How to Profit from the Coming Rapture

I was a winner in this contest. Yee haw. I am going to proudly display it on my coffee table.

Announcement entry.

Las Vegas

Vegas was fun! We went with a couple we knew from my work (the girl is the one I worked with about a year and a half ago). We grabbed lunch at the Cracker Barrel on the way down, and the four of us talked all through the entire six-hour drive. We all got along so well, I really enjoyed both of their company. I was glad that our husbands got along so well, too. (I worry about that, I don't know why. I always just worry that everyone is having a good time). But it was fun.

We stayed at the NY-NY the first night. I think our room selection had been upgraded somehow, but we were fine with that because it was huge! And what was cool was that it was on a corner of the building, so two entire walls were covered with windows. And there was a column/pillar-thing too. It was neat. After we got there, we went out on the strip and played until about 2 a.m. I actually saw a real pole-dancer in one of the casinos. Also, I had forgotten to bring my ID with me, and got carded and kicked out of one of the bars. (We were only there for water, but they didn't want me there.) Anyway. It was pretty embarrassing, but I really didn't expect that I look like I'm that young. (Someday I'll be grateful for that, I'm sure). Anyway, we walked through some really cool looking casinos, Geoff played the tables a little bit and won $130. We also went to see the Bellagio water show, with the Andrea Bocelli/Sarah Brightman song.

The second day we went back out on the strip and shopped a little bit at the outdoor kiosks and the mile-long mall or whatever it's called. Our feet were aching and tired by about noon, so we went upstairs the coke store and did the 16 flavors of the world for 7 bucks. The four of us passed around the flavors of coke and decided which ones we liked. There was so much soda that we had a lot leftover, so Geoff mixed a bunch of them together and chugged. It was disgusting but we cheered him on. Then we went to a HUGE buffet at the Excalibur, which was yummy. We joked about getting tickets to the Thunder from Down Under, ha ha. We ended up not going to that one, but tried to find a show that all of us could enjoy and afford. We really couldn't find any shows that we wanted to pay $200 to see, so we ended up not going to one. Next time we go though, I'd like to plan a show in advance then we don't have to worry about it when we get down there. So since we weren't going to a show, we decided to blow a little cash on the roller coaster, which was way fun. I love roller coasters.

The rest of the night we just walked around the MGM Grand, which is where we stayed the second night. It was SO NICE!! The room was just incredibly nice. The covers were all soft and fluffy, and they have this green light that they shine up at the rooms from the outside, so you have this soft, calming green light coming through the windows, I loved that. We had some creepy pictures on the wall though, of girls from the movies from decades ago. So we thought even though we knew our hotel room wasn't haunted that we should do EVP. Yeah, we didn't catch anything. (It was kind of a joke anyway.) We walked around the shops they have on the main floor... HOLY CRAP. I was just amazed that people can live that way... they had all the expensive stores... Gucci, Dolce & Gabana, Armani, Cartier, etc. The shops went on forever and ever. We actually walked in one to look at the clothes and couldn't find even a single shirt for less than $250. It was neat to see it all though. Afterwards Geoff went to gamble a little and I walked around with Ashlee & Jared for awhile and went to the room and took a hot bath, which felt so good for my tired legs. (It seems like we walked so much our legs were always so tired).

The way home was probably one of the best parts of the trip, because we just took our time getting home. After we left the hotel we went to the Las Vegas temple and did a session. It had one of the most gorgeous rooms I've ever seen. Then we changed and drove to St. George, where we stopped and went shopping at the outlet malls. Then we went over to Neilson's Frozen Custard before hitting the road again. On the way home we talked for a long time then listened to a bunch of really loud hip/hop and pop, which I loved. The only thing about being on vacation is you can't surround yourself with the music you listen to and I sometimes miss that. So it was fun. We didn't get home until midnight Tuesday night. It was a way fun trip.

In front of the Bellagio

Cali all tired at the end of the night.

Journal entries

Well, Geoff is taking a nap right now, and we've got a few hours before Ashlee & Jared pick us up, so in looking for something to do, I dug out one of my old journals from high school. I love reading old journals. There were a couple of entries that I thought were funny:

November 4, 2001 - Friday (I worked at Hollywood Video at the time)
"Last night at work a van full of people came - they were drug-rehab people "in recovery" one guy called it. They were funny. They rented a movie called 'Dope Case Pending,' and the lady in charge made them bring it back and get a different one. Mike and I thought that was pretty funny."

October 20, 2001 - Wednesday
(Brittany, if this isn't teenage angst, I don't know what is! It's probably the most angstiest journal entry I ever wrote. PS- it's kind of embarrassing to write, but if dooce can incriminate herself with past journal entries, then so can I. Names are changed however, because most of these people have access to my blog... though they might still recognize themselves if they read it)

"This is crap. Me, K, D, K, & G all hung out tonight. (I called G) We went bowling first. It was fun - then we went to Arby's (KP was there) then we rented a movie and went to D's to watch it. Bad movie. We turned it off. Then they started playing nintendo and K & I became nonexistent, so we left. That boy drives me nuts! It just baffles me. I mean, I've been confused about guys before but this is a very different case. I keep hearing he likes me dangit, but there was absolutely no sign at all. It would've been so easy for him to do something small to let me know he's interested. K & I came to the conclusion that he's not interested in me, but that's the only conclusion we came to. K said that he's a dead fish, and I said no, he's not even a dead fish - more like a slug that has dried up on the cement and died because it was in the sun too long. We thought that maybe he's scared of something, or maybe he's just not ready for any kind of relationship. It's stupid though because he's never going to get married, and the problem isn't that he won't be able to find a girl, the girls find him! Only he won't know that any of them like him because he's too stupid to see it! And I just don't understand WHY! There has to be a reason. I've said before that I've given up on him, and yet I just keep coming back for more, and nothing ever comes of it. But after tonight, I am really through. K asked me to name the reasons why I like him, and I realized that I only like him for the wrong reasons! I like him because he's fun to be around and I know him well enough to be myself around him and those aren't the wrong reasons I suppose, but I also liked him because I thought if I don't like him, then who else is there to like? And also I guess just because I want someone, and maybe he seemed like a good one to go for. See those reasons are so wrong. Then we thought there's something wrong with us or there's got to be something we are or aren't doing. What's going to happen in college when some guy is interested but we aren't mature enough to have a relationship because we never had any experience in that kind of thing? This is all just the dumbest thing, how is it possible to be so sick of it and so upset over it all? I'm so upset about the way things went, I will never figure out why he is the way he is. I mean I think one of the components of having a relationship is accepting the other person who they are. But I can't handle someone who never shows you they care. So, I hope D didn't take it against her that we left. This is old now. I'm going to bed."

Ha ha. I just laugh now, but I'm glad this phase of life is over. It's funny looking back, I always felt so incredibly out of place as a teenager, but I think maybe that is what being a teenager is about.

And just one more, for good measure: (and because I'm having fun)

November 3, 2001 - Saturday
"Grandpa had an operation today. Grandma took him to the hospital last night around two because they thought maybe his appendix burst or something. They were still waiting around for the doctor at 6:00 this evening - at least they had him on an IV while they waited. Al & I took him a dozen roses this morning - Grandma and Mom & Dad were there visiting already. Grandpa looked fine; he was even making jokes about stuff. I love his sense of humor.

You know what, I think lately I've been falling into a trap of thinking I'm not that great, academically. And so my homework and grades start to slip, I procrastinate this and that. But that is really kind of stupid. It won't be tough to get my grades back up (they're really not that bad to begin with - just one) and I feel really good about re-taking the ACT and re-taking Pre-calculus. I'm sure I can get a better grade this time around, all factors considered. It's just when I think about people like K & G, who'll be going to school back east, and probably some big ivy league school, I think of the amazing experience they're going to have then, and how so not a part of that sort of thing I'm going to be, just because I don't feel ambitious enough or smart enough to take on something like that. And then when I tell people I'll probably go to a tech school or to Snow or something, I feel like it's a little looked down on. But I'm not stupid. I just don't feel ready to take on something that huge, and maybe I never will, and I guess I'm a little ashamed that I'm not an ambitious go-getter about college and stuff."

Hmmm funny how things can change in the course of time - it did take me forever to figure out what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. I've been out of high school for almost seven years and I'm just now coming up on the bachelor's degree. I'm sorry it took so long, but at least I'm now in something that I really want to do and I have to be grateful for that.

A little rant

I just finished a dumb budget-spreadsheet thing for my cost-management class that is supposed to be 3% of our final grade, to be emailed to my professor since I'll be gone on Monday. I spent a good four hours on it, but I'm really frustrated because I know it's all wrong. I just put together all the crap I could and hoped it came out looking somewhat real. I'm a little mad because he just kind of threw this thing at us without really spending much time talking about it. "C'mon, this is the easy stuff," he says. "You guys are lucky I'm easy on you," he says. Apparently, when he taught in Georgia and Lousiana and Canada or wherever the heck he was, he was much much harder on those students than he is on us Utah students, because those students were students first. Apparently we are different because we all have jobs and families and other responsibilities besides just school. We are not students first. (Shame on us). The funny thing is, and all the other students will attest to this, this guy gives us more homework than any other professor we've had. That may say something about the quality of our education, but mostly I just think he's on a high horse. It just gets me so mad.

You know I really want to learn from this class, and in fact I have learned a lot - it is potentially the most useful class I've had here yet - however, it is this kind of thing that makes me just do whatever I can do and throw it back to him hoping to get a passing grade. I'm really interested in budgets, really. I really am. But this is literally the first time I've seen it in my education and he expects that we know it already so, no need to teach it, right? Let's just hope to get a passing grade.

I'm not going to cry, I'm not. Frustration is detrimental. I chose this, I chose this, I chose this.

I'm going on vacation. And I'm going to have a good time. Forget school.

I'm thankful for my home.
I'm thankful for my job.
I'm thankful for my husband.

A bus full of chinese people

So a couple of days ago Geoff saw a flyer in the advisement center for a Physician-Assisted-Suicide seminar at the school. Being from Oregon where this is legal, he thought it would be interesting to go see what it was all about.

So, he got there about ten minutes early today and was the first one there, and he looked around the small conference room and thought, "man I hope everyone can fit in here, I hope we aren't all squished." He decided to leave for a few minutes and come back later after there were people there. He walked in the room, and it was full of finance/economics professors, about nine of them. One of them said, "Oh, is this open to everybody?" The presenter said sure, and Geoff, figuring he already drove here why not stay, took his seat. (Awkward!!)

So there he was the only student in a room full of professors, and listened to them talk not about the ethics of PES, but the economic benefit, or worth, in utility. Meaning, what ways is it a good thing not related to the money. As if that could be measured. But the presenter had this huge equation he went through which Geoff didn't really follow, but he stayed for the whole thing. He says, imagine being a tall white blonde person on a bus full of chinese people, and that's how he felt. Because nobody looked at him, but he could tell they were thinking about him. Ha ha. I just laughed my butt off when he told me about it... of all random situations to put yourself into. I said, "well at least you learned something," and he said, "yeah..... actually no, not really." But he felt smart. He's so funny.

On another note, this morning as I was getting ready for work he asked me what I wanted for lunch, and I said leftover stroganoff from last night with noodles. I thought we had leftover noodles from the night before too. But I came out to the kitchen just before leaving and he was finishing boiling a pot of noodles for me so I could take it to work. I hadn't expected him to cook more noodles for me at 7:30 in the morning, I just thought we had leftovers! And then there was last night as we lay in bed watching 24, my neck was sore (it always is) so I started rubbing it, and Geoff offered to rub my back. So he gave me like a 30 minute full back/neck massage which felt like absolute heaven. Why he is so sweet I don't know but he has been waiting on me hand and foot. I think I've finally figured out what his love language is; it's acts of service. Geoff is like the least needy person on the planet, and I've always had a hard time figuring out what things I could do for him that would be meaningful to him. Of course, he does what he does without expecting things in return (I really believe that too, because like I said, least needy person on the planet) But maybe I need to kick it up a notch in doing nice things for him... i.e. treating him like royalty for a change. (I know I need to). Now maybe I have an idea of how.

Anyway, this is getting a little corny. I just can't wait to go on vacation this weekend and just spend time with him just hanging out, not worrying about school and work and housework and blah blah blah. It will be so nice.

It's fun to try and figure out what other people's love languages are. Like I've always thought Geoff's dad's main one is gifts, because he's always giving us cool little things out of nowhere, like cards or gift cards or keychain gadgets or miniature flashlights or emergency glow sticks (and lots of other stuff too.) Some people are harder to figure out than others though. Like my own husband, ha ha.

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.