Where has this song been all my life?



I watched The Sound of Music dozens of times when I was younger, (who else wanted be Liesl and sing about turning seventeen in the rain??) -- and it still remains in my top ten/fifteen favorite movies of all time. But for whatever reason, it's been years since I've listened to the soundtrack. The last time I remember hearing this song in particular, was this past fall while making blueberry muffins before school with Kylie. That is the only joyful memory I have from living at Raintree.
(haha - just kidding)

But before that, and since then, do-re-mi had nearly been wiped from my memory.

The other night, however, I overheard it from my bedroom and I immediately got online to download it. This song is the bomb.com.net.org. It's almost as good as The Circle of Life, and nearly twice as good as Glee's cover of Friday. I'd be lying if I said I didn't listen to it every morning when I get ready for work. Next time I fail a test, get broken up with, or find that I have no purpose in life - please show me this song and all will be well again.

i love cake batter frozen yogurt, yes i do.

Five minutes of a lifetime were truly spent, and we felt young in a good way.
Stephen Chbosky

-- except it was more like 2,880 minutes.

My dad was my date, Sara my twin, the Reed's a second family, and I the chauffeur for Kenken and Jess. It was a nearly perfect summer weekend, combining cake batter, boating, bonfires and s'mores.
Now if only I had gotten up while water skiing (goshdangit, why is it so hard for me?!) I would honestly have to say that I just had the best weekend of the summer. The weekend where we all felt young because everything was sunny and carefree - all in the most memorable and best kind of way.

to my friend who works the graveyard shifts:

(but before you die, come visit me in new zealand!)

thelma and eleanor and kindred spirits.

The good and the bad results of yesterday evening:

Kylie's shattered Cocoa-Cola bottle; shards of glass flying everywhere. Nobody was hurt though, and our picnic (with homemade bread and real strawberry shortcake (instead of just the cupcake kind) was, needless to say, perfect with the setting sun and pink clouds scattering the sky.
Except Thelma lost two of her screws, so the whole ride home she was kind of rickety.
And the bottle of salsa exploded in Eleanor's wicker basket.
However, we did find a new bicycle path with Grandmother Willow-ish trees (like the one in Pocahontas who speaks words of wisdom) and that always counts for something.

We ended the night by finding Thelma and Eleanor's kindred spirits (so many cute beach cruisers all at once!) and we sat in a baseball dugout drinking our Mickey D diet cokes before splitting.

You can't help but like life a lot in the summertime.

--

(yep - that photo is from my phone. nope - not an iphone (obviously). still one of those phones dated back like 5th century BC. one day that will change.)

craig christensen (that's my dad)

Some of my friends have made the joke that if you were to call me and begin a conversation, you could put the phone down for at least three minutes, and three minutes later I'd still be talking unaware that the person on the other line had gone (ha...ha...) -- But ask me about either of my parents, and I'm sure that would be the case.

-- Except today I'd like to specifically dedicate to my dad, because that's just the sort of thing you do on fathers day.

I could tell you a million stories of a million different ways that my dad has been one of greatest examples in my life, but today I decided to share one of my favorite memories instead: my first kiss.

Because we weren't allowed to date in my home until age 16, my first kiss had to be kept secret because I was still fifteen and a half - and I was convinced that if my parents found out, I'd be banned from dating Spencer Beeston until college graduation (haha - dramatic now, but at the time I was truly convinced that would have been the case.) So I swore to myself that I'd never, ever tell my family -- and most especially, I'd never, ever tell my dad.

Well, all that changed when I made the exception and told my little sister about it (like fifteen seconds after I got home) and I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised when she apparently went straightway and told my dad about it anyway.

And I still remember that Saturday morning -- walking into my bedroom, seeing my dad there sitting at my desk. Do you guys remember ever missing curfew? (oh the joy of junior year) My parents were always sitting at the kitchen table by the time I walked in the door - and worst of all, all they had to say was: We'll talk about it in the morning.

Well that particular Saturday morning was that same awkward/guilt/dang it feeling times a million, because as I slowly walked into my room, all my dad had to say was: "We need to have a talk."

And although I can't really remember what we specifically talked about, (other than my dad making me read a Jon Bytheway article entitled: "What Do Kisses Mean" - haha) what I remember the most was hugging my dad after a long, awkward, "I promise it won't happen until I'm at least 27" conversation, and my dad telling me that he loved me.

I'm biased, but my dad is the best person I know, the best basketball player I know, and most gratefully, the best father I know. And since today is fathers day, what better way to celebrate than by letting other people know what kind of a dad my dad is - because he's just the best.

happy fathers day!

--

ps. dad - after looking for half an hour, i swear this is the only picture in existence of just the two of us. (and it was taken like 18 years ago, and i take up 1/100 of it). depressing. time to change that this summer.

pss. best fathers day card. "like hunting down and killing his enemies."

psss. love (and watch!) this video.

ppsss. love you dad.

a sunny disposition.

I hope it stays sunny this weekend, so a red boat and pink swimsuit can become a part of my plans. In the meantime, I have to go get some blood work done this afternoon (not so fun) and I can't eat until then (even more not fun).

At least my mom agreed in going to get a tigers blood snow cone with me afterward. I'd have to say that the one good thing about Spanish Fork (besides the horse on top of "Western Wear and Saddlery") is the island of palm trees around the snow shack.

One day I plan on writing about my adventures in SF.

In the meantime, though, I thought I'd share this video. I love it so much I watched it twice.

love lane.

On the agenda:

I told myself today that I'd celebrate being done with finals by going to Salt Lake (and by Salt Lake I mean) I'm going shopping. JCrew, Decades, Victoria Secret (lip gloss for $1.75 - I'm pretty sure somebody spent nearly $50 in lip gloss last night), Ruth's Diner (tears of joy beginning... now), and maybe even another quick hike up to Ensign Peak.

But the best part of all of this is: I haven't even taken my finals. So really, I'm celebrating an unfinished final/a final-for-tomorrow/or most honestly: pure procrastination. It's exactly what today calls for.


Oh, and PS:
Last night we went to the dollar theater to finally see the Disney movie: Prom. I had wanted to see it for months (just ask Elin/Kristina) and I've got to be honest - the four quarters I spent were worth the 90 minutes of laughing so hard I was crying. Maybe it was because it was ten at night, maybe it was the freshman declaring his love from a tree, or the "you are my supernova, nova" jokes from the girl in front of us, or the "are you serious?" (constantly) from the boy behind - either way: 4 quarters were worth it. But if they had asked for 5? Not so much.

--

(photo thanks to an early morning email from sarbear, which hasn't any real significance - rather just a memory from the weekend she was almost swept away with the river. don't worry, she lived.)

kelsie christensen (insert last name later)

Like every other seventh grader who watched the movie A Walk To Remember at age 12, I immediately began a quote journal. If I ever fell victim to leukemia, my Shane West look-a-like boyfriend would surely need to be able to read me love quotes near my hospital bedside, and I would be prepared.

(I'm pretty sure the first quote I wrote down in my seventh grade quote book would have been something like: "Find who you are, and do it on purpose," - Dolly Parton)

Needless to say, I have read thousands of love quotes since that time; some kind-of awful, some I absolutely adore, but it's funny how most quotes I find nowadays that relate the most to love are all under the category of friendship.

When I was young, I wanted to marry Chris Trousdale from the boy band Dream Street, because naturally, he could sing and dance, and one day, I was going to be famous, too. When I was even younger, I pretended that I was going to marry an imaginary boy named David, and he looked like my dad, had glasses like my dad, and had a job like my dad (and we had five to seven children and a maid just like Alice on the Brady Bunch).

But then I grew up and a lot of those things changed. For starters, I didn't know his name or what he'd want to be. I didn't know when or where we'd meet - if it would be fireworks, or a lot of late night phone calls that would eventually turn into something more. The only thing I guess I already know is that he'll be my best friend - before he's famous, before he wears glasses, (and before he's a lot like my dad, which is okay, because I ended up a lot like him anyway.)

And the reason I'm talking about all of this mush is because I wanted to share my latest, favorite love quote. I first read this a few months ago, and have shared it with nearly every friend/foe I have (just kidding about the foes) - and I think this perfectly sums up what friendship truly is, what love has/will be like, and what I plan on sharing with whoever I'm going to have forever with one day too:


Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.
-Dinah Craik

--

photo of my craft corner and the latest version of my marriage book (which has no dolly parton quotes ... yet)

blessings book.

I got an email a few weeks ago from a fellow blogger asking me if I would mind sending her a list of my ten favorite things to be included on her blog. I was more than happy to, and decided that at the risk of sounding slightly redundant, I'd write out a few of the things that make me the happiest today:

Reading under the covers early in the morning.Books so clever they make me wish I was that way too.

Cherry chapstick. That smell makes me want to fall over or fall in love. I love it.

Muddy buddies and Jack Sprat toast for breakfast. Judge away.

Vacuum lines in the carpet. I would vacuum every morning just for those lines if the people who lived below me wouldn't be annoyed to death. They already stopped me in the elevator once just to tell me that my apartment must be very clean from all the vacuuming that goes on. Ha, if they only knew.

The smell of summertime.

Texting my mom, dad and sister - all at the same time, all about different things, but all ending in I love you's.


About a year ago, I read a talk given by President Henry B. Eyring that suggested writing down your blessings every single night before going to bed. It's kind of like a journal, but now I just refer to it as my blessings book. I don't want to stand on a soap box, but I'm going to anyway for only just a second.

Ahem.

I cannot even begin to express how much has changed just by simply writing down a blessing, or even something small that made me happy over the past 14 months. I don't want to exaggerate the point, but there is no other way of putting it: it changed my life. If I could find even the smallest thing on the worst day that somehow made me recognize the good, I started to look for it more and more. I started to recognize it more and more. And so even when I felt like throwing myself in front of a bus (because lets be honest, some days you just feel like that) I'd still find something to be grateful for that night while writing it down in this book.

And to be fair... sometimes I was lame and would write something like: water, (ha) for what would have been lack of enthusiasm, or it was just really late at night, but I swear to you - even writing water made me feel great. And now I notice those great days come most of the time, rather than less of it.

And who knows, one day this might all be a huge secret to success.
Maybe.


But that's all I got for now. Off the soap box.

down by the banks.

It's a summer Sunday in June, (because for once there are no clouds in the sky, and not a chance of rain,) and I'm trying to decide what hurts the most: my arms, my back or maybe my neck. Thanks to tubing, and thanks to Kyson being the co-captain of the boat (enough said) I feel like if I were to actually get out of bed, I might just fall apart. But that's a good thing.

And do you ever have those moments when you feel like everything in the world has changed? But then when he already knows that you'd rather be listening to the Beach Boys, or you're holding hands because you're a lot more like sisters, you realize that a lot really hasn't? Even though it still has? That was like yesterday.

And as for all the days before that:

I've been MIA because who really wants to sit at a computer typing when it's a lot like summer outside?

Actually, being MIA is mostly because finals start in a week (wasn't it just April?) and I have to try and discipline myself and devote some of my time to studying.

And my mom is back - which means our bedtime somehow happens to be at 2 AM even though we tell each other every morning we can't keep doing this.

(and then we talk and talk and talk, and we do it again)

And there are strawberries in my fridge. So if I'm not studying, I'm eating, and if I'm not eating, I'm bike riding, and if I'm not bike riding -- I'm wishing I was, and I'm probably still studying.

So I still think fall is my favorite, but when it's sunny and warm outside, then I let summer win.

(photos from a few weeks ago, thanks to kylie. if i could put the month of may in a nutshell -- that is what it would look like)