The Bash of the Moustache

I was recently recruited to put my artist skills to good use.  The elder's quorum of my ward was putting together a "moustache bash" on behalf of nothing.  They just wanted to throw it because they could.  They are men, they have facial hair, and BYU lets you grow a moustache (why? I don't know, moustaches are way nastier than beards!).

After some deliberation, the elder's quorum decided the relief society was invited if they wanted to attend.  However, I was approached and asked to be the official "moustache artist" of the evening.  Of course, I said yes.  It was my job to draw moustaches of various shapes and sizes on the bald upper lips of all those who entered.  I opted out of this, however, because I was the artist.  Eyeliner pencil in hand, I drove to the Wilk in a tiny, tiny white car with my dear friend Cos.  He, despite all his efforts, had only managed to grow a really creepy, scraggly, Frenchie sort of moustache.  We like to think he is secure enough in his manhood to handle the truth.

The evening began with a spiritual thought relating to facial hair and the Old Testament, some puns, and a very interesting philosophical discussion given by a man with the most impressively disgusting moustache in the whole ward.  How can it be both? I'm not entirely sure, but it was.

Lucky for me, I did not end up being the only woman there, although I was for some time.  My friend Tash2 came to the activity after about forty five minutes, after taking a test, to join in the festivities of manhood.  In the end, we decided that we could draw some fake 'staches on our fingers and then hold them up to our lips.  It felt less manly that way.

Here is some documentation from the evening.

Tash2, after strutting her stuff on the moustache runway

Kyoo, and his Fu Manchu!!

Olsen twin #1 looking like Mario

Olsen twin #2 sporting a curly-q 'stache.  I missed catching his sweet backflip!

Mikus, looking like Luigi

One of the Hitler 'staches, and there is Cos with his nasty scraggler!

Me, struttin my stuff on the 'stache catwalk.  The 'stachewalk

A close up of me and my own handiwork.  I was laughing because it was the third try at getting the picture "centered"

Tash2, with her own Fu Manchu!

Kyoo, after landing some sweet Asian backflip, or doing some sweet ninja move

Two more of my handiworkses

The Olsen Twins: Curly and Mario

Me and my Fake 'Stache Cache!

The Men.  The two Hitler 'Staches in the background are hidden.  Bummer!

So anyway, that night was really pretty funny.  The guys got random awards for their moustaches (best, longest, strangest, scraggliest, etc.).  All in all, I'd say it was a pretty fulfilling evening.

Life: I Dare You to be Better. I Doubt You Could Be!

I know you have all heard this before... but, life is so awesome!!! Wow, everyday I wonder just how on earth Heavenly Father can bless us so much.  We think we know what it is to love someone, love our family, our friends... but then I look at my own life and the lives of my family members and friends, and I realize that I only comprehend a small fraction of what love really is according to Heavenly Father and our Savior.

I have a wonderful friend that I'm so blessed to have! She and I get to talk a couple times every week, and it's so amazing to me just how Heavenly Father leads people into our lives that can teach us, and that we, in turn, can teach as well.  The Gospel is such an amazing thing! We really are the Lord's hands if we allow Him to guide us.  This lady, though, is so strong.  She's been through such incredible trials, and yet, is one of the most faithful, strong, confident, trusting women that I have ever met, and she is an inspiration to me.

I have yet another wonderful friend that I'm so lucky to have in my life! I love her so much.  She, too, has been through some mighty hard (and I mean seriously hefty) and she is, and has been, such a trooper! So faithful, so diligent, so loving, so patient... everything you would hope someone would be, she has been that, and a million more things! I admire her so much more than she will probably ever know.

Like all of you, I have been through some pretty rough times, but I'm so, SO grateful for the gospel! Heavenly Father has blessed me so much with the most amazing, understanding, patient, loving, faithful family, the most incredible bishops, amazing home teachers and visiting teachers, an incredible ward, and I could go on and on about everything that I have to be thankful for, but it would fill up this page! I'm so grateful that I've been given the life I have been given, because it couldn't be more amazing, and I couldn't be more grateful for it.  More and more, I look at the crazy puzzle pieces of what I call life, the painful ones, the happy ones, the sad ones, the exciting ones, the big ones and little ones, and I wonder how Heavenly Father makes all the pieces fit together to create the most beautiful plan.  It really doesn't matter HOW He does it, but He DOES! Know why? Because He loves us.  He loves us more than we can begin to understand.

Love, that thing that we mere mortals only get a taste of! How can He loves us so much? I'm just so grateful that He does!

I heard something AWESOME from my Stake President at Institute last week.  In our stake, we were counseled to do different things, one of them being to "act, and not be acted upon."  The thing that I found so wonderful and interesting was the way the Stake President explained this to us.  There are things in life that we can completely control, things we can partially control, and things that we have little or no control over.

Complete control: Ourselves (actions, decisions, thoughts, attitude etc.)

Partial control: Others (influencing others decisions, actions, attitudes, etc.)
Little or no control: Time, weather, consequences etc.

The Stake President drew a small circle on the chalk board and told us that this circle represented what we had control over in our lives.  Then he drew a very large circle around that little circle and explained that the big circle represented what we can't control in our lives.  Sometimes, he said, we get down and sad and yada yada yada because we feel like we have no control over our lives.  This can be something as little as feeling like someone always "makes" you angry, or "makes" you sad, or whatever it is! You could be suffering a consequence because of some action, you could be feeling distanced from the Lord for whatever reason.  All of these things make the little circle smaller and smaller making it seem as though we have little or no control over our lives.  The trick is, he said, to do everything that YOU can to control your life.  The only thing you have control over is yourself! No one can "make" you do anything.  You choose to be happy, you choose to not get angry, you choose to go to the temple, you choose to go to church on Sunday, you choose to read your scriptures everyday, you choose to kneel for prayers so Heavenly Father can guide you.  All these choices are things that you control so that even when life seems ridiculous and hard and out of control, when you are doing all the best things that you can, then you are in control of your life.

Isn't that super neat? Now, I have to make sure I say that this was from my Stake President, not a General Authority, so I'm not prophesying here or anything, but I just wanted to share something that I thought was really neat and uplifting.

Life is so amazing!! 

Daily dose of Hilarity and Joy

Dear readers,

I know you hear me say this often, but, by golly, I'm just SO DANG HAPPY!

I had a moment of sadness today, but I realized, after this moment had passed, that I've come a long, long way.  That particular incident, in the past, would have made me much sadder for very much longer.  The fact that it didn't last very long, and I was able to get over feeling sorry for myself after about fifteen minutes, and decide that I was wrong and just needed to fix it, was a moment that, ironically, made me extremely happy!  Growth, of the good variety, is a very happy thing.

:D

On top of THAT, I just have awesome day after awesome day.  Seriously, every day I live gets better and better.  I just spent about 90% of my evening laughing my buns off, because my FHE family is just that amazing.  The other 10% was spent listening to a lesson, and cutting hair, and eating.  One can't laugh one's buns off when one is cutting hair, elsewise the hairs will look skiddywampus.  One also cannot laugh one's buns off when one is eating food, elsewise, the food ends up where it does not belong, like upon one's neighbors lap, then one's neighbor becomes unhappy, and the laughter ceases.  But I digress.  Let me outline the night just a little bit for you.

Cristy is probably on the top ten list of the funniest people I know.  Possibly even the top five.  It's hard to say, because sometimes I forget just how many funny people I know.  But she is most definitely up there.  I just adore her.  She and I laugh at anything and everything, and I think she's downright fantastic.  She and I, and part of the rest of our FHE group adjourned to her car for our trip to the Wright home, which we presumed would be easily found.

Not so, team, not so.

You see, Walnut Ave. is so very, very deceitful.  Walnut is a type of tree, therefore it belongs in the tree streets, not amidst NUMBERED streets.  But, the trip was fun!! Needless to say we laughed the whole time. We laughed when I said we could have FHE in the car if all else failed, but then we laughed particularly hard when Cristy said, and I quote, "Well, I have a gps if all else really fails."

We are intelligent beings, we are.

We found it.  Eventually.  And then we had a jolly time there as well.  Cristy and I should not sit together when silence is mandatory.  I find her presence far too enjoyable to stay silent.

On a completely separate note, I stumbled upon one of my favorite bands from my past the other day - The Shins! Oh how I love The Shins!! That brought me happiness.  Phantom Limb, in particular.

Ahhhhhh, folks.  My life is so, so, so VERY very good.  I think it should be illegal to be this happy sometimes.  But not :D I can't get over just how awesome it all is... so I think I won't get over it, and I'll just stay in the midst of all this bliss! Sound good? I thought so too. :D