Mexican - and the 50's?? Check it out...:)

We have this really cool Chataquea Concert Series and they bring in a bunch of different bands, groups and soloists during the year like the Von Trapp grandkids (they're actually the grandchildren of the real Von Trapp family - I know, cool right ?!)...we heard the Mexican Metales M5 group last month - an amazing, chart-topping-in-Mexico, brass quintet that had the coolest costumes and the funniest humor ever.  They everything from Baroque, blues, tango, West Side Story, Austrian - it was so funny and those guys were super talented!! Like professors and concert chairs people at concerts!! (I couldn't copy any pics from their website, but if you want to check it out, here's the link: http://www.metalesm5.com/homeeng.html - they're hilarious!!! Check out the pics if nothing else - you won't be disappointed!!! :) 

ANYWAYS, The concert for this month was this guy: (well, actually him and his band)




It wasn't the best picture, but it's all I could find!! :)

 Richie Lee and the Fabulous 50's was in concert at our high school.  Richie won a look-alike contest for Buddy Holly (I don't know who that was - from the 50's, and I wasn't alive then :).  If you've ever heard of the song "La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens, (that's the only one that I knew - from Spanish class :), it's that type of music plus other 50's.  And the best part?  He sang "Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley - and sounded almost identical too!!  And he did the whole slant-the-mike thing and the cool twirl-your-leg thing - just like Elvis...it was so much fun to watch!!  I just wish that more kids could have been there.  Our high school did "All Shook Up" last year for the musical, all Elvis Presley style. 

One of the songs at the concert was called "Pretty Woman" and he wanted all the ladies to come and stand in front of the stage.  Well, sufice it to say, that out of a full house, there were about 6 brave people (ladies, to be exact :)  that came down and listened.  Dad was nudging me to go down there, but of course, I was bashful - how many times do you have a cute, 21-year old guy w/ sunglasses and a tuape (I don't think that's how you spell it :)  sing to you?  It's not an everyday occurance for me anyway - I don't know about you. It was so much fun to hear somebody that had a really amazing voice, sing old music.  Although now that I think about it, he wasn't as cute as I thought last night.  :)  Oh, well...I think stage lights have something to do with that. :)

I love how you can enjoy music from different time periods and it's fun to like the differences betweent them. (I don't think that last sentence made much sense - I think it's because of the time :)...anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little "music" blurp - goodnight!!! :)


Rachel

Friday Favorites - The Concordia Choir, Ain't Got Time to Die, René Clausen, Conductor

I really enjoyed this video - the harmonies, crescendos - watch the girl in the 2nd row on the left side, on the end. Her expressions are really fun to watch. :)  The soloist is amazing - awesome voice.

Hope you enjoy!! :)
Rachel

48 random things to know about me...

If you've ever wanted to know more about me, here's how:

READ BELOW AND BEWARE:  I AM THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT CAN'T MAKE HER MIND UP, AS EVIDENCED BY MY ANWERS!! Enjoy!! :)

~ High heels or boots?  Both - I like high heels because I feel more grown up, dressy, stylish, but I like boots because they're stylish too and you can wear them in any season.

~ What time did you get up this morning? 10:00 - I know, really late, but my excuse is that over the weekend, I stayed up until 3 AM both Friday and Saturday nights w/ friends - so I was tired this morning!! :)

~ What was the last movie you saw at the theater?  Soul Surfer - actually twice; once for my 17th bday and again when I took a group of friends to see it.  I really, really want to see Courageous though too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

~ What is your maiden name? Not going to tell...Internet precautions besides, it doesn't define me - well, maybe it does, but I'm still not going to say it. :)

~ What is your favorite TV show? Probably Perry Mason - crime show, black-n-white, lawyer, detective stuff - pretty fun.  Although after I found out there were 8 seasons, 30-40 episodes in each season, and I'd only watched Season 1, my craze dimmed a little bit.  Sing-Off is also one of my favorites - I only see it in school in choir, but it's seriously a really talented show!! :)

~ What do you usually have for breakfast?  Cereal, smoothie (not very often though), oatmeal, toast, bagel...

~ What is your middle name? Esther

~ What food do you dislike?  Brussel sprouts and peas. 

~ What is your favorite CD at the moment?  I'm more of the make-a-list-big-long-list-of-songs-to-download-to-my-mp3-player-that-I-don't-have-yet kind of girl.  And wait 3 months to do it. :)

~ What characteristics to you despise? Procrastination, whining, and self-centeredness.  (I say these three because I feel like I'm that way more times than I'd like to be).

~ Favorite clothing?  Cute tops/sweaters, scarves, and cute jewelry.  Oh, and jeans that fit well. :)

~ Anywhere in the world on vacation?  Europe, especially Austria, England, Ireland, and Scotland; also someplace warm - maybe the Caribbean.

~ Are you an organized person?  Yes, big time.  I love being able to find everything when you need it and with all the cute organizer totes and baskets, it's not hard to make your things look cute. You should have seen me when I was younger - I would re-arrange my room probably once a week, just to see if I could make it look like I didn't have so much stuff, but it didn't always turn out. ;) 

~ Where would you retire to? Probably Colorado because that's where I was born, or maybe the East Coast.  I guess it depends on where my parents end up living after I graduate and also where my hubby's family is located and where we decide to live. 

~ What was your most recent memorable birthday? Probably my 16th - I finally was able to get my ears pierced, wear makeup and nail polish.  I was pretty excited!!  And I got my permit that summer too. :) 

~ What are you going to do when you finish this? Finish my homework.  :)  I know, I should be doing that first, and I've already done some of it, but I wanted to finish this first and see how fast I could type to get it done.

~ Furthest place you've ever been to? Probably Texas.

~ Person you wish you could meet?  I'm trying to think of one right-off-the-bat, probably Esther from the Bible and my birth grandmother, because I was named after both of them.  And Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale because I'm interested in nursing.

~ When is your birthday?  April 25th.

~ Are you a morning person or a night person?  Both - I love to stay up late (as evidenced by this weekend - and I did it one other time too :) but I love the feeling of getting up early (only if I have to :) and knowing that I have more time in my day to get things done. 

~ What is your shoe size?  9-91/2-10.  It depends on if it's dressy shoes or athletic shoes.  And since my foot's narrow and long, it's hard to find cute, affordable shoes without paying a huge chunk of money.

 ~ Do you own any animals?  A cat, and her name is Snowflake.  I'll post of picture sometime.  Maybe a collage...:)  Oh, and I always wanted to have a horse.  But now that I'm going to be leaving after I graduate, I'm glad I don't have one.  But they're still beautiful. :)

~ Any news you'd like to share?  I'm planning on taking my driver's license test before Thanksgiving.  I really want to take it before the snow flies.  And besides, it's no fair that the kids who were in my driver's class, who are sophmores, are driving before me.  I think it's time that I get my wheels. :)

~ When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?  I don't really remember, except probably a mommy. :)

~ What is your favorite flower?  It's hard for me to pick my favorites of anything - I always have more than one.  Let's see - rose, daffodil, lily, lilac, daisy and gerbera daisy.

~ What is a day on the calender you are looking forward to?  This Thursday (the 27th) because I'm getting together with my photographer and I get to see all my senior pics!!!! :) Yeah!! :)

~ If you were a crayon, what color would you be?  Probably some shade of pink, green, blue, purple, or orange, or maybe yellow.  See?  I can't make up my mind!! :)

~ How is the weather right now?  It's dark outside so I don't really know!! :) Although it was a little nicer earlier, not quite so cold.


~ Last person you spoke to on the phone?  My mom.

~ Favorite drink? Root beer.

~ Favorite restaurant? Arby's, Culver's, Applebee's, and A&W.

~ Hair color?  Medium brown, with a few gold highlights.  I really want to get highlights sometime before graduation...maybe for my bday...:)

~ What was your favorite toy as a child?  Probably my dolls.

~ Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter?  I love all of them, but I really love the start of each season.  There's certain things that remind me that "_____" 's coming soon!! :)

~ Chocolate or Vanilla?  Both.

~ Coffee or tea?  Both again. :) 

~ Wish you were still young?  But I am!!!!! :)

~ Do you want to get married?  If this is any clue, I have about 170 pics from various websites about weddings on my USB drive...my favorite website is  The Knot....and I love thinking about how it's all going to turn out...:)

~ When was the last time you cried? Yesterday...after Mom picked me up from the Bible School.  I was probably just tired, because today the girls in choir said that I was happy.

~ What is under your bed?  Not the usual stuff, dust, my journal, clothes, books....The mattresses from the bunk beds I used to have (and they were red too!! :)  They come in handy when I have friends over.

~ What are you afraid of?  I don't like spiders; I'm afraid of the dark (I always think that somebody's watching me, waiting to scare me or maybe kidnap me - probably too many scary movies, although I don't watch that many); scary movies; Halloween (I HATE it!!  I don't see any purpose for it!)

~What did you do last night? Drove part of the way home from the Cities; put my luggage stuff away and read my emails.

~ Sweet or salty? Both, like a Peanut Nut Roll.

~ Best quality you have?  I love to make people laugh, although I'm not very good at it; being compassionate and listening to people.

~ How many years at your current job? Don't have one...yet...:)

~ Favorite day of the week? Probably Friday and Saturday - it's the last day of the school week and it's the day I can get caught up on all the things I didn't get finished during the week.

~ Favorite movie? Don't even get me started...:)  I have 3 new ones to watch soon too.

~ Have you ever had a crush on anyone?  You should hear the stories...:)  I do have a current one right now; think navy, orange and white, a horse, Denver, guy w/ a beard (I'm not that crazy over it, althought it does look kind of cute...:), 6'3', and boy, does he have muscles!!! :)  And he throws left-handed too...just thought you'd want to know that...:)  Oh, and I'm going to make a T-shirt of his jersey - just because I don't want to spend $100 on a real one.  And he's #15.  Enough clues??? <3 And he's a Christian too, which is pretty cool.

~ Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends?  Well, it's really fun to read and get to know people better, and I'm a terrible snoop. :P

Hope you enjoyed finding a little more (or a lot more! :) about me.  I should really update my 'about me' page but this is a good start.

I'm off to finishing my homework!! Hope ya'll have a good night!!

~Rachel <3

pretty fun stuff

I went to the Twin Cities this weekend for a youth retreat and we went shopping at the Mall of America.  Check out the cool nail polish I got:

This pic was off of Amazon, I got my polish at Delia's and I've heard you can get it at Wal-Mart salons, but it's more expensive.  The one trick to getting the polish to look right, is to put on a really thin coat.  If you put on a thicker coat, it looks more messy.  And it dries really fast, so you have to put it on quick. ;)

Purple's is one of my fav colors too - there was black, orange, gold and silver at the store, but there's a whole lot more colors out there too.

~Rachel <3

Update on Grandma...

We got back from the hospital on Sunday night (the 16th) - sorry it's taken me so long to update ya'll on here...I've been busy getting back into the swing of things (I didn't do school, piano, or voice for 4 days, so I'm trying to get caught up :). 

Grandma's surgery went really well and she's already started feeling better. She's started PT (physical therapy) and they'll be working with her for about 10 days and then see where she is at strenghtwise.  She's works on walking with the walker, raising her arms above her head (they had to cut into muscle for the surgery, so her shoulder area is really sore), marching in place - those type of things.  Hopefully, she'll be able to go back to her apartment, but if things don't progress like they should, or she isn't strong enough, she may end up in the nursing home, which we really don't want.  Her numbness is better, but it may not completely go away.  The surgery was able to stop the numbness from progressing and hopefully her fibromyolgia will get better too.

The hospital, Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls, is a really cool place.  And they have amazing food too! :)  We ate at the cafeteria a few different times and they had a wide variety - anything you were craving at the moment, including frozen yogurt - Yum!! :)

Anyway, she's doing a lot better and she's in the best place she can be right now.  We're just glad that she's still with us and doing as well as she can be at her age.

Thanks for your comments and support <3

~Rachel

Facebook - to have or not to have?

ok, so I know that Facebook is a big time-waster, but honestly, there are only two reasons that I want to get it:
~ to stay in touch with people that I haven't seen for a long time or that I don't get to see very often.
~ I want a Pinterest account because right now I have a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of photos on my USB that I want to post on there.

So, I guess I have to wait until I'm "more responsible" :), and until I start budgeting my time, I probably won't be getting fb anytime soon.  And then people can see my senior pics, right?

~Rachel

P.S. And I know that people just tell me to wait, but you know, that's really hard to do.  Besides, graduation is in 8 months and I don't know if I can wait that long. :)

coming soon...

I am going to try and do a post with pictures soon so you know what I've been up to...:) I have to charge my camera battery first in order to get pics to post, and I have to go through some of the ones I have on there too.  School is keeping me busy, so I'll try and post this weekend sometime. :)

Hugs!

<3 Rachel

Grandma...

Please keep my grandma (Dad's mom) in your prayers today and this week.  She is being transported to Sioux Falls by ambulance because of a decrease in the use of her legs.  She has a thickening in the ligament around her spine and that's obstructing the flow of blood and lymph fluid and so she has numbness in her hands and had some in her face as well.  She fell last Monday as she was getting into her car and they discovered that one of her medications was making her lose muscle mass.  So she went into the hospital on Friday and we went to see her yesterday for about 4 hours and she had said that her leg/knee where she fell was really hurting her. She's going to have an evaluation and they might do surgery tomorrow or sometime soon to take care of the thickening. 

Please keep our family, extended family, and my grandma in your prayers.  We love her very much and want to be here for her through this time. 

more senior pictures!!!

There are more pictures on Alex's website, so go to my last post and click on that link to view the pics...they turned out really amazing!!!  I have another shoot with her in about an hour, so they'll be more photos soon! :)

Hope you enjoy them!!

~Rachel <3

P.S.  Tell me which one is your favorite!! :)

Senior pictures - sneak peek!

Here's how you can see my "sneak peek" pic for senior pictures!

~ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bear-Rose-Photography-Design/163030883706936

1) Go to the "photos" tab and click on "Wall Photos".
2) My picture is the 3rd one on the bottom. (Otherwise, I'm the girl in the purple shirt w/ the fall trees in the background :)

Hope you like it!

~Rachel <3

P.S.  I am so excited to see the rest of my pictures!! 

This year - my life - decisions...

     School and music are the most/should be the most important things in my life right now.  This is my senior year after all and I don't want to get to the end of it and be trying to cram all my school stuff in because I spent too much time on the computer.  It's so hard to find balance...I know a schedule would help, and I would love to be able to check Blogger only 1-2 times per week, but I follow so many blogs, that I would never be able to read all of everyone's posts.  And I don't want to stop following any of the people I have right now.  It's so hard to know!!!! 

I want to be able to figure out what I want this blog to be about.  Here are my ideas/rants/raves :)

~ I would love to be able to do posts on the little things in life.  But that means I'd be spending an awful lot of time on here on a regular basis, which unfortunately, I don't have.
~ I don't want this blog to be something really boring but I don't have time to make it something elaborate.
~ Maybe I should just do a mega-monthly post, where at the end of the month, I would post about all the important things that happened that month....
Right now, I'm spending more time on the computer than I probably should and so my "to-do list" of this past summer isn't getting done and I'm stressing out over all the school I'm not getting done and all the fun things I'm not getting done....I'll stop now.  I don't want to stress anyone else out.

Any ideas?

~Rachel <3

P.S. I will probably take a break for a while from this blog - I love it and I'm sad that I only got started, but I think I need to re-think my priorities for this year.  Love you all!!!<3