Brava! Brava! Bravisimma...

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go skiing with my sister Maren and a friend of ours from the gym. It was a really fun day and I was absolutely exhausted when I got home. After I dropped Maren off at home, I went to my mom's house to pick up my dog and maybe take a nap. I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV to find the 25th anniversary special of the Phantom of the Opera on PBS. I have somewhat of an obsession with this musical. I was unable to take my eyes off the TV for the entire three hour program. I was completely mesmerized and I had chills throughout the musical. Let me explain where my obsession come from...

When I was about nine, my neighborhood best friend, Ryan, got a copy of the soundtrack to Phantom. We started listening to it every day and started acting it out and lip syncing. We knew the story perfectly and knew every word. We even got to the point where we put on our own production. Costumes, lighting changes, and everything. I was Christine, Ryan was the Phantom, and my sister Angie was Meg. Ryan's sweet mom actually sat and watched us act out the entire thing once. I wanted to see the real thing in person, but I had to wait a few years.

The first time I saw Phantom live I think I was in the 7th or 8th grade. There's nothing like seeing it for the first time. It was pure magic. The second time I saw it, my high school boyfriend surprised me with tickets when I was 17. The third time, I saw it with my parents and Angie in New York my senior year of high school while I was auditioning for schools back east. I think the movie came out my senior year too. It was really well done, but there's something so special about live theater.

Anyways, I remembered how much I love the Phantom when I watched on Saturday. The 25th anniversary special is airing all month on PBS so I HIGHLY recommend that you check your local listings and watch it. You won't be sorry. From the opening auction scene "Sold! Lot 665 then...", to the closing scene beneath the opera house "Christine, I love you", you won't be sorry that you watched it. To further convince you, go here to watch the final scene.

Rose-Bud

About three weeks ago, my dear dear roommate and friend Rosie and her husband Jay were in town for a funeral. Since it had been TWO YEARS since we had seen each other, we had to get together. We met in Salt Lake for some Hires burgers and shakes and sat and talked and enjoyed being reunited. Rosie makes me so happy, as you can see:
We had made plans to have a roommate reunion with Amber and Nathan in St. George for New Year's, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out. This summer, ladies! I have a cabin with our names on it!!!

Hello??

Wow.

My last post was on July 30.

I began my 30 day challenge on April 1o.

I'm a bad person.

Honestly I have been so busy the past few months that I never made time to sit down and talk about everything that's going on. Here's a quick recap.

1) I started working at Pier 1 Imports in July. It gets me out of the house and is generally a fun place to be. Sometimes I feel really dumb though because I feel like I'm not using my degree at all. Also, I hate working Sunday nights to set out holiday items.

2) I'm up to 5 flute students now. One of my favorite students is 69 years old. She just decided this fall that she wanted to learn the flute and man, is she dedicated. She does absolutely everything I ask her to do and she is progressing so quickly! Also, today in our lesson, she brought me freshly baked homemade bread. I'm eating it right now with butter and honey. Delicious.

3) I started working at an accountant's office last month. One of my dear friends/high school tennis coach offered me a job doing data entry and payrolls for his office. Honestly, it's much more stressful than I thought it would be and I feel really stupid most of the time, but I'm learning new things every day. The hours are really flexible so I can work around my teaching and Pier 1 schedules pretty easily. I'm working a lot between all three jobs so I'm constantly busy. I feel like I'm never home, because I really am not.

4) I have become a gym rat. Before I started working so much, I was going to the gym 4-5 times a week going to various classes. Right now I try to go 3 times a week and it's fun! I finally feel like I'm getting some muscle tone and I feel much better about myself.

5) My Grandma Hazen passed away two weeks ago. Even though I was really sad to lose my Grandma, I was relieved that she wasn't suffering anymore. She was diagnosed with cancer back in February and although she fought really hard for a long time, the cancer finally overtook her body. She wasn't herself at the end, didn't want to see anyone, wouldn't eat, couldn't see, etc so I was relieved to hear the news that she had passed. My grandpa is lonely, but he seems to be doing ok.

6) I applied for the position of Principal Flute of the Utah Symphony. It's only my dream job. No big deal. I was so nervous to send in my resume and I still am. I won't know if I get an audition until sometime next week I think. They have to review all the resumes they get sent in and decide who they want to hear from first. The audition is in February and there is easily three hours worth of music on the list. I feel like everyone expects me to win this, but no one (outside the music world) really understands how competitive it is to win an audition. I don't want to let anyone down, but I don't really have anything to lose by doing it. I have a lot of practicing to do.

7) My puppy is still adorable. She is almost potty trained, but for some reason loves to have accidents in the dining room with white carpet. Of course. Here is a picture to prove her cuteness.
That's all for now. I will try to post more often, but I make no promises.

Day 27 - A person I love

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... Bryce Olsen.

Day 25 - A place I love and Day 26 - A child I love

I figured I would roll these into one because we spent the 24th of July at my family's cabin in the Ogden Valley. Maren and Kevin invited us to come spend the night Sunday and then we came back yesterday. It's always a fun time up there. Growing up, I would play outside all day with my cousins. We would ride 4-wheelers all over the mountain, play in the dirt, swim in beaver dams, and get really filthy. Bryce didn't have the greatest time, however... We went on a 4-wheeler ride up the mountain, and halfway down a steep hill on our way back, the brakes went out. Luckily, Bryce is a quick thinker and we were able to stop safely, but I definitely let out a really nice scream. He also got chewed out by my great-uncle Joe, fell in the river when he went fishing and busted up his hand, and got eaten by mosquitoes. Poor guy. Hopefully I can convince him to go up there again.

My nephew Shaun is officially a toddler! He has been taking a couple steps here and there, but up at the cabin he was walking all over the place. He's such a cute little stinker. I didn't take any pictures of this trip, but here is a link of his 1-year pictures that Bryce took: http://bryceolsen.blogspot.com/2011/07/shaun-one-year-ogden-ut.html

On the way down from the cabin, we stopped at The Oaks for dinner. We thought it would be funny to give him a lemon wedge and see what happened. The following video is for your enjoyment.

Day 24 - 5 Things you love about Summer

1) No School!!!!!! And after 19 years of school, I am officially done forever!

2) Days are longer. I love that the sun decides to stay out a little longer in the summer. It makes me happy inside.

3) Warm summer nights. I love being able to sit outside on a blanket and hang out with my family. Last night was the Weber State fireworks and my sisters and I along with a couple friends sat outside on a blanket til 11:30. It was awesome.

4) Tennis. Growing up I always took tennis lessons in the summer and I always had the best sock tan lines. 3 of the 4 grand slams are in the summer as well and I love to watch me some professional tennis. It inspires me. Unless the person playing is Maria Sharapova, then I vomit.

5) Going to the cabin. My family has a "dirt cabin" in the mountains that has no electricity. Growing up it was one of my favorite places to go and still is. We would spend all day four-wheeling, digging in the dirt, or swimming in the beaver dams. Now we have a second cabin up in Island Park, Idaho which is a lot of fun as well. It's such a laid back atmosphere and I love to spend time with my family.

Day 23 - Share a favorite memory

For some reason this story popped into my head...

8 years ago (wow has it really been that long???) my family went to Seoul, Korea to pick up my brother after he served a faithful two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. None of us had ever been to Asia before and it was a really cool experience, despite the humidity and feeling sticky all day long. We stayed in a pretty fancy hotel with a very fancy toilet. This toilet/bidet had many buttons that performed various cleaning functions. One night, my sisters and I decided to play around with them to see what they did. We all huddled around the toilet and started to push buttons. Nothing too exciting happened until we pressed this one special button. I don't even remember what it was called, but I do remember the stream of shooting water that went up over my head and hit the bathroom door. The three of us just about died laughing in that little bathroom. I seem to remember that Maren went into the bathroom after that to play around with the toilet by herself and hearing some interesting squeals and giggles coming from the bathroom. To this day I can't think of a bidet without thinking about this story.