Hawaii Here I Come!

Tomorrow morning, early, I will be on a plane headed to Hawaii!! I debated over just how I wanted to celebrate my 30th birthday this year. I thought about a trip to Hawaii, I thought about finally buying myself a motorcycle, but in the end I chose both. The motorcycle just happened. Totally unplanned.

The trip is specifically to celebrate my birthday even though I won't be there on my actual birthday (but really close).

We'll spend 5 nights on the north shores of:





Then we'll catch a puddle jumper over to another island to spend the next 5 nights at a luxurious resort (thanks to my grandma!) on the west coasts of:

WAHOO!!!

Oler Family Visit

I had a few more visitors from out of town come a week or so back (it took me a while to snag the pictures my mother took of them). Neil and Angelica Oler stopped by to say hi. As you can see from the picture Neil is always a good time! He managed to find a fabulous wife to match his personality.

Matthew (my nephew) with Angelica and Neil

They have 2 beautiful twin girls who I was able to meet for the first time. Adia and Evelyn. I've seen lots of pictures of them, but it was fun to finally see them and meet their own little personalities.

Ninja Destruction!

Last weekend I was invited to a 日本語 パーテー (Japanese Party). The invitation said I should arrive dressed in anything Japanese. So of course I took the opportunity to dress up as a ninja and play with cool swords. Anya and Robin went all out and completely decked out their apartment with all things Japanese. The food was great, the company fun, and the costumes fabulous. Here are some pictures from the party. All photo credits go to Molly (who did an amazing job!).

Erica ~ Windy

Book Review: The Dark is Rising Sequence

I recently reread The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. It's a series of 5 books telling the story of the battle between the Light and the Dark for the freedom of mankind. They are chopped full of Authoritarian legends and grand adventures. This series is one of my all time favorites.

Over Sea, Under Stone (book one)
Rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

The 3 Drew children are on Holiday and find an old map in the attic that sends them on a quest to find an ancient artifact of the Light, King Aurthur's Grail. Lucky for them their 'Great Uncle' Merry (an Old One) is there to help protect them during their such as the Dark tries to stop them.


The Dark is Rising (book two)
Rating: 3 starts out of 5
"liked it"

Will Stanton is the last of the Old Ones to be born and completes the circle of the Light. This book tells the story of how Will finds out who he really is on his 11th birthday. He is the Sign Seeker and must find all 6 signs of power before the Dark does. Throughout his quest Will learns what it means to be an Old One and eventually comes into his full power to help fight back the Dark.

This is my least favorite of the series because I felt Will was just handed too much, but still a good book. This one happens to be my mothers favorite, so it's still a good book.

Greenwitch (book three)
Rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

The 3 Drew children: Simon, Jane, and Barney team up with Will Stanton on another Holiday. Merry has brought them all together at the time of the Greenwitch Ceremony to search for the missing manuscript (lost in book one). This is Jane's chance to really shine as her selflessness helps win the day.

The Grey King (book four)
Rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

Will Stanton is off to Wales to visit family while he recovers from a serious illness. While he's there he makes a new friend, Bran Davies, who is quite strange. Bran is albino, having white hair and no color in his skin, with strange tawny eyes. The locals fear his strangeness and are slow to be friends with him. This does not stop Will, they become instant friends and team up on Will's quest to find the Harp, another Thing of Power that belongs to the Light. In the middle of all that happens Bran discovers his own heritage, he is the son of King Aurthur brought out of time for protection. He is the Pendragon.

Silver on the Tree (book five)
Rating: 4 starts out of 5
"really liked it"

The 6 are brought together for the bang up finish. The six being the 3 Drew's, Will Stanton, Bran Davies, and Merry (who's full name is Merriman Lyon, but in Aurthur's day he was called Merlin). At this point the Light has 3 of the 4 Things of Power, they have the Grail, the Signs, and the Harp. This book tells of the journey to find the last, the Crystal Sword. Armed with all 4 Things of Power they will be ready to fight the final battle as the Dark comes raising.

In Memory of Les Paul

who passed away today at the age of 94.

Surprise Visit

My dear friend Beth unexpectedly visited Seattle this last week. I knew Beth from when she lived here years ago. Beth has since moved to Arizona and is much closer to her family there.

Monday I received a call from Beth saying she was visiting and wanted to know what my plans were for the rest of the day. I immediately changed my plans and we got together with a few other friends to hang out, talk, catch up and eat some dinner.

Wednesday we met up again and went canoeing at the arboretum where we discovered we were slightly better at maneuvering the canoe backwards than we were going forward. We somehow made it around and checked out a lot of cool sights. We took a few detours and explored some new areas. Our friend Jen came along and the 3 of us laughed and had a blast the whole time without tipping the canoe once.

After canoeing we found we'd worked up an appetite and headed over to u-village for some food. We stumbled upon what we decided is now our new favorite Italian restaurant! It's called Piatti Ristorante and Bar.

It was so much fun to see Beth this week, to hear her stories and to hear her laugh again.

Rebel

With a little encouragement from a friend I made big purchase today. I've wanted a motorcycle for a long time, I've even had my motorcycle endorsement for over 4 years now. The time finally came and everything worked out.

2002 Honda Rebel

And I'm pretty dang excited too!

Book Review: Lost in a Good Book

Lost in a Good Book
A Thursday Next Novel
by Jasper Fforde
Rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

Lost in a Good Book is book 2 in the Thursday Next series. This book starts out with the Goliath Corporation a bit upset with Thursday Next for marooning Jack, a big to-do employee, inside a book. They want him back. Goliath always gets what they want. Next, of course, refuses to aid them so a little blackmailing is in order. Goliath teams up with the ChronoGaurd, who goes back in time and eradicates Landon, Thursdays husband. This is the best way possible to get Thursdays attention. They promise to bring him back if she will bring Jack back from the book.

In book one Thursday is able to enter books through a prose portal her uncle invented, which has now been destroyed. She is willing to do anything to get Landon back, so Thursday starts on her quest to learn how to book jump on her own. Once Thursday makes her first jump into Jurisfiction she is welcomed by the Cheshire Cat (from Alice in Wonderland) and assigned to be an apprentice to Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations - just don't mention that wedding!).

The book is full of hilarious interactions of famous characters from different literary works. It makes me wish I'd read a few more of the classics. Overall this is a great book. It's a bit of a slower read, probably due to the writing style. Fforde plays with words in a way that makes you read a paragraph twice to make sure you understand, then realize it makes perfect sense and no sense at the same time, all in a humorous way.

The Allegory of Zenos or “I’ve Been Pruned”

On Sunday I snuck into the Fireside at the tail end of the Mid-Singles Conference. I didn’t really have much interest in the Conference as a whole, but the speaker for the Fireside is a man I greatly admire and have learned from him at every encounter. His name is Brother Nyles Salmond and he was the director of the Seattle LDS Institute of Religion which is where I met him. I had the opportunity to take a number of classes from Brother Salmond while attending the UW as an undergrad. I had a very good idea what to expect from this man, and I was not let down.

Brother Salmond spoke of the hardships we face today and the trials that we are individually called to go through. At the time I recall thinking that life wasn’t so bad. I have things pretty good right now with no major complaints. I feel happy, I have family and friends close by, I have a job I love, life is pretty good. Then I felt a slight sense of foreboding. The ‘life is good’ feeling never remains for long. Life continues to change and with it both the good and the bad will come and go.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Brother Salmond likened this to the Allegory of Zenos found in Jacob Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon. For those who may be unfamiliar with this it tells the story of a vineyard where the master discovers his tame olive tree is beginning to decay and does all that he can to save it. There are 4 specific ways in which the master works to save his tree: pruning, digging, grafting, and dunging. Many members of the Church are familiar with this allegory and its standard interpretation of the House of Israel, but instead Brother Salmond pointed out other things we can learn from the allegory.

At this point I will pause and remind you of a story told in the Church of a man who was due for a promotion. During the interview for the possible promotion he is asked if he is Mormon and ultimately loses the promotion because of his affiliation with the Church. The unfairness of it all hurts this man and he asks God why. He deserved this promotion and had worked hard for it and had now been denied it. I forget the specifics of the story but basically what happens is the man sees a tree and realizes that a gardener knows exactly what this tree is supposed to be. With proper pruning and the skill of a master gardener it will occasionally need to be cut back so it can grow into what the gardener knows it is capable of.

This is where I will come back to the tame olive tree. The lord of the vineyard had to prune his tree. It had to be cut back. The same is in our lives, our own Master sees fit to prune us and cut us back so that we can be molded into what our Savior knows we are capable of. Then Brother Salmond pleaded with us to accept our pruning and move our lives along the path the Lord has for us.

Brother Salmond went on to talk of the 3 other ways to save the tame olive tree. The ‘digging about the tree’ is the Lord changing our environment, the grafting in of the wild olive tree, and then the dunging for nourishment. I wish I had taken notes and could better remember his comments, but the pruning is what stuck out to me the most.

Last week life was good. This week life happened and I’ve been pruned. It hurts. However I am grateful I went to that fireside so now whenever I think I do not want to deal with this I hear Brother Salmond’s loving words in my mind to ‘accept our pruning’. The Lord obviously has other ideas in mind for my life. It’s now up to me to accept that and move along the path He has laid out for me.

"I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading."