GRATITUDE

I'm very happy to be married to Brent. He is the best thing that could possibly happen to me. He is smart, supportive, creative, spiritual when no one is looking :), funny, a good cook, charming, and interesting, to name just a few qualities.

I'm grateful to have a baby on the way. I am totally bonding with this little child already, even before she is born. I love to feel her move and kick.

I feel like I couldn't ask for a better family. I love the family I grew up with. I have good relationships with all of my siblings and my parents, even though we don't always wholly agree with each other. :) I love that I can have fun with them and have good, meaningful discussions. I get a lot of support from my family, which is so nice.

Similarly, my new family (Brent's family) is absolutely wonderful! I feel like I have good relationships with all of them, and I like hanging out with all of them! You always hear horror stories about the in-laws, but mine have just been a comfortable, natural addition to my family.

I really am grateful for my knowledge of the gospel. It has brought me so much peace and happiness in my life. I truly believe that I have become a better person than I could have otherwise because of the gospel. Hopefully I will continue to become better, as I learn more.

I love nature! I love all the seasons! Most people will tell you that people get really tired of winter in January / February. I start getting antsy in those months because I usually feel like I haven't made the most of winter. I usually feel the urge to go snowshoeing, for example. But I have to say that I really prefer the season that I am in, and this time of year is no different. How can you not love fall, with the changing leaves and wind and rain and the interesting weather?! When it gets dark and gloomy outside I get excited and want to go for a walk, or curl up with soup and a good book.

I'm really happy for modern day conveniences. Our standard of living is so amazing compared to historical times, and really how a lot of people in the world are living right now. I am blessed to have a warm and safe home, good transportation, and creature comforts like running water and microwaves. :) Life is just really so much easier that way, and I can spend more time doing what I want.

I'm grateful for my health, now more than ever.

I'm excited that I can be in a symphony orchestra and continue my piano talents. If only I could find the time to practice more...

I'm glad that I have a good job with co-workers who are my friends.

And there is more, but I got busy at work. I love life!

To name...

So, how do you go about choosing a person's name? This is the name that will make or break that person for the eternities. Not like there is any pressure or anything. The other question is...how many names can you possibly look through before you go insane?

Is it okay to pick old girlfriends names? (you happen to like the name...not to name after the girl you've forgotten about...)
Is it okay to pick names of people you didn't like....but always liked their name?

Maybe it's time to pick one out of a hat....

Last Year's Halloween Costume

I'm still trying to think of what to do this Halloween. Any ideas?

To carve or not to carve?

I have a sneaking suspicion that I am about to alienate 90% of my readers out there, but...

I have mixed emotions about carving pumpkins for Halloween. On the one hand, it was something that I did while growing up, and thoroughly enjoyed. I like "finding" a face in the pumpkin I had picked, and trying to represent that face through the tools that were available to me (usually dull knives). I liked the creative process. I liked saving the pumpkin seeds and baking them and making a treat.

When I got older, it seemed like everyone was going for a pattern. The pumpkin carving tools got more precise and surgical. I confess that we do own specialized pumpkin carving tools, but somehow I'm reluctant to copy someone else's artistic genius. I guess I still prefer to make my own pumpkin patterns.

Here's where I think I lose the rest of you: If I'm completely honest, I would probably rather eat the pumpkin than carve it. Yes, my love of squash is that great. I got a big pumpkin one year and chopped it up and cooked it and made a bunch of pies and pumpkin soup and I loved it! And ever since then, I haven't carved a pumpkin.

Remodeling Update

Well, I've decided to finally join the land of the living after feeling pretty lousy for the first couple of months of my pregnancy. Truth be told, I've felt much better for about a month now, but I guess I was pretty gleeful about my new found health, so I didn't bother posting anything on the blog. Poor Brent has been trudging along alone. So I thought I'd just share our remodeling update.

After a week and a half of showering among studs (that is, 2x4s), Brent finally got the backer board installed--YAY! It cost him dearly in time, because cutting through the concrete backer board took him forever, and of course he had to cut holes for faucets and the like. He has also tiled the ceiling, and I think it looks fantastic. We're planning on tiling tonight, and I'm pretty excited about it.

We are also the proud new owners of a new water heater. We didn't know that we would be getting a new water heater, but we came back Tuesday night and found a note from our downstairs neighbor that "something" was leaking from our kitchen into his kitchen. We're a little bit sensitive about flooding our downstairs neighbor, as we've already done it once. So we looked and found that our old water heater had a slow but steady leak. Unfortunately, our utility closet is pretty tight, most of the room being taken up by a gigantic flue for the furnace. I kid you not. I was wondering how we were going to take the water heater out. The answer is...

Cut a hole in the wall! That's right, folks, the only way to get a water heater in and out of our ill-advised utility closet is to cut a hole in the wall. :) Hopefully we'll find it useful, somehow...

I'll try and get pictures up and show our progress.

Just wanted to congratulate Becca and the West Valley Symphony for a great performance on Saturday. It was their Halloween Special, Star Wars Themed. The entire production was based on the music in the Star Wars Series, and the players dressed up in their greatest Geek costumes. Isaac, Becca's Brother, invited a group of guys and gals who apparently have made extraordinary efforts to reproduce their own Star Wars costumes.


We had Jawas, Storm Troopers, Darth Vadar, Ewoks, Jedis, Han Solo...well, lets just say every memorable character, including C-3P0. The crowd loved it.

At one point, Darth Vadar destroyed the conductor and took over the symphony to play his Theme Music.



Sorry for the cell-phone photos. I have to admit, that is one of my pet-peeves....JUST USE A REAL CAMERA FOR CRY'N OUT LOUD!!!! I just didn't think that there was going to be photo worthy costumes....

Here we go again...

Well, I decided it was time to remodel the bathroom. So, I peeled off the plastic ghetto shower surround, and took a sledge hammer to the walls. Now, our shower is basically...well....studs with a tub lurking in the middle.

I tore out the old faucet, and welded in (yup, i can do copper pipe!) a new faucet. It always makes me nervous, because you never know FOR SURE if your welds are going to hold. You hope they do. You don't have any reason to believe they won't, except for the fact it was yourself who did the welding. No, it's not as pretty as a professional...but i did use a lot more solder :).

So, we went one night with no toilet (because we didn't have the parts to fix the pipes because the store closed before we figured out we were missing things). With open pipes, you can't turn on the water. The pregnant wife LOVED that, let me tell you.

It has taken a couple days to get everything in order. So today, i hope to put up the cement board, so i can finely begin tiling..later in the week. Why is it that EVERYTHING takes WAY WAY WAY longer than you ever expected it would?

For now, we'll continue showering among the studs....

To drink, or not to drink....

So, I was in church on Sunday, and there was a little girl, probably 3-4 years old two rows in front of me, and just to my left. What caught my eye is this girl was trying to hold the water sacrament tray while attempting to drink her little cup of sacrament water with the other hand.

The interesting part was she got it mostly in her mouth, but apparently lost grip of the cup she had been sucking on spilling the small remainder all over the cups still in the tray. Upon realizing that she'd dropped this cup, she also spit out the remaining water that was in her mouth, also into the sacrament tray topping off the cups that were yet to be used.

My quick math skills indicated that I had a 99.8% chance of getting this very tray. I watched in horror as the tray was obtained from that isle, and passed down mine.

Now, I had only moments to decide. Do you drink knowing full well what's inside? Or do you pass and wait for next week?

I had tried to pay attention to which side got the bulk of the backwash but it had been spun so many times by the time it got to me, that I was no better off just randomly picking a side.

So, my question to you is, Would you drink or not?

And the verdict is...

It's a GIRL!

Becca is so excited, that she said "lets go to Park City and go get some clothes". Well, since we're only 1/2 way through at this point, I convinced her to wait a little bit before we do that.

She's thinking of little bows, dresses, and hats right now and little else.

five hours and counting. Becca is so excited.

What say you?

Is it a boy, or is it a girl? My wife and I are evenly split. We find out this friday, and we're not planning on doing that lame thing where people try to keep it a secret. When we know, so will you, our loyal readers.

Becca is very excited, and it is kinda funny to watch her get all giddy. Me? I'm fine with either, as long as it has all it's fingers and toes.

So, put your say into the poll box, and we'll find out shortly.

Should have put this up earlier, but I kept forgetting. So hurry up, and put your vote in!

FOUND

It has been over 18 months since I last saw my wedding ring. And as you may have guessed by the title of this blog, I have officially FOUND the thing.

This is a mixed blessing, of course, because now I have my wedding ring back, but now I have to wear it.

We went to Boulder Mountain over Labor day, and I brought with me some shorts that I don't particularly like. These shorts have a zip pocket on the leg that apparently at some point I stowed the ring and forgot about it. Since I don't wear the shorts very often (it's been about 18 months I guess...) I didn't find the ring until just now.

See everyone? That is why you never get rid of old stuff. If this had gone to the DI or something like that, I never would have found my ring.

Now I need a new place to lose it....

"Yes"

I've been playing a game on FB, although i promised myself I would never do such a thing. Everyone is calling me "lord xxx", (it's Kingdoms of Camelot, so we're all "lords" or "ladies").

I've decided I like being called "lord". I'm wondering if i can get my wife to call me that. "Yes, my lord"....I really like the sound of that :).

And why shouldn't she? What is so wrong with that as a title? People call me "Mr." all the time. How is this any different? I think that maybe it's time we started giving a little more respect to our fellow man. It's a title that maybe we should be able to earn, like "Doctor" or something like that. You ever talk to a doctor on the phone, and they insist you call them "Dr. xxx"? Just call me "lord Brent".

But i know my life has just been cut short by suggesting it..

Take me back...

Yes, I'm here at work...like a chump thinking about how fun it would be to go back to alaska.

I'm also stewing over this years Davis county tax increases......which are no laughing matter. We should not sit by and let them raise our taxes like this. This is crazy. How many people didn't get a raise last year and had to make due with less? Why is it that the county can't make the same sacrifices?

We're BACK from AK. Wanna see what we saw?

Okay, BRENT is making me type this because he picked the background and is tired of blog work. Is it not pretty? (That's for you, Trent!)



We had fun in Alaska. In fact, we had a LOT of fun. We saw whales, puffins, sea otters, tons of moose, foxes, grizzly bears, wolves, and lots of other wildlife. We saw glaciers and got the chance to walk on one.



Brent is telling me I'm doing this all wrong. Here we go again. We left Saturday the 11th after the funeral for Brent's grandma. :( We had picked up a rental car and drove it to Seattle, arriving at about 3:30 in the morning. We picked up another rental car and drove it to Vancouver, where Brent hit a crow, the first of three birds killed in our car adventures. He now wants the keyboard back because he wants to tell our story the way HE wants it told.

What she means is, I want it told RIGHT. She's sick, and frankly doesn't care.

We hit the boat in Vancouver and the rest consisted of relaxation and Becca puking. We hit Ketchikan first. This is in the southern tip of Alaska. The average summer temp is 58 and the average Jan. temp is 33. Could there be a more perfect place? We went on an air tour of the Misty Fjords, which was incredible. They get about 180 inches of rain a year, which is about 15 FEET of rain a year. They said that they consider Seattle a desert!




We then got back on the boat and went to Juneau (Juneau the capital of Alaska?). We toured Juneau (which is the only US State capital not accessible by road (air and boat only). There we saw the salmon run and the worlds largest collection of totem poles. I would provide a picture of the salmon, but it just looks like rocks in water.



Then we went to Skagway where we panned for gold....and I struck it rich! Both Becca and I found gold, which really did prove to me that there was such a thing as "Gold Fever". Yes, once you find your first bit it is VERY addictive. While we were panning for gold we heard story after story about how most people who searched for gold in Alaska didn't find any and those that did usually lost it on vices...gambling, alcohol and...."On demand company". I laughed to myself thinking that I would never be one of those people to lose my gold. And true to myself, I wasn't....but Becca was. She lost her stash, and has been very sad since. Here we saw a 3,200 foot tall waterfall. The picture doesn't give it justice as is usually the case, esp. since there are trees growing on the side of the cliff...which happens everywhere in Alaska. It is the most crazy thing.




Want to know what Down town Sgagaway looks like? A little piece of heaven, that's what!



We then went to the Mendenhall glacier (the first picture on this blog) My first up-close and personal encounter with an ice cube that large. Strangely, there was a frigid breeze coming down out of that canyon...



And a VERY up close picture of what glacier actually looks like. Apparently when ice freezes under pressure, and gets cold over a very long time, it turns crystal clear.



What? You want MORE? Well, you asked for it...(who doesn't like pictures of alaska?)

What about a special bridge that is designed to CATAPULT you, your car, and everything you've got with you off of it in an earthquake, and i'm not kidding (Alaska is one of the most active earthquake areas around...aside from Indonesia..). Yup, you heard me right, if your (un)fortunate enough to be driving on this bridge when a big one hits, right before it fails, it will launch you off and away from it right before it falls into the gorge below. IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MAKE SOMEONE FEEL BETTER? What you may or may not notice is there is a cliff on either side of the bridge as well, so if it doesn't fling you just right, you may end up getting tossed INTO the chasm instead of just falling in with the bridge. That's better.....



There are a bunch of cool plants in alaska...here are some flowers we saw often.



A random picture of beauty..



Or how about a glacier breaking off and into the ocean. This one will be a couple of pictures...a before, during and after (if you care). I got more detailed pic's of it falling, but i didn't think you'd care THAT much...









These are "Puffin" birds. Apparently their bones are too heavy for them to REALLY fly, so mostly they just skim the water, unable to gain any kind of altitude. I liked this one because the one on the left looks completely ridiculous....



Okay, okay, enough of the glaciers, you say (i got LOTS of pictures of them....) how about the question of "Did I see any WILDLIFE?" Well lets just get to the meat of it. How do GRIZZLY Bears sound? And to start off, a mom and two cubs..



Yes, i know my readers have lost interest...so i'm trying to cut this down....we did spend TWO WEEKS in alaska! I have a lot to tell.

How about mountain goats?



Still don't care? Tough crowd..

How about a ram perched at the top of a cliff in which seconds later he fell to his untimely DEATH?



Okay, that didn't happen....well, the falling part.

How about a picture of Becca and I three HOURS into an 11 hour bus ride into the heart of the Denali? Now THAT is a fearsome picture...



We never did get to see Mt. McKinley, and it was the big (heh heh) reason we went to the Denali. Apparently, in July, there are usually 2 days in the entire month where you can see it. For that reason, the bright park rangers found another way you could see the top of this majestic mountain (tallest in N. America) at 20,300 ft. Which is pretty high. They painted the top of the mountain on this piece of glass. They marked places on the floor where you stand according to your height, and then the markings on the glass represent the top...apparently. This sad picture represents that.



This is Becca and I at a lake in the heart of the Deanli



This is a Carabu that wanted us off the road. It's funny because i'd always wondered how Texans get those horns on the front of their old Cadillacs...now i know...



And that reminds me, if you're ever hungry, there is no shortage of critters to eat. I have to admit, i ate some reindeer sausage-dogs, and they were simply AMAZING. It's worth moving to Alaska just to get more of those.



While we were in Alaska, we opted to go to someplace called THE NORTH POLE. You'll never guess who we met there. Well, I can't remember his name, but he was jolly, old, and knew right where we lived (do i look a little nervous?).



Oh, and Gumbee made the trip with us to the jolliest place on earth.



We went on a dog-sled ride into the far arctic:




And i'm told that nobody is going to read this far in....so i should probably stop now. But I hope you had fun looking through the alaska landscape as seen by us.

My last pic is one of the time. You will notice that it is almost 11:00...PM. That little dial below the hands is the 24 hour hand, and you'll notice it is at the 2300 hour position...which proves that this is in-fact 11PM. It also got light at just before 4 am...which makes for long days :)

Countdown....

Well, I hate to hide our previous news so quickly, but in an effort to "keep it fresh", i have decided to post another topic. So, if you didn't get the news, read the post below.

It seems Wednesday has come to an end. And with it the countdown is in full swing. There is only one thing at this point that would stand in the way of a successful voyage to the northern regions of America at this point...

But Alaska is calling and I will be spending TWO WEEKS there basking in the mosquitoes. I've never been that far North before, so I am very excited.

Well, it's 5:02 and time to go home from work...but i thought i would take a minute to remind everyone that i'm outta here! Saturday can't quite come soon enough.

The news of the day

Well, Becca and I thought that we would reward our loyal blog followers by utilizing this medium to share some news. While it isn't always easy to follow other people's blogs, it is nice to keep up with other people. And since blogs are usually used to share "old news", we decided to mix things up a bit and bring you something that "You saw it here first" would apply.

So, with out any further delay, I bring to you the "news of the day". It seems as though Becca and I are now expecting our first child. We are 9 1/2 weeks along...and no, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet :).

But we are very excited. Becca has been horribly sick and it has been very hard on her...and I have been a very good husband and have been trying to find a variety of food that she can successfully eat. Thus far we have been unsuccessful, but I'm up for trying more. It's easier on me...after all.

But from what I've been told..it's all worth it in the end...

So, for those of you who read our previous post you will notice it is a bit different. This is the post that is more sensitive to those friends and family who could not take the joke that I made in the last one.

Happy Birthday to Brent! I hope you had fun at your birthday parties. Enjoy pictures from both family parties.
























Yay for birthday cake!

It Stands?

Well, I decided to build a shed. Why a shed? Well, it is quite simple...I have too much...uh...stuff. Since Becca and I live in a small condo, it appears that over our great many years we have collected too much of it and apparently we simply cannot live without any of it. So, to that end, we're building our own little house to store it all. We're putting this life-boat on our 4plex property in Layton, which will be used to hold all my tools...which alone should allow us to walk through our house without tripping on everything.

This is my first time building a free-standing structure. Yes, i found out about permits and such, and we're building it right at that limit that code requires. Any larger and we get to deal with the bureaucracy that comes with larger buildings. It has been fun so far, and i'm getting quite excited to see the final product. Yes, there are things i would do differently next time, but for the most part, i'm pleased so far.

And by that i mean there is a lot of room for things to go badly as we only have 2 walls up and one built, but laying on the ground. But soon everything will be better....and only this winter will tell if we've built it strongly enough. Studs are 36" on center right?

And yes...those are safety glasses....

The aftermath...

Well, For any interested in what has become of my hand..i have NEW pictures! Yes, my hand looks strangely fat and maybe i'm gaining a little weight..who knows? But i'm just going to go with the idea that perhaps it is just the odd camera angle, and me trying to get enough light for the picture to turn out. You should see the scar when i'm cold...that sucker turns bright purple!

This picture should make Becca happier...at lest not nauseated.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Just so you know, I haven't posted recently because every time I opened up our blog, that gory picture of Brent's hand made me ill and I had to look away. I was hoping that Brent would post something else, but it's gotten to the point where I just NEED to not have to see that any more. :)

As for me, I've been going through a little patch recently where I am very aware of my weaknesses. I have been thinking about how I should respond to this general feeling of ineptitude. I keep telling myself that everyone has challenges, and it's only how we deal with them that defines us.

I think I should prioritize things better than I am currently achieving. For example, I go directly to the rental after work on most days (when I'm not busy doing something else!) and I throw myself into the work. Then I'm exhausted when I get home and I don't do anything. So my house is not as clean as it should be, and we generally have little to no food in the refrigerator. Ah, well.

So I'm pondering the things of life today as I prepare to go up the hill to the University of Utah. Today my family will sing the national anthem at the College of Engineering for their convocation. There's nothing like graduation day to put you in mind of the things that you have accomplished and the things that you still want to accomplish, right? It’s a momentous step for people, but some people just falter afterwards.

Building a stronger character--that's something I will have to think about. I'll let you know my game plan when I figure it out. :)

Gimpy

If you look closely, you can see the fibrous tissue under the skin...

Well, I got my first stitches yesterday. It is ironic that i've been fairly resilient up until now, but perhaps it is my old age that has done me in. I'm not as strong as I used to be I have found out.

I decided to help a fellow coworker who was having a problem and I ended up catching the back of my hand on a rusty nail on the bottom of a pallet. I guess the adage "No good deed goes unpunished" is still thriving.

The biggest issue is, I was terribly busy at work and really didn't have time to deal with it. After several urging from fellow coworkers I went to the clinic at 3:00 to see if i needed stitches. The funny thing is, not too long ago a buddy and I were rafting and had a little accident. He needed several stitches and I was there watching.

To me, all the scrubbing and the needles being stuck into the gaping wound looked much more painful than just letting his leg heal itself. I was over there thinking "look, he's hurt enough, do you REALLY need to be doing all of that? I think he learned his lesson". Yes, to me it looked like the nurse was trying to pound home the idea that what he had just done deserved some severe form of punishment that she was more than willing to meter out.

I knew this was all coming to a hand near me. It's not that i'm a wimp or anything, far from it. I was quite busy and wanted to finish out my day. But yes, I also didn't want the needles jammed into my already painful hand. My thoughts are "You're already going to be puncturing the skin with the stitches, why make more punctures with needles?"

After all was said and done, I walked out of there with 7 stitches and enough gauze and blue bandage to cover not just my hand, but probably my right thigh as well. I got back to work at 4:15, and ended up staying until 5:30. It was a bad time for me to have to leave work, but I think the initial crisis was averted.

PS I just received a couple of questions "Did the shots and the stitches hurt?". Yes. To numb you up, they take a needle and jam it into your wound. Since your wound is already excruciatingly painful, this does not add to the comfort level. It feels very much like you are split open, and someone is stabbing you inside the fissure in your skin (which ironically is happening).

So they stabbed me with the needle (numbing agent) about 12 times in this gaping hole, and then a couple times around the wound into the skin that had thus far escaped injury-which feels very much like you are being stabbed in the top of your hand with a needle. Then comes the stinging sensation, then the burning, and then the pain stops being quite so sharp as they finish their manial poking.

The stitches themselves, interestingly enough, didn't hurt at all. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even feel them...at all. I didn't feel the needle, I didn't feel her threading it through my skin. Absolutely nothing, which is ironic because the dentist's concoction of numbing agents doesn't work nearly so well, or at all as a matter of fact.

I secretly think, however, that the nurse didn't put a numbing agent in my hand, but instead stabbed it until shock set in and my hand refused to feel any more pain. It shut itself down and then she was free to stab some more.

I also got a tetanus shot, which currently feels like a jerk punched me in the shoulder with brass knuckles. I think it hurts more right now more than my hand does!

The House Bird

On sunday I caught my FIRST BIRD ever. Yup, I have never caught a wild bird before, and it was quite fun.

My brother accidentally let a bird in the house (apparently it has made a nest in a wreath on my mom's front door), and when Jeff opened the door (it opens inward) the bird fell off the nest and began to fly....and it ended up in the house.

I decided to be the man and whack it with a stick but everyone protested (i'm kidding of course), I decided to use a stick to round up the little animal and direct it toward the door. She was having a hard time because birds soar, they do not hover as is required in the house, and you could see the thing was becoming exhausted in a hurry. Soon, she couldn't perch on anything, but would rather hit things unceremoniously and rather clumsily.

This ended up working for my advantage because as i was going about herding her (aka Poking her with the long stick) she ended up landing on the stick, and after an initial failure (she flew off after I wasn't able to round a corner), she was more interested in landing on the stick a second time. Then i had her.

I had learned my lessons from the prior situations, and managed to ferry the feathery creature outside as she panted on the wooden dowel that had been her former tormentor. I stuck the stick outside, and closed the door on the stick, and slowly pulled it back in, being sure to "wipe off" the bird if it was infact still on the stick.

It was really cool because you could see the emotions on the bird. First of confusion and terror, then of desperation, then of pure exhaustion, then of resolution.

And I got my first bird!

Mini Rant

I'm sure most of my audience has read Leadership and Self-Deception, seeing as my audience is me and Brent. :) I've been musing on some of the concepts in that book, which is all about how we perceive and treat people. This book maintains that we are either "in the box," or "out of the box," when we interact with people. Being in the box is more self-focused; being out of the box is focused more on seeing how our interactions affect another person. My lame example is how you treat other people when you are driving down the road. If they are objects to get around, you are not seeing them as people with lives and jobs and errands to run. A lot of times we further objectify people by thinking, "That stupid Honda just cut me off!" Obviously, someone in the Honda cut you off, but by allowing ourselves to distance ourselves from the concept of humans, it is easier to blame and be angry. When you are "out of the box," you are more aware of your environs and how you can affect other people. Your whole perspective changes for the better, in my opinion. From a gospel perspective, I believe that if you strive to be "out of the box," you will strive to see people as the Savior sees us. That doesn't mean that you are blind to faults, of course, but that you see their worth. This is a wonderful book and one that will change your life. If you want a deeper perspective on your relationships with others, I highly recommend Bonds that Make Us Free, also by the Arbinger Institution (BYU).

A relative of mine (female) has recently hurt another relative (male) deeply. It was an action that she knew would hurt, and so she tried to soften the blow. It wasn't her idea, it was another relative's idea (true). If she had her way, she wouldn't do this, but she felt like she was forced into this course of action (truly her belief). She was counting on the male relative to be the bigger person and just accept the hurt and say nothing about it.

I happen to strongly disagree with her choices in this matter, but I respect the fact that these are her choices to make, disappointing as they are to me. The matter bothers me, however. I think the reason why I am bothered the most is that she is treating the male relative as an object and not a person. She is not stopping to see how this would affect this person. She might THINK that she thought things through, but to me this smacks of objectification. She put the person in a box and labeled him according to what she saw fit. She probably justified her actions by the labels that she put on, which is another concept that Leadership and Self-Deception discusses.

I strive not to label people, although I am not always the best at this. I strive to see people as they are. I dislike it when people cannot let go of the past to the point that they will always see another person as they were in the past. I'm not the same person that I was yesterday, so I think it's unfair to be labeled as the person I was 10 years ago. A mission companion lamented a similar concept to me. We were both at the end of our missions and she had gone back to an apartment where there were three sisters that she had trained. The sisters were laughing about all the mistakes my companion had made. She acknowledged to me that she had, in fact, made those mistakes. The frustrating part to her was that she felt like she had learned from those mistakes and grown. She felt that her companions did not recognize the growth she had achieved.

We are in this life to learn and progress. Why do people choose not to acknowledge the growth of others? Shouldn't we be cheering people on? Why do we intentionally cause hurt? I don't understand how that is justified.

Taxes-Half Americans don't pay a dime!!!

Taxes! This is the weekend i'm bust'n out the pen and the checkbook. I just read an interesting article. Apparently only 53% of Americans pay taxes! That means that only 53% of us pay for things such as National Defense, the FBI, all Federal buildings, FDA, USDA, ATF, boarder security, NASA, grants, foreign aid, federal research...the list is endless...but the amount of Americans who pay for it certainly is not. What this means is, 53% of us pay for all the freedoms and social programs that the entire nation enjoys-even those who do not pay taxes. Does this seem fair to anyone? Anyone?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-households-apf-1105567323.html?x=0

Becca's birthday

A

Very Happy Birthday to YOU!!!! Hope you had fun. The delicious Ice-Cream Cake was provided by Emily and Mom. Mmmm...it was delicious. Thanks everyone for the party and goods!