my awesome sauce sister Kell Bell

You can read all of Kelli's emails from her mission on her blog, but this one I just really wanted to share on my blog so that all can know her awesome sauceness! I know they are kind of long, but I promise, totally worth the read...

Danger?! I laugh in the face of danger!

actually, i ran away.

this week was everything BUT normal.  i ran around like a chicken with its head chopped of and now am just praying i have a little extra time to take a nap.  let me give you all a short synopsis and if you so desire, in 6 weeks i will give you the play-by-play.

MONDAY- "the normalest day of the week."

a member of our bishoprics house got broken into and robbed in the middle of the night.

TUESDAY- "the heist"

we got home at 10:15 p.m. (curfew is 10:30).  i opened the door and saw everything thrown everywhere.  i thought, "someone broke in and may still be here."  so, i turned around, opened the gate, and went running down the street.  the assistants came and drove us to pres' house to spend the night.

WEDNESDAY- "and in the mornin' i'm makin' waffles!"

i got to sleep in an extra half and hour and hna king made us waffles for breakfast.  getting robbed sure has its benefits.  we went home and the cops came to file a report.  they were very fresh(?) (what is the word in English for flirty old men?)  that night we slept at the hermanas' house 15 minutes away.

THURSDAY- "the heist II"

we walked out of our last lesson and the whole neighborhood was out in the street and alarms going off everywhere.  another house had been broken into.You 

FRIDAY- "Transvestite Pride Day"

i went to renew my visa.  at the international police dpt two or three cross dressers walked in about every  five minutes.  they all seemed to know each other, ha.  everyday i am more and more convinced my mission would make a great indie movie.

SATURDAY- "tremors"

at about 4:30 a.m. i woke up to this rumbling sound.  my comp shot up from her bed and yelled, "¡hna, terremoto!"  i said, "open the door" and kept on sleeping. 

SUNDAY- "tremors II"

we had finally slept at our house--the window was fixed, we got a metal door put in and our front window chained.  things got a little more normal.  then in the middle of a lesson the earth started shaking.  and kept shaking, and got stronger, and kept shaking.  then the lights went out.

welp, that about sums up what had to have been the strangest, most unproductive week of my mission.  all i have to say is tgim. 

i hope you all have a very normal week.  i love your guts.

love,

kelli jean, hruss.

who wants to be a millionaire?

I came across this today- "If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires."  It was credited to Abigal Van Buren so I am going to go with that.

It got me thinking a LOT about my experiences.  A millionaire, huh?  I think unknowable-amount-of-money-aire is what I would be.  Let me state right now that I do not think my life is horrible.  I do not think my life is more difficult that other people's lives.  I would assume, perhaps wrongly, but I'm going to assume anyway...that most people would have an endless cash flow if experience could be sold for cash.

I can't sell my experiences, but that doesn't make them valueless.  They are priceless really...even if I could sell them, if that meant giving up the lesson as well, I wouldn't sell them.  I am who I am because of those experiences.  I am not perfect, but I do think that I am so much better off for my experiences...all of them.  I can honestly say that there are some that maybe would only get me a couple bucks...but even those...I don't know if I would want to let them go.  I feel like all experience is worth something.  Even the worst of experiences.  They have somehow added to me, to my character, to the direction of my life...for better or worse.  I think that is what life is though, the better and the worse.

I do not think, by any stretch, that all experience is for the better...but I think that something can be learned in the worse.  I think that maybe I lack regret in my life because I have found something in all of my experiences.  Something made it so, while I can honestly say I am NOT proud of everything I've ever done, I've learned a lesson...am still gleaning lessons from better and worse experiences.  How could I ever give that up?

Someday I am going to stand in front of my Maker and review my book of life over a couple of Mexican Coca Colas (because they are heaven)...and while I will definitely be rushing to show him some things, there will be plenty I will be happy to gloss over.  Yet, those moments, they meant/mean something to me.  They did/do something for/to me.

So while being a millionaire might be fun and allow for some good times...I'll stick with my current cash flow and keep my experience.

two, but kind of three

Ok, so in my last post, I mentioned that my goal was three posts in the next week. I managed one...so that equals two for the week...right... 1+1=2...yes...two for the week...HOWEVER...since the second post was posted on a brand new blog, dedicated entirely to music, I feel that should count for three :)  And if you say no, fine, this one can count as the third...because 1+1+1=3!

I'm back

I don't know why I sometimes stop blogging...I think of things everyday that I would like to write about, but somehow...putting fingers to keyboard doesn't always work out the way I'd like it to.  But I am back and I've set a goal to blog three times a week...at least for now.  I'd like to get to once a day...baby steps for now :)  Anyway...I figured that my 3rd or 4th blog post of the year should be something awesome...so here you go!

SHE IS LAUGHING IN PUBLIC...small miracle.

this picture melts my heart every time I look at it...
which is everyday since it is my desktop photo.
LOVE HER!!!

Alabama Shakes part II

Before I make my official return to my blog (I know...it's been a little while) I just wanted to note that I saw Alabama Shakes live in concert.  And while I will for sure continue to listen to them on my iPod, YouTube, CD, etc...nothing, NOTHING will ever compare to seeing them live.  Brittany Howard can sing like nothing else.  She is like Janis Joplin and James Brown and Jimi Hendrix all rolled into one.  

Do yourself a favor and check them out.

I'm not saying Alabama Shakes is better than Janis or James or Jimi...but it is sure nice to hear there influence in the current music scene.

A little of this....

 
A little of that...
 

A heaping spoonful of her...



 and what do you have?!

TA DA!!!!