Price is Right?

Flex Spending… Sounded like such a fantastic idea when I signed up for! I herd so many wonderful things about it, and I here I am with a surplus of $250.17 ( if you do not understand what a ‘surplus’ is watch the Office episode where Michael is explained what it is like a two year old! It is also the same episode where Dwight secretly marries Angela, one of my favorites!) I was worried that I had used all of it, from when I was in the hospital back in July for “Helga” (my unwanted cyst that causes way too much pain but they will not remove!!!) so I was super frugal when it came to using that account. I paid a lot of it upfront in case I needed it for an emergency! Well here I am stuck with having to spend all this money by midnight tonight!


I decided to go on a shopping spree as one might call it last night… I still have $88 left to spend. UGH! I feel as though I am being super wasteful and buying careless things! Granite I always needed a first aid kit for my car and other items, but still! I was online last night with my roommate and we found a list of things my account covers. Here are few items that I m ay possibly look into:


Eye Patch – Who wouldn’t want one? They are the coolest things out there!


Artificial Limbs- Just in case that one day when do some serious damage to myself. I am a klutz, and it is bound to happen sooner or later!


Incontinence Products- My dad is getting old, and Depends should be in the near future… :P


Wart Removal Medications- What more can I say?


Urinary Pain Relief- It is always nice to have something laying around, however I am not too certain what or where I would get something like this.


Speech Therapy- I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I tend to stagger sometimes



Wheelchair- One of these days I may need one, and like Boy Scouts always said, it is better to be prepared!


Pregnancy Tests- My roommate and I thought it would be neat to have closet just full of them, and I can always give them away as wedding presents! WATCH OUT!


Artificial Teeth- I think that would make a wonderful Christmas Present :D


Guide Dog- I had a friend growing up who trained them and they are awesome pets! Especially for the lazy! Oh I mean blind…


Hopefully I will be able to meet my goal by midnight. I had fun last night with one of the Pharmacists trying to figure out what in my cart was not covered by my plan. I felt like I was playing the Price is Right.

Snowed In!!!

Christmas was interesting to say the least this year… In the morning I was at my Aunt and Uncles in West Jordan, where we snowed in. The clouds opened up and completely dumped on us! With the wind blowing as hard as it was in combination with the snow, the power went out! It was kind of fun, until we where starving and realized that there was no way to cook the French Toast! Thankfully after an hour or so, the power came back on and we had a yummy breakfast!

Sadly the next issue was trying to leave! With the storm as bad as it was, they had to close down all the roads going eastbound from West and South Jordan! This meant my Aunt was stuck and could not take her family to Henifer, and we didn’t have any food for Christmas dinner. Oh well, it all worked out in some strange way!

By about 6pm, I decided to try to make it to my side of the valley. Thankfully the roads had cleared up some, and I made it home safely, then I honkered down for the night. Totally strange though, when I got out to Sandy, it was just Rain, and a lot of the snow had melted.

After a hot shower and random food compiled together, my roommate and I decided to watch Pride and Prejudice. I have seen the LDS version and the Kira Knightly version, but never the BBC 6 hour one before, until now. I loved it! It was everything I had wished for and then some. I watch the new one now and I feel like it is on fast forward!

Anyway, about an hour and half into it, my roommate had to bring the dogs in for the night, and that was when we noticed the storm! We got about 6 inches in just a few short hours! It was horrible! When I went to bed, the snow was level with the highest parts from shoveling before!

As I woke up the next morning, we had at least a foot of snow! This was by far the most we have gotten in one down pour this year! My roommate tried to shovel the driveway, and only made it in one stripe. It was quite comical! She told me to leave it, and that hopefully the neighbors will feel bad and come help.

I have this crazy phobia of not being able to get out, and have an exit strategy at all times, and I felt really claustrophobic, and needed to dig our way out. Plus I felt like I needed a nice workout, so I went out anyways! She was right… The snow was heavy and more work than I thought it would be! She felt bad and decided to come out and join me. It was a great bonding experience and about an hour of tough work!

When we finally got my car dug out, we decided to finish the whole driveway. However, one of my wonderful roommates left her boyfriends car in the driveway. Since they where not coming back until Sunday night, we thought it would be fun and less work to bury his car. It gave us a good laugh!

Mr Potato Head

I made a new best friend this year, and his name is Mr. Potato Head! Oh how I love him, and I have a few new outfits for him!

I am not a huge fan of him dressed like a woman; in all actuality it is quite scary! I almost had nightmares last night so I had to quickly change him!

He sometimes has a funny nose, sort of like Frosty...

But I think he breathes the best and looks the best dressed like this!

Roni's 1st Christmas

Baby Cousin Roni had her first Christmas this year. Oh how cute she really was! She is only 9 months old but she seemed to understand opening presents and playing with things. On Christmas Eve we always get to open PJ’s. She was so adorable opening her first present!

Later she decided to get into the box and just play! She would get so excited and her cute little hands would start clasping together! Oh How I love my baby cousin!

Christmas...

As I was getting ready for Christmas Eve yesterday, I herd a song on the radio that broke my heart. It was a little 4 year old boy singing about all he wanted for Christmas was his older brother home from Iraq. I was trying so hard not to cry. I understand Cody is in the “safe zone” but it still hurts to know what could happen to him.

So here we are with another Christmas behind us… and yet it doesn’t feel any different. I understand that the true meaning of Christmas is about the birth of our Savior, however I feel that family is a huge important piece of it. It has not felt like a true Christmas for awhile, especially since my brother Cody joined the military, and after my father moved out. This year is different, Cody has been deployed back to Iraq, but thankfully he is in holding in Kuwait, waiting for clearance to cross over into Iraq. My father decided to stay back in Idaho this year, so it is just me and mom like it always is. Which is totally fine, I just wish that my whole family was here!

The Gift of Service

It’s the most wonderful time of the year….. What a true and wonderful song/ saying! I have been trying to think of things that will make me happier in my life. I read in this crazy old book multiple times that service is the key to happiness. Which by any means I have been trying, but it seems like nothing is happening. Then again I have been blessed for so much, and I feel like for the first time I live at a place where I actually enjoy going home!

My latest adventure has helped me really try harder to think others and those that may be not blessed with as much and who are struggling. My amazing roommate came at me on Saturday morning and asked if I would go with her to the food co-op. I had no idea what was going on. On the drive over she shared with me a story about this lady named Karen. I guess she babysits for the neighbors every now and then and when she was called on Wednesday night she said “oh good now I have money for food”. This broke my roommate’s heart when she herd about this (and mine too!), so she decided to ‘adopt’ her and bring her food and what not.

We went and got her tons of amazing food, meat, produce, breads and grains, and food storage stuff. We had an entire blue Ikea bag filled to the top! There was also a Christmas present in there for her (a nice thermal jacket, purple her favorite color). Since she has seen my roommate play with the girls, and I had never met her, I had the joys of hiking the heavy heavy bag of goodies up 3 flights of stairs! When she answered the door, she was overcome with joy and I had a hard time trying not to cry myself! She grabbed me and made me come inside. She was so welcoming and wonderful!

She wanted to show me her little mini Christmas tree and everything about her. She loves animals and there is not an inch on the walls that is not covered by a cut out picture of a dog or any type of animal! She also loved anything church related and troll dolls. I felt like I was back in the early 90’s with how many troll dolls there where. I visited with her for over a half hour, mind you my roommate sat patiently in the car this whole time!

I guess last year she did not have any money to pay for her gas bill, so she went the entire, horrible stormy winter without any heat. This year her Bishop is forcing her to keep it on. My roommate is going to try to figure something out so we can secretly help as well.

There is too much that I take for granite. I have food in my closet, clothes on back and thankfully since the gas prices are low, fuel in my car. I just have to keep thinking that the Lord has plan and that He is watching out for me. It will all work out in due time.

All at once... Understanding in a car crash

In the words of Pete Yorn, “Every now and then I get like this. And it isn’t hard to see. That the old man in the kitchen, I think he is part of me. Don’t think nothing about the old house, cause I burned it to the ground. And when the darkness comes I lie awake… Playing lost and found.” Nobody says it better than him… But why does it always come down to this? Why is it that when it gets this rough I push people away? I was always told to not show emotions, don’t let people know, but times have changed and I just seems to get worse and worse the more I bottle it up inside!

This week seems to be like a nightmare. More and more things keep happening and I wonder why me? When is it going to stop? Why can’t I breathe and just escape the world around me. Just for one day to be and feel free? I want to scream at the top of my lungs and try to heal and get past everything, but I am stuck in my office right now. Going insane, wracking my brain to try to figure this out.

"Understanding In A Car Crash" by Thrice

Splintered piece of glass falls, in the seat, gets caught
These broken windows, open locks, reminders of the youth we lost
In trying so hard to look away from you
we followed white lines to the sunset
I crash my car everyday the same way Time to let this pass (the time it takes, the time it takes to let go)
Time runs through our veins. (it starts and stops and starts and stops again)
We don't stand a chance in this threadbare time (the time it takes, the time it takes to let go)
Time to let this pass (the time it takes, the time it takes to let go)Staring at the setting sun
No reason to come back again
The twilight world in blue and white
The needle and the damage done I don't want to feel this way forever
A dead letter marked return to sender The broken watch you gave me turns into a compass
It's two hands still point to the same time 12:03, our last goodbye So push the seats back a little further
I can see the headlights coming
So push the seats back a little further
Roll the windows down and take a breath
I can see the headlights coming
They paint the world in red and broken glassTime to let this pass (the time it takes, the time it takes to let go)
Time runs through our veins. (it starts and stops and starts and stops again)
We don't stand a chance in this threadbare time (the time it takes, the time it takes to let go)
Time to let this pass (the time it takes, the time it takes to let go)Staring at the setting sun
No reason to come back again
The twilight world in blue and white
The needle and the damage done I don't want to feel this way forever
A dead letter marked return to sender The spinning hubcaps set the tempo, for the music of the broken window
The Cameras on and the cameras click
We open up the lens and can't stopStaring at the setting sun
No reason to come back again
The twilight world in blue and white
The needle and the damage doneI don't want to feel this way forever The lights are on and the cameras click
We open up the lens (to broken glass!)Staring at the setting sun (And it's over!)
No reason to come back again (In a flash!)
The twilight world in blue and white (and I'll never!)
The needle and the damage done (ever understand!)I don't want to feel this way forever (Understanding!)
(In a Car Crash!) A dead letter marked return to sender (In a Car Crash!)
(In a Crash!) In a Crash!


Will this feeling ever go away? When is it my turn to finally be happy?!? Haven't I suffered and been though enough yet?

Laziness...

I have become more and more frustrated in recent months of people and their stupid laziness. It baffles me how people cannot do things for themselves anymore. We have tons and tons of new gadgets that are ridiculous and quite frankly a waste of time and money. For instance my roommate, bless her because she is amazing, she bought this crazy gadget on QVC that looks like a gun, and you stick it in where the dead Christmas light would be, and pull the trigger and then magically make the light work again. Kind of far fetched I would say, but I went along with it out of curiosity. I am likely to say that my suspicions where right and it was a waste of money. Now it had actually worked, then I would have thought that was kind of cool, and may pay off over time the cost of it. Yet again, only using it really once a year would make me question the expense again.

This brings me to another part of wondering why people are so lazy! Whatever happened to homemade things, like bread, a toothbrush (why spend money on something electric like that?!) or sewing your own clothes, etc? Why not take pride in knowing that you created or did something on your own? Is it the way children these days are raised that they do not know the concept of taking the garbage out or emptying the dishwasher? I wonder home many times my lazy roommates can trip over the garbage bags until they realize that they have to take it outside? And this also means to me, ALL the garbage. I feel that you should make sure to take out all of it, and not leave another bag because you feel like it! It is not like we live in an apartment, or we have to go for a hike to dispose of it. It is two feet away, next to where we park our cars!

This experience totally killed me though! One of my roommates saw clearly that I was doing my dishes, and came up behind me and asked if the dishwasher was clean or dirty. While asking the question (not like we do not have a sign on the dishwasher that says if it is dirty or clean mind you) she opens the dishwasher up to see for herself. It was clean in fact and you could tell by opening it, since just the faintest amount of warmth came from it. She then turns to me and says “oops, looks like its clean; I will wash my cup by hand!” I then wonder how she feels it is fair that everyone pick up after her?! I on the other hand love where I live and try to clean up after myself as much as possible. I also have decided though that I am not everyone’s mother, and am done cleaning up after those that live there that think everything should be done for them.

The other thing with this is quiet service. If you take out the garbage or empty the dishwasher, do not make it into a Broadway production. Good for you, you finally lifted a finger to show a tiny sign of respect for where you live. Would you like a gold star? How you keep your room is your business, but common area’s pick up after yourself! I also do not care for knowing how much money you are spending on your family for Christmas, or how you pay their bills. It frustrates me to no end to hear all about this stuff, to try to make you look like a saint! To me, that is honestly just more self centered and rude. Silent service is what counts! Other than me stating this here, I do not tell my roommates or anyone when I go out of my way to help out, like when I scrape the ice of their cars, bring the dogs in and out for bed or bring the garbage cans to the curb. I am a happier person when I know I do something good for someone else and don’t say anything, it defeats the purpose!

This is what got me truly thinking about this subject today though. Today I had the joys at work of calling an agent in Florida about one of properties. From dealing with multiple issues at this one address, I am aware that the home has been vandalized. Holes in the drywall, broken mirrors, glass etc. Now when I asked our local agent back in October to clean it up a little, she told me that the property has always been like that. With foreclosures, you expect certain things and have an idea of what to expect when you go inside. Drywall and holes, you can deal with. I could fix that (thank you to my Father who taught me a few weeks ago how to repair the hole in the wall. Long story…), but the mirrors and glass is something anyone can clean! I sat there for at least 5 minutes listening to this German gentleman yell and curse at me on the phone about the issues. At that point I had had enough of this! Instead of emailing or calling our local agent again, I went to the Asset Manager and person over the Local Agent. My logical thinking is that he can make them grab a dustpan and broom and clean it up. It is a safety hazard to have that all over the property. What is someone fell and got cut? The response I received was, “can you get a bid on the cleanup?” HELLO?! It would take like maybe 5 minutes tops to clean up some glass! I will even clean it up for free if you fly to Florida! The pure laziness of this upset me! Not to mention the fact that I do not get bids, that is not my job! So I tried to as kindly as possible reply back to him, that is not my job, teach me how, and how I thought they could get off their ass and sweep it up. He of course apologized about the mix up.

Sorry for my rants and raves. I am honestly going to be a much happier person in January once things change at home. I love where I live and most of the baggage that comes with it… I have been so blessed with certain things, and wonderful people to try to help me in this large world that I feel lost in.