Monthly Archives: February 2009

by

Of good report

This is awesome. So is this.

Zoe and her daddy are playing “monster”- he makes a big noise and she screams and laughs, and then climbs up on his back and rides around the house.

The Shy Creatures by the amazing David Mack, is utterly adorable. We saw him today at WonderCon, and he was charming as usual and signed the book for Z. We’ve already read it three times.

Also at WonderCon, Zoe got to meet the man who draws Mr. Toast, and was very excited. I think he was excited too. :) She got her first ever sketch- at least that she asked for herself. And she got a Mr. Egg toy (his real name is Joe the Egg, but around here he’s Mr. Egg) to go with her Mr. Toast.

I got an adorable new bag from Gama Go. Love it!

We got to meet Debi Derryberry, voice of Jimmy Neutron, and more importantly in our house, singer of the ABC song on the radio in the car. She is lovely and her speaking voice is incredibly high.

I also got to see all my lovely Comic-Con friends, who I miss slacking off with on a daily basis. But walking around the show I was reminded how much I do not miss the madness that is the shows. I’d much rather experience them this way.

I think I get to see Brandy tomorrow! Brandy, are you still coming up, seeing as you’ve had the plague and all? :)

by

Of good report

Such lovely things all around today.

Valerie and Maia came over (and of course, Stella and Elise). Maia and Zoe had a great time playing, we had a nice lunch; Audrey, Stella and Elise watched each other and sent psychic messages all around (I’m sure), Valerie and I planned tea parties. It’s so nice to have one’s old best friend back in life and discover they’re just as wonderful as they ever were.

It’s highly likely Zoe will have a grand tea party for her birthday. You have been warned.

Driving home from stake play rehearsal the other night, the song Freedom by Wham! came on, and though I hadn’t heard it in years, and had a voice that was raw and scratchy from yelling toward a stage full of kids, I sang every single word at the top of my lungs and just felt immense joy.

Both Zoe and Audrey are currently napping. Words cannot express my contentment.

I came up with a new schedule for our days, which is a bit surprising, seeing as I’m not really a schedule person. But it’s working magnificently. I feel like the day is broken up into bite sized chunks, I have a sense of what I can get done when, and the days seem longer. But in a good, lots of time kind of way, not a “why won’t this day ever end????” kind of way. Woohoo!

I can do better and more crunches than I could do last week. Go crazy abs of doom workout dvd! I think if I were ever to make a workout DVD series I would call it … of Doom. Abs of doom, Buns of doom, arms of doom…. the possibilities are endless.

Bruce got me an adorable little pink owly that sits on top of my monitor, plugs into a USB port, and acts like a little owly. It opens its eyes, moves its head- I love it.

The new benefit album War Child – Heroes Vol.1 is really good. It has covers by Duffy (of Live and Let Die! Squeee!), Beck, Franz Ferdinand, Estelle (who I’d never heard before, but who I will definitely be checking out!) and a whole bunch more. TV on the Radio covering Bowie’s Heroes? Fantastic. And it’s only $8.99. Sorry I didn’t post about it a day ago when it was only $3.99….. but I’d buy it even at $8.99.

That’s all for now, I’m off to wake up the sleeping princess so she’ll be able to fall asleep tonight.

What’s of good report in your life today?

by

Jesus the Christ Chapter 38

Not a ton to comment on today, but here are some thoughts:

I love the phrase “little sisterhood of faithful women”. It reminds me of someone’s talk- was it Sister Beck?- where it was said that like the rest of the organization of the church, Relief Society was also something that was restored in the latter days. I like thinking of these faithful sisters are having their own Relief Society.

It’s interesting to me what a change the companionship of the Holy Ghost made in the lives of the Twelve. Does it make that big of a difference in mine?

“Zealous in service, aggressive in doctrine”- I need to study Stephen and see what that exactly consists of. It sounds like something to strive for.

by

Jesus the Christ Chapter 37

Is it wrong of me to find great delight in the fact that not only did the angel roll away the stone from the sepulchre but then went on to sit on it?

Interesting that the words spoken to the women by the angel were joyful, yet in their distracted grief they only heard the pieces that made sense to them- “He is not here”. Does this happen to us? Do we miss the real message in the answers to our prayers because we only hear what makes sense to us?

I find it really interesting that in two different cases, incredibly devoted disciples of Christ talked with His resurrected self (and some even walked with Him for a long time) and didn’t recognize Him. Was it just that it made no logical sense for it to be Him? Did He look different?

I don’t really know why we single Thomas out as doubting, when it seems like all of the other disciples had a hard time wrapping their head around ( as Ben Linus put it) the resurrection as well.

Peter cracks me up- jumping into the sea to get to land quicker than the boat would get him there to see Christ. But I have to admire the devotion.

Your thoughts?

by

Jesus the Christ Chapter 36

Sorry I’m so behind, I’m not quite sure where I’ve been.

This was a nice chapter, coming after the trauma that was the last couple chapters. The doctrine of salvation for the dead is one that I’ve always known, and it’s so fundamental to my belief system that I can’t really fathom not knowing it. So I’m very grateful for it. One thing that did stand out, which I hadn’t quite realized before, is that the separating line between paradise and spirit prison is not baptism or even belief, but righteous action. So someone who just never really thought about Christ or religion but was a good person would be in paradise (a place of comfort and peace), and would have the option of accepting the gospel there. In the context of recent passings, this is really comforting.

That’s all I’ve got- thougts?

by

Some brief thoughts while watching the Oscars

And I do mean brief.

I’m really glad Heath Ledger won. I really don’t feel like it was just a gimmie because he died- he did a fantastic, chilling, insane job in Dark Knight. And I have to think that having previous winners/awesome actors give you compliments had to take some of the sting out of not winning for the other nominees.

Alicia Keyes really does have one of the sexiest speaking voices I’ve ever heard.

I’d forgotten that Bernie Mac had died until I saw the In Memorium montage. Seeing him up there made me really sad.

Anne Hathaway receiving compliments from Shirley MacLaine was one of the best things ever. And it must be hard to be Meryl Streep, because at this point, how do you graciously accept the same compliments you’ve been hearing for most of your life and still seem genuine about it? I do have to say though, that the previous best actors did a better job at coming off as genuine and off the cuff than the previous best actresses- most of them really felt rehearsed.

I wish there had been better filming angles for the Baz Luhrman musical number. I really wanted to see the Mamma Mia drill interpretation more clearly, and they really kind of messed that up from filming from too high up.

Angelina Jolie is breathtaking.

That’s all.

by

Having a greige kind of day

I had a weird day today, was in a weird funk from the time I got up. Not the blues, not the mean reds, just a kind of fuzzy in the head, dull grey beige kind of feeling. Greige, if you will; which I read in a magazine the other day is the new black. And I’m totally not making that up. I really did read it. I think it was in Domino. It’s supposed to be the new chic color to paint your walls- which I think would actually make it the new something else rather than black, because I don’t think black is really the go to color when it comes to common home decor for walls. Maybe it was two different articles- one on pants (where the “new black” pronouncement was made) and another about a designer who painted a bunch of her walls greige. That sounds more right.

But anyway. Yes, a weird day. I did get to go on a little shopping excursion with Zoe which was quite enjoyable, actually; she’s getting to the age where she enjoys the process– she got to pick out clothes for Tiny (somehow we’re lacking a bunch of 6-9 month clothes) and then she got to try on a bunch of shoes, which she was thrilled about. She scored with 2 pairs of Airwalks- a blue pair with monkeys and a white pair with stars, and 2 new pairs of Sunday shoes- one white and one black. I got a couple pairs myself (Payless was having a HUGE sale) – some cute brownish/green flats and some brown converse lowtops. It’s time to purge my shoes, I have a bunch that are falling apart or that I never wear- it’s time for them to go. And I got the yoga mat I’ve been wanting to get, along with weights for my workout video of doom- honestly, it’s the hardest workout I’ve ever done in my entire life. Almost a full 50 minutes of ab work. Death, I tell you. We also went to dinner, which was really yummy, so that was nice.

This is rather rambly, isn’t it? And that’s how my brain has been all day, just kind of meander-y, like I can’t really focus on things. It’s somewhat perturbing, because I have the feeling there are a number of things I should be focusing on, but I can’t even pin those down. So I think I’ll go to bed. Stake conference is tomorrow, and I think I’m going by myself- no one will get to listen if Z’s there too, and she totally won’t get that she doesn’t get to go to nursery, plus it’s right at Audrey’s nap time, so B volunteered to stay home with them and I’ll just get to go and listen, which will be lovely. If I can concentrate on what’s being said. Let’s hope the greige is gone by then.

by

Jesus the Christ Chapters 34-35

I thought that I’d already posted on chapter 34, but apparently I didn’t. So I’ll just put these two chapters together, because I don’t really have a lot to say. I just find this whole part of Christ’s life so incredibly sad. There are great lessons about meekness and grace and restraint, but all of the indignities He had to suffer just make me sad. I’m glad that He had friends there to support Him (however meagerly) in His trials- that must have at least helped a little bit. And how difficult that must have been, for the Twelve, for his devoted women disciples- to see the person you hail as the Messiah and Savior of mankind, going through such horrors. And I can’t even start to think about the footnote that suggests that the physical cause of Jesus’ death was a broken heart- that’s just too much for me.