Easter Thoughts

So Holly frequently teases me about this being "our" blog and the fact that I never post anything. Therefore this is my token post:

We love our Savior Jesus Christ. The past month has taught us some great lessons concerning the power of the Atonement culminating in the past week with the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and finally with Easter Sunday. In Portuguese Easter is called Pascua. I always liked that because it reminds me that it commemorates the Passover, the Jewish Feast celebrating the passing of the destroying angel over the Israelites in the finals days of their bondage in Egypt. This in itself is a symbol of the passing of the destroying angel in our own lives. The children of Israel sacrificed a pure lamb to spread the blood on their door lintel and side posts. This pure lamb is a symbol of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ.

It is by the blood of Christ that the destroying angels of death and sin passover us in our lives. Many doubt and many wonder and many are too busy to care about what will happen to them after this life. We know that through our Redeemer all mankind will live in a body of flesh and bones made perfect after our death. Death has never scared me, either for myself or for others, because I know this: each of us will live again. Christ lived as a mortal man on earth. Born as a baby to Mary he grew up in the faith of his mortal parents and with the strength of his divine parents. Because of his love, each of us can do the same. He died willingly, knowing that he would live again. After three days he rose and left the tomb in his exalted body. My heart leaps to think of that moment when sweet Mary stood at the Tomb and weeping for sorrow suddenly changed her tears to joy when she heard the master call her name "Mary". He lives! Even today he lives! And so shall each of us to come triumphant before our father. Death hath lost its sting! The valley of shadows has been made bright by the light of the world!

And if that wasn't enough to cause us to rejoice ever more. He has saved us from the death we bring upon ourselves as mortals who err, make mistakes, and sin. No one can comprehend how much sin he has felt and understood and all of it more potent because of his perfect nature. I learned at young age that "all our loses will be made up to us" by our great elder brother. In Portuguese the word for lawyer is "advogado". The Savior is our advocate with the Father, he justifies us before him. God hath said no unclean thing can come into my presence. It is by the blood of Christ that our garments are washed clean and made white before him. So at the end of our days if we have endured in the name of Christ we can stand holy in the presence of the divine creator. "though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow".

I love my God. He does exist. He loves us so much more than we can understand. No greater joy can be had than when we turn to Him. We know Jesus is the Christ. Each day as we draw nearer to him he draws nearer to us. We are so grateful for family, friends, prophets, scriptures, and the vicissitudes of life that strengthen our conviction as Christians. All that we do is done because of our love for Him.

May God bless all of you and may you always know this: that we love you and we know the Jesus is the Christ.

Easter

For Easter, Sam continued his tradition of being incredibly sneaky on holidays and getting up really early to set everything up very special before I am even half conscious. He's so cute--he makes holidays so much fun.

When I ventured out to the kitchen, this is the happy sight that greeted my eyes:
My mom found us those awesome cups with straws wrapped around them. They're so much fun to drink out of! Here is a close-up of the basket:He also strewed ribbons along the floor Hansel-and-Gretel style, so I would be able to find my way down our tiny hallway to discover breakfast and the accompanying treasures.

It was a very nice Easter morning, especially since church wasn't until 11:00, so we got to sleep in a little. Well, I got to sleep in a little; Sam, as aforementioned, was busy being sneaky.

Here are some other little things that made our Easter just that much more special.

The Easter flower arrangement Sam had to do for his floral design class (isn't it beautiful?!):The loot we received from our parents:It was such a nice Easter. I think it's one of my favorite holidays.

Sam's Floral Arrangements

So Sam has been taking pictures of all of the arrangements he's had to do for his floral design class, and I think they're really pretty, so I'm posting them.

Arrangement 1 (not the first arrangement ever, but of this group)
Arrangement 2 (this was a bridal bouquet)
Arrangement 2 (from top)
Arrangement 2 (these are the leftover flowers that he made a second bouquet with--it reminds me of the bouquet Millie makes for herself in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)
Arrangement 3 (dried flowers from our wedding, our cake top, and the treasure chest Sam used to propose to me. Please disregard how dusty it all is.)
Aren't they all beautiful? I think he does a really good job, and I love getting flowers every week--especially flowers that he's arranged himself. :)

Skiing with Dad

So while my parents were here, my dad really wanted to try skiing, since he hadn't skied since before I was born, I think. He got himself outfitted with some ski clothes, rented some equipment at Outdoors Unlimited on campus, and we were off.

And let me tell you, it was an adventure.

First of all, we were planning on Alta, due to the lack of snowboarders and my dad having never experienced sharing the mountain with them. However, that canyon was closed (for avalanche control or something), so we made a quick change and went to Solitude instead. This was adventure one.

Sam was working, so we planned to met him there and I drove up with my parents. Well, their little California car has never been in the snow and has nothing like four-wheel drive, so when the roads started getting slick, my dad got out to put chains on the tires. This was adventure two.

So Dad hasn't put chains on tires for quite some time, so it took a little while for him to get the hang of it. And then the chains were too long and he didn't have the tool to cut them, so we were like, "Uhhh...what now?"

Here's my worried face:
Well, I'll tell you what now. Sam showed up (he'd been about a 1/2 hour behind us), and we drove up in the CRV, which handles the snow really well (because it was snowing buckets). Here is my parents' car getting left behind while we continued in our adventure.
In the comfort of the CRV, we finally made it to our destination. Then, as I was buckling my boots, this happened.
Yes, that is a ginormous blood blister on my thumb from where I accidentally buckled it into my ski boots. Talk about owwww. That was adventure three.

So we get our tickets and Dad, Sam, and I take a few runs down the tiny bunny hill while Dad tests the adage that skiing is "just like riding a bike--you remember how right away."

Dad started getting bored with the bunny hill and wanted something a little more challenging, so we took a lift up to a harder green. This was adventure four.
Here's Dad and I before adventure five happened.
Adventure five happened when Dad's body realized that he hasn't really been above sea level for the past 20+ years, and it punished him for his audacity in braving 9000 feet. He got altitude sickness really bad and kind of threw up a couple of times about halfway down the mountain. Eventually one of the ski patrol people took pity on him and snowmobiled him back to the lodge, where Mom was doing her homework.

Sam and I were a little worried that this unpleasant experience might ruin skiing for Dad henceforth and forever, but luckily he's a get-back-on-the-horse kind of guy, so he's looking forward to trying it again next year. Yay!

Inkheart

My parents are here visiting this week! They just got in today after driving from California, and we all went to see Inkheart together at the dollar theatre. It was so good! I really, really liked it. They put together an excellent cast that really played their parts well. And the guy who plays Gollum in The Lord of the Rings (Andy Serkis) played the bad guy, which he did really well. It was fun actually seeing him act for a whole movie instead of just watching him in the special features on the Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, I liked the movie so much that I requested the book from the library. And so far the book's really good, too. I definitely recommend both!

Anguished English 3.18.09

[In the window of a Swedish furrier]
Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.

Sounds painful.

Get Fuzzy 3.15.09

Oh my goodness, Get Fuzzy was so hilarious today that I was honestly laughing for, like, five minutes. Oh my gosh, Bucky, you totally rock.