Sarah Brightman Concert

Last night Tyler and I attended the very anticipated Sarah Brightman Symphony Concert. We started the evening by going out to dinner at a new restaurant we had never been before called Penne Pomodoro. I was craving some yummy Italian food and after some online research I decided to go to this one, it had good reviews and was within our budget. Tyler got the Pollo Parmigiana and I got Gnocchi with bolognese sauce. We also got the Focaccia bread. It was pretty yummy, we enjoyed the meal quite a bit, and the area had lots of shops and it was very cute. I'd like to go back and walk around Snider plaza and check the area out a bit more.


After dinner we headed over to the concert. Sarah Brightman is always amazing, but this concert blew me away. Her Harem one was amazing, but this one was even better. Here's a little description from the site:

Continuing Sarah's tradition of breathtaking stage productions, the SYMPHONY WORLD TOUR will feature new and groundbreaking technology, with virtual and holographic stage sets that have never been seen before in any touring concert production.

This innovative stage technology is highly sophisticated and dramatic, creating an otherworldly, ethereal experience: enormous realistic ballrooms will meld into fairytale gardens and then morph into giant fish tanks, right before the audience’s very eyes, creating a perfect backdrop for Sarah’s glorious voice.

It was nothing short of magical. The technology they used was so cool that it kept us glued to the stage. It was beautiful, and as always Sarah was beautiful. I love all of her costumer changes and thoroughly enjoyed her singing "Phantom" and "Canto Della Terra" with an amazing tenor, Mario Frangoulis, he was very very good. She also had Fernando Lima as a special guest whom she sang "Pasion" with on her Symphony album. She had these screens that showed the images and they moved and showed the things that were going in the "fish tank" for two songs. Just really cool.

And now the pictures!

Tyler and I at the concert!

This picture doesn't do her entrance justice. Her costume made it seem as if she was dead bride walking, and left me wondering if it was really her underneath all the tule.

The opening of the show with "Fleurs Du Mal"

This is not a great picture. It took me a while to figure out the best camera setting. All the forest stuff was on the screens and she was standing in the middle with trees and leaves around her.

The "fish bowl"

Her duet with Mario on "Canto Della Terra"

Her famous swing


A few Harem songs


At the end of the concert singing "Deliver Me"

She also sang a few Christmas songs from her new album "A Winter Symphony" . I wasn't able to get a picture because I got in trouble with the security guard. Apparently I wasn't supposed to take any pictures at all. Oops. Oh well, no harm.

I wore my infamous polka dot dress to the concert. This is the second time I've worn it and this time it was free of security tags! So I wanted to be nice and share the dress picture.

Like I said the concert was great. We had great seats and pleasant neighbors (Hi Andrew!). It was a great evening and now I'll just wait another 4-5 years until she goes on tour again!

Failed plans

Tyler and I made great plans for this past weekend to go to Adventure Landing and play some mini-golfing, do the go-karts, and batting cages. We were pretty excited, until I did finances on Friday. While we could have afforded to go, the holidays coming up, last tuition ever for Spring 09 coming up, and Obama getting elected have put me in a more hesitant mood. So when we woke up on Saturday I told Tyler I was hesitant to go and we ended up not going. yes.. I'm a party pooper. Instead we stayed home and cleaned the house which needed to get done badly. We made secondary plans to go to the park with the doggies, but ended up watching the BYU game and just hanging out. In the evening we went to a stake youth dance to chaperone them (loads of fun!).

On Sunday we went to church, came home and took too long of a nap, and had Carly and Kevin over for dinner. I make brisket in the crock pot and we had rolls, mashed potatoes and veggies. We all ate more than we should have and had a good time chatting. When they left Tyler and I snuggled up and watched "The Holiday". I just love that movie. I'm so ready for Christmas. I already started listening to Christmas music and I cannot wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put away all my Fall decor and get the tree and snowmans out! For Thanksgiving we'll be having the sister missionaries and Carly and Kevin over. I love cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner so I'm pumped to have people over to eat it! Depending on how crazy school gets I might go all out and do centerpieces, name cards, favors and all that jazz. It'd be so fun, but I'm afraid I may not have the time. I guess we'll see!

Blog letters: work

Dear people at husbands job that planned the holiday party,

I have been looking forward to the holiday party for a while now, and waiting to see what was going to happen and when and what I needed to wear. I got the e-mail today from husband and was very disappointed. Not only did you wait until one month before the event to send invitations out to the entire company (because Christmas season is not busy at all!), when the invitation did come all it said was: Come celebrate another successful year! You and a guest are invited to join (blank) company for an evening of drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

Seriously!!! Seriously???!!!!

It's appalling that after working all year round 9-10 hrs a day, and working at times at 2am to accommodate clients needs that the only thing that you could come up with for your employees is appetizers and alcohol. Are you kidding me??? Alcohol and appetizers! Now I understand the majority of the employees love their alcohol, but no dinner?? Way to go! Let's pump everyone full of alcohol and have barely any food in them so we can lose at least one employee and an innocent person when they leave the party driving drunk as a skunk. This "party" and hors d'oeuvres is not even at a fancy, trendy restaurant. You might as well have sent invitation to Chili's!

I hope this means that the Christmas bonus will be a lot higher, you know, since you skimped so badly on the Holiday party.

Sincerely,

Employee's wife

Movie double date

This weekend was spent a little differently for us. We didn't have anything planned. I know right! So we stayed home and bummed around all day long. I slept until 11:00am, Tyler played basketball in the morning and then watched TV sports the rest of the time and played the piano for 3 hours. I cleaned our bedroom and attempted to take control of the laundry.

At night we went out on a double date to Brooklyns pizza with Matt and Vernice, and then went to the dollar theater and watched WALL-E. I thought it was a cute movie, I think younger kids would really enjoy it, it was clean and cute. Afterwards we went out for some ice cream at Braums. We enjoyed spending time with the Merrells, it had been a long time since we had double dated with anybody. Tyler came home at 11:30pm and proceeded to watch the BYU game against my wishes. Needless to say we were tired the next day.

Church was fine. Fast sundays aren't my favorite because people cry quite a bit, but I do enjoy RS because the lesson comes from Ensign talks. We also had a really good lesson on Sunday School about the tribes of Israel. This is a subject I just love learning about. We came home and took too long of a nap and then went over to Carly and Kevins for dinner. We hadn't seen them for a long time and it was nice to catch up.

This next weekend we also have nothing planned... what's up with that!?? Maybe I'll try to come up with something fun to do. Mamma Mia at the dollar theater at night? Picnic at the park with doggies? Harbor fun? Picture fun with the Durrants? Hmmm... there are some good possibilities.

Things I'd like to do before we have kids...

• Go to New York
• Watch a Broadway play in NYC
• Go to Palmyra
• Go to Nauvoo - Coming May 09
• Go to Europe and visit Italy, Greece, France, and England
• Go on a cruise
• Go to Brazil - CHECK! (We went Dec 07)
• Go to the San Diego temple
• Get out of debt - Coming Sept 09
• New kitchen countertops
• New bathroom
• Have enough money for a nursery
• Finish my RN degree - Coming May 09
• Work full time at the hospital - Coming June 09
• Watch a surgery at the hospital - CHECK (not nearly as much fun as I thought it would be)
• Have Tyler finish his masters
• Have another dog - CHECK (April, sometime I wish this item was not checked. J/K)
• Get wood floors
• Get a new TV - Coming Dec 09
• Go to San Antonio
• Get Tyler a new car - CHECK (Not planned, but necessary)
• Start my BS degree - Coming Jan 2010
• Go to Chicago - Coming May 09
• Spend Christmas at a fancy resort

Note to family, friends, and ward members: This list is not the reason we are not pregnant yet, this list does not need to be completed before we get pregnant, this list does not need to be completed before we ever have kids, this list probably won't be completed before we have kids, I just like to make lists and travel.

Conversations: Wife Wants

Wife - so sad

Wife - wants to go to which wich on a date

lunch date that is

Wife - wants to go grocery shopping

Husband: I was going to suggest a lunch date

Wife- wants husband to get destinkyfied

Husband: that's a new one

Wife: I like it!

Halloween and Pediatrics

Tyler and I had a few trick or treaters on Friday. Tyler opened the door every time while I attempted to calm the dogs down. They did better this year than they have in the past. He passed candy and we watched It's the Great Big Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It was a pretty mellow Halloween. We dressed the doggies up and a lot of the kids enjoyed that.



April's shirt would lit up when she ran where the ghost was. It was pretty cute.

I finished my pediatrics rotation on Friday. I was very ready for it to be over. I am definitely not a pediatrics nurse. I didn't like dealing with sick kids, it made me too sad. I have decided that I want to be a med/surg nurse. I really enjoy it. I started psych rotation today. I'm scared about this rotation. Today was hospital orientation and the unit freaked me out a bit, they were explaining all the different things they do in order to prevent a patient from committing suicide while in the facility. I'm just glad it's a 5 week deal and then we're done. I can't wait for Christmas break!