Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

Not to be morbid, but this is very possibly my favorite poem.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

        -Mary Elizabeth Frye 1932

Wonderful Weekend!

We started by going with some friends to Mona to play on a rope swing:

 I did the swing, but also bravely initiated the climbing of a tree and jumping off:

Then Karen and I headed down to Cedar City to stay with her cousin and go to the Shakespeare Festival.  

We walked through the shops downtown,

Tried on pimpin' cowgirl vests, and found Karen's wedding dress

 Saw "Noises Off" and laughed until we couldn't breathe:

 Then we went to an improv show called "Off the Cuff:"

It was a ball!

Stress

Dad always said stress was a waste of time...

I just learned that I only stress about things I care about. Go figure.  I definitely have a 6 page paper due in one hour, at which time I'll be presenting on it, and I only have 1 page done.  And I couldn't care less. Uh-oh.  Either I'm learning from Pop, or I just lost my motivation...

The Phone Call

Oh how I would love to post that cheesy Mormon movie from the 70's known by the same moniker...

But anyway, today I received a phone call from my darling 3 year old niece.  She just wanted to tell me about her day and chat to see if I was at Grandma's house.  Sadly, I had to tell her that I was not at Grandma's house, but instead was at work.

I asked her if she slept well last night, and she said she had; then she reciprocated the question.  I told her, "no, I didn't sleep much last night."  She asked why, and I let her know it was because I was working on homework.  She asked me if I slept at my friend's house.  I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that one... I told her that my friends live with me (since I have roommates and her young mind equates those terms with one another), but that I live in my own apartment (ie, not with Grandma).

She was silent.

"Do you know what an apartment is?"  "No."

"oh.  It's just like a little house.  So I live in a really little house."

"Do you have to bend down to get inside?"





Now, as a preface to the next portion of The Phone Call, I must remind you that I got very little sleep last night.  In fact, I went to bed at 4am and got up at 7:50am.  So between 4-8, I was out.

Later in The Phone Call,  my sister gets on the line and asks, "Have you been abducted? Are you okay?"  Which is somewhat odd...  She then asks me "Why did you call me at 6:00 this morning?"

To which I reply that there is no way I called her at 6am.  She says, "Yeah, you did."  We argue.  I tell her that's impossible because I was taking advantage of precious sleep from 4-8am.  She reiterates, "Yes, you did-- you even left me a message."  "What did I say??"  "Nothing.  You were just breathing into the phone..."

So apparently I called my sister in my sleep last night.

¡Que Colór!

We had a girl's night out on the town.  We went to Color Me Mine and we all made mugs, but each of us liked a different style mug; SO FUN!

Uh, Corey and Candace nor Carolina and I planned on the color coordination of our outfits.

 I thought I didn't have a creative bone in my body (and I still might be right) but I found this to be an utterly enjoyable activity.  It was so fun to make something pretty!

A week later, we got the results, much to our delight:

Yay!

Conference!!!

I love Conference Weekend.  Growing up it was treated a lot like Christmas, so I still get way excited.  My wonderful sister and her family were 'sposed to come visit and watch it, but when they couldn't make it, they were nice enough to send their tickets. 

Darling (amazing photog) Carolina, wonderful mission friend Josh, and a favorite couple, Jayli and Wyatt all came to the Sunday afternoon session.

Grandma Ardy, the saint, was good enough to feed us all day long.  I don't know what I'd do if she didn't live up here!

Aurora

This weekend was wonderful. Drove to Colorado with my old roommate to visit our families.

 I loved seeing Amber, McKade and Mason.  so fun.  We relaxed and shopped and went into Denver

 We played in the park and got in a snowball fight...

 As you can see I lost... my hair started out curly... ;)

 We went out to eat, we played games and watched movies.  

Mas and I loved hanging out.  

He is such a doll.

It was such a nice break to spend time with my darling family!

Revival

So, last night was the evening of the Winter Revival Concert.  

Main Reason I went?  Nik Day.  One of 3 Openers for the show.  Carolina introduced me to his music and I thought it would be fun to see him live.  Yes, I played the role of a groupie and went up to meet him after the show.

Main Event?  Joshua James.  I didn't know how much I loved him until he was up there on stage.  His passion?  A-mazing.  Live shows of Joshua James?  EVEN BETTER than his studio recordings.  He puts everything into his music.  His face, his body, his voice, every piece of him is in that song.  Before playing his second song, Cheyenne, he told the story behind it; a little boy was kidnapped from a neighboring town where he grew up, and he wrote it about that event.  His passion ALONE for the music nearly brought me to tears.

 Sorry they're so blurry, but in my defense, there was no flash, and I was on my tiptoes leaning on some guy I didn't even know.

Main Effect?  My own personal Revival.  My passion for music is back folks.  My heart leapt as I watched James performing.  I just wanted to be up there; blasting it out again.  I've been hiding it for enough years.  My sabbatical is over.  It's time to jump back in and work by butt off to get back into what I love.  That's right; I'm gonna sing again.

Props to Carolina for talking me through that much needed self-realization.


Ps.  This was the post I needed to write that jump started me back to my blog.  Thank you Joshua James for bringing me back to my love of music, and to my blog.

Sundance Film Festival?

Well, let's be honest.  When I said I wanted to go to the Sundance Film Festival, it was because I really wanted to be that cool and cultured, but I already knew I had no money, time, or preparation to actually get in to any of the films.

So here's what I already knew was going down.  I wanted a road trip.  And I wanted one bad.

Talked my girlfriends Kelly and Ashley into driving up with me to Park City to "people watch and just hang out."

You know Park City is amazing for shopping and just getting out of Provo, so it wasn't going to matter what happened, we'd find an adventure when we got there.

On the way up, we closed up shop with the coolest thing ever.  Deer Creek Reservoir?  Frozen over.  People were on it.  I was in awe.











To the girls' dismay, I was stopping no matter the price.



We walked on the lake.  Wait, I jumped on the lake!

Look!  It's really the lake under that shnow and ice!

We watched people ice fishing.  I'm so going to do that someday...  Love it.  I think that was the highlight of the trip for me!

We drove up, there was no parking anywhere because of the festival (gee, why didn't I think of that?)  So we people watched from the car, enjoyed the scenery, went out to dinner at Wasatch Bagel (yum)  and stopped in Heber for some shakes at the Dairy Keen.

"Where'd the Train go?"  and "Can I put a quarter in it??"  May or may not have been direct quotes from my mouth...  In my defense, it was the Hogwarts Express.

All in all the day was a lovely break from the Provo scene.

Go Cougs!

Thanks to Papa Wood (the father of the family that kindly makes our apartment sharing possible) we got to go to a basketball game.  Love it.

 

(La Noche y) El Dia de los Reyes

My newest family tradition.  Carolina introduced me to it, and made it so special for me, I'm fairly certain I'll be carrying on her family's tradition for the rest of forever!

Setting out the drinks and snacks for the three kings, a bowl of water for their camels, and our best shoes hoping for the best from the kings.

 

 Continuing the pre-celebration celebration on our "couch"

 The kings came!!!

Gracias Carolina, for welcoming me into this lovely new tradition.  The kings even wrote us letters.  The most special and lovely part of all.

Gracias familia de Caro, por dejame pasar este dia con su hija maravillosa.