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We watched CNN a lot last night to get more information about the disastrous earthquake in Haiti. Blogger is so wonderful to create this Disaster Relief Widget. This will make it easy for my viewers to contribute money to the Red Cross's International disaster relief effort.

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The Carport

2010 story #2

Wanting to put the Christmas decorations away, I went down to the storage unit to grab the boxes. I opened the door and first noticed a smell, second saw the rust colored water.

A little background: Our condo was built in the 70's and has a sprinkler system installed throughout all the buildings. A short while after we moved in and remodeled the sprinkler in our pantry leaked and left a stain of rust colored water on the ceiling, walls, etc. After trying to remove the stain countless times, we painted over it and installed new shelves.

The sprinkler supression system for our building is in our carport and it was leaking. I cleared everything out and noticed that Ryan's baseball glove had very conveniently soaked up lots of the water, and was ruined. We mopped the floor but of course could not get the stain out. We placed a bucket under the leak and called the HOA. They came and fixed it.

The Christmas decor is now put away and I get to redecorate. Is anyone else as indecisive as me? I still never know where to hang things and our house still isn't quite the way I want it. But there are bigger fish to fry, right?

The Hole

Flashback 1 1/2 years ago. We were remodeling our bathroom. We layed tile so we had to raise our toilet.
Our neighbor tells us that the ceiling in the carport (right under our toilet) is wet. He cuts a hole in the ceiling and confirms the insulation is wet. We check and it is dry. HOA fines us because we do not fix the hole, which we didn't make.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  Said hole is still a hole. Ryan takes a shower and the tub doesn't drain. Our neighbor tells us his tub filled up with water and he thinks the drain pipes are frozen. He installs heat tape and the tub drains. We go back and forth with the HOA on getting the hole fixed. They say it will cost us $80 to fix. Meanwhile I shower, the tub doesn't drain. 1 1/2 days go by with heat tape. Tub does not drain. We call a plumber. $218 later tub is drained, pipes are still frozen. Calling this an emergency situation we tell HOA we are fixing it. We call my dad and he helps us fix the hole for $30.

Initial Problem: the seal on our toilet broke and our toilet was leaking water.
Problem led to: a hole which caused the cold air to freeze our exposed pipes.
Which caused: zero drainage and lot's of frustration as well as $248 bill.
Lesson learned: fix the problem as soon as it happens instead of waiting a year and a half.

New Year's Eve

We didn't do anything exciting this New Year's Eve, not that we ever have done anything exciting, but still, we felt like party poopers. It seemed like most of our friends just stayed home and watched the countdown as well.

Did anyone watch Travis Pastrana beat the world record? Here's the clip:



Thanks to Ryan's brother we love Nitro Circus and therefore Travis Pastrana. I read that he'd be jumping  his car New Year's Eve so we watched. It may have been the highlight of our night.

Then we watched Ryan Seacrest and all the happenings on Dick Clark's countdown. By the way, Dick Clark isn't sounding so well, is he?

Resolutions

I added some of my New Year's resolutions here---->
but only some. I have many this year and my hope is if I put them on the blog I will see them more often.

1-Pay off debt
2-Save more money
3-Excercise 5 days a week
4-Morning & Night prayers
5-Read 1 book a month
6-Read book of Mormon by June 6th

Our bishop challenged the ward to read the Book of Mormon by June 6th, which is our Stake Conference. When I was growing up my Bishop did a Book of Mormon read-a-thon with the ward where we met together one weekend and read the entire Book of Mormon. They had speakers and musical numbers and plenty of snacks to keep us awake (although laying down on blankets while following along wasn't the best idea). In August 2005 President Hinckley challenged us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, which equalled a bit more than 1 1/2 chapters a day.

This was his promise, "Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."

I finished this challenge and because of it I believe that at this time in my life I was closer to the Spirit than ever before and my testimony grew tremendously. I had so many great experiences in college. My faith was tested and I was blessed more than ever before by the Spirit.

I am so excited for the new challenge and the spiritual growth I know it will bring.

Here's to a great start to 2010!