Orange Cup!

My Mom and I discovered Orange Cup at the Galleria. We went there to kill some time while we waited for the 10:00 showing of Star Trek in IMAX. Holy Macaroni! That place is delicious!! They sell 3 different flavors of frozen yogurt. Natural, Zum, (the u is supposed to have two little dots over it) and Acaiberry. They have every kind of fruit you can imagine as toppings (except tomato. and avocado. that would be gross.) the Zum is the natural with real orange juice squeezed in. And the Acaiberry is the natural with pomegranate and Acaiberry (yes, that is an actual berry). Our family went there a couple of days ago, and I wanted to share it with whoever might read this. It's toio good to keep all to myself. The yummy yogurt mixed with fresh fruit..... YUM!

American Soldiers

Memorial Day was here, and now is gone. All I could think about was no school for my public-schooled friends, and everyone would get a holiday from work (everyone except the soldiers). I didn't think about the soldiers who everyday have to go out into a unfamiliar country, where they don't know the people, don't know the language, don't know if they'll be alive that night. I didn't think about the real purpose of the holiday. About all the soldiers that offer up their lives for us. I am so grateful for those soldiers. If a soldier ever happens to read this, I want to say thank you. Thank you for all that you do.

"But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand

they wrought for, is their monument today, and for aye."

-Thomas Dunn English

The 5 browns

We had another big rain here in Texas. Not as big as the other one that I wrote about, but still a big rain (even for Texas). The thing about this one was it rained for a longer time than the other one so there was more flooding. Enough flooding to make my Dad go to Bonham to pick up some hunting gear that was stationed there. Two hunting blinds and a pig trap. He said that the water was 2 feet deep!

It takes about 1 hour 8 min. to get to Bonham according to Google Maps, so thats 2 hours travel time, plus 3 hours working time to get all the stuff out. Dad had five hours of things to do so he missed out on the "Five Browns". "Who are the five browns?" you may ask...

The 5 Browns are LDS siblings that all play the piano. They went to Juilliard together and have toured the world. And, all of them been playing the piano since they were 3 years old. Most 3 year olds can't sit still during sacrament meeting but these kids learned how to play piano! They stopped in Plano a while back and did a fireside for the youth. I was too young at the time to go to it though. dang

So *this was my first time seeing them play. It was amazing! They are incredible pianist by themselves but together with the Dallas orchestra! It was stunning, breathtaking, awesome, awe-inspiring, sensational, spectacular, extraordinary, incredible, jaw-dropping! (now that I've exhausted the Thesaurus post on "amazing," I'll move on)

The first half of the presentation was accompanied by the Dallas orchestra and the second half was the pianists playing together. In the first half they did a bit called "Carnival of the Animals" that went through the different animals out there. They played the Swan, Lion, Donkey, Cuckoo Bird, Aquarium, Turtle, and the Pianist. At the end of one of the numbers I looked over at at Noah and Joseph (who took Dad's ticket) to see what they thought and..... they were asleep! Both of them! They didn't wake up until the last number in the first half from the clapping. During intermission my Mom gave them each a piece of gum and then they were fine. =)

On the way home we sorta got lost, thanks google but that's O.K. because we had a handy-dandy VZ Navigator on Moms phone to get us on the right track! In the end though, we got home at around 12:00. Oops!

Seminary the next day wasn't as enjoyable as usual for some reason.

*This happened on Thursday the 14th

Trek (the earth kind)

For those of you who don't know what Trek is, Trek is a reenactment of the mormon pioneers that our youth do every 4 years. The mormon pioneers trekked more than 1,000 miles on foot to get to Salt Lake. (Originally they had intended to reside in Jackson county Missouri, but people sorta wanted to kill them so they had to move. In fact, for a period of time it was legal to kill mormons in Missouri, [that law wasn't revoked until the 70's!]) The youth don't trek 1,000 miles, but we still trek a good distance.

Unfortunately I missed the cut-off date by 27 days. But that doesn't mean that I can't participate in the preparation activities! Last night at mutual we had combined activity and we did a lot of pioneer-ish games. I got there 25 minutes late so I missed the first activity but the second one was the stick game. You have a long, sturdy, stick and two people sit on the ground foot-to-foot facing each other and grab the stick. Then you have to try and pull the other person off the ground. The point is to try and stay on the ground because if your pulled off the ground you lose.

So we did that, and then we did a relay race. There were 3 teams. The person in the front would run to the other side of the gym, put on some pioneer clothes that had been placed there earlier, run to the opposite side of the gym, tag the wall, run back, take all the clothes off, run over to your team and tag your teammate. It was really funny to see some of the inventive ways the youth wore the clothes. The rule was that you had to wear the clothes. Wether you wore the skirt on your hips or on your head it didn't matter, as long as you weren't carrying it.

After that we did tug-o-war. I thought it was just hysterical how all of the priests and teachers (+ a leader) were on one team, and all of the beehives, mia-maids, and deacons were on another (the laurals didn't participate). My hands hurt! I couldn't fully bend my fingers for five minutes! Darn priests.

So the guys liked that activity (the ones on the winning team at least) so then we did an activity for the girls. We learned how to dance. I have never seen so many boys disappear so quickly. All around the gym you could hear cries of "I'm too tired" and "my hands hurt too much" and "I just remembered I have to talk to bishop about... something". Trent was man enough to dance, so him and I paired up. Trent loved the dance....

After that, the Laurel's announced that there would be popsicles in the kitchen. There was suddenly a stamped of teachers and priest's (most of whom I'm sure weren't there before) to get to the kitchen. Then everyone went home.

It was fun to do those activities, and I wish all of the trekkies luck. I can't wait until my turn!

four years from now....

P.S. I'm sorry that I got this post in so late! This happened on the 13th.

Star Trek!

So, tonight I went with my Dad and Mom and saw Star Trek while Noah was at a friend's house. It was really good.

I don't really know a lot about Star Trek but, I know the basic's. Captain Kirk, Spock, "Beam me up Scotty", bad eyebrow jobs. All the important things.

It was kinda cool to see the story before the story before I saw the story. Now I kinda wanna know what happens afterwards. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT going to become a Star Trek junkie, I just want to maybe see the first episode of the real series to maybe see what happens to them.

It was cool that we saw the movie when we did because apparently everyone else on the planet thought that it opened at midnight, so we met the waiting line on our way out.

Noah would have really liked the movie. It was his kind of movie. Not only were they traveling through space so that they could blast aliens with super tricked out future laser guns, but they could appear out of thin air on alien planets. And as an added bonus, there were about a million explosions in the movie. I think there were two scenes total where the U.S.S. Enterprise team wasn't in the middle of a huge the-world-is-going-to-end explosion. There was this one scene with Cap. Kirk as a kid driving a cool old restored corvette. Noah would have loved it. Unfortunately it fell off a cliff.

Anyway, all things considered, Star Trek it was a great movie! It's got nothing on Pride and Prejudice of course, but I'm sure that my Dad would say that Pride and Prejudice has nothing on Star Trek. I guess you can't argue with opinions. =)

Seminary comes early tomorrow (or is it today?) and I have to get some sleep. So...

"Live Long and Prosper"

Storm!

  Every thing's bigger in Texas, including the storms. Tonight our area had a Texas-sized storm and our family went into the closet more than once with our panic-stricken dog.  Almost all of our family anyway. Dad didn't want to be in a 4 x 4 space with three sick people (Noah's sick too). And so he waited outside, checking the weather updates and the damage done so far on his phone.

  Dog's are supposed to have a good sense for these kind of things. I really hope that isn't true. By the look of our little dog you would've thought we had Katrina, Ike, and Rita combined coming at us. Our bigger dog Buddy on the other hand, was just a tad calmer, and that put us more at ease. 

  During one of these closet party's, my Mom commented that there wasn't a lot in this house that she was attached to. That got me thinking. She's right! If something like Katrina or Ike were to happen, how many of the things that I hold dear now would hold the same value then? Again, I get a chance to put things in perspective. 

  I feel so blessed!

 My dog just barfed. Good feelings gone.

Sickies

  So, my Mom and I are sick. I've excepted it. It's official. For a while I tried to deny it but, the coughing and sneezing got the best of me and I gave in to my fate of sitting on the couch watching daytime television. But, looking on the bright side, I get to eat popsicles shamelessly. 

 

 I began my day with sleeping in until 8:30-ish and then doing a whole lot of nothing for the next 5 hours. Doing nothing really takes a lot out of you, so I took a nap. I once heard "How glorious it is to do nothing, and then take a nap after wards" but I can't agree.  Not today! Being sick means that I can't  go outside the house, I can't clean, I can't cook, I can't ride my bike, I can't study, I can't garden! I might sound like a whiny two-year-old, but those are the things that I had planned on doing that day and being sick kind sorta wrecked it. I even missed classes for this illness! 

Right now I'm trying to look for the silver lining in all this and I think I've found it. Being sick gives you a lot of time to think. And read (when your not watching Oprah). I've done a little bit of both, and have found some great books! My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, edited by David Emblidge is a collection of newspaper columns entitled My Day that Mrs. Roosevelt did on a regular basis. Her column  discussed everything from being a grandmother to the United Nations. She was "surprising and personal, My Day reveals Mrs. Roosevelt's indefatigable (what a word!) will, unflagging energy, and unequaled ability to make ""ordinary people" care about the issues of the day." That's according to the inside flap. Another one is Return from Tomorrow by George Ritchie edited by Elizabeth Sherrill. Fantastic book! It is the true story of a man who died (hold on, it gets better) and then came back to life nine minutes later. Now he did this more than 20 years ago when they didn't have all this fancy machinery, so something like this was literally a miracle.  During those nine minutes he met the Savior, and had a glimpse into heaven and hell  Here's a clip from it:

"I got to my feet, glanced back at the bed. Someone who looked like me was still lying there--and this one looked dead. I looked at my own hands. If I were to be a doctor, I would need my hands. But I couldn't touch things. That decided it. No man in this fix could become a doctor! Then suddenly I was no longer alone. Someone stood there. I knew it was Christ, though my chief impression was of dazzling, blinding light." He asked "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH YOUR LIFE?" Thoughts replaced speech in this strange dimension, with no re-considering possible. "Well, I got to be an Eagle Scout" "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO TELL ABOUT ME?" I changed the subject. "I'm too young to die." Very kindly He said, "NOBODY IS TOO YOUNG TO DIE. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH YOUR LIFE?" Total recalling, detailed and perfect. No horrendous depths but no heights either, only an endless, short-sighted, clamorous concern for myself. Then the rage! It wasn't fair! "How could you judge a person who hadn't even started?! What about the insurance money coming when I'm seventy?!" The Presence beside me seemed to vibrate and shimmer with holy laughter, not at me and my silliness, not a mocking laughter, but a mirth that seemed to say that in spite of all error and tragedy, joy was more lasting still. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH YOUR LIFE TO SHOW ME?HOW MUCH HAVE YOU LOVED WITH YOUR LIFE? HAVE YOU LOVED OTHERS AS I AM LOVING YOU? TOTALLY? UNCONDITIONALLY?" "Why, I didn't know Love like this was possible! Someone should have told me! This was a fine time to discover what life is all about. Why hadn't someone told me?!" The answering thought held not on rebuke, only that hint of heavenly laughter, "I DID TELL YOU. BY THE LIFE I LIVED. BY THE DEATH I DIED." I noticed we were moving...  

That's the condensed version of that paragraph. 

 He focus's a lot on the infinite love that Christ showed when he was in his presence and how

everything seemed bearable when he was there with him. I was inspired when I read this and highly recommend this for anyone! 

 So I guess being sick was a good thing them. I got a little down time to stop and re-adjust  what I'm doing, to be sure that I make room for the important things in life.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a popsicle.