courage to stand strong.

so on this lovely sunday afternoon i have been preparing for efy and we have been asked to ponder and study this years theme (which i wrote above, and can also be seen below).

my coordinator sent me the theme song so i have been listening to that as well. the songs are always a bit cheesy but they usually have a good message. the first line of the chorus says, "it takes courage to speak". as i heard that line it reminded me of the ucap (utah coalition against pornography) conference i went to with my dad back in march. at first i only went because he didn't want to go alone but i'm really glad i did, it was very informative and i learned a lot. at one point one of the speakers boldly stated this:

"silence is acceptance".

..when she said that it really got to me. then of course i forgot about it two seconds later and never did anything. i think many times we want to do things about issues we see around us yet we don't know how to go about it. as i thought about this i decided to stop thinking about it and feeling guilty and just do something. i then remembered a website they told us about that just started in march.it gives you the ability to make a difference in a really fast and efficient way.  

the website can be found here. 

here is a little summary about it:

"The Family Action Center empowers individuals and organizations to defend the family. Through FAC's website, individuals can find, launch, and take action on efforts to promote decency, marriage, life, and religious liberty. Organizations can share their efforts and find others with whom to collaborate."

..So here is how it works. You create an account (it takes five seconds) and then you decide if you want to  see issues on decency (the nice way of saying pornography), marriage, life, or religious liberty and if you want to just see things happening in your state, nation, or internationally. you can skim through the different issues and when you see one that you feel impressed to agree with, you just click on the "take action" button. it will then take you to a PRE-WRITTEN (you don't even have to write it yourself, how great is that) email that you just type in your email address and name and then click send.it is great! they do all of the work and find all the issues, and then we get to feel good that we made a difference. its a win-win-win situation. ..i just tried it out and in probably a good 2 minutes (if that) i sent an email to bath and body works about a new ad they have out with naked women on it, protesting that it is just short of soft pornography.

i know, for most of us, we are in a bubble and we like to think that the world is awesome and that nothing bad will happen to us. for some, maybe that is true. for most, it is not. whether we realize it or not - things like this are happening all around us and i think it will be a sad day when we closed our eyes too long to find that things our happening to our own children and family because we didn't do our part. i was reading a talk today that discussed how important prevention and awareness is and how much easier it is to withstand the temptations of satan when we don't even allow ourselves to be tempted. i think about all the filth that is out there and then i think about my nieces and nephews who are now in junior high and high school and it breaks my heart to think of all that they have to deal with. going on a mission opened my eyes and as much as i would like to shut them again and pretend like i didn't see the things i saw or realize the things i realized, i cannot do that. the next line in the chorus is "it takes courage to know"..and it really does. when we learn of things and gain knowledge, our Father in Heaven expects us to do something with it. maybe it is to be more obedient to his commandments or to repent. or, quite possibly, it might be to take five minutes out of your day and with the click of your mouse protest something that offends Him. 

i'm sorry if this was too wordy or serious for a blog such as mine, but i couldn't stand to be silent any longer. i hope you can't stand it either. 

mmmmm.

in april i found this gem at my grandpa's house. i meant to blog it awhile ago, then forgot about it,  then lucky for everyone - i came across it this day!  i feel there is so much hair happening and i love it. and erica, lets bring those bangs back! and in case any of you are wondering, i'm the tot in the front right that is trying to smile but the sun must have been a little too bright. i shouldn't be too hard to spot though, i'm still rockin those cheeks and that forehead that scowls and makes me look mad all the time.

yes. 1990 looked good on all of us.

sweet TEXAS.i miss you.

this is how i feel about blogging on a saturday night. 

i don't even care is the thing. since the mish, weekends have lost their magic and i don't care about them.

so i drove to texas with my dear friend ashlie. 

(my favorite bumper sticker, by the way, is the "American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of God" one)

she blew it and decided to move home..so i accompanied her on the 18 hour drive.

you can only imagine how many photos i took but i will only share my two favorites-

favorite #1 = this. 

who knew that new mexico was the land of enchantment? not me. 

favorite #2

this house that sunk into the ground. 

it looks fake but it is real. so funny yet so sad. 

it was a long drive but i felt great about it. probably because i just sat in the passenger seat and made ashlie listen to top hits such as justin bieber, taylor swift, and pat benetar. 

i would just like to highlight some of the events that happened in the ten days i was there.

we celebrated cinco de mayo by going shopping and going to taco diner. 

it was my first time getting fish tacos and i didn't even hate them.

we went to the opera and saw "madame butterfly". opera people are not our people, but we thoroughly enjoyed people watching and our free $500 seats. yes.

midnight dance party on the porch with her sibs. oh michael. 

i didn't even mention this yet, but the luckiest part about going to stay with ashlie is that she lives 18 minutes away from my sister (i was going to link the map but then realized that is probably a bad idea). it was a dream, it really was. i spent mother's day with her and her cute family. the cups would be what i used in primary and young womens to teach about the organization of our church and the restoration. best part is that i did it all in chinese haha. the babies had no idea what was going on but they loved it.

i was able to experience the "QT" which has millions of drinks and slushees and this man right here. 

everyone is obsessed.

 ashlie and i went on a walk and felt like 12 year old best friends. it was great. please don't judge me for having on such a see-through skirt. i didn't know it was happening until it was too late.

we also took ashlie's sisters out of school and took them to the aquarium!! our original plan was sea world but the jerks weren't open. the aquarium was a close second in top choice though. one of my favorites was this sensual little sloth. i don't know if the picture captured it but he was so great.

The Lohner Fam

           this would highlight my baby nephew, samuel, and his feelings towards me touching him. 

happiest moment of this day = the dallas temple is almost identical to the taipei temple in taiwan!!! not the same, but close.

this highlights me touching dogs. it doesn't happen very often because i actually don't really like them very much. don't be mad. BUT i'm working on it. the great thing about these dogs is they are very similar to the dogs above featured in the movie "best in show". i feel good about this.

so here is a great story. my sister loves cafe rio and feels so sad texas doesn't have anything like it. well i informed her that they had a costa vida about thirty minutes away from her house and she freaked out. she had never been so i introduced her to the smothered pork burrito and i think it changed her life forever.

about ten minutes before i had to leave we realized we hadn't taken very many photos so we pulled this one together real quick. love them so much.

that was probably  1% of the photos i actually took but i'm trying to not go crazy so this will have to do. it was a great little vacation and i may or may not have cried when i had to come home. 

..but this guy was at the airport waiting to pick me up so it made it a little better. this would be the next morning when i returned the favor and took him to the airport so he could catch all of his planes to get to mongolia to visit his mish. i feel jealous and wish i was going to asia to visit mine as well. but for now i'll just blog on saturday nights and think about doing cooler things. and scene.

day(s) of brynne.

miss brynne had a birthday!! both were celebrated at the tulip festival.

we love brynne.

it was a beautiful day and everything looked so fab that we had to take millions of pics. 

 

couldn't stop the boyfriend poses the whole day. love her so much.

also, our special girl graduated this week! i personally love this photo, i think it shows how a graduate feels on the inside. excited but a little nervous.. all at the same time. 

(not that i would know..i should have graduated in the fall of 2008 but thanks to serving the Lord and getting back a bit late to go to school, i will be a forever student.)

no real reason for this, just really liked it.

jambas on lin!

we all knew this had to happen. for the record,
D graduated as well, i would post pictures but i have none. 

happy 23 b. 

 glad you aren't married yet so i can still experience all your special days with you.

thanks for holding out. loves.