Caroling, Caroling & Finals

Last week I went caroling at a nursing home with the student music therapy association. Lots of fun.


Then last Saturday I got to help chaperone some of the church youth group (with some others just for fun) on their own caroling adventures around town at assisted living, nursing homes, and the like.


This next picture shows the floor of our office covered by a blanket and way too many physiology notes as I studied for the final. I am happy to report that the floor is now clean again and I am done with the most ridiculous final of my education. (Ridiculous because I will never use this knowledge ever again!)


Now I have some visitors to look forward to! And the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance, of course. Yay!!

Milestones

Dun - da da - Dun!!! I am proud to announce that Charlie officially took his veterinary boards yesterday! I am soooo proud of him! The test is really long. He started at 1pm yesterday, and didn't get finished until 6pm. But he could have had as long as 7:30! Crazy. How can people focus for that long? Anyway, he said afterwards that he felt pretty good about the test. So even though he has to wait until January for the results, at least he can wait with a positive expectation.

On a much lesser scale, I also had a milestone this week. I presented at colloquium, which is a department-wide presentation on my practicum this semester. Not nearly as high stakes as Charlie's test, but it sure feels good to have that over with.

The snow here is not melting very fast, but I discovered something that I like about that fact. Usually, in our parking lot where we live, the spots are super close together and it's annoying to park so close. But with the snow covering up the lines, people park wherever they please. (Haha! Take that, parking lot!) I know it sounds silly but I am grateful for the small things sometimes. :-)

Dickens Caroling

Last weekend I sang two concerts as a Dickens Caroler and it was such a blast! One of our members made all our costumes by hand, and they looked magnificent. We sang during a dinner at the Fort Collins Country Club to raise money for the Larimer Chorale. One of my favorite parts was singing in the carriage outside the front door to greet guests as they came in. The horse always seemed to turn around and move when we sang "Away in a Manger" so it became our little experiment. We thought maybe the horse knew what a manger was, haha.

Here are some fun pictures.

This is my quartet. We match. :-)


This is our picture "ala St. Olaf Choir"


And the whole group


The quartets have more gigs around town this week and next week. It's so fun to bring joy to people's faces when they see us all dressed up and when they hear familiar carols. I absolutely love it!

December begins

Last Friday my friend Sujung had her senior piano recital and of course I went. It was absolutely amazing. So musical and such good technique, and I don't think she made a single mistake. And she played with no breaks in between or anything. My favorites were a Beethoven Sonata and 2 Liszt etudes. It takes a certain beyond-human ability to be able to take all our music therapy courses, a practicum, and prepare a senior recital.





Some of the faces I see on a daily basis. :-)




And this picture is for Melissa and Eric. I told you I was inspired by you to make this tiny snowman and as you can see I wasted no time. I started out just using my bare hands, but that didn't last long. It is supposed to get down to -20 degrees tonight. I'm not ready for that!!

Thanksgiving with Friends

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a nice, low-key day with some awesome friends yesterday. We know both couples from vet school - Andy and Nicola have been Charlie's classmates for 4 years now! And in those 4 years, they all got married. First Charlie, then Nicola, and then Andy. We all collaborated on the meal so that it was pretty easy putting it all together. We had quite a feast.


Happy Married Thanksgiving #3!



Nicola & Jeremy



Andy & Cassie (and Pia the dog)



Look what amazing trick Jeremy & Nicola taught their dogs! One can stand on the other's nose!!! Haha.

Then, after we ate, we all went to the park just down our street and let the dogs run around (yes, we finally got our animal fix) until it got too cold. Then we came back home and had dessert and played games. What a fun day.

Animals Everywhere

The animals are out for Thanksgiving...



First, I was at the store this morning and there was a GIANT St. Bernard in the back of a pickup truck. I mean giant - I've seen those dogs before. In the cab of the truck there were two more dogs, one giant and one little. Who takes 3 dogs to the store in freezing November?



Then I was driving home and this adorable fluffy fox kept running in and out of the road. It had obviously figured out how to dodge traffic earlier in its life, because it did an excellent job. It was so cute. I really really really wanted to pick it up.



And last weekend when we were coming back from San Diego, we saw an adorable wild rabbit sitting so close to us in the parking lot.

The real question is - why am I so fascinated with this today? I think I am in animal deprivation mode or something. I know Charlie is. We can't wait for my mom to bring the dogs for Christmas. It's just unnatural for a vet student and his wife to be without pets for so long. Don't worry, I'm not going to bring home a fox or rabbit tonight ... I don't think ....

Good Stuff

Last week was a great week. The week before Thanksgiving – yay! I found out I got my dream internship for when we move back to Arizona – yay! We went to dinner at the Melting Pot with our friends – mmm – and then we saw New Moon with them today! I have a horrible memory for the plot of those books (maybe it has something to do with the fact that they are a little too easy to read and thus I finished them in a few hours) but I liked this movie a lot. Much better than the first one.


And now I’m on break! So much to do, so little time. But I love the feeling of having an entire day with no classes so I can work on the things I want to get done. Apparently, so does the rest of our town. I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon and I literally almost left because there were NO SPOTS. When does that ever happen? But then I caught someone pulling out just as I was turning down an aisle, so I got most of my pre-Thanksgiving shopping done. We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year (our first time!) and our good friends Andy, Cassie, Jeremy and Nicola are coming over and helping make a lot of the food. I’m not much of a meat lover, so I’m excited about the cherry-blackberry cobbler I will be making. I know Charlie is looking forward to the turkey, though.