I'm a .... what are you?

I'm a Ford Mustang!

You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.>"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Shelby Cobra

Okay, I am not much of a car person, but tonight was pretty cool. There's a place just down the street from where we live that manufactures shelby cobras. (They don't do the engines, which apparently is what makes the car... if you buy one of these, you have to put the engine in yourself). But cool nonetheless. So we saw them at different stages of the process. One of the finished cars they store there is owned by Mr. Shelby himself (I saw MR because I can't remember his first name... Carol?), and one of them was owned by a crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The only one I got a picture of was this:

It's an original car, the one they patterned the parts from. The old guy standing behind it is the dad of the family (it's a family business - Kirkham Motorsports), he said he bought this car a long long time ago for $4500, and not too long ago turned down an offer for $750,000. Crazy! These guys are the only ones in the world that make the bodies out of 100% aluminum, and Mr. Shelby buys them from these guys - he's bought about 200 of their cars, they said. They only make 70 cars per year. Anyway like I said, I don't know much about cars, but this is neat and to think we never knew it was just down the street.

Oh yeah - this was a class "field trip." Our professor has done some work for them and the people let him bring his classes in to show them around.

Boris the spider

Okay, actually his name Gimpy the spider, named by my coworker. It scared me so bad yesterday when I looked over and saw him, this massive spider, hanging there for the first time, inches from my face. Luckily he is outside the building or I would've flipped a lid. Well, I still did, but at least I know he can't touch me in any way. Then today we saw him again, going down this time. He looks bigger today than yesterday. Then we saw him going back up again, which is when I snapped these pictures. You can see from the top picture that he's missing a leg on his right side, hence his appropriate name. And he is much faster at going down vs going up, when he has to stop and rest every foot or so. We watch in fascinated disgust.

I wonder how long he'll be around. I hope he doesn't find a way to crawl into the building and out the vent which is directly above my head. Hebegebees.

All scientists are mo-fo's because the monkey up there said so.

The fat cat actually climbed into my lap and let me pet him today. Hmmm, I thought that was a lost privilege, considering I'm the insane torturer at our house. By the time he was done with me, my hand looked like sasquatch and had to wash my hands to pick the cat hair off my face. (I'm allergic, so it bugs when it's in the face).

Well, we feel like exceptionally endowed at this time; some friends (yes FRIENDS, as in, couple-friends) invited us to go to Vegas with them next week, so off to sin city we go! We're so pumped. We have to cut the trip short and come home early for a class though, which is not so cool. But we'll take it! We're staying in a different hotel each night just to maximize the experience. I'm way excited.

Our human-performance meeting thingy today was on Gratitude, which is done once each year. I loved it! We talked about the scientific studies that show Gratitude is nothing short of a miracle drug, and in fact a performance-enhancing drug. Apparently people who are grateful get better sleep, are less stressed, have more energy, are sick less, and are overall more happy. (Go figure?) My "action item" for this one was to get my gratitude journal back out and start writing in it again. Just for fun, I'm going to include them in my blog on the days that I blog.

Thing to note - frustration is extremely detrimental and is a negative-priming exercise. We should take our frustrated times and turn them into gratitude. (in other words, I'm so thankful I couldn't find frames because now I get to go to Ikea and look there!) Well, it's a start, anyway. I am committing to being a grateful person! Yee haw! Let's do three things each time. They can be as simple as I want.

Well, since we're missing class on Monday for our trip, my homework is all stacked up since I'm turning it in early. I'm grateful for that because it means I'm going on vacation! (That's two things in this post so far). I'm also grateful for my sweet darling husband because he does so much for me.

PS - The title of this post comes from a random thought I had during class tonight. (Yes, it was quite the stimulating finance lecture, I assure)

Just Dance

I'm so totally flabbergasted at how hard it is to find perfectly square wall-mount picture frames. 8x8 or 10x10. I've searched everywhere (walmart, target, bed bad & beyond, and all the craft stores in the area). Why am I so intent on finding them? Look at this. That's my friend from high school. I love love love the vibrant colors and think they would brighten up the new office beautifully. (and then someday, they'll brighten up my house). I've already bought one piece of hers, but getting the frame was so hard (and expensive) that I want to find the frames first this time. Oh, existing art in square frames is plentiful, but I am not going to pay extra money for art just to take it out of the frame and replace it with more art. I'm just not. Purchasing over the internet is a last resort because shipping tacks on that much more (plus the assembly, etc.). There were some PERfect 8x8 frames at Bed Bath & Beyond and I was so excited, and as I got closer notice they had a special matting inside with the BYU logo all popped-out and fancy-like which jacked the price of the frames up to almost $30 per frame! Stupid BYU.

Also, will someone tell me to quit getting annoyed that all my $8 convenience-store sunglasses keep breaking?

I love this Just Dance song by Lady Gaga. (Only the itunes version!) I heard her on the radio a couple of days ago in an interview with an SLC dj, and this dj was trying so hard to get her to bag on Christina Aguilera. I guess Christina Aguilera said something really mean about her not too long ago, so this DJ was doing all he could to get her to say something mean back, and she refused. She absolutely would NOT talk bad about her; in fact only had nice things to say. This girl's got more brains than the rest of the dumb young girls out there right now... you know the ones who feud with anyone and everyone. Anyway, I think her voice is sexy. Weird? Oh well.

The word "meh" is officially in the dictionary now.

Time off

So I've been pretty apprehensive about the coming semester. One weekend of being overwhelmed was enough to stop me in my tracks and think, "am I serious?" Maybe I shouldn't have been so public about my plans because now they're changing again. I'm going to have a counselor help me decide which classes to drop, and I'm going to extend the schooling through December. It's not worth it; Geoff says I'm a fire-breathing dragon when I don't get enough sleep. I HATE being a fire-breathing dragon. It feels awful.

So, push the GMAT off for another year and take a few semesters off, that's what I'm going to do. That will actually be really nice. Am I superwoman? I think not. I'm totally okay with that.

Rock it baby

I've concluded that the whole higher-education system is a giant crock of shizzy poo, to borrow the term from my sister. It intends well, but really, it's all messed up. I'll probably expound on that some other time though.

Yesterday I went back up to South Towne Mall to use a "spend $30, get $15 bucks off" coupon at New York & Co. Spend 30 get 15 off? That's a great deal! That's like, a pair of pants for 15 bucks!! I was so excited, then got there, and there was nothing to buy. Like, nothing that wasn't 100 bucks, or nothing cute that wasn't already on sale for 15 bucks. (Also, I noticed that most of the customers in the store were middle-aged women with ultra-blonde bobs... I don't know what that means, I just noticed it). Anyway, not being able to find anything, I went and bought a pair of shoes that I'd been eyeing elsewhere:

Cute high-heels are a celebration of being a girl if you ask me. Even if you hate them by the end of the day. If you can pull off your day in a pair of stillettos then that's awesome. (I'll sometimes bring a pair of tennis shoes though, to wear to school, because usually walking across campus at the end of the day will do me in!)

Along the same lines (of being a girl), we watched a movie the other day about an anorexic and a morbidly obese girl who become friends. There were some strange parts in the movie, but overall I thought it was an interesting look into the two ends of the spectrum. I think body image is only part of what people struggle with when it comes to their weight (under or over), but it is still a big part of most people's life, women in particular.

I'm pretty snowed in with homework today, so I should quit putting it off and get started!

When Mac & Cheese takes over the world

"What if you and I were to take over as CEO and CFO of Kraft Foods, and it got BIG, so big that it took over Russia and changed Russia's name to Kraft." -Geoff Stanley, spoken to Cali after hearing a Kraft rep speak.

Earlier this week we went to a "networking dinner" at the school, at which the Regional VP of Kraft Foods spoke to us (yayyyyyyyyyyy). We had to pay for our own dinner, but in the end I was glad we went. It was an HVA event. (High-value-added). Mr. Human Performance Coach would ask me to name three things I took away from it, three ah-ha moments. I did it in my head so you don't have to read it here.

We've been under a blanket of coulds for almost an entire week. I've been waiting for the sky to clear up so I could take these pictures:


It's hard to escape the crappiness of cell-phone pictures, but that is the view. Gorgeous, I love it.

Also cool, was last night as I made the daily trek from work to school, in the dark because the clouds were so thick, I looked toward the south end of the valley and there was pink/orange light coming through the clouds at the peak of a mountain down there. It was only right at the mountain peak, and the way the clouds swirled around with the pink in them was a semblance of an awesome-looking volcano in full eruption. I wish I could've taken a picture, but that's not exactly the smartest thing to do while driving. Pretty though.

Geoff brought me lunch today at work. He's such a cutie, I love him. I switched from 4-10's back to the 5-8's schedule. I really think that the combination of shorter work days, the extra hour of sleep each day, and the ability to take a lunch break each day will stave off the school-burnout much better than cramming for 4 days straight and taking one off. At least it should help get rid of those weird spreadsheet/GL dreams, eh?

We both have a finance test tonight, then I'm looking forward to just taking the rest of the night off with him and relaxing. Because... yes... the tiredness... JUST... hit me...

Runaway chickens

Okay, I could think of nothing interesting to write tonight, so I just tried to make up something really wacky and crazy and hilariously funny and totally false. Just to be weird. But I'm not that creative. Snap. What happens to our brains when we get older? When I was a fourth-grader, I wanted so much to grow up and be an "author." I loved making up little stories; in fact, I once wrote a three-part, 26-page story about a chicken named George who ran away from the farm into the mountains, where he met a girl-chicken named Martha. George and Martha then meet a skunk name Harry. The three of them have all kinds of adventures from being chased by lions, which they somehow managed to outrun, sharing their stories, and stealing a bag of food from a runaway boy. George, Martha, and Harry eventually end up being adopted by runaway boy and living happily ever after.

Then one day I tried to write a story about a girl with long brown hair, almond-colored eyes, and a rayon pants-suit, and that was the end of my story-writing days.

Anyway, today was pretty busy; the upstairs left-half of the building at work is finished, so it was MOVING DAY! My office has the most gorgeous view of the mountains, up close! They fill up almost the whole window from where I sit! The boss said if he comes in there and catches me staring at the mountains daydreaming, I'm fired. Ha ha. I went and bought some coasters so I can have drinks at my desk without ruining the wood (I don't know if it would even get ruined, but just in case). It will be fun to be upstairs now.

And other than that I really have nothing to write about. Same old stuff. Boy if it's this bad now, I'm going to be really interesting in January.

Kalai and the good old days

Now there's a new song by Kalai in the playlist. In the summer of '04 when Geoff and I were just getting to know each other, Kalai came and did a mini-concert at the house Geoff was living in at the time. He said he would come and just charge a flat fee and as long as he got paid the flat fee he would do it. So Geoff's roomies just charged everyone $5 to come inside and it was packed! It was pretty fun. I remember us sitting on the couch at the back of the room. There were some girls from his ward there, one whose name was Cherish. I remember thinking, "that's a pretty name," and then, "hey, BACK OFF sister!" as I realized Geoff had an interest in chatting with her. Ha ha. I'm psycho. Fun days.

The primary program went great today, (thanks to Katlin who put it all together!). And then when we got home I took a nap and got started on my homework, and have been doing that for about the past seven hours. So yeah, brain=mush. I think I missed a meeting I was supposed to go to. Oops, I'm bad. I guess I should call her.

Now Geoff is making taco soup to take to work for lunch tomorrow, and more confetti cake because boy did we eat that cake fast! I'm going to go be with hubby now. Night night.

I'm just rambling now

It is Friday night and Geoff is out there watching The Strangers. I watched about 20 minutes of it and came back here to chill. Not my cup of tea. Check out the new song - Save Room by John Legend, I kind of like it.

Today we had the primary program practice. It went pretty well and actually, we have three new kids. It is pretty exciting because it almost doubled the size of our primary. The best thing about it is our oldest boy, Gavin, now has friends his own age in there with him, which I think will be nice for him. They seemed like really great kids.

These are the other girls in the pres.I stole this from Kayt's blog! It's Kaitlyn, Kayt, me, and Staci. They are so great and I'm glad I've had the chance to get to know them better, they are really amazing girls! (That is from the Halloween party - no we don't dress like ladybugs every day!)

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Afterward, Geoff and I went up to South Town Mall because there was a store I wanted to hit up. I found what I was looking for pretty fast, and we wondered what else we could do since we were already up there. We ended up driving up the hill to get a better look at the new Draper temple. It's not finished yet, but the outside is pretty much done. It was very impressive, but I was equally impressed with some of the houses up there! One was as big or bigger than the temple itself, not exaggerating! Looking out from up there, you could see the entire Salt Lake Valley, and you could see the Jordan River temple, the other new temple (not sure of it's name), and you couldn't see the Salt Lake Temple, but you knew where it was cuz you could see all the high-rises from downtown Salt Lake. Kind of neat.

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Other than that very very rich part of town (which I could never hope of being in), the other parts of Draper seemed really cool; I don't think I'd mind living there at some point in the future. The distant future though. Hopefully we'll get to move out of Utah sometime, for my sake. Just because I want to try it. Geoff really likes Utah though. I guess we'll see where our employment takes us.

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Okay the movie's done.

Just a thought

Maybe in another 30 years we will elect our first gay president.

Do you think they'll pay me overtime?

Check out Geoff's blog. Turns out I'm a sleeptalker.

Converting mp3's

When I came home from work today, Geoff had made a nice dinner of beef stew (in the crock pot), flaky biscuits, and martinelli's with little wine glasses. And confetti cake, which we love, for dessert. Just to say he loves me. (cue - awwwwwwwww) When I thanked him for being such a sweetheart, he just hung his head and said, "nawwwwww you mean I'm such a sweetfart." Ha ha.

I am ADDICTED to this song. Keep the Faith, Michael Jackson. I remember thinking, "this is weird," when listening to it as a fourth grader, but now I love it! I'm pretty sure it played about 30 times on my little CD player at work today, and I'm pretty sure I sung it at the top of my lungs in the car another hundred times.

I need help! Does anyone know how to convert protected Mpeg4 files to Mp3's?? I figured out how to host the files online myself so I can stick 'em over there in the playlist, but I can't convert them to mp3's, which is the only file type playlist supports. I've searched and tried a bunch of different things and nothing works. :( At least short of paying for a converter program.

Not that I'm saying you should all want to share my love for this Michael Jackson song...

Prop 8, what about their rights?

I didn't really want to get into this matter again on my blog, and I realize by doing so, I open myself and that which I love up to criticism and contempt (which I don't like, naturally). But I just can't sit here and go on with my happy little life and pretend stuff's not happening. SO, here it goes.

Prop. 8 passed. Someone told me once that I write about this a lot. Well, it's because I've thought a lot about it in the past couple of years. I think it's important to have considered all points of view. I've gotten so many "Yes on Prop 8" facebook group requests, and read many notes like the one I posted a few weeks ago, and also this article posted by my church about why they stand where they do. They make points that could be reasonably argued, however, I ultimately do not agree with them. I am of the conclusion that homosexuality is not usually a choice (so how can it be condemned if it's not a choice), and even if and when it is a choice, who cares? Live and let live. If they want to be married, let 'em be married! Put simply, my marriage is the greatest joy in my life, and I just can't see how denying someone else that with a person they love can be fair.

Having said that now, I think the hellfire that the church has come under isn't fair either. Leaders had this to say on the website:

"Some, however, have mistakenly asserted that churches should not ever be involved in politics when moral issues are involved. In fact, churches and religious organizations are well within their constitutional rights to speak out and be engaged in the many moral and ethical problems facing society. While the Church does not endorse candidates or platforms, it does reserve the right to speak out on important issues."

Folks, they are right! Just as you and I have the right to say and push for what we want, so does the church. They also said this:

"Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. Voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. As we move forward from the election, Church members need to be understanding and accepting of each other and work together for a better society."

Probably the most dispicable thing I've heard so far is of that commercial someone did of mormon missionaries breaking into a lesbian couple's home and ripping up their marriage licsense, announcing "we're hear to take away your rights." It is utterly dispicable, ridiculous, and totally immature. I do wonder how the people - like my sweet little sister - who literally put their entire lives on hold to do what they do, will feel when they see that/hear about it.

The protesting outside an LDS temple, as if the momon church were the only one involved, (and as if there weren't other people who voted for it) is just an example of people who need someone to point the finger at.

I welcome your comments, even opposing ones, if you feel like you want to. However church-hate-mail and name calling will probably be discarded (I've heard it already, believe me).

AS MICHAEL JACKSON SAYS, "HEAL THE WORLD, MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE." :)

Dangerous

Re-discovering Michael Jackson. Yeah keep the faith. Don't let nobody take you down, brother.

Accounting questions

IT SNOWED TODAY!

We had a nice long fall this year at least; it was nice.

I felt like I'd drunk half a bottle of cough-syrup for most of the day today, though indeed I did not. It's hard to work when you feel high! ha ha.

Well the "high" or whatever it was started last night before I blogged because there was actually more I wanted to write about the graduate program. It's going to be a pretty tight squeeze to get in under the wire. For it to happen, first, I have to be able to stay enrolled in and pass all 15 credits next semester... I hope to know within the first couple of weeks if that is going to be possible for me. Next, I have to get a good enough score on the GMAT, then finish the capstone and the rest of the classes during the summer. Before I heard that the program begins only in the fall, I had looked forward to taking a break for maybe a year or so. Also, I had actually wanted to do the MACC, not an MBA, but MBA is the only degree offered in this program. The reason this one looks good is because it is right across the highway from our house, (which means no having to move or sell our condo to find another place), AND you can work a full-time job while going, which would allow me to keep mine, which is what I want. And it's not like an MBA is a bad thing, so I'm not totally against it.

SO, keeping these things in mind, I'm going to push full-throttle for this MBA program, and if it doesn't work out, I'll take a few semesters off and either try again or find something else. Maybe I could commute to UofU and do a macc up there (a pain!), or maybe I could get into BYU (never been too excited about the thought of going there, but we'll see what becomes available at that time).

I just realized if I do get into the Utah State program, I'll have followed the exact same educational path as my boss. Though I don't expect to be quite where he is even when I've finished, of course. I don't think he knows, but I really really look up to him for his educational and career accomplishments, and his mature professionalism, and that he has such an amazing ability to think critically about things and see an issue from so many different angles, so that there is never anything missed. I hope to be like that someday. To be able to work with and receive instruction from such great role-models (both him and my "other" boss, the CFO) is such a golden opportunity and I hope to learn much from them in my time here.

PS - in case you didn't know - I LOVE MY JOB! Our CFO is in the process of teaching me how to audit the GL (just the tax liability accounts since those are the ones I use the most), and we've just been over it a little bit so far but I love it! How geeky am I!

New Beginnings

New President.

Here's hoping he delivers. And that's all I'm saying about it. Right now.

I'm really just writing tonight because it's been a few days since I did last. There's really not much to write about, except Geoff did some research on the MBA program that Utah State offers on our UVU campus. Apparently you can only begin it in the fall, and you have to take the GMAT in February.

So, studying for the GMAT while taking 15 credits and working full-time is going to be EXTRA EXTRA FUN. But really, having three months to study can't be a bad thing, so I'm somewhat optimistic. It's pretty exciting to think about, actually. That we have a definite/tentative plan in place for graduate school. If we both get in and both at the same time (which we are going to try for), then we'll be in all the same classes for 18 months! Which will be the only time we ever see each other!

This program is a Friday night - Saturday morning thing. So we'll be able to work full-time while going, and of course we'll really have to be committed. No vacays for us. But worth it in the end, we hope.

Now I'm listening to Obama's address to Chicago; he just said, "Hello Chicago!" Wow... I'm pretty amazed it actually happened. I hope hope hope things go well in the coming years. I'm going to go listen to the rest of his speech.

A family blog!

Hey, Geoff started a new blog! This one is a family blog though, so there probably won't be any more pictures of people pulling their guts out of their chests and holding it up for you to see... (well, I guess you never know on that) He is pretty cute. He said he might change the URL though so if he does I'll just keep it updated on the blogroll.

PS - thanks for your comments on the post a couple back! I appreciate your thoughts and support!

We are so studly

Here are our Halloween costumes. Geoff came to pick me up for lunch at work, and our receptionist (who I love) said afterword, "I saw him come in and I was thinking to myself, 'Who's that pervert coming in here?'" Ha ha ha. Geoff said he was an undercover 60's cop posing as a pimp.


Come clooooser... I vant to suck your blood! Ah! ah! ah!



We had so much fun though. At work, anyone who dressed up got $20, then after work we went down to Mt. Pleasant for a little party at my friend's house. It was pretty fun. Then we got home around 11:30 (yes we left early) and I was so cranky from wearing a cape all day and fake eyelashes (they start to hurt after awhile) so we went to bed around midnight. It was a fun day though. I think we'll dress up next year too.