spring forward!

growing up in washington, you had a very small window of time to enjoy the popcorn trees.  within a week or less or so the trees would pop/bloom and then the blossoms would be rained off.  i always loved that special time to sing myself popcorn popping and see the pink trees!

now that we're in california i get much longer to enjoy them!! : )  they also start blooming earlier... in fact, we've had pink trees (and white) for over a week!  they're beautiful and smell great!  there are several at the school, one in preschool's front yard, and all over town.  as i drive from school to preschool i have some spots i can see whole rows.  as i drive home after it all there's a spot where i can see three big spots of color from flowers that have bloomed (pink, purple, and orange) on the trees and bushes.  if i remember correctly from last year, they'll still be here in a few weeks!

it looks like spring, it feels like spring, it smells like spring, and it's february 28 : )

that's one thing california's got going for it...

i just finished reserving the "spring" books from the library for preschool (for a couple weeks out).  apparently all the american girls (of the books) have birthdays in spring.......... suspicious.......  i saw all sorts of titles like "felicity's birthday - a springtime story", addy's birthday, etc...i must have seen at least 6 or 7...

well, hope you  like garden posts... : )  dedicated to grandpa, i guess : )

good things to come

for most of the time that i've had facebook i've had a love/hate relationship with it.  it ebbs and flows, but lately my dislike has become even greater.  for various reasons i'll say that i'm staying off it for a while, and once again last night i was ready to be done with it for a loooong time.

but (tech) habits die hard and i still get curious.  so, i guess looking for some self-inflicted pain, i took my little self over.

one reason i do like facebook is for the missionary opportunities that come up.  whether you share something directly, or you share your happy life with those you know, i feel like it can do a lot of good.  i also enjoy seeing the nice uplifting things other people share.

today while breaking my most recent resolve to "never go on facebook again" i was blessed to see a video shared by a friend in my ward.  in it was a quote that i've been thinking about a lot lately, so it was beautiful timing - a tender mercy to come across the video.

our little family has had a small handful of stressors over the last while.  it's easy to feel down and stuck.  thank goodness we have each other.  thank goodness we have the gospel of Jesus Christ.  thank goodness we have the scriptures.  thank goodness we have living prophets.  thank goodness for every good thing, every good person, and every tender mercy we receive each day.  we have faith that things will get better and know that eventually through Jesus Christ, our Savior, all things will be made right.

you should read the whole talk.

"An High Priest of Good Things to Come" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, October 1999 

if you feel like you don't have time, here are some quotes, including the part i've been thinking of lately:


“Don’t give up... Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead... You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”

"I testify that God lives, that He is our Eternal Father, that He loves each of us with a love divine. I testify that Jesus Christ is His Only Begotten Son in the flesh and, having triumphed in this world, is an heir of eternity, a joint-heir with God, and now stands on the right hand of His Father. I testify that this is Their true Church and that They sustain us in our hour of need—and always will, even if we cannot recognize that intervention. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."


there is so much more that i love about and in the talk that i think everyone needs to read/hear.

and here is the video:

do you like green eggs and ham?

sometimes it's important to try new things and embark on new adventures that you may not have originally chosen.  i believe these leaps of faith can help us learn, grow, and develop in many new ways.  stepping into the darkness is not the easiest path, but how else would our faith, knowledge, wisdom, and trust grow?

yesterday we made our own version of eggplant/chicken parmesan.... it was the first time this family has ever tried eggplant (that we know of) and we LOVED it! : )

it's not cheese

this post goes out to all the people out there who are in bed, dying, and sad because there were no updates... (this one's for you : )

today it was raining, so there was no "outside play" at preschool.  sometimes i really like that.  sometimes i really don't like that.  today i thought i would really like it, and it turned out ok, i guess.  so after they ate their snack, but before we played with toys (instead of playing outside) they were supposed to be picking books to "read."  this is the activity they get to do on days like today while they wait for everyone else to be done with snack so we can move all the stools ("little tables"), move the table, and get out some toys.  today we reviewed what they were supposed to do when they were done, and most demonstrated the desired behavior - or at least pretty close!  one of my little pals wanted me to tell him what his book was called.  this week's theme is teeth/dentist/dental health (wow, how perfect for you : ), so the books that were out in that room were along that theme.  his book was something about eating healthy food.  i didn't look at the inside, so i don't know if it was about that kind of food keeping your teeth healthy or not... but the front showed some kids getting lunch on a tray (at school?).  so we were talking about what was on the front.  he was pointing out all the different foods and telling me what they were.  a couple things were hard to make out, but we decided maybe a piece of chicken and corn? garbanzo beans?  one of those... anyway, there was also broccoli, an apple, a glass of milk.... then a roll and a pat of butter for it.  he was asking me what they were.  i said, "well that looks like a roll, and some butter for it."  he told me, "no, that's cheese."  ha... i said, "no, i think that's butter to put on the roll."  and he said, "no, that's cheese."

when he decides something, he's already decided.  it's over.  so it was cheese.

then i remembered that i had once upon a time had my own little butter/cheese mixup...... ........ ....... : )


hahahhaha


when i was about 7 one of my uncles got married.  the wedding was in hawaii, but we didn't get to go... : (  we went to the reception in oregon at grandma's house, though.  mom made two dresses for jenn and linds and mine was storebought (time? i was too good for homemade?).  linds and i were supposed to go around the yard to people with baskets with hershey kisses in them and ask people if they wanted a kiss.  then, of course, give them a candy.  talk about embarrassing!!!!!!  i can't remember how many times i really said it or not.  i think it was supposed to be cute, but i was old enough to just be embarrassed by it....

apparently i wasn't old enough, however, to know the difference between butter and cheese.... : )

grandma's yard was done up all nice for the reception - appropriately done for the 90s, of course.  several tables had food out.  i can't tell you anything else they had for sure except for rolls, meat to put on them, and butter pats.  there probably were some other condiments/toppings....  all i remember is being hungry, and it finally was time for the reception and we could touch things and eat.  i really wanted one of the little pieces of cheese.  well i got at least one and took a bite out of it..... i don't think i was really sure what it was, but i knew it wasn't cheese!  it seems familiar that someone (dad?) explained to me that it was butter.  i wanted to know who wanted a chunk of butter like that instead of a chunk of cheese!

and today i was reminded of that blessed day when i learned that butter pats existed and that they are different from cheese.  i had a good laugh.

and you're lucky it happened on the day my fan club begged for a post... : )  feel better!  don't die!  be happy!  you're almost there! : )

and then my life went on

tonight i am reminded of something that happened in eighth grade.  jeff and i were in science olympiad and had spent many days after school in a science classroom preparing for competitions.  we went to a few that year.  some events we just did on the fly because no one else was.  (this wasn't the world's most organized, etc team.)  we were particularly proud of our apparent good performance on "road scholar" (or something like that) where we ended up placing 4th at regionals.  we had never done that one before, and we ended up making more than a few educated guesses while taking the test together.

jeff and i were (are : ) good friends and you could say we had that good sibling chemistry that aided us in many events.  additionally we loved working together!

so some events are more like tests, some are more like show-up-and-use-these-materials-for-something, and some are competitions with prepared objects/contraptions/etc.

that  year we took on the rube goldberg event "mission impossible"(?) (not to be confused with everyone's favorite game in pe: "mission possible"... ha : )  maybe that wasn't the name, but whatever, it was a rube goldberg.  each year they said what the end goal was (get a ball into that cup that must be at least 3 inches above, or knock over the such and such), and you wanted to get as close to one minute as possible (maybe every second over counted as two against you?)... anyway....  i don't think we'd say that we were geniuses at it, or that we spent all manner of blood, sweat, and tears on it, but we did put some effort into it.  we did benefit greatly from a suggestion from our teacher/leader, but this was still our project and we  put time into it and were excited to take our sure-fire contraption to the competitions.

i really can't remember any more if it was ready in time to take to the competition or two before regionals.  those ones were just for fun and practice anyway.  it was regionals that got you real prestige and gave you the chance to be advanced to the state competition, so that was a big deal.  the year before, our team didn't do quite well enough for me to get to go to the state competition like several of my older siblings did.  so, as you can imagine, this was the year!  it was eighth grade or nothing!  this just had to be our year!  and by golly, that rube goldberg was going to finish right on 1:00, win us first, and send us to state!  right?

wellllll.......  the day of regionals comes.  if it's a object/contraption event you have to sign up for a time/say you're really there and doing it/check in/whatever.  but the kids/students can't do it themselves!!  so it's up to our teacher/leader to check in for us.

well what do you know... he missed the check in time....

out of our hands!  out of our control!  not something we could have done!  we did our best!  can't change it! too late!  disappointment!  had to rely on someone else!  deep breaths, deep breaths!  not fair!  what can ya do?  oh well... time to move on...

i kinda think they let us still run our machine.  maybe they even just gave us a severe penalty?

well, without that glowing score/place our team just didn't cut it and we didn't score well enough overall to qualify for the state competition.  they can only send the top __# of scores and we weren't among the highest...  (so maybe we just wouldn't have made it anyway.. ha : )

too bad the tshirts saying we went to state were already made!  haha : )  so i still have and wear (sleeping, running, around the house, etc) my shirt that misleads people to believe that we/i went to the state science olympiad competition.  ha : )  it even has our names on the back!

that was enough for me... i chose to participate in other things in high school... : )

i guess i was just being prepared for the rest of my life, where the top of my nylons is about the extent of the control i have over things... : )