Croatia here I come!

I have put this off for far too long. I am going to head back to the land of my mission next spring. The plan is to go on a Mediterranean cruise that begins in Venice, goes to Croatia, The Greek Isles and Turkey. I can’t think of a more perfect trip. I will probably extend my trip a week and travel through Croatia.

Isn’t it beautiful? Let me know if you are interested and I will give you more details.

Jennifer Mosher

I just want to give a shout out to my girl J-Mo. This is because she is a rock star. Fourteen Years ago she was in a car accident and she suffered a traumatic brain injury. She was recently nominated as Utah’s Inspiring Woman of the Week on KJZZ TV. She is going to be Interviewed live August 19th on channel 14 between 9 and 10 am. She has been working on writing about her accident and injury and hopes to have it published soon. It is titled THE SMILE ON MY FOREHEAD. You can read more about it by going to her blog. http://www.thesmileonmyforehead.blogspot.com/

I suffer from Grasshopperphobia

This weekend for the 4th of July I went to Park City. It was a great time with plenty of good friends and things to do. At one point we were walking in on some trails to get to the Jordanelle Reservoir and there were some grasshoppers jumping around. I remembered that I suffer from grasshopperphobia. It may seem a little strange but I have had too many bad experiences with them. Growing up we lived right next to a field with tall grass that was filled with the nasty things. Often when I would walk into our back yard as I would step down three grasshoppers would jump out of my way. I can’t remember if I ever had the courage to touch them, if I did it was only the babies. I had bad experiences growing up that I can’t even believe really happened these days. Like the time that I was about 5 or 6 walking on a trail in the field with my sisters and a grasshopper jumped in my mouth. I don’t know what my mouth was doing open. Perhaps my jaw just dropped as I saw it jumping towards me. I was trying to blow it out using all of the air in my lungs, but that didn’t work and I quickly realized that I was going to have to inhale at some point. Finally it turned around on my tongue and jumped out. What would you do if this jumped in your mouth? Then a year or so later there was the time I was playing outside with some “friends” and a girl I didn’t know very well put one down my shorts. I proceeded to moon everyone around until I was assured that it had gotten out.

My sister’s share these feelings of mine. One of my favorite stories was when Cate was a nanny for a girl who said to her, “Cate what is that on the bottom of your sock?” You guessed it, It was a flattened grasshopper that must have been in her shoe when she put it on for the day. She had been walking around all day as it's bodily fluids began to dry and adhere to her sock and she never realized it. The sock of coarse went into the trash, because Cate couldn’t bring herself to save it. Cate just reminded me of the time she was rollerblading around Lake Harriet and there was a (in her words) HUGE grasshopper in her path. She pretty much crashed and burned to avoid the thing. These are just a very small percentage of the wonderful tales that I have stored away in my mind that will prevent me from ever having a fondness for the unpredictably jumpy grasshopper.

What message would you send from the moon?

I learned about this last week and I thought that I would share it with you. This happened almost 40 years ago. It probably wouldn't go over so well today. It's amazing how much things can change in 40 years. Somehow back then they could get away with it, as if it is some sort of crime. I guess orbiting the moon gives you a different perspective of the earth we live on.

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts; Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

William Anders: "For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you". "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman: "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

Can't Take the Heat?

If you can't take the heat this summer you need to get up in the mountains. We drove from 92 degrees to 64 in about 20 minutes. Here Brooke is playing Karate kid. To think that I was bummed that I only got my snowshoes out once last year. Who would have thought I would be using them in June.

A Sister’s Love

So my sister called me a few days ago and she said, “Alicia, why don’t you just marry ____?” After listing the reasons why that wouldn’t be such a great idea she says “Well, you just need to get married so you can have babies.” OK so I know that most of you single people out there have heard this from some well meaning family member or friend. Also Cate just had a baby 4 months ago and now that the memory of the pain has subsided she wants me to have this life changing experience. For most people the issue would be resolved right there. Well, Cate doesn’t give up that easily apparently. She called me a few nights later and she said, “I found your husband.” I guess she was looking around on Facebook and she found a guy that I had been in Sunday school class with from ages 12-18. She decided to email him and here is how she decided to go about arranging our marriage…

Cate- I need a favor...It is really no big deal at all...you don't need to move a couch or anything if you are not really dating anyone right now could you please marry my sister...she is nice and she will learn to cook in time.
Think it over...no big whoop.
I will wash your car for you as a pay back...
Later,
Cate

J--- Well, let me get this straight...you'll wash my car, but will you vacuum out the inside too? That gets really dirty.
J---
PS...which sister are we talking about?

Cate- listen...i will shampoo...vacuum and polish the leather interior which I am sure you have since you are a baller. Hook it up bro,
Cate
PS...Alicia is the foxy lady I am refering to. Enjoy

This would probably mortify some of you out there but I am over it and you just need to know my sister. The thing is that this story continues. No joke, 45 minutes later I get a call from my good friend Marla. She says, “Alicia I found your husband.” I asked her if she has been talking to Cate. She said “No, why?” She goes on to tell me why this other guy is perfect for me.

If only it was that easy! Well I guess I just need to be grateful that I have people looking out for me, and a sister that is such a crack-up! I hope that you are all as lucky as I am. ;)

HALLELUJAH - Praise ye the Lord.

So there is a song written by Leonard Cohen called Hallelujah. Cohen is a Jewish poet turned songwriter. I knew the definition of the word so I wanted to get to the bottom of the message he was trying to convey. I looked up the lyrics and I was struck by how it was talking about David in the Old Testament. He was a man highly favored of God who fell from grace. I thought about the ups and downs in his life and about how at the end of his life he devoted much time to writing the Psalms. I was impressed that although he could have chosen to curse God he wrote praises to his name instead. I also thought about Job. He probably had more reasons than most to curse God and he never did. Because of that he was blessed. We don’t only praise God when he does nice things for us or because we are richly blessed. We praise God because of his perfect attributes and character; because he is our Father in Heaven. We praise and worship him best when we strive to gain the characteristics he possesses. I couldn't find anything telling what Cohen's intentions were writing the song, so if you have any thoughts on the subject I would like to hear them. Those are my deep thoughts for today.