Back for the Holidays

It has been too long since I last posted anything. I have a bunch of pictures on Randy's camera, but I don't know where the cable is to download them to the computer. We are moving out of our apartment soon, and I can't wait. Our neighbors don't know how to be quiet at 3:00 AM. The new apartment will be bigger AND $200.00 cheaper. Hooray!

I am so excited for Christmas! Thanksgiving was a blast. We had dinner with my family and played games. On black Friday, Randy and I decided to sleep, but we went to Target at 10:00 am and got Elf. Later, we went and ate dinner with Randy's family who was in town. It was good to see everyone.

I only have one full week of student teaching left. It has been a good experience, but I can't wait to be done. It will be nice to be in charge of my own class where the students won't see me as just the "student teacher" :) There is one girl who must not think that i know much. Listen to this story. We were playing music Bingo, and the teacher clapped the rhythm wrong, so she asked me to help and I fixed it. A few minutes later, the know it all girl said "Can you clap the one rhythm where you had to help Mrs. Hoffman?" Yeah, that's right. She thought that I was the one who needed help. Lol, not that it really matters. I just want to the kids to believe that I know more than them. Way more. Randy would call me a music snob right now :)

Just Married

The wedding was perfect. Seriously, the day was amazing, and Randy and I are so happy. We went to San Diego for our honeymoon, and it was really relaxing. I promise that pictures will be coming soon from the wedding/honeymoon/etc. I just wanted to tell you all what a wonderful husband I have! The other day, he got me all worried about where we put some checks that people gave us from the wedding, and he couldn't find them. So I spent about a half an hour looking for them, and finally found them. When he got home, he brought me some beautiful flowers. I asked them what they were for, and he said he felt bad for making me so worried earlier. Isn't that sweet?? They are really pretty and add some Fall splash to our little apartment :)

THREE DAYS!

Okay, I have been terrible at trying to keep up on my blog. All you need to know:

1. I AM GETTING MARRIED IN THREE DAYS!!!!
2. Student teaching is going REALLY well, and Leah rocks!
3. I AM GETTING MARRIED IN THREE DAYS!!!!
4. I love Randy :)

I also had the opportunity to go through the Jordan River Temple on Saturday, and that was such an awesome experience. It was great that so much of my family could be there for me.

October 15th, here I come, ready or not!

Count Downs

Birthday: 2 days

Wedding: 45 days

Graduation: 106 days, depending on whether or not I count the last concert of student teaching, which I did in this case :)

These are all countdowns to VERY exciting things! I have a very busy semester, full of life-changing events. Student teaching is going really well, and I am so glad that I student teach with Leah Tarrant! She's amazing.

Student Teaching

I start student teaching next Monday, and I am kind of scared. The teacher is super nice though, and I am excited about that. It will be an interesting semester, full of many changes in my life.

October, November, and December are my favorite months of the year. I love getting ready for the holidays and I can't wait to decorate my own little apartment! That is, hopefully we will finally find an apartment :) I didn't know what a pain that would be!

55 days.

Some Engagements

Randy's sister, Anna, took some amazing pictures for our engagements! We took them at an old train station in Brigham City. She did such a great job, and we are so thankful to her. I didn't want to put all of the pictures up, because we are using some for the announcement, so here are just a few of our many favorites :)







I can't wait until October 15th!! Dress, bought and paid for. Flowers, done. Cake, done. Decorator arranged. Engagements, done. Luncheon location, done. Bridesmaid dresses, being worked on. Oh, and most importantly, the colors are chosen :) That was the hardest thing of all!

Pictures of Randy

So everyone has been bugging me to post pictures of Randy, so here are some from his trip. It's sad to say that there is only one picture of us together, and I don't like it very much. We are getting our engagement pictures done today though, so we will have more pictures soon!

This is Randy at Jimmy Hendricks(x)? grave. Yep, he's amazingly good looking :)



Randy and his brother Nate at some waterfall. Randy is on the right.





And last but not least, this is Randy stuffing his face full of hot dog. Very attractive. I just had to add it :)

That's it for now! I'll post more of the two of us together at a later date.

Big News!

Okay, since I'm not married, I hope that none of you guessed that I'm having a baby. But, I am ENGAGED!!! I am so excited! I am marrying Randy Hoffman, on October 15th. I met him through David, since they have been friends since Jr. High. Apparently Randy thought I was cute, and decided to ask me out for Valentine's Day, but tried to make it as un-romantic as possible. Neither of us was convinced about anything after that first date. I mean, it was fine, but perhaps a little awkward? Needless to say, a month later, Randy finally decided to ask me out again (he claims it was because he was sick). This date was much better, and Randy enjoyed watching me try to eat pie without a fork in a movie theater. Yes, we snuck it in, and it was awesome. We hadn't been dating very long when I left for a month for Europe. I think this was the time where we grew the most because we had the opportunity to be apart from eachother, and I decided that I knew what I wanted. That's pretty much it! We haven't been dating for too long, but we know it's the right thing to do. He is such a wonderful guy!!

Reasons why I love Randy:

1. He ALWAYS makes me feel special
2. He makes me laugh
3. He is extremely handsome
4. He has a brain that amazes me, seriously, he's soo smart
5. His love for the gospel

Hopefully I will start posting more, but it seems like I am always busy working, or hanging out with my fiance.

Home Sweet Home

I'm finally home! I have been gone on a month long tour of Europe with the University of Utah Singers. We ended in Germany, with the international chamber choir competition in Marktoberdorf, and we got first place!! Very exciting. We started the tour in the Czech Republic, then moved on to Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, and Germany. Phew! Basically, I don't want to see the inside of a bus, plane, or my suitcase for a long, long time. I have a ton of pictures, so I will try to post some of them soon. All I can say is that I'm grateful for the following things:

1. drinking fountains
2. restrooms that don't cost money
3. my own bed
4. thoroughly cooked meat
5. less smoke in the air
6. choosing what I want to wear for the day, rather than letting a wardrobe schedule tell me :)

I feel like that's a pretty good list for now. I can't wait to catch up with everyone's blogs! It feels like I've been gone forever!

No Time

Sorry it's been a while, but I have had absolutely no time lately. I am right in the middle of finals at the moment, and I am also leaving for Europe in less than a week!! If I can survive my history final tomorrow morning, life will be so much better. One more paper to write, and one more project to do for my instrumental rehearsal techniques class. A concert Friday, packing Saturday, a concert Sunday, and then off I go!! So much to do, so little time... I will be able to put many pictures up from my trip though, so look forward to an exciting little piece of Eastern Europe soon!

One more thing...

Randy, this post is just for you!! If you need a good laugh, try watching these videos. They make me laugh hysterically every time. I dont know why... You have to watch the normal one first, and then the slow motion, which is BY FAR the best :) Enjoy!!

Normal

Slow Motion :) HAHAHA

Finals? Already?!

I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by.  It seems like just a few weeks ago we were shoveling our sidewalks and lived in a winter wonderland... oh wait, that was just a few weeks ago :)  I am so happy that Spring is finally here!  Right now, I am wearing a skirt, and I didn't even bring a jacket to school.  What an amazing feeling!

I leave for Europe in three weeks, and it seems like there is still so much that I have to do before I leave.  We have tons of music that I need to memorize, but at least I will be able to do some of that on the plane ride over!  I have a few projects left for finals that I am working on (or should be working instead of blogging) but I got started yesterday and they won't be as bad as I originally thought.

Hopefully I will have some pictures to post soon from some family things and from Easter.  I hope everyone had a great Easter, because I sure did!  I am loving life right now!

Things I am grateful for:

1.  Warm weather and sunshine on my face

2.  Great friends and a loving family

3.  Pineapples Mmm....

4.  FLIP FLOPS!

P.S. You Are Pretty

This semester, I had the opportunity to "pre-student teach" at Hillcrest Jr. High. I chose to do the boy's choir, thinking that I would learn the most from that difficult group, and yes, they are difficult :) It turned out to be such a great experience! I went for ten weeks, and got to do warm-ups with the boys, do some voice testing (you know, because their voices are definitely unpredictable at this age) and even got to teach them parts of songs. What an awesome experience! They definitely weren't little angels, but they were sweet enough. Friday was my last day, and it was actually kind of sad for me. The boys found out it was my last day and got together and made me a home-made card. The front says "Thank you Mrs. Hackett" (yep, Mrs.!) with a huge, and somewhat scary looking smiley face. The boys wrote very nice things. One of them wrote "Good luck!!! P.S. You are pretty". Lol it made me laugh. They were great boys to work with! I think that I will end up teaching Middle School. There's something inside of me that says that's where I need to be. I can't wait to student teach in the fall! Teaching will be such a trying but rewarding experience. I hope that I have a boys choir just like the ones that I just left :)

Thanks!

Thank you to all of you who were able to come to my Senior Recital. It is such a relief to have it over! I did have a good time, although there were some technical difficulties with my voice :) 14 songs is a lot to sing, and I'm just glad that I didn't pass out. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures up soon. In the mean time... Happy April!

Spring Break

Spring Break was last week, and the weather was amazing!!  Boy do I miss the warm sunshine.  I got to sleep in a couple of days, so that was pretty nice.  I also got to spend some time with a friend from Virginia, and that was really fun.  I got to see my brother that I haven't seen in forever!  I went with him to a friend's party, where a guy spilled cheese grease all over my shirt.... exciting. Luckily, it came out :)  I had to prepare for my Senior Recital by doing a preview for my teacher and my advisor, so that was kind of stressful, and I'm glad that I didn't mess up too much.  By the way, my Senior Recital is April 1st at 6:00 p.m. so come!  I am singing 14 songs, by myself, and need all the support I can get :)

I really have the urge to go someplace warm right now.  How about St. George?  Moab maybe?  San Diego?  I actually won't be able to go anywhere until after Europe in June, because I don't have any time off of school.  I've decided that I really want to go camping this summer when I get home.  I haven't been camping in a while.  Basically I am just dreaming about warm times....

Come back spring!

My Little Pirates

So my brother in law had pirate costumes and my nieces dressed up and came in swinging swords and yelling "aargh!" So cute :) Here are some pictures!








I absolutely love Lizzie's face in this one. Classic "pirate".






















The pirates are now scheming... "How are we going to get these adults to give us all the ice cream?"

And of course, who could say no to the cutest pirates ever?

Then on another day, Lizzie came to my house and brought Spencer's pirate hat from Disneyland. She wanted me to try it on. What a great day to be a pirate :)

Baby Mine

Last Monday I had the opportunity to sing "Baby Mine" with three other girls in Singers at our POP concert. It was so much fun! My friend Rachel arranged the song, and gave me the solo part. I was really excited, but right before I went up to sing I got really nervous... Luckily, we all sounded great, and received many compliments from everyone there. My dad was so funny. We got in the car and he said "Emily, you have such a beautiful voice! I mean, I knew you could sing, but that was beautiful!" Thanks Dad :) It's funny because he hears me practicing at home, but usually my practicing consists of weird warm-ups, and screeching "high" notes. So I don't think my dad knew that I know how to actually sing songs. I also have my Senior Recital on April 1st- a solo recital where I will be singing many songs from my years as a voice student at the U. Hopefully I can get all of my songs learned in time!! Maybe I will figure out a way to put Baby Mine on here.

I cannot WAIT until Spring Break!! One more week until freedom!

Singers!

Here are some pictures! Although they're not from tonight, they're still of the University of Utah Singers!

Don't you love the "in-the-middle-of-singing" pictures? :)

This is Marianne and me at "retreat" (really, it's just a two day rehearsal).



The whole gang

I am sooo tired. We had our "Te Deum" concert tonight, and sang two German Latin songs, three Slovenian songs, and a regular Latin song. Fun fun! Hard to memorize... Singers is definitely a lot more work this semester since we are getting ready to go on tour in May. I can't wait!!! Has anyone seen the movie Taken? After I saw it, I told my friends that I wasn't so sure that I want to go to Europe anymore. But I'll be in a big group, so I'll be okay. Right??

There was a very good-looking violin player at our concert tonight. Good distraction from my aching arms that were holding the music :)

Sickness=BLAH!

Why do we get sick?? I have had this nasty cold for a couple of days, and it is not fun at all. Everyone in my singing group is getting sick, my co-workers are sick, and even my piano students are sick, so I was bound to catch it at some point. Hopefully I will feel better soon. I told someone today that my head feels like a brick with a small drain, and a man is on the inside chiseling away. That's just how I felt! Too bad I don't have any random guy stories to talk about. Those are always fun.

Last night I went and saw "Taken" with some of my friends from work, and it was awesome! It was suspenseful, but I had a lot of fun. We went to Cafe Rio before the movie, and I got an enchilada. Yum! Cafe Rio rocks!

Random Thoughts

First of all, this is where I want to be at the moment.

Now on to some random thoughts. Why do I tend to attract old men at my work?? Old men are always coming in, telling me how pretty I am, or making other random comments. The other night, I helped set up for a basketball game, and this old man who was a referee was like hitting on me. When I asked him if there was anything else I could do for him, his response was "well, if I were 20 years younger I could definitely think of something!" CREEPY!!! Then tonight, this guy that I see all of the time said something interesting. He is like in his early forties maybe. Anyway, he stopped me in the hallway at work today and said "Emily, come here! I have to tell you this. Every time I see you, you get hotter and hotter! I mean, what's going on? Are you getting taller? Well, keep up the good work!" What is that?? How do I respond to that?? "Uhh... thanks? I guess?" Anyway, these are just some random thoughts. I really do want to be in Disneyland right now. I love it there!!

Typing Test

This is a typing test that I found on my cousin's blog, and I decided to try it. It's a lot of fun!

116 words

Typingtest

Iceberg

I figured that it would probably be good to let everyone know what happened on my "30 minute blind hang-out" at Iceberg. I met him there, and he was pretty cute, and taller than me, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. After we got our shakes, we sat down and started talking. Well, I was doing most of the talking. It seemed like he was really comfortable with silence, and I couldn't handle it. So I would give him chances to ask questions or make comments, and he wouldn't do it! He did ask me a few, but I was the one that was driving the conversation. When I looked at my phone, it was 10:00 and I was surprised because we passed the 30 minute mark. I wanted to go home, because it really seemed like he wasn't interested, and I wasn't interested in trying to drag on the conversation any longer. Anyway, I went home, and the next day his sister in law talked to me and asked me how it went. I told her that he was a nice guy, but that he didn't really talk very much, so I assumed that he wasn't interested. She told me that he was interested, and that he would probably call me again. Maybe if he talked more, I wouldn't mind going again, but only if he talks! I mean, seriously, we didn't know each other. He could have asked me anything in the world :)

School is going fairly well, although it has taken up all of my extra time. I wake up early every day, teach piano, and work two days a week. I have a communications class that seems like it will be pretty intense. He keeps talking about English 2010, and it has seriously been 5 years since I took that class. I don't remember ever learning about Ethos, Pathos, Logos stuff... So hopefully I can figure it out! I am also in the Singers, and we have a lot to do this semester before our competition in Europe. Last weekend, we had our "retreat", which was a lot of work. We sang all night Friday, and all day Saturday. We even had a recording session on the Monday after. Needless to say, my voice was pretty dead. But I love being in Singers! It is so much fun, and I can't wait to go to EUROPE!!! I am already brainstorming about how in the world I am going to fit in my concert attire, and some other necessities into one suitcase AND have room for souvenirs. Any ideas??

Awkwardness...

There are many awkward moments that we have in life. So why are all of my awkward moments happening so frequently now? I was in an uncomfortable situation the other day on TRAX, when I saw someone who was definitely not expecting to see me. I tried to be as normal as possible, asked him how his classes went, what he's up to, and got one word answers in return. He didn't even smile! Soooo awkward.... I saw this person again today. Awkward.

Awkward moment number two happened when a guy called me last night. This guy got my number from someone in my ward. We talked for a while, and he finally just said "well, I don't know how many blind dates you've been on, but I've been on like a million. I've found that the best way to do it is to hang out for like 30 minutes, and if we like each other, we go from there, and if we don't, we can go our separate ways..." So I am supposed to meet him (he's not picking me up!)at a place next week to see if he approves of me. I sense another awkward situation coming while I am standing there, looking around for someone that I don't even know, wondering "so why am I doing this dating thing again??"

Awkward moments. Can't we live life without them? Apparently not!

Car Trouble in Downtown SLC!

Okay, I have to post about this now before I forget how good I feel... and before I actually have to pay for my car to be fixed. So today my friend Annie and I were going to visit my dear old friend Melissa and her little baby. I was soo excited that I would finally be able to see her! Well, everything was going smoothly until I got off the freeway and entered downtown SLC. We were driving next to a truck, when all of the sudden my car started making a REALLY loud noise... The only way to describe it is when you think of a quiet neighborhood and some teenager drives up the street and has one of those really loud, and I mean REALLY loud cars that moms just shake their heads at. My car was roaring! At first I thought it was the truck next to me. Anyway, I pulled over, and tried to call my mom- no answer, my dad- no answer, my friend the mechanic- no answer, and my sister- who said sorry and proceeded to tell me about sippy cups that she bought. No offense, Amy, but at a time like that I didn't really care to hear about it. Annie ended up calling her dad and their mechanic just happened to be a few blocks away from us. I was worried that if we went there, I would have to pay an enormous amount of money. My friend John- the life saver, ended up coming with his car, just in case we needed a ride, and drove my car to the mechanic place and basically took over. Thanks John! I had no idea what I was doing.....

John prepared me for the worst by telling me to say goodbye to my car if it was an engine problem, because it wouldn't be worth fixing. I prepared myself for the worst. The mechanic turned on my car, revved the engine, and said "you have a hole in your exhaust pipe". Yay! Just a little hole in the exhaust pipe! I don't have to say goodbye to my car after all! I can't explain the joy that I felt, seeing as how this is my baby, my first car :) Annie and I had an extremely cold drive, because the mechanic said that we could get Carbon Monoxide poisoning if we didn't drive with the windows down. We made it home, ate some soup, and I called my mechanic friend who said that he would call his dad to see if he could fix it. Hooray!

Now for the blessings! Basically I am very grateful that Annie was with me, and that her family's mechanic was so close. I am also grateful for my friend John, that left work to come and help me out. And I am so, so grateful that it will hopefully be an easy fix. So many blessings! And I am very proud that I kept a smile on my face the whole time :)

Family Time!

So this post is dedicated to my wonderful family, and all of the good times that we have together! We have done some pretty fun things like playing games, sledding, talking, laughing, you know, just hanging out. I am so grateful for the wonderful family that I have, and I honestly don't know what I would do without them. Here are some pictures to sum up my break.




My nieces found my snorkeling stuff that I got in Hawaii. They really enjoyed it!

We took our traditional Sisters picture

I took my niece sledding for the first time. She loved it! Amy put on Travis' snow boots to come out and take pictures, but that was it :)

The most important thing about being together as a family is laughing. And we did plenty of laughing! I love the holidays!

For New Year's Eve, my family got together and played games. Has anyone ever played the game "BANG!"? It is a really fun game! We also had fondue. It was so yummy! I don't have any pictures from New Year's Eve though.

I am also very grateful for the opportunity that we had to celebrate our Lord's birth. I hope that in the future I can do more to remember the birth of our Savior during this wonderful time of year. I hope that everyone had a great holiday!