Merry Christmas!

Silent night! Holy night!

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin mother and Child.

Holy Infant, so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace;

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night! Holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight!

Glories stream from heaven afar;

Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia!

Christ the Savior is born!

Christ the Savior is born!

Silent night! Holy night!

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from thy holy face,

With the dawn of redeeming grace,

Jesus, Lord, at thy birth;

Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

-Joseph Mohr-

I will be forever grateful to the holy Infant born on that sacred, silent night.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

-Isaiah 9:6-

Wisdom from Ralph

 "Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself." 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson-

It's a Wonderful Life!

Have you ever watched that movie!? It’s phenomenal. You should probably go watch it. :)

Life really is wonderful though! Even though sometimes it’s so hard, sad, stressful, disappointing, and confusing that all you want to do is sit on a rock and do nothing for the rest of forever, sometimes it’s really happy, exciting, and hopeful! Having both is what makes life wonderful! 

The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:23-25

And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.  

#true

Here’s a list things that have made life wonderful lately: 

-Our ward Christmas party! It was fantastic!

-Making ugly Christmas sweaters. :) 

-Doing laundry!!!

-Going to the dentist and not having any cavities!!!! That never happens!!! I was so excited! :’)

-Only sleeping for 35 minutes but being able to stay awake for the rest of the night to finish a project. I’m grateful Heavenly Father helps me all of the time. :)

-Having a little sing along to this song. 

      

-Fitting 11(ish) big marshmallows in my mouth! 

      P.s. The ones coming out are 12 and 13. Sorry if that grosses you out. :)

-Having a Relief Society sleepover at Bishop Boyack’s house!

-Going to Costco!! I <3 that store. So much.

-Putting in new contacts :)

And there you have it. Have a great day!

P.s. Today is December 13, 2014, aka 12/13/14!!!!!!! Whhhaaaaatttttt!!!!!!

People and Plays

Well, hello there! Welcome to The End of the Semester! A production featuring presentations given without enough preparation, long to-do lists, a serious lack of sleep, high levels of cortisol, and insanity.   

What a week.

Despite the overall craziness of everything, it has been wonderful. A few reasons for the wonderfulness (Ha:)) are outlined below:

-I got to spend time with Chelsea Nay. 'Nuff said.

She’s an angel. Really.

-My friend, Leah, helped me with my Shakespeare project. She was kind and helpful even though I didn’t really deserve it and she wasn’t getting anything out of it. I was amazed. Have you ever met someone that makes you think, “Wow. They’re really good at keeping their baptismal covenants!” Yeah. Leah. (I really thought that.)

-On Wednesday night I got to go to BYU’s production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Wow. Let’s just talk about this for a bit. 

First of all, the way the play was put together was fantastic! There aren’t a lot of props; most of the play is pantomimed. But! This version incorporated both film and stage acting! A character would be talking on the movie and then walk through the screen and continue talking to you! It was amazing! Ahh! You should probably just go see it!

Second, the story was beautiful. I cried for most of the third act. It was a much needed, therapeutic cry. Don’t you love when things help you feel! Mmm! The play was beautifully simple. It was wonderful.

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?--every, every minute?”  

-After watching Our Town, Michelle took me to my parents’ house to pick up some things I had left there. She’s the best! (But not just because she drives me places:).) We talked, and I cried some more. 

Aren’t people fantastic?! Aren’t you amazed that people choose to love you even though you have a bazillion faults and don’t really deserve it? Sometimes kindness just blows me away.

President Spencer W. Kimball said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.” Amen.

Thank you.

P.s. I got Hermione Granger on the Which Harry Potter Student are you? Buzzfeed Quiz. Best day ever.    

P.p.s. (<-is that even right?) I’m sorry these posts are starting to get so long! I just have so much I want to tell you! I’ll try to restrain myself :). Have a great day!

A Letter to Dear Shakespeare

Dear William,

I’ve been taking a class about you this semester. (It’s true. We have a class that solely focuses on you. You’re kind of a big deal. Bien hecho.) My awesome professor, Dr. Christiansen, is basically an expert on you and your works. She’s helped me not only learn more about you, but through your works she’s shown me so much about what you tried to teach the world, and I just wanted to thank you. 

Thank you for using Othello to teach me how stereotypes blind the world and cause unnecessary tragedy.

Thank you for showing me the sad effects evil choices have on individuals’ minds through the story of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. (I really like Macbeth. Good job on that one! :))

Thank you for teaching us the value of tragedy and how it can be a tool to help us become more empathetic and humble, as it did Gloucester, or an excuse to feel sorry for ourselves and turn inward, as happened with Lear. 

Thank you for showing the sadness that comes through pride in Titus Andronicus.

Thank you for exploring human nature and for your ability to so accurately portray it through your characters. Your plays are fascinating! (For the most part. Sometimes I don’t really know what’s going on. But that’s okay, my teacher helps me. :)) It’s always so exciting to see what’s coming next!

To sum it up, thanks for being awesome. I could go on, and I’m sure the rest of the world could go on with me, but I don’t want your head to get too big. (You’re welcome.)

Love,

Anna  

The Fan with your Best Interests at Heart

Let’s Skip to the Good Part . . . or not

Today I was on Pinterest looking at cookie recipes, and I found one that looked delicious! But, then I saw that you had to chill the dough . . . I found a different recipe. This one. I saw the ingredients, but no directions. I decided to make them anyway :). (A reminder for the next time I make cookies: confectioner’s sugar = powdered sugar, not regular sugar. Oops! ;))

So there I was (Ben), making cookies in the kitchen to the tunes of Pandora <3. Let’s Skip to the Good Part by He is We came on, and I thought to myself, “This is just how I feel sometimes!” 

Sometimes I’m impatient. I want what I want to happen, to happen when I want it to happen. (Uhh. Sorry about that sentence.) I get frustrated and angst-y and don’t understand why I’m not getting what I want. This makes me sound like I’m two years old, but it’s true. 

Then I remembered something I thought of after I watched How Lord of the Rings Should Have Ended on YouTube (Don’t watch it.:P). Instead of having the whole story, it just showed Frodo fly over Mount Doom on one of Gandalf’s eagles and drop the ring in. At first it seemed like How it Should Have Ended made a lot of sense. Let's face it. Using the giant eagles from the very beginning would have probably really simplified things, and we would have had ourselves a pamphlet instead of a trilogy. But, as I thought about it more, I realized that getting rid of the ring wasn’t necessarily the point of the story. It was the end objective, but J.R.R. Tolkien had more for us. 

If Frodo had just been carried to Mount Doom he wouldn’t have learned, grown, and become who he became. The same goes for all of the other characters. Aragorn wouldn’t have taken his place as the King of Gondor. Legolas and Gimli wouldn’t have become friends. The struggle of the journey helped the characters reach their full potential and discover things they wouldn't have otherwise.    

I’ve realized that this is how life is for us. We may want to “skip to the good part” but going through the hard things and waiting is part of the good. It’s one of the ways God helps us become more like Him. Achieving the end goal isn’t as sweet if we skip over everything in the middle. The middle is where all of the real good things happen. It’s where we progress and actually become.

Back to the cookies. The dough was kind of soft, but I baked some anyway. They turned out pretty good, but guess what. (You: What?) If you click the picture of the cookies one more time the directions pop up. Who knew, right!?! And do you know what the directions say? “Refrigerate two-hours or overnight.” Ha! Problem solved.

And so, my friends, it looks like the same thing goes for cookies, Lord of the Rings, and life: it’s okay if you don’t get just what you want right when you want it. Sometimes you have to wait and go through a process before you get it. The process may involve something along the lines of gallivanting across Middle-Earth trying to save it, or it may be as simple as chilling in the fridge. Either way, don’t try to skip it! It’s there for a reason! Take a leaf from the book of Treebeard and “don’t be hasty.” Haha! ;) (That pun was for those of you who made it to the end of this long post.) 

Okay. The end. Make it a great week! <3

Feeling 22 and Such

Hello!

So let's just say this has not been a very productive homework weekend. Period. Oops! But it sure has been great! 

Here are some of the things it has included: 

-Being so brave and getting my finger pricked for my blood lab in Physiology! (I was so proud of myself :) )

-Eating tamales! Mmm! Delicious! (Except for the pink dessert one. Definitely not a fan.)

-Watching a little LOTR! 

 Look at that face. (Not the elf.) So good.

-Talking with my wonderful mother and Julie Maughan! I love those women.

-Going on a date with a really nice boy!

-Going to the Provo Library and studying for 20 minutes! Haha! (It closes at six on Saturday nights, for those of you who were wondering :) )

-Going to the BYU Basketball game! 

-Running into one of our missionaries at a gas station! (It took me a little bit, but I remembered his first name! :D)

-Eating frozen yogurt!

-Getting to talk to my brother, Ben!  He’s fantastic. I love Ben. I’m sure you’ll get to read a post about him sometime :). (If you can’t tell by now, I’m just a little bit crazy about my brothers. But hey, if they were your brothers, you’d probably feel the same way.) 

So, I didn’t get all of the things done that I should have, but it was still a wonderful weekend! I think the biggest irony came when I was riding with the Misses M and A to the BYU basketball game and our good friend T Swift came on the radio singing Twenty-Two. “Tonight’s the night when we forget about the deadlines.” How did she know . . . 

 

Jonathan: A Celebration

Let's talk about Jonathan.

Just look at this guy!

 Don't you love him! 

I met Jonathan soon after I was born. As it happens, he's my brother. Jonathan, #5 in the Pike clan; Anna, #8. We go way back. I mean, he even came to my high school graduation. 

Wow. Kind of a big deal right there.

As I'm sure you know, Jonathan's half-birthday is coming up. 

Here's a list of just 10 reasons you** may wish to write him a note or purchase a small little something to let him know you are glad he was born:

**A little disclaimer on that last sentence. These are reasons I'm glad he was born, although I'm sure you could write a list of your own with very little difficulty.

1. Jonathan does crazy things that I would probably never do, but that I wish I would. (*cough,cough* Eiffel tower ;) )

2. He knows how to have a good time and helps others to have fun as well.

3. He takes time for others. He'll drop everything to help someone and never act "put out" by it.

4. Analogy King. 

-Anna: "But Jonathan, sometimes the thing cooking on the back burner smells so good!"

- Jonathan: "Anna, he's not even on the back burner. He's still in the fridge."

5. Jonathan helps me get out of sticky situations :)

6. He takes time to skype with me, even at one in the morning.

7. He's an excellent conversationalist. He's good at having deep conversations about things that really matter.

8. He has impeccable taste in music and movies.

9. RISK.

Bumble. Need I say more?

10. Jonathan is an amazing example of perseverance and faith.

The list could go on, but I think you're getting the idea. 

I will always be grateful for this wonderful brother, friend, mentor, Dorito lover, and fellow SSS member. 

Homework and Scriptures

Today has been a homework day. And I mean a LONG homework day. Like hours and hours.  Sitting in the same room almost all day may seem boring, but trust me. It has been fantastic! It’s kind of like Twelve Angry Men! (The sitting-in-the-same-room-all-day part. Henry Fonda <3) 

Most of the homework time has been spent on physiology learning objectives for my test on Tuesday. First of all, OUR BODIES ARE AMAZING! Ahhh! And second, the learning objectives started out being three-pages long, by the time I finished (finished = done working on them today :)) filling them out, there were 36-pages. When I finished, I played the Magnificent 7 while scrolling through the pages for my parents.

Earlier, before the triumphant finish, I took a dinner-break and came back to my screen saver. A quote from President Benson came up on it that said, “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.” I thought for a bit, and I hadn’t read my scriptures yet, so I decided to read them. I read Alma 36 from The Book of Mormon. Wow. What a beautiful chapter! As I read, it reminded me of one of my favorite Psalms, Psalms 34, which talks about tasting and seeing the Lord’s goodness. Alma 36 talks about tasting and seeing too! Both chapters also discuss God supporting us in our “troubles”. I love that Alma and David chose that word. God supports us when we have big trials, but He also helps us when we are simply “troubled” about things. We never have to go through anything alone. The Lord can and will help us with any hard thing we encounter, big or small. We just need to seek His help :).    

Passin' on the Reece's Love

This week, Shayne, my business writing teacher, asked the class to buy something for a stranger and then to blog about the experience. So, here it is. :)

I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to go about accomplishing this task. I could have just bought something and handed it to a stranger, but I was afraid that the person would think I was weird, or that they wouldn't want me to buy them anything, etc.. And, let's just face it. Sometimes I'm a chicken. Period. Anyway, I also thought  of ordering something at a drive-thru and paying for the person behind me. Then, I remembered an experience I had earlier this semester.

One afternoon I was sitting on a little hill between the ESC and the HRCB doing some homework between classes. A boy came up to me and said, "My friend wanted me to give this to you." He handed me a Reece's and walked away. The Reece's had a nice note with no signature. Instead, it just said #passitonandon. I remember the note almost every time I walk in the area where I got it and the memory has a positive influence on my day.

I decided to fulfill Shayne's assignment by "passing on" what had been given to me. I went to Macey's, bought a Reece's, and headed up to the library. What better time and place to find someone to cheer up than 8:00, on a Saturday night, in the library, during a BYU football game? I walked up to the fourth floor and placed the candy with a note on a table by a notebook and backpack whose owner was absent.


Who knows if the person will choose to "pass it on," but they might. :)

P.s. This assignment also made me think of this TED Talk by Michael Norton that I came across a while ago. "If you think money can't buy happiness, you're not spending it right." Kind of interesting. Enjoy :)

The Spirits of the Season (Don’t worry. . . . it’s grape juice.)

One of the best parts of fall at the Pike house is picking grapes from the backyard and canning the juice. 

As soon as you walk in the front door, you’re enveloped in warmth and in the sweet aroma of grapes simmering on the stove. Grapes are soaking in the kitchen sink; and clean, shiny mason jars are lined up on the counter, awaiting the dark ruby nectar. Another group of jars has already been filled and is ready to be put in the pot of boiling water to finish the canning process. Juice stains are spattered from the white stove, to the white counter, to the white sink, to the wooden floor. 

The grape fragrance surrounds the whole experience and promises delightful juice spiked with Sprite for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and anything special in between. But more than that, the scent is one of the familiar smells of home. And that’s why it’s wonderful.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Happy Things As Of Late

 

1. My brother, Mr. J., came into town for a business trip! I love Mr. J..
2. I got to talk to another brother, Mr. Bumble, before he flew off to England! (I love Mr. Bumble too :))
3. I found a great study spot in the library!
4. My wonderful mother gave my hair a much needed trim! And it only cost $0!
5. The same angel mentioned above bought my groceries.(Thank you! :))
6. We got candy corn at the store. Happy October!
7. I went to Barnes & Noble three times this week! Oh, what a happy place! <3
8. During one of my B&N visits I read some fantastic board books by Sandra Boynton! I especially enjoyed Your Personal Penguin and Happy Hippo, Angry Duck: a book of moods. Just look at the covers! What's not to love!

 

9. I washed my trusty water bottle.
10. And finally, last but definitely not least, it's General Conference weekend! (P.s. I have been doing such a good job staying awake! Not a perfect job, but a good job. It's okay to be impressed :).)

To quote the great Cornelius Hackle, "Isn't the world full of wonderful things!" (1:54) Make it a great day!