go big or go home

So, I'm starting the year afresh (yes, I know it's practically June), but I'm feeling rejuvenated, and so it's time for a new motto!

Just a few ways I'm going big:
- golfing
- work
- missionary work
- dating

Quote of the Day

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.
- Atticus Finch ("To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee)

LOLCAT of the Day

A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty by Ogden Nash

Unwillingly Miranda wakes,
Feels the sun with terror,
One unwilling step she takes,
Shuddering to the mirror.

Miranda in Miranda's sight
Is old and gray and dirty;
Twenty-nine she was last night;
This morning she is thirty.

Shining like the morning star,
Like the twilight shining,
Haunted by a calendar,
Miranda is a-pining.

Silly girl, silver girl,
Draw the mirror toward you;
Time who makes the years to whirl
Adorned as he adored you.

Time is timelessness for you;
Calendars for the human;
What's a year, or thirty, to
Loveliness made woman?

Oh, Night will not see thirty again,
Yet soft her wing, Miranda;
Pick up your glass and tell me, then--
How old is Spring, Miranda?

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

---Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

iTunes Playlist

So Sorry (Feist)
Your Song (Kate Walsh)
Tiger, My Friend (Psapp)
Sea Legs (The Shins)
Gamble Everything (Ben Lee)
World Spins Madly On (The Weepies)
Fresh Feeling (The Eels)
Please Please Please (The Shout Out Louds)
Rally (Phoenix)
I'm the Man Who Loves You (Wilco)
Your Sweet Voice (The Reindeer Section)
Ice Age (Pete Yorn)
Set Adrift on Memory (PM Dawn)
Bitter (Jill Sobule)
Say it Right (Nelly Furtado)
Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani)

Mark 10:26-31

26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, ^aWith men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are ^bpossible.

28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,

30 But he shall receive an ^ahundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

31 ^aBut many that are ^bfirst shall be last; and the last first.

TO DO: May

This is my to-do list for the rest of the month of May:

• Watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3
• Finish Acts (in the New Testament)
• Finish Harry Potter 6
• Clean my room
• Go to the Temple
• Pay my parking ticket...
  

LOLCAT of the day

Acts 2:42

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

I am reading the Acts immediately after having read the four gospels, and it is tremendous to see the power of the association the disciples have with the apostles. And how humbling it is to realize that we can enjoy that same doctrine and fellowship today - through the words of our living prophets and through the opportunity we have to pray and partake of the Sacrament each week.

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Quote of the Day

I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.
Oscar Wilde

LOLCAT of the Day

Aunt-dom continued

Here is a pretty cute picture of Grandpa & Brady:I get to hold him, too:

It's great being an aunt!

Matthew 9:36-38

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

LOLCAT of the Day

Joe Heller by Kurt Vonnegut

True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel Catch-22
has earned in its entire history?"
And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."
And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"
And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."
Not bad! Rest in Peace!"

The New Yorker, May 16, 2005

Quote of the Day

A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude.
Oscar Wilde

LOLCAT of the Day

Flickrvision

My brother just sent me this site:

http://flickrvision.com/

I find it fascinating!

More pictures of Brady

This is Brady in the nursery. He had to stay on antibiotics for awhile because of the trauma of the birth and because Laura is a carrier of Strep B.

I believe he is coming home today !!!

Isaiah 11:2-3

2 And the ^aspirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of ^bwisdom and ^cunderstanding, the spirit of ^dcounsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not ^ajudge ^bafter the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

David Copperfield (1999)

My parents bought the BBC production of David Copperfield a few years ago, and it has become a family favorite. It features Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Daniel Radcliffe, and Ian McKellen. (Many of the actors/actresses are also in the Harry Potter movies.)

The movie inspired me to read the book, which thus far is my favorite Dickens novel.

It's 185 minutes total (2 episodes).

2 Nephi 9:50-52

Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters;
and he that hath no money, come buy and eat;
yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth,
nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy.
Hearken diligently unto me,
and remember the words which I have spoken;
and come unto the Holy One of Israel,
and feast upon that which perisheth not,
neither can be corrupted,
and let your soul delight in fatness.

Behold, my beloved brethren,
remember the words of your God;
pray unto him continually by day,
and give thanks unto his holy name by night.
Let your hearts rejoice.

Quote of the Day

And the turtles, of course... All the turtles are free - As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.
Dr. Suess

LOLCAT of the day

There is a curious paradox

There is a curious paradox that no one can explain
Who understands the secret of the reaping of the grain
Who understands why spring is born out of winter's laboring pain
Or why we must all die a bit before we grow again.
I do not know the answer. I only know it's true.
I hurt them for that reason, and myself a little bit, too.
The Fantasticks

A weekend for the Ages

So this last weekend was, in the words of a good friend of mine,

epic

(to say the least.)

1. My friend Christina came into town to visit - we did some sightseeing in San Francisco and we saw Spiderman 3. This is me outside of the theatre, trying to steal Homer's movie candie... without success...
2. Saturday, I got my hair cut. Yes, I know, I'm kind of a big deal.
3. Sunday, I became officially single again :) ... :( .... :)

All this was just the preamble to my aunt-dom, which began on Tuesday!!!

Mary Poppins

I thought this was pretty funny :) I saw this the same day I bought the Mary Poppins DVD...

Quote of the Day

"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"
Dr. Suess

2 Nephi 32:9

"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

LOLCAT of the Day

Isaiah

"And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not;

I will lead them in paths that they have not known:

I will make darkness light before them,

and crooked things straight.

These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

Isaiah 42:16

I love the words of Isaiah. I really cannot express enough the beauty of the Messianic scriptures we can find there. We have a loving Savior and Redeemer and we can know him better through these passages. Sometimes it can be hard to understand or connect with the idea that Jesus Christ and his Atonement are both very real, but in studying Isaiah, I know that I have reached a greater understanding of Jesus Christ's love for me - and have reached a greater threshold of faith.

"And the Lord shall guide thee continually,
and satisfy thy soul in drought,
and make fat thy bones:
and thou shalt be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not."
Isaiah 58:11

Thank you, Trader Joe's!!

Have I mentioned before the great love I have for mochi ice cream?

Trader Joe's is the source of these delightful handheld ice creams. I highly recommend the strawberry :)

One of my favorite FREAKING people brought me the chocolate & the strawberry last night - woop woop!!

I just want to say

That it's good to be back !

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

And say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Anne Taintor

So, I have mixed feelings about Anne Taintor. She is pretty funny, and I like the way she brings some retro pop art back, but the cynical/bitter edge to her humor sometimes turns me off.

but then I think sometimes that she's just expressing what we are "too nice" to say :)

LOLCAT of the Day

I didn't use to think these "lolcats" were that funny. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up with pets, or this whole "online-speak" was kind of cryptic, but in the last year, they have started to get REALLY funny to me. As a result, I'm going to post some of my favorite ones periodically :)

And it begins...

My older sister Laura delivered

Bradley David "Brady" Lyle

around 10pm last night (May 8th, 2007)

Both mother and child are healthy.

He has Laura's hair (red), Brock's mouth, a cleft chin, and weighs 8 lbs, 6 oz. He is named for both of his Grandpas, Brad Lyle and David Thomas.

Here is a picture of the new family. My beautiful sister is now a mother - for mother's day:

It so happens

that I'm ba-a-a-ck :) expect some blog posts soon!