thoughts...

I'm tired. always.

Why don't I sleep??

Oh yeah. I remember. I like to read... My favorite series right now are the Study books by Maria V. Snyder.

They are addicting. I'm almost done with the third and I don't want the series to end!

Thank you Sydney for introducing me to these amazing books.

I had a piano recital today. The trio I was in won the Golden Chicken award... hmmm...

Pretty cool.

We were conjoined hippies. Notice our arms all linked together  while
we were playing. Pretty legit.

I've been working half days this whole week and once school starts... two hours a day after school is going to feel like nothing!

I'm obsessed with the Doug Wright show on KSL.

My parents tease me for listening to talk radio for hours at a time while I'm glueing tile sample boards...

Well. It's interesting.

And now I'm obsessed with politics.

But I can't watch Mitt Romney right now because my siblings are watching Good Luck Charlie...

Well I guess I could watch online but obviously I'm not.

I'm so excited for school. I am.

I've been hanging out with my super close friends all the time... but I'm ready to see everyone else again too. And I'm excited to be able to see my friends every single day. As of late our busy lives have been only allowing once or twice a week.

I'm ready for High School.

I'm ready to start caring about my appearance every now and again.

I'm ready for Once Upon a Time to start again.

I've spent every day this week wondering what I should blog about next and never came up with anything. So you get this random list of stuff I'm thinking about and excited about.

I need to spend some time sorting through the For the Future file inside my Blog folder...

I fill it up with all the cool pictures and stories that I read on the internet that would be good to blog about.

But for now... I'm going to go read. Or watch the Covert Affairs episode that is still sitting in the DVR from Tuesday.

Or I will go eat something.

What are you guys excited about with the upcoming school year???

I'm also excited for fall and snow and boots.

Anyways.

I don't know how to end this post. Goodnight!

I'M GOING AT MIDNIGHT!!!!!

I loooove Anne Hathaway's voice as Fantine... and I'm a fan of Amanda Seyfried as well...

Ooooh and check out this awesome flash mob type thing that went down in Poland...




Apparently the entire Polish cast participated... super cool, right?

My FAVORITE musical EVER... 

They had better keep it rated PG13... because I am SO excited.

sunday tidbits

Things that I liked that I heard/read today...


a great song...

So this song is called I Just Knew by Cherie Call... I kinda just wanted to embed the song by itself and then post the lyrics... but the following video is seriously the only place I could find the whole song to embed for you guys... So you know... it works I guess... :)



He’s the son of a king, but He came to us with nothing
No purple robe, no crust of bread
With His soft tiny hands, He reached out for me to hold Him
There was no crown upon his head
So I guess that I should not have been surprised
When I saw the human tears in His holy infant eyes

And no one ever taught me how to sing
A lullaby for the son of a mighty king
But when I held Him in my arms
And I rocked Him just the way that mothers do, I just knew

Just as we knew he would be, He lived so selflessly
He was a legend in the land
People came from far and wide, they looked at Him with pleading eyes
Longing for the healing in His hands
And in those endless busy days
He still had time for me, He always found a way

And no one ever told me how to love
A healer and a teacher sent from up above
But when He cared for me and helped me
In the tender way that only He could do, I just knew

In sunlit moments I could see me in the traces of His smile
I know He came from me
But He was better than this world would allow
I could not save Him when He died
Now it seems that He’s the one who holds me when I cry

And everybody asks me how I’m sure
That the little boy I raised is our Redeemer
I could list the dreams and prophecies
And miracles that prove His mission true
But in all honesty
Every moment I was with him, I just knew


Great, right? It's on her album Gifts and is available on iTunes!!


Okay next... a great quote...

The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can live after we die but that we can live more abundantly (see John 10:10). The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed (see Romans 8). Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God (see Alma 40:26), but, brothers and sisters, no unchanged thing will even want to.

~ Brad Wilcox

Click here to read his whole address... it is fabulous...

And click here to read some of my thoughts about true conversion...

and last... an awesome story...

I read the following story in the New Era today...  (Pretend that it is you who are being addressed...)

----------

Thank You For Your Example... by Angela Farmer

Several years ago, a young man named James traveled internationally with a group of athletes. He was listening to a conversation that another athlete, Tom, was having about a beautiful young woman whom he was interested in—you. Most people considered Tom to be a very good-looking and well-accomplished athlete.

Tom admitted his disappointment that you had such high standards. In order for him to date you, you asked that Tom seriously consider the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tom said the standards of sexual purity were more than he had expected. James was deeply impressed that there was a Church with young people who were so serious about their religion and standards, and he asked for the name of the Church.

On returning to the United States, James decided to go to a Church meeting and see what inspired such dedication. He surprised the missionaries by showing up at church one Sunday. Soon afterward, after receiving the missionary lessons, James was baptized. Years later, I met James at a single-adult activity, and we were eventually married for time and all eternity in the temple.

I often think of you. It may have been uncomfortable for you to hold up high standards to a good-looking athlete, but I’m grateful you did. There is no way you could know how your dedication to high moral standards changed our lives. We just celebrated our 16th anniversary. I wish I could meet you. I would like to show you our lovely children and our happy home.

I hope you understand that even when you simply live your standards, you can have a profound effect on the lives of others. Being morally clean is a path to more than just personal happiness.

----------

Cool, right? She converted a young man and eventually... a family... without even knowing she had shared the Gospel...

Read here and here about missionary work... or just click on the Missionary Work label in the sidebar... there are a few more... :)

So there you have it! Happy Sunday!

good news

Did you know that the definition of Gospel in the Bible Dictionary is simply "Good News"?




"We have a glad message to share and we have a message of joy."

"Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary, use words."


Share the Gospel as often as you can! The simple and easy things really do add up!
You never know what sort of impact you might have. (<= click!)

You, my friends, could change someone's eternity because of a mere moment.

in the eye of the beholder...

Oh yeah... and Joshua Bell has a Grammy. That's pretty cool too...

Anyways... I actually read this several months ago but haven't posted about it yet. It's just been waiting for me in a file and I stumbled across it tonight...

Beauty truly lies in the eye of the beholder.

Just take a look at the planet we live on...

There is so much evil, so much ugly, and so much sin.

Well. That's true... says the half-empty sort of guy...


But you know what? We live on a beautiful planet. Sure, there is bad stuff out there. There is much more bad stuff than we'd like... and that is really and truly a sad thing...

But we live amongst beautiful creations... beautiful people... and beautiful truths.

That reminds me of this song... go listen!

I liked the part in the above article that said,
"At ten minutes, a three-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly."

I really do believe that most little children are more apt to stop and appreciate beauty... because every new thing they see is interesting to them...

Maybe it's part of the whole "become as a little child" thing.

Learn to see beauty.

Because, well, we are surrounded by it. And it makes you a happier person... when you see beauty in seemingly simple things around you...

Really and truly.

California 2012

Long time, no see??

It sure feels like it.

Anyways. I have a good excuse. My family and I have been in California the last two weeks... it's something that we do every year. Both of my parents grew up in California, so we go stay with my aunts and grandparents in Los Banos every year so that they can get an adequate dose of nostalgia... :)

Prepare yourself for lots (and lots) of pictures...

Our trip started out celebrating a birthday. Isaac is 2 years old!!

San Francisco skyline

We have our traditions... actually for years we pretty much did the same activities every year we went out there... we go to Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz, The Island waterpark... but we have started branching out more. I've been to CA many, many times... but had never been to San Francisco... so it was really fun to go see it this year. 

I looooove the architecture and the uniqueness of all the buildings... soooo cool.

Golden Gate Park

This really cool looking flower observatory place... just so happens they are closed Mondays... and of course, we were there on a Monday.

Probably the first ever carousel ride for this little kid...

 I think the sign said that this was the location of the first children's playground in America... hmmm...

My dad claims that everyone who comes to San Francisco must get a picture of the above houses with the skyline behind it... (what I wouldn't give to live in one of those... I like the yellow one in the middle...)

The most we could ever see of the bridge. Lame, right? It wasn't even foggy anywhere else. Just there. 

Next year, I guess!

We are easily entertained.

Lombard Street... "The Crookedest Street in the World" apparently... Those poor people in the above picture rode down it on Segways... 

Ghirardelli Square...

Hard to tell in the picture... but Biggest. Ice. Cream. Ever.

We devoured it in probably 2 minutes...

China Town was probably my favorite. It was cool to see everything written in Chinese... (plus everything is really cheap in their souvenir shops... yay!)

We picked up dresses and slippers for both of the girls for like... $18 total. Sweet.

SF Giants game... they barely lost in the 10th inning. Bummer.

To say that Isaac had fun would be a huge understatement.

Zach got pooped on by a seagull. lol.

Notice the rag on Zach's head... I think he got a little paranoid after that...

My dad and I toured Stanford University... (haha. someday maybe...)

the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk...

We've been on this ride over and over again... and this is what our faces look like Every. Year.

I didn't go on this ride. I would've puked.

We always go get Marianne's ice cream after...

Monterey. If I become a multi-millionaire someday... I'm moving here. It has been my favorite vacation spot since I was five.

Our favorite lunch spot... every year we ask for a window seat...

I love shopping. So naturally, I love Cannery Row.

Souvenir shops galore.

Carmel Beach. Did you know that Doris Day lives in Carmel? I wanna go see her house really really bad. But I don't know if anyone really knows exactly where she lives...

We went to the Oakland Temple on my parent's anniversary. 

The temple they were married in... on the day they were married.

Cool, right?

(I had never been there before...)

We went to Fenton's after the temple... more huge ice cream.

All of the above pictures were from the first week... my dad only stayed out for a week and then flew back home so that he could work. The second week we went to another beach, but since my dad's phone was our main camera... we didn't get any pictures. (I found FIVE whole, perfect sand dollars!!)

Anyways. The second week we mostly hung out at my grandma's house and visited with our aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Give him the iPad and he will be content for hours...

"I do not like the cone of shame."

(name that movie)

The awful, long drive home... (blech. 14 hours.)

Anyways... we had lots of fun but I am really happy to be home. Where has you and your family gone over the summer?

Oh... and back to my regular blogging schedule now! No more two week breaks! 

haha. yeah.

Until next time...