Reflections....

After much joking, at the expense of those who believed with their whole hearts that the rapture would happen last night, I began reflecting on things as a child I grabbed a hold of, whether right or wrong, and wouldn't surrender them for anything. 

First, the rapture...

This idea is still "relatively" new. It was not commonly taught or believed in until about 200 years ago (maybe I didn't do much homework on the topic). I for one don't buy the concept of the rapture. I think man has added their own ideas and concepts, thus polluting the true meaning. (The timeline for most Christians is wrong anyway, if indeed the righteous are caught up to meet Christ at His coming it is after the tribulation and such right?)  So the rapture or being caught up to meet Christ via flying through the air and literally meeting Christ before all return and set Christ's throne and seat of power here on earth sounds fantastic.  I may be wrong here, I am just observing, but I see God our Father as one who is very subtle, and a full on rapture seems to be a grandstanding event that goes against his subtle nature towards us. ( Now, it's been a while since I have read revelation, so I may have it completely wrong)

Nephi a comparison...

When I was younger, I had it  ingrained in my head, that I should be like Nephi. That I should strive to be a good example, because everyone was watching me to know how to behave, that if I misbehaved then others wouldn't accept the truth of the Gospel because of my deeds. (Whether it was taught to me like that or not, it's how I took it ans internilized it) So my view of Nephi was as follows:

-He was exactly obedient to Gods commandments
-He was very serious
-He viewed laughing and "making yourself merry" as sin (remember this is as a child)

So putting these qualities together I think I wound up with a fairly warped sense of what life is supposed to be lie. So in a nutshell my child world view was:

Everyone is watching you so you need to be serious and focused on keeping the commandments as Nephi was,  never waivering in your resolve, because if you fall short and others follow your example their sins are your sins. (Well something like that any way)

The good news is I am no longer that self conscious. (Ok, maybe I am) I believe that each person is responsible for themselves reguardless of what I may do or the example I set. (That being said, I acknowledge the contradiction coming up and am ok with it, a bad example dissuades people from the truth, and while not your fault their lives are the way they are, it creates a stumbling block making it that much harder to accept the truth)

I have also found a respect and love of laughter and merriment that I at one point thought of as a sin, because Laman and Lemuel had a party with laughter on the boat to the promised land (I didn't understand the "rude" behavior was the actual problem not the laughter and dancing) so for a long while I was confused, believing that only church sponsored dances and jokes were allowed, all others were sins.

I am so glad that I out grew that (as of this post, j/k, kinda) life is so much more enjoyable with laughter and some merriment.

Birthdays....

Yes today we celebrated 2 birthdays...(not on their actual birthdays, early so they could make sure their rewinds could come and celebrate with them)

We had planned on two parties at the same time at McDonalds, giving each girl 10 freinds to invite. 

Things went smoothly, to say the least.  All the kids had a great time, playing on the equipment, talking and just generally goofing off.

When the party was settling down and the kids were leaving we went to pay the piper only to discover that someone beat us to it. We asked the manager who it was but she wouldn't even give us a description of the "man" who payed for the parties and our own individual meals, totaling about $155 he also included a generous tip for the staff of McDonalds. 

What a really nice thing to do!   So if it was you and you are reading this you should know, the whole anonymity thing is going to drive me crazy tonight....and of course thank you for your very generous gift.

:-D

Oh my gosh...

I got a text from t mobile, the other day, informing me that I had used way too much data and they would be reducing my speed. ( It's a good thing my billing cycle is up in 2 days)  So that got me thinking just how much data do I use. Typically, I may use only 2 gigabytes. ( Did I mention I stream a lot of audio and video)  Now, Since I got my nook, I have begun using my phone as a wifi hub. So naturally, I am using a lot more data. 

Are you ready for this...

I have used, a little more than 5 gigabytes.

At least now I know just how much data I can use before I get cut off.  :'(

Netflix on Android....

Been waiting a long time to say this....IT'S HERE!!!! IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! I found an official Netflix app in the Android market today. So now.I can stream movies while I am driving down the road! (Just joking-- kinda of)

Dick Van Dyke....and other stuff....

 I recently (last night) discovered that he has written a memoir, entitled My Lucky Life In and out of Show Business.  I got the audio book version because it is read by Dick Van Dyke and I love his voice (Also when books are read by the authors or the person they are about it becomes more personal, because you get the authors mood and feeling as they express their creativity) (that was a long parenthesis ;) )

The entire reading takes a little over 7 hours to listen to.  I listened all day and didn't finish (I still have about 2 and a half hours left)

The only things I knew about him were that he was in The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins. I am finding his memoir fascinating and highly recommend it to every one who loved his wild antics on both the silver screen and in your living rooms growing up.

Other stuff....

We celebrated the boy's (No that's not what I call him, but for ananimity {spell check version didn't look right: unanimity} online thats what you get) birthday on Sunday.  He was really excited!  He kept exclaiming, "My Bike!" or "My Truck!" on your 3rd birthday do you remember being that excited?

My wife (who really loves dealing with children, ;-p) has an in home childcare service she offers.  (Its a real shame the income isn't consistent, then I could quit one of my JOBs) is currently full. We will see how long it lasts but for now its nice, as we don't use any of the childcare income to pay for household expenses.  So now we replenish our savings :)

Our kindergartener, is having a hard time staying on task (its really all four of them), she has good days and bad. Example: Yesterday, she wouldn't cooperate with her teacher and tried really hard to disprove me when I told the principle and her teacher she could handle first grade. Then today, she was a dream student, attentive and willing to work. She even got through her home work quickly, including, reading for 15 minutes and the math flash cards.

It is a working opinion, of ours, that our perfect little angels must have ADD. (If that is the case it explains a lot about me ;-p) My mother recently got a book with a test to take to help determine what type of ADD a person may have. (Sadly, we haven't taken the time to take it yet) (FYI the things in parenthesis are my own personal ADD moments) =)

Love It!!!!

That's right, I love it!

Love what, you ask? Why, my Nookcolor, of course.

Yes, I got an ebook reader. But why the Nookcolor? Because, when you stop and think about it what do you use a tablet for really anyway? Surfing the web and reading books. That may not be true for everyone but it is for me.

I deliberated for a while going back and forth, finally deciding that I would save and get the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. Then I looked at the Nookcolor again (To start with the Nookcolor is half the price of the Galaxy Tab)

The first time I looked at it, there was no Adobe Flash player, now there is. First time, it was just a reader, now it has an app store (although, this is a new feature, only 5 days old, I think, there are 140 or so apps available)

The Nookcolor is Android 2.2 at it's core with the Nook OS as the user interface. This will make the eventual apps available to be similar to what is in the android market (I read somewhere that the main requirement is that it look good on the 7 inch screen)

Battery life was expected to be very good advertised at 8 hours of continual reading....the reality is a little different. In an 11 hour interval from the time I unplugged it to the time I got home. I was able to read intermittently for 4 hours go to the Barnes and Noble web page (no it does not come with 3G, wifi only) and set up a gift card, go to the shopping section and download a book. After 9 hours the battery was dead (Only used it for about 4 hours off and on through out the night, the rest of the time it was a sleep and using precious battery life) Lesson learned always have the charger handy.

So if any of you want to share ebooks using the lending feature of nook then let me know. ;-p