That's How You Change a Life

I don't know why I feel the need to have such sappy posts all the time, but I do.

So here it is. Julie's tribute to love.

I love love.

And forgive me for quoting one of the most cookie cutter chick flicks in existence, but great love doesn't come around often. And when it does, we gotta learn to pay attention. I don't know if loving your best friend, or love at first sight, or love after three days are only things that happen in romantic movies. But, I do know that love changes you. And it changes you a lot.

Loves teaches you to sacrifice. It teaches you how not to complain. It teaches you everything you need to know-- but not in your head. It teaches you in your heart. And somehow, once you learn to love somebody, your ability to love them just gets bigger. And your capacity to love others just gets better.

But it's the great love side of things I really want to talk about.

Great love is love that you can't find everywhere, and certainly not with just anyone. Everyone has at least one person that they love with great love -- love that causes them the most joy, just because it exists, and love that causes probably the most pain.

I guess want I want say is that you should never take love for granted.

Scary Movies... Scary Life

I have never really had friends who enjoy scary movies. Not at all.

I don't enjoy them. But somehow, people still want to talk me out of my very strong dislike of horror, my very strong aversion to walking dead, demons, hauntings, paranormal activity.... all of it. It's like I have told them that I don't like brownies, or unicorns, or Lucky Charms cereal (which, by the by, is nasty... although I have nothing against the irish).

The first reaction is a reassurance that this move isn't THAT scary. To me, that means about half of it will be spent with a blanket over my head, or with my fingers in my ears.

The second reassurance (especially from guys) is that if I'm scared, I can always rely on them for support and comfort. To me, that means that I need a whole batch of girls with whom I feel comfortable cuddling up to-- because holding onto a guy when I'm scared is a little too Hollywood for me (unless I am dating said guy).

The third reassurance is that nothing in this movie is real. I know that. But to me, the fear isn't in the idea that zombies might come and attack me at night, or that a serial killer is right outside my window with a ten inch knife. The fear is knowing the inherent ungodliness of it. I am not on a vendetta to say that all people who watch scary movies are somehow bad. Not at all. But I do know how I feel when I am watching a blind girl running from a man trying to kill her, or when children are the objects of evil spirits. I know it's not real. But I also known it's not right. At least not right for me.

So, scary movies, consider this as me, signing off. For good.

Butternut Squash Soup

I just ate a bowl of butternut squash soup. It was so delicious that I decided to blog about it.

Might I just say that putting good things into your body is soooo important?

A little bit of nerdy infor about my beautiful orange friend, Mr. Buttenut Squash

One cup of this plant contains only eighty two calories-- a mildly sweet flavor that lends itself both to savory and to sweet things. It also has 457% of the daily value of vitamin A, and half of the vitamin C that you need. Skip the the daily vitamin and feed yourself some squashes! Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, thiamin-- you don't need enriched breakfast cereal when you eat what God gave you.

So I'll enjoy my lovely warm bowl of soup as the colors of fall stream through the curtains, and as the taste of of fall embraces my taste buds.

Eat some squash! :)

Cornaphobia

Yes you read the title right.

Yesterday I went to the corn maze at thanksgiving point. But it's not just a corn maze. It's kind of a fall fair sort of feeling, with music and pig races and scones for sale at those cheap trailer concessions. There was also this black box called "buried alive and cornaphobia".... which combined gross hanging things in darkness, the smell of dirt, blowing wind and waving anima-tronic corn with claustrophobia. It was freaky-- but cool now that I look back on it.

We spent ... a long time... getting lost in the maze. And, we spent an even longer time getting un-lost in the maze. It seemed that no matter what path we took, we always ended up back where we started. Not desirable, let me tell you.

But I noticed something thought provoking out in that corn. The field seemed to go on forever, and the sky above us seemed endless, save for the mountains which brought the sky to an end. But you noticed it just the same. Sometimes I feel that way. I feel like I have this endless potential and that I, and others, can only see a very small part of it. But even though I can only see a little bit of the sky, I still believe there is more. Even though I can only see a little bit in myself, I still believe there is more. And the best part is-- even though I can only see a little bit of Heavenly Father's plan for me, or for everyone, I still believe-- I still know-- that there is a way out of the corn maze where I can find joy and peace and love. Sometimes we might feel that we're stuck in a maze-- we don't know what to do, and we don't know how long it will be until we finally reach the end. But there is someone who knows. And even though we can't see it right this minute-- the possibility for something great is ALREADY there, maybe even on the other side of the mountain that can keep us from seeing the whole sky.

We are taught that truth comes to us line upon line... one thing at a time. I feel like that might apply to people too-- we get to know others and we get to know ourselves one glimpse of sky at a time.

Lessons from a Halloween corn maze.

In A Pineapple Under The Sea

I always thought it was awkward that the word awkward has two w's around a k. For some reason, that always seemed to make me feel uncomfortable. Anyway... moving on.

There has been this really random (and quite nasty) smell building in our apartment for a while. A few days ago, I was like, huh, what is that weird smell? It was kind of sweet, but not in a good way, but I could only smell it sometimes. But as the days passed along, the smell grew more and more pungently gross. It seemed to be coming out of a small brown cabinet that is usually empty.

Then I remembered that my roommate has moved some of her groceries into said cabinet a few weeks ago because her shelf in our pantry was pretty full. My memory seemed to recall that she has purchased a pineapple. And some other fruit.

I chanced opening the door. And sure as sure, the pineapple AND the other fruit lay withering in juices. However... it was not my pineapple. And so Melanie and I agreed we should leave it for when the owner returned home.

We welcomed her back today.

And while she walked by us, we casually said, "Oh hey, so there's a rotten pineapple in there."

She removed the offender.

But it still smells pretty bad here.

Ample Vanity?

Well. I guess it depends on what you mean by using your time wisely. Because according to pinterest, they want to world to be able to connect through pictures. Cool goal. I think most people like it though, simply because they like to look at things. Me? I get caught up in wondering how they braided that hair. Or where they got those china cups. Or how long it would take me to paint all my cabinets french green, and my kitchen walls yellow with cream colored backsplash tile.

It makes you wonder a bit about the vanity. Are we really there to connect with other people, or just to collect stuff that we like and then dream about getting the stuff that we collected?

I think it could inspire us to create.

Or it could waste a lot of time.

But seriously... green cabinets are AMAZING.