Friday, December 23, 2005

Bought a Washer and Dryer

Since Aaron and I are moving into an apartment with washer and dryer hookups, we figured it was time to get us a set. We've been looking around and trying to figure out which ones were best and I've been talking to my co-worker, whose son used to be in the business, about which ones were good, especially since we were thinking of possibly getting a used set. We, or I should say I because Aaron left the decision up to me basically, finally decided on what we should get. My co-worker had told us to avoid certain brands such as GE and Hotpoint and that the good brands are Kenmore, Maytag (except for their Neptune model), and Whirlpool. So I decided to look at Sears that has all three of these brands. We ended up deciding on a Kenmore 80 series washer and a Kenmore 70 series dryer. If you want to take a look at them, here are the two links to Sears.com:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=APPL&pid=02626852000&subcat=Conventional+Top+Load+Washers

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=APPL&pid=02666732000

Even though different "series," they match in the way they look and I'm very happy with the options they have on them. I read a lot of online reviews for other washers and many women talked about how great having the "Second Rinse" option is and how you need the ability to turn off the buzzer on the dryer in case you have a child napping near by (or maybe if you are going to go to bed after you start it). They also mentioned how nice it is to have the Handwash mode, which can wash even handwashables very gently. So that's why I decided to get what I got. I'm very happy with what I chose overall. I've heard great things about Kenmore washers and dryers. What's also great is they're going to deliver them next Saturday (12/31) for free (after a rebate anyway). That's the day we move into our new apartment. I'm so excited to do my own laundry without having to leave the apartment! It's been over six years (except for sporatic times when I've been home). So exciting!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Job Interview Tomorrow

I am so excited. I was sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start, and the manager for documentation walked by and asked if he could talk to me after the meeting. I figured it was about that job I applied for so I was very excited. After the meeting he said that he would like to set up a time to interview me. I told him when I was free and so he's going to send me an email about when he wants to interview me tomorrow. I'm so excited! I figured that they already had someone for the job, but maybe I do have a chance. I feel that I'm pretty much perfect for the job, and so I hope that it works out if it's suppose. Cross your fingers people. I need all the luck I can get. Here's hoping!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Possible Job Opportunity

So as I've said, I'm just a temp at the company I work at (and have been for over 9 months) and even though I am really grateful to work here, and they pay decently (especially for the area), and they treat me as if I'm a real employee, I'd really like to get hired on and not be a "contractor" anymore. One reason is I figure that even though I get paid all right, I still deserve more and if I were hired on I would most likely get paid more. And the second (and biggest reason) is that if I were hired on, I would have all the benefits, including paid time off (3 weeks' worth), holiday pay (10 days total), and health insurance (which I have now, but theirs is better and cheaper, $70/mo for the whole family), as well as vision and dentist insurance. I've been hoping that I would be hired on and they said they were planning to eventually. Then two days ago the company posted a job for an "Editor." How perfect! It's in another department, documentation, and I totally qualify (without over-qualifying) and since I already work here, I'm familiar with the company and the products, and I even know some of the people who work in documentation. So I put in my application yesterday.

Now I just have to wait and see what happens. I figure if I don't get the job, it will be because one of the interns that is already working there has applied and they are planning on hiring him or her and only posted it so it would be more legal (I'm not sure if it's illegal to hire someone without publicly announcing a job, but it might be). So if I get it, and it is a full-time position with benefits, I could finally get what I want. Yea!

Friday, December 9, 2005

Won a Salsa Competition

I can now say that my salsa is "award winning." We had a competition for the best salsa and I won! I got a $25 gift certificate to Chili's. Okay, I admit it, there were only two entries, but even so, it's still good to know I can beat out one other person. Our department bought a variety of store-bought salsas and chips to go along with the homemade ones and yet my salsa was the first to go, even though I made about a gallon of it. When I went over to get some chips and salsa, there were a few people talking about how good my salsa was. They didn't know I was the one that made it. Then more people came up to get seconds saying they wanted to make sure that they got more before it was all gone. They really liked it! Then the judges did the blind taste test (blind as in they didn't know whose salsa they were eating, not that they wore blind folds) and announced me as the winner. Sure I didn't have much competition, but it seems people still really liked it. Yay!

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Sold the Car

Well, after 2.5 weeks of trying to find a buyer for our old Honda Civic (1984), we finally found someone. As two people predicted, it was someone who only spoke a little English, but whose native language was Spanish and who paid in cash. I guess those Spanish classes I took at BYU paid off because with that and his combined English skills, I was able to communicate with him for the most part.

We ended up selling for $400 because I didn't want to deal with paying for insurance while we tried to get our asking price. It was getting old making appts with people to come look at the car and then go out into the cold weather (sometimes in the single digits) and talk to them about it, explaining everything wrong with it. (Even though most of these problems were cosmetic--as in they didn't deal with how well the engine ran--it still made the car sound bad. One of the hinges of the hood was rusted through, there was no stereo, the driver door is a different color, there is no air conditioning--a big deal in Utah, and the heater doesn't work great, also a big deal in Utah.) So it was just really good to get it done with. We were also smart and made sure we got the license plates from them before we gave it to them so we don't have to worry about getting blamed for them doing something illegal while driving our car. I wish we could sign the plates over to them, though, since they will now have to get the emissions tested and have a safety inspection done (which will cost them $40 to do). I'm really glad it's gone. Only one car, but it's cheaper this way :).

Thursday, December 1, 2005

We're Moving!

After being so patient for December to come so I could finally look for a place to move to at the end of the year, it's come and we've found a place. I'm very excited about this. I don't know how many people I've told, but I'm started to get sick of our apartment. I could stand to keep living there, but I really want a bigger place wither washer/dryer hookups. We've outgrown our 600 sq. ft. apt and can afford more. To top it all off, we could move closer to school and work now that I'm done going to BYU. So today I started looking and I got a call from an agent at Old Mill Realty saying that the apartment they're advertising we can have in January (or Dec. 31) if we look at it and like it. So we went and looked that night (along with two other apartments) and like it by far the best and for only $50 more in rent a month, it's so worth it. It is 1070 sq. ft. (so much bigger!) with two bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a laundry room, a crawl space under the stairs, 2 covered-parking spots with storage, a real place for a kitchen table, and a dishwasher (it's a townhouse, actually, so it has two floors). The only downside is it has a small kitchen, but we're hoping to fix that by getting some extra storage type things (including a kitchen cart) that we can use to expand the kitchen area. It may cram the dining table a little, but I think it'll be worth it. Here is a Web site on the place if you want to take a look:

http://www.oldmillrealty.com/bin/web/real_estate/AR136299/ACTIVATE_FRAMES/RENTALS/Orem/1092378311.html
(It's the one on the bottom, Meguro Apts.)

We can't wait to move in. It's going to be so great to have more room!

Saturday, November 26, 2005

It's My Birthday

It's my birthday. I'm 25 and can rent a car. That is all.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Black Friday

Many people avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague. They see figting the crowds, the early hours, and the cold as something to avoid, but I'm the opposite. I get a thrill at fight those crowds and trying to get good deals on things I would buy eventually anyway. Granted, I'm annoyed with the early hours and the cold, but when you get in that store and are racing around to get all the things on your list, I get excited. I was disappointed by some of the sales this year. Usually Office Max has some great deals that are free after rebate, but this year I didn't see anything that interested me. Rather I went to Staples, where I was able to get a flash drive with 512 MB of storage for $10, a paper shredder free (after rebate), and a Palm Tungsten E (for my hubby) for $150 with a free mp3 player. I was very happy.

After we went to Staples, we went over to JCPenny, where we spent the big bucks. They had 50 percent off all of their house hold stuff. We got towels, sheets, pillows, and a quilt. Then we got some jeans for Aaron (ones he really loves) again 50 percent off. We may have spent quite a bit, but we love what we got. The sheets are divine (at least compared to what we had before) and the pillows (which have a down-alternative) are really comfortable and help me to sleep through the night. Yea for comfort.

It was a great shopping experience over all.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Thanksgiving

Oh, my gosh, I spent like 8 hours cooking today! At the end I asked myself if it was worth it. I'm not sure, but I know that I learned a lot about it, like I want to always go somewhere else for dinner where every one only needs bring like one or two dishes. It was hard to cook that much.

But I am glad that I had my new Kitchenaid pots and pans to use making it. They're so wonderful--I love them. And they're red! Not that that's my favorite color, but I really like how bright they are.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Good News All Around

I've been feeling very lucky recently and I hope it keeps up. My dad came through town with my step-mom a week and a half ago. They were on their way to a real estate conference in California. They had an old '89 Corolla that they were not using any more and so they decided to give it to us. It was a wonderful and generous gift. We were worried about our '84 Civic. It hasn't been very easy to get it to pass the emissions test that is required where I live and I was worried about whether it would pass this next year. It also has over 223,000 miles on it. Quite old. So we were very excited about it. I was excited for other reasons as well. For one, the Corolla has power steering so I no longer have to crank the wheel every time I make a sharp turn. Also, our Honda had a draft in the driver's side door, and the heater didn't really work (and it's been between 20 and 40 degrees F here, so cold), and there was no radio. So it's good to have a car that has no draft, has a working heater, and has a radio. Yea!

So that's one good thing. Another is my mother-in-law came to town last weekend and we were able to have fun with her. She took us out to eat twice and to a movie, plus she reimbursed us for gas (which was very generous). So that was great. I guess she is giving us money for our birthdays and Christmas, so I'm grateful for that since if we move in December, we'll need it for stuff.

Finally, I was able to get a great deal on a washer and dryer set. My co-worker used to help the bank on foreclosed homes and now two of his sons have taken over. When they do this, they need to deal with anything in the house that is deemed hazardous or unsafe. This includes food, chemicals, refrigerators, and washers and dryers. At a house recently, that was actually in pretty good condition, they found a washer and dryer that was not too old and in good condition (as well as an almost brand new pool table that they decided to keep). I asked how much he'd sell it for and he said normally they'd sell for at least $300 for the set (although I wonder if it might not be more), but he agreed to sell them to me for only $200, since we're friends and all. And not only that, but his other son, who used to be in the washer/dryer business would clean them out and improve them so they will work better than new ones. Isn't that awesome! I'll be getting them Friday, but right now we're not in an apartment with washer/dryer hookups. We're planning on finding an apartment to move into that does and if that happens we'll move in December. Until then, our hometeacher is going to keep them in his garage. So nice! I'm just so excited. It seems to all be working out. Now all I need to do is find an apartment for us to move into that is bigger (with 2 bedrooms), has washer and dryer hookups, and is near a bus route to UVSC (that we can afford). Then we'll be set.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Good Place to Work

So on Thursday, one of the managers in my department, whom I had been helping out by attending the meetings his team has and then creating notes from that meeting, sent me an email stating that my manager had told him I would be too busy to help him out anymore and so I would need to stop (this was news to me since I didn't feel like I had much to do lately, but maybe my manager is anticipating something that I am not). Anyway, as a thank you, this other manager gave me $30 worth of gift certificates to a restaurant, and $11 worth of movie ticket gift certificates. Isn't that nice? Just to say thank you (and I hadn't minded at all because most of the time, I did not have enough work to do and I figured it was just part of my job).

To kind of go along with that, my company is taking us all to see the new Harry Potter movie the day after it comes out. They also had a meeting to discuss how the benefits will be changing for next year and although I don't qualify for benefits, since I'm just a temp, I went to the meeting to get the information. They have such a good benefits plan! It's $10 to see a doctor, $0 for a dentist visit, and they cover 90 percent of the rest that is in-network (I've never seen above 80) as well as 75 percent of out of network stuff. Isn't that awesome? And since it's nationwide (they go through Blue Cross Blue Shield), it's doesn't matter if you're on vacation or if your kids are away at school. All this and before this coming January, they didn't make their employees pay anything! Now they have to pay, but it's only about $72 a month, which is still unbelievably low. I can't wait till I become permanent and can take advantage of this! This really is a good company to work for.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

My Views on Weight Loss

Lately I've been thinking a lot about weight loss and such because I've been wanting to lose a few pounds, or at the very least not gain anything. So I thought I'd share my thoughts with whomever is interested in knowing it.

You can probably tell by my picture I'm not really fat by any means, but even so, I found my body mass index online, and according to it, I'm slightly overweight. Since I'm only 25, I thought I'd better do something about it now (especially before I have children) or it will a lot harder when I'm older. So I started exercising three days a week and paying more attention to what I eat. My goal is to eat 1500 calories every day, figuring that that is probably less than how many calories I should eat (but this is totally an estimate). I admit it's been hard because it requires me to eat less than I'm used to and I feel hungry a lot, but I also realize that this is mostly mental and as long as I keep it up, I'll be a lot healthier for. I'm not a dietitian or an expert on this subject, so don't take my views as such, but I have learned a lot through the internet, health classes, magazines, and television about the subject and this is what I've learned that has helped me. Click on the cut to read more.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Update

So Aaron has continued to do well in school. He's had three more tests and received A's on all of them (not even an A-). He also got a 98 percent on his programming project. I'm so proud of how hard he's worked and how well he's done despite feeling like his classes are hard and some of his teachers aren't very good at their jobs.

My job is still doing okay. Costco came to my work to try to get us to sign up for memberships. They had a drawing for some Halloween candle holders, so I entered and won one. Funny huh? I always considered myself unlucky, but I've had a lot of luck lately. First the Dustbuster and now the candle holder. My work is taking all of us to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire next month (the day after it is released). I'm very excited about this. We were planning on going anyway, but this will save us money, although we have to drive 45 min to the theater, so I'm not sure how much it's really saving :). They also provide popcorn and pop, but since it will be at 9 in the morning, I'm not sure I'll be in the mood for those sorts of snacks.

It looks like we won't be able to go home for Christmas. We were planning on it (our parents, his and mine, were planning on paying for the plane tickets), but we weren't able to find a cheap flight and with it being around Christmas, it's extra hard to find flights anyway. So it looks like we're staying in Utah. I guess that's okay, especially since my sister and her family aren't going to be there around Christmas anymore (they're going for Thanksgiving or shortly after). But it still would have been good to go home and see family. I don't think Aaron's too sad, though, because he saw his step-dad and step-brother, and his dad, step-mom, and siblings came in August; his sister and her family are moving here within weeks; and his mom is coming here to visit next month. So he's seen all of his family with the last few months (or will before Christmas). I did see my parents (mom, step-dad, dad, and step-mom) in April, so it's not like it's been that long, but it'd still be nice to go home. Oh, well.

So as I said above, Aaron's sister Andrea and her family are moving to Utah in a few weeks. This weekend she's coming to look at houses. She's asked Aaron to look with her. I think she misses him and wants to spend time with him. I'm interested to see what house she picks and where they'll be living. It will be nice to have her near. And with his other sister Ashley moving here next fall, we'll be surrounded by family. Yeah!

Well, that's all for now.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

A++

Aaron just told me that he got a 101 percent on his test! He actually got a 99.5 percent, but his teacher decided to give extra credit for a couple questions that they hadn't gone over in class yet. Since he got them right, he got extra credit! That took him over the 100 percent mark. Congrats to Aaron!

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Won a Prize!

So my work had a health fair yesterday. My work provides 100 percent of the health insurance for employees (meaning none of the cost comes out of the paycheck) and so they're always doing things to try to lower the cost of health insurance. They want to keep it free, but if it gets too expensive, they will not be able to pay for all of it anymore. So anyway, they do things like they had a campaign this last summer that if you ate enough "colorful" foods in a two-month period, you would be entered to win two roundtrip airline tickets. Of course colorful foods include fruits and veges (they said m&ms don't count, even though they are colorful).

Anyway, so they had a health fair where you could get your cholesterol and your blood-sugar tested to make sure you were within the right bounds and you could do a fitness test. You could have chiropractor do a scan to see if your spine was out of wack. And finally they had a raffle with some prizes. Now I am not one to win (and it's probably cause most of the time the odds of winning are so small), but I actually won something from the raffle. Since the fair went all day, the raffle was done by HR later and they just emailed the winners. So I won a Dirt Devil cordless hand vac. Cool huh! It made me smile :). I'm excited to start using it. I have to wait 24 hours while it charges up before I can use it, though. Ooooo, anticipation.

Monday, September 26, 2005

News

Well, I found out some exciting news: my sister-in-law and her family (which includes two adorable girls who are 5 and 2) are going to be moving to Utah near us. Her husband applied for a position in Salt Lake City with his company and was given it so they are going to be moving here next month. How exciting! We'll have family near by finally. Plus I'm excited to spend more time with my nieces. So yeah!

Monday, September 12, 2005

My Adorable Girls

Things are going better for me as the Primary Chorister. I am getting the hang of how it works and now that we are done with learnign the songs, we can now just have fun by playing games that practice the songs. I am starting to learn more of their names, which makes me connect with the children more and they have more fun. Yesterday we played a board game where each square had an activity for them to do, like one children quacks the tune of a song while the rest of the children guess what it is, or having one of the children lead. It was really fun and overall the children liked it. Yeah!

So in a month or so, our Ward will be having their annual Primary Presentation and being the Primary Chorister I am in charge of the music for the presentation. I decided that it would be fun to have a small group of girls sing one of the songs and a small group of boys sing another song, you know, to add variety to the presentation. I had announced it last Sunday at the end of our singing time, and so this Sunday those who had volunteered stayed after to practice. You should have seen them. They are so adorable! There is this one girl, Abby, who wanted to do it who I thought would be too young (she is only 6). But she did wonderful. I had them all sing by themselves so I could get a feel for their voices and this little six-year-old sang so sweetly. And she was really well behaved and obedient as we practiced. So cute! I wish I had pictures to share to show her cuteness. I had a lot of fun practicing with them and I am so glad I got a good-sized group to volunteer (I've had 8 volunteer so far). No boys have volunteered yet, so I asked the Bishopric to sing it with they're sons and they seem up to the challenge. Each one has one son that is still in Primary, so it works out great.

So overall things are going well for me and the Primary choristering. I am so glad that I'm getting the hang of it. It really is a reward to work with children!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Latest News

So Aaron started back at school on Wednesday. This is his third semester at UVSC. He's taking four computer science classes, so it may be a tough semester, but at least they are classes he is interested in. What was kind of funny was he was planning on using the extra pell grant money to buy a 1 GB flash drive to use at school, but when he went to one of his classes for the first time, the teacher told them they would be required to have an external hard drive for class that had at least 80 GB (he ended up getting one that is 120 GB because it was only $90 after rebates). So he figures he doesn't need the flash drive anymore--he can just use the hard drive! So funny. (And it was only $20 more for the hard drive, but of course way bulkier.)

While I was at BYU I signed up to be on an email list for editing minors. The secretary for the department (who just happens to be my old boss), sends out notices every once in a while with job offers. They can be really random sometimes, not just editing. Recently she sent out an email asking for English speakers to do voice-over work. I figured what the hey, so I recorded my voice with the microphone on my headphones and emailed the recording to the company (isn't modern technology wonderful?). I got an email a couple days later saying that they were going to have the customer hear the recording and if I was selected, they would let me know. This was pretty exciting to me. They had mentioned in the job ad that they would be screening the recordings for the customer and only the best would go on, so it must mean they liked my voice. I haven't heard back since, but I have good hopes (it's only been three days). If I am selected it pays $15/hr. Granted it is only 1 to 5 hours of work, but hey, it could lead to more work in the future. Yeah!

There is not much news other than that. My work still hasn't hired me. It will be six months on Sept. 7. I was really hoping to be hired by now. If I don't hear anything from my boss soon, I'm going to ask him about it. I think it's funny that I've only been there six months and yet I have already switched who my boss is. They hardly even bothered to tell me till like four weeks after they had switched me. Oh well. I like working for the second boss cause not only is he really cool, but he is higher up on the chain of command and so I'm hoping he'll have more pull in getting me hired. One can only hope!

PS We paid back our loan. We are officially free of any student loan debt. At this moment our only debt is on our credit card and is less than $40 (which at the moment has 0% APR cause it's still in the intro period). Yeah us!

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

My Husband's Family Visits

Last week my husband's family visited. I should clarify because he has so many families (his mother and step-father, his father and step-mother, his sister and her family, etc.). It was his father and step-mother who came with their three teenagers. Unfortunately, I was asked to attend training for four days at work, for 9 hours each day. I was able to get out of some of it to spend time with them, but normally I could have taken off as much as I wanted, so I was disappointed. It was fun to see them. Their oldest, Ashley, is planning on attending BYU next year after she graduates high school and so I showed her and her family around campus so she could get an idea of what BYU offers to students. She said that she knew that BYU was a good school academically, but she didn't realize how much they provide for the student including tons of computers, music practice rooms (she loves playing the piano), and a huge library. I also showed her the dorms so she could decide which one she wanted to live in. I was pushing for her to stay at Helaman Halls cause they are much nicer than Deseret Towers and would be more comfortably. Shy, humble Ashley just said to her mom, "I'll be happy to stay in either," since her parents are paying and she doesn't want to seem greedy.

Aaron and I can't wait until Ashley is able to come here for school. We really want to be near family and I am excited to mentor her through her college years (if she'll let me). The other two teenagers, Tim and Crystal, are also hoping to attend BYU when they graduate. This is great news for us and make us very excited. Free babysitters!

I guess this is a month of family visits cause Aaron's sister, Andrea, is also hoping to visit us this week. Her husband works for an airlines and so they can fly free, but only on standby. Yesterday Andrea tried to get a flight here and even though they expected 20 seats open, they had 75 people waiting to get on through standby. I am thinking it is those who decided to Education Week at the last minute. She is going to try again tomorrow, if there are projected spots, but we'll have to see. We're hoping it works out because we would like to see her and our two adorable nieces. So cute! Here's hoping.

To add to this, Aaron's step-father wants to bring us a dresser of theirs that they don't want any more and we could use and he is planning on coming Labor Day weekend, if he can get off work for it. I hope that works out cause I really want it and I think it would be great. Hopefully that works out.

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Church Singing

So again I don't have much to report. On Sunday I again did the Singing Time for Church. I always get really nervous before Singing Time cause I worry about whether the kids will participate and whether they'll have fun. On this day, I decided to play hot and cold with them (they sing loudly when the child searching is near the hidden item and softly when they are far away). The children participated well and they had fun. I think it went well. Afterward, I was in the hallway when one of the girls passed by me with her family and said to me, "I like your singing." I am not sure if she meant my singing in particular or just Singing time, but it was awfully cute and I told her thank you. Later when my hometeacher came to teach us, I asked him if his children had said anything about Singing Time at all (whether they liked it, etc.) and he said that they hadn't, but his niece, who has been visiting them all this month, has been singing the songs around the house. He also said their family doesn't go to church, so this is her first time learning these songs. That made me happy. Yeah.

This I still get nervous before Singing Time though. It is pretty nerve wracking for me. I am just glad that the new Nursery leader is a music person and so she is going to do singing with them so I don't have to. That really helps!

Aaron's family is going to be here soon (I think within the next week!). Yeah.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Things Are Good

I don't really have anything important to write about, but I figure I should say something every once in awhile, if anything just so you know nothing is really going on.

Things are going well for us right now. We're trying to pay off the one student loan I got while in school. It's taken longer than I hoped, but we now only have $125 left. Yeah. Today I had lunch with a good friend of mine, Maryruth. We met while I worked at the Linguistics Department and we enjoyed each other so much that we have continued meeting monthly to have lunch and catch up. She is such a wonderful friend and I'm so glad she enjoys spending time with me.

Aaron and I are doing well, as well. We are enjoying the time we have to spend while he is out of school. We hang out together every night and go to the dollar theater on the weekends (I love cheap entertainment!). His family is coming to visit in August. With the exception of his step-mother, Tina, we have not seen them since our wedding over three years ago! Aaron's sister Ashley will be graduating next June and is planning on attending BYU upon graduation. We're excited about this and being able to show her campus when they come next month. We're also excited to show them around Provo and Utah. Yeah!

Thursday, July 7, 2005

He made the Dean's List

Well, it's official, Aaron made the Dean's List!! We got a certificate from his school in the mail today announcing that he made it on the list. The hard work has paid off!! I never even made on the Dean's list when I was in school. Congratulations to Aaron!

Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! (Okay, I'm a little late, but hey, I was actually busy on the 4th.) As I predicted, Aaron and I spent most of the 4th hanging out in our apartment playing video games. I was quite bored of this, even though Aaron couldn't seem to get enough. I was able to convince him to go over to the Freedom Festival in downtown Provo in the afternoon. It was fun, but lack of funds kept us from doing much. After looking around at the booths, we went over to the kid's center and I made an origami flower. I don't think I did too bad, if I do say so myself. Aaron quietly endured. Apparently he did not want to participate, but he knew I did and was very good about letting me do my thing.

That night we went out to a local parking lot and lit the one firework we had. Our hometeachers gave it to us with a scripture from Job. I'm not sure how it related, but since we have no money to buy our own, we were grateful for the gift. It was actually our first firework of our marriage (if you can believe it). We saw others lighting off their fireworks while we were out there. Well, that was the end of our wonderful Independence day. God Bless America!!!

Sunday, July 3, 2005

Welcome

So this is my blog. Thanks for visiting! I don't really have any new news to report. My sister, Krissa, had another baby on June 19. He was a whopping 10 lb 15 oz. She deserves much praise for birthing such a healthy baby boy! Of course, he is darling. It's pretty much impossible not to be and be related to me. *all viewers nod their heads*

I am still working for Altiris through my temp agency. I hope to be hired on soon, as I was promised I would be. I've been quite involved in a lot of projects and along with being an editor, I also seem to be a trouble shooter (this is not on purpose, but since I am using the new version of one of our programs more than most, and I know how it is suppose to work, I have caught a lot of the errors with it). I hope this will help my company realize how valuable I am so that I will be hired sooner.

As many of you know, I was made Primary chorister a few weeks back. This was my third time leading Singing Time, and I have to say, I never realized how hard it was. To make things worse, I haven't been in Primary since I was 12 and I, of course, do not remember anything about what they did for Singing Time (other than I remember I enjoyed it). I have been helped in creating ideas and have been told that I have done well, so hopefully with time I will grow into the calling. It is a great opportunity to share my musical skills.

At the moment Aaron and I don't have any plans for the 4th. We are going to play it by ear (in case you didn't know, this means waking up late, playing video games, and if we're really feeling ambitious, doing some housework. I know that you're very jealous of the wonderful plans we have made). I hope you all have a wonderful 4th and remember what we are really celebrating. God bless America!

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Called to Be a Primary Chorister

So I was called last week to be the Primary Chorister for my ward. I have to say that when the councilor in the bishop called on Saturday night and wanted to come over (we got the message around 9 p.m., but he still wanted to come over even though it was late) I thought that somehow we'd gotten ourselves in trouble. I couldn't really see how, but it sure seemed that somehow we must've, cause why the urgency? Well, it was just to ask me if I'd be the next Primary Chorister. I guess they'd been without for over a month after the last chorister moved away and so they wanted to get someone in as soon as possible.

I was surprised and elated that they would want me to do it (and more importantly that God would want me to do it). I love music, and I love children. I was really nervous though. In fact, today I actually did it for the first time. Last week I watched as another sister in the ward did it, so I could see what she did. It was very nerve wracking and overwhelming. But even so, I know it will get easier and that God will help me get better at it. It's a much bigger calling than I knew. I mean, you have to plan twenty minutes of singing every Sunday (practically) and all you have to go on is that the children need to learn a song each month for the program in the fall. Oh, well. Pray for me!