more hinkley

my good friend shared this thought with me yesterday. since it's from hinkley - and he's the topic du jour, i figured it was good to blog.

"It all works out. Don't worry
I say that to myself every morning
It will all work out.
Put your trust in God and move forward
with faith and confidence in the future.
The Lord will not forsake us.
He will not forsake us.
If we will put our trust in Him,
if we will pray to Him,
if we will live worthy of His blessings,
He will hear our prayers."

hinkley thoughts

okay - this is the ultimate example of endless email forwarding. my mother sent me an email that she got from my sister who got it from her old neighbor who got it from her son who is in the mtc right now. it's about his experience sunday night when president hinkley died. i think the kid shares some really poignant thoughts, plus i found it a cool insight on mtc life.

>> After the devotionals on Sundays we always have movie night. This Sunday
>> almost all 2,000 of us missionaries here stayed and watched "Joseph
>> Smith, Prophet of the Restoration", the one that plays downtown. It is
>> powerful. As I watched what went on, I really really felt my gratitude
>> grow for the early church members grow. I realized how much I loved
>> Joseph Smith. By the end of the movie I was crying. Joseph did so much
>> to bring this church to us, and I wanted to get out there and do
>> everything I could to tell everyone about this message. I can honestly
>> say, with no hesitation or doubt, that I know, independant of any outside
>> source, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is here on the earth, and it is
>> the only way we can find real temporal peace, and obtain eternal
>> salvation.
>>
>> The movie ends with Joseph being martyred in slow motion, and then we see
>> him looking to heaven and the words "Oh Lord, My God" are whispered, and
>> then it goes black. I cannot tell you how much I was feeling, being
>> tangibly touched, by the Holy Ghost as he told me that what I just
>> witnessed was true and how it was now MY responsibility to pick up where
>> Joseph Smith left off. That's why I came to the MTC.
>>
>> Tears were going down my face as I thought about this, and then a man
>> stood up at the podium real slow. He said that it was alltogether
>> fitting that we should just watch the majesty of Joseph Smiths passing
>> becuase he had an announcement to make. He informed us that President
>> Hinckley had passed away a few minutes earlier. We're sheltered here at
>> the MTC and not one of us had any idea. No one recieved text messages,
>> we all recieved the news at the same time. Simultaneously every
>> missionary in the MTC, just over 2000, started to weep. Many young men
>> started sobbing audibly. Any outsider would have had to wonder at the
>> kind of man this was to solicit such a response from a bunch of teenaged
>> boys. We all cried. We cried because he was the only prophet we knew,
>> we cried becuase we love his smile and his cheerfulness, we cried because
>> we would miss his testimony of Jesus Christ. But I think mostly we cried
>> because we loved him. This man lived a life so worthy of emulation that
>> his presence will hard to replace. A life so full of serving others that
>> his impact on the world was felt by millions of God's children.
>>
>> In the Joseph Smith movie a woman comes to him and says, "Mr. Smith, I
>> don't believe your religion, but iIthank you for your kindness." Joseph
>> replied, "Ma'am, that is our religion."
>>
>> President Hinckley was that kind of man. This gospel is here for one
>> reason, and that is to make us outward focused individuals. The world
>> focuses on itself, but the difference between Christ and the world is
>> that Christ cared more for the salvation of others souls than his own.

great start

so far so good! this morning began well. on the drive to work krcl had super good music i could dance to - yes cindy, you can dance while jogging AND driving. i could tell the sky was a bit brighter than normal, meaning the sun is moving this way. and just to add a touch of fun, as i left the freeway, a tumbleweed blew by. not the real full size kind i used to see in arizona, but a decent one that reminded me of days gone by in arizona. it also reminded me of my favorite book that is set in arizona - "i'm in charge of celebrations" - and i have to say - that's how i feel today!

deliciousness

on sunday i baked cookies. it's from a recipe my brother gave me that he got out of a book he's reading about a hacker. something like that. anyway, you should make them! this is the recipe straight out of the book. (sorry i can't remember the name or author! but if you really care to know i can probably track it down for you.)

"Two eggs, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup regular sugar, 2 sticks softened
butter. Fold in 2 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon
baking soda, and a couple teaspoons of vanilla. For an extra
chocolate jag, toss in 3 tablespoons of cocoa. Oh, don't forget 2
cups of chocolate chips. Bake 'em at 375 degrees for 10 minutes."

yum!

knowledge is power!

i'm a big fan of agency - big. last night my brother's family email had a little bit of reflection on the power of agency. since he tied it to knowledge - another one of my passions - i decided i'd share it with the masses at large. see if you too are not impressed with the truth he shares.

"School is ever a source of pleasure in my life. One cannot deny the security that comes from education. Knowledge settles the heart and tempers the emotions. The more knowledge we have the more we can "hear" and "listen" to the conversation of life around us. There are thousands of threads or RSS feeds which are newly available to those who learn how to listen/read. With knowledge comes honesty. It is true that one can turn from the truth once learned, but before the event of knowing there was no choice. In a fundamental way, our agency is enlarged when we gain knowledge."

queen!

here are my results of the queen test i found on cindy's blog. thanks again cindy!

Which one of Henry VIII's wives are you?

You're number one! Click here to learn something about your likeness.
Take this quiz!








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Niece

This is my other niece. She is a fan of superman. And byu. She takes after her father. She once woke up from a nap and insisted on wearing nothing but a cape.

Snow duck

Last night my ward gathered to make snow men and watch a movie. This was the winning creation. Mark and matt were the artists. Mustard was used for the feet and bills and my scarf was the finishing touch. I think a pepper shaker is the eye. Overall it was a preetty fun nigt.

Cat baggage

That phrase brings back so many happy memories from this time of year. It was at sundance, maybe in 2000 or 2001, that the phrase was coined. al and ed and others i'm sure, but i'll never forget the classically dressed sundance attendee gushing over ed and al and I just staring at her large cat baggage and visible cleavage.
Well, as I put my cat socks on this morning other happy memories came to mind - of spring in seattle! I bought these treasures at the tulip festival with plewe, jane, and cindy (my blogging mentors). I don't like cats - but at the time I bought them I liked a boy who liked cats. The real reason I bought them, though, was because my own socks were wet and muddy from the tulip trip. These were my best option. I would like to point out that I even received a compliment on them from a student today. and in case you can't tell, they are tightly woven socks. They left a cat imprint on my ankle - thus the photo. I know - one of my best blog entries to date - right up there with the souvenir blister and home grown pepper. Live it up!

i'm an assassin - thanks julie!

Your Score: Lynette Fromme

You scored 11 Nationalism, 9 Love, and 12 Fairness!

(born: 1948)

Attempted to assassinate President Ford outside the Senator Hotel in Sacremento, CA. on 5 September 1975. Why? Ford was not elected to office and she thought he was involved in Vietnam. Also, she thought that her love, Charles Manson, was the Messiah.

She is still in prison after a temporary escape in 1987.

Link: The Presidential Assassin Test OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

favorite food!

one of my favorite dishes ever is called pon sit. my mother got the recipe from one of dad's coworker's wife that also was in our ward in california. it's a filipino recipe and chock full of vegetables. i just made it and am enjoying a delicious bowl of it for lunch. here's the basics - there's really no "messing it up" as i've discovered over the years of my own "tweaking."

2 cups of cooked cubed/chopped chicken or pork(or turkey for me today since that's what was in the freezer)
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
2-3 carrots - i "cut" them with the peeler - so i have thinner slices
3 celery stalks - cut diagonally or however you want
4 cups shredded cabbage (i used half a head)
soy sauce - maybe 1/2 cup or more?

cook the onion and garlic in a skillet - with olive oil if you want - but i usually don't.
when brownish add the meat and brown it.
add your chopped vegetables and soy sauce.
cook for a couple minutes - i vary between 2 and 5.
oh, and for a crunch topping throw on some broken ramen bits. i rarely do this since i don't keep ramen in the house and it gets soggy if you store it all together like i do.

it's not freezer friendly but since it's mostly vegetables i find i can eat a whole bunch of it in one sitting without too much guilt. it usually lasts me a week of lunches.

byu tv

this morning i discovered the joy of listening/watching devotionals and such on byu tv - through the interweb (nod to plewe family). i love it! normally on sunday mornings i turn the tv on for some background "noise" - i find inspiration from them pretty regularly, but lately i've been annoyed with the random "byu weekly" type stuff that doesn't do it for me. i got on the interweb today, though, and discovered i can click on any of the programs and "watch" them - including the ones that came on at 3:00 am. it seems some of the best ones are on before i'm awake. it's all about picking and choosing what you need/want to hear. anyway, tip to the wise. or wanting to be wise, i should say.

good quote

i wish i could remember it exactly. i saw it on the wall in the counselor's office this morning when we were discussing a kid's schedule change. it said something like you shouldn't measure your life by your acccomplishments but instead by the challenges you've overcome to achieve those accomplishments. after another moment of feeling like a failure it was good to read and know that this was just one more of life's challenges. made me feel a bit victorious, truthfully.

Morning music

Every morning my alarm wakes me up with classical music. Oddly enough, this morning the horns started blaring the wedding march. Seemed like an omen or something. Or it should have been. I'm going to keep my eyes open today - it might be one of those surprise sorts.

Musical number

Oddly enough, in church today we were treated to a violin duet solo. At least that is according to the guy at the pulpit. Turned out to be a piano, cello, and violin number. It made me cry. Then the next speaker told us a story about how when he was on his mission his mother, who was less active and devorced from his father died unexpectedly. He went home for the funeral and to pack up the house. he was an only child. And then the month after he returned from his mission his father died. Ow, how hard would that be? It made me cry. In rs we had the best lesson on joseph smith. That made me cry. He was a humble devoted faithful kid who desired to do the right. How amazing it is that through his willingness to serve god he was able to restore the true gospel of jesus christ and the power of god to the earth. Good, if somewhat teary, church day today.

Taxes

I'm excited about my new job. This morning I went through my policies and procedures training for my new job at liberty tax service. I think i'll do well. I'm excited for extra money plus the chance to do/learn something new. When I got home I was even motivated to do a bit of shakespeare homework - of all crazy things. As I started I got called by a friend to join him at the symphony tonight - what a cool stroke of luck for me. That will be two weekends in a row of symphony. Tonight is rachmaninoff. Oh I meant to mention how in tax training we set goals. We had to write them down in affirmative statements. I would like you to all know I plan to prepare 150 taxes this season - shooting for the stars! I'll hopefully work about 150 hours - i'll need to if I plan to do that many.

rehearsing

this week i experienced something that got me feeling down. it got me thinking too much about the past and future and everything in betweeen - but like in a worrisome sort of way. i got feeling a bit despondent (thanks for helping me come up with the word plewe) - like i felt this summer. anyway my despondency from summer pretty much left with the start of school and being busy. when i felt it creeping up this week i got scared. i wondered if it had been there and i was just covering it up with "stuff" or if i really had processed it some and this week was just a relapse. anyway, i spoke with my bishop about my feelings. he gave me great advice. he said, "stop rehearsing. move forward. think about the present and future and don't dwell on those sad things that are past." anyway, i liked his word choice. i never was much of one for drama - of any kind - and that's all that rehearsing is good for. so anyway, just thought i'd share. besides, my blog needed something new.

just call me mr. t

at lunch today my department head compared me to the character on the a-team played by mr. t. apparently my negative feelings about work and shakespeare was equal in tone to that of his character - we called him "b.a." - does anyone know for sure what his name was? she thought it was short for "bad attitude."

quiz courtesy of cindy

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller! i can't say i perfectly agree with these results - but with only two options for each question of the quiz i sometimes found it impossible to choose - both would apply perfectly. i think it's part of my blue/red color personality split. In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart. You often don't follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. And you do break a lot of hearts. At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do. You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding When other people don't get you, they see you as: gushy, emotional, and unfocused

What's Your Personality Type?

more christmas photos

the sister sent a few photos from my visit with her family. i thought i'd share a couple to illustrate my holiday fun.

here mother and i are tucked into our bed for the night (air mattress comfort - not bad at all). i think we had about four blankets on top of us - it was a drafty room.
here the women are huddled around the quilt our final night there. i was definitely impressed with our speed. we made a couple trips to walmart trying to find the perfect thimbles - they just don't sell them small enough for our fingers. the funny thing is that my nephew would fall asleep under the quilt each night we were working on it. you can kind of see his sleeping bag peeking out - it's green and by my mother's knee. he would fall asleep just fine despite our talking.
here are the hardy boys - thrilled with their legos gift. they reveled in all things lego.

new year's resolutions

i have no original thoughts of my own, but plewe left my computer screen on the washington post and there was a link to an article/editorial/commentary thing that i really really liked. so i'll share with you. maybe i can pretend i had the same idea as this guy - i do now at least and that must count for something. so here, you can join us if you'd like....

My Resolution: Shine More, Bleed Less

“The kids are home for the holidays.”

In previous years, ‘the kids’ were my wife and me, ‘home’ was one of our parents’ places and ‘the holidays’ meant watching a ball game and waiting for food to appear.

(My wife wishes to state that her role in all of this consists of far more than shifting in the sofa when the food arrives. Duly noted.)

This year brought a sharp change to my comfortable routine. Our parents had scattered to warmer climes and my wife decided it was a good idea to invite her niece and nephew to stay with us for a few days.

Suddenly we were the home, they were the kids, and the holidays meant entertaining a twelve-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl while trying to keep our seven-month-old on his nap schedule and getting him to eat his carrot mash.

After 48 hours of the flash and beep of hand-held video games, several dozen requests to rent Spider Man 3 (“But Eboo-masa, I’ve only seen it twice. I usually see the movies I like twenty times”), a few delicate discussions about precisely what it is that is inappropriate in PG-13 movies, and endless pre-adolescent bickering, I decided I had had enough.

I reached into my limited kid-care toolkit and pulled out an item that my father placed there many years ago. “We are going to read,” I declared.

The kids let forth howls of dismay, which fell on deaf ears.

I poked around my bookcase, decided T.S. Eliot was too dense and Rumi too abstract, and landed instead on a collection by former American Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

“Read it aloud,” I said to Kashif, pointing to page 63, a poem called On Turning Ten. I figured it was the one thing a nine-year old, a twelve-year old and two early thirty-somethings could relate to.

After a series of pouty faces worthy of the stage, Kashif started reading, a bit softly at first, but then with increasing confidence and joy.

“It’s about a little boy and how he feels about getting older,” Kashif said when he finished, obviously delighted.

“It’s about a little girl,” Faria corrected, grabbing the book from Kashif.

“It’s about both of you,” I said.

But when I read the poem again later that evening, I realized it was about all of us.

The final stanza goes like this:

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

I like to take this poem in reverse, to return to the days of thinking there was light under my skin. And to consider that, when the sidewalks of life attack my knees, I have a choice in how I respond:

I could shine more, and bleed less.

And that, in short, is my New Year’s Resolution.