Pictures of our current life.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here is our life as of late in a few pictures. 

I'm trying to get better at remembering to take pictures of things. I'm still really bad at it but I'm hoping to get better. 

I'll start with our cute house. We moved in a little over a month ago and we LOVE it! Life is so much better living in a house than an apartment with annoying pot-head neighbors.

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Bar/Dining Area (we don't have room for our kitchen table so it's in the garage)

The Hall

Guest Bathroom

Guest Bedroom (Ignore the fact that the pillows look ugly and they don't have pillowcases on in this picture. They were in the washer at the time.)

Office/Ironing Room/Another extra bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Since we've been married, Justin and I have learned that we need to make our own fun, here in CA. Our little town has very little to offer when it comes to extra curricular activities so we've come up with our own. We first tried Geocaching, we liked that but have only done it a few times because it gets kind of hot so now we have putting competitions in the house. Justin has taken the trophy twice and I have once but I'm feeling a comeback coming on. 

The first time Justin won. He couldn't believe he actually did it.

The second time he won. He started to get cocky. 

The first time I won!

This post is really random but I wanted to post all of the pictures I have as of late. 

Sadly, I only took 2 pictures of our Lake Tahoe trip over the 4th of July. We had so much fun! It was such a blast!

Justin was a sweetheart and pushed me around in the kayak.

Eventually I got brave and tried it by myself.

So, Sadie came home from her mission last week. Sadly, I only took one picture the entire week. Pathetic, I know. We also threw a baby shower for Addie and I'm so sad that I didn't take any pictures because the decorations were so cute. I hope someone took pictures of all of the food. It was pretty adorable if I do say so myself. 

Sadie missed being on the boat and the lake. 

When we came home from our Bunkerville trip our cute house had been taken over by ants. So my manly husband took care of the pesky ants. 

Killing the ants!

Our New Life

A lot has happened since I last blogged. I've decided that I need to start blogging again. Even if nobody reads my blog, it's good for me to blog because I have a terrible memory.

My last post was about Drill Team. I absolutely loved being the Drill Team coach! The girls and I had so much fun together and I think that we definitely grew as a team! The girls took 2nd at their competition. It was an incredibly stressful day but it was all worth it when they were able to perform and perform well! They were a little disappointed that they didn't win but I was certainly proud of them! We had our Drill Team Review in March (a week before my wedding. yeah. I'm crazy.) They performed beautifully at Review and it was such a relief to get it over with. After Review we went back to my parents' house and had dinner, which was delicious and then I sent them on their way. It was a bitter-sweet day because it was my last day as their coach. We laughed, cried, and much more. I love those girls. I think the world of all of them and wish the best for all of them!

After Drill Team was over, it was time for me to really focus on our wedding. Of course, I had been planning for the wedding while I was coaching drill team because it would have been impossible to plan a wedding in a week but the week after review was crunch time. Although, it was a little difficult for me because while we were prepping for review I came down with the worst cold! I was so sick and miserable and it didn't go away after review. I was sick all week. Fortunately, the cold went away a few days before the wedding. Can you imagine how miserable my wedding day would have been if I was sick!? Heavenly Father answered my prayers that week! 

The wedding was beautiful!! I went through the temple the night before we were married at 7:20 pm Utah time. It was an amazing experience. But once the session was over, we all had to head back home to Bunkerville so we could get to bed and get a good night's sleep because the next day was going to be a long one. 

All of our sweet nieces and nephews!

We got up early on Saturday, March 15, 2014 because it was MY WEDDING DAY!! Justin and I were able to drive up to the temple together, which was really nice. It was a beautiful sealing and we had SO MANY people come support us! Someone counted all of the people in the room with us and they counted something like 92 people! It was so sweet to have so many people come be with us on our special day.

All of the wonderful people that were at the temple with us!!

Justin moved to Tehachapi, CA a few weeks before we were engaged. I, of course, moved here with him after we were married. We honeymooned at Newport Beach in CA. It was perfect and so much fun! Our first night we stayed in Mesquite because we didn't want to drive after such a long day. Then the next night we stayed at a fancy hotel in Vegas. It was so nice!! Then the rest of the week we stayed at his cousin's condo right on the beach. It was so fun. We went to Disneyland for 2 days and then went to the beach other days and just relaxed. So fun! 

We're still in Tehachapi. I recently got a new job at the eye doctor that my sister worked at. She quit because she's going to have a baby, so I took her spot. Justin is still working at the VA in Bakersfield. It's a bit of a stressful job for him but he's learning how to adjust and deal with the stress of the job. 

We also recently moved into a house! We were living in an apartment for the first 2 months of our marriage. The apartment itself was actually really nice but our neighbors were kind of unbearable. So, we moved into our house and we love it! It is so spacious and cute! I love it! 

Well, I think that's enough for now. I feel like I've been rambling on and on forever. I will try to take more pictures because I suck at taking pictures! I didn't take any of our honeymoon and we went to Lake Tahoe with the Whipples for the 4th of July and the only pictures we have are of me because Justin took them or he had our niece take them. (so he's in like 2 haha) 

Well. Peace yo!

Precision Dance Camps!!

I know. I know. I suck at updating my blog. Get over it... haha

This week has been quite the adventure. Oh, wait. I should back up a little bit. Back in January or February (I can't remember which) I was made the new drill team coach at the high school! I love it so much!! And this week we had our drill team camp! It was a 3 day camp where an instructor flew in and gave us a camp right at our own high school. It was so much fun!! The girls learned three different dances, a Camp Dance, a military dance, and a kick dance. The girls did so well and I am so proud of them. They worked so hard and it really paid off. I can't wait to really dive in and have some real practices and dance!!! Here are a few pictures from this week. :)

Day 1:

Learning the Camp Dance.

Playing a team building game. (Lover's Leap)

 Day 2:

Looking at pictures of themselves and making corrections.

Camp Dance.

 Day 3:

Team Picture with our instructor, Breann... Such pretty girls!!

Camp Dance performance.

Messiah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I haven't blogged in months. But it's whatever. So, last night was The Orchestra of Southern Utah and the Southern Utah Chorale's first performance of the Handel's Messiah. (We perform again tonight at 7:30. It's free. You should come!!) I am one of the lucky ones and have the opportunity to perform a solo. I am singing the Angel Recitatives. I love them! They fit perfectly in my voice and they are all about the angels coming to the shepherds and telling them about Christ's birth.

I love the Messiah. The music is beautiful and tells the most beautiful story, of Christ's life on earth. Whenever I sing, either in the chorus or as a soloist in the Messiah I can't help but feel the spirit and I know everyone else feels the same. Our conductor, Dr. Sun, has such a love and passion for this piece of work. It is so much fun singing for him. Everything he is feeling comes beaming out of his whole body as he conducts. His favorite piece is For Unto Us a Child is Born. He's never told me this but I know it is. The way he conducts it is just beautiful and I can't help but smile. They video taped last night's performance, I hope they got some footage of him conducting that piece. It HAS to go in the DVD. Everyone should have the opportunity to see his joy.

Anyway. I just so blessed and am so grateful for the talents my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I love singing and I love sharing beautiful music with others.

My newest projects

I've been really bored lately, so I've decided that I need to do something productive with my time rather than sit and watch tv shows all day long. So now I watch tv shows and make things.

We are having Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house this year so I asked my aunt if I could make some decorations for our tables. Everyone usually does a good job at making our Thanksgiving tables look cute and pretty but I REALLY needed something to do or else I was going to go crazy. She said that she was fine with it as long as I made something for her. haha.

These are what I have so far....

These are going to be table runners. Neither one of them are done yet. I made them out of burlap. I saw a lot of really cute table runners made from burlap on pinterest so I decided to try it. The top one is going to have another line of color. The first three are different kinds of ribbons (you can't really tell from the picture because I took it with my phone but just trust me) I think I'm going to use ric-rac on the fourth line. The bottom one is going to have lace sewed on to the other side as well. I just ran out of the lace. They are both about 4 yards long to fit the length of the table and hopefully plus some so they can hang over the edges.

I made these out of baby blocks. I just painted over the little pictures that were painted on the blocks.

I'm a big girl now.

I did it. I finally did it. I had my first, real, big girl audition for something other than school. I auditioned for the Utah Lyric Opera yesterday. It was terrifying at first but then once I was actually in the room auditioning it wasn't that bad. If felt like I as at NATS all over again just without all of my friends watching and cheering silently for me behind the judges.

To audition for ULO you have to send in a resume and head shot and then after that they will invite those that they want to hear sing to audition. I kind of knew that it was probably a long shot for me to even get an audition since the only experience I have is from high school and undergrad but I applied anyway. How else am I going to build a resume? I thought that they were going to let people know if they got an audition by September 7th so the closer it got to the 7th and I hadn't hear anything I just convinced myself that this is how it works in this business. Sometimes you get an audition and sometimes you don't. So, I wasn't too torn apart about it. There will be other roles and other auditions I can try for. Then to my surprise, on September 11th I got an email saying that they would like to invite me to come and audition for them on Friday, September 14th!! I only had 4 days to prepare for this audition! I was freaking out. (Seriously, I was basically hyperventilating. Ask Sadie.) I may have even cried a little because I was so "excited and scared" (name that musical! :)) After I had composed myself a bit I called my mom and told her and she congratulated me and then offered to drive me to Provo for the audition. (Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you that the audition was in Provo? Well, it was.) I told her that I would love it if she would go with me. Then after I got off the phone with her I sent a text to the rest of my family and friends telling them my good news. I then decided that I needed to decide what to sing. Please be aware that I hadn't seriously sung since my Senior Recital in April. That was a really long time ago. My voice needed way more time than 4 days to get ready for an audition, but that was all the time I had. So, I jumped in the shower, got dressed, and headed over to the music building to talk to Professor Modesitt about what I should sing.  I got to her office and luckily she was still there. I told her about my audition and we decided that I would prepare So anch'io la virtu magica  from Don Pasquale and Steal Me. Sweet Thief from The Old Maid and The Thief. She then offered to give me a lesson, so we decided that I would have a lesson on Friday at 1:00 right before I was to head off to Provo.

The next few days I practiced my little heart out. Well as much as I could anyway. Since I hadn't sung since my recital my voice was not ready to sing for more than an hour at a time. So I would sing for an hour and then take a break and study the translations or take another look at the Italian to make sure I was saying it all right. Then I would practice some more.


Finally, Friday came. My lesson was scheduled for 1:00 pm and Professor Modesitt wanted me to come warmed up. So I made my way over to the music building at about 11:45 so I would have time to organize my music and then give myself plenty of time to warm up. By the time I was plenty warm it was about 12:40 so I waited around for my lesson with Karyn in the music office and we watched a little bit of The Old Maid and The Thief. Then I went in for my lesson. The lesson went great. I sang everything well and she only had to correct me on a few of my Italian words, which is super good for me because I am AWFUL when it comes to pronouncing foreign languages. I definitely don't have the gift of tongues. But I can fake it alright. After my lesson Professor Modesitt was very sweet and told me that I would do well and that I needed to keep her updated on what happens. (Which means a lot coming from her. She doesn't give compliments out unless she really means them.) Now, I was feeling pretty good! I was going to get to Provo and knock their socks off. Now, I just had to wait for my mom and Clancy to get to Cedar City so that we could all ride together to Provo.

Once my mom and Clancy made it to Cedar, they dropped off a few boxes of food for Sadie and I, we grabbed my things and headed on our way. The drive there wasn't too bad. I wished it could have only been 2 hours rather than 3 because that 3rd hour seems to last for eternity. I was also a little nervous that I wasn't going to be able to find the room that the auditions were in because the HFAC (the fine arts building at BYU) is literally a maze. Luckily, my friend, Geneil is a grad student at BYU and she practically lives in the HFAC so she knew where the room was. She sent me a text with the directions. We must have either done something right or my mom was driving really fast because we weren't planning on getting to Provo until about 6:00 but we got there at 5:30! It was perfect because my audition time was 6:27. (Random, I know.) I had plenty of time to find the stupid room, change my clothes, and warm up. Right after we arrived at BYU we looked for the room first. We found it with no problem. Then my mom and Clancy went to the bookstore and left me to get ready for the audition and to DO the actual audition. I then needed to change my clothes. (I wore a t-shirt and jeans to ride in the car. That is definitely not kosher for an audition.) So I wandered over to the main part of the HFAC to find a bathroom. As I was walking towards the bathroom on the top floor I glanced down into the open area of the main floor and who did I see sitting on a bench? None other than Geneil Perkins herself. It registered in my head that it was Geneil but it took me a second to actually realized that IT WAS GENEIL! She sang my name, of course, and I ran down to see her. We chatted for a little while and then she showed me to a bathroom and a drinking fountain on that floor. I then changed my clothes and headed for the audition space again. Geneil had told me where the practice rooms were but they were on the bottom floor and the audition room was on the top floor. And being the worry wart that I am, I just wasn't going to risk missing my audition time because I was warming up! So, I warmed up on the patio outside by the audition room. After warming up for a bit I went inside to wait for my turn.

They were running a little ahead of schedule (which never happens in these kinds of situations) so I was really glad that I had arrived so early. The waiting area they had us in was so small and cramped and everyone was at least a little bit nervous, so everyone was sweating like crazy. It was pretty nasty. Then, finally after I had cooled off a little bit it was my turn! Then the sweating started all over again! I walked in and the girl manning the door introduced me as Shane Leavitt. Shane? Really? There isn't an 'n' anywhere in my name! And without even thinking, I corrected her! Now, my brain was going a mile a minute. Do they think that I'm a diva because I corrected her? I don't want them to think that my name is really Shane! Oh, well. I handed my music to the accompanist and then prepared to sing. They asked what I would be singing for them so I told them that I was going to sing So anch'io. There was one woman on the panel of five people. She then said, "Well, why not?" haha so I sang my song. It was little nerve wracking to be honest. The woman was the only one that actually seemed the least bit interested in my performance. The others just sat there and stared at their computers while I sang to them. But, I felt very good about my performance. My high notes came out as easily as ever and I was feeling good. They didn't ask me to sing a second piece, which was fine by me. The first piece is hard enough on my little vocal cords. As I was getting ready to leave, one of the men asked me how old I was. I told him I was 23 and almost in unison they all said, "Ohhhh." and shook their heads. Then the same man asked me where I studied. I told him that I just graduated from Southern Utah University. Then he asked me who I studied with. I told him that I studied under Carol Ann Modesitt. He seemed pleased with my answer and they thanked me again. I thanked them for the opportunity and I left. As I was walking out of the room, the girl manning the door apologized for butchering my name. I told her that it was fine. Then one of the ladies sitting outside the door told me that I had "a cute little voice." - I'm sorry what? a cute LITTLE voice? I know I'm a small person but I don't think my voice is all that little anymore. She was quite a bit older than me so maybe she thought that I was younger than I really am too. I don't know. I guess I shouldn't let things like that rub me the wrong way. - Sorry, my diva side came out a little.

But, my audition was over! I had done it and it went well! They told us we would hear back by November 1st. If we don't hear anything by then, we can assume that they won't be needing us this year. We'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

September 11

September 11, 2001. I remember that day so vividly as does everyone else, I'm sure. I found out that the first tower had been hit while I was on the bus going to school. I was in seventh grade and my first class was Biology with Mrs. Matthews. On the bus, my friend, Vanessa had informed me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I had no idea what the World Trade Center was. I was so confused. Then once we arrived at school we all went to class like normal, except it wasn't a normal day at all. The feeling in the classroom and around the entire school was so somber and almost reverent. Nobody was talking about who so-and-so liked or if they had done their homework that night. We all knew that something serious was happening. We just didn't know what exactly. Instead of learning about biology that day, Mrs. Matthews let us all watch the news. From what I can remember, about 5 or 10 minutes after Mrs. Matthews turned on the TV we watched the second tower go down. I remember my teacher yelling at a news reporter on the screen telling him to run because the debris and ashes were flying towards him. At that moment, I knew. I knew that this was a really bad thing and I was terrified. I cried. I was scared for those poor people in the towers and planes. My heart was aching for the families of those who had been killed. Then I realized that there were firemen and police men trying to help those innocent people and I realized that they were in serious danger as well. This really struck a chord for me. My dad is a fireman, and I couldn't help but think that, that could have been him if something like this happened in Las Vegas. I am so grateful that he didn't have to do anything like that. I don't know what I would do without my dad. For the rest of the day all we did was watch the news in class. I'm so grateful that my teachers thought it important for us to watch and learn that day. I will never forget that day.  Today, I remember those that have lost their lives for their country. I am so grateful for them. They are all true heroes.