Whelmed

I had a roommate named Becky once upon a time, and she used to commonly say, "I'm not over-whelmed so much as I'm just whelmed." That is how I feel today. I am whelmed. Today I had training and a shift and Dave Ramsey. Did I mention that the training was practically a personal finance class that had clips of Dave Ramsey? It was just too much for one day. And for one girl.

Jameson is gearing up for duck season, which starts Saturday. Yes, I know that it is the same day that General Conference is. Let's just not discuss it. Also, because I am in Nursery, no one told me when the Relief Society meeting was.

Okay, I think I am done complaining. Seriously. I am. I think. Wait . . . Yes. Done.

Great Book: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I am working through it now that we are into THE MONTH OF HORROR!!!!! (October)

Modify

So I have a rule on Sunday for Jameson and I. It is that we can watch a movie if it is a documentary or a children's/family movie. It is a fairly loose rule with a lot of loopholes and is rarely enforced. Regardless, this Sunday, we watched the documentary Modify.

For my siblings -- I do not recommend this show. It was scarier than snot. It was about how people modify their bodies from tattoos to teeth to body building to gauges to plastic surgery to you name it. It showed people splitting their tongues and all kinds of nastiness. It really honestly traumatized me. It showed people doing suspension with hooks in their backs.

It brought up some interesting questions, like what is the difference between modification and mutilation. I think the general consensus was that if you do it to yourself, it's modification and if it is done to you, without your consent, then it is mutilation. It brought up questions of religion, and of course, most of the extremists had no faith, and therefore it wasn't a concern.

Ultimately, everyone kept saying, it's my body, I can do what I want with it. This made me think back to the lesson that we taught in nursery the very same day. Our bodies are not our own, they are on loan from the Lord. Paraphrasing from Elder Holland, the body and the spirit are the soul of man. When we abuse our bodies, whether voluntary or not, we are abusing our soul. This can come through anything from fornication to tattoos. We are meant to keep our bodies clean and pure, just like our spirits.

It was a good reminder.

Good Movie: Outsourced -- super cute little thing about a guy who goes to india to train employees in a call center.

Relationship Advice Via Dave Ramsey

So on Thursday, Jameson and I went to our second FPU (Financial Peace University) class. It was pretty cool. This class was about relationships in relation to money. It was kinda like a mini lecture on marriage. There were a lot of good principles, many of which we had read about before (believe it or not, Jameson and I have actually read books on marriage, like we are responsible adults or something . . . weird). Whether we actually put them in practice is another idea entirely. He had some really good insight on how to do a budget that could really help us. Essentially, it entails one person actually putting the budget together, and this should be whomever wants to do it. And that would be me. And then once that budget is made, slide it over to the other person, and let them make the changes they feel need to be made. Seems like a good plan. I am excited to follow that.

Later, when I was reading his book, there was a chapter on money and relationships, outside of marraige. Primarily regarding when to help someone and when not to. This was good for us since we want to help everyone and make everyone do this Dave Ramsey business. His advice was essentially to shut our mouths unless someone asks for help. It was good stuff. I think, in fact, good stuff on giving advice in general.

Anyway, this is just my weekly plug for financial responsibility and my plug to get people to either sign up for an FPU course, read the book, or at least take an interest in personal finance.

Devil

Yes, that is right, we watched Devil by M. Night Shyamalan. It was awesome. I evidently embarrassed Jameson by telling him that I was scared at the movie theater. I guess that I embarrass him a lot there . . .

Anyway, I love M. Night Shyamalan. His style is very similar to Alfred Hitchcock, another one of my favs, and this was no disappointment. For me. I realize that many people don't like his style, and that's totally fine. However, I love how he wraps up principles about faith and forgiveness in a scary story, and it comes out feeling hopeful.

That's how this flick was. Very scary (and a great way to kick of the month of October -- also known as horror month), but the last line in the movie was something along the lines of 'do not worry, for if the devil is real, then God must be real also'. I also loved Signs for the same reason. It's not an alien story, it's a story about a man's faith. I just love the way he tells his stories. So I would recommend this movie.

Another Movie Recommendation: Carolina starring Julia Styles. Reminded me a bit of the book Charms for the Easy Life

Weird Dreams

So I had the WEIRDEST dreams last night. Seriously. I was married to JD from Scrubs (and I swear, I haven't even been watching lately) and we were hanging out with Elliot in her apartment. I was like, hey, this is a nice place -- let's see if they have any availability in the complex. We talked for a while, then headed out to see. Flash forward, we are standing outside an available apartment, but the landlord said there was a squatter. If we could get him to go, the apartment was ours. Turns out the squatter was my dad. So we decided to move in with him. He had the upstairs and we had the downstairs. JD seemed nervous about it, and my Dad wasn't too happy, but we moved in anyway. We had a lot of nice stuff.

Then I had a dream skip and I was married to Jameson and we were at a family party, but he hadn't shown up yet. I think it was a graduation party. Anyway, Jameson's ex-girlfriend Brittany showed up looking all skinny and tan and super buff. In my dream I didn't know how to talk to her, so we just pretended we were friends. Also, I had super long wavy blonde hair. Like down to my waist.

Anyway, Jameson and I are in the middle of this documentary about dreams. Did you know that at least three Nobel Peace prizes were awarded to projects inspired by dreams? I know that a lot of people think that they are repressed emotions finding their way to be expressed (I think that often dreams are that very thing, see above mentioned examples). However, I think that there is a different class of dream that comes from a different source that is meant to inspire and move us.

Great Documentary: Nova's Dream series

Roll With The Punches

So, it turns out that being sick over three days sucks. But, as that great country singer, Jo Dee Messina once sang,"Well, oh, that's the way it is, you gotta roll with the punches, that's the way it goes, you gotta bend when the wind blows."

That is what my life has been the last few days. I just had to put my life on hold for just a few days, throw a few goals back a few weeks. I have a strong belief that a goal isn't useful unless it can survive some minor and often, major setbacks. In fact, most of our lives are about overcoming challenges to accomplish our goals, whatever they may be.

Anyway, I need to go sit in the shower for a while and hopefully my sinuses with start to agree with the 'roll with the punches' theory.

Good Book: Last in the Dark is Rising Series; The Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper

Roll With The Punches

So, it turns out that being sick over three days sucks. But, as that great country singer, Jo Dee Messina once sang,"Well, oh, that's the way it is, you gotta roll with the punches, that's the way it goes, you gotta bend when the wind blows."

That is what my life has been the last few days. I just had to put my life on hold for just a few days, throw a few goals back a few weeks. I have a strong belief that a goal isn't useful unless it can survive some minor and often, major setbacks. In fact, most of our lives are about overcoming challenges to accomplish our goals, whatever they may be.

Anyway, I need to go sit in the shower for a while and hopefully my sinuses with start to agree with the 'roll with the punches' theory.

Good Book: Last in the Dark is Rising Series; The Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper