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The camp-out was a lot of fun, but I am still recovering from it. Still super tired. We have some fantastic young women in our ward, and their leaders are awesome!

Sunday was good, too. Church was awesome - some really great thoughts and feelings came out of it. And of course Mom's day. And the whole chocolate/flower debate. Hmm...so, you moms/ladies out there, if you were to go to church, and get a moms day gift, would you prefer a cut flower, a planted flower, or a small thing of chocolates?

Inquiring minds want to know...:)

A little home teaching, and talked with my companion a bit. We were going to BBQ, but it ended up getting too late. Maybe today, if the rain lets up.

Many people watch this and discard the religious implications. Others will marvel at the strength of this woman.

But she would be the first to tell you it isn't her strength, but rather the power of God moving through her life. This video to me displays just how unstoppable a person is when they align themselves with God.

Historically, the hardest day of the week for me. You all can say Monday's are hard...but Wednesdays are...well, terrible. For me, anyways.

I am subbing for two different seminary teachers on Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be my old class - they are juniors (11th graders) now, and I will be teaching the Freshmen (9th graders) on Friday. I wanna say Thursday is Mormon 1 and 2, and Friday is 4th Nephi.

THEN, I am going on the young-womens camp out - they need 2 priesthood holders, and asked me to be one of them - on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

It's going to be a busy tail-end of the week, I think. Plus all the work stuff I have to get done - fixing Z numbers, and finishing the F203. If you don't know what these are, its okay.

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated our 19 year wedding anniversary. Not that we did much finances being what they are, but it was fun.

I spent the day staying home from work with what I believe to be a sinus infection, but I thought at the time might be a cold. The people I work with are paranoid about catching stuff, so I stayed home just in case. To celebrate, we went to get the DVD/VCR combo mentioned below, and later watched Jeeves and Wooster on a Netflix DVD while eating Taco Bell. That's nearly date status for us. :)

We have had a bunch of furniture given to us lately. All the below items are in gently used condition:

• 2 entertainment centers - the kind that look like an armoire when closed. One goes in our living room, the other in our bedroom


• Dinging room table and chairs. The table is round without the leaf in it, and is the perfect size for settlers


• A computer desk - a large, "L" shaped one


• A coffee table - now supports Inara's lizard tank


• 2 end tables - one is used as a printer table, the other is upstairs, and will most likely be used for a lamp


• A tv - tube style, but with AV inputs in the back. Also goes in our room.

We also bought off craigslist a DVD/VCR combo that seems in pretty good shape to go in our bedroom.

All in all a pretty fun day.

I have an un-paid account here on LJ, and the advertisements are getting a bit much. And I don't post much here anyway anymore. I am really thinking about just leaving LJ for good, and finding a better free blog site. I don't need much in the way of support or blog bling. I just need to find a place where my thoughts can be entered and take flight of their own.

If anyone has sent me a message in the last few weeks, I am sorry I haven't responded. I just checked them today. I had 6 messages.

The first message was a message from livejournal, that I summarily clicked on the check box and clicked the deleted button. To my horror, all six messages were deleted. I must have clicked on the "Select All" check box.

So, if you didn't get a response, I am sorry. And as I no longer have messages to respond to, you wont be getting a reply in the future.

I probably missed out on some good stuff. -sighs-

So, I had a facebook friend who posted a status update that read like this: "What is the meaning of life?"

There were a few cute comments, but that is such a deep question, and of course with my belief structure I had a ready answer, but this person is not religious - at least not in any organized way, and I wasn't altogether sure she would appreciate a religious answer. So I responded with this:

"To learn and realize who you are and what your potential is, and to be happy in that knowledge and accept it as truth."

To that response, I have had at least one person applaud me for my answer. There may be others by now, I don't know. It leaves me wanting to dismiss my response, though.

I mean, it strikes me as existential drivel. I mean, it is true enough, and probably in line with what a lot of people think - which by definition means it is vague. Vague to the point of being worthless. I sometimes think that is what people want - vagueness. They want to find their own way, and no well trodden path, regardless of it's merit or previous success, is worthy enough for them - they must blaze their own trail. Perhaps they are secure that their knowledge and wisdom surpasses that of others, or perhaps they are rebellious in nature - maybe for other reasons, and all of those reasons combined. I don't know. But I know with every fiber of my being that happiness - true eternal happiness - will not be found that way. I believe there is only one way to happiness, and there is no vagueness in that way, but we can choose to follow it or not.

I know I have my challenges - life is never easy, and some decisions I have made both past and present don't help that. I don't pretend to have all the answers nor do I pretend I am even close to perfect. I also don't believe that I can make it through this life on my own wisdom and intelligence, or even of those who are here in my life with me. I think this is the truth that my response to my friend hides. We are not here to fend for ourselves. We are not here to find our own way. We are not even here to blindly follow the way that has been laid for us by prophets and other religious leaders. We are here to find out what love is - not earthly love or lusts of the flesh - but real and deep Christ-like love. Charity. As humans on this earth right now, perfection may not be possible. But finding out there there is a Heavenly Father who loves us individually and without reservation, and further learning that we are just as capable of that same love, and then finally accepting those two principles as truth and as a part of our own divine nature - that is what we are really here for. That is why we were created. That is the meaning of life. To realize that life is just a tool to meet an end, and not an end unto itself.

Ganked from cyad:

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 movies, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 254 movies on this list. Put x's next to the movies you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun!
( My 77 )

What do you know. I do have a life. Huh.

So, I ran out of gas this morning.

Wait - this is a miracle?

You see, the last time we got paid was Christmas Eve - and you can imagine there wasn't any extra money after buying stuff.

So, come about Wednesday of last week, the gas need was on the E - not just barely touching the red line, but fully red. In the past, I knew this means that I can get to work and back at least three times when it gets there. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. No problem. Money was short, so I decided to just conserve as much as possible.

Come Sunday, I had a couple of errands to do. Lanetta was giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting, and we had no black ink to print it out on. So, I said a prayer that the gas would hold out, hopped in the car, and went to a place where I could print the talk out. Also, one of my home teaching families called, and asked me to give a blessing later on Sunday, so I did that as well. Either of these times, running out of gas could have been pretty bad, but it didn't happen.

So, today, on my way to Seminary to do hall monitoring, I finally ran out of gas. Two houses from home. Lanetta was going grocery shopping, so she gave me a ride to there and back. Payday was today, so we have gas in the car again.

I know - coincidence, you say. Perhaps it was. I believe it wasn't, though. I was watched out for. And I will gladly trade all the skepticism in the world for that simple thought of comfort.

God does intervene in our lives - it's up to us to see it.

Nearly two years into the presidency of the person who nearly everyone thought at the time of the election would be our savior - at least for our financial woes and the foreign policy from our previous president - and I am very curious. How's he doin'?

I know I can go to gallup.com and see what the country thinks - but I am curious about my flist. It seemed like I was getting inundated with how horrible W. was - at least once a week there would be someone somewhere posting something. But I havent heard much about if people are pleased or not..

So, I would love to hear your opinion - positive, negative, or indifferent. No debates, no flames, and no rhetoric. Just honest opinion.