a great day

Thursday was a great day. We drove down to Salt Lake so Jake could take his insurance test. (Anyone in the state of Utah who wants a quote on insurance -auto, home, renter, etc, talk to us). After being unable to take it with Jake forgetting his ID last Saturday, the day started out a success when he passed the test!! Yay for a new job and for getting paid again!
While we were down in Salt Lake I worked (I love being able to work from my computer anywhere) and we also went a few places.
First, to Ulta to buy my Curls Rock shampoo & conditioner, They had a great deal this week- $10 for a one liter.
Then we headed up to Park City to go to the factory outlet stores. I got a coupon this weekend for any Old Navy, Gap or Banana Republic Stores- 30% off everything- even clearance items! (anyone who wants me to pass it onto them, let me know- it is good through Sunday). So Jake and I had a fun time shopping and got some new school clothes. We then went back to his parents house to build some tables for our booth in the Cache County Fair next week. All in all it was a great day, we had fun, accomplished a lot, and fell into bed exhausted!
Anyone in Utah is invited to come up to the Cache County Fair next weekend- Thursday- Saturday here in Logan. It goes from 11am-11pm and Shine Jewelry will have a booth there.

addiction

Ash showed me this cool video from So you think you can dance and I think it is such an amazing visual representation of what addiction truly does to us. It really touched me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXbn_1lbPpo

one of society's great lies

Excellence. Excellence is a great thing. But it seems that our society wants to under emphasize excellence. We see this in the concern of many that having a winner in a game will make us feel bad because "we're all winners" and we don't want people to feel bad. Or that grades are not important because they could hurt self esteem.
Sometimes I fear that the constant worry about not hurting our self esteem makes us erase the value of excelling in life.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie The Incredibles is:
Bob Parr: It's not a graduation. He's moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade.
Helen Parr: It's a ceremony.
Bob Parr: It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity.

I have been thinking of excellence lately also with the discussion on the "universal healthcare" plan (which is misleading in the name itself since the name indicates that we do not all have healthcare. That is a lie- we don't all have health insurance (only 15% of us don't- including illegals)- but we all have health care. ) This bill will eliminate the need for doctors and health care professionals to excel. It will eliminate any reward for being better- as we use reward to often motivate us. I work hard in school because I know I will be rewarded with better grades. If I excel in my job, I am rewarded with higher pay, etc. Excellence is a good value in our society and rewarding excellence is good also. Society telling us that it does not matter is a lie.

"Reward is an incentive to excellence. That is a good thing." - Dennis Prager

do good.

"What is the purpose of life it not to do good?"

-Dennis Prager

my new goal

For anyone who has seen me recently, I desperately need to loose some weight. I have become way too out of shape for comfort. But, at the same time I don't want to be someone who is constantly on different types of diets- no carb, weight watchers points, etc.

I have realized,lately as I have thought about what I want for myself in life and also in reading the blog (see link on previous post) that i need to start small and do what works for me.

And I know that it's true- If I'm not willing to do it everyday for the rest of your life then it just won't work. And no, I'm not ready to eat no carbs for the rest of my life or count my points. So I am just going to watch what I eat and exercise more. That I can do for the rest of my life.

perfect body initiative

I have to thank Hannabeth for pointing this out on her blog. I really like Regina Spektor but hadn't heard this song because I only have one of her albums. But the song, Folding chair has a line that says "I have a perfect body..."
This blog has started a perfect body initiative and it is really fun to read. It makes me appreciate my body more. I have also been thinking lately of how our Creator created our bodies- with the ability to heal itself and our resiliency.
Anyway, check it out here:

http://or-so-i-feel.blogspot.com/search/label/the%20perfect%20body%20initiative

finally back

We are finally back from all our summer vacations and into the groove of normal life. We had such a fun time in California for 2 weeks and spent most of the time there relaxing on the beach. It was so nice to see my Grandpa and to spend some time with David & Wendy and Ash & Nate who came for the 4th as well as Brent & Christa and Scott.
We also drove to Palm Springs one day to see Grandma. Christa got to finally meet Grandma and got a picture with her and her "owl eyes". This trip really made me appreciate even more the wonderful heritage I have and my grandparents- in spite of -or better yet- because of their quirks.
We have one month of summer left before school starts again and I a still have one big book to finish to accomplish my goal. We also are doing a booth at the Cache County Fair for the store in August, which will be an adventure.
At the end of the summer we are hoping to maybe, possibly, depending on the situation, squeeze in a trip to Washington before school starts. We shall see.