This just in...

Mariel means "sea of bitterness". Ella means "young girl". Murray means "sea town. So really, Mariel is the young girl from a sea of bitterness in the sea town. Haha.

More!

Dr. Ian Malcom. Yes.

It's Christmas Eve!

During the month of December, people start to look over the past year and reflect on all that has happened and what they have been blessed with. I guess I'll join in the reflection and talk about one of the things that I am most thankful for this year. His name is Neil Murray, and he is my grandfather.

Grandpa Murray broke his neck back in March; it was a very scary time for our family. He was blessed with a very clean break, though (it sounds odd to say that, but it's true) and after a time of bated breath, we found out that he would not even need surgery. He spent months in a neck brace and had to live away from home for a bit, but eventually he was able to move home and ditch the brace.

We are blessed that Grandpa was able to recover so well--he is so recovered, in fact, that we were just able to dance the Merry Christmas Polka together (it's a Christmas Eve tradition)! Our family became closer to one another, to Grandpa, and to the Lord during this time. I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that we have, for my family, and for Grandpa Murray

Merry Christmas!

Poor Abby

Have you ever had an experience where you've said something that came out completely different than you intended? It makes for awkward conversations. Abby has recently had a couple of experiences where people have said things to her that just make us think.

Example One
Home Teacher: Abby, you gave a great talk on Sunday! We were all really surprised.
[Looks of shock are displayed on the faces of my family. Did he really just say that?! we all thought]
Home Teacher [seeing our looks of shock]: Um, we were really surprised to hear that you had recently had surgery! I don't think any one knew! Uh, yeah, surgery...

Example Two
Abby [while watching an old home video of herself]: That was back when I looked like a badger.
Nathan: Oh, you haven't really changed at all. You still look the same.
Abby: What?
Nathan: No! I mean, you never looked like a badger! You have always looked normal!

Snow Scraping

Upon leaving work today, we realized that our cars were covered in snow. No problem-I've got a heavy duty snow scraper. So I wandered over to my car, turned it on, and started to scrape. Next thing I knew, someone was on the other side of my car helping me scrape. That is so nice of him! I thought. Then I decided to include the man in on my thoughts so I said, "That is so nice of you!" He helped me scrape my windows until the car was ice free, then he hopped in his car and sped away.

I ran over to Elizabeth and Blythe to help them scrape with my heavy duty scraper and there was another very nice man helping them! It was so great-people are so nice. People like the ones we met tonight make me want to be a better person.

Positive Feedback

This semester the testing center score screen has had occasion to talk to me a few times. It makes me feel good.

In high school, Mr. Bowman always liked to write uplifting things on our assignments, for example: Awesome, Good Job, Great!, [a drawing of a Christmas tree], Superb, Fantastic, Tremendous, etc...

One day Mr. Bowman gave me back one of my voice leading assignments and on the top it said, "Well Done?" as if he wasn't sure whether or not my assignment was acceptable. I chose to believe that he accidentally wrote a question mark instead of an exclamation point.

While we're on the subject of Mr. Bowman, I would just like to state that he is one of the teachers who has had a tremendous impact on my life. He is an amazing man and he gave me the opportunities I needed to grow and learn and progress-while at the same time he allowed us to have fun. I will always be thankful for the Claminator. "He had the power to make us happy or unhappy, to make our work a pleasure or a burden".Random tidbit: At the band concert this week, a clarinet quartet played. They were really good. Mark and I were impressed. After their song, Mark's dad leaned forward and said to us, "Wow, they were good. You can tell they didn't spend any time messing around with fruitsnacks." Yeah...it's true.

Love him

As I was sitting here working on my music civ test, I discovered that I really like the style of Vermeer. His paintings just feel so peaceful, natural, and good.

Awkward Aspen Grove flashback

One week at Aspen Grove there was a very friendly man attending family camp. I was honestly a little afraid of him. I know that sounds awful, but he was just a little too friendly, you know? I was keeping my distance, trying to be cautious. I try not to think of people as threats, but I just wanted to be careful. So one day at lunch he randomly stood in front of me in the line. Here is the conversation that took place:

Me [avidly talking to Kyle]: We can't let Brandon kill off my favorite character!
Guy [cutting in front of me]: Oh, whoa, hi! I'm sorry to cut in front of you.
Me: No, you're fine. [Turning back to Kyle] How are we going to save Finnegan?
**A few moments passed**
Guy [putting his hand on my shoulder]: You know, you are pretty good looking yourself.
Me: Um...okay, I, hmm...uh-[turning back to Kyle] We really need to save Finnegan...I'll be back.

It was weird.

Interesting News

My Grandma and Grandpa Elison will be telling the "Christmas story" during Kurt Bestor's Christmas concert next week at Abravanel Hall. Apparently Kurt just called them up the other day and asked them to participate. I guess it isn't too weird since they've known Mr. Bestor for practically his whole life, but I just think it's funny.

Snapshot

I'm getting ready to type up some of my physical science labs, but sometimes before doing homework I like to blog-it gets me thinking and puts me in the writing mode. So I decided, for an unknown reason, to go to my 5th photo album, choose the 20th picture from the end, and write about it. Here is my story.This was probably the third day of our trip to Disneyland in the summer of '07. You can see my whole family (and Grandpa Murray) in this picture if you look closely (Nathan, Karly, Dad, and I are in the mirror, and Nicole is hidden by Mariel).

We were waiting to be seated for lunch in our favorite restaurant-The Blue Bayou. You have to make reservations and it's very, very pricey. But the restaurant is in the ride Pirates of the Caribbean, so it has great atmosphere. It's so dark you can barley read your menu, but it's fun. I had the deep fried Monte Cristo sandwhich with raspberry dipping sauce and I was very pleased.

However, the restaurant does add a 15-20% gratuity for parties over six, so it is helpful to note that before paying a tip.

This was a fabulous trip.