My Choir Experience

So Saturday morning, I woke up with a frog in my throat and a cough. I thought, "Oh no, I'm not going to be able to sing!" I said a little prayer in my heart and headed to the chiropractor. He gave me an adjustment and told me that I should be able to sing that night! Miraculously, I began to feel better, but I started to get a little headache. That headache escalated to a migraine by that night (the night we were to sing first.) I was in such pain I didn't think I would be able to go. I kept procrastinating getting ready since my head hurt so bad, but then I started to think about how disappointed I'd be if I wasn't able to sing the song I shared with you in the last post and I took a leap of faith and started getting ready. I was late for the rehearsal, but I did make it and I felt better than I had in days! I'm so glad that I was able to be apart of that!

Unfortunately Sunday was a different story. I woke up with laryngitis, which I still have today:( So, obviously, I couldn't sing without a voice, so I stayed home and slept in. I'm pretty disappointed that I couldn't be apart of the Sunday performance, but I'm just grateful that I could sing in the Saturday one. Since I did sing, I do get to sign it off in the University of Life! Yay!

My poor husband has caught what I have AND has to go to work on top of it:( I guess that's what he gets for being such a wonderful husband and taking care of his sick wife:/ Now it's my turn to take care of him, I do feel better, I just can't talk without sounding like a 13 year old boy going through puberty haha

My First Task: "Sing in a choir or small group at church"

I have to admit that this one isn't urging me to stretch myself or grow...I love being apart of church choirs and so even if I wasn't doing the University of Life, I'd still be singing in this choir. But I'll still take what I can get and sign this off, my first 3 credits out of a goal of 300 (that's such a big number!) Tomorrow night and Sunday the choir I'm in will be singing 4 different songs, 2 Saturday night, and 2 on Sunday. My favorite song that we're going to sing is "Make Us One" by Sally DeFord. The lyrics are amazing and it sounds just beautiful! The lyrics are:


"How shall we stand amid uncertainty? Where is our comfort in travail?
How shall we walk amid infirmity, when feeble limbs are worn and frail?
And as we pass through mortal sorrow, how shall our hearts abide the day?
Where is the strength the soul may borrow? Teach us thy way.

Make us one, that our burdens may be light
Make us one as we seek eternal life
Unite our hands to serve thy children well
Unite us in obedience to thy will.
Make us one! teach us, Lord, to be of one faith, of one heart
One in thee.

Then shall our souls be filled with charity, then shall all hate and anger cease
And though we strive amid adversity, yet shall we find thy perfect peace
So shall we stand despite our weakness, so shall our strength be strength enough
We bring our hearts to thee in meekness; Lord, wilt thou bind them in thy love?

Take from me this heart of stone, and make it flesh even as thine own
Take from me unfeeling pride; teach me compassion; cast my fear aside.
Give us one heart, give us one mind
Lord, make us thine
Oh, make us thine!" 


Beautiful! I just hope that the people that we are singing to will be able to understand the lyrics as we sing and feel the spirit as I know all the members of the choir do. 


I"m actually just getting over being sick, and, of course, a sore throat and cough are my main symptoms! I can talk just fine, and I'm pretty sure I can sing just fine too, but I'm afraid of coughing in the middle of the songs, that would be simply horrid, especially in the middle of lyrics like that! So I'll just hope and pray that I won't cough and disrupt the spirit of the meetings, and any prayers from others would be helpful too! I'll post after we perform to let you know how it went!:)

Let's Start This Thing

So I think I'd like to start off by introducing myself. My name is Janelle Leslie, I'm 22 years old (very soon to be 23), I enjoy painting, Disneyland, being a little crazy, and being married to my high school sweetheart, Michael, who is my love, my life, and my everything. We are currently living with his parents, although Michael just got a job and so hopefully we'll be moving out by the end of the year *crosses fingers*. I have wonderful parents, wonderful family, and wonderful friends. I'm a member of The Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which brings me to why I'm creating this blog: our ward relief society president (president of the class of women 18 and older) challenged us to do this University of Life thing...it's pretty much a packet of "courses" and under each course there are tasks one must complete...if you complete enough tasks in a year,  you "graduate." It's to help encourage you to become a better person, explore new talents you might not have known you possessed, and also grow closer to the Savior. So I decided I'm up for the challenge, I'd like to be a better me...so let's get this thing started! Oh! And one of the "electives" is to make a journal entry once a month...so I thought, why don't I make a blog? haha Then I can add pictures and such:) It's mostly for my family and my friends to be able to see what I'm up to, but if anyone else gets a kick out of it, I guess that's pretty cool too:)