quote of the week...

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.”

quote of the week...

"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself."


--Michel de Montaigne

getting out of the bitter barn...

I had a rough week. Could you tell from my quote? Yeah. I'm transparent like that.


More root canals, more abscesses, more allergic reactions...same stuff, different year.


I am feeling better now! What an interesting thing it always is to me...how good it feels to feel better. How much I take waking up pain free and full of energy for granted. Whenever I am sick or in pain, I always think, "What if I always felt this way?"


I am SO glad I don't have to know. So:


3 cheers for antibiotics! (specifically, the ones that do NOT make me break out in hives)


3 cheers for Percocet, Darvocet, and all the lovely "cets"!


3 cheers for the ability to chew!


And 3 cheers for The Hubby, who held it all together while I fell apart.

quote of the week...

"The greatest evil is physical pain."

--Saint Augustine

quote of the week...

"A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle."

--Benjamin Franklin

i bore his fruit 7 times...

...and he builds me stuff.

such a terrific arrangement.

quote of the week...

"Think about your particular assignment at this time in your life. It may be to get an education, it may be to rear children, it may be to be a grandparent, it may be to care for and relieve the suffering of someone you love, it may be to do a job in the most excellent way possible, it may be to support someone who has a difficult assignment of their own. Our assignments are varied and they change from time to time. Don't take them lightly. Give them your full heart and energy. Do them with enthusiasm. Do whatever you have to do this week with your whole heart and soul. To do less than this will leave you with an empty feeling."


--Marjorie Pay Hinckley

tori and chris.

I've known this sweet girl since she was a baby.

It was so fun to be asked to shoot her engagement photos for her.

Congratulations, Tori and Chris!

quote of the week...

"Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still."

--Chinese Proverb

quote of the week...

"You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence."

--Robert Frost

quote of the week...

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
—Agatha Christie

best thing I ever heard on a talk show:

"What your problem is, is, that you got no self-respect for yourself."

quote of the week...

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."

--Bill Watterson

credit where credit is due...

To those of you who asked if I took Bri and Jordan's engagement photos:

I wish.

Two of Bri's roommates at school this past semester were sisters. Their mom is Rebecca Frazier, a very talented photographer, who was kind enough to do their shoot for them while she was in town for her daughter's graduation.

We love her. A lot. As you might guess.

See more of her work HERE.

and so it begins...

These two wonderful young people will be married on April 10th, 2010.

It is a joy to see our daughter so happy and in love.

We are so grateful to be a part of watching them create their own family!

We love you, Jordan and Brianne!

quote of the week...

"People become attached to their burdens. Sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them."

--George Bernard Shaw

books read, 2009

Here's the breakdown:

I read 43 books.

20 were biographies/autobiographies. I used the strictest criteria on this, meaning that if it was non-fiction about a person's life, I counted it as a biography. Some books could have really gone into "humor" or plain "non-fiction" because while they were real stories about a real person's life, they couldn't really be considered a definitive account of the person's entire life.

4 were non-fiction/educational. Which means I supposedly learned something from them. We'll just have to see about that.

10 were non-fiction/brain candy. This is what I call the category of books that really just let me
have a simple, enjoyable little read. I don't expect much from them, and so they never let me down. Like a Twix...only you don't have to brush your teeth afterward.

9 were just plain non-fiction. These are ones that while non-fiction, still would challenge me a bit as a reader.

Most favorite: I pick Three Cups of Tea. I read it early in the year, and still found myself considering the life and work of Greg Mortenson as the year went on. His passion and drive to educate the women of Pakistan and Afganistan is amazing. His conclusion that "if you educate women you can change a culture" resonates with me. Women have a role that is so much more than simply an equality with men...they are the primary educators of their children, and I felt like Greg Mortenson really understands that.

Least favorite: I hate to say this...but I have to go with The Lovely Bones. I absolutely loved Alice Sebold's writing, but I really thought that the ending turned the book into something it hadn't started out to be. It felt like the book had been building up to something completely different...and I felt kind of cheated.

What were the best books you read last year? Any suggestions for what I should read this year?

quote of the week...

"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
--Thomas Edison

happy new year...

I wish for everyone a year full of love and peace. My hope is to accept and embrace all of the year's coming challenges with grace and humor...and I hope that you are able to do the same!

on 300 posts, and blogger's block...

This is the 300th post I have made on this blog.

I haven't been around here much...I haven't written on my blog, and I haven't really kept up on the blogs I normally read. I'm not really sure why. Things in my life have been just as happy/sad and just as over/under whelming as they always are...but I haven't felt the urge to write about it.

I'd love to say that I've been off accomplishing incredible, amazing, life changing things...but I haven't. I've read some books, cooked some meals, gone to some meetings, cleaned some house, loved some kids. I've worked too little and worried too much. I've been pleased with myself in some ways, incredibly annoyed at myself in others. Nothing really new.

I miss the process of thinking of things to write, however. And I miss that small sense of accomplishment in writing a little something that sounds like me. So, I am back.



Quote of the week:

"Come what may, and love it."

--Joseph B. Wirthlin