ksl.com - Mormon Church joins other faiths in signing letter on marriage

Just thought I would repost this as I fully agree with this letter!

Mormon Church joins other faiths in signing letter on marriage

Halloween!

So Halloween is a fun time of the year, even for adults! It's the one time a year that you can wear whatever you want and people actually applaud you.

I was going to go all out this year but couldn't find the one thing that would make my costume...green tights that would fit a 6'4" guy! If you know of a place let me know cause I'll get this idea ready for next year! I've found them online but didn't have time to wait for shipping. So I had to fall back on what I had in my closet. I grabbed my chaps and my cowboy hat and picked up a Sheriff's star and off to my FHE party. The best comment all night was a girl that I don't know looks over and feels my chaps and says, "Whoa, those are like thick chaps.

They're like real ones!"

For my work dress up I wanted to go as Col. Sanders but due to lack of enthusiasm at work and me waking up late I grabbed my Pony Express shirt and vest and my cowboy hat again and off I went as a Pony Express rider.

I did find something that I'll use every year around this time. A Jello brain mold! Below is my very first brain!

It was a huge hit and actually tasted pretty good! I brought home half a brain and made my nieces promise to eat the "surprise dessert". They didn't really know what it was so it wasn't hard for them to eat it right up! They even asked for seconds and thirds - more then I can say than any of my coworkers!

Fix-it Ticket part II

So I just wanted to update all two of you that read this...I did take care of my ticket. The window was fixed, Thanks Mom!, by the time I got back from Hunting. And She had bought the lights for the license plate light. It did take awhile for me to get a cop to sign off. I thought the Bountiful Police department had to be opened but I just called dispatch and waited 15 minutes for a cop to show up.

So then I went to the court today and after I emptied my pockets and took off my belt I got up to the window and handed the lady my signed ticket. She went and looked it up and then looked over at me and said, "Do you want to see the Judge for this?" I said no and she sat down at the computer and in a few minutes she came back and said that everything was taken care of and that they had waived everything. I was happy and went and bought some tires.

Fix-it Ticket

So last week I was on my way to pick up some last minute camping supplies before we went hunting for a week. It was dark, around 9:30 and I got on the freeway. Before I knew it I was being pulled over! I checked my speedometer, the usual suspect, and was around 70. I pulled way over to the side and stopped my car. The officer came to the passenger side and asked, "Do you know your license plate lights are out?" Wow! Must have been a slow night!

While I was looking for my registration he noticed that my window had a crack on the bottom half of the windshield. I knew about this one but figured since I still have 6 months till my safety and emissions that I would be ok, plus the only part that was being blocked from my view was the hood of my car. Well guess what happened. I got a ticket. Not a regular one that you can pay online and be done with but a "Fix-it Ticket".

Now for those of us who have never got a Fix-it Ticket this is what it entails...

First you have to fix the problem. For me, a new windshield and a few light bulbs in the back. That's the easy part. Next you have to find a police officer and have him check to make sure everything is fixed. This is a little harder since most of us work during the same hours that the police station is open. If you can find an officer to sign off your next task is to take the signed ticket to court to present it to the Judge. If you didn't happen to find a cop without taking any PTO then forget going to court without taking any! See the Court is only open Monday through Thursday from 9-3. 9-3? Way to make this convenient guys! On top of that, you have to sign in between 7:45 and 8:30 otherwise you don't make the schedule that day. Oh and I forgot to mention that you only have 5-14 days to take care of all this! If you happen to make it this far the Judge in his infinite wisdom "may" choose to reduce your fine. May? That means for me, being a white male in the prime of life, I will be paying full price of my ticket plus had to pay for a new windshield and some bulbs, plus take time off to go sit in court! And if I don't make it in 14 days, you might ask? They issue a warrant and fine you the full amount. Way to make it easy on the working man!

On a more positive note...Camping was great! A week long of horse back ridding and no work is amazing! The horses are all about 1000 times better then they were last week!

Until next time!

Big Mac or Big pig?

So I let my horse out today so I could clean his stall. Just looking at his stall you might wonder if he's a horse or a pig since his stall is filthy! But I let him out in our 100 by 100 foot arena. There was a sprinkler on in the neighbors yard that had overshot and made a mud hole on one edge of the arena. I watched my horse roll once in the dirt and thought he was done; he's usually a one and done guy when it comes to rolling. Anyway, when I get back from dumping the manure I look and he looks wet and a little different color. This is what he looked like once he dried out:

There had to be at least a half inch of dirt caked on him in some places. Luckily my brother had left all the bathing stuff out there so Big Mac got himself a free bath today!

Shotguns and horses

Don't worry, there were no shotguns used on horses!

So this weekend was pretty fun. To start off I didn't work on Friday...probably the biggest reason it was fun :) Anyway, went to the State Horse Show and while I didn't have too many events to ride in, it was still fun to be around my horses and not to have to worry about much of anything. I realized that Big Mac is an amazing Pleasure horse and that the reason I wasn't riding at State in Pleasure was ALL my fault. If I only had rode him a little before it was time to show I would have easily placed. It's a hard lesson to learn but I've learnt it.

I've also learned to despise the phrase, "Well, there is always next year". This is what losers say to other losers (no offense intended to anyone who has said/heard this before). Every year when we don't place at State or don't ever make it to State someone says this. Well maybe there won't be a next year. Strange things happen and it's time to start winning! I'm going to take two lessons a week through the winter and that also gets me a riding pass to an indoor arena. So I'm hoping to make some strides when it comes to horses!

The other thing I learned at State, is to always grab the horn of the saddle if a horse rears! During the relay races a lady got her horse turned sideways and the horse coming around clipped the back end of her horse making the horse rear up. She did what anyone would do and tried to pull herself up with what was in her hands. Too bad it was the reins in her hands and it didn't pull her up, it pulled the horse over on top of her. She broke her femur and then both of her lower leg bones were sticking out at her ankle. She also broke her nose. It was not a pretty site!

Tonight for FHE we went Skeet Shooting! I've forgotten how much fun it is to shoot shotguns! There's some pictures on Facebook for those on there of me shooting. There's a real good one where you can see the pigeon blowing up after my shot! :)

Well that's enough for right now. Have a great week everyone!

1000

So it's taken awhile but last week Matthew's Musings surpassed 1000 hits! I'd like to thank everyone for reading my thoughts and hope you enjoy more to come!

Google Voice

So today I decided I would try out Google Voice. It's pretty cool so far. You can give out your number to anyone and then you can edit which phone you want it to go to. For me that's not the cool part seeing as I only have a cell phone. But it is cool that you can designate if you want to have that contact go to voicemail, and customize what the voicemail says or have it come through. I've always struggled with this cause I want a funny voicemail for friends and family but I've had professionalism inculcated into my head by John Shurtleff, so I have to have a professional sounding voicemail in case someone calls me for business.

Anyway, If you want to call me up on Google Voice, send me a text or something and I'll give you my number. Oh that's pretty cool too...you can text with your Google voice number too!

I'm going to try a new post format of short quick but more often posts. Let me know if you like or if you just want big long posts every three or four months! :)

Funny Shirt

So I saw this shirt at the store and was sorely tempted to buy it...I resisted.

How Kylie and Talia get on their horses

Kylie and Talia trying to get a saddle on!

Good news, Bad news

So yesterday I got a call from my Real Estate agent and he said,

"I have good news and bad news. Good news is that the Bank approved you for a loan! Bad news is the Bank did not approve the house for a loan."

I guess the guy trying to sell the house does not own the house. How it got through so far without us knowing about this is weird. I guess the title has shifted hands a few times and it looks a like a fraud so the bank wont touch it with a ten foot pole.

So I lost $8,000 yesterday and am back on the hunt.

Good news is we might get $1000 in earnest money cause they have to back out of the contract!

Ok, I lost out on $8,000 due to missing the tax credit. It was never mine but it could have been...

Exciting News!!!

No I'm not getting married yet but this is pretty cool!

Check out this page...

http://www.eproptour.com/tour/play.htm?vid=941359

I'll write more later.

1 Year Anniversury

As conference weekend has come and gone once more I can't believe how fast time has gone! One year ago yesterday I replaced the Mustang with my current Grand Prix! 30,000 miles later and one year older and many more gray hairs and I can happily say that I'm still happy with my purchase!

In other news, yet another girl that I dated has gotten engaged within a few short months of us breaking up! I'm not marketing myself...YET! It's weird how getting the news barely effects me now. The first time it happened was a big shocker but now it's like I almost expect it.

My job is going great! I was promoted to the team lead back at the beginning of the year and things haven't quited down since. My company has a very bright future and will more then likely double and maybe triple this year! If only I could say that me being team lead had something to do with it. We will be moving to a new building in a few short months! I'm super excited about the new space!

I'm currently listening to a book on my drives home. It's called "Switch!! How to change things when change is hard" I highly recommend it! It talks about so many things that's applicable to personal growth and also how to help others change! If you are a manager of some kind or want to be then I would definitely recommend it! It makes me excited about my drive home again and it's why I'm writing today!

Anyway, Hope all is well for everyone! Talk at you later!

“How Is It with Us?”

So I know it's been a long time but I'm over it and if you're reading this you're probably more excited then looking to chastise me! :D Anyway, I wanted to post something a little more religious tonight.

Last month for the home teaching lesson President Monson talked about being spiritually prepared. Then tonight I read a great talk by Elder Ballard that he gave back in Conference in 2000. He talked about what needs our personal attention the most. He said; "the most important thing every one of us can do is to examine our own commitment and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. We must carefully guard against spiritual apathy and work to maintain the full measure of our loving loyalty to the Lord."

This is almost the same thing that Pres. Monson talked about in the HT Lesson. He said that we should each ask ourselves: "Am I what I want to be? Am I closer to the Savior today than I was yesterday? Will I be closer yet tomorrow? Do I have the courage to change for the better?"

These two articles tie into a lot of what I've been thinking and feeling the last few months. We sang a song in church the second or third week of this year. It's one that I had sang many times but I noticed something different about it this time. It's "I Need Thee Every Hour". For my whole life I focused on the verses and how important it is to be close to the Savior. When I sang it this time the very last line of the chorus stuck out to me: "I come to thee!". I had missed the meaning of the song my whole life. Yes it's true that we need Him every hour and temptations lose their power and life is vain without Him there but the most important thing is that He is always willing to be there and always want to be there. It is our choice however to come to Him. We must avoid spiritual apathy as Elder Ballard puts it and actually come to Him.

So I've made a commitment that I will try to come closer to the Savior every day and find the courage to change for the better.

Anyway, I'll get an update soon about life and stuff but I wanted to put that out there for anyone who still reads. (Thanks "Bear" or Mary for being my one and only follower!)