Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, High School Musical contains lots of good music. I hope you know that. This summer time has a totally different atmosphere than the regular school year does. In college, there are still some who are taking classes, but I feel like there is so much down time to be had by all my friends and family. Some are taking advantage by working more, others by preparing for missions. The trick is finding time to enjoy the company of all these great people. This week has been full of good times with my friends. The week started off with a great Family Home Evening which was simply a Memorial Day movie, Saints and Soldiers.  Not everyone showed up, but all those that did enjoyed the movie and we talked about what we are up to for the rest of the summer. On Tuesday there was a surprise party with all my coworkers from when I worked at the Missionary Training Center. One of them is preparing for a mission in Europe and wanted all of us to get together at least once before she l...

Dear Reader, I grew up surrounded by comments and ideals of finding ‘the one.’ You have heard it, too. Commentaries such as, “Don’t worry, the right one will come along” or “Keep searching for Mr./Mrs. Right.” It is commonplace in the world of dating and getting married, especially among Latter-day Saints. The truth is that I have been on that search before. There are many women that could be ‘the one’ for me. There have been a couple girls that I thought were that ‘one.’                 When you find that person, you are so blissfully happy and you wonder how you ever lived without them. That one person comes along and they seem perfect in every way. They complete you. You balance each other out so well and you start wondering about how much time you want to spend together. Some say that there is no ‘one’ person for you. The one is the person you choose to be with forever.  ...

Dear Reader, Happy Memorial Day! This week I experienced a miracle at work. For those who don't know, I work late night custodial at the Wilkinson Student Center. Those late nights are usually uneventful while we set up rooms for the next day or polish the floors. However, I feel it a tender mercy that on Sunday night I was given the task to clean up in the Memorial Hall in the Student Center. I will admit that my ideas of the Memorial Hall were greatly mistaken. I had never actually been in that hall until Sunday night and in my mind it was just a hall where the university hung the American flag along with quotes about freedom and was nothing really special. How wrong I was. As seen in the photo above, the hall is a memorial for all the BYU students/alumni that have given their lives in defense of our country.  The hall includes a list of names of all the fallen BYU students/alumni from each war. The lists contain several dozen names and the other ...

Dear Reader, I recently listened to a radio show about a family with 19 kids, The Duggars. The radio show was all about their lifestyle and turning toward God. At the beginning of the show, they talked about their family motto: "Children are a gift from God." With this in mind, I asked my family members what our family motto is. These are the responses I got. MOM "Ice cream solves everything." "Smile" "Everything's better with ketchup on it." "Mind your manners."  HOLLY "Just do it."  "Where'er thou art, act well thy part." CAMI "Ice Cream cures anything." DAD "Positive Mental Attitude." "Most people are about as happy as the make up their minds to be." CURTIS "Remember who you are and what you stand for." "Don't do anything stupid." BRYCE "Wise behind my ears." As you can see, ou...

Dear Reader, Have you heard a barbershop quartet before? The most common thought about barbershop is an image of 4 guys in striped vests, most of the time in the musical   The Music Man.  Yeah, these guys are pretty cool. There are many quartets around the country that keep this line of music going. You can listen to   Storm Front ,   Ringmasters   or   Vocal Spectrum.   They travel around and keep the whole world singing. Yesterday was their day: National Barbershop Quartet Day! I also sing in a quartet. We call ourselves   Ever Higher . I think that name comes from Nick's incessant need to sing high tenor parts. Anyway, the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) was founded on April 11, 1938. This is now national barbershop day.  In honor of Barbershop, I want to write all about the chapter of that society based out of Provo, Utah. The group is   Mountain West Voices,  also has part to do with the Brigham Young Univer...