Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Today's post is brought to you by the letter...

Vfor Valentine, Very busy, vegetable, vain, volume, virtue, vitamin, vest, vacation, vase, view, venture, vanilla, vowel, voice, verb, video... there's a long list and I'm sure you can think of a few more...

Its been a Very long time since the last life update. So much has happened that its hard to determine just how much to reveal. For the most part life has been centered around school. I've had 9 tests in the last three weeks. 4 major projects in those same weeks, as well as 50 5pg papers to grade, a surprise party (for my hubby) to plan, LOST to record, the SuperBowl, Valentines Day to celebrate, and Presidents Day full of activity. That was just the stuff that doesn't count normal homework, quizzes to take online, FHE, and the laundry and dishes that were piling up to the point of suffocation.

But I made it to live this week. I've caught up basically on the laundry and dishes(with the help of my wonderful husband) and I even managed to enjoy a few of the days the past few weeks.

Bryce's surprise party rocked! He had no idea what I was planning until after work that night. (and for him, that is hard to do) I had him pick me up after class and head over to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Then we stopped at Kohls to get him a jacket for his birthday and headed home for a (what he thought) romantic night that I had set up for him. I was amazed at how silent 20 people could be. When we got home it was like no one was there and the surprise was rather loud. (almost like the movies!) He wasn't prepared for the second surprise I had waiting for him in the bedroom (don't worry its not what you are thinking).

For quite some time now we've had a running joke about getting a puppy. Both of would really like one (me more than him right now) but we are not allowed to have pets at the house we live in right now. One night Bryce exclaimed that at the rate I was going with this, I would be getting him a dog for his birthday. Thus my devious plan was born. I continued to play it as a joke, but was also partly serious. I contacted his Aunt who had a little Yorkie that she let me borrow for a day. We brought her home to surprise him at his party. He didn't think I would follow through, but I can be devious when I want to be. :)

Valentine's Day this year was dragged over three days... so that was kinda nice. It is our first Valentine's day together (married). On Saturday we made an appearance at the stake dance that was put on by our BYU Married stake. There was a live band, delicious refreshments, and a photo booth with fun props to take our pictures with. We danced around until the place was so packed you could really only wiggle. We went home and Bryce chose to watch Enchanted (a real sacrifice for me). Sunday we spent with my family. Bryce and Dad made meatballs and marinara sauce from scratch. Ben made bread sticks. Mom and I were in charge of desert, so we made individual chocolate and raspberry trifles for everyone. It was all so delicious and it was fun to have Grandma and Linda there to celebrate with us too! If you are interested in pictures/ recipes for this delicious dinner, click here.

Monday was a rather fun day. I had to get up early to finish grading papers, but at 10:30 we went to see the Lightning Thief with my family. I really enjoyed the movie (although I still really like the book). We went home to get a little more done, we dressed up and headed for Park City. Our plan was to meet Bryce's brother and his wife up at the Stein Erickson lodge for dinner (we had both received a gift card to there for Christmas). It was easily one of the nicest restaurants that I've ever been to. I can now say that I have had quail, grilled pear, Mediterranean sea bass (with a butter caviar sauce... interesting), and chocolate nibs. :) Bryce had lamb, there was duck, veal, black forest cake... and it was all delicious! Thanks mom and dad LeBaron for a wonderful time!

Anyway, life is still on the fast track with school and work, but we are enjoying our time together and are loving married life. Its always an adventure when you have someone you love to be with. (I know, my posts are a little mushy lately, I'll try to fix that...)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Cupcakes Can Kill You

BYU A Capella Club presents: The A Capella Jam!

A collection of different Barbershop and A Capella groups got together to perform for their audience. BYU is known as a "hotbed" for this type of music and as one could imagine, the groups were amazing! I did feel like Simon on American Idol... Bryce and I ended up discussing the different strengths and weaknesses with each performance, but I did thoroughly enjoy myself.

One of my favorite groups is a group of 9 girls who call themselves Noteworthy. They were AMAZING! Their harmony and blend was so in tune with each other that it was hard to recognize that you were not listening to music... just voices. Their percussionist, Courtney, was better than some men I have seen. As a girl, that talent is very hard to come by. I was very, very impressed. Their second song was an arrangement of Come, Come Ye Saints and when they sang I had goosebumps appear all over! I could just feel the song... *sigh* it was great!

(noteworthyladies.com)

Another performer was a sort of "one-man-band". His performing name is Mr. Tim and he is actually has shows in Vegas... (don't worry he's family friendly...) Tim had his apple computer there and demonstrated a live looping with himself to sing a song with himself... it was absolutely amazing and really fun to watch. His last song was all about how cupcakes can kill you. It was pretty funny... and he had close to 10 different things looping around with his song. During his song he had a ninja fight on stage with a hostess cupcake. He won, but only barely... It was pretty good. If you are interested, the link to that particular song of his is below...

http://www.mistertimdotcom.com/music/CUPCAKESmix03.mp3

Anyone who is familiar with music groups at BYU is also familiar with the group called Vocal Point. It is the top A Capella group that comes from our university. They, of course, were the finale group. For their first song they started out in the audience and came up like zombies while starting the song "Thriller". Their choreography was phenomenal and I forgot that I was listening to A Capella, not music... I am still trying to wrap my head around it! :D Of course their numbers were amazing and we had them on for an encore... Their encore piece was a Russian song that I have found on youtube.com. Its as good as I can find to show you how amazing this song was. I was very impressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYTcYMheGt0&feature=related
(the musicians are a little creepy... but the singer is absolutely amazing)

Anyway, That's a whole lot of nothingness... just me babbling on... Maybe one day, I'll write something significant here... but what fun is that?

P.S. At least its a little new culture right?