Another Favorite

I "discovered" this while waiting in the chapel for a temple session to begin:

Isaiah 26:3-4

3 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on
thee: because he trusteth in thee.
4 - Trust ye in the LORD for ever:
for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

How beautiful! I actually tried to memorize it before the session started and did... but then shortly after the session started I forgot the exact words, but remembered the idea.

How wonderful to have "perfect peace" when we keep our mind on the Lord. And we're able to keep our mind on the Lord because we trust Him.

I just love it!

-- for those of you wondering if I regularly open up to Isaiah and read... no...
sadly, I don't understand much of what he writes,
so I don't spend a lot of time there.
I stumbled across these verses after following along with the organist playing
"The Lord is My Shepherd."
I love the hymns and the provided scriptural references!

Another Jumper?

My new (still unnamed) betta has been making splashing noises a few times in the last hour or so. Every time I look over (after I hear the noise) everything looks normal.

I wonder if it's a trick.

I put a manila file over most of the top to keep him in there.

I just hope I didn't pick out another suicidal fish.

I Love Dancing Babies!

The Boys Are Back!

Did you see the premiere last night?
If you missed it, you can watch it here.
(i love the dance at the very beginning by the professional male dancers - so talented! i can't find video of it yet, but if/when i do, i'll be sure to post it!)

And don't worry, only the celebrity males danced last night, tonight you can still catch the celebrity females.

A few of my favorites (in no particular order):

Donny Osmand
seriously people, this guy can move

The Snowboarder Kid
I think his name is Louis something(?), not too shabby

Michael Irvin
not the best so far, but I think he has potential

The Iron Chef Host - Mark...
I think he's going to get better, and he started off fairly well

Tom Delay
for an older guy, he's not half bad, and you can tell he has fun with it

I also like the ultimate fighter guy - mostly because it seems like he is the farthest out of his comfort zone and you can see he's really trying. It's kind of endearing.

Ashley Hamilton, son of George Hamilton (a former DWTS competitor) is on the show this season. After a motorcycle accident and being in a wheelchair for a year, he's taken up dancing (I'm not sure how long ago the accident was, but I think it's been quite a while now.) Sadly, he's not as good as his dad was. I think he might be the first male voted off.

The first male I'd like to see voted off is Aaron Carter. He gives me the creeps. But, he's pretty good and the judges seem to like him so I think he'll be staying around for a while.

See George dance:



Did you ever see Mr. Peterman (John O'Hurley) dance?
Unfortunately I didn't watch at all until the very last show, and then later I saw the rematch between him and the girl who ended up winning (unjustly, I might add!) - and he won the rematch.
Anyway, now watch John dance!:

Draper Temple

Last Monday, I finally figured out what I wanted to give as a gift to some friends that had gotten married a month earlier (sometimes I'm a little slow on these things). They had gotten married in the Draper Temple, so I decided to take a night picture of the temple, frame it, and give it to them (hoping that they didn't already have a picture of this temple).

Here were a few of my numerous attempts:

One thing I love about digital is that you can take as many as you want and then sift through to find something good.

This is the one I ended up using:

And this is what it looked like when it was framed:

detail of the frame:

I liked it so much that after I gave it to them I went back to the store and bought the same exact frame for myself and printed out the picture again. It helped that Michael's was having a great sale on frames and I got it for 55% off.

Thanks to Faith for helping me figure out how to print a good quality picture from iPhoto!
and
Thanks to Caitlin for helping me find a beautiful frame!

ps - I really like taking pictures. (:

Getting Dirty

Yesterday my brother-in-law taught me how to change the oil in my car. And by taught me I mean - he told me everything that needed to be done and pointed everything out, but then let me do the actual work. It was pretty sweet. I'm now hiring out...

the overall after-effect:

and now for some close-ups:

if my facialist* only knew...

after scrubbing down, there were still some lingering traces:

and also spots that were completely missed:

Thanks for the lesson Rob!

*I would like to go on record as saying I do not now have, nor at anytime have had, a facialist

What the, What??

Flashback to Sesame Street -

what's wrong with this picture?

answer: there's no fish!

It should look something like this:

where did the fish go?

Blast...

don't worry, the fish pictured above in the bowl is not the same as the one that's shriveled up, the above live one is just a model showing what a fish bowl should look like. the model is still alive and well.

I regret to inform you that sometime between the afternoon of 2 September and the morning of 4 September, the betta fish known as Flash took his own life by jumping out of his bowl.

(did you know betta fish can jump? this is the second one of mine to do this...)

However, it is also my pleasure to inform you that Flash, the suicidal fish, has since been replaced with... no official name as of yet, feel free to throw any suggestions my way!... the hopefully non-suicidal fish!

he sometimes likes to go in here:

He also sometimes like to rest underneath the jaw. The first time I saw this I almost panicked because I had another fish that got himself stuck in a castle and died in there (does that make it a noble death?). I thought no-name-as-of-yet had gotten himself stuck on the bottom and was going to die, so I was ready to remove the skull (never tried a skull before, I thought it might be fun). Turns out, he can move easily in and out of that space.

no animals were intentionally harmed in the making of this post.
all injuries were completely the choice of the misguided fish.
the owner of said fish merely took advantage of its demise to create a post.

is that wrong?

I Try Not to Kill My Plants

... and sometimes, I actually succeed!

(notice, not just surviving, but it has flowers! - i didn't even know this plant had the ability to flower!)

Let's take a closer look at those flowers:

Yay for that!

Dear Spencer,

I could have worn this:

And topped it off with this:

But instead I wore this:

And covered it with this:

Because I promised.

Just thought I'd report back.

There Are Really People Like This Out There???

Listen.

What a Great Article!

My sister sent this around to my family today. It has a really great message.

I Love Him. And I Love This Song.

Michael Bublé - Haven't Met You Yet promo video

It Really is Amazing

... how quickly I feel a change when I start eating healthier food. Already I've been sleeping better (it helps that the pups didn't wake me up at 2 in the morning this morning), and I just feel better - physically, emotionally, mentally. It's incredible.

I've been reading "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (again). Extremely compelling. I highly recommend it.

I Can't Believe I Never Posted These!

Not that big a deal, but here are some dances I really liked from last season's "Dancing with the Stars." I love the first, and I think the second is a lot of fun too.

Enjoy!

My Newest Car Acquisition

... I didn't say it was a good thing.

When I Grow Up...

... I'm going to own stainless steel soap. I cut onions on Sunday and used the bar that my parents have had for years. It worked wonderfully. I don't know how it works, but it works.

You can look to own one of your own here.

You're welcome. (:

No! I Didn't Forget... I Just Let Myself Get Terribly Distracted... ... For Over a Month

My *little* sister Faithy's birthday was 21 July. Since I've given birthday tributes to my four siblings whose birthdays were earlier in the year, I can't stop now and decided I had better catch up (especially now that we're in September - the month of two more siblings' birthdays).

First of all - Happy, happy belated birthday Faithy!

Second of all - here are some memories of mine over the last... 26 years or so:

i remember that you "got the part because [you] were the loudest!"
i remember that we loved to wear twirly skirts and twirl around the family room
i remember you sitting on and breaking the mirror (:
i remember creating a "code" we used for communicating between the wall
*are you there, yes i'm here, okay, okay, bye, bye*
i remember writing the code down on the chalkboard so we would remember it
i remember ben i. and ben r. and larry g.
i remember you got to sing sister margaretta's (sp?) part - even though that was the part i wanted (mostly because i thought her name was the prettiest), i was glad that you got it

i remember being so grateful that i had a sister just one year younger than i every time we went to a new school
i remember that you weren't embarrassed to let your older sister hang out with you
i remember you telling me about richard and spencer and (the redheaded girl) in your math class and talking about your crush on richard - at that time we'd never have guessed you'd marry spencer
i remember your long talks with spencer when we were in New York for thanksgiving
i remember seeing you try on the "perfect" wedding dress
i remember you finding a different dress that you loved more
i remember you looking beautiful in all of the dresses you tried on
i remember seeing you as a first-time mother
i remember how tired you became, but how happy you were to be a mother
i remember you letting me steal your little boys so i could babysit and have a small taste of motherhood
i remember our super-late night talks where you have been so understanding and helpful
i remember tearing up when i think of how lucky i am to have a sister like you (kind of like i'm tearing up now while i'm writing this)
i also remember how grateful i am to have you in my life, and for your wonderful example as a sister, a wife, and a mother

i love you little faithy!

What's Going on With Me?

I've noticed that my last few (7!) posts have all been centered around videos. I was just telling a new* friend that, "Someday, I'll update on what's going on with me, but until then... there's YouTube."

So, a quick update of what's going on with me - I quit my job about two and a half weeks ago and I started a master's program yesterday. Right now, that's me in a nutshell.

*a guy that I met last Friday who's in my program. while we're maybe not necessarily "friends" now, I figure that spending two years in classes with him will probably get us there.