Happy Day...

I got an A on my Advanced Clogging test today! No one ever gets an A in that class. :) What a happy day, eh?

Tables Turn

Well, after the blog entry of all the stupid things guys have said to my sister and me, I suppose it would only be fair if I told something stupid one or the other of us had said to a guy. This happened last night.

One of us had a date last night with a guy she had not known for very long. As she was introducing the boy to our roommates she said, "This is Cassidy and this is Audrey. Girls this is Ra.... uhhh I mean Jeff." *awkward silence* "I am soooo sorry!"

Needless to say, the girl felt pretty stupid. It was stinkin' hilarious though. Ahh.. Good times.

A Good Example

This past Monday, I was having a terrible day. Nothing seemed to be going right. I decided to skip one of my classes and talk with a good friend. While talking with her, I ran into my wonderful roommates, Audrey and T. Smiles all around! T had a class to go to, so we bade her farewell. However, Audrey was available to eat lunch with Becky and me. As I stood in line with my little bag of Cheetos for lunch, Audrey insisted she buy them for me. "Why are you doing this?" I queeried. "Because I want to." She replied.

Little did she know that was the beginning of a much better day. That little act of kindness moved my day into the right direction and helped turn it into one of the best days I've had this semester. It also helped me to think outside myself. Everyone is hurting for money. We're in college, after all. How selfless of her to see a need (small though it may have been) and act on it. That's only one of many instances that she help others when she "wants to".

Thank you, Audrey.

Side note

That blog is not meant to be as serious as it is. lol So, don't take it too serious. I'm listening to the churchy songs I'm learning in choir right now so anything I type may sound spiritual. :) Have a great day!

The tragedy/blessing

Sometimes in our lives we are faced with the loss of something special so that we can grow. I think I am growing. I have recently experienced the death of something very special to me. My cell phone. It's all right. I have tissues if you need to cry. I have been one of those "cell phone addicts". You've seen the kind. They walk around campus constantly talking on their phone. Even when they have someone right in front of them and their phone begins to buzz, they will pick up the phone and ask you to hold one while they talk to that little silver rectangle.

I think cell phones are a wonderful invention. They have brought people closer together. They let children form stronger bonds with their parents. They help those who are lost find their way (unfortunately, this has been me many times). And they give other people a sense of security just to have it around.

There is a problem with cell phones, however. This is something I have discovered only since being without mine for the past few days. Something that has been missing from my life for a little while is the alone time to think and gather my thoughts. Every time I have walked to school, I have talked to someone on the phone. Since breaking my cell I have spent a lot of time reflecting on my life and what kind of person I want to become. It has been a wonderful blessing to break my cell phone. It's a blessing I think Heavenly Father knew I needed at this time.

When it first broke, I thought it was a great tragedy. Now I know that it is a blessing. :) I will be grateful for my new cell phone when I receive one, but I have learned to take time to be by myself without a cell phone. It's a wonderful thing.

A Poem for a Cell Phone

Your short square shape,
Your silver lining,
Your wonderful face
That's always shining.

The sound of your tone,
The voice at the end.
The connection through which
I find my good friend.

And then there's the text
Such a joyful sight.
That no matter the weather,
You make my life bright.

I'll miss the vibrations
You bring to my day,
For when I can feel you,
The gray goes away.

And now my dear friend, goodbye.

And... another poem/song for any Nauvooers out there.

A Song for a Cell

And so, my cell, I say farewell to you,
With numb and aching heart, one last adieu,
And through my tears, I look to phones beyond,
Could ever I be fond of one as you.

One ringing song, one screen aglow,
You were my friend until I dropped you in the snow,
Where'er I'd go, you'd come along
And we would walk and talk all night,
Until the dawn...

And so you go, I cannot turn you on,
No one will hear my voice cause now you're gone,
This phone I leave I always will recall,
The calls, the texts, and all...
I love you soooo...

Farewell...my cell....Farewell...myyyy cellllllllll.

*sniff*

(New words by Joseph Marshall)

hmm... proofreading

So... as I read over the blog entry about dreams, I realized I really should have proof-read it before I published it. I mean, of course I practiced my songs in front of my roommates in clothes! What I meant to say was my nice clothes for the performance. :) There are several other errors I made as well. Just overlook them if you will. :)

Good news

I did have some wonderful news yesterday. Because I recently made it into Women's Chorus, I am going to be singing in General Conference!!! We are singing in the Saturday afternoon session. You can look for my brother in three of the sessions and look for me in the fourth!

Yay!

Dreams

As many of you may know, I've been a little stressed lately. I had make-up juries this morning and I've been practicing from 2-3 hours every day previously to prepare. For those who may not know what a jury is; it is when you perform your instrument in front of the music faculty and they judge whether you should continue as a music major or not.

Last night I practiced in my clothes for my roommates and even performed in front of a few friends. I felt fairly confident. Well, I thought I felt confident. I think my subconscious knew more about how I was really feeling then I let out externally. I had two dreams last night. One of them is kind of funny now that I think about it. The other one was just a typical nightmare one has when they are extremely worried about something.

Dreams:

I dreamed that instead of performing in front of just the music faculty, that the faculty had us all perform in the stadium in front of thousands and thousands of people. Everyone went before me and the crowd was having a wonderful time. You could see people laughing and ooing and aaahhing over my classmates voices. Then I went up to the mic. At first it was just silent. But as I continued singin, the people in the audience started yelling and then everyone got up and left the stadium. It was bad enough that they felt like they needed to leave! Is that sad or what?

The second dream was that I woke up about three hours late to practice the songs before the actual performance. I missed the performance and failed juries. *sigh* It was pretty tramatic.

As a result of those dreams, I woke up at 3 am and then at 3:30 and then 4 and 4:30. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep even though I went to bed at 10:00 pm.

How did Juries go you ask? Eh... I wasn't very pleased with them. In fact, I almost burst into tears right after they were done. I haven't sung that poorly in a very long time. I'm still wired from all the stress that was building up. My hands are shaking while I type this. I should probably take a nap. But alas, I will be on campus for another four hours before I can go home and collapse on my bed. I might feel well enough by then to be social.

Hey! Life is still good. I just need a minute to get over it! :)

Ya gotta love BYU

On Saturday my sister and I were going to go on a blind date. Yes, yes I know. I really should learn by now. But, I am still open to them. Ya never know when it's actually going to work out. I had talked to my date on the phone a few times and we had fun talking. We decided Saturday would work out best. He had a friend he would bring up for my sister. Wellll, Saturday morning rolls around and I get a phone call.

"Hello?"
"Hello! How are you?"
"Great! Are we still on for tonight?"
"Umm... actually Emilie, something kind of unusual happened."
"What's that?" (I was thinking that I was plum out of unusual things that could happen with blind dates.)
"Well, the guy I was going to bring up for your sister just got engaged last night."
"Oh! Wow. Ok. How long has he been dating her?"
"Well, he just got off his mission three weeks ago and he didn't know her before then."
"Oh! WOW!!!! (thinking, does he know how to say the word forever?) Well, congrats to your friend!"
"Yeah, so I was thinking I'll find someone else for a later weekend?"
"Sounds good!"

Needless to say, we didn't go out that night. That's the kind of story you only hear about at BYU. It's great to finally be a part of the story. And can I just say I love BYU? I do. I really do.

My New Crush

I'm obsessed. I'll admit it. I spend all hours of the day thinking about it. I stay up late thinking of what might happen next. I analyze every tiny detail. I ran over the typical "what if" questions. Will it be a pleasant experience? Do I really want to enter into a new relationship that takes up so much time? Am I supposed to go on a mission?

We both dance. We both love music. The thing is, my crush seems to have a relationship with every girl on campus! It doesn't really make me jealous. In fact the more people that have less to do with my crush than others, the more jealous I am. Does that make sense at all? And then there is the time commitment. I don't have enough time to have a crush! And yet I do. I admit it. I have a crush.

His name? .... Schoolwork. Last night I lay in bed thinking about today. I lay there for 2 hours before I fell asleep. My wonderful roommate Audrey finally brought in some herbal tea to calm my nerves. I kept thinking about the tiny details that needed to get done. I kept thinking about all the things I could not and would not forget. I kept thinking about how much better I am going to do this semester. I didn't do terribly last semester, but there is room for improvement. :) I have class every morning at 8:00 am. That's insane. My Sophomore year, I had 8:00 classes and I vowed I would never do that to myself again. And yet, here I am. I'm doing it again. I'm already tired and it's only the first day. I have auditions to go to. I have a TON of homework already. I'm going to help teach in a kindergarten class on Wednesday. There's a lot to do and not enough time to do it. Even if I don't sleep ever... I don't have enough time to do as much studying as we've been advised to do.

Life is crazy. But isn't it fun to have a crush again?

Reverence is More than just Quietly Sitting...

Tonight something not totally unusual in my family happened. We were at my brothers house for family night. We ate dinner, watched the sugar bowl, and then played trivial pursuit. By the way, if you ever want to feel like you don't know anything, trivial pursuit is the game for you! :) I think out of the 50 questions asked, I knew 3 of them. Hmm... back to the story.

My little nephew has a very bad cough. When he makes baby noises, it sounds more like a character right out of Alien. It's a very funny sound. Also, my family has been staying up consistently past 2:00 am every morning. So, we were all a little bit loopy.

Time for family prayer. I was asked to say the prayer. I knelt down and began, "Dear... We thank thee for the time we can spend with each other (Alien noises inserted here)" Right then, I started giggling. My sister in-law next to me started giggling. My brother next to her started giggling (it's a funny sound when my brother giggles). One sister in-law was laughing so hard she had to leave the room. We all sat there giggling for about five minutes before I could compose myself to finish the closing prayer. It was pretty hilarious.

I sure hope Heavenly Father has a sense of humor.

Welcome to Munchkin Land

I come from a very short family. I am 5'4", my sister 5'3", two of my bros are 5'7", three are about 5'9". The very tallest member of my family is 5'11"; he also happens to be the youngest brother. With that in mind, last Saturday, my family decided to play a friendly game of basketball. My brother Dave, invited his 6'6" brother in-law (Ken) to play with us. It was all going very well. The team opposite of Ken had to double team him and they still couldn't keep him down. He was scoring all the time. It was more like Ken was playing with a bunch of ten-year-olds than with full-grown adults.

At one point, my 5'3" sister got the ball. She dribbled enthusiastically down the court and looked up ready to shoot. There stood Ken. My sister, being completely taken aback by the fact that there was someone taller than 5'7" in front of her began screaming bloody murder. She dropped the ball and ran to the back of the court. The rest of us were rolling on the floor with laughter. She'd just never played with a tall person before. She was very terrified.

Later on, when she told Ken how frightened she was and that he shouldn't take offense he said, "You know, I really think you scared me more than I scared you. I had someone screaming in my face for no apparent reason." It was more like she was screaming at his abdomin, but still, it was a very nice thing for him to say.

The pick-up lines

About the pick-up lines from about 2 or 3 posts ago... as my brother did not believe they really happened, I want to again say they are 100% true. I even have another one to add to the list.

From a text message: "Remember I love you and also remember I'm still single"

hmmm...

The Best Feeling in the World

I have spent the last couple of weeks with my family. I have decided that nothing feels better to me than having my little nephews and nieces give me hugs and kisses good night. No prayer sounds better than a little child imitating his/her parents in a bedtime prayer. No kiss feels better than a slobbery kiss from a 1-year-old. No pat on the back feels better than a 1-year-old trying to imitate his parents patting him on the back to comfort him. Nothing sounds better than a child telling his/her Aunt Emmie or Auntie Em "I love you". No music sounds better than the sound of a 6-year-old niece singing to her 2-year-old brother and cousin songs she has heard her mother sing because she is trying to mother them. No game is more fun than hide and seek with two-year-olds who are still trying to figure out the concept of being quiet. "Farah! (Sarah) We'we ovuh hewe!" No laughter is as wonderful to listen than the laughter of a little boy playing tickle-stop. (The whole game is having him tell you when to tickle him and when to stop. He loves being "kickoed")

Nothing is more exciting or faith-building than talking to your 8-year-old nephew about being baptized. (His baptism is Saturday!) No wonder Christ wanted the little children to come unto Him. It's humbling to be so close to incredible people who have so soon been with our Heavenly Father. Children are wonderful. "How Dear to God are Precious Children"

Boys and Girls are Different

Boys and girls are different. I know.. I know.. you're all thinking, "well, duh, em!" But, it hit home again about five minutes ago. I decided I should write on this blog again because it had been about a month since I had done it last; well, before the last time which was a couple days ago, but I digress. Anyway, I was having a hard time deciding what I should write about so I asked my nephews' cousin. "Mackenzie, what should I write about?" "I don't know" "What stories do you like to hear about?" "Sleeping booty"(For a two-year-old that's about as clear as it comes). I then turned to my nephew, "Adam, what should I write about?" "I don't know" "What stories do you like to hear about?" "tuttles" (that is two-year-old for turtles).

Mackenzie is two years old and she already loves love stories! Girls are born with a love of love stories! Boys are born with a love of.... turtles? And other things like trucks and crashing and big toys. My sisters in-law, sister, mother and I just finished watching a chick flick. The comment was made, "if only boys could learn to like this stuff. Then they would understand girls more." The problem is, most of the time, girls don't understand girls! Sometimes I understand boys. It's funny though that after twenty years of experience, living with six boys, I still need tutoring. Hmm..

The Key to Eternal Marriage

Catchy Title, don't ya think? We finally found the key!! We (Audrey, Caitlin and myself) were talking with my cousins over mounds of chocolates, cookies, and spiked egg nog (don't worry, my Grandma only spiked the egg nog with 7-up; nevertheless it was enough to bring us to the loopy mood that led us to this incredible discovery). My cousin Veronica was talking about a date she had that went exceptionally well (at least on her side). They had gone to my Grandparents' cabin to eat dinner and then to go ice skating. How romantic! One comment that was made during the date was that it was the perfect date if you wanted to hold hands with someone. You would just "conveniently" hold hands because you don't skate well. Perfectly logical, right? Right! It gets better! Veronica's date had a phobia of ice skating because the last time he had gone, he had chipped his two front teeth. We thought about that for a moment... thinking... another perfect opportunity! As you lean in to check the teeth... you "accidently" kiss your date! Holding hands leads to kissing and kissing leads to.... MARRIAGE!!! It's really a formula. So, basically, ice skating leads to eternal marriage. I haven't tried it yet, but when I do... you will definitely be the first to know and meet my future husband.

As the year comes to a close, I think back over this past year and the many hilarious pick up lines I've heard. These are actual pick up lines or just bad lines I've been exposed to. They either happened to me, or to my sister. Enjoy!

At a dance: "If you go out with me, I'll give you a free T-shirt!"

At the end of a date to the rest of the roommates with the girl in the room: "This is the part where I see if I get a goodnight hug... Guess not..."

Reason why I should drive somewhere for a blind date: "You see, I left my cell phone in Provo... it would be really convenient for you to bring it and then we would go out."

To a boy who didn't really get the hint: "I'm going to be busy all year."

In the car while on a date: "Just so you know, if your hand gets cold, my hand will be right here and it's always warm." "Thanks! I'll keep that in mind." "Ouch, beat heart, beat!"

Another reason why the girl should go on the same blind date: "If you come down here and it doesn't work out, I'll never have to see you again!"

In a letter where the boy was confessing his love to the girl: "You see, when I saw how beautiful you can be, then I fell in love with you."

At the end of a wonderful day for the girl while on a date:
boy: "So.. what's your idea of the perfect way to end the perfect day? A hug or..."
girl: "yup."
boy: "Actually I was thinking more along the lines of..."
girl: "Nope! So how was your day?"

In a break-up email: "If you want to talk about this in person, call me. I'm busy this week. Maybe next week!"

A Spanish boy asking a girl out:
boy: "Do you want to do something sometime?"
girl: "Ya know... I uh..."
boy: "You like to eat, don't you?"
girl: (thinking... that really could be taken the wrong way)

In a phone conversation: "Just wondering what you're doing tomorrow, the next day, for the rest of your life.. (pause) not to imply that you should spend it with me."

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!! I hope you enjoyed!

My Own Little Miracle

Today has been a very difficult day. It began with me waking up at 4:00 a.m. to finish my homework assignments for class today. I didn't have enough time to finish them even waking up that early. I went to my first class and my teacher wasn't in the best mood and she gave us all our papers back for the entire semesters. I got mostly A's, but I was frustrated with the B's I got. I didn't practice at all for sight singing and the teacher was a little upset about that. I went straight from there to Music Theory where I turned in my composition and had the class sing it.

After that was clogging. A nail has decided to stick up from the metal part of my shoe into the part where my toes are supposed to go. It's not the most comfortable thing. Clogging got out late and as soong as I finished changing I had the sinking feeling of remembering a test right before class and not studying at all. The whole way to the law building, I prayed and reviewed the test material. "Please help me remember something for this test."

I got there about 6 minutes late and as I walked up to the classroom, there was a white piece of paper on the door. "Dr. S___" is sick today. Your exam has been post-poned until tomorrow.

A direct answer to prayer, don't ya think? He answers prayers in mysterious ways sometimes. :) Maybe He didn't make my teacher sick. It's kinda fun to think so.

A fear come true

I don't know if I am the only one that has had this fear, but recently it has come true.

When I first got to BYU and was moving into my very first apartment, we found that we could conserve space if we put the bed up on cinder blocks. My first thought was that the bed didn't look very sturdy and how could we be certain the bed wouldn't fall over in my sleep? Everyone assured me that that NEVER happens. Well, ladies and gentleman, it does.

Last night I was sleeping peacefully in my bed when all of a sudden I was very abruptly awakened by my bed deciding to crash down. It didn't just crash. It jolted and then crashed. My bed was crooked and uncomfortable. I then decided to share my sisters' twin bed with her. She, having not awakened to the LOUD crashing sounds of my bed told me after two minutes or so that, "that just isn't comfortable". I thought to myself, "yea, try having your bed collapse from under you.

Being in the tired, ubruptly awakened mood I was in, I said, "Fine. I'm going to turn on the light then!" As if that were a really terrible threat. I turned on the light and tried to lift my bed back onto the cedar blocks. I was all alone in this endeavor and as I recall from the past, I was always amazed at the young men that would help me move my bed on top of them at the beginning of every school year. This time, at 2:00 in the morning, I was doing it all by myself. I finally succeeded and in the process I stubbed my little toe and it began bleeding. What a pathetic way to end the night. I finally fell back asleep around 2:30 or 2:45. I can laugh about it today, but it certainly wasn't the most pleasant night I've had.

So if ever anyone has told you the cinder blocks never fall down while you are sleeping peacefully in your bed, take my advice and find some way to ensure a restful nights sleep.

Sweet dreams!

Another blind date?

It's been a little while and I don't have a whole lot to report so I decided to go back in my inventory for another funny date story.

I had just turned 16. I was so excited to be dating. Finally!! A good guy friend of mine asked me on my date. He was legally blind. Thus, I had my very first "blind" date. (Courtesy laugh inserted here...)

I picked him up from work and we went to the mall. After walking around for about 30 minutes, he stopped and asked me what I wanted to do. Well, what does any girl say when a guy asks her that? "I dunno" was the answer. He then asked if I wanted to go see a movie. I turned to him in surprise. "Are you sure that's ok?" I asked. He said it was fine as long as the movie was light enough and of course he could hear what was going on. Off we went to the theater.

When we got there, we began looking at options. 'Have you see that one?' 'yes." 'That one?' 'yes'. Finally we found that neither of us had seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. On we went into the theater. I led him down the isle and we sat down. The movie begins and of course, it's all in Chinese. Here I was with my blind friend and we went to a movie that was in another language and had English subtitles! The other thing was that the whole movie happens at night! He could not see what was going on and he could not hear what was going on.

I wasn't sure what to do. And being the naive 16 year-old I was, I just sat there. The only time he asked what was going on in the movie was during a kissing scene. I started blushing and told him I'd tell him in a few minutes.

It was a great date. Fun time. Just kind of... ironic?

*sigh* Ya gotta love dating huh?

ENT Doctors

Wow... another experience I've never done before. About four weeks ago I had a terrible, terrible cold. I would wake up at night with coughing fits. I was not able to go to voice lessons; which, when you're a vocal major is not a good thing. I went about a month without voice lessons. Finally, my voice teacher said she was afraid I had blisters on my vocal chords from coughing so much. She suggested a visit to the ENT Doc. Little did I know exactly what that entails:

I went to the Doctor's office and waited for about 45 minutes and was finally ushered into a room where an elderly gentleman asked me what was wrong. When I told him, he tried to make a joke. :) You know how that goes. It wasn't exactly funny, but he was a nice man so I humored him. He then proceded to stick this long wire with a little bit of cotton on the end up/down my nose. It was supposed to numb my nose area. It didn't. He did it a couple more times, each time putting more medicine on it and would stick it further and further down. "Does that hurt?" "YES!" (It's a metal wire up my nose, what do you think??) Finally, I could handle it to the point where he could stick it partway down my throat. Then he said, "I'll go get "the scope'."

This scope was not mouthwash. It was this old-looking machine with a rubber tube and at the end of the tube was a flashlight. I then laughed nervously, "he he, where does that go?" "This will go through your nose and down your throat and then we'll be able to see what's down there." My nervous smile disappeared. "That rubber thing will fit in my nose??" "Yup"

The Doctor took my face in his hands and placed my head at the angle he wanted and then said, "Let's give it a try, shall we?" "ok". In went the tube. "OW!!!!" "Oh. Does that hurt?" "ummm, yes" In went the medicine. It was a little better. He stuck the rubber tube through my nose and down my throat and wiggled it around a bit to get a better view. At the end... he yanked it out.

The experience of a lifetime I tell ya. Hopefully, I only need to go through it once. He was a very nice man. I'm just not a fan of throat scoping I decided. The good news is that there is no blistering or any problems. My muscles just didn't like the coughing. I need to rest a bit and then it will be fine. Another eventful day in my life.