Ok, so I'm sooooo bad at this blogging game. Its been about 2 months since I've posted last, I know, fail for me. I've heard it before from many different teachers, but I never knew how true it was until this year - fall is a CRAZY busy time of the year! Activities, sports that takes kids out of rehearsals, events, busy weekends, it just seemed non stop! I've never had a fall season this busy ever before! Ok, so that's my excuse, and now to catch up on what's been happening with me lately.

In my last post I believe I wrote about me singing with the Wichita Grand Opera. I'm singing in the chorus, but since my last post I also found out that I've been accepted to participate in their Young Artist Program, which is fabulous! In addition to singing in the chorus for the 3 of the 4 operas they are producing, I will get to understudy 2 main roles from 2 of the operas, which is such an extraordinary opportunity! I will learn the role (in addition to the chorus parts), attend voice coaching sessions, learn the staging and work with the professional who will play the role I will understudy. It also means I will be getting PAID for each show I do with the WGO, which helps tremendously with my gas expenses! The rehearsals have been pretty low key, but the past few days its been a bit more involved. I've been in Wichita from Thursday Dec 30, until this evening (Jan 2) attending staging rehearsals, musical run throughs and costume fittings. This next week will be even more time consuming, as it is the week before the show premiers and we'll be doing nothing but dress rehearsals with full costume and make-up until Jan 8; it also means that I get to drive back and forth between home and Wichita nearly every day so I can not only attend nightly dress rehearsals, but also be at work during the day....school starts again for us tomorrow, and I would hate to have the kids come to a brand new semester of class and have a sub - not ok. So, I will travel for now. I will say that I'm glad the rehearsals are at night so that I'm able to make the drive, because I'm pretty sure they would laugh in my face if I told them I couldn't be at the dress rehearsals for the opera. At any rate, the music is tremendous, the people are great (I'm really enjoying getting to know them more and more), and its a wonderful opportunity for me to do this while I still can. It also has me thinking more about grad school. I always thought I would stop teaching while in grad school so that I could perform and work vocally as well as work on my grad degree. But now that I'm in the school and I'm forming relationships and getting my hands dirty in rehearsing, and really loving what I'm doing.....it would be so hard to leave now. I've heard that a university that I've considered attending is currently looking for sopranos....LOOKING for sopranos!!! That is incredible because sopranos are about a dime a dozen, and there are usually too many sopranos :)

In my last post I also mentioned that I had met someone. His name is Eric and he's fabulous! We've only known each other for about 2 months, but we're both already so in love and we are so thankful to have found one another!!! We have a great time together, we have so much in common, and we really just get each other! Its amazing how fast things have been moving, we've already talked about engagement, wedding, marriage, children, futures in careers and more. We spent Thanksgiving with each others families and it went very well. My family loves him and he's assured me that his family likes me just as much. Our weekends have been pretty full, so we have been spending most of our time together during the week, in the evenings and after school. Its nice that he lives in Chapman because its easy to see each other, but its still like we're in our own separate lives at the same time. He's a very dedicated teacher and works all the time! He has a dog named Miles who likes me just as much as Eric does, if not more, which is funny because Eric has said several times how similar they are, and they are the animal/human replica of each other, which is sooooo true...haha! He's obviously very important to Eric, and he's mentioned that Miles hasn't ever taken to anyone else like he has to me, which is funny. He's a sweet dog, and I like them both. :D

As I mentioned earlier, school starts for me tomorrow, and I'm ambiguous about starting again. While I'm excited to start our new literature, I'd still love to have a few more days of break, but then again, I'm sure I'll say that about every break I'll have in the future, and it'll always be true, haha! However, our next concert will be featuring numbers from well known musicals, so its going to be a lot of fun working up there pieces, and I really hope the kids will enjoy it! I'm very blessed to be where I am for many reasons, but one of the most important is my accompanist situation. There are many choirs and directors out there who have poor accompanists, or non at all! I happen to have 3 very talented accompanists working with me, so I never have to touch the piano minus warming up, which I prefer to do anyway. I can be out in front of the students, working with them instead of playing parts or accompanying! If that weren't enough, one of my accompanists is a music teacher as well, so when I'm gone and need a sub I can still have my groups working on their music. Having a sub who is also a music teacher isn't a luxury most music educators see in their careers, so I'm very lucky to have her to work with! This will come in extra handy when/if I need to take a day or two off here and there for the opera rehearsals in Wichita!

I won't bother putting up my menu for the week, as they will most likely be fast food meals on the road. I'll need to do double duty at the gym to counter this week coming up - oh yeah, and the holiday seasons...hahaha!

Hopefully everyone had safe and fun holiday seasons and I look forward to what 2011 has in store for us!!!