Man's best friend.

Well I finished reading Marley and Me last night. That is such  a good book. The toughest part about reading it is that it reminds me of our dog Amy. Amy will be 12 this year and is starting to show it. She still has a lot of the energy that she's always had, but she is slowing down ever so slightly. I don't know how many more years she has left, but we'll take whatever we can get. 

Marley and Me is one of my favorite books because it really shows the bond between humans and their pets. We say "pets", but really they become more than that. I think of Amy more as a sibling. It also shows where dogs get the "man's best friend" title. They truly are just that. You show them any kind of love and in turn they love you back unconditionally, it's great. I would highly recommend Marley and Me for anyone. If your an animal lover you'll only like it more.

Way too late!

With the beginning of a new year comes new year resolutions. I have decided that one of my goals this year is to get control over my sleeping. I have been staying up way too late and it kills me at work the next day. So I am committing to going to bed at around 11pm. I figure that will give me enough wiggle room to stay up a little, but really I would like to go to bed at 10pm. But, when you have roommates calling you on in "just one more foosball game", you gotta represent. And so sleep is the price one pays to lead a wicked awesome fun life. I really haven't gotten to be before 1:30am, sometimes even later, for almost 3 weeks. 

So starts the new year resolution process. I have a few more, but before I committ to anything I'll have to put some more thought in to it. Because once you committ, you gotta follow through.

Friends

So there are some days where it gets really slow at work. Today is one of those days, and there have been quite a few of those days lately. So when that happens, what do you do? You do the sensible thing and look to the Internet to entertain you.

Wikipedia, KSL, Google, Digg, MSN, ESPN, and FoxSports are just a few of the websites that I like to turn to in moments of boredom. Well a few days ago I found a branch off of Wikipedia called Wikiquotes. There are also many other Wiki(word) branches, but the quotes caught my eye.

So, you get into Wikiquotes and there are all kinds of topics. Well, I wasn't having a good day yesterday outside of work and that was just putting me in a downer mood while I have nothing but time to think. So I was thinking of some of my other friends when I ran across the friends quote page. So I just thought I'd share a few. Some made me laugh, while others just made me realize how blessed I am to have the friends that I do.

A friend is the person who knows all about you and still loves you.
Elbert Hubbard

Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Dave Atell

Ok, so that one is kind of dark but you get the point.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship is like pee in your pants. Everyone can see it's there, but only you can feel the true warmth.
Unknown

So that last one there made me laugh quite a bit. I have no idea why. But, I mean it IS really accurate when you think about it.

Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
William Arthur Ward

That's the last one and it's my favorite by far. It describes my best friend with amazing accuracy. He doesn't flatter me by telling me what I want to hear, he tells me what I need to hear. He's critical of my actions in a way that lets me know he wants what's best for me. He has never ignored me. This is probably the one that made me realize just how good of a friend he really is. In high school I ditched him a few times to hang out with kids I thought were the "in" crowd, but he was always there as my friend. I eventually realized that; thankfully it wasn't too late. Lastly, he doesn't tell me I can't do something. This is rare. Often times the people who care the most about you put your ideas down because they're concerned for your happiness, wealth, health, or any other reason you can think of. This isn't bad, sometimes it even would protect you from getting hurt. But, I think that a true friend will let you make your own descisions(and mistakes) and only give council if they are asked. Of course they will step in if it involves something serious, like death for example, but for the most part they let you grow on your own.

After reading all the friend quotes I still felt down over certain aspects of the day, but I knew all would turn out ok. It would because I have friends. Friends who care. And that's all that matters in this world.

Everyone loves the weekend.

So I had a pretty good weekend, and it's not over yet. Friday I went on a date:), Saturday I went to a party, and today there is a fireside that is going to have President Monson as the speaker. 

I'm trying to decide what the best part of this week was because I also went to a Jazz game with Kandis on Wednesday, that was really sweet. The Jazz crushed the New Orleans Hornets. The date was with a girl named Mercedes. We went ice skating at the Gallivan Center and then to The Pie for dinner. We ended up eating and talking for like 2 hours. It was more of a low key date, but I really liked it. She was really laid back and easy to talk to.

The party was ok. It would've been better if it had some games or something to do. All it was was food and talking. That's ok, but it's kinda nice to talk to some ladies and then go do something with them there at the party. Ya know what I mean? 

Well the best is yet to come I think. I'm so stoked for the fireside tonight. I really want to hear from President Monson. He is such an amazing man and Prophet. They have been having some speakers from the Quorum of The Twelve this last year and now we get President Monson. How awesome is that?!

So... so far it's a tie between the Jazz game and the date. But, I think those might be surpassed tonight. We shall see!

Tired of tires

So tonight I had to do the enevitable. I had to put tires on my car. My dad called this morning telling me that they would be $97.00 a peice. $97.00 a peice! That's his cost! I told him to get me 2 of them and I'd come by and change them after work. Well I made it home to change after a drive that felt like forever. And then the trip to their house took just as long. I spent almost an hour driving a total of like 8 miles!

Winter is such a love hate thing. I love the snow and playing in it is great too, but driving in it sucks. Why does it suck you ask? Because people don't know how to drive in the snow! They think that since they are in a truck or an SUV they can go faster. Not true. So they end up in an accident and cause traffic to back up even further! Don't you see?!! If we all slow down 15 mph, then we'll all get there faster. No accidents, no long wait in traffic. Sure it seems like it will take forever if you don't take it faster, but it never pays off. 

In the long run, I'm glad that I changed my tires tonight (even if it took longer than planned) because I can already tell a difference in how my car handles, so I guess it was worth it.

Roommates!

So I decided to tell a little bit about my roommates. I have five of them. One of them isn't listed here because that's how often I see him... almost never. His name is Aaron. The others names are Andy, Levi, Jess, and Jon.



This is Andy. The picture just about sums him up. He is always that happy. He goes to BYU Salt Lake right now, and is going to be transferring down south to the Provo campus. He works a lot and is really good about not letting us convince him to stay up and play foosball, even though we win that battle from time to time.

This is Levi. He's really not that unexcited all the time. He's quite the opposite. He works at England trucking as one of the managers or supervisors, I can be sure. He loves watches. He has tons and tons of them. He also just bought a night vision monocular. We haven't played with it yet, but there will be plenty of time for that.

This is Jess. I have yet to meet a Nintendo game that he can't beat. He can spend hours at it. You can see our foosball table behind him. Just before I started writing this he beat me 2 games to 1. I'm a little saddened by it.

This is Jon sporting his whatever you want to call it look. The funny thing about this picture is that we were looking at some pictures of his last night and saw one of his mom doing almost this same exact pose. I gues things like that run in the family.

Well these are my roommates. They are a really fun group of guys to live with. We all hang out and get along really great (most of the time, I mean who really gets along 24/7). Either way, I'm really glad that I found this place when I was looking. I am gonna have a hard time leaving whenever that decision has to be made.

A change in New Years.

Well this New Years was a little different than years past. Sam and Tony(my brothers) were down in St. George doing a fireworks show. Mandi and Wendi(their wives) went too. So it seemed with some of the family gone, none of the others were going to get together. I usually do a little bit of the party scene and then end up finishing out the night with the fam. But, this year I didn't see any of them.

I went to Becca's house and played multiple games, all very fun. My favorite was what they called Murder Mystery Charades. You send three people out of the room. While they're gone the others pick who died, where they were killed, and what they were killed with. Then one by one, the people come back in and have to act out the clues to each other to figure out what happened. I didn't think that I would like acting out all the clues, but to my surprise I loved it. I would play that game again anytime. We also played Catchphrase(a favorite), and Fact or Crap. 

After ringing in the New Year, the night came to an end, sort of. We then went home and Jon, Andy, Jess, and myself played some foosball. Andy and I won the first game by a large margin, lost the second one closley, and lost the third one by a lot. That's ok, we'll exact our revenge another time.

By then it was 3:30 am, and boy was I tired! I had to read for a little bit though. I got in one chapter of the Book of Mormon, but when I tried my one chapter of Marley and Me I was out. I woke up and here I am. 

It was a different, but great New Years Eve. Even though we weren't together, my family called or text to wish me a "Happy New Year!" and tell me they loved me, I spent time with my friends, and finished it off with some scriptures and my favorite story about a dog.

All in all, it has to be counted with one of the best New Years Eves I've had.