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Monday, November 24, 2008

Militant Home Teaching Companion

I think I am around the lower side of average when it comes to home teaching. I usually use my job as an excuse to why I don't do my home teaching but as everyone knows an excuse is just an excuse. Either way I'll do it when the opportunity presents itself, but since I've been banished to the primary the opportunity just doesn't present itself.

Anyway the ward just finished reorganizing the home teaching companions and their families and I got the militant home teaching companion. I wish I was lying but I'm not. This guy just got back from the Marines training camp and he's a medic. Not only that but he is currently trying to finish his flying hours. So I get to go home teaching with a guy that does almost every branch of the military that we have. I always feel like a weenie when our families ask what we do for a living. He goes on and on about what he does and all the cool stuff he's seen. I get to talk about how I know all the addresses in my town. Yea, I'm lookin' good.

Not to say that he isn't a nice guy and it's nice to get a home teaching companion that really gets me out and doing my home teaching. I just need to stop with the envying. And maybe I shouldn't let him intimidate me as much. Maybe.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Everyone needs a challenge

Along side my Xbox and in it's hard drive I have a number of games that are great for playing with others. I have a couple that are just incredible for comparing high scores.

But what happens if nobody among your friends/family want to challenge your dominance? Not that I don't think they would try if they could but it seems to me that a lot of them just don't care or are interested in the same kind of challenges that I'm interested in. I've always thought that there is a desire for competition buried deep within the male psyche, of which I count myself. Although I am not a big fan of sports I really enjoy games of the mind, and a good sporting event isn't lost on me, but I still like the trivia stuff a little more.

For example last year my wife was kind enough to buy me Scene It for the Xbox 360. A very good game although the humor is dry and the animation scenes are mediocre. But the trivia about movies is great. I played it with all of my one friends once, and I beat his wife and him without breaking a sweat. I didn't gloat, I didn't boast, but they never really wanted to play with me again. The same goes for my family. I played it once with them a couple of times and I won every time. Except once, but I threw that game because my wife said that my brother-in-law was getting kind of irritated that no one could beat me, I don't know if he realized that I threw the game, but he should have. Come on, I missed questions about Back to the Future. I grew up watching that movie! Nevertheless not one member of my family has wanted to play that game with me again.

I'm not good at every game out there and I really believe that I am a good sport. It just breaks my heart sometimes when I really want to challenge someone and nobody I know wants to be challenged. What is a guy to do, I guess I'll just try beating the computer on hard again.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Unnatural pleasures

I do a couple of things now and again that drive people nuts, and when I say people I mean my family. I don't know what it is that attracts me to these kind of things but something about them brings me some kind of enjoyment.

1. I love to put syrup on my scrambled eggs. It drives my wife nuts because she puts a lot of salt on the eggs then I go screw them up by adding a sugary goodness.

2. Sometimes I like to melt ice cream and then refreeze it. Something about separating out the cream, the liquid and them eating them separate.

3. I love tomato soup, catsup and anything made with tomatoes. But I HATE tomatoes.

4. I love orange juice with lots of pulp. I HATE oranges.

That's all I can think of right now, but I know there is more.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Considering Children

I am a bit of a News nut. I'm obsessed with what is going on in the world today, and if you read my other blog you'd see what I have to say on the subject. I don't want to go on those kind of rants here but there is a bit of concern for me in the news that I certainly need to address here.

My wife and I have two kids. We are very happy with the both of them and certainly feel blessed by who they are and we pray that we can be the parents that they most certainly deserve.

We want to have more kids but one problem that we face in the world today is that families are being assaulted on all sides. Kids don't really have much of a chance out there without a consistent parental influence. Now I don't mean that parents should be in their kids lives 24-7, but my wife and I feel that we need to always be available and attentive to our kids needs. On top of all that the job market is such that the reality of loosing a job and not being able to find a equal paying one is very, very real. We are luckily enough that my current job is reasonably stable, but the pay isn't such that we can support three kids. We have cut our budget so that my wife can stay at home and be a full time mother, which we both believe is very important. On top of all that I am going to be going back to school next semester.

Some people say that we should just have faith and let the Lord bless us. At the same time I've always felt that a person should not throw everything on the Lord. Perhaps we just don't have enough faith, then again perhaps it's just not the time.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Getting in touch with your feminine side, and having her take over.

As I was growing up I was not as masculine as some of my peers and much less so then my older brother. I was never really interested in sports and the like and to be perfectly honest until I was reminiscing with one of my friends five years after-the-fact did I realize that one of the most popular girls in the drama club was only popular because she was, shall we say, endowed? It just didn't occur to me at the time.

I grew up with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Pirates of Pensanze, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserable. The worst part was I enjoyed it. I'm sure my mom really liked that she had a son that could enjoy those kinds of things and it did great things for getting me in with the ladies (although only a few times was I able to escape from the 'Friend Zone').

Nevertheless through the years I have begun to enjoy some of the more manly activities. I can watch an entire football game and not get bored, I've even begun to feel an affinity toward baseball. The downside is that in turn I've gained a slight distaste for musicals. I avoid them whenever I can. Unless my wife insists. When she does get her way, like the other day when we went to see Mamma Mia, I dig deep inside myself and find that part of me that was entertained by musicals. So for the most part I'm able to enjoy myself.

It's nice to get in touch with your feminine side for those kind of occasions. That way the wife enjoys herself that much more and when the wife is happy, every one's happy. Especially the husband.

Monday, November 3, 2008

The One I Feed

Throughout my church attending career there has been a quote that has stood out among all the others and that I try to live. I really wish I could say who said it or the circumstances but all I remember is that a older gentleman is talking to a small boy and he says to the small boy "Inside me I have two beasts, one that wishes to do evil and one that wishes to do good, and they fight continually." The boy frightened responds "Which one will win?" The older gentleman looks down to the boy and responds "The one I feed."

Sometimes I feel that I could have a mental illness if only I would go see a doctor to tell me so. I've chosen not to do that because I've felt that I can handle whatever my mind can dish out. Nevertheless I have found that this quote to be very true as to what comes and stays in the forefront of my mind. Often I will feel overwhelmed with my own sense of inadequacy and I can remember with perfect clarity (if I have one gift from the Lord it is my memory) a number of horrible things I've done. Ranging from the theft of some candy when I was a kid (I didn't think it was stealing at the time, it's a long story but any child wouldn't think it was stealing), the way I broke up with an old girlfriend and finally to the evil thoughts I have concerning the things I want to do as a form of vengeance toward my latest enemy. I'm overcome with feelings that I am not a good person and I also feel the hopelessness that for the most part there is nothing more I can do to remedy the situation. When I get feeling like this I have to choose which beast I am going to feed. The one that leads to depression, or the one that will glaze over it and give me a sense -if only fictitious- of overall well being.