I enjoyed sleeping in a bit this morning before getting up to read. Our meetings this morning got cancelled because President Mattson is sick. I was really sad to hear that, but I did like the extra reading time it gave me.

Church was kind of odd without President Mattson there. Then Brother Rigby left half way through fast and testimony meeting, I presume to take care of something with Pres Mattson as he followed Sister Mattson out. He was just sick – throwing up all morning – but apparently they decided to take him to the hospital. He had some surgery done recently and this may be a complication from that surgery. Last I heard he was being moved to Riverside from Inland Valley where Brother Rigby can keep a better eye on him and better direct his care.

Our fast and testimony meeting was different with the smaller group. There was a lot of quiet time while we were waiting for people to get up and talk. Then there was a huge surge at the end of people which kept us going late. Then we had announcements that took forever and this get to know your shepherd so we are ready for the emergency drill later this month thing… It was 2:45 before we started Sunday School! I felt really bad for Marissa because she had so much material to cover and so little time to do it. I told her to go till 3:15, figuring that without any of the branch presidency around, who was going to stop us. It was good, but we could have used twice as much time, as always.

Sister Rider taught a lesson for the 3rd hour on prayer. Surprisingly, it seemed like the time she had left worked perfectly for her lesson. She did a great job with a simple lesson reinforcing a major tool. Break the Fast was awesome. Shay is really going to town with her calling. The pasta bar worked out beautifully and we had plenty of food. I’m anxious to see what she has up her sleeves for next month.

Things were kind of quiet at the Dowden’s this afternoon, but we made it through.

I really want to elaborate more, but I need to get to bed as Tara is making me show up to work on time tomorrow morning! I’m going to try to make it there on time, but every minute I delay going to bed is lessening those chances.

I still have gotten nowhere with plans for next weekend. It sounds like Larilyn may be up for going, so I just need to hear back from the other open invitations. I was thinking about going up early and spending some time in Rexburg, so I may have to consider that in the flightplans. Maybe I can get this figured out tomorrow before I am out of options!

I managed to have a fairly relaxing day today. I pulled myself out of bed this morning around 7:30 to go for a ride with Ryan. Of course, I couldn’t get him out of bed – but I didn’t try all that hard. He finally called me back around 9:15 and we decided to go. It apparently had been way too long since we’d been for a ride because I was laboring quite hard and was just about ready to collapse when we got back. I hope we can get another ride in this week since we won’t be going next weekend.

I’m not 100% sure what I spent the rest of the morning doing. I know I updated the church website with the calendar for the month. I cut my hair and ate tri-tip for lunch. I’m sure there was more time in there, but I can’t think of what I did, so I hope it wasn’t too bad.

The wedding went well today, although I found I was quite frustrated most of the time for some reason. I was letting stupid little things get to me for no reason at all. I spent some time trying to figure out what the heck was going on with all the batteries in the drawer. There were literally batteries everywhere and I just assumed they were all dead. some of them were brand new still in the boxes! I went through and tested all of them and figured out which ones were still good and which ones were bad. Surprisingly, there were only a few that actually came out what I would consider dead, so they’ve got a bunch more to keep them going now.

I took the opportunity to play with Shure’s wireless workbench during the wedding. I had a singer so I had the second rack already out so I figured I could play with the spare channel. It was interesting seeing the signal level change for what seemed like no apparent reason. it must have been people shifting positions in their chairs blocking the signal. Needless to say, even with 100 mw on those bodypacks, it would be hard to get a clean signal all the time without the paddles. I also tried to play with finding the best frequencies to use, but couldn’t find the setting for using high power transmitters. I guess with only four in use I probably don’t have to worry too much, but it would be nice to know.

I came home and spent the evening watching a movie after making pasta. I was kind of hoping to make it to Knott’s Scary Farm tonight with Aimee and Amanda, et al. but I knew once the wedding got started i wasn’t going to make it out of there with nearly enough time to make it work. It doesn’t look like I’ll be going with the branch next week either as I now have a meeting with President Smith on Wednesday evening. It has been nice to have a few evenings at home, although I haven’t gotten as much done as I would like. I can’t remember the last time I got into reading a book, but maybe I can get back on that track tomorrow.

I was looking just a few minutes ago for flights to SLC. I don’t understand why it is so hard to have non-stop flights to places these days! The best deals seem to be Southwest – driving to LAX to get the non-stop – or JetBlue from San Diego or Long Beach. I thought I saw a deal from Delta last week for $59 for LAX to SLC, but that must have been for this weekend and not next. I guess I need to figure out what the heck it is I’m going to do and do it. There is the driving option as well, but that takes away two plus days from being productive. It sounds like Kristin isn’t going anymore and neither is Tara nor Brooke. Time is certainly running out to figure out what I’m doing and when I’m going to do it. I’m supposed to check in Friday evening to the Marriott, so I guess I have to get there one way or the other!

Well, I guess I am off to bed to mull over my options for the time being.

This moron needs to get a freaking life. You paid an early adopter fee. It happens with everything. So the price came down earlier than you expected. You didn’t get your 8 gb model you wanted, but you were too impatient to wait so you bought the 4 gb model.

AppleInsider | Apple, Jobs, AT&T sued over iPhone price cut, rebates

If you really want a reason to sue Apple and AT&T, why not sue them for having a horrible network and not being able to support the phone

I think Apple was fair in giving customers price protection in the past two weeks and giving a $100 store credit to previous  purchasers. That’s more than most other companies would do – especially in the mobile phone market!

It seems that this busy week is coming to a close finally. The house got put in my name today, so we are clear to actually sell it next week and be done!

The drizzle this morning was beautiful. I woke up to the sound of water in the rain gutters and was so happy to have the unexpected rain. I didn’t go outside and go singing in the rain, but I did enjoy it enough to get up early and made sure to spend some time listening to it.

I just spent about an hour looking for information about the possible inland riverside county freeway which my dad says may go through French Valley, but I can’t find anything useful. i did find something about a proposed French Valley Parkway which would add a fairly major road from the 15 between Winchester and the 215 split to 79 around Murrieta Hot Springs. It looks like this would go straight through Harveston and I don’t see any plans for leaving open space there.

I looked at some smaller homes today which were nice. They felt more like townhomes, although they were actually detached units. The problem I see is that there is hardly a price difference between them and something much bigger which I could probably stay in for many years to come…

Looks like there is no common sense in the real estate industry. We went ahead and filed the affidavit of succession to transfer the title of my mom’s house to my name – or rather – we sent it to our agent to do so for us. In talking with a different title person today, she indicated that this is the way it is done everywhere and it just isn’t possible to sell a house until it can be retitled in someone else’s name. It seems to me this must mean that many times the bank has to take over and sell the house after foreclosing because I don’t think most people have the funds available to continue paying the mortgage! My dad pointed out that many elderly people may have their houses paid off so this may not be as big of a problem as I think, but it seems so stupid to me that the executor of the estate cannot actually deal with the estate’s property!

In other news I was busy trying to catch up at the office today. I left a bit early to get my affidavit notarized and FedExed and then went to look at KB homes on Murrieta Hot Springs. They actually weren’t bad. I really liked that one of the models had two interior garage doors. It had the tandem style for one car and a two car in front. Each area had its own door into the house at a different point – and neither one went directly through the laundry room! I then tried to get lost on backroads before meeting Batch, Christa and Bouse for dinner at BJ’s. I headed to Institute and then rushed home for the season premier of CSI and am now watching Without a Trace…

I really don’t know why I bother trying to get to bed early. I always end up getting distracted with something else…

Thing were quite busy in the office today, but we got slammed it seemed once Tara left and after we officially closed at 5. I still have 43 unread messages in my inbox. I’m not sure I can count all the POs I sent today and I’ve got more to send when I get in tomorrow morning.

In any event, I left my unfinished work at the office around 6 to meet Alison for dinner at Macaroni Grill. I finally got to see her new ice blue Mazda 3. I think I spent too much time talking…

The 80’s activity tonight went fairly well. The turnout was kind of low for a while, but then everyone seemed to show up around 8. We played a trivia kind of game on the TV which was focused on naming movies based on lines or other facts from them. There were a few good outfits. I managed to get away wearing my decades of decibels EV shirt and jeans.

It seems like there is no further progress on selling the house. Escrow is supposed to close in less than a week now, but no one seems to know how we are even selling the house. I hope we can get this figured out and done! We also spent some time trying to get a refund out of the IRS tonight, but they are telling us that they can’t discuss anything with us and we need to write a letter. What a stupid organization!

I’ve written way too much, so I’m going to bed now. Good night and God Bless!

I’m reposting these from Melissa’s facebook. I don’t know the original source, so if you do, please post so we will all know.

never take someone for granted. hold every person close to your hear because you might wake up one day and realize that you lost a diamond while you were to busy collecting stones…

some people walk in the rain, others just get wet

like a tree needs the earth,
like the night needs the moon,
like the stars need the sky,
like the guitar needs the tune,
my world needs you.

sometimes people put up walls not to keep others out but to see who cares enough to tear them down.

never regret something that once made you smile

pay no mind to those who talk behind your back, it simply means that they are two steps behind.

I got things working with the server around midnight – or at least cooperating. I’m not sure things are 100%, but people can work and that is all that matters to me! FHE last night talked a lot about patience, of which we already know I have none. Someday I’ll learn, but I don’t think that someday is going to be today!

I didn’t make it to the office until close to 11 today after sleeping in. I was pretty busy most of the day and have a lot of work ahead of me already for tomorrow. I did get out ontime this afternoon and went to look at houses. It turns out my house to beat has come down about $50k so is looking better each and everyday. In fact, they’ve got a thing going on one of the houses we looked at back in June which is still available. It’s ready for move in at this point, but it isn’t the craftsman style. It isn’t bad, but there is another one that is a craftsman on a back corner lot which is about 13,000 sq feet as opposed to the other which is only 7800 sq ft. It would be ready Decemberish, but they don’t have a big promo on it, yet.

I’d been thinking about renting for a year to see where things go, but I don’t really want to deal with moving anymore than is necessary and I’m getting ready to stop driving to and from Fallbrook constantly. I guess I just really need to decide on a location. French Valley would be great for the office – at least where it is currently, but who knows how long that will last and it is so far away from the freeways. That may not be a huge ordeal, but it seems like I’d still be 30 mins away from everything, except the office and Melissa. The office might be a decent reason to be nearby, but I don’t think I should buy a house just to be near Melissa who is leaving in less than a year!

Well, there is probably more to be said, but I think I’m going to head to bed in an attempt to make it to the office on-time tomorrow. Oh yeah…. Does everyone realize what day today is? It’s September twenty … and you know what? It still feels … (answers: fifth and good – Rascal Flatts new album came out today and they really drove home this point last week at the concert.)

After getting some work done this morning, I ended up playing with the server this afternoon. I was thinking I would get Exchange installed and figure out how that was going to work for us. I figured out how it is going to work for us – it isn’t! After spending way too much time working on getting it setup, I realized that it broke just about every other service on the machine. I figured I could get things working again, but having no patience, I just started uninstalling Exchange which became a whole nother ordeal in and of itself.

I slept for almost 11 hours last night! I’m pretty sure I went to bed around 10 and I didn’t roll out of bed until about 9 this morning. This makes two days in a row that the entire house was up before me. That’s practically unheard of!

I was able to get my reading done this morning as well as work with a few pictures before heading over to pickup Lauren. Church went well. We talked a lot about friendships today and being true friends to new members and such. I still have a long way to go, but I hope I have been doing a decent job.

Shay made some awesome mint brownies for lingerlonger this afternoon. I can’t even remember how many I ate, but I can guarantee you it was too many. Things went well at the Dowden’s, although the group seemed a little light at times.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about housing. I still think prices could be going down some more, but I wonder if I shouldn’t just buy now to get it done. I’ve been thinking about renting a place in Murrieta or French Valley – even just to try it out – but I don’t want to deal with moving anymore than I absolutely have to. Renting a place for a year could be a great option to let things settle down with the housing industry, but it means I’d have to move in a year or so. I’ve also been thinking that maybe I should just get the townhouse I was originally looking at. Maybe it is time to get serious about looking at what is on the market again.

It ended up raining this morning right after we finished setting up the wedding at the gazebo. It wasn’t pouring, but it did come down pretty good for a while. I went upstairs to check the radar and we made the call to wait it out. We decided that by waiting to start the wedding for a few minutes we could miss the rain and make the bride happy. That was a great plan until we figured out that the clergy wasn’t there yet. We were told he was ten minutes away, so we could go ahead as planned and we could start right on our delayed timeframe. He didn’t show as planned, so we called and found out he was still over fifteen minutes away! At this point we already have everyone seated so we had no option other than to just keep hanging on and waiting for him to show. He finally showed and all went well, other than we were half an hour late at this point.

This afternoon’s wedding went better, but I was rushing around trying to get things done. We had a person translating the ceremony from Spanish to English, so that required an extra microphone which meant I had to go through getting that setup along with getting the new microphone setup and working. It was a great temperature though and we were kept dry, so it all went well.

I then headed up to Murrieta for the softball game. I was afraid there wouldn’t be much time before we ran out of light, but I think I got a few good pictures in. We ended up loosing this week, but it was still an entertaining game. We headed to Dairy Queen after the game and now I’m home getting ready for bed. Even though it is early, I’m so ready to spend a high quality Saturday night studying the inside of my eyelids!

I’m really tired and want to get to sleep, so this will be short – hopefully. We ate way too much at the Excalibur breakfast buffet this morning. The line to get in was way too long and the food wasn’t all that great. I would have rather walked back up the street to Grand Lux Cafe again or something for $10+ each. Oh well. I’m still not all that hungry and that was from 11 o’clock this morning. Yes – we didn’t eat breakfast until almost 11. I was ready to go at 8, but didn’t wake the boys up until 9 and it took them about an hour before they were ready. By the time we took our stuff to the cars and then walked across the street, stood in line and finally got our food – it was almost 11. They were actually putting out lunch as we were going back for seconds and more importantly dessert!

The drive back was ok. We got a good amount of rain, and I mean rain, not any of this normal southern California drizzle crap. I had my windshield wipers going on high at times. I was looking at the marks from where they stop on the windshield this afternoon and noticed how much farther they go when in high mode than they do in standard. They practically shoot off the car. In fact, the top of the driver’s side one may actually leave the windshield.

I got through a little bit of work at the office before heading to the bank and then looking for a new pair of sandals. The retailers must think summer is over because they have nothing left that I can find and actually use! I ate some queso with Batch and Bouse before heading over to Zach’s for a few hours. Nothing crazy to report there, so I’m off to sleep!

Well, I made it up at two something this morning and actually managed to make it to the office at 4:20! I was hoping to leave early, but Larry didn’t end up arriving until a bit after five, so there was really no point. We still made it here in great time, which is all that really matters. In fact, I guess we were a few minutes early so that was good.

The training went well. I was expecting something a bit different, but it was good for the most part nonetheless. I did learn a few things I didn’t know and I’m sure it helped to hear some things again that I don’t get to use everyday.

After the seminar, we checked into the hotel and spent a few minutes getting ourselves situated before leaving for Phantom. We ate at the Grand Lux Cafe, but I just went straight for the dessert – chocolate fudge cake. It was pretty crazy.

Phantom was amazing. The theater was cool. The chandelier was absolutely awesome and I want the stage and rigging system they had. I’d love to know how in the world they store all the set pieces they had popping out of random places. It was great.

I think I’m headed to sleep now. It doesn’t sound like we really have any plans for the morning, so we may just be heading back early unless someone comes up with something to do in Vegas for a few hours in the morning. Who knows, maybe we will end up sleeping and taking our sweet time getting ready and it will be eleven before we know it!

I gave up on beating Tara to the office this morning. I woke up around 5 and said forget this stuff, I’m sleeping! Next thing I knew it was about 7:15. By the time I got out of bed and was taking a shower, I realized I was supposed to go riding with Ryan at 6. Oops! It sounds like he enjoyed his sleep as well, so we’ll have to regroup for Saturday.

It was about 10 by the time I actually got to the office after getting gas so I’m ready for tomorrow morning. I was busy pretty much the entire time I was there just going through paper. I got about half way through my stack. It sounds like I’ve got some work ahead of me on Friday when we return!

Melissa and I went to lunch while Aimee bailed on Pyro. She sent me a text before coming that said she needed to drop her brain off at home and then would be over. I assumed she was being figurative and was going to “leave” the schoolwork she has been wrapped up in at home before coming to get away. I later found out that she wasn’t kidding at all. She actually had a sheep’s brain that needed to be refrigerated. Tara wouldn’t let it near the office, so she had to take it home.

The activity this evening got changed up a bit. We were supposed to be playing dodge-ball or something like that, but we got kicked out of the gym. Fortunately, Melissa and Bro. Rigby were able to come up with an alternative plan which was just as good if not better. They had come up with a bunch of random activities which we drew from a hat and then did as a competition between the two teams. We did a dance off, human sculptures – the hamburger one was really funny, water balloon moving target practice, guess the tune and some other random things. It was hard to get good pictures that accurately portrayed the activities, but I hope I got some good ones.

It is so nice to have my keyboard back at home. I took it in to use on the server, but finally decided today that I need it at home! I’ve got a new one on the way, but I think I saw it was about three weeks backordered.

Now I’m off to sleep so I can get up at 2:30 tomorrow morning. We’re leaving for Vegas between 4:30 and 5 from the office, so I need to try and leave at 4. I’m looking forward to the training and also to seeing Phantom. I don’t know what else we are going to do in Vegas, so I guess we’ll just have to see what comes. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

I keep saying I’m going to make it to bed early, but then I end up looking at pictures on facebook or doing something useless… someday I’ll learn.

I didn’t make it to the office before Tara this morning. In fact, I didn’t even get out of bed until 7:15 or so! I did a lot at the office today, but didn’t get through my stack of paperwork that just keeps getting bigger. I’m hoping to get through it tomorrow before we leave for Vegas. I did get a lot of housekeeping kind of things done though, so that was good.

I was leaving to get lunch today and realized it was so nice outside that I was going to walk. I drove back to the office and told Nathaniel we were walking to lunch. It was on the walk back up the hill that I realized that I really need a new pair of flip flops. I got the current ones wet and they are starting to fall apart. It’s pretty bad especially if you’re spending a lot of time on your feet in them.

I’m looking forward to being able to put a sweatshirt on again. I actually got my BYU-I sweatshirt out yesterday morning and put it in my car so I’ll be prepared. Now it just needs to get a little bit cooler!

I got a call from Brother Dowden as I was leaving the office as he was trying to fill some holes in the schedule for tonight. I actually wanted to get in to talk with him this week, but thought he would be extra busy so I didn’t bother. I told Bro Dowden that I would give him a call after I got my oil changed to see how things were going. After I got my oil changed at Jiffy Lube, I realized I had something in my tire and I was going to have a flat soon. I took my car to Sears where they told me that they could fix it in an hour or so. Neither Nathaniel nor I was really hungry, but I was able to get him to pick me up and take me back to the office so I could at least do something productive. I was hoping to get through some paper, but the QB file was being backed up online so I couldn’t open it. Two something hours later they were finally done with my car. We went back and I decided it was time to head home. I’m going to have a long day tomorrow and going to get little sleep, so I figure it would be good to get a good night sleep tonight. That meant I didn’t get to go out and have fun tonight or enjoy a relaxing evening at home, but I guess that is part of life.

I was thinking today about general conference. Kristin has been bugging me about driving because she wants to carpool. I was thinking about flying to avoid the ten hour drive, but the carpool could be fun. The advantage to flying though that I see is that I could work most of the day Friday instead of driving and fly up there that night or even early Saturday morning. The same goes for Sunday/Monday. I need to try and figure that out this week too.

And now I need to get to sleep and try and get some of these Rascal Flatts songs out of my head!