Moving on

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. Rochelle does well in keeping ya'all up to date in our lives. I guess the biggest thing I have to write on is the fact that I am graduating this week, and that I got a new job last week. As momentous of an occasion this is, I really don't feel like it is that special. To be honest, I am rather embarrassed that I haven't graduated already. But I guess I was just enjoying my education... maybe a little too much. I think part of the reason I stayed in school so long was because I was determined to get married, and not so determined to graduate for a long time. And when I did (finally) get married, I finally looked at my schooling, and determined that it was time for me to be done. I have been going to school for the last 2 years straight. I am a wee bit tired. Ready for a break. So what am I going to do with my new found liberty? I haven't quite decided yet. I think there are a few things I'd like to do. I never really developed my piano playing skills like I'd like to. I've had one year of piano lessons, after which I quit because I didn't like it. But when I got into 8th or 9th grade, I started wishing that I knew a little bit more than I did. And so I went back to my old piano books, and taught myself how to play. I can play a little now. I'd like to be able to really play though. But I know that will take a fair bit of practice. I might be up for that. We'll see. I'd also like to give more time to my photography. I'm getting a new digital SLR camera, and am anxious to start learning the differences between film and digital, and how they affect the photos you take. I've taken a fair amount of photos for other people, and I love doing it. I have mostly done it charging nothing more than cost to those who ask me to take their picture, and I'm content to continue that way. I enjoy doing that service for friends. A few people have truly been grateful when they got their pictures. I'd take that kind of payment any day over dollars and cents. I like serving people in a meaningful way. It gives me "warm fuzzies". Another thing I might be working on is a little software program that creates ward directories. I have created one already, but I think it could use some major reworking so that it is a little easier to run. That could take some serious time too. Also our web page needs some updating. I have lots that I'd like to do that way. Oh, another thing I want to work on it cooking/baking. I love to make food. Largely because I love to eat it, but also because it is something that I can do for Rochelle. I'd like to start cooking and baking more. I really know very little about baking, especially breads. I'd like to do more. I think we will get a bread machine, so that will be a little less difficult, but all the same, there are lots of food recopies that I'd like to try. I'm hoping that I can make our recipe web site a little more useful for ourselves. I've also got a lot of reading that I'd like to do. Rochelle has a stack of books that she would like me to read, and I have another stack that I'd like to read.

Anyways, that's enough about that. I started my new job on Monday, and I really like the people who work there. They all seem to be very nice. They are very much a small company in every sense of the word. Things seem to be changing rapidly, and the CEO works in programming right along with a bunch of other developers. Everyone seems to be quite bright. They have a talented bunch of people working for them. I think I'll like working there. It should be fun.

Well, our home teachers should be here shortly, so I better be getting off of here. Have a good Sunday all.

~BJ

Well, I guess I'm past due on giving an update on our life... we have just been doing our normal routine (work, and school for BJ) for the most part. I helped throw a baby shower on Saturday for a girl in my ward. I have never done that before, and it was fun. We had it at our apartment, which worked out perfectly. On Friday, BJ and I went out to lunch with his co-workers, since it was his last day, and one other guy's last day as well.
BJ and I team teach a Sunday School class in our ward, and we are supposed to teach once a month, or every other week.... but we have taught 4 out of the past 5 weeks... which is fine, but unusual! A lot of people are moving out and/ or into our ward, so there aren't many teachers I guess. We are staying here (we are not especially fond of moving, and we like it here) for another year. I will try to put up some pictures of our apartment.
I have read some good books lately; the last one I read was Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. I think a lot of people had to read that one in school, but I never did... although I realized while I was reading it, that I had read part of it for a research project I did when I was a senior in high school. It was such an interesting, thought provoking book. I especially like what he says about trials/ suffering not being bad- they can give your life meaning, if you look at them the right way. He says that there are a lot of things that can give our lives meaning (not just suffering). My favorite quote from the book was a response to the people who said that they had nothing to expect from life any more, and therefore did not want to go on living (in the concentration camp): "What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life- daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."
I have also read several other books these last couple weeks; a Louis Lamour western (a fluffy book), Complications (a book about how the medical profession is not an exact, but more of an approximate, evolving science- very interesting book), and the Holographic Universe (I'm not actually finished reading this one... it has a very interesting premise, but it has a lot of physics and abstract ideas in it, and that makes it slow going for me).
I am going to start interviewing nurses this week for the research I am helping with, so that should be interesting, and I am also planning on (finally!) starting to scrapbook all our wedding pictures! I also have a bunch of errands to run. Anyway, that makes for a busy week, which I like way better than not having much to do!
Below are the pictures of our apartment: our living room, our "dining area", and our kitchen.