Happy Sabbaths

What a fantastic day, this Sabbath day.  The weather is perfect, the mood is right, and I feel so relaxed. Today I had the opportunity to play for a general authority. Out of all audiences and congregations I have played for, those are always my favorite. I think it's because when I am playing sacred music I am expressing my testimony and prayer the best that I know how. Sure, I could give a talk, or teach a lesson, but I express myself best through music, especially hymns, and what an awesome experience to be able to do that knowing that I am giving it all my heart and soul. 

Also, this quote by Albert Einstein showed up today on quote of the day on my phone...

I love that! So often we get caught up in things of the world that we forget what's really important. I find that I need to be careful even with my music, which is extremely inportant since it is my education, but even then sometimes I decide it's more important to practice than to do a family thing, go see 

a friend who is having a bad day, attend a fireside, and that is not so. The single most important thing in this life is the Gospel. The center of the Gospel is family, and that is why I am here. So much focus today is about women having a career. I have always thought that I'd get my degree and become a teacher and performer and that somewhere in there I'd probably get married and have kids and start a family. The more I ponder this, the more I realize how backwards it is. Yes, my education is important. Yes, developing and sharing my talent is critical. But, I should have the opposite mindset. I should be focusing on the Gospel and family, and school should fit somewhere in that. The past few months I have applied that, and my life has been so incredibly blessed. 

In Relief Society today we talked about moving forward. It was an amazing lesson. We mostly talked about trials and how we need to move forward through them with faith. The thing that hit me hardest though was how we need to move forward when we aren't going through trials. Those who are currently content with life can't just stay in one place. We have to have the faith to move forward, knowing life might get messy. 

Happy Sabbath! I hope you are all feeling inspired and on a spiritual high too :)

Feeling loved

My heart is so full today. I have to write this post just to let some of it out. This will go down in history as the mushiest thing I have ever written, but I don't care because it is all true. I am sorry that it is so long. I just have so many things to be grateful for today.

I go through hard times. I go through trials, I hit obstacles, I fall down. Especially recently.  The past few weeks have been so hard! But, there is something wonderful that I have that make the hard times worth it. That is my amazing (and I mean that word as literally and with as much emphasis as I can) family. It is because of them that I can still be happy and uplifted through these trials.

For those of you who don't know much about my extended family, (I am sorry if you don't) we are tight. Like, really tight. We hang out, have sleepovers, eat dinner on Sundays, but more than that we are just there for each other. There doesn't have to be a planned dinner or family reunion for us to communicate. I communicate with many of them on a daily/weekly basis. 

I love that I have family members who text or call me frequently, even if they don't know anything is going on. They just call to say hi. I love that I have family members who text me scriptures every night, I love family members who write hilarious blog posts about what I am missing "up north" and those who randomly surprise me with "what are you doing tonight?? I am in St. George!" I love that I will go home for the weekend and there will be cousins from age 10 to age 25 all having a sleepover together watching The Swan Princess and all equally loving it. I love Sunday family dinner with the Wall side of the family. That is what I miss most about living in Centerville. I love that my family isn't afraid to be themselves. I love that my Jenson Grandparents will randomly call and interrogate me about my love life. I love that at age 80 they still work out in the yard, and that Grandpa can still be seen up on the roof, adding another bedroom to their beautiful house all by himself. I love that my Grandpa Wall is the craziest man on this earth. I love that he calls us peasants. I love all the traditions we have. I love that the sandbox at my parents house is full of boulders; it is the mark of another started never finished project of my dad's. I love that my mom and grandma are amazing cooks. I love when people tell me I look like my mom. I love hearing what the Hess kids are doing now, I swear they have tried everything (I still think my favorite is when Lauren played the cello). I love that I pretty much always have a cousin on a mission and that they are always so inspiring and funny in their emails to home. I love that my siblings are so random, you should see some of their snapchats...yeah.

Seriously, I love you all. Even if you aren't one of those that I talk to on a daily basis I love knowing that you love me, that you care about me and that you've got my back.  I don't know how I was blessed with the best family in the world, and I don't know how I made the cut to be in the best family in the world. All I know is that I am so, so grateful.

My friends. Oh, my friends. Again, why did I get so lucky? I have the best friends anyone could ever ask for. I consider my friends to be family as well.  Just yesterday I had 4 different people text or call me to catch up and see how I was doing. That was on a pretty normal day. I love all my friends and I feel so loved by them. I get really attached to people, and that is hard in college when everyone is going every direction with their lives. Nothing makes my day more than being in contact with friends I haven't seen or heard from for a while.

Thank you all for being so supportive, especially through the hard times. I wish I could name you all by name but know that I love you all individually so so much.

Summer time!

My last blog post was about how fast the first week of school went....psh!! One lousy week. That is hilarious. I swear, I don't know where the school year went. And...school has been out for about 3 weeks now.  Whhhaaaa?? Yeah. I know. And what do I have to show for summer so far? A couple of sunburns and a cold. BUT...in all seriousness, so far it's been a fairly productive three weeks.

I traveled up to good ol' C-Ville to visit the family.  I went up to visit my dearest and bestest cousin friend Rachel for her college signing party...she will now be living about 8 hours away... **cry!!** thank heavens for modern technology; Skype, cell phones, and good old fashioned paper mail. 

Best friends forever. My little girl is growing up!

No family is as close as our family I am pretty sure....

The best men.

Kenzie had the pleasure of meeting Casey that weekend also. I think it was good for him to experience real fear.

The next week we spent Mother's Day in Mapleton with mom's sister's family. It was super fun! We don't do much hanging out with that side so it was good to see everyone. And all seven of us were there which rarely happens anymore




 

We look like we planned to take a matchy matchy picture but really, we didn't. We all look really great. Actually, Jacque and Doug really do.










Matt and I had a joined violin/cello recital at a rest home, he had 3 or 4 play and 8 of my students played. They are all such hard workers! I love teaching.  It is so fun and rewarding.

I also teach at a preschool three days at a week. They had their summer program today and they each played a solo and then we all played together. They are adorable.  

We forgot to tune before so our group piece sounded pretty terrible, but we stayed together well and they are so cute, so that makes up for it. 

  

We had our last concert of the season last weekend with the Southwest Symphony, one of my favorite concerts because, well, just look at that scenery! Outdoor concerts are always so fun. Except for the bugs. Ew.








Our first attempt at going to the lake when it was actually summer was a bust. We packed a picnic lunch, drove out there, paid the fee, and tried three different spots on the beach. Each time we were there for about a minute and a half but the whole lake was infested with bugs. We ended up eating on a blanket at the park and it was still nice. We'll try again in a few weeks. They can't keep me away from the lake for long!!










Lastly, it wouldn't be summer in St. George without this....

Come visit. 

School is cool

Wowza! I can't believe the first week of school has already passed! The days seemed soooo long but looking back I can tell it's going to be another one of those "where did the time go?" semesters.  I am pretty excited about my schedule this semester though! Aside from my music classes (including 5 ensembles and private lessons) I am taking two English classes and a Health Communications class. I am interested to see how that one goes.  My actual class time is pretty slim this semester, two of my three credit classes are online so I only have one in the classroom class and the rest are ensembles of course. 
Along with school, it's going to be quite a busy semester, and I am a bit anxious but mostly excited because I like being busy :) I have nine violin students, which doesn't seem like many but with full time school and a part time job the hours add up pretty quick. I love my kiddos though! Teaching is so much fun. Definitely some of my favorite hours of the week. And my quartet is averaging about a gig a month, which also isn't very much, but at least the word is getting around and hopefully it will take off, especially near the end of the school year into summer!
All in all, so far so good, practicing Tchaikovsky has actually been pretty productive in the past week so hopefully that sticks.  There's your  little ditty! Good luck to everyone this new semester!

Party time is over

Happy New Year! I absolutely LOVE the Christmas season.  Like, it is the best thing ever.  Family, friends, food, snow, you get the idea.  This year was a little different though. Every year until now I have not had a job during Christmas break, so it was pack up for three weeks and spend the whole month of December in Centerville. This year I had a three day break from work, which was a bit of a bummer but we definitely made the most of those three days! I am not going to post tons of pictures here, because they are the exact same ones that are on Facebook, but it was so wonderful to spend time with the family (ESPECIALLY the annual Christmas eve celebration) even if it was just a few days. 

Reunited with my BFCF (Best friend cousin forever)
<3

The gang. I LOVE these people. No one's family can even compare to the awesomeness of mine...

Siblings! <3

New Years was different too! I didn't want to spend it in St. George, I was already sooo bored from the break, so I headed to Fillmore for a few days and spent a relaxing New Years with the grandparents. It was so fun to spend time with both sides of the family and I hope that that can become a more regular thing.  There were a LOT of good times and although the actual moment of the new year was a bit more laid back then I am used to, the trip was not lacking in side splitting laughs and unforgettable memories.  Let's not even mention the wild turkey chasing.

LOVE these people.

And, now party time is over, it's back into school and the wonderful stress that comes with it. I can't wait (only half of that was sarcastic).