A pinch of salt, lots of love, and lots and lots of to-fuuuuuuuuuuu!

The newest episode of Kid History came out today. I am so happy.

Overheard at the Moons': Benson

Benson at our wedding

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Benson is the cutest member of our family. Hands down. We got to spend some time with the extended Moon family this weekend, and our 3-year-old nephew kept us in stitches. Here are some of the things he did to make us laugh. 


We were up in the mountains visiting a ranch, and the kiddos had fun riding horses. Poor Benson fell off and got a boo boo on his head. We asked him about it later on.
Me: "Did you get a boo boo?"
Benson: "Yeah...I got it..."
Brandon: "On the horse?"
Benson: "No, [points a finger in the air] on the ground!"


Being an introvert, Benson often gets overwhelmed by all the people at family gatherings. He finds solace in playing games on his dad's smartphone. But when the phone died, he got a little bit frustrated. 
Benson: "I want to go back!"
Me: "Oh no, the phone is dead."
Benson: "No, it's not."
Me: "Yeah, it ran out of battery juice. We need to charge it."
Benson: [laughing] "It's not juice!"


But the best part was when Benson's dad was trying to get him to pee on a tree. He was not easily convinced, but when Brandon agreed to go with him, Benson finally decided it was a good idea. But poor Benson didn't have any of his own juice, and burst into tears when he realized that his manly tree-peeing dreams were not going to come true that day. 


Sorry buddy. Better luck next time. 

First conversation of the day

(7:15 AM)

Me: "Last night I dreamed that we went to a restaurant and you wouldn't let me order any food, so I got really mad at you."

Brandon: (with a funny little smile) "Are you ready to hear my dream?"

Me: "Yeah..."

Brandon: "I dreamed that I found an old VHS tape titled 'Rebecca Black: Prophets Tell of Future Media.'"

Me: "What prophet was it?"

Brandon: "Joseph Smith."

Why didn't he warn us if he knew?!

found here. 

Kid History

Last night, we went to the special premiere of Kid History episode 5. If you haven't seen episode 1, start here. It's FLIPPIN' AWESOME.

Us with our tickets!

It was weird to hear the guys talk with their adult voices, but they were so cool. They were really nice and stayed to meet all of us. It was sooooo awesome.

Brandon's just a little too tall. haha

Plus, I think episode 5 might be the best one yet. "No, you're not yistening! Watch my bum!"

And they a crowd shot of us at the end. We're in the back left corner. Look for us!

Ninja Vanish!

My husband is cute.

Brandon: "Where did you get that beautiful face, my dear?"

Me: (pointing upwards)

Brandon: (singing and looking towards the heavens) "Thank yooooou!"

Just before entering Disneyland for the first time

I love you, honey :)

A day in the life of a BYU Jamba-ite

Found here.

Today was one of the craziest days in my (almost) three years of working at BYU's Jamba Juice. It was so ridiculous that I just had to laugh. 

Our two lovely locations. Awwww. Found here.

Background:

We have two Jamba Juice locations on BYU campus - one in the Wilkinson Student Center, and one on the other side of campus by the athletic buildings. I've spent most of my time in the Wilk store, which is much bigger and busier. While I know the Wilk store like the back of my hand, I've only worked at the SAB store three times before today. For the first time, I've been given a shift down at the SAB - a Team Lead shift. That means I'm supposed to be in charge of the other employees and know what I'm doing...which can cause problems. It's hard to be a good leader when you don't know where anything is kept, but I do my best.

Part One:

My first shift today was at the Wilk. It was smooth sailing, since we don't get many customers between 7:30 and 11:00 AM. However, we did have an older man named Alfonso ask for carrot juice with the pulp on the side. My co-worker juiced the carrots and put the little bit of thicker stuff that didn't go through the strainer in an extra cup. When she gave the man his juice, he said, "No! I want the meat of the carrot. It has good fiber!" So, poor Elizabeth got into the cabinet under the carrot machine where the pulp falls and dumped the good ol' "meat" into a cup for Alfonso. (Don't worry, it was clean under there!) He was much happier with this arrangement, and proceeded to pour some of the carrot juice onto the pulp. Now, here's the question - why doesn't he just eat a bag of carrots?! Creative answers are welcomed for submission. 

Part Two:

This is the crazy part of the story. At noon, I went down to work at the SAB store. One of our juice dispensers had gone on the fritz and had been randomly spitting out juice and water since the wee hours of the morning, leaving the floor wet and sticky. There were no clean blenders, a line of camp kids out the door, and only three people working. And one of them left when I came in.

"We're out of ones...and pennies," Elizabeth told me from the register. At the Wilk, we get our change from a special Cougareat money room, but the SAB keeps its change in a safe - a safe that, only having worked there three times, I didn't know the comb for. I called our managers up at the Wilk to get the combo. It didn't work. I called again, and this time got the right one. There were no one dollar bills in the safe, so I had to call the money room to have them delivered.

"We're out of strawberries," our other co-worker called out. We dug around in the fridge for a good 5 minutes until we found some more. Meanwhile, the line got longer. 

"We're out of lemonade" was heard 15 minutes later, and "we're out of mop heads" was another 5 minutes after that. And half of our sherbets were hard, making it a pain to scoop them.

The camp kids finally left at 1:15, ending a 2-hour, non-stop rush. 

We washed the dishes, wiped the counters, mopped the floor with a bunch of rags Elizabeth had tied to the mop handle, and laughed at the crazy mess we had barely survived. 

Last year, some of us would joke about what "Jamba Hell" would be like. I'm pretty sure I lived through it today.

But hey, at least I didn't have to wear the banana suit.

Found here.

Top 10 "Friday" Parodies

So my husband and I love finding parodies of Rebecca Black's "Friday." Of course, some of them are even worse than the original, but we've actually found some good ones. The list is getting so long that I decided that I just had to share.

10. The Glee Version. They make it sound more like a dance party mix.

9. The Stars Wars Version, aka "Prime Day."

8. The Conan O' Brien Version, "Thursday." Horrible quality, but that's the point, right? This version of the rap cracks me up!

7. The Christopher Walken voice over. Famous for "my hand is a dolphin!"

6. The Christian Church Ad, "Sunday." This girl doesn't sing much better than Rebecca Black. I love the rap that her pastor does in the middle!

5. The Bob Dylan version. I love this version because it is so soothing, and the comments are hilarious!

4. The Chinese Version. He actually makes it sound quite nice!

3. The soulful Mullet-guy version. I'm not sure what the best part is - his purple shirt, his hair, the beautiful piano line, how melodramatic he is. Judge for yourself. 

2. The Rockin' Acoustic Version. It makes me so happy. 

1. The bad lip read, aka "Gang Fight." This is Brandon's absolute favorite. They change the melody of the song, so it's less annoying, and the lyrics are oh-so quotable. "Sweet Carp on the side!"

Hope you enjoyed these as much as we did!


PS- My good friend Li-Sha reminded me of another great version by Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. Don't miss it! Thanks Li-Sha :]

Overheard at the Moons'

Last night, as I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep, I had this conversation with my husband:

Brandon: "Hey, I just remembered this great YouTube video that you should watch."

Tasha: "Is it chocolate-cake-great or Rebecca-Black-great?"

Brandon: "Well, it's more of a chocolate-cake-in-the-shape-of-Rebecca-Black's-head-great, because it's ridiculous on purpose."

If anyone finds a cake mold in the shape of Rebecca Black's head, please let me know.

Friday, Bob Dylan, a Baby, and some Anniversaries

If you haven't heard about this ridiculous song and music video yet, you must watch. It is absolutely horrible, and absolutely hilarious. I can't decide if my favorite part is how she agonizes over choosing between the front seat and the back seat, the random Usher-like rap in the middle of the song, her horrible vowels and intonation, or that relevatory line, "Yesterday was Thursday, Today it is Friday, Tomorrow will be Saturday and afterwards is Sunday!" But Rebecca, what comes after Sunday? Now we'll never know.





And if that wasn't good enough, someone decided to cover the song in the style of Bob Dylan. It's a strange mix, soothing and amusing at the same time. My husband just loves it.





After waiting 6 days, we finally got our new nephew last night! Pierce Montgomery Moon was born on March 17, 2011 at 8:15 pm. He is 8 lbs 15 oz and 21 inches long. We were hoping that he would be born on the 15th so we would have 3 nephews named Ezra, Taft, and Benson all born on the same day - but we're just glad he is here. Maybe Brandon and I will just have to have Taft...

Isn't he beautiful? I can't wait to hold him! Being an aunt is so fun.

Today is a special day for the Hintons and the Moons. My parents were married 22 years ago 
today, and Brandon and I have been married 1 month today. I'm grateful that I am part of this amazing, wonderful, loving family for all eternity. 

When we were dating, I remember feeling absolutely terrified at the thought of losing Brandon. I knew that I would be so lost without him in my life. I'm so glad that I never have to worry about that again, and that I get to be with him for all eternity. This last month as his wife as been the best of my life - and I feel so blessed to share many more months to come with this sweet, steadfast, tender man. I love you honey :)

I love October.

Life is busy.

Friday my roommate and I threw a hobo party, and it was epic. We made cardboard signs, ate hobo stew, told stories, raced shopping carts, and had a ball. If you've never had one, I highly recommend it.

The weather is lovely and the brilliant fall leaves are even lovelier. All I want to do is stay curled up in bed eating chicken noodle soup and listening to these two songs - but of course, it's a week full of papers, tests, assignments for my calling, and trying to soak in all the October gorgeousness I can before it fades away into that beautifully terrifying time we call winter.

Wish I could say I took this photo, but sadly I did not.

 
Here's to you, October. Thanks for stopping by again. If you ever decide to stay longer, we wouldn't mind it at all. 

 

A manger and a chicken.

We had an art history association brunch Tuesday morning. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to be around fellow art-lovers. 


We played art history Pictionary/charades and had a blast. Some of the works selected were the Merode Altarpiece, Michelangelo's David, the Arnolofini Portrait, the Jolly Toper, Duchamp's "Fountain", and the Coronation of Napoleon. Boy, did we have some fun with those!  


This dialog was one of my favorites:
"It looks like a manger."
"Is it a chicken?"
"I like that this same drawing can be mistaken for both a manger and a chicken..."
Turns out, it was this:

The Seated Scribe, 2620-2500 BCE

Not a manger OR a chicken. A person. With crossed legs.

Oh, how I love my life and everything in it!

Favorites from the Weekend

*Elementary school style Truth or Dare with my roommates at 1 am ("Have you ever fallen out of bed? gasp!" and "What's the lamest outfit you've ever worn?" "Well, this Justin Bieber T-shirt might be it!")

*Sammy's pie shakes

*Haiku on the roof of Sammy's

(Pie shakes on the roof. Good friends and conversation. Ahhh, this is the life.)

*Running through sprinklers

*Working with my favorite people and making them laugh

*Battle of the Pseudo-bands (we played "Livin' on a Prayer")

*Continuation of Haiku week (including this double haiku, inspired by Brandon's 7 year old niece Adri)

*Catwoman photoshoot sighting in downtown Provo (yeah, I know.)

*Dr. Horrible's sing along blog (when the sketchy parts are muted)

*Potter Puppet Pals

*This song (especially this cover by an adorable English duo!)  

*This amazing kid

*Testimony meeting that was 20 minutes too long

*Cafe Rio style break the fast

*Singing at a rest home with friends from the ward

*Getting NINE sunshine notes!

*An awesome sunset

*Playing pass the pigs with my haiku crew

*Barely doing any homework :]

What did you enjoy about your weekend?

If you thought Justin Bieber was good...

...(or even if you think he's lame)

Check out what my little brother came up with!

Yep, I'm convinced he's the coolest kid ever.

This blog post is now diamonds!

I thought I loved Old Spice commercials already, but after watching this today...




...but now I love them more than ever. 


And since my homework for my German class tonight was to write about what I'd do with a million dollars, I couldn't help putting "der Old Spice Mann" in it. (If you want to put it through Google translate, click here. If anyone from my class is reading this, you better not steal it.)

Meine Reise nach Europa mit dem Old Spice Mann

Wenn ich eine Million Dollar, würde ich nach Europa fliegen. Erste würde ich zu Paris gehen. Ich würde den Louvre und den Eiffelturm sehen. Dann würde ich zu London fliegen. Ich würde die Houses of Parliament, Tate Modern und Nick Jonas auf „Les Miserables“ sehen. Dann würde ich der Old Spice Mann in Rom treffen. Nachdem sie das Kolosseum und das Essen lecker italienisches Essen, würden wir einkaufen und in die Oper gehen. Wir würden durch Venedig, Milan, die Schweiz und Wien fahren. unsere Reise würde in Berlin mit die Berliner Mauer, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße, das Pergamonmuseum, und ein Justin Bieber Konzert enden. Dann der Old Spice mann würde seine Liebe für mich zu verkünden mit einer Arie auf einem Dach, und wir würden fliegen nach Las Vegas heiraten. Wir würden natürlich glücklich miteinander bis ans Ende ihrer Tage leben.  Alles kann passieren, wenn man wie ein Mann und keine Frau riecht. Ich bin auf einem Pferd.


PS - If you go here you can customize a voicemail message in the Old Spice style! If I was a guy I'd totally do it. 

If you want to be an architect...

...get yourself a pair of round, black-rimmed glasses. Just look at the evidence:

Walter Gropius

Le Corbusier

(affectionately referred to as "Corby" by architecture students)

Eero Saarinen

Philip Johnson

I.M. Pei

Robert Venturi

And even my architecture professor (who I, regrettably, do not have a picture of).

Now I wish that I wore glasses.

Beauty for Ashes

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound...to comfort all that mourn...to give unto them beauty for ashes...that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. - Isaiah 61:1-3

This weekend, I literally had "beauty for ashes."

It was my turn to make Sunday dinner for my roommates, but some friends called me and invited me to hang out with them. I didn't know when I'd be back, so I put my soup on the stove and left a note saying they could go ahead and eat whenever they wanted to.

Unfortunately, I left a plastic spoon in the pot. And unbeknown to me, my only roommate at home was asleep. She woke up a while later to an awful smell and these lovely sights.

This is the remnants of the spoon compared to what the spoon used to look like.

And this is what my roommates were supposed to eat for dinner - a mix of burnt tortilla soup and melted plastic. Not soupy at all.

"Would anybody like some soup? It's not like it's tainted with the poisonous and naseous gases of boiled plastic, or anything. Please dearie, try some."

When I returned from my adventures hours later, we laughed and laughed and laughed.
"This will be a great story to tell your children," they consoled me.
"Oh sure," I agreed. "If I don't kill them with another cooking accident first!"

********************************************************************
Fortunately, my weekend had a lot of beauty too. I:
*Went to the BYU Men's Chorus concert, which was beautiful
*Made new friends
*Howeled at the moon
*Pretended to be a Ninja
*Ate ice cream with an amazing family
*Enjoyed silliness with my favorite people in the world
*Learned how to make a revolving door out of people
*Smiled and laughed until (and well after) my face was sore
*Went on a walk in the sunshine
*Tied with someone 4 TIMES IN A ROW on rock paper scissors
*Toured the industrial design lab
*Rode an electric wheelchair
*Attended a wonderful Stake Conference
*Ate thin mints on the lovesack
*Tried my hand at being a Shaman
*Ate good stew
*Petted a dog
*Took silly pictures
*Watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
*Had some really good conversation
*Got to enjoy many of my favorite people in Provo.




If God decides that my life needs some ashes to counteract the many, many beauties, that's ok with me.

So even though my apartment still smells bad, my roommates are a little annoyed with me, and my clothes smell like smoke, I have many reasons to rejoice.

Good Reading for a Spring Day

Taken March 2007

Happy Monday everyone! It is a beautiful sunny day and it is fun to see spring popping up all around! I've encountered a lot of powerful blog posts this past week, and thought I would focus my Monday Links on that. I hope you find this reading as uplifting as I have!

*This is one of my favorite posts about trials EVER. Read it. It will change your viewpoint on comforting forever.

*This made me laugh so hard!

*These two poems are so beautiful. Please read them.

*Watched this over the weekend and loved it!

*Did you know that BYU Independent Study offers free courses? They have gardening, religion, bowling, and even dating. I think I'll take one over the summer. How great is that?!

*My dear friend posted this yesterday. It is fabulous!

*This post is so cute!

*If I was a penguin, I would want to live here.

*My best friend is serving his mission in Ukraine, and in his weekly email he wrote, "Ukrainian church activities are a lot like Power Ranger Episodes...They always follow the same format and out line but with slightly different characters to mix things up. Americans have their pot lucks with Primary Kids singing and Ukrainians have something that more resembles an extended roadshow. There is some sort of loose plot that ties together a variety of performances and games and them cookies and juice for dessert." Of all the metaphors in the world, he used Power Rangers. But it made my day!

*This is a great talk too.

*Going to this on Friday! One of my work friends is in the choir and got us discount tickets. It's gonna be awesome!

*I kinda want to live here. But only for like 2 days.

*Yesterday my little brother was learning about Moses parting the Red Sea in Primary. When they showed a picture of the event, he quipped, "Looks like the blue sea to me." What would we do without him?

*Tomorrow my choir is singing a GORGEOUS arrangement of "O Say, What is Truth" at the BYU Devotional! You can watch it at 11 am MST here.

And if you need a laugh...watch this!

I don't deserve it.

My little brother has always been a dancer.

When I was 12 and he was 2, we would dance to The Wiggles before I went to school. He is constantly on the floor trying to break dance. When music comes on, his body immediately starts to move. Sometimes we'll be watching a movie and we will notice his little foot tapping to the beat.

About a month ago my mom finally broke down and put him in a hip hop class. He was ecstatic. He had the biggest smile on his face whole time. And on the ride home he told my mom, "sometimes my life is so good that I don't think I deserve it."

I couldn't agree more.

Whenever I look at my blessings and am absolutely overwhelmed. I have the restored gospel, the scriptures, a Heavenly Father who loves me and a testimony of Christ. I have an incredible family who loves me and has taught me what is right. I have a mom who is my best friend and puts aside time to talk to me every day. I have a roof over my head, good food to eat and a warm bed to sleep in at night. I know how to read and write. I have a job during an economic recession. I have amazing friends, roommates, classmates and coworkers who appreciate my good qualities and inspire me to be a better person. I have an opportunity to receive a college education and get to do it at BYU, one of the best universities in the world!

I know Heavenly Father loves me, but I can't help but wonder why He has given me so much and others so little.

I know that what has been given is part of my tests and trials. All of my blessings are wonderful, but they bring certain hardships as well. And I know that Heavenly Father has given me these things so that I can serve others. But I'm not sure how to do that yet.

As Jo said in Little Women, "I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle - something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it."

Fortunately the Lord has promised that "if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work," so I know that He will fill my life with opportunities to serve.

Even so, I don't think I will ever quite deserve all that Heavenly Father has given me.

I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day...I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said.
-Mosiah 2:21-22

22 ways to Insult somone in German

1. Warmduscher - Someone who has to have a warm shower (freaks out if it's too hot or too cold)
2. Muttersöhnchern - Mama's boy
3. Weichei - Soft egg
4. Daumenlutscher - Thumb sucker
5. Toastkratzer - Toast scraper (too finicky to eat burnt toast!)
6. Hamsterbefreier - Hamster freer
7. Flugseuglandungklutscher - Someone who claps for landing airplanes
8. Spagettikleinschneider - Someone who is so OCD that they have to cut their spaghetti into small pieces
9. Teletubbieszurückwinker - Someone who waves back to the teletubbies
10. Letztes-klupapier-verbraucher - Last toilet paper user
11. Rolltreppensteher - Escalator stander (on European escalators, standers are on the right and walkers are on the left. This refers to someone standing on the left, therefore getting in everyone else's way,)
12. Pokemon-süßfinder - Great Pokemon catcher
13. Müllsortierer - Garbage sorter
14. Handschuhschneewerfer - Someone who is too much of a pansy to make a snowball with their bare hands
15. Sockenbügler - Sock ironer
16. Tofu-Esser - Tofu eater
17. Baby-popo-Trockenföner - Someone who blow-dries their baby's bum
18. Klofrauenbezahler - The lady you have to pay to use a "public" restroom in Germany
19. Dackel-bei-Gefahr-Hochnehmer - Someone who isn't secure without their Wiener dog
20. Mit-augstreckem-Arm-über-die-Zebrastreifen-geher - Someone who needlessly acts as a crossing guard when crossing the street
21. Pizza-mit-Messer-und-Gabel-Esser - Pizza with fork and knife eater
22. Gartenzwergaufsteller - Garden gnome putter-upper

I promise we learn real things in my class as well. Just not today.

5 Things that Made me Happy Today

1. Yesterday some coworkers told me about a fabulous little ditty called "Pants on the Ground" by someone who auditioned for American Idol. And my life will never be the same.





Yeah, catchy tune, isn't it? So my roommates and I were singing it all last night and into this morning. The best was when I was praying by my bedside this morning before I left for class and I heard my roommate singing "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground" as quietly as she could so as not to disturb my spiritual moment. But truth be told, she put a huge smile on my face.


2. Today was a cold wet day in Provo, and in the library this morning I saw an Asian guy wearing shorts and a coonskin cap. So random. It looked something like this:



Except he was wearing a shirt and jacket and shoes. And not holding a beach ball.


3. This song is my new favorite. The other night my roommates jammed out to it while making cookies. Soooo great. I'm pretty sure you need it in your life.


4. I get to write a paper on the Betsy-Tacy books for my English class. I think it's one of my favorite writing assignments ever. I may post it when I'm done.


5. My Slideshow now has 199 hits on YouTube! Amazing!


Yep, life is good.