Scooters

Something I'm pondering on getting for spring and summer crusin...

(I found these on ksl.com. They were all for reasonable prices and in decent shape.)

Hello Spring!

Frankly, Stacia has the best birthday day on the calendar. And to celebrate this first lovely spring birthday I would like to share some never-before-seen photos of our birthday girl! (Please forgive my lack of photography skills and the fact that Siena happens to be in every picture in one way or another. I didn’t start really taking and keeping pictures until last summer.)

Words to describe Stacia: Gorgeous, Savvy, Creative, Radiant, Fun, Active, Hip, Visionary, and “Neato!”

One of extraordinary talents is her gift to arrange beautiful flowers. We have all been blessed by this unique talent.

Here are a few random photos I’ve been storing for just this purpose.

At the Provo Cemetery on Memorial Day.

Comparing tummies. Do you remember this night Stacia?

At the Provo Parade on the Fourth of July.

August 13, 2007

We love and will be forever grateful for this granddaughter, daughter, mother, sister, cousin, and friend!

Happy Birthday Stacia!

Farewell to Winter

On this solemn occasion I would like to pay may last respects to the winter season.

"Goodbye my winter boots, goodbye my winter coats, goodbye my winter soups. See ya next December!"

It's not easy being green

It's not that easy being green;

Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold...
or something much more colorful like that.



It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the
water or stars in the sky.



But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree.



When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.

Thanks to Joe Raposo, Kermit the Frog, and Jim Henson!

"Travel is wonderful, but if you do very much of it, the places all become a blur. But the people--when you get wherever you're going and begin to meet the people, you come alive again. People are wonderful. Each one has a story, each something to give, each knows something interesting, something that can make your life richer."

Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I haven't traveled too much in my life so far and I'm looking forward to when I can visit the many places I long to see. However, I have met some amazing people in the places I have been.

I met Kara on my Church History Tour back east. She is a leukemia survivor and a wonderful example of perseverance and happiness. She also taught me how to split an apple perfectly in half with my bare hands!

{can't write much today, busy in the books}

Last weekend was the Jazz Festival here on campus. The featured artists were Byron Stripling, Kevyn Lettau, BYU-Idaho Sound Alliance, BYU-Idaho Vocal Union, and the faculty jazz ensemble. It was such a fun concert with amazing talent! Sometimes I just crave jazz music. I have to thank my big bro for that. I like most of the classic jazz names such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. But I really don't know many contemporary artists.

Who are your favorite jazz artists and what at are some of your favorite jazz songs?

Willing Spring In!

there are so many tictoc

by ee cummings

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is
for tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic

Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly

we do not
wind it up it has no weights
springs wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.

(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)

I love little cousins!

Paper Wreath

I can't wait to make my own version of a paper wreath similar to this one!

Elder Richards, the president of the Bountiful Utah Temple, gave the devotional today. He compared the many gauges in an airplane that the pilots must watch to our own lives and how we must be consciously aware of our spiritual progression. He said, "Put them where you can see them and monitor them." He identified three specific gauges to monitor and "fine tune" in our lives. They are: 1. Always pay your tithing- "It does not take money to pay tithing, but it does require faith." 2. Always follow the prophet- Sustain the prophet and quorum of the twelve as prophets, seers, and revelators. 3. Gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon- "There is a spirit and a power about the Book of Mormon.... This is sacred scripture."

Children's Book and Toys

For the Creative Writing class I'm in we were assigned to create a project/display for the Children's Museum in Rexburg. I wrote and assembled a children's book on different forms of travel around the world. It was fun doing a ton of research on things from all types of rickshaws around the world, to mantatus, to smart cars. I also took some palm-sized wooden vehicles and painted them in bright friendly colors for the children to play with while reading the book. I guess this almost be considered my first self-published book. I will go back and had more to it when I have more time.