how time has flown!

Alright, so I know it has been awhile since I have posted. Over a year I think. Sorry, I am a slacker. ha ha. don't hate me, only love me. :) Here is my resolve for the summer though, to start blogging again. We shall see how this goes for me (I don't have the best record). 

Ok... so here I am in the summer of 2012. I just finished my first semester of graduate school at ASU. It was awesome! I love it and have tons of fun. This is what my summer will be consisting of though (along with other crazy adventures):

Yeah, here is my little music corner. Gotta love it. Also here is my motto for the times when I get frustrated and want to eat all the food in the house! 

I found this online and thought it was a great little droplet of wisdom. So I had to show you all. Alright, well that is all for now. Until next time... Hopefully it is sooner rather than later. Only time can tell... :)

Phone Call

Question. I was making a phone call to a potential student, I had to leave a message because they did not pick up. Here is a snippet of what I said... "at your earliest convenience"... what the?! when did I become so proper?! ha ha. Good thing? Bad thing? Not quite sure yet. At the moment though, hilarious. I had to laugh at myself once I hung up.

Whoa.

So I know it has been awhile. Actually, a lot of awhile. ha ha. Well, seeing as it is the new year of 2011, maybe I should jump back into this. So here it goes. First, I have graduated from BYU and left this sight back in Utah. And now I am back in sunny Arizona! Just working away. That is really all for now so until next time. I am off. :)

TEMPLES

Lately I have been on a temple kick. This summer I had the privilege to go to a few temples and just hang around. The Oquirrh Mountain Temple was recently just finished and the whole summer was basically open house. So Cami (my co-worker and friend), her daughter Maelee, and myself took a trip to South Jordan to attend the open house one day. It was amazing! I have never experienced something so beautiful. It was awesome to be able to walk through this temple and see it on the inside. I had tons of fun. And Maelee and Cami seemed to enjoy it as well. I am glad that they came with me. After my Oquirrh Mountain Temple excursion, I decided to walk up to the Provo Temple and just hang around on the grounds. It really is a beautiful temple, even though it does look like a yummy cupcake. :) It was a wonderful evening and I had a good time walking around admiring the beauty.

Then in August, I went to Alburqerque with my parents. My Mom and I wanted to find the temple there, so we got directions and drove to the temple. It was an amazing temple especially at night. It was fun to just walk around and spend time with my Mom and share that experience with her.

Well, that is my temple excursions that I have been on this summer. I love the temple! I can't wait until I get the chance to attend. The temple is quite beautiful and I love the feeling that I get when attending. I forgot about that and I was reminded this summer how the temple is such an important factor in my life. But the Mesa Temple is still my favorite!!!

Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory

For three weeks, I lived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The most prettiest place! So green and gorgeous. I attended Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory that was held in this small town. For three weeks I practiced, rehearsed, hiked, attended and participated in recitals and masterclasses, and basically had the time of my life! I learned so much in those three weeks from my private teacher, Nancy Buck and my quintet coach, David Bjella. I consider myself a better musician and perfomer from this experience and will always remember it.

Fourth of July in Steamboat Springs is a big deal. They basically celebrate all week long. It was so exciting though to watch the fireworks. Since I am from AZ, I don't experience really awesome fireworks, but CO knows how to celebrate this wonderful holiday. It was so much fun!!!

We went on several hikes, this is part of the RMSC experience. And it was good to get out and be active. Everything was so green and beautiful, the hikes were tons of fun and a good way to enjoy nature. :)

This is my quintet for three weeks. We called ourselves the Bjella Berry and the Babes Quintet; from left to right: David Bjella (cello, also the quintet coach), Alyssa Saint (violin), Alexander "Zan" Berry (cello), ME! (viola), and Anne Sorenson (violin). We performed the first and third movements of Schubert's Cello Quintet in C. I have to say though, we were the best quintet and we had the best piece! I had so much fun performing with these amazing musicians. When it was time to head back to Provo, I didn't want to leave. I had an amazing time and learned so much! I am glad that I had the oppurtunity to attend RMSC this summer and will remember my experience there. Now back in Provo, I am working and just practicing and taking a break from school. (read the post below, this talks about my adventures in Utah. ha ha.) I will keep you all updated on my exciting life, until the next time: hope all is well and life is good!

Summer Adventures

Alright, alright... I know. I haven't posted anything in forever! I am so sorry. So now I am trying to redeem myself here. This will probably be a super long post, since a lot has happened since the end of winter semester. Ok... here I go.My lovely sister Jessica moved in with me for Spring semester. We had tons of fun together. I am glad that she lived with me for that short while, I probably would have died without her (a little exaggeration). ha ha. But we had many adventures together that I will always remember and love! Love you Jess and miss you!

Well, I did take classes for Spring semester. I took Humanities 202, Music History 304, and lessons with Dr. Bigelow. The classes for the most part were really laid back and I learned a lot about the history of dead composers from the romantic period (I actually really enjoyed this class). :) The violists that were staying put together a little recital where we all played duets or trios or quartets. I really enjoyed playing with my friends!

Of course we had to take advantage of the amazing weather! So Amy and I and some of her friends took a bike ride down Center St. to this little burger shack called Sammy's. It was way fun! The weather was perfect and the food wasn't too bad either.

Well, as you probably know, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out July 15th. So I had to go see it at midnight! And of course we dressed up for the occasion. Guess who I was?! That's right... Malfoy. ha ha. We waited for about 4 hours, and the movie was AWESOME!!! I absolutely loved it.

Then on July 24th, an actual holiday in Utah, some friends and I made corn dogs. Yes, we did make the batter and actually deep fried the stuff. And it was covered in yummy grease. ha ha. But we had a crazy good time just hanging out and eating corn dogs. Tasty... I did make a quick trip home just to get away and visit. I really needed it and it was so good to see the family and hang out. :) And that is pretty much what has been going on in my life. Took a couple of classes, kept on working (I still am), and of course practiced. Until next time...

Notable Events

Alright, so I know I have been slackin hard core on my bloggin. But here you go: So my cousins came down the other week, because my cousin Kobie is going to be attending BYU in the summer as a freshman. So we all went out to dinner at Brick Oven (sad day that my parents and siblings couldn't be there) but it was a wickedly awesome dinner. Soooo good! Jess & I split the noodles dish and Danica & Schae got a pizza. Then we got dessert which was two baked cookies with ice cream. Oh man, so delicious! The four of us basically devoured that thing.

Pretty sweet. Then I went to Brentano String Quartet! I was so excited! They are such an amazing quartet and I absolutely loved them. They had a great concert and afterwards, the whole viola studio went back stage to greet them and congratulate them. Misha Amory, the violist (my favorite), even remembered me! We met at ASU and at the viola congress over the summer, we were chattin about it and he looked at me and said "You got your hair cut?!" OH MY GOSH!!! He really did remember me (because I chopped my hair off when I moved up to Provo). Pretty crazy, it seriously made me so happy. Such an amazing quartet!

The beautiful hall they played in. Blake and I at the concert.This past Friday night, I had my final Philharmonic concert. It was sweet!!! We played Wagner's Tannhauser, Saint-Saens Violin Concerto, and Stravinsky's Firebird. It was such an amazing concert! We had so much fun playing and we sounded the best we ever had. After the concert, the viola section took our annual last concert family viola picture. Pretty fun stuff, it was hilarious trying to get us all to be serious. It was a good concert.Overall, school and work are still there. Keeping me busy. I am getting ready for the end of the school year and finals, studying like crazy. This weekend is general conference, so work will pick up. Other than that, nothing too exciting. Just hanging out...