Choices

This is something that I have been thinking about for a little while. But it works out because even if not directly, eventually it will answer the question Alison asked in your Comment on my last blog.

On a daily basis we are presented with choices. Most of the time they are simple easy choice that won't really effect much around us not matter what we choose. Like what to have for breakfast, or which route to drive to work. But sometimes we are presented with choices that are life changing choices. Meaning the choice we make can greatly affect our lives and our futures. Sometimes these choices are presented to us whether we like it or now and we are forced to make the choice. Other times they come because of previous choices we have made. And sometimes we choose to make choices to try to improve or change something that we are not currently satisfied with.

It is one of the latter that I am faced with now. It is a choice I have brought upon myself to try to improve life for myself and my family, specifically in the job/financial area. But none the less it is a choice that could deffinatly change how are future looks, depending on the choice I make. Therefore I sitll have not come to a definate decision and I continue to stress about it trying to decide which is going to be better, both in the short and the long run.

As we all know I am one of those eternal students. As a result I have been working a series of dead end jobs and just living paycheck to paycheck. I want this to change. I don't want to worry about whether we are going to run out of money before my next pay day. I don't want to stress about everthing I buy. I want to have money to put in savings, and I want to get out of debt sooner that later. But right now it jsut seems like we can't get ahead. The end of school is near, but with little financial aid it makes it hard to fly, and pushes that graduation date continually further out. So I have decided if I want a change I need to make a change. I can't continue to do the same things and expect different results.

So I have thought about it. Trying to come up with a change I can make that will disrupt our normal life as little as possible but give us a better result financially speeking. I have come up with three main things. But rather than have this a huge long blog, I will write a little more about what those are in my next blog.

TO BE CONTINUED......

Is it Me?

I have thought a lot lately about Alison's comment on my previous post about changing jobs. How it doesn't really matter where I work, or how many different jobs I work as, as long as I am working and providing for my family. I agree. Especially at this time in my life while I am STILL going to school. I know that one day I will have that job I love to go to work to and will work at for 30 years or whatever and retire from and all these "temporary" jobs will just be a vague memory of the past.
But I sitll can't help but wonder if it is me. You know I have been laid off of a lot of my jobs indicating that the job was lost through no fault of my own. Others I have left volentarily to get a better schedule or better pay or just try to get better management. But I have honestly never heard of anyone having this many jobs, especially in such a short time frame. So I wonder, is there something I am doing wrong, or is it just the way it is. I think other people also think it must be me. Even if they don't realize it, somewere in the back of there minds they are thinking, what is this guy doing? Why can't he just stay at one place? or is he really getting laid off, or is he getting fired and just passing it off as a lay off to feel better about himself. Most of this I figure other people are thinking because I wonder the same things, all but the getting fired part because I know it was a lay off.
No matter how you look at it I wonder, why? I have always been a person that has felt that everything happens for a reason even if we don't recognize the reason at the time. Good or bad it is all for a reason. I think that most of it is so we can learn something, grow, become stronger better people from our experiences and trials. But sometimes I realize that things just happen because of the choices we make (usually dumb choices). You know the whole cause and effect thing. But even then I guess they happen so we can learn to make better choices. So is my long series of jobs just a trial, a bump in my lifes road that is there to help me learn or grow? or is it the result of stupid choices I make?

Coming soon to a blog near you.

I will be posting a new post here soon I promise. I just wanted to let my loyal fans know that I haven't forgotten about you. :) I have a really good one to write about. In the mean time I just wanted to draw your attention to the links on the side of this one. One of them is for our new family blog. It is designed to comliment with words all of Marni's wonderful photo blogs. I guess kinda like a family journal. Enjoy!

The past is still here

I am taking a history class this semester that is really interesting. It is the history of Native Americans, but focuses more on the impact on Native Americans by European settlers.If you are not interested in any of this stuff don't feel like you have to keep reading, you can skip this blog. I have already told Marni everything I am putting in this blog and I know that some people are not as interested in History or its corrilation to the present as I am. For those who choose to read feel free to let me know how you feel. (if you disagree, agree etc.) Also this blog may end up being a bit long, just as a fair warning.

Now to get started I want to give you a quick history lesson, but I will then just focus mainly on one part of it.There were basically 3 groups of people who came to the America's from Europe. The first of course was the Spanish with Columbus even though he himself was not spanish. Then you has the French and as we know by the language this is being written in, you also had the English.These 3 groups were very different in there aproach and interactions with the native people. You have the Spanish who were Conquerers. ( I will get back to this) The French who were traders. They went to great lengths to build friendships with the native people and set up long term relationships and trades with them. Then you have the English that did not know what to do, so they went about setting up treaties with them, all of which the English broke, but that is a different story.

The group I want to focus on more now is the Spanish, which as you may know and like I mentioned, were Conquerors. When the Spanish came to the Americas they had a sense 0f entitlement. They honestly felt that it was their right to have the land and everything that came with it. Especially anything of value. They also felt they had the right to do what ever it took to get those things, even if it meant killing the people who already possessed them. Then they felt that the natives were not entitled to their own lands but also that they were there to serve the Spanish. To cater to them. They even refused to learn the Native language but insisted that the natives learn theirs so they could communicate. They also felt that if someone thought or believed different than they did they had the right to kill them if that is what it took to make them think and believe as they did.To illustrate, not only did they take the natives lands, treasures and cities, and even the natives themselves to serve them, but they felt they had the right to change others as well. A small group of Spanish explorers came upon a French colony in what is now North Carolina. This colony was living peacefully, and were Protestants. Since they would not change their beliefs to coincide with the Spanish, the Spanish sent a small army and Killed all the men, woman and children of the colony, just because they believed differently.Now today the ancestor of these Spanish conquers are largely what we call Mexicans, however they are also in other Latin American countries.What I wanted to point out is that in some degree, what happened then is still happening now, with the Spanish ancestors, the Mexicans. They come to a country that is not theirs, without permission. They refuse to learn the native language but instead insist that we learn theirs so they can communicate with us. They feel like they are entitled to everything we have, including our jobs, our communities, and our government assistance. And they refuse to do anything for it (such as pay taxes) except demand that we give it to them. Then when we threaten to send them home and deny them all these benefits, they protest and say we are not treating them fairly and that they are entitled to these things, even though they are here illegally. The majority of Gang members (at least in Utah) are Latin Americans. They are conquerors that feel they are entitled to other peoples property, and will do what it takes to get it, even if that involves violence against innocent people. Instead of learning our culture they feel we need to cater to theirs.

The sad part about all this, is we let it happen. We don't enforce the laws in place. We don't keep them out or kick them out, and we elect people to government offices that will continue to support these Spanish people and cater to them.

Imigration

I am not sure if I have written about this before or not, if so sorry.I am not against Immigration. After all, every single one of us are here because either we or our ancestors were immigrants at some time. What I am against is illegal Immigration. It bothers me when people don't take the proper Legal steps to get here. It bothers me when they come and don't learn the language, and expect us to cater to them by speaking their language. It also bothers me when they are here illegally and still EXPECT government handouts. Then it bothers me when they go around talking crap about America and Americans and talk about how great their home country is. If it is that great go home. Otherwise get here legally, learn the language, work for what you get like the rest of us and pay taxes instead of just benefitting from other people paying theirs.

Changes

Dang, nobody commented on the changes to the look of my blog. I guess it was not that impressive. Just kidding. I actually just wanted to point out that the tree picture at the top was not something random that I found online or anything. Marni actually took that picture and I really like it. If anyone else likes it and would like a print let us know, I'm sure we could work something out. But if you don't care for it, you don't have to pretend, or request a copy just because it is from family. :)

Anyway, happy weekend everyone!

Nicknames

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, probably because I have noticed how many I use in a day.

Growing up I never really had many nicknames. The obvious is of course Andy, which as a kid I did not like and would tell people to call me Andrew. I actually don't mind now though. In fact there were some people that never listened when I was a kid that have always called me Andy, and on the rare occation that they call me Andrew now it is really weird. I think Alison is about my only sibling who has consistantly called me Andy. A lot of people at work and stuff now call me Potter. For some reason ever since I got home from my mission I went from Elder Potter to just Potter. Even when I introduce myself as Andrew, when people find out my last name they like to stick with that. I am also fine with that. I have always been proud to be a Potter. But I guess the only nickname that I have been called was as a kid by my older sisters which was Andy Pandy, and they would sing the song (the georgy porgy - or how ever it is spelled - song).

To my knowledge the only nicknames Marni had was Marn which her entire family still calls her, and her dad called her Muffing - not to be confused with muffin. I think I have heard him call her that a couple times since we have been married, but mostly she is just Marn now. To me she is always Sweetheart. In fact a lot of the time she thinks I don't know her name because I rarily call her by it, I just call her sweetheart, or Mom/mommy when Lilly is around.

But the whole reason I have been thinking about this lately is because of the vast number of nicknames that Lilly has. There are so many I will probably forget some so sorry.Her main nickname is Lilly-Bear which I have been calling her since she has been in the womb, and still call her on a daily basis. It has caught on some and some other people call her that sometimes too. But she is also called: pooh-bear, punkin-bear, punkin-bum, punkin-head, punkin, punk, babe, lilly-pants, stinker-bug, stinker, tinker, bug. I know there are more but I can't think of them right now. So I may update this in the future. If I do I will put the new ones in a different color so they are easy to find, so feel free to check back from time to time.I am sure as time passes and she gets older some of these will stop being used, and others may be invented, but as far as I am conserned she will always be my Lilly-bear.