Not much new

I'd like to say that we have lots to talk about. But we don't. I suppose no news is good news... but it isn't very exciting to blog about. And so here I sit on a Sunday night being grateful for the many blessings I have, and trying to come up with something worthy of telling to all of my fans out there. ;-) And so, whenever I don't have anything to talk about from my life, I have to come up with something from my musings. Please note... unless you are really bored, or are interested in the tech world, read no further... I will be talking about Windows Vista.

It seems to me that Microsoft is the great divider among those in the IT world. IT guys seem to feel in one of three ways... 1) They love Microsoft, 2) They hate Microsoft or 3) They love to hate Microsoft. The coming of Windows Vista will renew the debates among these groups.
There is an article about Windows Vista done by an IT guy that I read parts of the other day. If you are interested, you can read it here: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
Although I didn't read all of it, I read enough to realize that Microsoft has yet again done things I do not like. In the past I haven't had *too* much to complain about regarding their operating system. They have had their quirks, and their problems, etc., but in general, what operating system doesn't? Linux certainly does. Macintosh certainly does. The remaining operating systems are typically small enough and unknown enough that they have niche uses, but aren't very comprehensive. But Microsoft has done things with Vista that will keep me from ever putting it on any computer that I own. It seems Microsoft has decided that they want to stop the pirating of music and videos. A noble cause, to be sure, but in order to do it they have taken some extreme measures. They have developed a layer that goes in between your media player and your hardware that tries to stop illegal music. The problem with this is that Microsoft wants to be sure that whatever it is playing the music on is real hardware, and not virtual hardware (one way that people could illegally copy music). So how do they do this? They make all the hardware vendors pay them to certify their hardware with Microsoft. This increases the cost of hardware, and makes the hardware you and I already have on our computers obsolete (if you decide to buy Vista). What happens if you have obsolete hardware? One of two things happen, and I'm not certain about how they decide what to do, but they either simply will not let you play your music or video, or they will make your music and video sound and look bad so that anybody copying it wouldn't want to distribute it because of the poor quality. And so if you don't have Microsoft approved hardware (including video card, sound card, and monitor) you can say goodbye to your music and videos. Another side effect of this is that because of the regulations Microsoft is putting on its hardware vendors, it is going to be harder to get drivers for your hardware... especially if you aren't using Microsoft. They don't want any of the hardware vendors to put out detailed specs on their products any more, so now the only the companies that make hardware can put out drivers. Oh it is going to be a mess. But the hardware vendors will be fine... they will just pass the price of the increased work on to us. So Microsoft with one sweeping stoke of their brush has increased costs on all of us for many things, and have made listening to music a pain. Not to mention the fact that even when you do have all the right hardware, the extra layer takes a huge chunk of processing time whenever you are listening to music... up to 50% of your cpu time. That's enough to slow down your computer considerably.

So in short, my message to you all is:
Buy a Mac! Our next computer will be a Mac.

Have a good day all!
BJ

The reluctant blogger

Well, I did promise BJ that I would post, but now that it comes to it, I have little to say... As he mentioned, I have been extremely busy with school. I am currently doing my pediatric rotation at the hospital, and I have had some really good/ hard/ interesting experiences. I am learning a lot in all of my classes- I am taking pediatrics, mother/baby, nursing ethics, a culture lab (preparing to go to Argentina) and a religion class- D&C. All of these classes are competing for my time! School started only 2 weeks ago, but we are already in to papers, exams, and other big assignments.
Other than school, I have been running as often as I can for the past couple of weeks. I can feel myself improving as I run consistently- maybe in little steps, but it is exciting for me to be able to do what I thought I couldn't do before.
I don't have too much else going on that is worth mentioning... just trying to keep my head above water in school.

Hi everyone, I'm back

Well, we haven't posted for quite a while, and we are sorry about that... but we are now going to try to post again. Things are going well for Rochelle and I. Rochelle is quite busy. It got to the point that we had to sit down and plan out every minute of her entire week, and we still couldn't get it all in. Her nursing classes keep her quite busy, and she is also trying to prepare for a half marathon in a couple of months. And I do my best to help her out where I can, driving her to school so she doesn't have to park the car miles away and walk, helping keep the house clean, and keeping us both fed. Oh, and I go to work too. ;-) Work for me is interesting. I'm more of an IT guy right now than anything, but an extremely unexperienced IT guy at that. But I can do most of the work without help or supervision. When things come up that I have had no experience with, I have a couple of more experienced IT guys on whom I can call for help. They both charge by the hour, and get paid pretty well for those hours, but we don't ask either of them to do very much for us. I usually stay pretty busy with just helping out people in our office who don't know how to do something, or want something installed, or computer problems, and more recently, I have been helping a lot of customers with outlook. (We host email for many of our customers. By the way... may I suggest to all of you that outlook should be avoided like the plague? Thunderbird is not only free but better.) Right now my boss is in India. We communicate usually around 8 or 9 in the morning for me and at 8 or 9 in the evening for him. He is trying to set up a team of software engineers in India. He has been there for a couple of weeks now, and is planning on spending a fair amount of time over there for the next little while. He will hire his first engineers in a week or two. It's possible that he will want to send me over there at some point to set up a team of testers. I would love to go India. Especially since he told me that I could do it while Rochelle is in Argentina (assuming that I go of course). But these are all distant plans for the time being. We won't know anything certain for a while.
Well, it is 12:29, and church starts in one hour. I think I better get in the shower. ;-)
(I told Rochelle that she had to post sometime today too... so watch for her post.)

¡Feliz Navidad!

I suppose that it is only appropriate that I should wish you all a Merry Christmas en español, as I will be going to Argentina this spring! I will be going with the nursing program at BYU, for six weeks during the spring term. I don't know exact dates yet, or really anything else, but I do know that I will be doing some public health nursing and I will also be working in the maternity hospital in Tucuman. I am very excited, and just slightly apprehensive, as I have never traveled much before! I will keep you all posted as I find out more information.
Other goings-on include finals, a few of which I have finished already. I have an online research final, an oral med- surg. final, and a national standardized pharmacology test to take still, in case you were wondering! I should be done by Wednesday, but I have a lot of studying to do between now and then! One thing that has been hard for me at college is to keep the Christmas spirit and the joy of the season in my heart and mind while the stress of finals looms overhead. But I am trying really hard this year. Although I am not really a huge snow fan, I have appreciated this recent snow because it has made it feel more like Christmas to me (to those from out of state, we have at least 12 inches of snow, all from the past couple of days or so). Another thing that we did that helped me feel the Christmas spirit is watching Charlie Brown's Christmas. I know, it sounds a little silly, but partly, it is tradition, and I also just love the simplicity of the story. Charlie Brown is feeling weighed down by the commercialism of Christmas, and he wants to find out what the true meaning of Christmas is. Linus is the only one able to tell him, and he recites the story of Christ's birth, which helps everyone to see that they need to stop focusing on materialism, and be a little kinder to each other. I think it is a sweet story. Anyway, thanks Danielle and Kirk for letting us borrow that movie from you! That is pretty much the sum of what I have been up to the past few days. I look forward to spending some quality time with all of you or hearing from you soon.

Long time no post...

Thankfully, Rochelle has made up for my lack. We have both been very busy as of late. On the day before Thanksgiving, Rochelle called her mom to ask a question about what to buy one of her siblings. She and Marissa were there together, when they found out that Rochelle's Grandma had passed. Needless to say, they were both very sad, and tears were shed. I met them for lunch just a little while later, and we decided then, that it would be best if the three of us took off and drove to Oregon for the viewing and funeral. I went back to work for a few hours, came home and got the car ready for any emergency, and we took off. We drove into the night, slept for a few hours in a Hotel 8, and took off again in the morning. Weather on the way there was mostly good. There was a little ice on the roads, but not much, and it was mostly safe going. We got there just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed the time we had with her family, and were grateful for the time we had with them. This will be Rochelle's first Christmas away from home, and it will likely be a while before we see her family again. Had we not gone up, it would have nearly been a year without seeing them. So we were happy to be there. We were also glad that we could be there for Rochelle's mom whom was obviously effected by the situation. But everyone seemed to handle it very well. The funeral was nice. I enjoyed hearing the talks about Grandma. I didn't know her very well, and so it was a good time to hear what she was like, and to learn more about the family. I played lots of ping-pong, chess, pool, foosball, cards, and just about any other game we could think of. I enjoy being a big brother. I tease everyone a lot and have fun teaching them how to do things. It is an experience that I have never had before. Well, after the funeral was over, we changed clothes and left for home straight away. The weather home wasn't nearly as good. We hit storms almost immediately, and I was definitely a white knuckle driver that night. Much of the night I was going 30-40 miles per hour feeling like I shouldn't be going over 20, but watching some cars around me go 50-60. It was scary. Several times I could feel the car loose traction and gain it again a moment later. I was grateful that we never lost control. We slept again that night at that same Motel 8, and started again in the morning. The weather on that day was much better... until we got into Salt Lake and Utah valleys. I felt like the last several miles of our freeway drive were as bad as any. Thank-goodness that's all over.

At work, I have become an man with many hats. Lately, I have been wearing the IT hat almost exclusively. We had a small room full of clunky old computers that did a great many things. We bought a bunch of nice new computers that would soon take their places. Oh boy, what a head-ache. As we have redone everything, it has left everyone very stressed and begging for answers, and they usually come to me. With my currently small amount of IT knowledge, I have been trying to fix everything, but everything takes me a lot of time to fix because of the learning curve. There are a lot of things I would do differently if I had to do it all again. Oh well. We are nearing the end of it now, and I may begin to program once again. I have been writing a task management program that is to be integrated in our internal software. It is mostly done, but I have left it alone for a while as we have a been working on these other things.

Oh man, will I sleep well tonight! Anyways, Love you all, and I hope you all have a fantastic night!

BJ

Highlights from our trip to Oregon

BJ and I (and also my sister Marissa) went to Oregon about 2 weeks ago. Although the occasion was sad (we went for my grandmother's funeral) it was good to spend Thanksgiving and that weekend with my family. Here are some of the photos highlighting a few of the things we did:

 
This photo was taken one morning when we didn't have a lot going on. Marissa is doing an Eye Spy book with Anna.

 
This is me, Tayler, and Anna, on the day after Thanks- giving. We went shopping on this day and helped my mom work on some of her choir concert stuff, as well as funeral preparation.

 

Cara grew her hair out to donate it to Locks of Love. She had planned on getting it cut at Christmas time, but I guess it just got too hard to manage! It was an intense moment!






We took some family pictures on Sunday.






"The Girls": Anna, Cara, Marissa, and Rochelle







"The Guys": Tayler, Collin, and BJ








One more family picture. This is in the church after our grandmother's funeral, right before we left for home.

Today is World Hello Day

Hello!
I am done with school for the week (kind of). I am grateful for the break; it has been a pretty intense couple of weeks. As I previously mentioned, I have been going up to LDS Hospital to watch surgeries, and last week I watched some interesting surgeries, mostly orthopedic surgeries. I have also had about 4 papers due recently, and a midterm as well. Needless to say, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving.
Many of you have written your "thankful" lists, which I think is a great idea. I would like to add a few things of my own.

I am thankful for a church that teaches us about Good News, a Plan of Happiness, and the many tender mercies and everlasting love of our Lord. I am thankful for my Savior, and for a living prophet. I am thankful that families can be together forever.

I am grateful for family. All my family- the family I was born into and the family I married into. They are all wonderful, and I am so grateful to have many of them so near. It is great to have my sister living just up the road, and many in BJ's family living only a few minutes away. All the members of our families that are not as close as we like are missed, thought about, and prayed for.

I am thankful for my (and BJ's) grandparents. I appreciate the wisdom of their years and experience that is much greater than my own. I appreciate the sacrifices that they made for their families and for their country.

I feel so blessed to have a kind, patient, fun, and handsome husband! He is a hard worker and a very creative and smart guy. He makes me very happy, and I love him very much.

I am grateful for the opportunities that I have. I realize that BJ's and my situation (school, other responsibilities) is a great blessing, although it seems difficult sometimes. I don't know if I can fully appreciate living in a time and place where women getting a college education is possible, but it is something that has great worth to me. I am thankful for my job, and for BJ's job. Things have worked out for us just when we thought there was no way we could do it on our own.

I am grateful for the world we live in today. Our lives are so much easier than our grandparents' lives, and I take that for granted sometimes. I am grateful to live in a free country, where I can make my own choices. I am grateful for modern conveniences! I'm thankful for email, cell phones, blogs, and airplanes that connect families!

I am grateful for the many beautiful surrounding me. I am grateful to have blue sky and fluffy clouds in November, and mountains with a little snow :) on them. I am grateful for the holidays coming up, and for the wonderful things that we celebrate.

Well, I know I can't possibly write everything I am thankful for, but these things especially have been drifting around in my head for the last couple days. Love to all.

Thanks Giving

As I look at my life, I can think of absolutely nothing to complain about. I am indeed grateful for everything that has happened, including many things I wasn't so grateful for at the time. I could make a list of things that I am thankful for, but there are too many things that need more description, and no possible way that I could ever make a list long enough to include everything that I should include. And so I will do this as if you were sitting here talking with me.

First and foremost, I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me. In my challenges, in my triumphs, He was there with me. And I don't mean to say from a distance, but He was there beside me, standing with me to hold me when I needed strength, and to cheer me when I had done well. He has never been far. Though I look forward to the day where I can see Him face to face, I can never see Him more clearly than when I look back at my life, and see all that He has done.

I know also that my Savior lives. He too has been a constant presence in my life. His triumph over sin and death has brought my life hope and joy. His mercy towards me and my mistakes gives me the encouragement I need to continue. His love fills me when I reach for Him.

I must say too that I have the most wonderful wife. I don't mean to brag, but she gives me every reason to. Loving her has taught me what love truly is. I know without her I would not be the person I am today. I am indeed grateful for her and her love for me.

I am grateful for a wonderful family. I have never felt closer to my siblings and my parents than I do now. I think you are all wonderful. I look up to each of you, and learn from all of you. I love you and am proud of all of you. I must say also that I love Rochelle's family too. I have heard horror stories about the "in-laws" and I can't even imagine what that would be like. Whenever people make jokes about staying away from "the wife's family" I don't even know how to respond, because I can't even comprehend how it would be to have those struggles. I think you all are the greatest, and I love you all as my own family. (I'm just glad that I get to be the "big brother" in this one!) ;-)

I am grateful for my job. Ever since I have been home from my mission, Heavenly Father has heard my prayers in regards to my job. I have always had employment, and He has always led me to the jobs that I could learn the most from and that worked the best for me and my skills. I feel a great responsibility towards my jobs too. I feel very strongly that I have received the jobs that I have received in order to care for Rochelle. This is one of those things where I can look back in my life and clearly see Heavenly Father's hand in my life. I got a job as a tester at Waterford quite a while ago. That job didn't require much out of my resume, but gave me much to put on it. It was the basis off of which I have received all of my jobs since. My job at Novell paid me quite well for a student, and gave me the flexible hours I needed to work and go to school. It also gave me much experience and training. I was called in for an interview for my Novell job just a week or two after I met Rochelle. To celebrate my new job, Mom and Dad took me out to dinner, and we sat at the same table as Rochelle (not to mention her then boyfriend Evan). And when I graduated, I received a great job at Property Solutions where I have ample room to grow, and have received much training, as well as great additions to my resume. They hired me on as a salaried employee just in time to pay for Rochelle's tuition this Fall. I can see quite clearly my purpose in working is not to buy myself toys or to build my own ego, but to take care of my family.

I am also grateful for prayer and the scriptures. I know my prayers are heard. I have no doubt about that. And when I read the scriptures, and can feel the Holy Ghost in my life. My daily scripture study gives me strength to do whatever is required of me. It gives me hope, and an optimistic view on life. It keeps life in focus.

I would be foolish to forget one last thing... during my lifetime, I have had some of the best friends one could ever hope for. I could always go to them for council when I needed to make a choice, I have always found great comfort in them when I was struggling, and I have always had some great laughs with them about some of the foolish things that have done. Many of my friends are family to me.

Ok. I have said enough. For those of you who actually get through this list of things, I'm grateful for you too! Have a wonderful Thanks Giving Day (and don't forget... You're Welcomegiving day is Friday too!) ;-)
Love ya!
BJ

Good Tidings to You

Well, this week has been a good week. At work, I have been doing more IT stuff than I have programming. We've bought a bunch of new computers and have been doing what we can to set them up and get everything in order. The business is growing from a small business to a medium business and so the computer infrastructure needs to do the same. I enjoy what I do, but I must admit, I know very little about it. I can only hope I'm doing everything correctly. Rochelle has been VERY busy this week.
She had a paper due on Tuesday that she underestimated and ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning. I tried to stay up with her, but sacked out around 2. She was up another hour before she went to bed. And then she had to get up bright and early in the morning. She only got three hours of sleep. But she got up and went to class and did her assignments, and even went to institute (which we do for our calling) without a word of complaint. I on the other hand got just a little more sleep than she did, and grumbled about everything. ;-) She is just now catching up on her sleep. I came home and found her awake, but dead tired, and told her to take a nap. She didn't fight that to hard. I'm supposed to wake her up in a bit and then we are going to go running. I don't know how she does it. I just know that I couldn't. She's not alone, I know. Many of you reading this are probably thinking you wouldn't mind taking a nap right now. I don't blame you. My hat's off to each of you. --Please don't mind the messy hair.
On another note--you Taylor family members... it's coming up on Christmas time, and Rochelle and I are wondering what Christmas activities you all would like to be involved in. Here are our ideas, and you can tell me what you think.

Rochelle's family traditionally has a night where everyone gets together and sings Christmas music together. There's a bit of a "talent show" for them, but that isn't necessary if we don't want to do that. The point of it all for them is to simply enjoy the Holiday music together. Would you all be interested?

We were also thinking that it might be fun to go up to temple square the day after Thanksgiving when they turn on the lights for the first time. I think we are planning on going, but if any of you would like to join, I think the more the merrier.

We are also thinking that for all of you who have little ones and need some time to shop or just get away for a bit, Rochelle and I would be happy to come over and tend the kids for an evening to allow you to do that (one family at a time of course). We've been thinking about some fun Christmas activities that we could do with the kids while we are there. If you would like that, the offer is on the table.

I think those are the ideas that we have discussed thus far. I'm sure more are to come. And most of them have come from Rochelle. Hope you all have a good evening!
Love ya!
BJ

A day in the life of a super-hero

Ok, so I'm not much of a super-hero, but I can pretend. Rochelle and I have had a quiet Sunday. Church didn't start until 1:30, and we just finished with dinner of my own make. Good ol' fried rice. Learned how to do it in the mission field, and it has served me well as a "quick fixer". I think we are planning on going to bed early tonight, getting a good-night's sleep in, and getting up in the morning to go exercise. We've been going to the Provo Rec. Center this past week for our exercise as Rochelle mentioned. We are going to try to do that more. It has been good. We've enjoyed the morning time together, and the exercise that we have been getting. It has also forced me to go to bed earlier. I'm typically a night owl, but lately, going to bed around 10 pm sounds really good to me. We have been running together, and I have been playing racquetball with Charles, and some co-workers. I have been constantly sore since I have started, but it has helped me feel better during the week. I'm not quite used to my 8-hour work days yet. They seem awfully long sometimes, but the chance to exercise before I go to work helps me feel like I do something more with my life than sit in a cubical, just barely big enough for me to stretch out my legs. I'm also trying to avoid the "geek physique," you know... the skinny arms and legs, and the big ol' round belly-- usually full of pizza and soda. So... that represents one goal I have in my life that I'm working on. Some other goals that I would like to work on need some attention too. One other goal I have is to get to the temple more often. I should have more time now than I used to, and so temple attendance needs to go up. I also need to start reading more. And that includes all types of reading. Reading for fun, reading for study, and reading to keep up with the times. I keep waiting for some poor desperate scout to come around and offer us a deal on the Daily Herald, so I can say "Yes! I want a paper!" and make his day. It seems like when I was in school, we had one every so often come by and ask, but now that I'm done, we don't see him anymore. Well, I suppose that is fine. I can ready most everything I'm interested in on the internet anyways. But having a paper on your door step is a good reminder that you haven't heard what's happened lately. Rochelle and I are both reading Eragon after mom went and bought herself a copy, and put it into our hands. I'd also like to re-read some of my sociology books that I never got to spend quite as much time in as I would have liked when I was going through the course. Some of them were quite good, but we would have 100 page assignments that I would never get through. I've also been looking at Jesus The Christ lately and thinking... "dare I go at it again?" I read it on my mission, and I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember much else about it anymore, except that it was very slow reading, and a very thick book. I think if I start that one again sometime soon, I'll finish it sometime around my birthday in 2012. ;-)
By the way, the picture is just one that we took up at temple square a couple of months ago. The background was just sky, and didn't turn out so well, and so I made it green.
Well, have a happy Sabbath everyone, and I hope you are all doing well.
BJ

Well, I can't believe that it is Thursday already! This week has just zoomed on by. On Sunday, we woke up early, not remembering daylight savings, and then had an "extra" hour before church. BJ had some fun with his camera, and he took some pictures of us with his remote. Here is one of them:
On Sunday night, BJ, Marissa, and I went up to visit Darla, Doug, and their family (Darla is our cousin) and to have dinner with them. We really enjoyed visiting and playing games with all of them.
BJ and I started running/ working out at the rec center this week (Monday is the first time we have gone together). We are going to be going early in the morning before work/ class. I am hoping to run a half marathon this spring with Marissa and several of my friends from nursing classes, so it's time to get exercising! BJ has also been going there a few times a week to play raquetball with various different people, co-workers and friends.
On Tuesday, we were lucky enough to hear from President Hinckley at our devotional! We had a hard time getting seats, and by the time devotional started, there was hardly a free seat left, even in the bleachers behind the stand. President Hinckley's appearance wasn't really announced way ahead of time, for security purposes, I assume, but enough people found out--it was completely packed. His address was a series of vignettes and short stories/ experiences that he told us had shaped his life and made him into the person he is now. Some of the stories were very somber, and some were lighthearted. He encouraged us to write down things that make impressions upon us, help us to grow, etc. and to read over those things often. I enjoyed everything he said, and was especially impressed with two things. First, the Spirit that accompanies our prophet. As he entered the room, a feeling of reverence and love filled the room so strongly! Even with nearly 23,000 people in the room, you could practically hear President Hinckley's footsteps as he walked in. This spirit remained in the room for the whole devotional. Second, I was impressed with President Hinckley's ablility to connect and communicate with his audience. Not only were his comments very poignant, but I think most people felt that his comments were applicable to them. We were all hanging on every word. As he finished speaking, I found myself wishing that it wouldn't end! The devotional finished, and as he left, he turned and waved in all directions to the students. It was a very sweet moment. Everybody quietly and with the utmost respect, waved back! I felt so blessed to have been in the presence of a latter- day prophet. My outlook was changed, and I felt uplifted, able to bear the many hours of work and school ahead of me that day.
I only worked 10 hours instead of 12 hours today in clinical... we have been getting out early because we have more clinical hours than all the groups at other hospitals (since we have little driving time). During the next two weeks I will be in the OR watching surgeries. I really have little idea of what to expect. It should be exciting though.
There's not too much else to report... BJ and I are both reading a book that most of you have probably already read, and which has been very highly recommended to us- Eragon. I haven't gotten that far into it, but I am impressed with the creativity and rich descriptions this very young author uses! I wish I had more time to read, but alas! There is reading, and midterms, and research papers, and case studies- all waiting to be done... Well, such is life!

Count your many blessings...

So, Rochelle last blogged on Thursday when she was feeling quite grandiose. Then Friday hit, and she didn't want to get out of bed. In fact her whole weekend has been full of ups and downs. Feeling better and then feeling worse. I'm not sure that there is a pattern other than we had prayed that she would be able to get through her clinical rotation on Thursday. We were fairly specific in our prayers, and Heavenly Father was just as specific in His blessings. But we still feel blessed. I count myself lucky to have someone to take care of, and the health and ability to do so. I feel like we have been very blessed as a couple. I think back to when I met Rochelle, and how I was making $7 an hour fixing machines at BYU. Shortly thereafter I get a call out of nowhere asking me to come in for an interview. I wasn't even looking for a job at the time. I put out my application in August, and here is was February and I had an interview. Well, considering how much I loved fixing those smelly machines, I interviewed, and got a job. Little did I know, but that was the first blessing I had received so I could better take care of my dear soon to be wife. I have no need of going into detail on every blessing we've received for the last two years we have been married, but I feel like they have been many. And I have noticed something in common with many of them. With every blessing I receive, I have been better able to serve Rochelle or some other person who is in need. It has been an eye opening experience for me. It has made me consider things in a new light. What are blessings for? I have been taught ever since I was old enough to pass the sacrament that the priesthood was given to man for the serving of others. I have never supposed though, that in reality, every blessing given to us is an opportunity to serve others. And in fact, many of the challenges we face, and the trials we meet are in fact an opportunity for others to serve. For example, read the following verse: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Most of my life, when I read this verse, I get out of it one point, and one point only. That the ultimate demonstration of love is to give up your life for another. But it never occurred to me what trials the friends were going through. It seems to me that "his friends" were in serious trouble. It does not say whether they were in trouble because they put themselves there or by no fault of their own. But were it not for the sacrifice of another, they would soon perish. But because of their "trial" and the sacrifice of the one, blessings were poured out on all. The one who laid down his life would be blessed in heaven for his great act of service and love. The others would be blessed by feeling so loved, and cared for by another. They would appreciate their lives more, and be more willing to serve others in the future. They would have learned a great lesson. And so it is with us. We have trials so that the Savior can save us. He has already laid down His life for our own. He has already made the ultimate sacrifice of love. We have our trials so we can learn to seek Him out and trust in Him. Our trials also offer others a chance to emulate Him. Your trials may give me a chance to serve you. So when it comes down to it, everything -- both blessings and trials -- give us a chance to serve and be served, to love and be loved, and our testimonies of the Savior and His sacrifice grow regardless of which side of the service we are on. Anyways, these are the thoughts that came to me today. I hope you all had a good Sabbath.
Love you all.
BJ

Sickies

BJ and I have been sick! I felt like I was coming down with the flu earlier this week, and then it turned into a bad cold. BJ has been taking care of me... now I'm mostly better, and he is feeling more down, so it's my turn to take care of him now, I guess! That's ok- he takes such good care of me- he would make a good nurse! - as long as no blood is involved!
Today I worked in IV therapy. That is where people come to get IV hydration, blood transfusions, immunoglobulins, antibiotic therapy, and other treatments on an outpatient basis, and also the nurses are specially trained to do IV services on patients who are in the hospital. Those might include inserting PICC lines (which I actually got to help with today!!! -not the actual insertion, but as the "float") or doing "therapeutic phlebotomy". I would explain these things more, but I know that some of you don't want to know! So, just ask me when you see me, and I will tell you more about it! (A note to Suzanne: I have an answer to your question about units of blood. Remind me to tell you about it!!)
Another exciting thing has happened- we got a breadmaker! Danielle and Kirk (BJ's sister and her husband) have graciously allowed us to use theirs since they dont use it. We couldn't be more thrilled... it has been something that we have wanted for a long time, and now we can easily have fresh bread!
Something else this week was my mom's birthday. I got to talk to her on the phone, but I was sad I couldn't see her and give her a hug! My sister Marissa and I decided to actually make her a present together this year (in memory of our younger years, I guess) so we spent a couple of afternoons together working on it. It took longer to make than we thought. Hopefully it has arrived by now.
Now I have to go get ready for our dinner with BJ's parents and Bobbie and Gary (aunt and uncle). Should be fun!

Things previously mentioned and not expounded upon

As BJ hinted, we celebrated his birthday on Friday instead of Thursday because I was gone all day Thursday. At lunch time, we went to Gandalfos for sandwiches, and to a camera store for some accessories to go with BJ's new digital camera. We ate dinner at the Macaroni Grill, which was good, and we invited Charles and Marissa (Marissa couldn't come because she had to work late that night)over for birthday cake and BJ opening his presents. BJ got some nice new dress shirts & ties, two- way radios, a signed and framed Del Parson painting (actually a print), and a paper shredder, among other things. It was a fun day.
I have been working at the hospital on various floors and with various nurses. So far, it has been a really valuable experience, and I have been lucky enough to be paired with nurses who are happy to have students follow them around/ learn from them. Some days have been kind of slow, but other days, like last week, were so busy that the only time I ever sat down during my 12 hour shift was during my 30- minute lunch! I have had interesting patients... one has even proposed to me! That was... exciting... kind of different.
We have also been wanting to improve our Emergency Preparedness plans. We decided what we would do in the case of a natural disaster, etc. where we would meet, what channel to use on our 2- way radios, and we are planning to prepare a couple of backpacks with supplies in them that we are going to keep in our cars. We have a little food storage, and we want to get more, and learn how to make things without certain ingredients- like perishable foods etc.

Last week we drove up the canyon with BJ's parents, his sister Danielle & her family, and my sister Marissa. We took pictures in the fall leaves, shown above, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The pictures are of Marissa, me and Kimmy, and there's one of just Marissa and I. Although temperatures had previously been quite chilly, that afternoon turned out to be very warm... almost too warm. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed getting away from the city and and being so close to the mountains, trees, and streams.

Mom has a new laptop...

...and I'm writing this blog on it. It's a nice laptop. It has a nice big screen (wide) and isn't very heavy. I like it. And it is much more comfortable to work on it while sitting on the couch than it is to sit in that hard chair and work on their other computer. ;-)

It's Saturday night, and I'm pooped. I don't know why I'm tired, but I am. I haven't worked particularly hard this week. I haven't done anything particularly extrenuous. I have done very little out of the norm. I'm fairly certain that anyone who is reading this probably has had a much busier week than I have, but I'm still tired. Maybe it's because I have time to rest now, that my body has decided that it needs to catch up on rest. I don't know... but I do know that I probably should get some exercise. Otherwise I'm going to end up like most programmers and techies (no offence to those of you who are...), and live on pizza, soda, and have a beer belly. Yes, even now I can begin to see the buldge. Ok, so I haven't got much of one, but I don't want one either. I think I need to start exercising. I'm going to try to get my coworkers to join me in that too. I've heard that some of them play racquetball, and I'm going to see if that is true. ;-) Anyways, I want to get them to go play basketball and whatever else they would do to get some exercise. I think that would help my energy level. Rochelle has been quite busy lately... she has been working and homeworking and nursing like mad and has nearly gone mad trying to do it all. But she has gotten much of it done, and is feeling a little less stressed now.

Anyways, I'm going to go to sleep now... goodnight!
BJ