What a week...

Well, first things first.  Below you will see the sad remains of my cellular phone.  Yes, I have officially killed my phone, after a good few years of use.  

The murder weapon - the washing machine.  

And let me tell you, that washing machine does its job well!  I came home from a fun dinner with my friends Saturday night with so many things to do.  Since I work Monday through Friday and then volunteer at the temple on Saturdays, I don't have a ton of time for some of the basic things like washing my clothes, cleaning the apartment, mowing the lawn, etc.  So in my mad rush to finish my errands Saturday night I decided to throw a few things in the wash.  When I came home from my errands I was looking everywhere for my phone and I couldn't find it.  I had looked everywhere.  Then I checked my pants pockets and a sinking feeling entered my heart -- I hadn't been wearing these pants all day.  I had thrown the jeans I had been wearing into the wash.  No...I couldn't have...could I?  I rushed to the washing machine and found there buried within my clothes, my poor, water-logged cell phone.   

So I will hopefully be getting a new phone soon.  In the meantime, everyone, email me. :)

However, this week wasn't a complete failure.  I happened to find the cutest pair of high heels a month or so ago.  I contemplated buying them but as you can see, they are pink.  What would I wear them with, I thought?  I was strong and I left the store without them.  But I didn't stop thinking about them.  Oh no.  For the next month I contemplated how many outfits I could wear these lovely shoes with.  By the time the month was over, I had convinced myself.  So I marched right back to the store and bought them.  Of course, this was before I new that I would also have to buy a new phone.  So, this will probably be my last purchase for awhile.  But I do love them and I am excited to wear them soon!

Also, Chris returned from Europe!  (Man those two and a half weeks felt like a long time!)  I was so excited to see him and I got a little surprise when he came over.  He had not shaved the whole time in Europe and had grown quite a healthy beard.  I didn't know if I would like it, but I actually thought it looked really good!  Too bad that he has to shave for work.  So of course, we had to document this momentous occasion before he took the razor to his face.  (And he said I could put it on my blog, so it's all good.)  


Just for kicks, I found a pretty funny quote about beards here.  Gotta love the early Christians...


"How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest--a sign of strength and rule." St. Clement of Alexandria, 2.275

Lovenote #5 - Beauty

i have danced ever since i was a little girl.  i didn't start formal lessons until i was about seven or so, but i twirled, spun and jumped at any moment i could. i continued dancing all through high school even though my body wasn't "made for dancing." i am only a meager 5"4 and i inherited some pretty flat feet. but my soul was made for dancing and i persevered until i could convince others, and myself, that soul was all i needed.

after a long, four-year absence from dancing, i have finally returned! i started taking classes again at a studio in orem. 
and i love it! 
 even though my body is taking its sweet time to remember, my soul feels as if i've never left.

recently, a byu animator, ryan woodward, worked with dancers to help give others a glimpse of that feeling. he videoed a choreographed dance and then captured it with animation. i love this short film and the feeling that it portrays. learn more about the process of the animation here.

beauty is all around us. my friend just wrote a blog post on beauty that inspired me. this video also inspires me. it takes an art form that i love and combines it with something new. the animation can sustain movement and create a visual image of the feelings a dancer often experiences. i hope that you can find a little beauty today, hopefully in this video.  But if not, find something else that makes you smile, and share it with someone you love. 

love you!!

My Mother

Take a look at my gorgeous mother!!!

So I just got off the phone with my sister (a wonderful mother of three) and we were talking about how we are simply never going to be perfect.  Yes, that was a big revelation to us this week.  

But how can you blame us for having such high expectations when we have a mother like this one.  She is nearly perfect in almost every way.

My Mother

5"6

Gorgeous green eyes

54(?) and still has skinny legs

Beautiful voice

Wonderful piano player

Soft-spoken

Funny

Dedicated to the gospel

Just graduated from BYU (Yay!)

Seriously the most patient person I know

Devoted grandmother

Clean

Doesn't criticize

Best listener

Great advice giver

Loves unconditionally

I've always known that my mother was there for me.  She is my best friend and I can tell her everything, and I basically do.  :)  I'm glad I have such a wonderful relationship with my mother.  I think it all started when I was 16 and I started dating. (Okay, it probably started way before that when she would clean up the crushed crackers that I had thrown on the floor or patiently helped me look like a girl after I chopped off all of my hair.)  But, those years in high school are very good memories for me.  My mom would always stay up and wait for me at night on the little white love seat upstairs (the one that had the pattern that reminded me of the salt lake temple).  I would come home and she would just play with my hair and listen to me as I recounted all the details of the previous three hours.  She's always had time for me and has put her children and her husband before herself.  Where on earth did I get such a great mom?!

Here are some of my favorite mothers on the planet.  Of course my mother, in the middle front row, my two great sisters, Kristine and Kathleen, my sister-in-law Larynn, and my Grandma Lee.  I don't have a picture of my Grandma Brough on my computer but she is wonderful too!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

to all of the hardworking, amazing mothers in the world.

Spring Has Sprung!!

...at least in some parts of the world.

at first glance, it looks like a giant child armed with a box of crayons has been set loose upon this landscape. vivid stripes of purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green make up a glorious patchwork. yet far from being a child's sketchbook, this is, in fact, the northern netherlands in the middle of tulip season. the dutch landscape in may is a kaleidoscope of color as the tulips burst into life. the bulbs are planted in late october and early november.  more than three billion tulips are grown each year and two-thirds of the vibrant blooms are exported, mostly to the U.S. and germany.

their dazzling colors are thanks to the years in the 17th century when tulip mania swept the globe and the most eye-catching specimens changed hands for a small fortune. but, like a rainbow, this colorful landscape is a short-lived phenomenon. the netherlands produce more than nine million tulip bulbs a year. when the flowers are gone, however, the land will be cultivated for a rather more mundane crop of vegetables. 


these pictures were sent to me in an email, so i don't know the original source...sorry.