Wherever you go, go with all your Heart

I would like to claim authorship of that beautiful quote, but Confucius beat me to it. (by a year or two)

Saturday night the doorbell rang rather late, and upon opening the door, this array of hearts greeted us.

"Heart attacking" wasn't around when I was a teenager... we tp'd homes, and then after a suitable wait (at least a few hours) tp'd the same home again. There was always an element of excitement- knowing that our parents wouldn't let us take multiple rolls of toliet paper, so a big part of our fun was finding ways to hide the rolls under our shirts, sweaters (this was california, my friends, we didn't know the word for "coat",) in purses - "why yes mom, I really think this extra-large beach bag goes great with my corduroys!"

One thing I love about heart attacking is that there is a bit of work involved- cutting out all those hearts takes some time, and often the attackers write cute/silly/fun/meaningless/meaningful statements on the hearts. One of my favorite was a heart that proclaimed "I love MORMAN girls." A derivative of heart attacking (though more expensive) is post-it-ing, which is popular with the male teenagers who don't cut hearts quite as well, or anywhere near as patiently as the females. (Sorry, it's a fact...well, I read it somewhere... it's those fine (or are they gross?) motor skills.)

Another thing I love about heart attacking is that the hearts are happy, they are joyful, and not just the attackee gets to enjoy the colorful display and act of fun, but the whole family. With two teenagers at home, there was an animated discussion late Saturday night as to who was actually the "attackee" this particular time... but as far as I'm concerned, we were all lucky attackees.

So heart-attackers, bring it on!!! Because wherever you are going, you are going with all your heart.... (and hearts) and Confucius would be proud!

Favorite Photos for 2008

I am learning alot about photography, and have so much more to learn. I'm hoping to take an online class from Karen Russell (http://karenrussell.typepad.com/) this winter, however with a waiting list of over 400, I might be postponed in my hopes...

These are a few of my favorite non-family pictures for 2008.. I am lucky that friends will pose for me as I practice and learn. I am also lucky that the friends who will pose are extremely good-looking and photogenic and make me look like a much better photographer than I am!

The first two photos are fun out-takes from a family shoot... we had some gorgeous family pictures, but these really tickled my funny-bone. Ask the family to jump as high as they can, and the oldest son (after a few high jumping pictures) crouches into a frog-like position. Look at younger brother looking down at him like, dang, that could've been me! The other photo was taken of the "children" laughing together in a silly moment. The relationship that they have is one that we all hope our children will have- if even occasionally! I don't have a picture of my kids like this...yet....but I am definitely going to stage one when the missionary comes home!This third photo is of a young woman who (if you can believe it) is even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside. She doesn't care to have her picture taken, so I consider this photo, and several others we took that day that were equally stunning even more of a success!

While these are not technically ideal (or even close to ideal,) they remind me of why I love photographing people....there are stories to be told in each picture, there are stories behind the picture that beg to be told, and there are few better ways to capture a moment than a photograph...technically ideal or not!

Here's to 2009 photos, and a hope I get into the photography class!!!

Only ONE YEAR LEFT to:

use his ipod (upon which I have deleted all his songs and uploaded mine)... what? My ipod is lost. This was the budget friendly way to have all the joys of an ipod and not pay for it!

use his laptop...upon which I have added thousands of pictures, photoshop cs, and millions of kb's of primary records.

enjoy his redecorated and over girlified bedroom- with the bed and nightstand, duvet covers, pillow cases, and lamps he's never seen (love ikea, yes I do!) I know that when he returns he'll want something more mannish. At least I hope he will. It's a veritable flower paradise in there!

write 52 Sunday afternoon e-mails trying to come up with interesting, clever, and witty things that have happened in a week where all we did was school/work/church/home... When we have done something noteworthy or exciting, trying to make it sound fun, but not TOO fun.

Appreciate the opportunity he has to set aside the common worries of young adulthood, and instead focus on serving his Heavenly Father.

I hope the year just SPEEDS by! For me, that is. I think he's hoping for slow-motion.

Songs I Sing Out Loud and Books I Read Silently

MUSIC:
"The Call" sung by Regina Spektor (sp?) from the Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian movie. Very cool and embodies a deep message. At least it seems deep to me, but it might be one of those "seems deep but really isn't" type of songs and I am infusing all sorts of hidden meanings into a basically meaningless song. Either way, I sing out loud every time I hear it!

"The Chanukah Song" (not to be confused with Adam Sandler's song) sung by Jane Olivor- also known as "We are Lights" and commonly sung by choirs....however itunes has the Jane Olivor version and it's great!

BOOKS:
"Everything Under the Sky" by Matilde Asensi
Kind of reminiscent of the Indiana Jones movies- without Indiana Jones... replaced by a spanish expatriate widow living in Paris who must search for treasure to pay off debts of her french expatriate husband who lived in China. hmmmm. If you like adventure, no romance, and far-off places, you'll love this! I did find it a fun read, and will read other books by this author, but it isn't profound (like the song "the call" mentioned above.)

Hard to embrace "EMBRACE"

I didn't know how easy I had it last year- my word was "faith." I was able to find references to faith everywhere I looked... the Bible, the Book of Mormon, even Oprah's magazine had blurbs on faith. Because faith is such a core belief in my life, it wasn't too hard to step it up a level, to increase my faith, to really try to understand the impact of faith on my life.

Now I move to "embrace" as my word... and I am finding that the concept of embracing- or as the dictionary says, "to take up willingly and eagerly" - who I am and who I can be... it's hard. I'd like to change my word... to something I'm already doing. Embracing myself has not been a core belief in my life... (one can only have so many core beliefs) and I have tended to focus on the "must becomes" and "must do's" instead of the "I am ok's."

This year I would like to focus on embracing the "I am ok's," and yet also keep in the forefront of my embracing the "would like to becomes", and the "would like to do's" (My father complains that this all sounds vague and obamaish.)

But I can't change my word- I've already ordered my "embrace" necklace.

EMBRACE

is my word for 2009!

Embrace as in:
to embrace who I am at this moment,
to embrace the process of continually growing/changing and trying to improve,
to embrace my life- the good, the bad, and the ugly,

so good-bye faith... (well, this isn't good-bye so much as au revoir... I'll never forget you faith!)
and hello embrace!