Tagged

Marcus tagged me, so here it is.

4 Random Things I Like About My Significant Other

1. Her love for children and animals

2. Her hair

3. How similar her sense of humor is to mine

4. Her cooking

4 Jobs I’ve Had

1. Cashier at Stone Mountain Park

2. Auto Mechanic

3. Daycare teacher

4. Temple Security Guard

4 Movies I’ve Watched More Than Once

1. Star Wars (all 6)

2. Batman

3. Catch Me If You Can

4. Almost all of the Bond movies

4 TV Shows I Watch

1. The Office

2. Prison Break

3. Cops

4. The Soup

4 Favorite Foods

1. Mexican

2. Hamburgers and fries

3. McDonald's apple pies

4. Cheesecake

4 Places I’d Like to Visit

1. Samoa

2. Hawaii

3. Africa

4. France

5 Things I’m Looking Forward to in the Coming Year

1. Graduating college!

2. Warmer weather

3. Hopefully, a summer vacation/cruise

4. Getting a raise 

5. Our 3 year anniversary

4 People I Tag

1. Lettitia (when she gets her new blog up and running)

2. Stephen

3. Courtney

4. Lynette

Priorities?

The definition and concept of priorities, as applied to my current situation in life, has been a large source of frustration, confusion, and conflict for me recently. I struggle knowing what things I should put ahead of other things, or what activities I participate in that should be pushed aside for other activities of greater priority. You see, I'm only at home (excluding sleep time of 6-8 hours a night) for around 15 to 20 hours a week, including weekends. That is the total of my free time, given I don't have to use it to study for school or do yard work, or other domestic chores. Somewhere in that "free" time I'm supposed to also find time to further my relationship with my spouse, do my home teaching, prepare my lessons for the deacons quorum, attend and help with scout troop weekly activities and campouts, study the scriptures, exercise my dogs, maintain my friendships, and probably many others that aren't coming to mind right now. For a lot of people, the solution would be to tone down the outside activities and "get their priorities in order." Well, that is where the whole problem and confusion comes in for me. When I'm away from from home I'm either attending to my part time job, my full time job, or my full time college classes, all of which are essential for me to be able to support my family now and in the future. Basically everything I already do seems of equal priority, but then there are also many other things waiting for me to accomplish or attend to them that also seem of equal priority. The concept of ordering your priorities and doing away with unnecessary things in your life as a fix-all of sorts really bothers me. How does that apply to me!? I have not found it helpful at all! In fact, it just gives me a feeling that it's my fault that I can't fit everything in and if I would just try a little harder I could make it work. Yeah, well most days I feel like I would fall over dead if I tried any harder. Oh, and good luck finding time for fun things and just forget about sleeping in or relaxing.

Funny

So, Lettitia and I have been a little overwhelmed by all the negativity and back and forth attacks in all of the presidential debates. We have found that Saturday Night Live's mock debates have helped us to be able to laugh a little and have helped to lighten the atmosphere for us a bit. Here is the one they did of the Vice Presidential debate. They've done one with all the debates and nbc.com has the video of them. Tina Fey is great as Sarah Palin!

Sometimes People Just Make Me Laugh

So, I was driving and ended up behind an older model Honda Civic with a vanity plate. The plate read "GASSAVR." I took this to mean that the driver was saying "Yes, i have an old, inexpensive car, but look how much I'm saving on gas!" To me that seems like a silly thing to write on a license plate, but what made me burst into laughter is the fact that this person spent extra money to brag about saving extra money.

Herbivorous Canine

The only window in our house that we can see the neighbors yard and fence from is the master bathroom window. Yesterday afternoon, while I was getting ready for work I looked out that window and noticed one of the dogs, Mr. T, by the neighbors fence. Just on the other side of the fence the neighbors have a garden with watermelons, tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers. Mr. T was at the fence trying to get his snout as far under the fence as possible. I then watched him pull part of the cucumber vine onto our side of the fence, wrestle a cucumber off the vine,and sit down with it between his paws and start eating it. I laughed so hard!! That goofy dog went out of his way to pick a cucumber and then eat it. After I was done upstairs I went outside just to see if he actually had eaten it, and sure enough it was no where to be found. I wish I had known all along that he was happy eating vegetables. I could have been fixing him a nice salad every night instead of giving him that expensive dog food, and saved a lot of money.

Out with the old, and in with the....a little bit older and less expensive.

So, for about a month I've been enjoying having two motorcycles. If I was in a sporty mood I could ride the sport bike. If I wanted to relax I could ride the cruiser. I had bought my dad's bike with the knowledge that I would be selling my other one. Well, I sold the sport bike Saturday afternoon to an army guy from Columbus, GA. I had that bike for about a year and a half and loved it the whole time. It was really hard to see it go. Of course, the huge wad of cash I got in exchange for it helped. I really do like the cruiser that I bought from my dad. It is a Honda Shadow 1100. It's a very different riding experience. It's very comfortable and much more relaxed to ride. All in all, I'm very happy with everything the way it turned out.

Is This Really Happening?

My parents and youngest sister Lina drove to Utah with my middle sister Karina this past week. The really sad thing is that on Monday when they start heading back to Georgia they'll be leaving Karina there. She's starting college!! This is so crazy! Is this really happening? It's weird being a big brother to three younger sisters. I get overwhelmed with the feeling that I just don't want them to grow up. I think it is a protective instinct that comes from subconsciously wanting to protect them from the harder things adult or young adult life brings. Or maybe I just can't accept change. Either way I get so worked up thinking about it. I know that they need to grow up and date, go to college, and have their own experiences with things, but for some reason it is still really difficult for me. Lettitia laughs at me because I get bent out of shape hearing about my sisters dating and doing things with boys. She just doesn't understand. They're my LITTLE sisters! They're not supposed to like boys.
Well, Lettitia is right, I know that I'm pretty ridiculous, and since I can't stop them from growing up or liking boys I guess I'll just have to deal with it. I love Karina and will miss her, but I'm excited for the experiences and fun she'll have on her own. Now, I've got to come up with a plan to keep Lina away from boys. We'll see how that goes!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Well, it's father's day and naturally it's got me thinking about my father and the other father figures in my life. I'm very grateful for the influence and example my father was for me. Also, I was thinking about how great it was to have grandfathers in life. I was fortunate enough to grow up with both of my grandfathers around a lot. You know, during those teenage years when you wish your parents would just go on a permanent vacation, it was helpful to have a grandfather to talk to and to give you the advice you needed to hear, but didn't want to hear from your parents. So, hurray for fathers! The grand kind and the regular kind.

The Inaugural Post

So, since getting an internet capable cell phone, I've been reading a lot of friends and families blogs. It got me wanting to start a blog, but for a while I lacked the giddy up to do it. I kinda wondered what I would ever even write in a blog, but when my niece, Rachel Taylor, started her own blog she inspired me enough to finally do it. So.....welcome to me, and hurray!

..................................................................................................................................................

So, today in my Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships class we talked about some things that got me thinking. We talked about how physical appearance and attractiveness tend to affect the way we view others, and treat them. The professor asked for examples from students who may have seen this or participated in this. As the class was discussing the topic and sharing examples, I became increasingly aware of my own shallow judgements of those I had merely laid eyes on. For example, recently I saw a billboard featuring the radio personalities of a morning show I listen to often and it totally changed what I thought of them. Before seeing what they looked liked I thought they sounded like pretty cool guys. When I saw them on the billboard my first thought was "what a bunch of losers." I'm ashamed to say that after thinking about it, I make those kind of snap judgments about people often. It seems to be one of those sad,but true parts of human nature. Well, I hope to be able to overcome the natural man, and become slower to judge others.