Grace of God

Not much happened today, but I thought I would write something in here anyway. My wife had seen a picture at one of her parents neighbors houses, and fell in love with it. I found it online and called the guy who made the picture. He lived pretty close to our house, so I set up an appointment to see him. Anyway, since it was snowing (again) I called to see if we could come over a bit earlier than we had planned. It was a possibility, so we went over.

The artists house was a bit of a mess because they are recovering from a broken pipe going to his refrigerator for the ice and water out of the fridge. This is one of the reasons I refuse to do this same thing in our house. It seems there are more people who receive damage from those things, and it just isn't worth it to me.

Anyway, he showed us some of his pictures and brought up the one that we had talked about. He gave us one that had a strata finish. This is a laminate that makes it look like the print is a canvass. It was done really nicely, and we are quite pleased with the purchase. The cost wasn't too bad either (only $99). We originally thought it was a picture of Jesus Christ holding a little boy and loved the face of Jesus. My wife mentioned (as we were leaving) she had never seen this in a picture of Christ. He asked what we thought it was a picture of. He told us that that is what a lot of people think, but in reality, he had pictured it as Joseph holding the toddler Jesus. The title "Grace of God" is based on the few verses of Jesus when he was growing up in grace and stature.

Well, that's about all I have to say on this.

A prophet of God

I just thought I should write a few of my thoughts that have been brought about with the passing away of Gordon B. Hinckley. He died tonight at around 7:00 PM in his apartment. He was 97 years old.

What a life this man led. It was shocking a bit to hear of his passing, but then, given his age, it was no real surprise. He did seem to be in great health for a man of his age, and he died (it seems) working. Even when he slows down, I don't know if I could keep up with his pace. What a man.

I was watching a movie on TV (Luna: Spirit of the Whale). It is based on a true story, and was a pretty good movie. Around 8:10, my son came out and told me that they had broken into his show to say that Gordon B. Hinckley has passed away. This also ended up stopping my wifes show that she was watching. I listened to a bit of it, and got what was there, and then went back to watching my show. It's not that I wasn't interested in it really, but I figured that over the next little while there would be a lot more come out about it all. So far, all of this is proving to be prophetic. Of course, I live in the area that we would hear about this kind of thing. The movie was a good (if slow) movie.

My daughter also called (interrupting the movie) and I talked to her (that is a good interruption by the way). We talked for quite awhile. She told me of things that had happened in the last two weeks (she forgot to call me back last week) and told me about a friend that got hit by a drunk guy in some parade that she was at, breaking a bunch of bones in his face (to the point of him needing to get some re-constructive surgery done. I was proud of my daughter as she went to be by his side while he was going through what he was going through. This is what a friend would do.

Anyway, I finished the movie, and then listened to some of the news. For a whole 1/2 hour the news talked only about Gordon B. Hinckley. Later I clicked over to KSL and they had a program that had been made in 2007 about the life of this leader and great man. I watched it. It lasted until around 11:30 last night. It was interesting hearing about his life. He has worked with the church since he was 25 years old, and has quite a life in doing all of this work. He had other ideas, but this is where he felt the Lord had called him, so he did what he felt would further the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wonder if I would ever have that kind of strength to do the same thing.

I have really appreciated the presidency of Gordon B. Hinckley. The other prophet that I thought nobody would ever be able to top was Spencer W. Kimball. Each of them have their strengths, but these two men have a real way of hitting the emotions of all people. I wouldn't say that Gordon B. Hinckley actually topped Spencer W. Kimball either, but they both did some of the greatest things for the LDS church that I think we will see done in our day. Gordon B. Hinckley has brought the church more into the mainstream than any other prophet. In my opinion, he has opened up the way for us by giving people access to him about our church. Temple building has been his other great feat. He has made temple worship more available to members throughout the world. I don't get to the temple like I should, and I have temples all around me (including a new one being built just a few blocks from my home).

Anyway, I am grateful for Gordon B. Hinckley and all that he has done. I am sure he is happy to be with his loving wife once again, and he has left quite a legacy.

I guess I'll forgive him for insulting me that one time. There is a whole story there.

Time keeps on slipping...

It's not that nothing has happened or anything, but it's more that other things just keep happening, which makes it so I forget or feel I don't have the time right now to write anything in here. However, a lot of the things that are happening are the same old stuff, so there isn't a ton to write about.

Work has been a bit slower for me in the last little while, but mostly because I am depending on other people to do things. Not that I haven't found stuff to occupy my time, but it would be nice if there was a bit more to do at work.

A few weeks back an employee from work had a laptop stolen from out of his car. It had some sensitive data on it, and has cost the company a couple hundred thousand dollars to help those people who have the possibility of having identities stolen to be able to track that. Because of this, work is clamping down and making new rules as to what is to take place. With this, I had to bring my work PC from home into work to have everything encrypted. There is an added level of security now to the hard drive. It was extra security when I couldn't get it to boot up over this weekend. I have to take my PC into work tomorrow so they can fix that.

In the meantime, my son has been playing around with a really old PC and Ubuntu. It seems to be a pretty good system, but he is struggling with it a bit because there are some UNIX commands that need to take place on it. My computer that I brought in for encryption was too old, so they gave me a new one, and I will take that other one home as well to be able to mess around with it a bit. I don't know if my son would like it over the other one or not, but it probably would be a better computer. If not, I will steal some of the RAM for my other PC which really doesn't have enough RAM. I have worked a bit with my son and his frustrations of trying to put all of this together. We are also trying to get him to get serious about finishing up the three merit badges that he has left for his Eagle. He has taken some incentive for that, but seems to get bogged down here and there.

I have felt a bit guilty because I haven't been doing so much with my daughter. I was able to go shopping with her on Saturday for some gym clothes. Really all she needed were some shorts that go to her knees. We found the best ones in the boys department. She seemed to like the ones we got and then I told her that she should get a matching shirt. My wife and daughter were impressed that I actually picked something out that matched, and it was cute to boot.

Tonight, I am hearing that President Hinckley has passed on. I will do another writing on that in a bit. I don't know if I'll have much to say about it, but we'll see.

An Entry

It's been a little while since I last put something here. Really, there hasn't been too terribly much happening, but a little bit has, so I will just hit a couple of things.

On the 9th of this month, we had an all employees meeting. It was the same old stuff of most of these meetings where we see how well the company is doing. We had the best year ever in 2007 that the company has ever had. WCF is strong. The highlight of the meeting was an entertainer they had come in. His name Jason Hewlett. He was quite funny and entertaining. Here is an url that you can see about him and there are a couple of clips of hims as well. http://www.celebrityimpersonator.net/ . That part of the meeting was fun. To end it all, Lane stood up and told us that he is retiring from WCF. He has been a great president and CEO of WCF for the whole time that I have been here. He will be sorely missed. They have put Ray Pickup into his place. Lanes reason for leaving is that he and his wife have been called on an LDS mission as mission president (they still don't know where). That is great for them. I wish them well.

Along with the meeting, we got told that we would get a 5% bonus that will be paid to us on the 16th of January. I have already figured out what I should get after taxes and as a family, we decided that we will go to Disneyland. That should be a lot of fun. It's been a couple of years since we last went, and we need to take a vacation as a family.

Last Saturday, we went up to Ogden again. The person who bought Melanies house told us that we could go up there and get some things out that can be used. We were grateful for that. We met at the Wach's house, and then headed up there. We had Zachery in our SUV. We had some good conversation on the way up there. At one point it got almost too lively, but it was good.

There was over a foot and a half at the house. We went in and got what we could and then left. On the way back Zach told us about finding a cop (he was not on duty and was out of his state) who had been at the accident scene when his father died. Zach and Casey were one at the time of their fathers death. So, after 17 years he finally got some details that he hadn't had before. Jimmy died in his arms after they searched for him in the brush. The officer and his wife asked about his mother and he told them of her death two years after his fathers death. Anyway, it was good for Zach to connect with this cop.

There isn't too much going on at my house. My daughter in Florida was going to have a job interview today at a massage place where she can work part time and have insurance paid for through the job. She feels pretty positive about being able to get it. I hope she does. I guess I'll find out next Sunday, as that is the day I always talk to her.

Other than what I've put here, things are pretty much the same. Not many changes in what is going on in my life, and that is mostly good.

Homes and foreclosure

New years eve has come and gone. I left work early on New Years Eve. There really wasn't much to be done at home, but it is better sometimes to be home than to be at work. At least I don't have all the worries of work. I mostly relaxed when I got home.

It was around 5:30 PM when we left home to go to the in-laws house. We took the WII game system and a few other games (they weren't used at all) and got there before Pam and Anne came in with the food. They made a clam chowder as well as a vegetable soup. I don't like clam chowder, but the vegetable soup was pretty darn good.

Some people over there were playing Progressive Rummy while I and others were playing a couple of games on the WII console. I guess that is one way that I will get my exercise. On Sunday, I got obsessed with the billiards that is in WII play. I wanted just one game that wouldn't have any fouls. This didn't happen. I did finally get a game where I thought it would happen, but on the very last ball, I dropped the cue ball into the hole as well. I finally gave up after about three hours of obsessing over this.

Anyway, the topic I wanted to write about today is this foreclosure business. It had been decided last night that some people would be going out to help Melanie get some of her stuff out of her home. We knew the foreclosure was close, but didn't have too much information about that. I got a call this morning wondering if I possibly could come out and help with some moving. After we didn't hear much else I called Pam again to see what was going on. I was told that they probably wouldn't need my help. That's how we were going about our day.

Around 2:00 there was a change in mind. They had gotten to the house and there was a note on the garage door talking about the Estate sale and that things would start to happen on the fourth of this month. The house had a lot more inside it than Pam thought it would. She wanted us to come on out. We got into the car and headed to Ogden around 2:30.

Once there, I put a mask on to avoid asthma that may come on in a house such as this. There was a lot of things strewn about the house when we got there, and of course cats have been all over the place in the house. It was next to impossible to walk anywhere in the house without stepping on something. We weren't there to get most or all of the stuff out of the house. Only the things that Melanie and her son thought they needed. It was cold both inside and outside the house. I was surprised that the lights were still on and that there was water to the place. Brandon, Ben, Melanie, Pam and Anne were there taking care of things, and we joined with our family of four. I didn't do too much there, but did help a little bit. It was sad really to see how they have been living and to see all of the stuff that is just going to be left there. I feel bad for whoever has to clean up the house with this foreclosure. More than likely, most things will just be thrown in a big dumpster and taken out. Since there is a lot of mold in the house and it hasn't been kept up, I'm pretty certain that whoever buys the property will bulldoze the house to make room for a new home. There really isn't that much that is salvageable. It is a sad state of affairs. It makes me wonder how much of this was because of the mental illness of Melanie, and how much is because of the cocaine addiction of her now dead husband Steve. The house has been in hock for a lot of years, and it is amazing that they have held onto it this long.

We went to dinner at Wingers and called it a day. When we got home, we watched the latest Harry Potter Movie that has come out on DVD.