fafarazzi

so, joy found this great site called 'fafarazzi', which allows you to create a fantasy league and compete against your friends by selecting celebrities and hoping they do something, anything, newsworthy. for any pop-watcher, this is pretty much a dream come true.

though i didn't get the top picks in my draft pool, i do have high hopes for several members of my team.

happy playin' y'all:)

new seven wonders sham...

i've decided that i am officially withdrawing my support and the iota of buy-in i had for gma's new seven wonders. the 4th wonder named was the hawaiian national marine monument, and the 5th? the friggin internet. now, don't get me wrong i like fish, and i LOVE the internet, but it's gotten to the point of ridiculousness. these aren't the 'wonders' of myths and legends (maybe maybe maybe the first two), like stonehenge, the great wall, the taj mahal. i am getting the feeling that gma and their panel of 'experts' are trying to pull one over on us, and i may have been a little lake for that wake up call, but no more hitting the snooze buttion.

now if you go here, a site seemingly completely unrelated to the gma list, you have a 'real' list. now these are wonders that i can get behind. i am half tempted to pull my previous posts regarding gma's list in a grand gesture of disgust, but i guess in the end, gma is not going to be calling me up expressing their disappointment in my withdrawal of support. nonetheless, i'm over it, until july 7 of next year when the new new 7 wonders list will be revealed. then again, it will be my wedding day, so i may not care all that much.:)

quick poll...as in, respond right now. please

my registration is up, so since i have to renew anyway and it's pretty inexpensive, i think i'm going with a vanity plate.

based on what's available (yes, the ones i really really want are gone) i've narrowed it down to the following:

nc lovr (a tribute to my love of the state)

etctara (because i'm cute, and funny, and smart, etcetera, etcetara)

trvellr (this is pretty self-explanatory)

trvl chc (again-self-explanatory)

attatud (a play on the last name and an accurate description)

drma kwn (a tribute to my theater life and also an accurate description)

tv girl (my initials and my obsession)


i expect to see mucho comments and opinions on this. please don't disappoint--all are welcome to express an opinion. i'm also willing to entertain other ideas, but time is running out....

anne..shut your ears

well, last week's cma's made me realize that the last country playlist i had on the blog was back in may. high time to throw another one up. for all you country haters, you'll just have to deal. lara and rae, enjoy.

typically i never post multiple songs from the same artist, but since it may be awhile before the next country list, and there is some stuff i am totally diggin right now... i also try to keep the playlists between 10 - 15 songs, but i'm breaking all my own rules this week. i know, i'm a rebel.

some of my favorite lyrics from this list...

"she's a saturn with a sunroof with her brown hair blowin"

"you never gave enough of you to make it worth a try"

"when a man wants to be with a woman, there ain't no way of gettin there t0o fast. when you know who you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want to start the rest of your life as soon as you can."

"these boots....the damndest thing i've ever seen 'em do, is walkin out on you."

"when you think happiness, i hope you think that little blak dress. think of my head on your chest, and my old faded blue jeans. when you think tim mcgraw, i hope you think of me."

now that that's out of the way. 3 events down, 1 to go, before london. then two the week i get back. then i can breathe.

and in other news, gma is back with the third new wonder:

polar ice caps, iceland: mountains ring the glacier lagoon in southeast iceland. the glacier lagoon is about 350 kilomenter east of reykjavík and one of the greatest wonders of nature in iceland. glacier lagoon was formed fairly recently, the result of a warmer climate.

um. okay?

jeremiah

my third lesson since being called to teach gospel doctrine, and i knew when i began preparing, that this one was going to be different.

the first two lessons were...okay. though they were taught with the spirit, they were just okay. i struggled with feeling like the flow wasn’t quite on. i didn’t feel like the transitions were natural. i felt like i was getting by. but this lesson was almost a 180. when i started reading the chapters, i knew exactly what i wanted the main principle to be. then i read the lesson plan, and it didn’t exactly jive with where i wanted to go. so i downloaded several talks about various topics covere in the lesson plan--some focusing more on the direction i wanted to head, some more in line with the lesson plan. each morning on my way to and from work i would listen to a different talk. and still it was clear to me.

diverging from the lesson plan meant almost completely writing my own, and when i began, i remembered..this is how i used to do things--when i taught before. and all the sudden everything was flowing. i knew, when i had completed it, that this was the lord’s work, and that as long as i was able to deliver his message without throwing up (just because it was flowing doesn’t mean i wasn’t still ill), that there would be some in attendance who would be powerfully affected.

so, taking my place at the podium today, i knew what i had in front of me was good, and from the get go, everything was ‘on’. it was one of those lessons that, even though i was guiding and directing the lesson, in a very loose sense of those words, in a way, it was also completely out of control. it was one of those lessons when i would be about to read a quote, or cite a scripture, and a class member would raise their hand with a comment regarding the very quote/scripture. it was one of those lessons where the class members might have been reading my lesson plan. it was incredible. some of the responses to questions were so poignant and beautifully stated that it took me off guard.

while several people approached me after class to express their thanks, i was most pleasantly taken off guard when one of the guys in the ward came up to me and while handing me a slip of paper, said ‘here is your quote back.’ i had asked him to read one of the quotes during class, and found it a bit odd that he was returning it to me. i thanked him, but must have looked a tad confused, and as he walked away he mumbled something about a note. when i turned the quote over, i found the following handwritten note:

i just wanted to thank you for your wonderful lesson. it was eloquently delivered and finely crafted. you have been truly blessed with an ability to strengthen the testimony of the saints. --s

in any call to serve, there are sacrifices and rewards. my sacrifice comes from facing my greatest fear, and knowing that that fear will never decrease. but a lesson like today...that is my reward. it is humbling to be the vessel for such important messages, and my testimony cannot help but increase exponentially as a result.