Icicles

I came home from church one Sunday and saw these awesome icicles outside my window.

Christmas Time!

I just love this time of year! I have decorated (simply) my apartment and just love my tree! There will be a lot of things going on this month that I am so excited for! The first, besides decorating my apartment, is tonight. I will be going with my brother's family to ride the Polar Express! (really, it is the Heber Creeper, but it should still be fun) It will be fun to go with the two little boys. I'll have to steal some pictures from Amy to post on here.

Here is a picture from 5 years ago. It was taken on Christmas Day. This is my Grandpa Marble and it was his last Christmas, he died less than a year later. Christmastime always included him as his birthday is December 8th. I miss him.
I'll try to keep you updated on the rest of my fun activities this month. Until next time, Em.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month

A good friend of mine has recently been blessed with a baby being placed with her and her husband. Their story is a miraculous one. Also, I found out this week that a co-worker and his wife also have been blessed with a baby. They had been waiting for quite some time and I am really excited for them. I think that adoption is such a miracle to people. I have a brother & sister-in-law that adopted a baby. She is a lot older now, but has been and still is a blessing to my family.

Throughout this past election, having to consider all the issues in choosing someone to vote for, I became much more aware of the the issue of abortion. As I learned more about it, I became much more sensitive towards what happens to children. Lately, as I have driven to work, I've listened to the radio and heard some of the news of the community. I have also been watching the news more often. It saddens me to hear of child abuse. In fact, if you were riding with me when I heard some of these things, you would have had to cover your ears, because I yelled, "Why?!?!" Why do people hurt children? I don't understand! It makes me angry! There are many couples out there that could and would give a child a happy home, so why are adults so selfish?

One thing that I wish politicians would back up more is adoption. Is it not a better option for everyone concerned? I agree that girls that end up pregnant too young are in a tough spot. For many, they have placed themselves into the adult world far too soon. Three options lay before them: abortion, keeping the child, and adoption. It seems that they only really focus on the first two, when the last one is the best option for all concerned.

Abortion is pure selfishness. (There are times that it is necessary, but those times are few and far between.) It is consideration only for the mother and her life, giving no consideration for the unborn child and the life it could have had. It is murder.

Keeping the child may not seem as selfish because it is a great sacrifice for the young woman to raise a child when she is a child herself. But I still call it selfishness because they have not thought of what is best for the child. In many cases, it only seems to make life harder on both the mother and the child. Yes, many great people have come from single parent homes. That is not what I am saying here. I am referring to teenage mothers. Life is hard enough.

Adoption is a win/win situation. The mother can move on with her life and make it better. She can finish school, go on to college and be able to live as a responsible independent adult. The baby also will have a better life. Placed into a home of two people that are committed to each other and to a baby that will be raised as their own. Why is this such a hard thing to consider? It seems like a no-brainer to me. Now, some will say that as I am not a mother I do not understand how hard it would be to give up the baby that has been carried for 9 months. I may not know exactly, but I can imagine. I know that there is a bond that exists between a mother and her unborn child, a bond that I hope to experience one day. I also know that pregnancy is NOT a pleasant experience. It would require a great deal of sacrifice for a young woman to deal with all of that and then turn around and give that baby away. Such a sacrifice is a miracle to witness and those women that do so, I highly respect. So, tell me, why is adoption not considered by some?

Finally, I love children so much! I have 22 such blessings that I call mine, even if they aren't really mine or even children anymore. I love them so much! I was speaking with a friend recently about this and she said offhandedly, "I think you are more ready to be a mother than to be a wife!" :) I don't know about that, but I truly love being with children and experiencing their excitement for life as well as their innocence of it. I love getting the toothy grin from my nephew when I show up at his house and his squeal of joy as I play peek-a-boo or chase him around the kitchen. I love how his older brother tries to pretend that he doesn't like my "tickle torture", even though he doesn't run away when I threaten him with it! :) I love that my nieces will come and sit on my lap and talk with me about kid stuff. Children are so SMART!

As a final note, last night I had Chinese food and with that Chinese food, I received a fortune cookie. Below is a picture of the fortune I got. I thought it very appropriate for this blog.

Halloween Costume

I'm not very creative when it comes to costumes, so I decided to dress up as myself,

an accountant. (pretty scary, I know)

This picture is curtesy of my camera phone, so it is a bit distorted (my head really isn't THAT much bigger in proportion to my shoulders.) I had to angle the phone in a way so that it wasn't too dark.I even have a pocket protector....it wouldn't be complete without one...I got some good reactions from my boss and fellow accountants.

Cool video clip on the importance of voting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TGf2o4qeBo

CORRECTION

There are not 7 baby guppies....no, when I went to clean the tank this weekend, I found 8!

Fishies!

So, I've been meaning to do a post about my "roommates". Mid-august, Jeffrey & Sarah (for non-family readers, my brother and sister-in-law) moved to Texas. They had 8 guppies that Jeffrey did not want to have to worry about transporting and Sarah did not want to flush (Jeffrey's idea, typical insensitive male :) love ya bro!). Sympathizing with Sarah and having compassion on the poor things, I took them in. I became the proud owner of 3 adult and 5 baby guppies. To sweeten the deal, they also gave me all the tank equipment that I needed. The day before they left, we went to the pet store and I picked out another fish. With Sarah's expert advice, we picked a community type fish that would get along with the guppies, a male dwarf gourami. See picture below (it isn't really my fish but it looks just like him - picture provided by google images, remember, I don't have a digital camera)

This is Sam (I was reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" at the time. His full name is Sam Hill :) )

As is the case with most fish, that I was in denial about, some of them died. It was pretty hard on me, even though I was told not to take it personally. About 2 weeks later, I was at Wal-mart and was looking at the fish and decided that I would get a Neon Tetra, having been told by Sarah that these too, are docile fish.

Neon Tetra (I'm bad at the naming thing. So far Sam is the only one with a name. My car still doesn't have a name)

At this point, I had 7 fish: the 5 original baby guppies, Sam, and the neon tetra. On September 12th, a little less than a month after becoming a fish owner, I was at Wal-mart again (I know, I know) and was looking at the fish (I was very addicted). As I was reading the descriptions of the fish, I realized that maybe Sam and the tetra needed a fish of their same breed to swim with. They had female dwarf gouramis so I got a friend for Sam and then another neon tetra.

Sam's friend, not as brightly colored as he is, but still pretty. Oh and she has attitude. :)

Oh, but I didn't stop there, no, that would have been the responsible thing to do. No, you see, there were these Glowlight tetras that looked pretty cool, so I got 2 of those. Not once during this trip did I think that there should only be a certain amount of fish in a 10-gallon tank. Oh, no, in my mind there was plenty of room for more fish.

Glowlight Tetras

After getting home, I decided that I needed to clean the tank out before I added the new fish. I had to run to Petco and get some filters. While I was at Petco I decided to walk by the fish tanks (I am SO dumb) and realized that they are having a sale on fish. $1 for guppies! Sweet! "So," I think, "I only have those baby guppies, I'll get a male and a female adult guppy." Great idea, I know. (I think I was a little excited that I had fish that 1) actually lived longer than your typical goldfish, and 2) could have more than one in a bowl as it is with betas. )

They didn't have anymore males, so instead I got 2 females, an orange one and a black one. As the girl was putting them into the baggie, I ask her, "How many fish should I have in my 10 gallon tank?" ......... 5!......unless I have a really great filter. (I don't think mine is THAT special) Too embarrassed to tell her to put them back, I take them home and sit looking at all the fish I have.....13! Oops. Oh well, recognizing that I am a bad mother, I prepare myself for tragedy as some will most likely die because of overcrowding. I clean out the tank and after taking the proper measures of putting new fish in a tank, I let them loose. I watch as they all swim around. They did look pretty crowded.

Fast forward 40 hours. It was Sunday, early afternoon, Rachel & Steven are over for Sunday dinner. Steven is checking out the fish (which by the way, the tank was already gross, so it shows that I don't have a "great" filter) and he says something about the fry. I respond with something like, yeah, they are cute...or something like that. A few minutes later, I'm looking at the tank, and much to my surprise, there are 3 babies...tiny babies...like brand new baby guppies! How could that happen! I research on the internet and find out that it is common for pet store females to already be pregnant. Nice! So, no I do not have 13 fish in a 10 gallon tank...no, I have 16!

Guppy Fry (mine were more orange than black)

Having the babies in the tank changed my outlook....I needed to do something so that they wouldn't die. Since the next day was going to be a busy day at work, I couldn't do anything until after work. I decided that if I came home and the babies were still alive, I was going to buy another tank and do what I needed to keep them alive. And they were alive when I got home. (they are pretty hearty) So off to the store I went, no worries I found a deal on all the equipment, so it didn't cost me that much. I spent the next few hours setting up the new tank and cleaning the old one. When I finished, I put the 10 guppies in one tank (they were small enough that I figured it was okay) and then put the other 6 in the other tank.

Surprisingly, they all lived well for the next 2 weeks or so. But then 4 of the guppies died within a few days of each other (3 of the original babies, and the mama of the 3 surprise babies).

Lately I've noticed that the other female I bought at Petco had a huge belly! Having learned online that they get huge just before "dropping" their fry, I've carefully checked the tank for more babies these past 2 weeks. Nothin'! So I figured I was probably wrong about the female (I really need to give them names).

Well, this morning as I went to feed them, I saw a baby! I carefully looked for more and tried to count them (those little guys are hard to see!). I counted 7! YEAH! They are so cute!

So that is it, a long post about my 19 roommates! Hope you enjoyed their history and please don't judge me...I'm still learning... :) And although it sounds like I am obsessed, I'm not really...I'm only doing this to learn responsibility and to look beyond myself. It really is tough to remember to feed these guys. :)

Election issues

A friend posted this link on thier blog and after watching the video I decided I wanted to promote it as well. While it was geared to catholics, I stand for the same values. This may well be the most political I will get on my blog, but I hope that you take a look at it.

http://www.catholicvote.com/

Cool Vid

I thought this was really funny. What a cute kid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgrrQwLdME8

Locked...in????

I can be a bit paranoid about locking myself out of my apartment or my car. So I tend to make alot of copies of my keys to have certain trusted individuals carry them. This way, if ever I need their assistance, I would have someone to turn to. But I never considered being locked in!

This morning as I was leaving for work, I went to the front door, unlocked the deadbolt, and as I was unlocking the knob, the handle came off in in my hand. Not having a back door and living on the 3rd floor, I stood there, holding the knob and wondering how I was going to get out.

Part of knob that came off.

Hoping that I had happened to unlock the door, I started messing with the parts still in the door to see if the door would open, but to no avail. I began pondering what I should do. The office to the apartment complex did not open until 10am and I felt too foolish to call the emergency apartment number. I then decided to call my work. A friend there knows where I live. Through a few chuckles on her part, she agrees to come and save me, but she has to finish something first. So what else can I do but wait.

Well, if you know me, you know that I wouldn't let an opportunity to hone my MacGyver skills pass by. I begin looking carefully at the workings of the knob and trying to put the thing back together. This proves useless as it only pushes the outside knob away from the door. Hmmm, what to do? I grab my tweezers to see if there is something that I can grab on and hold while I try refitting the knob. I can get the knob on a bit, but not enough to unlock the door, which is essential in opening the door. ;)

As I continued to study the inside workings of the knob, I decided to turn a piece with my tweezers and see if I could unlock the door with it.

Locking mechanism (it is inside a barrel of sorts, so it wasn't super easy to turn, trust me)

Once turned, I again attempted to put the handle together. It didn't go on super well, but well enough, that with a twist of the knob, the door opened and I was free!

I quickly put the whole thing back together, (and tightened the screws that were the culprits in the first place!) and went on my merry way.

Just another day in my exciting life. On the bright side, I now have a better understanding of how a door knob works!

Side note, I once knew a girl that lived alone and this same experience happened to her, only it was a bathroom knob. She tried calling several people, all of which did not answer their phones and she ended up being locked in the bathroom for quite awhile. Scary huh?

Moral of the story, if you've noticed that your door handles are a bit loose, for say the past 2 weeks! Be sure to tighten them up so you don't get locked in! Dun, dun, dun!!

(pictures courtesy of google images, I don't have a digital camera, or you would have gotten real shots of the story!)

Support

I have a very dear friend that has dealt with chronic illness for some time now. I first met her when she did not have any of the physical issues that she battles with today. She is a great inspiration to me on enduring through adverse situations. I love her dearly! She has created a blog to be able to help others that are in much the same situation as she is. She is always willing to help others and is one of the most selfless people I know. Please share her blog with anyone you may know that deals with chronic pain. I love you Em! http://chronicillnesssurvival.blogspot.com/

My Mission President

My former mission president and his wife are now serving a mission in China, teaching english at a woman's university in Bejing. This summer they volunteered at the Olympics. The Church News did a piece on them a couple of weeks ago. Here is the article. (Just click on the article and it should appear at a more readable size. :) ) Enjoy, and let me know what you think! I couldn't be more pleased!

It's Official!!

So, nearly everyday since I finished my classes, I've been checking to see when my degrees would post. Part of that reason is because in order to apply to take the CPA exam, I have to have my degrees. This morning when I checked, this is what I saw:

DEGREES AWARDED - BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

DEGREE : BS

DATE RECEIVED : Aug 2008

SCHOOL : Accountancy

MAJOR : Accounting

EMPHASIS : Tax

DEGREE : MACC

DATE RECEIVED : Aug 2008

SCHOOL : Accountancy

MAJOR : Tax

I have a Master's degree! (Poor bachelor's gets less limelight, but I also received that as well!) As soon as the actual certificates come, I'll take a picture and post them. Happy Labor Day!

"Birth"day

As I said in my last post, I've been looking through pictures lately. Actually since school is done, I have renewed my scrap booking hobby. I have quite a bit to catch up on. (I haven't done much scrap booking in the past 8 years!) So, as I was looking through pictures, I decided to share a few on here from time to time.

This is a picture of my "birth"day. This was taken just hours after my birth, when my siblings met me for the first time.I was born on the 26th of April, 1980, around 1am, at home. I was a pretty big baby, as I was overdue. Doesn't my mom look great for having just delivered a baby? I think she does. I am the 7th of nine living children. My brothers and sisters in the picture are: behind my mom from left to right, Sonja, Joseph, David, and Jonathan, in the bottom left corner is Amy, and on the right is Freeman. What a crew! Look! I even had a birthday cake! How cool!

This was taken almost 4 months ago, at the end of April.

I have been looking through a bunch of photos today, gathering pictures of me with my nieces and nephews. I don't have that many, but luckily Amy is SO great about taking pictures, I have a few with Jackson. (do you like how I am trying to duck out of the picture...there is no escape!) I especially like this one because of how both Jackson and I are laughing at someone...I don't remember who or why, but I like the picture a lot! (I guess this means I should stop complaining every time Amy brings out the camera. ONCE in awhile I like the ones she takes of me.....but not very often..... :) love ya Ames!)

I sure love getting pictures of my most favorite 11 boys and 11 girls! (hint, hint)

Victory Dance

While a bit early to know for sure (grades haven't come in yet) this is a clip of my victory dance at being done with school! (Hint: click the picture)

Top 10 Ways to Trick Yourself into Saving Money

I thought this article had some good ideas, especially concerning credit cards. I like the picture and ice ideas best!

http://lifehacker.com/397006/top-10-ways-to-trick-yourself-into-saving-money

Check this out!

Good Sportsmanship

Official post #1

This was taken 5 years ago, when we traveled out to Jonathan's in California for Seth's baptism. Now, obviously Rachel was making the face on purpose, but when I pulled it out I couldn't help but laugh. She definitely has a way with "looks".

I don't remember exactly what we did for the fourth that year, but this was pretty close to the date, so this is in celebration of the 4th of July. Happy 4th everyone! I'm very happy to be an American and grateful for our country and the freedoms we enjoy! Love you all!

The more resistant I am, the more likely I'll give in.....sometimes...

So, I've been fighting adding a blog, wanting to remain one of the few that doesn't in this family...but I couldn't help myself. I was curious to how it all worked and next thing I know...I have a blog. (Amy - you win) I don't have a digital camera, so I'm most likely going to add stuff from the past. I've been going through pictures and journals recently...and for a person that loves to talk and tell stories, this seems to be a good place to do it. (Although, I already know that Amy and Amy are the only ones, beside myself, that actually pay attention to the blogs.) So, don't gloat to much, Amy, but here I am...on the blog