Random

Please excuse the random nature of this post. I need to "blog dump" all of my old pictures and posts that I never got around to before I start with DC posts.

1. Festival of Colors.

I went to Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork this year. I had never been and I felt kind of lame that I would travel the world to go to cultural events but I never made time to go to the ones a 20-minute drive away. So I decided to go. My sister Losaunne said she was going to be there too, so we could hang out.

The parking in Spanish Fork was out of control. Unfortunately, I didn't really know where I was going and was just following the line of cars or else I would have known where to park. As it was, I parked at a place I thought must be close.

It was close, if you think that 4 miles of walking is close. I don't mind walking. I really don't. But when you have to listen to the same people's conversation as you are tripping through mud and walking around the parked cars lining the road while traffic crawls in the opposite direction, it gets a little old. Especially if your sister who is at the Festival doesn't answer her phone (left it in the car so it wouldn't get colored), so you don't even know if she is still there. (btw, does anyone else hate listening to strangers' conversations while they are walking behind you for an extended period of time, or is that just me?)

Turns out she wasn't. By the time I got to the Festival, she had left. I just walked in, snapped a few pictures, and took the long trek back to my car. Lame, I know, but at least now I've been, right?

I just wonder how they get all the color off of the temple. Maybe they leave it in and let the elements take care of it?

In any case, welcome spring!


2. Happy Birthday.

My birthday this year was kind of crazy. I have trained myself not to expect much from birthdays because my expectations are always too high and thus never met. This birthday was no different. My coworker told me happy birthday, and of course I got 100+ facebook happy birthdays from people who otherwise would have had no idea that this day was the happy celebration of my birth (I love facebook for that). I had a rehearsal that night until 11 in Salt Lake, and when I got home I was ready to crash. I was surprised and delighted to see that my roommate had left me a rose and some chocolate on the table with a happy birthday card. This was one of the best birthday gifts I have ever received because it was unexpected--and given without expectation of reciprocity! It reminded me of Elder Eyring's BYU devotional on "Gifts of Love."

(Don't worry, Mom and Dad. The camera I got for my birthday/Christmas/graduation ranks up there with the best birthday gifts ever given. The picture of the cupcakes, given to me the next day by my mother, was taken with said camera.)


3. Roommate Photo Shoot.
A couple of months ago I looked outside my window. The sun made the lighting on our balcony a soft golden glow. I knew that pictures needed to be taken that very moment to capture the magnificent lighting. I solicited my roommate and neighbors.

Isn't the lighting just beautiful?


4. My Cute Nephew.
I have three cute nephews, actually. But I did a photo shoot of this one (actually several). Isn't he adorable? (Still waiting for the day when I can do a photo shoot of my first niece. Still waiting for her to be born, actually. I just missed her birth, and now I am in Washington, DC and she will be born in Utah. Lame.)

5. Udall Photo Shoot

I feel like I do a lot of photo shoots. One of my dearest friends, Shayla, and her family are back in Provo while her husband attends law school. Her kids are so cute (and funny) that I would practically pay her to babysit them! Although a photo shoot with kids is never a completely enjoyable experience for all parties involved, I love taking pictures of them. 

Max was ready to be done almost before we started. This is him, 8 minutes in, with his desperate "cheeeeese!" face.

Like I said, photo shoots are rarely fun for everyone involved...

6. Easter Egg Hunt.

And to finish off the batch, here are some pictures of two of my nephews gathering eggs on Easter.

Women's Chorus

Now that I am "kind of" graduated (pictures to come), I have started thinking about the things that I will definitely miss more than a little at the BYU. Women's Chorus hovers right at the top of that list.

I have been in Women's Chorus now for many years (I became a member the year after Sister Applonie, the director, became director) and I haven't gone a F/W semester at the Provo campus without being a part of this excellent choir. Back in 2006, I was even the Publicity Chair. It was a thrill (and completely exhausting!).

This girl, Megan, told me that she joined Women's Chorus because of me (we went to Jerusalem together).

Women's Chorus is a huge, huge time commitment. One hour of class M-F, added to several dress rehearsals and concerts a month, singing at devotional, and extra practice times all add up to being way more work than just a one-credit-hour class. However, even in my busiest semesters (19/20 credits and 2 jobs), I still did Women's Chorus because somehow, singing with 180 girls under one of the best directors I have ever known (Sister Applonie) makes me feel more human (and with 20 credits and 2 jobs, I need all the help I can get to be human!).

Several times a year Women's Chorus plans service projects and outreaches to the community. One year we painted a home for Habitat for Humanity.

As you can tell, I was thrilled (mostly because I had a chance to wear one of the ugliest shirts I have ever owned--leftovers from the Jerusalem Center in the 90's that I got for free!).

Clearly, Women's Chorus was a thrill. I mean, just look at that face. We were rehearsing for a concert that started in about 20 minutes and I just wanted the whole world to know, "There's a mess of moonlight, won't you share it with me?"

If I had to go back and do my undergraduate experience again, there are a lot of things I would do differently. However, one thing that would stay constant would be my involvement in Women's Chorus. I would gladly do all those years again, despite my busyness.

It was that awesome.

Favorite memories of Women's Chorus:

*One year we took Women's Chorus pictures on the back steps of the Maeser building. It was an incredibly hot day in April and, at 3:00 in the afternoon, the sun was baking those steps like cookies in a 350 degree oven. Unfortunately, we were on those steps wearing black dresses. Girls kept passing out, and someone would drag them over to the shade and fan them as the photographer kept taking pictures. I think somewhere between 5 and 10 girls passed out that day...

*We got to sing in April Conference in the Conference Center in 2006. It was awesome. I will never be the same after sitting in the choir seats at General Conference. I think President Uchtdorf even drove past us in one of those little golf carts the General Authorities use to get around after the session was over and we were in the tunnel.

*My folder partners have just been awesome. Really. Somehow I always got put with someone that laughed at my jokes and even had some of their own, which made class time a lot more pleasant (since I had to sit next to them every day for 8 months!).

*When President Hinckley dedicated the JFSB in 2006, guess who sang at the dedication? The combined choirs, including Women's Chorus.

*Recording sessions are long and sometimes miserable. Once we were recording on stage in the DeJong and right as we finished one of the songs, a girl in the front row passed out. She fell forward and cut her chin and they were afraid to move her, so someone held her head in their lap and waited for the BYU medical people to come while we kept recording. As we finished the next song, this guy came in and ran up to the stage. "That's my wife!" he said. I don't know why it was so funny, but the situation was just one of those crazy ones that you laugh about afterward.

*Sister Applonie was the best director (and mentor and friend) that I could ever have hoped for. Especially since I saw her every day for many years, I had a lot of time to learn things like balance, efficiency, and how to have high expectations without overwhelming yourself from her. If the conductor had been someone else, I might not have stuck with it for so many years. But seriously, she was all I could ever ask for in a conductor.

As you can tell, it has been quite a ride! Plus, we have our own chocolate. How much cooler can you get?

These Things Are Never Ok

I usually try to keep my blog material light and funny (thus hiding my true personality). However, this weekend I had an experience that quite upset me, actually, and thus the nature of this not-funny and not-light blog post. If you are the type that reads this blog just to laugh, skip this post and come back another day.

I want to address the issue of "these things are never ok: never say these things about or to your spouse in public." Now, I am not married, but I still know what type of comments could potentially signal "the beginning of the end." I have one tip for a happy marriage: never insult your spouse in public, even in jest, and never joke about leaving your spouse or finding another spouse. These, my friends, are comments that wreak havoc upon personal emotions and relationships.

What event could make me so passionately aware of this issue? I was riding in a car with some friends, including a married couple. I don't know the man very well (we are in a class together) and I had just met the wife. After hearing about some of my academic feats (I think it was somewhere between stating that I had 2 majors and 2 minors and I have TA'ed for 23 classes), the man turned to me and said, "Now Breanne, if things don't work out between my wife and I..." implying that things could work out between he and I. My anger and emergency systems immediately went on alert and, while trying to handle the situation as tactfully as possible, I suggested that it was already a little too late for that (and his wife stated, "But things have already worked out between us...it's a lot too late"). While the man was still laughing, thinking, I am sure, that it was a great joke, his wife said, "Why are we laughing about this? Am I supposed to think this is funny?" She was laughing also, but her words betrayed her possible hurt. I, on the other hand, was offended that I had been brought into and become the object of a discussion about the relationship of the man and his wife.

I didn't go off on a rant in the car. It is not my place to counsel individuals about their relationships and what they say in public. However, I think the mood in the car, while still laughing, made it clear that things like that were not ok to say (I did make some comment about how if it had been my husband that said that, "There would be h*** to pay tonight!"). Please, men, if you love your wives, don't ever insinuate that things won't work out between the two of you in public. And if you don't love your wife, don't say anything about her in public either. Things like these can become a hidden wedge that starts to tear marriages apart. Your wife is worth more than that. You are worth more than that. And  your current and future relationship is worth more than that.

I will finish this post with a story shared in the April 2011 General Conference by Richard G. Scott entitled "The Eternal Blessings of Marriage:"

"I remember one day I took some of those little round paper circles that form when you punch holes in paper, and I wrote on them the numbers 1 to 100. I turned each over and wrote her a message, one word on each circle. Then I scooped them up and put them in an envelope. I thought she would get a good laugh.


"When she passed away, I found in her private things how much she appreciated the simple messages that we shared with each other. I noted that she had carefully pasted every one of those circles on a piece of paper. She not only kept my notes to her, but she protected them with plastic coverings as if they were a valuable treasure. There is only one that she didn’t put with the others. It is still behind the glass in our kitchen clock. It reads, 'Jeanene, it is time to tell you I love you.' It remains there and reminds me of that exceptional daughter of Father in Heaven.

"As I have thought back over our life together, I realize how blessed we’ve been. We have not had arguments in our home or unkind words between us. Now I realize that blessing came because of her. It resulted from her willingness to give, to share, and to never think of herself. In our later life together, I tried to emulate her example. I suggest that as husband and wife you do the same in your home."

On Graduating with 246 Credits

Today in my English class the topic of how many credits I will graduate with came up. Don't ask how this topic just happened to come up--I am quite proud of my excessive amount of credits and bring it up at every opportunity.

Anyway, when I mentioned that I am about to graduate with 246 credits, the class was incredulous. Cries of "Don't they kick you out before that?" "How long ago did you start?!" and "Wow...wow" accompanied by a stunned look rang out across the classroom.

My teacher looked around at the class. "Can anyone beat that?" No answer. "Does anyone even have within 50 credits of that?" When no one answered again, I laughed out loud. "Yes, it's kind of a sensitive subject with me. I've been here a long time, ok?"

Five minutes later, my teacher said something and then added,  "How many credits do you have? two-hundred-ninety-something?" This way-out-of-proportion guess made my original number seem so much more reasonable.

But hey, I think it's still pretty impressive to be graduating with 246 credits...

Valentines day. It's about...Love.

When I was a child Valentines day always meant new socks. (Who wants flowers, anyway, when you can get something practical like socks?) My mother or sisters might correct me on this one, but from what I recall, each Valentines day for several years we each got a pair of socks and a note from Mom detailing what she loved about us.

For me, socks became the defining symbol of Valentine's day and, in a larger aspect, love in general. Love = socks. Socks = love.

It was a real disappointment to come to college and no longer get socks for Valentines day. Plus, for 3 of the past 5 years on Valentines day I have been in countries where they don't even celebrate the day of love. Lame. No socks = no love in my life. (No wonder I am having such a hard time with graduating from BYU single! I need to get married so I can get socks on Valentines day!)

Anyway, just a couple of weeks ago, on Valentines day, I came home and found this waiting on my doorstep:

It's not quite like a pair of socks, but I could tell that this had been given with love, too. In fact, it was this girl (and her boyfriend) that had left this thing of beauty, this symbol of love, on my porch for me to see:

Remember that random couple from temple square on New Year's? Yeah. Actually she is my old roommate. Who just happens to also be my current next door neighbor.

Isn't that one of the most wonderful things you've ever heard? It falls in place right behind the announcement made when Kinder chocolate was available in the US and when laptops were first introduced. My (ex)roommate, who already has a boyfriend of her own and already probably got flowers on V-day, cared enough about me to get me flowers (since she knew I wasn't getting them from anywhere else!).

She's great. And I realized. V-day is not about flowers. It's not even about socks.

It's about love.

Just to celebrate, I thought I would leave you with a picture of (one of) the love(s) of my life:

My nephew. Can I just say that he just started saying my name, and now I am in love. He is even more adorable now that he wakes up and says, "Ahh-Bee?" (which is toddler for Aunt Breanne) while looking around for me.

Love that kid!

Freezing

Yesterday I woke up 6 inches away from this. This is on the inside of my window.

It's cold!!

Demon Washer

The past few weeks have been CRAZY. I won't spend time telling you about the horrifying amount of research papers I have had to write (approx. 50 pages due this last week) and the extreme number of personal statements I have composed (18 different ones), in addition to 20 hours of work and 19 credit hours. Whew! Just reading that makes me tired.

Suffice it to say, at times I have felt a little possessed.

Apparently, so does my washer.

The other day, I threw my clothes in the washer during the short 20-minute period that I had run home to change my clothes and grab some lunch before going to my other job. I didn't have time to put two loads in, so I just threw them all in together.

When I came out 10 minutes later, this is what I saw.


Here it is from another angle (please excuse the messy state of my kitchen):


Yes, folks, that washer used to be sitting right next to the dryer. Somehow it moved forward all the way and then, when it ran out of cord and couldn't go straight anymore, it turned a 90 degree angle. All by itself.

And that was when I knew my washer was possessed.

A Summer of Fun

This post is only a few months overdue. :) This summer I told myself I was not going to let the summer fun pass me by--after all, it had been two years since I had been in Provo in the summer, and I might not be back in Provo for a summer for a very, very long time.

I was taking a ridiculous number of classes and working, but that didn't stop me from exploring some beautiful hikes around Provo.

The first hike was to Battle Creek Falls: fun enough to do twice. The first time was with my roommate and her fiance.

Despite the look of pretended terror on my face, the hike was quite easy.

The best part about the hike? There is a waterfall less than a mile in. So just when you start to get tired or bored or the kids start crying, there you are at the waterfall.

Because it seemed like the perfect hike for a young married couple with a baby, I invited my sister and her husband and baby to come along the next time.

Peter was terrified of sitting in the baby carrier thing and cried for the first half of the hike, but he was quickly content when his mom broke out the food.

This is my favorite picture of the three of us. I think it really brings out my best feature--my left eye. :)

Early in May, some people from my ward decided it was time to take a road trip to Goblin Valley. I was game. I took my homework, fell in love with George Herbert's poetry (who, strangely enough, I hadn't encountered before--he took a seat next to John Donne on my list of favorite poets). My camera batteries died after about 5 minutes, so this is all you get.

Over the 24th of July weekend, I went with my sister up to Bear Lake. It was a dream.


And even though I don't have pictures, we can't forget about the Scottish Festival in Payson. I went with my roomate (the engaged one) and we explored my Scottish roots, found out that not only is my mother's Campbell side Scottish but my White ancestry also has Scottish roots. Unfortunately, my roommate didn't find any Scottish crest with "Borg," her last name. But we did eat funnel cake and listen to bagpipes. It was pretty awesome.

During finals week, my former roommates convinced me to go with them to pick raspberries at 6am. Then we bought the ones we picked and ate them. It was a pretty fun experience--nothing like an early morning hike through a raspberry farm in high heels before going to take a final. :)

Finally, early Labor Day morning my roommates and I hiked the Y. The best part, in my opinion, was this picture. I was pretty proud of myself.


Jealous of my summer of thrills?