Toward or Towards?

I am a Lover of Language, a Word Wrangler a Storyteller. A Grammar-tician I am not. I am always confused if it’s Toward or Towards? I’ve been told I “comma splice” but I don’t really know what that means. I want to know.

I have decided that I’m going to live a long time. I have many goals I’ve set for myself and I’m discovering that they are coming to pass whether I plan for it or not. It’s curious really. I made a set of goals for myself when I was around twelve, I revamped them around age 20 and they go like this:

Get married in the temple (check)

Go on a mission (check)

Go to BYU (check)

Become a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant (check—yes, that’s really there!)

Now here are the ones that will make me an old lady…

Graduate from BYU

Become a teacher (now it’s a college teaching job I’m going after, at the time I was thinking High School—bleck!)

So, you see, I have time to move toward my goals, or is it towards? Because I’m going to grow very old and be that 90-year-old great grandma walking across the stage the BYU graduation in 2050! Oh wait, 2055! Ha ha!

You envy me, I know it.

News Stew

All the news you need to know, and with my slant! What could be better? Welcome to my newest idea. My take on the news. Enjoy.

So I had to sigh in relief that I DID NOT renew my McAfee protection after all. Yesterday they “accidentally” provided an update that caused computers to “endlessly reboot.” Yikes! Can you imagine the frustration? Sure they provided a fix but how do you keep your computer UP long enough to download it? Glad I let that one go!

And in more technology news… Google is allowing US to see how often the Government checks up on us. Hmm. It’s kind of interesting information but seriously VAGUE. Thanks Google for making technology easy. ???

Speaking of the internet… Now we know why the market crashed. The financial “watchdogs” were “busy.” Doing what? Why watching PORN on Government computers, of course. Isn’t that what you do at work? Isn’t that lovely. Makes you want to work for the Government, doesn’t it.

And if you haven’t heard about the mom that tried to “return” her adopted son, you have now. Yep. She adopted a boy from Russia and less than a year later put him on a return flight. By himself. Just when I thought I was the worst mother in the world something like this hits the news and I’m relieved of guilt.

I get her frustration, the boy threatened to burn down the family home but she could have made a different choice on how to handle it. Now we are dealing with the backlash that could leave many orphans without willing parents that won’t send them back.

Skipping all Tiger Woods commentary (that’s an entire blog on it’s own!) I’ll just ask if you’ve seen this video? If not, you should… is he a baseball player or a gymnast? Cool!

Just when you think mankind is doomed by selfishness, you see a story like this that warms your heart.

And last, but not least (well, not for me anyway). For those of us who know her as the vapid and self-absorbed Kelly Kapoor on “The Office” can congratulate Mindy Kaling on her first book! Woo Hoo! I am always proud of new authors. In case you didn’t know she does write for the show. I follow her on Twitter and you can too!

That’s all for today folks. You can go about your business now.

Mondays & Fridays

For some reason I thought I already posted this... It's been a while but this has been sitting and waiting for posting.

I used to love Mondays and hate Fridays. Now, for the opposite reason I’m dreading Mondays and loving Fridays.

Back in the day of unemployment Friday meant the beginning of the Reign of Chaos. Everyone was home. Everyone was demanding my attention and my time. I couldn’t relax, chill, play Bejeweled or Mahjong. Lame! Everyone being home meant lots of noise and mess everywhere. It meant driving all over tarnation for something I didn’t even get to do, like dancing. I hated Fridays.

Mondays meant everyone out of the house. It meant at least five blessed hours of quiet and freedom. I could read, or write, or clean or sleep. Nobody demanded my attention or asked me to work. The only driving I had to do was that which was required for getting said family Out of the House …oh and back again. Mondays meant four days of such bliss, while Fridays were three days of pure and utter pandemonium.

Now I’m employed. Hallelujah. But where is MY time? I no longer have a farm in Farmtown. My Bejeweled score stays below one. My naps are limited to the back seat of the car during church or my limited lunch hour (which is actually thirty minutes). Forget about reading, or writing or cleaning. I have to wake up at the BUTTcrack of dawn just to get my basic morning routine accomplished. I’m exhausted before eight o’clock at night and have limited my TV shows to about ONE.

Oh and Saturdays? Yeah, I still have to drive all over the place and still don’t get to participate. I also get to go shopping (ever done Costco or Wal-Mart on a Saturday? GAH!). By Sunday around eleven in the morning I’m ready to pass out. And where am I you ask? In church. Not the best place to be napping (although it is peaceful and quiet).

I’m not complaining, however. I like my job. I love the people I work with. I’m happy to be busy and productive. I’m just so tired. Considering I spend a lot of my time at work organizing and filing you’d think the boxes in my bedroom would be much better managed. I miss my family. I miss my house. I miss my new puppy, Bailey (he still has puppy breath).

So now I love Fridays because it means I get to go shopping ( – and I need to post about the beauty of Thrift Stores!) and spend time with my family. I get to visit with my girls when I drive them all over the place and snuggle with my boys. I get to watch the TV shows I’ve missed and spend time with my husband. I get to sleep in and get caught up with my online friends.

I’m finally normal and love Fridays and dread Mondays.

Belle Loves Grumpy

Once upon a time there lived a Beautiful Girl who did not know she was beautiful. She spent much of her time reading. She read in the morning, in the afternoon and sometimes all night long. She even read while in school when she was supposed to be learning fractions. Her mind was immersed in the fantasy of imagination and destiny. Oh, and she loved shoes.

In another part of the land lived a Grumpy Boy. He wasn’t always grumpy but deep inside he thought he was grumpy and every now and then his grumpiness would overcome him. He was a decent boy, a hard worker and a loving son. He wanted to do what was right, but being left-handed just made life difficult. He struggled to see the glass half full.

One day, inevitably, the Beautiful Girl and the Grumpy Boy were in the same place. They didn’t notice each other at first. After some time the Beautiful Girl started to feel beautiful and began to change. As she believed in her beauty she became even more beautiful. That is when the Grumpy Boy noticed her and asked her to paint her toenails. She did.

It wasn’t long (one date) at all before the Beautiful Girl and the Grumpy Boy fell in love and got married. And lived Happily Ever After.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT…

My Dear Husband (DH) and I recently celebrated our 19^th Anniversary. Not too much of a milestone considering both our parents have celebrated their 50^th Anniversaries. I guess we have a lot to live up to. Coincidentally the next day we were watching a lecture given at BYU by a Marriage & Family Professor about how to have a successful marriage. He said the two key components were Repentance and Forgiveness. We just looked at each other and nodded. Oh yeah, we know about that!

While out to dinner the night before I made the comment, “It’s been quite the ride!” My DH agreed. Marriage is not easy. Despite what some moronic celebrities might think, marriage takes work. It requires compromise and compassion. After 19 years do I consider myself an expert? Not at all, I do however know that in order to keep our marriage “alive” we MUST recognize or OWN our mistakes, apologize sincerely for them and accept the apologies given. Of course, the ideal relationship would be where each partner knows ahead of time that the said behavior/reaction/comment would be hurtful/disturbing/annoying to the other and then have the maturity to avoid them. Um. Have they created the device yet that does that? Reads minds I mean. Or the pill that activates the unselfish gene? I have heard that selfishness and pride can destroy a marriage. Okay. Well that would be the opposite of Repentance and Forgiveness so that makes sense.

In case you haven’t figured it out I am the Beautiful Girl. DH is the Grumpy Boy and the HEA takes a lot more than shoes and learning to be ambidextrous. Beautiful Girl must learn to forgive Grumpy Boy for being grumpy and Grumpy Boy must learn to forgive Beautiful Girl for spending all the money on shoes and all her time reading books. The same things that may appeal to us may also make us crazy.

That’s our Fairy Tale. What’s yours?

Commentaries, NOT Reviews

So I have been thinking that I wanted to put reviews of books, movies, music, television, maybe even radio and commercials. But honestly I don’t want to do a review, I want to just make commentary. You know those people you hate at the movies and when you watch TV that ask questions and talk to the screen. Or the ones that tell you what is going to happen next because the writing is so bad? Yes Sir! I’m one of those and I make my husband and children crazy over it! Thank you and you’re welcome.

Lately I’ve only been watching one television show so that would be easy. Movies? Nothing. So give me an excuse to watch more, see more and listen more. Then I can come on here and tell you what I think. That’s what I really like doing, giving my opinion. I don’t really want to give a non-biased opinion because that would be silly. Of course I’m biased. And of course I have an opinion. I always have an opinion. When I don’t have an opinion then it must be really bad or unimportant (at least to me). It may or may not be something you want to hear but nonetheless I like sharing. Yeah, that’s the way I am.

I have shied away a bit from giving too much of a religious slant on my opinions but that will probably be changing too. I have ideas about humans and the Great Plan and why we’re even in existence and I believe all things turn around that One Great Truth. So many of my opinions are based on these life and “being” concepts that I’ve worked on for years. Much of what is good comes from The Source and will reflect in a good way, “…by their fruits…” if you will.

As many of my wonderful friends have started, I also have joined in on the 101 things you want to do in 1001 days. It’s a list and near the top of my list is learning how to write Abstracts. Eventually I hope to be in an MFA program that will require me to write an Abstract for every book I read. Freaking cool! So it would be a good idea to learn how to do that and kind of perfect the process before actually investing a limb or bodily organ in fees to acquire said degree.

I also wanted to note that my niece was writing a blog with definitions. I loved her idea and I might steal it from time to time. I am hoping to have several postings a week. They will be short and hopefully sweet. Some will be heartwarming while others will make you wince. Some will be educational while others simply silly. Either way, it’s what I’m thinking about or hearing about or wondering about. Maybe you are or will be too? Maybe my musings will give you insight or stir you to anger or more hopefully, make you crack a smile or two.

Really the most important thing I want to accomplish is to blog regularly and go viral. C’mon… Help me out here. HAHAHA!