Creole Wisdom

happy conference

Remembering is important.  Today, Marlin K. Jensen of the seventy noted that we should, "share memories at every possible occasion." That really stuck with me, and is at the heart of why I enjoy scrapbooking, photography, and journaling so much.  Our lives here and our legacies are important, they should be recorded.  I am thankful, that through blogging, I can share a piece of my life with all of you.  Many, of you ladies have become my actual friends.  I am blessed. 

Mom, her ballet friends, and myself in homemade dress going to Swan Lake (Summer 1994) 

Me, all grown up, but committed to remembering.

Back to conference...

Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about our words and what comes out of our mouths really hit home for me.  It is no lie that I like to talk, and I admit I can get into gossip a bit too much.  I probably yell too much too, and that goes along with not being very patient (thank goodness I'm not a mom yet, I'd be awful).  Anyway, he said that "words are sacred and must be spoken carefully."  How true!  How many times are we hurt, warmed, or surprised by words?  I love that he mentioned that we (as women) have voices that are so "close to the veil" and that at the same time we can be shrill and our words can be especially  hurtful.  Again, so true.  Of all the bad, the harsh words from women are probably what I remember most.  I suppose we expect more of ourselves, and our girlfriends, so when it happens (the shrillness, hurtful words) it is more shocking.  I love Brother Holland's mention that we need to break away from this society of comparisons.  Who doesn't feel inadequate when they are being compared to another?  After all, if we are all unique, and children of God, how can we possibly be compared to another unique, child of God?  Makes so much sense when you see it that way.

I'm sure everyone loved David A. Bednar's analogy to the cucumbers to pickles.  I loved this: "simple, experiences change us."  Could not be truer.  I can't tell you every Christmas memory, but I have specific, simple childhood recalls that stick in my mind (drinking out of the hose, etc...) 

Bonnie D. Parkin is brilliant, and who could not enjoy her talk?  I loved her emphasis on gratitude, and really why shouldn't we be thankful for our struggles, too?

What did you enjoy?  What did you take away?  What did you remember? 

i feel like a STAR

Okay, well one of the coolest ladies out there in blog world, Nie Nie featured me on her amazing blog today!  I am so thrilled to be one of her FRIDAY FACES.  I feel, I feel... like a star.  A star of blogland. 

Now, if you came here from there you had better introduce yourself in my comments section.  Things are not too crazy here at Creole Wisdom, but I do try to post some nice pictures every once and a while. 

And sadly, because of General Conference (speaking of GC, are there any cool/fun things I should do/eat?  What do you do?) they changed my date, so my big day is April 7th.  And I still need to find a dress, which is really stressful, but I'm dealing with it.

Anyway, props again to Miss. Nie Nie who is so nice, and I really admire her. 

Blogging rocks my friends, it rocks. 

rainy days and (tues)days

The March/April issue of Simple Scrapbooks has a great little page of prompts called "let's go: it's not just about the photos."  Usually I sort of skim these, but this caught my eye and my thoughts started flowing:

Walk around your home (err student apartment) and list items that wont be there in five years

I thought about it, and of course that made me really, really sad (don't know why, but I've been kind of in one of those moods lately).  Time just is going so fast for me, and I really don't understand how like five minutes ago I was a junior in high school sitting in chemistry class and now I'm a second semester sophomore in college paying rent and grocery shopping for myself.  Our lives are strange.  Now, onto the list:

1) Only 2 pillows on the bed.  Well, let's at least hope that in five years I won't be sleeping alone!
2) A dry erase board on the fridge
3) A permanent marker in my silverware drawer for "marking" my food
4) 7 jumbo tides on the laundry shelf
5) A campus planner on my desk

How can you be reminiscent of something that's not even gone yet?  LOL. 

meet my twin:

Okay, this is so cool, right? 

Steps to creating your own composite:
1) Take two photos
2) Upload to photoshop
3) Copy an entire photo onto the other (just select all, copy, then paste)
4) Lower the opacity of the second layer
5) Use the eraser tool to erase the subject through
6) Up the opacity back to 100% then go back and fine tune with the eraser

The result: very cool, kind of creepy.

And, if anyone cares to know we (haha) are reading Aristotle's Problems (book of Rhetoric). 

and just like that...

Spring is here.  Seriously, it's been gorgeous lately.  We had temps in the 50s and early 60s all week.  Needless to say I was blissful.  I love spring, and although it's not nearly as lovely here as it is in Bronxville, the warm breeze feels fabulous.

Thank god, too because this was our retreat.  We had "family" (each soror is given a big sister and big sisters have big sisters of their own aka "grandma's" thus forming "families", got it?) olympics out on the campus "mall." 

I'm sure your image of greek olympics conjours up a game of twister in swimsuits, but it's not like that.  We played:
1) Tug of war (well the first group did, they broke the rope!  So as a result we did untangle the human knot)
2) Spell out words with your bodies (if you're a long time reader of my blog you'll probably remember that last year I used to do this all the time with Arlene.  There's just something fun about shaping yourself into a letter)
3) Blindfold one group member and guide them in finding assorted easter eggs (strangers walking got a kick out of this one)
4) Dragon tail: team vs. team.  One member from each team tucks a flag into the back of their pants.  Teams hook onto each other (holding the back of sweatshirts) and you try to grab the opposite team's "tail." 

I was thrilled to see two girls from our house win sweetheart competitions (explained that in an earlier entry).  I was not thrilled to see random people puking on fraternity lawns, folks need to get it together.   Ya look a mess.   

package

I had a package waiting for me Monday afternoon.  It was so nice to read not only a letter from my old bishop at Skyline Ward (aka, the best place ever), but there were little cards from all the Young Women as well.  I love stuff like this, thank goodness I have enough stationary to suffice.  Please, who am I kidding, I have enough stationary to last me through the next decade, yet I continue to purchase it.  Perhaps I am filling a void in my life?  Paper obsessed anonymous? 

Then to really tie up the afternoon I had my very first VT.  That was fun.  It's going to be nice to get to know a few people individually since church is such a busy place and we are all so busy gossiping and flirting at the singles ward that we do not have time... lol. 

My friends, my friends flirting is a full time job.  Why do they not have majors in opposite sex discussions?  I digress.  But, I will add that jittering and texting like a crazy person during sacrament meeting does not make me think of romance.  ha ha, twenty-three is too old for that mess.  Men look silly wiggling a la preparation h advertisement while in suits.

Now, another question for my readers.  My dearest Jay is very much in desire of a Moroni tree topper OR a tree ornament.  LOL.  Do not ask, just tell me where to find it.   

happy snaps

I put all the photos from break into this album

Recently I've been thinking about scrapbooking, and I cannot wait for a trip to Archiver's when I have time.  All these fun color combinations have been popping up everywhere.  I think it's time to upload to shutterfly!

heart of the city

Thank you all for your kind comments regarding my coffee-near to evil-barfing situation.  And yes, it was pretty funny.  Thank god it did not get on my hair because I would of been upset.  I'm looking forward to never having to go through that again.

But onward and upward.  While in New York Jay and I went to the temple.  It was so lovely.  I'd driven by several times, it's in a really busy location (59th & Columbus).  Inside they have a temple area (obviously did not see that) and the rest of it were wards, classrooms etc...

And here am I, and let me just say that the girls look so messed up and are certainly NOT temple worthy.  (That was supposed to be really funny).

Usually (at least in my experiences) most temples are in the suburbs, but this one is right in the city.  Still beautiful, and lovely though.

I remember reading an Ensign and noticing a picture of GBH in front of this sign, pretty cool that Jay and little old me got to stand right in the spot where he has been. 

I loved all the details, it really is such a pretty place, and despite not having an official visitors' center it was nice to show Jay what a chapel looks like.  And she really wanted a BOM and we found a sister inside who had one, so that was nice. 

Very nice, peaceful visit.  Above are the "real" temple doors. 

and with this post,

I feel as if I'm channeling Shannon, after this difficult past few days. 

Let me begin with a warning, this post is going to be very upfront.  You are about to get to know me very, very well.

All was fine after picking up Jay at Sarah Lawrence and heading down to the city.  We checked in our gorgeous b&b in Harlem.  It was lovely.  The bedroom was huge with an adjacent kitchen, the linens were soft, there was cable, and minus the overly done flora we were pretty happy. 

See?  Lovely room, lovely good times ahead.  Correct?  No my friends, it was about to get worse.  Much worse.

After settling in (unpacking my mega suitcase and chatting chatting all the way) Jay and I decided to venture down to Kate's Paperie.  I was so happy to pick up my "Kate Book" and just be amongst my heaven of paper.  Then we were hungry, and what better place to go to than a small, quaint creperie? 

So we sat down, delighted in the fact that we were one of many 4 customers and preceded to order a delicious feast.  As you know I only drink herbal, caffiene free tea, but since Miss Jay was having some coffee I thought... oh why not.  I suppose I should get the stuff out of my system before my big day, and I had drank it before.  No big deal.  Oh, oh my friends, that was the pivitol moment for me.  I was past the point of no return. 

Our meal was fine and as we made our way back through the maze that is the New York subway system I started to feel a bit strange.  Let me first start out by saying that I do not "do" sick.  I have not really been ill since my food poisining incident in 5th grade in which my mother (the ever career woman, and that is a whole other post) made me wait at school until she was doing seeing patients while I literally barfed my guts out (told you this was not a light post!)

Back at the wonderful brownstone hotel I went to bed, and awoke still full of spirits to giggle and gossip with Miss Jay from the hours of 4am-7am.  Up around 10 we decided to venture out into the city.  I was not feeling well, again, and decided it was indeed time for some pepto bismo.  All was well for about one hour. 

Then at the fabulous Columbus Circle mall I nearly died.  We were supposed to be eating and I spent most of my time with the perrier on the floor of the bathroom praying to throw up.  Praying was not helping and for the next 2 hours we spent at the mall I was in misery.  We could not do the train.  We hailed a cab.  I nearly died inside.  The ever swerving and jolting of New York traffic was not doing a miracle on my delicate insides.  It was time to get home NOW. 

By this point I was cursing coffee and praising Joseph Smith and HF for the word of wisdom and promising that I would NEVER, under any circumstances what so ever break it!

The worst was still to come.  Back in the lovely bed and feeling so sicky/cozy under the sheets Jay and I proceeded with Lifetime and I made a little home for the inevitable out of the garbage basket next to the bed. 

For three hours we sat there, I munched on some grilled cheese and Jay surfed the net for the ever desired leopard flats. 

Then, as I felt moved to, I leaned over the basket and did my thing.  Not just once, two times.  Jay had no idea what was going on and said in delight over her shoes, "these are so cute, don't you think?"  All I could say was, "hmmm" and then blahhh MORE barf.  My friends, I had no idea I had it in me.  Our stomachs are how big?  There was the coffee in the basket and of course all over the floor and bedskirt.  "Let me get you a towel" said Jay.  And finally relieved to have that evil stuff out of me I popped up and got myself together and cleaned up with vigor.

It will certainly be a trip to remember.   

real quick

Just wanted to drop in and quickly update.  I arrived in Groton Long Point, CT on Friday evening after a really quick flight.  It is such a pretty beach community.  Then it was down to Boston to visit family friends (another great place) and back up to New York byway of Bronxville to fetch Jay.  It is so great.  Jay and I were up talking from 4-7am this morning.  We're off to downtown today.  More pictures to follow.