Eternal Rest

I don't personally know Natalie Norton, but I prayed for her. I don't know what it's like to watch your little one suffer as much as she did hers, but I can imagine there is no greater pain. I have followed her blog in the recent days as she invoked the prayers of loved ones and strangers alike on behalf of her infant son, Gavin, named after her late baby brother. Even in her time of struggle, she has remained faithful and is continuing to give honor and praise to God. One of her tweets while in the hospital said: "Best thing you can do for me? hug your kiddos a little tighter , speak to them a little softer & spend some time just being silly together." How can I refuse? So, Natalie, today when I hug my kids tighter, and speak to them softer, and be sillier together with them, I'll remember you and your son and echo your testimony of gratitude for our Savior. Rest in Peace, Sweet Little Baby Gavin!

*photo by her husband Richie Norton

Back to Love

It's 2:00 pm, and I feel like a kid again, waiting for the ice cream truck to come by on a hot summer day. I haven't been this excited to see my husband--whom I am picking up from the airport soon--in a long time. For the past month and a half he's been working on another island and home only on the weekends. Some weeks have been longer than others with just me and the kids, but I've managed to hold it together pretty well...and by that I mean EMOTIONALLY. It's not that I don't LOVE my husband, it's just been really hard to LIKE him, and even feel IN LOVE with him, over this last year (which has to be one of the worst if not THE WORST in our history). Two months ago, I packed up my kids and I in a matter of hours, and left to find some peace...a peace that I found in the company of my family and dear friends, and in, of all places, HAPPY VALLEY, UT! LOL. But it wasn't so much the zip code that mattered, it was my heart and my soul--left broken and hopeless--that needed to be healed. I never prayed so much in my life. I let Heavenly Father give me strength I NEVER EVER had, and through constant communication with Him, I knew everything was going to be o.k. Till this day, it is hard to put to words the transformation I went through those few weeks I was away. I still feel that strength in me now, and God-willing, I will never go to THAT (lonely.desolate.hurtful.hateful.spiteful.) PLACE again.

I'm not naïve...I know that my my marriage is way off the path to happiness, in fact, we haven't even begun to walk, but like that song goes

♫ We'll crawl, 'til we can walk around
And we'll run, until we're strong enough to jump
Then we'll fly, until there is no end
So let's crawl, crawl, crawl
Back to Love ♫

With the New Year bringing hope of resolution and renewal, I look forward to forgetting the past so we can go THERE again, back to love.

Keep it simple

In my attempt to stay away from Facebook, I've decided to blog more often. All the columns I had on here were so distracting (much like FB) so I cleaned house a bit...hence, the "minimal effort" look. It's so plain up in here, but I still haven't found a good one to replace the old...for now, I'm just gonna keep it simple. (Something I am taking a liking to lately!)

MERRY GRISTMAS

Okay so it's 5 in the morning, I'm fully awake because I took my husband to the airport again. I found this and thought it was a great blog-quickie. Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season.

We moved...again

Just down the street, but still a pain. I feel like I am unpacking everyday and cleaning and rearranging constantly. Yesterday and today it was paint, and just in one room...tomorrow, who knows. I'm tired. I started my own personal journal again, so I am writing less about intriguing things, and more about my boring life, so it's nice to come back to "Darla" and drop a line. The cable guy finally came today (he was originally going to come on the 18th) and it is nice to plug back into the "world." I didn't miss it much though...I don't miss a lot of things lately. I have too much crap to do to miss anything (except my meals of course) so I can't wait until we are finally settled. Ugh, tired. Goodnite.

NEW MOON

So, while I was in Utah recently, I finally watched TWILIGHT and to my surprise, I didn't HATE it. I probably would have if I'd seen it last year when it first came out and I'd read the books already, but I waited to watch it right before NEW MOON came out, since I heard terrible things about TWILIGHT.

What can I say, but I LOVED NEW MOON. I didn't do the midnight showing, but I saw the very next one @ 11am in Laie. (Lucky thing we bought tickets the night before because it was Furlough Friday and all the teens were there.) I was so excited to see it since the reviews from the midnight showing all said positive things. I know that Kristen Stewart is not the best Bella, but I soo love her "look" for the part. Her acting and Robert Pattinson's (Edward) face leave something to be desired, but I don't care, because Taylor Lautner played a greeeeeeeeat Jacob. (Yeeeeow, almost made me switch teams!) I felt like a teeniebopper watching this movie, loving everytime I saw a brown, bare naked, muscular, body, LOL! I can't wait for the next one, only 200 something days away. I really hope that the entire cast sticks around for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, I thought they were all good, esp. Charlie and the entire Cullen family, even down to Bella's high school crowd. I just might re-read the entire series again during the Christmas break. In the meantime, I'm going back to watch New Moon again with the girls, 'cause Bo just couldn't stand Bella. I, on the other hand, really liked her in this one, and cried when she was shown screaming/crying in bed when Edward was gone. Somehow, I could relate to the pain.

"Always remember, my HA is within you FOREVER!"

This past Tuesday, my little family and I went with Lina to watch HA: The Breath of Life (PCC's new night show) for the first time. It was an awesome show, especially since our friend Ricky--who plays the main character, "Mana"--does such a superb job, so much so that my friends and I decided, TEAM RICKY is where it's at! Lol. I went with Lina and Tati again last night, and it just gets better, because we got to see 2 new people play Mana's mom and girlfriend. HA has a great story line and is so entertaining from beginning to end. I love the dancing, the props, the acting, everything...the music I am still taking time to get used to, but only because the music from the previous show HORIZONS is ingrained in all of us who grew up with it.

One of my favorite scenes is where the main character "Mana" grows from a boy to a man, and then proceeds to lead the dancers in the HAKA. (Wish I recorded that part, maybe next time!) Ricky is an awesome performer, because he seems to give it his all and nothing less...I really hope PCC pays him a lot of money, it would be a shame if they didn't.

Here is a clip from one of my favorite sections. Featured are Terina Oto as "Lani" and Ricky Suaava as "Mana."

In the meantime...

So much to catch up on...in the meantime I watched an episode of Cold Case on a recent Delta flight and really liked this episode (Season 6 Ep. 8) about a Russian opera prodigy who was murdered before her vocal dreams were realized.



Cold Case has such great stories and always feature awesome music. The closing song was Cindy Lauper's "True Colors" and it made me fall in love with the words, so I think it was one of my FB headlines this week. Lol. Anyway, until next time...