April Flashback and Mormon Mom

First of all (I've been meaning to do this awhile), my friend Sarah started a website for the Mormon Mom. It offers great tips for all moms (you don't even have to be Mormon :) This site also features Marvelous Meals. A meal program that you can sign up for $5 a month to gain access to the special marvelous meal website. (click the button below)
Now onto family updates. I am going to do this backwards--most recent working back towards the first of the month.

Perhaps the most shocking thing I did this month is change my hair color 180 degrees. Are you ready for the photos?I liked it a lot at first. Then the next day I still liked it, but I was in a little shock. Now I'm enjoying it. It's fun to try something new. Thanks Monica!

We had a really nice Easter. We had been teaching Ellie about the Resurrection for a few days before Easter, so hopefully nothing at church was too new for her. We had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday at the Baillio's and then a nice Easter dinner with the Adam's on Sunday. Pretty laid back. Thanks for the fun time guys!

Will is wearing two shirts because he didn't want to change out of the first one into something warmer so I told him that we would put a "jacket" over it. He liked the idea.
Ellie and Anwen.Ellie and Jane.Ellie, Will, and Garry.
Our trip to Knott's Berry Farm was really fun! Thanks to the Baillio's for meeting us there! Sorry my kids were a little bit grouchy, by the way. Over all it was a great time though! We also went to the Garment District in LA. That was an interesting experience--we got really close to Skid Row! But other than that close call, I enjoyed it. I purchased some awesome material and a bag. I would post it, but blogger is too tired to comply.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

我 是 为 而 部 猛

The title means: "I am awe inspiring, but kind at heart."

和平
peace

喜
happiness

晴海
deep love

Pretty much, I can type in Chinese! I'm doing invitations for a YW/YM activity with a Chinese theme. I wanted to use some real Chinese characters. I downloaded a Chinese font and got my computer to speak Chinese. And with the help of this awesome website (click here), I can write words in Chinese!!! I'm still geeking out about it! I could do this all day. Too bad I don't know the rules of grammar in this language.....

And too bad for you if your computer doesn't speak Chinese. The characters will look like funky rectangles with weird number and letter things. Sorry. If you really want me to teach your computer Chinese I would be happy to. :)

My Job Project

For my rhetoric class, I did a paper and a presentation on the Book of Job. The book is an exposition on the problem of pain. My thesis is that Job has become such a favored piece of literature because of its ethos arguments. Job argues with his friends for a long time about whether or not he deserved his "punishment," but their arguments don't satisfy. Ultimately God comes and settles the matter, but he doesn't explain himself, he simply introduces himself. The idea is that the best answer to the problem of pain is putting faith in God--accepting his ethos. Essentially, having faith is the same as accepting God's ethos arguments.
Logos=appeal to reason, logic
Pathos=appeal to emotion, passion
Ethos=appeal to personal authority, essence or character of the speaker

If none of this makes sense, just smile and nod so I'll feel better. For my class presentation, I put together a slideshow to introduce the problem of pain:

If God is good, he will want to prevent suffering
If God is omnipotent, he has the ability to prevent suffering
Therefore, God is either not good, or not all powerful

This issue gives a lot of people real problems. They have a hard time accepting religion because of all the suffering in the world. Religious scholars have argued back and forth about this problem for centuries, but like I said, I think the real answer lies in the issue of faith--accepting God's ethos. This life gives us opportunities to test our faith.

WARNING: THIS SLIDESHOW IS HEAVY, SOME MATERIAL MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN. WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK...
...I'M NOT JOKING

The Near Death experience of my Arm

Imagine waking in the middle of the night with the knowledge that something is wrong, very wrong with your arm. But you can't find it. So you have to use your other arm to find it. And that arm reaches over and finds a limp lifeless arm in it's hand. Suddenly the brain registers the feeling, "EEeeeAAH!"

Such thing happened to me last night. I had to frantically use my left hand to help my right arm once again obtain a state where blood circulation is possible. This hasn't happened to me in quite awhile. When it happens, and my arm is that limp, I often wonder if I'll even be able to revive it. It kind of scares me actually. It took awhile to work my arm back awake. When I did try to use it, felt like it was floating. It was so wobbly, it was as if it was drunk. The drama of it had me laughing as I went back to sleep again. Perhaps it's strange to laugh at your own horror, but that's what I did. I often find the overstated and understated terribly funny, so at least I'm consistent.

This experience gave me cause to think of how wonderful the human body is. Isn't it kind of your body to warn you when your arm is dead? "Uh...Meridy, your arm is dying. Stop cutting off your own circulation you moron. WAKE UP and revive it!" Can you imagine if you lost your arm because your body lacked this warning mechanism?

On the other hand, why is the body often so self defeating? Let's say, for example, that there is this great piece of chocolate silk pie.... The arteries are desperately trying to communicate, "NO! Don't eat it! Think of the future!! We don't want to be clogged up...." Unfortunately our body's red tape doesn't allow us to hear their thoughts. What we are stuck with is the stomach and the brain. The stomach is chanting, "eat it! Eat it! EAT it! EAT IT!" The brain is a bit more confused. One part of it is chanting, "sugar. Sugar! SUgar!! SUGAR!!!" The other part of it is saying, "How much chocolate silk pie can I eat with out causing lasting damage?....Okay that was really good! Oh! Look! There is still more pie left! It looks goooood. And I should know, I just had some. But I already ate a huge slice and I just don't know if it will be healthy....."

And so man must struggle to survive with himself. But hey, at least we get to have some chocolate silk pie while we're doing it!