Steve & Amy

Okay I’ve been tagged a couple of times, so here’s mine.

8 Things About Me

8 Things I am looking forward to:
*Sleeping in tomorrow
*Going on a nice long exercise walk with my mom tomorrow.
*Eating yummy Thanksgiving Food!!
*Getting a new puppy (we’re looking for a beagle)
*Christmas vacation
*My anniversary (we will have been married for 3 years)
*A Photoshop class I’m taking a couple of weeks.
*Making cards with my mom and sisters this weekend

8 Things on my wish list:
*Having kids
*A new computer (now that I like digital scrapbooking–Steve and I both like using the computer)
*New carpet
*26 quiet students!! I have a great class, but they like to talk!!!
*A treadmill or elliptical machine (maybe then I’d actually work out on my own)
*To get my master’s degree.
*A new camera
*A trip to Brazil

8 shows I like to watch:

*Lost
*The Office
*The Mentalist
*Without a Trace
*Gilmore Girls

Okay…so I can’t think of 8.

8 things that happened yesterday:

*Had a read-a-thon with students. It’s the best thing ever…they’re quiet…and doing something educational–plus I read a book with them.
*Watched Dancing with the Stars
*We went and looked at a boxer puppy, but decided not to get it. (she didn’t have any personality)
*I went on Hill Air Force base for the first time (again to look at the puppy)
*Did some digital scrapbooking
*Read part of a book.
*Fell asleep reading.

Here’s the next tag:

Here are the rules: you need to type 7 things about yourself that you don’t think anyone knows and then choose 7 people to tag at the end and leave their link.

1. I LOVE to read. I read almost every day. I’m a pretty fast reader, so I usually finish a book the day I start it.

2. I didn’t always want to be an elementary teacher. When I was younger, I didn’t want to teach, because both my parents were teachers. In high school I went to my dad’s school and worked with his kids and loved it! I’ve loved it ever since!

3. My dad works at my school with me. He and I got hired on the same year. He is the technology specialist for my school.

4. I took voice lessons when I was in high school. I had fun, but it didn’t do much for me. So don’t ask me to sing or anything!

5. I love toast (or bread in general). I could eat so much toast if I didn’t hold back! I have to limit myself each morning.

6. I am addicted to reading blogs and some forums. I will even spend time reading blogs of people I don’t know. It is just interesting to see other people’s lives.

7. My nickname is the “Family Fool.” My family gave me this nickname for a few “not so smart” things I did when I was younger….okay, so when I was in high school and college.

So if you made it through both these tags…I’m not going to tag anyone…but if you want to do it feel free! It’s always interesting to find out more about people!

I wanted to share this assignment I did with my class, because I thought it was pretty funny! Hopefully it’s not one of those things that’s just funny to teachers!!

I had my class look in a Macey’s ad and write down what they would need to purchase for their family for thanksgiving. They had to write down how much of each item and then how much it would cost. Here are a few of the funnier items on their lists.

10 boxes of jello
20 boxes of stuffing
3 bottles of salad dressing
$50 worth of potatoes
6 pounds of yams
40 pounds of turkey or another group 4 pounds of turkey
2 pounds of ham
$7.90 worth of celery
5 packages of Rhodes Dinner Rolls

Most of them spent at least $100-300 on their Thanksgiving dinner! Next time we’ll have to practice budgeting.

Then I asked them what they learned.

“Now I know why my parents are always broke around the holidays!”
“Thanksgiving dinner is EXPENSIVE!”

So I hope your Thanksgiving doesn’t cost you that much!

For those of you that don’t already know, I have been working as a Software Engineer (programmer) for the LDS Church for roughly the last year or so. When I accepted the offer to work for the church, I had no idea how much I would love my job. Since I was young, computers have been a huge hobby of mine, and since my teenage years, programming has been my passion. (Warning: the rest of this paragraph is probably boring to the average reader of this blog…feel free to skip to the next paragraph). When I started high school, they offered one programming class (Turbo Pascal for those interested). For whatever reason, only Juniors and Seniors were allowed to register for the class (don’t ask me why), but they let me in anyway. It was basically a learn-on-your-own type of class. Most people in the class weren’t impressed with programming after spending several hours and/or days learning how to write the common “Hello World” application. All that time for such little outcome seemed to be their feelings. I couldn’t get enough of it though. I suppose I saw the potential of being able to create something meaningful soon, and the ability to build a program fascinated me Anyway, enough of that mumbo jumbo.

Long story short, I knew early on that I would love a career in programming. Working for the LDS Church, however, never crossed my mind to my recollection. Although I could enjoy a career programming somewhere else, there are several hidden benefits that come from working for the Church. I put together my top five favorite things about working for the church (aside from my actual job):

#5 – Praying and encouraged to seek revelation – This is one of the very few jobs in the world where every meeting begins with a prayer. Employees are strongly encouraged to also seek personal revelation to help them as they work. I can’t tell you how many times I have felt an increase in my abilities. The Lord blesses and assists in this work, and it’s great to be a part of it!
#4 – Spiritual Meetings - On occasion, I am able to attend meetings at work, where the focus is not on work, but on spiritual things. It’s great to have an increase in my spirituality during the workday, and it indirectly helps on the projects I work on. I have also had the opportunity of attending meetings where apostles and other general authorities have spoken, which is nice.
#3 – Competitive pay – The church generally has had a stigma for not paying employees very well. I have not found this to be the case. From what I have seen, the church’s pay is comparable to what other companies would pay. Not too high, not too little, just right.
#2 – Coworkers who share the same values – It’s always nice to work with those who share the same values as you. In my opinion, it creates an environment that is great to work in. Except, of course, when the Holy War (UofU/BYU football game) comes around and I’m in the minority.
#1 – Worthwhile projects with personal meaning – The #1 thing I love about working for the church is the projects I’ve been able to work on. Programming by itself it very enjoyable to me. Programming something with as much potential impact as the projects I’ve been able to work on is amazing! To be able to work on things that move the work of the Lord forward is my favorite thing about working for the church (aside from programming itself). These projects also have had a very personal meaning to me, as I not only help to create the software, but am also able to take part in the valuable benefits they provide as an direct or indirect user of the software.

So that’s the good news. The bad news is that my department will be moving to a new office building in Riverton around May or June. That would be a really crappy commute. We have thought about the possibility of moving somewhere out there, but with the housing market the way it is, that would be somewhat difficult. There is a possibility that they might run a shuttle from the SLC Frontrunner stop to the Riverton building. They also might allow me to work 4 days a week, 10 hours a day. The nice thing about taking public transportation is that I can do whatever I want during the commute. If I want to start work while I’m commuting, I can, or if I feel like sleeping or reading a book, I can.

Life’s great when you love you’re job! And crappy when you’re job moves! Curious to know what others would do in my situation. Try to move out there anyway? Deal with the longer commute time (and possibly work during the commute)? Or something else?

Today as the student came into school they were all talking about the new president. Some kids were telling me that their parents voted for Obama, others said, I’m sad, I wanted McCain to win; however, my whole class was disturbed that Obama had won. They told me, Obama is going to make us go to school on Saturday AND he’s going to make us go to school for 12 hours every day!! I almost laughed out loud when I heard that! I told them that I was sure Obama wasn’t going to change the schools, but I’m still wondering where that rumor came from!! There’s never a dull moment when you teach elementary school!!