¿quién sabe?

Good Story

2009-07-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Brian: So, what is your new last name going to be?
Me: Roses.
Brian: That sounds familiar. Oh, it's like that book, Angela's Roses. Have you read that one?
Me: No, I don't think I've ever even heard of it.
Brian: Oh wait, that's Angela's Ashes. Whoops.

Dream

2009-06-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

I had a really sweet dream last night, actually more this morning.

I was in high school and this group of us "really smart" kids went on this really sweet and intense trip around the world. We toured all through Europe, Asia, and Africa. On the way back, we stayed in one of the southern states in a town that was really close to Mexico. The trip had not included Central or South America, so one of our three leaders begged the head leader to allow us to go over the border, so we could visit more places. After begging incessantly, she reluctantly allowed us to cross.

I don't remember exactly what happened, but we were playing around on the beach and Elvis Presley (the dream was set in that era, so he was still young and popular) was there for a gig, too! Of course, we all gawked over him, but he didn't stick around for too long. He left and went to his hut on the beach. Then something happened and I rolled my ankle BIG time; it swelled up and bruised up immediately. Having been on the road for so long, we had nothing to help my ankle, so I decided to jaunt on over to Elvis' place and ask for assistant.

I limped over, knocked on the door, peered in and discovered he had done the same thing; fancy that! He invited me in and I sat on the floor and propped my leg up on the bed. He gave me something to brace it with and then gave me raw meat to wrap it in, the same thing he was doing to his ankle. After talking for a little while, it was my time to head out, so he gave me a plastic grocery bag to keep the sand out of it.

As I was saying "thank you" and so forth, he leaned in and kissed me! Surprised, yet quite fine with what had just happened, I trecked back to my hotel room and bragged to everyone of the kiss from Elvis.

That's right, Elvis kissed me. It's alright, you can be jealous. :)

Perhaps if we were all more childlike...

2008-12-21T15:53:00.001-08:00

So, we're all driving down the road to the store. It had been quiet for several minutes, when suddenly Bekah says, "Mom? When they said they were going to kill Abinadi was Alma going to take his place?"

Perhaps if we were all more childlike we would spend our spare time contemplating that which we do not understand about the gospel.

Pressure

2008-12-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

True pressure is when your five year old niece asks you, "Are you ever going to get married?"

Sad day.

Good Times...

2008-12-20T10:12:00.001-08:00

-Bekah hands me book which teaches children how to write letters. One is meant to traces the arrows along the letters to learn the best way to write them.

As I am doing this, just to be doing something while we all chat, Bekah comes over, watches me and says, "You're good, Angie!" as though I had just been learning how to write. :)

-In the car, Bekah likes to play games. One of them is that she thinks of a word, tells all participants (those riding in the car) what letter it begins with and then we guess what the word/object is. Usually, it can be seen from the car.

One evening, Bekah says, "I'm thinking of a word that begins with "w" and is outside by the church....Weed!"

I laughed. Good job, Bekah.

2008-12-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

Simple Pleasures...

2008-11-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

...when my Hispanic coworker begins singing "Sweet home Alabama!"

2008-11-08T23:54:00.000-08:00

Que tal si escribo en espanol? Ya se. Mi laptop no tiene las marcas para los accentos ni las letras que no haber en ingles. Por eso, mi espanol parece horible. Que triste. Pero, creo que prefiero escribir en espanol. Es bueno para la practica y tambien en mi mente es mas privada porque todos no hablan espanol, aunque muchos si lo hablan. Bueno.

Es interesante pensar en el pasado y ver cosas del pasado porque me recueda de sentidos y metas y personas y pensamientos y ideas que tenia, los que ya se me oldvido. Tambien, es interesante cuando cosas pasa que hacen lo mismo: me recuerda de setindos, metas, personas, pensamientos, y ideas que tenia.

Cosas incluyen:
1. Me encanta el espanol por siempre y no se porque, solo naci asi.
2. Me encanta saber los idiomas. Me dan energia.
3. Tengo un pasion para los pobres y quiero muchohacer algo significante para ayudarles.

Siempre cuando estoy con Jeff, yo pienso en si podamos salir y porque no lo quiero tanto o si lo quiero. No se, y no se porque no se.

This is pretty much how my journal goes. I have good intentions of writing a lot of really deep stuff. But I get part way into it and then lose desire and stop, so not everything gets said. That's good.

6 November 2008

2008-11-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

I think everyone has an urge to express him or herself, we all just have our own way of doing it. Sometimes I really wish I had some other way of expressing myself other than through words on a page. That is why I write. I write to express myself. But words, they are so inadequate. It is like Jason says, communication is 50% body language, 40% tone, and 10% the words we use. Sometimes I wish I had another way of expressing myself, a way that transcends language. Like dance, or piano or through art. But I don't. I have yet to develop any of those talents. I guess this is why if I could be famous for anything it would be for being a powerful speaker. Sometimes I think I am a powerful speaker and writer; but other times I laugh at myself because I think I'm just being dramatic.

Why are we so quick to see others' positive qualities and compare them to our negative qualities? Why are we so inclined to lack self-confidence. Most people lack self-confidence;it is the rare few who are born with it. Some people fake it and hide it really well, but for the most part, it is there (or rather, not there).

Why is is that we can feel so passionate about something, and yet not apply it to everything in our lives? I mean, we study one thing so much and learn so much about it, yet we miss the ENTIRE point because we don't apply it to ourselves. What is the point of knowledge and information unless we put it to use, and it doesn't work to only put it to use in other people's lives. It is like the analogy of the person who sits in darkness inside his house which has electricity yet doesn't make the effort to flip the switch. To extend it, it is like that same person going around to all others' houses and flipping their switches but yet not flipping his own, so that all others live in the light but not him. That is just plain idiotic. Which is exactly the word to describe some of the things we do in our lives. When is the last time you gave advise that you didn't listen to yourself?

Why is it that sometimes the thing we want most is the exact thing we resist and push away with the most effort and force? Think about it. A person who is depressed thinks him or herself and worthless, not worth being loved and therefore will do things to validate and confirm that. They will purposely do things that will make them "of less value" (in their minds). Or they will do things to the people they care about, and the people who care about them, to drive them away. A rationally thinking person would call that ridiculous, yet I wouldn't be surprised if in one way or another we all do it. I know I do.

How is is that people can at one time feel so confident in their own personal goodness and amazingness and then at another time (not too far apart) feel the complete opposite? How is it that we lose sight of that?

How is it that someone reading this would completely miss that I am hardly making a commentary on people so much as I am about myself? How is it that people don't see right through me?

2008-03-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

I'M GOING TO POLAND!!!!!! (on my mission!)

2007-12-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

This was her birthday cake! She's 4! It was huge and, of course, had princesses on it. Oh goodness.
Um, yeah, yet another thing you would NEVER see in the States. They gave her this huge knife - sharp - to allow her to make the first cut. Estan locos todos aqui in los ranchos y en Mexico.
This was Brandon's family, they are so great, let me tell you.
And this was my family. :) I don't have a clue why everyone is leaning.

Yet another beautiful sunset. Sorry, I know they are lame but I want to put them on.
So, it was the now 4 yr. old's birthday, so we threw a big party for her. This was the general look of it.
The girl in pink is Andrea, the birthday girl. Dude, the piñata was almost as big as she. Loco.
This was the classic breaking of the piñata. At first, with the little kids, they didnt put a blind fold on, which we thought shocking since we thought we got the tradition from Mexico. But, when the kids got bigger they blind folded them. It was pretty awesome. They were going crazy. This is Monica and she was all over the place, except for where the piñata was, and it was nearing danger.
Then it started pouring down rain and we all took cover in the rooms and unfinished house. The dog, for some odd reason, came in and took refuge right next to Brandon. It was funny.

2007-12-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

We played Twister - in Spanish - one day for FHE. It was rad. Emily's mom sent it to her.
Oh yeah, so I was in the village and this guy pulls up selling ripped movies and cd's. His van had an Oregon license plate!
A beautiful sunset in the villages.
so, in Mexico they have a day celebrating the Revolution here in Mexico. The school put on a little production (well, they were going to but the electricity was out all week, so they couldnt. But they got dressed up for it and we ate lots of food, too.) Anyway, so all the kids dress up like indigenous people and then marched into the school. On the left you will see a kid, yes, a kid, on a horse. He and 2 other dudes were leading the way - on horses. You would never see that in the States. I love it!
This is one of my kids, Monica. All of the kids had fake amunition rounds drapped around their bodies, like those who were fighting in the Revolution did, as well as carried fake guns (hers is wood, some were plastic or cardboard). Yet another thing you would not see in the States.

this is the entrance to the hotel we stayed at in Guanajuato. Way cool.
This is an above view of Guanajuato. I know it looks like nothing, but it was amazing. (Sorry, I just have a bunch of scenery pictures on this blog. Boring, sorry. I didnt make any promises before though.)
This was the toilet paper roll holder at a different hotel we stayed at in Dolores Hidalgo (where the revolution began)
So, the government in many areas of Mexico, including the villages, wants to improve housing. They no longer believe in people living in houses made out of stones and mud, so they provided all the materials (but not the labor, they had to may for that or do it themselves) to the families to build a house out of brick and cement. This is the house my family now has. It isnt finished becuase there isnt a finished floor yet, but soon it will be. Brandon and I painted it.
This is when Audelia (my Mexican mother) and I went into the city together in the middle of the week to take care of some things. We ate lunch at KFC (pollo tuky). She was very happy.

This was at a museum in Guanajuato, which is one of the first cities that the people went to to fight the Spainards and retake Mexico. Hidalgo is the man who began the revolution, pretty much. He is very loved and was a Catholic priest.
this was a crazy crazy stair case we saw in Guanajuato
this is the view from a high up hill in Guanajuato. It looks way cool and, as you can tell, is packed with buildings.
another view from up top.
and again. It just looks way cool.

2007-11-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

dia de los muertos dance party with the young single adults. yay! Emily at one point had the same yellow stripes on her shirt. Guess what we were: a pareja de abejas (ok, so it rhymes in Spanish and that is why we did it. In English: a pair of bees.)

This is just a sweet picture of Matt.

so, here in Mexico they seem to go with the whole being dead theme a lot more than we do in the States. This is one of my kids, they all dressed up for school for the day of the dead. Pretty sweet.

2007-10-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

This is Teotihuacan, the view from up on the Moon pyramid looking out to the rest of the dwelling.

yay

Brandon: contemplating life while looking out over the mysterious habitation of the people of Teotihuacan. (that is the ginormous Sun Pyramid in the background.)

These are some constructions in the Temple of Quetzacuatl (maybe, I can't really remember, oops, and I am not sure on the spelling of that)

The farther and smaller one is the Moon pyramid and the closer one is the Sun pyramid, something like 65 meters high.

2007-10-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

That was the morning sun one morning. It was crazy.

(It happens.)

Ok, so this was at the Aztec ruins which are in the middle of the city, with buildings and apartments surrounding them. These were some skeletons found there.

yay, this is all four of us.

2007-10-28T15:01:00.001-07:00

Yes, he does have a heart of gold.

My attempt to be a photographer

So, this is my attempt at doing the whole Moses preaching pose that Doug and Russ both did on their missions.

2007-10-27T18:33:00.001-07:00

This is a crazy spider that Brandon and I almost ran into one night. It is huge and gross.

Another nasty spider that Brandon and I found at my house.

yeah, so Barney in Mexico. Did you all know that Barney speaks Spanish? (no accent there)

2007-10-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

This is me bracing myself on the bus because, it turns out, riding the bus to and from the villages and the city is like being a kernel of popcorn in the midst of being popped. It is crazy good times.

This is Matt cooking hamburgers for Audelia's birthday.

This is Audelia on her birthday. We made her hamburgers and jello and the cake she is holding was made by one of her friends.

These are goats milking a calf. Right...

This is a crazy looking grandpa goat.

2007-10-27T17:49:00.001-07:00

yeah, so Monica wanted to dress me up one night and then take pictures for me to send to my boyfriend. It really is a shame that I don't have one to send this picture to. Almost.

Yes, I am cool.

This is a neighbor's home. On the left is their bedroom and on the right is the kitchen. There are no other rooms or anything like that. That is their entire abode. In there lives a man and wife and their one daughter.

This is a way cool picture that one of my kids took.

And this is my sweet chaco goodness. (I am referring to the sweet zig-zaging tan lines.)

2007-10-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

yay! the temple.

Ok, this is a moth that Emily and I found in our room, it flew in through the window. It is huge, I know it doesn't look that big but it was seriously a lot bigger than it looks! It was way scary.

These were our fearless warriors armed to catch the moth and rid our abode of its presence.

This is us. We are so cool.

Here are some of the kids: Angela, Monica, Pablo.

2007-10-27T09:53:00.001-07:00

Brandon with the same cool background as me, but I took his sooner, so it looks cooler.
Oh yes, we did go bowling.

2007-10-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Me with my kids.
This is the home of one of my students. It is a very classic home here and I thought I would show it to you all, get a better idea of life out here.
this is the door to her kitchen. I dont fit.
cool picture that, turns out, doesnt look cool on the computer. Oh well.
Me (with a cool background)

(notice the cheek bones: red/tan) :)

2007-10-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

ok, this blog thing is almost not worth it. Sorry I couldnt do more.

2007-10-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

These are the estudiantinas that led us all around Guanajuato
this was the festival
this is a man painted and acting as a statue. Pretty intense.
like I said, it is cool to wear fake facial hair and fake eyelashes at the festival, but no fears, I only wore this for the piture.
YSA group that we went to the festival with.

2007-10-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

Emily.

2007-10-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

The first one of the clouds is when I was on the plane: the clouds were awesome.

2: these are just a few of the elders that I flew with. Yay!

3. This is my casa (house). The first doorway is a storage room ish thing, dirt floor. The second door is where all the rest of the family sleeps. There are 3 beds and a tv and that is about it. Then, down where the people are, that is the kitchen. It is just a covered area and they cook over a fire every day, with wood. THere is also a kitchen that has a gas stove and oven and they have a fridge.

4: When we went to the Guadalajara temple. Matt is on the left, Brandon on the right.

Wow! My first entry!

2007-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to get a blog, but dont expect much out of it, like correct grammar and spelling and such, or lots of stories and details. I am pretty much only using it for pictures because it is a lot easier than emailing just a few. Um...so have fun with that. Life is beautiful!