Tax Day

So I used to be even more clueless about filing my taxes than I am now. I would turn to my mom to have her help me with them. This was a bad cycle we got into because we never got around to filling out the forms until April 15th. This always made me feel like the screaming banshee in this Hallmark card here except we would end up screaming at each other by the end of the day.

My mom tried to look at the more positive aspects of waiting till the last day. She would talk about how they had free cookies and juice at the post office. How the post office was open until midnight in some locations. How there were so many people at the post office that you might just make a new friend.

Somehow in the end we managed to become friends again and laugh about our stressful day when we dropped those envelopes in the mailbox. We were just happy that the adventure was over. Well I knew I had to break the cycle a few years ago and do them on my own. I found some online tax services that have been really helpful. My taxes are already processed this year and I am just waiting for my money to be deposited into my bank account.

I tried to tell my mom about how quick and easy they were to use. She didn’t seem to like the idea at all. The only thing she would tell me was that she liked doing hers on paper. I don’t think there is any changing her mind, but I tried. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that she will be mailing hers off again at the last possible moment so she can get the free cookies and cider at the post office.

Strangely I miss the madness a little bit.

Go Cromwells!

So I have this great friend from Jr. High named Kate. I remember the first time I talked to her we both had study hall and we went to the library to do homework. One day I asked her if I could borrow a piece of paper and after she gave it to me she said “Thank you” before I had a chance to say it. I loved to tease her about that. We had some good times together with our friend Monita and my older sister Cate.  We were a bit on the rebellious side, skipping class, starting small fires in the street and doing whatever we could do with the tiny amount of money we had. We all had to have a pair of Converse All Star shoes in whatever color and style we wanted. These are the ones I had…
I have many fun memories of that time, except for the times that Kate got grounded which happened a LOT and it was usually for a month at a time. The rest of us could get caught skipping school and our parents didn’t really care. I was a pretty good kid for the most part so my mom didn’t worry about me too much and gave me more freedom than most. I remember once when we were walking home from school early cause we wanted to, and Monita’s grandma drove by. I was worried that she was going to get in trouble. Her grandma said, “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” Monita said something about how she just felt like leaving and her grandmother asked her if she would be home for dinner.  That was the end of that conversation.

Kate has a father who has been in quite a few films. Kate’s brother John wanted to be an actor just like his dad. She and her brothers got to go to the Academy Awards in 1995 when her dad was nominated for best supporting actor in the movie “Babe”. We were all watching hoping he would win. There was only so much room at the table and she let John sit by their dad since she knew he wanted to be an actor someday and she got to sit way in the back out of the view of the cameras. I knew John wanted to act but I didn’t know if it was ever going to happen for him until I saw this poster on Kate’s FB page.

I asked Kate about the film and this was her reply, “You totally have to see this. As you can tell from the tag, I play a headstrong fighter pilot who courageously commandeers a plane to go rescue a company of men trapped on the front by the Gerries. Unfortunately, she is ...court marshaled for going AWOL and shot dead while trying to escape from military prison, but her granddaughter (also played by me) avenges her death by perpetrating the same heroic offense during Desert Storm, this time saving the lives of two 4-star Generals and their sons and earning a Purple Heart which she accepts in her grandmother's name.” Cracks me up! Needless to say, I am excited for this film to come out. They are still waiting for the release date apparently. John said he would let me know when he knows.

It was so sad when Kate and Monita left for a boarding school in Iowa and I had to deal with high school without them. My life was a whole lot less exciting but maybe that was all for the best. ;)

Random Act of Kindness

So I was running to catch a bus yesterday and I didn’t think I was going to make it because the bus was ahead of me and had crossed the street before I did.  It was raining a little bit so it would have been nice to catch it even though I was only going to ride it for a few blocks and I could have easily walked it.  This random guy in a truck across the street saw me running and he started to honk at the bus driver.  The bus driver had stopped to let someone off the bus but didn’t see me running so he closed the door and started to leave. 

I didn’t really mind and didn’t want to make a big deal of it so I just gave up.  The man in the truck saw him leaving and he wasn’t very happy that his bus driver was going to leave me to walk in the rain.  He was holding up traffic as he was stopped and started to honk with greater intensity.  I tried to motion to him that it wasn’t a big deal but for some reason to him it was and he kept on honking away.  Finally the bus driver noticed that something was up and stopped for me.  It just makes me wonder why a total stranger makes it his business to make sure I get on my bus.  Kinda random but also really nice at the same time.

Finding Faith

My Sunday School teacher shared this quote a few weeks ago and I liked it so much I asked her for it and I wanted to share. Here it is..

"Perhaps the most unexpected spot where I encountered faith was at the Naval Survival Training Institute in Pensacola, Florida. I traveled to the sprawling air station on the Gulf Coast to meet Ray Smith.... Smith co-authored the latest edition of How to Survive on Land and Sea, an encyclopedia of practical information on what to do if you're stranded in the tropics, desert, mountains, or ocean.... I'm hoping Smith will share the tricks of the trade. I begin with a simple question: 'What's the secret of survival?' Without hesitating, he answers: 'Faith in God.'

" 'Really?' I ask. 'Absolutely,' he says. 'It's a major factor in all survival scenarios.' Smith's close friends include some of America's most legendary ex-prisoners of war. Faith is a unifying force in all of their experiences, he says.... While editing his survival manual, Smith wanted to start with a verse from Psalm 23: 'Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.' But his publisher said no way. 'It's just not appropriate,' he was told. Smith insisted and ultimately prevailed. He feels so strongly about faith that he thinks it properly belongs as the first chapter of any book on survival. In military parlance, it's a force multiplier, a factor that significantly increases or multiplies your strength or effectiveness. When you're feeling weak, he says, faith pumps you up. When you're run down, it gives you a boost. when you're discouraged, it lifts you up."

~ From Ben Sherwood, "The Survivor's Club," pp. 135-36

More Firsts with Brooke

So I have this great friend named Brooke who I am glad lies to me. Because of her lies she gets me to do things that I would normally say no to. I will give you a few examples. She was trying to get me to hike Mt Timpanogos and I wasn’t so sure I was up for the challenge. She tells me that it is pretty much flat going up and it is just like walking most of the time. She always finishes with, “It really isn’t that bad”. Yea, ten hours of hiking a mountain “isn’t that bad”. This is also how she got me to run a half marathon. Well this last weekend she used her lies on me again. She got me to go sledding face first down a hiking trail along the side of a mountain at 20 mph. Just so you understand there are some real risks here, there was a guy on the trip riding down the trail who flew off the trail and into a tree. He cut up his face and probably injured his back. Anyways the bottom line is that I am glad she got me to go because it was pretty fun.

We rode down on these things called airboards. Who would have guessed that you would pay hundreds of dollars for a sledding toy? They were very nice and they did actually help you steer as you are flying down the mountain. I also got to go snowmobiling for the first time. They were fun but not so easy to get started. I had to put all I had into it. I love this shot of Brooke trying to start the snowmobile.

Then to finish off our winter getaway, we had a good time jumping off things into the snow.

I am hoping I get invited up to the cabin again because it was AWESOME!

Really Good Day

Yesterday I had a really good day. The bad days make you appreciate the good ones. Over the last week I have been dealing with a lost purse, lost camera and lost cell phone. It has been a pain to say the least. I called the places I went, the mall, the movie theater, the post office, the police department and all of my credit card companies. I was in Minnesota when it happened so I had to pay $35 to get my roommate to FedEx me my passport so I could get home on the plane the next day. There was no fraud on my cards so I really hope that it eventually turns up. The whole thing is a mystery to me that is yet to be solved. Anyway, yesterday I was able to make it to the Licensing Bureau about 45 minutes before they closed and was able to be one of the last people they helped right before they stopped handing out numbers. Since it expired in three months anyway, they just gave me my renewed license so I didn’t have to pay any extra for that. Then I had to replace my school ID and they recently just changed those too so I didn’t need to pay the $20 replacement fee for that either. Then my brother called and said he had two free tickets to the Nutcracker for me. Then I checked the mail and one of my replacement credit cards was in the mail so I could finally do some online shopping. Then as I was going to bed I get a text message that said, “Saw your blurb in the Ensign! You’re famous. xoxo emily”. I submitted somthing two years ago and they said it would be published in 6 months. I thought they decided not to publish it after all. Click here to read it My favorite thing to do is listen to it, and hear someone else reading my story. It cracks me up a little bit.

Plastic Planet

I watched this documentary called "Plastic Planet" a few weeks ago. It was rather disturbing. We all know that plastic is everywhere and used in everything from clothing to carpet but what I didn’t know is that it is floating at the top of the ocean and has been carried by the wind to remote forests.

They had a few families around the world take everything out of their homes that had plastic in it and a lot of people were moving the majority of their household items on to their front lawns. So it is piling up in landfills and that is nothing new. We all know we are going to die someday and leave our carbon footprint on mother earth yadda yadda yadda. What’s the big deal? Well the biggest problems with plastic is that its formulation is not regulated very well and there are chemicals added to it that can be very toxic and carcinogenic.

Since watching this documentary I have been trying to not buy any plastics I don’t need and finding replacements made of wood, stainless steel, cotton, glass, ceramic, leather, bamboo, wool, and corn. Yes, that is right I said corn. I found that you can buy disposable utensils made of corn that are compostable and can withstand heat up to 200 degrees. Sure you might spend $.05 instead of $.03 for a fork but those $.02 extra cents I am spending make me feel a whole lot better. You can get these World Centric utensils at Whole Foods in case you are interested.

There are things that I can’t imagine living without. I am sure I will never live 100% without plastic but I am glad to see that there are now some better alternatives to products that are just going to pile up in landfills and never decompose.

I am pretty sure I am not going to miss vinyl. The shoes and bags I have had made of vinyl never last, and they end up looking crappy before long. It isn’t even a good financial investment when you think about it. I have had a leather bag that I have had about 15 years and it is still fashionable and in really good condition. I have vinyl bag that I just bought about 6 months ago and it is already falling apart. Vinyl just isn’t worth it. Plastic is cheap and lightweight but I am getting tired of living in a disposable world where we just get used to throwing everything away, and never wondering what happens to it in the years that follow.