"It's a Terrible Story, Although Surprisingly, Upbeat!"

Long story short, I was in the Daily Universe. I got interviewed about my experience in Haiti for a reporter who was covering the one-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the small nation in January of 2010. The reporter asked me for some photos that I took while I was there. I didn't expect them to be used, but to my surprise, four of them made the front page!

I think I was more excited about that than the actual article...

Anyway, if you'd like to check out the article, go on ahead and click here. It's probably not that cool, but I thought it was ...

Enjoy!

Music.

For the last few days I've really been thinking about the little things that bring true joy to my life.

Music is definitely one of those things.

I've realized that I'm constantly listening to music, whether it be while I'm doing homework, walking to school, vacuuming the floor, or even just bumming around my house. Even when I'm not physically listening to music, I'm at least thinking about it; I've got some sort of beat going on in my head that's in continual transition and never stops.

You would think that would get annoying, but it's not. I love it. Well, unless I get some obnoxious song like "Whip My Hair" stuck in my head. Then it's not so fun. Usually I can drown it out with some Fitz & the Tantrums, though. Or Matisyahu. Anything awesome like that and I'm good to go.

The music I listen to often reflects what I'm feeling in that moment. I tend to associate certain songs with certain people. That's just the way it is. I've also found that I sometimes daydream about dancing. For instance, I'll be in the library studying my brain out when all of a sudden a bumpin' song will come on my iPod and I'll immediately be whisked away into a world where I just get up and start dancing. The best part is when people will randomly start joining in with me instead of looking at me like an escapee from an asylum (as they probably should).

But what can I say? It might seem crazy, but I just love music. I can't deny it. It brings a certain discernible happiness to my soul that I have a hard time finding anywhere else.

[P.S. The picture above is a collage I'm working on of my all-time favorite albums. It's a work in progress.]

Christmas Break

Now that I'm back within the clutches of BYU, I can't help but be so abundantly grateful for the Christmas break I had. Getting out of Provo was absolutely glorious. I had a huge fever (AKA school), and the only prescription was two magnificent weeks amongst friends and family in St. George.

Here are just some quick highlights of the joy that was my Christmas break...

I got a new lens for Christmas! Saying I was excited would be an understatement. There was barely a moment when I didn't have my camera in my hands. The zoom is crazy! In addition to being able to take awesome landscape photos, I can now take pictures of my neighbor's license plates from the comfort of my own home.

The above photo is of Pine Valley Mountain, taken from my driveway.

What do you get when you mix a really tall tree, a ton of double-wide pallets, a Christmas tree, a bunch of gasoline, a pistol, a box of matches, and a group of radical hooligans?

A bonfire you can see from space and raucous good times.

We decided that it would be fun to play dodgeball, so that's what we did. This is Logan trying to dodge some bullets. He almost made it, too.

One lovely night, we got together to play some games at the home of Kaylee Joy Kimzey. This was where I was introduced to the game "Bananagrams". Yes, I'm addicted now. I went to Target the next day and bought the game for myself. Unfortunately, that game got stolen from me by my parents. I guess it's my own fault, I paid it forward and taught them how to play, too.

Anyway, the tiles are a lot of fun to play with even when you're not playing the actual game, as shown above.

And just as fast as it came, it was gone.

Peace out 2010, HELLO 2011!

Curse that Gingerbread Man ...

My nephews slay me. Really though. They're only 4 and 2 years old, and yet they've already developed killer senses of humor. Mitchell and I played Candyland [Deluxe Version] for over an hour on Tuesday morning. And the scoreboard says ...

Andee: 1

Mitchell: 10

Not even kidding. I got my butt handed to me by a 4-year-old! Not only that, but he managed to trash-talk his way to victory, too!

Curse that gingerbread man. Curse him ...

Happy Christmas, Ron.

Santa was too good to me this year. After a very stressful semester, I received the greatest gift ever: a much needed break. I have been so blessed to be able to come home and bum around with my friends and family. I love them all so much!

BYU BASKETBALL AND BONFIRE!

BASKETBALL SEASON IS FINALLY HERE!

We celebrated the season opener by ...

Eating good food...

Watching the game from the nosebleeds, and ...

Driving out to the boonies for a bonfire that you could [maybe] see from space.

Top-notch night, if I do say so myself!

TESTIMONY THROUGH STUDY

Favorite class of fall semester 2010: human anatomy, hands down. As stressful and time-consuming as it is, I can't help but love it. It has seriously changed my life.

I don't look at people the same way anymore, and that includes myself. When I see a person, I don't see a face; I see muscles, bones, ligaments, arteries, you name it.

In an odd way, this class has been a HUGE testimony builder for me. While sitting in class, I've often found myself quoting Albert Einstein in my head: "The more I study the universe, the more I believe in a higher power." For me, the more I study the human body, the more I KNOW a higher power exists.

I once heard an interesting analogy somewhere relating the creation of humanity to a watch on a beach. It goes something like this: pretend you were walking on a beach and you came upon a watch lying in the sand. You wonder how the watch got there. Someone explains to you that over an exorbitant amount of years, the combination of waves crashing upon the shore and natural elements caused the formation of the working watch. What would you think?

My thoughts: No way. That's impossible. There has to be something more ...

And there is. The human body is EXTRAORDINARY. It's difficult to believe that a watch, which works simply with only a few gears, would be created out of chance; imagine comparing that to the human body. As I sit here and type this, my hair is growing, my food is digesting, my heart is beating on its own, among thousands of other processes that must happen quickly and in perfect sync with each other. After everything that we're made of, after all of the systems and processes that must come together to form us as an organism, we're here. Not only are we here, though. We're here and we WORK. We SURVIVE. We THINK. We ACT. We CARE. We LOVE.

Sure, some could still manage to argue that our bodies are here by chance, that we were made "naturally" and without intelligent design. But what about our souls, our consciences, our minds that lead us to explore, to question, and to cause our bodies to act? What is that essence of life that gives rise to our sense of right and wrong and the attribute of consequence? Where did it come from?

I know.

Do you?