Moving Announcement

Hi all!

Well, I know it's been quite a while since I've popped in around these parts. However, I have an announcement--Dani Girl Days has been relocated and renamed. If you'd like to keep following my adventures and silliness, take a look at And We Will Fly:

Picture provided for your previewing enjoyment. 

Hope to see you there!

Quote Book Catch Up

I am clearly behind on just about everything, including my quote book posts. I will be leaving this most beloved blog for a good 18 months as I serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but if you would like to follow along, drop by mission blog that my family will maintain for me.

And with that, I give you June, July, and what I have of August.

Tyler: I have the reflexes of a jungle cat.

Taylor: Can I go to the bathroom and then raise you from the dead?

Lacey: If you hear screaming children, it's just the goats.

Lacey: Tickling is about domination. Kissing is about sharing love.

Michael: If I was asleep, I could just pee.

Man in Kohl's: [to his child] Watch out for the humans. There's whole herds of 'em.

Lacey: I am the clever one, you are the potato.

Lacey: Oh no! Ah! Dang it, not again! I have toothpaste on my finger, and I rubbed it in my eye.

Lacey: I have a hair comin' out of the middle of my wound. Please note, Dani, that I said, "wound." With a "d" on the end.

Andrew: Alright, I'll let you hang out here. As long as you're doing something manly like shooting arrows with a hanger.

Benny: I want to be just like Dania. Except I don't have long hair.

Benny: [kicking me with increasing speed and force] Sorry, my feet didn't know you were there.

Benny: Your cheeks are really bouncy. It makes me want to bounce on your cheeks. If I were small, I would bounce on your cheeks, and then I would grow up to be the same size again.

Mom: [completely out of nowhere] Wanna arm wrestle?

Tori: Since when do you have cute sneezes?!

Tori: When you guys leave me, it makes me love you so much.

Benny: I picked you to dance with me. Let's go dance to the music, girl. Turn on your computer music. I'm just gonna grab your little belt.

Benny: Ice cream truck!
Mom: That's not an ice cream truck. That's a truck that's been vandalized, son.

Elder Stevens: I come from a family of actors, but I cannot act sad around Benny.

Mom: Yoga is just short for yogurt.

Ben: I want to fight.
Tori: I don't want to fight.
Ben: I want to wrestle.
Tori: How about we snuggle?
Ben: Okay. I want to wrestle!

Benny: Exercise makes me tired. Do you think I should stop exercising?
Mom and Tori: No.
Benny: But exercising makes me so tired when I get at the end.
Tori: But it makes your muscles so big and strong. Do you want big muscles?
Benny: I'm gonna get big muscles! By drinking lots of drinks!

Benny: Tor, if you flick me, I'll punch your flick.

Tori: Mom made me digestible love.

Benny: I wish you were a bald girl.
Dania: Why do you wish I was a bald girl?
Benny: Cause then your hair wouldn't tickle me so much. I wish you didn't have legs, too, cause then you could fly to walk.

Tori: The attic doesn't have a floor.

Mom: "Gourmet on the Go." Hardly. They gave me the unsalted nuts--are they trying to kill me?!
Tori: [who called Mom while we were running errands to say this] Dad won't make me pancakes.

Mom: What is in this?! It's like some kind of devil coke! That IS a devil coke. But it tastes like an angel.

Mom: Santa was wearing a freaking sports bra on the lawn mower!

Benny: I like that door. I want to steal that door as a present.

Benny: [stroking my hair] *sigh* You could look like an angel someday.

Tori: I only want to run away from home to a park and then come home for dinner.

Tori: This sounds like screamo jazz.

Benny: I'm thirsty!
Dania: I think there's a water bottle on the floor back there, do you see it?
Benny: No, I'm cold. That's how you say you're cold in Chinese.

Mom: Leave me alone! I'm hangry! I'm tired and I think I'm in my coffin--I'm gonna diiiiiiiieeeeeeee. I'm gonna throw up. I'm gonna throw up in your bed.

Benny: I'm going to marry a girl in my gymnastics class.
Dania: You are? Why do you want to marry her?
Benny: Because she looks so pretty in her orange gymnastics uniform.

Tori: I'm gonna use a butter knife. I feel so rebellious, cutting butter with a butter knife.

Benny: Mommy, can we go to the toy store and get me another broom?

Something Beautiful

I've been travelling cross-country from Washington state to Connecticut via multiple forms of transportation. If we're going to be precise, they are as follows: bus, shuttle, airplane, and train. In that order. My travel time is nearing the 24-hour mark and, in that time, I've encountered a lot of people and seen a lot of beauty.

The view from the bus on the way to Seattle, Washington.

Here are my thoughts--with no rhyme, reason, or order to any of them.

I think it is remarkable to see people instinctively help each other. In this area, I firmly believe that the little things are the big things. I don't mean to discount remarkable humanitarian acts of building orphanages and distributing medicine, but I cannot believe that the impact of those actions are any larger than the one the young man on the train had today. Without a moment's hesitation, he helped three elderly women get their suitcases from the overhead compartment, and thanked them in the process. I was deeply impressed by his sincere service, and I want to spread that beauty along the way.

New Jersey is prettiest when seen through little finger smudges on the window. Something about knowing that a small child was thrilled by the scenery makes it more beautiful in my eyes, too.

Journeys are driven by beauty--wherever one finds it. For me, this trip has been driven by the beauty of family. For a girl I met on the bus, yesterday's journey was driven by the beauty in love, dedication, and sacrifice. For a man I met on the street, the journey was driven by the beauty made possible through new beginnings.

This world is remarkably beautiful. The variety, the complexities, the newness that just a few hours in any direction can bring is astounding. There is beauty in the details and in the grand picture, and I want to soak it all in. I want to let that beauty penetrate the walls I put up, and then let that beauty shine back out into the world.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, here's to remembering to see the something beautiful in everything.

Big Girl in Brazil

Fun fact: I am going on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will be serving in the Brazil São Paulo West Mission, speaking Portuguese, from August 2013 to February 2015. For those who struggle with calendar math (such as myself), that's 18 months in which I will be a full-time missionary in a foreign country, on a different continent, speaking a language that I currently don't know. While I am doing all of this, I will be completely dedicated to teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Go here for more information about what a mission is. Or feel free to ask me any questions you may have!)

There will come a time in which I have much, much more to say about what all of this means to me. In fact, those posts are currently drafts.

But I wish to post something in the meanwhile. So stay tuned for the deeper stuff, it's on its way.

You know, my mom sometimes tells a story of my younger self. She always sang a lullaby when she tucked us in at night--usually whatever we chose. "Oh, Hush Thee, My Baby," was among the favorites. But it didn't take me long to catch on to something: my sneaky mother was trying to con me into thinking I was still a baby. And guess what? It wasn't working. On at least one occasion, my fiery red-headed self boldly informed my mom that, "I'm not a baby. I'm a big girl." And, in order to appease me, she changed the words. "Oh, hush thee, my big girl; a story I'll tell..."

(She also tells a story about my 18-month-old self running away from her, wagging my finger and yelling, "No no, Mommy, no no." But that is another tale for another day.)

I report to the missionary training center in 44 days and counting. Which means the deadline is fast approaching. The little details can't be overlooked for much longer--like the fact that I have only purchased a fraction of the wardrobe I will be needing to get me through 18 months of missionary service. So I'm becoming increasingly aware of the things that need to be taken care of and, apparently, so is my mother.

Every so often, my mom contacts me with various questions. It's usually sparked by troubles that other members of our congregation are having as they work through preparations for their missions, so the questions are along the lines of, "So-and-so is having trouble with his visa because of this, have you done that?" And I remind her that I was applying from the other end of the country and I applied through a different consulate.

Sometimes, however, the conversations are more varied. The following are samples of things I have said to my mother regarding my mission:

"Yes, I have been checking my church email. But remember, my mission is a new one and won't open until July. It doesn't exist yet."

"No, I can't go to Canada--I don't have a passport. Don't panic, I have a passport, but not with me. Yes, I know I will need it to get into Brazil. Mom, the church has my passport. They'll send it to me a week before I go to the MTC. I don't know how my visa status is, they'll tell me a week before I report if I'm going straight to Brazil or if I'm going to Provo first."

"I know I need clothes. Yes, I will need a suitcase. Mom, I can't bring that to Brazil with me--it's a giant teddy bear, I don't have room in my suitcase."

"Okay, I will try my hardest to get a present to Benny before Christmas. But remember how the mail is there. Sometimes the post office goes on strike and things."

"Yes, I've heard of the protests happening in Brazil, but who told you? Mom, you cannot keep reading the news about Brazil. It'll put you in a panic! You don't need to be that informed. I'll write you and tell you how things are going. Mom! This is like the time you watched a video of a hip replacement surgery before you got the surgery. You thought you needed to be informed then, too, and it turned out to be a horrible idea. Mom, really, don't follow the news in Brazil."

I am of the firm belief that my mom and I will be having the same conversations for the remainder of . . . forever. Because apparently we've had this one before. And you know how it ended?

If I recall the story correctly, the song went along the lines of something like, "Oh, hush thee, my big girl."

Real Writing

I haven't written--really written--in a very long time. Long enough that I can't quite remember when I last composed a piece of any substance at all. Long enough that I have been craving it for some time now.

Every so often, I put another one of these posts up. Where I stand and acknowledge my apparent death as a writer. I share how much I loved it and express that something magical happened as my fingers stretched across the keyboard--it was as if the wisps of my emotions and experiences knowingly lead me along, one at a time, until I reached what I was looking for all along.

I then clarify that I was no remarkable writer and that I never expected to make a significant impact with my words. But it brought me peace to write and to share those thoughts.

Somewhere along the way, I remember how deeply I love the journey of writing and recommit to a life filled with beautiful thoughts and clever sentences. And, for a small time, I hold myself to my rediscovered passion.

The trouble with beautiful thoughts and clever sentences, though, is that they take time and focus. Which is something that I love to give to writing, so let's try this again. The bigger trouble with beautiful thoughts and clever sentences is that they can always be improved. Which is also something that I love--I love that there is an inherent lack of finality in writing. However, the perfectionist tendencies in me take that quality and turn it into reason for procrastination. Post after post remain drafts because they were set aside to be perfected before they were presented to my small audience.

Well, here I am. And I have decided something. My writing isn't perfect, but it is real--and I am okay with that. Speaking of which, I best leave this real writing to study for and take a final.

To all who may stumble upon this post, please accept it as a peace offering in the battle between perfectionism and a writer's love.

May 2013 Quotes

Lacey: Which, you know, is gonna break her old heart, and she's gonna...die! I wouldn't put it past her--she would die just to guilt trip me.

Lacey: Aoooaahhh! I just smacked myself in the nose!

Taylor: [While looking for a place in the park where we can't smell dog poop] The flowers will override--like perfume on a sweaty woman.

Dani: Lacey, remember when we were crazy?
Lacey: Yeah...remember when we were single?

Lacey: I can feel the sun trying to give me cancer.
Dani: That's just the sun trying to give you love. Sometimes it just grows uncontrollably.

Soo: Why are you telling me to be a good wife? Give me a husband first!

Lacey: So I discovered something about Orajel. It tastes like fire, but it feels like ice.

Taylor: I feel like Harry Potter. My scar hurts.

Tori: Brandon has really good English, but sometimes he gets his murds wixed up.

Lacey: I'm gonna go now because my roommate and fiancee are being children.

Anna: Oh, Anastasia! I was thinking of Fantasia all this time.

Anna: He's very muscular. I dated him for two months. I don't know anything else about him.

Anna: My grandma ended up dying that Friday morning. My bad.

Lacey: [Heard from around the corner at night] Daaaaannnnniiiiiiii, get off Facebook.

Brother Bradford: Does anyone know the first thing Adam and Eve had to deal with in the garden?
Ethan: Was it who wore the plants in the family?

Lacey: I'm gonna have such bad heartburn. [Takes another bite of chili cheese fries.]

Lacey: I feel like she's the kind of person where we'd be like, "Hey, let's be friends." If she weren't my doctor.

Tyler: I hate cereal. It's the meal choice of Satan.
Zach: Well, he has good taste.

Brother Bradford: And then you're popping out the babies every six months, that can be stressful. [Interjection by everyone in the room about the faulty timeframe.] What? Oh. That's not the way it works? Well, I don't know everything about marriage.

President Ogles: I'm sorry I came in late, we had a teenage crisis at my home. It's amazing that anyone makes it through those years without being killed. By their parents.

April 2013 Quotes

Lacey: Cause I know her well enough to know that she will not be okay with having a celibate husband.

Taylor: I was not trying to seduce you with my eyebrow!

Random Girl: Well, I don't have the best memory, but thank goodness for social media.

Random Guy: Dude. I just shaved a chicken and moved a table.

Taylor: It's like I'm five again, and I'm trying to figure out which books to get from the library! Except, this is a 2-year graduate degree.

Tori: I want my Oreos, but they're across the room.

Dania: Tori, you're amazing.
Tori: It's only because I read.

Lacey: You know what would be a fun date? Rubbing Lacey's feet.

Tori: I just wanna live in a mansion and have babies. And eat pop tarts.

Taylor: I wish you could have felt my hamstrings when they were a rock!

Lacey: Ow! Ow! I just flicked myself in the eye!

Taylor: I like having a buddy. It's you, Jesus, and percocet all hangin out.

Dania: Why does everyone have orange juice?
Lacey: Because I bought it. With my money. That's a lie, I bought it with a credit card.