Jardin d'Eden

Troy and I planted a garden in May. I copied Sue & Tiffy and labeled our lil' plants.

Here's a lil' collage of our garden.

Here's Troy mowing the lawn. I do the woman's work and weed the garden while he does the manly mowing of the lawn.

God Blessed Rebalene

After a long day of studying, Troy and I had Joel, Josh, & Matt over for a little BBQ. It was seriously the best 4th of July. Ever. In the photo above: Troy, Josh, Matt, & Joel on the balcony overlooking the valley.
Rebalene couldn't be left out!
Josh (isn't he adorable?) had celebrated earlier in the day with lots of patriotic tattoos.
The boys brought some sparklers & other little fireworks. Here is Matt & Joel.
Rebalene & Troy
Troy has a great view of the valley from his house. Here are a few shots of the sunset.
Here's a collage of shots of us lighting our sparklers.

I had such a good time with my boys! They are the sweetest, kindest, handsomest guys.
Looking forward to the next time!

Grand-prize winning 4th of July quote:

When you scare a queer, they scream!
Josh, educating us during dinner. He demonstrated this a few times during the evening.

Gospel of Prosperity & Lego Bible Stories

This is something I have thought about quite a bit. People in the Church tend to think the righteous are blessed and the wicked are cursed. Black and white. I've encountered people who figure I must be doing something wrong because I am over 12 and still single. If you have faith the Lord will bless you. Uh huh, but maybe not with a husband, nimwits!

So I was just reading By Common Consent and a man named John Hamer wrote an article about Thomas B. Marsh. Remember the story they tell over and over again about how he and his wife left the church over milk and strippings? Fable, not fact. Read it, very interesting.

Anywho, his article leads to this "gospel of prosperity" attitude. I really like what he has to say about it:

It may be comforting when you’re prosperous to believe that prosperity is a sign of your righteousness, but it’s quite another thing when suffering some inadvertent hardship to be additionally burdened by the belief that this is punishment for your wickedness.......How many faithful Saints died of hardship, poverty, and disease on the trek west? This teaching is both senseless and pernicious.

I concur.

Then someone in the comments posted a link to The Brick Testament, a lego-illustrated Bible. I think I may take up scripture reading again! This is hilarious!

Dear Zachary

This is one of the most emotional movies I have ever seen. Eric Snider gave it an A.

Gran Torino

Troy and I watched Gran Torino last weekend, and we both liked it a lot. I was a bit skeptical, because I think Clint Eastwood is kind of a bad actor. But he was perfect---gruff, grumpy, racist old man whose heart is softened through a series of events with his Hmong neighbors. There was a lot of language and racial slurs, but it was funny, tender, sad, and is now counted as one of my favorites. Eric Snider gave it a B.

Sadness

I was so in love with Michael Jackson when I was in the 2nd grade. Thriller, Billie Jean, and We are the World were some of my favorites. I don't care about the dysfunction, he'll always be one of my favorites. I think the start of my hormones going out of whack was when I saw this video:

The Grandeur of God

This quote has been on my mind ever since I heard Elder Jeffrey R. Holland use it in a conference talk, October 2003. I was sitting on Torrey's couch when I heard this and it has been one of my favorites ever since. I think one of the sweetest things about the Gospel is our doctrine on the nature of God.

"Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. . . . God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but . . . the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs."

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 257, 240–41.

Bella, Learn Something From Buffy

The Glam Guide posted this video and I am still laughing. I thought the Twilight series was entertaining in some ways, but Bella and her victim-y, whine-y ways have always bugged. She needs to take some lessons from Buffy, my favorite-ist heroine. Ever.

Emotional

Being gluten and lactose intolerant makes eating tricky. Turtle Mountain just made things a little easier for me. I discovered Purely Decadent Cookie Dough Non-Dairy Dessert made with coconut milk.

I can't even explain how good it is--and it's not overly sweet. Guess what, it's sweetened with agave! It tastes so much better than the soy & rice ice creams I have tried. Emotional!

Quotes and More Quotes

I had to drop the kids off at the pool.
Troy, after going to the loo.

I'd put an egg in it to hold it together, but then it wouldn't be vegan anymore.
Troy, while mixing ground beef to make hamburgers.

In a heart beat. BOOM!
Jana, passionately telling me something she'd do in a jiffy.

Rebecca, you have a cute butt.
Grandma, watching me cook from behind. And watching my behind.

You ask such ignorant questions!
Grandma to Drew, while he was trying to ask her questions about her past.

Cat Man

OK, I just have to blog about this because it is absolutely INSANE.

Audrey got engaged. Then her fiance called off the wedding because she wouldn't let him take control of $$ and the yard. If you wanna hear her side, click here. I swear, the older single LDS men become, the weirder they become.

I could list all the mean things he did/said, but here's the kicker:

He returned the cell phone she bought him (a nice Blackberry) and it smelled like cat urine. I'm convinced he had one of his cats pee on it. Or he stuck the entire box in the kitty litter. I almost upchucked when she asked me to identify the scent.

So, Kevin of Tooele, Utah: you stink!

GNO

*Nicholle, Me, Aaron, Tera. A long time ago. 1981-ish?

So what do I do when school and work and everything is so overwhelming?

Girls night out with Cola.

We had plans to go clubbing and meet attractive men. But we ended up visiting Target where we bought these:

We actually got a bag of the mini PB cups. I was so excited. Until I put one in my mouth. We kept eating them to see if we liked 'em, but nope. I'm not a fan. I'll stick with the milk chocolate cups!

We went to Good Earth, where I bought agave syrup. I quit sugar and use honey on my oatmeal and sucanat in baking. I heard agave is much healthier than honey (lower glycemic index).

We saw the movie State of Play.

Nicholle and I are the same when it comes to movies--when we don't know what is going to happen, we both close our eyes and plug our ears. So our 2nd movie lesson--read the plot before we go so we are not stressed out!

I had fun, Cola. Can't wait for next month!

Quoteworthy

Would you like an abnormally crunchy Peanut M&M?
Nicholle, kindly offering me some candy while at the movie. They seriously were the crunchiest M&Ms I had ever eaten. Three candy coats, at least!