Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On A Pig) - Parry Gripp

When picking Matthew up from Seminary one morning, I saw his seminary teacher come out from the barn where they held class. Trailing behind Brother _____ was his little pet pig named "Dinner." The little pig just happened to imprint on the Brother and treated him like his parent. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen!! This movie reminded me of that cute little piglet.

Zimerman - Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 - II Adagio

Tremble

"Tremble: your whole life is a rehearsal for the moment you are in now."

--Judith Malina

Funny Prank in Japan

productively unproductive

this is me

and rachel

being silly.

i started out trying to be a raccoon,

and then i tried to turn it into a pirate...

but it got kinda screwed up.

i've been very productive the last couple days and needed to blow off some steam with the lil' sis.

umm...i think i need to find a new hobby!! :P

Oh Mazda.

I recently had a love affair. With a car.

It was late one night, in the bedroom of a certain 20-something year old girl. Due to icy/snowy road conditions, she had recently had a spill off her what she calls motorcycle--what other people call scooter. That was enough to push her over the edge of deciding that...it was time to have a car again!

Her first thought was to get either a Mini-Cooper Convertible because they are sooo darn cute!! A close second was the Volkswagon Beetle Convertible. For the same reason. However, she decided that she wanted to be prudent and wise before making any huge decisions. So she car shopped, reading many a consumer report. To her dismay she found these two cars on the "Worst of the Worst" list. So she decided to reconsider her options. On the "Best of the Best" list were several ideas which were not only palatable but pleasing. Considering all of the models, she went back to looking for a used car. She came across an advertisement for an amazing lease deal on the Mazda3 iSport. Reading more consumer reports and reviews on the model and make of the car...and thinking that it was a very cute car....her infatuation began. Several days later she traveled to the car dealership with her father. After several hours of test driving and being sold up to the Mazda3 sTouring...she stepped back from the situation, did the math, and decided that she was not ready to undertake such a financial burden.

Affair over. Reason caught up with me. I saved myself from making what might have been a huge mistake. However, when the time is right to consider getting a car....I will not forget my Mazda fling. Perhaps the timing is just not right yet??

Now it's just time to bring old Torri back to life, my white '99 Ford Taurus Wagon which has been out of commission for over a year. I will rename her when she is running again. :)

p.s. I am not particularly partial to white cars...though I do like them. This was just one of the better pictures that I could find and legally post.

Word to the Wise.

If you are cold, DO NOT SIT OVER THE HEATER VENT.

You will never leave.

I am a Chinese Bamboo Tree

In the past year I have been likened unto a Unicorn, a fairy, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Mulan...and you get the picture. However, I would share with you that I hope to live in such a way that I might be likened unto a tree. The Chinese Bamboo Tree.

When planted, the Chinese Bamboo Tree is a bulb which must be diligently taken care of. For four years of consistent care there will be no proof that a bulb was ever planted. During this time the growth is all underground where there is developing an extensive root system to support the tree so that in the fifth year the tree will suddenly burst from beneath the soil and can grow upwards of eighty feet in one year! Some days extending itself as much as a meter vertically. (One source said that the bamboo tree can even grow upwards of "NINETY FEET IN SIX WEEKS," however, for arguments sake...this number seemed a bit hyperbolic).

Is that not incredible growth?

However, I do not want to be likened unto the myth that says when the Chinese Bamboo Tree blooms it portends famine. I would consider myself a late bloomer...but I do not wish to bloom only once in fifty years!! :O

Perhaps I need to rethink what I really wish to be compared to?

The Haunted Printer!

This speaks for itself.

Popcorn Popping

Watching this and then reading the comments made me so happy. You MUST read the comments!!! I promise you that you will laugh heartily. :)

"My Heart Hurts!!"

Today the boys went to BYD (Bishop' s Youth Devotional...formerly called a Bishop's Fireside) and the girls hung out at home, in the kitchen, making curry and eating ice cream. A very interesting combination.

Well...as a young female adult who has recently read/watched too much Jane Eyre/Emma/North and South of late, I was playfully wining to mother, "my heart hurts!" Really, sometimes I consider the possibility that falling head over heels in love with fictional characters might not always be the healthiest thing.

However, I was soon taught what true heartache is. Rachel told us that "sometimes, when I run a lot my heart starts hurting too." I will endeavor to not complain about such trivial pangs in future!

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and evertyhing that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Resolving to Resolve.

I have yet to make any New Years Resolutions. Decision making has never been my greatest strength. I tend to get overwhelmed with all of the available options. There is so much to choose from in this life, so many different roads we can take. Yet, we are forced to choose just ONE. One road. One choice. One life.

It doesn't help that I suffer from a chronic form of perfectionism which easily turns into procrastination. I can be very self-defeating as I subconsciously insist that "if I can't do it perfectly, I won't do it at all."

I'm working on that one! I'm working on not making life more complicated and difficult than it really is. I'm working on taking a more active role in my agency...I want to choose where my path will lead me and not simply be tossed about by every tide and storm and random influence. That doesn't mean that we are not allowed to make mistakes. Or change our mind. Or go the wrong way. I am realizing that sometimes, it doesn't matter so much what you choose, just that you choose. You are free to act, don't be acted upon.

I will qualify that. WHAT you choose IS very important. As President Thomas S. Monson likes to say "Decisions determine Destiny."

I don't know about you, but I want a destiny. A beautiful, eternal destiny. But to create this destiny, we don't need to be so afraid of our choices as I have so often feared. Such fear represents a lack of trust and faith, for faith and fear cannot dwell in the same mind at the same moment. So I will choose not to fear. I will choose to create that beautiful, eternal destiny step by step. Day by day. Lives are lived not in years or college semesters, but in moments.

Life is such a delicate balancing act. We must not fear or worry about every single choice, yet we should be concerned and take an active part in our agency as we acknowledge that every single one of our little choices affects who we are. We must think and plan ahead, but live in the moment. We must figure out what we want. Who we are. And once we know ourselves be willing to sacrifice that will for the will and wisdom of our Heavenly Father.

So what is His will for me?? I really don't know. Not yet.

I have come to understand that the Lord reveals his will to us in both our minds and hearts at the same time in a quiet yet clear way. I feel very confused right now...so I am not going to make any final decisions for the present. However, in the spirit of the New Year and it's resolutions, I will make this one: that although I cannot choose all of those big life decisions right at this moment, what my career will be, who I will marry, etc, I am not going to procrastinate life any longer. I am just going to live right now. I am going to bloom where I am planted. I am going to make those small daily choices like "let's get out of bed," "let's pray and read our scriptures," "let's go for a run," "let's choose to have faith and not fear at this moment." I am resolving that when I can act with certainty..when I have ideas that feel right, I will act upon them. I will go and do. Even if the choices I can make are only small: I resolve to resolve.