Bog Živi

We had a devotional at work today and the topic was about bearing testimony.  It reminded me of when I was a new missionary in Croatia that could barely communicate anything to anyone.  We were on a light rail car that was packed with people and I wanted to talk to them and teach them about the gospel but I didn’t know what to do.  The windows were all fogged up so I reached over and wrote “Bog živi” (God lives) on the window.  My companion just laughed at me.  I thought I was being quite clever.  The car looked like this...

 

It is interesting to see how God works in people’s lives.  I am currently reading a book called, “Kisses from Katie” about a Christian gal from Tennessee who wanted to do a service mission at an orphanage in Uganda.  This was on her Christmas break, her senior year of high school.  She was invited back to teach kindergarten after high school and she did it.  In the end she adopted 13 kids by the age of 22.  It has been interesting to see how God has worked in her life to bring her to that point.  It leaves me wishing that I could see a clear purpose to my life right now but I am sure he has something up his sleeve.  I just need to wait and pray for his purposes to be revealed to me. 

The only thing I can see that God has for me in my life right now is that I think he wants me to go to Hawaii.  That is nothing like adopting 13 kids in Uganda.  Kinda makes me feel like a selfish jerk after reading about Katie but I just happened to come into some extra money and then this great opportunity to go to Hawaii just fell into my lap, so I think it is God.  I don’t know, am I crazy?  I just know that God loves me and he wants me to be happy, just like he loves all of us and wants us all to be.  Sometimes we aren’t happy and we have hard lessons to learn but the other times I am pretty sure he wants us to be happy. 

Cash Money

I received my unclaimed funds from the state today and I am happy to say that after expecting less than $10.00 but hoping for $40ish, I am happy to report that the check was for $71.18!  My roommate reminded me that with this and the insurance money, I have been blessed lately.  Hopefully it keeps coming.

Also Fernando cracked me up again last week.  My co-worker Kelli was talking about a guy with big muscles and Fernando said, "He must have taken asteroids or something."  Laughing is good.  I need to do a little more of it. 

Healthy Halloween Hit

As a child I was CrAzY about candy.  I can say that I was CrAzY about it because I used to have nightmares that I got grounded on Halloween by my stepmother and didn’t get my annual stash.  I was as distraught as I would have been if a family member died (I see now this is a completely pathetic admission of a true addict).  Then I would wake up and be SO relieved it was all just a bad dream and see that there was still hope.  All that sugar must have taken its toll on me in my youth because since then my body can’t handle it anymore.  I have given it up completely and I always feel torn on Halloween with the thought of passing out what I know they are already getting WAY too much of.  I understand that kids don’t usually want to be given toothbrushes and pencils and I didn’t want to be known as the annoying house giving out lame treats but I saw this blog post and I decided that juice boxes were a better alternative candy. 

Well I think I might just stick with that idea from here on out because the last group of kids that came to my door were pretty happy.  The first kid (probably about Jr. High age) said, “Juice boxes! Are you kidding me!?!  Do you know how thirsty I am right now?"  They were grabbing them as fast as I could get them out of the packaging.  They may cost a little more than the candy but there were only about 20 kids at my door.  It certainly didn’t break the bank and I felt a whole lot better about it. 

Best Accident Ever

My accident history back in Minnesota is nothing to be proud of.  I totaled two cars before I left on my mission.  My third car I totaled about eight years ago.  It was always a painful, humbling and lonely experience that left me carless and sometimes desperate for money.  Well last Saturday I was driving down 33^rd South and a huge truck pulled out in front of me to turn left at a yellow light.  I slammed on my breaks and probably thanks to my anti-lock brakes, I stopped a foot or two from his car.  He took off and left my heart pounding.  I was both frustrated and grateful that we avoided that crash. 

Then on Monday I was driving into work and I think that everyone was a little distracted by the new Trax light for the Sugarhouse line.  The car in front of me stopped really abruptly and I stopped as quickly as I could, thankfully in time.  Then I watched out my rearview mirror as the 1980’s Volvo behind me hit the back of my car going less than 10 mph.  We pulled off into a nearby parking lot and got out to view the damage.  I first went to look at my bumper.  There were a few scratches and some broken glass embedded in my bumper.  The girl got out of her car and I could tell she was young and felt bad.  Then her passenger got out, who had no legs but using his arms and body to move across the parking lot.  He asked if I was okay.  I said that I was fine and he said, well if everyone is okay that is what matters most.  This later made me wonder if he lost his legs in an accident. 

My car wasn’t that bad and being in her shoes in the past I didn’t want to file a police report or even really call my insurance company to report it at all.  I was a little torn though because I thought that my car (my midlife crisis convertible) was going to carry the scars of this accident as long as I owned it.  They asked me if I wanted to file a police report and I said that I didn’t want to bother with that but I did want to get her information.  We exchanged information and I went to work not feeling like I wanted to do anything about it. 

A few hours later I got a call from her insurance company and they told me that they were taking full responsibility for the accident and they would take care of the repairs and get me a rental car.  That really surprised me that she was so proactive.  I remember getting rear ended in MN and I got the guys info and no one seemed to want to do anything about it (my insurance guy told me that I had to do all the leg work and get working with his insurance company so I just dropped it) so I just had to live with my dented bumper. 

As much as I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to do anything about the accident, due to my independent personality I guess, people seemed to keep telling me that they were going to take care of everything.  I tried to tell the rental car guy that I could take the bus to his location and he seemed to even laugh at the suggestion and wanted to come and pick me up at work.  When I told the guy at the repair shop that I could walk three blocks to the Trax station he said he would take me in his van (which I was especially grateful for because it wasn’t the best neighborhood).  Bottom line, it felt REALLY good to be so well taken care of.  It is not something I have ever been used to and honestly makes me feel uncomfortable to rely on other people.   However it doesn’t make me feel any less grateful for it.  In a world that sometimes makes it seem like you are always imposing on others or makes you feel like you constantly have to fight to be treated fairly it is nice to be taken care of once in a while.

In the end of all of this I didn’t think the damage to my car was worth the $1,280.00 they were going to pay to have it fixed so they are going to cut me a check for the money instead.  Now my only problem is figuring out what to do with the money.  I want to say that I should take an exciting trip somewhere but the logical side of me wants to be boring and pay down my principal on my mortgage.  Life’s questions shouldn’t be this hard.  ;)  My roommate said that her dad could help me hide the damage pretty inexpensively.  Oh and my mom tells me that accidents usually happen in threes so I think that I am going to stick with public transportation, and be really careful when I have to drive.

Stake Your Claim

So I have known that I have had unclaimed property with the Utah State Treasurer for quite some time but I didn’t really make it I priority for a while. Then there was the hassle of finding proof that I lived at an old address and then the form needed to be signed and witnessed by a  notary public.  I know it is from the Minnesota Department of Treasury and I know it is under $100.  It would be nice if it was $99, but I bet it will be under $10.  Long story short, I finally got it all sent off.  I guess I will just have to wait and see how much I have coming.  It is so exciting, the anticipation is killing me!  Okay not really. I also had to let my brother know that he has 3 items of unclaimed property.  Two are over $100 and one is under $100.  I hope he gets on that soon.  I mean he could be a millionaire and not even know it.  ;) 

More Office Humor

Some days we all need a good laugh. On a day that I needed a good laugh, Fernando at work came through for me.  We were talking about the Mormon Feminists that got riled up last conference, and somehow he was trying to make a connection with that to the time that they told us at work that the women no longer had to wear pantyhose.  Well with his imperfect understanding of the English language he said, “Yea, ever since the women here didn’t have to wear panties anymore…”  My eyes widened and I said, “Fernando, don’t EVER say that again!”  Then we all had a really good laugh about it.

The Bright Side of Fall

So fall really isn’t my favorite time of year.  Being from MN I always dreaded it because I knew that winter was coming and winter in Minnesota was never a pleasant experience, especially for someone with Seasonal Affective Disorder.  However, I always loved watching the leaves change color in Utah’s canyons, AKA the sacred hills as my aunt Emily would call them.  I was able to make it up to the canyons this weekend and get some pictures of the fall colors and these are some of my favorites. 

 

Then J-Mo made me pose for this one...

 

I still have lots to learn about my camera, and photo editing software, but it has been a fun new hobby for me.