Well, for those of you who haven't given up on my sporadic blogging, I finally have enough time to update you all as to what has been going on for the past two weeks.

Choir has been grand and I love all of my music classes except for music theory. I started semi-private voice lessons last Wednesday with Eda Ashby and this week will begin private voice with Brady Hodgeson. I've totally fallen for Sis. Ashby, although I still mess up all the time and call her Dr. Ashby or Prof. Ashby and then receive odd looks from the other girls. I've been struggling a bit with the "posture" technique she uses and I feel like a walrus while I'm doing it, but it has helped to improve my resonance chambers and my tracheal vibrato has improved drastically, so I guess the walrus stance is worth it. Practicing for an hour a day has also been a bit of a challenge, but I'm starting to get used to it. The only days that I forget to practice sometimes are Tuesdays and Thursdays. I don't completely forget, I just don't remember to practice until about 9:00 in the P.M. Luckily the Snow is open until 11, so I've been alright lately. There are two perks to practicing at 9 o'clock at night. 1. I get to practice in sweats. 2. There aren't very many other vocalists practicing, so I don't hear the Cecilia Bartolli or Renee Flemmings practicing next to my premature squawk.

Last Tuesday, Women's Choir provided the music for Devotional and this week, we will be singing with Men's Choir for Devotional this upcoming Tuesday. Oh! A week from this Tuesday, Dallin H. Oaks is coming to speak at Devotional. So far, we have had some awesome speakers. A few weeks ago we had Pres. Kerr from the Logan Temple and last week the head of the Geneology Department at BYU-Provo. I also found out last week that Elder Eyring's son teaches at BYU-I. Kind of some cool stuff!

My social life has been almost nada up here. Mondays and Wednesdays I am on campus from about 7:30 in the A.M. until 7:00 in the P.M. not including practice time. Tuesdays and Thursdays aren't quite so bad because I am usually home by 5. I feel like I'm still in high school because I totally look forward to Fridays because they are like my early release days! My classes end at 11:15 in the a.m. and then I have a practice room scheduled from 2-3. Not a bad Friday at all! I've been running quite a few times with Tasha and Steve. We normally run between 3-5 miles per run. It all depends on our stress level for the day. Last time we went running, Amanda and Karen came with us. Amanda has tendenitis in her foot, so she speed walks while we run. Sadly enough, Amanda is normally able to stay within 20-25 feet of us. Needless to say, Tasha and I aren't the worlds fastest women. Steve and Karen were going quite a bit faster than we were, and Tasha and I wanted to rn through the gardens, so Amanda, Tasha, and me all went running up the hill, through the gardens, up to the temple, and then down to our apartment. We thought that Karen would know where we had gone because we had described our route to her, but she had forgotten. So she and Steve went to back to the apartment to wait for us. I think that Karen was a bit angry with us...but we had a really great run!

On Wednesday, Steve invited our apartment over for a movie. Karen was getting homework help from John, so she didn't come and Amanda had a massive headache because she had hit her head on the bathroom door about 4 times in a row and thus, was unavailable. She still had a bruise right between her eyes from that night. So Tasha, Kendra, and me went over. I'm not quite sure what I think about that night yet. We watched Madagasgar 2 and it is the most random, pointless, waste of a night movie I have seen in a long time. There were about 3 funny moments and then a bunch of "huh?" moments and I really would like my 2 hours back. The movie finished at about 10:15 and thanks to the addictive qualities of Mario Kart, we didn't get home until about 11:30. Oh, college life! I will add this though, I totally beat Steve and Tasha and Kendra in a few races! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And I have never played Mario Kart on a Nintendo!

BYU-Idaho has a faculty jazz ensemble and they had a recital on Thursday. Sarah and I went to it along with Kierra, Matt, and Becca. (Yes mother, it was Becca Pass) The concert was amazing!! Most of the music was written (or outlined) by members of the ensemble, so it was new, funky, edgy, and fantastical. Sarah used to play jazz piano in high school so she was enraptured by the pianist and pretty much made the experience. One thing that I personally loved was the classical jazz style mixed with an appropriate amount of modern edge. Truly, I still get chills thinking about it!

Thursday was also Steve's birthday and his roommates threw a surprise party for him. I decided to go to the concert instead of Steve's birthday, but if I could get class credit for going to birthday parties, I would probably attend more.

So that basically brings us to Conference weekend. All of my roommates either went home or to Utah for conference, so I had the apartment all to myself! Bahahahaha! On Friday night Sarah came over for a movie and dinner and ice cream. She brought Butterfinger ice cream and even though I could feel the pounds gathering around my waistline, it was one of the most delicious moments of my life. She went home at about 11:15 and at 12 o'clock Kristy called and we talked on the phone for about an hour and a half whilst watching The Devil Wears Prada. It was rather amazing night.

On Saturday, I did some cleaning while listening to the Saturday sessions of conference. Richard G. Scott gave one of my favorite talks of all time! I also have to admit, I was extremely relieved to have him speak at the beginning of conference, instead of the afternoon session on Sunday. I'm pretty good about staying awake during conference, but he is the supreme master of lulling me off to sleep. Nothing else really happened on Saturday. After conference, I went grocery shopping and did laundry with Sarah. Oh, and I finished homework. The End.

Sunday was amazing! At 9:00, I went over to Sarah's apartment and we made breakfast. She invited a her friend Kelly who invited his friend Sean over for breakfast and conference. We played conference bingo, ate pancakes, eggs, and sausage, and enlightened Sarah to the fact that Ann Dibbs is Pres. Monson's daughter. We also had chicken enchiladas, rice pilaf, and spinach salad for dinner. It was an amazing day. I am still in awe of Elder Holland! I love how secure and vigorous he is with his testimony. He has blown me away in the past few conferences. I'm also falling in love with Elder Cristofferson. His subtle humor and amazing spirit really touch me and I love hearing from him.

So that brings me to where I am now. Sitting at a computer, eating a Riesen, and telling you about my lame college week. Right now my roommate is texting our FHE brothers to survey them about how many girls they have kissed for her stats class and I am trying as hard as I can to stay out of her conversation. It is supposed to snow 2 inches tonight and then another 4 during the day tomorrow. I can't honestly say that I am looking forward to winter weather. I really want to know what happened to Autumn! But the cold isn't so bad. Amanda, Tasha, and Kendra just got home and apparently it is snowing really bad in IF and the pass to Rexburg was awful. Hopefully, our thermostat starts to work tonight. Last night was freezing because our thermostat wasn't working at all. Please call tomorrow to make sure that I haven't died and been eaten by cats.