78. Gratitude

It's laughable how badly we have failed in regards to punctuality with these first two words (especially because it is summer time and this is when our schedules will be the most relaxed,) but nevertheless, they shall be posted!
Gratitude is a noun and is defined on dictionary.com as being "the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful. In my opinion it is one of the most important of all the virtues because it lifts and builds every single person it involves. Here are some quotes from persons much more eloquent than I, who can better encapsulate the different elements of being grateful.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

~G.K. Chesterton


If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.

~Robert Quillen


If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.

~Gerald Good


There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance.

~Joseph Addison


There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.

~R.H. Blyth


Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.

~Henry Clay


Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

~Henry Ward Beecher


When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?

~George Canning


Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~Melody Beattie

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

~Henry Ward Beecher

I personally am grateful for the ability to be grateful. Gratitude and seeing the positive in all situations makes difficult easier and happiness greater. There is always something positive or good in even the most awful situation, it's just up to us to find it.
Gratitude is a habit and a lifestyle; a perspective through which one views life. It's like rose colored glasses, but better :)
Share what you're thankful for here: http://www.iamthankful.com/gratitude-journal/

Newspaper Nails

Sorry to diverge from a weekly segment/Dear Jess but my sister just recently found this amazing nail style which I am in love with! I tried it out last night... and it turned out okay. I re-did it today and it turned out crazy cool!

A Quick How-To:

Have 10 square inch pieces of newspaper cut out

I make 12 for mistakes!

paint on a light color: light gray looks newspapery to me!

other sites say to put a base protective coat first...but I know nothing of nails, nor do I take very good care of mine so in that case, I skip it!

Once it dries stick your finger in a small cup of water for 5-10 seconds

rubbing alcohol works perfectly too

Immediately stick the square inch of newspaper o

n the nail, then roll a finger over the print to be sure that all of it gets on the nail, press the print down and lift when you feel you've done a

ll the pressing to be done

this is really just like a stick on tattoo

(p.s. the words come out backwards!)

(see? I've got "laundry" on my thumb!)

After you've transferred the words put on a clear coat gently, the ink rubs off really easily

Voila, you are done!

As an appreciator of good books and lover of all things written, I am in love with this style! I absolutely needed to share this, enjoy!

Sam

New Segment!

We've begun revamping our blog starting with the background... the color theme... the layout... and over the year, we're planning for much more. In the meantime, we're starting a new segment! In hopes to keep consistent with posting we're starting weekly randomly generated posts from a list of over 150 topics. Here's a preview:

Find an obscure artist on the web and write a biography

Pipe Dreams

College

Awkward Moments

Short Story Time!... and Go!

Hope you enjoy!

Sam and Jess

Dearest Jessica,

Birds, birds, birds...

You can tell the difference between a male and a female budgie by the color of their cere (the skin covering their nose.) Blue is for boy, and a grayish pink is for girls!

Hello Fellow!

My life has been surrounded by birds in the past couple of days. Starting last Thursday I began working at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (and when I say work, as always, I mean volunteering.) My friend Alyssa, a coworker (co-volunteerer) at the zoo, works (as in with pay) for her father as a receptionist. He’s a physical therapist, and one of his patients just happened to know of this volunteer opportunity. In being a youth volunteer at the zoo, we’re not allowed to actually handle the animals, even if it’s a rat, thus she jumped at the opportunity to gain some hands on experience. She’s been my ride to the zoo from the start of this year and knew I’d be interested too, so we met at our favorite frozen yogurt place, and began filling out our applications. We turned them the Saturday before last. We were supposed to get an orientation to let us know what we’d be doing and how to do it, but Thursday we got a call saying “We need help!” So both Alyssa and I rushed over. It was 12 in the afternoon and we didn’t leave until 5.

When we first arrived we were immediately thrown into work, first they asked us to do the dishes, which were easy enough, and we finished within 10 minutes. Shortly thereafter we were being rapidly taught by another volunteer how to prepare formula for birds, which birds to feed, how much to feed them, where to record the amount

fed, the time intervals in between each feeding, and what food to feed which birds. It ended up going as so: we had to feed
2 baby wrens
a baby robin
one woodpecker
5 crows inside the bird room
4 crows in an enclosure outside
5 baby birds that I can’t for the life of me recall their names
and one elder bird of that same type

It took about half an hour to feed all of them, and the intervals at which they had to be fed varied from half an hour to an hour, so we had one half hour in between to rest, then we started the process all over again. All of the birds ate a formula called

Mazuri, with the exception of the woodpecker who ate only meal worms… and lots of them. I believe I ended up collecting around 50-70 meal worms that day (from a bin in the kitchen.) The larger birds got their food switched out from Mazuri to a dog food type thing.

(meal worms...yum...)

Surprisingly the baby birds were easiest to feed. When I even came near their cage, the 5 baby unknown birds immediately all opened their mouths and began squeaking for food. The key to hand feeding birds of anytime, I learned, was that you needed to get the food past their trachea, or else they’ll choke (this was told to me, I didn’t learn it the hard way thank goodness!) The elder bird of the same type was one of the sadder of the birds. He was blind in both eyes, it looked like from some infection, so I had to pick him up, and open his beak for him so Alyssa could feed him. He was scared most of the time, understandably

so, as he didn’t know that we were feeding him, until we got it into his mouth.

The woodpecker was amusing bordering on obnoxious. He had his own little tub with a lid that had a screen on it. When we lifted up the lid he’d hop onto the side of his bin, covered in blankets so he could grab onto it, and make these funny squawking noises. I’d pick up a wriggling meal worm with tweezers and he’d open his mouth for me to drop it in. He wasn’t quite good at catching it, and I found myself bending over trying to find these meal worms the majority of the time. When his feeding was done, that’s when it got difficult. He never wanted to go back into his bin, so I’d have to take the lid and try to push him down so I could close it. I would push at him, to the point where I thought he was in, then I’d see his talons still grasping onto the blanket and find that he’d just gone entirely horizontal! Eventually

I’d manage to do it each time.

He looked exactly like Woody Woodpecker!

but more realistically like this!

The crows were the most difficult. They were all injured in some way, a broken foot, a fractured wing, there was one that was blind in one eye, and that sightless eye was white and bulged out of his head, it was really tragic to look at. They had bigger syringes for their feeding and I’d wave it in a circle around their beaks to coax them to open up, but they would only open half-heartedly, not enough for the nozzle to actually go in, then swiftly snap their beaks shut. Alyssa and I would often have to, once again, pry open their beaks for the feeding which, after they realized they were being fed, they were alright.

The baby wrens, and baby robins were absolutely adorable. They were both in an incubator, alongside two hatchlings (which we weren’t allowed to fee

d as it’s extremely easy to kill them) so in order to feed them we had to take them out and hold them in our hands. The robin was my favorite. The moment I held him, he immediately closed his eyes, and even got too lazy to open his beak! We had to open it for him and feed him that way, then waited cautiously to make sure the sleepy bird had swallowed. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen.

(Can you imagine, it was even cuter than this?)

Finally we had to feed the 4 crows outside. Two of them wouldn’t stop eating the dog food, which he hand fed them with tweezers like the woodpecker, while the other two would run away upon sight. I think they were just amusing themselves making two girls literally dash around the cage trying the grab hold of them. When we finally did, and we able to get dog food past their beaks, they didn’t even swallow. By the end of the day we had to tell t

he woman we were working for that the birds wouldn’t eat a thing from us, and she had to go feed those two.

Birds were the only things we dealt with that day, due to the fact that they had an intense overload of them at the time, but they weren’t the only animals there. There were 4 baby raccoons in another room, and a fawn in another (the fawn from what I’d heard had some neurological problem preventing it from using its back legs.) In another room was the cat socialization room, and Louie was amongst them. That cat had a urinary problem which prevented him from urinating on his own, but he was still persistent on trying to run outside to pee! There were ducks in an outdoor cage next to the crows, and pigeons on the other side. There was an isolation shed in the back for animals that were

being rehabilitated so they could go into the wild and not rely on humans. Back in that area were a few squirrels as well.

It’s an amazing place, but absolutely tiring. That night, I couldn’t get to sleep. There were no birds outside my room, but in my head there was an incessant chirping; the aftermath of 5 hours of nonstop birds. I finally can sympathize with those cartoon characters who’d just been hit in the head.

I’ve much more to say, seeing as I also started my third summer at the zoo this last weekend, but I shall save that for another post!

Until next time,

Love
Sam

Dear Sam

So I know that there is something missing between Hawaii and Seabeck that I wanted to tell you about, but I seriously, for the life of me, cannot remember it. So I'll just tell you a tad about Seabeck and why it was that I wasn't stoked for it. But real quick, here's some background and hopefully, somewhat of a mental image.

Alex one year ago. For his age group they tie-dyed shirts. This was at the end of the week parade.

Ping-Pong! It's huge at Seabeck and everybody loves it. There are sports ladders and ping pong is one of them. Behind the Ping-pong is the Inn. It is where the Main office is, the lounge/ wi-fi hotspot and where all the chess and cribbage games are played. It has a huge wrap around porch with rocking chairs all around.

Seabeck is a non-denominational christian conference center composed of a bunch of old, renovated houses. All of the houses have names of trees. This one is named Cedar and we stayed in it last year. Everybody is assigned rooms in each of the houses. Families usually stay together in the same house, unless otherwise specified. There are anywhere from 1 to 4 beds in each room. Some have bathrooms connected to the room, other houses have communal bathrooms, like a public bathroom with several shower stalls and toilet stalls.

This house is near the Inn and the center of Seabeck. It's name is Madrona and my family is staying there this year. We are the only people in the house. My mom's brother and family were going to come but then things didn't work out for them to. They were going to stay with us in the house.

A picture looking down the hill. Seabeck is right on Hood Canal and is on a hill. If you were standing where this picture was taken, the Inn would be down the hill to the right. To the left would be the Pines house and farther left and down the hill slightly into the woods would be the tennis courts.
This is more towards the right than the picture above. The giant tree in the right hand side of the photo is blocking the front half of the Inn.

The first "top of the hill" picture, if you were to turn around, is this picture. Behind Elise [my cousin, mothers brother's family,] is part of the Pines house where the 14 and up group is held. This is at the top of that hill.

This is my neighbor Jack or Sam. His parents got divorced a month ago. This is from last year. They didn't come this year. Up this road and to the left is the Cedars, that yellow house above. The red house behind him is named Maples. There are lots of Pianos around camp too, one of which is in Maples.

This totem pole is diagonally behind Madrona. The white house towards the left is the one that we are staying in this year. Next to our house on the left in this picture is named Juniper. The Inn is right next to Juniper.

So the reason that I wasn't "stoked" about coming to Seabeck this year is because I don't really know people very well. This isn't a camp where there are different people every year, it's the opposite. Almost all of the same people are here every year. This camp has been running for several decades and I just overheard a woman saying that she has been coming with her family for thirty years. That means that her children have been coming here nearly all of their lives. There are lots of families like that; they grew up in the summer at Seabeck. There are lots of really old friendships and clique-esque kinds of groups. This is only my family's fourth year here and it isn't really the same. Now, I don't mean to say that these people are mean or rude or excluding or anything like that. Pretty much everyone here is extremely nice and polite and kind to each other. There is a special spirit here and a special kind of human peace here that doesn't exist many places elsewhere. But it still isn't the same, being a "newcomer" and such.

Also, the families that we did know previously, aren't here this year. The entire extended Clark family [our neighbors, the twins, the skipping boy, the people that invited us the first time, the couple that got divorced] decided not to come this year. I think the grandpa, who usually pays for all of his children and childrens' families to come each year, is redirecting funds towards a different vacation. The other family that we knew was my moms brothers' family, the Osmuns. So we are small talking loners.

Most of this is probably just in my head though because not everyone here spends time together outside of this once-a-year week. In fact, nearly all of these people, even the ones that have been coming since the diaper days, don't hang out outside of Seabeck. It just seems like things are fine and dandy when they get here.

There was one really old lady last year, at the fire of friendship, who told a story about how long she and a few other grannies had been coming to Seabeck [I think it was something ridiculous like 50 years...] She said that she loved these ladies dearly and eagerly looked forward to Seabeck every year and to seeing them but, on the ferry ride over from Vashon Island, realized that she had forgotten their names. She didn't see them outside of Seabeck, yet it was like they had never left when they got back. She remember their names when she saw their faces [and name tags :) everybody wears them all the time at Seabeck. They're made out of cross sections of small trees,] and they all had a really great time that year.

That's how Seabeck is for a lot of people. We just don't really have anybody that we are super friends with at Seabeck. If that makes any sense at all. I just wish I had an aged friendship here. I think that you would really enjoy it though! You should come someday with me :) It would be really fun. I think that I have talked to you about it in the past... Either way.

Things are a lot better now though. You get out of life what you put into it. I feel really happy and peaceful sitting here in the Inn surrounded by small groups of chatting people, chess games, and others working on laptops [probably blogging or something cool like that ;)] at 11:00 pm. Everybody loves each other and I think that I forget this feeling when I'm not feeling it... :)

Anyways. It was super fun seeing you at the Zoo, and guess what?! I just remembered the topic that I forgot: The Date (duh duh duh duuuuuuuh.) I will blog about that after you have posted a time or two :) Until then!

Time has flown by SOO ridiculously fast and I can't believe that neither of us have posted since before spring break!! Tons of life has happened but none of it has been chronicled :( So we must begin now! This post shall be a brief overveiw of Hawaii! Here are some of my favorite photo :) You can find all the rest Here and Here.

This was our tour guide at the Polynesian Cultural Center. His name was Sam :) Sam was a student at BYU Hawaii from a poor country in asia (I can't remember exactally which one right now,) and his accent was VERY thick and he had a teensy problem putting words together correctly. It was fine though, if you tried you could understand him decently. He is part of a program that lets him go to school all expenses paid if he a) works at the PCC and b) gets good grades and c) goes back to his native country after he has completed his studies and helps his country. It's a very good program that benefits a great deal of ethinic persons who come from poor situations and/or countries. He had a cheek lisp because of his native tounge, and he said "Yes" like a filler word; like we say like.
This picture was on a submarine at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. It was called the Bowfin. We went on a tour of the inside and it was TINY! I cannot imagine cramming grown men into it, plunging into the deep and then staying there for months. Such closed quarters and claustrophobia... *shudder* The tour was hard enough!

Here, all of my siblings and I are standing atop the deck of the USS Missouri. Nicknamed "Mighty Mo," it was the last battleship built by the United States Navy. It toured the world, spending some time in Washington waters, before finally being steered back to a naval base on Ford Island near the USS Arizona Memorial. It is said that Mighty Mo is positioned so that it watches over the USS Arizona so that it can rest in peace, but far enough away to not take the focus off the memorial.

This is another picture of the PCC. Here a young, svelt, sexy shirtless male is nimbly bounding up a tree to retrieve a coconut. FUN FACT: in Samoa, the men do all of the cooking and cleaning and "house" work. This picture was from that Island of the Center.

The fact that you can get married in a gorgeous place like this for FREE, is amazing and super rad. Isn't it beautiful? It's less than a mile from the coast and if you walk up a smallish hill behind the temple you can see the coast and off into the horizon. I personally think that it would be really cool to get hitched there ;)

Me infront of the Pearl Harbor sign. It was taken for an APUSH Field trip assignment...

See those sexy sexy sexy sexy men dancing shirtless on that raft? They were EVERYWHERE!! :D It was so wonderful! And the best part is that they ALL attend BYU Hawaii. So if I went to that school, I would be around these hunks everyday :) SOO tempting. There was a night show that we went to and it was an HOUR AND A HALF of these strong, tan, shirtless men tribal dancing. Best 90 minutes of my life.

A really cool sign at the USS Missouri Battleship. It showed which direction a bunch of major cities in the world were.

A giant map was painted on the concrete at the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We all stood on it and pointed to where in the world we were.

Another one of the Lagoons. That day was a little grayer/stormier, but it was still beautiful. Around sunset.

My sister, me and Alex watching the river boat show. [can you guess what I was gazing at?]

There were four man made lagoons about 10 minutes [golf-carting] away from our town house. This was one of them around sunset. They were all perfect and beautiful. Clear blue water, soft sand, 80 degrees constant and it was direct sun and humid. Perfect.

A picture of the Town house that we stayed in on Oahu. It ended up being extremely cheaper than getting two hotel rooms for 8 days and there was a lot more room. We had a full kitchen which meant that we didn't eat out nearly at all. We shopped at Costco. We were the scrawniest, whitest, touristiest people in that Costco.

My sister, Mother and I all ready to go to church! We got knitted lais from the ward. That's what they give the tourists/ visitors. What a perfect way to mix LDS churchies and Hawaii. At least there wasn't any green Jell-o... ;)

Next up: I totally just forgot my next topic... No joke. When I remember, I'll post. :(

The Fabulous Jessica Maloy

I’ve known you for forever and a day and throughout that stretch of lovely eternity I’ve discovered a best friend, nay, a sister! Not the kind that fight. No, the kind that have reached adulthood, past the point of fighting, and instead can’t wait to spend a minute, or 5 hours at Cutters Point, with each other sharing about their different lives. So because of that, I thought I’d let you know who the Fabulous Jessica Maloy is (in case you forgot ;D.)

She’s a gorgeous person.

This means both on the surface from her beautiful curly ‘Goddess’ hair to her lovely legs, which she says can’t manage shorts but I beg to differ! And on the inside because with all her intake of healthiness those inner organs must be a healthy pink (that’s the healthy color, right?) and on the inner inside! Because Jessica, well, she has a wonderful soul. Probably a better soul than most of the people in the entire universe.

She’s magically creative.

I found this out when I realized you were a scrapbooker long ago, but it has grown tenfold since then! In the recent years, this creativity has spread to parties, like the epic Flower Party hosted by the girl of the hour. I discovered how to make a variety of fabric flowers from my dearest friend, while paper flowers, and paper stars hung above my head (all, might I add, made by Jessica.) Papers hang in her room with the cutest pictures I’ve ever seen, and paintings that look straight from a picture book! Still I have her custom made invitation for an equally designer breakfast for dinner party :)

She can be anything she wants to

She can be a chef with her deliciously nutritious meals and scrumptious deserts

She can be an illustrator and author of children’s books (and really, any other book for that matter) because of her mega-skills at crazy cute drawings.

She can be a psychologist since that’s something she seems to be very interested and…

She can do anything she wants to because she’s got the brains of a genius and perseverance of… something really perseverant!

She’s given me awesome memories

Together we painted a mural on our 6th grade desks. Together we suddenly decided to create our own language. We had shared lunches; I’ll bring the chocolate chips and bananas if you bring the peanut butter and bread! Together we created an awesome video (alongside several other 6th grade friends) and won VisFest. We planned, we dreamt, we fantasized about creating our very own Fort on our very own piece of land. We shared a journal and kept all of our secrets. Together we had a blog where we put all of our not-so-secret secrets, and detailed accounts of the Fabulous Jessica.

She’s the best of friends

This category is all encompassing. It includes things like; She’s a wonderful listener, She’s always there for me, She’s crazy funny, She has some amazing stories, She and I can talk forever, We always stay the best of friends no matter the distance or differences, She’s understanding like none other, She’s open to all ideas, She’s supportive no matter what, She doesn’t judge, She lets me vent, She vents to me, She shares her thoughts, She makes me smile, She makes me laugh, She gives advice, She’s always there for HUG TIIMMMME!, She helps me when I need it, She’s there when I cry, She’s Jessica Maloy.

You know how they say a picture’s worth a thousand words? Well a person is worth infinity, so I’m terribly sorry, but I don’t believe these words summed up the entirety of the Fabulous Jessica Maloy. I hope it at least gave you a gist of you! I apologize for any extreme sappiness but I realized I don’t think I’ve ever told you how awesome you are, so I decided now was as good a time as any other.

Anyways, I love love love you forever,

Sam

p.s.

I hope you never feel bad for venting to me, because I always vent to you. Plus, you remember how I told you I’ve reached a level of trust with you that I know you will never judge me or my family? When you vent, it lets me know you trust me the same way too. Not to say you must tell me every detail or every problem. Sometimes it’s nice to keep things yourself; I entirely understand :) I just wanted to show you that it’s never ever a burden on me to hear things about your life.