Just a few reasons I love my sister Emily

1. She makes brining a turkey fun, disgusting, and fascinating all at the same time. 

2. She makes a killer mint milkshake & enjoys a good treat almost as much as I do.

3. She makes the best "funny faces" of ANYONE I know. Hands down.  

4. She is one of the only people I know that can motivate her intelligent children (and 25-year-old sister) to run as fast as they can around a tree. For no reason. Her persuasive power is RIDICULOUS. More evidence: She had me, all of the primary teachers, and all of the primary kids CAPTIVATED as she told a story about butterflies. Seriously, I couldn't leave the room. And I had a super strong desire to be reverent and catch butterflies. 

5. Emily is always giving and is one of the most caring and genuine people I know. This includes not only her husband and children, but her parents, siblings, and even the lady at the grocery store.  

6. Emily is such a good Mom and is an example to me of what kind of Mom I want to be. Her kids are happy, crazy, and intelligent. She doesn't leave them wondering whether they love her, whether it's by disciplining them when needed, or being sympathetic for the hardships of a two-year-old (I would cry, too if I someone turned off my favorite Princess song).  

7. She is super blunt & says it like it is. If she thinks the elaborate cheesecake she spent hours on is disgusting, she will say it. Her opinion & perspective is one I value highly (at least in matters unrelated to cheesecake) and she always has good advice and opinions on things. 

8. Not only is she tots adorbs & gorg*, but she is not pretentious at all. 

*tots adorbs & gorg= totally adorable & gorgeous

9. Her willingness to accept other cultures. (You would, too if your baby looked Asian!)

10. She is super fun, loves jumping pictures (you do, right?), & knows how to photo-shop people out of the background of the picture. Side note: Her computer skillz are ridiculous! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

A postlude to RIDICULOUS & it's remedy

New meaning of ridiculous:

Being described as "perfect and upright" and then having

1. ALL of your oxen, [donkeys] stolen in the same day -(Job 1:14-15) RIDICULOUS 

2. ALL of your servants and sheeps consumed in flames from heaven- (v.16-17) RIDICULOUS 

3. ALL of your sons and daughters killed in a freak accident by some random wind destroying their house- (v.18-20) RIDICULOUS 

4. All of this happening in 24 hours and being able to say "the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (v.21) REALLY RIDICULOUS.

It gets worse, just wait. 

5. THEN having "sore boils" afflict you from head to toe (Job 2:7) RIDICULOUS

6. Having your best friends turn against you in the time you need them most, being judgmental and suspicious instead of comforting and caring (Job 4, 11) - RIDICULOUS

7. All of THIS happening and still being able to declare, "Though [God] slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15) - REALLY RIDICULOUS

I have yet to read all 42 chapters, but I am sure it just gets more and more ridiculous. And I thought my life was ridiculous...

Today in Sunday School we talked about how God is love and light. We had a good discussion that awakened in me a series of questions and concerns I didn't realize I had. The teacher mentioned how it is important to seek out signs of God's love in your life daily. She mentioned how it could be simple, like the beautiful trees or living in a place with nice weather. Another example could be avoiding a car accident or some other catastrophe. While I am the first to appreciate nice weather, it got me wondering...What about when the weather is bad? It's been raining for months? Obviously that doesn't mean God doesn't love you. What about when you don't avoid that catastrophe? What about when you personally or someone in your family encounters a trial that seems unbearable? What about when you pray really hard for something, and you don't get an answer? What about when righteous desires are left unfulfilled? What about little children who grow up in an abusive home? 

How can we really feel God's love, even in moments of rejection or despair? In the midst of trials that we find unwanted, unwarranted, and unbearable? 

After pondering about these things, I have had two examples/sources come to mind: 

Job. He had a testimony of Jesus Christ even when all was gone in His life, even when it would have been a lot easier to assume that God didn't love Him or that He didn't care. Pretty amazing that Job was faithful through all of those trials and was still trusting in God's love for Him as an individual. His faith was awesome-RIDICULOUS. Although I know my life doesn't even compare to his, I want to have faith like he does and trust like he does. 

Elder Christofferson's talk from last April General Conference: "As Many As I love, I Rebuke and Chasten"

I love everything about this talk. It has spoken to my heart on so many occasions, and especially right now. 

Today, this was one of my favorite parts about trials and sacrifice: 

"Sadly, much of modern Christianity does not acknowledge that God makes any real demands on those who believe in Him, seeing Him rather as a butler 'who meets their needs when summoned' or a therapist whose rolse is to help people 'feel good about themselves.' It is a religious outlook that 'makes nor pretense at changing lives.' 'By contrast,' as one author declares, 'The God portrayed in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures asks, not just for commitment, but for our very lives. The God of the Bible traffics in life and death, not niceness, and calls for sacrificial love, not benign whatever-ism."

Even our trials are meant to refine us and helps us bring forth more fruit. I want to be able to join with Paul when he says, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,  nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

The remedy to ridiculousness. 

Contagion

Remember when you were about to graduate from high school and you were picking your senior quote? You agonized for hours and days and days and hours about what quote you should choose? What quote should represent you for years to come to your classmates? What would be your legend, your identity? Really, it was the most important decision in your life at that point. (Let's be honest, there was no question about where to go to college. Especially if you were like me and only applied to ONE school).  

I remember those times.

If only life were still that simple. If only the decisions that loom in my future (ok present, let's be honest) were really as miniscule as a senior quote or what I was going to wear that day. If only I wasn't deciding on who to spend eternity with, or what I would be doing every day for the rest of my life. If only I could not worry about the fact that my job doesn't use my brain, or my heart, for that matter. And not worry that I'm living under my potential every day, a potential that I don't even know how to realize. And not worry about the thousands of other details of life...grad school? where? how to fund? why? why not? what?

Or maybe life really is still simple and I'll look back and realize these decisions aren't that huge. But I seriously doubt that.  

For now, I have no choice but to harken back to that dear, sweet, (random) senior quote of mine: 

"Enthusiasm is contagious. Start an epidemic." 

....Still have no idea what I was thinking with that quote....

But this enthusiastic laugh is certainly the most contagious I have EVER experienced: 

Thanks, Adorable Niece Liesel. 

Ridiculous

I have recently decided that "ridiculous" is the end-all be-all adjective for pretty much every occurrence in life. Here is a list of things/situations* (past or present) it describes so aptly:

1. The back of yo' head- RIDICULOUS
2. Missing your sisters so much that you check their blogs every day- RIDICULOUS
3. When the only option for expanding your wardrobe is "shopping" in the attic, aka looking through boxes of clothes from high school - RIDICULOUS

4. The fact that there are more, and bigger, cockroaches in your home in Durham, NC than you would ever encounter in your normal living residence in, say, Taiwan (a tropical climate) -RIDICULOUS
5. Having your insane fear of said cockroaches motivate you to sleep in the same room as your mother at age 25 (it's the only room you have not spotted a cockroach in) - RIDICULOUS
6. Accidentally signing up for the wrong Verizon plan without knowing and then paying for 1000 texts per text and having your phone bill turn out to be $130 instead of $50 when you have no money as it is - RIDICULOUS
7. Actually sending 1000 texts in one month - RIDICULOUS
8. Having your boyfriend break up with you because he was still in love with his ex-girlfriend who is now married to someone you were formerly interested in dating but who rejected you as well - RIDICULOUS
9. Having your pants rip open unknowingly on a blind date with five other couples and no one telling you about this gash (which extends from the waistband to the knee pit, exposing your butt cheek and thigh/leg) until hours into the date - RIDICULOUS
10. Making a fetus for a project in Ceramics 101- RIDICULOUS
11. Driving across the US to visit your boyfriend's family and then having him break up with you during the road trip home - RIDICULOUS
12. Growing tomatoes the size of your head in your own backyard- CRAZY RIDICULOUS

13.Having to work at a job that you could have gotten right out of high school after graduating from college at age 25 - REALLY RIDICULOUS
14. The beauty of the fall leaves - RIDICULOUS


Feel free to add to this list. It's a good coping mechanism (healthy or not), I promise.

*Note: If these situations were not hypothetical (which they are, of course), than rest assured that I have no hard feelings against any of you.

Thanks, Eve.

"Those who feel no need for mercy usually never seek it and almost never bestow it. Those who have never had a heartache or a weakness or felt lonely or forsaken never have had to cry unto heaven for relief of such personal pain. Surely it is better to find the goodness of God and the grace of Christ, even at the price of despair, than to risk living our lives in a moral or material complacency that has never felt any need for faith or forgiveness, any need for redemption or relief.

A life without problems or limitations or challenges--life without 'opposition in all things,' as Lehi phrased it--would paradoxically but in very fact be less rewarding and less ennobling than one which confronts--even frequently confronts--difficulty and disappointment and sorrow. As beloved Eve said, were it not for the difficulties faced in a fallen world, neither she nor Adam nor any of the rest of us ever would have known 'the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.'"
"The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom" Jeffrey R. Holland

I love the truth that difficulties and challenges are necessary to comprehend real joy, which can be experienced even in the midst of those trials when I allow them to help me come unto Christ. They also enable me to become more compassionate and less judgmental of others. I guess I prefer this route than one of "moral or material complacency" where I feel little stretch to change or grow, with an accompanying lack of depth to life. I am really grateful for the words of prophets and apostles that bring the Spirit to my heart and speak to me like no person could.

How I feel about applying for jobs

A visit with Jana & Kev

It was a lot of fun to go see Jana & Kevin. We went to a Halloween playground/hayride place which I think Adrienne really enjoyed. Later that night we got to watch the BYU vs. TCU game with Catherine & Hunter. Then on Saturday, since I missed my train, I got to babysit Kayla & Adrienne while Jana & Kevin went to Stake Conference. They are such sweet little kids, I just love them. And of course the trip wouldn't have been complete without a game of Settlers of Catan, which Jana won (of course). Classic.

 

Going Solo

What do you do in downtown DC by yourself?

1. Tour the Old Post Office

2. Admire the glory of the Washington Monument & Capital building

3. Soak in the beauty of the fall leaves 

4. Tour all of the FREE Smithsonian exhibits/museums

10 Things I love about my sista Catherine

1. The way she puts on her chapstick

2. Sense of adventure: she'd sacrifice anything for a good set of buckwheat blueberry pancakes...including my train ride back to NC :)

3. She takes me running to cool places like Falls Lake!

4. She loves to eat delicious food & will willingly split everything

5. The chances that Catherine will want to eat gelato or ice cream at any given moment during the day (irregardless of prior intake) is 99.9999999999999999999%

6. She loves to work out & has huge muscles (can you see the bump??)

7. Not only does she have a great sense of humor, but she can be serious, too.

8. Her ability to look better in my clothes than I do. 

9.  Her quiet sense of dignity 

10. She certainly knows how to enjoy fall & the beautiful leaves. 

Enjoying the fair Hatch-style (Round 2)

Step 1: Stop by the Ol' Grist Mill & get some free hush puppies.

Step 2: Go to the gardening section. This is dad's favorite part of the fair. Awe at the plants and try to name all of them. Then proceed to take dumb pictures. :)

Step 3: Eat carmelized corn (!!!!!)

Step 4: Begin to unleash the inner-fatty within.

Step 5: Weep over the trials of life and rejoice that you have friends to eat chocolate with you. That is, if you have friends...

Step 6: Participate in random fair games, like the "Guess your age" exhibit in order to win free prizes worth less than you paid for & boost your confidence (Catherine had two people guess that she was 27!)

Step 7: Wish you wore an ugly sweater, too so that you could participate in this year's most alluring exhibit: The Ugly Sweater Contest of the Goats.

Step 8: Eat to your heart's disease...I mean desires.

Step 9: Take Picture #5890436 of yourself being pregnant with a food-baby & decide to be more moderate tomorrow.

Pigs, Pickles, Plump, and Pups

North Carolina State Fair: Round One. Fried zucchini, funnel cakes, Harris Teeter deli meat in animal form, The Swings (best ride ever), and more calories than you'll ever consume in a lifetime. Classic.