27 random tidbits

1. The smell of dill makes me sneeze

2. I also sneeze when I'm excited

3. I still don't have my ears pierced

4. Papayas genuinely taste like throw up to me

5. I love water balloons. And throwing them at people.

6. If I could choose only three colors that the whole world would be made of, I would choose teal, brown, and white. I could look at those colors together forever and not get sick of them

7. I had a security blanket when I was little that I carried around with me everywhere. Even once I stopped carrying it with me I still slept with it on my pillow every night til I was like 12

8. I went through a phase in high school where I got really into spray painting. I spray painted our croquet balls, my sister's dresser, even the shed in our backyard - bright blue walls, black doors, and a solar system all over the roof

9. October is my absolute favorite month

10. The last time I threw up was when I was 12 years old

11. I love Aquafresh toothpaste. Mmmm it's the greatest ever

12. I couldn't swallow pills (of any size) until Margaret taught me how our first year rooming together

13. Graphing calculators give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Yes, I'm a nerd

14. I have never had the chicken pox, even though both my siblings exposed me to it

15. I fastidiously wax my car, Rickie, every six months

16. I collected jolly ranchers when I was little. I had some pretty crazy flavors too - rasberry lemonade, tangerine, banana pineapple

17. I love melk with all my heart

18. I once rode an elephant. But I was only 1 so it doesn't count

19. I have a goal list I started in junior high with 73 things on it. #7 is Go to all the dances in high school. Oops, guess I missed that one

20. Goal #63 is to learn to whistle

21. Goal #56 is to climb to the top of the crow's nest in a ship

22. From 5th grade until I hit high school my favorite book was The Lord of the Rings

23. There was a 10-foot wide canal running between our high school and our seminary building and my favorite thing to do in high school was to leap across it. Occasionally my classmates would try and imitate me and once or twice someone wouldn't make it all the way across and would get all muddy and smell like a rotten egg for the rest of the day. It was hilarious

24. I once had over 300 digits of pi memorized. But now I'm down to 110

25. I would love to get way into scrapbooking but I don't know where to begin. Plus it takes so much time

26. I currently have a bag of groceries sitting my car waiting for the next time I pass a person with one of those cardboard "Need Help" signs

27. I have a new favorite sport. It's called Ultimate Balloon and I intend to get a group together to play it one of these days

Tantus labor non sit cassus

Excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin:

"What a sublime conception is that of a last judgement ! " said St. Clare, - "a righting of all the wrongs of ages! - a solving of all moral problems, by an unanswerable wisdom! It is, indeed, a wonderful image."

" It is a fearful one to us," said Miss Ophelia.

"It ought to be to me, I suppose," said St Clare, stopping, thoughtfully. "I was reading to Tom, this afternoon, that chapter in Matthew that gives an account of it, and I have been quite struck with it. One should have expected some terrible enormities charged to those who are excluded from Heaven, as the reason; but no, - they are condemned for not doing positive good, as if that included every possible harm."

"Perhaps," said Miss Ophelia, "it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm."

"And what," said St Clare, speaking abstractedly, but with deep feeling, "what shall be said of one whose own heart, whose education, and the wants of society, have called in vain to some noble purpose; who has floated on, a dreamy neutral spectator of the struggles, agonies, and wrongs of man, when he should have been a worker?"

"I should say," said Miss Ophelia, "that he ought to repent, and begin now."

Sometimes I feel this pressing urge to write, but when I sit down with a pen and paper I find that I have nothing to say.
Sometimes I wish I were still in school, just so I could study for tests again.
Sometimes I ask myself what kind of person I really want to be and when I'll ever get there.
Sometimes I get this crazy desire to just hop on a plane and go somewhere.
Sometimes I wish I were the type of person who was okay with being in a relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship.
Sometimes I wake up in the morning so full of good intentions that I can't decide on what to do and end up doing nothing at all.
Sometimes I ponder the mysteries of the universe and I get so impatient because I'm only 22 so the answers seem a long, long time away.

I like to shoe in the snow

San Jorge I love you

WARNING! The following blog contains images guaranteed to induce longing for warm weather, crazy adventures, and good times. Viewer discretion advised. This is just a teaser of what is to come next week . . .










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Get psyched for Spring Break 2011

Please hold . . .

To the woman who called the office yesterday and couldn't understand a word I said and hung up when I tried to transfer you to someone who did speak Spanish:

I'm sorry. I have now learned how to say, "Yo no hablo espanol. Por favor espera." I'm ready now, you can call back anytime.

This is your brain on God

I just read a fascinating book called "How God Changes Your Brain." It's a new book by a neuroscientist about his research on what happens to your brain when you participate in spiritual activities. All of their studies concluded that religious experiences are really good for your brain and help to make it healthy, wealthy, and wise. In fact, here's a list they came up with of the eight best ways to maintain a healthy brain:

8. Smile. Seriously - smiling interrupts mood disorders and strengthens the brain's neural ability to maintain a positive outlook on life.

7. Stay intellectually active. Read books, watch educational tv, take classes, play chess, write in your diary. But don't do math exercises or crossword puzzles - apparently those don't help.

6. Consciously relax. Um, not by taking a nap or vegging in front of the tv, unfortunately. Try simple, repetitive activities such as knitting.

5. Yawn. That's right - yawning is good for you. It evokes neural activity in areas of the brain that are directly involved in generating social awareness and creating feelings of empathy. It relaxes you and brings you into a heightened state of cognitive awareness.

4. Meditate. There's even solid, scientific proof that if you meditate before taking a test you will significantly improve your score.

3. Aerobic Exercise. Vigorous exercise strengthens every part of the brain and has been proven to lengthen your neurological life. Also, the more intense exercise, the better. 24-hour run, anyone?

2. Dialogue with Others. Not talking about the weather or gossiping about who's dating whom. We're talking about abstract ideals like world peace and evolution and the beauty of the number pi.

1. Faith. Faith can be defined as the ability to trust our beliefs, even when we have no proof that such beliefs are accurate or true. Faith is equivalent with hope, optimism, and the belief that a positive future awaits us. It is "neurologically essential for maintaining motivation and good mental health."

That's it. Now you can all go out and become geniuses.