Tell You [a] Little Story

I wonder sometimes if others who observe me in my observation of my faith think me to be a blind follower. I have always been an active, faithful participant in my church, but that is not to say I haven't had periods of wondering. I have wrestled with doctrine, I have agonized over human foibles, I have at times wanted to distance myself from cultural practices. Also, I have struggled to reconcile what I have been taught with what the world teaches. Always, I have come out on the believing side of the internal struggles. There are a few truths that -- no matter the state of my testimony in the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- I have never doubted and which resonate so strongly, that all I need do is remember them and I am filled with peace and comfort and renewed testimony in the truthfulness of the Gospel in its entirety. The first is that God is real and that his son Jesus Christ is real, and they know me very personally. They want me to succeed, spiritually and otherwise. Most importa...

It doesn't get much better than "making words with friends," does it? (Why am I skeptical that that comma is placed correctly?!) I jumped on board the Facebook craze this week to play Scramble aka Boggle with my brother Ryan (who eats me for lunch in that game, and every game). I had decided previously that I didn't want to spend the time or clutter my brain with one more thing to do online, but it turns out the laundry can wait, and my brain had room! Facebook is sort of fun. It has been rather delightful to collect friends, as that has been something I have been doing in the non-virtual world since the days when people rented laser movie players and Savannah Smiles from the video store and way, way before anyone thought about converting their Rush tape collection to CDs. Oh yes, I've been collecting friends for a very long time. There were a few years in there when my mother insisted that I liked to collect boyfriends and had six (never five or seven, always si...

My sister-in-law, of the crafty Craigs, has opened an Etsy shop of her beautiful jewelry. She's also giving away a pair of very pretty earrings. Go leave her a comment to enter to win. ***** Steve and I have been catching up on season 3 of Lost every night. As soon as the kids are in bed, we set up his laptop and prepare for a mini-marathon of episodes. Love it! I don't know if I will be able to stand starting Season 4 with just one commercial-laden episode a week and then a long suspenseful week before the next one. And then there's that pesky problem of the writers' strike and only half of this season being filmed already. Dare I even get emotionally vested in Season 4? One of last night's episodes was the superflous Nikki and Paulo one, in which the two crazy kids get -- {big shudder} -- buried alive. The other involved head games by Juliet, whom Steve thinks is the Severus Snape of the island. Can you trust her? Who's to know?

The most amazing news of the day. In slightly less amazing news, I heard a language expert on Radio West today (it's a Utah thing) talking about how language purists hate Americans' usage of "hopefully" as in, "Hopefully my mom will forget to make me do my homework and I can play the Wii." OR, "Hopefully they never consummated their marriage, but yeah, right!" I never thought about it before, but of course that is incorrect. Hopefully I won't misuse the word anymore, I thought to myself, hopefully.

My skin has been particularly b.a.d. since moving to Utah, and the Utah-->Arizona-->Hawaii-->Arizona-->Utah stint about did it in. I've been eyeing Proactiv, and then discovered that AcneFree at Costco has the same ingredients and more of it for less than half the price. Plus, right now, there's an $8 off coupon. So AcneFree it is. So far so good. Does anyone have any compelling reasons for using Proactiv instead? Besides a Sean Combs Puff Daddy P Diddy endorsement, that is. In other news, I like McCain and Obama and Romney, so if one of them wins, I'm cool with that. However, I do not approve of the manner in which we, in this country, elect presidential candidates. Anna Quindlen and I agree that our system is much too much convoluted, and why should a couple of thousand folks in obscure New Hampshire decide who will carry momentum into the other states' primaries? Why don't we all vote on the same day? And why is the dumb media making such a big deal ...

This is me on the beach where this was filmed.