Twilight: The Movie, Tiredness, and Old Age.

"Edward, . . ." (theater full of pre-teen and teen girls shriek in over excitement)

"Bella, say it. Out loud!" (theater full of pre-teen and teen girls shriek in over excitement)

"Vampire!" (theater full of pre-teen and teen girls shriek even louder in excitement)

The much anticipated movie, Twilight, came out this weekend. I admit, I bought, read, and liked that series of books by Stephenie Meyer. I was also somewhat interested in going to see the movie. I mean, it had a lot of potential. I wasn't planning on seeing it on opening night, but let me explain what led up to the above mentioned situation.

A couple of days ago one of our friends from the ward contacted Christina and invited her to go with some other sisters in the Relief Society on opening night to see Twilight. My wife accepted and bought her ticket on Fandango. The week passes by and it's Friday afternoon. I have planned to do some laundry, play some PS2 BYU football, and generally clean up around our apartment, while my wife is at the movie. I was planning a surprise for her; to come home after a night out with her/our good friend and find that I had cleaned and organized the apartment. Lo and behold, I got a call saying our friend Michelle was really sick and wouldn't be able to go to the movie. She asked if I would buy the ticket off them, and I agreed. I hadn't planned on it, but now that the opportunity had presented itself I was excited to go. Little did I know that seemingly every 10 to 18 year old girl in and around the greater Denver Metro Area was planning on being in the same place for that movie.

Christina and I arrived at the theater almost an hour early, so that we could get good seats, and the line to get in the showing was already almost out the door (and we're not talking a single file line here, we're talking the middle school "line" of huge clumps of people standing behind the huge clump in front of them). Once we made it into the theater and had our seats everything would set off the screaming hordes of teen girl fans. The theater lights dimmed and they screamed. The projector came on and they screamed. The previews started and they screamed. The Harry Potter preview started (and that movie looks really good too) and they screamed. The actual movie we had come to see started and they screamed louder! Once the movie was playing they screamed at everything. Bella comes on screen (screams), she sees Edward (screams), they see each other (screams) and they say hi to each other (screams), they kiss (screams), etc., etc., etc. Everything induced screaming from them. Christina and I were laughing so hard we almost fell out of our seats. After it was all said and done, I realized that I felt more grown up and suddenly older than I felt I was (if that makes any sense).

If that wasn't enough, I was yawning my head off last night by 9:30 pm. I just wanted to go to bed early, but I had so much stuff to still do. In my own defense I get up very early every weekday morning and go, go, go during the day (as I'm sure everyone does). Because of my habit of getting up so early on weekdays, I also get up early automatically on the weekend. I find it hard to sleep past 8 am on Saturday, even though I stay up until past midnight on weekend nights. I hate to say it, but I felt old this weekend, and that is a scary thought.

Survey

Well, it's done. Finished. Accomplished. I have helped my company successfully start AHC Home Care of Colorado. Two months ago we had only a plastic folding table and 8 white plastic folding chairs in what now constitutes a fully functioning and tastefully decorated business office.

Two months ago I was the only employee of AHC Home Care of Colorado. Since then I have learned a lot about the boss-employee interaction, paying bills and writing/signing business checks and payroll checks, recording and containing patients' confidential information, and a whole lot of federal and state and medicare guidlines that govern the operation of any business in healthcare. The survey, an in-depth audit of everything entailed in running a home health care, happened last week and went very well. The surveyor was very nice and even helpful in allowing us to fix most of the mistakes we had, which were minor, before she left Friday afternoon. We are now just waiting for the final go-ahead for us to start taking on more patients. I'm glad that worry is over, we were successful, and I can now get on with the business of making AHC Home Care of Colorado the most successful and profitable Home Care in the company!!

Constancy and Improvement

It seems in life that we are constantly struggling between these two ends of the spectrum. We might even say that life is a dichotomy because we are either doing on of these or the other; there is not much of a middle ground. Sure we can take a look at our life as a whole and say we are somewhere in the middle, but that is just because the sum of all our individual actions and decisions is in the middle ground. We, however, are making decisions and moving towards one end of the spectrum or the other.

Now, on some things it really doesn't matter. I don't believe it matters whether we always eat our same favorite meal at our favorite restaurant. It doesn't matter if we drive to work the same way every day (unless you're a spy and you drive a different way every time to avoid getting caught, but that in and of itself would be regularity (you regularly go a different way). Besides, which one of us hasn't been a spy avoiding capture!). Hence the title of my post is not constancy and change. Change happens all the time and can be inconsequential in that respect, but improvement is what is important. Change in the right direction. I thought of this at church today. Nothing really specific that brought it on, other than I was impressed by the Spirit that i need to work on improving and not remaining constant in my sins and errors. Lest anyone think me representing myself in gross sin, let me just clarify that it is the usual "natural man" sins that we all make as we strive to live more righteously but are still in a fallen world. The Lord is so kind to me and forgives me when I repent. I can't help but have a strong twinge of guilt when I do something wrong, and that motivates me and helps me to work towards improvement. Constantly becoming something better than I am right now, constantly improving. And that brings our spectrum to a circle, or just a really messed up spectrum where you can be at both ends at the same time.

On a lighter note than the random, philosophical, spiritual ramblings you have just read, Christina and I had the opportunity to baby sit the 8 month old son of our friends from Church, while they went on a much needed date. This picture is of him showing how well behaved and cute he is. The following picture is of him when I gave him the PS2 controller to play some NCAA2008 football (as BYU of course!!). Needless to say (shout out to Robbie) he loved it!

At a Loss For Words

It seems to me that it would be easier to write after not having written in quite a few months, because you would have all sorts of comments saved up or experiences lived through or funny stories to tell. I am finding, however, that that is not necessarily the case. I've found that all weekend long I've wondered and even worried a little about what to write. I could update on what has gone on since my last blog post and the subsequent weeks since, but that would take too long and would most likely be boring for everyone concerned.

Suffice it to say that I finally got offered, and took, the health care administrator position I was waiting two years for, with Advanced Health Care. I love a lot of things I've studied and learned about in my life, so much so that my freshman year of college I had charted out the classes I would need to take to get four different majors and two minors. I wanted to study everything, but what I would like doing for my profession left me scratching my head as I learned more and more. Like someone once told me, I know a little about a lot of things, but I needed to make money and support a family by knowing a lot about a few things (my career/job/profession). Those of you who know me even a little know that my passion is people! It took me a few years and a few majors in college to realize that, but I finally learned that I wanted to do something in business because it is about people. I love helping people, I love meeting new people, I like making money, and I have a natural proclivity towards managing (which I have nurtured through various situations, church callings, and jobs in my life). Administrator of a skilled nursing transitional rehab facility is the perfect job because it blends all of those things together. As Nathan (my trainer and boss) says, "it's a people business."

As you can probably tell by now, I love my job, and previous posts have told/shown that I love my wife. Let me know tell you that I love the Denver metro area where we currently live. We have met some great people at church, the weather is nice (and not humid like Florida, so the "hot" days here aren't really that hot), and there is plenty of stuff to do. I grew up in the mountain west so it's nice to be back. I just hope Christina grows to love it as much as I do.

So what does all this lead up to? The fact that above all else I love the Lord and my heavenly Father. Why, you ask? Because everything fell together so nicely since the time of my accident to lead me to the place I currently am today. I wasn't always as patient as I should have been with the Lord's timing, but I look back over my life for the past few years and am I eternally grateful for the kindness, love, and tender, watchful care of the Lord. For everything I have in my life, the only thing I have to offer in return is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I'm not amazingly righteous (as I need to be), nor am I particularly humble (though I joke all the time about being the most humble man you know), and I'm not even faithful enough to always keep the commandments (as I should be), but I most definitely as trying my hardest to be all those things.

And I'm most definitely really, really, really, really, ridiculously good looking!