Jazz Game

Terrible Referees, Sloan gets a technical, me and dad sitting and booing the refs, enjoying the game, with the Jazz down by twelve....

the third quarter takeover! 12 point lead and then, of course, the refs come in with ridiculous calls, the whole crowd gets angry; it's a playoff atmosphere. Jazz pull it off and win 104-101!

EDIT: So there were pictures here, but the website I got them from no longer exists, supposedly, so now there's no more pictures :(

Out of His Mind, But Not Out of Style

IT NEVER GETS OLD!

Getting All Nostalgic

And all they do is annoy me more. I asked myself why this is, and I came to the conclusion that it is because all of these people are educated in the public school system, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but you do tend to find the masses of idiots come from those public school systems. They all need shirts that say the following:

I miss Kestin; I miss Tina; I miss the awesome few of us who worked so hard on the school paper. I really miss that journalism room. Good times, good times. If there is one thing I could go back and do again, it would be all of those fun times in that room. I particularly miss the christmas trees that stayed up from december till the end of the school year and all the Hitler memorabilia.

AHA!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

Fascinating Logic

My opinion: The U.S Constitution is flawed because it was written by men who aren't all knowledgeable.

Assumption made about me: She is Godless.

Sure as Hell No.

My husband says he wants kids... before we turn 20. Uhh.... NO! I asked him what's wrong with waiting until about age 25 to have kids. He says that's too old. Uhh... NO!

"Why is that too old?" I ask.

"Because my dad was 22 when I was born." Says he.

Why the hell does that matter? My parents were 30 when they had me, and I had just as much fun with my parents as he did with his, if not more. Being able to have fun and raise kids has nothing to do with whether you are 20, 25, or 30 when you have kids. My husband sure as Hell doesn't understand this. We will never understand each other's logic in this matter.

In my mind this creates the equation: Chelsea's idea + Nik's idea - Chelsea's unwillingness -Nik's misunderstanding= NO KIDS.

I would be just peachy with this, but he is really upset with my prognosis.

"We're LDS," he says, "and people are going to start asking when our first one is on the way. We're expected to start having kids soon, and you're going to have to get used to getting asked that question."

Why in the Hell should I have to get used to being badgered about when I want to have kids? ESPECIALLY by other people? And just because I'm LDS? Isn't the decision on whether to have kids or not a personal matter? Come on people. If being LDS means I have to start having kids before age 20 then I'll just start telling everyone I'm atheist and believe that as the world is overpopulated already we don't need to bring more children into the world. UGH. I now remember why I said I was never going to get married.

And how did this whole conversation get started between me and my husband? A seven year old girl asked me today if I was pregnant (This, to me, just means that I really need to get back in shape). Then she asked me when I was going to get pregnant. I told this to my husband, thinking he would just tell me that I was right about needing to get back in shape, and this whole damn conversation started.

My Latest Trend

I have been watching a lot... which is an understatement... of Star Trek the Original Series with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner. This is terrible for my homework, because it has gone undone for nearly a week now. Also, it makes me incredibly unproductive. I do as little as possible so I can watch multiple Star Trek episodes in one day. My mother is worried that I'm becoming a "trekie," and while I'm not worried about that, I am worried that I will not be able to catch back up to my schedule and meet the deadlines I set for myself. You see, that's the problem with deadlines that you create for yourself: you know that nothing is going to happen if those deadlines aren't met, so you let yourself procrastinate and keep throwing the deadlines back until it really is too late to ever finish what you started.

Star Trek is also keeping me up till nearly 1 AM every night, which is bad for my health because I am getting up too early. This causes me to further be unproductive because I find myself falling asleep during the day. I have been doing the bare minimum required of me. Looking at this trend I have fallen into makes me realize I need to change it, but it is one of those really addicting laziness trends that take awhile to get out of. My mother has described it as the way I take down time. She says, "Chelsea, you hardly ever take downtime, but when you do, you take it hard and for quite awhile." So, maybe this is my downtime and I just need to wait for the inspiration to start working again. I just hope it starts back up soon.

Elementary Assignments

So, my posts are usually longer than this, but that doesn't mean I can't vary my length of post every now and then. I was helping my 12 year old cousin Bailey with her english homework. Kids have a tougher curriculum in elementary now, I'm telling you! She already has to know a bunch of latin roots and then all of the adding and dropping suffixes to make things nouns. I don't even think I knew the word authentic could become a noun until I remembered the word authentication; and by remembered I mean that I looked it up on the internet. The assignments were ridiculously time consuming. That could be just because I wasn't the one writing, but whatever.

Kids nowadays also have ridiculous math book setups. The format of my cousin's math book was really ridiculous. It took me forever to find the properties they were asking us to use to identify certain problems. Also, I feel that the math is somewhat easier when it came to story problems, but harder when it came to just the numbers. I hated story problems in school, but the ones she had were really easy. I guess that is because I moved up through a bunch of math classes, but personally, I believe that the story problems were harder in the math book I had in sixth grade.

The Sad State of the American People

I'm getting on here to rant at this point. I am sick of hearing people say that they won't let their kids watch Obama and that he is pushing socialist agenda. First, if he was at any time, it was revised because it was not what he needs to be telling school children. Second, if you aren't letting your kids watch this it is very obvious to me that you aren't letting them think for themselves and are afraid, therefore, that they will automatically believe and follow every word the president says. Which, considering the speech he gave today, wouldn't be a bad thing. However, it is sad that kids aren't being taught to think for themselves and to analyze what people say, accepting and rejecting different ideas. In essence, it is a pity that parents aren't teaching children to form their own opinions.

Second, I would like to say that it is obvious that these americans saying that Obama is going to create a czar to rule over children's education aren't aware of the form of government we live under. We live in a democracy with a huge number of checks and balances within the government system. Anyone who knows anything about our government knows that we have two houses in the legislative branch that make up congress: The House of Representatives and the Senate. A bill has to pass through both houses of congress to even be sent to the president to sign it. Then, after the president reviews the bill he can either sign it or veto it. If he vetoes the bill it goes back to congress and they have to have a super majority--2/3 vote--in both houses for the president's veto to be void. THEN you have the judicial branch, which reviews the laws and makes sure that things that are unconstitutional are thrown out of the government.

Oh, and just to top it off, in the Declaration of Independence it states: "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

Our government hasn't done anything, in my mind, that is so terrible that we need to abolish it and create a new one. We haven't suffered a long train of abuses from our government. In fact, we have been protected and helped by our government. However, the people are the power. Government cannot be had without the consent of the governed. It seems to me that parents aren't teaching their children these things, and so they are unaware of the power their voice holds when it comes to government. This causes all the whining and no action that is happening in America. If Americans want change, then they need to organize and tell their government. Women did it for their rights, and African Americans also rallied for change---and guess what! They got it! The power lies with the people. America needs to remember that.

Tell Me Why a Student in America Shouldn't Hear This Address!

I hear remarks all over the internet and facebook from Republicans that their children should not have to listen to our President speak to them, when in previous years Republican presidents have spoken to all the school children in America: specifically Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. The only difference this time is that Obama is telling students to set educational goals and to not give up the fight for education, because the road to success is hard and requires an education. He is telling them that they can be great people in society and do wonderful things if they will get an education. Read it for yourself. I want someone to tell me what is wrong with this speech.


Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009


The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Lesson Learned

Ever since I was young, I knew not to watch rated R movies because of the content within them; yet as I have gotten older, I find that things you knew so well when you were little gain shades of grey. This is what happened with the principle mentioned above.

My husband and I occasionally watch a rated R movie. We've seen Charlie Bartlet, V For Vendetta, The Kingdom of Heaven and Troy. Nik has seen more than I have because he grew up in a country that had very few people who shared his beliefs. All of the movies I mentioned above left me feeling uplifted, as if I had grown and become a better person by watching them. I figured that if I was careful and read the summary and watched the preview of a movie I would be able to tell whether or not I could watch the movie, despite what it was rated.

This stopped me from going to see Watchmen, because of the unnecessary scenes. My husband went to see it and admitted to me that there were quite a few unnecessary parts within the show. It made me feel good to know that I had made the correct decision. However, you can't always judge a movie by what the preview looks like and what the summary says about it.

Yesterday was Nik's last day with me before he went to Arizona for five months. He really wanted to go see the movie that just came out called District 9. I had watched the preview and read up on the movie a bit, and decided it looked a bit like an action movie, so even though I had a slightly bad feeling about the show, I told Nik I would go. We bought tickets to the nine thirty-five show in the evening.

When the show started, I was excited. After all, Peter Jackson was part of the production crew, so how could it be a bad show? It started out as a documentary, and anyone who knows that I made a documentary would know that I would appreciate the art within a show that started out as a documentary. The documentary explained about how the aliens came over Johannesburg and their ship was broken so the Johannesburg government created district 9 to house the aliens. This then became a slum and aliens (called prawns) were forced to stay in there because the humans would not tolerate integration of species.

The whole thing was very intriguing. The gist of the documentary was about how district 9 was going to be cleared and about the people who were going to clear it. MNU was the company clearing it; they are the second highest weapons manufacturers in the world in this show. Everyone knows that the main reason MNU is there is to confiscate alien weaponry and try to make it so humans could use them (the weapons were biologically tailored to prawns, so no human could fire them because they do not contain prawn DNA).

Up to this point in time there was no swearing, the show was intriguing, and I was interested, so I stayed in the theater. Oh, and as the story would go, things just went downhill. MNU goes to clear district 9. The F word was flying, and things were getting edgy. A bunch of weapons were confiscated, and then the head of the operation finds a cylinder that ejects black liquid onto his face and hands. (Previously, you see prawns manufacturing this weapon and talking about how the humans mustn't find it.) At this point everyone in the theater knows that this man is going to start turning into a prawn. He gets beaten up by a prawn and the men say he should be taken to the hospital. The emergency doctors just wrap up his bleeding hand and put his arm in a sling.

He gets sicker as the day goes on, and he is taken to a hospital (all this time things are just getting bloodier and bloodier and the swearing worse and worse). When they take off the bandage his hand has turned into a prawn hand. When I saw this I almost threw up. I wanted to leave, but I wanted Nik to get to watch the movie he wanted, so I stayed and managed to calm my stomach down.

Scientists come and take the man and start performing weapons experiments with him, all of the time with the man trying to refuse. The scientists torture him and make him kill things and it just keeps getting bloodier and bloodier and my stomach is churning. At this point I have a headache. I got up and left just after the scientists decided that they needed to take everything they could from this man because his DNA was exactly even between prawn and human. The man's father-in-law was the one that gave the okay to do it. They didn't give the man anesthetic and started with his heart first. When I heard that I looked at Nik and told him I needed to leave. He got me out of there with my back turned, but I could still hear the screams from the man as they were taking his heart. Supposedly that was only just over halfway of the movie.

When we got out I started crying and then stopped because I needed to puke. I couldn't get myself to puke in the movie theater, though, so we left. I felt terrible for the next hour and a half after we left. There was nothing in that movie that will ever get me to watch through that again. I had been totally deceived by the preview and the summary I had read. The movie was ten times worse than I could have ever imagined it would be. I learned my lesson last night: Don't go to rated R movies.

A Dr. House Attitude

Do you ever get the feeling that just because you are trying to prevent something it is bound to happen?  That's because you are trying to prevent it.  We humans try so hard to make sure that nothing bad happens that we often cause something bad to happen because we are trying to prevent it from happening.  What it is I have no clue.  Hence why I wrote it instead of some other fantastic sounding noun.  The main problem is that people try and prevent themselves from having a life.  So maybe life should be the noun.  Or maybe we should just keep it an it and so those people who disagree with me can have some idea of an event that it is within their heads so as to delude themselves as to the real problem.  The real problem is that people don't like to experience pain, which life is full of.  So to prevent our pain we treat it, whatever it may be.  We do this through defense mechanisms, being cautious to the point of paranoia and finding some unaccredited site on the internet to back up our fears.  And yet these same people drive to work every day, comfort people who are sick, play sports and live in areas that hurricanes hit at least once a year. 

  Why is this?  Because people are only afraid of certain parts of it and therefore seem to think that only the one part of it can affect them.  Which brings us to the question of why people are only afraid of certain parts of it.  Generally prevention surrounds those things which a person has experienced and doesn't want to experience again (or have other people know that he or she has experienced it), or it is something a person has heard about and doesn't want to experience.  The former is the more likely of the two, even if you don't think it is.  You see, everybody lies, and that's not just a saying that Dr. House uses, it's true.  Everyone has told at least a white lie in their lifetime, if not a larger one.  Typically, people who screw up do very well at covering up their tracks so even the people closest to them don't know what they've done.  Oh and this isn't just for little screw ups.  It is very possible to have a person create a near perfect cover up for a big screw up.  People who care what other people think are almost always the ones this applies to.  Not wanting to hurt someone you care about is one of those endearing qualities that turns out to be not so endearing in caring people.  Hiding things from people only makes the pain worse when the people find out, but worried, caring people don't think that way.  And hiding things away just heightens the guilt factor within relationships.  A caring person will overcompensate in his or her relationships because of the guilt factor.  So when someone suddenly becomes overly loving and helpful, it is probably because they are trying to compensate for some screwup that would have hurt you if you had found out about it.  People always have a motive for what they do, and it is always selfish.  Humans do things to make themselves feel good.  Doing something that doesn't benefit you is against human nature.  There always has to be a feeling of satisfaction and benefit in the long run.

Pour Out Your Hearts Continually To God

“But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.  Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you” (Alma 34:26-27).  

I’ll be honest, I hardly ever pray.  The more I do it the better I feel, true, but for some reason that fact doesn’t click in my brain: the benefits don’t seem to register.  It may stem from the fact that I’ve never seen it as a commandment, or it may come from my belief that I should not rely on anyone for help and deal with my problems myself.  Every time I read the book of Alma I skimmed over this scripture, never really understanding its significance.  It took two separate significant times in my life to make me see the importance of this scripture.

The first time this scripture became clear to me was when I found out I had a cyst (which turned out to be a tumor) in my tibia and I had to have it surgically removed.  The place where the cyst was located was near a main nerve.  If that nerve was hit my leg would be numb, inhibiting my ability to walk.  My biggest fear is being paralyzed or disabled physically in any way, so the thought that this could happen to me was terrifying.  For the first time in my life, I turned to God for help.  I prayed for hours, crying my eyes out until I fell asleep, and then my thoughts were always on what I could do to receive help from God so they surgery would go well, and once I got over myself, I asked God to help my family not worry about me.

In all the time I’ve been alive, that time was the first time I really felt the benefits that came from sincere prayer.  Sure, I’d given many half-hearted prayers in my lifetime, but I’d also received half-hearted answers in return.  As I read in a book once, I felt that I had given a million dollar prayer and received a million dollar answer.

The next time I really gave a prayer where God was continually on my mind was when my fiance went to basic training.  I cried all the time, feeling so alone and not willing to accept help from anyone, especially not my family.  So, for the first time in nearly two years, I turned to God.  I cried to God every chance I got to keep my fiance strong throughout basic, and then I prayed that I would remain sane and be able to function throughout the ten weeks he was in basic training.  Angels came to comfort me.  Every time I pray sincerely I find myself benefiting from it.  Never has anything detrimental happened to me because I prayed. 

Amulek was right.  In order to have strong faith and a relationship with God, I need to pour out my heart in prayer continually to him.  If you do this you can live in a world of turmoil and be okay because the love of your Maker is with you.

Deb Moss Intro

Deb Deb Deb

Splat!  Such is my fear if I were to jump out of an airplane when it is on the ground.  There is no such fear in Debbie’s mind as she goes to jump out of one at an immense height.  The warm summer air splashes her face and sends her hair in an exotic, electrocuted position as she makes her jump.  Reaching the elevation which requires the deployment of a parachute, Deb and her friend Jen follow instructions and release their parachutes.  Debbie is enveloped by her parachute and she begins to fall to her death, but an unexplainable phenomenon (unless you are familiar with the abstract) stops the terrible situation.

Everything goes dark.  Being a green crayon brings a nature-like feel with it.  An odd, acute sense of smell that comes with being a crayon lets her receive a whiff of her favorite scent in the world, new books.  The box is opened by an unknown being.  Looking over, awesome green crayon sees the terrible pink crayon to the right of her and the no less abhorrent red crayon to her left.  At first she is glad to be taken out of the box away from such horrible colours, but then the reality of the situation sets in.  A little girl is going to use her to destroy a brand spanking new book! Nonetheless the book that she is currently reading: Eclipse.

Snap!  As the crayon is snapped in half Debbie’s soul leaves it and involuntarily splits in two.  The same unexplainable force creates two bodies and puts each half in either body.  Coming to consciousness at the same time, both Debbies see each other.  Now, if I saw myself next to myself, my first reaction would be somewhat vulgar, such as Holy bleepity bleep bleep bleep!  I didn’t know I had a twin!  Debbie’s reaction is, “Hey, would you be friends with me?”  Other Debbie replies, “I think so.”