While couples in love in the HOV fly by

I grew up in a world where when things broke, you fixed them, if something's dirty you clean it, if something's full you empty it. I just don't understand why that is such a hard concept to grasp. It makes perfect sense to me. Lately my house has been a major pig sty, not because of me mind you, because my roommates suddenly forgot how to clean up after themselves. I don't mind taking turns doing the tidying, but if I am the only one cleaning, doing dishes, and fixing things, I get a little...well irritated.

Relationships are supposed to be 50/50, give/take. In this particular situation I am giving 100% and and receiving NOTHING in return. I do all of their dishes, the courteous thing would be for them to do my dishes at least once right? As if to say thanks Jess! I cleaned out the refrigerator last night...that was an adventure! There was expired things from '06 in there! EW!!! I threw away a WHOLE garbage bag of grossness. All the while Liz and Thomas watched TV.

The most rewarding thing was when Kyle came home and was like wow! Jess did you clean out the refrigerator??! I was like ya! Thanks for noticing. This is just another thing that gets annoying. If something you buy goes bad...throw it out!!! Don't just leave it in there rotting! EW! I really wonder how these girls will do in homes of their own. I (their apparent maid) won't be there to clean up their messes anymore.

Current annoyances.....
1. DISHES!!!! We made this "Do your own" rule and it seems that the only one following it is me! I try to teach them a lesson and not do their dishes, but then once it gets incredibly bad I just can't stand it anymore and do them all. It is just so irritating!!! Then it's worse on me because I have to do dishes for over an hour! And then they don't even put them away the next day! It's not hard at all to do your dishes. Every single glass in our cupboard was dirty before I did them just now. That is a little out of control!
2. Garbage. When it gets full take it out. Don't pile more trash, be responsible and take it out! Who do you think takes out the garbage? Keli? Liz? How about Thomas or Kyle? Nope! Jessica...EVERY SINGLE TIME! It is so annoying! They just let things get SOOO bad! Do something, be proactive! If you have time to sit there and make out on the lovesac, you have time to take out the trash!
3. Leaving things on when they leave. If you aren't using a light, turn it off. If you leave the house turn everything off. I really don't want an extreme bill, so why don't they just do us all a favor and turn out lights and turn off the thermostat. Whenever I leave a room I turn off the light. Time after time I'll come home to every light on, the heater on full blast, and not a soul at home. Or better yet they will be in their rooms with all the lights on and the TV. Gosh darn kids! Didn't your mothers teach you???
4. Blasting the heat. First of all it is not a good idea to turn the heat on full blast...I would never go past 80 degrees! Turning it all the way up will not make you warmer faster! Set the thermostat and leave it alone. Liz for some reason likes to be roasting hot and always cranks up the heat. Then I am sweating up a storm because of it. At least we could have some common ground and meet somewhere in the middle. Plus you are wasting electricity, or however heat is made!
5. Suddenly gaining 2 new roommates. I love Kyle and Thomas, but seriously if you are going to practically live here too clean the freak up after yourselves! The reason our house is so messy is because we suddenly have 2 boys over constantly. If they come over, and make a mess Liz and Keli are responsible for cleaning up after them, not me! Who in the world ever said I was mom, and that I would clean up, but for some reason that is exactly what is happening!
6. People stealing my stuff. Towels namely. I go to take a shower and the towel I swear I put there is gone. What the heck?!?! I am like scared to hang my towels up! Who does that? And if I buy things, they are for me, don't use my stuff or eat my food unless you ask me. I am not a rich little girl here, I have very limited funds and am living on a strict budget and it sucks! I don't want to be buying more because you ate mine!
7. General lack of uncleanliness. When the house gets dirty clean. Pull out the vacuum, dust the TV off, clean up your shoes and clothes, really. Instead I'll give you one guess at what happens? House gets dirty, Jessica cleans and organizes. The laundry room was a disaster area, Keli takes it over with her smelly, dirty clothes, there are constantly clothes on top of the dryer, you have to maneuver the dial through her clothes! Its ridiculous! One day I cleaned the whole room. It sparkled! I even moped, guess what, it's dirty again consumed with Keli's clothes everywhere! UGH!
8. Cables and cords all over the house. I understand that Liz works at home, and needs it, but she has been so inconsiderate about the internet and all of the cords. I mean I live here too, I pay for the internet too! Show some love, or at least clean up your mess. It's consuming our house!

I think all of these annoyances are arising because it has been too good living with Liz and Keli. Now all of a sudden I can't wait for them to move out. Then I can once again have 2 roommates-not 4.

And in closing, don't get my wrong! I love them all and I love living with them, it's just becoming unbearable and annoying lately!

19 years in my rearview

Mantra of the day: Always forgive, never forget. Why is this you ask? Well because it is a very good way to live your life. I believe in forgiving no doubt about it. It is a commandment, if you don't forgive you will never be forgiven. Forgiveness is one of the biggest things in this world. It is the stuff grudges are made of. As some of you may know holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It just hurts you.

Ergo, if you don't forgive you are only hurting yourself. The other person will move on with life, and things will continue to progress while the whole nasty experience will eat your insides out! So forgive! On that same token NEVER forget! This is where the second part of my mantra comes in. If you remember the experience you will definitely learn and grow.

The reasons we have trials in this life is for our learning and grown of course. Take the learning and growing part out of the so carefully planned out equation and what is the point? Now don't interpret not forgetting as grudging how you have been wronged. When you have a grudge it is brought on by and unforgiving heart. If you simply forgive, yet remember all that has come of the experience you grow and protect yourself from being hurt again, and learn the lesson you were supposed to. Don't be a pushover! Another simple life lesson is to give three chances. Three strikes and you're out as the old adage goes. It is so true. In the kindergarten I give them three chances before a time out, three time out's before a pink slip, and three pink slips before expulsion. They have plenty of time and plenty of chances to learn, grow, see the error of their ways, and repent in a sense. If they choose not to it is them not I who will be hurt in the end. The same thing goes for every day life.

I give people three chances. I have no problem freely forgiving, but if it happens again and again, why should I keep letting you get away with it? Why should I keep letting you hurt me? I just don't understand why people put themselves in positions like this. It is up to you. You run your life, you control your life, the ball is in your court! Don't let people walk all over you, you are your own person and can make your own decisions. Decide right now to stand up for yourself and what you believe in. You are obviously not learning your lesson if you keep hurting me, I on the other hand am! You are not to be trusted!

Trust is a precious thing to me. It is how I rate a person. If I can trust you, you become the elect in my eyes. If I can't trust you you are a waste of my time. I hate liers, cheaters, and any other form of deception. I also can't stand people who break my trust. Everyone makes mistakes and I understand that, but I believe that a mistake is not repeated more than twice. If you keep making the same "mistake" it is no longer a mistake.

JUDGEMENTAL?!?!?!?!?

Have you ever critiqued someone's outfit before? Strictly as an example you and your friend are waiting on a park bench and you are bored. There are tons of people constantly walking past you. What do you do? Well critique their outfits of course! Not loud enough so they can hear mind you just quietly amongst yourselves.

"Ew those are sick shoes"
"Oh my gosh, her hair is so weird"
"Those earing are 3 times as big as that girl's ear!"
"That DOES not match!"
Things of this nature.

Is that bad? Is that judgmental? I really don't think it's bad. Sometimes I just wonder if I am too judgmental. Recently someone pretty close to me told me I was judgmental when I said about her outfit. I don't even remember what the comment was, but it's not like it was rude, or tasteless, just something like woah that's a weird belt or something to the effect. Ever since then her comment has been eating me. Am I judgmental? If so is it a bad thing?

I pride myself on matching and putting great outfits together. I know what I like, and I know what is pleasing to the eye. Shouldn't I share this knowledge with those around me? For the common good of the general public perhaps? Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps....

HUMMM..... Well I guess morale of the story...don't wear ugly things and you won't get critiqued! lol

Whisper words of wisdom-let it be!

Why is it impossible for people to be on time?
Why do I have to plan things and tell people to be there at least 45 minutes until they actually need to be? It is just so annoying!

It really isn't that hard to schedule your time so that you aren't late. I mean sure everyone has their late days. Sometimes your alarm doesn't go off, or your roommate is in the shower so it pushes everything off schedule a bit. Sure. It happens.

Somehow if you haven't ever planned an event you have no idea how important being on time is and also letting the host know you are coming which is the second thing I wish do discuss. It is so irritating when people don't tell you if they are coming. Imagine this...there is a huge party...there is food, but you don't know how many people are coming, how do you know how much food to buy??? It's so frustrating!!! Do I buy 20 or 40? or 50? UGH!!! Just tell me if you are coming so I can plan! Then be on time so I don't have to tell you to be there at 5 when I really don't want you there till 6. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well that is about all...It just frustrates me that people cannot be honorable and courteous.

Circles never end

"Let's raise the bar and see how well you do then."
He replied, "Then I might miss."
I queried, "If you don't raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?"

I was reading a talk by Elder Perry from the October 2007 General Conference called Raising the Bar. It is so good and it truly inspired me! Sometimes I feel like I'm doing ok, I'm living my life the way I know I should, but I really don't feel like I'm challenging myself. I am doing what I should, but not excelling in any particular area. I am sick of just being content with what I am accomplishing, I want to raise the bar, and try harder.

I don't want to just clear the minimum standard, I want to exceed far above that. We can't expect the standards to be lowered to suit us, we have to do our part and put in the much needed effort to not only clear the bar, but soar high above it. I think I am at the point in my life where I have definitely cleared the minimum standards.

Elder Perry suggests to raise the bar. That is exactly what I need to do. Try harder, put in more effort, take longer to do the things I know I should, and even more. Go beyond what is expected of me. Elder Perry suggests that if we don't keep raising the bar how will we ever know our potential? He says that standards do exist, and we can't stop when we reach those standards, we must keep raising the bar. The higher we go, the stronger we will become.

I live in the mecca of Mormonism. Salt Lake City, Utah! There is a temple essentially down the street, there are plenty of uplifting and fun activities to be doing, but instead it seems like all I do is work and school! I always make goals to go to the temple, but it falls through. The best was over the summer when Jalene and I went once a week for about a month! It was amazing! I hope to follow through on goals like that again soon. Maybe once a month will be a good start. I am a busy little bee, and although it sucks it is necessary at this point.

Got to be good looking cause it's so hard to see

Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it don't matter.

Is there truth in that statement? I always told myself that I would NEVER date anyone more than 10 years older or younger then me. Recently I have been thinking a lot about age. Does it matter? Who is to decide? Me? You? My mom? I just don't know. I think it just depends on the people.

I don't know if I would ever feel comfortable with someone that was that much older then me, but what if I met someone that was perfect just a little older? Well I think I'll stick to my guns and just try to date people who are around my age. But as for everyone else...I will try to be a lot less judgmental about it.

Let me take you down cause I'm going too

Oh my gosh! I hate Walmart! If it wasn't so close to my house I would never go again!!! So I shop for 10 minutes, then stand in line for 50! That is incredibly ridiculous! There are 35 check stands and how many are open? oh 7! and 4 of them are quick checks! It is so infuriating! Sometimes I just want to A. steal all of my stuff just go get out of there, or B. get behind the counter and check myself out! It is just so annoying!

After I wait in line for so long I feel like I deserve some sort of reward or something. The reeces fast breaks are starting to look amazing, and the drinks in the refrigerator are looking amazing. But I don't have money to be buying crap like that! UGH!!! I just don't understand! HIRE MORE PEOPLE and make my life a bit easier! Well that's about all I was just frustrated!

Why do we always have to fix things we did not create nor contrive?

I think that Wilson on Home Improvement is the most intriguing character! I mean think about it...we only see half his face, but still love him. He is kind of like the phantom of the show. We hear countless words of wisdom, but do we really know him? Can you really know someone without seeing who they truly are? Perhaps we just love him because of the example he shows to Tim and Jill.
Today in Relief Society we talked about being an example. I really loved the lesson it is so true. The people around us learn from our examples better then by our words. I think this is especially true to me. Growing up my mom always told us "now say your prayers, read your scriptures, eat your veggies, drink lots of water ect." But it really didn't mean a whole lot to me unless I saw her doing these things as well. I think nothing hit me more then going to ask my mom a question and finding her on her knees in her bedroom in solemn prayer. Those are the times that I look back and am so grateful for her shining example.

I may not have noticed it at the time, but I think it somehow sunk into my subconscious growing up and has made me want to be a better person. If my mom did the things she was supposed to behind closed doors and when no one was looking maybe there was more to it then I thought, and maybe the lifestyle was one I should emulate.

I have this friend who for the life of him will never do anything anyone asks him to. He is so set on being his own person that he waits until he feels like doing something himself. (even if he really does want to do it.) It is so annoying because in order to get him to do anything you want him to you have to play these stupid little mind games and totally twist everything around so he thinks you don't want him to. Then finally he will. It takes so much effort that pretty soon you seriously JUST DON'T CARE anymore. You just want him to get on with it and get on with your own life and your own day!Anyways this all ties into my point. I am so glad that I am the kind of person who just gets things done. I tend to roll with the punches and not analyze things to the ground. I just make decisions as they come. Another thing that bugs me is that when people freak out about why things don't go the way they planned and feel like their whole life is ruined. Seriously don't just sit around feeling sorry for yourself! Make something happen. For every problem there is a solution. Finding it is the hard part. Once you see it you can always see it. Finding it is always the hard part.

This is one reason I am so grateful for my friends! They help me through so many of my problems. Sometimes we are too wrapped up in the drama to find a reasonable solution, but talking about our problems allows for people who may have been in that situation to intervene and give advice, or suggest ways of thinking that we never would have seen. I want to be the kind of example that people will want to follow.

Cynthia wrote this and I am posting it! I love it! Could not have said it better myself!

There are a lot of flakes in the world right? Potato, onion, garlic, and snow. I don't mind any of these. I mind the people flakes. You know, flakey people? Let me give you an example. Jill says she will go to the movies with me Friday night. She tells me she can't wait and is defiantly going. Here comes Friday night. Jill calls and says "sorry I can't go" or she just doesn't show up at all (or better yet Jill doesn't even try to contact me and then I text her wondering where she is and then she finally tells me that she isn't coming.) JILL! We had these plans for a long time!! Come on!!

If you make plans with me keep them!! I don't make plans unless I know I can keep them. And if something, like work, comes up I do everything in my power to get it off. If I get really sick I call and explain. I hate letting people down and always do everything I can to keep my word. Why can't everyone else do the same? It really irritates me.

I had party a few days ago. A lot of people said they would come. NO ONE CAME!! What a letdown. We went dancing the other night. SO many people didn't show up that said they would come. Why would you say that?!?!? Why couldn't you at least have the courtesy to call and let someone know you couldn't make it?

Or those people who say they will go if nothing else comes up. What?!?! If nothing else comes up? So you won't make plans with me because you might make plans with someone else? How lame can you be?

So the point is, if you make plans, keep them. Thanks you.