Halloween at Work!!

Heres the whole gang!

Me and Chelsey... too cool for school 70's hippsters!

Uh, no comment... :)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Think about it...

My brother Zach a.k.a. Zsa~Zsa is pretty amazing when it comes to words. I just read one of his awesome posts, Wickedness Never Was Happiness, and was impressed by the ending quote. It made me think of a movie I love The Pursuit of Happiness, and what it represents. Theres nothing like a story of a man down on his luck and DOES something about it. Who strives for more out of life than what given him. Thats what this life is all about, right? We cant just expect things to happen to us, to get something for nothing. Otherwise, would we learn anything in the process? Would you truly appreciate it in the end? The answer is no.

"The Declaration of Independence asserts that we deserve 'not happiness stamps; not a department of happiness; not therapy for happiness. Pursuit"

-Newt Gingrich

Josh Gracin Concert: Part I

I dont know why I havent gotten around to this! Shame on me...

He can never smile normal for a picture!
Me getting frustrated, as usual:)

Finally!
This is my co-worker Chelsey and her BF Casey, fun people!

Well thats all I got for now, dont worry, Josh himself will be coming soon!

What do you do...

What do you get when you put a Baptist/Church of Christ, Jehovahs Witness and a Mormon in a small confined working space? You just dont wanna know...Well as it turns out, the B/C and M get a long just fine, its the JH that just doesnt fit in with the mix, and unfortunately causes a whole lot of drama...Im at my wits end, I swear!! The thing of it is, the JH is 52 hears old, you would think they would be mature and respectful...wrong. But hey, were all human right? And were all children of God, even if they dont think so and believe Im going to hell, to each his own. I know what I know and have to stick true to that. I let what they say go in one ear and out the other, or atleast try to. Half the time it has nothing to do with religion, just the fact that Im a measley insignificant person and can do nothing right, according to them of course. But hey, who cares!?!!? I know who I am and will let nothing change that.

Uhhh....The next Dancing with the Stars couple?!

Now cmon, how hilarious is this? Someone has way to much time on there hands!!

A little perspective can change everything!

Another one of those good emails worth sharing...

I AM THANKFUL:

FOR THE WIFE

WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE HUSBAND

WHO IS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO,

BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH MEAND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER

WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES

BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME,NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY

BECAUSE IT MEANSI AM EMPLOYED.

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY

BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE

BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG

BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK

BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING,WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING,AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING

BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME.

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT

BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT

BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL

BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHO SINGS OFF KEY

BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING

BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY

BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS

BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.

AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL

BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME.

Simple Pleasures

For those of you that arent aware of the the master mind of Stephenie Meyers, you should be! She is the author of the Twilight series: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, & Breaking Dawn. I am completely and totally enthralled in her books, and am currently now on New Moon. I read Twilight in two days, which normally isnt unordinary, but these are 500 page books! They are the "I cannot put this book down for the life of me!" books, the "this is so good, I wont eat or sleep till I finish it!" type of book. I should also point out, the author is also LDS. How cool is that?! The movie "Twilight" comes on November 21st, which is a must see, I cannot wait. We all know movies never live up to the books theyre made after, but to see all the characters come to life will be really exciting to see.

Well, Im off to go clean house and then curl up in my warm blankets and read some more of these deliciously addictive books.

Smile from God

Pretty amazing, huh? We get so many emails passed around at work, and some of them actually turn out to be pretty good. This one was sent during a not-so-good dat at work, and talk about a pick me up. It deffinitely put a smile on my face:)

Every now and then someone is in the right place at the right time with the right equipment.

Theres always more...

Ive had several people now mention that James and I need to live in a bubble. Well, I realize after an experience yesterday I think theres a reason we dont have to. Because we have angels looking after us, or atleast James that is. Heres why:

Yesterday morning while getting ready for work, I heard on the radio there was an accident on the highway and that the exit before it would be closed so you should re-route your direction to work. I could have also sworn I heard my phone ring, but went on about my business getting ready for work. Later I would find out it indeed was ringing, and would regret not answering it. Well, when I got to work my co workers had more information about the accident, it being a 12 car pile up and a semi exploding. It was very disheartning to hear, especially since just the day before there was a horrible accident on the same highway involving a 84 year old going the wrong way on the exit ramp hitting another elderly lady head on, killing both. It was hard taking in all this information, knowing that there would be more dead in this accident. We kept hearing more information about it throughout the day, and about a half hour before leaving a co worker sent some pictures from the scene of the accident (shown below.) I couldnt believe my eyes. So I called James to see if he had heard about the accident, and sure I enough I hear the words I was supposed to earlier that morning: I was in it. To ease your obvious worries with that statement, he wasnt in the actual impact or hurt in any way, he had an angel make sure of that. Now the accident: There was an incredibly thick fog covering the ground that morning, a wall that was impossible to see through. When James had come upon it, he was initially going 70, the speed limit, and slowed down imediately to 50, when he saw a tractor trailer jack knifed across both lanes. He had to go off onto the median to get around the trailer, with a semi behind him barely stopping in time missing hitting him and the already wrecked traier. Remember how this was a 12 car pile up? Well when he drove through the accident, none of the cars were there yet, this all happened right behind him. Words do not describe how grateful I am that he followed his intuition to slow down, heaven only knows what would have happened if he didnt. Well, we do know what would have happened, I have the pictures to prove it. It makes me shudder just to think of it.

If you look closely, you can see the car underneath the semi towards the front, they said on the news two people in their cars were burned beyond recognition

So, I went to bed last night with not a new found appreciation for my husband, but an even greater one. He is one "lucky" guy with everything that has gone through and overcome, knowing that there have been several instances where he shouldnt be here with me today.

On a lighter note, I was on the radio this morning! The radio station I listen to every morning, Kysn 92.5, have what they call the "Wheel of games" and you call in to play the game. Well I called in for the first time, not thinking I would actually get through. The first call I got through! It was actually was really funny, the spinner landed on the Brain Buster, which the question was "What is one thing that people keep at their desk that makes them happy." Rob, one of the co hosts, jokes and says for him it would be a bottle of tequila, I just laughed that one off...my first guess was a cup of coffee...wrong, I commented that I have co workers that cannot function without their coffee so that was an ovious guess for me, we laugh, haha...next clue, you can sit it on the floor or on your desk and helps you breathe...second guess, a fan...wrong again, but Lori, the other co host, could see where I would have gotten that one...next clue, you dont have to feed it, just give it some H20...my third lame guess, I said I would have to go with an obvious answer and say water...water?!!? Man I felt dumb, Lori is like, "You dont give water to water" in a tone that said, "cmon now, really." So at this point I knew what it was, PLANT! I said it but they didnt hear me so they didnt say anything, leaving me to believe it wasnt the right answer, so they go on with the next clue...Lori: "Ok you know the song Addicted to Love?" Jeannette: "Yes" Lori: "The singers name is Robert...." Jeannette: (not knowing at all who the singer is) "Uh, I dont know!" Lori: "Ok, it stars with the letter P and ends in Lant!" Jeannette: "Plant! I already said plant!" They went on to say they didnt hear me say it, but when I heard it actually on the radio, 5 minutes later, you can hear me say plant! Haha...when I go by on lunch to pick up my delightful prize (a center piece jack-o-lantern with tea lights and pillsbury pizza rollups) Im gonna see if there is a way to get a recording of the morning show, to prove to one and all Im not a complete nimrod!

So that was my morning, a fun ride to work I must say! Nothing like making yourself out to be a goober on public radio in order to win a prize...good times:)

Grab a seat and a snack, this might take a while!

First, I would like to apologize for my abscense. I dont have any good excuses, so I will not try to excuse my way out of it! So, I will update you on what has been going on for the past month or so...

Between surgerys, fires, stepping on nails, concerts and the flu, a lots been going on! I will start off with the surgery. James had knee surgery on September 11th, of all days. I made sure to wear my red white and blue, dont you worry:) His surgery went well is recovering very nicely. This surgery was a lot less evasive than past surgerys, so his recovery was a lot less painful and shorter.

James in front of the beginning flames

Next, fires. Oh my the fires. Well Friday the 19th James and I had a bon fire that evening, burning a bunch of wood/trash/couches from the house. Well, it was pretty masive to say the least. All was well when we went to bed, perodically checking in on it. Well, when we got up the next morning I went out to check on it, and some old logs from the old train tracks we had it on and somehow caught fire.

In awe of the rising flames

I loved the way the smoke was twirling in the wind

Mind you, they were about 2 feet away from the initial fire, so how they caught fire we have no idea. So, I go get James and we drench them for about a half hour, thinking they were done for. Well, later that afternoon James was gone at his friends and I was getting ready to head out myself, when I looked behind the house and noticed some smoke! I ran to where we had the fire and noticed that the logs were indeed not drenched enough and the grass and bushes behind them had caught fire. I call James in a panic, while trying the put the fire out but the hose wasnt reaching far enough. I was pretty hysterical at this point, having never had to put out a fire and the flames were spreading. In the middle of all the panic, I stepped on a nail, and when I say step, I mean the nail went straight through my foot. Oh my goodness it hurt so bad. Luckily it was a nail that had been through the fire, so we werent too worried about it. Well, I eventually ran over to my neighbors, or should I say hobbled is more like it, and they came over with their hose and helped me put it out. It was quite the afternoon! Mind you, our concert was that evening, so it was a jam packed full of adventure day.

Sitting and enjoying the beautiful sight of fire...

If you can, enlarge the picture so you can see James beautiful blue eyes, oh my the dazzle me!

I will have to share about the concert in another post, I dont have access to all my pictures right now.

I will share though an experience I had with a dog. Oh the poor dog. I was driving to work last week, Thursday I believe. On my way, driving along the busy road of 32nd street during early morning rush hour, there was the cutest little scruffy haired dog running alongside the busy road, in the opposite direction of the cars. Well, I luckily missed it, but unfortunately the car behind me didnt. I watched in my rear view mirror the poor innocent little thing get run over. I still get sick to my stomach when I think of it. Well, I pulled off on the next road and watched the person who hit drive off without a care. I couldnt believe it!! So I turned around and pulled off the side of the road to check on it, and it was surely still lying there in the middle of the road. It was located right after an intersection, so I kept debating during a red light getting out and picking it up and placing it off the side of the road, but I knew I would be risking my life in doing so. So, I had to drive away, crying my eyes out for the poor thing. When I got to work I told my boss about it and she called animal control for me to tell them of its whereabouts. I was sick all day, not knowing if it was okay or not! So after meeting with my attorney at lunch (I will go into further detail of this in a second, theres always more!) I called animal control and they said they didnt know anything, but to call the humane society and see if they would know. Sure enough, I called them and they said it was brought in and was currently at the vet...I exclaimed, "ITs ALIVE?!?!" The poor deaf lady on the other end assured me it was alive and being taken care of. What a relief that was for me, that was all I wanted to hear. At that point, all I wanted to do was find it and wrap it up in my arms and give it a big hug! But just knowing it was alive would have to suffice.

Now onto my meeting with the attorney. As it turns out, my insurance agent was wrong when he said I would more than likely be no longer involved in the case of this idiotic lady suing me. I got a letter a couple weeks ago from Farm Bureau telling me I was being appointed an attorney and he would be contacting me. At first, I didnt think much of it, dismissing it for the most part. Well last week I got a letter from the attorney, telling me when the trial dates would be! Needless to say I was freaking out at this point. James calmed me down assuring me that it doesnt necessarily mean its actually going to court, those were just tentative dates just in case. Sure enough, after meeting with the attorney he also assured me that there is less than a 3% chance of it going to court and that the worst that can happen to me is having to take work off for a couple days to sit in court. Our insurance at the time has us covered very well just in case they for some odd insane reason they win. Get this: the lady that is suing me, her lawyer is her son! Go figure. My attorney said thats more than likely the reason this has gone this far. Absolutely ridiculous. Its really sad to see how lawsuit hungry people are these days, just sad.

Well, I suppose that will be it for me for now. Sorry if I completely bored you to death! There is still more to update on, so I will save it for later. For now, were doing good and staying alive. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Forgive and Forget

In addition to seeking forgiveness for our own sins, we must be willing to forgive others.

"I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men" (D&C 64:10).

Thank you to those who help me remember that.

Assuming...

We all know the saying when it comes to assuming...so why do people still do it! Ugh, I had a situation tonight where a certain someone did just that, and words dont describe just how much it irked me, only because they assumed negative, not positive. One of my favorite quotes was given to me by my bishop, "Assume Positive Intent." Well they presented the situation first quite rudely, and put me in a bad light, all because they assumed the worst. Instead of just asking first hand the question that would have solved the whole mess in a kind manner, they made a choice not to. Oh well. Its over. I should not dwell. But the whole reason I share this situation is to remind people how much damage assuming really does do. Catch yourself before you assume the worst. If it ends up being so, atleast you didnt get yourself worked up about it and remained the bigger person. Be big. The End.