I was singing at the blue monkey...

Well I've had a few requests to update the blog....so that's bloggeriffic. I am apparently making up words now. Good times, great oldies. Well, let's do it to it...

things...at least ten of them...

1.) I probably did the most horrible thing ever yesterday. I ate a tuna fish sandwich in front of my fish, Ludacris. That is damaging. I am hoping he thought I was just eating bread with mayo on it. Oh gosh, I felt so bad that I changed his water which was probably just as horrific as watching me eat fish....I need to repent...asap...on the double.
2.) Yesterday night I had the "pleasure" of helping my friend check her mouse traps in her house. She screamed...I screamed...she jumped...I jumped...she almost peed her pants...that's when I stopped copying her. It was an intense experience and definitely got the pulse going. To say the least....we found 2 mice on the traps....no freakin bueno. At one point I was freaking out so bad I didn't know what to do except laugh....who laughs at a time like that? I do...that's who.
3.) Nothing brings my sister and I together like...Crest White Strips, Matthew McConaughey's Hotness, and dancing to "single ladies" in the middle of a parking lot.
4.) I like to play games but I had to draw the line when my sister asked me to play "Princess memory" with her and my mom....I am pretty sure it was my niece's game in the first place...I mean...are we really that bored that we have to play Princess Memory?
5.) A few quotes I like from a few people I love....
These are from my niece (she's 3)..."I got SKATER ROLLERS" "Chillax" (She told Melissa that...hilarious). "Yah, but we don't have a chimney" (worried about Santa getting in the house). "Yes way, dude" "No way, Jose"
These are from Brittani (bless her heart for coming home)... "A fight was started over a plunger and me" "Obama Chapter 16? Oh...Alma Chapter 60" "Keep your hot pockets in your pants" (even she was confused after saying that one). "I'll toast to that" (after we toasted to special powers, citric acid jucie, her mom, etc etc etc)
This quote comes from my co-worker. We were in the break room and she yells..."I'm not having sex." Oh my gosh...this guy totally turns around and looks at us...to say the least...the very least....one word...awkward.
6.) I had an interview the other day...to make my temp. job into a permanent position so I was reviewing "interviewing tips"....well, I was a little disheartened when it talked about making good eye contact...how am I supposed to do this with the lazy eye situation? Luckily...I am Mormon and we shake hands with people all day on Sunday's so I definitely won on the give a "firm handshake."
7.) You know you live in Nebraska when there is a random pair of cowboy boots on the sidewalk when I leave work and the next day when I walk to work..they are still there....nobody even steals them.... Well, I guess I either live in Nebraska or they were some ugly ugly cowboy boots.
8.) You know Joe, Jr on the movie, "While you were sleeping"? Well someone told me I'd go good with him...that's the most intriguing statement of my life and definitely by all means...not a compliment. At least he's got some goodness going for him...he owns an apartment complex "Live here...I own the joint" and he's got a steady income "He also thinks he invented aluminum foil".
9.) I have a theory....every winter I fall on ice. Well the theory holds true again this year. I totally fell on ice last weekend...in a skirt....all I have to say is that it got rid of the headache I had...so props for that.
10.) now...I am going to put on a few pics from recent events for numero ten.

Please don't ever re-gift a gift...esp. harmonica's....or this may ensue.


The familia acted out the Christmas Story/Nativity on Christmas Eve. Melissa was the donkey (wish I woulda got a picture of that). I was Joseph. Abby was Mary. And the Doll was baby Jesus. So this was our family picture. Dang it...Abby is cute!


We ran out of bows to put on presents so Catherine decided to use the 80's hair clips/bows that Melissa still happens to have around the house for some reason. It made me laugh so stinkin hard.

The shirt says "Mom likes Me best." Catherine truly believes it.

What? Melissa thinks she is liked the best by Mama J?

Oh...both the sisters are mad because they know really I am liked the best!! Woo hoo!

Mama J gave us all these shirts for Christmas. So Stellar! Love it and love my family!

Well, that's all folks. Except I am going to give a special shout out to my friend Meggie...thanks for encouraging me to blog and please come back from vacation already!

Word...
TDS

14 minutes

I have 14 minutes until it is Midnight...I want to get this posted by then...so here goes nothing.

ten things....any ten things...

1.) When I graduated college from Southern Utah University I never thought I would really have a desire to go back to Cedar City, Utah. As Sister Act 2 states..."It was cool for what it was...but it wasn't all that." (I quote that line probably a good 5.4659 times a week). Well...tonite I had a desire and bought a plane ticket to Cedar City. I am going in January and I am STOKED! Bring it FREAKING on! So excited to see the gang a roo.
2.) My friend Natalie had her baby...a little boy named Clay. I am so excited! Woo hoo for Natalie. This baby has turned me into a professional stalker of the blogs...I went through about 24 blogs until I found one that had a picture of the small child....it was worth it...the baby is cute. WAY cute to be exact.
3.) I think my niece rocks the house. She calls headphones "earmugs" I mean honestly...does it get better than that?
4.) I would like to thank my friend ENPVB....she talked about how she tries to do the dance that Beyonce does in the music video "Single Ladies" well...now I constantly have that visual image in my head and it gets me to laugh out loud....not many things can make me laugh out loud that hard. Thank you Eryn. You have brought more laughter into my life than I know what to do with...hopefully I will continue to only have that visual image in my head during appropriate laughing times. We'll see.
4b.) If you haven't seen the video...youtube it. Then youtube the SNL with justin timberlake and beyonce for that video...oh so hilarious.
5.) I am one lucky fool. I have a friend that calls and sings my voicemail a song everyday. Love it. I'd say so far "Let's get physical" has been the best song...I mean how often do you receive a voicemail with such a deep philosophical meaning? Although, I also love the ones in which the lyrics are forgotten part way through...interesting things happen then...
6.) I have found a way to save money when shopping for new clothes....have really static-y hair. I mean...by the time you get the clothes on and your hair is having a static madness day...nothing looks good and therefore you buy nothing. Just trust me...it saved me some serious dough last week.
7.) Here is a serious question....at what age is it appropriate to start wearing ugly holiday sweaters? I feel I need to be the fashion police and tell people if they are to young to be wearing them.
8.) Something that made me feel really awkward inside the other day...I was at wal-mart and I saw about 5 children that I could not tell if they were boys or girls....they were not babies...they were children. That is an awkward feeling...I had to look away...with the good eye and the lazy eye.
8b.) What is even worse is that as a child I was one of those children that made me people feel awkward inside...dang it all.
9.) I often wish people spoke like the Drummer Boy song....it'd be fun (well for about an hour). Just imagine..."Hi....how ya doing today...pa rum pam pum pum." "Let me direct your call...pa rum pum pum pum."
10.) There was a hit on my fish....meaning someone was going to pay Meggie big bucks to kill it (I bet it was my mom). So thanks be to Meggie for choosing wisely and letting it live. Ludacris, the fish, is doing well and definitely just the coolest thing around. Pretty sure he'll have the most presents under the Christmas tree.
11.) Having the hiccups does not go well with having the stomach flu. I just want to point that out. It could go on the list of "the worst thing..."
12.) It is 5 minutes after the hour so I have to say adieu.

-T-

seriously sunday stuff

For those of you who know me and have been following the blog know that I am pretty just lax about life and I like to joke around but sometimes I am serious...and people don't ever quite know what to do...eeekkk...so who knows how you all will take this post. It is Sunday today so I have spent a lot of the day at church and so I am going to keep it low key and be a little more serious. I was reviewing some of my mission stuff this morning and well...I learned a lot from the mission. I feel like I had a "pre-testimony" of Jesus Christ's gospel before the mission. I am so grateful for the knowledge I gained. I love the mission with all my heart. I love life now and the things I am spiritually learning now...so here is some top tenness from the mission.... (as recored in my journals/random papers). No worries...I am sure I'll be back to sarcastic blogging soon enough! :)
As a sidenote...I did this for me. It is important for me to remember these things. I don't do this to be like "look at me." I am just a beginner in my knowledge/testimony of the Gospel. I strive to become better...but I gained a lot of life lessons from the mission and I want to remember them. I did this for me. You don't have to read about it or care about it...but I do. So here it be...just a few tidbits...

1.) This is a quote from my journal...June 6th, 2007. "The moment you recognize you're humble you've lost your humility." That was a quote from someone...then I followed it up with this amazing wisdom..."PRIDE is a fatty sin! Don't look at what man thinks, focus on what God thinks." Wow....crack me up. But I learn that the proud can't accept authority of God and can't accept God's counsel easily. "Be ye humble" is not merely advice.
2.) Here is a quote I learned well from on the mish..."A wise man learns to fall forward like a good ball carrier in football...to make the most of every failure." I love that. I fail at things...but do I learn? Am I making the most of every situation? I learned on the mission that sometimes things don't work out perfectly...in fact sometimes they just fail, but what on the journey did I learn...what was the take home message. There is always a take home message.
3.) This is from my study journal on May 24th, 2007..."Finished the Book of Mormon again! Yay! It's true, it does nothing but give guidance and answers. It strengthens me and helps me become better! I know of its power and that's why I'm here! Because it teaches something great, something that saves. It is a light for dark eyes or dark days! We need the Book of Mormon because the Lord needs/wants us. El Libro De Mormon can and has changed lives. It is working in my own! Feel the power!" I would say I still love the Bible and Book of Mormon that much. And yes...yes I did write "El Libro de Mormon." Call me crazy for thinking I knew some Spanish. Oh man.
4.) John H. Groberg once said, "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child...he learns lessons from storms he cannot learn from calm seas." I remember I was having kind of a rough time on the mission and we went to the church library to make a copy and someone had left this quote just sitting out (inspiration?...I think yes.) I quickly wrote it on a sticky note and put it in my study journal. I learned that day about the tender mercy of the Lord. I learned that the Lord knows me individually. He knew that the storm would continue to rage as I continued on in the mission but that He could and would calm me.
5.) A quote from Elder Steuer, "When our desire to receive instruction is a greater force than our comfort in remaining as we are, we become teachable." This is something I had to learn as well. I am not a goal oriented person...I do not have much aim (maybe because of the lazy eye)...but I am easily content in life. So...I had to learn to not take comfort in remaining as I am and really push myself and test myself to see how I could/can improve. I just love this because I have seen many great examples of this....esp on the mission. I saw people who were living comfortable lives change everything to receive instruction that will bless their lives and really just forever bless them. They became teachable and they became great students of the Lord. What more could I really desire? That is what I learned...I want to sit at the Masters feet and learn...so uncomfortableness here I come.
6.) Sometimes at the missionary conferences the nurse lady would speak and I have this written down as her words of wisdom..."Floss only the teeth you want to keep." That makes me think of Sister Tate (my first comp...my trainer...my mission mama) and I had a saying..."A companionship that flosses together blossoms together." I learned on the mission that the Lord blessed me with my health...I don't think I have ever been so healthy...even the small things are important to the Lord.
7.) This is written in my study notes..."Alma 20:26...love is the message we should all convey." That is something that I was blessed to learn on my mission...love for anyone and everyone...it was cool to be able to see God's perspective on people and feel His perfect love for them often times as we served them on the mission. I was able to understand that God just wants us to love everyone and not worry about if it is the right thing or not...if it is cool or not...if we have time or not...just do it. Just love with a pure and simple heart. I want to strive to remember that...love is the message we should convey one to another.
8.) Here is another quote that had an influence on me..."To lie in bed after one has awakened, indulging in ease and reverie is a habit fatal to promptness, resolution of character, and purity of mind." To me that meant get up and work when I first heard it. The mission changed me as to a full day...I like to busy busy busy now. (Don't get me wrong...I like down time as well sometimes). But after the mission I just want to be out doing something...working, serving, bugging my friends...just keeping busy. And the mission taught me that the Spirit will be the best guide on how to keep busy in a positive and productive way. The mission will forever have an impact on my attitude towards work and the love of work.
9.) I guess going along with number 8...I learned a huge lesson....to rely on the Spirit we must have the Spirit...that seems pretty obvious (I never said I was a deep thinker)...but I learned I must be living my life the way the Lord has set to receive the Spirit the way the Lord wants to give it so freely to us. That's all...we have to do do our part...we have to make and keep those promises to God...I just gained a strong testimony of living up to my end of the bargain because when I started doing that on the mission I saw the power of the Spirit come into my life and it changed everything in my life for the better...and when I say everything...I mean everything.
10.) On the mission I once sprayed pomegranate juice on my shirt...my white shirt. I knew it was never going to come out. I was mad/upset...that was the first thing I actually was upset about on the mission. (Only because I knew I should have changed my shirt before eating it). Anyway...my companion said "Sister Starr...if it is important to you...then it is important to the Lord." I have carried that with me ever since....The Lord knows we can be frivolous in our worries sometimes, but He still cares. He still wants to help us out and be there for us. I learned that we need to do this for other people.... And yes...the stains came out of the shirt...prayer works, miracles happen. "you gotta have faith..da faith...da faith."
11.) I learned that Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I learned that He knows me and He loves me. I learned that the atonement can free the sinner and allow them to come back to Christ. I learned that because Christ lives, we can live as well. I learned there would be no Christmas if there were no Easter. I became grateful for my Savior on the mission...not just knowledgeable about the Savior. I came to see the Savior in my life daily...not just in my life at church on Sunday. I came to see Him change my life and clean my life. I came to see....in general.

President Hinckley once asked "Does the testimony of Jesus Christ still burn in your bosom as it did when you were a young missionary?" That is a question near and dear to my heart. It is something I must remember. It is something I will continually work for. It is something I cherish...that fire I felt as I was a young missionary knowing and feeling the truth in a whole new way. I think each of us can recall as we gained a strong testimony of Christ and I hope each one of us can still feel it.

That's all.
-Theresa