Totally forgot about this...

So, Kara and I have this website called mikeandkaraforever.com, but I don't like it...I love the idea, but the one we are using is a pain in the patooty. So I was looking for a simple blog that Kara and I could use for you people to follow to send easy updates for our wedding stuff, and I saw blogger.com. I clicked on it and saw I was a member already, then I saw this blog and was like "huh O.o, what is?" Totally forgot about this. lol.

life of a new college stoodint

So, I dunno how spiritual my posts will be, but they'll be useful because you guys will have updates on my life =]

As many of you now know, I have moved in with Kara. Her parents are cool with it. Tim (her step-dad) is funny because he says he' sometimes rather have Kara live with Laura and keep me. But her mom isn't cool with that.

I've started college, finished my second week of it, but because of the snow, I only had like one day of classes. I'm majoring in Business and Administration, and classes I'm taking this semester are Biology and Bio Lab, Introduction to Sociology, English 101 and World History. I kind of like them all. Sociology is already done, Kara and I took an accelerated class, so it was done in a week. All we have to do now is get the papers turned in on time.

Now, when I'm done here, Kara and I plan on taking a few forevers to zig zag across the country to visit family and move to California (either San Francisco for Le Cordon Bleu, or Saint Helena in Napa Valley for Culinary Institute of America). So, I'm going to be a Chef. Kara is going to finish her business degree out there too, and when we're done we're going to open a restaurant. We planned on opening a little cafe at first on Main Street in Newark to get our name our there and get some income, then go on and open more restaurants and build a freaking empire and slowly take over the world with delicious food, kind of like Wal*Mart is with super low prices.

Now, this kind of thing is only going to happen with hard work and dedication. And investors...But mostly hard work and dedication.

That's about it I guess...

Love you all!

Blazze Blazze

So Danielle isn't really on the whole blogging scene. Oh well. And I would've posted sooner, but didn't realize that the request had gone to my junk mail. lol! Oh well. Again. I don't really have much to say. Since I've been back, Danielle and I have been quite thoroughly on the road to being a couple, rather than roommates with benefits. XD!

We had a great time car shopping this week. For the first time, we actually slowed ourselves down and thought logically about what we were doing. And we did have a few close calls - there was one car we both really liked, it was a sexy Chevrolet Malibu LTZ, 2006 - fully loaded. Awesome little car with decent fuel economy, but our payments were up around 270. We almost got it anyway. Not cool, considering we're still making payments of 310 on the Durango.

Then we looked at a 2006 Honda Civic that was also a gorgeous little car. Only a two door when one of our main objectives was to get a 4 door, but for 40 mpg, it was worth it. So we said. Even when we saw it was a manual transmission and neither of us know how to drive it, we almost got it anyway, saying that my buddy could teach us to drive it. I'm sure I would've been feeling a horrible buyer's remorse once I burned out the clutch! lol.

We saw some other nice cars, like a Hyundai Sonata and a Ford Fusion - but all of them were at the very very peak of our price range, if not past it. All it was was dealers saying "yeah, we can get your payments under 250" and then showing me cars that were upwards of 13,000 dollars.

It took me finding a salesman that had been on the job less than a month to get what we really needed. The Yaris definitely isn't the most attractive on the inside, and it doesn't even have bloopbloop! But, it's four doors, same fuel economy as the Civic, and only has 34,000ish miles. It's smaller than I would have preferred, but I jumped on it for the price. They made me a good deal on the price of the car, and then the finance manager lowered the price of their dealer warranty so I could still keep a low payment but be protected. He said I'm too low ranked and making too little, and he couldn't send me off with one of his cars in good conscience without making sure I'm protected. He took a little loss on that, so to me it's assurance that not all car dealers are selfish cutpurses.

So yeah - it was a good experience for both me and Danielle. We're usually so spontaneous, it was good to slow down and take things a little more carefully. The car we bought before the Durango, and the dog we recently gave away were both indications that we need to slow down more often.

first post

So I thought I’d write the first post so everyone can see kinda what I’m looking for but really it can be anything as long as it’s on the spiritual plane in some way.
So, last summer in RS we were challenged to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days. For each day there was a reading assignment and a thought question. We put those into notebooks so that we can write down our thoughts when we read. It was really a great thing. It got me started on a scripture reading journal that I have been able to write a lot about what came to mind while I read the scriptures. I got lots of insights that way.
Well, since completing that program I’ve decided to go back and read again and keep another journal, not with the same reading assignments and questions but blank, for me to go at my own pace this time and write whatever I am feeling as I read. This journal has turned into not just for scriptures but for anything I am thinking about spiritually. It’s like my own small plates. :)
Anyway, an entry from a couple days ago I thought would be good to share:
I was reading Jacob 5, the parable of the Olive trees, where the Lord has His vineyard and His old beloved tree is failing so he moves some of it’s branches out and intermixes them through the other trees of the vineyard. And then he takes some of the branches of the wild trees and grafts them to his beloved tree. The tree being His people and the wild trees the world etc. The branches from the original tree are strong at first and don’t let the “world” trees affect them. But then after a season they become affected by the “world” trees and their fruit is bitter.
Alan and I and our family are a branch in the orchard and our children are the fruit. It’s up to us to bring forth good and tame fruit. We, ourselves, have to be good and tame and take nourishment from what the Lord has given us – scriptures, church, the gospel, good friends and family, our faith, prayer, temple work etc…
We cannot let the world affect us and become part of us or the fruit will become part of the world. We need to send that nourishment from the Lord to our own fruit so that later they can become tame branches and put forth their own good and tame fruit. And so we can all be preserved and called the Lord’s.

New Family Blog

I am going to try something new. I don’t know how it will work or how big it will get but let’s see.

This blog is a result of my trying to find something I could do to get to know my family better and for us to help each other “get there” - to reach our full potential in a spiritual sense. To return to our Father again and have him say to us “Well done.” I am hoping to make this a place where we each can write our thoughts, goals, ideas, aspirations, inspirations, questions and whatever we need to know or to share that will help us in our spiritual progression.

It is not a place where we cast judgment on one another or bring in drama. It is simply a place for spiritual growth and encouragement.

By creating this blog I am not passing judgment on anyone. Anyone of our family is free to read, post to, lurk, whatever they want as long as it is good and uplifting.

I have been thinking lately what my place is in my family. What can I contribute because I don’t feel like I contribute much. A couple lessons at church lately made me think about where I am headed. Am I going in the right direction? Am I going to be okay?

I think I know where I am headed or at least where I want to be in the end. I am trying my very best to get there. It’s not easy. I’m not perfect. My family is not perfect. In fact if you walked in my door right now you would immediately see that we are flawed.

But we are trying. And I know that others in my family are really trying too. This is a way that we can share with each other our thoughts and help each other out. There was a talk recently where a story was told about a woman who’s mantra was that there would be no empty chairs. I need to go find that talk sometime and read it again. But she really did not want any of her family to be left behind. She wanted everyone to be there with her, to progress and do their darnedest to make it. That’s what I want too.

Anyways as I said, I know where I want to go. However, if I get there, will I find out that I could have brought someone with me and I didn’t? And they didn’t make it? It would be my deepest regret and sorrow. I want all of my family to be with me.

How are we all doing? I know everyone is at a different place in their spiritual lives but maybe we can help each other out. Like the picture of the angel helping the children across the stream we can lookout for each other too – be each other’s angels.

Mom gave a talk in church on Sunday and one of the stories she shared that really touched me was a conversation she’d had with a bishop once during a temple recommend interview. He asked her at the end if she felt worthy to go to the temple. This is a standard question and it’s up to us to answer it as we feel to answer it. She had said she didn’t know how to answer the question. She thought so but she wasn’t sure where exactly she stood in the whole eternal picture. I know we all have that same question. We all would like to ask Heavenly Father where exactly do we stand? How does He see us?

Well, the bishop told her to look back on the past year and ask herself if she felt that she had grown spiritually in any area of her life. If the answer is yes, then you are progressing and headed on the right path. If not, then you need to take a step back and see what you need to do differently. Then do that.

This is so important to remember. We do need to try to grow and progress a little bit at a time. We aren’t perfect and we have a long long road before we can ever be there. The Lord knows we aren’t perfect. If we were, we wouldn’t need Him. He makes up for our shortcomings after we have done all that we can do.

We also need to keep going, keep taking that look back and keep making changes that help us to grow. The more we do so the better off we are and the faster we become who our Father in Heaven sees we can become.

So, look at where you are. How are you doing? Are you progressing? Or are you taking a risk and not really caring right now? Are you trying but not sure how? Whatever the answer, now try out these questions: Will you regret not doing more? Will you regret not following Christ’s example? Will you be happy forever in the life you are living now?

Ack! sorry. This is not meant to be a guilt trip or to stress you out. It was starting to stress me out. Take a look at where you’re at. See what you can improve on. Don’t overwhelm yourself either. Pick one or two things to work on. If you pray about it and ask Heavenly Father what He thinks you should work on, I assure you He will help you to choose something that will benefit you the most right now.

Set a goal. Share your goal if you care to. We are here to support it. The blog is for our benefit. Maybe we can even all set a goal to work on together.

Also, when you have an insight from church or from your own personal study, share it here. It may help someone else too.

If you have a particular talk you liked from General Conference or an article in the Ensign share it here.

If you have a question about something, ask it here. If you get an answer and you want to share it, share it here.

If you felt the spirit and care to share it, share it here.

If you feel lost or need help, ask here.

If you just want to lurk for a while and soak up what you want, lurk here.

Let us support each other here.

If you are with me I’ll add you to the list as an editor. Assuming that’s possible. If it’s not possible then email me what you want to share and I’ll copy and paste it into a post.

I am hoping to set this up so that at the very least each of my siblings and their spouses/significant others can post to this blog. The goal is for everyone to write thoughts, questions, answers and for us to either together or individually set goals that will help us to grow more and more as we go along.

Let’s see if we can make this work. Who’s with me?