you know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is better than a dream 

Dr. Seuss

surrounded by love

I threw a bridal shower - we called it a bridal brunch at my apartment this weekend for my wonderful Mindy, my roommate for last year. It was a little crazy getting ready for - and her mom was up from AZ for the weekend and was coming so I was feeling a little bit of pressure - but it turned out wonderfully. Mindy was happier than ever and I love throwing parties :)  Quick story - they went on their first date in October, their second date a week later...and have seen each other every day since. They have been engaged for a few months now and will be married in May. Crazy, right? My little Mindy, all grown up :)

As part of decorating for the shower I collected and printed out about sixty different quotes on marriage and love. There were lots and lots of good ones - A favorite that is now moving from the living room wall to my bedroom: 

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I love that. And I love love. 

Definitions

Life is great. I have so many reasons to be happy - sometimes I think about all of them, like right now, and wonder how in the world there is a moment that I am not smiling. I had a conversation a few months ago about how I define myself. The best way I could find to articulate it, was that I define myself by what makes me happy. I think you can find out what is truly important to someone by what brings them the most joy. 

First and foremost, I find joy in Christ. I find peace and comfort in His sacrifice and in His love. When all else fails, He will still be there, still loving me, still helping me.

Next, and as I believe God intended it, I find so much joy in my family. If you've met them, you understand. If not, I would hope knowing me would give you a glimpse into how wonderful but I fear I'm far from being that just yet. My family has been the foundation, the fun, the strength, the growth. They have been a constant I didn't know I needed until I felt so alone with nowhere else to turn. It is in the home that I learned the most important things and it is in my parents that I saw these important things exemplified. I love them for that. I am very much who I am because of who they taught me I am, and who they help remind me I can be.

I find so much happiness in people -  and in my relationships with them - how I grow because of them. I'll have to finish this later - but for now some things that bring me more happiness than others: being productive - getting things accomplished and making good use of my time can cure any bad mood I might have, dancing, dancing, and more dancing, baking chocolate chip cookies, reading the scriptures, travelling, learning languages, helping people - oh and Ben, yes, definitely Ben.

"God helps me, that is what I think and then I am calm." - Carl Bloch

The Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU's Museum of Art is incredible. A wonderful way to spend a morning. It takes me back to the Uffizi and the Louvre - I could spend weeks on end being inspired in those museums - how lucky I am to have a taste so close to home.

A Perfect Day

• scriptures
• waking up in a clean room
• cereal
• temple
• dancing in the kitchen
• ben
• 24
• lunch with kenze
• canceled class 
• studying outside 
• getting coerced into a preview of dentistry class ;)
• pad thai 
• talking to my parents 
• naps on the couch
• mint chocolate chips
• more 24
• making smoothies 
• ben

The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being.

Dancepsort 2011

This weekend BYU hosted the United States National Amateur Dancesport competition, kind of a big deal :)

Highlights of the weekend:
1. getting to dance, and getting to compete, and having practice pay off, and running off adrenaline because sleep wasn't an luxury i could afford (and having wonderful partners, paul daren and ben are wonderful - and spencer was missed - but he is coming to visit which is another wonderful thing!).
2. having ben get to watch dance (and me dance) - and have him be kind of in to it :)
3. professional latin. and last semester i said amateur latin was better than christmas  - this outdid both.
4. being inspired to work so much harder - because i have lots of work to do - lots.

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!  ~Constanze

Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn.  ~Terri Guillemets

Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.  ~Ted Shawn  

"Be who you are and way what you feel - because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

The wonderful time is when you are who you are and you say what you feel and it turns out those who you care about and those who don't mind happen to be the same people.

Love's Philosophy

Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1803-1822)

---

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine? 

 

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

  

Our 280 class performance at the social dance lab in February :)

Be Happy

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

- Abraham Lincoln 

My mother always told me that happiness is a choice. I am so thankful for that principle, and the truth behind it. Lincoln, like my mother, is right.  Sometimes choosing to be happy is simple - it's easy to smile when everything is going well....but even when it;s a hard choice, it is still a choice.

Believe in God;
believe that he is,
and that he created all things,
both in heaven and in earth; 
believe that he has all wisdom,
and all power,
both in heaven and in earth;
believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. 
And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, 
and humble yourselves before God; 
and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; 
and now, if you believe all these things
see that ye do them.