Careers & Conspiracies

I've often thought about the blessings that have come from choosing to study accounting. It seems I was being prepared for our current situation without even realizing what was happening. When making education and career decisions, I had no idea what life would be like for us now. I never would've imagined things to be the way they are. But had I known, I probably would've made no changes in my education or career path. Occasionally, however, I hate everything about accounting. Like today after I spent almost an hour on the phone with the IRS discussing an issue that I've been dealing with since LAST July. That's right, one full year. I have gotten two letters in the last five months stating they haven't had time to solve the problem. That's nice because I'm pretty sure they give people about 10 days to respond to the notices they send you and all the while they charge plenty of interest and penalties.

Now onto conspiracies. I buy into conspiracies about as frequently as I get annoyed with life as an accountant: almost never. HOWEVER, I am convinced the IRS and the post office have some lame agreement. The post office just accidentally doesn't deliver stuff to the IRS unless it's sent with the extra services. Basically, you can't guarantee anything is going to get where or when you want it to unless you pay for insurance, certified and return receipt. The IRS agent I talked to this morning kept asking me if I sent things certified with a return receipt and told me I should always do that. Shouldn't me paying postage be enough to ensure my stuff will be handled with care and delivered in a timely manner? Maybe I'll change my pricing structure for my clients. I'll start charging my hourly consulting rate and then I'll charge extra if they want a guarantee that I will comply with the laws.

Or maybe I'll just work for the government.

#5

Last weekend was the fifth weekend in a row that I was out of town. Going out of town is always so much work and now that I'm busier during the week, I rely on my weekend time to get things done. When that gets taken away and I am preparing for/recovering from the last/next adventure during the week, I get a little overwhelmed trying to manage my time. Thankfully, this was the last one. Until I plan another.

Albeit busy, it was still a great weekend. We drove to Snowflake Friday night after I got home from work and packed. Saturday morning we had breakfast with Jason's parent's for Father's Day. I watched Michelle's kids during Scott's wedding and then we went to the luncheon. Saturday night we went to Pinetop for the reception. When we got home, Michelle got stuck listening to all my problems after we almost got stuck chaperoning the Stake Youth dance. Sunday morning we had a nice {man} breakfast at Michelle's and then went to church with Jason's parent's. We drove straight from Snowflake to my parent's to have dinner with my family. It was kind of fun seeing all the pops in our lives on Father's Day.

One reason I love going to these receptions (aside from supporting my family, of course) is to see old friends. I was happy to see and briefly visit with Steve and Sharla and Steve and LaSchelle. My mind is always flooded with memories when I run into people from times past. Like Lake Powell with Steve and Sharla's family or doing multiple 360's on the rim in the snow with Steve and Laschelle (which is only funny 13 years later). Part of me wishes I could visit with them longer than 10 minutes at wedding receptions. And another part of my is just grateful I am lucky enough to know such good, fun people.


Turns out I am also grateful Shawna let me borrow a slip. Not because you could see through my dress, but because you surely could've seen under it every time the blasted wind blew it up. Which was pretty much the entire time we were outside, in case you've never been to Snowflake.
Clara being a "hallerfina".

Perhaps one of the highlights of the trip for me was visiting with Michelle Saturday night. I was reminded of why I love being around her and why we spent so much time together when I lived in Snowflake. I don't recall ever being mad at her. I've always felt like I could talk to her about and tell her anything. She is never critical and never judgmental of me. She listens intently and offers advice sensitively when needed. She just has one of those addicting personalities that people are naturally drawn towards. I love my Me-chelle.

FLashback Friday: First Prom

Did you think I'd be in high school? Well, you were wrong! I was eleven years old and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Seriously, who gets to go to Prom when they are eleven? My Uncle Danny (father and husband to the lovely ladies I'm pictured with) took pictures at all the high school dances. He let me come along to "help" and I'm pretty sure I was just excited to feel grown up and stay up way too late with my cousins. Or maybe I wanted all the high school boys to see how good I looked in my shiny green and black velvet dress. I'm not quite sure.

Two Squared

Some people consider multiplying and replenishing to mean adding child at a time to their family. Ryan and Kathryn seem to take that literally and they add to their family two by two. Now that's definitely multiplying and everyone else is really just adding. :) Early Saturday morning Kathryn had set #2 of twin girls, just three days before Lucy and Elsa (set #1) turned three (and two days before her own birthday). Coming about 7 weeks early, the new little ones (Annie and Leta) have been in the NICU and will be there for a short while, but are doing well. I was out of town when they were born but was finally able to go visit them today. On my way over I realized they are each about half of what Clara weighed (they are 4 pounds-ish and Clara was 8 lbs 2 oz). They are SO tiny and SO precious. I got to hold and feed Annie, but only admire Leta. I am looking forward to holding them without tubes and for as long as I want.

Isn't it amazing that other than needing a little extra help eating and being closely monitored for a while, these tiny little four pound babies born 7 weeks early are so healthy? Now don't try to tell me modern medicine is not divine inspiration. I echo the Priest from The Count of Monte Cristo, God is everywhere.

Experiments

I kind of like experimenting, especially if it involves money in some way. When I was in Utah, James, my mom and I went to my house to clean it a bit. We were just wiping the counters, sweeping a little and cleaning the toilets. I couldn't get the toilets clean with Clorox toilet bowl cleaner. The hard water left the lovely little calcium (or whatever mineral) ring. So a few days later, I went to Wal Mart to buy something different and went back to clean the toilets. I got The Works* (my mom's suggestion)and Kaboom (I've used it before and kind of like watching it foam up, plus it's always worked at my house).

Anyway, The Works was $1.12 and Kaboom was $4.97. Guess what? Kaboom got nothing off and The Works didn't leave any traces. Even in the half bathroom, the worst one*, I got the toilet sparkling clean with just a few swipes of the brush after letting it sit for a minute or two. So, not only is it way cheaper, The Works works magnificently.

*Not "Works" by Clorox, "The Works".

**Dear Person that used the toilet when you were looking at the house. I get it, sometimes you've just gotta go. However, had you called and let someone know you used the toilet and couldn't flush it because the water was turned off, I would've really appreciated it and I know Don would've appreciated it even more, since he's the one that made the initial discovery and cleaned it mostly up. I know you tried to flush it, because you broke the toilet in the process. However, in the end, you decided to leave it for someone else to take care of. Last time I checked, that toilet is in a nice, new home and isn't an outhouse down by the river. So next time, please have the courtesy to let someone know that your traces of Mother Nature have been left behind.

Memories With My Dad

In an attempt to be efficient (and because I went out of town Friday), you get Flashback Friday and some memories with my dad for Father's Day all at once. Based on the background and the couch, I am pretty sure this picture was taken in our rental house in California, which I believe puts it in 1992 or 1993. I was probably around ten. I look like I had been crying, but I can also see redness on my face so I think it's just after my first bout of Shingles started clearing up. So here we are in our lovely 90's glory, me and my cool pops. The first memory of my dad that comes to mind from this picture is when my Grandpa Schwartz died. My mom went to help my grandma in Idaho and my dad stayed with the kids until he drove us up there for the funeral. One night, there was an earthquake, the first I had felt. The windows and doors rattled quite a bit, but it wasn't strong enough to do any damage. I was certain that we were all going to die because my mom was the only good person in our family so now that she was away from our house, it was an opportunity to take us all out. (My goodness the more I think about some of my childhood thoughts, the more I wonder...) Anyway, I sat on this very couch and watched the news with my dad talking about the quake and potential aftershocks. I was terrified but my dad let me stay up and watch the news with him. If another earthquake happened, I wanted to be close to my dad because I knew he'd protect me. He made me feel safe.

Memory #2: When I was little, my dad played basketball early in the morning all the time. Often, he'd let me come and watch. I am not sure what it was about waking up at 4:30am (or whenever it was) to go sit and watch stinky men play ball, but I loved that my dad always let me go even it seemed a little odd.

Memory #3: My dad used to travel a lot when I was younger. He'd often go to The Orient. Wherever he went, he'd always bring us the most awesome presents back. We got lots of Oriental pajamas and t-shirts. The one thing I remember most were the stamps made out of marble with our names in Chinese characters. With it came a red goopy ink pad. I loved seeing what he brought us when he came home from his trips.

Memory #4: My grandparents lived in Idaho on 80 wooded acres. There was a little mountain that my grandpa had created a path on for visitors to hike. One time we were hiking up the little trail and my dad went ahead (I wasn't paying attention to him). My older siblings were telling me about all the bears they had up there. They kept pretending like they saw one and got me all worked up, just in time for my dad to jump out from behind the tree and scare me silly. I'm pretty sure I probably cried my eyes out, but at the same time, I am glad my dad likes to joke around and have fun. He still teases and jokes like he's a teenage brother.


Memory #5: I have always thought I had a really good memory, but not too long ago I realized most often, the things I can remember almost perfectly are those that happened while I was keeping a regular journal. So when I am reminded of memories that didn't happen then, I love it. One thing I can remember from when I was very young is bath time. Angela and I would take a bath together and then we would become "Indian Princesses" as my dad wrapped our towels around us so tonight, they wouldn't come off. We always had the option: arms in or out. And then we'd get to wear one of his giant t-shirts to bed.

I love you dad!

PS We celebrated for Jason on Thursday... more on that later.

There Is Beauty All Around

Isn't this beautiful? Clara and I went with my mom (and James and Lily) to Utah last week. She was going to watch Rachel's kids while Rachel attended a writer's conference at BYU. I had so much fun, but part of me decided I should not go to Utah in the Summer. It is absolutely beautiful there.

Most of our days were packed full of fun things to do. Here's most of what we did...

Bridal Veil Falls (once). James is such a tease. Lily is such an adventurer (see the little red blob in the waterfall picture?) Casey Anne is such a motherly cousin. Micah is such a sweetheart. Emma is such a joy and Lucas is such a boy.

After the kids played in the water for a little while (Clara had fun until she fell in up to her chest and found out how cold melted snow is) and we had a picnic lunch, it started to rain lots. I was pushing Emma and Clara in the stroller and would run really fast and then stop to take some pictures. Emma loved it, Clara was getting pretty annoyed and just wanted to get to the car.

One afternoon I agreed to keep the little kids while the big kids went to watch a movie. I decided to wear them out and go on a walk to see the Mount Timpanogos Temple. It's not that far away, but the hill is pretty steep. Just so you know, the plan backfires when you are carrying one of the two two year olds on the way back down the hill.

On Wednesday, we rode Trax to Salt Lake City and met Kiri, Jacob and Adalyn at the Church History Museum. We also went to Temple Square and toured the visitor centers and the Conference Center. Of course everything, especially the flowers, was beautiful. I decided I think I really like stained glass. Maybe in my next house?

That night, Rachel had tickets for us to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It's the second temple in West Jordan, making West Jordan the first city ever to have two temples within city limits. Saying the interior was beautiful is nothing but an understatement. It was incredible.

Bridal Veil Falls (twice)

Other things I did: worked (boo), visited Brittany (haven't seen her for about two and a half years), visited Sarah (haven't seen her for a little over two years), cleaned The House (with my mom and James' help) and decided I could live in Utah. That darned house is more beautiful every time I see it. I also think it's dangerous to visit Utah in the Summer. It's absolutely beautiful. The Canyon, the flowers, the grass and the mountains in the Summer are breathtaking. Add a beautiful home and Rachel and her family. Who needs a job anyway? Because instead of just having pictures of all these flowers, I could have some in my very own yard!

Cup O' Savings

I was dreading lunch today before I even left the house. I hadn't made one the night before and I was running late this morning. I resorted to grabbing a Cup o' noodles and headed on my way.

However, things changed as I began eating. The longer I stared at my sodium-filled styrofoam cup and thought about how much money I saved by not eating out, the better it tasted and the better I felt. Funny how that works. Picture from here... too lazy to take and upload my own.

Flashback Friday: Little Sister

I have love my siblings. The closest in age is Angela. She's 3 years and one month younger than me. As I was looking through old pictures, there were tons of us together. In most of them, I was smothering her in some way and she was oblivious to my existence. She looked like a little Indian baby, just what my mom had always wanted. When Clara was born she said, "Oh good, dark hair and blue eyes, my favorite combination". Until I had my own room for the first time, I always shared with Angela. Sometimes we played together, sometimes we fought, although what we fought over changed with age. The first thing we fought about was belly buttons (but for Angela's sake, I won't discuss that one). Then it was who was messier (once I got my own room I was able to prove that I had been right the whole time). Then it was clothes (Angela cared a lot less about clothes getting ruined and was a lot more selfless when it came to this one, while I was nice selfish).

So then I graduated from high school and started college and Angela started high school. We didn't fight much, but we also didn't spend much time together. I was quite the nerd, programming and getting a balance sheet to balance. Angela was always with her popular little group of friends and way cooler than I could ever be. I probably embarrassed her. :) But then Angela started working with me. (Well, she worked a little at Hunt's with me too, but we didn't work together much). People couldn't believe we were sisters. Sister 1: Older, shorter, blonder, whiter, pastier and Sister 2: Younger, taller, darker, beautiful. Can you blame them?

But that's when it began. We'd talk a little about boys and I still remember her telling me the day after she kissed Clint for the first time. I remember exactly where we were in the building. I also remember being slightly terrified that my little sister was old enough to kiss a boy. We started becoming more of friends and not just sisters. I quit, but we were both at ASU, so we'd meet at campus. When I graduated, I'd meet her for lunch when I was working at a nearby client.

We also have this ongoing joke about who is smarter. You see, my dad is a pretty smart guy. He's so smart that sometimes simple things sometimes confuse him. His mind is amazing. My mom has a lot of common sense and is innovative. Angela is a lot like my dad and I think I got a little of both. But we still always joke about who is smarter. Pretty sure it's Angela. Taller, prettier, smarter... one of these days I'll find an area I can beat her that doesn't have to do with accounting.

Anyway, now we don't fight ever and we normally see each other a few times a week. Some things haven't changed much: she's still the pretty one and I still probably embarrass her. She's cool and I'm a nerd. Oh, and we still work together. But our relationship has changed quite a bit over the years, but only good changes. Yeah for little sisters.

Touch

I'm out of town. Do you miss me? I thought so. But it's been four whole months since I've been to Zion, I just had to come back. :) 

Tonight we drove far, far away (okay, not that far) to visit Kiri, Aaron, Adalyn and Jacob. James called shotgun (who cares if I'm his senior, he called it) on the way home so I sat in the back by Clara. Most of the hour plus drive home, we held hands. (And pointed out the temples that are as abundant as wheat in my food storage). Walking around, Clara doesn't like to be tied down to Mom. But in the car, she loves to hold my hand or finger, especially at night or when she's tired. I love it too. I love her tiny little soft hands that have a surprisingly strong grip. I love rubbing the top of her hand and her little fingers to let her know I'm there, I care and I love her. Tonight, it got me thinking about the power of touch. I think touch is an underestimated way of showing our feelings. It doesn't matter who a relationship involves, touch magnifies the feelings we verbally express. There is an energy that emulates from another person and communicates with the heart and soul in ways words cannot. Isn't it amazing?

 

Flashback Friday: Hair Dos and More

I'm thinking I'll alternate with funny/humiliating pictures and the more sentimental ones. I had a TOTALLY different picture for today, but when I saw this one, I couldn't resist. Actually, it wasn't even just the picture, it was realizing that person tucked between Ryan and my grandma was Rachel. That hairstyle totally threw me off. Then I noticed Emily's hair. Wow. I laughed. Hard. It seems hair tells time more than clothing does. This picture was taken in Idaho (I'm pretty sure). We'd go there every summer to visit my grandma and grandpa Schwartz. Based on my "hair" (or lack thereof) I'm guessing I was 2 1/2, which would make this Summer 1984. So my mom would have been pregnant with Angela. I'll have to check my facts with her. Regardless of the year, the photo is entertaining.Here are some other things that stood out.

Emily and my dad have their eyes closed. If Angela and/or Steven had been alive, they would've probably had their eyes closed too. It's a Melzer gene, I'm sure of it. I don't have it, but I have attempted many pictures of those that do.

Kristie (far left) has the biggest smile on her face. She's still always smiling.

I apparently hadn't adopted my terrifying fear of dogs. And apparently Clara got her attention span from me.

Ryan looks so sweet and innocent. Looks.

My grandmother looks so young here. None of the memories I have of her are when she's this young so it's fun to see her and my grandpa at this age.

Around the state in 16 hours

At the last minute, I decided to accompany my mother on quite the Saturday adventure: drive to Payson for a funeral, drive from Payson to Yuma for an all-in-one party and then drive back to Mesa. The drive to Payson was quick. It's obvious all of my siblings inherited driving from my mom. If you've driven with us, or if you are us, you know what I mean. :) Before the funeral, we went to the airport in Payson to pick up my Aunt Jana, Uncle Danny and Dave. While we were waiting for them to land, I wanted a picture of all of us. So I hung my camera on the tree.And I took pictures of them landing (come on, it's not like having a cousin with his own plane is common, this was exciting to me).
The "celebration of life" was for my great Aunt Emma, my mother's, mother's sister. She would have been 94 in August (I learned she shared a birthday with my mom). I hadn't seen her in a while, but the two things I remembered about her were rocks and smiles. She loved rocks (as did my grandma, her sister) and she always had a smile on her face. They had already buried her so the service was a little more casual. They had upbeat music playing and a slideshow of pictures (which I must have a copy of) running. The pastor said a few things then let whoever wanted to stand and say what they remembered about Emma. Everyone commented on her happy, positive personality and several people mentioned her rock collecting. Then we all sang "Little Brown Jug" together which is a silly drinking song with a very catchy tune. Clara was singing "ha ha ha" throughout the day and at one point said, "That's my favorite song." It was funny.

Anyway, back to Emma... Two of my favorite stories that were shared: 1.) When she was 83, she locked herself out of her house. So she climbed the cherry tree to get over the fence and get in another way. Then at 89, she found a snake getting a bird in a nest with baby birds. She got a cherry picker, knocked the snake from the tree, retrieved an ax from the shed and chopped the snake in half. I hope I am that brave at 89. During the funeral I thought a lot about rocks and smiles. Like I said, my grandma loved rocks too. They were very poor growing up and I realized this probably has something to do with their love and appreciation for rocks. I think nature can bring us more happiness than man made anyday, but an emphasis on the grandeur of nature seems to be going by the wayside. I left with a renewed desire to find happiness in the things around us and appreciate the things God has given us for free. It seems like a win-win situation, right?

After stopping by the airport to drop our live cargo off, we headed to Yuma, well, Dome Valley to be exact. My cousin Suzy has four children. Her youngest graduated from 8th grade, the next graduated from high school, the next got engaged and brought his fiance home and the oldest's wife graduated from hygiene school. So Suzy threw a party to celebrate. I love going to Suzy's house. They live on a farm. They are farmers and have 100's of acres of farmland. They live a simple, yet comfortable, life and I decided someday I'm going to go to their house for vacation and just sit and enjoy being surrounded by NOTHING but fields. Besides the house, I love Suzy. She's fun, she's real (she's very frank, but in a completely unoffensive way) and she is simple. Not boring, but simple and relaxed and just goes with the flow (I could definitely learn a thing or two from her). She tells everyone "this is my baby" when she introduces me. I was six months old when she came to live with us when her parents died. She always tells me how she'd take me everywhere and hold me while she drove around (see, I survived, are all those carseat laws and regulations really necessary??). They are genuine and such a pleasant family to be around.

We helped get some of the food ready for the party, then just partied and enjoyed the company, the atmosphere and the food.

{ How cool are these? I had to ask Mark what they were: onions going to seed.}

{ After being in the car for all that time and only getting about a 30 minute nap, I can't blame Clara for not being thrilled about taking a picture with the tractor. But I'm certain if we do go visit, she'd run around barefoot in the dirt behind their house and dig all day long.}

{Jill (Jimmy's wife, Jimmy is Suzy's sister), me and Suzy... I told them I always feel out of place around them with my light skin and blond hair. That's okay though, because they sure are fun to visit with.}

PS Monday I started my first month of "discipline". First up, dishes done every night. So far, I'm 3/3. Jason did them last night, but I promise I would have done them if he hadn't. I'm on a roll and it feels great.