Happy October!

Children's Books

This

is Elizabeth. One of my childhood heroes, and the inspiration for my favorite Halloween costume of all time. She was one of the first to show the power that a woman possesses, and that you don't need a man to be happy...sometimes you're much better off without them.

This

is Fanny. My mom used to read her story to me when I was little. She taught me that the glitz and glam of an easy life shouldn't blind you from the simple things in life. A quiet farmhouse filled with love and laughter beats out a fancy party at the Mayor's house any day.

And, finally, this (as you well know)

is Harry. I spent countless nights hiding under the covers with a flashlight to finish his books. He was the main focus of many summer days; surprise tickets to his first movie is one of my favorite childhood memories.

The point in introducing these fictional friends is to express the joy that I am currently experiencing in the acquisition of my new job. Starting Monday, I'm going to be moving from the Receiving Department to the Children's Book Department of the Bookstore. YAY!

These friends helped to shape the person that I am and the incredible, if overactive, imagination that I have. Over the years of adding nieces and nephews to the family, I have been able to share those friendships with the small people that co-own my heart. Helping to spread the imagination that these characters, and many like them, is an awesome thing, and now I'll be paid for it!

I can't wait to start this job. I'll let you know how it goes!

Girl's Night Out!

Hey, ladies! I just wanted to let you all know about this AWESOME pamper night! This Saturday, May 22, Mary Kay is hosting a Girl's Night Out party. They have reserved the Los Hermanos restaurant on Center Street. It's just $15 per person from 6:30-8:30 and it includes appetizers, a massage, an eyebrow wax and a facial. All for just $15!! It's an amazing deal, and it's going to be SO much fun! If you're interested in coming, send me a text to let me know by Friday the 21st at 2:00 PM so that I can make sure that they have enough resources for everyone!

I hope to see you there!!

Mind My Own Business

It's true! I have started my new business in Mary Kay Cosmetics! And the fact that my finals will officially be over tomorrow (WOOHOO!) I will officially be in full swing on Wednesday. I'm UBER excited about it, already have a bunch of orders to place, and two weeks full of facials to do.

If anyone is interested in a facial, let me know. They're AMAZING. I forgot how much I love Mary Kay products.

Anyway. That's my big news as of late, and since I've been caught up with school for the last two months, I figured I'd post something, despite its shortness.

PS Yay for summer!! Goodbye, snow!

Closet Nerd

It's been a while since I last posted, and there is a reason for that. It's because I knew that, inevitably, this post was going to have to come out. It is a confession. One I have been swallowing back for many a day now.

I am a closet nerd.

Think of something you think is nerdy and I probably like it. I have been sucked into shows from the nineties that I swore to myself I would never watch. Shows with ridiculously named people wearing ridiculous things while they perform ridiculous tasks.

And I like it.

My friend K, who came out of the nerd closet (or perhaps was never really in there to begin with) has introduced me to my nerdy side. The side that watches reruns of Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Hey, don't judge.) The side that reads (I'm dying here, people) fan fiction. If you don't know what that is...good for you. The side that carries around her journal everywhere making lists of things she wants to do before she dies and events in history she wishes she had been present for.

And I like it.

For many months...if not years...I have been exploring this nerdy side. The side that, really, I always had but whose existence I emphatically denied. I assured myself that I was really cool because I still love to read classical literature and watch Bones (I would marry David Boreanaz if he asked. I'm just sayin.) and Grey's Anatomy. You know, the "cool" shows. I still love to play the piano and sing. That makes me cool, right?

And then THAT came crashing down around me too. Classical literature? Isn't the first basic sign of a nerd other than the wearing of glasses the fact that you have your nose stuck in a book 24/7? And TV? That's just one step above video games! (Although seriously, people. DAVID BOREANAZ. You can't blame me.) And yes, I WAS in four choirs my senior year of high school, thank you very much. They don't call us choir nerds because we're cool.

But the more I think of it? The more I love it. I'm unique. I can reference quotes that the majority of the world's population has never heard of. And that's cool to me. I can defend to the death that Austen's Mr. Darcy is worlds above Gaskell's Mr. Thornton. And that makes me feel intelligent. And I can sing (well...I COULD sing) higher than anyone in my dorm building my freshman year of college. Awesome.

I always admire people who embrace themselves for who they are, regardless of the opinions of others. And I'm trying this new thing where I try to do that too.

So yes. I am officially coming out of the nerd closet. I'm sayin' that I'm a nerd.

And I'm sayin' that I am proud of it.

Nerdy Girls

This was shown to me by a friend and it gave me a giggle, so I thought I'd pass it along.

http://theparkbencher.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-meet-and-woo-nerdy-girl.html

Enjoy!

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem...

...here I come! Well, hopefully.

Everyone cross your fingers that my attempt for the Jerusalem Spring/Summer study abroad works out!!

Cry For Help

Ok, my pathetic cooking not-skills have been indulged long enough. I am determined to learn how to cook! This new determination has one flaw: I have a very limited budget and no recipes that will suffice for just little ol' me.

This is where you come in:

HELP!

I need recipes that can be made to feed just one or two people that won't break the bank. And healthier food is encouraged, but not necessarily required (yeah, I'm desperate). Whoever gives the best recipes will get free cookies or brownies or better-than-se - oh, I mean...um...Heath Bar cake! Or something else that's good.

Please and thank you!!

A World Of My Own

I love books. I always have. Since I was a little girl, books were an essential part of life. I read them, wrote them, had imprints of their covers on my face from falling asleep with them. I constantly had bruises all over from running into things because my nose was stuck in the pages of a good book. Neighbors laughed as I walked to school because, chances were, I was about to run into a) the light pole or b) a parked car. True story.

In my Human Development class last semester my professor told us that parents should be worried if their children got to be older and still got lost in their own imaginations too often. He was talking about when children choose to play with imaginary friends rather than real ones, but it got me thinking.

I never stopped getting lost in my imagination.

That's not to say that I'm a loner or that I'm underdeveloped. But it is a fact that, growing up, many of my heroes and greatest influences were characters that came from books I loved (as a twelve-year-old I was in such distress because I didn't want to name my daughter Elizabeth, but I didn't know how else to name her after Jane Austen's best-known heroine). My love for books has not diminished over the years. Contrarily, it has flourished.

There are many more things to be said about why I love books, but the one that I've been thinking about most today is how books provide me a place to escape to. When life gets to be too dramatic, if somebody says something that really gets under my skin, or I'm feeling particularly lonely or whatever, I can escape into a book where my problems no longer exist (consequently, this is also why I have a passion for writing, but that's beside the point). It's no longer about the bad grade or the roommate argument. Now it's about finding the beast before the rose dies, catching the snitch when you can't see through the rain, or saving the husband of the woman you love from Madame Guillotine.

It's about creating a world entirely your own, where you can get lost in another person's problem without actually having to solve it, or finding magic when it seems to have taken a temporary sabbatical from your life. Getting lost in a good book is getting lost in relief - a world all of my own.

The Light of Life

This is a poem written by Elder B, and sent along in his last letter to me. He asked that I share, and I feel that it's a message that we could all use a reminder of.

When full of doubt, a time in life begs questions of the mind.
We wonder how or even why our efforts fail to bind.
Frustration reigns, our tongues are sharp, our actions - not so kind
We feel as though our lot is rough, we won't survive the grind.
But in these times of doubt and strife, without an end we feel
There's something more important there - the love of someone real:
His life began so long ago. His star, bright above all.
The birth of Him who'd save us all was in a lowly stall.
The angels sang, the shepherds came, the wise men journeyed from
to witness for themselves the babe whom prophets said would come.
Indeed this babe born on the plains would suffer for us all
But before death He'd show us how to answer our God's call:
To know that He, the Son of God is there to comfort him
Who bows his head in humble prayer when life is seeming dim,
To know that through our faithfulness, our garments can be pure,
To know that life eternal waits if we can but endure
To know He suffered for our sins, for our mistakes atoned,
Then overthrew the bonds of death, ascended, claimed His throne.
Through Him all wrongs can be made right, what joy this knowledge brings!
That only through His sacrifice can we be crowned as kings.
We must remember, as He taught, to put our faith in Him -
That even if our lot is rough, if life is feeling grim,
Christ, our brother, Savior, friend, has borne, Himself, our pain
And if we turn to Him in faith, our pain will have no claim
Remember this, and when we feel as if life's sorrows call,
Know that through the Christ, our Lord, we can overcome all.

Written on Christmas Eve, 2009.

And Bring In The New

I realize that everyone is doing the traditional New Year's blog post, but as I've mulled over the events of the past year, and considered what the new one could hold in store, I can't help but join in. Here are the things that have happened this year:

We welcomed baby Anna to the world and began to prepare for Baby Eddy and Baby Robinson


- I successfully finished my first year of college without too many horror stories
- I said goodbye to old friends and hello to new



- I survived my first ever surgery


- I learned a better appreciation for the world around me




and

- I thanked God that what could have been serious medical disasters turned out to be much easier to handle for many loved ones.




2010 is exciting. It holds an endless supply of exciting possibilities.

I am most excited for the births of number 11 and 12 of the Robinson grandkids. For a possible study abroad to Europe (keeping fingers crossed!), and, of course, for the return of these two:




It's going to be a year of reunions, new beginnings, magic, happiness, and new experiences. But most of all, it's going to be a year full of gratitude and remembrance for the many blessings of happy years past.

Feel The Power, Kronk

(Name that movie)

I don't know what it is about music that has such a powerful effect on me. I mean, music has a powerful effect on everyone. But sometimes I just hear that one particular piece and I'm sucked in and transformed. As I grew up I always wished I had the talent to create music like that. I'm well acquainted with many talented people that can sit down with a sheet of composition paper and pen out a melodic masterpiece, and I sometimes find myself hating them (even as I eternally love them) for that amazing talent.

Tonight I find myself particularly drawn to a composition that was featured in (don't laugh) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's at the part when that one important and beloved person has that one horrible thing happen towards the very end. You know the one I'm talking about. The one that sent everyone that read it into hysterics. (I always hate it when people spoil things for me, so I'm not going to say what it is. But really, if you don't know that that particular character meets a tragic circumstance by now, you're a hermit.)

The scene in the movie is touching in and of itself (again, don't laugh at me. I can't help it if I get really into the plot of those books/movies). But the soundtrack that plays along with it makes it. And all night as I've listened to it repeat on my iPod, I've felt the conflicting emotions it tries to portray. Sorrow, contemplation, respect...they're all there.

But music goes beyond a story that it may have been meant for. It reaches down inside of you and twists some stuff around. It applies itself to you, and becomes a part of you, no matter how small a part. Imagine with me for a moment - and only a moment because any longer would be too depressing - a world without the music. It's almost impossible to do so. Because without the music, life loses some of its majesty and magic that make it good enough to live. And that, my friends, is power.

Last Call

Hello family and friends! To all of you who expressed interest in donating to the service project we're doing for the people in Liverpool, I am sending it off on Wednesday. If you are still interested in helping, please get any and all donations to me by then. Thank you to all of those who have and will help with this. I think it's really going to help these wonderful people.

Thanks again!

Let It Snow

The last few weeks have been pretty heavy. We sent off Elder Ray, which just now is beginning to sink in. School has been brutal. Professors have been trying to shove a months' worth of work into two weeks to make up for the three days that we get off this week. I read a fabulous book that was really difficult to swallow about the Holocaust.

Altogether, I feel spent.

So, despite the groans of those who were with me last night, I couldn't help but smile in relief as the snow began to fall. I was at a Stake Relief Society dinner in Mapleton, right on the mountain, and we found ourselves in a sudden blizzard. The peace of the gentle snowfall seemed to fill me, washing away the stress and frustration of the last few weeks. I let the others run to the car, walking slowly behind them. Despite my usual frustration at snow that comes before Thanksgiving, this year I am ready. I have my wool coat in one hand and my winter gloves in the other, and I am standing with my arms open to the sky, ready for more of the gentle peace that comes in a snowstorm that silently blankets in the world.

Poorly Named Ritual

I hate goodbyes. I hate the leaving part. I hate the not seeing people for extended periods of time part. Goodbyes are not good. They are bad. Very bad-byes.

The only good thing about them is that sooner or later there is a reunion. Sooner or later the goodbye turns into a hello.

And that makes it better.

Grateful

Yesterday I attended the farewell of my dear friend, B. He's one of the last in a long list of our good friends to leave on his mission. As I sat on the bench in his chapel, surrounded by the other friends that have been left behind by those going to serve, it struck me just how amazing those boys are. I've always known that I had been particularly blessed with the young men that I associated with in high school, but it wasn't until I was no longer with them all day everyday that I realized just how blessed. One of those "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" type things.

These boys, who are now serving all around the world, are truly unique. Each of them has their own special attributes that make them who they are. But they all have a few things in common.

They are the boys who open doors for you without even thinking.
They are the boys who give up their chair for you when all the others are full.
They are the boys who will drop every thing to come get you when you're stranded.
They are the boys who put on a shirt and tie every Sunday, even when they don't want to get out of bed.
They are the boys who turn off the questionable movie.
They are the boys who always have a hug ready.
They are the boys that will just sit on the curb and prattle about nothing to distract you from the pain.
They are the boys who mothers should want their daughters to marry.
They are the boys that will one day change the world.

I am grateful to have known all of these boys who strive to be the very best they can be. They have changed me. And I can't wait to see where their goodness and service gets them in this world.

Unpredictable

I love Utah weather. It needs to be said. For the past few weeks I have been dreading the day when the snow would arrive. For some reason my usual excitement for the snow has been absent this year. But last night I had a dream. In my dream, I was looking out my front windows at a beautiful snow storm. The kind with the huge, fluffy flakes that are falling quickly and thickly but silently, blanketing the world in a wonderland of white. And then when I woke up, I could hardly wait.

We had a bit of those crappy white flecks that people from warmer climates like to call snow this morning. Then it was just wet everywhere. Then the sun came out, and it looked like the weather might be heating up again.

Then we were hit with a sudden snow storm. Not the one in my dream, but a snow storm nonetheless. And now, hours later, the skies are clear again.

I love the unpredictable weather of Utah. And I really am very excited for snow!!

Christmas Service

My friend, Elder Studly, is serving his mission in England. He was just transferred to Liverpool, and in his last letter he mentioned some families who are struggling financially. As a Christmas service project and a gift to Elder Studly, I'm trying to get together some money to send for him to help these people with this holiday season. Several people have agreed to help so far, but I thought I'd put it out there for other people to be able to be a part of. No pressure, but I thought that it'd a great service opportunity. And anyone is welcome to join in the giving, so pass the word along!

Oh, and I'm trying to get this out in the next week or two so that I can be sure it's there in time for Christmas. Thanks so much!!

Discovery

They say that college is all about finding yourself, learning who you truly are. Here's what I've discovered so far.

I am a daughter:



I am a sister:



I am an aunt:






I am a girl that likes to dress up:





I am a friend:







I'm still learning about myself and discovering who I am. But based on what I've seen so far...I'm okay with who I'm finding.

Ode to Early Morning

"Dear 3AM,

We've got to stop meeting like this.

I'd much rather sleep with you.

Love,
Me"