Paigola

October 2011

2011-11-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

We´ve been teaching this young man named Paulo for a week or so, and he was our only investigator to go to church on Sunday. We´re pretty excited for him. He´s so ready for the peace that the gospel can bring. He´s progressing so well. It´s all pretty exciting. We´ve been noticing a lot this week that we don´t have a ton of people to teach, but the people we do have are super solid. We´ve been working really hard to improve our teaching skills and teach more according to the needs of the investigators and more with the spirit. It's been amazing to see the difference. We have all these special people to teach and as we teach with the spirit and allow him to guide the lesson it becomes a spiritual experience for everyone. Funny how it takes me half of my mission to figure out how to apply better the things I learned in the MTC.

And in other news, I made a pie the other week. It was an apple pie and it was positively delicious. I found a recipe and decided to make it. It's funny to see how I'm becoming so domestic. Some days I make dinner for us and I've made bread. It's fun. I've become very good at making rice too. Here it´s hard to see a meal pass without eating rice, I´m practically a professional. I´m still waiting to learn how to make beans though. We always have rice and beans with everything, but I haven´t figured out how to do the beans yet. But I will. I´m determined to learn how to cook all of this brazilian food, so I can make it for myself at home.

Well, this week was pretty normal. The time is just passing super fast. Sunday Sister Farias and I came down with a bug and were stuck inside all day. There´s nothing more frustrating than having a million things to do, people to visit, and your body telling you to go back to bed. But by the next day we were all better, back to work. But it was funny, the mission doctor called us to see how we were doing, and it was a pretty normal conversation. Only that he´s American so he spoke in english with me and I found it super hard to respond. I was understanding everything, no problems, but to answer his questions everything came out wrong. It was like caveman speech. I haven´t had any real problems writing emails in english or writing in english in my journal, so I´m not sure why speaking was such a struggle. It makes me a little worried to see where my english is in 7 months when I come home. But I´m sure it´ll all work out.

Anyway, the work just continues to move forward. Like I said last week, we have such special people we´re teaching. We´re trying so hard to have one more baptism together, but the transfer is passing quickly and it looks like no one will be ready in time. But we just have to remember that everything´s in the Lord´s timing. If we push too much for our own timetable we´ll just mess everything up. We have to just Trust that everything will work out in it´s own time. It´s hard to be patient at times, but it´s worth it. Vale a pena :)

So this week we had a miracle. For serious, up to this point in my mission it´s my most special experience. So the other week I mentioned Paulo who we´ve been working with. Our lessons with him have been almost sacred the spirit is so strong, mostly because his desire to learn and to change is so sincere. So this past week or so I´ve been praying a lot to see Paulo´s baptism. I think I´ll be leaving Novo Hamburgo this next transfer in the beginning of November, so I´d been praying to see his baptism. Sister Farias and I had already been talking about Nov 5th as a possibility for his baptism, the last Saturday of the transfer. Anyway, so we met with him on Saturday and the lesson went super well. We saw again just how much he´s changing and felt again like he´s ready to be baptized. So I invited him again to be baptized and he shied away. He doesn´t feel ready. But I talked with him about making a goal, setting a date to work towards, but nothing solidified.And as much as we wanted to see him baptized Nov 5th we felt impressed to let it be. He´s ready, but we let it be. I didn´t want to push for something just because I wanted it. I wanted to see his baptism, but we felt like it just wasn´t the Lord´s timing.
Then on Sunday we were all sitting in church in Sacrament meeting and during someone´s talk about the blessings of the temple in relation to our family, Paulo got up quickly and left the room. A few minutes later, he called us into the hallway to talk. And through his tears, he asked us when could he be baptized. Sis. Farias and I looked at each other and she said November 5th and he accepted. I asked what happened, what had changed, and from what I understood through the tears was that he wants to bring his family to the church, he wants his family united in the gospel. So we all cried together for a few minutes and then returned to the meeting where I paid almost no attention to what was said I was in such a shock. The spirit had taught Paulo and gave him a sense of urgency that Sister Farias and I couldn´t.

But my God is a God of miracles. I can´t express how much this gift that he´s giving me to see Paulo´s baptism means to me. But he only gave it, after I gave up my will for his. Heavenly Father loves me, He loves Sister Farias, but most of all he loves Paulo. I´m so excited for him. There isn´t anything more beautiful than seeing someone repent and change. Than seeing the Atonement literally working in someone´s life.

That´s what it means to be a missionary, to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands. But really all we do is live worthy of the spirit, bring it with us to the lessons, and listen to the person we´re teaching. Listen to what they have to say and then the spirit gives us the words we need and then more importantly, he teaches the investigator. The spirit is the real teacher in a good lesson. And it´s when as a teacher we learn to hand off the lesson to him, that things actually happen. That the students actually feel that desire, that need to change and apply the things learned.

Anyway, I love the gospel, I love being a missionary.
com muito amor e carinho,
Sister Hughes

September 2011

2011-10-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Novo Hamburgo!
I´m keeping busy. There´s always so many people to visit. some days I wish there were two extra days in the week. One more to work and another to rest because one p-day just isn´t enough.

And our ward is good. It´s not big, but I haven´t been asked to do more than give a talk. They´re all so good. It´s amazing what happens when the members trust us missionaries. We had a neat experience yesterday where we were working in a neighborhood and almost all of our appointments fell through. so I turned to Sister and asked where she wanted to go, who to visit, and almost immediately she said Magali. After she mentioned this member of the ward I felt super good, confirmation that that was where we needed to go. So we went and visited her, everything normal. Then we asked if she knew anyone who we should teach, and she told that she had the thought that very morning to tell us about her neighbor. The spirit for sure guided us there to talk with her about her neighbor. We´re excited to see what the fruits of this referral are.

We´re just working working working. We don´t have a ton of investigators, but the ones we do have are all super special. It´s so neat to see how the Lord places people in your path so you can help them.

Then Saturday we had a baptism!! Marcelo, the husband of a member got baptized and it was amazing. He´s such a good man, and he was so prepared for the gospel. Marcia, his wife shared with us the other day how a few months ago, she and her brother who´s a member would be talking about the church and Marcelo would try to say something negative or wrong about the church, and finally, Marcia told him that if he wanted to say something to first read the Book of Mormon. and now he´s a member. It´s amazing the power of the Book of Mormon. Sunday morning when he was confirmed I thought about how little we actually did. We were there to teach him what he needed to know, but really he, and the spirit did all of the work. We were just there as spectators. But regardless we´re a part of the family. And the baptism really was super special. There was a spirit so sweet in that meeting. He´s going to do great things.

There´s a million more people I could write and talk about, but I´m tired so I won´t. But life is fantastic, we´re just working hard. That and I just love Sister Farias to peices. We´ve decided to grow our hair out super long so that we can sell it and have enough money to visit Portugal together after our missions. haha. We´ll see how our master plan works out.
But life is good, I´m super happy.

We found a super special family this week that we´re teaching. They´ve truly been waiting for the gospel. Everything just continues. There´s lots of work to do, lots of fun to be had. And spring is arriving with plenty of sunshine. They even have Azaleas here. I took a picture and everything.

I´m ridiculously happy to be staying here in Novo Hamburgo with Sister Farias. We´re ready to keep up this pace and get a lot done this transfer. Então, tudo jóia :)
Enjoy some of the pictures we took at the Santuária das Mães.

August 2011

2011-10-02T12:27:00.001-07:00

Oi gente!

Saturday we worked in a neighborhood kind of far again, but it was so worth the bus fare. We´re teaching the husband of a member there and he´s progressing so well. When we began teacing Marcelo his wife warned us that he´s a slow mover, that he doesn´t like to feel pressured. So we´ve been taking it easy. But in the week since we last taught him he´s read about 19 chapters in the Book of Mormon and he prays before and after every time he reads. He doesn´t like to be pressured but he has such a sincere desire to learn for himself if what we teach is true. He´s coming along so well.

Then we had another neat experience with another family in this neighborhood. Last week when we met them we just left a super short message and promised to return. So we returned and when we were talking with them they expressed some of their concerns with some religions, and their experience with God and how they feel in relation to him, etc. Then they talked about how when we showed up at their house the other week they felt a peace when we were there with them. It was incredible to hear how they recognized the spirit. It was one of those special, holy cow I´m a missionary, kind of moments. They´re a super special family too.

Basically all of my good news comes from this one neighborhood that we have to take a bus to get to. A good chunk of our area here is tall apartment buildings and larger houses belonging to wealthier people. But there in Roselândia the neighborhood is a little more humble. But I think the difference is working with a member there. With Marcia working with us, we have so many of her friends, family, and neighbors to teach. And so many of them are just ready for the gospel. It´s way exciting.
Anyway, but life is just good.

We´re just continuing to work. But today is our last real p-day of the transfer so Sis.Braga and I decided to do something more exciting. So this morning we went to Lomba Grande. It´s a little town kind of far from the center where we live, but it´s still in our area. So we caught the bus and went there for the first time for either of us. We heard there were touristy things to do so we went. Turns out there´s almost nothing there. Maybe in the summer there´s more to do, but all we found was a tunnel of trees over some road. And we had to walk pretty far in order to find it too. We walked forever and finally found it, then walked for forever again just to find a bus stop to take us back to Novo Hamburgo. It´s kind of annoying to be more tired on our day off than on our usual work day. But it worked out. It really was pretty out there. Very rural with lots of pretty views. It´s interesting to think what spring and summer are like here. It´s winter now and all of the trees are still green, but everyone says spring and summer are much nicer. It´s hard to imagine things being more green.

I wish I had something else of note to share, but our week was pretty mundane. Now we´re just getting antsy for transfers next week. We´re so curious to know what´ll happen. If we both stay, if one of us leaves... etc. But I´ll let you know if anything changes next week.

So we´ve started a new transfer off with a bang. Sister Braga was transferred and Sister Farias has joined me here in Novo Hamburgo and I just love her to death. She´s from Forteleza, way up in the northeast, and has the longest most beautiful hair I´ve ever seen. Lots of times when someone has really long hair it looks unkempt, but hers is so shiny and pretty. But most importantly she´s a hard worker and a phenomenal missionary. I like her lots, we´re working really well together.
And in other news, we´re preparing Marcelo for baptism! So Sister Braga and I began teaching him, and right off the bat he was so sincere and diligent. Then last week we were talking with Marcia, his wife, and out of the blue she tells us that Marcelo wants to get baptized. But we didn´t invite him right away, for some reason we wanted to wait until the next lesson. But then this Saturday we went to teach him again, and Sister Farias in a very simple direct manner invited Marcelo to be baptized and he accepted. The spirit was super strong and we´re all super happy for him. He knows what´s right. He´s a very sincere person. When he dedicates himself to something, he sticks with it.

Anyway, so I´m doing really good. Last week I reached the halfway point of my mission and it´s super strange. Sometimes it feels like I´ve been out for more time, other times it feels like I just left. The mission is almost like the twilight zone in the way time passes. But it´s good.

So the weather here has been kind of insane. Since I got here in Novo Hamburgo at the begining of July it´s been off and on hot and cold, but never really getting super cold like it was in Venâncio. But this week it´s started to get cold cold again. I think we might have a few more weeks of winter, but all of the members say that in September it starts to get warmer. I am tired of winter, but I´m a little scared of a Brazilian summer. From what I´ve heard it gets super hot, and it´s really humid here. But I already have sunblock, so hopefully all I´ll get are freckles. I´ll make sure to be careful though. But I have another few weeks before I have to worry about it.

July 2011

2011-09-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

So I´ve been trasfered here to Novo Hamburgo, about 40 minutes from Porto Alegre by bus. It´s a decent sized city with a fairly large downtown area with tall buildings and such. And our area is a good chunk of the city. It´s big, but that just means there´s always plenty to do. I´m sad to leave Venâncio Aires, Sister Inhuma and I were really starting to have a lot of success there, and I love the members and the people. There are families there who are literally like second, third families for me. But Novo Hamburgo is nice. It´s very pretty here. It feels like we´re nestled in the mountains. It´s very hilly, and from some parts of the city you can see for miles. And with Sister Braga we´re working very hard. My legs are already tired from all of the walking, and climbing hills. There are seriously hills almost 90 degrees. But she´s actually pretty easy on me. At times we take a longer route so I don´t have to climb some of the really steep ones before being more adjusted. And Sis. Braga´s pretty awesome. She´s from Rio de Janeiro and talks super fast with a lot of slang. So at times I don´t understand her, but for sure my portuguese is going to improve with her help. She´s very good about correcting my speech without making me feel stupid. Though there are things she corrects that I´ve been saying since the begining. I don´t know why my other companions didn´t correct me. But she´s a hard worker and we´re getting along very well already. And she´s going to teach me how to cook like a brazilian. I´m going to learn how to make rice and beans, and this cake we saw in a bakery that she said she knew how to make with bananas on top. It´s going to be great. I hope she know how to prepare bananas to eat with dinner too. Here you can cook the bananas, fried maybe? and eat them with the rice and beans, meat, everything. It´s so good. You wouldn´t think so, but really, it´s like my new favorite thing.

And Novo Hamburgo is a lot warmer than Venâncio was. I don´t know if we´re having a heat spell or something, but it´s been super warm this week. It´s chilly in the morning, but by the time we´re halfway to our lunch appointment we´re taking off our coats and sweaters and socks. And especially after lunch when we´re walking quickly to our appointments it gets pretty warm. In Venâncio everyone said that the worst of the winter was in July and August, so I´m curious if this warm weather will stay or it it´ll get cold again. Either way I think I´m prepared.

So I got the package Thursday and it´s perfect! between you guys and the package from Jackie I´m swimming in snacks and goodies. While I was opening the package my companion was like who is this child and where did my companion go? I got a little excited over the pop tarts and swedish fish, and the much needed shoes. They´re perfect, thank you.
Sister Braga has a lot of Brazilian pride and was asking why the snacks were better than what they have here, and I tried to explain how pop tarts are comfort food, but I´m not sure she grasped the whole concept of comfort food. But all the same she´s enjoying the snacks along with me. She especially likes the milanos.

This week was good. I´m not sure if I have anything distinctive to share. The area´s really hard. It´s big and there hasn´t been any real success in a while. At times it feels like we just walk and walk and walk all day without anything really happening. But our numbers are improving. In the two weeks I´ve been here we´ve had more lessons. Slowly but surely things are looking up. This weekend we´re going to a neighborhood kind of far, we have to take a bus to get there, because a member there has a sack full of referrals. We´re excited to get out there. All week we´ve been feeling impressed to go there, and so we were super excited when Marcia arranged to go with us. Neither of us know the streets there so we need a member who lives there to help us navigate. We just love Marcia. In the two weeks I´ve been here she´s brought a non-member friend to church with her every Sunday. So we´re pretty excited to work in Roselandia, this neighborhood.

But really life is good. Sis. Braga´s a lot of fun. Even when we´re tired we always find something to laugh at. The other night we were walking home and it started to rain. neither of us had our umbrellas and this was RAIN. It was pouring and we were still on the other side of the city of our apartment. But we had fun singing songs. I sang "Singing in the rain", and we just laughed and laughed. By the time we got home we were soaked through, but tudo bem. Nothing warm pajamas and hot chocolate couldn´t cure.

So that was my week. I´m tired, but happy. I´m excited to get fired up tomorrow at Zone conference.

More of June

2011-09-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

So this week was pretty typical. The problem with our chuveiros got fixed. So we´re taking warm showers in the morning again. What a blessing. Although the water´s never exactly hot. It´s not cold, but not hot either, so needless to say, my mission is teaching me to take short showers. But all is well, we´re just plugging along.

Anyway, winter is starting to settle in. At least in the morning is super cold, but by the time we leave the apartment the sun is shining and it´s hot out. But Sunday was cold cold cold. Even in the afternoon there was a little bite to the air. Winter here is a lot different. I don´t think it´ll be as cold as it is at home, but no one has heating in their houses. Even the people who are a little more well-off. Everyone just wears a lot of sweaters and slippers when they´re in the house. The mornings are the worst though. It´s so hard to get out of bed when the bed´s the only warm place in the apartment. But we do, and everything works out.

We´ve been teaching Luana who´s 15 and soaking up the gospel like a sponge. Oh well, it´s too late now. I´ve been transferred. I´ll find out tomorrow in the bus station in Porto Alegre where I´m going. I wanted so bad to see Luana baptized, but tudo bem. I know the Lord has a purpose in moving me. I got an email from Presidente Pavan saying
"OK. OBRIGADO. VOCÊ ESTÁ FAZENDO UM GRANDE TRABALHO MISSIONÁRIO. PARABÉNS.
AGORA O SENHOR PRECISA DE SUA AJUDA EM OUTRO LUGAR. SEI QUE FARÁ UM BELO TRABALHO EM SUA NOVA ÁREA.
SERÁO NOVOS DESAFIOS E TAMBÉM MOMEMTOS DE MUITO CRESCIMENTO.
PRES. PAVAN"
Translation: ok, thanks (in response to last weeks email). You are doing a great missionary work. Congratulations. Now the Lord needs your help in another place. I know that you will do a beautiful work in your new area. There will be new challenges and also moments of much growth.
Pres. Pavan.

So here we go. New adventures. I´m always a little apprehensive about a new transfer and always it works out just fine. I had hoped to have another transfer with Sis. Inhuma. So far I´ve only ever had one transfer with every companion. I´ve never had more than 6 weeks with anyone. With the exception of Sis. Dangerfield in the MTC. But even that was a little different. We were a trio and then after 6 weeks, it was just the two of us. I hope at some point in my mission I get 2 transfers with someone. Just watch, now I´ll have a companion I don´t like for 2 transfers. Ahaha.

June 2011

2011-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

I´m not sure why, but here I´m a cat magnet. All of the cats in all of the houses I enter are instantly my best friend. Especially in the house of a recent convert in our branch. One of her cats Frederico always jumps up on my lap as soon as I sit down. Apparently he doesn´t like anyone else. Marile calls me the cat whisperer.

Last week I bought some more long sleeve shirts and a sweater, and so far they´ve been enough. But if I need more I´ll for sure take care of it. Though shopping here´s kind of annoying. Maybe not all of the stores, but in this store I bought stuff in last week, the sales clerk hovered the entire time we were in there. And I mean hovered. She was at my elbow the whole time, sometimes she would leave for a second but only to show me some other shirt that I didn´t want. I probably would have bought more if she had just let me be to wander and pick out what I wanted. But it worked out, I got what I needed.

I´m not dreaming in portuguese yet, at least not that I remember. But I think Sister Inhuma told me a few weeks ago that I spoke in my sleep in portuguese. It does feel like I´ve been here longer. I have about a year exactly left on the mission. It´s weird to think about. Some days it feels like I just got here, and others it feels like I´ve been here for ages. And this transfer especially is going by so fast. We´ve started the 4th week of 6 already. I could have sworn Sister Inhuma just arrived.

The real lives of brazilians really are like soap operas. Everyone´s so dramatic. Sunday was o dia dos namorados. It´s like their Valentines Day. And there was this huge dance in Porto Alegre, called the dance of roses. And what happens is, if a boy gives you a yellow rose it means he wants to be your friend, a pink rose means he wants to talk with you, and a red rose means he wants to date you. And there´s this 18 year old girl in our ward. She was telling us the other day that if she doesn´t recieve a rose at this dance she´s going to be so sad. She didn´t know what she would do if she didn´t recieve a rose. But no worries, she recieved 2 roses, from what I understand, one pink and one red and was very pleased with herself. She´s so funny.
The people here are very dramatic, very passionate, and very open and loving. And despite being quiet I think the people like me too. At least the Irmãs are always calling me little doll, or dear one. Maybe because I´m small and pale they feel maternal towards me. Será.

I´m not sure how exactly, but we taught 27 lessons this week. Usually we have more like 17. The elders are green with envy too that we had so many lessons and then 6 people in church. The Lord is really blessing us. We´ve worked really hard this transfer and it feels good to be having a little bit of success. All week we invited everyone we know, everyone we´re teaching, to come to church. Then Sunday, we had 4 of our own investigators. Then out of no where these two old men come out of nowhere and participate in all of our meetings. We thought they were friends of a member, but they literally just wandered in off the street. So naturally we got their addresses and set up a time to visit and teach them. But it was way interesting to see how we had set a goal, and then we tried real hard to reach that goal, and then where we fell short, the Lord stepped in and brought some friends to church for us.

We´re really finding some incredible people to teach. At the end of last week we found this family, Lizete, the mom, Luana and Luiza, her daughters. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and left them a copy to read and pray about. The older daughter Luana was so excited to read the Book of Mormon. I told them about how in my copy of the book I´ve been reading and marking the references to Christ. His names and his own words, etc. and how my book is just full of color. Almost every page has a marking. And Luana said I want to do that too! It was super exciting, and all week I couldn´t wait to get back there and teach again. Then Saturday there was a branch activity and we invited the family and Luana came and it was perfect. We invited one of the other young women to come and stay with Luana during the activity to she´d have a friend, and she was perfect. Grazila showed her around the building explained things without making her feel stupid or left out. It was just perfect. Then Sunday Luana came to church and really liked it. We´re so excited.

And then our biggest miracle this week was Davi. Davi is 8 years old and has wanted to get baptized for ages, has already been taught by the sisters and everything. Davi´s grandma called and told us that his mom had granted permission! We freaked out in the happiest most joyful way possible. We were literally celebrating in the street. So July 2nd Davi will be baptized and we couldn´t be happier for him. For an 8 year old he has a testimony so strong. He told us about how he had prayed about whether or not the church was true, and then he was reading the scriptures and found his answer that yes this was the right path for him. An 8 year old, receiving revelation through the scriptures. Que coisa maravilhosa.

So needless to say, I´m doing really well. I´m busy busy busy, but it´s a good busy. And Sister Inhuma said that last night I was talking in my sleep in Portuguese, so I´m thinking this is a good sign. It´s hard sometimes to recognize that the language is improving. But then yesterday we ran into Alvori in the street. Alvori was baptized my first week here, and we hadn´t seen him for some weeks. And I could understand probably 90% of what he said. When I got here I could only understand probably 15% or what he said. I don´t know why, something about his accent or the way he speaks, it´s more difficult for me to understand. But yesterday I understood almost everything he said. It was an exciting moment.

May 2011

2011-09-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

This last week or so has been craziness. We´ve just been working working working. We´ve been teaching and meeting so many special people . Although we´re a little sad today since it´s transfers. We got the call this morning that Sister Mota´s been transfered, so tomorrow she´ll be gone to some different area and I´ll recieve a new companion. We wanted so bad to stay together for another 6 weeks but the Lord has other plans for us. I´m mostly just nervous about knowing the area without Sister Mota. I hope I can navigate my way around to our investigators well enough. That and I´m going to miss Sister Mota a lot. It´s weird how you can be such good friends with someone without being able to communicate in the way you want. But she´s an amazing person and a good missionary. She´ll be missed for sure in Venâncio. So starting tomorrow we´re off to new adventures.

Anyway, the past week or so we´ve had some tender experiences. Always we´re praying to find people prepped and ready to accept the gospel, and last week we were walking down the street and passed a woman in her yard, and we turned and decided to talk to her. Her face instantly lit up and she let us in and we left a Book of Mormon with her and her husband to read. Specifically we gave them 3rd Nephi 11 to read. So when we returned a few days later, without even asking, Marciana tells us that she´s been reading the book we gave her and that she likes it a lot. Then she asked what does Hosana mean? And it led right into our next planned lesson and everything. It´s not as common as we´d hope for someone to actually read what we ask and then be so excited about it. She came to church yesterday and just soaked everything up.

Then the other day we were visiting with Dona Onilda and her daughter Joana. Onilda´s about 83 if I remember right, bedridden, and a lot weaker than when we met them a few weeks ago. She´s completely dependent in everything to her daughter Joana and is very very quiet. She only speaks a teensy bit, and it´s been less and less every time we visit. But she loves it when we sing hymns. So we were visiting them and Onilda asks for Chimarrão, not for herself but for us because that´s what good hostesses do, offer Chimarrão. So while Joana was in the kithchen making the chimarrão, Sister Mota and I sang a few hymns for her. During the first hymn, Sister Mota nudges me and gestures to Onilda, and she´s laying there crying, she was so touched by the music. And when we finished and Sister Mota asked how she liked it, she simply said "I cried." Then after Joana returned we told her what had happened and Joana started to cry. She wouldn´t tell us why exactly, but we think it touched her that her mother was so affected by the music. And Onilda being so weak we think Joana´s a little sensitive right now. But we love visiting them. There´s something special about their home.

Then yesterday Sister Mota and I gave talks in church and it was a powerful experience too. So we´ve known we were giving talks for a week or so, but we´re busy and haven´t had time really to figure out what we would say etc. And on top of it I had to give a training, kind of like a talk, in our district meeting on Thursday, so we didn´t have the preparation that we wanted. I would read stuff that I wanted to share, but everything was so scattered. So come Sunday morning neither I nor Sister Mota really had anything gelled to share in Sacrament meeting. But I had a few notes and got up and started talking, and ended up actually filling my allotted time. But I shared an experience I had had the night before, where I was talking with Sister Dangerfield on the phone and we were talking about how when we were in the MTC, all the time we´d have little A-Ha moments where we´d realize that we were missionaries. And I mentioned that I still have those moments where I kind of take a step back and realize what I´m doing. And Sister Dangerfield asked what the little experiences are like for me. And I told her about how when I´m in a lesson or giving that training, and the spirit´s giving me the words to say and I´m actually speaking portuguese, and I recognize that it´s for sure not me and that I´m recieving divine assistance. I take a step back and and think about how this work that I´m doing is so much bigger than me. If it wasn´t important than the Lord wouldn´t help me in such a profound way. And he has helped me. There´s no way I could learn portuguese in 2 months, not speak it for almost 3, and then be able to communicate with people after only a month or so in Brazil, without His help. It really is the Lord´s work. Anyway, so I shared in Sacrament Meeting what I had told Sister Dangerfield, and today our branch president said that when I was speaking about my struggles with the language and bearing testimony of the importance of missionary work, I was speaking fluently. I don´t really remember this, well, I don´t really remember much of what I said actually. But it was interesting, When Sister Mota finished her talk I leaned over and told her that she said everything that I couldn´t, and she responded that I had said everything she needed to start hers. Anyway, it was just a neat experience to see how the Lord guided us to say what the branch needed to hear.

This week has been a little doida (crazy) but good. Tuesday, because of transfers Sister Mota went to Porto Alegre, while I stayed in Santa Cruz with some other sisters to wait for my new companion. And we had a lot of fun being tourists. There´s this huge park with a cave, and monkeys and lots of pretty things to see and we had a lot of fun taking pictures and chatting. Then Tuesday evening, my new companion Sister Inhuma arrived and we returned to Venâncio Aires. Sister Inhuma is great. I´ve really been blessed with great companions on my mission. Every transfer is a little nerve-wracking since girls are crazy. But I´ve been super blessed. So Sister Inhuma is from Recife, way up in the Northeast, and has only 3 months left on the mission. She and Sister Mota were actually companions in the MTC. But we´re having a lot of fun already and working hard. We´ve already had some adventures in the apartment. Our Chuveira broke this week. It´s a little machine? tool? thing that heats the water in the shower, so we haven´t had any hot water for our showers all week. So we´ve been heating water on the stove and managing well enough. But then yesterday morning our gas for the stove ran out, but all was well since the Branch President was coming over later to fix our Chuveira. But when he came over he couldn´t quite manage it, so he took it home with him to fix there. But thankfully he arranged for someone to come deliver a new propane tank. Bah, adventures. So this morning we at least had hot water from the stove to use. But I think if I understood correctly President is bringing the chuveira tonight. So hopefully we´ll have hot showers again soon.

But we´ve had some good laughs over everything. Sister Inhuma loves to laugh and she´s super friendly, so all of the ward members love her already, as well as our investigators so the transition has been easy.
It´s crazy that we´re coming into June now. It for sure doesn´t feel like it. We´re moving steadily into fall, and we wake up every morning cold cold cold, but by the afternoon it´s hot again. So I never know what to wear in the morning. But it´s really not super cold yet. Everyone says in July and August it´s the worst. So we´ll see how it turns out.

April 2011

2011-09-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Sister Mota and I are having a ton of fun and working hard. We had the opportunity to go on splits with our Branch President´s wife and daughter, and ended up finding a family of 5 to teach! We were visiting with a less active family, and the wife mentioned that the family living across the street would be interested in the gospel, so we walked over and taught them about the Book of Mormon and invited them to read and they said they would. It was awesome. Now we´re just trying to figure out when to go back. They live kinda far and on splits we got there by car, but it´s a rare thing for us to have a ride. So we´re trying to figure out a way to get there again to teach. We´re pretty optimistic that the whole family´s getting baptized. Anyway, I´ve found that I enjoy talking with children the most. They´re always so friendly and a lot less intimidating to talk to than their parents. I get a little scared speaking to people in portuguese because 8 times out of 10 I don´t understand what they´re saying to me, but with kids it´s a little less pressure. And they´re so funny. It´s like with the nametag comes this instantaneous love on their part, and they just want to sit next to me and ask me questions about the United States or hear words in english, etc. I just love their sweet little faces. On Sunday Sister Mota and I popped into Primary and were swarmed by the children wanting to shake our hands or give us hugs. Then we got to play a game with them. So much fun.

But despite all of the walking and walking that we do, I´m afraid all of this delicious brazilian food is making me fat. Southern hospitality is nothing compared to brazilian hospitality. Every house we go to they feed us this or that. And then because this week was Páscoa (Easter) we were eating chocolate chocolate chocolate, and it just continues. Even for normal lunches, people are always telling us, Eat Sister! Eat more! So, I´m going to work real hard to not have to buy new clothes.

Well, things are just peachy here. It´s starting to get colder which is kind of a nice change from the sweltering heat, but people keep warning me that the winters are super cold. So we´ll see if Washington prepared me well enough.
But I couldn´t be happier. And this week on Friday we´re having a huge mission conference, with all of the Porto Alegre North mission, as well as the South Mission, because Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming to visit. So we´re getting super excited to go hear an apostle speak to us. And Sister Mota has been asked to give the opening prayer. She´s so nervous, but she´ll be fine. Aaaaand, we heard from the office elders that my MTC companions got their visas, so they should be there at the conference and I´m so excited to see them. I love Brazil and I´ve been making friends, etc. But there´s something different about seeing an already familiar face.
Well, Thanks for all the love. Eu amo vocês muito muito muito!

Oi de Brasil!!!

2011-04-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

Olá!!
Greetings from Brazil! It is insane to think about how a week ago I was on my way here. Brazil is crazy and wonderful all in its own way. In the airport after arriving in Sao Paolo I bumped into a bunch of elders all going to Brazil. It looks like a ton of missionaries got their visas the same time I did. Waiting for my plane to Porto Alegre I bumped into a bunch of different elders and sisters I knew in the MTC. But it sounds like me and one other elder are the only ones from our MTC district to have received our visas as far as I know. I did hear that my MTC companions are still in Alabama, as well as the other elder coming to Porto Alegre.

Yes, Monday is P-day and we do have access to a little internet shop where we can email. Emailing president was super hard in portuguese.

Anyway, So President Pavan and his wife picked me up from the airport and I stayed in the mission home that night. Sister Pavan is just so sweet. She doesn't speak any english, and my portuguese is a little rough, so communicating was hard, but even still she went out of her way to make me feel welcome. Driving in Brazil is absolute insanity. The cars make 3 lanes out of a two lane road and then there are people on motorcylces driving in between the already limited space between cars. And everybody drives so fast. Im so happy to be walking everywhere. So then Wednesday morning President took me to the mission office where I met the assistants and the 5 elders who arrived a few hours after I had on Tuesday. Then we all went to the Federal Police something or other where we waited for ages to get our paper work certified.

Then the assistants took me in a taxi to my first area, Gravataí. Except it´s not really my first area. President has had me working here with Sister Gonçalves and Sister Sousa for this week, because transfers are happening tomorrow actually, so tomorrow we go to Porto Alegre and I´ll be assigned to an official trainer in my first area. But my current companions have been amazing. They´re so patient. I speak more portuguese than I understand and it´s frustrating for us all when they´re trying to explain something and I´m just not getting it. Both are from Forteleza, Brazil and speak no english. But we´ve been having a lot of fun, and they´re very encouraging. I´m treated no differently than if I was brazilian and could understand what they said. I´m still expected to teach my portion of the lesson and talk to people on the street. So I´m learning, but it´s hard.

But I´m already falling in love with the country. It´s so so so beautiful. There´s trees everywhere and the people really are so friendly. I´ve felt so welcomed here. And even we can eat fruit right off the trees in the street. I had some sort of berry that Sister Sousa was eating the other day and it was quite tasty. I don´t remember what it´s called or else I´d tell you. It´s funny though, we talked to this woman the other night who had never met an American before me. I was her first to have ever laid eyes on and she had so many questions. People here are just fascinated by the snow. They´re always asking if there´s snow where I live. It´s funny, before I left Washington, an elder who served in the next mission over had just returned home from his mission and I asked him what the weather was like and he said it was getting cold since winter is coming. So I arrive thinking it´ll be at least a little more like fall, but it´s still super hot. Though in the evening it does get into maybe the 70s and my companions from the northeast are shivering and complaining about the cold, and I just laugh. But I have heard it gets into the 40s when winter comes for real. An elder from the states said that in Caxias which is probably a colder part in the mission, it got to about 30. So I´m not super worried. I think Washington prepared me well enough.

Anyway, Brazil is amazing. Everything is different, but I´m just loving it. It´s hard not really speaking the language because I want to learn about everything so bad, but I´m limited in what I can learn until I can understand the answers. But I know it´ll come. And before I know it I won´t remember how to speak english.
So next week I´ll have to tell you about my first official area and my trainer and everything.

2011-04-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

After two and half months in Cheney, Washington, it's time to go to on to Porto Alegre Brazil! Flying to the southern hemisphere tomorrow morning! Hurray!!!

Paige on a bike

2011-03-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

So this week was awesome! We're just plugging along. And we got hit with a surprise Monday when the mission office called about our car. Since we're covering only half of Cheney, and it's such a small town, they took the car to give to elders or sisters who need it more somewhere else. And since it looks like we're pretty much done with the snow and ice here, we pulled out the bikes. It's been such an adventure. The first day or so on bike were absolutely miserable, but my puny muscles are adjusting and I'm getting stronger. With the exception of yesterday, it's even been kinda fun peddling around town, despite looking like mega-dorks with our skirts and helmets. But yesterday was just as miserable as the first day again. Sundays are just crazy in general. So we have a meeting at the Cheney ward building at 7, so we left at 6:30, wiping the frost from our bike seats. Then after that meeting, we have to peddle over to the institute building for another meeting at 8:15, then back to the other building for church with the Cheney 1st ward. Then back to the institute for the single's ward. So after making the 10-15 minute bike ride like 4 times, we were so exhausted. We pushed through though, and despite our Sunday feeling like it lasted a million years, we had a good day.

This week we found and have been teaching this man and his son, who actually move back to Hong Kong on Wednesday, but they're so prepared for the gospel. We know we were meant to find them and prepare them for missionaries in Hong Kong. The son has such a desire to know that God is there and loves him, and his father has already had so many special experiences with his prayers being answered. It's only a matter of time.

It's so crazy how quickly you can develop that attachment and love for people.

But in general everything's going good. we're just working hard and teaching lots.

Beginning of March in Cheney

2011-03-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

At a district meeting.

My first pizza in the field.

So we found out about transfers last night and it's been kind of a rough night/morning. I'm staying in Cheney with Sister Ginos and Sister Jensen as my companions, but Sister Peck is going to Colville, up super close to Canada, and she's not happy about it. I'm doing ok. I'm feeling a lot better about it this morning than I was last night. I'm just not wild about change right now. It's going to be weird being in a trio again, and getting used to new companions, etc. But it'll all work out. Poor Sister Peck doesn't want to leave at all.

I love my family so much. I'm so grateful for the family I was sent to. I have loving, supportive parents, and awesome siblings. You would not believe how normal we are. And I am so so so grateful.

February in Cheney

2011-03-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

Busy teaching

We got snow!

Ola!!
So this week was awesome. I am healthy again so it's been a lot easier to get out and work. Sister Peck hasn't been feeling well though, but we're working hard regardless. And one of our investigators Mike has a baptismal date! We're so proud of him. Last week we committed him to the first Saturday in March so he'd have something to work towards. But then this week we were talking to him about it and he said that the 26th kept coming to mind for a baptismal date, so that's what we set. It was so exciting to see him recieve that revelation to know when he should be baptized. And he picked the date without knowing that it was the day his son John was getting baptized. So we'll have a father son baptism and we're so excited. It's going to be so tender for them to share that date. And they're such a nice family, we're so pumped to see them united in the gospel.

And then we've been teaching a different Mike in the YSA ward who's trying to come back to church, and I was talking with Sister Peck after one of his lessons this week about how his lessons feel like sacred ground because the spirit is always so strong. And it's because he's so honest and sincere in his desire to learn and to repent. He's been doing so good. We're just so proud.

Then a miracle! I had called a former investigator earlier that week, and he called me back. That's a huge deal. People never call back, members, non members, it doesn't matter, people just don't return our calls. But this young man called me back to set up an appointment.
It's so rewarding to see weeks of hard work start to really pay off and to see miracles happen in people's lives, and to see miracles happen in the work.

January in Cheney, Washington

2011-03-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

So here I am in Cheney, Washington. It's cold but it's awesome, and today we're going to wal-mart so I can get some turtlenecks and warm socks. So as a part of my first area we cover Cheney 1st ward and the West Plains YSA ward. So we cover a part of the town and then all of the Eastern Washington University campus. So a handful of our investigators and the people we meet are college age students, which is a lot of fun. And then the rest are in the family ward, but it seems like everyone we meet is just so nice.

And my companion Sister Peck is amazing. She feels insecure about training someone but she shouldn't because she's so so amazing. She's from Las Vegas and went to school at BYU Hawaii and actually knows one of the sisters I lived with in the MTC. She knows Sister Roy and it was so fun to make that connection. But she is just so in tune with the spirit and is so good about following those promptings immediately. Another thing I love about her is her sincerity too. She's absolutely sincere in everything she does. When she talks to investigators or members, or anyone, you can feel the love and genuine concern she has for them in the most sincere way. I love that she's perfectly honest with her feelings and her thoughts. She has such an honest and wonderful love for the Lord and for His gospel and it's infectious. Plus, as an added bonus she loves EFY music. So now that I can listen to music again, she's right there with me asking me to replay songs that we just happen to both love. So we are getting along fabulously, and just teaching the gospel.
Being in the field is different than I expected, but it's good. It's less teaching lessons and more sharing scriptures with less actives, but we're working hard to invite everyone to come unto Christ. But it's amazing the instantaneous love I have for everyone we teach. To have that sincere desire for them to change their lives and then to recieve revelation on what they need, and what to teach them. It's amazing. I hope I can be here long enough to watch an investigator progress towards baptism from start to finish, but we'll see.
I've been asking everyone I meet if they know anyone who speaks portuguese, because I really really want to find a portuguese family, or anyone really, and be able to touch them and teach them in the language of their heart. and then yesterday in church I was explaining to a young man in the ysa ward about the whole visa waiting thing, and then asked him to let me know if he found anyone who speaks portuguese, and he mentioned a woman who works at a bicycle shop behind the library who is from Brazil, so tomorrow I think Sister Peck was going to show me where it is and we'll go talk to her. At the very least I hope to just practice speaking the language. I do have time in the morning to study, but it's no substitute to actually speaking it. So hopefully that'll work out. I'll keep you updated.
But in general I am just happy and healthy. I'm already loving Washington and the people. We went and visited a couple who Sister Peck baptized and this sweet man, his name was Bob gave me a Christmas ornament he made. I guess all the sisters got one around Christmas time, but he let me pick one out too. I just wanted to tell Daddy about it, since he loves working with wood, but it's just this little wooden ornament, he carved it with a scroll saw. I'm not sure what that means, but it's out of redwood and the only finish on it is just some mineral oil, and it's just the prettiest little thing. I hung it above my desk along with a map of the country I found. So I'm just settling in nice.

2nd MTC Letter

2010-11-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

So everything is going well. My companions are still amazing and we're learning so so much. For Thanksgiving yesterday Elder Holland came and spoke to us and it was absolutely incredible. He taught us so much about the Atonement and our purpose as missionaries in relation to it. It was the neatest thing. You could feel it when he walked in the room, and the spirit blessed me with a powerful experience of empathy, to feel what Elder Holland felt as he walked in and heard us singing about the Savior. It was an amazing feeling. We are more powerful than we realize. He also had all of his grandchildren there and they all came up and sang that one primary song about the song of a bird and the rain on my face, the touch of a velvet rose, the smell of a lilac tree, etc. I think it's call "I know Heavenly Father Loves Me" but I'm not positive. Regardless, it's one of my favorite primary songs and I was so touched to hear his sweet grandchildren sing it.
Anyway, the Thanksgiving dinner was good. It wasn't as tasty as it is at home, and they only had the tiniest dollop of whipped cream for our slices of pumpkin pie, but it was good. I miss the family, but I'm doing well.
I did finally recieve mail today after we got back from the temple. The letters you and mommy wrote to me were the answers to my prayers. I needed them today, and I was so grateful. I cried as I read them on our way to lunch and asked my companions if we could stop off at the bathroom so I could blow my nose before entering the cafeteria. They were perfect. Obrigada.
Oh, and Mommy, you would be so proud. Last Sunday I went with my companions to choir practice, so that we could sing in the MTC choir for the Tuesday devotional. We sang "Come Thou Fount" and it was beautiful. Funny story about it though. So Sunday we got there a little early and had spots close to the front, and then in walks my friend Art from EFY this summer. He was filling in as our conductor that day. It was so awesome to see him. I had almost not gone since Sister Wegener didn't really want to go and I didn't have my heart set on it, but luckily Sis. Dangerfield talked her into it, and so I was able to see Art. It's funny, Both of my companions went to BYU and are from Utah, so every day they bump into someone they know from school or from home etc. Plus sis. Dangerfield worked in the MTC cafeteria for 3 years so all of her friends work here and she's always saying hi to them. So it was wonderful to bump into a friend.
Oh, so the devotional Tuesday was from Per G. Malm from one of the quorums of the 70 and he was from Sweden. And it just so happens that his wife is from the same town as Oscar. I just know if I had had a chance to chat with her we'd be best friends forever. But regardless it was an amazing talk that he gave. He told several incredible stories that applied so perfectly to us.
Anyway, time is almost gone, so I'll wrap it up. Hopefully this email works, but I'll be sending a real letter today as well, just in case. And spread the word to everyone you see that I would love love love any and all letters. Sister Wegener gets soooo much mail every day, and it's hard not to be jealous. I have heard wonderful things about Dear Elder as well. From what I understand it's a website and you can type in the letter and the print it off and deliver it here same day.
Anyway, I love you all. I miss everybody, but I'm doing wonderfully.
I'll talk to you soon,
Paige.

First MTC Letter

2010-11-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

Hello from the MTC!
Alo!
So today is our P day and I have just a few minutes to write home, but I am so excited about it. Tudo Bem! (Everything's Well!). It has been an exhausting few days, but oh so rewarding. The spirit is so strong and I'm learning so much. Although, Mommy, I did not get a picture in front of the MTC sign since they're doing construction in front of the campus and it is no longer there. So I'll have to make sure to take a picture in front of something else to distinguish that I'm at the MTC.
So I have two companions and they are Sister Wegener and Sister Dangerfield and they are incredible. We were best friends on the first day, and it just keeps getting better. They're both from Utah, and just the sweetest girls ever. Our district is a blast as well. All of our elders are just so much fun. I did see Elder Casey the other day in the cafeteria as well as one of my boys from my very first week as an EFY counselor three years ago. It was really neat to see him. Though since both of my companions went to BYU they see people they knew all the time. So it was fun to see at least two different people that I knew before I came here.
So portuguese is going well. It's hard and kind of overwhelming, but our teachers are excellent and we're starting to learn quickly. We were challenged yesterday after learning how to pray in portuguese to say every prayer in the language, and even though it's hard it's helping already. Though sometimes when I try to pronounce certain words my tongue just feels thick. but the more I practice the easier it feels. El evangelho (the gospel) is especially hard though. That lh combination is tricky. But it's all going good, and we're slowly replacing words like thank you and hello with their portuguese counterparts in every day speech.
Eu quero prestar meu testemuho com voce. Amo este evangelho e meu Pai Celestial. Meu Salvador vive, e A igreja de Deus esta aqui na terra. Eu nome de Jesus Cristo, Amen.
We learned how to bear our testimony the other day and had to go and bear it to at least two people outside of our district. It was scary, but the elders we found were spanish speaking so they couldn't tell how much we butchered it.
But in addition to the language, we've been learning so much about our purpose as missionaries and how to talk to people. It's an incredible work we're doing, and I'm just starting to realize the power that I've been set apart with as I learn to rely on the Lord. Even though the language is hard and the schedule is rigorous, and it just feels like there aren't enough hours in the day for all that we have to learn, I know that we are the Lord's servants and it's his work we're doing and he qualifies his servants. I love this gospel and so far I'm just loving the mission. I love learning. I know at some point I'll probably have a melt down, but I'm so so so happy so far.
I love you, and I hope everything at home is just dandy. I am so grateful for all of your support and love. It makes it easier for me to know that my family is behind me one hundred percent.
Love,
Paige

p.s. Packages and letters are like gold here. And we're all greedy for them.

p.p.s. We've heard a lot about sisters and elders getting reassigned because of visa issues. But I'm actually ahead of a lot of missionaries in my district having already filled out the online visa application. But I've heard that might not even mean anything. All we really know for sure about it is that it's unpredictable. But we're all hopeful.

p.s.s. The chocolate milk is indeed delicious, and the food has been good as well. But with all of the excersize I've been getting I don't think there are any major concerns about my gaining weight. So hopefully I won't come home with that mission 15.

Create

2010-09-30T21:24:00.001-07:00

I simply love this.

Ophelia

2010-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Here is what I like to refer to as baby cat, sweet face, little thing, kit-kat...
my baby cakes.

I think we were meant to be.

Just for giggles

2010-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Katsup

2010-09-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

So it's been quite a while since I've posted what I've been up to as far as painting goes, and I figured it was time. I know I blogged a few years ago when I was in Painting II about working with fabric and painting the folds and shapes, etc. because I remember the post about being a still painter, and that comment came from the fabric paintings in that class. Anyways, so at that point it was purely observational. They were merely studies, despite whatever lame meaning I attached at the time. Which is fine.
This little yellow painting happens to be my favorite from that series I did a year ago for Painting II. The other three were too embarassing to put up.

But despite them being just studies, they got me to Painting III, where they evolved into more. And so at the end of last semester when our last project was just to have a series of at least three of whatever the heck we wanted to paint, I turned to fabric. I started by folding and twisting and shaping scraps of old canvas into little sculptures that I then painted from. And throughout this process I starting thinking about the fabric and the little sculptures as location, as place. And as I came up with these locations they all seemed to pertain to my childhood, which I thought was fun.
So this first one is actually my favorite. There are like three different paintings underneath this one. I struggled a lot with this location, but once the concept and the image came together it came fast. So this is the couch. When I was growing up we had this green, tweedy, comfortable couch. And one of our favorite things to do was to take the cushions off and make human sandwiches. We would just squish eachother between the cushions while we watched cartoons. It was great fun. So this painting is my vaugue memory of that dimly lit living room with stacked couch cushions and the happy pressure of being on the bottom. yep.

So this one for me was remeniscent of the big rocks my siblings and I would play on at the park. They were just these random, huge rocks at the top of the hill with this huge crevasse we crawled in and out of. There was something magical about a huge rock. Even when we went hiking as a family, if there were ever any big rocks near the trail we had to climb to the top. I don't know, maybe it was just me, but I loved rocks. So all of that, is basically what this painting is.
Though I will say, I'm not actually wild about this painting. It could use a lot of work. Plus it photographed wierd.

Well, this last one here is more of an idea than an actual place. When I was a kid I always loved the idea of having my own secret spot. Like the Secret Garden or something. So every few weeks I pick a bush to squat behind and called it mine. I never really found that secret spot, but regardless I held onto the idea of having that little nook tucked away somewhere that was only mine. That place to sit and be by myself and plan adventures like all the cool kids had in the movies. So this painting is that idea. Almost like a secret little fabric cave with the warm cozy light inside. And like all the others it needs work, but if I'm going to be realistic it's never going to get done.

So that was the acculmination of my Painting III class and what I hope is the start of my continuing self-discovery, etc. Though my doodles of fabric in my sketchbook are starting to morph into more cloudlike shapes. I'm not sure what that means yet. Anyway, but one thing I'm really excited about pertaining to my mission, is forgetting myself. By taking a year and a half to forget myself entirely in the work, and to be unselfish and just serve, I'll better understand myself, so that when I get home from my mission I'll know better who I am as an artist.
Anyway, I've concluded that I need a better camera so when it comes time to photograph my work it doesn't look so wierd.

Kevin Bacon

2010-09-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago I caught a good part of "Footloose" on TV, and I was struck with how truly awkward Kevin Bacon is. This is something that I love about him, and a part of what makes "Footloose" such an 80's classic, but he is uncomfortable to watch nonetheless.

Exhibit A: What is not to love about his enraged, passionate dancing/gymnastics. Nothing could be better.

And Exhibit B: Pay close attention at about 3:45 when he wins the chicken race. It's just too good.

Brazilia

2010-08-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

So it has been a few months since posting, which means there is lots to blog about, the most important/exciting of which is my mission call. My mom called while I was at EFY to let me know the call had arrived, so she, my dad and my sister drove up to Buena Vista, VA to open it with me. So while skype-ing my other sister I found out that I am called to the Brazil Porto Alegre North Mission, speaking Portuguese!!! I'm so excited. I report to the Brazil MTC on November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving.
So, as a part of preparing for my mission, I googled Porto Alegre and a few different cities in my mission.

This is the Porto Alegre Temple, and one of the first pictures to pop up in my google search. Heck yes.

Still Porto Alegre

This is in Santa Cruz do Sul.

Passo Fundo

Caxias do Sul

And this is from Sao Leopoldo.

And just in case you don't know where in the huge nation of Brazil Porto Alegre is, here's a map. The little red arrow is pointing to the city.

I don't think I could have picked a prettier mission. I met a girl this summer at EFY who served in Portugal, and she said that the missionaries from Brazil serving with her, were disappointed they were sent out of the country because they wanted to serve in Porto Alegre. So basically my mission is the best ever. I am so excited to go to Brazil and immerse myself in the culture and learn to love the people and share with them the good news of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's going to be a hard, exhausting, trying, but fantastic, enriching, and edifying 18 months.

Smells like the future

2010-06-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have an announcement.
I am going to serve a mission. I AM GOING TO SERVE A MISSION!!!!
I'm just so excited. This particular blog post has been a long time coming actually. I decided to serve back in late March, early April, but haven't publicly announced it in this fashion. I've pretty much told everybody, but I guess it's time the internet knew.
So here's the story. Two years ago, during my second week of EFY I had an experience where I felt impressed that I could, and should serve a mission. That I should be a missionary. So I made plans in my head to finish another year of school, turn 21 the next summer, do another year of EFY, and then go on a mission. Well, at some point in that year of I started praying about it again and felt impressed that I should wait. I assumed that meant wait until I finished my undergrad, so I pushed it to the back of my mind and said I'd pray about it again when the time came.
So here I am 21.5 years old, and my parents and younger sister had just come home from their spring break of college visits. So as they're telling me about the schools, and we discuss my sister's immanent future, we turn to a discussion of mine. Now, at this point I still have at least another year of school, probably a year and a half, before graduating, and my parents bring up the mission. My father explains in his calm and wise way that they think it'd be a good time for me to go. I had just changed majors that semester, and as excited as I was with the change, I think they sensed I was a little burned out. Well, the renewed talk of a mission honestly took me completely by surprise. As I mentioned, it had receded to the furthest part of my mind and I hadn't thought about it in ages. But I decided to pray about it. So for a week, in every prayer I said I asked to Lord to help me to know if it was the right time. Needless to say the decision felt heavy on my mind. I thought about it constantly. I compiled pro-con lists in my head and on paper, and when I read my scriptures everything seemed to apply to the subject at hand. But there came a night where I was studying my scriptures and decided to study about missions and missionary work, and turned to the Topical Guide. It sent me to the Doctrine and Covenants, chapter 31, where the Lord calls Thomas B. Marsh to serve. And as I read, verse 3 seemed to jump out and hit me square in the forehead. It reads:

"Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed , and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation."

So there was my answer. It was time to serve.
So I met with my Bishop and he set me up with the online papers and when school was out I completed them to the best of my ability, went to the doctor and the dentist, and now I'm about to interview with my Bishop again before he sends the papers to the stake, where I'll interview with my Stake President so he can send my information to Salt Lake.
Suddenly the mission is starting to feel infinitely more real. Even as I filled out the paperwork, it felt more like a vague good idea. And now I'm coming closer and closer to being faced with this reality as I try to emotionally prepare myself for a call at some point in the next month. It's overwhelming and scary, and I feel so inadequate and immature. Sister missionaries are so mature, I can't believe I'm old enough for this. I was just 18 yesterday.
But then I remember the first impression I'd had two years ago at EFY. That I could serve a mission. I can do it. With the Lord's help I can do anything. Especially that which he's commanded me to do. I can do anything, even talk to strangers.
So the residual twinges of fear mingle with excitement as I anticipate the future, and try and prepare myself for something you can never really be prepared for.

And here is the picture the general authority deciding where I will go will see. Talk about intimidating to think about.

2010-06-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

I miss my boys. That is all.

Baby Nico

2010-05-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

So I feel like it's high time I posted about my new little nephew. Despite mine and Max's disbelief in my last post, Nicola did indeed come that Friday, May 21. He was born at 12:12pm weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces of pure perfection. Here's him getting a bath at the hospital.

In order to avoid bring a toddler to the hospital during quiet hours, Max and I were able to go and visit later that afternoon. Unfortunately, Max fell asleep in the car on the way there, so it wasn't until the next day that he really met his brother. Well, he did wake up while we were at the hospital but remained completely indifferent until the next day.

Honestly I just can't get enough of this kid. I could seriously hold him forever and never get tired of it. Thankfully, Jackie and her little family was staying with us before they moved to Oklahoma so I was able to get plenty of Nic time in. I just love squishy little babies, and he's the sweetest, cutest, squishiest there is.

And here are my sweet boys. They moved to Oklahoma yesterday and the house is way too quiet. I just miss them so much.

But Heavenly Father knew I was going to miss them and blessed me with some tender mercies my last little bit with them. The night before they moved, Jackie handed Nic to me after he ate and I promised I'd give him back when he was hungry again. But this sweet boy just slept in my arms for hours and hours, which is something since he seems to eat constantly. Then that same night as I was getting into bed, Max, who's been sleeping in my room, woke up with a bad dream or something and came and slept in my bed with me. Then the next day I was able to prompt him to say "I miss you" and "I love you" in his sweet little voice. In addition I was able to hold Nico again for ages while his eyes were open and looking at me. I just love them.
My biggest fear is that they'll forget me as they go traveling around the world with their parents. I am blessed though for the time I've had with them. Especially to have been so close to Max these past few years. We're pretty much BFF. I can't wait to see them when we come visit in August.

Adventures in babysitting

2010-05-21T06:35:00.001-07:00

So this morning my very pregnant sister is at the hospital most likely having a baby. He's been close for a few weeks now and there have been days where we thought for sure he was coming. Despite my mother being at the hospital with her, her midwife saying to come to the hospital instead of her office, her contractions becoming more painful, the fact that she's already 5 cm dilated, or that her husband's plane ticket is already purchased for him to come meet their son, I guess I'm just a little hesitant to say he's coming for sure. I understand little Nicola's coming today, I just don't think it's sunk in yet.

So anyway, while Mom and Nanna are at the hospital, I get to watch Max. He's my favorite boy in the whole world and I'm happy to have some more time with him before he moves to Oklahoma. Well, on this particular morning, I left him watching Dora in his undies to go take a shower. After I was dressed I went down to check on him, and there he was in his undies in front of the tv. Only, while I was indisposed, it seems he took himself to the potty. How could I tell you ask? Well, it was evident he had some trouble putting the underpants back on after going to the bathroom. The poor child had stretched one of the leg holes over his little hips, while his legs found their way through whatever available holes in the underwear's design. But there he was watching Dora the Explorer like nothing was wrong. I just love my little man.

Though I think Max is just as skeptical about the arrival of Nic as I am. I asked him if he was getting a brother today, and he most determinably said no. His mom will just have to prove us wrong. In the meantime Nick Jr and some Apple Jacks are turning out to be the perfect recipe for a good morning.

2010-05-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

"One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is total idiocy."

And

"Painging is at once 'intrinsically capable of giving form to our best, most human, most humane qualities' and 'total idiocy'."

Thank you Gerhard Richter for your words of wisdom.

Knock-Knock jokes

2010-04-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Knock-Knock jokes usually aren't funny at all, but I came across this one on a friend's facebook page the other day and thought it was terrific. Here it goes,

-Knock-Knock
-Who's there?
-You know,
-You know who?
-Yes! AVADA KEDAVRA!!!

Bahaha!! I just thought that was terrific. You know who, Voldemort, get it? Anyway, this has nothing to do with anything that's going on in my life right, now, I just felt like I should blog again, but didn't want to go into the epic blog post that is coming soon. And when I say soon, I mean probably in a week or more when classes are over. But maybe I'll get bored one day and displace my desire to not work on a project into a desire to blog or spend irreplaceable hours on the internet.
It's been know to happen. So until then, Buenos Noches.

Paige-a-rooni

2010-04-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

So for the past few weeks I've been all-consumed with myself. Literally. In my painting class we had an assignment to paint a self-portrait, and not necessarily to just paint a literal representation of our face, just a self-portrait however we interpreted it. I did choose to paint my face, but part of that was a desire to academically paint a portrait with oils, which I had never done before. But regardless, this painting was the hardest thing I've ever done. We had weeks to work on it, and I sketched, and planned and thought, and filled up pages and pages in my sketchbook trying to settle on a composition, on an idea. I did want to simply paint my face, but beyond that I didn't want this to be an academic painting. I wanted to paint me. Which ultimately happens no matter what you paint. It's impossible to no put yourself into your work, but regardless, I wanted there to be more depth and meaning than the paintings I had done previously for classes. So I over-thought it to the extreme. So finally, a week before critique I settled on a composition. It took blocking in a few different ideas onto the canvas to get there, but I made it. So that week, literally all I did was paint. Every night I was up until the wee hours of the morning working on this stupid painting. I skipped classes the day before and the day of the critique in order to complete it to a point where I felt comfortable showing it. So anyway, I just wanted to show all 8 readers of my blog what I did. Because I am proud. It still needs work, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

So if you'll notice, the last photograph of the painting I have eyebrows, while the other ones don't. So as I was driving the painting to school a week ago for the critique after feverishly painting for a week straight, I realized I had forgotten to paint eyebrows and proceeded to burst into hysterical, crazy-person laughter. But at this point I said forget it and kept driving. So then that day we didn't get to my painting, we ran out of time, but again, even with time to add eyebrows I decided to leave it as is. But then this afternoon after I took pictures of the painting, on a whim pulled out a brush and added the eyebrows. I still don't know how I feel about them. Anyway, so this is my work, and hopefully I'll stay on top of things and at the end of the semester I'll keep all 8 of you updated on what else I do.
The end.

P.S. I realize my hair isn't actually that red. I really did try to match my hair color, but this has happened in every single self-portrait I have ever done. I think subconsciously I just think my hair is redder than it is. And I think I'm ok with this.

New Friends

2010-04-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

So my sister Jackie has this knitting book full of these funny, quirky, creepy dolls you can knit, and I'm obsessed. It's the perfect, fun, quick little project for me. They're small enough that I can finish them fairly quickly, and interesting enough that I don't get bored. So meet my new friends.
This is Sean.

And this is Perry.

Aren't his dimples adorable.
So as you can see, I have a thing for gingers.

Politics

2010-03-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

So in general I have always disliked politics. I never had the patience or the interest to sit down and educate myself in the world of politics, and have used that as an excuse to just keep my mouth shut. But as this Health Care Bill is passed and I watch the explosion of opinions about it, I find another reason to not like politics, the contention. I've never handled contention well. I would get in fights with my sisters when we were younger and after a few minutes of shouting, I would always break down into tears because I just can't handle the contention. So when I see the alarmism and hateful things said about our president over this bill, I just want to shut down and retreat into my room until it blows over. I do not think Obama is a perfect man, but he is my President and deserves my respect. I think he is doing his best to help this country change for the better, and though I don't agree 100% with absolutely everything he does, I still support him, because he is my president. He is trying. Our government is here to protect and help us, so why are we fighting against that? It just upsets me to see the hate and discord that is filling the air and seeping into people's homes. I don't like it one bit.
And that's all I have to say about that.

2010-03-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

So I feel a little disappointed, but mostly sad. I was on facebook this evening and discovered that one of my girls from EFY is pregnant. Unmarried, underage, and pregnant. This is a girl who is just so smart and beautiful. I remember watching her glow as she bore her testimony, not only in testimony meetings, but during lessons as she answered questions and constantly applied what we were teaching to her life. It just breaks my heart to see such an incredible girl make such a poor decision. But what hurts the most is the title of the album she posted with ultrasound pictures. She called it "babyyyy :)" and then I saw her status "Some of you already know, however some of you don't...buuuuuuuuut I'm having a baby!! :) I had my first ultrasound today, pics very soon :) I know this wasn't exactly the right order, but Jake and I are making things right and we're getting married this May :) We're so excited for our new family!! ♥". What hurts me is the smily faces and the hearts. How excited she is for this. I don't think she understands the gravity of the situation. I am glad that she is making the best of it, but it just makes me sad. I'm just so grateful for the atonement. I know that this sweet, vibrant girl can be clean again as she deals with the consequences of her actions. I hope that she and her fiance work together to be sealed to their little baby someday. I just hope for the best for her. She deserves the best.
And that is all. I guess I just need to vent a little tonight.

Google overload

2010-03-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

In my painting class we're in the process of starting our self portraits, which means I haven't even stretched the canvas while I ponder what exactly I want to put on my imaginary canvas, but as a part of that we were given a four page list of artists to look up and research. I know that she doesn't expect us to look up each and every one of the bagillion artists, but I wish I had the time to do so, they're just so fascinating. So as I google artist after artist tonight I'm experiencing a little bit of search overload. I'm excited to go to the library tomorrow and actually get my hands on some books to whittle down my thought process. Anyway, so seeing as how I'm a little google-fried I thought I'd look up something non-painting related. Who knew hunky Christian Bale could sing so sweetly as a child.

Tired

2010-03-03T20:27:00.001-08:00

So I had a painting due yesterday for my class, so of course the week before I was busting my fanny to finish it on time so most everything else took a back-burner for a while. For a little explanation, the project was just to paint a still-life on a 3'x3' canvas, but for each square foot it had to be treated differently. For example, in one square the marks reiterated the picture plane, and another had a different color palate, or explored depth of field through edges or saturation, etc. So each square was different, but made up the image as a whole. It was an interesting and challenging project. It was like doing 9 different paintings all at once. Anyway, so despite being so weary of still-lifes I really enjoyed this painting in some ways. This is the first painting I've done since I switched majors and I felt so much more motivated to work on it than any other similarly tedious painting. It felt good to paint. I would come home from the studio with my legs aching and my feet sore, barely able to focus my eyes after standing and staring so long, but it was a better tired than anything else. It was a happy tired. I was physically worn down but emotionally, mentally, it felt good to have been painting.
I will post a picture of the painting as soon as I get around to taking a picture of it, but in the meantime I will be happy for a little break this week, but hopefully tomorrow we'll get more details on our next assignment. I hear it's a self-portrait which really, really excites me. I've wanted to paint one for a while but haven't had the time to do anything outside of school. I'm excited enough to be hoping I can get started during spring break, which is unheard of for me to start an assignment early. So we'll see how that pans out.

Giggles

2010-02-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

So it's confession time. One of my guilty pleasures is American Idol, and I watched tonight as they picked the top 24. It was exciting and ridiculously dramatic. But mostly it reminded my sister and I of a magical little moment we witness a few years ago with season 7. Every year after the top 24 are picked they have all of the contestants dance individually for about a second of camera time. Well season 7 brought us the mad dance stylings of Jason Castro. Watch carefully around 35 seconds. And I apologize for the lack of sound, it's not my fault.

I doubt you find it as hilarious as my sister and I, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Catching up

2010-02-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

So there is a good chance this will evolve into a long post. Just a friendly warning. There are a few items on my mind this evening. Firstly, my cat is chewing on my shoe, not unlike what a puppy does. I'm a little confused, but grateful that it's an old, ugly shoe and not a cute one. Secondly, I am knitting socks. I have decided it's a silly fear I have, and that there is no reason why I cannot successfully knit a pair of socks. So at Joann's the other day I purchased some sock weight yarn and here I go.
Thirdly, I wanted to post some pictures of myself purely for documentation. Saturday was a good friend's birthday party with the theme "A Star Studded Event". We were all expected to dress as a famous movie star, singer, fictional character, whatever, as long as you were dressed up. So I decided to go as my celebrity look-alike, Molly Ringwald, but more specifically, Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink. At least I modeled my outfit from her wardrobe in the movie. So I felt like it was a pretty successful endeavor. What do you think?

But sadly enough, not many people knew who I was, let alone who she was. I was kind of disappointed. I found it amusing though to see some of my friends who took the party as an excuse to imitate a well known, current celebrity, therefore, to look hot. While I took it as an excuse to look like a weirdo from the 80's. Such is me. Which I think is a perfect example of the binding thread that is the gospel. A good number of my friends have almost nothing in common with me, example, this party. Yet we're good friends because we have that common ground of the gospel in our lives and it's enough for now. Luckily I do have some terrific friends who I do have things in common with, making conversation infinitely more fulfilling. Not that I don't love my other friends dearly, I just find that we run out of things to say to each other sometimes. But that is life, and I'm happy with it.
So to change the topic entirely, I just wanted to babble for a minute about the abstract expressionists again. They've just been on my mind. Between learning about them academically in class, and reading about them even just a tiny bit in Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard, I find them frequenting my thoughts and conversations. So this is completely random, but for some reason I find them attractive. More specifically Jackson Pollock and Willem DeKooning. Well mostly it's just because I stumbled across different photos of them in my text and just think they look good. I don't know if it's the masculine t-shirt and jeans or if it's just knowing their work, but man do they look fine.

I honestly think it's just me, but what can you do. Which ironically enough they're both pictured with their wives. Pollock with Lee Krasner, and DeKooning with Elaine. Both of which were amazing artists in and of themselves, but poorly recognized in the shadows of their husbands. It's a sad story, but not uncommon.
Anyway, it's time for sleep to put an end to my nonsensical babblings.

P.S.

2010-01-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

On the same note as my last post I remember this fantastic quote from a truly exceptional book, Everything Is Illuminated, that I would recommend to anyone. This quote is from a book within the book, an encyclopedia of sorts written by the whole town. This was their definition of Art.

"Art is that thing having to do only with itself-- the product of a successful attempt to make a work of art. Unfortunately there are no examples of art, nor good reasons to think that it will ever exist. (Everything that has been made has been made with a purpose, everything with an end that exists outside that thing, i.e., I want to sell this, or I want this to make me famous and loved, or I want this to make me whole, or worse, I want this to make others whole.) And yet we continue to write, paint, sculpt, and compose. Is this foolish of us?"
- Jonathan Safran Foer

Is this foolish of us? Yes, I think so, but so necessary at the same time. It is this expression, this alternate form of communication that feeds the soul and reminds us of the divinity of creation. Everyone creates for different reasons, but ultimately we do it because it feels good, because it helps us to understand ourselves and the world better. At least that's why I do it, foolish or not.

Rothko rediscovered

2010-01-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

So as it is early in the semester I am still diligent in my school work. Namely I have been reading the required text for my Late 20th Century Art class. We are on the brink of the Abstract Expressionist movement and I have found it fascinating so far to read about that shift from the popular social commentary paintings of the 30's with clear subject, to the abandonment of subject beyond form, color, shape, etc. for a focus on the experience of painting. The defining factor for a piece of art became the artist's experience in painting it. I just love that.
And as I have been reading I have become more and more impressed with Mark Rothko. I've known him for ages, well, known of him, I don't know him personally it's a little hard since he's dead. Anyway, in the text it discusses some of Rothko's work during the shift into non-representation, and I was impressed. He and other artists worked from ancient myths and drew inspiration from non-western cultures, whatever. What interested me, was that instead of painting scenes or stories or just borrowing primitive aesthetics, Rothko focused on the emotions in the stories. Even before he used mere blocks of color to express that emotion, he was exploring that aspect of humanity. He's quoted as saying "I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions, tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on." I could not find a picture of the painting in my text of this stage in his work on the internet, but I put up a few examples of his more well known work.

This last one is actually a photograph that I took in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. At the time I took the photograph because I knew Rothko and his paintings were famous, I liked the painting too. But now that I've learned even just a little more about him and his work, I think I appreciate it so much more.
And so before I go, there are just a few little quotes I noticed in the text that I particularly enjoyed.

"The big moment came when it was decided to paint ... just to paint. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation, from Value- political, aesthetic, moral." -Harold Rosenberg

"the act of painting is a deep human necessity, not the production of a hand-made commodity." - Robert Motherwell

Survival

2010-01-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

So I have officially made it through my first week of the semester. Needless to say it's going to be a tough one. My Painting III class is going to be beyond intense. It's the kind of class where you forget you have other classes because it requires that much of your attention. It's going to be good though, I took it with this particular teacher on purpose despite my knowledge that she'd kick my butt. And kick my butt she shall. I know that Miriam, my professor, will work us hard enough and expect enough out of us to push past painting for a grade or making a painting, into painting for the sake of painting. I have no doubt that if anyone can teach me how to be an artist and how to find what I want to say using this medium as a voice, she can. It's weird, but kind of nice to trust my professor so much. She drives me bonkers, but I know that she knows her stuff and can teach me what I want to learn. I'll let you know at the end of the semester if it was worth the pain.
I'll gripe later about the mountains of reading and homework from other classes later.

So here's a physical illustration of my feelings right now.

Inside of my head this is exactly how I feel. A little overwhelmed and tired with the full anticipation of the worst to come.

And this is the brave face I put on. I am overwhelmed and feel inadequate, but I will make it through, I will survive.

Twenty Ten

2010-01-12T19:18:00.001-08:00

So this is my first official post of the new year. How exciting. If only I actually had something to say. I just felt like I hadn't posted anything in ages, so here are just a few random tidbits.
I am currently obsessed with Oren Lavie. I posted his incredible stop motion animated music video a few months ago, but more recently bought his CD and am now obsessed. He's not that much to look at but his voice is unbelievably attractive. I just love the soft, earthy quality to his music.

So moving on, I have also been recently introduced to the most delightful TV show, Pushing Daisies. I had heard wonderful things, but couldn't fully understand until I was able to partake in this whimsical, colorful, quirky pleasure of a show. The fact that the main star Lee Pace is unbelievably adorable helps as well.

The glasses are entirely unrelated to the show, I just thought he looked precious in them.

And one more thing before I go, my winter break is very quickly slipping away from me. I took a quick, spontaneous trip up to Buena Vista, VA to help out a friend (for purely selfish reasons seeing as how it gave me an excuse to go up and play with all of my friends in BV), and suddenly all of my time is gone. I have a a teensy bit less than a week until I'm back at school and become a hermit. This semester I have class Monday through Thursday until 8 in the evening. So basically I don't anticipate seeing anybody since I'll probably be doing homework on the weekends. This is what I get for picking the hardest professor for Painting III. Suddenly the fact that I'll be learning so incredibly much from her doesn't seem as important. It's alright, I'll make it through. I don't think hermitage with kill me.

2009-12-24T12:29:00.001-08:00

Happy Christmas!!!!

Done

2009-12-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

I considered this final project for my design class my last big thing to do before for the semester. I ended up having to put more work into my final drawing portfolio than intended, but regardless it's all finished and frankly I'm a lot more proud of my little video. I struggled with this design class. It was all in digital media and I hated it. I didn't have any major difficulties learning the technology, I just didn't like it. I like the tangibility of other mediums. I like being able to touch and feel my work. When everything is in a computer I have to just trust that it's there. I can't touch what I'm working on, I can only click and hope it does what I want. I did well enough in the class, but I'm looking so much more forward to taking painting again next semester.
Regardless, I did like the outcome of our final project. There's just something so cool about stop motion videos. So this is my autobiography.

Recent broodings

2009-11-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

Just a few random thoughts for tonight.
1. I need to start knitting again before I forget how.
2. I love Thanksgiving and how entirely jazzed about Christmas it gets me.
3. Rereading the Chronicles of Narnia has been the most delightful experience. C.S. Lewis had such a beautiful understanding of Christ and I love reading his portrayal of our Savior through Aslan and the reminder it serves me of how perfect he is. I could not ask for a better God.
4. I have a direction for my autobiographical stop motion video for my design class, and I hope I can execute as great as it is in my head. I can't wait until it's done at least so I can post it for the world to see.
5. I want people to purchase things from my Etsy store so I can justify not having a job.
6. I want to study abroad next year in Sweden. Especially after making a Swedish friend.
7. Life is good.

Here's a little something to enjoy.

(disclaimer: my video will be nothing like this seeing as how I do not have the time nor the energy to pull something as magnificent as this off.)

Validate my busy fingers!

2009-11-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

So I have finally made myself an Etsy account like I've been planning for ages. Etsy is the fantastic little site where people buy and sell handmade goods, and if I had all the money in the world I would probably only shop there. So I've been making these decorative headbands and decided to make some money off of them. So please check out my shop and tell your friends.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaigeValera

p.s. I have every intention of posting plenty more so keep your eyes peeled for new stuff.

Ophelia

2009-11-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

Look at my cat. Is she not the most adorable little thing. I had to take a thousand pictures of her for this design project and was reminded of how cute she is. I just love that sweet, cuddly, little face. I can't wait until she's my full-time cat and I don't have to do this long distance thing anymore.

relief

2009-11-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

This is basically a follow up post to my last one full of confusion and doubt. I have officially decided to be a painting major. I have every intention of getting my undergrad in painting, then continue growing as an artist through grad school, and through some connection or another become a college professor. It was not an easy decision. I talked the ear off my good friend Korey for ages about it, and then got some wonderful advice from my parents, but ultimately I know this is what I need to be doing. I had been praying about it for weeks and weeks, and finally, I had the impression to write a pro-con list for both of my options. So I did and realized how much better for my family taking the painting route would be. So here I am, a little lost and scared for this new adventure, but oh so excited. I know this is what I'm supposed to do and I'm ready to work. I know it'll be hard. It's a different hard from most things, but I'm ready.

(relief, get it?)

Could I have one time warp please with a side of motivation

2009-11-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

So I am terrible at making use of the time that I have. I always have been. So in school the past few years I have loaded up my schedule since when I'm busy I tend to get more done than if I have nothing to do. Which is wonderful, only this week I'm tired of being busy. Lately I have wanted to paint. I just want to go into my imaginary studio and paint something, to continue the series I started last semester and promised myself I would work on. but I have no time. Between classes, seeing my friends so I don't feel like a hermit, family, and my practicum (36 hours of observing an art teacher before Thanksgiving), I just don't have time. and right at this moment I feel frustrated. Why am I going to be an art teacher when all I want to do is get married, have a bunch of babies and paint on the side for the rest of my life. Going to grad school for painting is already in the plan, but I wonder if I should be looking so forward to that. I decided in high school that I wanted to teach, and I do. I love teenagers and I enjoy my practicum. The teacher I observe is literally the sweetest lady on the earth and a great teacher who truly cares about her students. The kids are fantastic. I have had opportunities to really help and guide them through the conceptual and even the technicalities of projects and its been fun. At least with the older kids it is. In the Art I classes it's a different story. The kids take advantage of Ms. Ellis and are unbelievably immature even for teenagers. It's like baby sitting. I know I can do it. I just don't know if I want to anymore. What if I'm really just meant to be teaching someone else. Teaching college sounds appealing right now, and it's intimidating to think about all I have to learn about painting and the art of it before I would even feel comfortable teaching someone how to paint. But the idea of studying it sounds so much more exciting to me than thinking about my education classes. So the question is, do I just suck it up and finish the education degree as a backup and then just throw myself into painting later, and hope I'll find time to paint in the next two years, or just quit and paint now.
As previously mentioned I am terribly indecisive. Though this isn't a decision I intend on making quickly or cavalierly. This'll be one to ponder and pray about. I think it might be a little more serious than my Halloween costume.

(I just thought this was a clever little illustration)

Final Results

2009-11-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

Halloween was yesterday, and as previously decided I went as Aang, the last Airbender. It was an absolute blast. The costume was the easy part to make compared with the hassle of putting on a bald wig. It will probably be a few years before I would ever attempt a bald wig again (it would have to be a sufficient amount of time for me to forget what a pain in the rear it was), but for this it was well worth it.
So here is me as Aang,

And as you can see my nephew Max was a Jedi youngling, and my good friend Jeremy went as my flying bison, Appa. Actually at the dance we went to, me and Jeremy won a prize for the most authentic costume for the Avatar crew. We're a little proud. At least I am, I kind of tell everyone I meet.

Decisions

2009-10-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

I am by nature a very indecisive person. I try not to make rash decisions, which is maybe why I love to be around spontaneous people because they are something I don't think I could ever be. Sometimes I am sad about this little part of myself since spontaneous people seem to have so much more fun, but really it's something I'm happy for. I've never had to deal with the kind of drama some of my friends have because I stop and think before I do, and sometimes say things (Though if I can not think something through it would definitely be what comes out of my mouth). And I think my lack of spontaneity just plays into that stillness factor about myself that I love. But that's not the point, the point is, after weeks of deliberation and agony over this decision, I have decided....

To be Aang for Halloween.

and I would like to thank my friends for their input. I don't know that I actually listened, I mostly just wanted to hear what you thought and then do what I want. So anyway, I shall go to a Young Single Adult dance as a 12-year old, bald, cartoon character, and I'm super excited about it. I shall post pictures at a later date.

Option 4

2009-10-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

So I now have a fourth option for my Halloween costume. My good friend Heidi is dressing up as Heidi, and I am now considering going as a goat so we could be a matching pair. I'm thinking really hard about it.

Please help me. I'm as indecisive as ever.

Hallow's Eve

2009-10-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

So I love Halloween for the one simple fact that I love to dress up. So now my dilemma is what to dress up as. I have been talking for years about dressing up as Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender.

I even purchased some fabric and everything. I'm just not sure though. Maybe I should wait until I'm married or at least dating someone before going out into public as a bald 12 year old boy. I think it just might scare the fellows away.
So I might settle for a different pre-pubescent boy, but this time with hair, Peter Pan.

But ultimately I have decided that if I can't pull together either of these costumes then I can just be Jubilee from the X-Men. I already have the perfect yellow raincoat.

Granted, I'm not chinese but I could get some very temporary hair dye, and find some sweet glasses like she has at goodwill. But at the moment I'm sort of leaning towards Peter. I'm not sure though. I feel like I need a lot opinions to overwhelm me before I can ignore them and do what I want. So please, if you are a friend of mine you will tell me what to do.

No offense Judy

2009-10-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

So on such a rainy, dreary day as this, I'm oddly enough reminded of one of my favorite songs, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. But the thing is, I don't care for the Judy Garland version. I recognize that she sings it beautifully and it's plenty lovely, I just love other versions so much more.
For example, Brother Iz.

And my favorite, Ella Fitzgerald.

I just love the different arrangements of it. I have nothing against Judy, but I like it better when other people sing her song.
Anyway, on another vein of thought, I think it's very fitting that the weather is so depressing on the day I have a math test. It just makes sense. One of my dearest hopes for future generations is that Universities will learn that Art Majors don't need math, and will cease to require one for graduation.

Getting old

2009-09-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

So a few items of business tonight. First of which is that I'm starting to feel old. Granted, I'm only 21, but a couple recent occurrences have made me feel like 21 is old.
A. One of my best friends from my freshman year of college is pregnant. It's one thing that 3 out of the 5 of us are married, but pregnant?!? That's for adults.
and B. One of my girls from my last week of EFY last year is engaged. OK, so she was already 18 last year, so she's legal, but still. Your youth aren't supposed to get married before you. (not that I'm looking right now, I won't even pretend to be mature enough for marriage). Regardless it's wierd. Especially since she's engaged to a guy we befriended last summer when he sold security systems in Greensboro. Small world huh.

Ok, so on an entirely different note, one of my best friends is getting off of his mission this week and it's a little weird for me. Two years went by super fast. We weren't even BFF when he left, we just watched the same cartoons, but we've emailed every week since he's been out and clearly with that kind of communication we've grown tighter. Anyway, but on Mondays I usually get that weekly email but today I was out of luck. It makes sense, I'm sure he is super busy finishing up this last week, but I still kind of missed it. Who would have thought I'd grow so dependent on those emails.
Anyway, that concludes my babblings tonight.

My life according to the Beatles

2009-09-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

So I saw someone do this on facebook and decided I wanted to do it too, so I'm posting it here so it doesn't feel like I'm doing one of those chain things. So here are the instructions:

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)"

Pick your Artist:
The Beatles

Are you a male or female:
She's a Woman

Describe yourself:
I am the Walrus

How do you feel:
Helter Skelter

Describe where you currently live:
Penny Lane

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Across the Universe

Your favorite form of transportation:
Yellow Submarine

Your best friend(s)?
The Fool on the Hill

You and your best friends:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Favorite time of day:
Here Comes the Sun

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
I'm Only Sleeping

What is life to you:
A Beginning

Your relationship:
Tomorrow Never Knows

Your fear:
Mean Mr. Mustard

What is the best advice you have to give:
Your Mother Should Know

Thought for the Day:
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

How I would like to die:
Piggies

My soul's present condition:
I Feel Fine

My motto:
Let It Be

Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Maybe because The Beatles just did so much. On another note, I am so jazzed for The Beatles Rock Band!! I want to play so bad. I feel like I would enjoy it so much more since I actually know most of the songs. Now if only I had an income to buy said game with.

just for laughs

2009-09-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

juxtaposition

2009-08-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

So I was driving down Hobbs today and saw this mailbox that I notice every time I drive down Hobbs. It's just so strange. The top part that receives mail is the normal size and shape of the average mailbox but it's painted with these big red roses. Not in kind of 60's cheesy representation of a rose, but in a fully serious old lady floral kind of rose. Which is fine whatever, I tend to enjoy old lady things. But then the base of the mailbox, the part that's usually just a pole in the ground, is this stainless steel, zig-zaging, twisty sculpture. Again, also something I usually enjoy. What is so great about this mailbox is the strange mixture between the very traditional looking flowers, and the modern, sculptural base. I just love it. I love the irony, the humor, and the juxtaposition of the two parts. Utterly delightful.

Molly

2009-08-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

So I am in a wierd mood right now, and clearly I've been in a blogging mood the past few days, but I just have this desire for change right now. I really want to do something with my hair, but that's not the point. Tonight I have this random love for Molly Ringwald. Isn't she just precious. I really just feel like watching Pretty in Pink. I might have to rent it tomorrow. Heavens I need to own that movie.

(though I'm 99.998% sure this image is taken from The Breakfast Club. hmmm, that's one I need to find edited)

tender mercies

2009-08-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

So to my surprise as I wandered into the Gatewood Gallery in the studio arts building today, two of my paintings were hanging on the wall. And then I remembered that in my evaluation letter from my painting II class last semester my professor mentioned she was stealing those two pieces for the summer show in the Gatewood. It's just a student show from the spring semester but I like having something in there. Especially when the night before a friend was casually talking about some $1,700 commission she had, etc, when I'm older and feel more experienced. In all actuality it sounds like she's more experienced than I am, but regardless it made me feel like a child which I don't like.
So anyways, it was a nice little boost to feel appreciated at least a little today. It was a tender mercy to a grouchy day. that and once I arrived home from school my sister had just barely pulled a frozen pizza out of the oven, ready to go into my ravenous tummy.

p.s. I think this semester's going to be harder than anticipated. I'm ready for summer again. At least I don't have class on Friday, I just keep on telling myself that. It helps.

2009-08-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

Just one more thought for the night.

I knew I loved this movie for a reason. Now to purchase it, that is once I have a job and the money that comes with it.

2009-08-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

So in exploring the internet this evening I came across a fascinating article written for Psychology Today and thought I'd share.

"The fact is that the arts foster innovation. We've just published a study that shows that almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination."
Bottom line: Successful scientists and inventors are artistic people. Hobble the arts and you hobble innovation. It's a lesson our legislators need to learn."

Amen.

2009-08-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

I am making a dress, and it shall be cute. This is my first experience going to the fabric store and picking out a pattern and finding fabric all by myself. And so far it is going swimmingly.

San Fran

2009-08-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, I just got all of the pictures I took in San Francisco from my sister so I feel that it is high time I blogged about my trip. So right after I finished my 3rd week of EFY my sister Jackie and I fly out to San Fran for a few days. Jackie signed up for a photography workshop with this big time photographer guy, Jonathan Canlas who works only in film. So the workshop is call Film is Not Dead and they only shot film and it was super cool. So while Jackie was off taking pictures in the workshop all day, I was free to wander the city.
Day 1: I hopped a bus in the mission district where we were staying and rode further into the city to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It was soooo cool. They had a sweet collection, but in addition they had a few pretty sweet exhibits. There was a Georgia O'Keefe + Ansel Adams one that was ok. It was good I just wasn't as impressed with Georgia as I thought I'd be. normally I'm a big fan, but what they had wasn't too exciting. But then the other two exhibits were of photographers and were infinitely cooler. There was a Robert Frank show which was super neat, and then a Richard Avedon exhibit which was phenomenal. all in all I enjoyed myself. I don't have any pictures of anything from the special exhibits because it wasn't allowed, but these were some of my favorites from the normal collection.

I don't actually know who the artist was here but it was way cool.

mmmm, Roy Lichtenstein, he's one of my favorites.

and Rene Magritte. you wouldn't beleive the detail in this sucker.

Then I wandered around that part of town a little more and rode the bus back to the hotel so I could hook up with Jackie for dinner and such. After we ate some delicious San Franciscan food we met up with a ton of people from the workshop at the bar (no worries we had water, as did half of the people in our group) and hung out a little bit. Jackie's frind Kristopher from the workshop brought his friend who happened to be in the city as well, and as it turns out was wandering the city all by himself like I was. So me and Cade (new friend) made plans to do Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39 and that jazz together the next day.

Day 2: So I rode the bus again to get there and we met up right at Fisherman's Warf and wandered together some. I happened to have some tickets given to me for this boat tour around the bay so we hopped on this boat and enjoyed the ride. I think the boat was my favorite part of the trip actually. I just loved the wind and the motion and the sights. It was just a neat experience. We sailed right under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, all while listening to some delightful narration full of hoaky goodness. It was a blast.

Here's Cade and I on the boat, you can see the bridge behind us too. and as you can also see, the wind was fairly aggressive where my hair is concerned.

So then we ate and did a lot of wandering around the city. I must say it was way nice to have a travel buddy. Then Jackie called and Jonathan was taking everybody to Chinatown to take pictures etc. which turned out to be pretty convenient since Jackie and I had planned on doing Chinatown together that night anyway. unfortunately I don't have any pictures from it but it was an absolute blast. It was so colorful and fun. Jonathan took us to this hole in the wall restaurant called The Pot Sticker and it was honestly the most delicious chinese food I've ever had in my life. I ate so much. It's obscene how much we all ate actually. It was so much fun though.

Day 3: So this was my last full day in the city and I decided to take it easy actually and I wandered around the mission district where we were staying. It's a mostly hispanic neighborhood so it was so full of color and vibrancy. I was so glad we were staying there because otherwise I don't think I would have even seen that part of town. I felt like I had an insiders look at the city. One of my favorite aspects of it though were the murals. everywhere you look there were either murals or graffiti. I loved it. here's a little taste.

Anyway, I found my way to the Mission Dolores Park which was really neat. I felt like I saw a little taste of everyone the city has to offer. There were so many people of every size, shape, color, class, etc. it was fascinating. Anyway, then Jackie and I had one last meal with everyone from the workshop and then we met up with Jackie's husband Rob's old friend. They were BFF from way back and since she lives nearby she came to see us. and luckily she has a car and was able to drive me and Jackie to go see the Pacific ocean. We desperately wanted to stick our feet in and she was able to provide us with the means. The water was absolutely freezing but it was to be expected.

Regardless, we were excited.
So then we made it back to the hotel, and prepared to fly home the next day. All in all it was an incredible trip. I had an absolute blast. There are so many little things we did or that I saw that I just don't have the time or energy to include into this entry, but that I hope I'll remember forever. I simply loved it. The end.

jealousy of a stranger

2009-08-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

I have just a random late night thought. As I was perusing a complete stranger's blog, I came across this photograph.

and I concluded that
A. She reminds me very much of a small child and I love it.
B. A part of me wants to be her.
and C. I crazy love her hair. I am severely tempted to give up (as I have been wanting to for ages) on growing out my hair a little and just have my sister cut it right now. I shall sleep on it however, because undoubtedly this girl styles her hair, a talent I have never managed to acquire due to a lack of instruction and chronic laziness.
But we shall see.

EFY

2009-07-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

So. instead of trying to recap my summer so far in one ginormous post, I shall take it in installments. So this is EFY. My first week was basically incredible. Our youth were 16-18 and so cool and they made it the best week ever. look at their sweet faces. I truly had amazing youth. It was an amazing start to the summer.

Another reason why, is these guys. These are my co-counselors Kayla and Josh and they are awesome. What was so intimidating is that this was their very first week ever as counselors, but they were teaching like they had been doing it for years. They were truly a blessing. I was so lucky to have them as cos.

And then for the sake of keeping the blog brief, only one more cool experience from that week. I had the privilege of having Callan in my group again. She was in my group my last week last summer and then I had her again. She is truly one of the sweetest, kindest, most amazing girls ever. I just love her to death.

So that was my first week and it was awesome.

My second week was amazing as well. I had a group of 14 and 15 year olds for the first time ever and I was so scared. I was terrified of them, but they turned out to be so sweet and so much fun. Kelan was my co and he is phenomenal. It was heaven sent that I had him for a co that week. Kelan just works so well with the younger group and he made everything fun. We just had a blast. I know there are pictures of the two of us out there somewhere, but I do not have access to them. So all I could find was this big group picture on facebook.

I just love them. I had heard that the 14 and 15 year olds don't respond as much in lessons and were too ADD but my youth were spectacular. They always had wonderful, insightful comments and were no different attention wise as my 16 to 18 year olds. They were just precious.

Ok, so here is my third and final week. I didn't think it could get any better but it did. I had the older group again and Ricky as my co. Funny thing is, Kelan and Ricky are hard core BFFs so it was hilarious when Ricky would crack a joke that Kelan did the week earlier or when they would joke around with each other during the week. Again we just had so much fun. Our group that week was unbelievably unified. There were so many little miracles that week and it was incredible to watch them help each other and build each other up. It was such a good week I cried Saturday morning when it sunk in that I had to go home because I was done. Just like my first group was the perfect start, this group was the perfect end.

I just absolutely adore them. I love EFY and I love the youth. I love teaching them, I just love being around them. Our future's in good hands.

Summer Plans

2009-06-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well I was bored today and on a whim went through and read all of my old blog posts and realized that I alluded to large plans for my summer but never went into detail. So here are my plans, in a few days I am going on our stake's pioneer trek for the youth as a big sister (less than a ma or pa, but more than a youth), it's going to kick my butt but i anticipate having fun, feeling the spirit, and I've had fun making the clothes for it anyway. So then the day after I get back from the trek I leave for Buena Vista, VA to do 3 sessions of EFY as a counselor. I'm so excited. I was a counselor last year and it's basically the greatest thing ever. then right after my 3rd week ends, I am flying with my older sister Jackie to San Francisco for a few days. She has a photography workshop and I have a city to explore. I'm super excited about that. Then as soon as I'm home I plan on seeing Harry Potter number 6, hopefully sleeping for a few days, and then I go to girl's camp. As soon as we're back from girl's camp we go straight to the beach for my family's annual beach week (it's basically my favorite week of the year). Then if things work out there will be an EFY counselor beach week at some point, and then I plan on sleeping until school starts again.
So needless to say, I have a busy, exciting, delightful summer planned and it all starts in a few days.

2009-06-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

So lately I have rediscovered my love for Mika.

How can you not be in love with him. But this rediscovery has led me to reflect on the other music I listened to my freshman year of college, when Mika first paid a visit to my heart, and I was reminded of one of my other favorites, Melee.

Aren't they precious?

sleep

2009-06-09T23:04:00.001-07:00

mmm, google never fails me when searching for a picture on just how i feel.

2009-06-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

So, just a few thoughts.
I have this wonderful, awkward love affair with the beach. I've always loved the beach, it's hard not to when you go every single summer with the greatest family in the world. But when I go without my family, it's not quite the same obviously, but there's still no denying the lure that the beach has on me. Even when I'm just sitting on the beach reading, probably not as comfortably as I could be in the beach house even, I am far more content than anywhere else. I love the sun, despite the fact that the most I ever get out of it are varying shades of pink and if I'm lucky a smattering of freckles. I love the sand. I love the hot sand that warms you after the cold ocean, and then the cool sand of the nighttime. I love the sounds and the sensations of just being in the general vicinity of the ocean. The whole experience is just pure delight. My favorite however is the beach at night. When the people are gone and the air is cool and the ocean colder. When you start out rolling your pants up determined to keep them dry and walking a safe distance from the ocean, when in all reality, by the end of the walk, you pants are carelessly wet and sandy in the thrill of the waves catching you unawares. I love just walking. Walking on the beach for me, can never be tiring, especially at night. I could walk until the sun comes up without even feeling it. There's a certain vigor and energy that I manage to just soak into my veins when I'm on the beach at night. I just love it.

exercise

2009-05-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

So this morning I got up at a timely hour (a shock I know) and I went for a short run (even bigger shock). During the semester I had all these plans of being motivated this summer and getting up and going running every day and then painting and knitting and accomplishing in general during the day. Well clearly that hasn't happened so far, but this morning I got up and decided to go running. I mostly just felt like I needed the endorphins. Let me tell you, it was horrible. I'm in worse shape than I thought because I felt like death after just one lap around the neighborhood (my neighborhood is quite small). But I suppose you have to start somewhere, and the endorphins really are great.

However, this is what I felt like doing after five minutes.

2009-05-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure what I wanted to babble about today, I just felt like I hadn't posted anything in a while. I'm finished entirely with school for the summer. I managed to squeak out some pretty darn good grades too. I got three A's, one A-, and two B+s. I was pretty happy with myself. But now that summer's officially here I don't really know what to do with myself. I had all kinds of plans to stay busy and motivated, but all I've done so far is sleep and lounge, with empty justifications heaped on top. I've just felt kind of off lately. I'm not really sure why, and I keep looking towards EFY as if everything will be fixed once I'm there but they won't. I think I just need to teach myself self-discipline. It's been a long time coming too. we'll see how that turns out, it's something I've never quite been able to grasp on to.
Anyway, here's a fun little bit of randomness to enjoy. I think Ella Fitzgerald is just amazing. She's just hilarious. What a fun woman.

Best Mom Ever award goes to...

2009-05-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

Since today is Mother's Day, naturally I have been reflecting on my own mother and how she's basically the best mother in the world. I would not be who I am today without my mother. My father has had a huge influence in my life as well, but I'll babble about him on Father's Day. My mother is basically amazing. We don't always agree, mostly about what I wear, but I can think of no one else I would rather become than my Mom. She's my hero. She raised four well-balanced kids in exactly the way that we needed to be raised. She's not the kind of mother to hover or have a finger in all aspects in our lives, or know exactly what happens to us every single day, but she doesn't need to. If she had been any different when we were growing up then I don't think we would have turned out so well. She's a teacher by example, and she's the best teacher ever. She taught us to be creative by creating, she taught us to be good people by caring for others and serving. She has taught us countless other lessons, but she has taught us how to love by loving. Ours was never a super affectionate house, but I never doubted once in my life that my mother (and father) loved me. I knew I would always be safe, physically, spiritually, emotionally in our house. She's just the best. I'm still learning most of her lessons, but luckily I've inherited a lot of her personality traits, actually I'm basically turning into my mother. We both tend to be a little ditzy, we both cannot speak without our hands (she's actually legit though, I just look like I'm italian). There's this video of me doing something and halfway through I start laughing, and the scary part is, I look just like her. It's weird, let me tell you. But if I was to turn into anybody in the world, I'm glad it's my mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Negative space?

2009-05-07T20:58:00.001-07:00

So I was just randomly looking at the jumping pictures of myself that comprise my header for this blog, and I noticed the tiny little shadows I'm casting and I find them absolutely fascinating. They're almost hidden in the shadows from the trees, but when you find them they're like little treasures. They all have such interesting shapes. I feel like they're going to run away from me like in Peter Pan and I'll have to stick them back on with soap. I just felt like I found something super special when I noticed them. That is all.

2009-05-05T21:58:00.001-07:00

So it just occurred to me as I was wasting time on the internet instead of going to bed like a normal person, that I have very little art on my blog. Well I do have a few fantastic black and white photographs, but I feel like many would get the impression that that's all that I like, because that's all that's there. So anyway, as I was killing time I google image searched Vincent Van Gogh because he's my favorite. Just the other night, too when I mentioned Van Gogh was my favorite, someone asked me which painting, and I realized I didn't have an answer for them. In general I love all of Van Gogh's work, I just love everything about it. So naturally I love some of his most famous paintings because they're great, they truly are. But I'm always drawn to some of his other stuff. I love the movement especially in his paintings of cypresses.

But then you look at his random still life's like this skull and you can't help but love it. He brings to life even the most dead, unmoving objects. I love that.

And then look at the color in this painting of a tree. It's just exquisite.

So there's my random gush over Van Gogh. He's just the best.

Last Day of School

2009-05-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

So you know how in the beginning of Finding Nemo, Nemo's jumping on top of Marlin chanting "first day of school! first day of school!", today I feel like chanting "last day of school! last day of school!". I didn not however, but I did in celebration of being officially finished with classes (exams are still coming), take the most epic nap of my life. I was pretty soggy after dealing with the park and ride in the rain, so when I got home I changed into my toasty dinosaur footie pajamas, started my laundry and passed out for a few good hours. It was pretty glorious. The only real thing I accomplished today was the laundry and I'm worried for what this means for the next two months of my summer before I'm forced to be busy. I have wonderful plans to be productive and make things, do things, accomplish... anything with the time I have for myself this summer. But how incredibly slug-like I was on the couch all day today makes me a little worried that I'll fall back into my normal lazy patterns. we'll just have to see I guess. Though today can just count as my official recuperation from classes.
However, the high point of the evening was the great thunderstorm we got. Suddenly it started pouring down rain like nobody's business, and there was thunder and lightning. The power went out for like 10 seconds and everything. I love thunderstorms. One of my favorite things about them is how intensely green everything looks during them. All of the colors are caught up in the excitement of the storm and just glow brighter. I love it.

I didn't notice them today, but the clouds are my real favorite thing about thunderstorms. Right before it hits and the clouds are that dark periwinkle color with the sharp edges. I just can't get enough of that. and the genius of Ansel Adams captured a taste of the magnificence of the real thing.
This is random but I was thinking about it, and if I ever had to live in the midwest, I think I would survive the lack of trees, by enjoying the incredible skies that they have. I feel like all of that space just allows for some of the most spectacular clouds. They get some pretty beastly thunderstorms too.

2009-05-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

So yesterday my family went on an outing to Raleigh for a reception for some contest my sister was entered in. It was great, except she was robbed! The cute little asian girl who won totally didn't have a good drawing. but I'm going to vent about it later when I have access to pictures, plus I'm sitting in the library at school and it's a little chilly, so I would rather rant about this later.
So in other news, I'm super duper tired. Today and tomorrow are my last days of classes for the semester. but since most of my work was due last week, this weekend it totally felt like the semester was already done. Consequently I hung out with friends far later than I should have last night. I enjoyed every minute of it, especially just chatting with the few leftover after everyone left, but it was not the wisest decision of my life, and I'm suffering for it a little today.

side note: Elder Bednar's talk for the CES broadcast last night was amazing. It made me want to quit facebook, or at least use it a heck of a lot less. Gotta love those apostles.

2009-05-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

After seeing the new Wolverine movie I watched a few episodes of the old X-Men cartoon on youtube and thoroughly enjoyed the blast from the past. This was one of the shows we watched saturday mornings. funny how as children we never noticed how truly terrible the animation was. Now it's just part of the nostalgic goodness. What an epic theme song.

Chicken Run

2009-05-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

So apparently my nephew Max is obsessed with the movie Chicken Run, because we're watching it for the third time today. At least the third time since I've been over at my sister's house. At least he has good taste. If I had to watch something truly moronic over and over again, I might be more upset.By the way, watching these two chickens kiss at the end of the movie is supremely awkward.

2009-04-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Love these men. Though I shouldn't after the beast of a paper I had to write about them. They were just so good at what they do though.

Jacob A. Riis
William H. Jackson

stillness

2009-04-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

So we had the final critique for the semester in my painting class this morning, and it actually turned out to be really helpful and productive. Sometimes they aren't, but I got lucky this morning. We critiqued our last project which consisted of 4 paintings essentially of our choice. I did a series of fabric, and how fabric is sculptural, etc. that wasn't the exciting part. the part I enjoyed was when my professor made a comment on how she likes the stillness of my paintings, how there's a certain still quality to them. This got me thinking a lot, because it wasn't something I planned on. I don't have any problems with it, the stillness just happened subconsciously. Which got me thinking about how it's true pertaining to me in general. How I'm a still person. Yes I can be silly and crazy sometimes, but in general I tend to be calm, and still. I don't make rash decisions, everything's always weighed and measured before I buy it, etc. I always play it safe. I tend to be the mother of whatever group of friends I'm with, despite my mere 20 years. I have no problems sitting quietly and waiting in general. I'm just a still person. But I was thinking about the stillness again in reference to art work, and I was confused for a minute because when I'm looking at art and critiquing it in general, I'm always drawn to the vibrant, energetic paintings. The ones that practically dance right in front of you, with obvious brushstrokes and color. And magically, this rings true to my personality as well. When it comes to people, I naturally gravitate to the crazy fun, busy people. Those people who are always moving, even if it's not physically, but mentally. Those people who are full of wit and humor. Some of my favorite people in the world are this same kind of fun, energetic, surprising people that are like the paintings that I love. Time after time when I'm painting I think about those paintings and how I wish I could paint like that, because I do, and I've tried, it just doesn't work. and that is because I am a still person, therefore a still painter, and I'm loving that about myself merely because I now know that about myself. It's good to know I do have a style, and why it's that way.

So thanks Barbara.

beutifying the blog

2009-04-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not so sure about this here blog design. There is a good chance it'll change soon. I decided that in order for me to be a truly dedicated blogger, my page should be cute.

end of the semester hatred

2009-04-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

So I have one week exactly left of classes and I cannot wait for them to be done. As I previously mentioned, I have a spectacular summer planned, part of which involves sleeping which I'm anxious to get started. The problem is, since it is the end of the semester, every single teacher of mine has decided to make sure we have more work to do than there are hours in the day. So before exams even start I have 4 paintings, one very large etching project, an 8 page paper, and two tests to take before the week is over. It does not help however that mother nature decided to skip spring entirely and go straight into summer weather in order to distract all students from the tedious mundane existence that is school. It especially does not help when I have to enclose myself in the painting studio with the blinds closed and the lights off save for my little clamp lights to light my canvas as I finish these little paintings. It's a good thing I love it.

I do manage to find time here and there to enjoy the weather however, mostly just on the weekends. I love it especially when my nephew comes over to play. I tried to teach him the spider game on the swing last week, but he didn't quite grasp it. We had a sweet bonding moment because of it regardless.

This picture just makes me happy in general. Mostly because I love this kid. We're basically BFF.

neglect

2009-04-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a year since I last posted here, but I'm excited to be back. I started the blog initially for my design I class with Lee Walton who happens to be one of my favorite teachers (check him out www.leewalton.com), and I just barely decided, a year later, to continue it on my own. I'm approaching a busy summer full of travel and excitement, and I relish the idea of keeping track of my adventures in a more publicly creative outlet than my own personal sketchbook and journal. So my intent is for this to become a hybrid of the two, only less private. so I hope I can keep up with it in the way that I imagine I can.

So with that said, here we go.

pleas don't look at this one

2008-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

the assignment was to draw/document the helen o'leary exhibit in our building. i didn't really grasp the concept of the assignment and then was too lazy to redo it when he gave us more time. so these are the pieces of crap that resulted from this project. please pass over them as quickly as you can. and i don't know why they're blue.

greensboro overlooked.

2008-05-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

these photos are documentation of the beautiful little things i found around the city, that might be normally overlooked.

walk up spring garden st. away from campus and cross over tate st. at the corner of springdale ct. and spring garden there is a telephone pole, where you will find the subject of this photo.

walk up spring garden away from campus and cross over tate st. on the corner of springdale and spring garden is a small park. enter said park and walk over towards the left and face the small concrete owl in the grass. crouch down so you are looking it in the face.

walk up spring garden st. away from campus and cross over tate st. make a left onto springdale ct. and walk up the sidewalk on the left side of the street. on the end of the driveway to the house with the address 15 springdale ct. is this location.

walk up spring garden st. away from campus and cross over tate st. make a left onto springdale ct. at the end of the street, take a right onto walker ave. and continue walking up the right side of the street. this location is just past the yellow house and just before the tan house with the blue easter island statue on the front steps.

walk up spring garden st. away from campus and make a left onto tate st. continue up the street until carr st. when you will make a right. this location is on a telephone pole next to the driveway to the house on the corner. after turning it's on the left side of the street.

music in 2-D

2008-05-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

this piece was an absolute blast. i picked The Mooche by Duke Ellington and this is what i heard.

wood siding

2008-05-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

i really like this one. it's the side of my friend leda's house. i couldn't get the original photograph the drawing was done from, to upload though.

Diebonkorn

2008-05-06T08:10:00.001-07:00

so this was the diebonkorn copy i did with my partner. it was sweet. though i like his work much much better in color.

time, you wicked beast

2008-04-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

i don't actually remember a lot of what we were supposed to do with this assignment. only that it had something to do with time. so i drew my alarm clock, but i left out the face. anyway, i really liked this one.

spoon

2008-04-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

so for this piece we were told to go to a public place and eavesdrop on a stranger's conversation and record what we hear. then we were instructed to use the text from our recordings and make a triptych. this is what i came up with.

don't worry about it

yeah, he's the short one

that's so funny

i was listening to these teenage girls talk incessantly about nothing. it got me thinking about how in our culture we are constantly spoon fed this drivel from tv, the radio, the internet, etc. we are constantly processing information that doesn't matter, and the youth of our country manage to fall prey to it more than those who grew up in a less technilogical age. i myself will admit i fall into it as well. i love american idol and the moronic plot lines that come out of the disney channel like anyone else. but how many of us are reading books and spooning productive ideas into our head in defiance, or has rebellion in our youth become commercialized and streamlined as well?

2008-04-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

compositional studies

2008-04-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

2008-03-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

so here are some more.

this one we were drawing with a graphite pencil attached to a paint stirrer from home depot. we had to hold it at the end of the stick which made for relatively messy drawings. i vaguely remember we were supposed to work on getting different lines.

this was a fun little activity, we assigned different types of lines to numbers, and then a pair of dice were rolled and whichever number they landed on we were supposed to draw.

ok now this one i hate. were were given a stencil of a letter and had to make a design and use value, etc. i hate mine. the craftmanship is really bad, and i feel like i played it ridiculously safe. so please overlook this one super quickly.

Katsup

2008-03-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

ok, so it's been a million years since i last posted anything, and my professor keeps nagging us to keep up with these. so i'm playing catch up. i'll try to keep them in chronological order, but honestly i don't remember so we'll see what happens.so this one was done in the first few days of class. we were told to find 5 images using google image search. then we were to trace the images on top of eachother. you can't tell, but my 5 were, a velociraptor, a vw bug that was turned into a camper, a rhinocerous, a really jovial woman whose face popped up when i image searched my name, and some yarn.

then we were told we could pick and choose the images we wanted to trace, etc. so here's what i did. i feel like the rhino has this strange vw plumage. i was pleased.

so this one we were supposed to do a line drawing of something. i don't actually remember the exact specifications of the assignment. so i drew my car. then we were to post the drawings on craigslist trying to sell them. mine was flagged though. probably because someone actually thought i was selling a 1971 vw bug for 10 bucks. silly people.

blog virgin

2008-02-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

so this is my first blog, be gentle with me. as an assignment for my design class this semester, we were required to set up a blog so we can publish (?) post (?) our work that we do for the class, and i guess otherwise if we wanted to go blog crazy and post stuff from outside class or even get into those mysterious things called feelings people talk about all the time.
but now i'm babbling, so this is a piece of work from class. we're studying shape, and i loved the effect we got with the technique we were instructed to use. using the exacto knife we cut out the shape, then inked the cut out shaped and the fit it back into the hole it left and taped up the back so it would stay. i loved the ink on this one. i just think it's cool. i want to experiment more with this.
so that's it. my first blog.