Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The next bailout
If anyone has been following the economy lately (I would hope that includes anyone who has time to read our blog), the government has been dishing out massive amounts of money. Remember how vital it was for the $700 billion bailout? That was preceded by the government dishing out $2 trillion for Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. That was preceded by our wonderful stimulus package which got lots of us a check which we were supposed to use to buy goods to jump start the economy. Now, the government says they need $800 billion more for two new programs which are vital to our economy. But wait, we're not through yet. Now the government has said that their willingness to extend credit will likely to $7.7 TRILLION! This includes the recent programs mentioned above. My question is, when is it time to say "enough is enough"? What about next year if this doesn't work? Will the government continue to spend itself into oblivion? We really have created a monster, and guess what? You'll be paying for it.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
$1.90
That's how much I paid for a gallon of gas at Costco today :) I don't remember seeing prices that low since I was engaged, nearly 5 years ago.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Just Thinking
I would think with a primary program coming up this week, a trip to Nauvoo for Brett's brother's wedding next week, and Thanksgiving and moving the following week, I'd have plenty to do. However, I am in one of those unmotivated, yet contemplative, moods. I need to sit down and write it down so I can move on with my to-do list.
Sometimes I wonder why I was placed in the circumstances in which I find myself. I think most of us think about this occasionally. I have had a really, really great life. Sure, there have been difficulties and trials along the way, but overall, I feel I've had it easy. Sometimes, I get mad at myself when I start to complain about something trivial and I think about people living in impoverished and war-stricken countries, or think about people who, in their lives, have had major tragedy, death, medical problems, abuse, etc., the likes of which I can not comprehend going through.
I realize I haven't even completed 28 years of my mortal existence, and there is plenty I could yet be asked to endure, but how does one go that long without looking back and thinking, "wow, that was a really long, hard experience?" I obviously don't know the grand scheme for my life and I need to take it one day at a time and have faith that if I am working to do the best I can, and repenting when I don't, everything is as it should be. However, I just need to pause for a moment and thank a generous Father in Heaven and the myriad wonderful people who have been, and continue to be, great support, guides and inspiration to me. I have been truly blessed in my shortish (starting to feel a little bit older these days) life .
Sometimes I wonder why I was placed in the circumstances in which I find myself. I think most of us think about this occasionally. I have had a really, really great life. Sure, there have been difficulties and trials along the way, but overall, I feel I've had it easy. Sometimes, I get mad at myself when I start to complain about something trivial and I think about people living in impoverished and war-stricken countries, or think about people who, in their lives, have had major tragedy, death, medical problems, abuse, etc., the likes of which I can not comprehend going through.
I realize I haven't even completed 28 years of my mortal existence, and there is plenty I could yet be asked to endure, but how does one go that long without looking back and thinking, "wow, that was a really long, hard experience?" I obviously don't know the grand scheme for my life and I need to take it one day at a time and have faith that if I am working to do the best I can, and repenting when I don't, everything is as it should be. However, I just need to pause for a moment and thank a generous Father in Heaven and the myriad wonderful people who have been, and continue to be, great support, guides and inspiration to me. I have been truly blessed in my shortish (starting to feel a little bit older these days) life .
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Really, really bugged and need advice
Ok, that makes this sound worse than it is. However, for what seemed like the last hour I have been scouring the Internet to find one item and I can't find it anywhere, so I am really bugged. This item is a slipcover for a rounded-back dining room chair.
Background: My mother's friend recently moved out of a larger home into a smaller home. She, therefore, decided to get rid of the large oak table and chairs that fit in her larger home, but not so well in her smaller one. She offered them to my mom, but my mom purchased a new table not so long ago, so my mom offered them to us. We gladly accepted because we have one of those small tables you get for somewhere around $200 at RC Willey. They are great for apartment living, but now that we are moving, the oak table is very appealing. However, I am not really a huge fan of the design of said chairs. They have something akin to a small wagon wheel design on the back of them. Now, don't get me wrong, if you are into the wagon wheel look, that is fine, but it's not really my cup of tea. I thought, hey, no big deal, I'll just buy some inexpensive slipcovers for these puppies and all will be well.
I began my search for these slipcovers today, but it appears you can't buy dining room chair slipcovers for rounded-back chairs; although their rectangle-back counterparts have numerous varieties to choose from. I have checked at every specialized slipcover retailer I can find online, as well as your normal home decor / department store and there is nothing. Not. One. Thing! Does anyone know of some place I can look that maybe I have overlooked?
I really try not to be too materialistic about things (however unsuccessful my efforts often are) so I don't want to not use such a nice table / chair set simply because of the design. It doesn't make sense to pay for a new table when you have that at your disposal. However, is it really too much to ask to be able to spruce them up with some slipcovers? We have already gone nearly 5 years with our less-than-fashionable couches (that we got for a very good price - free) without slipcovers because they have a wavy back and I was unsuccessful at finding slipcovers for their weird shape as well. Something's gotta give. I am pretty sure there are plenty of rounded-back dining room chairs that could use covering so why can't I find any covers for them.
I am soliciting advice from anyone who may know where to purchase these elusive items, or at least advice on how to swallow my pride and just take the nice dining set without complaint and the need to change it. Who cares how nice your stuff really looks anyway, right?
Background: My mother's friend recently moved out of a larger home into a smaller home. She, therefore, decided to get rid of the large oak table and chairs that fit in her larger home, but not so well in her smaller one. She offered them to my mom, but my mom purchased a new table not so long ago, so my mom offered them to us. We gladly accepted because we have one of those small tables you get for somewhere around $200 at RC Willey. They are great for apartment living, but now that we are moving, the oak table is very appealing. However, I am not really a huge fan of the design of said chairs. They have something akin to a small wagon wheel design on the back of them. Now, don't get me wrong, if you are into the wagon wheel look, that is fine, but it's not really my cup of tea. I thought, hey, no big deal, I'll just buy some inexpensive slipcovers for these puppies and all will be well.
I began my search for these slipcovers today, but it appears you can't buy dining room chair slipcovers for rounded-back chairs; although their rectangle-back counterparts have numerous varieties to choose from. I have checked at every specialized slipcover retailer I can find online, as well as your normal home decor / department store and there is nothing. Not. One. Thing! Does anyone know of some place I can look that maybe I have overlooked?
I really try not to be too materialistic about things (however unsuccessful my efforts often are) so I don't want to not use such a nice table / chair set simply because of the design. It doesn't make sense to pay for a new table when you have that at your disposal. However, is it really too much to ask to be able to spruce them up with some slipcovers? We have already gone nearly 5 years with our less-than-fashionable couches (that we got for a very good price - free) without slipcovers because they have a wavy back and I was unsuccessful at finding slipcovers for their weird shape as well. Something's gotta give. I am pretty sure there are plenty of rounded-back dining room chairs that could use covering so why can't I find any covers for them.
I am soliciting advice from anyone who may know where to purchase these elusive items, or at least advice on how to swallow my pride and just take the nice dining set without complaint and the need to change it. Who cares how nice your stuff really looks anyway, right?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Long time no blog
Well, I'm feeling bad about the no blogging. So, on to a couple of thoughts.
- BYU football. They should be competitive through the rest of their games. At this point, I have minor conflict about the idea of Utah going to a BCS game. I was really hoping TCU would beat them and then I wouldn't have to feel obliged to recognize that them beating BYU would have some benefit for BYU. However, it would also have lots of downside in the fact that Utah should gain even more recruiting clout with in state kids, making harder to for BYU to pick up some of the best ones. Oh yea, and I'd also have to listen to their fans for another year. Good thing I'm moving.
- Hey, we're moving! We're planning on taking off at the end of the month. We found a place to live in Arizona. We're quite excited about no longer going to college. That whole full-time income thing sounds really appealing. The 8-5 hours of the job sound good too.
- We got back today from looking for a place to stay in Arizona. Our beautiful daughter got to stay with family and friends while we were gone. I don't think I've ever seen her light up as excited as she did when she saw her mom. After a few minutes she realized Dad was here too. Not quite as excited, but she still was happy to see me.
- Going to work for a big company that moves you is great. The moving consultant came over tonight. He took inventory. We talked for a few minutes. The only thing we have to do when the movers show up is get out of the way. They'll even pack everything for us.
- It was nice to be without a child for a few days in Arizona. We definitely owe our family and friends big time for helping us out. Probably won't happen again for a long time.
- Traveling right now is relatively cheap. Hotwire is also an excellent way of making hotel reservations. They don't tell you the hotel until after you've confirmed. They also don't guarantee a specific type of room. However, if you call the hotel beforehand and ask them, they're usually pretty lenient in letting you swap up to a king bed if they have the space. This trip we had to ask when we arrived, but we still got what we wanted.
If I wrote any more random thoughts people would stop reading, so that's all for the night.
- BYU football. They should be competitive through the rest of their games. At this point, I have minor conflict about the idea of Utah going to a BCS game. I was really hoping TCU would beat them and then I wouldn't have to feel obliged to recognize that them beating BYU would have some benefit for BYU. However, it would also have lots of downside in the fact that Utah should gain even more recruiting clout with in state kids, making harder to for BYU to pick up some of the best ones. Oh yea, and I'd also have to listen to their fans for another year. Good thing I'm moving.
- Hey, we're moving! We're planning on taking off at the end of the month. We found a place to live in Arizona. We're quite excited about no longer going to college. That whole full-time income thing sounds really appealing. The 8-5 hours of the job sound good too.
- We got back today from looking for a place to stay in Arizona. Our beautiful daughter got to stay with family and friends while we were gone. I don't think I've ever seen her light up as excited as she did when she saw her mom. After a few minutes she realized Dad was here too. Not quite as excited, but she still was happy to see me.
- Going to work for a big company that moves you is great. The moving consultant came over tonight. He took inventory. We talked for a few minutes. The only thing we have to do when the movers show up is get out of the way. They'll even pack everything for us.
- It was nice to be without a child for a few days in Arizona. We definitely owe our family and friends big time for helping us out. Probably won't happen again for a long time.
- Traveling right now is relatively cheap. Hotwire is also an excellent way of making hotel reservations. They don't tell you the hotel until after you've confirmed. They also don't guarantee a specific type of room. However, if you call the hotel beforehand and ask them, they're usually pretty lenient in letting you swap up to a king bed if they have the space. This trip we had to ask when we arrived, but we still got what we wanted.
If I wrote any more random thoughts people would stop reading, so that's all for the night.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Few Post-election Thoughts
1. Hallelujah! It's finally over.
2. It is cool to see that the majority of this country can vote for someone other than a white man. Even with the amount of racial division that still exists, our country has moved much further away from racism. The fact that the civil rights movement happened only a few short decades ago and now we have elected a (half) black man is a huge indication of how far this country has come in that regard (not that I think race is a good reason to vote for or against someone, but at least it didn't hinder many people).
3. I expect Obama's State of the Union addresses, and other speeches, to be much more tolerable than our current Commander-in-Chief's. Obama is a very skilled orator.
4. We might leave Iraq! (If I were a betting woman I still wouldn't put money down that he'll keep this promise, but there's certainly a higher chance than the almost zero chance with McCain) I think we'll still see far more military adventurism than is necessary for our national security, but I won't have as much of a fear of a draft as I would with a McCain administration.
5. If a socialized medicine program is passed, it will be during some of our child-having years so we won't have to stress about having insurance, etc (we'll have it with Brett's upcoming job, so we're not stressed currently, but we have been in the past). Labor and delivery is one of those medical procedures they can't make you wait for and we'll have already paid for it with our taxes!
2. It is cool to see that the majority of this country can vote for someone other than a white man. Even with the amount of racial division that still exists, our country has moved much further away from racism. The fact that the civil rights movement happened only a few short decades ago and now we have elected a (half) black man is a huge indication of how far this country has come in that regard (not that I think race is a good reason to vote for or against someone, but at least it didn't hinder many people).
3. I expect Obama's State of the Union addresses, and other speeches, to be much more tolerable than our current Commander-in-Chief's. Obama is a very skilled orator.
4. We might leave Iraq! (If I were a betting woman I still wouldn't put money down that he'll keep this promise, but there's certainly a higher chance than the almost zero chance with McCain) I think we'll still see far more military adventurism than is necessary for our national security, but I won't have as much of a fear of a draft as I would with a McCain administration.
5. If a socialized medicine program is passed, it will be during some of our child-having years so we won't have to stress about having insurance, etc (we'll have it with Brett's upcoming job, so we're not stressed currently, but we have been in the past). Labor and delivery is one of those medical procedures they can't make you wait for and we'll have already paid for it with our taxes!
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