This week the stationary bike and a movie were simply howling my name. I decided on Akeelah and the Bee. I was supremely impressed! Amidst the endorphins, I was deeply moved. It was a wonderful film about hope, dreams, and family. The film champions the hard work and faith it takes to overcome obstacles, and showcases the faith and kindness of a child. Akeelah helps us remember we should never stop believing in ourselves and others. We need to remember that through God anything is possible!

This quote was repeated numerous times in the film and has been pressing on my mind ever since:

"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some, it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others. "

-Marianne Williamson-

It is my testimony that we are children of God! I am blessed to be a daughter of our Heavenly Father and I want more than ever to make manifest the glory of God within me! Have a very Merry Christmas and remember the reason we are celebrating! We are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Happy Holidays

So usually I shake things up around the beginning of the year, but life is throwing change at me from all directions these days so I decided I wanted a piece of the action where I'm pulling the strings. Soooo...I changed my blog background, decided to become a deep burnett again, attempted to fall asleep to the TV last night (couldn't do it; watched the entire movie and stayed up too late), and I started listening to Christmas music on Pandora (try the holiday station: Swinging Christmas). I've always been a staunch believer in no Christmas anything until after Thanksgiving but man alive, it feels great! Whoo boy, I'm livin' large! I really feel this environment is conducive to leg lamp buying, or at least this crazy accent chair I found the other day at American Furniture Warehouse. If you do not understand the leg lamp reference please clear your schedule, this fine Thanksgiving Holiday, for a viewing of the 1983 classic, A Christmas Story. It will probably air on TV about three hundred times in the next month, including a 24 hour back to back marathon! Don't miss out! I actually just researched the first two showings...TNT will be fulfilling all of your wildest dreams December 3, 2008 at 9:00 and 11:00pm, Mountain Standard Time.

AHHHHH!!!!!!!

You know when one of those "I've imagined this my entire life" moments happens, and then you realize that you had no idea what you were actually imagining , and you also realize that the moment just happened so you better not miss it? Well I had one of those on Saturday...I'm engaged!

The story:

The boy took me on the Rawbanana Tour 2007-2008, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. We traversed the finest sections of P-town, highlighting many firsts in our relationship. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane, that included the likes of all of the apartments we lived in for the past year, the gas station where I did the "I have a new boyfriend" victory dance, and various date areas all leading to the final stop.

We started driving up the canyon; he was laughing the whole way because I could not remember ever being on this drive before. We finally got to the top, parked the car, and he led me a ways down the mountainside. He finally stopped and said, "Even though you haven't been here, this place is special to us because this is where I decided I wanted to be with you forever." Then we listened to a little song by Jason Mraz called A Beautiful Mess. It's us to a T. I became a wee bit weepy, and had a moment, realizing that I think we finally have a song-I had been contemplating this empty place in our relationship for quite some time. After that song we listened to a couple others, and then he finally got down on one knee and popped the question, and, of course, I said...yes!

I'm the future Mrs. P. Holy moly!