Dream to Reality

Wow! It has been along time since I have had the opportunity to write on this blog. A lot has happened since the last post.
Since that post I have gone through a major depression and numb phase of my life where I didn't want to do anything except for stay alive. This was a very weird phase because I didn't even realize I was there. It was like I was stuck inside my body and I couldn't control it. I wanted so bad to be able to change my life and I didn't see how I could. My salvation in this numb state came from my dear wife who still wanted to be with me despite my state of mind. She had the gumption to make a choice and put me into a place where I had to come out of myself and take control. (Though I did need other help from some medication to bring me out of this state.)
During the numb phase we were very low on income so we moved out to Vernal, UT with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. We stayed there for a few months and during that time I fell into a deeper depression and the medication I had started taking was making me feel numb and I wasn't sad but at the same time I wasn't happy either. After a couple months Emily finally called my parents and talked to them and they offered to have us stay in their basement which was a lot more than the one room we had at Emily's sister's house. It also gave me the opportunity to change my medication to something else that would work better. So we moved, again. Also while we were in Vernal we had decided to rent our Townhome because we could rent it for more money than all of the bills.

At my parents house it was a lot better because I was able to have some support from my family. I was still doing the same job I had out in vernal. (I had been working the graveyard shift at the smith's and I was able to get a transfer to one of the stores in the salt lake valley.) I hated the hours but I knew that I needed to support my family. Another month or two went by and I couldn't take it anymore so I quit. That was probably the best decision, because it opened my mind up to the possibility of doing anything else. That is when I got an email from my favorite company, 3 Key Elements.
I am a designer and wanted to do that for a living but I thought "If I can get my foot in the door and just work hard I can move into the position I want." So I applied for a job opening that they had in their client services department. I GOT IT! (Happy dance!) So on April 18, 2014 I started my job at 3 Key Elements. I worked hard and learned quickly that this company is more amazing than I even thought. I could do another post just on all the things that make this company great. This shift in jobs is what brought me out of my funk that I had been in for almost a year.
After about 6 months the person who they had doing their Social media/design work moved on to another opportunity and there was an opening. I jumped on it. I discussed with them what I could do for them and what my limitations were on social media. I even talked with the Vice-President of the company and she wanted to see what I could do. That day they asked me to spend one hour after work and come up with a graphic for a concept that they teach in their classes. Rather than waiting until the end of the day I went home during lunch and created the graphic on my computer (in less than 45 Mins) I returned to the office and handed a printed version of my graphic to the VP and said "Something like this?".... Her jaw dropped.... "When did you do this?" .... me, "During lunch", "want to see more of my work now?"..
The next day they offered me a position I was not expecting, a place on the A/V team and when I wasn't helping with events then I would be doing "some but not all" design work. I accepted and made step two toward my goal that I had in the back of my mind. Step three came about 4-5 Months later after a few changes were made in personnel. "We want you to be on our newly formed creative team as our full time designer." YES, YES, YES!!! This is what I had always wanted. To work for a  company that I loved and that I enjoyed going to everyday. (Literally, I looked forward everyday to going in and creating new amazing designs that would help the company change poeple's lives.) My style and skills were exactly what they needed for the company. I have never been more proud of my work and how it made me feel. (Oh, I still had lots of stress meeting deadlines and making last minute changes, but I always took it as a challenge and made it happen.) The best part of it all was when the Pres. and VP would see my work and them make a point of telling me how awesome it was and how impressed they were with my work.

More updates in the next posts...

My Name Sake

I was born July 18, 1983 and my parents decided to name me after my grandmothers. Dorothy Jordan Jones and Marian Newkirk Love. So I then was named Jordan Newkirk Jones. I love my grandparents so much and on July 16, 2013 my Grandma Jones who's name I bear passed away from a fall in front of her home. It is extremely hard for me because first off I love her very much and she was the epitome of what a lady could/should be. She was always classy and dressed up even if she was just going to the doctor.

The other reason that it is so hard to see her go was because on that Sunday prior to her death Emily and I were getting ready to go to Bear Lake for our vacation with my family; and we had recently returned from Oregon and had made some homemade blackberry freezer jam. We decided that we should take a container to her (she loved blackberries) and visit for a few minutes before we left town. After calling her on the phone the night before to set a time when she would be home, we went over there and she was at church. (I had miscalculated the time that she would return home). She wouldn't return home for another 30 to 45 mins so we decided to leave the Jam and a note and try to return later to visit before we left.

Well as life is, we got busy and I was in too much of a rush to go and stop by and we never got to go and say anything to her.  I kick myself now for not going back and taking the time to sit and visit with her. How my heart sank when I heard that she had fallen and hit her head. The tears and the emotions I felt were too much. I wanted so much to see her face once more smile at me and say how good I looked and how proud of me she was. I wanted to let her she her granddaughter one more time. At the same time I wanted to crawl into a hole because of the guilt I felt for not staying that extra few minutes when I could have.

I am glad now that she is back with her dear husband and that they can once again embrace and be at each other's side. I have a lot of life left to live but I will cherish the day when I can see her again and tell her how sorry I am for not keeping my word and how glad I am that she got to at least hear my voice once more over the phone before she departed.

Pulling Out Wedgies (R & R: Part IV)

So if you have been following my blog you know that I have been talking about wedgies and that everything comes back to wedgies.

Now you've identified them... sooo....how do you pull out your wedgies? First we need to get rid of the source of the wedgies which is Sarcasm which then allows negative thoughts and negative emotions into our mind.

Emily and I have decided that the easiest way to stop the wedges is to make the tip of the wedge blunt, meaning that it can't be push into our mind to begin with. This means that we had to get rid of sarcasm. NOT SO EASY... It's amazing how many times we used sarcasm in our home. Probably 10 to 20 times PER DAY! That's a lot and that was for each of us. They weren't always sarcasm toward each other but most of them were toward someone we knew. So we had to really focus and make it rule #1 in our home. And it still is. Once we started getting rid of the sarcasm, joking, eye-rolling, etc it was so much easier to identify and kill the negative thoughts and emotions.

To get rid of negative thoughts and emotions we needed to get them out of our head. I'll say it again... OUT OF OUR HEAD. Not just push it to some recess of our mind but just plain "take out the trash". The way that we do that is by putting it down on paper. You have to sit down with pen and paper or type it on your computer or whatever and just get it down. The thoughts that pester and bug you the most are the ones you are going to go after first. Here is your first tool for getting these thoughts out.

1. Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle 
2. On the left side at the top write the word "Negative" 
3. On the right side at the top write the word "Positive"
4. Then off to the far left write #1 and the number one negative thought that gets your attention in your mind.
5. Across from that write the exact opposite plus something good about yourself.
   (i.e. Negative: You're not good enough. - Positive: I am good enough and I am confident.)
6. Repeat step 5 until you get to #10 
7. After you have all 10 then tear the page out or print it off and crumple it up.
8. Finally take it out to your BBQ and set it on fire and WATCH IT BURN!

If you take the time and do each one of the steps EVERY DAY then your negative thoughts will begin to disappear. There is something psychological in your brain that happens when you take on the negative thoughts directly out and combat them with positive thoughts. Plus you wrote down twice as many good things for your brain to pick up and put into the space that was there. Then when you go burn it you can literally see the negative thought being consumed by fire. 

Eventually the thoughts on your top ten list will disappear and you can replace them on your list with the next thing that bugs you the most. But now your saying to your self ... "But I have more than ten things that really bug me at any one time. Is there something else I can do? YES there is. Tune in again soon to find out what the next tool is to get rid of these negative thoughts

Wedges and Wedgies ... (Royalty & Romance, part III)

So you came back.  Curious about wedges?  Well I actually refer to them as wedgies. That's  right I said wedgies... Those uncomfortable and often annoying  pieces of clothing that wedge themselves into our bottoms. So now that we have figured out what is blocking our brain lets talk about what they are, where they come from, and how they got there.

These wedges are negative thoughts and emotions. More specifically they are the negative thoughts and emotions that we say or think about ourselves or others that then we believe and then let stick in our mind. I have found that there is one specific thing that allows those thoughts to start pushing into our mind. It is sarcasm, joking, eye rolling, and mocking. These seem innocent enough but when we really think about it they are just the tip or the start of insecurity, fear, and anger.

Whenever I see/hear someone using sarcasm I can immediately tell that somewhere inside of them they are fighting some fear or anger about themself. If you think about a good example, lets say Jesus Christ (my perfect example) he NEVER used sarcasm or joking or mocking.  These jokes though they may be funny never are funny for the person that they are about. Even if they laugh they are hurting somewhere deep down inside and that hurt is what drives those wedges into our brain that cause the interrupt in our brain between our body and soul. And just because that person isn't there doesn't mean that they won't feel it.

Now you know how to identify if you have wedgies. Negative thoughts, negative emotions, and the biggest one is using sarcasm, joking, mocking, and eye rolling. Once we have identified them we can now get rid of them. Will talk in detail on the next post about how to combat and pull out your wedgies.

It's all comes back to the wedgies from here on out.

BODY, BRAIN, & SOUL :: (Royalty and Romance Part II)

So did you find all 6 "F's" in my last post? Yes or No?  Anyway, after they did this exercise we sat back down and talked about what happens in our brain when we see it. Some of us just see the obvious ones in the big words and then there are some who can read it through and still not see the other 3 and then there are those who can't see it until it is pointed out to them. Each person is at a different level and we all can read the message but how we SEE the message and interpret it is totally different.

I can't really remember exactly what was next but I know that they talked about the body, brain, and soul, and how they are connected. The body is a physical thing that we can see and touch and the brain is too though we can't touch it. The soul is the intangible part of us that is just way to complex for anyone to truly understand. But what we do know about it is that it has a mission or a purpose. What that purpose is is totally different for each person but everyone including you has a purpose. Some people see it as their personal goals, or their future goals. Others may have something more spiritual but what ever it is it is complex.

So the mission of the body is to be comfortable. Just plain comfortable even to the point of not wanting to feel something too rough or too hot or too cold. It is a creature of habit. It just wants to be left alone and be comfortable.

The soul wants to complete its mission by whatever means necessary. Your soul is a positive force in the world and it can only speak to you through your brain. So again that means that you have to listen to your soul through your brain.

Now your brain is an interesting organ in the fact that it controls so many things at once, like: your breathing your heart beat your liver functions your stomach and digestive tract.All of these things it does automatically but on the manual side your brain can only think about one thing at a time and your body and your brain are constantly trying to get control. Your body has an advantage in the fact that it is directly connected to your brain and it is constantly getting updates on what is going on through your senses. So it has been trained from an early age to trust your bodies senses. but as we demonstrated in the previous post sometimes your mind doesn't see things and you can's always see the whole picture (or all the F's).

So where does the input from your soul go into your brain? The same place that all the other senses are inputting their information. It is a struggle to get those thoughts from your soul to your brain sometimes. And sometimes we even block it off. THAT'S RIGHT! We sometimes even block off your own soul from communicating with us. I like to call these your wedges. (a triangular object that can push two object apart)
So the key is to find these wedges and pull them out of our mind.

But what are the wedges?
Find out in the next post (part 3)

Royalty and Romance (Part 1)

So Emily and I had the privilege to be given a great gift by Laurel and Mosiah (Emily's Sister and Brother-in-law). A While back they went to a course called Royalty and Romance, which was put on by Kirk and Kim Duncan. And they came back from it just raving about how good it was and they tried to explain some of the stuff that they learned but it went over our heads. So they decided to just pay for us to go and so we were signed up to go in early June.

So june comes around and we arrange to go and we get there and I am very skeptical about what the seminar is going "teach" me. This is a three day seminar and by the lunch break of day one I was already hooked. If I had the money I would totally be in doing all of their seminars. They opened up things in my mind and made me think about things that I never would have even had the slightest thought about.

The have a company called 3 key elements and this one that we went to was geared especially for couples.

They start out by telling their story and how they got to where they are today and then they hand out these small sheets of paper that have something written on the back. Then when they tell us we turn them over and begin reading what is written after which they immediately ask to have everyone who has a paper with three "F's" on it go to one corner and then those with 4 "F's" to go to another corner, and so on up to 6 "F's." then they ask one person from each group to read their paper. This is what the paper reads...

"Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of many years." 

Needless to say a majority of the people went to the corner with the 3 "F's" when in fact there are 6. Which he compared to how most of us don't see everything that is there right in front of our eyes. 

I will relay more in my next post.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and I am so happy because I received one of the most wonderful gifts ever. My wife took the time to take my daughter and have her paint a piece of paper with finger paint that said "Happy Father's Day" (I will show it below.)

The other thing that Emily had for me for Father's Day, she actually has been giving me over the last three days. It is a clean and organized house. I am so much of an organizational guru that I think I should help others with it. Anyway,  over the last three days she has been working with me to clean out and declutter all of the rooms in the upstairs part of our house. It has been so amazing to see how much junk that we are just holding onto for no reason. Or even clothes that don't fit anymore or clothes that I've had for nearly ten years.

And what is more interesting is that Emily now agrees with my philosophy about keeping a clean and organized house. Of course this doesn't mean that we still don't have messes; we live like any other family in our house. it just means that we are more conscience of the messes that we make and we take the time each day to clean them up.

Doing this has made such a difference in the way our home has felt as well. For those of you who know Emily this didn't come lightly to her. We have been making some other major changes as well which i will put into my next post, but just as a snippet we attended a conference at the south towne expo center that has changed the way we think about our relationship and about ourselves. (Worth every penny)

Tutoring

Math tutor and homework helper (2nd - 12th Grade)

I am now available for tutoring. If you know of anyone who needs a tutor please refer them to me. Just click the link above.

Our little girl growing up!

So our little girl was born on May 23rd and has been a great addition to our family. She has been a happy little bundle of joy and is now starting to jibber and jabber at us. Just before Christmas she finally said "dada". It was the best Christmas present ever.
One other big thing since the last time I posted is that I am now in college studying secondary education with a math emphasis. I am hoping to be able to finish quickly and get a job somewhere where we can move and settle down. 

Lydia just had her first birthday. She was so excited to have all of her cousins over. She really loves playing with them and laughing at whatever they are doing. She has such a cute personality and some infectiously cute laughter. 

As a side note Emily had her feet worked on but I will tell you all about that in the next post.

Ready, Set, Nest!

I never understood until recently what "nesting" really meant or why people did it but now I think that I finally understand. For the last week or so I have had this unreal feeling like I need to have every little thing in my home clean and in place for no apparent reason. After getting the main part of the house clean I thought that the feeling might go away but then it got even worse when I realized that it probably wouldn't stop. I have been cleaning and organizing like a mad man for the last week, and now since it is getting warm outside it has shifted to getting the yard looking good and having things ready for the baby.

Whenever I think about being a dad or having a baby of my own I start to have this overwhelming feeling of excitement and nervousness at the same time. On one hand I want the baby to be here and to see her face but on the other I am so nervous because I have no idea of how to take care of a baby. I have so many things that I want to make sure I do as a father and so many things that I don't want to mess up. I just hope that she loves me as much as I already love her.

Emily has been a real trooper with all of her emotions going completely haywire. We have a few arguments over stupid things but all in all things are going well. I love her so much and I am so glad that she is as excited as I am to have her in our lives. She is already such a blessing and we know that she is our little miracle in our lives. We know things might get hard but we will do whatever we have to do to provide for her. (even get up at 3:15 AM to go to work)

A name ... We finally chose a name!

So Emily is now 7 Months Pregnant and she is as miserable as ever but still going strong. We have been working on the nursery and getting it ready though there is not a lot in it right now.

For months now since we found out it was a girl we have been trying to come up with a name for her and we just couldn't come to any conclusion or final name to call her but we finally decided that the name we are going to give to her is "LYDIA GRACE JONES". Emily has actually had that name pick out for a number of years but as we talked about other names she couldn't just decide. I really love the name and am glad that it is not a common name right now. Also we are very excited because one of our friends that we play games with is also having a girl and hopefully they will become good friends.

Well, as I promised I have Photos from the ultrasounds. I hope you enjoy them as much as we are.

Lydia Grace Jones - 29 Weeks - 3D View

Lydia Grace Jones - 29 Weeks - Profile View

Lydia Grace Jones - Heartbeat (139 BPM) - 29 Weeks

I Got Screwed!

So a few days ago we took our car into get fixed because the brakes were being really loose and the guy at the shop said that the master cylinder needed to be replaced. So we had them do it and they then called back and said that it wasn't working still and said that the ABS unit might be out and that it would cost over $1000 for a new one. So we decided that we couldn't afford that and called Emily's dad to come and look at the car to see if he could see what was wrong with it. So they came down a today and he looked at it and decided that all we needed to was bleed the brakes and change the calipers and brake shoes. From his years of working on cars he determined that if they were doing it properly they would have to bleed the brakes. But when he looked at the brake calipers they were all rusted and they had not ever been bled. After he told me this I was so pissed.

So to clarify ... the brakes had not been checked and this guy at the auto shop took us for $270. Even though he did change out the master cylinder he didn't follow any of the procedures that would be necessary for a proper brake check. So tomorrow I am going to go back to the shop and ask him a bunch of questions about what he actually did, and if I find that he is lying to me I may have to file a complaint with the BBB and possibly file a suit against him for fraud.

Dishonesty is running rampant in the business world. Especially in the automotive industry. If you can find an honest person in the world who won't take you for everything you've got then make sure you make friends with them because they will save you a ton of time and money. An even better idea is to learn how to do it yourself and save the cost of labor for a mechanic (Of course this only work if the repair is simple like repairing brakes or brake pads.) I really learned a lot from this and even more from my father-in-law.

Winter finally arrives! ... Sort of

So this morning I woke up to find that despite what I had seen in the news there was about a half an inch of snow on the ground. We had a totally dry Christmas so it is nice to actually see some of the white stuff on the ground. I always am a bit disappointed when we have Christmas without any snow but I guess it is better late than never. hopefully we will get a bit more as the days go on because otherwise we may have a very dry year.

On another note ... I am glad that it has been dry a bit longer because it has allowed me to do a few extra things around the yard before it got too cold. I can't wait for spring now because I will be able to plant and have a garden like I have wanted for some time now. I don't know if anyone else feels like this, but once Christmas is over it seems like it should get warm and be going into springtime. But we still have just over 2 months before it gets warm again according to the calendar. We shall see who is right.

One final note: Baby is growing well and Emily and I are literally "gearing up" for her arrival. We have done most of our baby registry at Babies R Us and we hope that we can also get lots of hand-me-downs from siblings, friends, family, and anyone who has girly baby stuff that they want to get rid of.

A Baby? ... A BABY GIRL!

Okay ... for those who don't follow my life on facebook that much or who aren't in my immediate family, you probably haven't heard that Emily and I found out that we are going to have a girl in may. We are so excited and everyone we know has asked us if we know for sure that it is a girl. Well ... we have been into our doctor for our official ultrasound (20 week mark) and also we are participating in a first time pregnancy study at the hospital that gets us 3 extra ultrasounds over the course of the pregnancy, and to top it all off when Emily hit her 15 week mark we went to a commercial ultrasound place to get the gender then as well. So needless to say it has been checked 4 times since the 15 week mark. We do have a few names picked out but not quite sure which one we are going to use until we see her.

In the next few days I am going to scan and put some of the ultra sound pictures up on this blog for all of you to see.

Emily and I had such a great Christmas this year. We didn't have much to spend on each other but we did get quite a few baby things from parents and friends. We are so grateful that everything is going well in Emily's pregnancy. Hopefully everything will continue to well and everything will run smoothly and normally. 

My new years resolution... Keep my wife healthy and happy!

Hello McFly!!!

In Back to the Future the main character Marty McFly is tormented and taunted by Biff Tannen. And when Marty or one of the other versions of a McFly character are around Biff; Biff will come up to him and say, "Hello, McFly!" and knock on his head like a door. This image now has become an iconic move to denote stupidity or that the person being knocked on is somehow less intelligent.

Well I have been having this image totally running though my head today as several people in my training class asked questions or made comments that were.... well..... totally a "McFly" moment. And when I hear them say these things I just want to go up to them and knock on their head and say "Hello, McFly!" or "Wake Up, McFly!" Our class seems to be weeding itself into two groups. First is the group of people that are totally understanding and can pick up on everything and are going to make great reps and then the other is the group that are struggling to grasp even the most simple of concepts and are taking most of the trainers time.

Emily is going to start her training again on Tuesday and I'm sure that she will probably be saying the same things to me when she gets to the same point. I have to take my second assessment test tomorrow. Hopefully I won't make the same silly mistakes I made on the last one. (Which I actually got a 90% on, which isn't to bad.) With a little luck and a lot of understanding hopefully I can ace this one.

Early to Bed and Early to Rise Makes ....

... A Good Boy Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. Or at least that's how I think it goes. I'm learning that as my body adjusts to this new schedule of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready for work that I now seem to have more energy and I feel like I accomplish more even though I have the same amount of time each day.

This job is very exciting to learn all of the new things that Verizon Wireless does and how they really treat their customers. I have never seen a company with so much focus on the customer care and the importance of the customers feelings as much as I have with this job. Everything is centered around the customers experience and helping the customer get the exact service they need even if that means reducing their plan to a cheaper one. They also have great express service options that allow customers to do almost everything one their own without the help of a customer care representative. I am glad that as a customer care representative I can be honest and open with customers and tell them that we are here to help them get the best service that Verizon Wireless can provide. From the exceptional coverage to the great plans and phones, they have truly cornered the market on helping customers and making sure that each one of them is taken care of. I just hope that I can learn everything well enough so that I can help a lot of people become promotional customers for Verizon Wireless.

As you can see I am very excited and now it is actually time for bed (8:45 pm) so that I can be up again and learn more tomorrow at training.

What to Expect When Your (Wife is) Expecting

So I've been reading the "What to Expect When Your Expecting" book and I have to say that you could pretty much some up the book in one simple statement. "Expect Everything!" Every single month there is something different. There are constant mood swings, cravings, morning sickness, body changes, and many other things that I will not go into right now. In the book there is a section or the "dads" to read but it is so short and only has a few help and tips. I feel like I'm in the dark on a lot of this and I really don't know what to do sometimes. I worry so much when Emily says that she is hurting or emotional or when she says, "I feel fat". I worry that I will say or do the wrong thing or that I am not supportive enough. There are so many things that I wish there was a manual for the husbands to follow to help us get through the pregnancy. I'm so glad that we are having a baby but sometimes I just wish that the woman having the baby would stay more level headed.

I love my wife and she is being such a trooper about her morning sickness and I love her for being understanding when I need to have some time to just relax or even be by myself. May 16th will not come soon enough.

Keeping Training Along

So today was the 2nd day of my training at ACS and I am already a bit bored with my training. Not because I am not interested in the material but more because we have 50+ people in our class and we have to wait for everyone to be at the same place and to keep up and I usually can do whatever our trainer says in about 5 seconds and the rest of the class takes about 1 or 2 minutes or even more to do the same thing. So I always have to just sit and wait for them to catch up and I get terribly bored. I really worry for the other people because the production floor will probably eat them alive. I just want to learn quickly in a professional space where the people are just as professional.

There is so much I want to learn and it can't come fast enough. BRING IT ON! 

Keep Training Along!

The End and a New Start

So today is a big day for me. Today marks the end of an "era" at my work for IDS (Wayne Jones Co.) I think that working for your family is a great thing for some people but you have to have just the right relationship to do that and I just don't think I was one of those people. I honestly love what I do but the dynamics of working with family is very hard and I just don't think is was the right thing for me.

Tomorrow I will start work at ACS in North Salt Lake doing inbound calling for Verizon Wireless as a customer care representative. They actually are still hiring too. So if you are looking for a good job this would be a great place. We get great benefits and discounts on a ton of stuff including discounts on apple products.

There is also some great news that I haven't shared with you but you may already know. My Wife, Emily is pregnant with our first child and she is due on May 16th 2012. I am so excited and terrified. I have wanted to be a daddy for so long but the timing was just never right for having one until now. We will find out around Thanksgiving time what the sex of the baby is. We are both hoping for a girl.

Emily has been such a trooper with the morning sickness and having to get up early in the morning to go to her job. Sometimes it is really hard and I wish so much that I could just do it for her but I just have to be here for her and let her cry on my shoulder when she needs it. I hope that she is just as excited as I am. I love her so much and she has been such and inspiration to me and I hope that she knows how much I love her.

Temporary Lapse in Desire

To all those who have been reading my blog I appologize for not keeping up on it lately. Some things in my life have become very complicated and this blog has not been the biggest priority. However I have worked throughh some issues and found some porper compromise and hopefully this blog will become a more regular occurance than just every few months. My plan is to be able to have a few words of wisdom each week or even twice a week if time permits. With all this technogoly you might think that we would have more time but it seems that no matter how much time we can find in a day, we will always seem to fill it up with more and more stuff.

So now on to what I really want to talk about. I was sitting here this morning listening to a conference talk on the church's website (lds.org) and I chose it totally at random just because I liked the voice of the speaker (Elder Oaks) and his talk was on desire and the desires of our hearts. It touched my heart in a way that I have not feflt in a long time. It really made me think about where I have been putting the priorities in my life. In the past I have always justified my desire to go and work with the reason that I am "bringing home the bacon" for my wife and family. But in actuality I must be honest and say that go to work more for rmyself because, one, I love what I do for work; and two, that sometimes I need some space to sit and think about all the things that are going on in my life. I'm not saying that I don't love my wife or want to be with her every moment of every day but more that I just sometimes need to have some time to sit and reflect and make good decisions.

So now over my desk at work I have this priority list in a target like image. Starting at the center (bullseye) is GOD and then going outward are the labels: Wife, Family, Work, Education and Fun (respectively) and over the target are the words "Where does it fit in your priorites?" It has been an enormous help and getting thing back into perspective has opened my eyes to all of the more important things that I have/or have not been doing.