Visiting Teaching Strikes Again!

The talks used for the lesson given to me by my new visiting teachers (links included):

• Be Your Best Self - President Thomas S. Monson
• Be of Good Cheer - President Thomas S. Monson

Lessons I took from my visiting teaching lesson:

1. I need to pay more attention to Presdient Monson (what are the odds that, from all those talks, they'd BOTH pick President Monson?)
2. I obviously need to work on improving myself by working hard and being happy. :)
   

Random Food Joke

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health.
It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Seriously?!

Sometimes I fear for the human race.

I mean, they should really rename the term "common sense" because it seems like almost no one is born with it anymore.

First concert of the season!

Here's the set list, since pics and vids won't load:

Paramore:
Misery Business (which I missed due to CRAZY INSANE traffic by the E Center)
For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic
--some song that I wasn't familiar with, nor could I understand any lyrics--
Ignorance (new album)
crushcrushcrush
My Little Decoy
When It Rains
When the Lines Overlap (new album)
That's What You Get
Let the Flames Begin
Decode


No Doubt:
Spiderweb
Hella Good
Underneath It All
Excuse Me Mr.
Ex-Girlfriend
End It On This
A Simple Kind of Life
Bathwater
instrumental (I took a vid, hopefully it will load later)
Don't Let Go Away/New
Hey Baby
Running
Different People (?)
Don't Speak
It's My Life
I'm Just a Girl

Encore:
Rock Steady
(?)
Sunday Morning

Our favorite sister missionary

Breaking the rules, every once in a blue moon, is kind of fun. :D

Crystal ball of dreams

I swear, I have the most random and vivid dreams. I love 'em but . . . sometimes I wonder if they're doing more than just playing out my subconscious. Like, you know, trying to give me advice or letting me know what really could happen in the future if some choices are made.

For instance, when I was around six, I had a dream that my friends and I went down to the parking lot of our apartment complex and were playing in the banana boat my family owned (you know, fiddling with all the buttons and knobs everywhere). The next morning my dad was really upset because the battery had been drained due to the headlights being left on. Now, before you determine that his proves that I sleepwalk (which I'm 99% sure that I don't) rather than have intuitive dreams, here is another example . . .

Beginning when I was eight, I had a recurring nightmare that, when I was sixteen, I was shopping at a mall and was attacked by some crazy person. It would always end the same (badly) and always be at the same place. When I was 11, we moved to Jefferson City which had a mall exactly like my dream. Ironically (coincidentally?) we moved away just a couple of months after I turned sixteen which actually calmed me down a lot (after eight years of the same nightmare, wouldn't you be relieved to know it couldn't come true?)

Neither really says I'm clairvoyant (and I'm not trying to say I am), but don't both examples sort of make you go "hmm"? It just makes me want to pick apart last night's dream and see what I can find out from it . . .

"I'm pretty sure that if I was older and ate more fast food, I would be dead already"

I just realized that I have no idea how to eat a pear. I've already struggled for about 20 minutes . . .

New Track Pack!

Huzzah and hooray! There's another Track Pack!

• Boston - “Peace of Mind”
• Boston - “Rock and Roll Band”
• Dead Kennedys - “California Uber Alles”
• Dead Kennedys - “Holiday in Cambodia”
• Free - “All Right Now”
• George Thorogood - “Bad to the Bone”
• James Gang - “Funk #49”
• Jethro Tull - “Hymn 43”
• Lenny Kravitz - “Let Love Rule”
• Pat Benatar - “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
• The Police - “Can’t Stand Losing You”
• The Police - “Truth Hits Everybody”
• Rush - “Closer to the Heart”
• Rush - “Red Barchetta”
• Siouxsie & the Banshees - “Kiss Them For Me”
• Steve Miller Band - “Take the Money & Run”
• Steve Miller Band - “The Joker”
• The Stone Roses - “Love Spreads”
• The Who - “Baba O'Riley”
• The Who - “Behind Blue Eyes”

Memories gushing forth

I love finding blogs of people I used to live with/was in the same ward as/work with/etc. I love how people change and evolve and can be so different after as little as a few months to as much as five or more years.

I also love that writing is such an amazing way of conveying thought and emotion. I wish I were better at it and am completely in awe of those of my friends who have a gift of expressing themselves through this medium.

Musical theater often lends insight

So, I was listening to the soundtrack of the Scarlet Pimpernel this evening and Lullaby came on, and here are what are, essentially, the first and third verses of the piece:

"Go to sleep, say your prayers
Rest your head upon my shoulder
Slumber deep and breathe your cares away
. . .
Don't you cry, my darling, you are home
You and I together make a home"

And I was thinking about how much I want my relationship with my Savior to be like this. I want to be able to listen to him say, "rest your head" and let Him envelop me in His love, let Him completely wash away my worries and my doubts and have Him remind me that life is okay, I'll be okay, and that the results of choices I need to make will be okay, no matter what the answer will be. However, I know that life isn't simple, can't be condensed down to a few lines and I know that choices I have made in the past definitely affect my future. And how stupid I can be, sometimes. And how much I hope He still loves me, and how much I know He's supposed to love me, but how hard it is for me to believe it.

**edit**
"Precious young people, make every decision you contemplate pass this test: What does it do to me? What does it do for me? And let your code of conduct emphasize not 'What will others think?' but rather 'What will I think of myself?' Be influenced by that still, small voice. Remember that one with authority placed his hands on your head at the time of your confirmation and said, 'Receive the Holy Ghost.' Open your hearts, even your very souls, to the sound of that special voice that testifies of truth. As the prophet Isaiah promised, 'Thine ears shall hear a word . . . saying, This is the way, walk ye in it' (Isaiah 30:21)." -President Thomas S. Monson

Just being me!

I did some research on my name:

First name:

• There are 15,321 people in the U.S. with the same first name.
• Statistically the 1495th most popular first name.
• More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name are female.

This is some of what I found out about my last name:

• There are 21,449 people in the U.S. with the same last name.
• Statistically the 1664th most popular last name.

And the best news:

• There is 1 person in the U.S. with your name.
  

"Sometimes, fanfics make me giggle"

I am not an author by any means (that's why I keep Tryn around); however, can't authors tell when their work is getting ridiculous? Really?

MKHNBE

I am officially *not* the shortest or oldest person in my apartment. BUAHAHA.

Thank you, random hour and a half of completely nonsensical talk, ending with a tape measurer and a levelER (hee hee hee). Also, the example of generations of mothers measuring children against the door frame.

Branching out

I was just convinced to get the Wednesday Special at Cafe Rio. We'll see how it goes. :D

Mondays are of the devil

1) Didn't get enough sleep
2) Nail in back tire = bad
3) Frozen cup + falling onto foot = bad
4) Broken dishwasher
5) 2 fingers slammed in door
6) 3 spills on the living room carpet
7) Not being put in the "preferred" FHE group
8) Skirts went unfound
9) My tires are rusted onto my rotors (sp?)

**note** Not all of these things happened to me. But all did happen to someone in my apartment

"Messy people drive clean people insane . . . and then we take over the world!"

I've always wondered if clean people drive messy people as crazy as the opposite arrangement. I mean, some people in our apartment used to be rather tidy and, when they cleaned, didn't seem to care where they put things like picture frames or clocks (aka, they hid them inside boxes in the storage closet without telling anyone) but I don't know . . . how would you study something like that?

I just don't learn

Check the time stamp.

Why don't I remember to do anything at the right time?

Moonsets and sunrises

I think there aren't many more amazing sights than seeing God's creations in all their awesomeness. Especially things like the moon completing it's daily cycle across our sky or the grandeur of the sun rising in the east. I'm also fairly sure that nothing makes me miss the mid-West more than a good sunrise. I long for open plains, rolling hills and seeing the entire sky tinge itself pink as a burst of light comes forth from the horizon.

Random Thoughts - It's been a while!

First of all, roommates are ridiculously awesome.

Secondly, I suck at making decisions.

Thirdly, some roommates are ridiculously awesome at listening while I talk about decisions that need to be made and my lack of being able to make them.

Last of all, this was the second night in a row that I went to sleep before midnight. Too bad I got a text at 2 am that woke me up. ;)

It's a good thing we keep Band-aids around . . . except we don't . . .

I find it mildly horrible that I can jack up my finger so badly just by reaching my hand into a cubby hole to get the mail.

Ick.

Today just got better!

Not only is it beautiful outside and I'm about to get a free lunch, BUT I have just been informed that I have a ticket for the No Doubt/Paramore concert on May 25th!

*squee!*

Many eons ago . . .

Last night I finally finished the book of Genesis. It was something that my roommate and I had been working on a couple of days every couple of weeks--when we had finished our reading for other classes--and we realized that, if we read four chapters last night, we could finish the book.

I must say that I'm kind of ridiculously excited about reading the Old Testament. We're both learning a lot of stuff and I'd forgotten how much story happens in Genesis alone. And tonight will be Exodus!

Zapatta Falls

Hooray! I got to go to CO the last weekend of April. My family, Clark and I were able to visit Zappata Falls (a waterfall that is frozen for most of the year). Anyway, here are a few pictures (maybe, we'll see if this works):

This would be me and Clark, standing on the rocky shores of the stream that comes from the waterfall. :)

I'm fairly sure this is one of my favorite pictures ever. My mom is awesome. Also, they're skipping rocks. :D

And now, Dad is getting ready to chuck Abbigale into the frozen depths!

Frozen waterfall!

Other, random, frozen stuff!

And now we meet our hero, Clark!

That would be my crazy 13-year-old brother scaling that . . . cliff? I don't know what you'd call it. Anyway, you have to go around that part to be able to stand on the waterfall. :D

And that concludes the pictures from my trip to Zapatta Falls!