It's over. It truly has been one of the hardest semesters I've ever been through... Really difficult classes, trying to get my singing up to par, traveling, etc. I'm happy it's over, and I'm happier that I survived. That being said, I'm still experiencing some post-traumatic stress issues. Last night, I had a dream where I went to get my 15-page paper (which actually turned into 11 pages...) back from my professor. The score on it was 7/3563 (this was an unusually detailed dream...) and it said that I should go talk to my professor about such a low score. I did so, and he proceeded to chew me out on how bad it was, and wouldn't let me explain! It was awful. Truth be told: it IS a pretty bad paper, although I hope to at least get half credit on it... and I really hope it's not worth that many points. Anywho, my lesson from all of this is that I really hate turning in poor quality work, so I shouldn't put off my papers until the last week of school.

Another learning experience from this week: don't let your brakes get to the point they're making grinding sounds. I know, I know, this is pretty obvious and I feel so stupid. Anyway, I took my car into to get checked and the guy comes over with a list of all the stuff that needss to be done. The conversation goes a little like this:

Big O Tire Guy: "So, your brakes look pretty bad, and here's a list of everything that needs to be done."
(he hands me a list of prices, most of which are three digets long. I keep looking for a decimal point SOMEWHERE in there...)
Amanda: "Um... that's a 4, isn't it?"
BOTG: "Yeah, that's a four."
A:"And I have to add all those number together?"

Anyway, to say nonetheless getting my brakes fixed cost... drumroll please... $1300-freakin-dollars! Yeah, that was a very painful lesson. Ouch.

So today we're off to Ogden for an Elmer family Christmas party, which I'm SUPER excited for. I'm a pretty bad niece and even though I live in Utah haven't seen most of these people since I moved here. Tomorrow we're going to visit Grandpa Hull, and then staying the night in Tremonton with my grandparents. Monday, it's off to Idaho Falls to catch our plane to ALASKA! Oh man, I'm so excited!

this week=not cool

Oh man, people, oh man. This week has NOT been fun. And I still have one more crazy day like it. Yuck. Usually I have everything turned in before finals week and I just breeze through it, pretty much starting my vacation early. Not so this semester. Since last Wednesday I've had a killer hard listening exam (did you know all atonal music sounds the same?), juries, a final in aesthetics, a 15 page paper to write, and finally tomorrow a 2 1/2 hour essay exam.

The worst has been the paper. I "finished" it tonight... 11 out of 15. That's all I could squeak out! The good news is that I've done well on every other exam, and I should do well on teh really long test tomorrow, so I can afford a pretty bad grade on this paper to still pass the class. Not that I'm proud of it, it's really a miserable paper.

Other than that, we did have fun last night when I invited my whole 111 class here for a Christmas party at the apartment (I only had 7 students this semester, they all fit easily). I cooked all the food which was exhausting! I think I truly know what it means to slave over a hot stove, I had all the windows in the house open. I made beef stew, pigs in a blanket and pumpkin cookies with maple frosting... yum. I thought it was a success. We watched Elf (I forgot how funny that movie is) and in general had a grand old time.

Jordan's had a final everyday since Monday, and they've been hard! He feels like he's done really well, though, so that's good news for us. We put up a Christmas tree (yay!) and it's gorgeous. We've been trying to remind ourselves that it's Christmas even though we're both pretty stressed out. It'll all be over tomorrow at 5! We fly out on Monday, and then we're home! Oh man, I sure do miss Alaska...

A week in bullet points

-Tuesday night, Jordan was at school late working on a group project for his communications class. After two of the group members left to run errends, he found himself alone in the room with a female team-member, and suddenly he went into missionary mode! He was like, "I can't be here alone with you! I, uh, gotta, uh, go." Ok, he didnt' say that, but he was thinking it, and I think he found a quick escape. I, personally, found this hilarious. He's been home from his mission for almost two years! But apparently he's only been alone with me, so he's still crazy awkward around other girls. Ah, how lucky am I?

-Jordan's playing the bells in his Christmas Choir, which I'm very excited to hear. He's had me help him memorize his part.

-I'm singing in a small pre-jury concert tomorrow, where I'll sing three of my six songs I prepared for juries next week.

-We have discovered the utter joys of Google Calender! It's amazing. We each have a calender of our events and classes, and then through google you can share your calender, so then we can compare our calenders against each other (color coordinated, of course... I'm red, Jordan's blue). It's a great way to make sure I don't schedule anything during his concerts and so he knows when I teach and when I have free time. Also excellent for coordinating date nights. We highly recommend it.

-Shout out to my sister Melanie, who turned 20 today! Now all the "original" Johnson girls are safely out of teenagerhood. My mom would breath a sigh of relief... but she still has elementary school to get through with two more!

-My phone is broken! I hope to get another today.

-I was teaching voice lessons today, and I got up to adjust a student's posture. I noticed a bruise on her neck, and not thinking I asked, "Oh no! Where'd you get this bruise?" She turned red and mumbled, "It's a hickey. I thought I covered it up with makeup..." AWKWARD.

-One of the weird things Jordan and I like to do at Christmastime is to listen to a live stream of Christmas music played on Ted FM in Fairbanks. First off, we love all the Christmas music (more of a variety than we own) and second, it makes us feel like we're in Fairbanks. We've got that turned on right now. Home on less than three weeks!

Missouri, Thanksgiving, and Football Games...

What a week! We've traveled over 2500 miles, been to two football games (wins!) and missed way too much school. But, despite it all, it sure was fun!

The one rule in our Missouri trip was that it had to happen BETWEEN the two BYU home games. This might seem rather harsh (you're skimping on family time for a football game?), but these games are actually really important to us. It's ou r last year at BYU, and we'll probably never be to another homegame.

After our solid win against Airforce, it was off to Missouri! We didn't leave Provo until 6:40pm, and then we hit traffic from the game, so we were really worried that we wouldn't make it to Cheyanne in time, but we pulled into our hotel by 1am. We finally made it to Missouri at 10pm on Sunday. It was SO nice to see all the Leavitts! We spent most of our time hanging around at Megan and Ben's (ah, wonderful vacation!), watching movies, reading and eating.

On Wednesday, we went to Silver Dollar City, an amusement park fashioned after old-time Missouri. It was like a little town will little shops and games and rides! All the Christmas lights were up, which was absolutely gorgeous! We went on some really fun rides too; Jordan said that the "Wildfire" was the most intense rollercoaster he had ever been on. We had a crazy good time.

Overall, our trip was wonderful. We had such a great time, and it was awful to leave! I really enjoy spending time with all the Leavitts, and I appreciate their willingness to let us crash their Thanksgiving festivities!

We decided to drive home in one day in order to be sure that we'd be back in time for the Utah game. It was a good 18 hour drive: I do not suggest it! It was just a super long time to be in a car, and we all got into Provo feeling a little queasy. After last years unpleasantness, we at least made it back in one piece, a completely sucessful road trip! Woohoo!

The BYU-Utah game was AMAZING. I had never attended one of these big rivalry games live, and let me tell you, they are intense! Here's a list crazy things that happened:

1. The marching bands! They decided they were in a dueling contest. One of the most notable things was Utah scored a touchdown, so their band played their fight song, so just before their fight song ended, BYU started playing our fight song... etc. Also, after a BYU player got hurt the Utah band starting playing their fight song... classy, people, classy.

2. What was with all the red in the BYU sections? Traitors!

3. There was a guy sitting a couple rows behind us who everytime BYU missed a play would yell, "You gotta be kidding me!" Actually, they're not kidding because clearly they are playing a game. Please, please be quiet. Also, there was a lady next to us who kept whimpering, "Come on Max, you gotta believe in yourself! You gotta believe in yourself! You can do it! Just believe in yourself." (If your not a BYU person, Max Hall is our really great quarterback who sometimes gets jitters during big games). Finally, my favorite was the guy behind us who wore a football helmet... I won't go into details, but I'm fairly certain he was autistic.

4. I ate my last Cougar Tail! These are giant maple donuts... mmmmm...

5. OVERTIME! I'd NEVER seen that before, and when George caught the winning touchdown, it was the most amazing climax to a game ever! Everyone was cheering and jumping, Jordan turned and gave me the most violent kiss of my life, and then fans started storming the field! Usually they have nets to keep that from happening, but clearly someone wasn't doing their job that night and soon the whole field was covered in fans, crowd-surfing Andrew George...

I have some pictures of the awesome night, but I'm having difficulty getting them on the blog, so you'll just have to go to facebook to check them out. Anywho, back to the real world tomorrow (I really don't want to talk about it, actaully...).

He said he didn't have a required number of sources...

Ok, this is my favorite (... or the worst) moment of the week so far. Background: At the very beginning of the semester, my 20th Century Music teacher sent us a syllabus. On that syllabus it said, "You will be required to write a 15 page term paper, topic to be approved by me." Ok, that's fine. The school year began. I got busy with the class and the professor never, ever verbally mentioned the research paper in class. He doesn't mention it until THIS Monday, 4 weeks before the end of the semester, finally giving us the requirements for the paper. Ok, maybe it's a late start, but I can still do this. Someone asked how many sources we're required to have. Here, let me outline the conversation for you:

Student: "Dr. Johnson, how many sources will be required for this paper?"
Dr. Johnson: "Oh, I don't have a requirement. Just as many as are needed."
Student: "Oh, alright."
Dr. Johnson: "That being said, if you have anything less than 20-25 sources, I'm going to think your paper is suspect."
*stunned silence by class that includes gaping mouths and blinking*
Dr. Johnson: "You know, I wouldn't be too surprised if some of you have 100 sources! Just get as many as you need."

So... basically... you say you don't have a source requirement... but you do? Oh... ok. Thanks for being so clear.

I have also recently discovered the joys of pumpkin ice cream! Oh. My. Goodness. It's amazing. As Jordan has distained over, I love fall because I can enjoy all things pumpkin! (Jordan likes pumpkin things, but has this crazy idea that our lives need "variety..." silly...). So far, I have had pumpkin ice cream, and I've baked pumpkin bread, cupcakes, cookies, and muffins. I'd really like to find a good pumpkin soup recipe, too... the weird thing is, I'm actually not a big fan of pumpkin pie. This might be some weird mental carryover from old Thanksgiving (like the way I still don't like cornbread), but it's just never my favorite. I have a theory that maybe I don't like pumpkin pie so much, but I probably will love pumpkin cheesecake. I'll try to make one of those too...

The other big news is that my sister Robin got her mission call! This is so exciting for all of us! She's the first (and probably the only) Johnson girl to go on a mission. Her's call is to Fresno California, and she enters the MTC on February 17th! I'm SO excited for her!

I'm getting anxiou to get out of Provo for a little while and head to Missouri! We can't wait to see Megan, Ben, Mandy and Casey! Yay for vacations!

It finally happened...

Jordan look out the window today and saw white cars. But they weren't really white cars... it was snow!!! What a great way to enjoy a Saturday! I think I'll make some hot chocolate.

In other news, it's been something of a miserable week. Both Jordan and I had big tests yesterday that we'd been dreading all week. Jordan, of course, did fantastically (at least that's what he told me). He really is doing well in school. I'm very proud of him and all the hard work he does. As for me, I had a test in my music of the twentieth century class (it just sounds so interesting, I know) where I had to write 5 half-an-hour essays about five different composers. That's writing strait for 2 1/2 hours. My hand was in so much pain! By that last essay, I'm pretty sure I was using my left hand to guide my right hand across the page. The good news is I actually managed to write for 2 1/2 hours. The bad news is that I'm not sure how coherent those last two essays are... so... I'll just cross my fingers.

The other thing I've been enjoying this week is some really fun exercise classes! I love to exercise, and while I was initially shy of going to group classes, they are so much fun! My favorite is this class called Zumba (anyone heard of it?). It' an aerobic class that uses Latin dance moves to work out. SO MUCH FUN. I think they're all over the US, so if you have an opportunity, I highly recommend going to one. The other class I attempted was a kickboxing class... oh may, I only made it 1/2 an hour into the class before I had to quit. It was a killer workout!

The final good word is that we're definitely going to Missouri for Thanksgiving (barring any unforeseen catastrophes...)! We had so much fun last year, and even though there was some... unpleasantness... in our return, we're going to brave the drive again this year. We head off next Saturday after the football game!

With that, there's a game against New Mexico today, so... GO COUGARS!

Halloween and Concerts

Halloween was a laid back affair here in Provo for us. At first I thought I might want to go to some haunted corn maze or pirate ride (both real things to do here in Utah County), but as the evening wore on I decided that I was offically old and I wanted to stay in the apartment, order some pizza (some really GOOD pizza), watch Coraline and play board games with my husband. It was an all around success, I should say. Coraline was pleasantly creepy, the pizza was amazing, and I won the board game! (I should note: I hardly ever win games). We got a couple of trick-or-treaters (I tried to give out huge handfuls of candy to get ride of it all... I think we were popular), and overall it was a wonderfully pleasant experience.

Jordan had a concert last night, which was really fun to attend. I finally got to see the infamous Gilbert and Sullivan set, which was funnier than I had even imagined possible! Ok, Ok... I mean, really, how cute is Jordan dressed up as a pirate, dancing around proposing to girls, doing a strait-legged walk and finally wearing a police cap and a shaking nightstick? I mean, really, people, it was utterly adorable. Choralography with a choir of 180 men is probably the sweetest thing to see in life.

Other than that I've been losing steam in school. Jordan's doing great! He's on top of all his classes, he seems to enjoy work for the most part (if nothing else his employer seems to love him... to death... Jordan comes out of every meeting completely confused at the love this employer has for him), and generally tends to be a happy camper. Me? Well, Music of the 20th Century is probably going to do me in. It's weird, about half way through every semester I have to ask myself: Do I even like singing this much? My self-esteem seems to really be suffering... but alas, I suppose it's too late to back out now. I guess I'll just have to write those three 15 page papers...

Overall, though, life is content. Jordan and I are still trying to decide what we're going to do for Thanksgiving, but I think I've convinced him to drive to Missouri... more on this next week!

Our busy week is almost over, what a huge relief. I can't site exactly why, but I'm crazy excited to see October finished and November beginning. That being said, I'm definately loving the fall weather. It's just so beautiful!

This week I decided I need some nice warm, fall food. Wednesday I made some beef stew in a crock pot, and oh man was it delicious (the left-overs didn't last long). Then on Saturday I made some pumpkin bread (thanks Renee!), and today I made arroz con pollo. Ok, so maybe the arroz con pollo isn't really a "fall dish" per say, but I ate it a bunch while visiting the Pratts my last semester at SFA in Nacogdoches (which happened to be fall semester), so... by association it's totally a fall meal.

While I do enjoy cooking, I'm not usually on such a big cooking kick (my favorite weeknight meal is throwing some chicken on our beloved foreman grill, making instant rice and a salad and wa-lah! a meal is born), but I hope it continues. During school, especially since I tend to have evening classes, it becomes difficult to cook more extravagantly during the week. I hope that when I'm finished with school I'll be able to be a more consistent cook. Jordan like to enourage this line of thought...

Another fun thing that happened this week was Jordan's mom was in town! It was just a brief stop-over betwen a family reunion and flying out of Salt Lake, but we enjoyed it none-the-less. She stayed over Sunday night and then between classes on Monday took us out to lunch at Red Lobster before she had to catch her flight. It was so nice to see her and we really did have fun teasing our waiter Phil (Kait had a bit of a crush...)

Ah. The TCU game. I will just say a few grief-ridden words: Oh, thou BYU Football Team, why hast thou forsaken us? For Homecoming? 7-38? And how could it be that your only two losses have been home games? Witnessing the losses personally is like putting salt on a wound... (sub-question: why do we blow out our away games and get killed at our hoome games? Bronco's plan for success next year: 12 away games).

(I snuck out of the opera for about an hour to watch is last night. When I got back I let people know about the score and one chorus girl said: "I'm glad I'm at the opera tonight because at least in opera we ALWAYS win!")

The job search has truly begun in earnest for Jordan, and he's doing really well. He had his first interview a week ago or so with Mercer, an actuary consulting firm with branches all across the US. Jordan said the interview went really well and we're waiting to hear back from them in a couple of weeks. They asked Jordan what his top three locations are and he said #1- Hartford, #2- Kansas City and #3- Philadelphia. Cross your fingers everyone!

So, other than that, I've been reading memoires that include cute, funny animals (it's a weird reading trend, I know...). I just finished Marley and Me (I cried and cried and cried... and when I tried not to cry my throat hurt), and before that I read a book called An Owl and His Girl, which was also sad (animal memoirs are always sad because the animal ALWAYS dies at the end... you'd think I'd spare myself and find happier reading material), but really it was just interesting to read about barn owls. I recommend both if you're looking for easy reads but emotionally fulfilling material. Anyone have any other book suggestions (you don't have to suggest animal memoirs...)?

Anywho, the opera's over and Homecoming Spectacular is over, we're going to see the King Singers on Wednesday (yay!), Thanksgiving is coming, and we have high hopes for snow to make an appearance soon. Jordan's still upset every morning when he looks out to see white cars and he suddenly realizes that the cars are actually white, not covered in snow...

P.S. Did anyone else realizes you can't write your blog in a word document and copy it onto the blogger? That was real annoying...

The Beginning...

I have been considering starting a blog for months now. At first, everytime I brought it up Jordan made fun of me. Recently, however, he has warmed considerable to the idea and the only thing standing in my way was me. I seem to think that by starting a blog I am making an assumption that people actually care and WANT to read about what happens in my relatively boring life. For some reason, that assumption really held me back, which is strange because I LOVE to read the blogs of others, and I do care and want to read about other people's lives.

Anywho, after reading the October 2009 Ensign article that encouraged church members to blog about the gospel in their lives, I was finally convinced. Plus, I don't call my mother enough, I'm sure she'll be appreciative (Love you Mom!).

Jordan and I have a CRAZY busy week ahead of us. Jordan's a Tenor II in BYU Men's Chorus (he's so CUTE in his suit) and this week is all about Homecoming Spectacular. They're singing the great medly of Gilbert and Sullivan songs (well, he tells me it's a great medly, I haven't heard it yet) with tons of stuff from Pirates of Penzance, including some choralography (aka Hoopla) where they do that hilarious policeman strait-legged walk. Jordan's given me a lovely preview, which was most entertaining (if ONE man is so funny doing the strait-legged walk, think about 130 men doing the strait-legged walk! Comedy gold, people...).

While Jordan is singing in Homecoming Spectacular, I'm still trudging through this opera. I'm on campus from 5:30-10:30pm three nights this week, for a whole 5 minutes of singing and 40 minutes sitting on stage reading a book behind a screen (let me explain: I have to sit on stage for the whole third act, hidden behind a curtain until it's my turn to stand up, reveal myself, sing, and then close the screen and hide until the Act is over. My director suggested I bring a book).

We're doing Tales of Hoffman (Le contes de Hoffman) by Offenbach. It's not my FAVORITE opera in the world: the plot is a little muddled (I'm still trying to figure out why the female character in Act II dies...) but the music is utterly breath-taking. I play the voice of Antonia's (dead) mother (I will get pictures of my fanstasically scary costume up soon), and I am in only one scene in Act III, but I'm pretty sure I sing the most beautiful melody out of the entire opera.
Other than that, Provo is looking just lovely for Fall. I love to look west down our street and see the yellow trees in the sunlight. Next Sunday we plan on taking a drive up the canyon to see more fall colors. Jordan's anxious for the snow, I'm pretty sure every morning he wakes up disappointed. In conclusion, busy, but beautiful week ahead of us!