A few family memories

Families are really awesome things. I'm so excited to get to see mine in just 17 days!

My youngest brother, Nathan, about three years old

All three of the Saunders' kids were given the number 9 that season!

My youngest sister, Marianne, and me as the royalty we are :)

My oldest younger sister, Heidi, cuddled up with her "Sunny Bean Butt" - I'm pretty sure she still sleeps with him even now that she's married

My family, the Sunday before my brother Stephen and I reported to the MTC

어떨까?

I think one reason I like stories so much is because you assume that after they end, everyone lives "happily ever after". Well, in the stories I read, anyway. Everything comes to a head, the good guy and the bad guy (or girls) fight, evil is defeated, the girl gets the guy, and they all go home and live a quiet life raising their kids and/or ruling their kingdom.

Alas, life is not like that.

시간이 빨리 지나네

It's already almost the end of November? But wasn't it just the end of October? And I could have sworn August wasn't that long ago...not to mention April.

What have I got to show for this time I've spent?

This is what I miss. He's so big now... :'(

Home

I heard Michael Buble's song "Home" today while I was working at the mall, and it reminded me how much I miss mine. Lately I've been, not homesick, really, but I wouldn't be adverse to seeing my family. I miss them. I miss them now more than I did when I first moved away from home, and since then I've lived away from them for the better part of three years. There's so much you miss when your 'second family' is so much younger than you, and it makes me sad to think about it.

I guess it really is true, what Dorothy said,

"THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!"

In Defense of the Sabbath

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."

-- Mark 2:27

The Law of the Sabbath is not one of those commandments I had much respect for as a child. Sunday was my least favorite day of the week: we had to be reverent, wear nice clothes and keep them clean, we couldn't play outside, and then there was the dreaded Quiet Time -- a mandatory two-hour span that we had to spend playing quietly in our rooms while my parents disappeared into theirs. At the time I thought they were the worst two hours of my week, and I thought my parents were awful for being so unfeeling as to impose them on me. Now I wish I could get my family to go back to Quiet Time.

I heard someone say something to this effect in a sacrament meeting one time: "Our great-grandparents called it the Holy Sabbath; our grandparents just the Sabbath. Our parents called it Sunday, and now we simply call it the weekend." We are becoming increasingly more casual about our Sabbath observance, and the effects are beginning to show. I love what Preach My Gospel says about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and the consequences of not doing so:

Our Sabbath-day behavior is a reflection of our commitment to honor and worship God. By keeping the Sabbath day holy, we show God our willingness to keep our covenants. ... When a community or nation grows careless in its Sabbath activities, its religious life decays and all aspects of life are negatively affected. The blessings associated with keeping the Sabbath day holy are lost. ... Latter-day Saints should set this holy day apart from activities of the world by entering into a spirit of worship, thanksgiving, service, and family-centered activities appropriate to the Sabbath. As Church members endeavor to make their Sabbath activities compatible with the intent and Spirit of the Lord, their lives will be filled with joy and peace.

I have definitely seen the truth of these statements in my own life. When I treat the Sabbath day as a sacred day of rest and dedicate it to renewing my covenants with my Heavenly Father and "recharging" my spiritual batteries, if you will, by setting aside "activities of the world" -- homework, my beloved Korean dramas, gossip, etc -- my week and my mood are so much better. I am much better equipped to handle the stress of juggling a job, college, and all the attendant difficulties. The Sabbath is a commandment from God, not because He likes to sit up in heaven and watch us chafe over all the things we "can't do", but because He knows that we need a break from the world and He loves us enough to bless us with one. I know that keeping the Sabbath day holy will bring tremendous blessings to your lives, and hope that in the coming weeks, you will search your heart and your life for ways you can do more to obtain them.

There Are Worse Ways to Put Yourself Through College

...but my feet sure do hurt.

Yesterday marked my week anniversary of starting my new job at a shoe store in the mall. This is my first time working retail, and let me tell you, it is a different experience.

I was really lucky to get this job, seeing as how I have no experience in retail at all. I am even luckier because my manager is a really great guy who genuinely cares about what he's doing, loves his job, and is concerned about his employees. Plus he has really cute kids and his wife is adorable. They're from Thailand, actually, though he's been in the States for awhile now. I'm also lucky because I actually enjoy doing what I do -- helping people find shoes that fit their needs -- most of the time. It's just when I've been there for five hours, listening to the same CD of Brittany Spears, Shakira,*Nsync, and the Backstreet Boys (which is better than the alternatives, believe me) for the fifth time, standing up the whole time, and no one's come in the store in at least an hour that I start wishing I had a little more interesting job. Or when I hobble home on aching feet and finally collapse on my bed and wonder if $8.50/hour can possibly be worth it.

But, as I said, there are worse ways to put yourself through college. I try not to think about the job I had freshman year, before I left for the mission -- student circulation aide at the Naval Academy's library. It was easy, it was 15 hours a week, and it paid $3.50/hour more. Not to mention it was within walking distance and I didn't have to stress out over the unreliability of the public transportation. And I never had Brittany Spears stuck in my head.

Then again, maybe the Lord doesn't want me to take the easy road. I'm certainly learning things I wouldn't have learned at the library, and I can't help but think of Calvin's dad (in the comic strip Calvin & Hobbs) saying, a little superciliously, "It builds character." In this case I think it is. And who knows, maybe three years down the road I'll look back and see clearly that this was better for me and served some greater purpose in helping me develop into who I need to be.

But my feet really do hurt.

Some Life Goals

1. Live in such a way that I can be with my family eternally

2. Run at least one marathon

3. Speak Korean fluently

4. Be a good wife to my husband and mother to my children

5. Do something big - not sure what yet, but something big

6. Climb a mountain

7. Travel to every country in the world

8. Live abroad with my family

9. Make the world a better place for families

10. Develop some artistic talents - photography or pottery, preferably

11. Fall madly, passionately in love and stay that way

12. Be a genuinely good person

13. BE HAPPY! :)

Uncertainty

It all works out in the end.

Right?

Psalm 37:3-5

photo by my cousin, Brandon Willis

"Trust in the LORD, and do good;

so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Delight thyself also in the LORD;

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto the LORD;

trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."

The Hardest Part of College...

...is motivating yourself when you really don't want to do anything.

The Most Precious Gift

photo taken by Aura at Heidi's wedding

This beautiful little girl just turned eight on Friday. Such a special, happy time in life! Her big brother is coming home from his mission soon, and she's excited that he will be there to baptize her. Sadly, her big sister will not be able to be there. Growing up has its drawbacks.

She's our little princess, and she knows it. She's our Missy. She's even my namesake. ("AnnMarie" --> "Marianne" -- my parents thought it was funny. Also, at the time they thought she was going to be the last child, so having the last child's name as an anagram of the first child's name seemed very fitting somehow. Little did they know Nathan was on the way. At least they didn't try to name him Nehpets after my brother Stephen.) How grateful I am for my family! I wouldn't trade any one of my brothers or sisters for more money or a bigger house or anything else. I feel richly blessed that Heavenly Father would entrust seven precious souls to my responsibility. How grateful I am for the binding power of our parents' sealing in the holy temple.

A Few Things I Learned This Weekend

1. NEVER, and I mean NEVER, travel without your cell phone fully-charged. Do not assume that you can charge it somewhere along the way, because inevitably it will die a horrible and permanent death right when you actually really need to call someone and you won't be able to find an electrical outlet.

2. Just in case the above does in fact transpire, you should have on your person a written list of phone numbers you might need. This way, even if your phone does die and you can't get to your contact list, you will be able to borrow someone else's or use a pay phone.

3. There really are good people in this world, people that are willing to go out of their way to help you, even if they don't know you from Adam.

4. Then there are really amazing people, friends who will go out of their way and be majorly inconvenienced and still greet you with a smile and a hug.

5. The prayers of parents have powerful effect.

6. In the midst of concentrating on all the horrible things in life, we lose sight of the many, many wonderful and beautiful things about life! This world is not always a veil of tears.

7. Check and then recheck, then re-recheck your plans.

8. Enjoy your life, but go to bed on time. The world is a much happier place when you're rested.

"Friends are the sunshine of life"

Today is a good day. I love windy fall days, when the sun is clear and bright but not hot, and the trees dance in the wind like maidens with long, rustling scarves. I love the little nip and chill in the air, the brisk smell that comes with the cooling weather and signals the end of long, hot, humid summer. I love it when I finish class before 2:30 and I have the rest of the afternoon and evening open. I love the feeling of finally turning in a paper and knowing that it's not hanging over your head anymore. Today is good for all of those reasons.

But today is a great day because today I got an email from one of my investigators back in Korea. She's actually written me several times, the most faithful of anyone there, missionary, member, or investigator. She was actually a referral from another one of our investigators. At first I wasn't very optimistic about her ever progressing, but as we continued to meet with her we discovered that she wanted very much to be a good wife and mother. She has two absolutely adorable little girls who are about age seven and eight now. All three of them were so sweet, and so sad when I left Korea. It's always a real joy to hear from her. Now, I've just got to get her meeting with the missionaries again...

Throwing a Pot As Opposed to a Fit

Here are a few shots of one of my latest pots from my class. My efforts at pot-throwing (and by this I mean the creative kind of throwing, not the destructive kind of throwing; the difference being that your mom is less angry about you doing the first kind in the house than the second) are improving, I think. This bowl is about the tenth thing I've thrown on the wheel, and I can already see my progress in getting the clay centered better, as well as forming a more centered hole. Centering is the process by which you move the clay from where you slapped it down on the wheel, uneven and lumpy, to the exact center of the wheel. The object of centering is to achieve uniformity in the clay, thus producing a uniformly round pot. It looks so easy when someone experienced does it, but this is the fourth week of my class and there are some who still struggle with it.

Similarly, opening the hole in the exact center of the clay is important, too. If you haven't, you will still have an off-center pot, despite the careful centering of the clay you did just previously.

There's a lot of fascinating physics involved in throwing on the wheel. Really, this kind of pottery is all about physics -- it relies on properties of physics to create beautiful works of art. In that way it is different from painting and drawing or even other kinds of pottery. I don't understand the specifics, but I really enjoy using the principles to create pots. I'm not sure what this one is, truthfully, but I figure my mom and dad will be happy with whatever I give them, right?

Maybe next time I'll shoot a play-by-play of the creation of a pot.

I'm always sad when September ends

but I really do love October. October is such a yummy, plummy, mysterious kind of month. All the trees explode into color and the air gets crisp. People wear sweaters and hoodies and drink hot chocolate, and no one wears short shorts or sandals anymore. I never feel like the world is dying when autumn rolls around, like some; I always think of it as getting ready to wrap itself up in the chill, white blankets of winter snow and falling asleep. I sympathize. I love bedtime! I love getting into my jammies and snuggling down in my bed under my blankets. I love breathing in the cold air in the room, and the contrast between it and my lovely warm self. I love jackets and peacoats and hats and mittens and crunchy leaves and all that comes with autumn!

I need a haircut

I haven't had one since a couple of weeks before I left Korea. Not that you can really tell, since I mostly wear my hair up, but it's the principle of the matter.

Since I wrote my last post, I turned 23 (ack!) and went back to the pottery studio twice more, last night and this afternoon. Last night another woman came in, not to throw a pot, but to wedge some porcelain she's going to work with. She's obviously a lot more skilled than the rest of us; we had a nice little chat as we worked, and I found out her husband is doing his residency here, so their family is here for just a few years. She needed to find a studio where she could pretty much come and go as she needed to, but that was also adequate for her purposes, and here we were! She gave me some great tips about how to work with the clay, too, that really helped me to center it a lot better than I'd been able to previously. See the fruit of my efforts today:

It's a recognizable (and mostly completely round) plate!

Sadly, this little beauty didn't make it off the wheel; when I tried to cut it off with the wire, the wire tore through the bottom of the plate, thus making it useless. But I hope to make a complete place setting for four (dinner and salad plates, bowls, and mugs at least) by the time I get out of this class. I'd have the beginnings of a dowry! And it would be so satisfying to eat off them, knowing that I made them with my own hands. Assuming they didn't have flaws that my perfectionism would continually bother me with. But anyway.

I'm off to seminar now, I just thought I'd offer this little picture. Sorry for the quality; I took it on my phone, lacking a better camera.

My First Adventure in Throwing a Pot on the Wheel

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before."

Nothing I can do looks remotely like this.

I've always wanted to be able to throw a pot on the wheel. When I was younger, in middle school, I took a sculpting class, but we only did pinch pots and the like. Our teacher did a demonstration on the wheel for us, but we never got the chance to try it ourselves. Over the years, I've done other projects in clay, and I think it's always been my favorite artistic medium.

This year, in an effort to broaden my horizons and gain a little more depth I've decided to stop saying no to all the opportunities that come my way. So when I got an email about the Continuing Education and Fine Arts program on campus having a pottery wheel class, instead of just saying to myself, "Oh, I'll never get in, there're only a limited number of spots," I printed out the form and filled it out. And now here I am, on the other side of my first time throwing a pot.

"Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty. Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty."

It was definitely a lot harder than it looks. When you see someone really good do it, the clay just seems to flow into the desired shape with no more effort than a stream parting around a hand placed in its waters. The reality is a lot different. It takes a lot more strength than you would think, but even if I still can't manage to correctly center my clay or put the hole in the exact center of the pot, it's still very rewarding to see something forming out of an amorphous blob of clay and know that your hands did it. I'm excited to continue growing as I learn more. :)

I definitely do not look this cool while making my pots. Or this clean, for that matter.

"The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. [T]rust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you."

--President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

This is why...

...I have the cutest little brother in the whole wide world!

Heidi's Wedding: One Down, Seven to Go

OR

WHY I WILL RUN

AWAY AND ELOPE

and save myself the stress of a wedding and reception

My little sister Heidi married her fiancé Doug in the Nashville Tennessee Temple on 5 September 2009. What follows is a visual record of the occasion (well, at least the seemingly happier parts of it). Thanks to Meg and her mom, Miss Jean, for the pictures.

The bridesmaids: (l to r) Lizzie, Dominique, Meg, and me

"Becca, let me give you some advice: don't make me wear red at your wedding".

Boredom is a scary thing (waiting for Heidi and Doug to come out of the temple).

They're married.

Don't they look so happy?

All the bridesmaids and the junior bridesmaids. My sister Becca is on the far left; his sister Paige is on the far right. That's my youngest sister Marianne in the middle. I'm the one making the weird face.

Showing off our shoes and bouquets! (Those shoes hurt!) Mine is the pretty big red rose.

Saving a space for our brother, Stephen, who's on a mission in Hong Kong.

His and hers families

Nathan, bored with it all and tired of being forced to smile for pictures, takes a phone call from Grandma Saunders.

Marianne takes a break from all the heat and humidity in the shelter of the temple's porch.

The absolutely ginormous cake - it would have fed a reception four times the size of Heidi's. A friend of ours in our ward generously made it as her wedding gift.

...and the infamous bouquet toss. Guess who caught it?