Blanket 1

Tadaa!!!!
So Jessica and I got together yesterday and went and bought some (too expensive) fleece and, with the help of one of Jessica's friends, tied this beauuuuuutiful baby blanket!! It's so freakin' adorable!! This picture doesn't do it justice really. I just wanna wrap up in it and sleep! Anyways, blanket number 1. Check. I've started working on blanket #2 today. It's not going to be nearly as cute, but it is for a little boy and has monkeys on it :)

Pursuit of Happyness

So I don't know what it is lately, but I just feel happy.... like all the time. People make me happy, just random people or people at work or family or friends. I don't know what it is. The work family members will tell you that sometimes I'll just start dancing, just randomly, if it can be called dancing. All I know is that I haven't felt this good for this long in a VERY long time, probably pushing 12-15 years. I noticed about a year ago that I was starting to have more good days than bad, but I still had a lot of bad days, but gosh, I can't remember the last dark day, the last bad day or foggy, mind-in-a-haze day. I have a new friend named Jessica that some of you have met that has added to some of this I think, though it has been going on a lot longer than I've known her. Everything feels right with the world, which is usually just a calm before the storm, but that's ok. It's been nice to have a few rays of sunshine here in the middle.
Anyways, I guess that's all I wanted to say. I didn't get any other poems for this last entry, but I'll be the first to admit that the topic was kind of weird and I really didn't have much drive to write poetry the last few months. I nominate mom to pick the new topic. With Misty publishing her books I've just had this itch to write, so be thinking of things to write about or ideas you'd like to get out. peace.

New Post Time

The meteor shower is ALMOST HERE!! I'm so excited! I've been planning to see this one since I saw it last year up at the property with Russ and it was so amAZing! This Thursday and Friday can't come soon enough. =) That said, things have been going pretty well. Work is enjoyable, a few problem buildings that I've been working on but it has been good.
We need to have another poetry thing. I was thinking "The things these hands can do" as a possible theme. Hmmm, nah, it's decided. That's the theme. So start sending your poems in. I'm looking forward to reading them. Also, if you find time, my roommate has created a website @ PromoteTheGood.org that you guys can check out. Basically he wants a forum for people to talk about the good things that are going on in the world around them. He has a section for poetry and writing, I've already put one on there from our last poetry competition. It seems like a really good idea for a website. I think eventually he will have a movie rating thing on there with different categories so you can see what all is objectionable in a movie before you see it etc. Anyways, check it out. Register for it, it's free and I don't think he sends emails out or anything.
The motivational thought this post comes from the scriptures, not sure where, but I read it a while back. It says "The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace" which, to me, means that we need to stop whining about what the Lord asks us to do and just do it and HE will do the fighting. Sounds like a good deal to me. Anyways, best of the best to all of you. Send in poems! =)

Somehow I missed May

Hey, it's good to be back. Not much going on right now: still working, practicing the guitar from time to time, napping, watching movies etc. I made a new friend this past week. Her name is Reta. She is actually my roomie's friend and now lives in the apartment above us. She's really nice though. She invited me to go gardening with her and some people from her ward. I don't know how she talked me into it actually. It was a service project for a lady in their ward to plant her garden for her, and in return we could use some of the land to plant our own veggies. Well, the other two people that showed up had to leave right away, some type of miscommunication, so Reta and I set to work turning the dirt with shovels and pulling the weeds. We spent a good hour or so. We talked in Spanish, because she wants to learn spanish. She was actually surprisingly really good at it. Anyways, back to the point. So while we were gardening she mentioned that it was probably too late and the plants wouldn't grow, so I says that I'll never weed a garden that doesn't have veggies growing in it and it made me think about life how sometimes we need to stop weeding the gardens that aren't producing any fruit. In my case, for example, there are two girls that I like, both of whom, for one reason or another are unavailable to me, at least for now. But you wouldn't believe the amount of mental energy I spend just adoring these girls. Time to move on to greener pastures.
Likewise I know people that spend all their days sowing and dunging and pruning but are either having too much fun or are hoping for bigger fruits and completely forget they need to reap. That's human nature I think: you go gambling you just want to win 1 more dollar, you buy stocks you hold on to em hoping they'll just keep going up. I get caught up in this all the time. It doesn't matter how good I live my life or how well I tend that garden, if I never plant any seeds I'll never reap any fruit.
I made a program recently to help me learn names and faces of people in my ward. It works pretty well, I'd say. Pretty basic really, just flash cards with multiple choice. I love being an assistant clerk for this too. I get to meet almost every new person that comes into the ward, and I love the look of surprise on people's faces when I come up to them a week later and say "you're so n so, right?" Every chance I get, when I'm standing by someone I know and see someone I don't know I'll ask them who it is. It has been really rewarding emotionally to be able to connect with 30 different people, even for just a brief moment. This is one area I've really struggled in in this ward because there are so many faces that change so very often. I also wondered how I could possibly magnify my calling, I mean counting people is just counting people, turning in numbers is just turning in numbers etc so I figured this would be a good way I could stretch myself in this calling.
Alright, I think that's enough for now. Geez, I don't know why you're still reading, honestly. We need to have another poetry topic... maybe mad gab poetry. hmmm. Half an iced hay!

Merit Badges

So I've decided that I want to try and earn scouting merit badges, mostly because I think they look cool, but also because I need something to do. I heard on the news the other day that some kid had earned all of the merit badges (126 total I think) and it inspired me to start working on some. I've read through the requirements on about 10 different badges and they seem pretty easy. There is usually around 85 pages of material to read out of the pamphlet and 7 or 8 things to study or regurgitate or do. For lack of a better way to do this I've decided to start alphabetically from American Business to Woodwork. Some of them might not be practical (like scuba diving) but I'd like to see how many I could get. If anyone would like to join me, I was planning on doing one a month or so starting in either may or june (there's no deadline to finish). Also, if anyone has any suggestions or ideas on a way we could organize our efforts that would be good too. I've noticed on a lot of them that you have to discuss some issue with your scout leader, well, if you're my scout leader and I'm your scout leader.. then I'd be ok with splitting the workload in two where you cover one topic and I cover one topic etc. I dunno, just a thought. I don't want to make some stressful thing, but I think it could be fun to take some fieldtrips to a business, bank, farm or archaeology site and learn a little more about the world around us. Let me know if you'd be interested and I'll start throwing some stuff together. :)

Rarely if ever

So, I rarely, if ever jump on bandwagons for different things but a girl in my ward became a fan of something on facebook that really caught my attention. They are trying to get the video of Elder Holland's testimony of The Book of Mormon to the homepage of youtube by having as many people as possible watch it on the same day, May 3rd. I think it sounds like an awesome idea. The 3rd is a Monday, so I would invite each of you to watch his testimony found @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkKblIMfmjI for FHE. With millions of people logging into youtube every day this could be a great missionary opportunity, and even if it doesn't make it to their homepage, I feel this video can really strengthen everyone that hears it. Obviously you can watch it before then, but leave a comment on it if you'd like or click the green thumbs-up for it or any of the positive comments it has received. When I viewed it today it had 99,821 views, and the fanbase on facebook already had over 21,000 people signed up to watch it on the 3rd. Anyways, like I said, I rarely do this but it seems like a good thing to do. Thanks, and that's all.

Assertive

For the first time in my life I was able to describe myself as assertive. Awesome, I know. It's been dealing with my ex girlfriends this last few months. Also, I now have a goal to lose 25 lbs by my birthday. I figure 25 lbs will be a good amount, considering the first 10 lbs is just water. I'm already off to a really good start, one full day with excercise and eating right. Now, just 2.5 more months to go. 25 lbs is really only half of my goal, I'd like to lose around 50, but I figure that 25 will be a good kickstart. In other news, stuff happens..... and things..... with the stuff. So that's good. (I don't know either) I have been to the driving range a couple times the past couple weeks. I love being out in the sunshine, and I really love imagining people's faces on the ball right before I smash the crap out of it. That's fun AND rewarding. Plus it's good excercise and I've noticed that it really works my core, all good things. Not only that, but to be able to afford to go to the driving range once a week I have to give up eating out for two meals, so the benefits are two-fold. We have a home-teaching blitz again tonight. It should be fun. My companion luckily set up 2 appointments for us tonight, and the old eq president wants me to help him visit someone in between my appointments so it should be a great night. Hopefully we don't all get sick with all this crap in the air today though, my goodness. Well, I guess that's enough randomness for today. I hope everyone is doing well and if you ever want to go to the driving range, hiking, fishing or to the temple PLEASE CALL ME!! You have a standing "I'd love to go" from me, so it wouldn't even be a call to invite me, just a call to let me know what time we're going. Other than that, have a great conference weekend! :)