Live after the manner of happiness

I was reading in 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon today. I had finished chapter 4 (one of my all-time favorite chapters) and cruised into chapter 5. One verse caught my attention, verse 27:

"And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness."

What a profound statement. Is the state of happiness really that simple? Is it a lifestyle you can choose to live? To get at the heart of it, I guess you need to try to understand what Nephi meant. I don't claim to perfectly understand the scriptures, but this is what I think.

Alma, one of the Book of Mormon prophets that received Nephi's records, referred to the Nephites happy state when describing his own people "And those who were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord were delivered at all times...behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi..."

I know that the happiest times in my life have been when I have been keeping the commandments. I've been delivered in times of despair because of my faith in Jesus Christ and the promises made to those who live his gospel. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone on earth could choose to live after the manner of happiness.

Hugs & Kisses

I feel like I've been quite blessed to have children that, for the most part, freely express their affection. There is no better pay day for a parent than an unprompted hug or a sincere I love you. Yaks is perhaps the most affectionate of our two children - Boo has started to grow up and is more selective on letting her guard down. For example, last night I came home from bishopric meeting and the kids were still awake. Normally they would be overjoyed and kiss me before I jiggled their tummies in bed and tucked them in under a mountain of blankets. Except for last night, Boo snubbed me and told me to leave her alone because she was trying to sleep (she must have learned this from her mom) Lately, with Jane, hugs and kisses are only exchanged for hamburgers or french fries. I was pleased this morning though as Boo seemed to have forgotten the previous night and sent me away with a kiss (she always tries to kiss me on the lips) and an "I love you too."

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Commentary on the 2008 Elections

I wanted to make some brief commentary on election 2008. As a Utahn and a Mormon, I find myself in an interesting predicament with Mitt Romney in the presidential race. I'm troubled, not because i feel an obligation to vote for him, but an obligation to vote against him. I'll explain. I worry that if Mitt were the party nominee Utah would probably overwhelmingly vote for him. When compared to the national results I would be concerned that this would reinforce that perception that Mormons vote with their religion. People who are familiar with the 138th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, know this isn't true. So, I feel a bit of an obligation to support the opposing candidate, as long as it's not Hillary. Truthfully, I recently joined the Obama camp. While he's not the perfect candidate I tend to like his views (and theme song 'Better Way' by Ben Harper). I don't side with all of his
social positions. So who are you going to vote for? Need help? I recommend Glassbooth.org.

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Commercial paper or toilet paper?

It's been all about finances this week: assessing the damage from Christmas, resolving to keep a better budget throughout 2008, and reading marketwatch as the economy seems to be tanking. It's been particularly discouraging to watch my retirement balances melt away as if someone was cyphening funds daily. This is a sore spot for me as I met with my retirment advisor back in September with the intent of significantly shuffling my portfolio because I felt the next few months were going to be poor performers. After 30 minutes of her trying to convince me that market timing doesn't work, I acquessed (sp) and made about half of the adjustments that I had initially intended. I should know better that financial advisors are a little off base. I've seen evidence of this every day for weeks as wallstreeters applaud at the end of a trading day that signified 250 points lost and 4.8 billion in
market value flushed down the toilet. And so, i write this entry from where? The mens bathroom.

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The big news today? Boo got her hair cut. I'ts been nearly a year since she cut it herself, and it's grown in just enough that we could give her a cute little bob. We took her to Cookie Cutters to have it done. Cookie Cutters is a place that specializes in cutting kids hair. They sit in cars, play video games, and watch movies while the stylist works furiously. I found out today that they do Daddy cuts while kids are having their hair done. I can't wait to play video games instead of the typical forced stylist conversation.

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I have a dear aunt that has always been exceptionally kind to me. She expresses undaunting faith in my potential and views me with the greatest compasion and lack of judgement. I just got off of the phone with her. She was calling me to tell me that she had been given an apple t-shirt and was mailing it to me as she new I was an apple fan. It would seem like such a small gesture, but along with the shirt, she told me exactly what l needed to hear tonight. Recently I've been contemplating my goals and my direction in life (primarily professionally) and I've felt I've come up a little short. Without even knowing how I was feeling she expressed empathy for the stage I was in at this time in my life, trying to balance a young family and a career. I'm not sure why I'm writing this, I guess I'm just grateful to be blessed with good people in my life- undercover angels if you will, that
without even knowing it provide you with hope. I hope I am able to be that for other people at times.

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Back to work

If there is one thing I love about the holiday break, it is spending time with my kids. When the time finally rolls around for me to come back to work, I know it’s an adjustment for me, mom (whose become accustomed to the extra help) and the munches who are used to eating out at least one meal each day courtesy of dad. I have a host of memories from the past week and wish to share just a couple of incidents that made me smile.

Poor Yaks has been infirmed the entire Christmas break. This has provided for some challenging nights. Although Yaks is approaching two, he is still addicted to a bottle. And if he wakes up in the middle of the night his conditioned response is to ask for a refill. Sometimes he’ll be completely asleep but holding the bottle in his hand. As was the case this week, he’s figured out that if he takes the bottle and clanks it along the slats of his crib he doesn’t even need to cry out—mom and dad will come running. The clanking on the bars reminds me of those scenes from the movies when a prisoner is clanking his metal mug across the bars.

Boo received the Beauty and the Beast DVD for Christmas. Incidentally, the DVD was purchased online and upon arrival we discovered it was an illegitimate copy. It still plays, but the quality is less than a typical DVD. We’ve felt quite comfortable letting Jane watch this show without mom and dad in the room. It wasn’t until we were in the car a couple of days ago and heard Boo exclaim, “Stupid” that we realized she had picked this up from the DVD (the part where the beast gets a less-than-stellar haircut before the big date with Belle) I guess it shows you can never be too careful. There is one exceptional set of parents in our ward that has taken extraordinary measures to ensure their children aren’t influenced by Disney pop culture. They noticed that many of the Disney Princesses wear immodest dresses so they color in sleeves in coloring books and sew new clothes for their dolls. I don’t think we’ll go that far.

Finally, I decided about a year ago that I would attempt to have a monthly date night with each of the children. Boo incidentally has the first Tuesday of the month and Yaks has the second Tuesday. I’ve had to be flexible with these dates since I was called into the bishopric, but I think I’ve done a fair job of making sure each child has a little one-on-one time each month. Yesterday Boo and I spent the morning sledding (cell phone picture below) and then got hot chocolate and Bagels at Einsteins. Boo was so proud of herself that she could go down the hill all by herself. I was proud of myself that I could continue to pull her back up the hill for nearly an hour.

It’s been a great holiday break, but I’m so glad I’m back at work. I know I’ll miss the kids even more during these next few days, but I relish the good times we shared during this break.