House Of Mustache

Taking the Leap.

As you know, I'm getting ready to go on a mission so my life has really been centered around my church and it's teachings lately. It's been difficult because it's really hard for me to be honest about how firmly I believe, love, and rely on this gospel because I am a skeptic and I understand how skeptic minds work. I'm afraid to be seen as a "bible waving lunatic" and even worse - "preachy" or heaven forbid "judgemental" in front of people who I admire - at least intellectually or socially. I'm working on finding a balance, or actually, on not caring because to be honest it seems there isn't a balance. I know which side I want to be on in the end, but getting to that side is proving trickier than I anticipated. What's this ramble about? Well, Preach My Gospel (our mission prep book) had an activity this morning - I wrote it in my journal and felt inspired to write on my private (nobody's-eyes-but-mine blog) then I realized if I REALLY wanted to grow I would have to put it on here, in front of everybody and not give any explanations (ok this doesn't count because this is my first time doing this, ok?! - baby steps) so here we go. The assignment was to write a small newspaper article on the restoration. What's the most important thing you would say and you'd have to keep it catchy. Ok that catchy part I added, but I take writing prompts seriously, and newspaper articles are catchy dang it!

THE BOOK OF MORMON

The true gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored! Where was it? Well, look around you - are there 12 apostles today? Are there prophets and revelation and the power of God on Earth JUST LIKE IN CHRIST'S REAL CHURCH WHEN HE WAS ON EARTH?! - NO! It's been gone! But fear not, our Father in Heaven is loving and wonderful, he has restored his true gospel, apostles and all, through a modern day prophet (yes, just like Moses) - Joseph Smith! Don't believe us? Read the Book of Mormon. "What's the Book of Mormon?" Say you? Another testament of Christ because, like we said, God loves all his children, including the ones that were in the Americas in the times of the Bible. These are THEIR accounts! They had prophets, apostles, priesthood and Christ's true church! He even visited them after his crucifixion! Don't believe us? Read the Book of Mormon! The true gospel of Christ is on the Earth again, with all it's blessings - dont believe us? Read the Book of Mormon!

God and His Son love you, and are calling you home. If you read, with a sincere heart, and ask The Lord if it's true - you will know. You will know the Savior lived and you will know He died for you and most importantly, you will know why. But don't believe us read the Book of Mormon.

Academy.

Ok, let's talk Oscar's for a quick sec.

*I'm glad Quentin won for best original screenplay,even though I really wanted Wes.
* Skyfall winning best Original Song was honestly my only really happy moment of the night.
*Um Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty got MAJOR snubbed. Lets just leave it at that ok?! Before I CUT somebody.
* Life of Pi was my other major choice and it got quite a few awards, so I'm content with THAT.
*we ALL knew Paperman was gonna win. But we were all still happy, admit it :)
*Amour won everything foreign? Yeah.
*Really wanted Wreck-It Ralph to win, but Brave made me cry, so it's all good.
* Soooo glad Ang Lee won for Life of Pi, that movie was phenomenal. I feel him and/or Benh Zeitlin deserved it most.
*Happy about Christoph Waltz winning but I REALLY wanted Tommy Lee Jones. Either way, Christoph Waltz developed more of a character, whereas Tommy just carried all his lines superbly.
*I feel bad for Amy Adams but yeah, I was rootin' for Anne Hathaway just like everybody else. Someday Amy, someday.
*Seth McFarlane? best choice you made Academy.

*OKAY - I love JLaw as much as the next gal, genuinely, she's wonderful. I love her. She did not deserve that Oscar. IF she were to have won an Oscar it SHOULD'VE been Winter's Bone. Today Jessica Chastain should've won. With every fiber of my being. Jen's performance was a caricature. By far the most predictable film I've ever witnessed be nominated. I knew exactly what was gonna happen the entire time. The only character that didn't seem an overt PARODY of the mentally ill was Robert DeNiro, everybody else was just... Too much. JLaw is a phenomenal actress, can control her face like no other but she did not have an Oscar worthy role.
* Daniel Day-Lewis: Duh. As long as he's making movies he will take the Oscar home, it's not even fair to the other actors. He literally should just have his own category so the other guys could get a chance.

* Argo????!!!!! Freakin Argooooo???!!!! No! Ok?! No! I quit you Academy! I'm done. Argo was a good film. The best film? Hell naw!

LIFE OF PI
ZERO DARK THIRTY
LINCOLN
DJANGO UNCHAINED
AMOUR
LES FREAKIN MISERABLES
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHER WILD!

Basically ANY other choice besides Silver Linnings Playbook should've won. ANY. ANY of those movies would've been more productive, and powerful to the history of cinema. URRGGGHHHHHH.

Excuse my language.

My Heart, My Little Baby Heart.

I mean,

The Love Boat?

Laughs at his own jokes.

Fozzi Bear

ANNIE HALL

and likes to cook?

MY HEART

Love in the time of Anxiety.

Alas, February has arrived, hear it roar. With it has come the ugly ice even January didn't want, gloomy days, fog, and what I'm scared to admit actually is, inversion. My house sits amid a cloud of pollution. Buuuuuuuuut... Valentine's is around the corner - not in the mood yet? Here you go:

Best television kiss in the last ten years? I'd say so. Ahhh love is in the air.

In completely unrelated news: two of my great aunts came to visit

So I got to play tour guide - mostly Wal Mart guide. It was all good fun. On Sunday my grandma comes to visit and all will be well with the world again :)

Don't post for a month after announcing my decision to serve a mission? they diagnosed me with Anxiety Disorder. I get panic attacks. Mostly when I'm trying to not get a panic attack. You can see the dilemma. I'm to get super duper healthy and then I will be ready to go and serve. I know this is all for my greater good, but being patient is not my forte and I might just eat my foot.

also: It's midnight and I'm hungry so I just might.

Christmastime is Here!

Sorry about the picture overload, I just love my house at Christmas and wanted to invite you in :) hope it get's you in the Christmas spirit! Oh, and don't forget, tonight is the fourth night of Chanukah... someday, I'll celebrate Chanukah. The holiday's are just beautiful.

Called To Serve!

Y'all know nothing makes me a snappier and wittier writer than defying authority, or in my Mormon-girl case, not paying attention in class and blogging instead.

This is gonna sound super snottish. Please don't hate me. But I've had a lot of traffic lately and it's made me super ashamed that my last post was actually a million years ago. I'm sorry if you stopped by and you had to relive our short lived Africa trip.

Africa Trip.

A LOT has happened.

Davido got called on a mission!! There were a lot of tears. Lemme just give you a little sister manifesto here: My brother David is such a champ. Really. He has been to hell and back and he tells a joke the whole way through. He also will not shut up for a single second of the journey, but he will definitely make you laugh. Like, pee your pants, laugh. He loves the gospel, he loves the Lord and he loves righteousness. We've had our differences through the years, and sometimes, sometimes I feel like he isn't there for me, but then he goes right to scoffing at me and saying "That's so annoying! why would you say that?! I'm always there for you! Always!"...My brother is Chandler from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, seriously. He is gonna be a bomb missionary, and I cannot wait for him to come back speaking spanish! *This also pumps me up for Nato's mission next year, jus wait until you here that story!

Then this one thought it would be cool and go on a mission too! No but really, Alba and I have been planning on missions since the dawn of time. Oh PS. Alba and I are the same person. She goes to That other school in Provo, and has lived in Ogden most of our friendship, but through thick and thin, we lived the same life in different cities. She's kinda gonna be an amazing missionary. No seriously. Her personality is infectious and can be quite convincing. She could sell sand to an Arab (which is a happy coincidence, since her major is Arab). She's gonna kill it.

Jamina's getting married! To her high school sweet heart :) He's back from his mission and they're gettin' hitched!

I'm goin' on a mission!!!!!

::confetti!!!!::

That's right folks, this little lady is servin time! Got my tear drop ready and errythin' (got to get one ghetto reference in there, I'm from West Valley, yo). When the general LDS authorities made the announcement, my face wasn't quite sure what to do..

I started laughing so hard of excitement that I started crying. It was some cray stuff.

But honestly, this has been the best decision of my life. It fits nowhere in my plan (my original plan was when I was 21, not 19) and that's exactly how God likes it so I'm game.

Other than that, holy cow do I want school to be done, after that I'm prepping on spending some quality time with my family (my grammy's coming from Venezuela) and getting ready to go in to the temple and other wonderful things.

P.S. This happened.

Let the good times roll!

Wisdom

Things I hope are wisdom:

You don't have to have the last word in a conversation. There is more power in being the first to silence, than the last to talk.
A "please" and "thank you" will get you almost anywhere in life. Really.
God is always on your side. Always. Whether you believe in him, whether you don't. Whether you like him, or you don't. Whether you're a good person or a bad person. He's always on your side. So when bad things/bad days/bad people happen to you, don't blame God. The world is bad. Satan is who perpetuates the bad. When you follow what you know is right, the Lord is bound. He will bless you and protect you from the world. When we falter? He anxiously waits on the other side, cheering us on, because for that moment, we have broken our end of the contract, and as much as he may want to, he's a man of righteousness who cannot break his rules. Do what you know is right. Get your act together. He's so ready and anxious to bless you. Let him, dang it!
Is this going to be important a year from today? Yes? Fix it. No? Let it go.
Sad but don't want to cry? Watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
Always try to see the bigger picture.
When you feel like you're betraying yourself, you probably are.
I know you've heard it, but don't be a bad tipper dang it. You know waiters/waitresses make their living off tips, and it says so much about you.
Want to succeed? Fall in love with looking like a fool. Ex: photographer? you will lay on the floor. Actor? you will shout in British accents at strangers. It's a fact. Take the leap, you will be remembered.
You don't have to know what the reason is, but the consolation that everything happens for a reason can be pretty powerful. Let it unfold, mmkay?
You live in a society. I know we all want "stick it to the man" but seriously, just learn from those who have come before you, listen to those who love you, and sometimes, remember your choices don't just affect you.
Know God is a comic, buy a ticket to the show.
Love everybody. Everybody. Absorb as much as you can from books, movies, music, and most importantly, people. Take a sec and find something you like about every single person around you. Don't be afraid to speak out to somebody. Reach out. Literally, with your arms, reach out. If you feel awkward hugging people, chances are, if you do it enough times, you'll get used to it. Nothing makes life sweeter than truly delighting in the Human spirit.

Eh I'm a noob. Any wisdom for me? Imma need it! You'll see why soon :)

*this has been an ongoing post for the last three months. so in actuality, it should have a bunch more, but I'm not that wise.

Let's take a Trip

As I sit in class, and the very nice librarian explains how to do my assignment, I can't help but fade in and out of what he's saying. I love learning, I love college. Love it. Hate homework. Hate work. I know, I know, nothing is more repugnant than an ol' lazy toad. But that is what I am as of late. It takes all I got to do anything... I think it's because my life is a little out of order again. I really thought about how nice and ready and motivated I feel just by having my room clean and my bed made and it made me all warm and fuzzy and ready to work! So today I shall clean, I shall organize, I shall indulge in the mundane "Can I get a 'WOOP WOOP' for doin' these dishes?!"

Wanna go somewhere with me?

Lets go to....

Africa.
Lets go on a Safari.
Better pack.

Op and my tooth brush and scriptures

And of course, my pillow pet, let's get real.

Ok, here we go!

whew. Good flight. Alrightee, here we go!

Hey this is a pretty nice hotel, good choice. I like that we're "roughin it" but not really.

Ok see this, this is roughin it a little too much, I just feel like we're asking for it if we have pancakes and bacon out here. You're just so darn adventurous, alright then.

whoo whoo whoo! here we go!

Ahhh!

And then I about died. This was. Life changing.

Then we stopped for lunch. You insisted on getting some champagne in me, I don't know why, you know I'm Mormon. And so I made you sit by yourself. In the lonely chair.

and I had lunch with these people, they were pretty nice. But that one girl in the brown? Did we ever figure out where she was from?

Then this happened. Everybody had a cow, but I don't like cats. Much less of the huge variety. Eh.

We started heading home and this totally happened, too bad we weren't in THEIR jeep, that would've been cool. Hey who the heck put that watermark on my picture?!