so over the christmas break i discovered perfume. perfume is something i have never really been attracted to in the past - always thought it was rather repugnant and find that i am allergic to some scents. to me perfume was what too many women wore too much of in a crowded elevator, rather noxious. i considered myself more of a scented lotion kind of gal, highly dedicated to Bath and Body Works. i am such a sucker for their sales. but even in that store i am quite picky with which scents i will splurge on.
but then Calvin Kleins Euphoria came along.....i tested a little while i was Christmas shopping with my mom at the mall and was surprised first, at the amazingly, most delightful scent and second, that it was still lingering around at the end of the day and third, that i didn't sneeze! call me uneducated but i am worse at geography.
my sister allysha has a preferred perfume - Angel. someday i will buy her a bottle - and after that i will self-indulge and purchase my preferred perfume...if i dare.

how many does it take to change a light bulb

So I have been changing out light bulbs - 1,2,3,4,5,6.....7? Maybe more. I find it interesting and amazing that sometimes we think we live in enough light - that it's bright enough, even if we know that a light bulb is out. And then when we finally decide to replace the bulb for whatever reason...we are sometimes surprised how much light we really were lacking, or how much light that additional bulb adds - at least I am. Every time I replace a dead bulb for a new one - once that last twist goes in and the light goes on - my face illuminates - smile.

blog just to blog

I have no objective as I sit down to my parents computer and begin to peck away at the keyboard. I believe Elder Maxwell was a pretty good pecker on the typewriter - I'll try to find a source on that one. I never did get a perfect A or even an imperfect A in typing class - which I delayed until my senior year of high school. But as a coworker once said - I type pretty well will the five fingers I use to get my message across. And yes I do use the backspace bar a bit.
Christmas is just around the corner, and as the New Year approaches I find myself focusing on that idea. But I need to conscientiously pause for a moment - or a few days...or until the 26th and from here until then focus on Christmas and what that means to me. Yes - that is what I will do. Also breath - sometimes that is something I forget to do.

I love events that brings the holidays closer to the heart. Last night I was taken to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Capitol Theater - and if that doesn't say the Holiday Season I don't know what does! It was beautiful! Beautiful set, beautiful dancers. Artistry, poise, dedication, elegance and enchantment all demonstrated in a series of choreographed movements. Magical - that was one word used to describe last nights events - and it was exactly that.
I always love to pick out a few of the dancers and watch them more intently than the others. Ones that if we were both off stage, we would get along famously...little do they know but I create a kind of friendship with them - and in a way I become them as if I was up on stage creating beauty in movement, and that makes it all the more personal for me and all the more enjoyable.

Oh - I just remembered that I am out of light bulbs.....sigh - Wal-Mart is the last place I want to go the Saturday night before Christmas!

Rexburg, ID

This coming January the Rexburg Temple will be dedicated! It is so graceful upon the hill protecting the valley below.

Page 165

Page 165 - senior yearbook - I was nominated to "knock the socks off Calvin Klein as a seamstress"

Boy did I ever blow that one.

My past caught up with me

It seems that the past always has a way of catching up with us. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing...well that depends. Today it was a good thing.

6 years ago I was in Cuenca, Ecuador working in an orphanage. I was the site manager for a home of 8 special-needs kids. I doubt that very many of them were true orphans. Many were abandoned and some were not born with disabilities, but because of abuse, now find themselves with very different lives than what they might have had. I spent that Christmas of '01 with angels and it was a different experience for me...there in the Andes of Ecuador away from family but not away from people I was learning to love.

I was able to fund my experience from various donations from relatives, friends, and in some cases...complete strangers. One of these unknown donors was a girl by the name of Kara. She must have been 13 or so...and sent a little note with a small but surely significant donation. I was very moved by her gesture and remember feeling very humbled to receive her help. While I was in Cuenca, I wrote a few letters with pictures to Kara and the other donors who made this experience a reality.

Today I met Kara. I went to get my hair cut (decided against the bang option, but even now I am reconsidering) and my stylist now has a new assistant. After some small talk and a shampoo the assistant asked me if I had been to some foreign country before. Yes. Had I worked in an orphanage. Yes. In Ecuador? Yes. She recognized me from my pictures...and that's how I met Kara.

Funny how peoples lives circle and weave in and out - like a choreographed dance. And sometimes we don't realize how our movements will affect other parts of the piece or the other dancers. But we keep on dancing. I hope my movements never cause hurt or sadness but only bring to others joy, happiness and peace.

stockings hung by the chimney with care

(NOTE THE LOVELY PENGUIN TO THE LOWER RIGHT...FUNNY)

I love fireplaces.....and I am glad that I grew up with glowing embers in the front room.
I love my parents house at Christmastime. Actually - I love it year-round...but more especially in December when the tree goes up, the lights, wreaths, bows and garland adorn the house and in most every room there is something of Christmas to be found. Somehow a GI Joe usually ends of riding one of the camels in the nativity set we have a top the piano - or in the tree. We usually have 2 or 3 hiding out somewhere.
I grew up decorating the tree to peanut M&M's, eggnog, Mannheim Steamroller, James Galway and Amy Grant mixed in with a little Harry Connick Jr.(when certain siblings would allow, which if they did it was with groans)
I also love a good white Christmas. I am a traditionalist in the sense that I don't understand why somebody would want to go to Hawaii for the 25th when they could stay right here in Utah. It seems that the odds of getting a white Christmas when I was younger were higher...they seem to be harder to come by these days. But hopefully this year we will be graced with a gleaming white blanket of snowflakes! And even though it may make for rough roads at times....I love snow in the valley, on the ground plane and on the rooftops.
And to top it all off - one needs a good portion of homemade wassail. I have a great recipe I will surely share - here in the next few days. My sister posted it on her blog, so I'll just copy and paste! CHeeRS!

in reference to my previous post

i ran into three people that i knew while on my excursion to WM....an old roommate from BYU, a lady from my home ward whose son is my younger brothers best friend (she was also suffering from the seasons epidemic...it was empathy all around!)...and another lady from my home ward who has been talking about setting me up with her brother for the last....how many years? and yes - she did mention it again. hmm. blind dates - another topic for another time.
i am not opposed to using/eating merchandise if it's weight does not determine it's price - and if i am indeed going to pay for it. for example, this morning i opened my box of facial tissues (avec lotion) to use while i was shopping, also my bag of black cherry, sugar-free Hall's coughdrops. sometimes i buy chicken strips to eat while shopping and then pay for the bag, but today i wasn't in the mood for chicken strips athough i did entertain the idea...what is everybody having for lunch?

a self-imposed curfew

home by 10, in bed by 10:30. that shall be my self-imposed curfew until this wicked visitor decides to bunk down somewhere else.....just as i begin to think i am on the rise i realize that, like a roller coaster....what goes up must come down. and it's the going down part that always makes me queezy to kill.
i hate roller coasters.
i never really had a curfew growing up...there was always the 'be home by 5:30 for family dinner,' 'weekend night games end at such and such a time'.....but when i got into high school....i can't remember ever being ruled by one - unless it was one set by myself, which i didn't hesitate to enforce.

this morning i woke to find that there is no toilet paper in the house, and since i live alone i have only myself to point fingers at. i suppose i will now grace wal-mart with my sneezes, runny-nose and puffy eyes...and no make-up. there is some liberty one finds in going out into the world without make-up....like a declaration! 'i do not need make-up to be in public!' then you run into somebody that you know....hee hee. i'll risk it!

I wish I had a river I could skate away on.....

I sit here in the dark - with only the light of my screen to guide my thoughts and fingers. It's almost midnight and I can't fall asleep. I was hoping to get some good if not great, rest - so that I could kick this cold.
But as I lie in my bed....err..well - if you can call it that (I am currently on a deluxe inflatable mattress - emphasis on the word, deluxe) my mind starts to turn, and thoughts turn other thoughts that turn other thoughts. Like a clock tower whose weighty wheels never rest as it keeps time through the night for some snow covered village.
These wheels that turn in my head that are robbing me of sleep, are ones concerned with life situations that I currently find myself in, and are one's that probably keep most people awake....they are those revolving around work, $, relationships and what I should do with my hair come my next cut.
This would be the moment I would join the Christmas tree. With its warm lights all aglow I would snuggle into a heavy comforter on a nearby couch. Music for the season would softly take me away and soon enough I would be in a land where sugarplums dance and fairies gently laugh.
noel....noel....I may need to go get that Christmas tree after all......

use of time

sometimes days are long, and sometimes days are short. what exactly determines that i don't know. and whether long or short, there are 24 hours alloted to us each day - and how we use those hours are completely up to the individual. sometimes i think of how much time i have during the day to accomplish tasks - and how sometimes i am poor - oh so very poor at that.
time management: a course i did not take in college.
dur.
i can be very efficient - on the ball, accomplishing so much that i even surprise myself....but the past week - and possibly longer, i have felt very sluggish, like someone hit the slow-motion button on my remote. the clincher is we never get that time back. once gone......forever gone.
at times i give myself pep-talks - come on hall! you can do it - get up, get going, go faster! whoo! but i think i need to throw a tail-gate party to get me going this time around....maybe it's this arrogant cold that has decided to be my BFF (best friend forever)

Dec 1

December first. What a great day - one of my favorite days of the year! This morning when I woke up I peered out the window and was greeted by a white blanket of snow covering the valley floor, the rooftops and the limbs on each tree....there is no better way to bring in the Christmas season than with a heavy snowfall.
The day went well - did some minor shopping and what else? To top the day off I spent the evening in SLC with a dear friend. We walked temple square to see the lights. My favorite part is the walk around the backside of the Assembly Hall where each tree is wrapped in an array of orange-hued lights. I LOVE being surrounded and enveloped by the lights - it's like a big Christmas hug, so enchanting. We actually did a lot of walking around the city....more than I have ever done in that city in all my life combined! Lovely.
Did BYU win today?