Zion's 09

'Nuff said. :D

Christmas '09

This year I had a very nice Christmas with my Uncle Thomas, Aunt Jer, Hayden, and Suzi. I had to work until 6 on Christmas Eve, but after that I was able to spend the night and sleep over at their house. We woke up around 6 am (got to love kids and Santa :) ) and opened presents. We had some very good breakfast casserole and monkey bread, and then Trevor came over and hung out for a bit. Jer's Dad and his wife Bonnie came over and exchanged presents also. It was very nice to spend time with family and I was really grateful for all the thoughtful presents that I received! I got spoiled rotten this year. :)

That afternoon I came back to the house and then spent the rest of the day with Trevor's family and exchanged more presents. We played Apples to Apples (I won, of course :D), ate food, and watched some football. Later we went to Trevor's cousin's and hung out. All in all, it was a good day. :)

Really Late, Late Update!!

So, November was a VERY crazy month! I visited my family in St. George for two weeks as a sort of Pre-thanksgiving break. It was nice to visit home and see everyone. While I was up there I had the help of Trevor's wonderful Mom and when I got back within two weeks I got an '03 Ford Focus with only 60,000 miles on it that I'll have paid off by this fall, and a place to live with his Grandmother. I felt very blessed with how everything worked out and how much people came together to help me out. It was definitely a meaningful Thanksgiving!! I'm enjoying the new living arrangements. She keeps it nice and warm here (Trevor says that's "hot" to everyone else), already watches my favorite shows like House M.D. and The Vampire Diaries, and is very nice.

Birthday :)

My 19th birthday was full of awesome presents, even though I'm starting to get to the "old and no toys" stage :P . I didn't do a whole lot, just hung out with Trevor- we watched movies, went to IHOP and the park- and then had a small family party back at home. Jodi made me amazing chocolate cupcakes that we loaded candles onto- I actually blew them all out at once, wonder if my wish will come true?? The above presents are what I bought with the money I got. Cute, no? I know it's very girly for me, but I'm branching out.



Leather bound scriptures, a John Bytheway CD, shoes, and another cute top outfit from Jer, Hayden, and Thomas.



The awesome Pokemon card is from Hayden. :) I also got a nice card from work, my Grandma, and parents.

Below are the presents Trevor got me- a gorgeous white winter coat that's amazing, and the first season DVD of my favorite show. He told me that it wasn't exactly the coolest thing going to check out a Gossip Girl DVD in Walmart when you're a guy- which makes me like it even more!



Above and below (great song by The Bravery, fyi) are presents from my friend Toni. I really loved the roses, they were so pretty. Unfortunately I thought they were pre-cut (they weren't) and so they died a little too quickly. Luckily I got a picture!


Anyway, thanks to everyone that gave me presents and made me feel loved~ You are all wonderful. Here's to living my last year as a teenager!!

Updates & Politics

My weekend in Kingman was good. It was fun seeing everyone and also having Trevor there. I had brought my camera like I said I would, but forgot to take pictures. I think Trevor appreciated it, honestly. Luckily there weren't a shortage of cameras between everyone. :P It was really neat seeing Shelly and Megan get baptized. The talks were wonderful, and I loved the video. I actually cried at one point. Must run in the family, as everyone seemed to have quite a few tears. :) Unfortunately the Sunday that Shelly and Megan were to get confirmed, they got in a bad car wreck and had to take Megan and Ashley to the hospital. We were all very worried for them, but luckily they were okay, even if in a ton of pain. I hope they all feel better!

So I walk to work generally, and I actually like it. I don't mind the heat and I like the exercise. (That's not to say I would do it on a regularly voluntary basis). Once I got to work I had to convince myself that I did not need clothes. I've been much better with my personal finances this summer, but still struggle a bit sometimes. Last summer, however, I spent $2,000 on clothes. Looking back I feel like a complete idiot for doing that. This summer I've only spent about $200, and that was really only for the "business casual" dress code we have at work. I've had to get better with budgeting and not buying things I only want. It pretty much sucks growing up sometimes. :P

I am going to do something quite unprecedented and admit that I was wrong, specifically speaking about President Obama. (Please withhold your smart remarks). To be fair, not many people could have seen how extreme he is subversively going, but still, I was wrong. Now let me mention that I am not a Republican. I was never a Democrat. I registered Independent because at least then I could realize that neither party was a good choice and that Politicians have been corrupting their partie's "values" for years. But the things the government is doing now, while the media focuses on everything else horrible but that, are outrageous. Congress is getting flooded with bills and can barely even read them all. The President has several very radical, communist advisers. The government is trying to get the N.E.A.- National Endowment for the Arts, something your tax money goes to- to create art to "push the President's agenda". That's called Propaganda. He's bypassing educators and parents and speaking directly to children in schools. I don't know about you, but none of that is okay with me. It doesn't feel right, what's going on. There's a video that has been circulated that sounds very good and inspirational at first, until it slowly gets more in depth. It slips in supporting stem cell research, quickly followed by promoting awareness for Autism. They slip in controversial things, and then quickly follow up with several good things everyone agrees on. It tells us we need to Pledge to try and help serve the President. It even, at the end, mentions in verbatim to "pledge to be a servant to our President". I don't know about you, but I don't remember reading that I should be a servant in the Constitution. Here's the video:



Scary, isn't it?

Now I'm sorry if I've offended you with my political views, or if you just wanted to hear about what I've been up to and not what I care about. But this is important to me. I don't want our Constitution to be changed, I don't want to steer away from a Capitalist economy, I want to keep my God-given rights. Rights, not privileges. Obama has become a catalyst- definition: an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action. Now that can be a good thing, or it can be a very bad thing. Personally, from what I'm seeing, the potential for it to be very bad- catastrophic, even- is building. It's up to you to decide.

Well I figured I should get a post in before I let the whole month of August slip by. It's been a lot busier than the past few months due to work. I'm averaging about 27 hours a week which isn't a ton, I know, but it seems like it is when my schedule conflicts with everyone else's.

It's been interesting seeing a lot of my friends go off to college this month. My best friend of 7 years just got engaged, and a lot of people in my year have too. One of my older friends just got married. A friend of mine just went to South Carolina for Basic training in the National Guard. Everyone seems to be growing up. I never really thought about how we'd all reach that point when I was a Freshman or Sophomore. I know all of us are nowhere near being done, but it's still interesting to see all the roads everyone's taking.

It's also interesting and somewhat scary to see the roads our country is taking. If you keep up with everything you'll realize how very close we are to "the end". It's only a matter of time now... I hope we can turn everything the government is doing around quickly, but the gap to change it is rapidly closing.

This weekend I'm going down (well actually up, I think) to Kingman for my Aunt Shelly's and cousin Megan's baptism. It'll be fun to see all of the Murphy side of the family and to be there for Shelly and Megan. I'm really excited to see them and glad they want to be a part of the Church. I'm also really happy to have 3 days off! :D Either way it will be a fun thing. I'll make sure to bring my camera since I hate posting without pictures. (Another reason for the month hiatus).

Yay!

After filling out tons of applications and doing a few interviews, I finally got a job! It's at Steinmart, a women's clothing store. I'm really glad that I got this instead of the gas station or fast food positions I applied for! I like the store a lot, I think they have good fashion, and it looks like it's going to be a really nice job. I'm starting off at the same pay I started with at my last job, so that's good. I start Orientation on Tuesday. I'm really excited. It'll be nice to be able to not have to worry about money so much!