sheeeeepish

I know I said I would post Sunday, but I didn't... And I didn't post yesterday...

Yeah. Well. A real post will happen sometime this week.

But meanwhile...

The two most exciting tickets of my year! 

I am so incredibly excited. :)

Hunger Games on March 23rd and Ingrid Michaelson on April 19th!

And thennnn...

Here's a song for ya.

I'm super into The National these days!

This is probably my current favorite song.

And last, but never least,

Sketchy Andy.

Who would be my hero, except that the things he does scare me. :)

So cool.

The world is full of amazing people!

One day I will try slacklining. Whenever the opportunity presents itself!

un-legit... illegit?

Oh my goodness it's been so long... Over two weeks, I believe!
So my friend Tyler thinks that I should write about him. Because apparently he the best thing that's ever happened. But really, I'm not going to do that. :) Though he is pretty awesome.
Instead, I am going to tell you that I love you, and that I will legitimately post something legitimate tomorrow, because it is early in the morning and I am SO tired.
Ummmkay.
'Night.

i want more

So Sarah posted Avalanche City the other day, and I kind of love them now.

BUT.

When I went to look for them on Spotify, they weren't. there.

It made me super-mega-lots of sad.

I guess I shall just have to use Youtube to satisfy my listening needs.

*sigh*

Anyway, here you go. You can thank me later. ;)

*trumpet fanfare*

Hey everyone!

I made a button! It's super fancy. I quite like it. A lot. Anyway, it's on mah sidebar if you desire to link here.

I am 90% sure that the biggest reason I want you to use it is because I like it. A lot. Though it's cool when you bring people to visit me, too.

Anyway, y'all are grand.

I am exhausted.

Speaking of being tired, have a song!

I love Lady Danville.

The End.

reminder that i am super blessed

Last night I discovered Lisa King's blog - NieNie posted a link to it here, saying that it made her heart ache.

I clicked, not thinking much of it.

Dear people, the Kings' story is one of the saddest that I have ever heard.

I spent an hour and a half last night reading Lisa's posts and crying.

Her son, Noah, was born with hydranencephaly, meaning that parts of his brain were replaced by fluid, possibly from having a stroke in the womb.

The doctors gave him two to four years to live, as well as telling Lisa and her husband, Aaron, that Noah would never be able to walk or talk, was probably deaf and blind, and would never be able to do most things on his own. 

Against all odds, Noah lived until last October. He was 10 years and 3 months old when he passed. Doctors told the Kings that he lived so long due to the love and care that he had been shown - that his family had kept him alive.

Noah King - via

Losing Noah was horrendously difficult for his family, as is to be expected. I am sure that they will always miss him, until they are reunited with him after this life.

To make matters even more tragic, however, Aaron King passed away last week, on the 26th of January, from suspected heart problems. He was only 39.

Aaron King and his youngest son, Kobe - via

His death was completely unexpected, and I am sure that, especially with the recent passing of Noah, losing him was heartbreaking and awful for all who knew him, but especially for Lisa.

Even with the hardship that they are going through, Lisa is being strong. It is incredible.

She is an inspiration to me.

Lisa still has three young sons, Jalen (12), Harrison (7), and Kobe (3).

I am so glad that they know about forever families.

I am so blessed to have my family.

I am blessed to be so close to them, both emotionally and physically. I love that I can call them up anytime and talk to them. I love that I can get home basically any week that I want to see them.

An old picture (2008), but the only one I have on my computer of all of us

Most of all,  I am grateful for the knowledge I have of forever families.

Nothing fills me with more joy than remembering that I will get to live with my family for eternity, and that, though some of them may leave for a while, it's only temporary.

I can't imagine how people go throughout their lives believing that death is the end.

I can't imagine how I would bear losing any of my family members without what I know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am so thankful to know what I know.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here to learn about my beliefs.

To help the Kings, go here.

totally just made my weekend

Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone and their dog already posted this all over the interwebs, but ohhhh my gosh, I laughed so hard. I have not laughed so hard at a video in ages. It was obviously mandatory that I share it with the rest of the world that has not yet seen it.

Who knew that sloths were such an emotional subject? 

who do you think you are barging in on me and my guitar?

So for my major, I have to learn to play the guitar.

I have always wanted to, so I was pretty much ecstatic when I found out that Music Therapy required it, because that meant I had to learn! It meant that I would have to practice in order to pass my juries and graduate and do the things that I want to with my life.

I got a guitar for Christmas 2009... 2008? Wow. I don't completely remember. I think it was 2008.

It was the only thing I asked for, and the only (big) thing that I got that year from my parents. I hadn't actually expected to get it - guitars are expensive.

So when I walked up the stairs and saw it sitting there gleaming in all of its beautiful, polished, acoustic glory, I was sooo excited.

I resolved to learn to play it over the next year...

By the next New Year, I had learned a total of 3 chords. And forgot what they were because I only played every few months... It was a fail.

I, again, resolved to learn to play it over the next year...

October came. I went on campus tours to the schools that I planned on applying for.

Pause here, for part of a different story. :)

Utah State was on the list, though at the time I knew I was going to BYU - it had always been my dream.

I visited USU campus on October 21st (creepy, right? Why do I remember that?) and, as part of my tour, I met with an advisor in the music department. I didn't know anything about Music Therapy at the time, but it sounded interesting, so I asked about it.

As soon as I stepped onto campus, I felt like it was where I needed to be. However, after Karlee told me about Music Therapy, I knew why. 

I had the strongest prompting that it was what I was meant to do.

So I finished my Utah State application and began preparing for the hardest and most important audition of my life.

But that, as I said, is part of another story, which I may just have to tell some other time. :)

For that audition, I had to sing a song whilst accompanying myself on the guitar. This sounded nothing short of terrifying to me, but I was determined to do the best that I could and nail the audition, so I started looking at songs that were relatively easy.

I settled on Scarborough Fair (the Simon and Garfunkel version), because the easy version only had four chords, and only three without the G chord, which I ended up cutting out because transitioning between chords was already intimidating enough for me without using one that was far away (or so I thought then) from the other chords I was using.

I practiced and practiced and got super excited when I got calluses.

Then I went to my audition.

Played the song as part of it.

Went home.

Did not look at my guitar for a month.

It really was horrible of me. I just keep thinking about how much better I could be by now if I hadn't stopped.

Anyway, I took guitar lessons last semester, and did the bare minimum to get through them. I rarely practiced, and when I did, it was only once or twice a week. 

I was lazy and fail-tacular.

This New Year, I made a new resolution - Learn a least 20 songs on the guitar by the end of the year. I'm getting to know myself better and realizing that specifics are key for me.

It seems to be working! This semester started up, and I don't know what did it, but I had this unceasing urge to play. So... I don't really have to motivate myself to play ever, because I just want to. 

It is the greatest feeling to just sit and play.

There are so many reasons that I love to play the guitar, but I think that the top five would have to be:

-Listening to the gorgeous sound that comes out of my gorgeous instrument.

-The feeling of calluses forming on my fingertips

-Finger picking and feeling like a boss

-Singing as I play

-Learning a song that I already loved and gaining a new, different kind of love for it

Now there are days when I do almost nothing but play my guitar.

I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to learn and the knowledge of music that I do, so that I can make sweet music with that beautiful instrument.

Often it's hard not to feel inadequate with all of the talent around me up here, but whether I'm an incredible musician or not, I am so blessed, and so grateful for all of the music in my life, whether it's listening to it, singing it, playing it on the piano, hearing it in the world around me, or, now, playing it on my guitar.

Someday I'll post videos of my playing the guitar. Until then, just know how deeply I love it. :)

I'll be keeping track of my 20 songs on here, and posting videos of them after I've done learnt them! If you have suggestions, please don't hesitate to tell me. Y'all rock!

marvelous friday, yup.

Oh dearie. I'm rather horrible at this Monday thing. Some things never change, I suppose. 

This is why, though I just changed things up, I am discontinuing Marvelous Mondays. 

I used Marvelous Mondays as a way to get in a groove of blogging more often, but I feel like it has served its purpose, and I would now much rather just post whatever I feel like posting. 

I do not want to feel obligated to post on a certain day, or to post something in a specific format, like Marvelous Mondays have been. 

Actually, I think that this will help me to post more often - Marvelous Mondays tend to intimidate me because they take such a long time, so I put them off forever and then they don't get finished until the end of the week... Then it's not even Marvelous Monday, it's Marvelous all-of-Kira's week. Pff.

Anyway, I love you people who read this blog. Thank you for sticking with me as I figure it out. :)