Dear Follower(s) of the Suspense and Musical Events Cult,

Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. I decided to join a circus caravan and train elephants. As internet is sometimes hard to come by, my future posts may be sporatic and inconsistent.

Just kidding. College is busy. End of Story.

So, since my last post we have had 3 choir concerts. Our 4th is coming up this Friday. We are performing the premiere of "God's Everlasting Love" and oratorio with lyrics written by Elder David E. Bednar. Supposedly he is coming and bringing a few "friends," so it should be an interesting concert. I am actually extremely excited. The music is very modern and beautiful. Imagine Eric Whittiker writing for Mo-Tab. It truly is amazing.

I've also received a new calling since my last post. I am now the ward choir accompanist. Apparently, the last person they called was unable to play the piano at all, so a swap was necessary.

A few weeks ago, Tasha and I made the goal of meeting 2 new people a day. Well, this was an excellent idea for the first week. Then we remembered that we are in Rexburg and if we were going to continue this goal and meet our quota, we would have to drive to Idaho Falls every day for about a month and a half. So instead, we just decided to go to more activities and parties. This was a lot of fun over Halloween. On Friday, our FHE sisters had a party in their apartment. It was a ton of fun! Some of the pictures are posted on this blog and the rest are on facebook. It was there that Izzy and Karen first met and...well, the rest is history I suppose.

Saturday night was the Halloween concert which was FANTASTIC! The symphony had a concert every year with a different theme. It was really cute. This year the theme was Super Heroes and they interwove a story within the concert. If you really want to know the plot, call me and I'll give you the summary. I don't want to write it all down. Anyway, after the concert, Tasha and I went to another party out in Rigby. Dan's family has a farm out there, so we had one of the ultimate hick experiences of a barn dance and bonfire. The fire was fun. Tasha and I had a great time building the fire because the guys couldn't get the wood to light. For once, girl's camp certification was actually useful. We met a lot of people from the ward and received an invite to Sunday dinner at Dan and Chris' apartment. We have a lot of fun people in the ward, but not a ton of outgoing people. There are still quite a few nameless faces on Sunday. Dinner on Sunday was delicious! Our ward has a garden and they grew potatoes this year. Well, they sort of over estimated how many potatoes per person they should plant, and most apartments are over flowing with "taters." So the guys had a baked potato bar which was actually phenomenal!

This week, we are having an apartment cook off with CH apt. 1. Jared was talking big on Sunday a few weeks ago, so Karen challenged him to a cook off. The losers have to buy ice cream for the winning apartment. We cooked yesterday, and I'm pretty sure that we've already won. I made honey-lemon-herb chicken, with homemade rolls and steamed veggies and Karen made a spinach/craisin/mozzarella cheese salad with honey dijon dressing. Tasha made her mashed potatoes (which are to die for!) and Amanda made a cinnamon swirl cake with a cream cheese frosting and ice cream. It was a delicious dinner and I can't wait to eat left-overs for lunch! I'm pretty proud of myself because I don't like to cook, but the chicken and rolls turned out great. I made 24 chicken tenders for 8 people (Kendra is sick and not all of Jared and Ryan's apartment is participating) and we only had 5 pieces of chicken left over and about 10 rolls (I made a double batch). HAHAHA! Take that mother! You thought your daughter didn't know her way around the kitchen? psshhhh! Anyway, we are having dinner at Jared and Ryan's tonight. Brother Krebs, the first councilor in the bishopric, is came to judge and I'm pretty sure that he is coming again tonight. We actually might start teaming up for Sunday dinner with Ryan and Jared. They are both really nice guys and make the best homemade root beer (or as Tasha says "RUTbeer") I have ever had. Supposedly, their homemade ice cream is really good as well. And, they always do our dishes, so it works out well.

Last Saturday, Kendra, Tasha, and I all drove down to Idaho Falls for dinner. We ate at Johnny Carrinos and I have to say, it is mighty tasty! This trip wasn't quite as stressful as the last trip to Idaho Falls. A few weeks ago, Kendra and I went to Idaho Falls to get some winter clothes and basically got lost for about 2 1/2 hours. If you ever need to go to the mall area in IF, take the Hitt exit. It is SO much easier!

Our other Halloween adventure actually came a week or two before Halloween. Our manager has sent out quite a few emails enumerating things that we are not allowed to do. Two of our do nots were: 1. Don't swing on the lawn swing in the yard area (we are only allotted about 8 feet in that area, the rest is her personal yard. 2. Absolutely no pumpkins. Well, we carved pumpkins for FHE and, since we are not allowed to have them, we decided that the manager might like them. So we left them in a cute little arrangement on her lawn swing. About 20 min. later, the power went out. Hmmm...vengeful manager?

Well, that covers some of the big activities that we have done. I need to be leaving for class right now, but I'll try to finish catching you up later this afternoon. You challenge for the day: Go eat a pomegranate! They are delicious and full of anti-oxidants!