Are you READY???!

I am!  I shall attempt to blog THREE, that's right, THREE times each week!  The blogs will compose of Thankful Tuesdays, in which we post the things we're grateful for; Catch-up Wednesdays, where I'll catch you all up to what we've been doing the past week; and Flashback Fridays, where Jordan and I will share one of our favorite memories, because our blog is our journal.

That was the longest run on sentence ever.

So today is Catch-up Wednesday!  This will be a long post my dears, because I haven't really blogged anything since December (with the exception of my Christmas vacation post).  It's not going to be in order either, because I can't remember when everything happened.

1. We decorated our house for Christmas.  I love getting a real tree every year.  It makes the whole house smell amazing!

2. Jordan and I went to Maymont (my favorite place in Richmond) for a Christmas celebration!  We rode in a horse-drawn carriage, got a tour of the civil war era mansion all decorated for Christmas, interacted with "characters" dressed in their period attire, ate treats, and roasted marshmallows over a bonfire while listening to carolers.  It was awesome.  In addition to seeing the mansion, we also saw some of the sets used for the filming of the "Lincoln" movie!  So cool!

3. Our ward Christmas party was so fun. I helped decorate a table for the dinner and was blown away by the creativity of some people's tables! There was a beautiful program and we felt the Spirit strongly testifying of the divinity of Christ.

4. Jordan and I celebrated Christmas on Hanukkah...because we would be in Utah for Christmas.  Haha!  I thought it was hilarious.  Jordan got me new pots and pans, Wii Zumba, and a shredder.  I got him a hand blender, a Nintendo 3DS, and some 3DS games.  It was very fun :)

5. I quit my job!  I'm quite glad.  I'll just leave it at that, haha.  My new job will start Feb. 6.  I'm so so excited.  The hospital is only a mile away, pays more than the other one, has amazing benefits, and (drum-roll, please) I'll be working DAYS!!!  Heck freaking yes!  No more sleeping during the day for me.  I'm still going to be working in Psych.  I love working with psychiatric patients.  The only downside I can see is that I will miss this view every morning from my other job...

6. Jordan likes to hold on to certain pieces of clothing.  Like a shirt he had from high school.  Needless to say, it had a ton of holes in it.  His mom had tried to throw it away and he "saved it" from the trash.  I tried to persuade him many times to throw it away and had no success, until he got the exact same shirt on our shopping trip in Park City.  He then agreed to put the shirt down, and I took pictures to document.

7. As part of the Richmond Mormon Chorale, we performed again at the Beth Ahaba Concert a little over a week ago.  It was wonderful!  We sang Peace in the Valley.  Sorry the video is fuzzy!

8. I have read 6 books so far this year, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Magic Study, Poison Study, and Fire Study!  The "Girl" series is SO good.  Seriously.  Graphic, yes, but so good.

9. And lastly, a bit of humor.  Jordan cut his hair a few weeks ago, and decided to surprise me with a "transition" phase.

Thankfully, it didn't last long!  Bahahaha!

Already thinking of Christmas...

You probably think I'm crazy for already thinking about the holidays!  :)  Seriously though, it's like a switch flips in my brain automatically every year after Labor Day.  Halloween!  Thanksgiving!  Christmas!  New Years!  I love it!  I'm already wanting to start decorating for Halloween.  Pinterest has given me billions of great ideas for DIY projects and I'm so excited to get a couple days off to get cracking!  In addition to the switch going off in my head, beginning the Christmas season rehearsals for the Richmond Mormon Chorale gets me excited for the holidays!  We had our first rehearsal last night, and it was great.  Singing Christmas songs in September is so fun.  I always wonder what the other people in the church must think as they walk past the chapel as we're singing variations on Fa-La-La.  Haha!

I am determined to be joyful and productive and happy!  This whole season just makes me so happy!

Chorale Performance

Full story is detailed in Melyn's post below. Melyn is in the lower right corner of the choir (though you can't really see her because of the video quality). Note: It starts out very quiet then gets very loud.

I thought this was a fantastic performance. The choir represented itself very well amongst all the other churches. I think more people stood up to applaud for their performance than any other.

What an awesome weekend.

It seriously was so great. I made a vow to not talk about work or anything that would make me unhappy the whole weekend and it made things so much better! On saturday we went up the the DC temple together. It's the first time we've been able to go to the temple together since we've moved, and it was a wonderful experience. The DC temple is so beautiful. We listened to the radio on "scan" almost the whole 2 hours up there because we couldn't find a good station to play more than one good song in a row. We finally found one about 20 minutes before we arrived :) I had been to the DC temple once with my friend Lyanna and there were about 5 other cars in the parking lot. I thought for sure it would be the same on Saturday...not so! The ENTIRE parking lot was full (about 200 cars), plus the church parking lot right next to the temple was full. It was absolutely insane - a madhouse! I couldn't believe how many people were there. It was a wonderful session though and much needed.

After the temple we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory in Arlington, Virginia. The drive through downtown DC and the suburb of Arlington was so crazy! The lanes were so narrow and people were driving like mad. We finally made it though and walked through the 15 degree weather to Cheesecake.

Sunday was awesome too. I got another calling (I know, I know!) as ward organist. I'm really excited for this calling because it will help me accomplish my goal to learn new organ pieces every 2 months. It went very well during sacrament meeting.

After church, I got ready for a Richmond Mormon Chorale performance downtown. We were singing as part of an interfaith concert celebrating the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., and commemorating the lives of those who fell on September 11. It was held at a Jewish synagogue, Beth Ahaba and was sponsored by Living the Dream. The concert was called "Sing out for Freedom, Pray for Peace". Eleven choirs sang: Episcopalians, Gospel choirs, Jews, Christians, Presbyterians, Mormons, and Unitarians. It was great! We had an amazing time, and I may be a little biased, but our chorale was the best there :)

Welcome 2011!

It's been a great year already! I've made my new year's resolutions and I'm excited. I love setting goals and seeing what it's possible to achieve. My inspiration for setting goals and making them are here and here and here!!

We've been going to Gold's Gym a lot - and I did the yoga class today and it was so good. I LOVE yoga! Jordan's been doing a lot of running, something he hasn't really been able to do since we moved because of the humidity and then the cold. I love going to the cardio cinema and watching a bit of some great movies.

I've set up a plan to learn new pieces in the piano AND to learn the organ. I plan on learning a new piece in each instrument every two months. I'm also going strong again in the Richmond Mormon Chorale, and we have a performance in three weeks!

That's just a couple of my goals. Jordan says he didn't make any new goals, but I know that he wants to get honors in his classes. He's begun embryology, physiology, and histology!

I'm going to start browsing for new jobs and applying only to jobs I REALLY want. Like psych or oncology jobs. So far, none are really available. There was this sweet promotion put on by Bon Secours that if you applied between January and March and got hired, you would get sent on a vacation of your dreams or given $3,000. I was so excited...and then found out that you have to have two years experience! Boo!

Oh, and I just finished reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. It is SO good! I loved it - it's the same kind of genre as "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, one of my other favorites. So if you're looking for a good book, read it :) I'm now reading "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, an American classic.

That's all for now folks!

Halloween

Halloween weekend was great. It was especially sweet because of the good news of Jordan's wrist and shoulder. Because we are on the activities committee, we helped to plan our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. We brought our pumpkins and lanterns to help decorate and I made Pumpkin Chicken Chili (Amazing) for the chili cook-off. Surprisingly, I won second prize with my chili! For those who have the Dining with Duchess cookbook, it's on the last page of the main course section, page 84. The recipe is as follows:

Saute:

1 onion

1 yellow or green pepper, chopped

1 T. garlic, minced (3 cloves)

Oil

Combine saute mixture with:

3 c. chicken broth

2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

2.5 c. chicken, cooked and cut in bite-sized pieces

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin

1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes

2 T. parsley

1 T. chili powder

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. cumin

1.5 tsp. curry powder

0.5 tsp. salt

Cook in crockpot on low for 4 to 5 hours.

Notes: I accidently used pumpkin pie mix instead of pumpkin and I think it added a lot of flavor - it was so yummy!

Approximately 200 people came to the party, and it was so fun to see all the little kids and even some adults dressed up :)

The next day, Halloween, we went to church and then watched The 'Burbs with Tom Hanks. Hilarious, and sort of Halloween-ish. I made a pumpkin cobbler for the Richmond Mormon Chorale party/rehearsal and it was delicious. I think pumpkin desserts are my favorite! Jordan said that a total of one person came trick-or-treating at our house, and he didn't even answer the door because he was playing Starcraft. Lame!

Today I got called off work, which is always nice. I've been needing a little bit of a break. I'm so excited to see Jordan's side of the family next week when we go to Disney World! It is going to be amazing!

I asked the scheduling person at work about getting a couple days off around Christmas so that we could come home, and she said that it's company policy that there are...NO vacations from December 15 to January 15. How retarded and lame is that. I couldn't believe it. The only way we will be able to come out is if I can get someone to cover one of my shifts. So I'm going to keep trying to get coverage, but we'll see what happens. :(

A little note about commenting on blogs - The reason Jordan mentioned that I feel no one reads these is because of the lack of comments. You don't have to be a member of Blogger to comment, just click "comments" at the bottom of a post to comment as anonymous (just remember to leave your name) :). This is really the only way for me to communicate to you, our family and friends, about what is going on in our lives, and it makes me happy to read your comments, kind of like reading a conversation. Because that's what this blogging is all about. Communication! We love you so much and thank you for reading!

Richmond Mormon Chorale

I totally forgot to tell everyone about this! I have joined what is called the Richmond Mormon Chorale. Basically, it's a serious choir in our stake that sings all around Richmond and even Washington, D.C.! I'm so excited to be a part of it. I haven't really sung in a serious choir since high school, and it's great to be involved in something that will help to spread our love for Christ throughout Richmond.

Last week I had to try out (!!!) and the director, Donna, put me as a first alto, which I'm so excited for. I love singing harmony. Apparently I have a big range, so that was nice to find out too. We have practice every Sunday except Fast Sunday from 6:30 to 9:00. The first week we went through ALL 20 something songs! It was crazy. Yesterday we focused on four new pieces they are adding to the mix. It's going to be so great!!!