What are Men Compared to Rocks and Mountains?

This is a quote in the ever loved and ever hated (mostly by men) book Pride and Prejudice. I was editing some pictures this morning and happened to run across some from a trip my friends and I took to Zion National Park this summer. It made me think of that quote as I was looking at the pictures from that trip. I have pictures of everything from the tiniest of flower to the majesty of a canyon. God created these huge structures and delicate little flowers for us. Do we really and truly appreciate them? I don't think we do. 

I think especially now, people don't appreciate the country we live in.  From the amber waves of grain to the purple mountain majesty we have one of the most beautiful and peaceful places to live in the entire world.  There is great majesty all over the world, don't get me wrong, but we have all of these rolled into one beautiful place.  All nations of the world are rolling into us, and we are so blessed to be where we are.. here are the pictures that inspired my thoughts.

I also love the part that follows that quote by Elizabeth Bennett, she says...
Mary Bennet: The glories of nature. What are men compared to rocks and mountains?
Elizabeth Bennet: Believe me. Men are either eaten up with arrogance or stupidity. If they are amiable, they are so easily led they have no minds of their own whatsoever.

Even though this quote was meant for the male sex, it is true of most of us now.  Everyone walks around in this world with their false pride and their sense of superiority and arrogance.  Usually if they aren't doing this, they are showing some kind of stupidity. The nice people of the world, follow what others do, and hardly ever do anything for themselves, its sad but true how well her quote turned out to describe us now days. Of course I have to include a picture from Pride and Prejudice, because not everyone is lucky enough to find a love like that Love/Hate relationships going on there. Oh one last thing I love from the movie is below the picture... I guess that is my little school girl romance kicking in there, its just fantastic though, if you haven't seen the movie you should, I even know guys that love it!

Mr. Darcy: How are you this evening, my dear?
Elizabeth Bennet: Very well... although I wish you would not call me "my dear."
Mr. Darcy: [chuckles] Why?
Elizabeth Bennet: Because it's what my father always calls my mother when he's cross about something.
Mr. Darcy: What endearments am I allowed?
Elizabeth Bennet: Well let me think...”Lizzie" for every day, "My Pearl" for Sundays, and...”Goddess Divine"... but only on *very* special occasions.
Mr. Darcy: And... what should I call you when I am cross? Mrs. Darcy...?
Elizabeth Bennet: No! No. You may only call me "Mrs. Darcy"... when you are completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy.
Mr. Darcy: [he snickers] Then how are you this evening... Mrs. Darcy?
[kisses her on the forehead]
Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy...
[kisses her on the right cheek]
Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy...
[kisses her on the nose]
Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy...
[kisses her on the left cheek]
Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy...
[finally kisses her on the mouth]

Gratitude Journal 2

So I realized that when I think about it I have so much to be grateful for.  I know sometimes I complain more than I should, but here are a few more things I have found to be grateful for in the past few days.

• I don't play a sport that could seriously injure me
• The Colts won the playoff game
• Austin Collie has sticky hands
• It is getting warmer and days are getting longer
• I have the best and cutest boyfriend ever
• My Mom's Birthday is on Friday
• I don't live in a terrorist nation
• I have the gospel
• I still go to church (kind of a trend in the ward not to)
• Mom might get to come with me to Utah!
• That I finally know what my hives are coming from 

Today I finally found out that the hives I have been getting are from the Copper and metals leaving my body which is a relief.  It comes out especially well on the days I get light therapy. I have started going to get electron light therapy from Dr. Greene.  He has me on a special diet as well, he is kind of becoming a naturopath as well as a chiropractor. He is trying to help me out by having me drink lemon in my water and lime. He has also given me instructions to eat special salad dressing and eat the salads marinated.  He says yellows and greens are good for my body and that I am rejecting them so much because my body needs them.  He says the Lupus is trying to get my body to throw them up when I take them because it hates them so much right now, but after a few weeks my body is supposedly going to start craving them and I will want them instead of the other stuff.  I don't really want that many fattening foods right now, just a few because I feel as though I have no energy in my body. I know that some of the foods that he wants me to eat will help me receive energy, but it is hard to eat just greens, I don't feel good when I do, it is because it is cleaning me out and I understand that, but it is hard! Here is a website with health advice and a test you can take to see if your herbals are helping you or not. leftlemon.com It is about how healthy lemon juice and greens are for you.  It is pretty cool, I just wish someone was helping me do the diet while not pushing me at the same time. I will slowly work myself off of the meat and other meat products until I don't really even want them anymore. That is probably all for now I should go, we are having family time.. oops :)

Gratitude Journal

This last week in church, the bishop's wife spoke and talked about Gratitude. She said that we would recognize our blessing much better if we focused everyday on the things that we were grateful in our lives.  I know that this is true as ingratitude is one of the biggest problems in our society today.  The high councilman also talked about gratitude and told a story about Santa Christmas cards that I really liked.  He said every year the post office receives thousands of letters into their dead letter receptacle from children to Santa asking for things they want for Christmas.  He then said that one year, one post office received one single letter after Christmas thanking Santa for the gifts they received.  That single act of gratitude from a child is the only one they ever received to that post office and it shows the ingratitude of our nation as a whole with our labels and our money.  Hmm what else, oh yeah, I got a funny email from my dad today about the English language and all of our weird words that mean ten different things, etc.  Here is part of it, he got it in a letter he found from Grandpa to Grandma when he was in the navy and some of it is from Mom.

Why do you park in the drive way and drive on the parkway?
Did you ever see a stepping stone?
Did you ever see a toilet bowl?
Did you ever see a horse fly?
Did you ever see a peanut stand?
Did you ever see a board walk?

What did Ida hoe? She hoed a merry land.
What did Miss A sip? She sipped a mini soda.
What did Dela wear?  She wore a new jersy.

Did you ever see a garden hose?  A sock hop? A bed tick? A neck tie? A night fall?
A clock run? A bag pipe? A mill run? A shoe fly? A nose run? Have you seen a turkey dressing? A day pass by? A bed spring? A light switch? A tad pole? A flower pedal? A heart break? A water slide? A jolly rancher? A ranch dressing? A belly button?

Kind of interesting if you think about it how weird we are, and how things probably make no sense to people coming to our country.   Anyways on to the gratitude journal.

Today I am grateful for the warm weather in the summer, clearance sales, $5 shoes, oranges, apple juice, prayer and the Conference Issue of the Ensign! Oh yeah, I forgot an important one BYU! President Monson's  ear wiggling skills kind of makes the top of the list too, and the chance to get to watch him speak completely candidly.

Dang I almost forgot to post a hilarious story that happened between my mom and I last night, probably one of the funniest moments ever, it may have been because I was tired, but regardless, to me it was hilarious. So last night I am talking to mom before bed, and I was like do we have any thicker pillows? She looked at me with the confused are a weirdo look she has (I really wish I had it on film) and she says... in the most dramtic voice I think I've ever heard her use.."All of our pillows are the same size..." and then she just stared at me with the same expression for about a minute while I tried to explain what pillow I wanted (I had already used it once at home).  She finally figured it out and went and go the pillow off of Kevin's bed, which was indeed thicker.  It was just funny to me that she held the look for so long of complete and utter confusion, just another reason I think she is hilarious. 

P.s. I got my hair cut today but here are some pictures of lunch with Tia, Shana and Parker... Well only one of them is working right now, and I get a new phone!

School and Sickness

Well as most of you have probably heard, I have had a few apartment problems this past semester.  When I first moved in to my first place, one of my roommates and I did a lot of clashing, and by a lot, I mean so much that after about a month and half, something had to change, and that happened to be me selling my contract and moving out.  When I did move out, I was at the new apartment for about 3 weeks before our roof caved in.  I was already having some foot problems and lacking on sleep, so that complicated things even more. I am now at home for an extra few weeks to try to re-cooperate. I have been here for almost 4 weeks and will probably be here about 3 or 4 more before I head back to school to take second block classes. I am feeling a lot better, but I still don't have much energy.  The good news is that I haven't had a fever for about a week, so now I'm just waiting to get some energy and more food into my body so that I can head back to school and be healthy at the same time. It was definitely a crazy semester and I hope this next one calms down a little bit.  Brent needs to get home as well so he can get some classes taken care of before the second block starts. It was overall a pretty crazy semester and I'm glad to have a break while everyone else is in school right now. Hopefully I can get well soon.  Kevin is doing well, most of you have probably read his updates though and know this. He likes his companion Elder Mendoza who is from Mexico City and they seem to be getting along well.  They have their first baptism today, she is a 10 year old girl who has been working on the discussions for a while, so that is great. That is really all the news I have for now except that I am catching up on a class I couldn't quite finish because I was so sick and I still need a few hours for my internship to be complete.  They kind of fired me, kind of not.  I am still doing blogs, but not getting paid hourly anymore. Hmm.. I think that really is about it for now. We are still waiting on pictures from Kevin on his SD card so.