The Power of Music

I just read a really beautiful story about music, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Grab a box of tissues, I definitely cried at the end. It's a bit long, but well worth reading.

I wish to relate a modern-day story which concerns a young girl, the fourth child in a family of six children. Her name is Heather. Three of the children, including Heather, suffer from a rare disease called glutaric acidemia. In each case, the onset of the disease occurred during the first year of life when an enzyme attacked the brain, causing paralysis. The disease results in acid forming in the muscles, similar to that which occurs following a period of intense physical activity. The problem faced by the children is that the acid never leaves and causes great pain. Cindy, the first child with the disease, died at the age of 23. She was one of the oldest living persons known with the disease. At death she weighed about 40 pounds.

Soon after Heather's birth, the parents realized that she would be physically handicapped and that her spirit would be housed in a body with great restrictions. As she grew, she was confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak, and could only send messages with her eyes. A direct gaze and a smile meant yes. A blink meant no. Despite her handicaps, one could feel the vibrant spirit inside.

As Heather progressed, it became obvious to the parents that she was extraordinarily bright. She would play guessing games with the family using her limited means to communicate. When she was old enough, the parents enrolled Heather in a special school to see if she could learn to speak. The teacher was a gifted therapist. One morning as Heather and the teacher visited about the prior weekend, the teacher learned that Heather had attended Primary. The teacher then sang for Heather “When He Comes Again” (Songbook, p. 82). The expression on Heather's face revealed the delight within her. When the teacher asked Heather if she had a favorite song, the young girl's wide eyes and engaging smile left little doubt. But what was the song? Through a series of questions, the teacher learned that Heather's song was one she had heard in Primary. She wasn't sure which songbook it was in, but it was about Jesus. The teacher sang all the songs she could think of, but to no avail. However, Heather was not about to quit-she wanted to share her favorite song. At the end of the day, the two were still searching. The teacher agreed to bring her Primary songbooks to school the next day.

On the following morning, Heather and her teacher continued the quest. From the first hymn to the last, the little girl blinked her eyes indicating no. They were still unsuccessful. But Heather was not about to give up. She wanted to share her favorite song. Finally, the teacher told Heather that her mother would have to help her find the song and then they would sing it.

The next day Heather arrived with the green Church hymnal tucked in her chair, but there was no marker. So they began with the first hymn. The teacher would sing the first part of each song, and Heather would give her answer. After the first 100 hymns, there were 100 no's. After 200 hymns there had been 200 no's. Finally, the teacher began to sing “There is sunshine in my soul today...” (Hymns, 1985, no. 227). Heather's body jumped, and a big smile crossed her face. Her eyes gazed directly into the teacher's, indicating success after three days of searching. Both teacher and student rejoiced.

As the teacher sang the first verse and began the chorus, Heather mustered all her strength and joined in with a few sounds. After finishing the first verse and chorus, the teacher asked if she wanted to hear the rest of the verses, and Heather's eyes opened wide with a firm yes. The teacher began to sing:

There is music in my soul today,
A carol to my King,
And Jesus listening can hear
The songs I cannot sing.

Heather's reaction to these lines was so strong that the teacher stopped. As the reality and significance of the words pressed on the teacher's mind, she wondered if those lines were the reason Heather liked the song? The teacher asked: “Heather, is that what you like about the song? Is that what you want me to know? Does Jesus listen? Does he hear the songs you cannot sing?”

The direct, penetrating gaze was a clear answer. Feeling guided by the Spirit, the teacher asked, “Heather, does Jesus talk to you in your mind and in your heart?”

Again, the child's look was penetrating. The teacher then asked, “Heather, what does he say?”

The teachers heart pounded as she saw the clear look in Heather's eyes as the little girl awaited the questions that would allow her to share her insights.

“Does Jesus say, ‘Heather, I love you’?”

Heather's radiant eyes widened and she smiled. After a pause, the teacher asked next, “Does he say, ‘Heather, you're special’?”

The answer again was yes. Finally, the teacher asked, “Does he say, ‘Heather, be patient; I have great things in store for you’?”

With all her strength, Heather's head became erect and her eyes penetrated the teacher's soul. She knew she was loved, she was special, and she only needed to be patient (Story adapted from Jean Ernstrom, “Jesus, Listening, Can Hear,” Ensign, June 1988, pp. 46--47).

Two years later, Heather died because of the ravages of the disease. Her younger brother, Mark, also suffers from the disease but not to the extent of his older sisters. He can talk, although it is not easy. As the parents discussed Heather's passing and the funeral that would take place, Mark exclaimed, “No go Heather's funeral!” Heather was his best friend. As the parents tried to explain death to him, he would not be consoled. He was crushed and did not want to attend the service. For two days he could not be persuaded.

On the morning of the funeral, the father went to Mark's room to get him up. As he entered the room, Mark was sitting up in bed with a big smile on his face. His first words were: “Dad, go Heather's funeral!”

The father responded: “Mark, what has changed your mind?”

“Dad, had dream.”

“What did you dream about, Mark?”

“Dad, dreamed about Heather.”

“Mark, what was Heather doing?”

“Oh, Dad, Heather running and jumping and singing ‘There is sunshine in my soul today.’ Dad, go Heather's funeral” (Mark's part of the story was obtained through conversations with the parents and also from the book written by the family: Bruce and Joyce Erickson, When Life Doesn't Seem Fair [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1995]; see pp. 65-66).v

The Power of Hymns

Merrill J. Bateman

President of Brigham Young University

Presented on August 4, 1998

 at the 20th Annual Workshop on Church Music

 at Brigham Young University

(see Ensign, July 2001, pp. 14-20)

Update and CHRISTMAS!!!

Hello all!
It's been a while since I posted, so I figured I'd catch you all up.
The semester is officially OVER for me! I'm so happy! I know I'll have an A+ in my History of the English Language class (pretty impressive since my teacher only gives A+s for 99% and above. I'm that awesome). I should have an A in my other classes hopefully, unless I somehow did really poorly on some final project. Justin is just about finished, he has one final tomorrow and then he'll be done.
Now, on to the rest of my life. I finally finished Justin's stocking! It looks so good :) I'm quite pleased with myself for actually finishing it, and for having it turn out decent!
Other news, I'll be graduating a semester early. It means taking 18 credits next semester, along with a winter course and two summer courses at MCC, but this way I can graduate with Justin! Next semester is going to be a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. I'm taking a Phonology and Morphology class (Linguistics), along with a "Studies in Linguistics" class and an Intro to International Linguistics. In addition to that, I'm taking a French class (French in North America), Beginning workshop in fiction short stories, and Classical Backgrounds in English Lit. Yep, lots of work, but classes that I'm very excited for! Over winter break I'll be taking an intro computers class online (which seems a bit ironic to me. Anyone else?), since it's a 100 level class through MCC it should be a walk in the park.
Christmas is so close, I'm so excited! We have two trees this year since our little four-footer can only handle about half of our ornaments.
I'm also planning on revisiting my novel that I wrote in November since I should have quite a bit of free time over break. I'm hoping to get it read through all the way once before school starts back up. I still need to add some details to the ending, I kind of summed some things up while trying to finish on time, but I should be able to flesh that all out this week, then I can get to editing!
Well, I think that's just about all the updates I can think of for now. Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to post some pictures of Christmas decorations sometime this week!

NaNoWriMo Update

On Wednesday, I have a half day. I have three classes on Wednesdays, all in the afternoon: institute, French conversation, and French composition. I have the same teacher for the two French classes, and both he and my institute teacher decided to cancel class. So, all I have on Wednesday is work in the morning from 9-12, then I can go home, write write write, and eat some Chinese food for dinner. Why Chinese food? Well, I don't know how many of you remember this guy:

Takeru Kobayashi. One time on Food Network, I saw a show about him. It said that the night before a competition, he eats rice. The rice expands in his stomach overnight, making his stomach bigger for the competition. He then eats little things throughout the day to keep his stomach from shrinking before the big feast. I decided that I should approach Thanksgiving in a similar manner. So, about four or five years ago, after learning some of Kobayashi's tricks, I decided to start a tradition of eating Chinese food the night before dinner. I've got to make the most out of turkey day! 

Hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving. I'll try to blog next week at some point with some things I am grateful for. You should all do that too! 

Thanks for reading! 

8,825 words!

*Warning: This blog post is primarily related to my novel-writing progress and process. If you don't care about that stuff, feel free to ignore this blog. My feelings will only be slightly hurt*
I am going to make an effort to blog once in a while this November. It might be easier since I'm doing National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) because of how excited I am for everyone to know my progress!
By the way, there's a little box right over there --> with my current word count, it is linked to the nanowrimo website, so it will always be up-to-date. Just in case you want to occasionally check in and offer words of encouragement or anything. :-)
So, I started out the week knowing exactly where I wanted to go, who my main characters were, the setting, all that good stuff. As I was writing this week, I wrote a very small excerpt from another character's point of view. I then switched back to my primary main character. Well, as I was writing, I was realizing that I don't really like my main character all that much. I don't dislike him, I just don't really have a vested interest in him.
So I decided to try and write another excerpt from the other character's point of view (still need a name for her...). And I realized that I write a lot more quickly, and I enjoy it a lot more, when writing from her point of view. SO, I switched pretty much my whole story.
The plot is the same, but it will focus on my female character rather than on her incredibly boring brother.
Since coming to this decision yesterday, I've written about 3800 words. That's about 43% of what I've written so far. Yep, 43% in two days (not really though, because I decided this yesterday EVENING), compared to the rest in four days. Can you tell my writing speed has picked up? I love it!
Basically I just wanted to share my breakthrough with you, because I'm so excited about the new direction my novel is taking. I hope you guys don't get sick of hearing about my novel, because that's pretty much going to be my life for the next month.
In other news, I'm still alive. Justin is still alive. We're both still going to school, Justin is still looking for a job, I'm still loving being a writing tutor. Not much going on outside of my little made-up world.
Thanks for reading, and any encouragement about my novel is always appreciated! :-)

Her again?!

You get another blog from me today, because I'm feeling sentimental.

Things I think about on a daily basis:

• How incredibly grateful I am to be married to such an amazing guy
• How lucky I am to have a nice home, despite not having lots of money
• How thankful I am to be a member of the true church, and be able to experience the wonderful peace and joy through knowing my Savior atoned for my sins
• How lucky I am to have a wonderful, selfless mother, a hilarious father, a sweet, caring mother-in-law, and a hard-working father-in-law. (All of those adjectives really describe all of the people described, but to describe each of them with all of the descriptions would be a bit too long of a description. [5])
• How much I love Kristi, Cliff, and their girls, and wish I got to see them more
• How much I love Dustin, Sarah, and their kids, and wish they lived closer
• How much I love Nick and Lindsay, how badly I miss them, and how I hope they know we love them
• How much I love Ashley, Zach, and Madie, and I am so glad that I get to see them regularly
• How thankful I am to live close to most of my family
• How lucky I am to have in-laws that have welcomed me with open arms
• How lucky I am to have parents who welcomed my hubby with open arms
• How much I love to read the scriptures
• How much I love my major
• How glad I am that Justin loves his major and will thus love his eventual job
• How lucky I am to have a loving Heavenly Father who is watching out for me, even when I don’t deserve it.

I really do think about each and every one of these things at least once a day. I’ve kept track of some of them, just to be sure, and yep. It’s true. I wanted to include how much I love baking/goodies, but I’m not sure I really think about daily, more of just often.

I love my husband, my family, and the Church so incredibly much, and they all bless my life more than I will probably ever know. Thank you to everyone who is such a blessing in my life. I love you all. 

Revival of the Blogs

So, is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the blogging realm has been kind of sparse? I don't know about y'all, but I haven't blogged lately because I often wonder if anyone even reads my blogs, because I rarely get comments. So, let's revive the blogging world! I'm going to try to blog more often, and comment more on other peoples' blogs. Who's with me?! Hi ho! Let's go! (Apparently it would also be a good idea to invite some singing dwarves.)
Updates: school is hard. And busy. And it's midterms, so naturally I'm avoiding working on my projects by blogging! I am excited for one of my projects though... for my French Conversation class, we have to give a presentation about something French (very specific, I know!). I have chosen Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It's been really fun putting the presentation together! For those who don't know, he's the author of Le Petit Prince, or The Little Prince. I LOVE that book. It's so freakin' cute! And kind of sad... but mostly cute and hopeful.
Other news... It's almost Halloween! My work is having a Halloween party with a dessert potluck (I'm going to bring my mint chocolate cupcakes that are super duper yummy. I'll post pictures too, because they'll be cute). I just have to say, I LOVE my job. It's fantastic. Wednesday was National Day On Writing, so we (the writing center) had a booth on campus, and we were trying to get people to write. It was really fun!
Justin is as busy as ever, too. He's done with his midterms (lucky), so he's been able to actually relax today while I've been researching John Keats and Saint-Exupéry. Not for the same presentation. Just in case that's where your mind was going.
So, lately Justin and I have been trying to get in shape by hiking. We started small by hiking A Mountain by ASU, this past week we upgraded (a little too much) to South Mountain. It's nice to see the results in my calves :) Here's a lovely view of Tempe Town Swamp (previously Lake):

Last week my cousin Callie got married (it was a gorgeous reception, too). It was fun to spend time with my family, and to help out my aunt with the wedding cake. Well, at the wedding, they had a sort of candy buffet, including those not-yummy-to-eat-but-fun-to-play-with candy legos. I kind of stole some from my nephews and constructed... THIS!

Yeah, there was a tragic gummy-bear war in front of the castle. Very few survivors. (And yes, I know I have a twisted sense of humor. But very artistic, no?)

Also, with Halloween around the corner, look at these cute pumpkin brownies I made!

That's about it, thanks for reading!

Look, I'm Woody, Howdy howdy howdy!

So, I realized as I was posting a countdown-to-nanowrimo widget on my blog that I haven't blogged in over a month! Sorry about that. Been a bit busy, I suppose. That, and when I haven't been busy I've been reading :)
I'm definitely doing National Novel Writing Month this year. I didn't do it last year because I had so much going on, but I finally have a manageable schedule, so I might have a chance at success!
For those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month, also called Nanowrimo, is in November, and the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That's about the length of The Great Gatsby, or Old Man and the Sea. Around 100 pages, roughly. I've done it twice before, my senior year of high school (07), where I didn't quite make it to the goal, and the year after, 08, where I ended the month with around 64,000 words. I already have an idea of what I want to write, so I'm getting very excited.
In other news, I'm officially a writing tutor! I've tutored lots of people already, and I feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of it.
Justin is still looking for a job, since the semester started, he hasn't had any work. Over summer he was selling pest control, but it doesn't work at all with his school schedule. If any of you have any leads on a job for him, that would be super awesome :)
School is going well, I love my classes, and my schedule in general. I had my first test in my History of the English Language class, and got a 100! I missed two half-points, but got the extra credit question. I also just turned in my first composition for my French Composition class, hopefully I'll know how I did on that on Monday.
Justin is also enjoying his classes. His are a little harder, especially his Chinese class, which is a beast. He's had a quiz almost every day, and they aren't easy. He's also enjoyed having Saturdays open again, and has celebrated this by spending almost every Saturday watching football with Zach. At least it means I can have fun with Ashley and Madie instead of just being bored!
I also just realized I never let you all know about the hair cut poll - I decided to keep trying to grow out my hair. I guess it's just easier, keeping it the same way it's been. Plus, I've had bad luck with letting anyone besides Ashley cut my hair, and she said she couldn't do any of those cuts, and I didn't want to have my hair butchered like I have in the past. So, we'll see how long I keep growing it out.
Well, that's pretty much life right now. Thanks for reading!