bagtagbagtabgatgabgtb. . .

so, cute sami tagged me with this bag tag. the rules are:
1. Show a picture of your bag
2. Show a picture of ALL the contents of your bag- no cleaning out first!
3. "Bag Tag" 5 people
man all this tag is making me tired.I bought this bag at a little store in Lima Peru this summer, I was the woman's first credit card purchase. She buys antique Cusqueno fabrics and then designs and makes the bags herself. I love the stripey stripes!
Contents:

• the text book i'm teaching from this semester, stuffed with the class roll so I can try to memorize all 52 students names. . .
  
• notebook from italy which is my current scripture journal, i'm trying to do all the sunday school reading ahead of time. . hence the BoM cute mini size!
• my pride and joy moleskin day planner/journal, these are divine
• keys
• wallet, checks, loose change
• leatherman pocket knife/tool. . .you never know. . .
  
• phone
• flash drive
• lip glosses
• antique pill case from my grama. . .stuffed with ibuprofen
• grading/scripture marking pens
  
• mini tub of mom's stuff. . .miracle cure all from my mommio
• trash, not bag is complete without it, you never know when you'll need a scrap of paper
• I tag pack, mary, ashleigh (she has the CUTEST red bag), hailey, davey (do your cusco bag!)
  

happy happy birthday sister friend

today my little sister adah is turning 20!!! i can hardly believe it. i remember the day she was born with her shock of red hair and rosy cheeks. adah is a remarkable person, she is beautiful, talented, artistic, every so kind, sincere, hard-working, hilarious, brave, authentic, sensitive, strong and good. i love her a million times over, she'll always be my favorite little sister. happy birthday spud! xoxo

tree burning and walking on water

so we let our christmas tree sit for way too long. i got in un-decorated when i came back from break, but its been sitting naked and almost camouflaged against the green wall in our living room since then. it was well past the respectable time to nonchalantly drop it on the side of the curb (what would the neighbors think!?!) so i decided to do what you do with all things you don't know what to do with. . .BURN IT!!! (thank you grand canyon river trips for teaching me that). so on sunday evening a host of friends gathered and we dragged our dear tree and other burnable objects out on the frozen tundra of utah lake where we had the most delightful (though slow to start) bonfire replete with the burning of our regrets from last year and hopes for this year, the explosion of an aerosol can, a marriage proposal (with acceptance, congrats e&e), hot cocoa on the pocket rocket camping stove, and general merriment. hooray for burning! hooray for friends! hooray for frozen lake!!!

haircut!!!

so i got it cut. sorry i didn't have the guts to go with the cate, maybe in the summer? i went more ashley olsen (so weird). really it was a very nice trim with lots of great new layers. ashleigh is a snip snip genius hairdresser on fire. woohoo!

mercredi sans paroles

last night i dreamt i was speaking french. and also I dreamt that I was stading in front of this house (our former home) with my parents and there were 13 rainbows in the sky. it was a most magnificent sight, they were all full and vibrant and overlapping eachother, i felt like i could almost touch them. and then i realized that it wasn't our house anymore. but we went in to visit the new family, and i was relieved they hadn't changed it too much. and i had to show the new mother how to properly stoke the wood stove. and when were were leaving i couldn't find my shoes anywhere (which shoes weren't mine to begin with and were far too big for my feet) so I left barefoot. too bad i don't know a thing about dream interpretation. and i don't know why i call this a wordless wednesday when obviously i've got lots of words. hmm. dreams.

haircut

so I'm going to get a haircut next week from my awesome friend and I am trying to figure out how I want it. right now it is just sort of longish, with grown out layerish things. its good, but just needs some life. in order to see what I wanted i went to this most ridiculous/awesome site: the hollywood hair virtual makeover on the instyle website, that my roommate showed me. pretty much you upload a pic of yourself and try on any celebs hair. here are four options a) cate blanchett b) ashley olsen c) katie holmes and d) mandy moore. maybe I'll cute my hair the style that gets the most votes! and that is not my real hair color, but it was the closest I could find. its sort of ashy and gross.

tagtagtagtagtag

remember freeze tag? or music tag? man, tag is such a great game.

8 things I'm passionate about
1. the gospel
2. nature/being outside
3. service/being kind
4. community
5. growing/cooking food and feeding people
6. art in lots of forms both creating and viewing/reading
7. loving and serving my family and friends
8. progression

8 things I want to do before I die
1. have a family
2. sail around the world for a year preferably when my children are in their early teens
3. build my own home/community
4. read the old testament ALL the way through in order
5. become really good at making bread, and maybe even grow my own wheat
6. serve wherever i am
7. be self-sufficient
8. spend time in africa

8 books I have read recently
1. the history of love
2. blankets
3. christ and the new covenant
4. the time of the butterflies
5. love in the time of cholera
6. koko's kitten (and I cried and cried)
7. as you like it
8. currently: the idiot

8 things I often say
1. H
2. meow
3. roobie boobie skins/ kittah kittah/cute face
4. are/were they smoking crack rock?
5. i love you
6. hieee/byeeee
7. oh man
8. si senor

8 things that attract me to friends
1. kindness
2. sincerity
3. sense of humour
4. ability to engage in meaningful/real conversations about important things
5. interests and passions
6. integrity
7. adventuresomness/sense of wonder about the world/creativity
8. the way they treat their family

8 songs and albums I could listen to over and over
1. rabbit songs- hem
2. i found a reason- cat power
3. i feel it all- feist
4. psalm 23- choir of christ church cathedral
5. vashti bunyan
6. since i still tell you my everyday- innocence mission
7. dig me a hole- dawn landes
8. romeo and juliet (the ballet score)- prokofiev

8 things I learned this year
1. live in faith not fear
2. be true to your heart/gut even when its really hard and goes against reason
3. always react in kindness
4. the lord really is watching over us in the details
5. you can't give when you are emotionally depleted
6. you are still useful even when you think you aren't
7. things are always scarier in your mind then they are in real life
8. cheap winds up being expensive

8 Random things about me
1. i have dimples in both shoulders
2. my favorite jelly belly flavor is pop corn
3. sometimes i wish i had more siblings
4. i love snail mail
5. i used to purposefully get out in the spelling bee because i hate competitions
6. i've had 5 seizures in my life and have passed out a number of times
7. i've never died my hair
8. i used to stage and perform long informercials in the bathroom as a kid, no one watching but me in the mirror

8 People I tag
1. pack (cause it means she'll have to start a blog)
2. camille
3. kelly
4. andi (cause we're blog friends)
5. heather sanders
6. ash sanders
7. bardhi (yeah right)
8. dainon

almost wordless iowa wednesday

today is a big day.

house

So tomorrow my parents and I will finally take the very very last load of our belongings out of the house that has been our home my entire life. On the one hand I can't wait to be done as this has been a butt buster project, but I think it will also be pretty sad. Its so weird walking into our home and have it be so empty. . . trying to imagine another family's possessions populating it in a week or so. It was strange the other day to drive into town and have to turn a few streets early to get to my parents new home. I am however very very happy a family is moving in, and hope that our dear house will be as loving and nuturing a home for them as it has been for us. On the last day that we were all home together in early December my dad hired a photographer to come and take pictures of we Bennion's in our natural habitat. While is was super awkward in the moment, I'm glad we have them. I'll miss our old house, but am glad that I still have a home in Spring City.