Challenge

I am a Mormon.

And as such, I believe the Book of Mormon to be a book of true doctrine, inspired by

a loving Heavenly Father. It was given to us to give us paths to follow

and examples of overcoming trials by trusting a higher source.

Yesterday, I was reminded by a very good friend of a challenge that my high schools seminary sponsors. They ask every student to

read the entire Book of Mormon over Christmas break. 

I participated every year when I was in high school, but only finished my freshman year. 

I will complete it this year.

I know I'm not in high school anymore, and I have a different break than the other kids, but I will be reading this year! I started last night, and I will finish by January 8th, the day before Spring semester starts at USU.

I need to read 24 pages a day in order to reach my goal.

I challenge you, dear reader, to go along with me. Whether you are

a student, parent, or retired, I ask you to join with me and read the Book of Mormon this season. Start today, and set an end date. Make it a New Year's Resolution. Finish

before the end of 2011. Whatever your goal is, stick with it. 

"Now we not only need to say more about the Book of Mormon, but we need to do more with it."

-Ezra Taft Benson

{ a few of my favorite things }

Artsy fartsy

You would not believe how artsy I have become! I am so proud of my accomplishments lately. 

Also, you know that feeling when you see something

on Pinterest, re-pin it, and say you will do this thing yourself? 

Well, I DID.

Introducing my crayon art.

Coolest thing, right?

Here's how we did it. And by 'we' I mean the incredibly

 talented Seth King and I.

We started by taping the canvases     

to a sheet of cardboard, to hold 

them together. Then we used

hot glue to attach the crayons.

Next, I used a blow-dryer to heat and melt the crayons down the canvases.

This was the COOLEST thing ever to do. I loved it. love love loved it :)

We separated the canvases,

giving a real artsy feel.

With his magical talent of art, Seth drew the little girl 

swinging from the crayons.

(this is my favorite detail)

Here she is, a little bigger.

this concludes the explanation of the magic.

..but not the pictures!

I now have a quite unique piece of art to hang 

wherever I live from now until I die.

Thank you Seth, for the Christmas gift. 

I love it!

my favorite things

Reason for the Season

Long time no blog, eh? Well I'm back!

Recently, I've been hard at work studying for my finals this semester at USU. I only had two real finals, so it wasn't too hard to study. The miserable thing about being a music major is that we have a thousand and a half classes per semester, but the best part is that most of those classes don't have written finals. 

In all of my spare time, I have been quite busy doing my favorite thing, 

CREATING. 

I'm a huge fan of home-made Christmas gifts, (and since I have the BEST friends ever) and I knew I had to take some time to make items that could be semi-worthy of my besties.

root beer bottles with twine

 SO, this first one is a set of decorative bottles wrapped in twine, glued down. Hobby Lobby, my new best friend, is having killer 50% off sales that are KILLING my bank account, but I still love it. the hardest part was getting the ends of the twine to dry fast enough to stay down, but I solved that by wrapping a rubber band around it until it dried completely. 

Enjoy your new deco, Amy. 

Michigan

This little gem was built for my favorite musician, Seth. He is from the great state of Michigan, (which is the bomb.com) so I thought to make something to remind him of his roots. This idea was stolen from Pinterest, slightly tweaked. I took carpet tacks, and to the chagrin of my downstairs neighbors, nailed them in the shape of Michigan into a hard-wood board. The X on the lower half signifies Seth's hometown of Charlotte. 

Merry Christmas, Michigan.

I forgot to take a picture of the last gift..but perhaps that is for the better! My dear CJ received a spray painted t-shirt. I took masking tape and spelled out the words, spray painted over that, then peeled the tape back for the finished product. The words I chose for this shirt are an inside joke, and we all had a good laugh about it. I'll have to ask him if I can share before I put it on the internet. :)

Stay warm, Frankie.

Last, but not least, we had a little Christmas feast last night.

Incredible mood lighting, right? I'm sad that I didn't take a picture of all of us with the food as well. I gutted Norbert, our turkey, earlier that day and put him in the roaster. 

It's true, the fruits of your own labors are the sweetest! He was delicious. 

Our good friends Derek and Britany also came for dinner, making it a real party!

I hope my friends had as good of a time as I did.

I am truly blessed to have their friendship. 

~ few of my favorite things ~

Original Song

I AM SO EXCITED!

last night (and by last night I mean at 1 AM this morning) 

my friend and I recorded our very own original song!

In other words, our baby. :)

I now proudly introduce "Making You Wait"

an original song by the amazing Seth King

and yours truly.

Lyrics: Seth King

Music: Cristina Johnson

Vocals: Seth and Cristina

It isn't perfect yet, but we love it anyway. 

Watch out people, I'm on my way to fame.

This is definitely a favorite thing!

Singing, singing all the day

Remember how I said I am a music major in college? Well. To be more specific, I'm a choral education major. 

BUT

since USU is so cool, the education majors and the vocal  performance majors get treated just about the same. Even though I really am not into singing solo... I have to. it's whatevs. 

I have been working on a beautiful French piece by Canteloube,

and wanted to share it with you. Yes it is long, but you will fall in love with it.

Just like I have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lalGP1_hgyI

Beautiful, right? 

well, I'll be singing this, as well as five other art songs for my vocal jury in a month and half. Nervous much? Yes. This will be my barrier jury, meaning if I don't pass this one I'm out of the music program.

YEESH!

I'm not worried though. Everything will go great.

Also, yesterday I was introduced to a super-duper voice combo song, "Next To You" by Chris Brown featuring my main man, THE Biebs. Admittedly, during the summer with 

13 year-olds I caught the Bieber Fever. Yes.

Pretty good, right? It's not my most favorite, but I did enjoy it. :)

I'll be downloading Justin's new Christmas album very soon.

All music aside,

one of my new favorite things are sleepovers. I spring

out of bed instead of seeing how long I can stay asleep. 

Being at someone else's apartment really makes a difference. 

< These are some of my favorite things >

Proudly Presenting

Utah State University Chamber Singers

One of five choirs in the WORLD

has been invited to attend the worldwide conference in

Beijing, China.

We are happy to inform you that your presence here will be funded by our patrons. 

Welcome to the cool club!

SA-WEET, right? Friends, I'm going to China in May! For the amazing price of $500!! 

My life is complete. This is the ultimate choir experience. I am beyond excited.

Maybe.. possibly.. I was ready to drop out of school until I found out about this. 

I'll stay in school. 

This is a definite favorite thing. 

My my my..

SOOOO, sometimes people can punch you in the face. Really hard. Without even knowing they've done it. And what can we do? Punch back! Hah. I wish.
               Mostly I just sit at home for a few days, nursing my wounds in private, and then get out of bed and go back into life. There is nothing more to do without becoming violent myself. Then where would I be? Looking like this, which doesn't seem so bad.

This summer, I worked at Oakcrest LDS Girl's Camp (fret not, I won't get

all 'camp counselor' on you right now). On weekends, my sister and brother-in-law

kindly agreed to let me shack up with them. This meant extended time with the

fore-mentioned adorable nephews. During this time, Scott was having a hard time keeping his fists to himself during nursery at church, so I thought this would be an excellent

 time to teach him a great life skill. Spell casting. 

"Stupify!" "Petr(mumble)ficus Totallis!" This kid is awesome, okay. He is getting so good

at it, and it seemed to be helping with the hitting issue. Now he gets in trouble because people 

think he is saying 'stupid' to the other kids. Ignorant parents, haven't you seen 

Harry Potter? This kid is the coolest thing to ever happen!

Long story short, I've also been using this technique lately. Yes, I cast

spells at people in my head when I feel like hitting them. Sometimes I even point at them nonchalantly with my finger, for aim.

Today was one of those days.

If I had carried my wand with me today, two people would be stunned, four would be floating in the air, and one dead. Bummer.

But on a lighter note,

I heard/saw a construction worker singing at the top of his lungs

today on my walk to school. It was 

quite the event!

Although this might have sounded like a lot of negative, you have no idea how much fun I've been having today. In my head. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, and rightfully so-- I am. But I love it, and I wouldn't have it any other way! 

these are a just a few of my favorite things.

say hello to my little friends

          I know I'll post about these little guys someday, so might as well do it now.

Scott

Caleb

I have the cutest little children, don't I?
Okay, so they aren't mine. But they might as well be, I'm the favorite aunt. :)

About a month ago, we went on vacation to Bear Lake, and I got to spend some quality time with these handsome little dudes. Caleb has the most adorable swimsuit/bodysuit! Prepare yourself..

cute, right? 

Here he is in action. What an adorable little bugger.

This conference weekend, my roommate Stephanie and I were able to watch with them on Saturday. Let's just say that we didn't spend as much time watching the TV than we did watching these sweet brothers play. And hit.. and scream.. 

Scott is growing right up! What a big kid he is, reading letters off the page and telling me what the words mean. I can't believe how brilliant this 3 1/2 year old is. 

SO, basically these kiddos are some of my favorite parts about Sandy, Utah. 

Love life!

Hello there! I am here to introduce myself, 

because I'm just this cool.

I know you are all thinking, dang does 

she look good! Just so you know, I'm already 

aware of my frightful good looks.

So, a little something something about me. I'm in love with music.

It is my passion, and my life. 

I promise to post about music later, but my newest passion is photography!

Here is a sample of my fun fun fun try at photography already. 

I DO love this one.. 

So, my photography is a little silly, but I take pictures with heart. I'm sure.

    If you can't already tell, I am pretty cool. In other words, I think everything I do is quite hilarious. 

These are a few of my favorite things.