Special Day

This weekend Brian and I had the opportunity to go up to Provo and visit his family for a very special occasion.   Yesterday was my niece's first birthday.  We had a great opportunity to spend time with her and eat cake.  The first birthday cake is always the best to watch.  She loved the stuffed animals we got her and we loved watching her play with them.

She and her brother also received their baby blessing that day.  This is a great opportunity for LDS children to be blessed at the beginning of their lives.  Their name is announced and an official Church record is started.  To give context, from what I understand it is similar to a christening in other Christian faiths.  The blessing is typically performed by the baby's father and early on in their lives.  This was a unique blessing, because Brian (as the uncle) actually blessed our nephew who is almost four. With no children of our own, this was a great experience for Brian being his first time.  And as I mentioned in previous posts, we have a special relationship with him too.

It was a great spiritual feeling as everyone gathered at the Church for the blessings and they were performed.   It was sweet to see Brian with Evan and the love that just flowed through the room.  And our little niece Avi is a bit young to really understand what was going on, but old enough to squirm and cause problems. She was calm, peaceful, and really genuinely seemed to understand what happened.  She even made a sound that sounded like, "Thanks" at the end when she can't completely talk yet.

On top of it all, we had all of Brian's sisters in town so it was a great family reunion and experience that I don't think anyone will forget anytime soon.

From https://www.lds.org/manual/behold-your-little-ones-nursery-manual/lesson-28-heavenly-father-blesses-me-through-the-priesthood?lang=eng

Proud Moment

Okay so today is one of those days in which I have zero idea what to write about...surprise surprise.  So I glanced at the June Blogging Challenge question that some of my blogger friends are answering today and it is a moment in which you were proud of yourself.  That would be college graduation for me because I graduated with honors.

At BYU graduating with honors is not just a GPA thing but it is a well-rounded education and participating in activities that you might not usually along with a thesis.  This thesis is not just a paper from another class but an original work that you researched, came up with etc.  Mine became quite the endeavor.  I ended up writing a 150 page thing.  It was insane!! My entire last semester that was all I really did along with student teaching.  Ended up pulling two all-nighters for this thing too.  I was very determined to get that medal around my neck for graduation and I was very proud when they put it around my neck!

You can kind of see it in this picture...but this is the nearest picture to me right now.

Five Favorite Front-Page Features

This week I have decided to bring back my usual Friday ritual of discussing current events.  This week I have decided to feature New York Times this week and just do the top five from the week in no real order. I even have one for each day.

Friday: Seven Dead in Santa Monica Shooting This is just sad....more shootings.

Thursday: IRS Targeting of Conservatives Wrong, Most Say in Poll The IRS is in a lot of trouble, and it is possible that this isn't going away any time soon.

Wednesday: US is Secretly Collecting Records of Verizon Calls Yeah this was nice to hear, I have Verizon but then later on in the week we found out it doesn't really matter which cell carrier you have.

Tuesday: US-China Meeting's Aim What was surprising to me about this was how much people are worried about the fact that Mrs. Obama will not be there

Monday: Don't Trust the Pentagon to End Rape The interesting thing about this it is an op-ed.  This story fascinates me because of all of the men involved in what is usually a women's issue.

Ode to Pinterest!

So today I have been trying to think of what to write about today.  I have been surfing around the Internet for ideas--including Pinterest.  This was why I am writing a little post on Pinterest.  They have been making some great changes recently.  Unlike Facebook, I haven't heard anything bad and I personally love all of them!

Great change #1....Being able to search all of my pins!! If I can figure out what they were called I can find them in a second.  I love it!!  I use to do a find search on the browsers, but that it doesn't work when it hasn't all loaded completely.

Great change #2...It tells you when you have already pinned it to the board!! I have found so many duplicates even right next to each other on my boards and I have been so frustrated! This is SO great!

My newest favorite quote from Pinterest!

Classics Club June Meme

As member of the Classics Club, I am more of a quiet member.  But each month they ask a question to prompt a blog post--sounds perfect right? Sometimes I don't have an answer for the question but this month I do.  The question is:

What is your favorite opening sentence from a classic novel (and why)? 

So I want to share two lines that I want to share with you today.  The first is from a well-known favorite of mine: A Tale of Two Cities.  I can't talk about first line without doing this one.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

This is ALL one sentence! That is one of the reasons why I love this opening line.  I love the repetition of the lines.  I also love how it really describes life...especially the hard times. The hard times are the best for us and the worst for us.  They are times for us to be stupid, but also learn a lot.  Any faith that you have is tested, and any things that you think aren't there might change.  We are led by light through this hard time but also feel like we are at the darkest time in our lives. We try to go through the experience with hope but inside we have a lot of despair.  I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.  I love being able to relate to a story right away like that.

My second favorite line is a lot shorter and about a book I haven't talked about yet--Rebecca.  That line:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again"

It sets up the WHOLE book which has so many twists and turns.  You never know what is going to happen the first time you read it.  But as you look back over the book that line is loaded with SO much foreshadow. You don't know what they really mean until the end.

What is it about a first line of a book for you?

Learn more about Classics Club  http://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com/

Book Review: Angels and Demons

Title: Angels and Demons
Author: Dan Brown

Genre: Suspense/Drama

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Why Did I Read? I recently got an MP3 copy of this book.  I have read it before, but I loved being able to listen to this on my drives around town and to and from the city.

Summary: This is the first book about Robert Langdon (despite what people might think). Robert is asked to come help investigate the murder of a brilliant scientist, who discovered antimatter.  This dove tails into a discovery that the Vatican is in trouble. He has to race against the clock to avoid the Vatican exploding from the anti-matter and try to save the four cardinals who could have become pope.  Yeah, there's a conclave going on at the same time!

  

What Did I Love: I love the suspense that Dan Brown creates for his readers.  He moves the story quickly and moves around the story line at a great pace! I also love the research he appears to do.  I don't know for sure, but he at least makes it sound credible.

What Did I Hate: I don't hate anything about the book to be honest....the 4.5 rating comes because it is not a 5 book--I haven't found one yet. My MP3 recording is by Simon and Schuster it is the abridged version which I didn't realize until I finished it and they told me! I hope they didn't cut out a lot, if they did I didn't notice. I don't remember who talked though but they did a really nice job so I recommend that recording if you don't mind abridgments.

I am currently reading The DaVinci Code and then will be reading The Lost Symbol again leading up to my first reading of Inferno.

Have you read Angels and Demons? Or any other Dan Brown books?  What are your thoughts?

Another Doctor's Appointment

So, today was my next doctor's appointment.  If you are new to reading/want to get caught up go back here and here  but after all that my internalist sent me to a gynecologist in Provo.  It took me a few weeks to get in, so today was the day.  It was the worst doctors appointment ever!  If you live in Utah or ever do, never ever go to the Utah Valley Women's Clinic.  I was suppose to see one doctor, who looked great with her resume.  However, she was apparently "busy" and a different doctor came in instead. This doctor apparently is a surgeon or assists with surgeries because she told me that she needed to hurry off to a surgery the minute she sat down.

This is where it gets interesting....I told my story which is a bit long considering it has been a month and a half.  But the most annoying thing was is that I felt like I was an inconvenience to her as I told her my story. She had really poor body language to some of the things that I said...like what is wrong with you to even think that?! She didn't even seem to be listening at some points.  After the most painful exam ever, in which she didn't tell me what she was looking for, she decided that I had some sort of infection. Never told me the name of it, and sent prescriptions to my pharmacy.  Never told me the medications, and never asked if I had any questions.  The only reason I know anything about these medications is because I have a great pharmacist.

Looking back on the day...I really wish I had fought for the doctor I came for. And I had fought her to pay attention to me...so take it from me--you REALLY need to stand up for yourself at the doctor even if you feel like you are in trouble for doing something wrong.

Ha Ha, yeah right! members.theunsignedguide.com