Target Practice

My dad's an archer, to say the least. There's a monster of an elk jutting out of the specially-built wall of our living room that friends come just to gape at, wondering how exactly it all came down with a flimsy arrow.

Well, I guess skill picks up where necessity leaves of.

Anyways, I was out just walking around when I saw my dad practicing his archery with my little brother. I made my way over there and watched for awhile before a more amusing activity came to mind and I decided to go back in the house.

"Wait," my dad called, "It's your turn."

Great...

Wanting to be polite and loving my dear father for his interest in showing me something he saw joy in, I forced a smile and said, "Alright."

He helped me with the whole process of "sticking it in", "clipping it here", "Lining up", and "adjusting this" before I clumsily took aim.

How many of you can wink? That's great. Well I can't. So this whole aiming thing was a bit of a challenge. As I expected, my arrow 'airballed it' so to speak and flew right on by the target as if crossing the finish line of the loser's race.

By now I was ready to go do something else. But my dad persisted. Getting another arrow, he showed me how to aim with two eyes opened and urged me try again. Forcing another smile, I redid the whole thing, took better aim, and shot.

To my utter astonishment, it hit--and even in the middle. Who woulda thunk?

I thanked my awesome dad and, after trying to help find the lost arrow, scampered back to the house, an insight for this blog in mind :)

It seems that a lot of times God, or our Heavenly Father, offers us tasks or experiences that He sees eventual joy in. Maybe not in the trial and error, but in the successes. I know from my own experiences, as well as those of others, that although we'd much rather be doing something else, if we take up His offer--even with a forced smile--he will encourage us and instruct us through it. Afterall, as one of my favorite scriptures, 2 Nephi 3:7, reads, "I will go and do what the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

So if we listen to him I very well believe we will eventually hit our target--and even in the middle.

Smile

Ah picture day; the one day out of the entire school year when you forgot to do your hair.



Such was the case for me. Anyway, as the custom goes they called us to our yearbook doom over the intercom and my chatty class--all little of us--trudged down to the activity room. I waited in line, staring at the trophies, until out of nowhere it became my turn.



When the photographer asked me how I was doing I looked at him eye to eye and let him know, "I'm doing awesome, thanks!"

His response was a mix between a 'ch-teenagers' scowl and a 'I can't wait until my lunch break' frown. So, deciding I'd made my point, I proceeded to plop my apparenly-overly-optomistic self on the tiny black stool.

"What's your name?" he asks.

I answered (using my inside voice this time) and chickened out on making a goofy expression by simply painting what I hoped was a decent smile on my face.

"Ah, you're the boy chaser aye?"

I knew he'd just said that to the last girl he took a picture of but I couldn't help but chortle ;) at his perception--or lack there of.



Oh yes, them boys don't stand a chance against my nerdy report cards and skills for tripping over my own feet. And I'm sure my jeans and t-shirt just hold them captivated, not to mention the fact that I borrow my little brother's gym shorts.



Yeah, that photographer basically made my day. I should've snuck him a tip or something.

Weird Words

You know those words you come across every once in awhile that you can't help but smile at? I just thought I'd see how many I could come up with. So if you have absolutely nothing to do...

Fork, swimtrunks, ear, wig, earwig, onomonopeia (did I spell that right?), sneeze, fifferfefferfeff (I luv Dr. Suess!), soap rope (what is that anyways?), xylophone, zigzag, flipper, flapjack, frankfurter, longjohns, bergade, hobabaloo, whatcha-ma-callits, smorgsabord (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), stick, weasel, smack, pop, bubble, edumacation, hippo, hippopotomonstrosesquipedialiophobia (the fear of long words; go figure), banana, jell-o, noodle, yodel, mustache, aglet, snorkel, sniff, yak, yam, chortle, rendezvous, plop, honk, teeder-todder, toe, quail, synonym (not cinnamon), doodle, hoodlum, snickerdoodle, goofy, googlezillion, igloo, pomagranate, pimple, sasperilla, loogie, stud-muffin, angry-mob, cram, fudgecicle, pupil, beard, yawn, tu-tu, riboflavin, leggings, snazzy....

Got anymore? Please share.

Stepping Out of the World Into the World

I had just finished my homework and was wondering what to do next. Of course there was the options of surfin' the web, clicking on my tunes, and other brilliant time-wasters but the scene from my bedroom window softly chided me. The irrigation ditch in our backyard was running full with the sun hitting it so perfectly, like it was trying to outshine the screen of my laptop.

So, with a sigh, I finally surrendered and decided it never hurt anyone to just step outside and enjoy the weather for once. And what do you know? It didn't.

A great man once said that we didn't need a miraculous sign to see that God existed,

just a nature walk.

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/alma/30 (43-44)

And that's when my camera ran out of batteries...It was a real shame too because them were some clouds overhead--let me tell ya! And if you look at my mother's blog you can see that I got my appreciation for these simple things from her. (My photography on the other hand...)

Yeah I got some weird looks with this one, taking pictures of weeds off the side of the road--wilting ones at that. But I just couldn't resist the concept that struck me (Sorry it's hard to see, you're just going to have to look real close): How many of us, no matter how small, when all else droops, remain standing tall?

And this heavenly sight is what greeted me when I got back from my little adventure. This, my friends, is a deluxe, homeade banana muffin (with homeade frosting I might add.) Life doesn't get much better than this folks :)

So go for it. If you don't have a backyard for flowers, you have a windowsill. Hit the park, go take snapshots of an inspiring hill of dirt. I don't care, I just thought I'd share my reminder of the small joys in life that seem to make everything a little better.

Driving Class

Six...hour...driving...class...Oh dearest Ipod, where art thou?

These were my thoughts as I sat in the backseat of a school-sponsored car while my fellow student drove. Yeah, they were that good. I could just sit there and stare out the window and forget they were even driving. It was the same with the other one. I began to wonder why these two were here. This was a class for people like me who scared their parents into paying for it, not these pros!

So you can imagine my nervousness when it was my turn to take the wheel. I even ended up telling my teacher to 'really coach me'--something my mom had told me to tell him and I thought I never would (funny how parents can live up to their titles like that.)

Though I'm quite sure my drive was the most...eventful, we survived and I even happened to notice a thing or two I hadn't seen before.

For example road signs....Haha I just realized how dangerous that sounded. No, I've noticed road signs--even read them on occasion--but this time I noticed something else. Just when the road split into two lanes (I live in a small town so this was something I wasn't used to), I began to panic, perspirate, and glance over at my dozing teacher to see if he'd tell me what to do. Which one did I go in? Was there a fast, slow? Coming, going? Blonde, Brunet?

Luckily, (I love that word) a trusty road sign came to the rescue. Bragging a vibrant white surface, bold black letters, and a few bird droppings, it read "Keep Right." Immediatly my doubts vanished and I headed for the right lane. "Keep right." Just short, sweet, and to the point. I think I'll go add it to my list of quotes

But I also saw a parrell to my own life. No matter the case, whenever I begin to panic, perspirate, and look over at someone else for direction, my choice should be obvious: Keep right. Choose the choice that I know deep down will lead me to my destination; where I eventually want to end up in life. Even when I'm 134.

Well, here goes...

Let me introduce myself,

I'm a teen, an adolescent. A fellow traveler who may be younger or older than yourself but is a fellow all the same. I'm at the point in my journeyings where insecurities snap at my clumsy heels and mistakes slap at my acned face. Yet, I like to believe there are butterflies in this dark jungle we call our world. I'm forever a daughter, a sister, a neice, a cousin, a student, and a fool. I pretend I'm a writer and strive to be the Latter-Day Saint I claim to be.

And I've also decided to make a blog. (You've been warned :)

A hobby of mine is making cards for those close to me on their birthdays and ect. and, for reasons I can't even remember, I've always sighned the backs of them with Dolly Ink, a smiley face, and some quirky saying I made up. Corny? Maybe. But it somehow made the title of this blog anyway.
Obviously I don't have any cute kids to take pictures of yet (though I do have a couple younger brothers :) or newly-wed stories to share so I'm simply going to share my everyday observances, or those butterflies I mentioned ealier, because this jungle is simply too chuck-full of darkness without them.