Musings on Life and Living

All LIFTB comics can be found at www.lifeisforthebirds.com

Gretch and I love watching movies. If our recently posted list of movies we currently have on VHS that we want to get on DVD wasn't indication enough, we have the fact that we watch movies all the time at home. It is an inexpensive diversion that lets us do something together and it is something we love doing. Today was an unusual day for us though. We usually watch one movie each evening. It is typically how we wrap up the day. We did watch a movie this evening. But we also watched three other movies today. And I watched a movie yesterday afternoon while Gretch was helping her friend Hannah with a photography project. So six movies within about a 36-hour period. Not too shabby, eh? So what was being watched in our home? Well, yesterday I watched one of my many education-themed films, "Freedom Writers". In addition to being an amazingly inspirational film about the power that one teacher can have on her students, it is notable as one of two films that has ever made me cry...

All LIFTB comics can be found at www.lifeisforthebirds.com

My friend Katie recently posed a series of four questions on her blog , asking people to answer them in regards to their LDS missions. I thought I'd share my response here. I want to start off by stating that I served in the California San Bernardino Mission, although I often claim to have served in the California Victorville Mission, due to the fact that I spent almost a year and a half in that city (three different areas, though). I was an English-speaking missionary. I also will say right now that I had a wonderful experience on my mission, even with the hard stuff I went through. 1)–What was your thought process when deciding to serve a mission and why did you ultimately decide to go? I had honestly and sincerely decided to serve a mission when I was young. In my ward, many of the young men left the church after turning 18, but I had made a conscious decision to stay active and to serve a mission. This was reinforced when I was 16 and found myself defending my faith to a large ...

Alex and I have decided that we want to try and get all our VHS tapes on DVD. And since it is always so hard to come up with a list of what we'd like for Christmas/birthdays/etc, we thought we'd use them. So below is our wish list of the movies we'd like to own on DVD. Our address is below where you can send them. Please don't think that you have to get us what's on this list or anything at all, but if you're wondering what we want just look below, any of them will do. A lot of them are really cheap (under $5 or $10) so if you have a tight budget, these are perfect. :) We will also be updating the list occasionally so that we can use this for our own records. Oh, and if you hate the idea of getting us movies, we do have other items on our Amazon Wish List, which you can find  here . ADDRESS 2509 A Leeper Dr. Champaign, IL 61822 MOVIES (Since there's quite a few movies, we've BOLDED the ones that we would really like.) A Far Off Place A T...

Gretch and I are watching the 180th Semi-Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend. We're watching online at home, mostly because a) it is more comfortable, b) it is more convenient, c) we can, and d) it allows me to participate in the live blogging and live tweeting of conference. The last speaker of the afternoon session, Elder Richard G. Scott, spoke about the connection between faith and character. His comments at the very end struck a chord with me that I wanted to share before I forgot it, or before it slipped into the dark recesses of my mind. After discussing ways in which one can strengthen his or her character, he talked about how character comes to the forefront during trials and struggles. It was at this point that this thought came to me: When you have true strength of character, your struggles will refine you, rather than define you. We develop strength of character in many different ways. Whatever you use to develop you...