... and it was all yellow...

So, this is the tree in front of our house (if you remember last year when we bought the house we mentioned about it.) The whole tree turns from green to all yellow flowers in the spring time. And when the wind blows the flowers fall off the ground like snowing. It's a very beautiful sight, as long as you don't mind where the yellow flowers go to. :) I actually don't. Every morning I opened up the blinds in our room and the tune of "Yellow" by Coldplay comes to my head.

beause...

A few years ago I read a talk by one of the Elders in my church named Russell M. Nelson titled "Nurturing Marriage" which ended with this poem (below). I love it so much that I wrote it down in one of my sketch books with ink and pen. I just came across with it last night again. It's so beautifully written and I thought you would love it, too:


Because you come to me with naught save love,

And hold my hand and lift mine eyes above,
A wider world of hope and joy I see,
Because you come to me.

Because you speak to me in accents sweet,
I find the roses waking round my feet,
And I am led through tears and joy to thee,
Because you speak to me.

Because God made thee mine, I’ll cherish thee
Through light and darkness, through all time to be,
And pray His love may make our love divine,
Because God made thee mine.

by Edward Teschemacher (1902)

What a beautiful way of illustrating a husband and wife relationship along with God. Being able to express feelings through poetry is one of the talents that I wish to possess. 

a cold and gloomy day.

and the little hail stones hitting the ground and sides of the house with rhythm (actually quite an relaxing experience to listen to), it's a nice day to stay in door and work on my painting.

Also many thanks to my kind friend Mee invited me and Eli over for lunch and taught me how to make Green Thai Curry and Shrimp Papaya Salad (the authentic homemade kind, not the ones you get at restaurants) to make this gloomy day so warm and special. I would have remembered to take some pictures for a show and tell if I was not so side tracked from eating...

Be Still in a Mix of Green and Sunshine.

A brief needed break on Saturday late afternoon after a LONG process of getting Eli a H1N1 shot.

p.s. Amanda, if you see this . . . XOXO.

update:
Claudia, XOXO"X". :)

Missing the Ocean.

UPDATE.

To my dear friends who thought we were rapidly expanding in family size, I apologize for my poor choice of wording (to even dare to combine the phrase "sick" and "important things to blog about" together. I was not aware of it until I read your comments.) Now that I finally get it off my chest, you know that we currently think that Eli is the one and only one perfect child for us, since Eli to me seems to have 4 sets of limbs, 3 sets of lungs, and his 3rd tooth is already out and the 4th is bursting out. . . you know how that goes. :) I was just having my annual allergy episode, although I feel warm and fuzzy from all your warm greetings, your comments, however, probably had given my mother-in-law a heart attack and thinking that we are not telling her a good news. That would have been a fun April 1st blog post. . . oh, yeah, and I actually has another Egg-plosion story to tell, next post I guess.

Time for bed, good nite!

Phoenix Arizona Temple.

I found the Beuf Community Center, as I could see every car from the main road was pulling into that direction, and so, that must be the place. I was a couple of minutes late, the parking lot was full already. The frustrating voices through the microphone guided me perfectly to which direction I had to go for the meeting. I stepped inside the Multipurpose Room and found myself a standing spot at the back wall. For the first time I attended meetings like this, the councilwoman Thelda Williams was also there with the neighborhood to discuss the case. I had a prayer in my heart that I would be open minded and calm and be a listening ear.

This goes back to last Tuesday as I read a flyer which was distributed to the community (also online here) about their concerns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filing a rezoning request to build a Temple in our neighborhood. An uneasy feeling overcame me after I read the flyer and online about what these people are trying to tell the neighbors about it, because I felt that the information are misled.

So, back in the meeting: After sitting through the meeting about half an hour, I had gathered the ideas of those in opposition had 4 main concerns:

1. the size of the temple will block the neighbors' view of the surrounding mountains

2. the lighting will be too bright that will destroy their view of the dark sky and they will not be able to see the stars from their houses

3. the location to have the temple built will create traffic jams in the area that is already an issue

4. drainage issue

I was not surprised by those ideas, because I already read it online. They were obviously their main concerns because they were being told exactly word from word. Half way through the meeting, hearing what my neighbors had to say, I was perplexed and at the same time, felt a little bit funny, because I recalled when I once lived in a town with a temple, whenever I need a place to find some quiet moments to think, it was always the street down by the temple, because around the temple ground was always so quiet and peaceful. Also, when my family decided to leave the busy Hong Kong and move closer to us, they moved 3 times within 2 years, because my parents wanted to find a place where they would like to grow old, and they ended up to be right across the street behind the temple, because they said they wanted a home which is exactly opposite from back home: they want to be able to see a nice view of the valley from their windows, quiet and peace, and certainly don't want to deal with any traffic. . . they have been dealing with traffic every day all of their lives in Hong Kong. Yes, and they picked the house right behind the temple.

I came to the conclusion that they were so upset not because of the not-yet-existed temple in their neighborhood causing troubles in their life, however, it is the rumors that are creating angers and heartaches. I cannot imagine if I were in their boat, not knowing the facts, just hearing the information they had been fed, if I were one of them, I would certainly against to have a temple by my house also.

I disagreed with them because in reality, none of those problems had ever been caused by any LDS temples all over the world, this proposed Phoenix Arizona Temple in a roughly 4.5 acres land will obviously be a "mini-Temple" and not a 12-story "commercial building". The beautiful view of the valley will certainly still be available, not to mention that the gorgeous mountains are all around us in this neighborhood.

And as they spoke of the exterior lighting of the temple, they compared it to a lighthouse/beacon, and claiming the temple will be lighted with "high intensity floodlights". None of the small scale temples use such lighting. I also read the city planning application myself (link is also provided in their website) and it clearly stated that warm lighting will be used.

Our neighbors also complaint about the drawn traffic that will be caused by the constant wedding ceremonies and receptions that are held by the temple is also a false idea, although some members of the church did try to explain about the ceremonies would be held in small sessions and were distributed/spread out throughout the days and throughout the week, and 5 days a week, not 7 days a week. Only if they can understand what kind of wedding ceremonies are held in the temple, they are quiet ceremonies, and very reverent! They are not wedding parties with DJs, bands, microphones, . . . there are no receptions at the temple, period.

There are many many more things I wish to explain, but this is so lengthy already. . . all I can say is that only if they know the truth about the LDS temples. . . I felt sorry for their heartaches over things that are false. Find a friend or anyone they know who has ever lived by a temple, or even who has visited one, LDS or not, they would tell them the same things as I did. I just want to write this to hold some justice to the truth, and voice my thoughts. And if you are interested, read this article by President Gordon B. Hinckley on "Why These Temples?" which has really good insights on purpose of a temple. A temple can bring nothing but only goodness in one's life. That is the fact. What is your thought on this?

Egg-plosion!

Did you ever put things in the back burner?

I did, I was boiling some eggs. . . couple hours later I heard some loud noises from the kitchen and I was sure that Santino wasn't home yet, so then I was scared that maybe someone broke in the house. Luckily nothing was broken (except the eggs, sad thing, I love boiled eggs) but it was pretty powerful. It went all over the countertop, stove top, back wall, under the cabinets, the lid shot off to the edge of the countertop and knocked down the pepper shaker (as you can see in the first picture).

Anyway, even more ironically, I do have something important I have been wanting to blog about but I am also putting it in the back burner. I have many excuses. . . Eli and I have been sick for a couple of days now, half way through my blogging internet connection was out and I lost half of what I wrote. . . I promise I will get that out soon. I haven't been able to sleep well not being able to accomplish it, and because I have been sick. . .