Farewell, September

Dear September,

You were good to me. Thank you. You definitely had your difficult patches, but I feel like all in all you were a beautiful month with beautiful moments.  You're one of my favorites and I'll look forward to seeing you next year.

Love, Me

***

I think we've all had months when it was more of a Green Day "Wake Me Up When September Ends" rather than an Earth Wind and Fire "Dancing in September" month. Anywhere between that spectrum, the trick is to love life for the ride and the grand and sometimes daunting adventure of it all.

For your enjoyment-

Other excellent September Songs:

-See You in September, The Happenings.  (From the oh-so-excellent doo-woppy era.)
-September Morn, Neil Diamond.  (Wonderfully romantic.)
-September, Earth Wind and Fire.  (Dance party.)
-Wake Me Up When September Ends, Green Day.  (Great for when you just plain feel that way.)
-September, Chris Daughtry.  (Versatile--I feel like this song can mean several different things.)
-September Song, Willie Nelson.  (Beautiful. I'd say this one captures the spirit of my September.)

Stream of Consciousness

Confession:  I haven't really not written since the 14th... I just haven't decided to push the publish button. Bear with me.

There was something that I wanted to share with you, though:   I have been getting giddily excited for Christmas. It started a few days ago when on my way to my first class, The Carpenter's An Old Fashioned Christmas got stuck in my head. Usually, Christmas songs stuck in my head before November or at least late-October are not viewed as acceptable. But this time, I let the song stay stuck ALL DAY LONG. And it made me smile and have a hard time focusing through each and every one of my classes.

I started having all of these exciting Christmas ideas--gifts I want to give, things I want to experience, memories I'd love to make.  Truly, visions of sugarplums danced in my head. It was wonderful.

Not that I want to rush Fall out of the picture frame.  I'm loving the cold snaps we've been having, the rainstorms, the cold mornings and evenings. Soup weather is coming, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I have a goal to get really bold and daring with the CrockPot, even if I'm only starting with Hearty Beef Stew. Did you know you could make things like bread and lasagna in a crock pot?? That and so much more. And I'd like to try them out.

In other news, pregnancy is having some interesting side effects. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't really believe in binge-eating things like ice cream and cookies and other junk. Of course we all want to do things like that, but temperance and moderation are divine qualities that need to be developed in either this life or the next. I figure I may as well get a jump on the challenge here and now while I've got a body to practice some self-control with. (Not to get too doctrinal here... I understand we'll get our bodies back and continue eternal progress and increase.) ANYWAY, you'll never guess who in the world went to Smith's tonight and in the course of the other shopping, bought not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR cartons of ice cream. FOUR. What the heck?? I know our very favorite Kroger ice cream was on sale for 1.99, but really, Annie? Are we going to eat four boxes of ice cream? Blake was thrilled and shocked and now I think it'd be fun to have people over for a party and give them ice cream. (If you're interested, available flavors are FunMunch Cookies N Cream, Death by Chocolate, Cookie Dough, and Birthday Bash.)

Just when you thought it couldn't get more wild, in the same shopping trip, after the ice cream was in my cart, I had to really work hard to convince myself NOT to buy a carton of Nesquik. (One of life's purest joys.) I prevailed, but Nesquik still sounds like a lovely treat.

Not only am I buying things way out of my purchasing habits, but my taste buds are changing as well. I, who have always and forever with no exceptions (except maybe a Wendy's Frosty before the vanilla ones came out) absolutely despised chocolate ice cream, am now finding that by George, it's a lot more divine than I gave it credit for. Would I eat plain chocolate ice cream? Heavens no. But by golly, when I tried some of Blake's Death by Chocolate, I couldn't believe how much I wasn't loathing it. In fact, I was actually enjoying it... A lot. Enough to go back and get my own small scoop. Times two.

Bizarre.

Well, there's more where that came from, but that's all for tonight folks. I'm pooped and ought to be in bed instead of documenting random pregnancy side effects on a blog. Sleep tight!

~Doris~

I love my dear little grandma of a visiting teacher. Doris is about ten times as wonderful as her name,  bony hands, and heavenly cinnamon rolls would imply. She's the face of all things wonderful and triumphant--every wrinkle is a testament to a life well-lived, a family well-raised, and a testimony well-defended. She radiates the kind of light and goodness that you just love to be enveloped and swallowed in. She's such a beautiful woman; I wish more of the world would embrace aging and all of its splendid glories like Doris does.

Well, this month the visiting teaching message wasn't really a message. Rather, it was a directive to go and serve your teachees. So Doris made an appointment just as she always does, and came over with a plate of home-made cinnamon rolls and chatted with me for a while. Did I mention that I love old people?

In our chat she mentioned that she had brainstormed ways of how she could serve me, but didn't "come up with much." (As if warm, perfectly baked and frosted cinnamon rolls are under par...) She asked if there was anything she could help with. And by George, there was something this wonderfully domestic, seasoned housewife and mother could do for me...

"Doris, I have two nights a week where my last class gets out at 6:30 in the evening. I want to be able to have dinner ready for Blake when he gets home from work, but that really puts me in a time crunch when I get home from school. I've been wanting to get on to using a Crock Pot on a regular basis, but don't have many recipes that I know are tried and true. Do you think you could help me with that?"

"Do you like soups?"  ... Boy oh boy. Do I like SOUPS?? I've been dying for more soup weather since the cold, rainy snap we had a week or so ago. She agreed to help me on my road to domestic goddesshood, gave me a lovely grandma hug and went on her merry way.

So I expected to get a few recipes when she came again for next month's visit... I should have known better. About thirty-six hours after our appointment, the doorbell rings. I answer it to find Doris holding a stack of family recipes on adorable recipe cards tucked into the binding of 101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker. She would.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have this kind of woman for a friend. What a wonderful lady!

For Laughs

Good morning! It's a new day and why not start it off with a good laugh. Archimedes for the win.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Darkness and Light

I made a big mistake today. I watched a movie that I knew going into it was not virtuous or lovely. In fact, I knew there was a great likelihood that it was going to hurt my spirit, and it did. There was nothing sexual in the movie, and it contained less swearing than even some of the crude animated PG movies that have been released.  But the violence and inhumanity that was so pervasive through the entire film literally made my stomach sick and chased my spirit into a corner of my soul where it cowered just wanting to feel safe and loved. So many people watched and loved and raved about this movie when it came out several years ago. I know some of my readers by name who love the film, particularly for its powerful portrayal of good versus evil. When the movie was first released, I had a friend who knew me well tell me to never see it; they were familiar enough with me and my spirit to know that the moral implications of the movie would not offset the damage it would do to my spirit and my view of the world. They were right.

I knew throughout the movie that watching it was a mistake. But I didn't leave. (Sometimes I wonder what happened to the brave girl I was in high school.) Anyway, right when the movie ended I immediately started searching for something to invite feelings of safety and security and goodness into my heart--something that might comfort my spirit with the light of truth. This is what I found because someone posted it to facebook.

I know it's okay that I made a mistake today. I'm not berating myself. I know that I can repent and recommit to honoring the Light of Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost that warns me of temporal and spiritual hazards and guides me into paths where I can feel safe in the light of uplifting things. I am grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me enough to give me "sunrise revelation"--that He trusts me enough to let me make mistakes and learn from them and be changed by them. And I'm so very, eternally grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and that I don't have to be bound by and damned for my mistakes and sins--that I can be picked up and rescued by the Savior's love and move forward as a clean person renewed and resolved to be truer to my covenants, convictions, and testimony--that I have to opportunity to grow in light and continue in light.

"That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, 

and continueth in God, receiveth more light; 

and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."

-Doctrine and Covenants 50:24

I humbly and gratefully look forward to the perfect day.

The Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to the 57 year old man who is healthier and sprier than most men half his age, and more ambitious and hard working than all men everywhere. :)

From diapers and "rocking chair friends"... 

To the day he stood as witness as I said "Yes,"

And so many times before and since then, my "Bigdog" has been there for me like any best Dad you could ever imagine would. I'm so proud to be his daughter and feel so blessed to have been born into the Briggs Family!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

(...Grandpa!)

Even a cluttered life is a good life

I am going to absolutely lose it if I do not do something about the clutter all over the house. It's testing my sanity...

I have no idea how these kind of messes happen. They're not all that disastrous--they're just so pervasive. It's like the mess is EVERYWHERE. *shudder* I'm not OCD--I just have a burning testimony that I function, think, and act better in "a house of order."

Thus far this evening, I've had to to do homework instead. Which means I'm going doubly insane.

Good news:  I'm at a point in homework where I can pick up a few things and put them back in their respective places before heading to bed with Blake.

I know I'll sleep so much better.

I hope you've all had a lovely Tuesday. Devotional was lovely today. I took my first nap of the semester on campus today. Blake's team won their first soccer game this evening, 9 to 1. (I feel for you, white team.) We rescued Beth from a flat tire in Springville. We ate at the Pita Pit. I've been listening to Jess Penner. I'm about to go pick up clutter.

Bottom line:

I live quite the wonderful life.

~The Word is Out~

It's official. It's crazy. It's amazing. It's wonderful.

. . .

 We're having a baby.

Jess Penner: Life is Rosy