Governmental Budgets

It appears to me that our governmental entities here in Utah budget just as well as Utah families. That, unfortunately, is not a good thing. I believe many families in Utah don't budget well. In fact, many studies show that American families in general don't budget well. Many American families subscribe to the buy now, pay later mantra. We see this as well in government. Many governments are willing to place bonds and then increase fees paid by the citizens to pay off the debt. Wouldn't it be better to plan ahead and save some extra money to pay for the improvements before they occur?

In Woods Cross, we will see our water fees increase by a significant amount in the near future. This is to pay for a bond that will be used to build a new water storage tank and to drill a new well. This will mean that both our garbage and water fees will have been increased significantly in the space of one year. I would suspect that if you were to look back on the last 14 years of Woods Cross government, you would see that taxes and fees collected by Woods Cross City have increased at a much higher rate than inflation. Is this being a responsible government?

15th Anniversary

Today is an anniversary for me. It was 15 years ago today that my wife agreed to marry me. A recent article (see here) in Mormon Times by Orson Scott Card sums up many of my feelings about my marriage.

In the article, he says in marriage, "there's somebody who shares your goals and your problems, somebody to rely on, somebody to hear you out. You're not alone." One of the great things about being married to my best friend is that we both have someone to rely on. Someone to share our fears and our joys with. We both have a shoulder to cry on when we need it. We have somebody else to help us through when we're feeling down.

Orson Scott Card says of the foundation of marriage, "It's a commitment based on the goals you share. And real love, married love, is not what you start with -- it's what you create together along the way." My wife and I have had many wonderful times together in the past 15 years. We've had our struggles and our heartaches, but, what I feel today is a love that is so much stronger than the love I felt for her 15 years ago.

To my wife, I love you! You are my best friend and I want to be with you always!

New Missionary Catch Phrase?

There is a great post over at "The Cultural Hall" blog. (See here.) It deals with the phrase of "Every Member a Missionary" which is used in the LDS Church. The blog post makes an excellent point of noting that you need to be a friend.

First they came...

The following poem attributed to Martin Niemöller is inscribed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.


Do you see any recent events that this may match up with?

No Regrets at Murdock Chevrolet

I have been meaning to write a blog post about this prior to now, but, I haven't done it yet. Last November we were looking at replacing our 2003 Chevy Suburban. There wasn't anything wrong with it, I just wanted to upgrade to something different. Now when you have seven children, your options on vehicles is fairly limited. Our choices really became one of the following three options:

School Bus
A institutional van.
Or a nice new Suburban.
I should add here that we plan on keeping this new vehicle for several years.

With these things in mind, we went looking for a new vehicle. Our 2003 Suburban we purchased from Young Chevrolet in Layton. After that experience I wasn't too thrilled to go to Young again.

Since Murdock Chevrolet was close, we decided to go see what they had available. At the time we went, Chevy was offering 0% financing on 2007 Suburbans. That was the deal that we went looking for. The problem became trying to find a 2007 Suburban that was a 9 passenger model. Basically there weren't any within a 500 mile radius. Our salesman than started to talk to us about looking at a 2008 Suburban. They had a 2008 Suburban that was being shipped to them that would hold 9 people. To make a long story short, we ended up deciding to get that 2008 Suburban.

Why am I happy with Murdock Chevrolet? During the process they did several things that made me happy, among them are:

1. They worked hard to find a 9 passenger 2007 Suburban. They even looked into getting a 8 passenger 2007 Suburban and changing seats to make it a 9 passenger. That proved to be cost prohibitive.
2. When they found out where I worked, they told me about a discount I could get because of my employer. This actually made the vehicle cost about $500 less than the deal that I had worked with them. How many times have you had a car dealer tell you how you could save even more money?
3. To seal the deal, they offered to throw in a vehicle entertainment system. The first one that they installed didn't work and after trying several things to get it to work, they finally installed a dual dvd player system. This system has kept our kids happy for many hours. Happy Kids = Quiet Kids. Quiet Kids = Happy Parents. Happy Parents = Happy Vacation.

You may have seen Murdock's "No Regrets" commercials. I truly have no regrets with my purchase experience at Murdock. My wife and I absolutely love so many things about our 2008 Suburban. We love the color, the way it rides, the remote start, the vehicle entertainment system, etc. Thanks Murdock! If you are in the market for a new car, go see Jason Nielsen at Murdock and tell him that I sent you!