Why It Matters

Hi everyone,
Hope you get to watch as much as possible of General Conference this weekend. Check this out:
http://lds.org/pages/why-conference-matters?lang=eng
Love, Gramps

Free Falling

Remember that part in Jerry Maguire where he's driving down the highway and he's singing along to the song Free Falling playing on the radio? I remember my own little moment when life was an open road..maybe a little too open. Choices were almost inaccessible because of their abundance. I found myself on a road trip with a couple of buddies singing our hearts out to Free Falling by Tom Petty...or maybe that was just me singing my heart out, I can't remember. What I do remember is feeling for a brief wonderful moment the excitement of not knowing the next step, of free falling out into nothing and thinking whatever comes next...it could be great...it could be terrible...it could be the best thing that ever happened to me. Like a nervous but overly pumped up contestant on The Price is Right...you never know if you're going to be the next big winner. I think the truth of it is, we are all on that precipice whether we realize it or not - at least I like to think we are because day after day of dishes, laundry, meal prep, repeat, repeat, repeat - it's easy to start thinking I'm on a treadmill rather than the open road. But we are all on the open road.

Here's a link to the song -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3phscjgc_A&feature=related - the video that plays severely detracts so just close your eyes, turn up the volume and have a little free fallin' moment of your own.

Festival of Colors

This past Saturday I got to go to a little (actually, pretty huge) spring celebration at the Hindu temple in the middle of nowhere near Spanish Fork. Me, Sydney and our friends Michael and Jake all put on our old clothes and made the trek twenty minutes south. The event is called Holi, or the Festival of Colors. The celebration ritual basically involves everyone throwing colored powder at each other. Something to do with ancient Hindu cleansing traditions. It was good times! There was live music, yummy-smelling Indian food, tons of people, and lots of mud. We had a blast trying to get all different colors on ourselves, and we ended up getting nice and colorfully dirty. I look forward to doing the same thing next year!

HOCKEY NIGHT!!

The Flames-Oilers game on Saturday night was exciting - more so for Flames fans than Oilers:( but there was also some exciting hockey going on at the U of A rink last night...

Dad and I got good seats for the final game of the LDS team, which has two talented skaters who got their start playing street hockey in Belgravia. Jordan had spent the weekend in bed with the flu so when Beej called him up on Monday to tell him they needed him to play he rallied and laced up his skates.

It was one of those nail-biter games - Dad (Don Cherry) says it was, "intense, end-to-end action, with sometimes chippy play and lots of turn-overs and momentum shifts. The tension got to both goalies and they let in a few softies. No one was ever sure who would prevail in such a tight contest of evenly matched teams. John played a very stalwart defense and blocked many dangerous shots and Jordan played well on left wing despite feeling under the weather. Then... in the final few minutes, the LDS team fell behind by two points and it looked like all was lost!! until -- a furious rally by the LDS tied the game."

Now - just 30 seconds left and Dad and I were sure it was going to end in a shoot-out just like the NHL game on Saturday. Then -- in those last 30 seconds all Dad and I could see - - - was the puck disappearing into the net! - LDS had won the game!! The crowd (mainly YSA) went wild! We couldn't see who had scored the final goal, but everyone was jubilant.

Dad and I made our way down to the lower concourse and snapped these photos. The team was elated!

It wasn't until this morning when I was talking to Jordan about the game and saying - Wow! Whoever scored that final goal was amazing - that I found out the winning goal was scored by none other than # 8 - Jordan Schneider.

Hockney and other books

It has been fun using my library card a little more frequently lately! Having graduated in August, I guess I miss having readings to do and so I check out other books! I head to the library every so often to check out a new group of books. It feels great to make my way down my long list of books on my list. I finished off Ender’s Game, Death of Ivan Ilych, Life of Pi, (Rach checked out that one) The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Animal Farm in the last several months. I have always loved reading and am really enjoying these stories and the messages they have.

Besides novels, I also took out an art book about David Hockney! It was inspiring when we were making a painting for the wall above the piano. I also came across a book on How to Make Books. I love the library :) With all this reading I am doing maybe you are wondering how I fit in exercise time. Don't worry... I've gotta get to the library somehow! Rollerblades are my preffered method. Nerdy perhaps?

Gradual

One thing I've noticed working in the bankruptcy and Ponzi scheme field is how it all starts. It's very rare that someone wakes up one day and says to themself, "I think I'll start a Ponzi scheme and defraud people out of millions of dollars today!" Rather, it starts with a legitimate business. Something goes wrong with that business (bad economy, a mistake, whatever; nothing illegal for sure) and instead of admitting to the investors that they will be getting a lower return on the investment, they try a little trick to cover it up. They rationalize it, saying it'll just be one time and I'll get it back, then things will go back to normal. Then another thing happens. And another. And before they know it, my group and I are doing investigations.

Satan works the same way. 2 Nephi 26:22 says that Satan "leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever." It's much easier to get out of the weak cord than the strong cord, though it usually takes a bit of humility to do so.

On a lighter note, because I mentioned the word bankruptcy, I have to post this link to the U.S. version of "The Office":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuGIgf-ICHM&feature=related

P.S. If you look at the top comments (and if you've seen the episode), does anybody know this William Charles Schneider?

Charla's story

Charla shared a wonderful story about Oliver and working on my blog. I love her writing and the way she works with little Oliver. Thanks Char! Check it out here

ON MY WAY HOME - SUPERFOOD

One of my resolutions for the new year is to eat healthier, mainly as the result of too many trips to the Windjammer on the cruise. One of the great healthy superfoods that I have discovered is quinoa. (Keen-wah)
It's new to me, but it has been known for it beneficial nutritional effects for centuries. It is a seed that can be eaten with very little refining, so it retains most of its nutrients.

One day at work we began talking about health and nutrition, and one of the nurses mentioned how versatile quinoa was. She had a cookbook with many recipes for casseroles, stews, etc. The surgeon was from Peru, and he had some interesting insights on quinoa. He said that quinoa was prized by the Incas as a gift from the gods because it could be grown at high altitudes in the Andes, was light for easy transport over the mountains, and easy to preserve. It allowed the Incas to have lots of energy to work at high altitudes, and gave them a competitive advantage to send armies (and feed them) to conquer a vast empire in South America.
The scriptures tell us that the body and spirit are the soul of man, and both require constant nourishment. Just as there are healthy and unhealthy foods for the body, there are healthy and unhealthy foods for the spirit. The scriptures are the superfoods for the spirit, whereas trashy and inappropriate material are the junk foods for the spirit, giving us a false sense of being happy.
I encourage all of us to consider the best forms of nourishment for body and spirit on our way home.

The Jimmer

I will admit right off the bat I am not the biggest BYU sports fan compared to some of the people that attend this campus. But I have followed the basketball team closer than usual this year mainly because of one Jimmer Fredette (here after known as "The Jimmer"). So on the eve of March Madness I feel everyone ought to know about The Jimmer. You have probably all heard about him even if you don't follow any sports, because he is after all Mormon.

The Jimmer is basically a once-in-a-generation basketball player for BYU. BYU basketball will never see a player of his caliber for another 25 to 30 years, or another generation. He has broken Danny Ainge's scoring records and he is the only all-american basketball player from BYU since Danny Ainge.

Unfortunately I have not seen The Jimmer play in real life, I have only seen him on TV. But when he is at the top of his game he can score at will. He may not look like an athletic specimen from this picture, but he is the nation's leading scorer at 28.5 points per game. That means of all the college basketball players in the country, The Jimmer averages the most points per game. And it's not even close, the next closest guy is 4 points behind him. And just last week he scored 52 points in one game.

Regardless of what happens to BYU in the March Madness tournament, The Jimmer will go to the NBA this year. Most critics believe his game is not suited for the NBA and that he will not score very many points, but regardless of what happens to him in the future, The Jimmer has left his legacy here at BYU. He is after all a once-in-a-generation player for BYU basketball.

To The Jimmer!

Lindsay's Leprechaun Traps

Lindsay gave us the best idea for making Leprechaun traps. Julian especially just threw himself into it for hours...

Since I'm too lazy to copy the whole post, Check it
Happy St P's!

Blessing

I recently needed to find out my exact tuition cost for undergrad, how much of that was taken care of in scholarships, and about how much I spent on living expenses. It took a little time but it reminded me how much I enjoyed UofA: roommates, cousin dinners, hockey, and studying where so much of the family had studied! (G&G, Dad, Mom, etc.) Besides following in the footsteps of my forbears, it had also always been my plan to attend, in part because through high school they ground into our heads that being on honour roll gets you 'The Rutherford Scholarship' for each year you get honours. $400 for grade 10, $800 for grade 11, and a whopping $1300 for grade 12 and the Alberta Diploma Exams - but you don't get that money for school until you enroll.

I was pretty sure I wouldnt qualify for 12th grade because I learned you had to be an Alberta resident during your high school years (I was in Washington in 12th). With this in mind, I was sitting in the study of the Belgravia house a month or so into my first year at UofA and called the Alberta Scholarship number in anticipation of finally getting this scholarship. Somehow I was told I had lost the grade 10 and 11 scholarship because I had not lived in Canada for grade 12. I was bummed! But now for the good part: because of my recent research I found out that I WAS in fact eligible to get the Rutherford for grade 10 and 11! The check is being processed :) The best part is that I know so much more about budgeting now so I have planned for it to cover one small loan I had to take out my last year of University.

Change

So as some of you may or may not know at this point, there has been some turmoil at my place of employment over the past month. Due to confidentiality reasons, I wasn't able to give anybody the whole picture until now and I figure the blog is the best way to tell the story all at once and give the same version to everybody.

About a month ago, there was an all-employee conference call that was put together with only a few hours notice. At the call, we were told that there was a potential buyer for LECG. We all thought, "ok" and continued working. Then, another all-employee conference call was put together, also on short notice. This call explained more about the potential buyer, but also added the caveat "we may not be able to make payroll on the 28th." Needless to say, this was a bit worrysome.

The director of my specific group got everyone together and told us that we would be staying together as a group, but that we would be leaving LECG due to the situation. It took a couple of weeks to get everything figured out (LECG was able to make payroll on the 28th afer all), but now I'm no longer with LECG. I'm with BRG (Berkeley Research Group), it's got several familiar faces from LECG from before. All the people I work with regularly are there as well.

The picture explains my sentiments. LECG was sinking fast, and our group managed to get into one of the last lifeboats. I'm happy my job is still secure and doing well, but I feel bad for those I know who weren't able to "escape the Titanic" and either find themselves unemployed or shortly will be.

P.S. If anyone is interested in the specifics, the info here is now public knowledge. I can also provide some more context if you want that. Let's just say that the phrase "the Company does not believe there will be any value remaining for the common stockholders" does not do good things to the stock price.

Spencer's Birthday Bash!!

Since it was recently my wonderful hubby's bday, we had a really fun celebration! Thought I'd share a few pics:) It was a blast because we had some good friends over and in conjunction with Spencer's birthday there was also another exciting event going on! We figured we would watch the Oscars that night. Being here in L.A and all, it was pretty cool! The pics speak for themselves a little, but:

1) It was really great to have Puentes and one of Spence's friends of 'the brethren'!
2) We had a mini oscar pool, where people guessed who they thought would win best and supporting actor and actress, and best movie. Turns out there were a couple people who tied for guessing the most correct, so we put their names in a jar. Spence's name was drawn, so he won the prize! Haha! He's great at games and draws.
3)I had a fun time making a birthday banner for my awesome man -





http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/841-kings-speech-producer-learns-why-you-dont-give-your-oscar-to-an-infant

I think I'm being eaten alive by a poem.

I had trouble falling asleep after book club's second go at trying to unravel the mysteries within Burnt Norton by T.S. Eliot. I just kept thinking about the poem. I woke up this morning still thinking about the poem. I'm beginning to hate that poem.
I was just saying the other night that I think that getting to know a poem is a little like getting to know a person. At first glance they don't really mean anything to you but the more you get to know them, to understand them - the more you grow to love them....(or hate them). I just feel so rejected by this poem. Like I've tried really hard to get to know it but it keeps shutting me out, almost as though it doesn't want to be understood - just left alone to writhe in it's intricate and untieable knots. So then I think FINE, be alone and misunderstood - what do I care?!? (Except, I do care and I have this sinking feeling that the poem is actually just too cool for me, outta my league - you know what I mean?)

I read the following comments on Eliot this morning.

We need to identify how T. S. Eliot contributed something unique to poetry through his work. Certainly it is hard work to read his poetry and even harder to understand it, however, if we persevere we can detect gleams of his genius that shine through in spite of the impenetrable nature of his work. His use of intertextuality to comment on the problems with his contemporary society have created some of the greatest gems of Literature such as "The Hollow Men" and "The Four Quartets."

Many readers find T. S. Eliot's writing to be difficult to read because it is abstract. ... the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature...he won it and is still considered a significant writer because of his innovative style. Eliot, along with poet Ezra Pound, invented Symbolism, a form of poetry which evolved during the Modern Era (generally 1900-1950). Symbolists like Eliot longed for their readers to view the world with imagination and from a new perspective. What is most interesting about Eliot is that he was able to juxtapose his inventive techniques with the theme of tradition. Eliot's poems such as "The Waste Land" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" demonstrate the poet's disillusionment with modern society and its lack of regard for tradition, but the style of the poems is anything but traditional.

So I'm not alone in being rejected here (above comments given by people who are still in denial) A little ironic how much time I've spent with this poem which seems to want very little to do with me.

Ode to Eliot
marshmallow sundial
candy to the wind
hopscotch off the blazing cliff
Falling yet not falling yet falling
Down the rabbit's hole
Turns out there is a bottom
Splat.

Wapta Traverse

So I have had the opportunity to tell some of you about my trip and I think most of you have at least heard about it but let me explain it in more detail. The Wapta Ice field is a large series of glaciers located between Lake Louise and Jasper. To do the traverse there are a series of huts that Parks Canada has constructed just off of the glaciers at strategic points spaced out about 10km or so. The trip is hard there is a lot of elevation, crevasses in the glaciers and avalanche danger (much more than I realized). It took us 3 nights and 4 days. Here are some of the pictures with a brief synopsis
Day 1- Day 1 we skied up to the first hut and didn't actually get on the ice field. There was only one little part with avalanche danger but day 1 was breezy compared with what we had to deal with later. The 1st hut was definitely the best because it had 2 wooden fire stoves and is much more spacious than the other huts.

Day 2- This is where we had to climb up onto the ice field and then up and over a pass and down the the second hut. It was extremely cold. Over the pass with wind chill I think it was close to -50 degrees. Any skin exposed for about a couple of hours would have had frost bite I'm pretty sure. I made the mistake of removing my googles and face mask for a photo at the top of the pass and my face and nose got very very cold. Luckily it was clear and we had good visibility and the scenery was amazing the photos really don't come close but it gives you a good idea.

Day 3- Day 3 was the hardest day two big climbs, we had to rope up to go over a few crevasses and it was the longest day. Once again the photos are amazing. The solitude was also amazing because at this point we did not see anyone else on the trip until we made it to the trail head.

Day 4- Day 4 we woke up and I was a little scared because the wind was really blowing, visibility was bad and it was very cold. The wind was blowing so hard that when the door to the outhouse was open the wind began to rip the hinges from the door. When you went to the bathroom you had to hold the door shut with your hand and then we tried to do the best we could to seal it shut when we left but I wouldn't be surprised if the wind ripped that door right off and sent it flying into a crevass below where our hut was. On our way out we also ran into some really sketchy avalanche chutes but luckily we made it out safely without incident and after an hour of battling the elements the day really did clear up and the sun was out as we finally made it to the car. I included a couple of pictures it was definitely a very exciting trip.

I went with Ken and Randy Lucas both good friends who took excellent care of me. Even though we found ourselves in a couple of pretty tight spots I'm glad I was there with them because they are more experienced than I am. It really was a life changing trip I definitely had an amazing time.

Think Twice before taking the Amtrak

So some people want a little more details about Rach's and mine Amtrak adventure about 2 and half weeks ago.

To get to Janine's wedding, Rach and I took a flight from Salt Lake to Spokane. The flight was delayed a little bit, but whatever. No big deal. We took a bus from the airport into downtown Spokane. We then headed over to the Amtrak station in Spokane to head over to Browning, Montana, a town which is conveniently close to Cardston. We got to the Amtrak station around 10 pm. We knew we were going to have to wait a few hours. So we waited in the station, after 3am the train finally rolls in. We thought we were going to be leaving soon. So we get on the train. And we fell asleep. I woke up close to 6 am thinking we would be moving. Unfortunately, we were still in Spokane, we had not gone anywhere. Finally at 6 am the train rolls out of Spokane.

When a train is delayed everything goes slower. During the ride we were moving so slow, that we could see cars passing by us that were not moving very fast.

Finally we got into Browning, Montana around 5 pm local time, I don't really remember. Basically the train got us to our destination, about 6 hours late. Amazingly enough, the train station in Browning isn't actually a train station. There is no where to go. It is more like a bus stop. So if you ever take the train to Browning, Montana, make sure someone is there to pick you up. Or you will just be stuck in the middle of nowhere. Luckily for us, Mom and Dad were there waiting.