Que meu Pai me deu

2 November 2008, 3:24 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Gospel, Relationships

That my Father gave me.

Families are central to God’s plan. I know that. I know that we can experience the greatest happiness and the highest exaltation only through families. Families are the foundation for everything else. Without families, it all falls apart. Families are one of the greatest blessings Heavenly Father has given us.

As a blessing from Him, he sets the terms and definitions by which they are to be formed. Marriage is a blessing, not a right. This past month, Elder Nelson gave a wonderful talk about the importance and value of marriage in the Lord’s way (Celestial Marriage).

I am part of a family, even being single right now. I am a daughter of my parents. I am a sister of my brother and sister. I am an aunt to my nephew. I am a granddaughter of my grandparents, even though three of them are no longer on the earth. I am a niece and a cousin. My family is a part of God’s plan for me. Just because I am not a wife and a mother does not mean I do not have a family. I have six titles in my family. Missing just two does not leave me without family. And I know, with a surety, that even those last two will be mine in the Lord’s time. When I do get married, it will be the way the Lord has provided, the way he has given us to follow.

More importantly, I am a member of God’s family. I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father. And I know my Father loves me. I am not alone.

Every member of a family is needed, has value, and can contribute. If we were all the same, if we were all at the same place in our lives, we would not be able to lift, support, or strengthen each other. It is our differences that give us strength. If, for instance, a family had two fathers, it would be missing the difference and strength of a mother. A family needs the strengths that come from each individual’s differences. My family would be very different if we had not had the differences each of us brought to it.

Marriage is a sacred institution given to us by our loving Father. It is a supreme and holy blessing.

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Finda-se este dia

1 November 2008, 11:05 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Family, Gospel, Life, Musings, Questions, Relationships

This day ends.

There are many different hymns that I love. Several of them I considered to be okay before my mission. But on my mission they gained a deeper meaning for me. The English and Portuguese hymn books do not have all the same hymns. There are many that are in the English one that are not in the Portuguese one. And there are a few that are in the Portuguese one that are not in English. Oração para a Noite is one of those. (Many of the lines can be found in Now the Day is Over (which is much longer than what is actually in the hymn book), but the lines are much better in Portuguese.) It’s a beautiful lullaby, one I hope to sing to my children some day. I’ve decided to pull my titles for November from that hymn.

At the end of the day.

At the end of the day, what really matters? At the end of the day, what did you do? At the end of the day, was the day worth it?

For me, at the end of the day, what really matters is that I know who I am. I know what I am worth. I know I am loved. At the end of the day, I have loved. At the end of the day I have lived (some days more than others, but there’s always at least something interesting happening).

As this day ends, family, friends, my experiences, my understanding and knowledge, and especially my faith – those are the things that matter.

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Happy Halloween!

31 October 2008, 10:53 am by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

I don’t like scary stuff. I don’t need candy (don’t need to give other people candy either).

But I do like Halloween.

I like Halloween because it happens in the Fall when leaves are pretty colors and it’s cooling off. (Hear that Arizona? It’s supposed to be cooling off!)

And I LOVE dressing up.

I love figuring out what I’m going to be and then figuring out how I’m going to make it and then learning the sewing skills it will take to make it. I love putting it all together. Even if I’m just wearing the thing one or two times, I love it. I have a whole large suitcase full of a bunch of different costume pieces (which can come in handy when you overhear a friend say what they want to be but don’t know where to get it, and wouldn’t you know it, I just happen to have one of those lying around). And this is twice now I’ve gone to the hardware store and confused a poor worker when I ask for wire and then tell them I don’t know what kind I need, whatever I can use to make a certain part of my costume. Apparently they don’t get too many crafters asking them questions. But that’s part of the fun.

I’m excited for what I’ll be wearing tonight. It looks GREAT! I’ll put up some pictures later.

UPDATE (3:30pm):

Some people don’t decide what they want to be for Halloween till the morning of the 31st (what are they thinking?). And since I needed to go buy some groceries anyway, I said I’d help out. Got my groceries. Got the things for their costume. And I got some funny looks. The funny looks were the best part. Although the woman in the aisle at Wal-Mart who said, rather loudly, “woah! what happened to you?” was my favorite.42D

Why was I getting funny looks? Because I figured if I wasn’t going to dress up in my costume to go shopping, I needed to do something fun. So I put a few little purple spider clips in my hair. And then I did this to my face.

I think the last time I gave myself a black-eye was for my Utah driver’s license. So it’s been a while. But I still think this one turned out pretty good.

UPDATE: (photos taken around 9:45pm)

I went on my Halloween run about 6:45pm and then came home and showered and washed off my black-eye. Gotta say though, I get a kick out of the reactions to it when I do it.

Then it was time to get on my costume and head to the Institute for some dancing with Brett. I made all the pieces of my costume, but only the hat was new. The skirt, shirt, and corset were made for other outfits in the past. I must say, I make a good looking witch. 🙂

We got some pictures while we were there. I’ve included a close-up of his name tag because it just makes the whole thing so much better.

Now, what do I want to be next year?

7 Shared thoughts

Sad things in Utah

30 October 2008, 11:05 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, Life, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting, Science & Tech, Work

I keep up with the news in Utah. Last night I read one of the sadder things I’ve read in a long time. Zim’s is closing. 🙁 How can that be? I love Zim’s. If you ever needed anything craft related, that’s where you’d go. They’d always have it, plus ten other things you didn’t know you needed for your project.

I remember getting bags of fake fur remnants when we were little. We made stuffed creatures out of them, or glued the pieces to the big rocks we were always pulling out of the garden (maybe my parents should’ve stopped planting rocks) and made punk rock bands.

For a class my freshman year of college we had to make an object that represented us. I made a quilted felt mobius strip (yes, I’m that weird). I needed black felt and couldn’t find any anywhere. So I went to Zim’s, and of course they had some.

Now I’m wishing we had stopped in there this July when we were there. Just for old times sake. I’ll definitely have to make a stop at the down town store when I’m there in December.
What do you do without Zim’s?

Two days ago I read a story up there about how the computers from an elementary school in the district I used to teach in were stolen. That’s sad too. But part of me is laughing just a little teeny bit. That was my frequent nightmare my first year teaching – that I’d show up to teach and the computers would all be stolen, only I was the only one that noticed, and all the kids kept acting as if there was a computer in front of them. And the principal and parents and district people would always be there to observe me that day, and they wouldn’t notice either. Until halfway through the lesson it would be like they awoke from a trance and would realize the computers were gone and then the police would come in and arrest me because everyone would think that I did it.

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Here comes November!!

30 October 2008, 7:47 am by Giggles
Categories: Random, Science & Tech

Last November I participated in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). The object was to post every day for a month. And I did it. And it was a great mental-exercise-stretch-your-mind-see-how-long-you-can-talk-about-nothing kind of thing. Several of my friends did on their blogs as well. One of them took the challenge to blog every day this year.

Well, it’s November again, and I’ve been mentally preparing to go at it again this year. So every day in November there will be something new here.

AmandaStretch, The Book Guardian, set an extra challenge for herself, and her readers, last year. She started titling all her posts with lines from a song. She challenged her readers to see if they could name all of the songs she used at the end of the month.

In July of this year I took key phrases from the Declaration of Independence for the titles of my posts.

In the spirit of both of those probably slightly insane ideas, she’s going to try and use the lines from one single song this November (I don’t know what the song is yet, and I’m guessing, she’s not so sure yet either). And I will be using either a song or poem as the titles for my posts. By midnight Saturday I’ll know what I’m doing.

My server has been a little wonky lately. So if my site does go down for a day or so during November, I will write the post elsewhere and put it up when I notice the server is back.

Another fun little thing you can try – make more comments on the blogs you read during November. I try to comment on at least one friend’s blog a day during November, especially the friends who I know are trying to write every day. If most bloggers are like me, they love comments.

Let’s see what random stuff pops out of my head this November.

If you are participating in NaBloPoMo, let me know. I’m going to rearrange my blog roll there on the side for the month and put all my crazy blogging friends in one list. Also, I’ll know which blogs need more comments. 🙂

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Why I am on-line late at night

29 October 2008, 2:13 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting, Random, Relationships

Other titles for this blog: Odd ways to say hello

Names have been changed to protect the guilty, innocent, and unsuspecting.

I’m innocently online looking at a few things late at night when suddenly an IM window pops up. My friend doesn’t say “hello,” “how you doing?” “what’s up?” none of that. Instead we have the following conversation:

Betty: Apparently, my breasts are enormous compared to two years ago and I can’t fit into my dress. The main component of the Halloween costume I’ve been planning for months.
me: You know. That’s not how I ever expected anyone to say hi to me. 🙂
Betty: Hi 🙂
me: Hi.
Betty: I don’t know what to do.
Keep reading →

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The Value of a Marriage

26 October 2008, 3:46 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Gospel, Politics

In class recently someone commented that the value of marriage was going down in society today. The other students were only too ready to agree. They said there were many reasons not to get married, it seems more than reasons to get married. Marriage is a complication and a huge obligation. So it’s understandable why people wouldn’t choose it.

That is one of the saddest things I have heard in a long time. Not just that it was said, but that everyone seemed to accept it.

With such a view on marriage from society, things are only going to get worse. Devaluing marriage will never lead to anything good. I fear for a society that does not value marriage. It is the base for any society and should be highly valued.

Marriage will always be something I value greatly. It is not a complication to be avoided. It is divine. It is blessed of God for our good. I look forward to the day when I will be able to enjoy those “complications” and “obligations” my classmates were bemoaning, and I will count them a blessing.

“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God.” “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World) You can’t get more valuable than that.

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