Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

I kind of have awesome news!!! So I'm finishing my sophomore year soon and had my last day of classes yesterday! I spent most of my afternoon by the pool, destressing before the last push comes to get ready for all my finals and my juries within the next week!! OK, OK, OK...I'm dying to tell you the awesome news!!

So, last week were choir auditions for next year. I've been dying, since my freshman year, to be in A Cappella. It is the most elite choir ensemble at Baylor. Dr. Raines, the director, is so passionate about what he does and is one amazing director. His choirs are top of the line! ......SO YEAH, I MADE A CAPPELLA CHOIR!! All of the results lists went up today and my name was on it!! :D

I can't tell you how excited I am!

College, especially being in the music school, has been such a humbling experience. I came from a high school where I was very successful in choir, almost all the time. I was by no means the best, but was always super confident in what I did and in all the competitions or auditions I took part in. I came to Baylor and wasn't immediately put in one of the best choirs, in fact I was put in the lowest female choir there is, Women's Choir. This was my first humble-strike! I sang with them my whole year and was very fortunate to have Dr. Lynne Gackle as my director, who immediately recognized my talent and drive, and for that foundation of a relationship with her, I am so very grateful! We had auditions again at the end of my freshman year. Results were kind of disappointing because I still didn't make A Cappella Choir, but I still moved up. I sang with Concert Choir and Bella Voce this school year. Both of these choirs are directed by Dr. Gackle as well, so I got to continue to sing under her :) I was also asked to sing in another ensemble this year, Chamber Singers, which is directed by the same director that directs A Cappella, Dr. Raines. I knew 3 ensembles would be very tough and tiring on my voice but I knew I could take care of myself and prove my dedication and drive to all of my directors. I hope I lived up to that.

I can honestly say that I am so very thankful that I have been in all of these ensembles, which I know wouldn't have been possible if I had immediately made A Cappella my freshman year. I know that the Lord provided for me and that he has lead me through my journey this way for a reason and I can't thank Him more for that. I am so ready to start a new journey this year, but am so thankful that Dr. Gackle chose me to sing in Bella Voce again this year! We have such an amazing choral faculty here at Baylor and I am so stinkin' ecstatic to have the privilege to work under both of them next year!

-Amy

What's been your most humbling life experience?


Have you ever lost confidence in something you used to be confident in yourself with all the time?

Singing Marathon!

Phew!! I feel like I have been singing non stop lately....and it's probably because I have been! Last Friday I had a concert with Bella Voce (the select women's ensemble here at Baylor). We sang a full concert and shared a little bit of the stage with A Cappella, another ensemble :) Mom came in early before my call time so we had plenty of time to go enjoy dinner before I had to get ready for the concert!

We tried out a new sushi restaurant, Wako Roll! It was a major hit! I've always been an adventurous eater...I'll at least try something before I decide if I like it or not! I haven't ever actually had REAL sushi and I usually just order california rolls or a roll that has cooked crab or shrimp, but this time I decided to be brave. I ordered a "French Kiss Roll" (the one on the far right) and was so surprised at how much I enjoyed it! It had avocado, crab, salmon (this was the raw stuff), wrapped in seaweed and rice, and topped with Masago...fish eggs I believe. Those had no flavor, so you couldn't really even tell they were there. From dinner I went to perform!

Don't we look so stylin' in our Baylor Choir Dresses?! :) We performed so well. I am so proud to say that I am a member of this incredible ensemble!

Then on Saturday, Bella Voce headed out of town on tour. We drove up to Plano and performed for St. Andrew United Methodist Church on Saturday night and at 2 services on Sunday morning!

Excited, at the beginning of tour!

Mom and friends came to listen to us sing at the Saturday
night performance :)

the sanctuary we sang in Sunday morning!

The wonderfully amazing couple we stayed with on Saturday night
from the church! Best homestay house ever!

Presenting: Bella Voce 2012, with Dr. Gackle smack dab in the middle <3

We got back from tour on Sunday evening and this week has been another marathon of singing. With juries coming up in less than 2 weeks I've been practicing like crazy and Tuesday night Concert Choir had a concert (the 2nd ensemble of 3 that I sing in). We sang the Rutter Requiem and Ave Verum by Mozart. I'll try to post some links when I get them so you can enjoy the music we made! I thought we sounded glorious and was so pleased with how it went. Kev and his fam even came in for it!

So here I am enjoying my day off (it's a university holiday), probably being the last real mental break I'll get before the school year comes to a close! Hope all is well with you!

-Amy

down week.

So it's nearing to the end of school so classes are....slowing down?? This week has been a little unreal for me. Usually at the end of the semester things speed up and last minute topics are jammed into our brains in order to learn everything we need to in time for our finals, but it's been the exact opposite. It's a little frightening, because although I don't have a lot of immediate due dates or tests or things of the like, I know that in a few 3 weeks classes will be finished and juries will be here! BAH juries! With that said I know I have a million things to do and get prepared for!

On the other hand, I've tried to take advantage of the fact that I have some VERY uncommon free time. Don't worry I'm balancing it with productive-ness too!

So what is it I fill my free time with you ask?

1.

blurry, but I still love it! 

 2.

 3.

 4.

5.

1. Spooning at 3Spoons!
2. The bestie and I gettin' all fancy shmancy at Sing Alliance Formal
3. Enjoying the beautiful weather. Sat on the porch and started a new knitting project!
4. Cooking new recipes: Zucchini Cakes
5. Trying new foods: Kale Chips. (to be honest, these were disgusting!) I'll stick with the homemade kind :) like these!

Well, I'm off to bed! Running in the morning with Solange, and the boyfriend and his fam and the mom will be in town tomorrow! Another choir concert! :)

-Amy

Bestie Adventures.

I'd just like to start off this post saying how AWESOME my bestie is! I just had such a fun day with her!

We woke up this morning around 8 and went on a run around my hometown's neighborhood. I have no idea how far we ran but MAN was it foggy! We came back home and ate the rest of my oatmeal bake from yesterday, which by the way was a HUGE hit with my mom and was just as delicious the second go-round! I will definitely be making it again soon/trying out another oatmeal bake recipe!

 I can't remember if I shared a picture of this or not, but here's
another, just in case!

After filling our tummies and getting ready for the day, we headed to Plato's Closet. If you haven't heard of it, it's a resale shop in the metroplex that buys your used clothes from you and gives you cash for what they take. I had a ton of clothes from the past year that I don't fit into anymore, so we sold them away. I made a whopping $93!!! Score! I also found some jeans and a black dress skirt there that I've been looking for for a while! Double score!

From there we headed to Northpark Mall to hit up H&M where we were both extremely successful! Solange found some highwaisted wide-leg linen pants that look amazing on her and a super cute cardigan with elbow patches! Have I mentioned how much I love elbow patches?!? Which reminds me...I'm dying to give this DIY a try some time:

Super cute right?
I found an awesome LBD, a lace skirt, some coral colored linen shorts, a new pair of sunglasses, and of course necklaces to add to my collection!

By this time, we were starving so I drove us to Zoe's Kitchen for lunch:

Zoe's makes their own hummus and I LOVE it! The
pita served with it comes out warm :)

We both ordered these delicious spinach chicken
wraps!

Then we perused around Whole Foods, for probably about an hour! Waco doesn't have one, so we took our sweet time taking it all in :)

look at the digitized price labels!

these cracked me up! On-the-go CHIA!

 Here's what I came out with:

Kale Chips, 2 fruit leathers, 2 almond butter samplers,
walnut butter, and all natural peanut spread.

 From there we went home and took a much needed cat nap and then treated ourselves to ice cream before we hit the road again to head back to Waco.

My humongo ice cream sundae, which by
the way, was my first ice cream since I
gave it up for lent. SO GOOD!

My "case of the Mondays" was fantastic! Here's to a good and productive week. fingers crossed!

-Amy

Easter Weekend

For most of the weekend I've been in Waco. Baylor's classes let out Thursday afternoon and campus quickly emptied out, everyone headed home to their families for Easter. I love how Baylor gives us both the Friday and the Monday off of classes for Easter Weekend. I, however, chose to stay in Waco for most of the weekend to participate in my church's Holy Week Services and celebrate Easter at St. Alban's. I am so extremely blessed to have such an incredible church family away from home. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Easter morning. Most of the beginning of the weekend was filled with some much needed "catch-ups", i.e. laundry, cleaning, organizing, practicing...and sleeping ;) A couple of my friends stayed in town as well, so we kept each other company, went out for lunch, got pedi's, and dyed Easter eggs! Easter Morning (this morning) was glorious! I woke up super early, to my surprise, to throw together a new recipe! Okay, let's be honest...I was so excited to try it out that I could barely sleep...had multiple nightmares about it not working out...but long story short it was super easy to throw together and pop into the oven while I got ready for church. I sang at both my church services this morning, and they were equally enjoyable. So much JOY!  After church I picked up the bestie and we road tripped up to Dallas to spend the rest of Easter with my mom and brobie. Mom made a delicious Easter dinner: ham, mac n cheese, asparagus, deviled eggs, bread....and my first dessert since the beginning of Lent! and gosh was it good!! I know, I know, you want pics. OK!

LUNCH OUT WITH FRIENDS

DYEING EGGS

SUPER PROUD OF MY TIE DYEING TECHNIQUE!

EASTER DRESS

PEDI DESTRESSING :)

Every year the children at St. Alban's bury the "Alleluia" banner...
on Easter morning they dig it up and process it into the church
at the beginning of the service, ringing bells. 

Strawberry Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bake
it was a hit at our choir breakfast!

Easter Dinner Table

John slicing his homemade bread!

Easter Flowers :)

Tomorrow, Solange and I have a full day planned. Starting off the day with a run, food, shopping, food, and more shopping :)

I hope your Easter has been as full of love and joy and blessings as mine has!

-Amy

confessions.

Confession 1: Okay, so I've been totally MIA the past 5 months...yeah I said 5 months...that's almost half of a whole year...WOW so sorry for that!


Confession 2: I've had many many good reasons why. Don't worry, I'm about to share them all!


Since the last time we talked...


I've attended crazy voice studio Christmas parties (yes, that's my voice teacher, Dr. Gordon! Isn't he the cutest?)

 I've been supporting our AWESOME basketball teams! Did I mention our lady bears are NATIONAL CHAMPIONS 40-0?!! nbd. I know. sic. em.

 Exploring Texas and all the yarn stores it has to offer! This one is in Boerne, Tx. That's me with my grandpa and my aunt. (she's a fellow knitter!)

 Having adventurous nights in San Antonio with the boyfriend, during TMEA. (@ Dicks Restaurant)

Going out on "friend" dates for Valentines Day, since my man was far away and Vday was on a school night :( But let me just say, I have the best friends in the whole world...and this might have been the best Valentine's Dinner I've ever had....but don't tell Kev!!

Performing in this HUGE university wide performance called SING!

Skiing down a mountain with an elevation of 12,000 feet! This was in Winter Park, CO over Spring Break with the roomies, Jamie and Janna. That's our other Baylor friend, Daniel. He's pretty awesome too ;)

Oh yeah, and then the bestie and I ran this thing called the Bearathon! :)

And I've done a lot of knitting:

Okay so no more excuses :) Regular blogging will happen more often. Pinkie promise.


-Ames