Tanning Bed Trickery

Does anyone besides me find it annoying that you pay for these "sessions" at the tanning bed and even if you don't go in the for the maximum amount of tanning time you still lose that session? I know there are certain places with certain more expensive beds that you can pay per minute, but i strongly feel this should be made universal for ALL tanning beds and ALL tanning salons in order to prevent skin cancer. Yes, you heard me. They say the more you get sun burnt and the younger you are, the more it increases your chance for skin cancer.



I went to the tanning bed the other day to purchase Daniel and I some sessions. No we're not normal fake and bakers, but we wanted to build a base tan before our vacation in the British Virgin Islands in 2 1/2 weeks so that we don't spend the majority of our vacation in doors getting over a sun burn from the first day. I purchase 18 (9 each for me and Daniel) basic bed "sessions" at a little over $60. To some this may not be alot of money, but I'm not living in the most abundant financial times in my life. I handed over my check, picked out my sample tanning lotion while the girl told me the max time I could tan each session was 30 minutes. Now logically I know I shouldn't go the whole 30 minutes my first time. I thought 15 minutes might be just right, but then my whole "make every dollar count" mindset dropped in. I thought hey if I only go 15 minutes, shouldn't I have17 1/2 sessions left? Of course I knew the answer to that one so I didn't even bother to ask. Well, I wasn't about to let this tanning salon rip me off. I'm going the whole 30 minutes and they can't tell me otherwise! And that's what I did. Needless to say I have spent the last 3 days begging my husband to put some more aloe on my back and crying in the shower as the water hits my blistering body. Ok so I wasn't blistering, but I might as well have been! Do you see where I'm going with this? If I didn't feel the need to get the most bang for my buck not unlike many consumers today, I may have been less inclined to go for a full stupid 30 minutes and therefore avoided a seriously painful unpleasant sunburn, therefore decreasing my chances of skin Cancer. Somewhat. Opinion shared. Take it or leave it. And laugh at the ridiculousness of this blog if you will, but just remember, I'll have the last laugh when I'm on the beach in 2 1/2 weeks sipping margaritas and soaking up the sun minus the burn. Ok minus the Margaritas. Maybe just a glass of ice cold lemonade freshly squeezed with a little pink umbrella.

If it sounds too good to be true... it probably is.

Today about 2 minutes before I was about to close up shop and go home for the day, I had a lovely middle aged couple come through our drive through with a Offical Check drawn off of our bank. It was for just under $3000 and this couple was eager to get it cashed. They didn't bank with us so I informed them of the $5 charge for non-customer check cashing and they readily agreed. Upon looking at the check for a few more moments, "red alert" went off quietly in the back of my mind. The check didn't look like any official check I had ever seen drawn off of our bank. I was advised to make a phone call to verify it's validity. Sure enough the check could not be validated and I was advised to proceed with caution. I kindly asked the good couple where they had obtained this check. They said it came in the mail telling them they had won some Irish lottery. AH HA! If that doesn't scream fraud, I don't know what does. I then went on to explain that the check was fraudulent and that they were victims of a common scam and that I would have to retain the check. Needless to say the happy couple became not so happy and looked at me with a great deal of suspicion as if I was trying to steal their lottery money. The wife went on to try to convince me why this was a legitimate check. After all, folks, it did come special delivery by way of DHL. I felt like asking them if they even played the lottery in Ireland... but I already knew the answer to that one. C'mon folks! Get it together!

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the servce of your God."

People say that serving others will change your life. I remember the skepticism in the back of my mind each time there was a Sunday school lesson about it. Service? I'm too busy. Service? What about me?! Hello! I sure could use some service over here! And honestly out of the few Service Projects I've attended with my youth group I haven't felt so much as a tingle of pleasure. Well ladies and gentleman, I am publicly announcing that I was soooo wrong. Why it took me this long to figure out, I'm not sure. It may have had to do with me being a selfish teenager and just trying to find my place in life. I haven't performed any great deeds. I haven't really even done much good in the community. I've come to realize that service isn't just going to clean some one's home or pulling weeds at church. It can be as little as a smile, a hug, a conversation. There are so many souls, myself included, that get so lonely. We want to be acknowledged. Loved. Needed. Being in the tiny church branch that I am in, for the first time in my life I felt needed at church. I know I will not always be in a tiny branch, but it has helped me to come out of my shell. I sought to Give love instead of waiting for it to be given to me. And you know something? I think it blessed my life more than anyone else's. I don't know if my hugs make a difference. I'm not sure if my phone calls matter at all. But I do know, my love for people has grown. My confidence has increased. And the spiritual blessings are numberless.

I know what it's like to be on the other end. It wasn't that long ago that I sat by myself in church wanting to crawl into a shell. I didn't know anybody or at least didn't feel like I had any friends. Nobody cares is the message that screamed at me repeatedly in my mind. I just wanted someone to come talk to me. I'm not a mean person! I'm actually quite fun sometimes! Nobody heard that voice. Few people reached out to me. I do not blame anyone for this. They were all wonderful people, but I got lost in the crowd. I eventually stopped going to church for a time because I couldn't overcome my discomfort. Again, I want to make it clear that the decisions I made are completely mine. It is no one's fault that I became inactive. After all, a testimony of the true gospel should not be based on friends. I had alot of insecurities and issues that steered me in the direction of separating myself from church. Then Daniel and I moved to Gallipolis. It was my opportunity for a "do over". I forced myself to over come my shyness. I made myself talk to people that I really had nothing to talk about with. It has made all the difference. I am a different person than I was a year ago. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the best service you can offer someone is friendship. It will bless your life and theirs.

One Last Thing

I did want to share a tragic message with all my loyal readers. My sweet sweet/ evil dog peed on my wedding dress. Twice. Well it took up too much closet space anyways I guess. And I suppose I wasn't going to ever wear it again. Especially not now! I just keep telling myself it's not that big of a deal... it isn't... right?

Darling Boy

"Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility."- Kate Douglas Wiggin

Girls Camp Cincinnati North Stake Style

As per special request from my bestest in Texas, I shall rehash some very tender special memories of Girls Camp. It's funny that she would ask me about it since I was just talking about it with my dearest husband. It has come to my attention there has been some contention in my old stake concerning Girls Camp. Currently the young women are staying in cabins instead of tents and some people think that the young women aren't learning important life skills by sleeping in cabins. Let me tell you why that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I went to girls camp 4 years (one of those years as a junior leader). 2 years I stayed in tents, and the other 2 years I stayed in cabins. While I hold some tender memories of those first 2 years that we stayed in tents, the memory that sticks out the most was the incessant rainfall. Yes, it was just our luck that three of the four years that I went to girls camp it rained pretty much all week. Now imagine the gloriousness of waking up in the morning with a soaking wet sleeping bag and your arm in a puddle of water. Oh it was lovely times. Also imagine staying in a teeny tiny tent with three other girls who decide that they want to "rough it", (whatever the heck that means!) and not shower all week. I on the other hand preferred the clean shower option and therefore had the privilege of enduring the stench of my 3 friends. (1 of them eventually broke and took a shower a couple days later-- that bestest in Texas). Let's not even begin to discuss the wet dirty clothes laying everywhere that were attracting bugs and who knows what kinds of creepy crawly things... the life skills i learned those years in tents were that I hated hated hated bugs and I had disgusting dirty people for friends. Okay let's look at the 2 years that I stayed in cabins. The memories that stick out to me the most is the pleasantness of being clean and how grateful I was for not having to smell wet filthiness in my sleeping quarters. Okay okay I know I sound like girls camp was pretty much a horrible experience for me and in some ways it was, but on the other hand I made memories there that I'll never forget. My best friend Holli and I were always kind of rebellious. We had a tendency to sleep through flag ceremony and maybe skip out on a few "chores" here and there. But it was our rebelliousness that created one of my favorite girls camp memories. It was one sunny afternoon (possibly the only one that week), when we wandered off exploring the camp grounds if you will, we happened upon a pretty large creek. It gets pretty hot and humid in southern Ohio so that river looked really really welcoming. We decided to follow the creek and see where it led. After following it upstream for a while we see this awesome waterfall. It wasn't more than 25-20 feet tall. In our excitement we ran back to tell the whole camp about our awesome find. Needless to say a large group of girls followed us back in their bathing suits. Girls would climb up the water fall and jump off the waterfall into the deeper pool below or they would just sit down on the slipper rocks and let the current push them off. I was too chicken so I sat in the shallow portions and let the current push me down stream. Trust me, it kept me entertained for hours. :) That day was an excellent day if I do say so myself, although Holli did get a leech on our way back. Yeah that's gross. No way in heck I was going to touch that thing. I think I started running away from her... sorry girl. I tell you it's those life skills I learned!

Another favorite memory of girls camp is Testimony Meeting, also known as Girls Camp Thankamony. oooohhh Girls Camp testimony meetings are a sight to see. They last about 5 hours, no exaggeration. Basically it's a series of girls getting up in at least groups of 3 and some as large as 10. They go down the line each girl, one by one and it goes a little something like this. "I'd like to bear my testimony-" and then the floodgates open! Tears and tears and hyperventilation and heaving and all sorts of emotion! Finally when the girl regains the bare minimum control, at least enough to somewhat understand what she is saying, she goes on to thank her friends by name for being the best friends in the world and then thank the new friends she made for being the best friends she's ever made in 4 days. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. Yup. That's pretty much how it goes and I am just as guilty for this kind of show. HEY! When you put a large group of girls together, we tend to get emotional okay?! Sometimes when you're young and immature you don't always understand the important of bearing testimony of Christ and not thanking your friends so much. All in all I really did make a lot of wonderful friends. Truth be told I really wouldn't know how to start a fire unless i had some lighter fluid and a match. And I still can't figure up how to put up a tarp to avoid having a flood in the morning. If someone fell and broke a bone I wouldn't know what to do. Here's what I'm trying to say. I think it's very important that women be prepared and know how to take care of themselves in the event of such emergencies, but I think sleeping in a tent for 4 days once a year vs. sleeping in a cabin is not going to make the difference. Girls Camp is an opportunity for young women to develop themselves in many aspects. Learning some important life skills is definitely a part of it, but let's not try to make it so miserable that it's just not enjoyable and nobody wants to even go. One word of advice. If you decide to do the tent thing, for petesakes, get some of those rough tough outdoorsy men to at least show us girly girls how to properly put up a tent so it doesn't blow away and set up a tarp so us girls don't spend the week soaked. Those are just a few life skills I would've liked to have learned. Hmm... just food for thought.

Not Enough Hours in the Day

Yet the days feel so long and drawn out and as I type my bed is calling me. It's only 8:14 in the evening. I worked until 4:15, and in the midst of me driving home I had to pull over for an unearthly coughing attack that I was for sure was going to cause me to puke all over my lap, then after I regained composure, I finished the drive home. I arrived around 4:40. Not too bad. I walked up the stairs to my apartment and threw open the door only to be welcomed to the pleasant aroma of dog poop (under my kitchen table), so I plug my nose and make a mad dash for the bathroom to scoop up the poop and flush it only to find that not only had my dog pooped under the table but he also peed under the table. Lovely. At this point I feel like I'm going to puke again from the disgusting smell of dog crap. So I am desperately fumbling for that bacteria odor eating lemon scented spray which in all actuality makes me gag as well, but it's a better choice than poop. I running over every corner of the kitchen trying to cover the scent and quickly grab the lighter and start burning the 3 smelly candles I keep in the kitchen just for this purpose. Hey, a woman has to be prepared. After I managed to get the kitchen to smelling tolerable, I dumped a bunch of paper towels on the giant pee spot, soaked up as much as I could and then put the swiffer to work. 5:00. Wonderful husband calls asks if I want him to pick up something to eat. Mmm... pizza. I talk to my mom on the phone for about 30 min. until my husband gets home and then we chow down on delicious 5 dollar Little Ceasars Pizza and breadsticks. 6:00. I decide to take some timeout and watch the new t.v. series we have gotten sucked into. 7:00 I become aware that the kitchen sink is looking a little full, so proceed to scrub down the kitchen. 7:30 time to prepare dinner for tomorrow. I decided on a crockpot dinner. Gotta cut up all those veggies! 8:00. Finish folding laundry that was washed 3 days ago and has been sitting in the dryer. 8:30. Type in blog about how little I accomplish in a single day! I feel exhausted and it's time for bed soon. yikes... I don't even have kids yet.

I Wish I Cared

Actually I don't. In my 5+ years of banking experience, I have dealt with many many customers. Some sweet, some not so sweet. When you deal with something as personal as some one's finances you get to really see an interesting side of people. One thing I have to say is that I'm grateful that I started out in banking after my first year of college. It really taught me how to manage my finances and I gained an understanding of how things work in the banking world. Ultimately I know it has helped me succeed in being financially independent. Another thing I have gained from banking is my scrupulosity for balancing my checkbook. You would not believe how many people come in every single day and say the 4 words that make you want to lean over the counter and slap them on the face. "My account is overdrawn!" Okay okay, some people really do have legitimate excuses, but honestly most of them are just plain stupid. Especially the ones you have coming in at least once every month with the same old story. You start to feel less and less sorry for these people.

Let's discuss overdraft fees. What a freaking rip off! I cannot believe how high overdraft fees are getting. It irritates me to the bone that customers get charged so much. Yet my irritation for this is completely outweighed by my irritation for people who just can't figure it out. 99.9% of customers that come in and tell us their account is overdrawn do not keep a check book register. They don't utilize online banking to track their spending. I actually don't know how they keep up with how much money they have. Apparently they must have some magical gift of just knowing where their finances are at currently. But when they overdraw, guess who's fault it is! The banks. Or better yet, it's mine personally since I work at the bank. *Sigh* Folks! Why don't you balance your checkbook? Keep a register! Yes it can be annoying to start out with, but with such great technology as online banking and 24 hour phone banking and still getting those monthly statements in the mail, it leaves little room for excuses in my mind. As far as I see it, you've got a choice. Keep a checkbook register and lose maybe 5-10 minutes a day or every other day. Or don't and lose $100 -$300 bucks every month. To me, this decision is simple. To others, obviously very very complicated and difficult.

I had an extremely friendly gentleman tell me he was closing his account because the bank wouldn't reverse anymore of his overdraft fees and that it wasn't even his fault. 4 1/2 years ago I would've been interested to hear this story of how the bank just stole this poor man's money. Today I just nodded my head faked some pity and tried to get rid of him as quickly as possible. He then felt it necessary to carry on about how he was taking his money down the road to some specific bank (he did think it was important to tell me which one it was) and that he was going to have his wife close her account and make sure to tell everyone he knows to not open an account with us. It was late in the afternoon and I was losing my patience so I said "Sir, if it makes you feel better to vent to me, go right on ahead and do that. And if you want to close your account, that's fine. It doesn't affect me any. And if you feel the need to tell everyone you know to not do business with us, I'm not gonna stop ya." Yes, maybe I exhibited some "poor" customer service, but I will have the last laugh when he overdraws his account at the bank down the road and realizes he's in the same situation he was at his previous bank. I guess that's people for ya. I figure he'll just keep changing banks though until he can figure out that check register thing. Best of luck to him.

Blessings In Disguise

Lately I've been thinking about how blessed Daniel and I have been. Moving from Bellingham, WA to Gallipolis, OH was THE worst decision financially we could've ever made; spiritually, it's a different story. We still have our struggles, but we have grown closer and stronger as a couple. I am beginning to truly understand why putting God first brings me closer to my husband. I still have my nights when I pass up scripture study for a good t.v. show or sleep, and I'm not perfect about hitting those knees as often as I should, but I have come a ways, and I'm still pushing forward.

I also want to say paying tithing really really makes a difference! It seems evey time money gets really tight and I don't know how we're going to be able to pay the next bill, we're blessed and find a way. For those who say they can't afford to pay it, I'll quote my father in law, "I can't afford not to pay it!"

Heavenly Father wants to bless us. The only thing standing in between God and us receiving those blessings are ourselves. We turn away from Him, not the other way around. No one said this life would be easy. And I certainly don't recall anyone saying it would be fair, but if we live faithfully doing the best that we can, it will all be worth it. I forget this sometimes, luckily I have an amazing husband to gently remind me. There is a reason for everything that happens to us. We may not always know what that is, but one day it will all be clear to us. Our trials aren't meant to break us. They are there to make us strong. No one is in control of your life except for you. Don't waste time worrying about the things you don't have any control over. Why? Who needs added stress? Focus on things that are in your control. If you're not happy, it's not because of any person in your life. It's because of you. Happiness is something from within. I know my life may have been a walk in the park compared to some others, and people may say "well that's easy for you to say, you haven't been through what I've been through." All I know is that I have been tested to my limits time and time again. I did the best that I could with what I had. And the moment I stopped blaming other people for my unhappiness, the peace came. It's hard to not let other people have control over that, but the power is within us. So we decide. Let's start looking at the good, and change all the negative that we have control over. Let's not shake our finger at God every time something goes wrong, because all we're getting are blessings in disguise.

My Pride and Joy

Here's Toby!