Weekend Update

This weekend was great! Saturday was Christi's birthday celebration so i spent most of the day preparing for the party and doing little things around the house. We had so much fun. I really wanted to do a pool party but the weather precluded any outdoor fun so we just had a small dinner party and then chatted after dinner. It was great to catch up with friends I had not seen in a while.

Sunday was nice, just church and meetings. I got to attend a little reception for a girl returning from her mission who was a beehive of mine when I was a Young Women's President. It was really fun to catch up with her and see what an amazing woman she has become.

Monday was full of adventure. It started early in the morning with a hike up to the top of Flatiron where I met two other friends who had camped out the night before. After we ate a quick breakfast we set out for what was supposed to be an 11 mile hike through the Superstitions over the ridge line to Peralta trail in Gold Canyon. Everything went splendidly until about 6 hours into the hike when we lost all signs of the trail. We searched for our route for about an hour and finally started backtracking until we found a canyon where, in the distance, we could see the road up to Peralta. WE started down this canyon which turned out to be pretty treacherous and five hours later, as the sun was getting lower in the sky and with depleted water supplies we finally got to another trail. By the hand of God, I am convinced, this trail spit us out at the exact place we had parked our car. After giving the car a big hug we got in and drove home. I was very happy to drop my 30lb pack and take my shoes off after 12 straight hours of hiking. I am just glad we made it down with no injuries and no snake bites. I did see a snake but it was up on the ridge before we lost the trail and miraculously we never saw one while trudging through thick brush and climbing down uncharted ravines. The Lord was definitely answering my prayers for us to have made it home without harm or accident befalling us.
I attached a topo map of our trip. The red line is where we were supposed to be and the green where we actually hiked down.

Stuff white people like:

I recently read this blog called "stuff white people like" and found it quite entertaining. I thought I would share some of my favorites but please go to the link and read more.
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like

#93 Music Piracy
White people have always been renowned for having ridiculously large music collections. So when file sharing gave white people a chance to acquire all the music they ever wanted, it felt as though it was an earned right and not a privilege.

When (not if) you see a white male with a full iPod, ask him if all of his music is legal. If he does not immediately launch into a diatribe about his right to pirate music, you might have to nudge him a bit by saying “do you think that’s right?” The response will be immediate and uniform.

He will likely rattle off statistics about how most musicians don’t make any money from albums, it all comes from touring and merchandise. So by attending shows, he is able to support the musicians while simultaneously striking a blow against multinational corporations. He will proceed to walk you through the process of how record labels are set up to reward the corporation and fundamentally rob the artist of their rights, royalties and creativity. Prepare to hear the name Steve Albini a lot.
#99 Grammar
White people love rules. It explains why so they get upset when people cut in line, why they tip so religiously and why they become lawyers. But without a doubt, the rule system that white people love the most is grammar. It is in their blood not only to use perfect grammar but also to spend significant portions of time pointing out the errors of others.

When asking someone about their biggest annoyances in life, you might expect responses like “hunger,” “being poor,” or “getting shot.” If you ask a white person, the most common response will likely be “people who use ‘their’ when they mean ‘there.’ Maybe comma splices, I’m not sure but it’s definitely one of the two.”

#50 Irony
The most horrific recent example is Trucker hats, that shockingly went from mainstream in the 80s to Ironic in the early 2000s back to mainstream, at which point they are no longer rare or unique. Once something reaches this stage, irony cannot be restored for 10 years.

Other examples would include white people getting together to have a ‘white trash’ night where they would eat Kentucky Fried Chicken, drink Bud Light and watch Larry the Cable Guy or The Marine. Maybe listen to Kid Rock or P.O.D. These events allow white people to experience things they are supposed to hate, all while feeling better about their own lives, decisions, and cultured tastes.

#56 Lawyers
A common characteristic amongst white people is the need to over analyze things, so they partake in activities such as therapy, writing a blog, or becoming an arts major. So its rather obvious why white people love lawyers so much as it is the one profession that has mastered the art of “over analyzing things”. Even though most disputes can be resolved through reason, unselfishness, and / or a google search, white people would prefer to take things to court or have something in writing.

These are only a few and excerpts at that. There is a lot more from whence this came.

A Whole New World

Considering my penchant for being the last to know about technological advances, i am sure all of you have already experienced my new fun. However, I will tell you about it anyway... I recently got a new computer and have therefore been trying to make myself more efficient by cleaning things up and using new tools with all my updated software. I just discovered the wonderment of igoogle! Wow, it has me mesmerized. I love being able to completely personalize my home page with my choice of thousands of cool backgrounds, points of interest, and google gadgets This has opened up a whole new world for me! Every time i open up my home page; I am inspired by quotes from The Savior accompanied by his picture, current time zone, weather, and I can translate his words into the native language of his current location if I so desire. I am now intrigued by the many places I am to see before i die, the healthiest food choice of the day, vocabulary enhancement and my to do list. And this is just the beginning. I am going to be the best humored, well informed, politically savvy, healthy eating, umbrella toting, enlightened, multilingual girl in town.

The little things in life

A lot of great things going on this past week. I discovered spray ranch dressing, 10 sprays only 15 calories. If you love to each fresh veggies with ranch but want to cut the calories this is a great option!

I am proud to announce the appearance of my first fruit of the vine. Due to my exquisite cultivating I have a teeny tiny chili pepper. If the economy gets too bad I may be able to sell my goods, like my own little farmers market. I also have a crop of little tiny flowers coming in. It is so exciting to grow your own plants! Sometimes I go outside several times a day to see if my flowers or vegetables have grown any. It is amazing how attached I am to a bunch of plants.

Friday was a big day! Denny graduated from Law School! Congratulations "Big Brother"! The picture I posted is of he and his beautiful wife Nichole, it was one of my favorites! I cannot wait to see what exciting new successes come his way now that he has completed this long time goal. It was great to attend his convocation and enjoy all of his outstanding successes. Congratulations Denny and Nichole!

Also, while hiking Flatiron on Saturday I noticed the blooms on the saguaro cacti. I don't think I have ever seen them in full bloom before. I think they only bloom for a short time each year so I took a picture and hope all of you enjoy them as well.

Green thumb and bargains

It was so nice to have a Saturday at home. I can't remember the last time I had this much time to myself. It was a great day! I am excited to report that I planted a small garden this weekend. I hope, in a couple of months, I will harvest my own cucumbers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, red, yellow and green peppers and chili peppers.

I also, planted more flower seeds this weekend. This is my third attempt at bringing my flower garden back to life. I have a few seedlings coming up from my last planting but I think most of them were washed away when I accidentally flooded my flower bed. Lets cross our fingers they work this time.

Early Saturday morning I was also able to go get my first bountiful basket at the co-op pick-up. This is awesome! I got a huge basket of fruits and vegetables for $15.00. All of it was good quality and stuff that I will be able to use. There were a few items I would probably not pick up on my own but I have come up with ways to use them. Limes for example: I also got two bunches of cilantro so i decided I could make up a nice lime cilantro dressing like the one at Costa Vida. For anyone who lives here in the valley and is not aware of the co-op. You can go to bountifulbaskets.org and check out the site. They also have pick-ups for bread, cheese, rice and honey at great prices.

One more bargain to tell you about. If you like Biolage shampoo and conditioner; Costco is now packaging the moisturizing shampoo and conditioner in their own Kirkland branding and selling two huge bottles for $6.99. I pick-ed it up for storage and then had to use some and realized what it was! This is an excellent buy!

National Day of Prayer

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Today is the designated National Day of Prayer. As such it has been and will continue to be an eventful day. This morning began with the Governor's annual Prayer Breakfast, previously held on Martin Luther King's Birthday. It was a wonderful event with the Governor, many legislative officials and members of the judiciary. For those who were not aware of the NDP this is an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln who established it in 1863. "Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace."

This evening I have been asked to offer a prayer of peace at the capitol in an evening prayer vigil for human rights. These events are always interesting. It is wonderful to see the devotion of so many faithful people who sincerely and earnestly desire to do good in the world and make a difference in the lives of those who suffer.

I hope we will each have a prayer in our hearts for the leaders of this nation and for the people of the world who suffer in many forms, on this designated Day of Prayer and everyday.

Fun in the sun!

I just got back from a fun-filled weekend in Huntington Beach. I finally took the plunge and went to a singles conference. It was surprisingly enjoyable. There were a ton of fun activities and lots of interesting people to hang out with. I met a ton of new people and made some new friends. Friday night when we got there I did the speed dating and met a few fun guys. We hung out for a while a played jokes on a few other people we knew by putting fake notes in the envelopes provided for people to let you know they were interested in you after a round of speed dating. No one really used the envelopes but we stuffed a few of them with tons of notes and kissed the envelopes for even more effect. Then we all did some dancing and then more vi sting and mingling. Saturday we spent most of our time at the beach and then had dinner groups where an equal number of guys and girls had selected a restaurant and you just showed up and had dinner with whoever was there. Gina and hap pend to pick just the right place. We were the only girls with all guys. Okay so maybe we did accidentally mention to a few guys what restaurant we chose. It was fun to get to know people in that setting and we had a great dinner at Dukes on the Pier.

Yesterday we had a great sacrament meeting (2 hours). The Stake President and an Area Authority spoke and for the highlight of my weekend the Bishop of that ward invited Gina and me to come forward and bear our testimony of the Savior. You know I am always glad to bear my testimony but HOLY COW...without notice in front of 1400 people. Oh and did I mention he prefaced our coming forward with gentlemen "these are the kind of women you want to marry". Yeah, I thought my heart was going to explode. I have no idea what I said... I think I blacked out!

It was an interesting weekend to say the least. I am really glad to back to my normal, mellow, single life.

For love of basketball...

Nothing extraordinary going on in my life to blog about but I must put out some positive vibes for my SUNS today! I know we can take the Spurs and take this series. We are going to break this psychological barrier that has kept one step behind them in the playoffs in the past. GO SUNS!!!

On that note I saw this on my friend Steve's blog and thought I would share it. John Wooden has always been a basketball idol of mine, in all his wisdom and love of discipline, character building and winning!

"Discipline yourself, and others won't need to," Coach John Wooden would tell his players. "Never lie never cheat, never steal," and "Earn the right to be proud and confident." John Wooden was the most successful college basketball coach of all time. No one has ever even come close.

Rick Reilly, the talented sportswriter, recalls that if you played for him, you played by his rules: Never score without acknowledging a teammate. One word of profanity, and you're done for the day. Treat your opponent with respect. Wooden believed in hopelessly out-of-date stuff that never did anything but win championships. No dribbling behind the back or through the legs. ("There's no need," he'd say.) No UCLA basketball number was retired under his watch. "What about the fellows who wore that number before? Didn't they contribute to the team?" Coach Wooden would say.

No long hair, no facial hair. "They take too long to dry, and you could catch cold leaving the gym," he'd say. That one drove his players bonkers.

One day, All-America center Bill Walton showed up with a full beard. "It's my right," he insisted. Wooden asked if he believed that strongly. Walton said he did. "That's good, Bill," Coach said. "I admire people who have strong beliefs and stick by them, I really do. We're going to miss you." Walton shaved it right then and there. Now Walton calls once a week to tell Coach he loves him.

Millenium Goals

Do you know the eight UN Millennium Development Goals? I was reviewing then this evening and thought others might be interested to know about some of the issues plaguing our world today and how we might be able to solve them. They are as follows:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2. Achieve Universal Primary Education

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

4. Reduce Child Mortality

5. Improve Maternal Health

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

8. Develop a global partnership for development

As I review this list I am struck by its apparent simplicity. As the price of basic foods such as rice, wheat and other grains are doubling, I cannot help but think of the effects of this, not only on we Americans (who are among the richest 5% of people in the world)but more importantly I feel concern for those who already could not afford to eat and feed their families. As an effect of many poor decisions we are facing a world wide food shortage/crisis. We (Americans have subsidised corn farmers who sell their crops for ethanol fuel and ignored the fact that it is first; no better for the envoirmnet than the fuel we are currently addicted to and second that this has created a deficit in edible grains. We, the developed world, have also focused our energies, innovations and resources on war instead of how we might solve world hunger and other types of suffering.

I know three amazing, inspiring people who are currently working on solving at least one of these goals each. Chantel Carr is a friend who has done work in Africa for years and is currently working with an East African village to solve their water crisis. She has committed $250,000.00 to build a suitable and sustainable water supply system and in the process saving and sustaining thousands of lives. Another friend, Alicia, has an NGO in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). She and other volunteers have built a school to house the remaining orphaned children of the Rwandan crisis. And then there is Bill Knowlton who after returning from a mission in East Africa lost 10 native mission companions to HIV/AIDS. He decided he had to do all he could to effect change in this deeply devastated culture.

What an incredible group of people, but no different or more equipped than any of the rest of us! So lets make a difference. After reading "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey Sachs, I was so inspired about Micro lending and have seen some amazing cultural transformations through its miraculous effects. Muhamad Yunus is of course an inspiration to us all through his work in Bangladesh.

I think we should find a way to subsidize farmers in Africa, who could produce their own food if only they had the money to start farming their land. Isn't their a way we could fund farming in Africa and other poverty stricken countries and solve a multitude of problems? I think their has to be a way, if anyone else is interested let's brainstorm and see if we can't do our part to solve world hunger. I don't know how we can make it happen but I know we can figure it out! If this goal doesn't light your fire maybe their is another of the goals that inspires you. If so, there are a million opportunities to make a difference.

Lunch Drama

While driving down Southern at lunch time, my Friend John and I notice a cop car in the neighborhood in which his brother lives (as well as my friend Brittney). Then we see there is another on the sidewalk on Southern and in front of that sits an older car that has driven up on the sidewalk and has been abandoned. That's right A RUNNER! We decide maybe we should drive into the neighborhood and be sure the action is not close to where John's sister in law would be at home with her three children. No it was not close, unless you call the house across the street close. As we pull up we notice that there are a lot more police cars and SWAT trailers etc. We get out and start to walk over to where Sylvia lives and I notice that there are an inordinate amount of black Suburbans with black tinted windows lining the street. We look at each other and decide this must be big; these are FBI vehicles! Sure enough as soon as we walk up a uniformed policeman asks us if we live in any of these homes. No, but we are concerned about someone who does and who we have not been able to reach by phone yet. He asks if it is the house across from us and we reply in the negative. He assures us everything is fine then and we need to leave the area. He said they had it all under control. Now I no never to believe the police. You can go to AZfamily.com and see the drama is still in play. Apparently the guy robbed a bank and ran to leisure world, stole the car we saw on the sidewalk. Ran into a policeman some where along the way and then hopped the sidewalk and decided to hop the fence. He is Right this minute in some poor unsuspecting person's home and the police are in a stand off with him. They do not know if there is anyone in the home or not. It was pretty crazy to see a sniper up on his car with rifle in hand over the wall of the community. It will be interesting to see how this plays out! I just hope and pray the people in who own that home are not home and safe and sound somewhere else. And that the police involved remain safe. P.S. I cannot believe I did not have my camera!