To all who read this blog, I haven't been great about keeping up lately. Life has been pretty busy. Between January and April, accountants are very busy preparing taxes and performing audits on the financial statements of the past year. Work had me traveling for two weeks and then very busy while in town the following week. One week involved 65 hours of work. It can be a bit draining.
Last Sunday, Steph and I had the opportunity to hear from the leaders of our church at a regional meeting. We arrived expecting to hear from local leaders, but were happily surprised to hear from Thomas S. Monson and David A. Bednar of the Twelve Apostles. As the church has grown internationally, it as become increasingly more difficult for the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to visit everyone in the church. Technology has allowed them to speak to members of the church all over the world while staying in Salt Lake City and they are beginning to utilize this technology more frequently.
Both men spoke very well. The overall theme of the conference was on living so that the Holy Ghost can be with us to bless our lives. We were taught that we cannot force the Holy Ghost to come, we can only invite Him into our lives by keeping the commandments. We also cannot be obedient to the spirit of the law while ignoring the letter of the law. We should pray to invite the Holy Ghost and we should be "meek and humble" so we can receive it.
I left the conference happy and pensive. The conference was uplifting and also instructive. There are some things I feel I can do better so I can more fully enjoy the blessings of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I always feel grateful to receive instruction from the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. I look forward to hearing from all the members of the twelve this April when they address the world-wide membership.
3/15/09
2/15/09
Anime Night
It finally happened! I was beginning to wonder if it ever would happen. What is this event? Jon played dress-up with me. Here's how it went down... Stephanie was very bored one night, so she went into the bathroom and started playing with her hair. She gave herself two weird pigtails and decided they looked like anime pigtails. She ran out into the living room to show her devoted husband her new anime couture. Then she had a brilliant idea!! What if Jon also dressed up anime-style. They could totally have anime night. After about half-an-hour [sic] Jon finally relented. He put on his awesome anime duds and let Stephanie give him a sweet faux-hawk (Stephanie's really bummed that you can't really see it in the picture). And that's how Anime Jon was born. Hey, at least it's something!
2/13/09
What?!?!
Guess what everybody! On Monday, Jon and I will celebrate our 9 month anniversary. That's big anniversary .75! Just thought I'd remind everybody because I'm pretty excited.
Over the Hill and Still Sane!
I'm just proud as punch to announce that I just completed Week 6 of my 12 week student teaching experience. It wasn't a bad week except for the tummy aches, and the stress of unfinished paperwork. Oh and I can't leave out the detention I gave when a Hispanic student called me a dirty word in Spanish, the kids doing 'the wave' across the classroom when they think I'm not looking, or the Valentine card I confiscated that burped when you opened it. How can anyone not love Junior High? (No sarcasm intended) I'm actually really enjoying my student teaching. I have really sweet kids for the most part, so my biggest discipline problem is chatter. I've only really butted heads with one kid (dirty-Spanish-word-boy Victor). It's wonderful. So I just want to say to all those of you who read this and haven't student taught as of yet, it's not anywhere near as scary as BYU-I professors make it sound!
1/22/09
A red-letter day, with black ink.
About a week ago, Steph and I received a letter from McGladrey & Pullen's Dallas office. In this magical letter, a generous salary figure was included, benefits were outlined, and a start date (18 months from now) was included. After prayer and some deliberation (okay, not too much deliberation), we have decided to accept this offer. Yay!
We are both very excited about this opportunity. We spent the first few months of our marriage in Dallas and had a great experience. Housing is very affordable, the people were very friendly, and I really liked the people I worked with. We also had a lot of missionary experiences in Dallas. One of the nice things is that people in Dallas are still very religious and religion isn't considered "uncool."
While we are sad that this takes us away from family and might make seeing them more difficult, we have high hopes that our more northernly relatives will come come to visit us during our warmer winter months. The golf courses looked pretty nice. We considered Las Vegas and it's convenient location, but feel better about Dallas and the career opportunities I will have there, plus our ability to raise children in a good environment.
All in all, we feel very blessed.
We are both very excited about this opportunity. We spent the first few months of our marriage in Dallas and had a great experience. Housing is very affordable, the people were very friendly, and I really liked the people I worked with. We also had a lot of missionary experiences in Dallas. One of the nice things is that people in Dallas are still very religious and religion isn't considered "uncool."
While we are sad that this takes us away from family and might make seeing them more difficult, we have high hopes that our more northernly relatives will come come to visit us during our warmer winter months. The golf courses looked pretty nice. We considered Las Vegas and it's convenient location, but feel better about Dallas and the career opportunities I will have there, plus our ability to raise children in a good environment.
All in all, we feel very blessed.
1/11/09
The Strip
Living in Las Vegas means living with the gambling and the Strip. While neither Steph or I gamble, we did want to go down and see some of the more interesting parts of the strip. Becky was staying with us before we took her up to SUU and so we made a trip of it. We did a ton of walking, but saw some pretty interesting things.
Inside the Venetian, they have some really cool (and expensive) shops. The one Steph is posing in front of has Renaissance outfits and masks (for a ball masque) made in Italy. Pretty incredible.
Aside from the pictures above, we saw things like a small Eiffel tower, Cesar's Place, and a lot of lights. I was surprised at how much it is nothing like Hollywood would have you believe. The place is pretty over the top, but still has a few interesting things to do and has a lot of shopping.
Here we have Becky with Nicolas Cage. Don't worry Dad, he's made of wax and is standing outside of Madame Turnaud's House of Wax.
Aside from exotic wax celebrities, we also found a some exotic vehicles. Gotta love a Lamborghini.
The best part of the Strip has to be the Bellagio. Every 15 minutes, they have a water show out in front of the casino that employs water jets and is choreographed to the music. Steph and Becky sure liked it.
Inside the Venetian, they have some really cool (and expensive) shops. The one Steph is posing in front of has Renaissance outfits and masks (for a ball masque) made in Italy. Pretty incredible.
Below is another shot of the Venetian. It is themed to have canals, a sky painted ceiling, and Italian theming. It is beautiful. You can even take a ride on a gondola in the canal and have the operator serenade you. They keep the gambling on another floor, so you can really enjoy the upper levels of the casino.
Aside from the pictures above, we saw things like a small Eiffel tower, Cesar's Place, and a lot of lights. I was surprised at how much it is nothing like Hollywood would have you believe. The place is pretty over the top, but still has a few interesting things to do and has a lot of shopping.
1/9/09
Moving to Las Vegas
As exciting as new experiences are, moving has never been my favorite activity. For whatever reason, it usually involves a great deal of stress, lack of sleep, and a number of unanticipated difficulties. This move was no different.
Since Steph needs to student teach in Las Vegas and I have an internship there, we found an apartment, rented a Budget Moving truck, and headed for Las Vegas. We were very grateful that gas prices dropped and that we found a great deal on a moving truck. With gas at $4.00 a gallon, we had anticipated spending a great deal of money moving.
Moving was especially fun because of the cleaning we had to do and the weather. In order to stay until the 17th, I had to cut a deal with our landlady to do a deep cleaning of the apartment. Things always take longer than expected and we only got about 4 hours of sleep. We then had to drive a 16 ft. moving truck through the snowstorm that hit southern Utah. It was a bit hair raising to say the least. Despite the bad weather, we were blessed and made it to Mesquite for the night.
The most comic events of our move happened when we reached Las Vegas and started moving in. We had unloaded most of the truck and were left with the couches. We were able to maneuver the love seat through the twisty, narrow entry, but there was no way our couch would fit. We ended up taking it in over the patio railing and through the sliding glass door! We must had looked so funny, especially when we got momentarily stuck! My hat goes off to Steph for being a trooper and helping me get the couch over the patio railing. Good times.
Here is the moving truck (partially unpacked). We got a larger truck so we didn't have to stack things too high.
Since Steph needs to student teach in Las Vegas and I have an internship there, we found an apartment, rented a Budget Moving truck, and headed for Las Vegas. We were very grateful that gas prices dropped and that we found a great deal on a moving truck. With gas at $4.00 a gallon, we had anticipated spending a great deal of money moving.
Moving was especially fun because of the cleaning we had to do and the weather. In order to stay until the 17th, I had to cut a deal with our landlady to do a deep cleaning of the apartment. Things always take longer than expected and we only got about 4 hours of sleep. We then had to drive a 16 ft. moving truck through the snowstorm that hit southern Utah. It was a bit hair raising to say the least. Despite the bad weather, we were blessed and made it to Mesquite for the night.
The most comic events of our move happened when we reached Las Vegas and started moving in. We had unloaded most of the truck and were left with the couches. We were able to maneuver the love seat through the twisty, narrow entry, but there was no way our couch would fit. We ended up taking it in over the patio railing and through the sliding glass door! We must had looked so funny, especially when we got momentarily stuck! My hat goes off to Steph for being a trooper and helping me get the couch over the patio railing. Good times.
Here is the moving truck (partially unpacked). We got a larger truck so we didn't have to stack things too high.
Here is the moving truck in front of our old apartment in Rexburg.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
