What emotion is that?

30 March 2011, 5:45 pm by Giggles
Categories: Challenges, Science & Tech

Brett and I were talking in the car :car: the other day about how people are often lazy when they are on the computer :computer: and use emoticons to express what they think and feel instead of actual words. This is very limiting to a conversation. xD Emoticons should not be the whole conversation. A better use is as decoration instead of the meat. :moo:

Now technically all the little images here are called “emoticons.” Which made us wonder, just what kind of emotion does a tractor express? :tractor: Or how about a cactus? :cactus: Or a pencil? :pencil:

So the challenge for you today is to figure out what emotions you think all of the ones here represent. :pacman: What emotions would you use all of these to express?  😯 The round faces have a few names already, but that doesn’t mean that’s what you have to use them to express. :owl: What’s a turtle day like for you? :turtle:

2 Shared thoughts

Uma Década

29 March 2011, 6:30 am by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Life

My life is like my shoes—to be worn out in service.

– President Spencer W. Kimball (He Is at Peace, Ensign, Dec. 1985, p. 41)

Those are my mission shoes. Not the most stylish of things, but since my arches had fallen, they were the only things I could walk in. The sole of the left shoe came loose on 27 March 2001, when I got home from my last appointment as a missionary in Brasil. My shoes and my feet wore out in my missionary service.

A decade is kind of a milestone. A decade is two whole place values away. A lot can happen in a decade.

28 March 2001. One decade ago yesterday I got on a bus probably around 8am. I rode that bus for two hours. And then we had some meetings and interviews. We ate a delicious dinner of beef stroganoff and the best lemon meringue pie I’ve ever had. And then we drove to the airport. The flight was delayed by an hour because of a storm that arrived right as we pulled into the airport. Flight number one was an hour, but included a meal, and then we hurried to make our next flight. Flight number two was 13 hours. I had a window seat. The flight wasn’t full. Before take-off the man next to me got up and found a different seat and I was able to lay across the two seats and sleep for the whole flight.

29 March 2001. Then there was customs to get through. An airport attendant picked me up on his cart and took me to the gate for flight number three. My mom had a bright orange sign at the end of that flight. Lunch at Chili’s. Buying new scriptures because my old ones were moldy. A session at the Louisville temple. And then a four hour drive. Arriving after midnight.

And that’s how I arrived back in the United States after serving a mission in Brasil, one decade ago. My hair was bleached by the sun. My arms and face where tan. My feet were falling apart. And I was tired.

In the decade since I have:

  • Student taught in Mexico.
  • Graduated with a B.S. from Brigham Young University.
  • Taught elementary school for 6 years.
  • Been recognized as an outstanding teacher.
  • Performed in several community theater shows.
  • Learned to belly dance.
  • Graduated with a M.Ed. from the University of Utah.
  • Moved to Arizona.
  • Run two marathons.
  • Started a Ph.D. program at the University of Arizona (and I’ll soon be formally submitting all the paper work to start moving on the research projects for my dissertation).
  • Taught college as a graduate student.
  • Got married.

And many other things (including going to Disneyland), both wonderful and hard, both big and small. And my mission, which ended ten years ago, has been part of it all.

2 Shared thoughts

Were inward

27 March 2011, 8:26 pm by Giggles
Categories: Questions

There are some odd verses in the Bible. I recently came across this one and decided it was one of my favorites (and it even occurs twice!).

It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.
1 Kings 7:25 & 2 Chronicles 4:4

You’d think that last part about the orientation of the oxen would go without saying. But can you imagine what it would’ve looked like if there heads had been inward instead?

2 Shared thoughts

Temple Mirrors

25 March 2011, 8:18 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Gospel, Happy Things

I’m pausing in my book reading right now to finish reading the talks from the October General Conference before we have the April one in a week. Today I read five talks on my round-trip. One of the talks I read was “Temple Mirrors of Eternity: A Testimony of Family.” It is a very lovely talk, but it made me remember the mirrors at our wedding, and that made me laugh.

In the rooms in LDS temples where marriages are performed there are two mirrors on opposite walls. When mirrors are placed like that and you stand between them you can see an eternity of you going in each direction. It’s a symbol of how the ceremony ties all of our past generations to us, and when you turn around and it ties you to all your future generations. It’s a way to try and visualize eternity.

At our wedding the officiant asked us to stand between the mirrors and asked if we could see ourselves going on for eternity. Brett, being the honest man that he is, said, “No.” And we couldn’t. There was a beautiful chandelier between our line of sight and the mirror. And lying at that time didn’t seem like a good idea to him. So the officiant had us scoot over a little so the chandelier wasn’t in the way.

Brett also wisely decided that while the officiant was giving us counsel on how to have a happy marriage was not the time to correct me when I whispered to him that he’d never bought me candy (Brett was told to keep writing me notes, bringing me flowers, and buying me candy, and he’d never bought me candy as far as I knew, he had that morning but I didn’t know that yet).

When I see the mirrors in the temple I will always remember our wedding and the view of eternity they provide. But I will also always remember Brett standing there looking straight into a chandelier and honestly saying he couldn’t see himself.

1 Shared thought

Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!

23 March 2011, 6:43 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life

Book Guardian shared this link a while back and I really liked it – 10 Things to Mess Up Every Day. My favorite children’s book teacher is Miss Frizzle, who’s motto was, “Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!” That is a wonderful way to learn. And a wonderful way to live.

The first thing on that list of ten is books. And by making them messy they mean using them. Reading them. Loving them. Marking them so you can remember what stood out to you, and so that friends and family who read your books will also know. That’s one of my favorite things about reading books my grandparents owned. It’s like I’m having a conversation with them about the book. It’s sad to think that things like that will disappear as people start using electronic readers. There’s actually a name for it too, marginalia, and it makes some books very valuable.

Tonight’s dinner is a result of a “mess” we tried in the kitchen – spicy chicken. And the pie pops from Pie Day were a lot of fun as well. Cleaning the kitchen is one of my least favorite things to do, but as long as I don’t have to do it alone I’ll see what we can make in the kitchen.

My work desk gets messed up and then cleaned up each day. My home desk is always at least slightly messy. And my sewing area is generally just an organized mess.

When I’ve given young women rides they comment on how clean my car is. And that’s true most of the time. But I also know I need to clean it before I go on road trips because by the time I get back it’s going to be a huge mess in there. How many places can you hide a caprisun pack in your car?

I’m actually hoping my current work project doesn’t get too messed up. I’m going to be cutting it way too close on the timing for comfort and I’m going to need it to go absolutely perfectly.

But in general I live by the saying, “Man makes plans and God laughs.” I plan, but I know they will almost never go the way I figured they would when I started.

What did you mess up today?

3 Shared thoughts

The extra verse

20 March 2011, 8:20 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel

Sometimes it really makes me sad that we stop singing the hymn when we get to the end of the verses that are written in the music rather than when we get to the end of the song.

Today we sang “Come, Follow Me” and I kept reading after everyone stopped singing. The very last verse, which I doubt I have ever sung, is:

For thrones, dominions, kingdoms, pow’rs,
And glory great and bliss are ours,
If we, throughout eternity,
Obey his words, “Come, follow me.”

How beautiful is that? That verse contains the very promises of the Gospel of Christ, as well as how to attain all of those promised blessings.

Some other favorite “extra” verses are:

  • A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief – The Portuguese hymn book actually has a note that says basically, “Whatever verses you sing, you must sing the last one.”
  • How Firm a Foundation – I love them all, but especially the fifth and seventh.
  • Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire – There are some absolutely beautiful sentiments expressed in the 5th through 8th verses that we just never get to.
  • O Lord of Hosts – And this one is even short enough that singing verses four and five is definitely doable! And sometimes necessary. I had to crack up when they needed more time to prepare the sacrament once and rather than continuing on and singing verses four and five, the conductor sat down and the organist kept going alone for as long as needed (which ended up being two more verses worth).
  • God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son – We really don’t get the whole story on this song unless we sing the fourth and fifth verse as well.
  • Behold the Great Redeemer Die – Seriously? We stop after verse 4? That’s the middle of the greatest story ever told. You HAVE to finish with verse 5 and 6.
  • How Great the Wisdom and the Love – The note at the bottom of this song says “Verses 1, 2, 5, and 6 are especially appropriate for the sacrament.” Which is why I’m always so confused that we only sing verses 1-4.
  • The Iron Rod – Again, stopping after verse 3 stops in the middle of the story. You need to finish it with verse 4 and 5
  • If You Could Hie to Kolob – I know a lot of people make fun of this song, especially the last two verses. But look at what those last two verses are saying. There is no end to love, light, truth, glory, all of the good things in the world will not have an end. Only the pain and suffering will end. And if that’s not something to sing about I don’t know what is.

For the hymn “I Believe in Christ,” Brother McConkie asked that it be written as four long verses rather than eight short verses because he knew if it was done as short verses that the last half of the song would never be sung. I think he was on to something there. I think we need to rewrite a few more hymns so that we stop cutting them short and missing the true meaning and power of the hymn.

When I rule the world…

7 Shared thoughts

M*A*S*H

19 March 2011, 9:00 am by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things

My first memories of the show M*A*S*H were standing in the dark hallway when I was supposed to be in bed at just such an angle so that I could see the TV but couldn’t see my parents (because that meant they couldn’t see me and didn’t know I was there). I’ve been watching reruns for forever. I think it’s brilliant how they were able to deal with such tough topics and also be so funny,  sometimes at the same time even.

Brett has somehow managed to never see a single episode of it, something he’s held as a badge of honor. But the older we get, the more people there are that can say the same thing, so it isn’t quite as shiny of a badge any more.

Yesterday a box arrived in the mail, and since Brett has been ordering HUGE lexicons I figured it was just another one of those. Then he opened it and put something next to me and said “Happy Friday.” And what a Friday it was! He bought me the complete boxed set of M*A*S*H! He even used a 40% off coupon to do it!

And last night he watched his very first episode of M*A*S*H. The streak is broken. I really hope he thinks it’s worth it. I do.

6 Shared thoughts