Family Finance: A Blessing in My Life

These past couple months have been life changing for me. When I arrived home from my mission last July things were great. We went on a family vacation and enjoyed time together as a family. Something we had not done in almost three years. Not soon after I returned home my father became ill and shortly after he passed away. He had been the bread winner of the family. All the 26 years that my parents had been married he had worked while my mother stayed home and attended to the needs of the children. After the death of my father many financial questions and problems arose. How would my mother raise three young children on her own? How would she find a way to provide for their needs both temporal and spiritual? I was not very educated on money or financial skills. I knew money was necessary to survive but that was about it. For that reason I enrolled in Family Finance. I knew that not only did I need to help myself but I also needed to help my mom and siblings in this time of crisis. The first day of class I left in shock. I had learned so many things in just 50 minutes. I instantly called my mom and shared with her all the things I had learned. I was eager to return to the class the following day to receive more instruction. Six weeks later and I am still learning something new everyday. Each and every time I leave the classroom I call my mom to tell her what I learned. I explain to her how it can bless me and how it can bless her. It is a blessing to be in this class. This class has prepared me to be a better husband and father. I hope to be able to help many people with the knowledge I have received and keep receiving in this class.

Canoe Trip

One of the things that I previously had on my bucket list was to go canoeing with some of my closest family and friends.  Today I was able to do that with my cousins and some of my best friends. It was an all-around good time and we made many memories. The drive there was supposed to be an hour and a half but with lack of preparation the drive ended up being closer to three hours. So after showing up late to the river we were finally able to get on the water at around 11 o'clock. The lady working informed us that it would be a 4 to 6 hour float and there were many things to do along the way. So we set off and began our trip. Some of those things that you could do included jumping into a freezing  Spring water cave also rope swinging and cliff jumping. In addition only two people flipped their canoes so we made it out just fine. The ride home soon about three times longer than the ride to the river but with occasional nap it was alright. Altogether the trip was around 11 hours a lot longer than we thought it would be but it was still a fun time.  It was a fun time and I will cherish the memories that I made. Getting to spend quality time with some of the people that I love is something that is always fun. It doesn't have to be spending a day on the river or just relaxing at home. Whenever you are with the people that you love it doesn't matter what you are doing. One of the most memorable things is one of my best friends came with me and I promised that I wouldn't make her row at all and so I got to row for 6 hours straight. Totally worth it to make her happy. Anyways it has been fun writing this blog, peace out.

Food

Leaving for Ecuador in 14 days I will experience a major change in the food I eat. Down in Ecuador some of the things that are popular to eat is rice, beans, and guinea pig. Not necesarilly exotic food but it is not something that I would eat on a regular basis or ever. With pizza, spaghetti, and ice cream in the United States there are many things that I am gonna miss.This last few days are gonna be filled with eating a lot because I will be in a good food drought for some time. So here is a list of the food I am gonna miss and all the food that I want to eat before I leave...
-Cosmic Brownies
-Honey Buns
-Dominos Pizza
-Korean Steak
-All the sushi that I can handle
-Chinese food like sweet and sour or general
-A nice hamburger or hotdog would be pretty good as well.
-Korean steak as well as regular steak
Honestly there is too much food to list. I am not necessarily a picky person when it comes to food but never before have a watch a live guinea pig get cooked and then expect me to eat it. One of my favorite foods is cosmic brownie. I've already told my parents that I am expecting boxes of cosmic brownies to be sent to me. This adventure will hopefully open me up to new things and allow my perspective to open up.

Disney World

One of the most memorable vacations I have been on was when we went to Disney world when I
was in 2nd grade probably around the age of 7 or 8. For most kids this want to go and they think
that it is one of the coolest places in the world. They see the characters from television and you
get to interact with them and take picture with them. The animated characters brought to life are
just one of the things that you can do at Disney World. There are many rides in the park. One
of my favorite rides was called the Rocking Rollercoaster. The Rocking Rollercoaster was part of
a group of a bunch of rides that we rode because it had a small line but was super fun. This is a
trip I will never forget. People from all over the world were there and from every continent all kind
of people. All the girls, including my little sister, waiting hours in line to get to see the Princess.
This vacation was one that I will never forgot and has an incessant affect on me. This is part of an
always entertaining memory. This sounds lame my favorite thing to do was going to bed at 11.
That sounds really dumb, but as a kid every opportunity you had to stay up late you were out
and ready to go. One of my other memories from this trip was the firework show. As a part of
the Friday night celebration they shot off a bunch of fireworks and we were definitely out past 10. 
All an all this was good trip and a memorable one as well.

Argument

Book or Movie? People always debate whether they think the movie is better or whether the book was. The book provides a cinematic experience of the book. This is why I enjoy movies more than books. Although, books can be good most if not all movies are entertaining. Plus I can watch a movie in like 2 hours and get out the same thing that I would if I would have spent a couple days reading the book. Now I am not saying that I hate books or never read them because I do read books. I like to read books that I choose not that are assigned to me to read like in school. Having read all the Harry Potter books I find the movie to be just as enjoyable as the books, although quite shorter. I can see the argument on those that say that movies leave out some important parts from the book or change things. If you have never read the book you couldn't tell the difference but if you have read it it can be a major role in how you judge the movie. For example, many things were left out of those Harry Potter books. While some people criticized the director for cutting certain parts others felt the additional scenes and the lack of scenes make the movies more entertaining.  The debate of whether the movie or book is better is one that probably will never be settles and will go on for a long time. In my opinion, I like the movies because I can actual see whats going on and it is entertaining to me but I also enjoy books. I guess if I can spend 2 hours doing something I could do in days it just makes sense to me to chose the 2 hour idea.

World Cup

After a long month, one filled with surprises, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is officially over. For United States fan our dreams lasted a lot longer than most thought but it still wasn't quite the finish that we wanted. After miraculously advancing out of the "Group of Death" the US found themselves squaring off against Belgium in the round of 16, who by some was considered a favorite to advance quite far. Soccer popularity exploded in the United States during the world cup and many hope it stays that way. Soccer being the 3rd or 4th most popular sport in the US could use any extra boast to rise in popularity. The real surprise, I thought, came in the semifinal game between Germany and Brazil. Brazil, who has won the world cup 5 times and was the favorite to win again, suffered a crushing 7-1 loss against the Germans. The 6 goal margin of defeat was the largest margin ever by the home team in the World Cup. Many were curious to see how the fans of Brazil would accept defeat. Riots in the streets and many crying fans showed just how much this meant to them. With Germany advancing to the finals they played Argentina for it all. Many considered this to be Messi's opportunity to solidify his rank as one of the best soccer players ever. The Germans were too much for the Argentinians who lost on a goal in the 113 minute of extra time. What an exciting game for the viewers at home. It was a fun month, filled with excited, heartbreak, or many more emotions. All I can say now is see you in 4 years.

Highlights of High School

High school is considered by some to be the best four years of your life. If this is true the events that took place must have been pretty extraordinary in order to be considered the best. Although I'm not sure if i would consider it the best four years. Still I'm gonna list the highlights of my high school experience...

-Playing both basketball and football for most of the years.

-Beating our cross town rivals every year in football 

-Being a member of cabinet, which is like student leaders of the school.

-Receiving all A's in my classes

-Leading the football team in receiving yards against Hillcrest and nearly scoring my first touchdown.

-Going to haunted houses and corn maizes during halloween time. 

-Prom, and the weeks and events leading up to it. 

-My best friend hitting a girl in the school parking lot. 

-Playing in recreational  basketball leagues with all my friends. 

-Having 4 killer halloween costumes. 

-Going to early morning church every day of school all 4 years. 

Listing off the things in this list made me realize that most of the memories I made were not made at school but made outside with my friends and on the field. So maybe high school was not the best 4 years of my life but I made tons of memories I will never forget. Plus, with like 60 years ahead of me, hopefully, the best is yet to come. High School is just lights in the rear-view mirror. Time is something that can get away from us so we need to treasure the time we are going and not take advantage of it.