100

This is my 100th post!! So I would like to take the time to tell you 100 things I love/am grateful for.

1. Husband
2. My Mom
3. My Dad
4. In-laws
5. 2 Best Friends
6. Music
7. School
8. A Job (that I LOVE)
9. Sister
10. Brothers- and Sisters-in-law
11. The Gospel
12. My Cats
13. Health
14. The Temple
15. The Savior
16. All of my music friends that help grad school be bearable
17. My Teachers
18. Scholarships
19. Government Grants
20. A nice house to live in
21. Clothes on my back
22. Food on my table
23. Shoes on my feet
24. The Bible
25. The Book of Mormon
26. Living Prophets today
27. The gym
28. Hugs
29. Kisses
30. Unconditional Love
31. Crafts
32. A creative mind
33. Missed opportunities that help lead to better opportunities
34. Utah's love for community theater (which has allowed me 2 operatic roles outside of school this summer)
35. Opera
36. The Armed Forces that keep our country safe
37. Freedom
38. Christmas
39. Friendly neighbors (finally!)
40. 2 Cars, even though Bryce and I mostly share just 1
41. The Internet
42. Halloween
43. Setting Goals
44. Making Lists
45. Airplanes (even though my recent experiences with flying/purchasing tickets may have made me feel otherwise)
46. 4th of July 
47. Decorating
48. Teapots
49. TV--specifically some of my favorite TV shows, including:
50. Friends
51. Gossip Girl
52. Grey's Anatomy
53. and Anything on Bravo
54. Ikea (especially since we are still poor college students)
55. Bubble Baths
56. Massages
57. Manicures/Pedicures (and a mother-in-law who loves to get them when she visits)
58. Air conditioning during the hot summer months
59. Snow
60. That I can help others be better at something
61. Blogging/Reading others' blogs
62. Easter 
63. Chocolate
64. Thanksgiving
65. Movie marathons curled up on the couch
66. TV season marathons with Jess
67. Shopping
68. Hope/Planning for the future
69. Traveling 
70. Having to get up really early for something exciting
71. Staying up way too late
72. Talking on the phone to people I can't see often
73. Curiosity (especially from my cats)
74. Hobbies
75. Reconnecting with long lost friends
76. Facebook
77. A washer and dryer in my house
78. Watching sports on TV
79. Going to a baseball game
80. Babies (no experience with my own yet, but one day)
81. Being a girl
82. Lace, Ruffles, and Pearls
83. Video games to keep my husband occupied when I need to get something done
84. Having a really clean house (it doesn't happen often, but it feels so good when it does)
85. Generosity of others
86. Camping
87. Finding new craft ideas online
88. Playing games
89. InStyle magazine that comes in the mail once a month 
90. The Ensign
91. Real Simple magazine that also comes in the mail once a month
92. The Classical Singer website and all of the useful information it contains (including auditions)
93. A computer
94. Houston (which Bryce and I both miss terribly, although I don't know if we'll be saying that after we go home for 2 weeks in August)
95. Dreams
96. Funny Stories
97. Celebrity Gossip
98. Dancing
99. My iPod 
100. Sleep

Website

So I've been playing with setting up a professional website for myself. I found out that on blogspot you can set it up and at anytime pay $10 and convert your .blogspot.com into a .com address. I have not done this yet because I want some opinions on how you think it turned out first. I don't have any recordings up yet, so that section is still blank, but the rest of it is pretty much set. Check it out and let me know what you think: http://alisonhunternielson.blogspot.com.

Grad School

So, going to grad school is turning out to be much more expensive than I expected. Although BYU has one of the cheapest grad tuition's around, the scholarship fund is waning. I thought (through the grapevine and my own assumptions) that grad students received a 3/4 tuition scholarship. Unfortunately, I was wrong (it ends up being about 1/3 tuition, plus I have voice lesson fees every semester). That wouldn't be so bad, I mean I survived on about that much scholarship as an undergrad thanks to grants, but grad students don't get grants. One thing that I am very excited about is that I get to teach. The teaching pay is very good, but we don't get a ton of hours a week, so I will be making little more than I am making at my current on-campus position. This was disappointing at first (my fault for assuming I would get paid prep time for teaching private lessons, which I don't) because Bryce and I were hoping to start putting money away to save up for when we buy a house.

Anyway, as I have started doing a little research and thinking about the classes and lessons I'm going to teach, I have come to the conclusion that Bryce and I will not be able to survive the next few years of school (and possibly more beyond that) on 1 desktop computer. I have had the wonderful blessing of being provided with a laptop with my current job. I will only retain this blessing for another month, after which I will be quitting my job in order to teach. We have a Mac at home, which is the best computer ever. It is almost 5 years old and we've never had a problem with it. We took it in about 6 months ago to have more RAM put in it and it is just as fast as a brand new computer again. But, as good as our desktop is, there's nothing like portability, especially when I'm teaching. That is why I have decided that this is the computer I need:It is the MacBook Pro 15.4". This computer was named by Consumer Reports as their best laptop. In the magazine I recently picked up, they said, "this is this best computer we have ever tested, hands down." With this computer, I will be able to keep track of grades and assignments as well as make video recordings of my students during their lessons, so that they can see their progress. Not only that, Macs have the best programs for music, pictures, and basically everything. They also have a new set of programs that are like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, just much more user friendly. Not only that, but these programs save into .doc and .docx (and the equivalents for Excel and PowerPoint). Basically, this is the best computer for our situation, except for the price. I mean you can't get the perfect computer for free, can you? Luckily, Apple provides $150 off for students and a free iPod touch when you purchase this computer. I think I may just have to call this an "education cost" and pay for it with my student aid. Or maybe my family will be really generous with graduation gifts and I'll be able to get it with that. We'll have to wait and see. Until then, I will continue to dream...

Can you tell we're busy?

So it has been WAY too long since the last time I blogged. A lot has happened in the past month or so. Here's the update:

• I got my car back. Yay! But as soon as I got it back I had to take it back to the auto shop to have them fix something in the back that was making a weird noise. That is all fixed and now it is making another weird noise. I am taking it back in either tomorrow (if they're open) or Monday. 
• I started Fall semester of school. It is going well so far. I am taking 3 classes and then I have voice lessons and opera rehearsal once a week each. It is a pretty nice schedule. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I am done at 3 (even after working). I only have class from 9-11 everyday. Jealous? Haha.
• We painted both of the bedrooms and the living room and dining room. They look really beautiful. The extra bedroom, living and dining rooms are all this pretty tan/sage color and our bedroom is blue. I am cleaning tomorrow so I will post some pictures of the finished product. We still need to paint both bathrooms (upstairs is going to be the same blue as our bedroom and downstairs is going to be the same as the living/dining room), the kitchen (pale yellow), and the stairwell (tan/sage also). I can't wait until it is all finished. It is so much better than white.
• Bryce got a new job. He starts next Wednesday. He will be working at the local DI processing donations. Well, that will be his job at least through his beginning "review period". After that month or two there is a really good chance for promotion to a lead. This job is awesome because they will pay for his school books (History text books get expensive) and they offer benefits like health insurance. 
• We have been to the first 3 BYU football home games. The team is doing well. They were undefeated last season and remain undefeated. They have the longest winning streak in the country right now. Pretty cool, huh? Even cooler is that 2 of the main players for the team, the 1st string quarterback and one of the first string receivers are in our ward. All I can say is they better not screw this season up... we know where they live!

Other than that, not much has been going on. We are just keeping busy between work and school and doing stuff around the house. I promise that I will post more consistently now that I'm in the groove for this semester.