Last Week At Work...

I made a 72 page manual all about how to do my job! I just wanted to post about it because I am so proud of it and I worked really hard on it. One of my bosses was so impressed she wants me to help with some of the other work process documents. It even has tons of links throughout the document, so that when someone is reading it they can jump to other parts of the document if they have questions, a table of contents, pictures, and a FAQ section. Good luck to the new map specialist who gets to read this! Sucker.

A few screenshots of the first 3 pages:

July 4th and More

Our fourth went off with bang and turned into a fabulous day.  Julia worked all day on her last paper for American Heritage.  The theme of the paper was significant events and policies in American history which and how they directly impacted her family history.  Naturally, Julia earned an A on the paper...par for the course.

We made a killer salad with red onion, orange bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, romain lettuce hearts, and  balsamic vinaigrette.  Then we met up with W & K Meservy and J & A Ankenman.  We had a lovely delicious time eating black bean burgers beneath a large tree.  And, we even talked about book clubs, graduate schools, babies, and politics.

In the evening we joined J & J Harding, W & K Meservy, and J & A Ankenman to watch the fireworks go off on a secret hill behind Y View which turned out to be not so secret.  J brought great mango and tropical otter-pops and played Beach Boys on his phone.  Everyone seemed to enjoy (they were the Stadium of Fire performers) except for Julia who says, "They stink and all their songs sound the same."

Thursday we got soaked in the rain while playing Bocce Ball with J & J Harding.  We walked to our closest large park and although I took an early lead Julia was triumphant.  There were plenty of laughs and then the rain came and we ran for it.  It's been a long time since I've been so drenched by a quick downpour like that.  Afterward, we got warmed up and then did some very needed laundry at the Harding home while we watched Star Wars episode I and had hot chocolate and more otter-pops.  We had them over for dinner before Bocce Ball (fancy hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob, and salad).

Friday was quiet.  We watched The Pebble and the Penguin and had a HUGE mango/ice cream snow cone (from Snack Shack USA by Smiths).

Saturday, we woke up went to SEVEN PEAKS!  We did almost all of the cool rides including the Boomerang and Julia, who is normally afraid of water rides, tried some of the scariest ones and LOVED them.  She was wanting more fun all day.  We left around 1PM and went to help W & K move.  We also got to take our niece out for a long walk which was SUPER fun.  She is adorable and then we watched The Secret of NIMH.  

  

Key Differences Between "RomneyCare" and "ObamaCare"

LINK
*Check out this link to what I believe is a good contrasting of the two side by side.

Newsflash

Joe and I are living the dream. We get to go to work together and spend time together after that at home. I know we will miss this time when Joe goes to law school at Gonzaga and suddenly becomes really busy. Because we spend so much time together we get to do great things like:

1. Have horrible dinner ideas like ramen and black beans - we do not recommend the combo of Japanese and Mexican food.
2. Have lots of fun FHE's with friends and family
3. Watch seasons 1-5 of Psych
4. Make fun of Robert Downey Jr.
5. Talk about going to the BYU Paleontology museum... we'll get there.
6. Discuss lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of politics.
7. Joe gave me a BIG trophy for "The Best Wifey Award"
8. Go out of town a lot.
9. Play games like MadLibs, Life, Scrabble, Checkers, etc.
10. Impersonate John Huntsman
11. Go to concerts
12. Pretend to know about sporting events

 Me and my trophy. We think we might leave it for one of our friends up here when we leave. The caption will be: "Best Home Teachee Award!"

And here are my Easter Eggs from Easter. I wish I had the one Joe did! He made Adam, so there was a face and a leaf. Loved it.

God Bless America

Dangers With Technology

"I'm not suggesting that we give up anything.  I don't think that we're going to give up these devices.  They are giving us this possibility--this fantasy--that we never have to be alone even for a moment.  And there is something very seductive about that, you know, it's something that we--you know, it feels good...but it's not good." -Sherry Turkle, Prof. at MIT and author of Alone Together, from a CNN interview (2012)

How often are we working on making new friends as opposed to reading on facebook or some social media platform what some person clear across the country is doing?  How will we care enough to excitedly ask that person when we see them what they are doing if we've already been reading it.

"We learn to do by doing."
“It is not so much what we know that is important, as what we are and what we do.” 
"Do it."
-Spencer W. Kimball, now deceased prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Apostle Jeffrey R Holland Speaks at Harvard Law School