book review - eat pray love

done.

finally.

but i will soon be able to read lots more.

this one was fun and beautiful.

i love to read creative words- and she is definitely good at that

my two favorite quotes:

[a belief of Balinese people]:
"The child is taught from the earliest consciousness that she has these four brothers with her in the world wherever she goes, and that they will always look after her. The brothers inhabit the four virtues a person needs in order to be safe and happy in life: intelligence, friendship, strength, (and I love this one) poetry. The brothers can be called upon in any critical situation for rescue and assistance.

When you die, your four spirit brothers collect your soul and bring you to heaven."

"I looked into my heart, at my own goodness, and I saw its capacity. I saw that my heart was not even nearly full…my heart could easily have received and forgiven even more.

Its love was infinite.
I knew then that this is how God loves us all and receives us all, and that there is no such thing in this universe as hell, except maybe in our own terrified minds. Because if even one broken and limited human being could experience even one such episode of absolute forgiveness and acceptance of her own self, then imagine-- just imagine!--what God, in all His eternal compassion, can forgive and accept."

how beautiful is truth.

things that make me shimmy...

at the beginning of may, on a friday, i met with one of the peeps that i manage.
this kid has been dating a cute girl for a while....

as part of our one-on-one,
i asked about his thoughts on the topic of wife-having.
turns out he's for it.

so we set a goal to get him married this year,
which meant, engaged quite soon.

the following monday he told me he had a ring and a "blessing-giving" apppointment!
(ok, so we can deduct that the 1:1 was effective...)

turns out he wanted to propose on a beach in cali
near some relatives of mine.
he needed help, and i needed some vitamin D.

thanks, B-rendan,
for such a fun reminder of what it was like to be there
almost exactly 1 year ago...

and for letting me paparazzi a sec

after that adventure, i went straight to girl's camp.

now, i myself, like camping.
this here:

(though, i must say, a fantastic decor job)

NOT CAMPING!!

this is way too posh to be called camping.
lights in cabins and a full kitchen and showers?!!

so much fun to spend time with these cute chicks

and to spend some time with Niko (my camera)
in the great outdoors


miniature break from reality:

check.

bring it on, 2010

last year was hands down
(i guess that means you can't even vote on it, put your hand down)
the best year of my nearly 25 years...

this time last year i had no idea,
that in 2 weeks i would be on a first date and lovin life and and all things cc.
(driving all of you nuts with my giddy stories)

this time last year,
i had no idea where i would be living or working...
i am amazed how much my heavenly father blesses more and more daily


bring it, 2010.

as an FYI,

this blog, is going to slowly become the foto place,
as i have many coming up
and i know having 2 is quasi intense.

do i care? not much.

for christmas,
cc gave me all kinds of foto equips
and a workshop class i get to go to...
i have been gettin ready.

so excited.

bring it on.

highlights

dear blog,
i wanted to repent for being neglectful....

here are some weekly highlights:


· had a meltdown because of my suspicious recent weight gain
and my inability to make it stop last week,
then listened to a talk on saturday morning that reminded me not to care.
and i cried:

"He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked."
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

· spent the night playing house and watchin the niece so another one could come.
i like playing mom.

· baby Chantelle Lorraine Moffat was born at 5:11 on 10.5.2009.
7 pounds, 9 ounces of adorable joy.


· yesterday i was listening to my talk radio podcasts on my phone,
cause i have culture,
and heard that obamanation won himself a nobel "piece"
for "capturing the world's attention" and "inspiring hope"
where is michael jackson's piece then?
ironically, i just lost hope in the nobel peace prize...
11 days? you gave the man 11 days to be in office
before nominating the man for changing the world?!
...don't get me started...

· my coworker who never does anything for anyone else,
helped a student at 5:05.... (after his shift!).
he declared, "today will go down in history!"
a breakthrough that makes me smile.

· after not feeling so awesome for the past few days,
and coming home a groggy hot mess everyday,
i got into the car after work yesterday,
rolled the windows down,
blasted some tunes,
and sang along.
smiling the whole way.
a surge of happiness for no reason except that God loves me.

· then we played with some cute friends
long overdue!
ate good food,
laughed a lot,
and went home with smiles on our faces.

today?

today i have 2 years of homework to do...
and i have about 100 blogs left to read...
and groceries to purchase....
and a gym i should visit...
a baby i need to play with...
and a husband to spend ample time with slash go make breakfast for like now...


so far, i'm O for 6.

scenes from a wedded girl

came home early the other day to a vacuum-lined home, organized closet,
made bed, and clean bathroom and kitchen...

(we have had a pile of all our clothes on the floor for 2.5 months due to little space)

another favorite wedding gift....

we've been watching john adams.
i highly recommend it.

our note pad...

how'd i get so lucky?

(all of the wedding video is on the other blog, btw.
sometimes i watch the last one.
and cry.)

selective amnesia

have you ever found yourself in a phase of life,
completely new,
and suddenly you couldn't recall life before?


like when you got to high school.
felt like you were always there,
and that you would never get out.
nothing mattered outside of your high school world...

like college.
never. ended.
and while there, high school was a blur.


i can't remember what it was like to not be a clifford.
i forgot what it felt like to wonder and worry and imagine.
the last few years are hard to pull up.
at least all of the bad stuff feels erased.



and i thank God for the tender mercy that that is.



[clifford people. at the river in payson.]

long-winded, and possibly too personal movie review: up

i hope this doesn't offend the cliffords for sharing,

but you should know why i fell in love so easily

g-pa clifford is staying at cc's parents' house.

he is letting us stay in his while we house hunt.

we couldn't be more grateful.

the 2nd day cc and i were dating,

we went to g-pa's 90th birthday party.

the family was so charming,

and i couldn't help but notice how much

nyle (g-pa) was so in love with marie (g-pa).

she's in a home and he visits her daily.

chris said he wanted to be just like him,

and love his wife and wait on her always...

being in their home,

along with having their same names,

has been humbling.

perhaps this is why the first 20 minutes of this ever-so-real

cartoonish replica will break you down.

then bring you back

UP

thank you again, pixar,

for telling another untold, nemo-rivaling story.

mom (in-law) took g-pa to see this one.

he said it was like watching his life.

as sad as it is to watch, it is equally as inspiring.

not only because the story is, but because you know so many who live it.
it has some laughs, but mostly you will just keep a smile on for 2 hours
and leave feeling more happy about being alive.

i love g-parents, all 5 of you.

in my humble, yet correct opinion: 5/5

own it or rent it: i might need to

member?

can we go back to this moment?

or perhaps this one?

out of our window...

ooh. this one:
we rented scooters on Maui.
cc says it was the best decision we made since we've been married.
it was.

sorry. he's sold.

so. i don't have internet quite yet,
but we're workin on it.


and our own bliggity blogger will be up soon...
to parade our adventures of home hunting/decor-ing,
and a little of the cheesy love stuff too


we are back at work and getting used to it,
but not quite.

i really just want to go back to this:



{Have a great Tuesday!}

what i have learned so far about being married:

husbands/boys are low maintenance.

i heart that

some may speak a bit in their sleep,
"can you pass me the other fire burning kit?"
yes, dear.... we campin?

honeymoons rock,

we decided to take one once a year.
and to get back to maui in 5.

oh, and in addish to being just incandescently happy,
life just gets to move on...

first day at home:

getting soup and drugs,

getting clothes from mom's house,

finding a shivering boy at home,

doing laundry,

making lunches and tea,
cuddling up with my hot boyfriend,

and opening cards from friends that love us.

yes, even when you are 103 and sick as a babe,

i still freakin love ya guts!

oh and the great news of the day:

my boyfriend landed hisself a freakin 10%+ raise!!!

when no one else in the company is, and after a whole week off....

what the?!

i am so proud....sniff...

i will admit,

the pessimistic side of me is almost waiting for

somethin horrible to come wipe us out...

we are seriouslysoblessed.com

seriously.

pictures and things to come...

new site under construction...

today

went to bed at 12:32,
woke up at 4:40.
couldn't go back...

i get married in exactly 3 hours and 58 minutes.

waking up to that reality is the of best feelings i have ever had.

cc, lets do this thing!


and babe, i checked:

whatever.
as if one more thing could go perfect.
God loves me.


come over and party with us in the perfect weather,
gonna be a serious fun one!



goodbye all,

i am going to be with this kid in maui for a whole week!

no planning,
no waiting,

no saying goodbye ever again...



see you all when i get back!!

on air

exactly as i imagined.

but better.

floral design/creation: jackie mcaferty

fotos: auburn jones photography

dress design/creation: angela muir
hair: jayme clifford

the flowers are perfect and i love them. lilies rock.

the dress is a dream and i never ever want to take it off,

angie, omg!

and auburn, way to capture it.

less than 24 hours.

can't hardly wait.

spent the last few hours at work

practicing my name.

what can you do for me?

pray for the rain to stop.

all i ask.

(maybe i watched BL yesterday...

i will update soon, but that might be post wedding.

stay tuned...)