Happy Birthday Beautiful

I just want to wish Monica a happy birthday and let everyone know how much I love my wife. I am grateful for her. She is an amazing mom and wife, and she is my best friend. She puts up with a lot being married to me, but never really complains.
For her birthday we are going out to dinner as a family and then tomorrow we will go see the Scarlet Pimpernel at The Hale Centre Theatre. I think she's excited, if not she sure hides her disappointment well. Monica, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Scouts

Sam and Ammon have been working this summer on their cub scouts. I am proud of both of them. Sam earned his religous knot, 1 gold arrow, and 3 silver arrows. Ammon earned his Bobcat, and 5 belt loops. Way to go boys!

Back to School

Sam and Ammon started back to school on the 19th, and Bella's first day of kindergarten was yesterday. This is a picture of them just before school (Bella has afternoon kindergarten so her hair wasn't done yet). She was so excited to go all day she kept asking, "Is it time yet?" I would say no, and she would say, "I just want to go to school". She did so well too. She just walked right in and didn't even look back at me. She could care less if I stayed or left. Joshua on the other hand cryed when we left without Bella. We had some nice one on one time at home though. When I went to pick the kids up from school, the first thing Bella told me was, "Mom, guess what?! I got homework!" all excited like. I heard Ammon telling her in the back seat of the car that he used to like homework, but now he doesn't anymore. Bella loved her first day. Today was good too because she got a Popsicle as a snack. Sam and Ammon are enjoying being back in school as well.

Coming full Circle

Things have come full circle for me today. I have been wearing this bracelet since March. It was given to everyone involved with the youth temple celebration. We got it at a youth fireside introducing the plans for the youth celebration. We were told to wear it everyday as a reminder to ourselves to go to the temple, or keep ourselves worthy to go. It is also a tool to let others know about the temple. It says, "Come Up To The Mountain".

So I have been faithfully wearing it, never taking it off, not even for showers for 5 months now. I was going to take it off after the youth celebration in May, but decided to keep it on till the dedication of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I have been wearing it with pride, as I went to the temple, volunteered at the temple open house, and now today as I went to the temple dedication. It is actually hard to take it off. Kind of like taking off the missionary tag. It has been a constant reminder of the peace, love, and joy I have felt has I have had the opportunity to serve, and be a part of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Now I can't wait to go and serve in this beautiful temple.

Here I am at work

Well here I am at work and I was looking at our family's blog and saw that there were some comments left on post I did about my job. So I decided to give an update.
I probably have the easiest job on the face of the planet. I sit here do a little work throughout the day, but mostly I sit and stare out the window from my desk. I have done what I can to make my office a reflection of me. When I got here it looked too feminine since the old manager was female. So I took all the frilly stuff down and put up my baseball stuff.
I guess I should go back a little and say starting this week I have the easiest job in the world. For the last few weeks I've been dealing with a situation which tried my patience and my willingness to stay at it. The old manager decided that taking the coffee maker when she left wasn't enough so she accessed the account with some checks that she took with her and drained the bank account of $20,000 by the time she was caught. Well every loan that I wrote and every check that I made out bounced because the bank closed the account as soon as the fraud was discovered. I had to deal with all the angry and confused people. It was good in that I showed the company what I am capable of, and I continued to write loans and get them funded during the whole ordeal even though it consisted of a lot more hoops to jump through for the client. I had several of the VP's of the company here working with me and the Chief Marketing officer here a couple of days and they were all very impressed with my abilities. I did tell them that if they were trying to get rid of me they were doing all the right things to do it. It is all taken care of now, I had to yell at the Senior Executive VP and the CFO of the company to resolve it, but now I am able to work smoothly without problems. At least for now. All in all there are not too many jobs where you can sit and do nothing for about 75% of the day (most days not all) and get paid for it.

"This Is America" song video

I was touched by this song and what it says about our Nation.

Well on Friday I finished my last day working for American Title Loans, and Monday the 20th of July I will be starting my tenure as the Branch Manager for Lighthouse Financial. I am pretty excited about the prospect of helping the business grow and being paid to do so.

The owner of American Title Loans came by the other day to talk to me before I left and wanted me to know that he appreciated all that I did for him during the 1 1/2 months that I was there for him. He mentioned that everybody attributed the growth of his business to my efforts. He asked that I keep him in mind for the future. He is wanting to open another store next year and wants to offer me the position of Regional Manager. I told him that it would all depend on the offer, but that I would be willing to keep him in mind for the future. When I left on Friday he told me that I am always welcome to come back at any time. It is always nice to know that if something goes wrong I will at least have a job to fall back to.

I am grateful to a loving and kind Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to provide for my family. We still need to make up for some additional income that we need, but at least now we are in a better position to be able to fully take care of our financial needs. I've seen the hand of God in this and I am humbled by His goodness.