this is halloween

meat-loaf man!

thanks diane for the cool tradition. 

bri and i thought it was so sweet. 

{our friends probably thought it was weird.}

i hope you all enjoyed your holiday.

pre-halloween

i think we look pretty cool.

{ i tried to make that picture look extra cartoon-y. }

a work in progress

we had fall break, but i'm sad to say we didn't make 

any huge amount of  progress on our 

trash- treasures.

 bri and i are feeling relief now that mid-terms are over, 

but audition season is nearing and although i'm only doing two auditions i'm a bit stressed.

these are the chairs. they are now stained to a lovely dark cherry.

{ i quite like them. next is the recovering. }

more pictures to come.

by the way

i hope you are all enjoying your nice, crisp, 

cool fall weather. 

yesterday it was about 95 degrees outside. and i don't even want to talk about the humidity. 

i still wear  jackets and sweaters and pretend like it's beautiful fall weather outside. 

but then i'm grumpy because i'm too sweaty. ugh!

...funny...

bri found some more furniture in the dumpster and 

this is what i heard as i was washing my face at 11:30 last night.

 

"quick mj put some sandals on! the opportunity of life-time 

is outside and i need your help!!" 

he's so dramatic.

we have a long weekend so hopefully we'll be able to

fill our house with treasures rather than trash.

coming soon...

we found some sweet chairs, tables and  frames in the dumpster. we're going to fix them.

 i will post cool pics of the progress soon.

in other news...

we're enjoying the semester although it's getting busy.

i found this today

it made me laugh. i like bri. he's pretty cool.

{this was taken in the k-mart in logan, june 2005}

school's in

well... it's here...it happened.... school started and

summer ended. 

{as it always does} 

the good

we have a cool french teacher.

i had a waltzing class yesterday.

we have new friends.

the bad

i haven't taken any pictures

bri had a review today.

{he didn't come home until 4 in the morning}

i have to decide what i want to audition for 

and applications are due starting this friday! bagh.

i sang on saturday...and people saw me

violetta and alfredo

ma se tornando... non m'hai salvado a niuno in terrra salvarmi e dato

{but if my coming back you haven't saved me...no one on earth can!}

oh! grand dio!!

e strano! cessarono... gli spasimi del dolore... in me... rinasce....

{it's strange! they've stopped... the spasms... of pain... in me.... is reborn....}

ora son forte... vedi? sorrido.

{now i'm strong... you see? i'm smiling}

alfredo mio!

 me and my friend aaron. i'm looking pretty sickly. 

{ i've got to learn how to act even more sickly }

my dad came!! and so did bri's

alison, russ, diane and aubrey made it too!

and to my great surprise becky came too! 

i was so happy that everyone could see me do this special performance.

 i loved seeing all of you. 

{i wish i could have had more time to hang out though.}

i went swimming

we did flips for about two hours straight. 

i loved it.

{ps- i'm in the black}

i've been baby-sitting lately

these girls are lovely. i love hanging out with them and 

i'll be so sad when they leave this sunday! :(

our adventures...

played aerobie

watched high-school musical iii

played blink

read books at the book store

had a lovely breakfast

made up a killer-awesome dance

had a photo-shoot

can't wait for friday!

we went hiking... again

these are our friends mark from georgia and adrian from california.

{ i think these boys are tired }

our team pic before the big hike. 

{ trevor, bri, shawn, mark, mj }

we look so fresh and happy.

it was pretty fun.

rainbows and burritos

check out this sweet rainbow. 

there was definitely a pot of gold at the end.

we have two microwaves now. making frozen burritos for the masses is a snap.

our friend from georgia, trevor. he enjoys the ritos almost as much as we do.

on top of all of this excitement

 i also got to sing a new piece at a masterclass with irene gebrud. 

we really enjoyed our weekend. we hope you did too!

my dad was here

but first we had popsicles with some friends in aspen. 

we were almost tempted to buy sno-cones that were on sale, 

but they were a rip. 

so we walked to the city-market and 

purchased these delights. 

only $1.88 for 12!!

we met him here at the wheeler opera house. 

i was so happy to see him.

and ate here at boogies.

it was amazing.

we also enjoyed a rib breakfast the next day. 

loved it.

come back soon daddy. 

you must have a special recipe

today bri and i were having 

a reminiscent afternoon. 

we were warming up some canned corn 

to go along with our ramen (pathentic i know) 

and i remembered one of my first memories 

as a four year old at the montessori cafeteria. 

i tried canned corn for the first time and told 

the lunch lady her recipe was really special 

(i had only had corn fresh off the cob growing up) 

ha. funny the small things you can remember. 

es hat noch eine Strophe...weiss ich sie noch?

this (ah-ehm click here) is a beautiful aria from korngold's die tote stadt. the first time i heard this aria i cried. it's lovely and the singer can float like nothing. the soprano is angela denoke. love it!

oh! essa musetta!

act ii

trying to make marcello jealous. it's pretty funny.

singing the end of "quando m'en vo" 

he wants to give in but he's being stubborn.

telling alcindoro "i want to be free! i want to do what i want!" 

i tell brian this often in real life. 

i don't have to act too much for this role.

"felice mi fa"

 it makes me happy when all the guys check me out.

act iii

fight scene with marcello. he's too jealous for me to handle.

 again i want to be free to do what i want.

act iv

c'é mimi...

i saw her around the streets. she's real sick

i break the news to the boys. mimi tells me she's dying...then she does die.

 i don't have a picture of that.

the show has been a blast so far!

for more pics click here

show time and ice cream

this week we open la bohéme! woot woot. 

i'm really excited about this production. 

the music is beautiful.

the staging is beautiful.

the costumes are beautiful?

 (keep your fingers crossed. last i knew my dresses did not fit at all)

our big dress rehearsal open to the public is on tuesday. 

the opening night is a benefit gala.

 many celebrities including; 

goldie hawn, jack nicholson and antonio banderas attend.

and on saturday my dad will be here to see me perform!!!

 i'm so excited to see him.

 i think he'll like the show. 

who doesn't like puccini?

ice cream party

good idea! some kids from aspen had an ice cream party and it was amazing. 

they provided toppings and told everyone else to bring ice cream. 

i brought my dad's hot fudge. 

 it was pretty much a hit.

 i doubled the recipe, but it went fast. 

fourth of july... aspen style

we started the morning with a delightful opera scenes program

followed by...

- the aspen parade

- a staging for boheme act iv (really sad)

- a delcious dinner of hotdogs and ramen

- a chance meeting with this funny guy with a cowboy hat

- the crashing of a company party (roof-top with free food)

It was awesome.

at our fourth party bri dunked it. he was over-joyed.

we also purchased some delicious kettle-corn. 

i wanted cotton- candy all day, but it wasn't on sale anywhere 

so i had to settle for some kettle-corn. too bad. but good.

no-knead bread and family fun

janay with hallie, kale, rachel, and anna. 

we had so much fun on are mini cook-out.

bri with mom and alyssa. 

mom made some of the finest hot dogs.

 i had to have two!

bri and mj

the day before at the lees. 

bri was pretty proud of his fire.

 audj and i sat and enjoyed it for the remainder of the evening 

while alsion and bri played some weird viking video-game.

back at the cook-out. bri loves his little nephews. this is peter. he was being pretty fun. and bri and peter somehow have identical expressions in this shot. wouldn't you agree?

now flash forward to the present day in aspen...

this is the delicious bread diane taught us how to make. 

we've already made it three times.

 it's pretty much our food supply for the summer because all other foods in aspen cost millions.

we love it. 

 all you need is flour, salt, and water. it's truly amazing.

thanks again diane for teaching us the ways of your special

 artisan bread!

sorry the chronology is a bit off on this blog,

 but now we're caught up.

hair

a little over a week ago i hated my hair. so i hacked some weird crooked bangs. then audrey wanted a change so we got all dramatic and cut all of her hair off too. fun. her's looks awesome.

this is a pretty intense shot.... and my bangs are slightly shorter than this... so they don't droop in my eyes.

jebs and i being all serious. kind of embarassing, but another good shot of my new bangs. also good to note that jebs hair is now blonder than mine. weird.

the hair cut of all hair cuts. a mix between posh spice and nicole richie. she looks so stylie.

 i hope the cut is still working out ok.