another mrs. robinson

I remember seeing this painting at the Wallace Collection in London when I was on study abroad, and being absolutely taken with it. It is a rather large portrait by Thomas Gainsborough of a very scandalous woman in the 18th century. Mrs. Mary Robinson was an actress, a poet, a feminist author, and a mistress with many admirers (including the Prince of Wales). The Prince, in fact, commissioned this painting after terminating their relationship. You can find his small, blurred portrait inside the locket she is holding  in her hand.

"You idiot, Your Highness" is jokingly said to be the message of the painting.

Now I didn't actually know anything about her when I saw this painting. But in person, you can almost feel the story radiating from her expression and eyes without knowing anything about her scandalous life. I didn't know what it was, but I knew Gainsborough had captured something intriguing about her. It is still one of the most memorable paintings I have ever seen in person (and for those who were in london with me, you know we saw A LOT of paintings!).

Ironically, she is nicknamed "Perdita" for her most famous role as the Shakespearean heroine. The name means "lost little thing" or "lost little woman." And for the most part--despite her many talents, writings, and infamy--she is mostly forgotten.

trite, but true

I am thankful for. . .

+ a wonderful husband, who I am deeply in love with

+ our "little family"

+ a family and home to miss on the holidays

+ the new muppet movie--that might've been the best part of my whole thanksgiving

+ mine and Jacob's jobs

+ public transportation

+ our healthy bodies

+ our education

+ the simple "newlywed life"

+ good friends

+ beauty all around

+ animals

+ music

+ laughter

+ love

+ luck

+ challenges

+ survival

+ a heavenly father who continually blesses me with all of these things

+ a gospel that makes life a lot easier

+ the joy and happiness I feel every day of my life

Jokkmokk

Jacob working hard at assembling our dining set. I helped too.

Got our first dining set at ikea last weekend. before we were just using some odd table that jacob found at d.i. and two office chairs that he stole from the MTC. It was very charming. However, we decided if we ever wanted to have people over, we probably needed somewhere for them to sit. Luckily, a friend told me about Ikea's jokkmokk set--quite the steal.  we headed out to Ikea to check it out.

Just by our luck, ikea was having a special deal that weekend. If you spent over $100, you could eat in their cafe for FREE. And there was no "catch." No fine print with stipulations to easily miss. We could eat as much as we wanted, just as long as it did not exceed the price of our dining set.

ummm. . . hello, early Ikea thanksgiving???

We pigged out. And I mean, chicken tenders, fries, lingonberry juice, mountain dew, a half rack of ribs, mashed potatoes, cornbread, swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce, and even a slice of chocolate mousse cake to top it all off.  Not gonna lie--we left feeling like sick gluttons, but it was kind of a happy feeling.

and seriously. they just deducted all that food from the price of the table. 

Ikea, why are you so good to me?!?

Selah Sue

a hot european chick who makes reggae/funk/soul music? toured with prince? sang on one of cee-lo's tracks?

I want to BE her.

real robots, real engineer

This is a little robot that Jacob made out of legos for one of his classes. Yeah, my husband makes robots and stuff. I totally support (and am jealous) of all the cool engineering stuff he does--as long as he promises not to create a an evil robot race that will someday take over the planet. That would be so embarrassing!

And what else? He just got the job offer we had been crossing our fingers for. Right next to our house/right across the street from campus/real engineering experience/flexible work hours/great pay. What more could we ask for? My lil' husband is on his way to becoming a real engineer--and I couldn't be more excited for him.

3 months

Two days ago was mine and jacob's 3-month marriage mark. And after being married to my sweet husband for three months, I feel like my heart has grown three sizes. I love him more than I ever thought possible, and it feels like that love only grows by the day.

Maybe we are still in our little "honeymoon" phase? how long does the "honeymoon" last? Will things always be this rosy? The answer to these questions is really of no importance to me. Whatever life brings us, I know that we will always look back on these, our first months and years of being newlyweds, fondly. Every day seems so precious and significant as we create our very own way of life together.

reach for the rainbow

Two of my siblings are in this ol' 90's commercial, which makes me cry with laughter:

'

Tricia is the one in the maroon shirt w/ the white floppy flower hat (so 90s). She is easy to find because she is front-and-center during the most of the dancing segments and the camera loves her.

TJ, on the other hand, is a little bit trickier to find. BUT we finally found him. At the end, you'll see him in the back, wearing black, sporting a stylish bull cut, and in Tricia's words, "doing cabbage patch chugs with his arms and then a high school musical tuck jump."

Can't stop laughing.

Dream Job

Throughout life, you always get asked the question, "what is your dream job?" And I always think, okay, here is my chance to show how cool and ambitious and interesting I am! Yet, for 23 years I haven't had a very cool/ambitious/interesting answer to that question. Finally, after a sublime epiphany, I realized a pursuit that (in my opinion) blows all other dream jobs out of the water--to be "Sorcerer Mickey" in the finale of Disneyland's pyrotechnic/water/light show, Fantasmic.

like so:

I would love to rock out like that every night. I seriously get chills. So magical.


Someone buy me a red, sparkly Snuggie and a wizard hat quick.

he humours me

sundance

Turns out, our friends have some pretty sweet hook-ups for cabin homes up in sundance, and they thought us cool enough to invite for a little weekend getaway in mountain paradise. This is actually our second trip up to sundance with our friends--the first time was a luxury, 5-bedroom cabin with a sauna, indoor pool, hot tub, and bidet (which i wasn't brave enough to use). This time was a little less luxury, but still a cozy 5-bedroom cabin in the mountains. And this time, we had an N64 with Mario Kart and Goldeneye + all the Hot-N-Readies we could handle. Plus, we got to see our friends' band, Archer's Apple, play at the Owl Bar.

Here's a little taste of their music. . .

Despite the fact that our drive down the mountain was almost a catastrophe (SO MUCH ICE!!! we got really lucky. . .) it was a lovely time-- full of friends, pizza, and the gorgeous sundance scenery. it was perfect little holiday.

let's stay together

 Let's Stay Together (Skyler Hale) by ericthesmith

My little brother's band played this tasty version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at our wedding reception. So glad they decided to do a little recording of it. Love this song. Love those funky keys. Love the soul in Sky's voice.

Love the memories.

bird of paradise

this is probably one the coolest moments in the Planet Earth series. I mean, how does that lil' bird of paradise DO that? It doesn't even look real. also, that female bird looks a bit frightened--but like any proper female species, she is probably just playing coy. It is so fascinating to see all the ways that the male species tries to impress their lady counterparts: fighting, singing, tidying up their mating arenas, dolphins lifiting rocks out of the water to prove their worthiness. Likewise-- monkeys lifting and throwing large rocks to show the lady-monkeys how strong they are. I suppose, we really aren't that different from the animal world after all. But wait a minute...

Jacob, why didn't you do something this cool to impress me?!?

Happy Halloween

Inspired by the Rumours album cover.

Gotta love Fleetwood Mac. 

Gotta love Halloween.