Friday, May 27, 2011

Thank Goodness it's Friday

Last night I purposely went to bed early after setting my alarm for my siblings' traditional Friday morning trip to the temple.  I had hoped that the extra time in bed would help me get a good night's rest so I could be awake and alert the next morning.  Ha!  So much for best laid plans.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning feeling worse than I've felt in quite some time.  I was coughing up a storm, my nose was so stuffed up I didn't have a prayer of breathing through it, I felt totally rotten, and my head ached with that stuffy pain that's typical during a bought of the common cold.  After taking cough medicine and remedying some of the stuffiness, I thought I might be able to still go to the temple.  However, I also realized I had a ten-hour shift ahead of me at the daycare.  There would have been no chance for me to take a little nap before getting to work at 7:30, and trust me, I needed all the sleep and strength I could get to make it through a ten-hour day of two-year-old terror.  So I decided to sleep in.  This is the second time in a row that I have allowed illness to prevent me from going to the temple.  Trust me when I say that the only thing that will stop me from going to the temple next Friday will be the risk that some illness could be passed on to the other people at the temple.  Otherwise, I am going no matter how tired or rotten I feel!

Okay, so maybe that's not a realistic promise, but I can tell that my spirit has missed my normal temple trips these past two weeks.  I just don't want to make missing the temple a habit.  The problem is that my physical misery did not stop when I got up to get ready for work this morning.  I made a point to stock up on cough medicine and cough drops, which I'm sure saved me from going home sick, even though it didn't completely erase everything.  The first part of the day was fun, but by early afternoon I was definitely starting to flag.  Worse still, I started to develop an earache around 4:00!  Oh please don't be an ear infection!  Trust me when I say that I've already had enough ear troubles for three lifetimes!  By the end of the day, the earache was worse, the stuffiness was back, and I started getting a stomachache, which I'm certain was more a side effect of all the other misery than an additional illness (knock on wood).

Needless to say, I was totally relieved to finally go home, and I have rarely been more grateful for a weekend (and a long one, at that) than I am at this moment.  Time to rest this tired body of mine and try to get over this cold (which is the second I've had in two weeks) and hope that I don't get another one any time soon.  Especially since I just realized I've written four paragraphs about being sick, and I'm pretty sure anyone who actually reads my blog will be bored to death if I get sick again.  Good thing readers don't have to read everything I write if they don't want to.  :)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Property Law According to a Two-year-old

Last week my boss told me she is going to have me work full-time with the two-year-olds instead of the three-year-olds.  Funnily enough, I am actually relieved by the change; some people would think I'm crazy for choosing two-year-olds over three-year-olds, but honestly, I think the two-year-olds are easier to handle.  Of course, my self-conscious side immediately got defensive when I found out about the change.  What if my boss had found out that I'd been having a hard time with the three-year-olds and didn't think I was able to handle them?  (Is it possible to be demoted in a daycare?)  I finally had to just get up the courage and ask her, because I knew my mind would never let it rest otherwise.  It turns out that she had noticed that I'd been having a hard time with the three-year-olds, but she said that that observation was just the final item in a series of events that convinced her that moving me was the best thing to do.  So yes, she did notice, but no, she doesn't think I'm incompetent.  I have to remember that just because the two-year-olds are easier for me than the three-year-olds doesn't mean that's the case for everyone, so moving me doesn't mean I've been "demoted."  And even if the self-conscious side of me needs to get over some serious misgivings, the rest of me can't help but see this as a huge blessing.  I love the two-year-olds!  They're much easier for me to handle, and it helps that last summer I spent time bouncing from class to class, so I know many of the two-year-olds already, since I often worked with them in the toddler class last year.  I'm definitely glad I switched, even if I'm not totally happy with the circumstances under which the switch was made.

Working with the two-year-olds, I am often reminded of something I came across last summer in the course of my work.  I often come home from work and tell my family about some of the funny things that happened at work that day.  In response to one of the anecdotes I told my mom, she showed me this set of "laws."  The title says they're according to a toddler, but I think that anyone who has worked with children to any degree will agree with me when I say that they apply to just about anyone under the age of 10.  :)  This basically sums up the children's attitude at the daycare, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious!

Property Law According to a Toddler (or a two-year-old!)

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like it's mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If I can see it, it's mine.
10. If I think it's mine, it's mine.
11. If I want it, it's mine.
12. If I "need" it, it's mine (yes, I know the difference between "want" and "need"!).
13. If I say it's mine, it's mine.
14. If you don't stop me from playing with it, it's mine.
15. If you tell me I can play with it, it's mine.
16. If it will upset me too much when you take it away from me, it's mine.
17. If I (think I) can play with it better than you can, it's mine.
18. If I play with it long enough, it's mine.
19. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it's mine.
20. If it's broken, it's yours (no wait, all the pieces are mine).

Saturday, May 21, 2011

"I Love Lucy" and other episodes

Recently I've been working on a course through BYU Independent Study.  It's a course on the first half of the Doctrine and Covenants, which fulfills one of my remaining general education requirements at BYU.  Now, I already have a problem with religion courses at BYU because I don't feel like my academic grade should be based on how well I do in a religion course, and I don't like that people who attend other places besides BYU get institute credit just for attending class while I actually have to write papers, take tests, and all that jazz.  But to add insult to injury, this specific class has been particularly irksome.  It consists of sixteen open-book online quizzes and two proctored examinations---a midterm and a final.  Not too bad, right?  Well, what if I told you that every other question on the open-book quizzes tried to trick you?  And what if any question that didn't try to trick you was a question that seemed to be such a stupid thing to be testing?  Who on earth cares if the fact that Joseph Smith lost the 116 manuscript pages happened before or after he and Emma lost their firstborn son?  What effect does my knowledge of the chronological events of church history have on my eternal salvation?  I dislike irrelevant and trick questions in any class, but I have a particular problem with them in a religion class, where the focus should be more on whether I'm learning and growing in the gospel than on whether or not I can see past such tricky nonsense.  (Okay, sorry, rant over.)

But this week I have discovered something that makes working through this course much more enjoyable.  I have found myself making more time than necessary to study because I actually somewhat enjoy it.  What has brought on this change of heart?  A beautiful, jet-black, baby guinea pig named Lucy.  Lucy joined our family on Monday.  We'd been discussing getting a guinea pig for a couple of months, but my dad suggested that we wait to get one until I came home for the summer so I could enjoy it while it was still younger.  On Monday for our family home evening activity, we went to the home of a guinea pig breeder to see the new babies she had.  We hadn't planned to purchase one while we were there.  We just wanted to look at the babies.  But when we got there, we immediately fell in love with the pure black 8-week-old guinea pigs running around in one of the cages.  We couldn't resist.  We had the hardest time coming up with her name.  We suggested everything from Rose to Lila to Winnie the Pig.  :)  Finally, my mom came up with Lucy, and we all decided that was a good choice.  Lucy it is.

Now, you may be asking, "But how does a guinea pig make working on your class more enjoyable?"  Well, as my family can attest, nearly every minute that I have been sitting at the table working on my course, I have had Lucy on my lap.  There is something so soothing about having an adorable, furry little body that you can just hold and stroke.  And I love making her purr!  Yes, you heard me right.  Guinea pigs purr.  We had a pair a few years ago and discovered that they would purr if we rubbed their fur the wrong way.  Lucy is no different.  Only a day after we got her, I had her purring in my arms.  It's so funny, and so adorable!  And I also have found great satisfaction in feeding her.  She likes carrots, apples, and Romaine lettuce, but she has a passion for tomatoes.  It's so fun to watch her grab a morsel we offer her and see it disappear while she munches away.  So I like to just have her on my lap, stroke her, and occasionally feed her some treat or other while I work on my course.  It has made my time in front of my "textbook" much more fun.  :)  Garrett thinks I'm weird for having the guinea pig with me "wherever I go," but I honestly don't care.  I'd almost forgotten what it was like to have a pet bigger than a golf ball in the house, and I'd almost forgotten how much I'd missed it.

Would you be surprised if I told you Lucy was on my lap right now as I'm writing this?  I didn't think so.  :)

Monday, May 16, 2011

What a Wonderful Weekend!

So I was getting ready for bed when I decided I really wanted to do a post about my incredible weekend before the memories began to fade.  This weekend really has been awesome!  From Friday morning until Sunday evening has been a nearly nonstop string of fun, interesting, and happy events.  What more could one ask for?  I’ll try not to make it too long.  I know when I get going I have the momentum of a freight train, and my entries can be quite lengthy.  I’ll see if I can pare it down and still capture the good stuff.  :)

Friday morning began with a trip to the Jordan River Temple to do baptisms for the dead, as has been tradition among the children in my family since I was fourteen.  Colton and I started doing it back in 2005, and each of my three younger siblings has joined in when they each turned twelve.  I continue to participate in the tradition via the Provo temple while I’m living in Provo, but I love going with my family when I'm home.  When I got home from the temple, I spent the morning and early afternoon in my own pursuits before going to work at 3.  Work was much less stressful on Friday than it had been on Thursday—thank goodness—so I left with a much better taste in my mouth.  Then I came home and changed before going on a date with Jeremy.  :)  We went to Texas Roadhouse (so good!  Highly recommend it) for dinner, where we had fun discussing what an awesome server we had and what great service the restaurant has over all.  Then we took a walk near my house and had a wonderful chat together before coming back to my house to watch the movie August Rush, which I love with an almost unnatural passion.  I was up until past midnight, but I had so much fun, and it was definitely worth it.

I spent most of Saturday morning and early afternoon working with my sister, Kaylee, on an extra credit project for her World History class.  She’s studying the sixties and seventies, so she was doing a movie about the Atari, a gaming console that was released in the seventies.  My family owns an Atari, so Kaylee decided that it would be really creative to make a movie about it.  She and I were able to come up with some great creative ways to talk about the Atari, and we came up with some great lines that allowed us to segue from talking about the Atari to talking about other events and fads of the seventies.  Over all, I think the movie turned out really well.  If my brother ends up posting it on his “vlog” (video blog), I’ll post the link so you all can see it.  When we finished filming, I packed up my stuff and headed to Provo.  I spent a couple of hours chatting with my future roommates Jill and Lisa, and then the three of us went to the wedding open house of their former roommate, Brecken, who is also a friend of mine.  I felt a little out of place since the only people I knew there were the bride, the groom, and my two other friends, but I was able to have some pleasant conversation with people I met there, and I ended up having a great time.  I also helped decorate the couple’s car, which is always a fun adventure.  :)  After the open house, we went back to Jill and Lisa’s apartment, watched Cinderella III (cheesy, but not the worst sequel I’ve seen), and chatted some more.  By the time we were done, I was up past midnight…again.  Ah well.  Again, it was worth it.  I slept on the floor in Jill’s room, which wasn’t as uncomfortable as I might have expected.  Given the comfort levels of the new couches in their living room, I don’t think I would have been that much better off on the couch.  :)

[caption id="attachment_41" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Some of the girls at Brecken's open house"][/caption]

The only issue with staying up that late was that we had our first 8:30 church yesterday morning.  Ew.  Fortunately, I didn’t feel completely dead when I woke up in the morning, and I actually made it through all three meetings all right (though that was probably due to the sugar rush from the cereal Jill and I ate for breakfast as much as anything else! :)).  In Relief Society, Jill and I took our Disney fanaticism to new heights by quoting/acting out two scenes from the movie Tangled in front of the rest of the Relief Society!  Shantel, who was teaching Relief Society, had asked us to do so as a display of a “unique or unusual” talent; it was a springboard for her lesson on developing talents.  I still felt a little weird doing it, but it was fun.  :)  And in Sacrament Meeting, I had my debut performance as the choir director in my ward.  We sang “A Child’s Prayer,” with a little twist.  Normally the girls sing the first verse and the boys sing the second, but I switched them.  We had only had a couple of practices, and some of the people who sang with us hadn't been to any of the practices (which is why I had picked a fairly simple song for the first performance), so I was super nervous, but I think it went really well, and I got a lot of compliments.  My friend Toni later told me that I had been inspired to choose that song, because it had really helped her.  I was so glad she told me that, because it really made me feel like I’m fulfilling my calling well, allowing the Lord to mold me how He will.  After church, I got a phone call from my dear friend and former roommate Holly.  I haven’t seen Holly for several weeks, and though we’ve been keeping in touch through text and e-mail, I had really missed hearing her voice.  It was so good to talk to her and hear from her.  Then I met up with another dear friend, Kaitlyn.  We made cookies together and delivered them to the girls in our new Relief Society presidency.  It was great to see her and catch up with her as well.  Then I spent some more time chatting with Jill before coming back home to spend some time with my family.  We had a wonderful evening, having dinner and family home evening together.  During family home evening, we read an article from the New Era.  We had a very specific article in mind to read that night.  Why?  Because it was written by my cousin Elyssa!  So cool!  Elyssa is an amazing writer.  I swear every sentence that comes out of her fingertips (via pen or computer) is witty and insightful.  I love reading her work.  And the article had a great message to it.  It’s in this month’s New Era, and it’s called “Getting Real.”  I highly recommend reading it.

Spending time with my family was the perfect end to a glorious weekend!  Such happiness has spilled over to this week, but I will save that for future posts.  This one is long enough.  :)  (Though, trust me, it could have been a whole lot longer, and my journal entry on the same time frame certainly will be!)  Suffice it to say that I loved nearly every minute of it and that I wish it could have been three times longer.  (And I hope you all appreciate the sacrifice I’m making by being up late to post this in order to capture more happy feelings for your enjoyment.  ;))

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Discouraged

Today was a test of patience...and I failed miserably.

I didn't have to start work until noon today, so I had some time to go back to bed after family scripture study.  Since I've been recovering from a cold and have felt rotten and been extra tired for several days, this should have been a huge boon.  Unfortunately, the moment I was horizontal, I started coughing like crazy!  And the medicine I'd taken didn't help, so there was nothing for it but to deal with it.  Ergo, my extra nap was not as restful as it should have been.  Bad omen.

Right after I arrived at work, my boss sent me to my normal classroom (the three-year-olds), where I don't usually take over until 3:00.  Again, that shouldn't have been too bad: the kids were all down for naps, most of them were already asleep, the few who were still awake would probably fall asleep quickly, and most of them wouldn't wake up until after 2:00.  That was the theory, anyway.  Unfortunately, two of the three kids who were still awake were the ones who are hardest to get to sleep.  That would have been fine if they had just lain quietly on their beds.  But they weren't exactly being quiet, and they all but completely ignored all of my requests to be quiet and hold still.  Not only did I not manage to get even one of those three kids to sleep, but they were so noisy that they eventually woke up the other kids!  Kid 1 woke up kid 2, they started chattering and laughing (ignoring all my efforts to stop them, even when I separated them), and their noise woke up kid 3 and kid 4.  It all kind of snowballed from there.  By 1:30, all but one of the eleven kids in the room were awake.  So much for nap time.  And of course, the rest of the day was slightly more frazzling than usual because all of the kids were grumpy from their shortened (or, in the case of some of the kids, completely absent) naps.  Joy.

The biggest problem I have with this scenario is that I didn't handle it the best way I could have.  I was so tired from being sick and from working 8 or more hours Monday through Wednesday, and I was beyond frustrated with the fact that the kids basically weren't listening to me at all.  That pulled to the surface my discouragement with the fact that never once have I really succeeded in getting the kids to sleep, even including all the times I worked during nap time last summer.  I was feeling totally useless, wondering how on earth other teachers could do this and why I couldn't.  I snapped at a couple of kids, including one who, despite being a pain during nap time, is one of my favorites.  The hurt look on his face was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I sat down and cried, there in the classroom.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried, but I am ashamed to admit that I snapped at the kids.  I know that patience has never been my strongest attribute, and I've been trying really hard to work on it, but I just don't feel like I'm improving.  And then, of course, nasty nagging thoughts and doubts started to creep in, as they always do when one is in such a mood.  I started to think, "How can I do this all summer if I'm already to the lost-patience point after three weeks of working here?  How can I enjoy my job if I let the kids get to me like this?  Not only that, but if I can lose patience with a couple of kids during work after only an hour (when I only have to see them for a maximum of ten hours a day), how can I possibly be a good mother?  How can I be nurturing and loving to my own children if I snap at the first sign of resistance from them?"

Several hours after nap time, with a few happy play time moments and then some time at home, I am able to look on this experience with a little more perspective and a little less emotion.  However, the discouragement is still there.  Perhaps when I'm working full-time in the three-year-olds' room, I'll be able to get some advice from the other teacher on how best to get the kids to sleep, or at least quiet.  For now, I'll just have to remember that the teachers I've been watching, the ones who seem to be able to get the kids to bed with little trouble, have been doing so for a lot longer than I have.  And I also need to remember that they probably have their fair share of difficulties with these kids too.  Maybe by the end of the summer (just before I quit :)) I'll be able to celebrate a successful nap time too.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Painful, the Precious, and the Priceless

The past two and a half weeks have been both exhausting and exhilarating.  There are so many things about daycare that really make the experience for me.  Some of them are bad, but many of them are good.  I thought it would be fun to talk about some of them.  Originally, I wanted to call it "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," but that would means I’d be talking about more bad stuff than good stuff, and it also would mean that I’d have to end with the bad stuff.  Instead, I want to do something I have decided to call “The Painful, the Precious, and the Priceless.”  :)  “The Painful” is where I’ll talk about the bad or annoying things about working at a daycare.  “The Precious” is where I’ll talk about all the cute or funny things kids do and about the silly or sardonic thoughts I have come up with as I’ve been working.  Finally, “The Priceless” is where I’ll talk about the happy or tender moments that really make daycare worth it.

The Painful

  • Transitions: trying to get three-year-olds to go from one activity to another, no matter what activity you’re trying to transition from or to, is terrible!  Especially nap time.  Trying to get all the kids to go to sleep is enough to drive me up the wall!

  • Cleaning up: from endless toys to juice spills to bodily fluids, I’ve seen it all; I’ve long since stopped being disgusted by it, but it sure is a pain to always be cleaning up.

  • Ten-hour shifts: as if I don’t already have to crawl home from exhaustion…

  • Sandboxes: sand in eyes, ears, hair, shoes, and clothes and all over my classroom, not to mention flipped all over the playground.

  • Fights: seriously, why can’t kids get along for more than three seconds without hitting or pushing each other?

  • Getting spit on, peed on, or thrown up on.  Enough said.

  • Tantrums: last time I checked, it wasn’t necessary to start screaming when someone sits too close to you.

  • Germs: I’m pretty sure all those rules about washing hands and sanitizing are put in place to protect the teachers from getting sick, not the kids!  :)  Too bad it doesn’t work.


The Precious

  • Silly stories, songs, and nursery rhymes: how could “this little piggy” have roast beef; isn't that bordering on cannibalism?  And why did Jack "plaster his head with vinegar and brown paper"?  Um, weird!  :)

  • Naptime: sometimes I think little kids are cutest when they’re asleep!  :)

  • Awkward questions: how do you explain acne to a three-year-old when she asks you why there are “bubbles” on your forehead?

  • Unexpected reactions: how can a child turn down a homemade chocolate chip cookie?!?!?!  (It’s true—on Friday we served homemade chocolate chip cookies for a snack, and some of the kids either turned them down or didn’t finish theirs!  Really?!)

  • Precocious moments: one of the two-year-olds said “Bless you” when I sneezed.  Ha!

  • Teacher Appreciation Week: I love getting gifts from grateful parents!

  • Girl power: while the boys in the toddler room can’t hold still for more than ten seconds while waiting for their turn for snack, the girls can sit quietly for several minutes while waiting their turn.  What does this say about how they'll grow up?  ;)

  • Jabbering: I love baby talk and two-year-old jargon with a ridiculous passion.  Very little can make me smile faster than hearing my kiddos chattering.


The Priceless

  • Building sand castles: the looks of excitement and wonder on my three-year-olds’ faces when they see me create a perfect “sand castle” using a sand bucket are so adorable and totally worth the trouble of playing in the sandbox.  The kids even offered me a turn to destroy one of the castles.  :)

  • Presents from kids: my favorites are the adorable pictures the children draw for me.

  • Playing monster: despite the fact that it increases my exhaustion, chasing my little three-year-olds then hearing them giggle and seeing them grin when I catch them and spin them around always makes my day.

  • Singing songs: few sights are more precious than little two- and three-year-olds exuberantly following along with the actions to our favorite children’s songs, and few sounds are more pleasing to my ears than those of children singing those songs at the tops of their voice, even if they may not know all the words.  :)

  • Holding children on my lap: so much fun!  And having a normally resistant child sit on my lap and snuggle with me is the epitome of success in my book!

  • Hugs: getting literally swarmed by all of my adorable little three-year-olds when I arrive in class every day has got to be one of the best feelings in the world.

  • Love: discovering that I love the children in my charge almost as much as a mother loves her own children and hearing them tell me that they love me too.  What an amazing feeling!


I love working at the daycare!  It's tiring, and it's often enough to drive me out of my mind.  But the rewards I receive are well worth the effort I put into it.  I'd like to see if anyone else has that kind of job satisfaction from a summer job!  :)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A Tribute to My Mother

I didn't get a chance to do much for my mother on this particular Mothers' Day.  However, I have made an effort over the past several months to express to her my gratitude for all that she's done for me.  Back in January, I had the impression that I should write a long thank-you note to my mom, telling her all the reasons I love her and am grateful for her.  I originally thought it would be a good birthday or Mothers' Day present, but then I decided that I didn't want to wait that long to give it to her, so I just sent it to her the night I wrote it.  In tribute to my incredible mother, I'd like to talk about a couple of the things that I mentioned in that letter so those who read this blog can also see how amazing she is.

I can trace everything good that has ever happened in my life back to either my mom or my dad, or both: music, the Gospel, reading, school, cooking, living within my means, compassion for others, and a “high-water table” (meaning I cry easily, which I count among the best of my blessings! :) ), just to name a few.

One of the blessings to which my mother has contributed in a huge way is my excelling in school.  Not only did my mom help make sure I got to school day after day, help me register for classes semester after semester, and pay for my school lunches year after year, but she helped immeasurably with school itself.  She spent countless hours a week helping me with my homework and quizzing me as I prepared for tests.  She helped me apply for Sterling Scholar and supported to me as I participated in all my other extracurricular activities.  She attended nearly every school event in which I participated, from preschool graduati0n to the state Sterling Scholar assembly.  I would never have been able to do so much in school without her.

Another blessing I have which I know I would never have without my mother is my music.  She "forced" me to keep going with my piano lessons until I got to the point where I enjoyed it enough that I no longer needed to be forced.  She made sure I regularly practiced my piano and, later on, my cello.  She paid for my cello and all of the accompanying equipment and paid for countless piano and cello lessons.  She played silly violin/cello duets with me when I was first learning the cello, and she has often accompanied me on the piano while I play cello numbers for recitals and auditions.  She has attended all of my concerts and recitals through the years, and she even came all the way to Provo in November to listen when my friends and I played an arrangement of "I Believe in Christ" that I had written for two cellos, a bassoon, and a piano!  I inherited her talent and her love of music, and it has blessed my life immeasurably.

Finally, and most importantly, from my mother I have inherited a love of the gospel.  In our household, church attendance has always been mandatory; I love that I have developed the habit of going to church so that it's never a question in my mind whether I go.  But more importantly, I love my mother's testimony and closeness to the Spirit.  I know that I can follow her example because I know that she is always striving to do what's right.  I have been amazed at the revelations she has received, both for herself and sometimes for her children.  She knew before I did that I would choose to go to BYU, and she knew before I did that I would choose a career in speech language pathology.  I'll bet she'll know before I do who I'm supposed to marry!  ;)  She is such an amazing example to me, and I have loved learning from and growing with her.

I love the relationship that I have with my mother.  I love laughing with her, crying with her, chatting with her, and goofing off with her.  I even love it when we're just in the same room together, even if we don't say a thing to each other.  :)  She is one of my best friends.  I'm so grateful for her guidance and love in my life.  Happy Mothers' Day, Mom!  I love you so much!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Look Through My Eyes

My sister and I watched Brother Bear this evening and had a great time.  I don't care how cheesy some might think that movie is; I like it.  :)  I'm quite easy to please, and cheesy moments don't distract me from the message of a movie---and like all Disney movies, Brother Bear has a good message.  As we were listening to the music of the credits, one of the songs stuck out to me.  It's called "Look Through My Eyes," and it's sung (and also, I believe, written) by Phil Collins.  First of all, I think the music of this song is beautiful.  I've spent so much time focusing on the music that I didn't realize just how powerful the words were until I looked them up this evening.  Then I just had to share them:

Through My Eyes

There are things in life you learn
And oh in time you'll see
It's out there somewhere
It's all waiting
If you keep believing
So don't run
Don't hide
It will be alright
You'll see
Trust me
I'll be there watching over you

Just take a look through my eyes
There's a better place somewhere out there
Just take a look through my eyes
Everything changes
You'll be amazed what you'll find
If you look through my eyes

There will be times on this journey
All you'll see is darkness
But out there somewhere
Daylight finds you
If you keep believing
So don't run
Don't hide
It will be alright
You'll see
Trust me
I'll be there watching over you

Just take a look through my eyes
There's better place somewhere out there
Just take a look through my eyes
Everything changes
You'll be amazed what you'll find
If you look through my eyes

All the things that you can change
There's a meaning in everything
And you will find all you need
There's so much to understand
Take a look through my eyes
There's a better place somewhere out there
Just take a look through my eyes
Everything changes
You'll be amazed what you'll find
Look through my eyes
There's a better place somewhere out there
Just take a look through my eyes
Everything changes
You'll be amazed what you'll find
If you look through my eyes

In and of themselves, and of course in the context of the movie, the lyrics send a wonderful message.  However, if one adds a gospel perspective, the lyrics seriously come alive.  Imagine for a moment that Christ is speaking these words personally to you.  "Take a look through My eyes.  You'll be amazed at what you find."  I for one know that the Lord has asked me to do just that on countless occasions, and following His counsel has always brought me wonderful results.  And yet, I often forget just how incredible my life can be when I remember Him, take an eternal perspective, and follow His guidance.  I'm so glad that He has so many ways to remind me, even in such "trivial" places as a Disney movie.  I'm so grateful for His constant influence in my life.  I love Him with all my heart.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Dedicated

As I mentioned previously, I have chosen to keep my LDS membership records in my Provo ward over the summer so that I don't have to deal with the hassle of changing my records now and then changing them back to the same ward in August.  Well, that resolution is going to be put to the test in two weeks.  My ward meeting time is moving to 8:30 a.m.  What?! We definitely heard an audible groan following that announcement!  Haha, actually, the change is not going to bother me all that much because I'm such a morning person.  However, having a forty-minute commute for church certainly makes an earlier start time much more irksome.  Some people would call me crazy for being willing to go through all that hassle to remain in my current ward.  I prefer to call myself dedicated.  I am willing to go through the trouble of long drives and the other annoyances that accompany attending a ward that is not in my boundaries because I love my friends and bishopric and because I want to be able to get to know the new people in the ward now rather than be the "pseudo new person" come August.  :)

Fortunately, I have some pretty awesome friends in my ward!  They're making the problems of my commute and such easier to bear.  In August, I will be moving in with my friends Jill, Lisa, and Rachel, and they have invited me to spend time in their apartment on Sundays while I'm still in Provo.  This arrangement is great for me, because with out it, it gets a little difficult to stay in Provo for longer than church, because I wouldn't have anywhere to go!  :)  Yesterday, I spent most of the day in their apartment, chatting with Jill and my former roommate Allie.  We discussed everything from the release date of the upcoming Harry Potter movie (July 15th!) to the entertainment value of twiddling one's thumbs (I tried it today; it was actually quite enjoyable :)).  Jill even invited me to spend the night in her apartment on Saturday nights so I don't have to get up quite so early to come to church on Sundays!  I just might take her up on that, though my rationale is based more on the chance to spend more time with her and my other friends than on the unlikely event that I'll actually get more sleep that way.  :)  My future roommates are determined to "corrupt" me by ruining my "early to bed, early to rise" routine.  Maybe I'll just be able to convert them instead.  We'll see.  :)  In any case, I'm looking forward to more opportunities to see my Provo friends and also be with my family and my SoJo friends: I'm getting the best of both worlds!