je suis missionaire!

I'm now a missionary and I leave for the mtc in an hour or so. Thank you everyone for your love and support, for carving me with your kindness and with your examples. I want to be more because of you. My Mom will update this blog with pictures and bits of letters! A bien tot!

soeur roberts

"The smallest one was Madeline"

Fearless

Bold

Curious

Kind

The smallest one

was Madeline

Elder Healy

I was so glad to get this picture of Elder Healy today. He's growing up! I haven't seen him in 16 months, but give it another 18 and we'll be inseparable! Hoorah for soul mates!

RAIN OR SHINE

This was the weekend:

RAIN
BLUEBERRY PANCAKES

AND ALI,

ALI MY BOSOM FRIEND

WHOM I CHERISH FOREVER,

RAIN OR SHINE.

\

So I finally decided on a missionary bag! It's the perfect size, a unique but conservative enough color, and it reminds me of Madeline--the little precocious and curious French orphan who always makes life adventurous! She has no fear; she's a total leader; and she's humble, like the little child she is. So she's all the things I hope to be in France myself. Thank you Ali for the gift and thank you Marta for the find.

I Love Collaging!

I love putting pictures together with words. I can't stop looking at my vibrant collage. It shows me that I'm on the verge of a simple and lovely rebirth. Don't you adore life? Color? Babies? Home? Books? And beautiful truth shines in it all, witnesses of it all. Ah. Drink it in!

This is My Sacred Duty

My dearest Mother escorted me through: the women the brought me into the world, that chose the gospel while those around her never knew it, who brought me up in light and truth.

My dearest friend and nearest hero, Laurel McConkie.

My dear Elder Healy's family.

Me, enamoured with life.

Just thought I'd share this!

The Call

It Started Out as a Feeling

In the words of Regina:

"It started out as a feeling,"...and now it's a reality. A reality. I'm so at peace and yet so enthusiastic!
Though I'm not a math person, I do know this:
PARIS FRANCE +THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST=A WONDERFUL ADVENTURE

I leave for the MTC on November 5, the day after I vote Barack Obama into office. God so knows me! LOL. Perfect!

Teacup and Sunshine Magic

She is my sunshine

My only sunshine

She makes me happy

When skies are gray

You'll never know

dear

How much I love her

So please don't take my sunshine

away!

Mississippi Street Fair

100 Things About Me

My bestest friend Ali just did this. I found her's soo charming. Here's my attempt!

01. I believe in palm reading
02. My favorite color is white
03. I always have freshly cut flowers near by
04. Globes and maps enchant me
05. I’m addicted to traveling, to meeting people and hearing their stories.
06. Over this year I’ve grown a deep patriotism
07. My favorite BOM character is Moroni
08. Photography is my art form
09. I love a great quilt
10. Stardust is my favorite movie
11. raspberries are my favorite fruit
12. I don’t eat meat often
13. Broccoli mesmerizes me—it’s a fractal
14. I miss kissing terribly
15. Family and friends mean everything
16. Homemade strawberry ice cream sounds so good right now
17. I speak in “the voice” to my closest comrades!
18. I love Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
19. Reading out loud to lovely listeners is my favorite pastime
20. Bettering the world is my life’s aim
21. I want to go to the moon and I really will someday
22. Campaigning for Barack Obama is my privilege
23. K, I have a love affair with horses and really want to ride one all the time. I use to take lessons. If I’d been raised on a farm, I think I’d be a complete horse-a-holic.
24. I want to go skiing with someone who won’t judge me
25. I adore kayaking.
26. I hate fake nails
27. My style is transitioning into granola chic. Probably because I love a granola boy. But I also love the Portland hippies I have met up here. I even have a Portland Recycles bag!
28. I read self help books (thanks Mom)
29. Marianne Williamson is my hero. Her book, Enchanted Love, changed my life.
30. My voice mail will make you laugh
31. Yoga makes me happy
32. I love the Logan temple
33. I’m going on a mission!
34. I wrote a children’s book once
35. I would never hold a pet mouse.
36. The game Life is a fave, babe
37. I’m sooo lucky to have an Ali and a Marc—a best girl friend and a best love!
38. I adore writing letters
39. I adore getting letters
40. Playing chess is great fun!
41. I don’t watch TV
42. Mom, I miss ya
43. Zits sort of intrigue me
44. I don’t like to run but I love how running makes me feel after the fact
45. Two words: grapefruit juice
46. I’m make wishes on random stuff
47. I name everything
48. My future kids already have names and middle names
49. Sometimes I have huge laughing fits for no apparent reason
50. Opera! What more can I say? (Though I sometimes don’t heart the stories, I always heart the music)
51. Jazz is growing on me
52. The smell of coffee…love it
53. Swing dancing…I adore swing dancing
54. Wednesdays are my favorite
55. As a libra, I’m big on balance
56. November 4th is when all the big steps in my life happen.
57. Every 4th is a special day
58. Trees. Trees. Trees.
59. I’ve been planning my wedding since I was a little girl
60. Mom says I was born 35.
61. Peonies. White peonies. Oh yeah.
62. I call close friends either yoda or crazy face or I add a ya to their name. Example: Gusya
63. I want a hammock
64. Not one for sarcasm or scary movies.
65. Give me tomatoes and mashed potatoes. I like the simple life.
66. I don’t date blondes.
67. I don’t date. LOL.
68. I like bird watching.
69. Lake Mary, that’s where I want to become engaged; it’s the most beautiful place.
70. Cocoa Café is comf.
71. Ali makes me abbreviate all things
72. Cucumbers and chocolate, uh huh
73. Don’t forget cheese. I eat cheese by the block, by itself, any time, any where.
74. I step on all the cracks in the side walk
75. I always leave a little bit of drink in my cup
76. I can’t sing but I like to
77. I collage
78. I entered the O Sweepstakes to win $250,000
79. I want to make a tent and read in it.
80. I hate anything purple flavored. Tastes like Dimetapp
81. Giving foot scrubs makes me happy
82. Florescent lights sicken me; it’s all about lamp light
83. I must make my bed
84. French. I want to speak French.
85. Dressing up! Feeling pretty! Totally my thing
86. The true me is an excellent student
87. I love public speaking because when I speak I fit in to the moment and harness its magic. It feels like heaven
88. I’m trying not to complain, to be a true optimist
89. I like painting but I’m not good at it
90. Stargazing is totally great
91. I love being mormon!
92. I wish I had a bigger bladder.
93. Bicycling is exhilarating
94. I use two swear words and only when they are sooo funny
95. My body is pretty much amazing. LOL.
96. Sometimes I just want to cuddle. Though I hate that word.
97. Mint ice cream. My fave.
98. I hate writing; I love having written.
99. I’m silly.
100. Love is my creed.

Now you try!

Remember that One Time?!

Here is a fun little game...Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.On your mark...get set...blog your memories!!

Today

Today I rode the bus with a blue ironing board into the city. People sort of half smiled at me. Got to the place I had previously decided to register voters when a nice police man told me I needed a permit to be on the square. So I picked up everything and sought new territory.

At a street corner, a voice said, "Hello girl with an ironing board!" And I met him. Name was Breece. He worked for Green Peace, an organization devoted to saving the environment. "Every day a football field of the boreal forest is chopped down to make kleenex. And one box of kleenex took 90 years to grow," he told me. And his kindness couldn't be shrugged away so as he led me to the next hoppin' corner I agreed to save the planet with him.

Registered 9 new voters on that corner. Met a Pete and a John and some European teenagers (all of whom cheered over my Obama pin!). Gave away oreos and humored many with my blue ironing board. I couldn't not smile. Oregonians are so fabulous. People gave me the thumbs up all day. Several people checked in on me. "How's business?," they'd ask after walking back my way. One man told me my set up was the best he'd seen in 40 years. Maybe he just thought I was cute. But maybe it had something to do with the character of an ironing board and a hand made sign, a big smile and a plate of oreos melting in the sun.

It's grass roots. It's the change coming from the bottom up. And today I couldn't help but think of the future (something I'm trying really hard not to do), when I can tell my grandchildren that I stood on street corners with a blue ironing board, registering voters to reclaim our country. When I can say I volunteered with the Barack Obama campaign and the children think wow and know in their hearts that that means something special.

Journeying home, I caught a refracted bit of myself in the bus window smiling about it. Ah, today. Not just a turn of earth but a time of life. A time of life never to be forgotten. A time of life to ever love.

People I Miss and Love Beyond Measure

These guys

Sisters

McConks

Ali

Mom and Gaylen the Beloved

I Like This Stuff

These are sweet, huh?

I found a majority of these pictures on a blog of a stranger. I love what she writes and posts. This comes from a great post on simple baby clothes. "The simpler, [they are] the better," she writes. I agree. I'm in love with the look.

I adore this black piano, even though I've never played.

My kids will though.

And maybe I will too!

I like how organic and tender and stylish this looks.

It's granola chic.

A Room Full of Strangers

Today I spoke to 50 people about America.

This country means justice and liberty and living dreams.

We are remembering who we are.

And in the process I'm discovering myself.

Happy Birthday dear USA.

I've never really realized how much I love you until today,

the day I tried to verbalize it to a room full of strangers.

To Home and Heaven

We are selling our beloved house. But our beloved home travels with us; she's called mother.
I will miss the claw foot tub. That's where my sweet heart washed my feet. I will miss the porch swing too. That's where he and I wished on rose petals and talked about the universe. I will miss the green sofa by the windows in the sun. That's where we read novels and watched Cars.

Perhaps in those memories lies the reason why I dread moving this time around. I love change. But moving has never really changed things for me. I've always had the same home. She makes our house into our home.

But this house means Marc to me I think. Every little room is painted with our old laughter, prayers, and thoughts. I hear the echoes of our voices there and just knowing that he used to be in the same space seems to make him more real to me.

But let go! Let go! Houses are interchangeable. Homes remain in our souls. My mother makes home. My Marc makes heaven. They are both welded to my heart. And I find comfort in the truth that they both go on forever.

I love change. But mostly I love those people and places that never can. So here's to Home and Heaven!

Road Trip!

Portland Summer

Today gave direction. Summer plans no longer hang suspended in spring air. I have been accepted into the Barack Obama Fellowship Program! And they're sending me to Portland for the summer to organize the community for the fall. Just knowing that I have something purposeful to do makes me so happy. I feel like life breathed into my nostrels today and woke me up from a lull.

A summer in bustling, eclectic Portland. A summer spent organizing people for a great cause. A summer with my grandparents (I'll be staying with them--how perfect, huh?). A summer. A perfect summer.

I get home on the 27 of July. And greeting me will be my mission call--my next adventure.

Life is coming together.

I'm....happy.

jacque o

My Choice

Peace and excitement all at once.

And then joy and a reliance on something so much bigger than myself.

Finally I have made a choice. It's my choice. It's right.

Looking back I see that everything this year pointed to it, begged it of me.

And I can't help but smile with my heart, with my eyes, with every cell of me

When I say it

Aloud.

I'm Going On A Mission.

How's that E?