Tender Mercies

Today has been one of the best days this year. Nothing radical or amazingly exciting happened, rather an extraordinary blessing was bestowed upon Taylor and I.
As most of you know, Taylor and I have been struggling to find employment since we returned home to Utah at the beginning of November. Living off of savings and the kindness of friends and family, we had run out of any possible income to get us through January. As you can assume or maybe you yourself have experienced, I was rather worried and distraught. Prayers became more pleading and fasting became quite frequent. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that a glimmer of hope was restored. We met with the bishop for tithing settlement and were instantly comforted. He gave us wonderful words of hope, reminded us of great promises, and shared valuable experiences with us that not only filled our hearts but strengthened our testimonies. I can't tell you how truly grateful we are to have such a bishop as a newlywed couple and as members of the church. So after meeting with the bishop, we finally started getting calls for interviews. As a matter of fact, Taylor had four in that first week. I started getting more legitimate leads for places to apply. Though it wasn't a job offer, it was still a step closer than we were before, we were moving forward.
After I dropped off a friend at work this morning, I felt the need to check our mail since I hadn't done so in quite a few days. In my mind, I made a simple joke "It's not like someone sent us a check." Once I got home with the mail, Taylor and I sifted through it. We received a couple of Christmas cards from family and of course the infamous 'ads'. But as Taylor was reading the annual Christmas letter from his parents, I found a letter from my old insurance company. Confused, I opened and found attached to it a check for $500. I was so overwhelmed that I started to cry. I had heard stories and testimonies given about Christmas miracles such as this, but never really expected to really have my own. In my hands was a tender mercy from the Lord.
The check was a reimbursement from a minor accident that I had in June of last year. A gentleman rear ended me damaging my rear bumper. It was a good thing that a month prior to the minor collision, I added the 'uninsured motorist' coverage to my policy, because this guy didn't have insurance. So, needless to say that when I called my insurance company to report the accident they told me that I would have to pay the $500 deductible myself unless they could somehow convince this guy to pay it. I was left with no hope. They did however send me a check, at that time, to cover the damages totaling over $1300. I put that check towards the principle balance on my car, allowing me to pay it off sooner. However, my company dropped my coverage after that. I still had a damaged bumper but at least I was closer to owning my vehicle. So the fact that I get a check, a year and a half later from them really amazes me. As I said to Taylor's parents, I knew from whom this check had really come from. It reminded me of a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar in general conference a few years ago, in it he said:

"Some may count this experience as simply a nice coincidence, but I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord’s timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them."

I know that this was not a coincidence. When the accident first occurred and I was worrying about how to handle it, I am sure the Lord was there teaching me patience. Taylor and I feel, that in a way, that accident happened so that we would be blessed, in time. Thanks to the first initial check and the generosity from Ron and Anne, we own our vehicle. I know that the Lord provided todays check for us when we needed it most. When we would not take it for granted, nor when it would go unrecognized. He provided this for us that we might be reminded of His watchful eye, His constant care, and His unconditional eternal love. I am thankful to not only have a Heavenly Father that knows me and my needs but also that he instills renewed hope. What a blessing it was, to open that letter and to feel His love in telling me, "I am here. I know. And you will be okay."  I am also thankful for a loving and supportive family who's faith, prayers, and fasting have been such a blessing to us during these tough times.  Families are eternal and, today especially, I was reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of this one.

During the Christmas season, it's easy to get lost in the luster of bright lights, never ending shopping, and constant stress.  But I testify that if we focus our hearts on it's true meaning, the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ, the spirit of Christmas will be intensified in our lives and our homes.  If we "make room, and let Him in", we will find in that a peace and joy so wonderful and amazing.  If we do that, then we will be able to experience our very own Christmas miracle.  I am so grateful that the Savior humbly came to the world, gave the perfect example, and provided a way that even I, as imperfect I as I am, can return home to my Father in Heaven.


We thank you sincerely for all that you've done for us, most in ways that you don't realize how deeply it effects us.  We love and miss you all.  May you all have a safe and beautiful Christmas.

Summer Summary

That's kinda catchy, isn't it? I just thought of it as i typed it. Maybe it should just be Summery. But i begin digressing...

We've been traveling and working all summer, and haven't really had a ton of time to update. Well, i haven't and Rikki has chosen not to...so here we go.

We spent the majority of our summer in Rochester, NY. During this time, we made quite a few little side trips around the north-eastern portion of the country. First off, we went to Niagara Falls, which was an awesome experience. We just walked around the rim and hung out for a while on the canadian side. Played video games and mini golf while we were there, and that was fun. A week or two after that we were able to make a short trip over to Palmyra and to see the hill Cumorah. The next week we were able to go to the Sacred Grove, which was a pretty amazing experience. We also made a trip down to the finger lakes with the other couples from our office, just hung out there. The scenery in New York was beautiful, if not a bit monotonous. When Sierra and Chandale came to visit, we were able to go to the Hill Cumorah Pagent, which was amazing until they had to cancel the second half due to rain. We did make a return trip up to Niagara Falls the next day though. This trip we went on the Maid of the Mist boat, which was really cool. We got some cool video from there. See:


Then for the rest of Sierra and Chandale's visit, I was working down in the hole that is Erie, PA. we did take advantage of this though to spend my birthday in Cedar Point, OH. And i do have to say, it was the best birthday I've ever had. It was the most amazing theme park that i've been to, and we had an absolute blast. Sierra and Chandale then went home, but before we went back to Rochester from Pennsylvania, we made a short drive down to Kirkland Ohio. We were able to see the Newel Whitney store and the School of the Prophets, which was an awesome spiritual experience. Then we went to the Kirkland Temple, which was a complete polar opposite. The Church of Christ now owns it, and has taken all the spirituality out of it. On the way back to New York from there, we stopped in Buffalo and went to the Anchor Bar, which is where the Buffalo Wing was invented. So that was cool.
After that we took a little break from our excursions. We did one last one before we left New York, and we went to New York City. It was great because we were able to stay with Rikki's aunt Dona and uncle Augusto, and they were able to give us a guided tour all around the city. We had brunch at this amazing little place that had pictures of dogs lining the walls. After this we took a walk through Central Park and saw John Lennon's memorial, as well as the place he used to live where Yoko Ono still lives. Then we got to go to the top of Rockefeller center which had an amazing view. Then we went to times square and had charactures drawn of us, which cost way too much money and didn't turn out very well at all. We also ate dinner at this amazing Peruvian restaurant, and finished off the night at the underground apple store. It was a really fun trip.

After that we finished up our summer in New York, but decided to do an extended stint of selling in Dallas. So while driving between Rochester and Dallas, we decided to stop at all the church history sites that we could. The first place that we stopped was Nauvoo. We stayed in a really cool hotel for the night, it was really close to the Temple. The next morning, we woke up pretty early and were able to do a session in the Temple, and it was a truly amazing experience for both of us. After seeing the rest of Nauvoo, we were able to take a nice drive down the side of the Mississippi River for a while on our way to Carthage Jail. That was a somber place, but good to see. From here we made a short trip down to Hannibal, the birthplace of Mark Twain. This little stop was more for Rikki than me, but we were able to take a picture with a statue of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Then we were on to Far West where we were able to see the temple site where the cornerstones were laid. It was a very serene place, and it was really nice to be able to go there. From there, it was a quick drive over to Adam-ondi-ahmen. That was another really beautiful place.

We stayed that night in a small hotel in the middle of nowhere in Cameron, Missouri. We got up the next day and went to Far West, where we saw the temple site where the cornerstones still sit. It's kinda strange...it's right out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it. Just empty rolling hills, but it really is a beautiful place. From there we drove to Liberty Jail. We had a really spiritual experience here as well, it was amazing to learn of all the inspiration that were received there. Rikki also had a really cool opportunity to sing there and the spirit was really strong. It was unfortunate that we had to do all this so quick, but because of our time crunch, we ended up having to squeeze it all into two days. It was still an amazing experience.

From there we finished up our drive down to Lewisville. We stayed there from a month and a half doing more alarm system sales. Not too much exciting happened there at all, except that the first weekend that we were down there we were able to drive a few hours south and see one of my old college roommates, Craig. We got to meet his wife and little girl, and were able to play a round of golf in the rain, which was a blast. The rest of the time that we were down there was pretty uneventful.

On the way back from Texas, we got to stop in Arizona for week and a while in Vegas too. But seeing as this is long enough and i doubt that anyone will even read this far, i'll end this right here and live the second part for another post.

Harry Potter-The Update

As most of you know, I'm an incredible procrastinator (I'm expecting a PhD in the art). I was suppose to give a written account of my Harry Potter: The Exhibition trip months ago, but never did it. Looking back, it's best that I did it this way because now I can incorporate my experience of seeing the sixth installment of the film as well. Two birds, one stone.

As Taylor had said previously, we had made a Northward detour to Chicago specifically for the exhibition. The timing literally couldn't have been more perfect. The exhibit had opened just a few days prior to our arrival. I had planned (more like schemed) this trip for what seemed like months, trying to work out the details and such. It was only going to be an additional hour to our journey and seemed meant to be. Anywho...you want to hear more about the museum I'm sure.
I walked into the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry with a sense of awe. The building was huge and the displays were incredible. We get to the ticket desk and right there, close enough for me to jump right into the driver seat was a lovely blue Ford Anglia the same one from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The tickets were a bit pricey, but I knew that it would be worth it (Taylor had yet to believe me). There was a massive escalator that took us up to the level where the exhibition entrance was housed. Once there we were lead through a pair of doors leading to an outside walkway. Apparently they had set up the exhibit in a tent. I was afraid that the my experience of Harrys' world was going to be destroyed via a white tarp. But as soon as the next set of doors were opened, all of my fears melted away and my dreams became a wonderful reality.

Through a set of double doors, the Hogwarts Express came into view. An elaborate display of videos were set to recreate the feeling of being on this magical train. Once we "stepped off" of the Hogwarts Express (more like we were led to the next room), we were taken to an area with just a stool, a witch, and a sorting hat. Imagine my excitement when I was picked to have the sorting hat placed upon my head. It was a no-brainer. I knew to which house I belonged. Powerful and cunning...SLYTHERIN!!! Taylor of course was sorted into Gryffindor (Dumbledore would be so proud of us, interhouse unity). Once sorted into our new houses, it was time to go to the common room. Obviously the only common room available to go to was Gryffindor (the dungeons are better!). We saw the fat lady, gave her the password, Mimbulus Mimbletonia, and walked through the portrait hole. They had all sorts of fun props and things from the movies. They even had the moving pictures that adorn the halls of my beloved Hogwarts. They had the howler that Ron gets from Mrs. Weasley in Chamber of Secrets. They set up the dormitories as well, so we got to see Harry and Rons four-poster beds. I really enjoyed seeing that especially when watching Half-Blood Prince, it's set up exactly like it is in the movie. Then we moved on to the potions classroom. We were able to see all of the ingredients that are used for the potions as well as the robes for my dear head of house, Professor Severus Snape. We also saw the office for Professor Lockhart, the sinister Professor Umbridge, the amazing Professor Lupin, and then headed out to the greenhouses for Herbology. There we got to actually pull Mandrakes from their pots. It was so much fun to see them squealing and they are oddly cute. Once we were done, we went over to the quidditch pitch. Quidditch is by far the coolest sport EVER! And as it turns out, I'm a natural, I scored seventy points from throwing the quaffle. Lovely workout. We saw Buckbeak, the outfits that Emma, Rupert, and Daniel wore for Prisoner of Azkaban. Then we walked around Hagrids hut. Hagrid is a BIG man.

If I didn't feel short before, I certainly did after I left his hut. I even got a picture of me sitting in his chair to prove how big he is.

I got to see the old and new quidditch uniforms. Another really cool experience while watching the new movie. They had Aragog, the Hungarian Horntail, and Firenze. Once we left the Forbidden Forest we left Hogwarts. Soon we were greeted with the wanted posters of Bellatrix LeStrange, Fenrir Greyback, and the Carrows. Scary blokes. We also saw the robes of Lord Voldemort (that's right, I'm not scared to say his name) and those eerie dementors. I only had to use the "Expecto Patronum" charm once, they learned not to mess with me.

Oh, I almost forgot, we also saw a petrified Colin Creevey (it felt like real flesh). Then we were escorted to the Great Hall for the Yule Ball. They had the all the outfits of the Triwizard competors plus dates and decorations from the fourth film. Plus the robes of the ORIGINAL Dumbledore. I got to see a rather naked Dobby, which was weird, but he's still cute. We even got a sneak peek of the products in the Weasleys Wizard Wheezes.
Overall, it was such a wicked cool experience. And now I can officially say that I attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for a day.

Drive Summary

Starting last Thursday very early, Rikki and I started the longest drive/trip of our lives.  It was quite exciting and late last night we finally arrived in our new and temporary home, in Fairport, NY.  It's right outside Rochester.  

DAY 1:

Thursday, we had planned to get up at 4:30 and be on the road by 5 by due to two unfourtnate 

alarm clock issues, we ended up not leaving until a little after 6.  Most of the first 10 hours of the drive were pretty routine, all stuff I've driven before.  Rikki drove the first 6 hours, then we switched off, and Rikki slept most of the time that I was driving. 

We stopped for food the first time after about 11-12 hours right outside Denver in a little mountain town called Idaho Springs.  We found a little family resturant called The Wildfire, it was actually pretty good.  I had a chicken fried steak that was literally hanging off the ends of the plate.  We finished off our food and jumped back in the car, but upon decending into Denver, Rikki heard something funny and decided to check the tire pressure.  That turned into a 1/2 hour ordeal due to lack of quarters and other people using the air pump machine, but after that we were on the road again.  We didn't quite make it to Lincoln as we had planned, but stopped somewhere in the middle of Nebraska called Lexington.  The whole town smelled like poop and the Super 8 there ended up being a lot more $ than we thought it would be.

Check out the size of 

this thing.  It was over a foot long.

DAY 2:

We had planned to get up at 7 to drive to Chicago, but typical us we woke up an hour late.  We

 threw all our stuff together really quick and jumped on the road.  Rikki went right to sleep and I burned through Nebraska and most of Iowa.  That took about 5 hours, then we switched.  Rikki didn't like driving through Iowa any more than I did, see previous post for the many reasons.  

Once we crossed the Mississippi into Illinois, it wasn't so bad.  The drive was fairly quick and

 then around 7 we made it into Chicago and drove straight to the reason for our Northward detour, Harry Potter: The Exhibition at a museum

 downtown.  I wasn't to keen on it going into it,

but it meant a lot to Rikki so we went.  But it

 actually ended up being a lot of fun.  They had tons of stuff there from the movies, but i'll leave it to Rikki to put up all the details of that.  After it was over, we drove about 30 minutes south and stayed in the most run down Super 8 I've ever seen.  It was a lot cheaper, but wow.  However, we did find a White Castle right down the street which Rikki loved.  After that experience, we both agreed that we're fine never going back to Chicago again.

Illinois, Chicago, and White Castle

Day 3:

We kinda took a different attitude by day 3.  Since it was Saturday, and we'd planned enough

 to get into New York with time to spare, we just

 decided to sleep in and get up and go when we 

got up.  We got up around 9 and decided that we'd just drive around and try to find a place to see Lake Michigan.  That didn't go so well, and we ended up driving around for 2 hours and finally leaving Chicago and driving through Gary, Indiana before we finally found a beach where we could stop and go up by the lake.  So then we jumped back on the freeway and started driving.  This was when we finally realized how much we really hate toll roads.  I think total on the trip the ended up setting us back about $40.  Yea.  The rest of Indiana was pretty uneventful, but we both really liked Ohio.  Pretty country.  As we were driving through Cleveland, we saw a road sign that said "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum".  DETOUR #2!  It took us quite a while to find it due to some missed turns, but we got there and it was pretty cool.  We also saw Lake Erie here.  It was a nice little side trip.  Then things got rough as I got hungry and Rikki realised how much she needed to use the bathroom.  Her phone froze up, so we had no GPS for a while, so we had another 2 hour aimless drive through Cleveland trying to find a bathroom and our way back on to the freeway.  We finally found the freeway before finding anywhere to eat , then drove a few miles to a Pizza Hut.  From there we finished the drive in one straight shot, getting into Fairport about 11, 5 hours behind schedule.  But we're here, our apartment is nice and it should be a good summer.

Iowa Drive-thru

Driving through Iowa, i kinda got a strange persecption of the state.  Driving wise.  I don't know how accurate this is as a whole, but this was my experience from observing the driving patterns and signs as we passed through.

Construction patterns - Cones closing off one of the two lanes, preceeded by tons of signs warning of the dangers of speeding in a construction zone.  The lane would stay closed for two miles or so without any sign of actual construction work happening.  It would say open for another 2-3 miles, then the process would repeat itself.  This kept going on and on for the longest time and i had no idea why.  One sign observed in one of these sections read: "Minimum penalty for hitting worker: "$10,000 and 14 years in prision."

Semi #1 - Overturned in the ditch between Eastbound and Westbound I-80.  Totally destroyed.  Wondered if driver survived.

Sign on Semi #2 - "DO NOT FOLLOW INTO WORK AREA"  How many cars followed that truck off the road into a construction site before they decided that they needed that sign there?

Sign on Semi #3 - "INEDIBLE - CONTENTS NOT MEANT FOR HUMANS" How many people tried to eat out of a random silver tanker truck looking like it could be hauling gasoline before this was inscribed?

Semi #4 - In the same ditch 60 miles down the road.  This one had been carrying construction vehicles, and was in worse shape than the first, although not overturned.  Wheels completely broken off and axels completely missing and a catipillar tractor half buried and still attached to the bed, which had been seperated from the rear 8 tires completely.

When we got to number four and we saw the ambulance pull into the lane blocked off by cones, it dawned on me that they leave cones up permenantly around common semi crash sites, so the ambulances can get to the mangled truckers faster.  It was the only thing that made sense.

Finally, it all came together when I started to see signs reading, "See the world famous I-80!" and the like.  We came up over the hill and saw the last sign before this actual I-80 place, reading "THE WORLD'S LARGEST TRUCK STOP!"  Behind it spraweled acres and acres of gas stations and fast food places and parking lots.  It was quite a sight to behold.

Summary:  Driving through Iowa, not pleasant, not safe.

Here I go again...

So Taylor keeps getting on me how I was the one that set this whole blog up, but never update it. So here I am. (Take that Honey!!!)
Life has been quite interesting the past few months. Still adjusting and learning about one another. Still realizing that there's a "We" and not a "Me". Still trying to wrap my head around being married in general. Just celebrated 5 months. WOW! But we're good and enjoying life together.
Taylor is finishing up yet another semester at BYU and can't wait till it's done. We're both very anxious to go to New York for the summer. I think I'm more anxious than he is, mostly because he likes Utah while I believe that Utah is...well I won't tell you what I believe it is, just that it's not good. Don't get me wrong, the state itself is lovely. I'm just not one for it's residents. I'm not a huge fan of over-bearing and incredibly close minded. But again...I'm adjusting. I think that it's because I'm out of my comfort zone here. I know hardly anyone, and the people I do meet I have NOTHING in common with. I just miss my friends and family back home.
I've been looking into changing my major. Entertainment Business. Sadly, UVU offers no such degree and so I've been looking at new schools as well. As much as I enjoy Geology, I think I chose it for the wrong reasons. I want to do something that I'm truly passionate about, and thats music. So...we'll see what happens.
But yeah, we're just keeping our focus on New York right now. I have an entire road trip planned for the drive to Rochester and a bunch of activities for when we're there. Hopefully while we're there we'll make some good money, if not, then just being out of Utah is worth it for me.
OH YEAH! So Taylor and I are rarely able to have a date night (with schedules being so crazy and all) so when I won tickets to see one of my favorite bands Escape The Fate (also the band we saw on our first date) we got really excited. So I took a video at the show and it was AWESOME! The mosh pit covered the entire floor at one point and the guitarist had this incredible solo...anywho...it's hardcore with some screamo...so if you're into that kind of stuff (cause I most certainly am) then take a look. ^_^

Spanish Pork

When Rikki got her Cricket, the box that the carrying case came in was labeled as coming from Spanish Pork, UT.  Made in china.