Do You Know?

We all have people that we look up to and admire. Do you really know the person you want to become more like? We may think we know someone by the way he acts at work and in the comunity, but some people can put on masks. It can be hard to know if you really know a person or not.

A man named Ben Sanderson is a very admired and respected member of his community. He is a prosperous business owner, and a prominent member in his religion. He has lived in the same town his whole life, he has deep roots there. He has raised a large family, has been faithful in his beliefs, and has never caused a scandal. He is a hard worker, determined, and a great father. This is how the members of his community see him. The have always been very impressed with him. There have often been comments about how good the Sanderson family is, how hardworking the Sandersons are.

Ben is a very hardworking individual and is very concerned about his business. He goes to church almost every sunday and has held important positions. He gives knowledgeable talks in sacrament. This makes him seem like he is very sure about his faith and never has any doubts. He is very kind to everyone he is affliated with at church or in business, he always tries to leave the best impression possible.

At home it is a different matter entirely. When it is just him and his family he becomes a person no one would admire or respect. He is very demanding about having the house in pristine condition by the time he gets home from work. As soon as you make a mess you have to clean it up IMMEDIATELY. His children aren't allowed to make noise, especially while he is watching television. He expects the best out of his family, and when they mess up he can be quite harsh. He has only criticism and deragative remarks for his family. He has told one of his daughters, "Your best isn't good enough." That is his whole attitude he has with his family.

He can be physically abusive, and worse, he is emotionally abusive. He has a short fuse and a long temper. He never tells his family he loves them. He only hugs them when prompted by his wife. The tone of voice he has when he talks his family shows them how low they are in his opinion. It is a tone of disdain, harsh, and how incompetent he thinks they are.

He hides who he really is from everyone, because he knows that no one would respect him if they knew how he treated his family. He keeps everything very "hush-hush". He isn't a very gregarious or social person so the family doesn't go to a lot of community or religious functions. There are only a few people who know that the family is struggling, they all keep a mask on out of fear of their father.

This man who everyone respects and admires, if you really knew him you would refer him to counseling. We look at people and wonder what it would be like to have their great life. Wanting to switch places with someone is not a good thing, especially when you don't know what you are switching into. Do you really know the person you look up to and admire?

Early Mornings

I have an 8:00 a.m. class every morning except on fridays. My roommate and best friend from home has a 10:00 as her earliest class. Sometimes she will wake up and try and talk to me, but she isn't really awake so it almost never makes sense. Usually what she tries to tell me is about something that happened in her dream. I can't always understand what she says, but some of the things i was able to decipher from her muttering was really funny.

"Are there beans on the floor?" McKel asked in a very confused voice. "Uhm. . . no. . ." I reply after quickly scanning the floor to check. "Oh good!" McKel says and rolls onto her other side and falls quickly back to sleep.

McKel turns to me and with a very scared look on her face she tells me, "Amber! My fake hair is sucking the intelligence out of my brain!" She fell asleep so quickly after that one i wasn't even able to reply to her. Later i found out that she had been looking at her myspace friends before going to bed. One of them had extensions put in her hair and it apparently looked horrible. McKel had been dreaming that she had extensions in her hair as well, and apparently the hair was sucking her brain out. Random!

McKel and Steph had been over at a friends house watching a Talladega Nights. After the movie was over Steph tried to wake her up so they could come back to our apt. "We're getting pulled over!" is what McKel says to Steph as she slowly wakes up.

Most of the time i can't understand what she is trying to say so I'll just tell her to roll over and go back to bed. Usually she'll reply with a childlike "Okay" before totally zonking out again.

Orange Barrel

The long and boring drive from Cedar to Richfield and back again is one that i've had to make a lot this month. On my way to Cedar i was driving along, bored because the road is so plain, when i got to a construction area. I passed a semi so i wouldn't have to be behind him during the one lane construction zone. Cruising along at a speed higher than the law allows, i had to suddenly slow down. There was a bug orange barrel in the middle of the lane! I had to go outside almost onto the gravel so i wouldn't miss it. Since I had been going so fast before i saw it, I didn't have time to stop to move it. I felt bad, I wasn't sure if the semi would be able to fit on the road.
The orange barrel was so out of place, i figured someone must of put it there. It was standing straight up, so i knew it didn't get knocked over or something like that. There was a place for it in the line of orange barrells; I could see where it was supposed to go.


A group of teenage boys are bored and on their way to go bunny bashing. While on the highway, there isn't anyone around, so they think it'd be funny to leave a surprise for someone in the middle of the road. They don't think that anyone will get hurt since there isn't a lot of traffic compared to the freeway, and its not right after a bend so people will be able to see it and slow down. They are young, immature, carefree teenagers so they don't really care anyways. They don't think about all of the possibilities, they are only thinking about the thrill they have in doing something new and bad.
After moving the construction barrel in the road they drive away laughing and thinking about different peoples reactions. They all agree that they are very clever and pride themselves on how smart they are. One boy remarks, "I bet no one else has thought to do that! Wait til our friends at school hear about this!" They have fun bunny bashing, and then drive home late at night.

mouth coverer

Walking to institute one day with my roommate Stephanie there was a guy walking towards us talking on the phone. The world is very technology oriented, so i see this A LOT. This guy looked normal and he was walking normal. The entire time he was talking on his cellphone he had his hand covering his mouth. He wasn't walking with anyone and there really wasn't anyone around, so i assume the reason he was covering his mouth wasn't because he didnt want to be overheard. i'm big on teeth, and i love clean white teeth so i thought that maybe he didn't brush his teeth that morning, and he was embarrassed by his gross teeth. he could have an imbalance of vitamins, and his teeth might be permanently yellow so whenever he talks he covers his mouth with his hand. he could be a germaphobe and is very afraid of something coming into his mouth; to prevent this from happening he always covers his mouth no matter what.

Since I love clean teeth, and its usually always the first thing i notice about other people i'm going to assume that he didn't brush his teeth that morning, and is embarrassed by his horrible hygiene. i'm going to call him Brian for my little story :)

Feeling flustered after he had woken up late that morning he was hurrying to get ready on time. Brian had the option to either eat breakfast, or brush his teeth, but he didn't have time to do both if he was going to make it on time to take a test for his biology lab. His teacher is a stickler about arriving on time; if you are late then you can't take the test. Brian was stressing about the test anyways, so he was mad at himself for waking up late. He is a normal guy who thinks mostly about food and girls, so of course he chose to eat breakfast instead.
After eating his bowl of cheerios he rushed off to class. While he was working with his lab partner after the test was finished, he remembered he hadn't brushed his teeth. Brian only remembered this after his partner told him his breathe smelled horrible. He couldn't go home until after three, so he had to go the whole day with stinky breath. He was very self conscious about it, and decided to cover his mouth so that no one would know.
After three people mentioned his horrible breath Brian was feeling pretty bad about life. Especially since one of them was a pretty girl he had been flirting with and trying to work up enough courage to ask her out. After today he figured he had no chance with her. He was on the phone with her when he walked out of institute, unconsciously covering his mouth even though he was talking on the phone and not to her. He decided that no matter how late he would be, he wasn't ever going to leave his apartment with out brushing his teeth ever again.

Jack in the Box? Story

Earlier in the day i had been out with my friends having a great day and just having fun. It was a rare saturday that i wasn't too busy with family stuff or cleaning to spend time with my friends and i was loving it! I came home in a great mood, and on time. I had something important to tell my dad (although looking back now i have no idea what i needed to tell him). He was watching a movie like usual, and he couldn't pause it for one minute so i could tell him something. I'm used to this so it wasn't a big deal, i decided to just go talk to my mom about it until i noticed what he was watching. He was watching one of my movies, with out asking. He goes on and on about respecting other peoples privacy and not getting into their stuff with out asking. He has no idea where i keep my movies in my room, so that means that he had to have looked in a lot of different places while he was looking for them. I keep my movies in the back of a shelf in my closet, they aren't that easy to see because i have clothes in front of them. I don't know how many drawers or things that he went through to find Gladiator.
He had lectured me just yesterday about respecting my little brothers privacy and not going in their rooms when they weren't there. The only reason i was in Rubens room was because i had to check if he had cleaned it or not. He snooped through my things to find a movie. if he would have called i could have told him where they were so he wouldn't have had to go through my things, but he didn't. Him being a hypocrite and snooping through my things upset me.
I took MY movie back, and went into my room which is basically next door to the living room. He stormed into my room after me yelling at me about how rude and unfair i was being. he said i had no reason to take the movie back and i was just being a selfish brat. i could tell that his temper was quickly rising by the look he got in his eye. so i grabbed my little yorkshire dog, purse, and walked out of the house.
i drove around for a few minutes having no clue as to where i wanted to go. i finally ended up at my old elementary play ground. Jingle (my dog) and i went and sat on the playground. I cried and thought of all the other awful things he had said. After i had calmed down then i got back in my car and drove home.
It was pretty late when i got home, and the light in my room was on. I knew it was either my mom, or both of my parents. i was very wary when i walked into the house. when i walked into my room i was astounded. my mom was alone in there, cleaning. after i had left my dad had thrown a fit and had thrown everything in my room and broken almost all of it. there was broken glass, broken bits of ceramics, some of my technology was busted, and a drawer that goes to my antique vanity was broken. i was so glad i had left home and he had taken his anger out on my possesions instead of me.
i had come home because my mom wanted me to, not because i had to. then i had to come home to this. my mom looked at me a little guiltily and sayed she wanted to have more of it cleaned up before i got home. i started cleaning up too, and by this time its almost midnight. my dad came down to my room acting self-righteous. he wanted to talk and discuss about what had happened. after seeing what he had done to my room i did not want to talk to him.
i knew that he would just get angry again if i didn't talk to him, so i just sat there trying not to cry in front of him while he lectured me. he felt better after telling me all of the things i am doing wrong, and all of the things i need to do better, so he went to bed. i still had to clean my room and vacume the carpet very very good so that i could be in my room with out being worried of cutting myself.




whenever i have fun plans or am having a good day, someone in my family ruins it for me. mostly its my dad. why is that?

Venture #2 Amber Spencer

Sitting in the peaceful canyon was very calming to all of the chatter constantly going on in my head. As i look up at the beautiful imperfect cliff i realize just how insignificant my problems in life are. I think back to all that I have been stressing about, all of my worries, doubts, and family problems and realize that it doesn't really matter as much as i thought it did. They are all important and i will need to deal with them, but i don't need to stress about them. My life is really quite small compared to the far reaching cliff. That cliff has been there for who knows how long, and it has cracks and markings. I've only been here for eighteen years, who am i to really be striving for such perfection in my life? The cliff looks as if it has fallen on its side, and is resting on its the hill of dirt to its side. Who do i rest against? Who do i let hold me up when I can't hold myself up?

Little Mormlets Amber Spencer

In institute today Brother Christensen called us all "Little Mormlets". Out of all of the mormon jokes i've heard this is the first time i've heard this one. Taking that out of institute, some passerby would take that as an insult, thinking that he had just called someone a little piglet. Misinterpretation is one of the main reasons that people get in arguements.