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!