Well, another semester is finished! This semester has been an interesting one I must say! If you had asked me at different points in the semester how it was going I would have said it was my worst one, but hindsight is 20/20. Sure this semester had it's challanges but overall it was really beneficial. I learned a lot about myself, my friends and God.

This was my first semester as a piano/violin double major and wow!!!!!!! did it pack a punch! I had expected it to be busy, but the the harsh reality sunk in that it was histarical! So many times this semester I just wanted to quit on one of them and I had "good" reasons for dropping either one, but I believe this is what God wants me to do and I need to put my all into it. However, I will need prayer with this decision. I'm going to have to put a lot more time into this to get it accomplished at the sacrifice of other areas of my life. It will take dedication I've never shown, and faith I've never had. I'm going to have to decide that it's practice first and everything else is secondary. All my friends at school who are reading this, I'm asking for your help. Everyone else who may not see me everyday I'm asking you to pray. I have a platform and an evaluation this semester, both of which are pass/fail and decided whether or not I can continue either of my majors. I know that God will help me to do well, but I need the faith and dedication to do my part in passing!

The next major event in my life will be a three week ensemble tour in North and South Carolina. I am looking forward to and dreading this trip at the same time. I'm dreading it because I really don't want to cut my vacation early, especially since I won't be home again 'til August, but I am looking forward to it because God has something for me that I don't know about and that's pretty exciting!!! I really am excited about the people I'm traveling with! They are all great people and I'm excited to get to know them better. Please pray that the Lord will protect us on the road, and also that He will bless our ministry so we can influence many people's lives and be a witness for Him!

Family and friends! Could God have blessed us with to better gifts? God gave me the great blessing of seeing my family two weekends of this past semester. My parents, Emily, and Matthew came for my symphony concert in October. Although the visit was short we had great time! My other sister and best friend Sharon came to visit me for her fall break from Crown college which was two weekends after my family had come. Her visit was longer and I loved every minute of it! For all my friends as school, Thank you sooooo much for being so kind to my family! They loved you all and ask about you often! God has blessed me with the best family ever, and it is an even bigger blessing that they are able to visit during the semester! I also want to thank the Lord for my friends this semester! God has given me some of the greatest people I've met to help me get throught tough times. I wouldn't be a double major anymore or possibly even be going back to school next semester if it weren't for their encouragement.

Number one lessong from this semester! We are capable of nothing w/o God, but there is nothing we aren't capable of with God!

PICTURES!!!!!!!!

Well I promised a long time ago that I'd post some pictures and tell you some more about my summer. I'm really busy right now so I'm just going to post some of my favorite pictures, but I'll tell more about summer later. Enjoy!

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have high extroversion. You are outgoing and engaging, with both strangers and friends. You truly enjoy being with people and bring energy into any situation. Enthusiastic and fun, you're the first to say "let's go!" Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Your Japanese Name Is...

Shuichi Aburakoji

What's your Japanese Name?

Here you go Amber! How do you say that, and does it mean anything?

Your Power Color Is Indigo

At Your Highest: You are on a fast track to success - and others believe in you. At Your Lowest: You require a lot of attention and praise. In Love: You see people as how you want them to be, not as how they are. How You're Attractive: You're dramatic flair makes others see you as mysterious and romantic. Your Eternal Question: "Does This Work Into My Future Plans?"

What's" Your Power Color?

Your Hidden Talent

You have the power to persuade and influence others.You're the type of person who can turn a whole room around.The potential for great leadership is there, as long as you don't abuse it.Always remember, you have a lot more power over people than you might think!

What's" Your Hidden Talent?

Hey there everyone! It has been sooooo long since I've posted...last August in fact :-/. Well a lot has happened since my last post as you could imagine. This post is going to be a quick breeze through this year and more specifics about recent adventures will come later. I have finished a complete year at PCC and loved it 10x more than I even expected. Classes went very well and I've learned alot. But I must say the biggest thing I gained this year was a tremedous group of friends. Oh sorry, you want pictures? Here you go

Here they are, not all, but several of my close friends on campus. This summer I had the opportunity to travel with a PCC ensemble as the tenor in the group. It was the most amazing experience. Our covered New York, all of New England, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Ontario. All that and more pictures in future posts. Bye!

Here's some pix of our recitals at SMA. There was a big range of ability and style in all the recitals which kept them interesting. They had recitals every afternoon the last week, a few evening reacitals, a chamber group recital, and a honors recital on the last full day. I had the opportunity to play in the first evening recital, accompany for several afternoon recitals, play a violin and a piano duet in the chambers recital, and I also got to accompany a cellist and play a solo in the honors recital. My favorite one was probably the two duets. They were both a lot of fun. Everyone did a really awsome job and I hope they keep it up!

Our teachers at SMA were so AWESOME this year!!!!! I had Ms.Graby as my private piano teacher which I was very happy about even though I would have been happy with any of the teachers this year. Then I had Mrs.Bambard for theory, and Mr.Bombard for Music History, sectionals, orchestra, and he also taught violin and cello private lessons. Mr. and Mrs.Bombard are the ones in the bottom picture with their daughter and Ms.Graby is the one on the right in the middle picture. The one next to her is Ms. soon to be Mrs.Moe;she was one of the violin/viola teachers and I accompanied several of her students so I worked with her alot too. The Oriental lady in the top picture was Ms.Song. She was Emily's teacher and was absolutely amazing!!!!! The teaching staff was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to camp so badly this year because I knew it would help out alot at college if I already knew alot of the staff. I learned so much from everyone and I'm excited to see what I'll be able learn at college.

Okay I'm sorry it's taking so long between posts. Work has become really hectic and I'm spending alot of time practicing getting ready for college auditions :-/. This is my post on our counselers at SMA 06. We had a good group this year very different than last year but good still. There names left to right are Christine, Paul, Stephany, Micah, and the girl on the end wasn't a counseler but she was Micah's girlfriend so she was always around. I was very thankful for them this year because they had so much helpful advice to prepare me for college this fall. Two of them were seniors with music majors and one was a music major for one or two years so they were loaded with helpful info. They did a wonderful job and were very helpul in making camp an enjoyable experience.