Drew's mission call, amongst other things

Good news. I've started doing really nerdy things that make me think I've finally found the right major. When writing the title for this blog entry, I referred to my handy-dandy (is that usually hyphenated? I don't know, but I sure like the look of it, so it's staying) Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage to determine whether or not amongst is acceptable in that context. Good news. It is.

Do you want even more good news? Okay, here it is. Cousin Drew opened his mission call last night and got called to the Spain Malaga mission! He reports to the MTC on January 4th and will spend the next two years serving the Lord and the Spanish.

Drew is going to be a great missionary and will definitely win over the people of Malaga with that killer smile!

In other news, we got another couch! And let me tell you, I had the most wonderful nap on this couch the other day. It is soft and bouncy and, most importantly, NOT ugly gray-brown.

Doesn't that look like the homey-est living room you've ever seen? 

I will leave you with my new favorite poem by Maya Angelou. I love her attitude in the face of adversity, and every time I read this, I decide to up the sassiness and to rise in spite of my problems.

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise. 

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.