Four things...

I saw this in an old email while I was cleaning out my ridiculously jumbled inbox, so I thought I’d fill it out.





Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Newspaper delivery person
2. Telemarketer
3. Custodian
4. Social Worker

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Persuasion
2. Who’s that Girl?
3. Meet the Robinson’s
4. To this end was I born

Four places I have lived:
1. Washington D.C.
2. San Diego, CA
3. Provo, UT
4. Santiago, Chile

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. House, M.D.
2. The West Wing
3. The Office
4. Ugly Betty

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Utah
2. Disneyland
3. East Coast, 8th grade trip
4. Breckenridge, CO

Four websites I visit daily:
1. www.yahoomail.com
2. Google
3. www.blogger.com
4. www.imdb.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Orange chicken
2. Sherbet
3. Taco salad
4. Holiday Jello

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Snorkeling in Hawaii
2. Disneyworld
3. London, England
4. Whale watching

Four schools you've attented
1. Hickman Elementary
2. Challenger Junior High (yes, it was a junior high then, not a middle school)
3. Mira Mesa High School
4. Brigham Young University

Four of your best friends growing up
1. Lisa Stoefen
2. Sarah Curnow
3. Shelley Howard
4. Jennifer Van Grove

Four of your favorite bands:
1. Rascal Flatts
2. Brad Paisley
3. Little Big Town
4. The Beach Boys

Four favorite books to read:
1. The standard works
2. Harry Potter (all)
3. Jane Austen (See how I avoided listing one book by just putting an author’s name down? Clever, huh?)
4. Discarded Science: Ideas that seemed good at the time, by John Grant

Last four people you talked to on the phone:
1. Mom
2. Rachel
3. Grandpa
4. Does the intercom at work count? If so, Brandi.
(I hate talking on the phone. I was only recently, in the past year, forced to get a cell phone)

Four cars you've owned:
1. 1986 Honda Accord
2. The Infamously Burning Dodge Omni
3. 1989 Toyota Tercel
4. 1998 Chevy Prizm

Four of the last movies you've seen:
1. Muppet Christmas Carol
2. White Christmas
3. Live Free or Die Hard
4. As of tomorrow, National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Four favorite things to do when hanging out:
1. Make stupid jokes
2. Visit a bookstore
3. Window shop
4. Cook something, watch something, play something

Four things you look for in someone you date:
1. Kind when others aren’t looking
2. Doesn’t laugh at others’ expense
3. Genuinely interested in finding out more about me
4. Makes me laugh

Four names you like for future children:
1. James Atticus
2. The middle name “Nelson” (family tradition)
3. Elizabeth/Anne
4. Agnes ( It looks really ugly written, but read David Copperfield and you’ll like it better. Maybe I’ll call her Aggie. Maybe it’s just a fad.)

Four of your least favorite foods:
1. Tomatoes
2. Fish
3. Tomatoes
4. Seafood
5. Did I mention Tomatoes?

Four things that make you smile:
1. Beach
2. Grass
3. Bubbles
4. Babies

Four favorite places to shop:
1. Barnes and Noble
2. Old Navy
3. Vons
4. Target

Four favorite restaurants:
1. Pat and Oscar’s
2. California Pizza Kitchen
3. Panda Express
4. Wendy’s

Four favorite holidays:
1. Fourth of July
2. Christmas
3. Thanksgiving
4. Pie day (March 14th…3.14…get it?)

Four good things you'd change about yourself:
1. I wouldn’t think I’m half as bad as I imagine
2. I’d be a little braver
3. I’d be able to say what I felt a little more
4. I’d act on every feeling I had, even if it seemed small or silly

Far, Far Away

Today in Relief Society we didn’t have a teacher, so instead our RS Pres suggested we take turns standing and sharing our favorite Christmas carol. Then we all sang it. It was a really great meeting, but despite my efforts to stand and share I got beat down every time by another sister who was just a little faster than me. So I thought I’d share my thought and carol here.

For some reason whenever I’ve thought about Christmas for the past month and a half, the book of Enos pops into my head. Not a very overwhelming thing, since the book of Enos is only one chapter. In this chapter, Enos goes out into the woods to pray to God about his soul. When he receives an answer of redemption, Enos does not stop praying. He continues, praying for his brethren, the Nephites. Now, I’m sure most of us include our siblings and family members in our prayers. That’s not what struck me. What struck me is the next thing that Enos prays for. He prays for his enemies, the Lamanites. He prays that they will be able to come to know God, and that the scriptures will be preserved for just that purpose. So the thought that accompanied my continual remembrance of this story was the most meaningful thing to me. The thought was “THAT is the Christmas spirit.” It’s not a Christmas scripture at all. Just a young man, a young prophet, out in the woods, praying for people that couldn’t care less about him. Praying for people that have likely tried to kill him at some point in his life. And yet, he prays that God will know them, help them, and save them.

So the song I would have picked if we’d have had more time in Relief Society today is Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains.

“Sweet are the strains of redeeming love, Message of mercy from heav’n above…Hasten the time when, from ev’ry clime. Men shall unite in the strains sublime: Glory to God…Peace on earth, good will to men.

Merry Christmas =]

I Have 75 Children

I spent today organizing donated clothes for approximately 75 kids that come to our clubhouse. I don't know if they'll like what they are getting, but I hope they do. I've spent the past two or three days at work trying to get it all organized. With Brandi and Krissy's help we were able to get it all done. I had piles and piles of clothes all over my office, and I basically took over the desk areas of my poor office-mates, Eric and Roger. That's okay though. They need to be out on the floor "interacting" with the kids more anyways. The piles of clothes reminded me somewhat of the movie Yours, Mine, and Ours; not the new one (because I never saw it), but the old one with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. I think they end up having 18 children. Can you imagine buying Christmas presents for eighteen children? Or even just wrapping Christmas presents for that many kids? It takes a long time to figure out if so and so would like such a thing, or if this shirt would fit that person. I'm almost Christmas-presented-out from it all, and I haven't even finished my shopping yet.

Christmas and Cardiac Cookies

I got a little creative tonight, and decided to make some Christmas cookies. Here they are:



Hey! Where's the head and leg of that gingerbread man? DAVID!?!



Dad was making cookies too. He calls them "Cardiac Cookies" because they're good for his heart. They have no butter or sugar in them, and they're actually pretty tasty. Smile Dad!

All I want for Christmas is four new tires...

I got a flat tire yesterday morning on the way to work. I debated driving the 40 yards or so on said flat tire to get to the gas station near where I work. Then I decided that would probably destroy my car, so I didn’t do it. I changed the tire, with a little bit of help from a friendly truck driver who was concerned that I didn’t know how to do it (Thanks Jaime!) and put the toy tire on. The toy tire was, unfortunately, rather flat as well, but it got me to the office. I sort of justified driving back down to the gas station by telling myself that my dad had once told me that toy tires are made stronger than regular ones. I might have been making that up in my mind, but oh well. Whatever the case, I made it down the hill to said gas station without blowing up my car, where several people tried to signal to me that the toy tire was flat. Mind you, this was as I was pulling over to the little air station. I waved a smiling “thanks, I know” to them. When I finally made it to the Discount Tire I was ready to hand them the car for forever and take the bus home. Unfortunately, it only took them 40 minutes to get me 4 new tires. Alright, I guess I’ll take the car back.

I suppose it was lucky I didn’t give the car up completely. I ended up having to stop back by the office to do a little re-con work for my friend/co-worker, Crystal. A successful venture, I might add. Maybe I should join the secret service or something.

Chicken Nuggets

A couple of people have emailed asking exactly what it is that I do at my job. Here is a brief description:

I work at a clubhouse for young adults (known as “TAY”-Transitional Age Youth) who are between the ages of 16-25 years old. These kids all have some sort of mental health disorder, such as schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc. Anything you ever studied in abnormal psych. The program was created to help these young adults transition into becoming responsible, self-sustaining adults (hence the "transitional" part), so that when they turn 26 they will be able to function mainly on their own without too much dependence on the system. We have two programs-one with case managers, therapists, substance abuse counselors, nurses…the whole works. The second program is the clubhouse, the side of the building that I work on. It’s basically sort of a drop-in center. The kids don’t live there—most of them live in board-and-cares or independent living homes. However, they come to the clubhouse during the day. At the clubhouse we have groups, classes, activities, outings, games, etc. My official title is “Activities Coordinator.” So one would assume that my main function is to coordinate activities, correct? Well, not really. I mean, I do plan outings to take the kids out to, but that really only takes a little imagination, Google, SanDiegoGetaways.com (a great site if you ever want to visit here), and gas for the company van. All in all, it probably only takes me two days to plan the next months’ activities.

What I mainly do is as such: Break up fights (that’s a big one lately, and it usually involves me sacrificing my body by throwing myself in between two young men who are much bigger and much more feisty than I am), kick people off the computers who are listening to foul music or looking at foul things, cook lunch, run chores, teach 5-6 groups a week, write and publish the clubhouse newsletter, plan and carry out parties, fundraise (who would have ever thought selling lollipops from my cupboard and at the local deli would have been so effective?), organize volunteering experiences and outreach opportunities at shelters, update directories that I didn’t create and therefore, in my mind, are not as functional as they could be (I spent almost an entire week on that one), and, of course, sign more people up for the program. There are more things as well, but I’m tired of listing them. Keep in mind also that the entire time I am doing these things there is always someone asking me questions, pestering me about something not-so-important, pestering me about something oh-so-very-important, and sometimes just bouncing in and out of my office to get attention. I’m sure all you moms can relate. Yesterday, I was trying to work on something and one of the clubhouse members literally sat and talked to me for forty minutes non-stop. And when fights do occur between staff and a clubhouse member, they are usually because the clubhouse member wants to either push limits, push buttons, or they simply want attention. The most clear example of attention seeking I've ever had was when one of the kids stole a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. Instead of simply putting them in to his backpack that he was carrying around and walking out of the building, he came to my office door, shook the bag in front of his face, and yelled out “I’m taking these chicken nuggets!,” then attempted to leave. I’ll never look at chicken nuggets the same again. All I can think whenever I see them is "I'm taking these chicken nuggets!" It was hilarious. So, while it is challenging (and you can never hide from these clubhouse members to get something done, like paperwork...) it's also highly entertaining, and...well, just plain satisfying work. I even taught a punk-rock style kid to use a sewing machine this week. They're great.

Things I've learned recently...

*“Plauen” is a city in Germany, not a person.

*A “Stent” is something that a heart surgeon uses to prop your artery open.

*Collecting clutter can be an addiction.

*If some of the tiles fall off of your Rubik’s Cube, make sure that you glue them back in the right spot. Otherwise, I can promise you that you will never solve it. No matter how good you are. (Britte, I’m in the process of fixing yours for you…)

*The person that draws your blood when you go to donate blood doesn’t always donate their blood.

*Parents are more stubborn than their children.

*Just because you eat healthy and go on walks doesn’t mean you can’t have a heart attack.

*Staying up until 1am normally=hard
Staying up until 1am to watch 12 episodes of “The Office”=not hard

*I like cooked spinach.