Northwestern

So, I have officially been accepted to both graduate schools that I applied to. I got an acceptance letter (email) from Northwestern today. I haven't heard back from either school about financing, but I should hear from Northwestern later this week and from Columbia in the next couple of weeks. My top choice is Northwestern (Chicago), but Columbia (New York) would be great too. I'm really excited for the possibilities right now!

Chicago

I spent President's Day weekend in Illinois. I flew into St. Louis, and my brother picked me up and I spent two days in Carterville, Il with his family. I love my nieces. I then took a train up to Chicago, had an old friend from BYU pick me up, and I stayed with a girl I had never met before. She was absolutely wonderful. She took me all over Chicago and was the best hostess. I met a lot of the singles in Chicago because of her and would really love to move there in the fall. I spent almost all of Monday at Northwestern University. I met with the professor in charge of graduate admissions, went to a master's level class and a doctoral class. I have to wait until March sometime to find out if I have been accepted.
Monday Tiffany took me to FHE, and then we walked around downtown Chicago. It was freezing, but so much fun. We finished the night by going up to the Signature Lounge in the Hancock Building (instead of the Sears-Willis Tower because this was free) and bought dessert on the 96th floor. Tuesday I was supposed to go back to Northwestern, but I didn't get in touch with the professor, so I went to see some things downtown. I saw the Cloud Arch, which looks like a big silver kidney bean, and then went to the Chicago Cultural Center, and it just so happened that the Chicago Children's Choir was doing an outreach to elementary schools in Chicago and they were performing song to celebrate black-history month. It was like they planned it just for me while I was there. All in all I really enjoyed my trip.


Tiff and me on the "L"


The Music Administration Building at Northwestern University


The view from the 96th floor (top) of the Hancock Building


Me and my reflection in the Cloud Arch


The Cloud Arch with Chicago behind


One of the elementary schools warming up to perform under the world's largest Tiffany Dome in the Chicago Cultural Center

Catching up

I finally downloaded some pictures from December when a lot of my family was here for Christmas. We played in the snow and built half an igloo. We put on the nativity several times. My nieces and nephews used my head-wraps from Egypt and they had a marvelous time. My mom, being the wonderful grandma that she is usually buys matching pajamas for her grandchildren. I absolutely loved spending that much time with my family. It's a rare opportunity for my family to get to spend time together.
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Teacher's College at Columbia

I got my acceptance letter today to Teacher's College at Columbia University. I am still waiting to hear back from Northwestern University, but it's a great feeling to know I've been accepted somewhere.

Christmas Concert

Life has been a little crazy and hectic this past month, but I wanted to show off my choir's performance from December. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my students singing, but I made sure that I recorded the whole concert with a video camera. My students did really well and I was so proud of them. Here is a clip of the first song we performed, "Ding, Dong Merrily on High." I did a bell theme, and all of my choirs got to use bell plates, a less expensive form of hand bells. I borrowed the bell plates from BYU. What would I do without my professors?
I also have two amazing student moms that accompany my choirs. One comes in the morning with my before school choir, and the other comes for an hour during the day to play for my 5th grade and 6th grade choirs. I am so thankful for parents' support at my school.
I did little performances with every grade the last week of school, but this concert was the biggest performance we had. My choirs will have another concert in March and our final concert in May.

Elementary School Halloween

Although it's a little belated, I wanted to share a little bit of my magical Halloween in an elementary school with everyone. I spend three days dressing up like a witch and playing Halloween games and dancing to Camille Saint-Saens Danse Macabre. The kids love it, and we have a lot of fun. Last year I put up a witch and a huge ghost over my piano and bats flying from the ceiling. This year I did all of that, and added tombstones. They were all dead composers, and the students loved the fact that I had a tombstone as well.
For the Halloween parade around the school I dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. After being a witch for three days straight, it was time for a change, and my students love trying to guess what I am going to be. Besides, I already had the dress from Camille's wedding. My mom made the adorable Toto, and it completed my costume.



Antonio Vivaldi, Duke Ellington, Woody Guthrie


My Dorothy costume. (Obviously I had to be someone else because Miss Ward was dead already.)


Peter Tchaikovsky, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann

New York

I took a trip with two of my roommates to New York over fall break. It was a birthday present to all of us from ourselves since it was all of our birthdays in October. However, my birthday actually happened while we were in New York. My reason for going was to go look at Teacher's College at Columbia, and I spent half a day there, but all three of us really spent most of our time playing in the city. It was an amazing birthday.


On Times Square after going to "In the Heights"



We were absolutely freezing when we went to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. It was still worth it though to brave the cold.






Finding our way using the subway map!









My birthday dinner with Heather, Nina, and Carli!





On the Brooklyn Bridge looking towards Manhattan.

And the job hunt ceases...

I found out today that I get to keep my full-time music position at Edgemont for at least another year. I'm quite excited that that stress is over and I can now make some plans. I will most likely be going through this same process again this time next year, but in the meantime, I am quite thankful.

Music Classroom

This year has been an exciting adventure. Starting when I got back from Jerusalem I started setting up my classroom. I had lots of help from family and friends, and put together my super hero room. I know that some of you haven't been to see my room yet, so I thought I'd finally show it off digitally. Right now because of the economy and budget cuts I am in a tentative situation on whether I will be teaching at Edgemont next year or not. I have things I am hoping for, but I know that whatever happens will be what is supposed to happen.

Halloween...a little late...and other updates

I know it's almost Thanksgiving, but my only exciting recent news is from Halloween, so I thought I'd share. Working at an elementary school I really got to celebrate Halloween much more than I have in past years (probably since I was in elementary school). I dressed up as a witch for three days in a row and decorated my room with bats and a ghost hanging from the ceiling, and had a witch made out of my easel and a cauldron made out of one of my drums. I sang Halloween songs with the students and played a few games with them. We finished by dancing to/acting out a classical piece of music called Danse Macabre, by Camille Saint-Saens. The music tells the story of death personified coming into a graveyard and calling the Halloween creatures to dance with him. The kids loved it. However, I didn't only dress up as a witch. On Halloween itself, I also was a composer, to tie in with the fact that I'm a music teacher, for the school costume parade. (Think Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Carribean, and that's about right--I actually was Mozart's sister Nannerl) The students had no idea who I was, but the loved the fact that I looked "beautiful".
I went to a party that night with some friends dressed up that way as well. I helped a friend put green food coloring and egg whites in a wig for his joker costume. Mom also made him a vest from a green shirt. I would have to say he looked pretty authentic. I don't always love Halloween, but this was a pretty good year. Besides the Halloween excitement, I really haven't done much but teach every day. I do love my job though, and it's never boring, but I still don't have much to share with everyone in terms of things happening in my life.

Merilee--as The Candy cane from CandyLand, Isaac--as the Joker, and me--as Nannerl Mozart (or some 1700's character)

On to Thanksgiving thoughts. I'm extremely grateful for the five day break this week. I have my choir concert (with my three choirs) coming up on December 10th and I don't feel anywhere ready. I'm grateful for my home in Heber. I'm still trying to figure out housing for next semester. I was planning on moving to Provo in January. Well...those plans have fallen through, so I am back to square one in looking for housing. I might end up staying at home or paying a lot more for housing than I would like to pay, but I know everything will work out eventually.