Facing the Giants

First off, I love Netflix! Today I watched Facing the Giants. Its a christian film made by the same company as Fireproof. It actually has the wife from Fireproof in this movie as a news anchor. It was about a high school football team that couldn't win until they turned their lives over to God.
Let me just say that I used to hate these types of movies. I felt like they were too forward in their worship and it was awkward to see so much praising and hallelujah's in a movie. However, through some sort of change of heart I have come to really love them. I watched this one today and found that I related to the story in more ways than one and my testimony was greatly strengthened. In fact, as soon as it ended I went upstairs and said a really nice prayer. I love watching movies that have good values and that make me feel closer to my Heavenly Father.

I would strongly recommend this movie to any one who loved Fireproof. This movie company makes a lot of really good films, I watched another one with my sister a while ago called "Courage". Also really good!

Home Videos

When I was growing up my siblings and I would always find the funnest things to do on Sunday afternoons after church. We would make obstacle courses in our backyard, roll each other up in blanket burritos, set up hot wheels tracks, make home movies and more. One time we wrapped my naked little brother up in butcher paper, put him in a box and "shipped" him to my parents room where he popped out. Or there was another time at dinner where we were being so obnoxious that my parents left us at the table and the laughing continued even after my brother got a pea stuck in his nose and my older brother had to take charge to get it out.
One of my favorite memories has been captured on video of us retelling the story of the 3 little pigs. We spent what felt like hours creating face masks and props for the different rooms that would represent the houses and we were all a part of it. I love to watch this film only because it reminds me of those good times and then I start to think of other happy childhood memories.
We were lucky enough to be given a video camera one year for Christmas from my sweet mother-in-law and we have started capturing Becca's fun moments. She has yet to do anything as creative as my 3 little pigs story but we all still love to gather around and watch her on film, especially Becca herself.
I wish I had the capacity to share some of our home videos but I don't know how and I don't think they would be fully appreciated by anyone but us so I won't try to hard:)

Letter to Pres. Samuelson

President Samuelson,

            I thank you in advance for your time. I am a senior majoring in Family Life and one of the classes I have taken this term has been Dr. Sarah Coyne’s Media, Family, and Human Development. We have talked about many aspects of the media including: infant media, sex, reality TV, literature, social networking, advertising, music, etc. It is music in particular that I wish to speak with you. I have learned from my own experience that music can be one of the most influential types of media we have access to today. It has the power to increase good feelings and welcome the presence of the Spirit but it also has the ability to drive the Spirit away and enhance negative and destructive feelings.

            Since my first semester here at BYU I have noticed the fast-growing trend for students to walk around on campus with headphones in their ears listening to music. As a first-year student I was nervous to join the ranks at such a wonderful university especially, when it seemed that everyone was more interested in the noise in their ears, rather than the people around them. Please do not misunderstand, I know the uplifting power of music and I also know the peace students can find in moments of solitude. However, I believe our university could be a much better place if more emphasis was placed on reaching out to our fellow students and offering a hand of friendship rather than being distracted by this form of media.

            Part of the saying that is inscribed on the monument as you enter BYU campus is “Go Forth to Serve;” I submit that we should not have to wait until graduation to serve God’s children but that there are opportunities all around us, everyday, on BYU campus. I hope that with your encouragement more students will be inclined to observe the people and places around them at our beautiful university and seek out opportunities to show love and friendship. Thank you again for your time and your continual support for the students and university.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Buhler

Brigham Young University

The Race of Life

We went visiting teaching this month and I gave the lesson on President Monson's talk on Sunday morning titled The Race of Life, the talk focused on questions such as why are we here? where will we go after death? etc. However he always talked about getting your priorities in balance and reevaluating where your place your importance. He related the story of an older woman who before being diagnosed with a terminal illness always had a clean house and focused on keeping herself beautiful; she rarely had her family over because she was worried they would break something precious in her home. After she was diagnosed she decided that none of those things were important and that she was going to spend the rest of her time with her family.
This made me reflect of the things that I place the greatest importance in. Am I always focusing my energy on my family, the thing of greatest importance, or do I neglect them for temporal pleasures? I encourage everyone to read this article and decide for yourself if your life is balanced.

Amy Adams

I didn't realize this before but for both my content analysis and the inter-rater reliability assignment I watched movies that starred Amy Adams. I really like this actress, mostly because she always seems so wholesome. I looked her up on IMDB to see if she was LDS because she is so wholesome and also wears a lot of modest outfits and it turns out she is, or was. She was born into an LDS family but I doubt she's practicing anymore. Reading her bio was a bit disheartening, I'm pretty sure she had a child out of wedlock. I always think its funny that biographers are sure to mention the fact that someone is LDS and then of course those people are no longer practicing but do you think people remember that they're not active or just that they were born LDS? Luckily, even if she's no longer practicing, I hope she really comes back, she is still a good actress and always plays very clean roles.
Just a bit of FYI, her hair is not naturally that red, its strawberry blonde. I never would have guessed, she looks like such a natural redhead.

Date Night!

My husband and I went on a really awesome date last Saturday night. We ate Cafe Rio for dinner, and had my favorite meal BBQ pork salad, and went to see The Avengers at the Imax at Thanksgiving Point in 3D. Now, I really loved the movie but didn't love the 3D as much. My husband and I found that there were so many fast paced action scenes in the movie that many of the characters were out of focus and it made our eyes hurt. I don't know if my eyes were killing me at the end of the night because of the 3D or watching a 2 1/2 hour movie, most likely without blinking. Either way I would strongly suggest that everyone sees this movie.

Bye Bye Facebook

So today's lecture was on Social Networking and one of the girls in the class talked about how much happier she is without a Facebook account. I have been thinking of canceling my account for some time but always decided against it because it doesn't really cause any harm. However, after today's lecture I felt empowered. Like I could survive if I didn't know the latest gossip (because most of it isn't news of any kind). Plus now I never have to see unwanted things posted by foolish people.

All in all, I'm glad I did it. I will be spending my time on better things like my olive fingered child or school. (I don't mention Kieran because I only really went on Facebook when he was gone anyways.) I'm not suggesting anyone else do this but it was a good decision for me.