Our phones

When we went to get new phones last year, the person at the store asked, "What features are you looking for?" We said, "We want to be able to call people." She replied, "But what features do you want?" We said, "We want to be able to call people." She persisted, "But do you want to listen to music, take pictures, have internet access?" We said, "We want to be able to call people." So we got the cheapest phones. (Didn't have to pay much at all, really.) However, I am quite astounded by what our little phones can do. Let me give you an example. They can take pictures like this:













Not bad for our phones, no? It seems you can't find a phone these days without things like cameras, etc, etc, etc....

Our phones also act as our watches, alarm clocks, pedometers, timers, and address books. They have a nifty program that allows us to create out own ringtones. I realize this is hardly impressive to those of you with iPhones or whatever, but considering we only wanted to call people... Oh, and they also provide the ability to access the internet, but we cancelled that and text messaging because I find both rather annoying. If I want the internet, I'll just have to wait until I can find a computer. And if I want to send a text message... Oh, wait. I don't. :)

P.S. The last picture, I realize, is a little bit of a departure from the rest, but there were these gorgeous magnolias in bloom that day. We wanted to give a little perspective on how huge they were. Fun, no?

Becky, this is for you (and Heidi)

My great friend and cousin Becky tried desperately to expand my musical taste as a teenager. My taste was being stretched in other ways at the time and it was hard to appreciate it all. :) One of the fine singers she tried to help me appreciate was Sarah McLachlan. Becky told me that even if I didn't like Sarah now, I would eventually. I was stubbornly convinced that I never would appreciate her voice. Becky. I stand corrected. Here's my apology:



I can't say this is my favorite piece of music, but these two singers together... I never thought their voices would go together, but I very much enjoy their harmonies. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Cute

I did a lot of driving today. I like to drive well enough, but today was a little much. However, there were a lot of things to appreciate on my drives today. My favorite one was when I was waiting at a stoplight. I looked over to the sidewalk and there was a small family (two little girls with their mom and grandparents) walking. I watched as they all turned around and started walking backwards up a hill. The younger girl was about the age of the girl in this picture. Obviously, I didn't see this on a beach, but this is roughly what she looked like. I wish you could have seen her. It made my day. That and the gorgeous sunrise this morning. Much I hate morning, I sure love sunrises...

Zombie Chickens

A very dear friend (Heidi) gave me this award, which I thought was very flattering albeit a bit weird. :) (Not you, Heidi. The award.)

"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken-- excellence, grace, and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all."

So, fearing the wrath of the zombie chickens, here are my five awardees.

• The Pioneer Woman [If you haven't read her, beware. You'll get hooked!]
• Svedi Pie!
• Holladay Home and Heart
• Holladay Happenin's
  
• The World According to Becky

I check all sorts of other blogs, too, but these people haven't been nominated yet (that I know of) and I love them zer mucho, as we say in our family.

Thanks, Heidi, for the award. Congratulations to all my winners! :)

Juh9

Did you think I missed the fact that I had typed nonsense in the title? Nope. This post is about Jeanine. (nine, 9. Get it???) Okay, maybe I'm not so hilarious, but the creative juices aren't flowing very well right now. I don't think this has ever been Jeanine's problem.

Jeanine was one of my five first roommates. She's also the roommate I roomed with for the longest time. (Three and a half years altogether, wasn't it? Four?) Whatever. Jeanine is one of the most creative and fun people I know. Mom loved when I called with Jeanine stories because they were always interesting and usually funny. She got me out of my comfort zone to do things like watch couples make out outside of our window from our couch while eating popcorn. (Drove us crazy when they sat on our bench to do that. Ick!) Another thing we did was "synchronized swimming" with our feet draped over the back of the couch to beautiful, loud music.

As fun as Jeanine is, one of the things I appreciate most about her is her deep insights on topics ranging from politics to philosophy to the gospel and all sorts of other places. Jeanine is a deep thinker. I was always flattered when she chose me to pontificate with. That was one of my favorite activities.

I'm skipping telling you about all her accomplishments. Writer, artist (her drawing of the Provo Temple hung on our apartment wall and people were always surprised to know it wasn't a "professional who did it), mother, homemaker, game writer, etc... But to me, Jeanine is chips and salsa, brownies and deep conversation. A perfect combination.

Me and Charles Darwin

I read a book entitled "Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith" over the summer. I had lots of mixed thoughts about it, but ended up with a pretty healthy respect for both Charles and Emma Darwin. I came to really like them. They had a fantastic marriage.

Charles Darwin said: "I often bless all novelists. A surprising number [of novels] have been read aloud to me... and I like all if moderately good, and if they do not end unhappily--against which a law ought to be passed. A novel, according to my taste, does not come into the first class unless it contains some person whom one can thoroughly love, and if it be a pretty woman all the better."

I have to say I am in complete agreement with Charles Darwin on this point. I was having a discussion with a friend on her blog today. (Lots of back and forth comments until she finally wrote a whole entry to respond to me.) :) One of the things I kept mentioned was I hate when stories ended unhappily. I always felt like I wimp about that, but now I justify myself. Charles Darwin thought so too. :)

Amy not Aymie

Meet Amy. Not my little sister. (That's Bee.) This Amy and I met last year in Primary. She's a counselor in the presidency and I was the pianist. She had a baby last year, the cuddliest little thing. I steal that baby (as does everyone else) whenever possible.

One of the things I like most about Amy is how friendly she is in a quiet way. She always asks how I'm doing and chats with me for a little bit. One time, after being at an activity at her house, she walked me to my car and we chatted for 20 minutes until she realized maybe she shouldn't leave her other guests. :) When she was looking for a house, she invited me along to sit in the car with her kids. I was so flattered she would think of me! I had a great time chatting with her in the car and holding the baby when she got fussy while Amy was looking at a house.

I'm glad that Amy went out of her way to get to know me so I had the chance to get to know her. (You all know by now that I'm not a terribly outgoing person.) She's nice, fun, intelligent, interesting... Not to mention hardworking and sacrificing. She hosted a get together of women from the ward at her house late at night for many months in a row. Wow! That's love! Don't you wish she were in your ward?

[And if you're wondering what the obscure title is from, think Brian Regan.]

I'm Back and Introducing Mrs. Tapa

Shara said she missed my posts, so here's to you, Shara. As an excuse, I suppose I might feel a little talked out after the last month. I'm used to spending most of my weeks holed up in my little room with no one to talk to. I spent five weeks in constant chatter. (Which those of you who know me at all, know I'm a talkative little thing and given the chance, will talk your ear off.) Not only that, but I got used to conversation again and it's hard to get back in the mode of... I don't know. Lecturing? :)

Anyways, here goes:

Honestly, I can't remember the first time I met Mandy. We lived in different wards, but on the same floor of our apartment complex in college. I don't remember if she approached me first or I approached her. (Mandy, do you remember any of this?) I just remember I really loved to talk to her. We had some great conversations. And watched the new Peter Pan together, which is, of course, a bonding experience. This is also the girl who was dating a good friend of mine and I told her one day, "Don't let him go! He's a good man." To my mortification, she told me that he had broken up with her the night before! Oi. I have since tried to be much less stupid in my questions and make sure people are still dating before saying something similar! Luckily, I had the pleasure of introducing Mandy to her husband, a boy I had known for years. (She'd obviously forgiven me for being so inept.) They now have two adorable children.

Why do I love admire Mandy? Why not? She is one of the most kind and generous of souls. She's talented and fun! She's very loyal. I love the way she talks about her family. Oh! That's another thing. We knew people in common because she grew up in a town with a bunch of family friends. How's that for cool? I'm having a hard time saying this, Mandy, because I feel like you're family and how do you introduce people so close? You know what I mean when I say you're a GREAT friend!

As a little postscript here, let me just apologize for being so bad at these. I really want y'all to meet each other, but I don't want to step on any toes and share too personal information on the internet. That leaves things very vague that I wasn't good at describing in the first place. Just take my word for it. Mandy's a winner!