Thanks, Katy

Haha, these are always kind of fun -- in a guilty pleasure kind of way.


You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

So now I'm married

Which means I have crossed the threshold from singles blogging to couples blogging -- in other words, Eric and I have transformed his blog into our blog. The new url is iseebadgers.blogspot.com, so if you want to check it out, feel free!

Love you all!

Energy

Eric and I have a good friend who's pretty much a genius. I love reading his blogs on political policies because he's the type who does pretty well avoiding partisan bias and looks at the cold hard facts -- the consequences that politicians seem to ignore.

Anyways, I was reading his blog post about oil economics and think he has very viable arguments.

http://blog.brucec.net/2008/06/oil-economics.html

I was listening to KSL on the radio the other day. They were talking to the CEO from Energy Solutions about nuclear power. I think he made some good points, but I still don't know enough about nuclear energy and its consequences to have a fully-formed opinion.

All I know is that our gluttonous nation is going to face the consequences of our excess very soon.

I'm Married!

Got married this weekend. It was pretty cool.

Here's a picture from our photo shoot with my sister-in-law Jessica and her friend Tiffany (whose photo this is). More can be seen at artphotographs.blogspot.com, and I hope to see some of Jessica's edits before too long!

Really, I'm just so glad to be married to my best friend. We love and laugh together. Who knew two people could grow so much in just 10 months?! We really are different people because of being together. Better people.

We had a quick little honeymoon in Salt Lake and enjoyed that time together and then it was back to Provo for some fun with Eric's family at the water park. I had class last night and my professor was a little surprised to see me there (knowing I'd gotten married just two days before) but I'm a glutton for punishment -- I mean, school is important...

Now I have a home. Apartments always seemed so sterile to me, as if I could never find emotional attachment to the place. Maybe that's why I moved so much over the last three years: seven times! But our little tiny one bedroom apartment at Wymount holds an attachment and I feel, for the first time in Provo, like I'm coming home.

Love is grand.

Temperment

So I don't have much of a temper. Usually if I get upset there's very little real anger. Crying is usually a must.

But I've discovered my temper.

It comes out when I'm driving. Because I hate when people do stupid things! It drives me nuts to see people take risks with their own lives and the lives of the innocent people driving around them.

Oh, and I cannot stand it when people get mad at other drivers because they're not speeding or something. No one's life is at risk if someone's going 65 in a 65 (heaven forbid someone go the speed limit!). It's even worse when they get mad about 70 in a 65. What's your deal? Are you really in so much of a hurry that you can't back off someone's tail in the carpool lane?

Last night I lost my temper. There was an old man turning right. He was taking it very slow around that curve. I admit, if I'd been behind him I probably would have been annoyed at how slow he was going. But I never would have honked at him. But the guy behind him did. I got so incensed at what I'd seen that I lay on my horn and glared at the guy as he drove by. He thought he was so funny and grinned and waved. He knew why I'd honked at him.

I was not amused.

Now, granted, I lost my temper and that's not how I should have reacted. His actions should have simply inspired me to never be like that.

My biggest problem is that it was such a reminder of how our society is degenerating. I think about how my grandfather treats people. His generation still understood what it is to respect others.

In Generation Me, or whatever you want to call this new group of young adults, there's little patience or respect for anyone. The world is doing a good job of getting us to focus inward and only worry about ourselves. What was that young man thinking as he honked at that elderly man? "Man, this guy's so slow. He might make me 30 seconds later getting home." Oh, what a travesty!

I continued to be upset after, mainly because Eric called me out on getting too worked up and reminding me that I didn't need to get involved like that. I realized I'd become guilty of a similar lack of compassion as the other guy. I shouldn't have let myself get so frustrated and let my temper get the best of me. It was ok to observe that the guy shouldn't have done what he did, but getting upset about it didn't help anything.

All-in-all, I think the experience will be a good one for me to remember as I get frustrated with other people, no matter the setting. What are their motivations? Are the effects of their actions worth letting contention enter my life and risking losing the spirit? If I really want to escape the societal trends, I need to be above that.

Exercise

I worked out on purpose yesterday.

It felt great. Now I'm a little sore, but I kind of like the feeling. I thought that after how simple it was to take a small chunk of my day to do some pilates, I would be better motivated today to continue and work on creating a habit.

Oh how the forces of laziness work against me.

Let's just say that after eating lunch, I decided to wait a while to let my food settle.

Then it was "Oh, I'll just finish watching this CNN story about the psychological effects of the violence in Iraq on Iraqi children's intellectual development."

After that I decided that I should work on another goal I have -- reading "Emma."

Two pages into a chapter I zonked and didn't wake up until Eric got home from running.

So much for being nice to my body today!

The problem is that I let these "good" things take the place of what I'd really needed and wanted to do. It all goes back to the whole "good, better, best" talk from Elder Oaks in conference last year. CNN reports aren't bad, and neither is "Emma," but I really, really need to take better care of my body, and I know that.

So, the goal is to get up early tomorrow and do one of the ten-minute workouts on the DVD I got from the library in my newfound determination. I'm thinking that if I can get myself to wake up earlier to work out, then I'm for sure determined enough to continue--very few things can entice me to wake up earlier!

If, when you see me next, I have nicely defined abs, you'll know I succeeded and you can congratulate me.

Otherwise, tell me I'm going to be crippled with arthritis at 40 if I don't start doing something.

Learning new things

Today as I studied for my independent study class I got to the portion on "Standing For Something," President Hinckley's book. In it he discussed the virtue of continuing your education and always striving to learn more things. I glowed as I pondered this aspect of a modern prophet's teachings.

This past weekend I started two IT classes: Web Publishing and Adobe Publishing. They're required for my major, but these are requirements I don't mind at all! I'm loving the new skills I'm learning and I'm especially enjoying that these skills help me create beautiful things!

How grateful I am for opportunities to learn.