.I'll never eat a tomato.

Well, I actually LOVE tomatoes! Especially the ones grown straight from our garden in Oak City. Mmmm mmm mmm...there's nothing like it.

But anyway! There's this book:

Ever heard of it?

It's actually really good. Especially when you have it in POP-UP form.

Everything's better when it's a pop-up!!!!

Heck yeah!

And it even turned into a nice story time with the kids.

ahhhh...this is the life :)

-Ives

.tragedy.

"One of the great tragedies we witness almost daily, is the tragedy of [missionaries] of high aim and low achievement. Their motives are noble, their proclaimed ambition is praiseworthy, their capacity is great. But their discipline is weak. They succumb to indolence. Appetite robs them of will."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

I never, ever want this to happen to me. If I'm going on this mission, I'm going to do it right.

That's all.

-Ives

.spiderman.

Kenji is almost 5.

And since we would be out of town on his birthday, we decided to surprise him with his very own spiderman cake and birthday party.

It was epic.

My big sis informed me that I would be making a cake this morning and I went to it.

8 hours later, I came up with this:

I don't understand how it could have possibly taken so long, but that's just the way it goes sometimes, right?

I took one lunch break.

That doesn't seem right.

But at least it got done before the kids had to go to bed.

And it actually looks like Spiderman! Right...?

Right...?!?!?!

Kenji seemed to enjoy it. Which is all that counts in the end, really. :)

And it's always nice to have a good support system. I mean, I kept asking Micah what he thought of my carving skills and all he would reply with was, "Ivy (As he's looking straight into my eyes with a serious look on his face), it looks really good for your first carved cake." And "It's good enough for a 5 year old! Seriously!"

Yup.

Gotta love those support systems.

-Ives

.shine.

My fantastic sister, De-light, shared this quote with me, and I just fell in love with it.

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Isn't that great? Thanks, Dighty!

-Ives

.time.

I've been learning a lot about myself and life these past couple of weeks. Talk about an emotional roller coaster! The most important lesson I'm learning right this moment, is that sometimes, you just have to let time run its course.

Which is more difficult than it sounds! Anyway. It's past my bedtime (10:30 just creeps right on up there, doesn't it?!). I was even working on a picture, but couldn't finish it in time. I guess it just comes down to priorities.

But I do have a good missionary quote for you, since, ya know, I'm going to be on one in less than 2 MONTHS. ...zing!

The countdown has begun. Brace yourself.

So here's that quote I was talking about...

"If you go on a mission to preach the Gospel with lightness and frivolity in your hearts, looking for this and that, and to learn what is in the world, and not having your minds riveted- yes, I may say, riveted-on the cross of Christ, you will go and return in vain... Let your minds be centered on your missions and labor earnestly to bring souls to Christ."

-Brigham Young

Man, who doesn't love a good Brigham Young quote to keep you focused?

-Ives

.pain.

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weights tons."

-Jim Rohn

Truth.

-Ives

.growing up.

I had a good long conversation with Kenji as I was making cookies today. The conversation mostly consisted of me almost lecturing him on how he is not to forget me while I go on my mission. And maybe I even threw in, ever nonchalantly, how he probably shouldn't grow up either.

He didn't say much about it all, until a couple minutes later, and this conversation unfolded:

Kenji: "But Ivy, if I don't grow up, Daddy will spank my bum!"

Ivy: *sporadic laughter (of course)* You crack me up, Chenny boy!

Kenji: Well, you crack me up! [pause] *giggle* We cracked ourselves up!

...two minutes later...

Kenji: I don't want to grow up, because I'll die.

Ivy: hm...

Maybe you just had to be there. Or maybe you just have to know Kenji. But he really is quite an exception child. And I did love making cookies under his ever watchful eye.

He also gives great compliments.

Such as: "Ivy, you make the BEST cookies and cakes in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!"

Yeah, I can live with that. :)

-Ives

.wisdom.

My own personal superhero sent me this video over facebook yesterday. I absolutely adore the song and was intrigued by the video. It's simple, yet very profound. I love it.

Anyway, but it got us on the subject of loneliness and how art brings out some of our deepest emotions and still remains as beautiful as always.

With that said, my awesome big bro sent me a quote with his own little message/interpretation attached:

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony." - Benjamin Britten

"It is true that music does delve into the deepest recesses of our emotions. And it is still so beautiful. How is that possible? Maybe that is why we love our families so much... The source of many of our problems in our life, and at the same time, an everlasting joy gained from contact with them. The same can be said of loneliness, how can you truly contemplate anything without being in solitude of some sort? Can you correctly order your thoughts with so many outside stimuli? While loneliness isn't something I would recommend much of, you should take advantage of those times to order your thoughts, define your life. Find yourself, so to speak. Just my take on it Sis. :)"

-Ben

It made me think about things, and so I wanted to share it with you.

There is a lot of wisdom in it.

-Ives

.evil.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-Edmund Burke

-Ives

.hawaiian dance.

So I'm finally getting around to taking pictures of the Aloha Festival! Yay! Woohoo!! Yippee! Yippee...? Yeah!

During the first number, I've been told that there's usually a lot of room in front of the stage for the dancers.

But not this time:

They could really see in to the bowels of our armpits.

What a lovely thought. Seriously.

*cringe*

And here's a picture that one of the photographers in the group took during the performance:

Not bad, eh?

All in all, Hawaiian dance was amazing. I loved it. I wouldn't think twice about signing up for it again next year if I wasn't going on the Mish. But Germany is cool, too, so I don't feel TOO bad about it. :)

-Ives

.my camera man.

Everyone needs a good, solid camera man when exciting, eventful things are going on and Micah did so well.

Even when there was utter chaos everywhere else in the room, he stood strong.

Although you can hear him distinctly yelling, "She's going to Germany, she's going to Germany!" over and over again. Which I find absolutely adorable.

-Ives

.excited!

Have I mentioned how ridiculously excited I am to be going on a mission?

Not to mention to Germany. Ah!

I'm still in shock.

-Ives

.yup.

To those who listened in to the call, this is why you heard so much stuttering and stopping.

It's because I was doing this:

Just soaking it in. :)

-Ives

.ah.

It's been a bit of a crazy day and I totall forgot about posting anything. Sorry!!

I've been doing a lot of research on Germany and it sounds like such a fascinating country! I'm looking forward to Learning much, much more about it. :)

I start the new missionary schedule tomorrow morning 6:30 am here I come! Bleh...

-Ives

.YES!!!!

Alright, today was, in fact, THE day. I got my call!!!! Yay!!

It was a very interesting day though. The mail usually comes by 1 on any given day. So when we went at 2:30, we were fully expecting mail. But I was surprised to find an empty box. It was confusing. I didn't know what to do with myself. So we went to get ice cream to make ourselves feel better and check back later.

Where is the mail...????

An hour later...no change!!! I thought there was no chance of a call today.

At 5ish, I thought to myself, "what the heck, I'm going to check that mail again! There's no way we could just have an empty box!!!"


And the one day I went to get the mail alone, the call was there! Not that I wasn't excited to get it, because I was, but jumping up and down, screaming on the sidewalk is kind of embarrassing if you're doing it alone. Just sayin'.

Anyway, about an hour after that, I got everyone all set up on Skype and the phone, which was pretty crazy, not going to lie, and I read my mission call!

Opening my mission call was such an amazing experience.

I even got tackled by my big sis, which is always an interesting! Love ya, sis ;)

So here it is:

I'm going to be serving in the GERMANY BERLIN MISSION and report to the Provo MTC on May 25th.

I'm still getting used to the idea of going to somewhere as awesome as Germany. I'll just have to repeat it over and over and over to myself...Germany, Germany, Germany...

The question is: where am I going to find winter clothing in AZ...?

I hear it gets pretty cold there. ;)

Today has been such a fantastic day! Thank you so much for your love and support. This is going to be a wild ride, and I need all the prayers (and letters!) that you can possibly offer.

-Ives

.dumb.

These pictures say it all:

After realizing the big envelope was, in fact, NOT my call and instead some kind of dumb insurance information:

Good thing we spent all day moving. I was thoroughly distracted.

Poor Delight, she waited here an extra couple of days so that she could watch me open my call, and won't be able to see it now!

Sad!!!

I'm almost certain the call with come by tomorrow.

Or I might freak or something.

-Ives

.waiting...

Waiting.

For my mission call.

My bishop emailed me on Friday and said that it was in the mail. So we were SURE that it was going to be here by today.

But no. It wasn't in the mail. If you want to see the dismay and disappointment in action, my big sis took a really great, embarrassing picture of me dropping the mail on the ground and eventually walking away. It was great. Seriously.

It better come tomorrow. I swear, if it doesn't come...ugh.

Anyway.

In order to distract my self, I made a cake!

So here it is:

I swear, there's more frosting in this cake than cake. Yeshhhh...

-Ives

.quote.

We're moving. Still moving... So it looks like another crazy busy week. Which means I'm tired and slightly brain dead (not like that's anything new...ha!) and I only have a quote for you today.

I really enjoy it and I have no clue who said it, but here it is:

"You are a once-in-a-lifetime, never-before-on-earth, never-to-be-again, personality.

Understand the importance of that."

:)

-Ives

.Sunday.

Today is Sunday! And boy, was it a busy day!

I taught my primary lesson to some crazy, yet awesome, kids and then I went to an awesome Mission Prep. I seem to get pick on a lot during Mission Prep. Probably because I'm usually the only girl to go... Have I mentioned that all of the guys are scared of me? It's a bit strange. I guess I'm a pretty scary person. Oh well ;)

After mission prep, I came home and talked with the sis's for a while and skyped the boy frand.

Schweet.

It really was a pretty awesome day, I have to admit.

My big sis likes taking embarrassing pictures of me while I'm talking, I've realized...

And Delight was supposed to be in this picture...Where did she go...?

And I look slightly retarded in this picture. I didn't even realize that my big sis was even sneaking up and taking pictures while I was skyping. Weird...

hm.

-Ives

.aloha.

Today has been a crazy awesome, busy, pretty spectacular day.

It was the Aloha Festival!! I had the best kalua (I think that's what it's called) pork. It was amazing. And the biggest cup of shaved ice that was absolutely perfect for such a warm day.

Lots of dancing and laughter as well as trying to figure out how to move our hips like the tahitian dancers. I still haven't figured it out yet, but i'm working on it! I'm determined. Those are some skills there. Seriously.

But I have to say, the best part of the whole day was being surprised with a legit Hawaiian lei. I had no idea that they used real flowers! I wish it could have stayed as beautiful as it did when they first gave it to me. I just love it. It's chilling in the fridge at this very moment.

I told you I wanted to keep if for forever...




I also had some really great quotes from the boy frand that I was determined to post, but I didn't want to defile his name so...I didn't. For his sake. But maybe I will post them TOMORROW!!

I'll also be posting lots of really interesting dance photos from today in the next few posts. No time or energy to do any of that today.

I think I'm going to go crawl into my bed before I fall asleep where I'm sitting.

Good night everyone :)

-Ives

.extra mile.

I saw this today and loved it. There is a lot of truth in this statement

Something awesome just happened :) so I really don't have much to tell you because I'm just so giddy with excitement.

Anyway, our Hawaiian dance performance is tomorrow and I'm so excited for it.

Wish me luck!

-Ives

.moving.

As I mentioned in my previous post: we are moving. Needless to say, it be crazy and chaotic and a bit tiring.

So after making some sinfully delicious oreo bites, I decided to lay down for a couple of minutes. I wasn't intending to sleep or anything, but a couple minutes after that, I was out.

And my sister got this really embarrassing picture:

Yep, another oh-so-attractive-look-at-me-I'm-so-Hawt picture.

Yeah...

It doesn't even look like I'm in a blissful sleep. It's like survival mode sleep, if that tells you anything.

But moving really lets you know how strong you are. I totally owned a couch today! Heck yeah!

You would have been so proud if you had seen me and my big sis lugging that thing down the stairs. And don't even get me started on the tv my bro-in-law and I moved the other day.

But overall, it's been a surprisingly fantastic day. I loved being able to work alongside Dighty and Amy. They are such amazing examples and help me learn more about girl stuff. Yah know. It's pretty awesome.

:)

-Ives

.hula.

The Aloha Festival is on Saturday. Which means, amid trying to move to another house, there is a lot of hawaiian dance practice going on.

My big sis totally took this awesome picture and edited it for me while I was skyping my darling boy frand.

She is so great. You agree, eh?

It almost makes it look like i know what I'm doing. :)

-Ives

.slide.

My big sis took a picture of me coming down the slide and got this:





Yeah...

Can you say static?

Thank goodness for sisters who catch the weird moments, right?

:)

Oh, and to see a special picture of tonights skype convo with the boy frand, look here. Not going to lie, it made me giggle quite a bit. I recommend clicking through the picture to see a less blurry version.

-Ives

.cutie.

I have to admit, I really don't have anything interesting to talk about today.

So I'm going to post another picture of my darling niece.

Because she is just so awesome :) And I don't feel like I've seen very much of her today and missed her.

-Ives

.yay.

I had such a wonderful Sunday. It really was quite incredible. I love days like these. Love them.

We had stake conference and got to hear from Elder M. Russell Ballard, which was amazing.

And then I got to watch the CES Fireside and learn from Elder L. Tom Perry.

Both of the talks were inspiring and I learned a lot.

That combination alone makes for a wonderful day. And it was. It really was.

"Every man and every person who lives in this world wields an influence, whether for good or for evil. It is not what he says alone; it is not alone what he does. It is what he is. Every man, every person radiates what he or she really is...It is what we are and what we radiate that affects the people around us."

-David O. McKay

:)

-Ives

.Dress rehearsal.

This morning was dress rehearsal for Hawaiian Dance, because apparently we have a performance next week that just seemed to creep up on us.

And you all know what dress rehearsal means. It means sewing. Lots and lots of sewing.

You can even call me Ms. Sew and Sew if you would like.

Ha! I totally didn't come up with that on my own. I just had to say it...because I can.

And it's my blog right?!

Okay. Where was I? Oh yeah, sewing.

My poor big sis woke up at 5 and was nice enough to let me sleep in until 5:45. I am eternally grateful. Really.

But I have a Hawaiian skirt and Pau top that I made with my own bare hands! ...and a sewing machine. Close enough.

Anyway.

Dress rehearsal went well. I'm nowhere near being ready to perform next week so there will be lots and lots of practice this week.

Oh and the costumes... well. They're sleeveless. So, do me a favor and brace yourself for the whiteness. Plus they put me under a spotlight so that it accentuates the whiteness even more.

Yeah... told ya.

-Ives

.fact.

Soooooo...interesting fact about me: I'm actually a pirate.

A pirate!

Can you see it?

I can totally see it.

I even have a cool little telescope thing.

Arrrrghhhhhh!!!!!!!

-Ivy the Pirate!

.kisses.

This one also warms my heart.

She is the queen of kisses.

Seriously.

And my favorite part about this, is that she actually asked me to hold her "like a baby."

Precious.

-Ives

.sweet.

This sweet little boy, makes me so happy

And he draws me pictures and tells me he wants to be a big kid.

I think he's a keeper.

Totally.

-Ives

.glasses.

Well, it was bound to happen.

I got glasses.

The last time I wore glasses was in the 7th grade and they were too big and slanted forward slightly. I broke them. Intentionally. But only after I got contacts. Because I'm ridiculously blind without some kind of eyewear.

20 years from now I'll probably wishing I had done the same thing. They're just so blatantly...there. On my face. But I think they have potential. It's just a matter of getting used to them.

I could hardly walk when I first put these babies on. The balance thing...it was quite off.

So... what do you think?

Yay?

Nay?

Sexy librarian?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too ;)

-Ives