A Full Day Ahead, and the Weekend

Hey, peeps.

Just so you know, about my last post; I know daring someone isn't exactly the route to go with missionary work, but you'd really have to know this guy to understand. It's not like I told him, "Okay, lay it on the missionaries." Poor missionaries, I wouldn't do that. I do know he really does have interest, and not in the mean, tear people down kind of way.

D&C 29:7 states the Lord said the "elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts." "The elect will hear His voice-they'll listen and do something about it." -Elder Franklin D. Richards

Sure, he likes to stump, but I know he has an interest. He said he believes there's some sort of God, but doesn't know much from there. Also, he read a bit of the BOM, starting in Nephi. You wouldn't pick up that book if you had no interest. Anyway, yeah, lol.

Today is a day off of mine; things to do! Laundry, a few things of shopping, etc.

Anyway, we spent some of the weekend out of town. The plan was for me to open at work Saturday morning, then after my shift, head out to Taft. However, Friday night I didn't sleep too well, and I woke up nauseated and my stomach was rather angry with me. I got up anyway, showered, made my lunch, and prepared to leave for work. I just had no strength, and I didn't feel real well. I tried calling the store, but nobody picked up (it's their way of avoiding people from calling in, haha). Finally I sent a text message to my direct manager (the guy mentioned in my last post), and told him I just wasn't feeling well. He understood, and it was taken care of. I then crawled back to bed and slept in a bit with the husband. I woke up feeling a little better. I don't know if it was just me being tired, but I really did feel rather sick. I've always had these early morning shifts, and regardless of how I feel, I usually stick it out. But Saturday...just not my morning.

So, we headed out to Taft earlier than planned, and spent some time with family. After, we headed to Bakersfield to have dinner and spend some time with more family. Talking about Catalina sure made me excited!

Saturday evening, after a stop at the Valley Plaza (brings back memories), we headed back to town, and boy was it gorgeous! The full moon was out that night, and the weather was cool and breezy. The sky looked beautiful, so I snapped a few photos on my phone.  We rolled down our windows, and Gary said, "It's too nice outside to just go home. Let's go a few places." So, we did. Didn't really spend money, but it was nice being out. We stopped at TJ's (Trader Joe's), and bought some grapes and healthy beverages, and crashed at home where we watched a movie.

(don't mind the bugs on the windshield, haha)

Sunday was a little exhausting as usual, but we survived. Because the nursery leaders of the Jr. nursery moved away, Gary and I have taken on all the kids from both Jr. and Sr. Man it sure gets tiring with all those little slobbery children. Or, as Josh calls them, little nasties, lol. It felt nice to come home! We didn't crash right away, though. Instead, using our teamwork, we cleaned. I know, Sabbath day. But we had home teachers coming over, and I wanted the place to look excellent. Finally, a nice visit from the home teachers, dinner, then a crash!

What a beautiful morning it is, too!

Dexter enjoying his morning dose of sun. 

This is why I'm a morning person. The birds chirping, the cool weather, the peacefulness of it all. Refreshing! Unfortunately when it heats up in the afternoon, he's stuck inside.

We also finally got rid of that blasted couch outside! It was taking up too much space out there. Gary and I managed to get it down the stairs and haul it over to Goodwill. Ah, so nice to have our deck back!

Okay, time to enjoy the beautiful day today. Morning workout to do, breakfast to eat, laundry to finish, and shopping to do. Bye!

A Work in Progress

 I have a story :)

When I was first new at Petsmart, I was off cleaning tanks, when I heard my pet care manager talking about religion and God. From the sound of his words, he was being very skeptical about the existence of God and other things. He started talking about what religions really aren't Christian, and in the midst of that, mentioned the Mormons.

At this point, I jumped in and exclaimed I'm Mormon. I saw his face light up (in a bit of a dark way, haha), and he began going off about how we're really not Christians. I did my best to explain to him he was...misinformed. Lol.

Over the many weeks since, while we're working together in the pet care department, every now and then he'll toss in some tough questions. See, he went to a Christian school growing up, studied the bible and other things, and is rather knowledgeable about the scriptures (minus the BOM, of course). This makes his questions super tough. Since he knows the bible so well, he's always throwing comparisons at me. I do my best to answer, but have to admit, I'm not as great as I could be. I know he gets a kick out of this. I'm pretty sure he enjoys watching me struggle to find good answers.

Eventually, I had to sadly break the news with the fact I'm not perfect (shocking, huh??), but I'd still try my best to answer any questions he has.

Today, we were on another religious discussion. I knew I was slowly progressing and getting things more set in his mind about what we believe in. One of the the things he's having the hardest time understanding is tithing...why we are commanded to pay, why we have to "pay" to enter the temple of God (I know that's not what we do, but he sees it that way since we have to be full tithe payers to enter the temple). I attempted to answer best I can, but for some reason it's still stumping him.

Today, the following conversation goes as follows:

"At least you  make an effort to answer my questions. Some people will flat out say they don't know. In fact, I've spoken to many people about their religions, and it never makes sense, and they can never answer my questions. Pastors, ministers, you name it."

"Have you ever spoken to LDS missionaries?"

"Hah. No. I've spoken to other Mormons, though."

"But why not our missionaries?"

"They would probably just end up leaving because I'd stump them too."

"You really think so?"

"Probably."

"What if I dared you to try?"

"You would dare me?"

"Of course. You seem to have a lot of questions, I don't see why not. Besides, what can it hurt?"

"Hmm. Okay, then. Send missionaries my way and I'll see how well they can answer my questions."

"Will do."

As you can see above,  after many weeks, progress has been made! We'll just see how it goes from here.

If anybody has ANY tips on anything, please let me know! I know I can up my missionary skillz a bit, but I know there are more experienced converters out there. Of course I know our Heavenly Father is the best of them all. Many prayers are needed and have been said.

So, that's my story. :)

PS-  Another manager of mine is LDS, but very inactive.  Looks like I have more work to do after this one!

A Night Out With Husband

 Nights out with my favorite person and best friend is always so much fun!

 I spent pretty much today cleaning. Vacuumed out the couch, did all the laundry, cleaned the kitchen thoroughly, etc etc. Gary came home from work and was like, "whoa, this place looks amazing!" Darn right it does :)

I also spent some time during my day off watching Angels and Demons. Definitely an interesting movie. I liked the first one more, but this one was still pretty darn good. Gets your mind into thinking mode. It created me to do a little more historical research, and luckily my super smart husband was able to answer a lot of my questions. Just fascinating stuff all around. I love historical facts and ideas.

After Gary came home, he and I attempted to "burp" my car for a bit. Pretty much you're burping the radiator to clear out any air bubbles or what not to keep your car from overheating. Especially if you're having a/c problems. After I had a new radiator and other related stuff put in, my a/c starting having issues with turning on and off, etc. So we went to Kragen to find my car manual, but instead an employee working there said, "Ah, they must've forgotten to burp it after. Just do that." So we skipped on the manual and went this method.

Gary and I discussed going out somewhere to eat, but weren't sure where. Some minutes later, my visiting teacher, Samarah, came over to visit. She's such a sweet person. She brought her two daughters as well as another girl (wish I could remember whose daughter she was). The girls played with their toys and chased the cats around, while Samarah and I had a nice chat about many things. During her visit, she handed Gary and I a piece of paper and said, "My husband and I probably aren't going to use this, so this is for you and Gary." It was a $50 gift certificate to Salt Creek Grille, one of the fancy schmancy grilles in the marketplace (where movies and TV shows and such are often filmed at). Well, now we had plans to go somewhere!

So, we walked across the street to eat and stuffed ourselves on the delicious food. I had a nice jumbo shrimp pasta I couldn't even come close to finishing, and Gary ate some peppercorn tri-tip. We finished off by sharing a huge slice of cheesecake. Um, yum!

After we ate our deliciousness, we walked it off around the marketplace for a bit, before stopping at Brookstone and purchasing ourselves some new Tempur-Pedic Symphony pillows (one for the each of us). 3 year warranty on these things. Soooo comfy!!

Anyway, time to finish of our evening finishing a movie we started last night, but too tired to finish. Night!

I Love Summer

 Never really thought I'd ever say this before; but I really do love summer! I've always been the one to absolutely hate summer and crave Fall to roll around. But for some reason, I'm lovin' these days!

Sure, it's hot. Sure, I can't open my windows or doors during the day anymore; even mornings and evenings can be too warm on some days. But the sun is marvelous. It's almost crazy how I'm turned around this year. I guess winter for me was a bit hard. I had the winter blues, and I was often feeling down. I never thought I had seasonal depression before. But when Spring showed its face, and Summer showed its heat, my mood went for a boost. In the past, I was the one depressed during summer because it was just too darn hot.

Anyway, I guess it's because there's always so much to do during the summertime. Gary and I often like going to the pool and soaking up the sun. We also love running around to the different places and other summer events going on. Every summer since married, we've moved to a new location. This time we're still here, and it feels kind of nice. I do think we're beginning to get tight on space (that's because we need to stop buying crap!), but I still love it here.

Speaking of space, we've had an event with our rats. Jaheira is a bully. She would pick on and fight with Mazzy. Now, dumbo rats go through a phase of dominance, and will often fight. Usually without wounds, though. However, this was different. There are open sores on Mazzy's face. So, I was forced to separate them. Now we have three rats in three different cages. Oiy. Anyone want a rat with a cage? Everything will be provided. :)

I've been having a lot of thoughts recently revolving around my future with Gary and our family. I'm so glad Gary is always there to offer words of comfort. I expressed to him my fear of adopting (there are many reasons why I'm hesitant), and told him I just don't think I can do that. He had to sit me down and basically tell me it's not all about me. It's about those children and babies who need a loving home to grow up in. Whether or not they make idiotic decisions in the end, the fact that we could give them a big home and loving family to grow in is what's important. It really made me ponder that. This doesn't mean we're going to jump up and adopt, but at least my fear has diminished a bit. I have a slight feeling Gary's ready to adopt (he's brought it up a few times), but I still need to say several prayers before I can feel the same. I think we need to try the fertility treatment first before anything else.

Anyway, that was a random topic. I'm still waiting to hear back from the liaison about our options.

We also brought up home buying again. I know we've mentioned we don't want to buy a home in California, but that didn't stop us from looking around a bit. Because Gary's job is amazing, we don't want to take any risks right now of leaving California for something else. His job is stable, secure, and the people he works with are great to him. In fact, his raise was due to people outside of the department praising his hard work. This eventually spilled to the head people of his company, who contacted his direct boss and mentioned the major raise. I'm so proud of him. We did a little looking around for homes, and found some pretty decent ones (4 or 5 bedrooms with a pool), but we still need to get a down payment. That, and we haven't gotten the urge to jump on that road of home buying yet. It's exciting to think about, but we just haven't received that prompting yet. So, we're being patient. The picture above is a picture of our valley. I'm sure there are homes with land, right? That aren't TOO expensive.

Anywho, day off today, so I have things to clean and get done before my visiting teachers show up a little later. Bye everyone.

Days Off, and Many Randoms

 As much as I like my  job, I like my days off even more. Monday was a day off, and today is a day off. Tomorrow I open at 6am, Friday I close until 10pm, then Saturday I open again at 6am. Gotta love closing the night before opening. At least I'll get a few hours to sleep, right? Good times, good times.

Carla already knows this, but I got owned by a psycho mouse yesterday. A young girl, probably around the age of 10, wanted a mouse. She picked out the CRAZIEST of mice. That thing hopped and went nuts when I tried to grab it. Eventually it flung itself out of the cage and to the floor. The girl grabbed the darn thing, but quickly dropped her after crying out, "She bit me!". The girl had blood surrounding her finger, but thought it was more amusing than anything else. Finally I snatched the pesky mouse, and was bitten in several places before I tossed it in the box. I even grabbed that thing by the tail and it still managed to crawl on me and bite the crap out of me. I glanced outside the habitat to see the girl's mother laughing at the both of us. The young girl claimed she still wanted that same mouse; so hey, now I don't have to deal with it anymore. Catching those animals sure can be adventurous at times.

My health report came back, and everything checked back normal again. My thyroid is back up in hypo mode, but it's really not surprising. It will be fluctuating until the day I die. Low levels, high levels, back to low again, normal levels, etc. This is why we need fertility treatment; depending on the mood of my thyroid depends on whether my body does what it's supposed to do. Anyway, that's that.

Gary and I sat down the other day to discuss finances, his raise, my job, and his job. Because his company has been so wonderful to him, we have no plans to leave them anytime soon. He's only on year 3, and year 5 will be the end of his entry-level. From there we'll see where we're going. Although his company is from around the world, the only programming departments are here, and somewhere in England. England is worse when it comes to expenses; it's more expensive than California. It's insane. So, no. They have been discussing opening up a department in Wichita, though. But he's not certain if they'll follow through with that.

First of all,  I'm debt-free! Woo hoo! Because of his raise and third paycheck, we're able to pay off all of my debt. It feels soo wonderful to be completely out of debt. So now our focus is Gary. When he went to school, he had to use credit cards to pay for books and other college expenses. So, we're doing the snowball effect. We are able to pay off completely one of his credit cards, which is marvelous; then we'll be able to pay off a huge chunk of another one of his credit cards. From the looks of our leftover expenses each month, he'll be out of debt rather quickly, which is such great news. I can't wait until we're both out of debt. Granted, he still has his student loans, but that's good debt compared to credit cards. So, we're not too worried about those.

Anyway, time to go enjoy the rest of my day off! I have a few errands to run and things to get done around this place.  Bye!

PS- I cannot wait until Catalina! Looking forward to vacation!

Finding the Good

 I had an experience yesterday I would like to share.

I was scheduled to work 5 hours yesterday, meaning no lunch break. However, because we were short people, I was asked to stay in longer; which forced me to take a lunch. So, I clock out, grab my stuff, and walk next door to Ralphs. Normally I bring my own lunch, but since I hadn't planned on taking one to begin with, I thought I might as well walk over and buy a sandwich or something.

I arrived at Ralph's, and headed over to the deli department. I didn't see anyone at first, and I impatiently began pacing around, mumbling something about customer service. Now, there was a pattern I noticed about some coworkers of mine; they tend to buy their lunch, come back, THEN clock out for lunch. In my opinion, however, it's dishonest. You spend 10 minutes or more getting your food, then take a half hour to eat it; that's a long lunch break.

Anyway, a male customer walked up to the deli, didn't see anyone, and impatiently grabbed another man who works at Ralph's to ask for help. The worker made his way to the deli counter. Since I had been there first, the male customer allowed me to place my order first. I asked for a sandwich which had to be made by the worker. I quickly discovered this worker was rather new to his job. He kept disappearing to find the appropriate ingredients to my sandwich. I continuously glanced over the clock and grew even more impatient by the minute. I only had half an hour to begin with, and now I was losing time for my lunch break. My feet hurt, and my body was tired from all the lifting, bending, and cleaning of animal cages. The minutes pressed on, and the male customer walked up to me from behind, and began cracking jokes about the worker. I laughed and found myself about to join in about how long he was taking. I then looked over at the worker, and everything changed. This man, working at the deli, was probably in his 40's or 50's. As he struggled to perfect my sandwich, he had a smile on his face. He told a joke or two, and was very friendly to me. It hit me; maybe this man was here because he lost his job in the recession? Maybe over the years he raised a family, therefore never finding the appropriate time to finish school? I wasn't sure.

I realized, however,  he was working hard just to make me a stupid sandwich. I began to feel guilty for being so angry with him. He probably had a family to provide for, and this was his way of putting bread on the table. Besides, I'm sure enough impatient customers will chew him out, tap their fingers on the counter and give him a hard time. I didn't want to be one of them. He continued, with a smile on his face, and all impatience drained out of me. I examined him and I no longer felt myself angry, irritated, nor annoyed. Instead, I smiled back and decided to ignore the grumpy customer behind me. Here I am, ordering food on my lunch break; from the job I have, a second income to my husband's amazing job. I had no right to be mad at this man, struggling to do his best. Besides, it was a sandwich. Not the end of the world.

He finally had finished, and I thanked him and went along my way, happily. Sure, I had 8 minutes to get back to the store and eat my lunch, but I wasn't annoyed about it anymore. While sitting in the break room, I blessed my food, and while doing so, thanked Heavenly Father for the customer service I received, and thanked Him for providing this worker a job, and for the blessings I had received earlier.

Now, I'm not doing this to brag about how awesome I am; because sure, I've been impatient many times, I've snapped many times, I've walked away from small things being very irritable. I'm not perfect. But it felt nice this time, to be able to stop, examine the situation, and find the good.

As a challenge, next time you find yourself impatient, annoyed, or irritated, stop and give yourself a moment to examine everything. Find the good, find things to be grateful for. It makes a marvelous difference.

After coming home from work, I e-mailed that same Ralph's, mentioning that man's name, and put in a good word about his customer service. Hey, he made me a sandwich; I might as well make his day.

4th of July Weekend and Other Catch-ups

 I'm tired! I'm tempted to go back to sleep for a bit before I head into work. I had 7 days off in a row, so I'm kinda glad to be starting work again today. These past couple of weeks have been crazy, exhausting, overwhelming, etc. But, I'll be staying up instead! I only work 6 hours today, not too bad.

The weekend was rather busy. We left Thursday night around 10:30 and after I had just gotten off work. We headed out to Taft for Sam's funeral. We arrived in Taft pretty late and picked up a key from Gary's mother. The bishop of the Taft ward owns different homes around Taft, so he let us use one of them for our stay, which was very kind of him.

We arrived at the cute home, found our way to the master bedroom, pulled off our clothes from the day, brushed our teeth, and crashed. We were very tired! We awoke around 6:30-7am the next morning, showered, then headed off to his parents' house where we met other family members. Gary's oldest sister, KaRyn, and her family, were all there, as well as his sister Valerie, her family, and his brother Jeff and his family. After everyone finished getting ready and catching up with each other, we all headed out for the family viewing. We met in the Relief Society room, where we had a small, open casket service for family members. It was very sweet and touching. After, we met in the chapel for the main service. There were many, many people there. Sam touched the lives of a lot of people. It was a very sweet service, and Gary did a wonderful job with the Eulogy. I am very proud of him for being strong and doing such a hard task.

We then all drove to the grave-side service, which was very sweet as well.

Gary and I at the grave-side service.

After, we headed back to the ward building where we had lunch. There was so much food! It was so kind of everyone to bring so much of it.


The next few days we spent with family. Valerie and her family left town the day after the funeral, so Gary and I stayed the next nights at her family's home; as well as KaRyn and her family. Jeff and his family stayed with Gary's mom at her place. It was a long weekend, but it was very nice to spend so much family time.


We also had wonderful BBQ's, swam in their pool with everyone, and Gary was paid to do a belly-flop. Scott (KaRyn's husband) thought it would be funny to pay the kid who did the best belly-flop. He then asked Gary to participate. It was rather hilarious! We also celebrated Gary's 26th birthday with a delicious Snickers cake and a pool party.

Gary and his brother Jeff at the pool side, discussing techniques of BBQing, guns, and other man stuff.

Gary and his niece Bradee, Jeff's youngest, in the pool.

Unflattering picture, but Gary and I both in the pool together.

So, as you can see, while it was a sad event, we still had a great time with family. We headed out Sunday evening, where we picked up Jazmine from Bakersfield, then drove home Monday night. I had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off for work, whereas Gary had Monday and Tuesday off.


The three days with Jazmine was pretty fun. Monday we spent killing zombies, getting ice cream, grocery shopping, and coloring Jazmine's hair black. Non permanent, might I add.


Tuesday, for Gary's birthday, we headed out to the Glendale Galleria (3-story indoor and outdoor mall), where we went shopping, tried on cute dresses, and had a blast. I never really got Gary a birthday present, so I owe him.

Jazmine sure enjoyed all the shopping. I hope so, anyway. She was fascinated with the size of this mall and the many shops. Gary was kind enough to let us into girly stores every now and then, too :)

After the mall shopping, we stopped by Fry's in Canoga Park, in hopes Gary would find himself a nice birthday present. Instead, he bought me a card reader, but didn't find anything for himself. Bummer. He needs himself something nice!

This is the Canoga Park Fry's; Jazmine loved how it was all Alice in Wonderland. I have a pic of Jazmine on my phone, but I can't seem to find the blue tooth connector, nor the microchip to save it. Oh, well...later. We went swimming that night. It was sure chilly outside! We were brave enough to swim in the water, but quickly jumped in the jacuzzi after.


Gary went back to work on Wednesday; so Jazmine and I, although planning on going to the gym, went for a walk instead. The weather was fantastic for it, and a little chilly. But we got out and headed to the lake, where we took a lap. Jazmine squealed at all the many cute turtles, naming the smallest one Squirt; promising she'd find a way to snatch it and take it home.

Low-quality shot of Squirt.

Jazmine pretending to jump in the lake and grab it

Cute little ducks following the turtles, and coming to us for food. They swarmed around the bridge, hoping we'd drop bread or something. Too bad we didn't have anything to feed them with.

We continued our lap around the lake, chatting away.

Jazmine being a huge D-O-R-K with the fish fountains.

After our walk and showers, we sat down and watched Beverly Hills Ninja. She then packed up her stuff and I drove her back home. I sat with family for awhile, had a little dinner, then headed back home last night. I got home around 8pm. Sorry family, I was OUT of it when I was there. Just tired. Grannie tried having chatty conversations with me, but all I could do was nod and say a few words. I was just worn out from the past couple of weeks.

But, I go back to work today, so I'm looking forward to getting back on schedule.

This weather has also been a-mazing! It's like the almost-rain, cool and breezy coast weather. Doors and windows open, no AC. It's very chilly in the mornings and evenings. I love Santa Clarita! 


I suppose that's all for now. Bye everyone.


PS- I just received a message from Gary. He was given a HUGE raise!! And I mean giant! What exciting news! This wasn't an annual raise, either, so he's eligible for the annual in January. What a major difference this is going to make each month. I'm thinking a new car :) Lol, okay okay, we'll pay down some debt first. Then a house? Hehe.We'll see, we'll see. But holy cow! YAY FOR HUBBY!! Talk about a sweet birthday present!

A Few Quick Updates

 First of all, thank you for the love and prayers going around. We very much appreciate the support given.


 Gary's been very strong about this as well. He wrote the Eulogy yesterday, and it's very well written and explains his father completely. Once I receive the funeral information, I'll let you know of the time and location via e-mail.

My work has also been very understanding as well, which is nice. They have given me some days off to revolve around plans for the services. I'll be working a full shift tonight (2-10pm), but will have some time off after. Gary also took time off as well.


In other updates, I just saw my doctor today. She believes my thyroid is responsible for all, but because she's not a specialist, can't say for sure. She did rule out PCOS and other common forms of infertility because everything but my thyroid is normal. I had my levels retested again today, so I'll find out next week how it's going. I spoke to her about the fertility doctor, and mentioned how we're not covered and the price is insane; then proceeded to ask if there was anything she would be able to do. She referred me to the patient liaison, who went over our insurance plan to see what was covered. He then sadly informed us that anything fertility related will not be covered, and will be paid out of pocket. I went along my way, and went home to let Gary know.


Moments later, I received a phone call from the liaison, who told me he did further exploring. He called the insurance himself, and asked questions to receive more information. Then happily informed us that we are in fact covered for several infertility benefits and treatments. For some reason it wasn't showing on the "cover" that we were, but there are forms to be filled out and questions to be answered; which the liaison told me he would take care of. Once he fills out those forms and answers those questions, he'll get back to me so we can go from there. I feel incredibly blessed that he has been willing to go the extra mile; and because of that, we heard wonderful news that we are covered for infertility. Makes a big difference.

Anyway, I have a lot of cleaning to do before my shift. Again, thanks for your love and support.