Five Things # 5

I like doing these blog posts because they keep me on the lookout for the little things that make me happy. Sometimes really small things do bouy me up! How about you? What things keep you inspired? Here are some things making me happy recently.

An eiffel tower that's been on my keychain since high school. It's a sturdy little thing, so I honestly have no idea how it got bent up like that.

A picturesque lilac door I found in our shed. I LOVE this door. Perfect for a best friends/family/couples photoshoot.

A Santa head ornament. We have about 20 of these on our tree, and it struck me the other day how macabre and creepy these ornaments are!

Writing in the notes on a tricky piece I need to learn for church. When you gotta learn things in a hurry and you have 4 pages of 16th notes, the pencil is your best friend. 

A sweet little initialed compact mirror my roommate gave me for Christmas. Narcissism to go! Love it! :)

Now that I'm DONE WITH MY FIRST SEMESTER OF GRAD SCHOOL (WOOHOO!!!) I may finally get around to taking pictures of some of the beautiful old homes in the area. I look forward to that post, I've been meaning to get to it all semester. Love to you all!

Five Things

It's been a good few days! There are always things around us to brighten up tough spots. Here are a few things that have been keeping me enthused. :)

 

I found Green Gables in my town. "Marilla!"

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas at my house. :) I thank my roommate Holly for her gorgeous seasonal decor.

A really beautiful willow Nativity set (also Holly's). What special pieces.

My favorite ornaments on our tree: deep red crystals and fun berries (beads? berries sounds better).

 

My hand. Haha, let me explain. Wearing my CTR ring on my pointer finger feels cool  and reminds me of my childhood. So, yeah, this one is really dumb, but this blog is all about what makes me happy, alright? And I just won't apologize for that. :)

Hurricane Sandy Cleanup

This weekend I got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to volunteer with the LDS church to clean up after hurricane Sandy in East Brunswick, New Jersey. It was such a humbling experience. I was shocked that there was still so much destruction one month later. We spent the weekend ripping up floors and drywall that had molded and made houses uninhabitable. I was astonished at the optimism of the people. I expected them to be bitter against God. Rather, they thanked God for what had been spared and the little miracles that had happened. One touching example: a woman's house had flooded with 5 feet of water, so she had to get a whole new first level. When we ripped up the walls, we found there were termites in her wood. So now she gets a new, termite-free house because of the hurricane! Small blessings have the power to take the sting out of large hardships.

I have so many stories, but pictures tell better than words I think. Here are some snapshots from this weekend of service. We had about 125 people from our stake go up. So inspiring and fun!

A lonely boat in a field. It had floated there with the 13 foot waves!

Ripping up rotten drywall and flooring.

Masks to protect from dust and mold. Love these girls, Rachel and Kathryn!

A HUGE boat crane to lift washed up boats over the road and into a parking lot where people can claim them. We cleared the yard above in a day - lots of random shoes and telephone poles, bottles and so many tennis balls! I guess New Jerseyans love their tennis.

A long shot of the junk and wood we removed from the yard.

A common sight in the neighborhoods of NJ. Piles and piles of furniture, books, clothes, drywall and broken tile. 

This picture is crazy. A guy had 3 boats and a washed up dock in his backyard. One of them he recognized the name of - it was his friend's! Imagine that phone call. 

Alisha breaking up floors like a boss.

Another boat.

Working in the crawlspace.

Some of the gang, being cheezy and frozen.

It was a sobering, humbling, life-changing experience. I love the church, I am so proud to be a member and I am grateful for the good people all over the world. 

Walk With Trina - And a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Trina and I had a really fun nature walk the other morning. It was fun to spend time with her! We gathered leaves and made leaf pictures.

This was supposed to be a turkey next to a cornucopia. It looks more like a stegasaurus. It's a turkosauras.

A poor little abandoned orange bear someone had stuck in the fencing.

The stretching post!

Sisters! Love Trina's spunk and original sense of humor.

The lovely W&OD. This used to be a railroad and has since been converted into a fantastic path used by runners, bikers, and walkers like us. Bunnies are also there (we saw one).

Helping Dad do wood on Thanksgiving Day! Classic. See those logs? Yeah, we rolled those. Up hills. They are like 80 pounds! Dad's amazing. End of story, and Happy Thanksgiving! There's a lot to be grateful for. 

Melting Time

My roommate has been decorating lately. She recently had a house fire. Both important bits of info for this post. When this clock appeared, I did a double take, thinking it had melted in the fire.

Upon closer inspection, I realized it's supposed to be that way! I had to laugh. The idea was probably taken from this painting by Salvador Dali:

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It's called, "The Persistence of Memory," and it's probably one of the only painting the general population of BYU students who took Humanities 101 remember years later. :) Maybe that's what this guy was going for. At least he's been immortalized by a clock.

5 Things

It's been a nice day. :) There's a lot to be grateful for, even if sometimes it's hard for me to see! Here are some things that have been keeping me happy and inspired lately.

Watching one of my top 25 favorite movies, Now Voyager. This movie strangely draws you in! My roommate came in halfway through, sat down, and stayed! I love it when people do that. :)

Running into a random free car show outside of the international Spy Museum. These cars are called trabants, and apparently it was the only car allowed in East Germany before the wall fell. There were a whole bunch of them, in bright different colors, but this one was my favorite. Can you guess why?

Pit stop at Cafe Rio on the way home. Of course.

A beautiful, really tall (maple?) in my backyard. It's made for a lot of raking this season, and, as you can probably tell, will continue to do so in the future!

A cunning cast-iron horse bell that hangs on our side porch. Our house is super old, so maybe this was to wake up the neighborhood in case there was a fire. I don't know.

Happy weekend! Hope you can catch the meteor shower. I'm going to try climbing up onto my roof to see it. We'll see how that goes. :)

I Need An Interpreter of Dreams #2

Another WACKO dream last night. I think it's kind of fun to chronicle these, because dreams that are so vivid minutes after you awake are practically impossible to remember the next day. I have one exception: when I was (6?) I dreamed that I was very poor and was trick-or-treating with my siblings. We wore potato sacks, and knocked on the door of a tent. A large owl answered, and he took us inside to see King Trident. We talked to him on the edge of a green cliff. Then an animated red and blue snake bit off Dan's arms, and he turned into a cobra.

Yeah. That one's never gonna leave me.

Anyways, about last night's subconscious adventure.

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It was dark, and I was alone on the curve of the driveway. I saw a raccoon in front of me, but for some reason I couldn't run away! (You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about). So, I took out my iPhone and turned on the flashlight app. I shone it in his eyes, which worked for a while. But he wasn't scared for long and started approaching me, growling. I was TERRIFIED. So, obviously, I turned my iPhone into a glowing spoon and threw it into the woods. The raccoon chased it. I remember thinking, "Snap, Dad's gonna be so mad" while the critter ran after my iSpoon. I mean iPhone.

Anyways, the only part of that I could connect to my day was using the flashlight app to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. Our brain does weird and wonderful things on its time off!

Previous weird dream found here. 

Suave Suitors of the Silver Screen

Celeste and I had an interesting discussion the other day. If forced to pick a soulmate from the silver screen (we're talking the classics, now, like, only TCM films), which would ye choose???

Well, Rylee Tallulah Carling would choose Cary Grant. :)



Whew! So dashing. I'd probably pick Jimmy Stewart. He served in WWII and never cheated on his wife. Although, I do have a permanent old-man-image stuck in my head when I think of him. I probably can blame that on Mr. Krueger's Christmas.



Who did Celeste pick? Why, none other than that barrel-chested baritone...


HOWARD KEEL!

Haha okay, okay, here's a picture of him when he's younger. I just thought it was funny that the above image was the first one of Howard Keel to come up.



Danny Kaye was Celeste's close second.



Haha, love you Celeste!

5 MORE Things

Today was quite productive! :) I'm catching up on my couples therapy, which, due to several projects and papers being due at the same time, I have fallen 3+ weeks behind in the reading. No worries, in grad school you don't get graded on your reading completion. I just want to do it anyway. Wish me luck!

Anyways, here are 5 things that have been making me happy lately.

Rosemary mint shampoo. FAVORITE. It's like I'm marinating my head, yet I feel so oddly clean and refreshed after said marinade!

Speaking of refreshing. :) OJ and fresh bread after a run. Well, a walk-run.

This toasty warm yellow Norwegian snow cap. Our house gets COOOOOLD so it's been a dear friend of mine these past few days.

Indie music, like this:

(found her through Katy)

(found them on my own. I like their sound, though admittedly their videos are odd! haha)

And finally, the KING OF ALL FAKE TRAILERS.

(disclaimer: I apologize for the off-color reference regarding black widow. Sorry!) 

Much love to you all on this lovely, windy November evening. :)

5 Things

One of my favorite bloggers does frequent posts listing 5 things that are keeping her happy and inspired. I like that habit, so I've decided to do some posts like that. It's a good exercise to stay grateful! And now that I have an IPHONE, I can actually load pictures! Sweet! Goodbye, google images. Here are some things that have made me happy recently:

Steamy cocoa and cookies after an evening of raking. 

New stuffed animal to sleep with! Now dubbed, "Mr. Tickles." I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I still sleep with childishly-named stuffed animals. I just got used to the crevasse of my right arm being occupied at night!

My new bedset and turquoise curtains to keep out the 6AM sun and cold. I adore my room now. Many thanks to my loving family who gifted the bedset to me. The turquoise curtains were (of course) my doing. 

Donkey sugar cookies made by my roommate, who works for Senator Reid. I'm sorely disappointed about the election (scared about the economy and abortion), but I thought these were pretty cute. If you rub egg whites on the cookies, the sprinkles stick. Huh!

Sunset outside of my house. Ignore the power lines, I'm a terrible photographer. This was a beautiful sunset, the blurry picture doesn't do it justice. It was a tender mercy! 

Sorry about the poor quality photos, I'm trying to figure out how to blog directly from the iPhone.

Thanks to everyone for the fabulous birthday! I love you all!

The Best Quotes

I love these thoughts:

"God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go." ~ Elder Holland

"Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?

To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews 9:11)." ~ Elder Holland

"The Lord's delays often seem long. Some last a lifetime. But they are always calculated to bless." ~ President Eyring

"Believe in good things to come." ~ Elder Holland

"Cast not away therefore they confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." ~ Hebrews 10: 35-36

The Lord gives us strength equal to our tasks if we ask Him for it. :) Have a great weekend.

I GOT TOWED

From a friend's apartment complex parking lot. Yup. Miserable, right? Well, why am I posting about it then, you may rightfully inquire. Because it, actually, WASN'T. Miserable I mean. Obviously I was bummed at the $150 I had to fork over, and kicking myself for not checking closer at the parking rules, but what was astonishing about this experience was how traumatic it WASN'T. Let me explain why.

Lately, it's been kind of a pile-up of stress and trials. I'm not gonna whine, it happens to all of us, and I'm learning to weather the storms like the amazing people that have gone before me. So you would think this would be the drop that made the cup overflow, the straw that breaks the camel's back, that last squirt of perfume that you kind of knew would be too much but sprayed on anyways and now it's too late to take back and you're overwhelming everyone around you...you get my drift. But in fact, I felt utterly amused by the whole thing. It was perfect comedic timing. I may just be in denial, who knows, I may wake up tomorrow totally ticked that it happened, but right now, I feel like shrugging, laughing, throwing back my head and mispronouncing "se la vi" are my honest reactions! This confused me.

But I'm grateful. :) Because I wouldn't want to deal with the stress of caring about being towed right now. So what, I got towed once, I know better for next time. And I even learned a lesson.

I was taking the offensive with the tow guy, using Dad's United Airlines voice, ya know? But then I realized, this guy has an all-night tow job, probably low-wage, and the only calls he ever gets are people who are furious at him/blaming him. I softened and tried to be more courteous. I had a dozen or so flashbacks of people being rude/impatient in DC and realized, I don't want to be that person. I want to be polite! (Not that Dad isn't - he's my hero, honestly, and I've learned some good lessons from him). But it really wasn't this tow guy's fault. Once I softened, we had a pretty good conversation. Soooooo it was a good day. :)

How Do You Gain Your Energy?

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In undergrad, part of my program involved studying personality types. I liked this unit. There were a few different definitions of extravert versus introvert (welcome to the world of social science - every term has like 5 varying definitions), but the one I found most intriguing had to do with how we gain our energy.

Do you gain energy from being at home, having time to read a good book, taking a solitary walk? According to social scientists, you would be labeled generally introverted. 

Or...

Do you gain energy from being around people, from exchanging conversation, making connections in a crowd? (Extroverted). 

In reality, no one is exclusively one category or the other. We all like conversation, just like we all at times enjoy curling up with a good book for some personal and quiet time. But, in general, how would you say you gain the most energy?

I am extroverted. Period. I get so, so, SO sluggish if I'm just sitting around by myself all day. If I don't have human interaction, I mean the kind where I can make people laugh and vice versa, it's hard for me to maintain motivation in other areas of my life. It's good to know this at this point in my life. It's been tough lately, so when I get really down I know I need to work harder to be around other people.

So, I've (hopefully tactfully) been asking if I could come to other people's parties. :) And you know what, as soon as I'm around those other people, I feel better, lighter, more energized. It's amazing. I NEED people. This is as much a bad thing as a good thing, of course. Some days require you to be at home alone all day, whether that be illness or a term paper, etc. And our worth shouldn't depend on the attention we get in a crowd, right? But I just can't help liking groups more than solitude. 

Blessings of today that go along with that: My sweet visiting teacher invited me last night to a "Family Storm Evening" which was a blast. In addition, I had a great conversation with my roommate, watched Titanic with Celeste (hysterical - don't worry, we skipped the bad sketchy sketches), and ran into some people from the ward. Heavenly Father is looking out for us! I believe He gives us what we need. :) May your day be joyful!