Decisive

I have learned something about myself. I used to hate to make a decision- still do to some extent. I didn't want to decide on something and then have someone else get mad, or feel bad because they didn't agree. I have learned that it is more annoying to be wishy-washy and most people just are happy to have someone else decide.

I have been planning a business trip to Europe for the past month and have made appointments with people in four countries. I asked my boss if it was okay for me to go and he basically said "well if you need to". I gave him details of the things that I wanted to accomplish and why I thought now would be a good time to go and I still just got back "if you think it would be a good idea". I even went so far as to say "I think I should go but ultimately, it is your decision and you can decide whether it is in the budget . . .". Well, come today, they are trying to finalize the plane tickets after my boss has okayed it with his boss (he just does not want to decide if it's okay for me to go) and the tickets cost more than the other people I am traveling with because I want to leave Sunday morning and they are leaving Saturday morning. This makes a $700-$1,000 difference in the ticket price. But I have a choir concert Saturday night that I don't want to miss. So, then it all goes back to the group who say, "well, I'll leave it up to you to decide since it is your budget" "well, since you are in charge of the Europe market, I'll let you decide" "well, no one told me that there was a trip planned, but I guess she needs to go" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

How blasted hard is it for someone to say - "she needs to go, lets make it as inexpensive as we can - but she's going"? Or, almost as acceptable at this point "it's too costly, she shouldn't go"! I'm about ready to withdraw from the trip just so that no one has to actually make the decision! Maybe I should just quit my job and then they wouldn't have to decide if $1,900 is to costly for a plane ticket to Europe. Holy cow. I vow today to be more decisive in the future.

Pazzaz!

We are going with a new template. I kept looking at everyone else's colorful blogs and could come to mine and it was okay if you were looking at the top part but then you'd scroll down and it'd get boring . . . So, a change. Ask any of my sisters, this is nothing new. We used to move our rooms around on at least a monthly basis!

Clean, Crisp Mountains

While I can't quite get over the fact that winter seems to be intermingled with spring this year, I have to admit that I just love Utah! I love the way that after a good rain (or snow) the air is so clear and crisp and the mountains just seem all the more majestic and beautiful. I think that with that little bit of snow on the top, there is nothing quite as lovely. I get to sit by a window and facing in a southeasterly direction, the whole view is mountains - with the Wasatch mountains in on my right and the curving around to meet the Oquirrhs ahead and to the left. This picture just does not do them justice - they are really beautiful today. These moments make me wonder how anyone could question there is a God!

The Fireplace 2

Well, here are some updated photos of the fireplace. Scott worked on it over the weekend. I built a planter box for some vegetables but I didn't take a picture of that!

The fireplace

Well, a progress update. Scott has added to the fireplace and it is gorgeous! I'm pretty sure I've said it before but he does such nice work!!!

Things are coming along quickly now, we have all the molding and trim done, we just have a mantle to do, granite tiles to grout, the floor to finish and then base boards to add. Wahoo!!

Funerals

I went to a funeral today of Olive Nielsen. She and her family lived in the ward that I grew up in. They were an older couple when we moved in and several of their older kids had already left home. Their youngest, Jocelyn, was a young woman at the time and was one of our baby sitters. She became a good friend to my mom and taught us piano lessons, took us for weekends to her apartment at BYU, and invited us to her wedding shower. Brother Nielsen gave me my patriarchal blessing.

I've been to a few funerals of older people in my home ward and I have been surprised with the amount of love that I feel for them! I knew that I loved all the people who have helped raise me but I am surprised by the depth of the feelings that come at the funeral. I have such a great respect for my ward family and for their wisdom and feel such a loss for those that are no longer on Earth.

In addition to feeling a lot of emotion towards the one who has died, I feel a great sense of family with the people who are there - our old bishops, stake presidents, neighbors, young women leaders, and so many other people who I didn't realize that I loved so much. I am so grateful for my home ward, for the way that they raised and taught me, and for the special feelings that I have when I return to the place where I grew up. Sometimes it takes a moment like this to remind you of the great goodness of people and for the lasting love and bond that the church brings to its members.

Lastly, I love LDS funerals! They are full of hope and the feeling of beginnings rather than endings. They are filled with memories and smiles and laughter as we remember the great lives of those who now are in a different place. The Lord said "I go to prepare a place for you". One speaker said that our loved ones also go to prepare a place for us. What a blessing we have to know this.

Rotten Endings

I just finished a book that left me so mad! (I'll try not to spoil the book for other readers by mentioning names - Katie you know what book this is so maybe you should just skip this post).

This author used to just write a good story. He would have action and definite good guys and bad guys . . . lately though he has a good enough following that he has decided that he is going to write whatever the heck he wants because he knows that people will buy and read his books anyway. I suppose I am an example of that!

This book is about a lawsuit against a big company that has dumped toxic waste into the town's water supply and has caused cancer and death among the residents of the town. Well, I expected therefore that the lawyers and the plaintiff were going to be the main characters and "good guys" of the story. Not what I got! He doesn't stick with these characters really, he jumps each chapter to talk about another set of people and there really isn't a main character.

He moves from the main story and ends up on a soapbox about the state supreme court and getting someone elected onto that court and how the liberals are all bought/elected /controlled by trial lawyers who want big verdicts. Conversely, the conservatives are all bought/elected /controlled by big business, religious, and right to bear arms groups.

What started out to be a nice little story about a women who lost her husband and child to cancer and won a $41 Million verdict became a diatribe about legal processes and politics in the judicial system. The book ended with the case being reversed at the state level, the Company getting off scot-free and then to make the point even more clear, the ending is the owner of the company (the one who knowingly dumped toxic waste) earning several billion dollars in market share because he made his company look bad so that the stock plummeted, then bought up millions of shares of his company, all the while knowing that he bought a supreme court justice so that the verdict would be reversed and the stock would skyrocket! Further insult - the final chapter is the multi-billionaire on his brand new mega-yacht (which sleeps 200) having a party!!

I just wanted a nice little story! What in the heck?! I should have just stuck to episodes of Law and Order on TNT - at least I know what to expect and in the majority of cases, the ending turns out right!

Wireless

Yeah! I am posting this blog from the comforts of my bedroom! I have been without Internet connection in my home for 5 years! When I've had to "work from home", I've had to go to my parents' house with my laptop to steal wireless service. I now can officially work from home. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure but it does mean that I can blog from home - that's good right? Scott is laying here next to me and just called me a "blog-head". Not sure that was a compliment.

Tag - Do I hate this blogging practice?

So I've been tagged. I guess that means I answer the same questions right?

10 years ago
Let's see, that was 1998. I was at BYU in my Junior year living in The Riviera. In fact, at this point 10 years ago I was just getting to be really good friends with Linda (ah!). I was working at BYU campus cleaning the MARB, was dating Jimi Jackson and was a Family Sciences major.

10 things on my TO DO list today
1 - finalize the estimate of my company tax return
2 - answer all the past week's 1099 questions
3 - take my car into the BMW dealership for a service checkup
4 - go to the stake girl's camp meeting
5 - take Jake to obedience class
6 - replace the old CU Auto Sales license plate ringer with a new one
7 - have dinner sometime in there
8 - watch the Monday night shows on DVR that I missed last night
9 - take Ibuprofen to stop the aching muscles from lifting weights last night
10 - talk to Scott for more than 2 minutes before we go to bed

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire?
I pay off all my debts, buy Scott an extra dirt bike so that he could lend it to his friends, buy me a Rhino so that I could go off-roading, let Scott quit his job so that he could choose to finish work on the house or pass the work off to someone else - at least quit the job he hates, get a maid, travel all over Europe and take my mom to Jerusalem, buy my father-in-law a jeep and a new roof, expand my wardrobe . . . etc.

3 of my bad habits
1 - I don't like to wash my face at night. It usually just happens in the shower every other day
2 - I don't like to shower every day either
3 - I have a small swearing problem . . . small . . .

Places I have lived
Houston, TX
Salt Lake City, UT
Provo, UT
La Crescenta, CA

6 Things people don't know about me:
1 - I am SCUBA certified (actually I think everyone knows this)
2 - I love to watch America's Next Top Model (I think everyone knows that too)
3 - I took gymnastics for a summer when I was little and tap dancing during high school
4 - I hate reading classic novels - stupid lightweight novels for me thanks.
5 - I hate smelly cheeses
6 - I am am trying to stay off caffeine but I am on the wagon again with Diet Coke

I tag . . .

Linda
Angela

Busy Season

Wasn't tax season supposed to be better now that I am not working in public accounting? Yet here I sit, April 8th at 9:25pm working (or not working because I'm complaining), for the 15th late night in a row on the company tax return.

I have to say, it is a little bit refreshing to put away my XanGo Tax Manager hat and just put on my green accountant visor and do some good ol' taxes! It's the one time each year that I do something I really have a pretty good handle on. I don't have to call an advisor in another country to ask about VAT issues or customs classifications or any of that. Kind of nice. The bad part is that the other problems and daily things don't go on hold while US tax returns are being prepared. What is wrong with the rest of the world. I have to shut down during the month of Chinese New Year and can't function - can't they shut down during tax season?

And the best part, this is only the extension, I get to pick it all up again in October to finalize it and by then, I have to relearn what in the heck I did 6 months ago! I love being a CPA!!

You've been Fooled ma-nizzle

Shoot, looks like they took the link down, I wish you could have read the article. I was talking about this with a friend and she said that in the fine print at the bottom of the article it said that it was an April Fools joke! See, I just knew that something was wrong with Brother Snoop joining the church! I checked out the Urban Legends site and read this:

Snoop Dogg a Mormon? April Fools! Folks are asking if there's any truth to the CNN report that rapper Snoop Dogg has converted to Mormonism. The answer is no. If you check the date of the story, you'll see it's April 1 -- April Fools' Day. If you look closely at the URL of the alleged CNN article, you'll see it isn't really a valid CNN site at all. And if you look really, really closely at the fine print at the bottom of the phony Web page, it says: "You just got fooled! Snoop's not Mormon... yet!"

Rapper Snoop Dogg converts to Mormonism

I just can't wrap my mind around this! Linda sent me this link. I'm just not sure whether to believe it or not. It's like Darth Vedar converting to the Jedi knights - not going to happen! I checked snopes.com and they don't have anything posted yet on whether this is true. However from the CNN article, it certainly does look like it may be legit! A friend summed up the absurdity with:

I can just see Snoop answering interview questions for a recommend…
Bishop: “Brother Snoop Dog, do you have a testimony?”
Snoop: “Fo-shizzle-ma-nizzle…bizzle… Bishop!” (translation: yes)

The Playlist 2

What is wrong with my playlist??? Anyone? I put in the code that I got from playlist.com, just like I did last week, but this time it didn't work. I needed to change the code because I didn't want my music starting up automatically just in case you are looking at my blog while you are supposed to be doing something else (like how I am supposed to be working right now - I'm on a break - really!). Anyhow, now it doesn't work.

They try to make these things dummy proof but I still can only barely manage most of the time, and sometimes like with this, I don't manage at all. Does that make me a dummy?