A Hard Battle

I am struggling at work with a girl. She's cut throat. For some reason she's out to get me. While venting the frustrations to my sister "Doll", blowing off some steam, she said something like, "maybe she has a crappy life." Wow. Great point of view. So now, when I'm struggling with the rudeness and cutting remarks directed toward me I remember this quote,

"Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I'm in the process of learning the humbling experience of praying for those who "dispitefully use and hurt me". It's hard. Really hard.

p.s. What an inspiring woman. I'll share some more of her quotes soon.

The Parable of the Unwise Bee

First off I need to clarify: The pictures in teh previous post were just pics of the net of beautiful homes. We will be moving at somepoint into a WAY more humble home. I was just giving you all eye candy :)

There are many cool things about working with the church youth group. Although it takes alot of time to prepare for the lessons, often times you walk away with something cool like this.

My Handout- The lesson was on self reliance.

I was trying to teach the girls that while self reliance is important, it's equally important on the journey to self reliance to rely on those who love you and have experience. They can teach you things. Hence the Parable of the Bee came into play. Great story! Do read! (The story was glued to the back of the bee as well.

Elder James E. Talmage (an early General Authority of the Mormon Church) tells the story of a bee that flew into his office on a warm summer day. After buzzing through the room several times, the bee failed to find the partly opened window through which it had entered. Elder Talmage understood some things that the bee could not. He knew that if the bee remained trapped in the room, it would die. Hoping to free it, he stepped to the window and opened it wide. He tried to guide the bee out the window. But it would not be guided. He tried harder, but the bee became angry and even stung his hand. The bee persisted in its wild flight and never found the window to its freedom. By the following day, it had died.

Sometimes our desires to become independent and more self reliant are so strong tha twe begin to act negatively toward any kind of authority over us.

House Hunting

My lack of blogging is due to house hunting.

(Note: all these houses are random of the net)

PSh! Wish we could get a honey like this one. but really this is just Eye candy for you.

Yes, I know it's supposed to be fun. But we are worn out.

It has taken over our lives. Every spare moment is researching houses in the area we want to live in, after work is spent doing drive-bys to see if it's worth dragging our realtor to see, and all day Saturday is spent viewing houses. Yep going on 2 months. We are picky but not crazy picky, its just that the houses are flying off the market. We've lost 4 houses we really liked by being out bid. You see the way to get more house for the price is bank owned.

(private owners can't grasp the fact that yes their houses value has gone down because of the economy, regardless of how emotionally attached they are, so they over price them and usually won't budge even if banks say they are worth way less.)

The problem with bank owned houses is when you put in a bid they won't tell you if you're out bid. They just give the house to the highest bidder, and you only get one shot to bid. We have bid over asking price on several houses, and still not been the highest bidder and they won't let you cast another bid. Lame! So we're still on the hunt. We are putting in 5 bids at a time trying to get something!

The Biggest problem. Our Apartment lease is up April 21, yep as in 1 month. There was one house we were sure we were going to get. So sure that we told the complex instead of going month to month we would like to give our notice. Yep. The house didn't go through. We are exploring our extended stay motel options and the best deal on storage units. :)

There is a beautiful house on an acre lot for a steal of a deal in a nice area, needs a little work, but a great buy. Cross your fingers for us. We are supposed to hear today.

Any tips!?! What have you learned while house hunting, or the buying process?

THE BIG SQUEEL

So I went and had my car checked out because it was sounding like a motorcycle- SO LOUD. After the guy checked it out and I had set an appointment to get it fixed, I hopped in and drove away. About a block down the road I heard high pitched squeeling coming from my car, I hadn't heard before. So I turned right back around and went back super annoyed that he hadn't caught something that loud and obvious as well. I got out and said, "Hey, I really need you to take a ride with me. My car is squeeling and I think you need to hear it." Puzzled he said ok and hopped in. I put the car in drive and not kidding the tire must have only rotated twice he heard the squeel and said. Ma'am your emergency brake is on.... DOH! So I put the car in reverse to deliver him back to his doorstep 2 tire rotations back. In my defense, they put it on. Not me. :) The kicker is he says, "It's ok, sometimes it takes awhile to get used to your car and it's sounds." (He said this knowing I've had my car for 2 1/2 years.) OH I felt like a doof. I guess it's a good thing right? It means I don't leave my emergency brake on alot.

NEW LOGO

Nope, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. My other header was makeshift until we finished our twinklebee logo. Isn't it great!?! Just want to give a shout out to my Fab sis in law over at BLACK EIFFEL, the magician of a graphic designer who designed our logo. Poor girl, she had me and my sis the twinklebee masterminds chirping in her ear for months! Isn't she so talented! For all the twinklebee fans, we'll have a button for you to post on your blog soon enough!

It all started with a little sketch by muah. Who says they don't believe in evolution?!

Name that puppy!

While I know you all have Way more important things to do then to name my puppy, be a good sport and cast a vote for me. I'm sick of calling her "puppy girl". M3 says, "big deal, name her already" but I'm going to be saying the name 30 times a day for 15 years.
Right now I have a tiny tshirt on her that says "hello my name is: DOG"

Meli ( said may-lee)- is hawaiian for "honey"
Elsie
Sophie-Kacey's suggestion (not sure though cause i know alot of people with a girl named sophie or sophia- don't want to insult but think it's a super cute name.
Kev's vote is 'Bronco' after BYU's coach :)