This is my fantastic husband performing the most ridiculously amazing vocal percussion solo that BYU has very seen at the Vocal Point concert on Thursday night in the DeJong Concert Hall. The crowd ate him up... unbiased as I am... :)
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
A long overdue post
Ahem... so since we're now counting down to Christmas, we figured it was an appropriate time to stop procrastinating and put up our Halloween post complete with fun pictures. These photos were actually taken the weekend before Halloween when we got together with some Vancouverites (and one Puyallupite) and headed over to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point for some Halloween festivities.(On Halloween night we went to campus with Hannah to enjoy the old, blackn'white film, "The Phantom of the Opera" complete with organist extraordinaire and cheers and hisses from the costumed audience... that was a blast!). Enjoy!
Here's the line up:
Left to right: Bri the Sheep, Grant the Goat, Hannah the Horse, Ben the Cow, and Maura the Piglett, and Brittany the Cameralady.
Is it just me, or something a little funny about this cornmaze?
Help, help!! We're drowning in corn kernals!
It's like the beach... sort of...
This is the love cow. Oo la la!
Hannah taught us all how to lasso...
Every girl's dream come true -- riding in a horse-drawn princess carriage with their favorite prince.Then we went home to CARVE PUMKINS!
The finished products!
Hannah and Brittany's masterpiece...
Ben and Mara named theirs Spookly.
And this is Brenden the Pumpkin. When mentioning Brenden in conversation we always say his name in a very slow, delibrate, and proper English accent.Feel free to drop a comment, but please refrain from any corny jokes!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Vocal Point at the Hinkley Center
Friday, October 17, 2008
Family Marching Orders
Just before General Conference, we sat in fast and testimony meeting and listened to Brother Puzzle, our upstairs neighbor and landlord, bear his testimony. For those who are unaware, "General Conference" is a bi-anual, church-wide meeting, broadcast all over the world, in which our Prophet and other church leaders speak to the church and reveal to us those things that the Lord would have us focus on, and "fast and testimony meeting" is a meeting held the first Sunday of each month in the LDS church, where anyone who feels inspired is invited to come up to the pulpit and bear a short, heartfelt testimony of the truth of the Gospel and the Savior.
In his testimony, Brother Puzzle said that he liked to think of the counsel given at General Conference as our "marching orders" for the next six months. The spirit was present and strong. We took his idea to heart and decided to create a list of goals or commitements taken from the messages of our general authorities and call it our "Family Marching Orders" for the following months. We'll continue it as a righteous family tradition. We want to share this list with you!
We're so grateful for the leadership of the Lord's church that guide and counsel us today. We pray for them continually. We're grateful to be members of that church and for the spirit, harmony, and love that it brings into our home. Hooray for righteous traditions!!
In his testimony, Brother Puzzle said that he liked to think of the counsel given at General Conference as our "marching orders" for the next six months. The spirit was present and strong. We took his idea to heart and decided to create a list of goals or commitements taken from the messages of our general authorities and call it our "Family Marching Orders" for the following months. We'll continue it as a righteous family tradition. We want to share this list with you!
Family Marching Orders
October 2008 – April 2009
Simplified Lifestyle
We commit to living a simplified life style. We will keep a monthly budget, live within our means, eat healthy meals, exercise often, and keep our spiritual fuel tanks full through personal and couple prayer and study.
Sacrament Preparation
We commit to prepare to take the sacrament each week by going to bed by 11:00 PM on Saturdays, waking up by 7:00 AM, leaving early for church, not talking/texting before and during the meetings, singing the hymns, dressing appropriately, and having a broken heart and contrite spirit.
Study Basic Gospel Principles
We commit to include the Book of Mormon in our personal study and family home evening studies, as well as focusing on strengthening our testimonies and knowledge of the basic principles of the Gospel. We will each take turns preparing a lesson for Family Home Evening.
Hope and Laughter
We commit to inspiring hope in others and ourselves through all our words. We will not speak negatively! We will not be discouraged by the world or the actions and ideas of others. We will laugh often and not “sweat the small stuff.” We will not postpone our joys in life.
Unity
We commit to fostering unity in our family and with others through consistent and sincere prayer, study, family home evening, and inclusion of our testimonies of the Savior in all we do. When we pray, we will focus on joining our faith together, praying for each other, reporting to the Lord, and acting on any revelation we receive.
Deference and Sacrifice
We commit to being slow to judge, quick to forgive and always giving a soft response. We will minimize our personal demands and maximize our personal sacrifice.
World Awareness
We commit to staying aware of what’s going on in the world and local community and making our opinions count by voting.
Building Friendships
We commit to reaching out to those we associate with. We will invite one couple a month to dinner.
October 2008 – April 2009
Simplified Lifestyle
We commit to living a simplified life style. We will keep a monthly budget, live within our means, eat healthy meals, exercise often, and keep our spiritual fuel tanks full through personal and couple prayer and study.
Sacrament Preparation
We commit to prepare to take the sacrament each week by going to bed by 11:00 PM on Saturdays, waking up by 7:00 AM, leaving early for church, not talking/texting before and during the meetings, singing the hymns, dressing appropriately, and having a broken heart and contrite spirit.
Study Basic Gospel Principles
We commit to include the Book of Mormon in our personal study and family home evening studies, as well as focusing on strengthening our testimonies and knowledge of the basic principles of the Gospel. We will each take turns preparing a lesson for Family Home Evening.
Hope and Laughter
We commit to inspiring hope in others and ourselves through all our words. We will not speak negatively! We will not be discouraged by the world or the actions and ideas of others. We will laugh often and not “sweat the small stuff.” We will not postpone our joys in life.
Unity
We commit to fostering unity in our family and with others through consistent and sincere prayer, study, family home evening, and inclusion of our testimonies of the Savior in all we do. When we pray, we will focus on joining our faith together, praying for each other, reporting to the Lord, and acting on any revelation we receive.
Deference and Sacrifice
We commit to being slow to judge, quick to forgive and always giving a soft response. We will minimize our personal demands and maximize our personal sacrifice.
World Awareness
We commit to staying aware of what’s going on in the world and local community and making our opinions count by voting.
Building Friendships
We commit to reaching out to those we associate with. We will invite one couple a month to dinner.
We're so grateful for the leadership of the Lord's church that guide and counsel us today. We pray for them continually. We're grateful to be members of that church and for the spirit, harmony, and love that it brings into our home. Hooray for righteous traditions!!
President and Sister Monson
The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Thursday, October 16, 2008
PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER... itty bitty living space
Welcome to Grant and BriAnne Zabriskie's new home!
What's behind Door Number 1?...
After all, what home is complete w/o a creepy, echoing entryway? No worries though, Bri cleaned out all the icky cobwebs & added pretty candles to brighten the gloom.... and behind Door Number 2?
Good question. When we first moved in, we thought it was our pantry...
but something's missing!!Well, stacking our food didn't work so well, as I'm sure you can imagine. So for a family home evening activity, we converted one of the closets in our living room into a well stocked pantry and changed the purpose of the so-called "pantry".
Behind Doors Number 3 and 3&1/2?
Who would've thought that a closet could become the perfect office/ recording studio?! That's what I call expert use of space!and last but not least... (well maybe the least space)
Door Number 4...
In all seriousness, we LOVE our apartment and are very grateful to live in such a beautiful place!
Oh! I almost forgot!!
This is our handy-dandy fire alarm. We're taking suggestions for names. He deserves a name because we put him through so much, you see.
I noticed the other day, (though with my low-resolution camera, it will be impossible for you to see) that on the fire alarm,
are written the words "Hold to test weekly".
We decided that this is entirely unnecessary in our home as I test the thing every time I make Sunday dinner!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Hunter 7
In August, we spent a week here in Provo to participate in the BYU Education Week run of With Mine own Hand: The Musical Account of Nephi. During that week, Grant saw his best friend David Holladay for the first time in 3 years. Growing up, their favorite thing to do was make silly movies together under the production name of "Playaround Productions", cause that is what they were doing - playing around. When these boys were 11 years old, they made their first movie, titled "The Hunter". It was about a boy being chased by another boy. Apparently (it's hard to tell sometimes) the "bad boy" wanted something from the "good boy". Grant played the good boy and David the bad. Soon after, they made a second, then a third, until the year before their missions they made the sixth. Then, David and Grant are united once again after three years of separation and what do they do? Do they sit and talk about their mission experiences? Well, yes... but they also make "Hunter 7: The Mummy's Corpse"! We hope you enjoy it.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Feet Firmly Planted in the Stratosphere
So we're up and running as promised... finally. After a whirlwind honeymoon (We had a wicked storm at Bear Lake the last day) and crazy few first weeks of school, Brant and Gri... we mean, Grant and Bri are settling into their new place at last. We have some awesome upstairs neighbors, for privacy purposes we'll call them the Puzzles, who supply us "poor starving college students" free fruit and veggies fresh from the Puzzle garden. Mmm-mmm.
We had a party opening all the gifts we received, and we're so grateful! Who knew it took so much stuff to stock a home?! (especially the kitchen!) Bri has braved the kitchen many evenings to attempt to learn how to use all the neat tools we've received, and she's only set the fire alarm off twice. (By the way, anyone know how to remove grated cheese stains from a tablecloth?)
Grant's mad musical skills have once again landed him in BYU's premier nine-man a cappella group, Vocal Point. We have this wonderful echo in the hallway entrance to our apartment, and he can often be heard vocal percussing his way into the house, as he returns from classes.
We also had a surprise visit from a bishopric member this last Sunday (sadly interrupting Bri's ritualistic morning bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios) just before church started. The ward decided to cash in on Grant's choir directing experience and also called Bri as the ward Miamaid adviser.
We had a small miracle occur in Bri receiving a job as a transliterator for Utah Valley University (only 15.4 minutes away from their home, unless Hannah is driving). She is very excited to start work tomorrow morning!
Marriage is even more fun than anticipated. Learning all about how to live with and serve each other is a neat and rewarding experience. We're really thankful for all the great advice we received from you! While we're having a blast here in Provo, we miss you and think about you often, so keep us updated. Our email is TheZabriskies@Gmail.com. We love to hear from you!!
We had a party opening all the gifts we received, and we're so grateful! Who knew it took so much stuff to stock a home?! (especially the kitchen!) Bri has braved the kitchen many evenings to attempt to learn how to use all the neat tools we've received, and she's only set the fire alarm off twice. (By the way, anyone know how to remove grated cheese stains from a tablecloth?)
Grant's mad musical skills have once again landed him in BYU's premier nine-man a cappella group, Vocal Point. We have this wonderful echo in the hallway entrance to our apartment, and he can often be heard vocal percussing his way into the house, as he returns from classes.
We also had a surprise visit from a bishopric member this last Sunday (sadly interrupting Bri's ritualistic morning bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios) just before church started. The ward decided to cash in on Grant's choir directing experience and also called Bri as the ward Miamaid adviser.
We had a small miracle occur in Bri receiving a job as a transliterator for Utah Valley University (only 15.4 minutes away from their home, unless Hannah is driving). She is very excited to start work tomorrow morning!
Marriage is even more fun than anticipated. Learning all about how to live with and serve each other is a neat and rewarding experience. We're really thankful for all the great advice we received from you! While we're having a blast here in Provo, we miss you and think about you often, so keep us updated. Our email is TheZabriskies@Gmail.com. We love to hear from you!!
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