Jumping for Joy!

And, finally, a HUGE congratulations to my cute, lil' sis Kim, who is now officially a college graduate. Woohoo...you made it!!! Wish I could have been there!

I'm alive!

Once again, I'm long overdue for another update. Everything continues to go well: work, church, and social life. I cannot believe that May is almost here; only 5 more weeks of school! Haven't figured out any definite summer plans, but for now, New York, North Carolina, and St. Louis are good possibilities.

The last few months have been busy ones. In February, we had our 30th annual Parker Suzuki workshop, and though it's a huge undertaking, it all went really well. I'm so proud of my students! The weekend was also a fun one because my parents came to visit for a few days; it was exciting to have them experience my everyday life. I'm always on "vacation mode" when I visit them, so now they know for sure that I actually do work hard for a living! I definitely kept them busy; here's a quick summary of our activities:

Friday: visited my school, attended our concert, had a yummy lasagna dinner with a family from school and some other teachers.

Saturday: went to a Farmer's market and bakery, saw a few local attractions (the Presidents' heads, waterwall, Art Car museum, and Galleria), and ate at a favorite Mexican restaurant.

Sunday: went to Church, visited my mom's cousin and his wife who live only 15 min away from me.

Monday: my parents stayed through Monday, so that my mom could observe the parent/child music class that I teach. I actually found out that morning that a news crew was coming to film a clip about our program, so it was fun to have them there for that. I was on tv! Click here to see!

Since then, I've kept busy with Solo and Ensemble Festival, TMEA (a music teachers conference in San Antonio), trips to San Antonio, Galveston, and Enchanted Rock State Park, multiple church meetings, and a move into a new house! I moved just down the road into my friend Erin's house and though my room is smaller and I now share a bathroom, I love my new roommates and the open space!

Okay, now for some pics (sorry for the bad quality):

Spring Break- Port Aransas (near Corpus Christi). Time for:

Relaxing on the beach.

Having fun with some great girls!

Taking a ferry across the Bay.

Eating good food!

Being a tourist!

Splurging!

Hiking/Climbing at Enchanted Rock State Park

The International Festival in Houston. Scott and Randon drove in from San Antonio. Randon used it as an excuse to wear his kilt!

Eating fried alligator. We had frog legs, too...yum!

One more thing...

So, I guess I can add this to my 2008 list because technically it happened in 2008, but just wasn't official until 2009. I was called as Relief Society President of my ward! Not something I was initially too excited about (and I was definitely not expecting it!), but so far everything is going really well. I have amazing counselors and secretary...they are so great and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better! My main concern was trying to balance everything that I have to do, but I feel my burden lightened immensely because of them. It's definitely made my life a little busier, but if anything, I think it will be an added blessing.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

After a couple weeks of craziness, I spent the rest of the year lounging around with my wonderful family in good old St. Louie. Christmas has been the only time in several years that we've all been home at the same time and now that we're grown, I especially enjoy spending time with everyone. We did the usual holiday stuff: visiting friends and relatives, eating lots of goodies, lounging around, and shopping. I definitely needed and have greatly appreciated this break, but have to say that I think I'm ready to get back into the swing of things. Will be back in Houston on Saturday.

So, while chatting with friends over dinner, I realized that 2008 has been quite an eventful year for me. To summarize:

March: Bought a new car
April: Fractured a vertebrae in my neck
May: Multiple trips to the doctor for physical therapy
June: Trip to Okinawa, Japan
July and August: Trips to Dallas and Utah
September: Survived Hurricane Ike and flew home for 5 days
November: Jumped out of an airplane!
December: Turned 30!

Oh, what a fun and memorable year it's been! Here's to a great 2009!

Crazy December!

The first couple of weeks in December were the busiest I'd had in a long time. Over a time span of 9 days, I had a total of 14 rehearsals/performances for either my students or myself. Since I'm teaching the advanced students this year, we performed for the school Christmas concert and also had several opportunities to perform around the area. It's great, but makes the season even busier! We performed for visitors from Singapore, at Aramco (a Saudi-based oil company), for a retirement home, and even taped a segment for the local show "Great Day Houston" which aired on Christmas day. I also offered them a chance to perform at our stake's Christmas Concert and I had a lot bigger response than I expected! I had 14 students and their parents come and they all really enjoyed it! It ended up becoming a great missionary opportunity even though that was never my intention and I received so much positive feedback from everyone. Teaching these kids is so fulfilling for me; I absolutely love working with them!

Also during that week, I performed The Messiah with a Jesuit high school chorus, Vivaldi's Gloria at a local church, and a Bach concert with the Houston Chamber Symphony. Not too mention in the midst of all of this, I celebrated my 20th (I mean 30th birthday)...I know, scary, huh?...and came down with a pretty good case of laryngitis. It was cute because there was one day in particular where I could barely whisper. I think my students felt sorry for me because whenever I tried to talk to them, I only got whispers back. One student even gave a full report to her mom of when my voice was improving or getting worse throughout the day. They're so great!

In case anyone's curious, I spent my birthday working...first at school, then at a rehearsal for the orchestra, and finally with a performance of The Messiah. It's okay because the paychecks made it all worth it and because I have some really nice co-workers who brought me lunch and cake and one awesome co-worker/friend who took me out for sushi after the performance. I had also celebrated previously in November by going sky-diving (which we're doing again in January). And, my friends took me out to dinner at a Saltgrass steak house a week later. And, my awesome sister brought me home a Lady Baltimore cake (amaretto with meringue frosting) from the Buttercup Bakery in New York City. So, for not really having much of a birthday, it really turned out to be quite a good one. Thanks everyone!!! : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Usually, when I have a few days off, I leave as fast as I can. This time, however, I decided to stay in town and enjoy some rest and relaxation. Yesterday for dinner, I went to my mom's cousin Bill and his wife's house. They only live about 15 minutes away from me. It's kind of funny because she only has 2 cousins on that side of the family and the other one lives in North Carolina. I ended up spending a couple Thanksgivings with them. I haven't spent too much time with Bill and Mary but it's nice to have relatives close. As for my blessings, I'm so thankful for my immediate family, my many friends, the gospel, and all of the experiences I've had in my life that have gotten me where I am today. I'm so blessed!!!

I've never had the desire to go out shopping on black Friday, but for some reason, I woke up this morning and had the urge to go spend some money. Finding a parking spot at the mall was a little tricky, but I found some good deals on some bedding and a nice black dress coat. Not so bad, after all! I've also enjoyed watching plenty of movies over the past few days...pretty nice!

Pictures!

I meant to take pictures of everyone I visited in Utah, unfortunately, I only got a few. This is my good friend Annie. It was so fun to visit with everyone and catch up. I miss them so much!

These are pics of my "beautiful" classroom and of the kids I teach every afternoon. They are the best violinists in the school and I love teaching them because they pick everything up so fast. They are so good to me and I love them! We have a bunch of performances coming up and we're a little behind because of the hurricane, so hopefully everything will all come together. On Friday, we're performing for a group of visitors from Singapore!

I drove around our neighborhood the day after the hurricane with some friends and these are a few pics of the damage we found. The last one is of the interstate closet to my apt...yep, completely underwater. Pretty unbelievable. I can't believe that people are still recovering. I haven't been down to the coast yet, but I've seen pictures of complete destruction. It's absolutely amazing how destructive nature can be.

And finally....SKYDIVING!

Kristell and I and our instructors. Getting suited up...

Outside our plane...right before we went up.And...immediately after. We were on such a high. It was one of the most unbelievable things I've ever done. Can't wait to go again!