything- and probably already has! Last week, he discovered that hot sauce on a glazed doughnut was very tasty. Being the adventurous girl that I am, I tried it with him... and loved it!!! I may never eat a plain glazed doughnut again without hot sauce!

I asked Mister E what he'd like to have for our dinner next week, and his answer gave no help of narrowing down recipe choices. So, I'm back to thumbing through recipe magazines my mom has collected over the years searching for a good meal for two. Any suggestions?

Cupckes and Games

This entire weekend has been a ball of fun. I finally released a lot of the things weighing down my life, so I was able to enjoy a carefree weekend of fun and games!

Friday night, I volunteered at the annual Jazz Festival for my college. I enjoyed working back stage so much, and I made some new friends that I otherwise wouldn't have. The joke going around was that I turned down a date to work the festival. It is a little stretched from the truth, but only by a little. You can fill in the real story yourself. :)

Saturday turned out to be a sweet day- literally. I put my spoon to the bowl and made beautifully white cupcakes for my family celebration that evening. I'm quite proud of how they turned out. The batter was evenly dispersed, and the cupcakes were a beautiful white inside. I've always been fond of separating the egg yokes from the whites. Other than licking the spoon, separating eggs is my favorite task in baking a white cake.

The family festivities were great! The fun started when Roadrunner, in his six year old way, snubbed me for my good friend, Mister E. Seriously, I had to request a hug from Roadrunner! It's like I wasn't even there!! Oh well. I guess that means Roadrunner likes Mister E. The girls soon ganged up against Mister E and started a pillow fight. There were times when I thought for sure the kids would win- four against one. Then, I realized the kids didn't know what they were up against!

By the time dinner was ready, I believe the score was 3-1 with Mister E in the lead.

After dinner, we played Apples to Apples, and I about died with laughter. That game is so fun and amusing! I love it- almost as much as Charades! When we were tired of that game, we moved on to Scotland Yard, a family favorite. Dad was the elusive "Mr. X" while the rest of us were the detectives. It was a tough and intense game. My brother and Mister E certainly made Dad sweat a little wondering if he would be caught- which he wasn't.

The evening was such a great night! It was probably one of the most enjoyable family nights I've had in a while. It was certainly something to write home about!


Sunday presented itself as another awesome Sabbath. Church was uplifting- despite a throbbing headache. Sunday School was very inspiring, as was Relief Society. As always, I enjoyed my ward's Break the Fast meal after church and ate more than I probably should have. I loved learning how to play Garbage Rummy with Mister E's family. I was terrible, earning 370 points in four rounds! However, as bad as I was, it was only my first time playing the game. I'm sure I'll improve with a little more practice.

As I said at the beginning, this was a fantastic weekend! I'd certainly love to relive all the fun spent with family and friends time and time again. Here's to the start of a wonderful week and a new month!

Paka

Staying Focused

The last few weeks have provided me with many, many challenges. The result of having so many challenges at once is losing my focus. It's as if I can no longer focus on more than one task at a time. I almost feel like a guy in that I find it hard to multi-task. In fact, I started this post twelve hours ago and am finally focused enough to finish the first paragraph. That's just sad.

A good friend of mine has suggested that I am spread too thin among the many aspects of my life. I'm not sure that is the case since I am in need of adding more into the mix. Yet, his explanation sounds all too plausible. Between all my music classes, church callings, and being a young single woman, I can find no other explanation that suits it all. However, I have to wonder what I would cut out of the mix, rather what I would give less attention and time to. My social life? Perhaps. School and music studies? Certainly not! Church callings and study? Highly unlikely.

Do you see my predicament? I can find nothing that I can give less attention to and still have things work out. Nothing short of ditching all my friends and being unsociable other than at ward events (which is where I see most of my friends anyway) would work. I am a social creature; I'll admit it. The worst thing anyone could do would be to place me in solitary confinement. I would seriously go mad- even more than now.

I hope and pray that I'll survive this focus problem and regain my focus again.

Paka

Singing While Using Sight

I'm jumping back into being a music major this term, and it is HARD work! Seriously, I don't remember Ear Training being so hard! We had a sight singing quiz yesterday in class, and I was amazed at the miracle I was blessed with.

For those of you who are wondering, sight singing is just that- singing by sight. The instructor is being nice to us and letting us practice the several selections prior to our test; therefore, this wasn't true sight singing. When you sight read a piece of music, you play or sing it on the first try without having looked at it before hand.

My miracle is this: I made it through to the end of my test! That may not seem like a lot, but it is. I hadn't studied too hard for this quiz because I was studying for other quizzes from the same class- intervals identification, melodic dictation, rhythmic dictation, harmonic dictation. There is a lot to study!


Once again, Heavenly Father has blessed me with a crisp mind to remember the solfège for minor melodies and staying somewhat on pitch through my quiz. I am so grateful to have a keen mind that remembers what it has learned. I pray that I'll gain more confidence as I practice and study more this term.

Second Monday Moanings

Today is the start of the second week in this school term. I'm finding it hard to return to a good scheduled routine after such a long break between terms. Three weeks is the amount of time it takes to form habits, and my break was basically three weeks. So, I'm struggling to undo the terrible sleeping schedule I created during my break to be at my best to start new and better habits that will aid my success this term and next.

Through a lot of thinking and praying, I've decided that the best academic path for me is to finish my AA at my current school before looking ahead to a University. It will help me in the long run when I transfer because I'll have a degree to transfer, not just a random bunch of courses and credits. I've started creating my road map for the courses I need to take within the next five quarters at this school, and I find myself in the same predicament I had when I first started school here. Music classes take a lot of work for the few credits earned. Take three performance classes, one theory class, and an ear training class, and you'll find you are already at the full time student mark. That leaves little room for any non-music classes you might need to take. However, my plan to overcome that predicament is this: I'm going to cram as many classes as I can survive into the summer term! The only music classes offered during the summer are private lessons, so I'll have room to focus on other subjects.

I've discovered that things come in pairs in my life. I start one of the hardest school terms thus far and find a friend who, unknown to him, is having a profound effect on my life. The last month I've spent getting to know him has been amazing and full of laughter. He has shown me reasons for improving my life that I never knew were there. Every day I can make him laugh is a day worth living. I don't know where this friendship will lead, but I won't worry about that just now. I realize that I have to be careful in how much I allow him to distract me from my studies. I could very easily let this developing romance have top priority in my mind's thinking. So far I've stayed balanced, but there is still much of life ahead of me. All I know is that he is the hardest person to say goodbye to, even when I'll see him the next day. :D

To sum up, I leave you with one of my favorite scriptures.
"Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." (Alma 26:16)

Time for band. If you hear a piccolo, that's me! :)

Reflections of A Silly Girl

As the countdown to my birthday draws closer and closer to zero, I've been reflecting on who I am as a person and what I've accomplished in my life. Some reflection sessions have been given to important dreams, goals, and my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Others, much like this one, are about trivial details- like hair and attitudes.

I think I've just spent about an hour looking through pictures from 2005 to present looking at the changes in my hair, of all things! Over the years, the length of my hair has changed many times ranging from super long in 2005 to super short in 2008 and all else in between. The biggest change, however, was my color change last year.

On my last Friday in Russia, all eight of us girls dyed our hair. I even dyed mine twice that night. Seriously, I love my red hair! I had sworn right and left that I was going to reach the end of my life without having dyed my hair at all. But, there's something about being in a different country with a bunch of girls- Hungry, you know what I'm talking about- you loose your resolve over the silly things.


I came home with a drastically non-red color. It was fun to see the reactions of me not being me, and I really wasn't me for a while. I was a different person. Months after I came home, I still was shocked to see a girl with dark hair staring back at me in the mirror. There surly was an attitude change in me as well. I was more adventurous and had a ready-for-anything attitude.

Over the last eight months, I've slowly watched my red roots grow out. Most people can't see them because the darker color has faded a lot, so the two colors blend well. (It still surprises me, though, when people call my hair red. To me, this isn't red. I'll admit, it is more red than the dark brown I had returning home.) Somehow, I feel that I've had another attitude change. Maybe I've just gotten older, maybe I'm more experienced at life. I don't rightly know. Part of me wishes I had that carefree, tackle-the-world attitude again as I start this year.


I suppose I'll just have to learn how to capture that attitude with my returning red!