a time for change

Some of you know I had a rather emotionally charged weekend. I had been thinking I needed to make so changes, now I have a few more reasons, or motivating factors. I wanted to take a friend's advice to do something that will make me happy. I couldn't decide for sure what I wanted to do.

 

As a gift from the Lord, a couple of friends happened to get off work early today. One of those friends happened to own a shotgun, and is usually willing to take me shooting :-) So, after dinner at AJ's...Shooting we went.

 

To top off a "redneck" girls night off I got a home done cut and dye job. My hair is still wet so you cannot really see the color. It is shorter than I was thinking. The change is fun. I am looking forward the reactions at work in the morning.

 

Footprints In Your Heart

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.
Anger is only one letter short of danger.

If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.

Great minds discuss ideas,
Average minds discuss events,
Small minds discuss people.

He who loses money, loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses much more;
He who loses faith, loses all.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.

Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Friends, you and me.
You brought another friend,
And then there were three.

We started our group,
Our circle of friends,
And like that circle -
There is no beginning or end.

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I dedicate this to a friend who may never read this. There are a variety of reasons people come into and exit our lives. My faith is in the opportunity we will have to meet again, and rejoice.

I thought it was a quite morning...

so...I guess early this morning things got a little interesting at the place where I work...KTVB, channel 7 in Boise and The Mountain Home News covered the story.

Notes from the Non Traditional: - Culture

Notes from the Non Traditional: - Culture I decided I wanted to share this article, brought to my attention by a co-worker, with the world. Let mee tell you a little bit about my beliefs. First: I hold to the doctrines of the LDS faith. Emphasizing the word DOCTRINES. There are many practices, social norms, and prejudices that accompany any subculture. "Mormon culture" is not exempt from this sociology phenomenon. The doctrines as found in Standard Works, and words of living Prophets are the word of God for His children and all our blessings are results of obedience to the laws that have been given. Second: My understanding of the world holds there was once a taboo associated with the discussion of sex, and sexual intimacy. When something is “taboo” it would be normal for someone to say “we don’t talk about it.” This could lead someone to believe it is bad to ever talk about, or the thing its self is bad. Third: I am grateful to a church leader who taught us that sexual intimacy is sacred. Sacred meaning “important”, “highly valued”, “restricted to a certain time or place”, “handled with great care”. Forth: I believe (personal believes I have developed through a variety of life experiences) the potential for a spiritual and physical gratification lies within the efforts made equally by two people who are striving to live according to will of God, who has ordained marriage between a man and a woman, are seeking to fulfill the needs and righteous desires of each other, giving all they are and have to the creation of an eternal bond becoming something sacred, beautiful, and beyond my words to describe.

Scavenger Hunt

For FHE (Family Home Evening) we had a picture scavenger hunt.  One of the rules was that a member of the team had to be in the picture. Some of the items where as followed:

"Welcome to Mountain Home"

Twins

mud spattered truck

someone wearing socks and sandals

Shotgun, airplane, classic car

picture of Christ

 

Chalkboard

and of course....Toby

High Tech Tag...

Tennille, a college friend tagged me... Here's how it works. The Rules: •Link the person(s) who tagged you. •Mention the rules on your blog. •Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. •Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. •Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged. 1. I have trouble sleeping if my toes are cold. 2. I have a hard time when people don't make allowances for the others to be right, or more accurate than themselves. 3. I am a "Reading Specialist" who hates to read. 4. John Wayne is one of my heroes. 5. My birthdaymark says "hi". 6. I am 30 years-old and never been kissed. As I complete this tag, I think I will Tag: Nancy G., Valerie M., Amy B., Nancy E., Jen E., and Jeff H.

Puppy Training, Day Six

Guess what!

I finally broke down and got a camera. So, here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday while Tiffany was playing with Toby.

Tiffany playing with Toby and his stuffed animal.

Toby and the gorilla.

Toby checking out the camera.

Toby doing what he does best...chewing!

Puppy Training, Day Five

Talk about being firm, fair, and consistent. I have only been at this for five days. I thought is was suppose to be easy to train a puppy. Or maybe, it is just  "...an old dog new tricks".

For the most part Toby is well behaved. Did I mention I named him Toby? No particular reason, other than it came to mee while I was praying Sunday morning.

I am not sure he likes his "bed". He spends a lot of time in there. At least 80 hours a week. 40 while I am work, and 40 while I am sleeping. I am letting him be outside while I am taking a shower or am going to be gone for less than 3 hours, and whenever else he wants to.

Today, while I was on my way home from work, I stopped at a dollar store to pick up a brush and stuffed animal for him. Apparently the step onto the sidewalk in front of the store is higher than I am use to. I kicked the side walk and fell one my face. (I don't remember my face hitting, but it might have.) I must have caught most of my weight with my right arm.

I got up with the plan to walk it off. Really,  I planned to come home and go on a longer walk with Toby. We didn't get very far before I realize the my effort of being firm and consistent in my training was hurting more than comfortable. So we came home, and he is out back enjoying the wind.

By the way, he seems to like the stuffed animal and the brush.

Puppy Training, Day One

I currently have a puppy whimpering in the corner of the room. One of the articles I read about crate/kennel training encouraged requiring the puppy to spend a little bit of time in the Kennel prior to being left for the day. This is to decrease the correlation between crate time and mee leaving for long periods of time.  I am not sure how long it will take before I would ever consider not locking him in there while using the bathroom.

I was raised with the notion that animals belong in a barn. That is a part of the reason it took mee so long to actually get a dog. I had thought about it for a while. The encouragement to get one for the sake of companionship seemed futile if the dog was always outside.

He is a beautiful dog. TJ likes the name Demon and called him that today. The Nurses like the name Ruddy, and did like wise...Puppy is asleep... He doesn't look like any of the mutts John Wayne called "Dog".

Matt was telling mee this last week how much he has learned from learning about training dogs. I was intrigued by how similar dog training info is to behavior modification. As I was teaching my dog to not go down the hall way he quickly learned he didn't want what would happened to him if he did. I didn't like the way that he kept backing away from mee. A scripture quickly came to mind:

D&C 121:43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

With that, I sat down on the floor, where he his welcome to be, and showed him lots of love. As I did so, I wondered how I could ensure I did something similar with the boys I work with.

What's in a name?

Today, I became the proud owner of a puppy. He is pretty cute. Our clinical director, Matt,  has been trying to distribute some German Shorthaired Pointer puppies for a couple of months. I, for a while, have been considering getting a dog. I have also had a number of people encourage mee to do so. "It's better than living alone." and "It will give you a reason to go home." It will also give mee reason for more walks.

The Matt's children have been calling him Demon. Matt said calls it a bunch of different things so the name wouldn't stick. I was thinking Demon might be an okay name, but now I cannot decide. I want it to be a good name, that will fit his personality. I hear that Pointers are great hunting dogs. This would come in very handy if I knew how to hunt. To keep with that I might trying to come up with a name suitable for a skilled hunter.

He is sure to add a new level to my life.   Pictures coming....

Back again...

Much to the possible dismay of my brother, and possibly a few other computer geek types, I have returned to Windows. It is rather surprising to myself as well. I didn't think I would. I decided I am not computer geek-ish enough to work with Linux as it now is. Some of the programs I have become so accustomed to would not work in Linux.

I was also pleasantly surprised to realize that because I had previously exported all of my Microsoft Outlook Contacts to my Windows Live Mail to discover that they were all there.

Hurray!

So, what ever your feels may be about a person taking the easy way out of a frustrating situation...I have chosen to not fight this battle at this time.