NOVEMBER 14, 2009!!!!

19 weeks tomorrow!

134 days!

That is all.

The monsoon’s have begun!

By the calendar they started on June 15th. But the storms didn’t start till this week. And what wonderful storms they are too. While that does mean the humidity has gone up a great deal, it also means the temperature has dropped just a bit.

The timing couldn’t be better, as the AC in my car chose yesterday to die and I need to completely replace it before I can use it (the AC) again. That’s not something I was planning in my budget. And while I realize the pioneers didn’t have air conditioning in their covered wagons, I’m perfectly fine admitting I’m weaker than they were and I need my AC.

Sunday afternoon, with the temperatures around 100 degrees, the AC at church died. It made me think of old time Southern Baptist churches with everyone fanning themselves with something until they got the air working again. I felt very grateful that I have an actual fan I keep in my bag and was able to use that rather than make due with the program.

And, I got to touch a turtle! (technically a tortoise, but it’s close enough)

The saying is that, “good things come to those who wait.” And some things are definitely worth the wait. Especially when you get something so good in the end.

There are a few moments that I look back on and wish I’d gotten a picture of them. And there are other moments that I randomly got a picture of and look back on and am glad I did.

Because now I can look at how we went from this on our first date:

March 2006

Through these:

May 2006	May 2008
March 2009	April 2009

And now to this:

June 2009

And within a few months we’ll have another to add to the series. And it will be him in a handsome suit and me in a beautiful white dress, standing in front of a temple.

Because I love Brett. And he loves me.42D

And we’re going to get married.

*sigh*

42D

Do you ever just want to shout that to the world, or is it just me? This is a relatively new thing for me. It’s always been true, but it’s never been a big deal before. But there were a few times when I was sitting in class, oddly enough, where blurting it out real loud was on the tip of my tongue. This was generally when we were discussing youth and the problems they are facing. It has almost felt like some of the people I talk to think that all teenagers and young adults are bubbling over with hormones and are uncontrollably out engaging in all kinds of sex, all the time.

First off, the actual data just doesn’t support that. Second off, I know a LOT of anecdotal evidence of teenagers, young adults, and even not young adults, who aren’t doing that.

It’s this thing called chastity people. Chastity means total abstinence outside of marriage and total fidelity within marriage. It’s not a new concept. It’s as old as the earth. And there are hundreds of thousands of people living it everyday.

So why is our society so absolutely screwed up that being chaste is such a big deal?

I must say though, that I do enjoy watching the commercials for medications to deal with STDs and thinking to myself that that’s one thing I’ll never have to worry about.

Think of all the problems that would be solved if people simply lived chaste lives! If people actually understood that sex was what caused pregnancy and babies weren’t simply an unexpected side effect we wouldn’t even have to have the pro-life/pro-choice debate just to name one.

I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of this. And I don’t know that I could express how grateful I am that I am a virgin.

So why not celebrate it!

I have a clear shower curtain for reasons that go back almost a decade. I love having a bathroom that is more open and less closed off and compartmentalized. I also like being able to shower with as much light as possible.

What I do not like is keeping a clear shower curtain clean. It shows water spots like crazy.

I also am not exactly fond of the smell of vinegar. In fact, I only have a little bottle of it because I only use it when I make my brother’s meat ball recipe and the smell doing that is almost enough to drive me from the kitchen. It tastes real good when it’s cooked though.

But my favorite house cleaning tip website – Mrs. Clean: House Cleaning Specialists, said vinegar could be used to clean stuff, even hard water spots on your bathroom. And it’s not some chemical that will also clean the skin off your hands.

So I thought I’d give it a try.

Last week I cleaned my bathroom and just about choked myself with the smell, but the curtain looked a lot cleaner. I got a little squirt bottle and diluted some vinegar in it and sprayed it all over the bathtub and curtain and then scrubbed it off.

This week I sprayed the curtain and bathtub, let it set, and then before it dried, rinsed it off with a rag. I didn’t scrub it this week. It’s amazing! The shower curtain is the cleanest it’s been in a long time. I’m so very impressed. And the vinegar smell doesn’t last long either once it’s rinsed. I also sprayed it on some build-up gunk on my sink and I’m sure if I do that each week it will only be another week or two before it’s all gone too.

I’ve seen the big huge bottles of vinegar at Sam’s Club and figured I’d never need one of those because I don’t cook nearly that many meatballs. But the next time I’m there I’m buying one. I can clean everything with it!

I have three bird feeders hanging at my patio. I have a hummingbird feeder, a thistle sock, and a suet feeder thing. I also have a traditional feeder in storage that I haven’t pulled out, but I think that’s a good thing. The apartment manager told me I could put up a feeder if I kept the area around it clean. And I’ve noticed that with the traditional feeders the birds designate one bird to go sit on it and knock all the seed to the ground for everyone else to eat underneath. The three I have up are relatively clean. I get a bit of seed from both, but not much and the wind usually takes care of it anyway.

But they are magic!

It’s awe inspiring to sit in my chair and watch them in the morning. I love watching birds. I love how they sound. And they can fly! These are the easiest pets I could have!

The finches and sparrows are still a bit skittery. They’ll stay where they are if I walk out my door and walk quietly away. But they won’t come over if I’m watering my plants or checking on my lone tomato (it’s too hot for the other flowers to stay on the plant, I’m hoping to keep it alive till it cools off again and we’ll see what happens).

The hummingbirds on the other hand have no fear. I can be standing just slightly out from under the hummingbird feeder and they’ll come right up to it and have lunch or dinner or whatever, not even noticing that I’m there. It feels like magic.

Cheap entertainment! As long as I keep the feeders filled. That reminds me, the hummingbirds have just about finished theirs off.

(Sorry, no pictures of the hummingbirds yet, I’ll work on that.)

I tend to pick a topic and go off on it for a while, convinced that I’m right and the rest of the world is wrong. (I’m actually right a lot of the time too, which doesn’t help my humility any really.)

Patience came up in a conversation Brett and I were having with some other people a while back, specifically how I’m not patient in a lot of things, and he said I didn’t need to be a virtuous person anyway.42D

But that’s my latest, as he calls it, war cry. The phrase “patience is a virtue” is leaving out so many other virtues that are just as important. Patience is not the only virtue!

So here is a short list of things that are also virtues. It is my hope that by bringing the attention of the world to this list, we can change that old cliche and make it reflect the truer nature of virtue and not focus on the limited view of patience.

• patience (ha!)
• chastity
• kindness
• generosity
• charity
• humility
• love
• honesty
• benevolence
• temperance
• diligence

At the October 2008 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Sister Dalton of the Young Women General Presidency gave an address titled “A Return to Virtue.”

They put together a video about this return to virtue, and it’s not about patience. Instead it’s focusing completely on chastity (which is real real important), but for me, virtue is still a lot more than that. But it’s still a good video. (And chastity is so much more important than just for marriage. I’m chaste for me, not for some other person.)

So you see, I really am a virtuous person, just not so much with the patience thing all the time (and maybe not with the humility either), but definitely with the chastity side of it. And I’m definitely working on all the other aspects of virtue (even the patience part of it).

My dad knows a lot of stuff.

My dad taught me how to run. And we go running a lot. He taught me to say hi to the people I see when I’m out running because that’s nice.

My dad taught me about school. I remember doing my “homework” with him at the kitchen table when he was working on his Masters degree.

My dad taught me that curly hair is pretty. That one just took a while to sink in.

My dad knew it was best for me to get up for early morning seminary even if I had very different ideas at the time.

My dad taught me how to read real big books because he was always reading them.

My dad taught me how to garden and grow things.

My dad taught me how to load a dishwasher.

My dad taught me how a man is supposed to treat a woman.

My dad taught me the gospel. He taught me about the importance of learning the language.

I have a real cool grandpa who knows lots of stuff too.

My grandpa taught me about the bumble bee with a bottle of buttermilk under his arm.

My grandpa taught me about faith.

My grandpa taught me about family.

My grandpa taught me the importance of book learning and not just education.

I love the fathers in my life. I hope they have a great day today and know how much they are loved and appreciated.

This post will discuss Pixar’s latest act of brilliance, Up. There will more than likely be plot points mentioned that would be spoilers if you haven’t seen it. So if you don’t want it spoiled for you, don’t read the rest until after you’ve seen it. (And if you haven’t seen it yet, what in the world are you waiting for??)

You have been warned.

Click to read the rest…