What Now?

WARNING: Opinion overload... Read no further if you don't want to know too many details regarding my political views. Many of my leisurely thoughts during the last week involve politics and who I'm going to vote for. I don't feel like there are any good options at this point, but I can't not vote. My friend said her sister is going to write in Mitt Romney on her ballot, which would essentially be a wasted vote so I don't think I'd be okay with that either. I feel obligated to really get to know what our presidential candidates represent and for whatever reason, maybe since I've gained some wisdom in my old age, I just feel like this is really important.

First, I think it's important to identify what issues are most important to me. Perhaps the most important is probably abortion issues. To give the courts the power to destroy the sanctity of life literally makes my heart ache. I can tolerate the laws that protect women with health issues, young girls that are raped (especially those that involve incest), etc. But to choose your actions and then to selfishly give no thought to the life you've created is not okay. You made a choice already, and that was the decision you made when you got pregnant. Now choose to accept the responsibility. There are so many people that wait years to adopt a healthy baby that would be overcome with joy at the opportunity. Just because you make a poor decision doesn't mean you have to keep the baby, but for heaven's sake, don't kill it! Okay, I could write plenty more on that one, but moving on...

Marriage is probably next. I firmly believe, just as it says in The Procamation that "marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of his children." I think many problems in our society can be associated with the deterioration of the family unit. Children need, whenever possible, a mother AND a father in their home. There are different things dads have to offer to their children than moms. Do I hate gay people? No. They are struggling with trials that I am not so I have no right to judge their decisions just as I'd hope they wouldn't judge me for mine (and I'm not talking about my decision to have a heterosexual marriage). However, I don't believe they should have the right to adopt children and I don't think they should have the right to get "married" for more reasons than I have time to discuss.

The next three are all kind of equally important to me and they certainly don't come near the two issues above. They are: the economy, immigration and the War. The economy is obviously suffering, but raising taxes isn't going to help anyone out. I guess when I say the economy, I really mean taxes. The current taxation system is not ideal (but it sure is a nice way to always make sure accountants stay busy!:)); however, I don't think some of the proposed taxation approaches are the answer. In fact, I don't know that there is an easy way to fix this nor am I smart enough to come up with clever solution for our struggling economy.

Next, immigration. I'm all for immigration. I love diversity and I have met immigrants from many different countries that have so much to offer. Many of the immigrants have brilliant minds, hard working hands or even just a good heart. What I don't love is illegal immigration. I do not think criminals should be allowed to have permanent residence in our Country. I don't think anyone that is here illegally should magically be granted residency. However, I do think we need to revise the process for obtaining legal residency and also the options the immigrants have.

Finally, the war. Does anyone like war? Probably not. Sometimes it is necessary, sometimes it is inevitable. What I would like to see is a better understanding of why and what are the goals. Maybe this is already known and I need to educate myself a little more, but I don't think I'm the only one that wonders these things. Also, don't just say, send more troops or bring them home... have a realistic plan.

Yes, there are other things, like health care, but I feel like it's always going to be a "problem" in some way or another, so why waste time worrying about how to fix it?

Now, if we look at our candidates: Clinton, Obama and McCain, where do they stand with these issues?

Clinton: She pretty much couldn't get more left on abortion issues. I knew she was evil. She voted for legalizing partial-birth abortion and that alone is enough to make me sick. Can someone please tell me why so many people vote for her? Is it just because she's a woman? On marriage, she's against marriage between a man and woman. On the others, she just flops around and I don't believe her so I'm not spending anymore time researching her votes.

Obama: Honestly, he hasn't voted on enough important abortion issues because he hasn't been around long enough. However, the ones he has voted on make me pretty sure he's not completely far left when it comes to this, but definitely further left than right. He voted against the Marriage Amendment that would've added marriage is between a man and a woman in the Constitution. For the economy, based on what I read, Obama is not too scarily left. He wants change like everyone else and would probably be in favor of increased taxes, but I don't know that it'd be anything drastic. For immigration, he has votes that seem to contradict one another, so I am not clear on his stance for this. The war... he wants to bring troops home and limit deployment but doesn't seem to have a plan that works (does anyone?).

McCain: Completely against partial-birth abortion, pretty conservative on abortion period. He's against same-gender marriage. I don't know that he has a great book of experience to make sound tax/economic decisions, but if he hired a good person to do that job (don't know what the title is) I would be okay with that. He seemed to stray off the conservative path when it comes to immigration, but Jason tells me he said it was a mistake. Based on his voting record, he supports the War and being a War veteran, I actually value his opinions on the matter a great deal. He has a very strong military background which I think would be helpful in making good decisions regarding such.

I encourage all of you to do the same thing to determine who you should vote for. Don't just vote for someone because of their party affiliation. And tell me what you think. I foudn the voting records at Project Vote Smart. Am I way off base or do you think there is justification to my concern? In the mean time, God bless America!!

Dirty Politics & My Beebee

I didn't know during the Primaries you could only vote for the candidates of the party you're registered as. I told Nylene and Chris (they were at the polls at the same time) I was disapointed that I couldn't vote for Hillary. Seriously, I have a love/hate relationship with politics. I love to try to get more informed on political things but when I do, I realize I hate what goes on. I heard today on the radio that in WV, McCain's supporters were asked to vote for Huckabee so he'd get the WV win and not Romney. The guy on the radio referred to it as being "high schoolish" and I think it is. I'm sure some people think it's strategy, but I don't like it. It's no surprise everyone thinks politics in America are corrupt. They are! The same thing happened in one of the caucuses when Obama and Edwards supporters voted "undecided" so Clinton wouldn't win. I don't even want any of those candidates to win, but I still think it's pathetic that they stoop that low. The sad part is, I feel like people who'd otherwise avoid that are almost forced into doing it because if they didn't, they wouldn't have a chance. I'm also having anxiety thinking what I'd do if it was McCain vs. Clinton. Those are probably my two least favorite candidates out of the four or five "main" ones.

On a happier note, Clara is hilarious (yes, she's still a baby as far as I'm concerned). She's been walking a little more, but never really to me. She'll walk towards the couch, Jason, Angela, but not me. Last night we were trying to get her to practice and every time Jason would aim her in my direction, she'd get so excited and do a stiff free fall towards me. Then, she does her fake laugh when she walks, so proud of her accomplishments (surely just copying Jason and I when we celebrate her small steps). Last night, she didn't even take a full step, fell down and started celebrating thinking she was just darling, letting out all kinds of noises and laughing. Today I was walking around Michael's and she was doing her fake/grunting laugh as loud as she could. She also smiles and waves at people when they look at her in the store. I can't help but laugh when she does these things and I really wonder what people think I teach her at home. She keeps doing things that just make me laugh, like when I put her in her seat and as I backed up to get in the car, she was waving bye to me. We hear a lot of loud airplanes fly above our house and every time we do, she points to the ceiling/sky (we can thank my mom for that one). Jason taught her how to make a "fish" noise with her finger and lip, which she enjoys doing. She did it in Church and Jason said, "Isn't it neat that what I teach her sticks?" I said it was neat, but wondered why he couldn't try something more useful... So whenever she makes the noise, Jason gets a big proud grin on his face.

Clara "barks" (you'd never know that's what she was doing, but it is), she said hi to a lady that said hi to her in Target (the lady even said, oh wow, she said hi, so i'm not making that up), hums really loud when I'm singing and likes to "read" books. She thinks her eyes, nose, mouth and ears are all located where her eyes are. With her growing knowledge, she's also becoming more prone to throwing fits, especially if she's tired (like every week at Church). It's really fun to have everyone in RS turn around and smile at me when she does it. I don't know if they think she's hurt or if they are caught off guard, but they all like to stare for whatever reason. I think I'm going to petition for the Nursery age to be lowered to 15 months. I think it's a great idea.

Watch out World!

Tonight Trent and Lindz had us over for dinner. For a while, I've been saying Clara could walk but she has no motivation since she can crawl so fast. No matter what I did, she was not interested in walking herself. Well, after dinner we were just watching TV and visiting and I pointed Clara towards Lindz and what-da-ya-know, she took THREE steps!! She walked from the couch I was on to the chair. She wouldn't walk towards me and in fact, for the rest of the night each time we tried to get her to walk, she would instantly get spaghetti legs. But she finally took some REAL steps. We might just need to hire Lindz to come be her encouragement since she won't walk to anyone else.

Five on Friday

This past week I've been wondering: Is "fives" even a word? I don't think so, but either way, Friday Fives was a dumb idea so I've changed it to Five on Friday. AND because I have actually been feeling really guilty for what a negative person I've become, I decided instead of my five happy things and five complaints, I am going to do five things that made ME happy (or laugh in the case of number 3) and five things that make CLARA happy. I don't know if anything makes Jason happy besides Clara and himself, but maybe someday he'll have five happy thoughts in one week. Until then, you just get Clara and me.

For me...

1.) The rain. I love all weather that has to do with rain: pre-rain cloudy gloomy skies, the sound of the rain and the clear, fresh and clean skies after the rain.

2.) Clara trying to crawl through the plastic windows in her tubes.3.) The two old deaf people (I'm pretty sure it was husband and wife) arguing in the store. The man couldn't hear a word the woman was saying and she was getting so mad (they were standing about 18 inches apart) and EVERYONE, workers included, in the store was staring.

4.) Dell. When I bought my first lap top, one of the reasons I bought from Gateway is because I knew I could go to the store to get anything fixed. By the time I was ready for number two, they had closed their stores and Jason decided Dell had a better deal, so we got a Dell. I haven't been happy with it from the time we got it and will more than likely get another Gateway next time. Anyway, I mentioned before, the power cord overheated (the computer is about 7 months old) on Wednesday. My last one lasted five years or so. Anyway, I knew it was under warranty but was annoyed that I'd probably have to send it in and wait for them to either fix it or mail me a new one once they decided it was broken (because it's real difficult to determine a power cord doesn't work). Well, Jason called them yesterday and this morning DHL delivered the new one. Plus, they are paying for the us to ship them the old one. Now that is AWESOME customer service.

5.) The Stake Enrichment we had last night. The guest speaker was Beverly Campell (not an updated profile, but you get the point) who's written a few books. She shared some very strong ideas that really inspired me to be a better person. I might just have to read her books.

Now Clara...
1.) My bra - not sure why, but she loves it (okay, she doesn't love it on her head, but she kept playing with it so I put it on her head).

2.) Colored pencils, a few in each hand and laying in the clean clothes

3.) The bathroom cabinet (don't worry, I will put the prescription stuff away). Look at that little face saying, "I'm enjoying this so what are you going to do about it?"

4.) Her tunnels

5.) Her ball blower toy

Happy Weekend!

1-800-BST-MMVR

The other night when I sarcastically said I wasn't going to work on the W-2's, I was, well, being sarcastic. When I started doing payroll for KS, we switched software, which entailed me having to manually enter data from the first four months of the year into the new software. When I found out we didn't have the licensing to print W-2's or 1099's from the new software, I ordered forms from the IRS. Silly me thought the IRS would send approved forms to print onto from a laser printer. They are actually archaic, carbon copy forms meant for dot matrix printers, type writers or hand writing. At this point, I was running out of time and figured my best option was to input the data from the new software into QB and print from there, since their forms are IRS approved. I attempted to run a helpful report from the current software and it wouldn't pull any of the data I manually entered earlier this year. I found myself entering the information from the current software into QB. Plus, I had to update all addresses since they weren't really kept current in QB before. Anyway, this process should have taken no more than a few hours and I've already invested about eight or nine and I'm still not done with all of the filings.

I got to a good stopping point around 1:30am on Monday after I had updated the information and was ready to review the W-2's I created. Tuesday night I went to Beka's Ward's book club. I think I was "accidentally" invited but chose to be obnoxious and attend anyway. It was fun and as Beka put it, "It's fun to use your brain sometimes." So thank you to the Ward that let me barge in. Afterwards, I went to visit with Beka for a few minutes at her house. My thoughts throughout the night... "If I leave now, I'll be home by ten and have a few good hours to get everything done: payroll, W-2's, etc." ... "If I leave now, I'll get home around ten thirty and I'll still be fine. It's good to visit every now and then." ... "Is it really almost eleven?" ... "Getting home at 1130 won't be so bad; I've stayed up all night working before." ... "I'm an idiot. If I didn't have work, I'm sure I would've slept on Beka's couch!" I think I left around Midnight, which isn't bad unless you have a full load of things to do THAT night. As much as I'd like to blame Beka, I take full responsibility for my actions. I was up until 330am working and got the most important things done.

I woke up wishing I'd done more but glad I did what I had. As my morning went on, my stubborn and proud self realized I just might need some help. I can remember one time that I've asked for help with Clara so I could get work done. I was trying to work while Clara was trying to touch me and get on my lap. Then, my cute little computer became not so cute. The power cord died (I think it overheated, along with my brain) and my computer battery was nearly dead. I quickly saved all my vital things as pdf's and put them on my jump drive. And that is when I called 1-800-BST-MMVR, pronounced "one eight hundred, best mom ever". It's actually the same number as my mom, imagine that. Superwoman didn't even think twice about coming to help me. There's NO WAY I could've got everything done I needed to and definitely not as quickly as I did without my mom. She came over and immediately started cleaning and watched Clara while she ate so I could take a shower. She stayed here while I went to KS (twice... the first time it was as I was getting out of my car I realized I didn't have my jump drive with all of the documents on it) to print everything I didn't at home and cut and distribute their makeshift W-2's (there's only one person I care about what they think about them... :)). Just as I was leaving, Daniel needed a ride from work to DI so I offered to do it. After all, I was in the area and it was the least I could do after how much help I'd received. My mom then insisted she take Clara home with her so I could just go to Scouts after I dropped Daniel off. So that is what we did. At first I was thinking, this is awesome! I want a nanny! Then I realized how much I missed Clara. While it was nice to get things done quicker, I didn't enjoy not being with her. It's like the first hour is kind of nice and then I just start missing her. After Scouts I went and picked her up. My mom tried to tell me she'd bring her home but I didn't want to wait and I think I would've felt so guilty sitting at my house without her. That's a weird concept. I don't think I've ever been at my house without Clara since she was born (15 minute walks don't count).

I'm pretty sure my mom is the coolest ever. Not only did she take Clara, but she cleaned my house so nicely so it was ready for the HOA meeting we had here tonight. Now, I have a headache from lack of sleep and I have anxiety thinking of how behind I am in work and how much harder it's going to be now to get caught up without my computer. But I can't imagine how much worse it'd be if I didn't have help today. Plus, I got the W-2's out an entire day before the deadline!! :) Goodnight.

Loose Ends

Because Ryan thinks I'm too negative, I decided I'm in no hurry to provide him with his W-2. So with my free time this evening, I finished reading my book Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. The beginning was a little slow and there were too many characters for me to keep track of. Maybe I'm just dumb, but it was a lot to remember, especially since I didn't have time to sit and read 16 chapters in one sitting. Then, after the middle of the book, there were only certain characters the book focused on. As I neared the end, I realized there weren't near enough pages remaining to provide me with a satisfactory ending, so I set myself up for disapointment before I ever even arrived (not a good thing to do). Sometimes, when I'm reading or watching a movie, I decide what I want the ending to be and if it's not that, I get a little sad. Some parts of the book were so quick to jump to shocking endings whereas others were very slow moving. I felt like the end of the book left far too many loose ends for me to be content. However, as I was reading some of the author's comments after the book, I realized she either never wrote the last half of the book, it hasn't been published or no one has found it yet. You see, the back of the book explains the author was a Jew and in 1942, she was arrested and eventually killed. For 64 years, this novel remained hidden and unknown. In her notes that were published with this book, it is obvious that she intended to write 2 or 3 more parts, 200 pages each. Now I guess I'm going to have to make up my own ending.

Overall, especially considering the circumstance of the book being published, I enjoyed reading this book. I especially liked the perspectives that were given from different classes of people (everyone from the poor French to the wealthy French to the German soldiers). Sometimes we think only about what we may be suffering and not what others, even when they appear to be the enemy, may be suffering as well. It also had me pondering about why people think we're strange for having a food storage. Look what happened to so many French that didn't have any food on hand? They were starving! The book wasn't as depressing or dark as I thought it'd be. I had it set in my mind that it was going to be more about Nazi rein and that the characters would be in concentration camps at some point. I would recommend it as long as very vague and open endings don't leave you feeling serious anxiety.

On a different note... Friday night Jason had a campout with the Scouts. After the wedding reception, I came home and worked and cleaned until about 130am. I had to be up by 630am to get ready for the Cub Scout Pow Wow. My mom came and picked Clara up and I carpooled out to Heard Pueblo with the other Cub Scout people in my Ward. I was a little bitter that I was taking a whole day off of work and leaving Clara the entire time to do this, but I had a good time and got some good ideas. I don't know that I'm destined to be a lifelong Scouter, but for now, I'll do my best and enjoy having the opportunity to teach the boys. Jason had to go to work when he got back from his campout so Clara stayed at my mom's until I picked her up around 430pm. Ohh, I didn't want to stop squeezing her.

Shortly after I got to my mom's, we were outside visiting and James and two of his friends were about 8 feet high in a sheet hanging from a tree. They were laughing and laughing and the sound of ripping fabric caused me to turn around just in time to see the sheet rip open and James, who was on the bottom, falling to the ground. He made a loud thud and seemed to be okay so I felt better replaying the image in my mind and laughing as I did. Too bad we didn't have the camera rolling, it surely would've won us some money for the funniest home video! Clara and I went to Fry's (AGAIN!) with my mom and I'm happy to say I won't be needing cheese any time soon.

Tonight (Monday) Kate invited me over to eat with her and her two boys. She's not a semi-widow due to school, but rather the wonderful world of public accounting. It was nice not to have to cook dinner AND to have some company. And now I continue to waste time to avoid preparing W-2's!

Moving On

Sometimes as I would listen to Pres. Hinckley speak, especially those times he referenced the setting sun in his life, I wondered what it would be like when he passed away. Last night, Pres. Hinckley died as the 15th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Pres. Hinckley has been the Prophet for half of my life so he is basically all I know. He has done amazing things for the Church during his time as prophet which makes his death so bittersweet. It is a time to celebrate all the things he lead the Church in doing, which creates all the more reason to mourn the loss of such a great man. Part of me is sad that my children weren't older while he was the prophet but we've never had a bad prophet, so no worries there. Also, Angela did remind me of how happy him and his wife will be to be reunited and what could be more sweet to that? How blessed I feel to have been so greatly influenced by his teachings. My favorite things about him were his humor - he always had a joke to share (him "knighting" President Eyring as the newest member in the First Presidency), his interaction with the media, and the expansion of the Temples he oversaw. His work was done here on earth and it was time for him to move on. What a great life we have to celebrate and honor!

Friday Fives

In an attempt to get some order into my blog posts, I decided to do my Friday Fives... meaning five things I want to complain about from the week and five things that made me happy during the week.

Obviously, I've done enough complaining for the week (don't believe me? read my posts for the week!) so the only thing I will say about that is I know sometimes I sound like a negative pessimist, but just know I say what I'm thinking. I know everyone is thinking what I'm saying but people like to sugarcoat their lives. I say it how it is, frank and to the point. More than once people have told me as sarcastic as possible, "No, Anna, tell me how you really feel." I've always been this way and really, I do look for the bright side in things but I also tell you what I think. I'd like to think I'm a REALIST. Sometimes life isn't great so why should we pretend it is? You can still be happy when life isn't going your way though, and I think that is the trick to being a positive person. Being optimistic doesn't mean pretending life is perfect. It's understanding that when something goes wrong, it doesn't mean life is over but there is a brighter tomorrow to look forward to. Don't like it, go blog-stalk (I'm sure that word will be in a Webster's Dictionary VERY soon) someone else. :)

Anyway, this Friday, it will just be five things that made me happy.
1. Watching Goose eat big blackberries.

2. Receptions and seeing friends. Tonight was my friend Dallin's reception. Him and his new wife are totally cute, their reception was perfect (different varieties of soup were served, wonderful desserts and great colors) and I got to visit with Rhiannon and Lauren whom I haven't seen for quite some time (geez, probably like 8 or 9 years).

3. Cherries that stay hooked. Come on, it's cute.

4. The AWESOME sale Fry's is having this week.

5. The dishwasher. Clara played in the dishwasher for over thirty minutes while I did almost all my dishes.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!

I have to vent... and then I'll be okay... Jason just called to tell me he got a 2% raise. Hmm, you read right, TWO percent. Oooooh, that makes my blood boil and my heart race (don't wonder why if I die of an ulcer or heart attack at a young age). A raise is good, but let me just explain why this is so upsetting.

Jason's worked there for a year with NO raise at all (they did raises six months after he went back and he assured me they'd give him a raise at the end of the year, but he didn't want to ask them about it until he got his results back from the EIT). Which brings up my next point, he passed the EIT and they give him lousy acknowledgement for it. So, for a year of dedicated service and passing the EIT this is what they have to offer? The market is a little slow, I understand, but I have a really good solution: fire the employees that are the slackers and getting paid more than Jason and let Jason work more than 30 hours a week since he ends up doing their work anyway! He's always cleaned up other people's work, helped people with their stuff and bent over backwards to submit someone else's project on time. I think in his last real review they only had two suggestions for him: delegate more and dress more like an EIT (meaning button up shirts). There are certain people that don't get their stuff done so Jason is always being asked to finish their projects because they failed in getting it done on time. On top of that, I am almost certain those jokers make more than Jason. He's quicker and better at what he does than them, I'm sure of it because if there is anything urgent, he's the one they go to. If there's anything important, he's the one they ask to do it.

Oh, and they didn't even bother telling him about it (probably because they knew they were being pathetic).

What a total slap in the face. It reminds me of when I quit Little Ceasar's and they told me if I stayed they'd give me a $0.25 raise. Wow, are you kidding? Don't be so generous!

Burnt Out & Mean Mom

Oh how much work I have quietly awaiting me. The last couple of weeks I've been working during each of Clara's naps and then usually for at least a few hours after she goes to bed. This only leaves time to clean and do other things while Clara is awake, which only allows for so much. Clara is a good little girl but enjoys playing alone for only so long. If I continue to work past her limit, she becomes a magnet to my legs which really limits what I can do and starts to whine for me to play with her. Of course I play with her because let's face it, that is more important than a clean house (within reason). But you see, I just can't seem to break the cycle and it's wearing me out. If I do something besides working during her naps, I feel guilty and like I'm wasting precious work time. If I didn't have to work so much, I would be able to get other things done during her naps and at night, which isn't a luxury I have at the time. Maybe someday soon...

Yesterday I decided I just needed some nice fattening comfort food. Clara and I went to A&W with Angela. My bacon chesseburger was great and gave me the satisfaction I was looking for. We then went to check out Fresh and Easy. I bet you'll never guess who said, "If I pay 25 cents more for something that has cute packaging, then it's worth it to me because I'll be happy every time I see it." :) It would be worth it to shop there if you don't have time to go to Superstition Ranch Market and hate the lines and smells in Wal Mart. If that is worth a little extra, then it's a store for you. I, on the other hand, frugal shop like a mad woman (partially due to our financial situation and partially due to my sweet accounting personality) and don't know how much of my time I will spend there.

A certain someone that resides in our home thinks I'm a mean mom. Why, you ask, could anyone possibly think that? I'm the best mom ever! Well, when this certain person is holding Clara, they stand right next to me, whether I'm trying to cook, work, change my clothes, whatever. Clara sees me and only wants to come to me so she reaches out her hands and makes her whiney noises trying to get to me. I get mad so I'm a mean mom because I don't want to hold Clara. Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I'm with Clara pretty much every second of the day she's awake. She is not starved of attention and certainly not mine. She follows me and begs while I shower, go to the bathroom, work (if I have to while she's awake), go down the hall to get something out of the closet, make dinner, get ready/dressed, etc. When someone else is "playing with her" I want my time to myself because I don't get time to myself hardly ever. Like now, she just woke up from her glorious 30 minute nap and when she goes to bed, I'll have to work because I didn't get much done earlier and had a meeting this morning. Maybe I'm a mean mom, but I feel pretty justified in wanting to be able to do simple things without Clara clinging to my leg. If they are going to take time to spend with Clara, make it count for her and me!