My new fav Christmas song

This song is so beautiful. I cry everytime I think about it! Gin

Why Not

I just received in the mail today, the letter from Region XI informing me that I have passed all requirements to receive my Teacher Certification! That means I get to apply to the state of Texas to receive the Certification, and I am NO LONGER considered an Intern! YEAH!

So I couldn't think of a better song than this one (enjoy):

Ok so it hasn't been a week, but HEY it IS making me post more - right?

This song (like for most people my age) was my first exposure to Led Zepplin as a teenager. What I never dreamed of happening was Stairway becoming a staple "bedtime" song for my 5 month old! Our other children still enjoy listening to Enya because they all were put to bed listening to her at one point or another. Zoey on the other hand sleeps just fine, unless she is in the car (again opposite of the other children!). One day, Ginney was desperatly trying to get Zoey to calm down on the way home and she came upon this song on her mp3 phone. Lo and behold a new Randall tradition was started as Zoey fell fast asleep listening to one of the greatest rock bands of the 60's & 70's! :D

Well I have not COMPLETELY abandoned this blog. I recently discovered Grooveshark.com and thought I would try to post a favorite song of the week just for fun.

The first one I have always loved for its ironic significance. A lot of people try as hard as they can to avoid falling in love - when nothing could be better!

There's not much stickin' to those ribs anymore!

So we had some fun at our friends the other night, playing games and hanging out. When our chef for the night came in and announced we would NOT be having ribs for dinner, my first thought was "Well I don't mind if they are a little burned." Little did I know how not so little they were burned. Or should I say BEING burned. This was the picture taken AFTER the flames died down enough for the barbeque lid to be opened. Fun fun fun..... :)

I have to what???

Well I just signed my first Teaching contract this week. (yeah!!) It is funny though that we have been so caught up in all the tension and excitement of getting the job (and having a bunch of family in town to visit on top of all that), that I just made the actual realization yesterday....I don't have a job until AUGUST! So it is back to the temporary job hunt -- man I really thought I was done having short term jobs that barely pay enough. :( But after all is said and done it will definitely be worth it when August roles around. :))

Starting my career at last...sorta

Well I never though it would happen this fast after graduation, but I am being hired as the new Full-time Art teacher at one of the local high schools. We are all very excited even though I will not start full-time until the Fall. I have been the long-term sub in this class since January and have been enjoying it very much. I can't wait to see what kinds of lesson plans I can develop for next year, and of course I can't wait for the certification people to get their hands out of my wallet so I can finally receive a respectable paycheck. I know some of you out there just went "A Teacher getting a respectable amount of pay??", but yes I have had some low paying jobs through college and this is the second highest paying school district in the area. But alas money is not everything; although, it does help to have some when you are trying to feed 5 1/2 little mouths and find a bigger house (my belly is starting to not fit through the front door here, so we have to upgrade :D ).

States I have been to:


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Been a while

It has been a while since I posted here. I have been very busy finishing up my Teacher Certification through Region XI (ok, and I have been playing Guitar Hero 3 WAY too much :D ). The awesome news is that the principle at the high school I am a long term sub at has hinted strongly that I need to hurry and finish up the particulars. We are excited and thrilled at how quickly the Lord works in our lives!
Also, I was able to work with the full-time art teacher there on ordering supplies for next year. She handed me the catalogue and said mark what you want and we will order it! I felt like a kid in a candy shop, so check back here eventually and I will probably have pics of some new art work born from some of the supplies we ordered.

Another Point

I have recently taken to the habit of reminding myself why it was so important to rack up so much debt to get me through school. I realize there are SO many answers to that question but sometimes, as I think most of us do, I have to have them brought around and placed right in front of me. This will be a short post, but I wanted to throw out two tidbits that together have helped to place things into perspective. The first is of course that the prophets and apostles have for years counseled that education is one of the few things acceptable for large debt. This underscores the importance of education. The second is less main stream. It is a quote from Galileo Galilei - "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." So to anyone reading this who is maybe discouraged at the length of their schooling that is left, or is nail biting over the debt piling up - remember for whom and to what end you began.

Ahhhh the joy of parenting

So you know those times as a parent that you go.....What was I doing??? So we had one of those moments. I was at the computer, and Ginney was in the kitchen making dinner, when Mahala hollered "Lily & Parker are in the bathroom playing with the TOOTHPASTE!" The first reaction is how did they get in the bathroom (we keep forgetting that Parker has figured out how to open the door), and then it hits you as you go towards the bathroom that you can hear them "splashing" in the only regular source of standing water in the bathroom - yup you guessed it THE TOILET! So we just had to grab the camera, and you know we just couldn't stop laughing long enough to get mad at them (she was really enjoying herself!). Later we did have a "serious" talk with Parker about the bathroom not being a place to play, but how do you get that point across to a 2 1/2 year old who sees all kinds of stuff to "play" with in there!! Besides I can't help but see signs of growing artists. I mean LOOK at their use of line and form on the cabinet door! Amazing isn't it? :D

So I have experienced the first hiccup at my pizza delivery job. At the end of the night we turn in our money from deliveries and subtract our tips. The supervisor then asks what we want to claim for our tips, because they have to enter an amount in their records for tax purposes. I have received VERY peculiar looks when I state the full amount of my tips. Several of the drivers have even tried to "talk" me into claiming less because cash tips can't be tracked like check or credit card tips. At first I thought they just wanted to "inform" me that I could keep more money by fudging the system a little, but the more I thought about it they were motivated by other reasons. If they ALL claim ridiculously low tips then the IRS has no ammunition about any one of them in particular not claiming all their tips, but enter element X (me :D ) and they all start freaking out because there is a chance that my claims will stand out amongst theirs. I feel bad because they seem to be concerned about this. Don't get me wrong, I am not tempted in the slightest to NOT claim my tips, it is just frustrating that people seem to base their opinions not on WHAT someone does, but on how that thing effects them personally.

Well anyway I got to looking at this picture of Jesus I drew 13 years ago while serving a full-time mission and it struck me in a completely new way. Over the last few years when I look at it I have only seen the blemishes and aging of the paper. It bothered me because the yellowing of the paper made me think how it didn't look "perfect" like I thought Jesus should. It suddenly hit me that the only time Jesus would not "look" perfect would be when I see my own sins, that he has taken upon himself, reflected back at me. What a wonderful picture this became again! How can I worry about what others say and think? when I have the perfect example in front of me (and I am not talking about the picture this time, as it only serves as a reminder) of how to live my life. As I realize that the people I work with are still "good" people at heart, I can choose to make my own decisions and treat them with the respect that they deserve and that we are all expected to use towards one another. It makes for a much brighter day when I can try my best to see things like this.

What a week!

Ok I have SOOO much more respect for pizza delivery drivers now! And I have been sleeping VERY good now that I am doing something with my time! So the next time you order pizza, be nice to the driver and maybe even consider tipping him/her more than the change from $20.00 spent on a $19.85 order. (This is of course excluding anytime you get BAD customer service, cause there is never an excuse for that!)

So anyway I go today to do the preliminary testing to see if I am "call center material" for my full-time job. Hopefully that will start here on the 25th. Other than that my life right now is......well.......in progress. :D

Speedy Delivery!

I am waiting for the next training class for a call-center job that I have interviewed for (and I THINK I have the job), but my "second" job actually started first. I am now a sharp dressed friendly neighborhood Domino's Pizza delivery driver!

The funny thing is that I was sorta nervous about applying for this job. I guess I had the image that most pizza delivery people were guys still living with their mom in the basement hosting D&D games late Saturday night. (Sorry Amelia, Ginney just reminded me that you delivered pizza's too. ;) ) So anyway, I had a little stereotyping to get over, but after training I think I am really gonna like this job. I get to spend a lot of it in the car (with music blaring!) and a fair percentage of customers tip well, so I should be able to make enough to justify this as a second job. I just hope that I have ANY energy left for Ginney and the kids in the near future.

Hunker Down

Well we are not in the closet with mattresses over our heads, but we did decide not to venture out to church today. Thunderstorms and 60 mile/hr winds are pretty convincing. We were woken up the other night by thunder, and the first thing my wife said was "We are probably going to have all the kids in here tonight." I was very proud of them though, we did not get invaded. (Our oldest did come in towards the morning, but I am glad they feel they can come to us when they are scared.)

I remember staying in my bed and "screaming" for my mom because I was just as afraid to go in their room as I was of the nightmare I had. It's funny - I complain and complain about them not sleeping in their beds as they grow up, but it does make me feel good when they need us enough to come sneaking in at night. I say sneaking because we have used this as a running joke because half the time we don't hear or feel them get into bed. We wake up and "Bing" there they are. We call them our "Ninja Babies".

Perceptions

In the last year I have done a lot of art work that revolves around altered realities. Maybe that's because I have gone through various stages of unhappiness regarding my own reality. Whether that be my own level of spirituality, my frustration with school taking up so much of my time, or just my seeming inability at times to manage effectively even a small block of my personal time. It all comes down to perceptions. At times I was allowing myself to be convinced that I could not do anything right. (meaning the way I felt things were supposed to be done) I was trapped by my own "demons" and it turns out I was the only one feeding them.

The thing that is amazing here, is that although my wife did not know

"what" was bothering me she knew something was not right. While preparing a Sunday talk she came across a quote from Spencer W. Kimball that said Family prayer "is a kneeling prayer..." (Faith Precedes the Miracle, 200-201) What a simple and beautiful admonition. We have been having family prayer regularly for about 4 or 5 years now, but we had never once knelt in prayer. Once instituted, we have seen a major change in how our family starts & ends the day. I have learned over the years that even mighty obstacles can be overcome by beginning with very simple and small steps. It sometimes takes longer for us to recognize those steps. Escaping from our "demons" will probably rarely happen over night, but as Alma says to his son "O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever." (Alma 37:46)

What's The Point?

I have never been what "normal" people would call a deep thinker. My train of thought would not exactly be a streamlined bullet train. No, it would more resemble those old circus trains - with vastly different sized and shaped cars, and odd "things" poking out of odd places. As my artistic career has developed and grown, I have learned that meaning is a very subjective term. (I should note that the journey has been underway for quite some time but the actual "job" part of it won't really begin for another 6 months to a year.) I have learned that there are shallow meanings - "I like it." and there are deeper meanings - "The combination of colors and line keep my eye moving. I am drawn to the energy of this piece." I know that some of you may have just had an "artsy-fartsy" moment, but don't go running for the hills just yet. I guess what I am saying is that I have entered a portion of my life where I WANT to explore why I feel the way I do about things. I really think too many people cut themselves short in this area. How can we say we have convictions if we don't REALLY know why we feel the way we do, or even know WHAT we feel? Thus the emergence of this blog into my life. If I have thought about it, wondered how it works, or dreamed about what it might be like....it just might find its way on this blog at some point. So I hope you see something that makes you think, and not too many things that make you go "What is this guy on?"