I will attempt to share an article...

I found this article while I was browsing the news on Yahoo's main page. It caught my eye because I like happy stuff.

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/makeover/101-small-pleasures-you-can-enjoy-every-day-1125425/

101 Small Pleasures that can be enjoyed every day! I love it!!! I am a firm believer in simplicity and that being able to find joy in the small things is what gets us through life without going completely crazy.

The majority of the things on here put a smile on my face. Especially; swimming, rainy afternoons, puppies, the smell of lavender and the first daffodils of spring.

Hey! Maybe I should make my own list.

In other news: School is still good. Work is still good. Life is still good.

The main not good thing is that I am rather homesick for Texas. Oh, Texas. When will I see you again?

Ponderings

I found this picture online in connection to the poem.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

My mind has been drifting to this poem all week. I had heard it before but never really paid much attention to it. Last Monday I was in a creative writing class at the middle school I volunteer at. They start every class by reciting a quote or a poem they are memorizing. Monday was the start of this poem. The teacher spoke about his interpretation of the poem and was very careful to point out that the poem is not saying the way he took was bad or wrong, but that simply there were two choices.

Graduation is getting nearer and I have been thinking a lot about my time at BYU and what it has meant to me. One of the continuing struggles I have had is what I should major in.

I love psychology, I really do. I am also passionate about history. Teaching has always been in the back of my mind as a career for as long as I can remember. Some of you might remember that a while back I changed my major from psychology to history and I wanted to be a history teacher. I ended up changing back to psychology because I missed it. Immediately I missed my history classes though too. It has been an ongoing conflict. Volunteering at Dixon has only increased in my mind how much I love education and I believe I would have enjoyed being a teacher.

All week I have been thinking about this poem and how true it is for my life. I have prayed about which major to choose so many times. Psychology never felt wrong and history or history teaching never felt wrong. I chose to major in psychology. That was the path I walked down. But what if I had chosen history? Would my life be that different? I do not think it would be. It was just one of those choices that you come across in life.

I believe we all have times in our life where we are staring down two equally good paths.

So, that was my deep thought. I do not really analyze poetry all that often, I am more of a novel or play kind of girl. But every now and then I hear or read a poem that really reflects what I am feeling and from then on it is a favorite. I would have to say that this poem is nearly as much of a favorite as My Native Land by Sir Walter Scott.

Has any one else wondered about the road not taken?

A thought about Sundays

I enjoy Sundays. I have had to work the past couple of Sundays and it is so nice to have the day off. I felt like I was so productive today. Productive with small things.

I made some hard boiled eggs and muffins for breakfast. I got completely ready for church way before it was time to go. I made brownies. Our home teachers came over. I went to church and enjoyed all three meetings. I was social at church. We had some friends over for dinner. We enjoyed visiting with them. After that we went to drop some brownies off with some other people, intending to just drop them off and be on our way... Two hours later we left. They invited us in and we talked and they talked and it was great fun.

Now it is late and I need to go to bed.

Today was wonderful though. I love having Sundays as a day of rest. No work, no school. Although I do some homework on Sundays I try to keep my easier homework for today. I do not do chores and I try not to worry about the rest of the week. I find this so refreshing. I highly recommend it. Even if you do not do the church part. Have a day during the week that you relax and rejuvenate.

2010 thus far

Let's see...Danny had a birthday. I am pretty sure we took pictures of that. The pictures are still on the camera though. It was a great party. Danny settled on a Star Wars Lego theme. We played What If and Star Wars Apples to Apples. I made him a lego brick cake that looked pretty stupid. Tasted awesome though and in the end that is what really matters, right?

Danny has a super busy semester. Mine is not much better.

The joy of this semester is my senior project. I love it! I am volunteering at a middle school. I work with students who are at "academic risk". It is so challenging but in a fascinating way.

I have been at JCPenney for three years now. Wow. I might be moving out of the suit department. It is just a possibility though.

I graduate in April! I am so excited and so stressed at the same time.

And that about sums everything up. My avid readers are now up to date.

I asked Danny if he would like to add anything about his semester. I told him that I already put that his semester is super busy. He told me, "Can't add anything. I'm too busy"

Love,

Us



I don't know, something about this comic really rang out to me.... :)

Update: Christmas

Let's go back in time a couple months and I will tell you about Christmas!

Up until Christmas I worked, a lot. Long hours, lots of people, and lots of craziness.

Christmas Eve we had our nice dinner. Christmas morning we opened presents and had a yummy breakfast casserole that I have had just about every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember.




This is Danny with his loot. Notice he got lots of Star Wars stuff.

The following Sunday we, along with Erick, drove to California. I love road trips!

California was great. I had a great time not working and not school-ing.




Danny and I went to Seal Beach. I love the ocean.

A Christmas tradition in Danny's family is to have Tamales, Costa Rican style. They are wrapped in Platano leaves and have raisins, rice, red peppers, pork, and cilantro. I helped assembling them and it was fantastic! I maybe got a little cilantro happy on a few of them but they tasted delicious. (I looooove cilantro)



A nice shot of us assembling the Tamales.

And for kicks and giggles here is a sunset picture:




So all in all Christmas break was nice, but as always, way too short.

It was still Christmas...

...on my blog! I just now took down the delightful snowflake paper I had. The blog was like one of those eccentric people that keep Christmas lights up all year round, and turn them on.

Yikes and sorry folks. (by folks I mean, the two people that actually read this thing. haha)

I do not have a lot of time right now to do a major update. I thought I should just drop in though and say that things are good but busy. Danny and I are both "busy busy busy, like really tall bees"

Sometime in the not too distant future I will update..maybe throw in some pictures from Christmas and all will be well. Right? Right.