Europe!

I have been dying to travel the globe all my young girl life! Yet it has never happened.

Then -- just days after my birthday -- I got my passport! Renewed, really. But as my previous one doesn't have any stamps in it -- it doesn't really count, does it? It has a lovely picture of me as a blond at seventeen -- looking a little tipsy (I wasn't!). Really of no use whatsoever.

I want to go to beautiful places, with amazingly vast histories. Places from movies and books, places that make me feel like I could run into Shakespeare or Mr. Darcy or Remi, the rat chef.

So now I am plotting. I feel like I should go soon. I haven't studied any languages, don't know more than a few landmarks and tourist places I want to go, and I have no idea how to travel a distant land.

But I'm going! By myself. Soon.

Every girl needs a stamp in her passport!

Au Revoir!  ;)

Annular Solar Eclipse

Did I ever tell you about the time I saw a meteorite fly past my window at like three in the morning.

It was green. I mean GREEN! Alien green. I heard on the news the next day it was a big deal and could be seen by half of the US.

I was just sitting in my reading chair by my window, enduring my never-ending life with insomnia when I looked up at exactly the right moment and saw it literally zoom - zoom - through the night sky. It was so brilliant and bright I thought it had actually landed in the horse pasture behind my backyard. A scene out of Superman!

I felt it was special. My own little tender mercy. A gift from the Lord where he was saying not only that he loved me and knew I existed -- but also where he was being that awesome big brother who had me look up at the perfect moment so I could see something really cool! :)

I got to see something else cool recently. Another sweet moment.

I had a day. You know, a day. I had asked a dozen people to dinner or a movie or a hike. They were all busy, or not, either way I wasn't worth trying to make time. I was feeling exceptionally lonely and unattached. Pitty-party manic stuff.

But then I got home and my roommate asked if I wanted to do something spontaneous. Something "off the cuff" she enticed.

Well --- yeah! 

But first, I wearily asked "What?" Because, in my experience as of recently, my life is as such where I am the go-to baby/house/animal sitter as everyone else has these grown-up lives - separate from me.  And then in one of the most crushing and cruel experiences I've had in church, I was told after I volunteered to help chaperone a Young Women's hiking trip, that I wasn't allowed because I was single. Apparently, I'm a danger to myself and others due to my "singleness", not capable of functioning like an adult, or simply  not a real person.

So I was worried it was going to be a request to tend her dogs as she went off galavanting in real life.

But it wasn't. It was a real invite -- with a road trip! And a celestial event at the end.

We drove to Kanarraville, the middle of nowhere Utah to watch the eclipse.

It was like that scene from Contact where Elle goes back to the Array in New Mexico and a huge hippy alien party had taken root.

It was fun. I felt like I was living. Which was nice. And I'll get to tell my kids I saw the ring of fire!

Seeing planets differently than how they are normally makes them seem more real and surreal. 

Dooms-day-ish and eternal all at the same time.

Miss Darrian's Baptism

I meant to post this a while ago -- But for some reason never got it posted.

Darrian is eleven, charming, gentle, considerate, loves fun and loves to laugh. She doesn't whine or complain and she cries silently away from others when her heart is broken.

She is my niece. And I love her.

In October, my mother felt they needed to move from where they lived in Florida. Some had jobs at Disney World. But she felt they needed to leave to rescue my niece. So in one quick moment of decision, they packed up, called-in to work and drove to Texas -- with very little money, no jobs lined up and nowhere to live.

But it all worked out. And Darrian desperately needed them.

My family that moved to Texas have taken her in and she has blossomed. She went to church with my mom and decided she wanted to be baptized. There was some unusual opposition (as is typical) but in the end she was baptized March 17th. I love how happy she looks in these pictures!

My favorite memory was from during the baptismal program where we sung a song Darrian had chosen from the Primary Songbook. It was one I didn't know. But I watched as she sang every word from memory (heart), literally radiating light and joy. She loves the gospel.

I am grateful for a mother who listened to the spirit and ran as fast as she could to save her granddaughter -- and somehow in the process my have also helped save many others.

An amazing miracle in my family.

Pretty Darn Funny

Two of my friends have created a webseries with the assistance of Deseret Book. It was brought into creation to help fill a void of family entertainment, and the usually passed-over/forgotten very busy mom. I know many of you are just such a mom. So this is for you - created for, stressed over, and tirelessly worked on because you, who create the haven's of the earth, are of the greatest import. And we all know a laugh can ease so much. I hope you watch, enjoy, and -- feel remembered and loved.

:)