New Calling!

It's official, I have another calling! We met with the Bishop tonight and chit-chatted a while. Then he verified that I play the piano. I was totally thinking that I was going to get choir pianist - our previous choir pianist had a stroke a few months ago. Then he said, "Have you ever played the organ?" What? Yes, I have played the organ, but not publicly, and not well I might add. But then he went on to say that we needed an additional organist for sacrament meeting. One organist is already the relief society president and another just had a baby. He asked, "Would you be willing to be another organist for our ward?" It took me a minute to respond...I was pretty shocked! And worried...for the reasons stated above. But I agreed and he said he would give me a key to practice in the chapel. So, I have two callings: relief society pianist and ward organist!

Celebrations!!

So last Thursday, Jordan and I had tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil: Alegria! I was SOOOO excited! I absolutely love Cirque du Soleil and Alegria is one of my favorite songs in the whole entire wide world (anyone who knows me well knows this :) You can listen to it here :) :) :) :) Alegria means joy or happiness in Spanish. So, obviously, I was psyched for this show! Jordan - who is the best husband ever - bought the tickets as a surprise a few months ago!

We drove up to the E-Center and decided that we didn't want to pay the $10 for parking (gross!) so we parked illegally at the Cracker Barrel. After running to the front doors, we excitedly handed our tickets to the ticket attendant. The scanner beeped awkwardly as he scanned them and he looked at us and said, "You have come on the wrong day." WHAT?!?!???? We looked down and the tickets were for the day before - Wednesday! Oh my gosh, I was freaking out. We went to the ticket booth and showed the lady our tickets and explained the situation. She went in the back to talk to her manager. We waited nervously and then they both came back. The manager said, "Normally we wouldn't do this, but you guys can actually get in tonight (WHEW!!). Be really careful though in the future and look at your dates!" We were so grateful, because frankly, those tickets weren't cheap and we wanted to see the show! So the lady gave us AMAZING seats on the right corner of the stage, 5 rows from the front! It was incredible. The show was amazing. There were trampoline artists, dancers, clowns, contortionists, acrobats, and many other talented people from all over the world. Compared to the other Cirque du Soleil show I've been to, Saltimbanco, this one was ok. The main reason I wanted to see it was to listen to the song live :)

Oh, and Jordan and I had a bet to see when the song would play. He bet it would play at the beginning and I bet at the very end. If he won, he would submit me to tickle torture and if I won, I wouldn't have to do that. I won :) After the show ended, we ran as fast as we could to our car, and it wasn't towed! Yay! We aren't going to go through that experience again though, we would much rather know our car is safe and pay $10 than have to pay for towing.

Yesterday, my brother Jordan graduated from Maple Mountain High School at the UVU Events Center. It was a great graduation and we were so happy to celebrate! I feel so old - I can't believe my brother is graduating and my youngest brother is going to get his licence in a few months! Or that hubby Jordan and I are graduating this week! It is a week of happy celebrations. After his graduation, my family and Omi and Buppi went to Tucanos to celebrate. Tucanos is my brother's favorite restaurant, because it is all you can eat meat. Delicious!

Stress Fracture

I didn't post this earlier, but Jordan believes he has a stress fracture in his right foot :( in the first metatarsal, a.k.a. big toe bones. He is so depressed about it. He absolutely loves to run and is so stressed that he can't put any more stress on the break, otherwise it will get worse. He was planning on running the Ogden half marathon but wasn't able to because of the break. He is doing a lot of cross-training (mainly biking) right now to keep his heart and muscles strong.

Up in Ogden on Saturday we were able to see Jordan's sister (Lindsey), dad (Jim), and family friend (Steve) run the half marathon. When they were finished we went back to the hotel and ate breakfast. Afterwards, the immediate family and a TON of friends and extended family went back to the finish line and bleachers. Jordan's sister (Allie) and dad joined Wendy and Anthony (Jordan's cousin who ran the entire marathon with her) in the last stretch and all the supporters and well-wishers were screaming and shouting out "50, 50, 50!" It was so exciting! After the marathon, the news interviewed Wendy, Lindsey, and Josie (Jordan's other sister). Then we came home!

Now, Jordan's sisters planned a surprise party for Wendy with tons of people - family, friends, neighbors, etc. They were all going to be coming over at 5 that evening to celebrate her huge accomplishment. His sisters planned everything, and it was so perfect :) We distracted her and took her to a movie (Letters from Juliet, which, by the way, is so cute) and then planned on going to Cheesecake Factory afterwards for dinner. We went to their house after the movie to get coupons for the restaurant (hehe) and all the people were standing in the front yard when we got there. Well she was shocked! It was awesome! Allie also made a sign that had all the marathons Wendy has run around the edges and hooks along the bottom for her to hang up all the medals. The party had catered Cafe Rio and many delicious desserts. It ended up being a wonderful night :)

This weekend was also great because my brother ran at the state high school track meet held at BYU on Friday and Saturday! We weren't able to see him but he did very well. See his results here. The high school is Maple Mountain, and they are 4A. This is only the first year the school has been open and they've been doing incredible! Here is another story about them. I love it - I'm so proud of my family!

Study.

Yesterday Jordan and I went to the Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) in Salt Lake to apply to become a Registered Nurse. The process was VERY fast and easy. I just gave them my application and then they fingerprinted me! After Westminster gives them my transcript, they will contact Pearson Vue, the company who runs the NCLEX, and give me an Authorization To Test (ATT). Pearson Vue will then call me with the ATT and ask me to pick out a date to test. I'm hoping for sometime in June, after our immediate family on Jordan's side goes on a cruise. Until then, however, I'm studying two hours each day with the Hurst review, Saunders review, Incredibly Easy review, and online study aids!! Ahh! I will conquer this test!

On another note, Jordan's mom, Wendy Henderson, was on the news yesterday! See her story here. The story is about her running her 50th marathon before the age of 50. She is truly an inspiration and motivation to accomplish goals that you set for yourself. The marathon is tomorrow in Ogden, and we will all be there cheering her on!

The Big One.

One more post...Jordan and I have been married for 11 months and one day :) almost one year! If I could give any advice to anyone it would be to treasure the moments you have. Time flies and you never know when you may not have more time. I love Jordan so much! He is such a great husband and he is simply amazing. He takes care of me, has a plan for his future, is dedicated, is spiritual, is kind, and is loving. I am so blessed to have him as my eternal companion! Eternity, here we come :)

Done.

We seriously never imagined this day would come! WE ARE DONE WITH SCHOOL!!! Getting our bachelors degrees has been such a rush and time has flown by so quickly. I makes me a little sad, but mostly happy. Jordan is SO happy he is done with Physical Chemistry and that he NEVER has to take another one of those exams again. We really have had so much free time since school got out yesterday that we don't know what to do! Yesterday I had my last final early in the morning. Jordan spent the morning playing games and watching movies. I came home and we got ready for the day, ate lunch, cleaned up the house a little, went to the temple grounds and walked around, played the piano, read books, took a nap, talked about stuff besides school, went to dinner, took another walk, and watched another movie!! :) It was so great!

I now know what I'm going to be doing with my free time. I'm going to be playing the piano again! I haven't seriously played since my freshman year of college, simply because of the time my classes took away from it. But I'm going to be learning a new piece called Wedding Day at Troldlhaugen by Edvard Grieg that is simply amazing! I'm really excited to get back into playing again - not just church hymns. There are only so many times you can play through the hymn book. After Grieg, I'm going to get a book of Chopin pieces and learn some of those because Chopin is such a master! I'm so so so excited.

I am going to officially be an Nurse Apprentice on May 7th and will be making almost double what I am now. Plus, I'm not going to be limited to 12 hours each week of working. I can pick up empty shifts whenever! So I'm going to be working about 16-24 hours each week. May is going to be amazing. My dear friend Amy Sampson is getting married on May 8th at St. Marks Cathedral and then she and her husband are moving to Connecticut. I sincerely hope that the weather in May is warmer/better than it was in April! Funny story - so on Jordan's phone, he has the weather for both Salt Lake City and Richmond. He got so excited one night after it snowed because it said the weather the next day was going to be about 80 degrees and sunny. Well the next day, it snowed again. He looked at his phone and realized that he was looking at Richmond's weather the previous night. We want to live in Richmond - mainly because of the weather! The rainy weather here in Salt Lake City has been beautiful though. It has made everything so lush and gorgeous. It looks a little like Oregon on Westminster's campus because of all the greenery!

Here is to a great May!! :)