About The Stallings Krew

Jason and I met in April at a class we had together called, "Personal Achievements" at BYU Idaho, also know as "The Burg" or "BYU I do".  A little side note before I continue with this post.  The reason why I reffer to BYU Idaho as "The Burg" is because Rexburg is freezing in the winter, its basically like a frozen icicle.  Also referred to BYU Idaho as BYU I do, that is because the joke is you go there to get married.  There are a lot of people who get married quickly, within their 1st semester or two.  To tell you the truth I wasn't even planning on taking this class, but one of my good friends Sessely Sharp highly recommend it and convinced me to take it.  It turned out to be a really great class, probably one of my favorites offered at BYU Idaho.  I was so glad my friend told me to take it, and I am eternally grateful because that is where I met my eternal sweetheart!  The teacher Bro. Christensen was the best teacher at BYU Idaho in my opinion.  He always made class fun, exciting, and spiritual.  There was always a great atmosphere in class.  Anyway I remember the first day of class like it was yesterday, that was the first day we had met.  I won't go into great detail because I told you about it on a previous blog post a while ago, but it was a good first day of class.  Jason, however, doesn't remember it.... sad day....  Oh well I have forgiven him for that.  We didn't date until a month later, and he officially asked me to be his girl friend on June 9th and that was also the day we had our first kiss...  :) I will tell you about those later.  Anyway we became official June 9th and we dated till Thanksgiving day November 24th, 2009, which is the day Jason purposed to me.  :)  We were officially engaged till March 28th, 2009, which was the day we were married in the Salt Lake temple.  We took our honeymoon in Las Vegas, Nevada.  We live in Orem, Utah in an fourplex.  Our neighbors are three of my cousins.  Jason works at Nu skin in down town Provo, Utah and he is studying Information Systems (computer stuff) at UVU (Utah Valley University) in Orem, Utah.  I am working at a marketing company in American Fork, Utah called Sound Concepts.  We don't have any kids yet, but sometime in the future we will.  Jason is from Idaho Falls, Idaho and I am from Provo, Utah.  Jason is the 3rd child of 4.  He has an older brother Brion and an older sister Ganae and a younger sister Katie.  I am the oldest of 5 children, my younger brothers are Drew, Cam, and Derek, my younger and only sister is Emily.  Jason served his mission for the LDS Church in Tampico, Mexico.

Jason has many great qualities.  He has a great sense of humor and makes me laugh everyday.  I on the other had am a little more serious, so I guess we keep each other balanced.  He is very kind, sensitive, and caring.  He is always has me in mind.  He is strong, smart, and loving.  He forgives easily and says his sorry.  He is very thoughtful and unselfish.  He is very hard working and encouraging. He is supportive.  He has a great laugh.  He has great green eyes most of the time, sometimes they are blue.  He is creative and observant.  He can read my mind a lot of the time.  Sometimes it is scary how well he can read my mind, and knows what I am thinking.  Sometimes he quotes what I am thinking word for word even though I haven't told him what I am thinking. It is weird how well he knows me even though we've only been married for almost three years.  He learns quickly, and picks up on things easily.   He has a soft spot for little girls, they just melt his heart.  We teach the 6-7 year olds in Primary, and the girls in the class all have a huge crush on him.  He is the perfect man, husband, and someday he will be a good father.  There are many more things I could say, but the best of all is, he is my handsome charming prince forever and I love him a lot!

Jason loves cars he is a car guy, which I am grateful for.  He is knowledgeable on cars and is able to fix a lot of things on cars.  When he was younger he had a 1965 Ford Mustang he rebuilt and he loved that car.  He sold it to help pay for his mission.  It was a forest green color with Crager rims.  I am not a car person, I like them to drive though.  I love animals.  Jason had many cats growing up and one dog.  He dog was his best friend and brother, his name was Buddy.  Buddy was a German Shepard golden retriever mix, so a big dog.  He had a very funny unique personality.  Jason loved him and misses him.  I had one cat and two dogs growing up.  Our dog was a German Shepard named Thor.  My family and I loved that dog.  We also love our current dog, Missy, she is a Pomeranian.  Jason dated a lot through out high school, but never had many serious girlfriends.  I didn't date a ton in high school, but made a lot of friends.  Jason was my first boyfriend and my first kiss.  Jason worked at Chili's restaurant through out high school.  I worked at a grocery store in Provo called Macey's.  Jason liked working at Chili's.  I didn't like working at Macey's, although I met a lot of good friends there.   

Jason and I enjoy watching movies together.  We enjoy going on walks together.  We share our time between our families in Idaho, Utah, and Canada.  We go to Canada to visit family, my Dad is from there.  Jason and I don't really watch the same tv shows because we like very different tv shows.  Jason is into more of the fantasy, sci-fi, and comedy where I am more a drama, soap opera, romantic comedy kind of a girl.  I also like scary, intense, and romantic shows.  We are busy with work and school, but we try to make the most out of the time we do get to spend with each other even though it isn't a lot.

Well that is about us, I hope you have enjoyed reading!   

Identity theft (Proposal)

             After a wonderful evening out on the town, my wife and I arrived home.  I began empting contents of my pockets onto the dresser.  Where is my wallet? I thought to myself.  “Breanna” I called out to my wife. “Is my wallet in your purse?

“No, I don’t see it in here. She said, “It’s not in your pockets?”

 “No.” I replied. Franticly searching, grabbing my keys I headed outside to search through my car.  Coming up empty handed I ran back into the houses and told Breanna that I was going to go back to the restaurant to see if I had left it there. Arriving to the restaurant I asked the hostess if anyone had lost or left a wallet there. “I don’t know,” she told me in a sassy tone, “I guess I can go ask the manager” 

“Thank you” I grumbled. She obviously didn’t have any idea the terror I was feeling inside.  She came back with a light brown wallet and asked if it was mine.  It was. I was surprised and relieved to find everything was still inside, my money, cards, and all the pictures. Thanking her, I left.  A feeling of relief sank into me.  Driving home I felt things had worked out.

              Later that week while I paid my bills I noticed several large purchases that had been made. Knowing that my wife had not made them I called my bank, asking about the unexpected purchases that had been made. Katie, the lady on the phone, informed me the charges had been made is 5 different states on the east coast.  What the crap! I thought. “I have never been to any of those places” I explained to her. “Well sir you have been a victim of identity theft” said Katie. 

            Although we may not personally know someone that has had their identity stolen, stories like the one above do happen.  Well what exactly is identity theft you may be wondering?  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) defines it as; “When someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.”  Well that would suck, you might think. Why do I need to worry?  The truth is that identity theft can really screw up your life.  It could destroy your credit.  You bank account could be drained. Even causing problems with the law, imagine that the thief got arrested and gave your personal information to the police instead of his.  You could have warrants out for your arrest and not even know it.  The person that takes your identity becomes you and they take over your life. You will have a hard time getting everything back. You could lose everything.

            According to www.google.com/publicdata 307,006,550 people live in the United States.  The FTC estimates that 9 million people have their identity stolen every year. (Prosch,  2009)  That may only be 3% of the population but if that were to happen every year for 5 years that 3% quickly jumps to 15%.  In terms of places that would be roughly 3 times the population of Utah having their identities stolen.  These numbers shows that this is a very common problem.  In 33 years everyone in the States could have their identities stolen once. WOW!  

            Many questions come to mind when we think about identity theft. How does identity theft happen?  How does someone steal my identity?  How do I find out if my identity has been stolen?  What do I do to fix it?  How long will this last?  What can I do to protect myself or to fight against it?  The most important, in my mind, would be how do I prevent it?  I will cover most of these in my research paper. However one that I find interesting is how does someone steal my identity?  There is a large number of ways someone could obtain your identity. The FTC lists six of the most common.  Dumpster Diving- if you don’t shred or burn your important documents they can be taken.  Skimming- using a small storage device, sometimes as small as a man’s wallet, they can copy the info from you debit and credit cards.  Phishing- the use of junk or spam mail that imitates a banks website or others, used to trick you into revealing personal information. Changing your address- then divert you bills to another address, if you don’t see the statements you might not suspect anything is happening.  Old-Fashioned stealing- plain and simple, they take your wallet or purses, or even you mail, they could even bribe employees who have access to these things. The last one is Pretexting- they use false pretenses to get you info from companies and institutions. 

            When it comes to protection I feel that prevention is the best way. You would have already won the battle if is never happens to you.  Of the seven questions listed above I will cover four of them but my primary focus will be the prevention of identity theft.  I will use EBSCO Host as my primary source of information, searching for papers that contain full text and are peer reviewed.  This will insure accurate and scholarly information.  I also plan on using the website www.ftc.com this is the official site of the Federal Trade Commission. 

            Identity theft is real and can be a serious problem.  Your life could be left in shambles.  However, if we are very careful how we dispose of personal information, and use our credit, and debit cards we can protect ourselves better from the vultures that are waiting to feed on us.        

Referenses

Prosch, Marilyn. (2009). Preventing identity theft throughout the data life cycle. Journal of Accountancy, 207(1), 58-62.

About identity theft. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/about-identity-theft.html#Howcanyoufindoutifyouridentitywasstolen

a little about my wild side

The Day Things Went Wrong

                        The car jumped over the curb, I felt myself lifting out of the seat. Smash!  The unibody frame of my old mustang struck the cement. Pain shot through my shoulder and back as I fell against the hard metal door.  Not knowing which obstacle to worry about, the 20 foot canal or the wooden telephone pole. Everything happened so quickly; I hardly remember what ran through my mind during the short crisis.  Pole, Pole, Pole, POLE, POLE!  I screamed in my head as the telephone pole came closer… 

           

I had just gotten out of a long day at high school. During my auto tech class I had tuned up the carburetor in my 1965 Mustang. Holley was her name, and she was running great.   I couldn’t wait to get Holley on the road.  I saw her from across the parking lot. She sat alone, as if she was to good to be seen with other common cars.  Holley looked great from every angle, she definitely stood out.  Strolling across the long parking lot, I took in every aspect of her beauty. 

Arriving at Holley’s side I took a short time to examine her.  Squatting, I wiped some dust off the Cragar SS wheels that adorned her axels.  I had spent three years working on her. The entire body reflected like a mirror.  The deep green, metallic paint shown magnificently on the warm sunny afternoon. Resting my left palm on the hood, and reaching into the grill I searched for the leaver to crack open the hood.  The tension springs growned under the preasure of the heavy metal cover.  The air filter was always the first thing to catch my eyes.  Holley displayed a vibrant red filter sandwiched between two chrome plates, which was the trademark look of a true K&N Filter.  This massive shinny circle covered a quarter of the motor, but barely visible beneath sat the Carburetor. An Edelbrock, 600 cfm with four barrels.  It was an amazing combination of brass, stainless steal, and polished aluminum.  Thanks to this Holley consumed a lot of gas, and she was worth it.  Shifting my vision down, my eye rested on the high-rise intake manifold. It acted like an ambassador.  It ensured everything went smoothly between the carburetor and the engine’s heads. The large metal compartment was flat black. This dole color forced your eye to the bright blue paint that covered the entire engine block, which included the heads.  Satisfied with what I’d seen I gently pulled down on the hood. CLICK!  I knew the latch was securely in place, and she was ready to drive.

Inserting the warn key into the locked door, I smiled shaking my head.  In order to get the door unlocked I had to hold the lock mechanism and raddle the key back and forth or it would never unlock.  Swinging the door open I gingerly sat my self on the black vinyl seats.  It felt good.  Enough support to make them confortable, but worn enough to mold to my body.  I felt like a king seated on his throne. I sat and looked out over the kingdom, the roads’ where calm, and my subjects walked around preforming their menial tasks.  On occasion I would catch one staring, in admiration, at my royal chariot.

            Pushing the key into the ignition.  Checking that every thing was in its right place.  The choke was in its right position. I pumped the gas petal.  I heard the gas shoot into the carburetor, the wonderful aroma of gas filled the cabin, and rushed into my nostrils.  I turned the ignition over, and the starter growled. The engine roared to life.  I sat listing to her idle.  The powerful motor caused holly to lope.  That is, she rocked back and forth in harmony with the revolutions of the engine.  Like being rocked in mother’s arms, I felt instant comfort.  Holly was always good to me.  Occasionally, I revved the engine to hear an explosion of sound from the exhaust pipes.  Pulling the gearshift into drive, I headed for the exit of the parking lot.  Stomping on the gas I tore out of the lot, leaving a trail of rubber across the three lanes of traffic.  All my thoughts disappeared, and my only focus was on Holley.  The sound of the engine, the tires rolling on the asphalt, and the feeling of cruising down the street.

 Coming to a red light I stopped, and rolled down the window.  The warmth from the sun felt great on my forearm, as it lay slung out the window.  There was a large canal to the right of me.  To the left, a large commercial building sat crammed tightly into spaces that seemed too small.  It was 3:43 in the afternoon; I was surprised to find myself alone on the street.

“Man,” I thought, “this is a really long light.” I became egger to drive again.  To my surprise, a fellow classmate pulled up beside me. It was Jordan.  He was a tall, skinny kid. His black hair was pressed down against his head, it looked like a helmet. He must have used tons of gel to get it to stay like that.  His skin was fair, especially in the sunlight.  There was a look of excitement in his eye. I knew the look, he wanted to race.    

For several months racing challenges came to me from various people, including him. I couldn’t blame them, they wanted to dethrone and humiliate me.  Holley was cool and fast. They all knew it.  Generally I tried to avoid racing, at least within the city limits.  Having received a pair of speeding tickets, in months past, I did not wish to receive another.

Jordan turned to me and cried out, “Hey, how ‘bout now, you up for racing?”

I thought to myself, “Why not there is no one around and I just tuned up my car.”  “Ok”, I yelled, “if you really want to.”  The truth was I didn’t care. I knew I had a fast car and I didn’t need to prove it to anyone.   He set the rules, first one to 65 MPH. 

“Fair enough,” I said, “lets go.”

I figured I would have no problem winning.  He was driving a mid 90’s Dodge Shadow, it may have been turbo charged but the Shadow only had four cylinders. It was a small two-door sedan.  The Primer black paint made the car blend in to the pavement.  The word Shadow was painted in a smoky blur along the doors.  Compared to my beautiful Holley Jordan’s Dodge Shadow was nothing.  The Mustang’s eight cylinders provided a lot of low-end torque.  I had changed out the gears in the differential, thanks to that I shot off the line.  I placed my left foot down on the brake.  With my right foot I pressed on the gas increasing the pressure slowly. The maneuver is called Power Braking; it allows one to increase the RPMs and the power output of the engine to achieve a better launch off the starting line.  Despite no reward for the victor, the challenge felt like an automotive duel among gentlemen. 

Using the power braking technique, I waited for the light to turn green. The seconds seemed like minutes. I excitedly awaited the green light.  Then, like an explosion the light turned.  Adrenaline surged through my body.  I felt like a general in the royal army, rushing into battle.

I slammed the gas down, and released the brakes.  Holley flew off the starting line.  Her 12-inch tires burned as they struggled to grab the road.  Glancing in the rear view mirror all I could see was a dark plume of smoke.   The back tires spun freely on the pavement, and caused the back end to cock slightly off center.  My grip on the steering wheel increased firmly.  I felt my nails digging into my palms.  As soon as Holley gained full traction she straitened out on the road.  I caught a glimpse of Holley’s tire marks. They were 25 feet long, and two black lines stained the bright white paint marking the crosswalk.  Passing through the intersection the speedometer read 30 MPH.  I glanced over at my opponent to find that Holley was a half car length ahead of him.  I love this! I thought.  As the speedometer reached 35 MPH, I braced myself.  Due to the modifications that I made to the transmission, every time I changed gears Holley jumped forward gaining five MPH. 

Second gear slammed me back in my seat.  Struggling, I pulled my self-forward using the steering wheel.  Quickly composing myself, I checked for Jordan.  Holley had left him in her dust.  She was easily four car lengths ahead of him, and already doing 55 MPH.  “YES!” I yelled aloud, “I won!” 

I almost crapped my pants when I saw the next stoplight turn yellow.  Running the red light would have been a better choice. In my 17-year-old mind, however, I needed to stop.  Pushing on the brakes a little too hard made the 40-year-old brake system lock up.  Still moving forward, the tires squealed, and the car began rotating clockwise.  Now perpendicular to the road, the curb inched closer. Death seemed imminent.

            I am going to die!  I thought.

            Holley was going to crash, and all I could do was sit and experience it.  When I didn’t flip from jumping over the curb, my eyes snapped to the canal. It was big, wide, and long. Holley would have crashed down ten feet, and then buried by a wall of water.  How could this get worst?  I thought.  It did.  My eyes darted outside the driver’s side window.  Then I saw it. The pole.  I was headed right for it.  This left me unprotected so I braced for impact.  At the last moment, before Holley became scrap metal an invisible force stopped Holley dead in her tracks.  I shook violently, franticly looking in all directions, expecting to see my guardian angel winking at me. In total shock I sat, staring over the hood of my car.  I then canvased my surroundings slowly. The heat waves from my engine blurred the house that sat across the canal.  Composing myself, I looked out the driver side window to see the pole. Six inches… six inches stood between the pole and I.

            “Holy crap man!” I heard off in the distance, “Are you ok?”  I jerked my head around to see Jordan sprinting toward me. Pounding on my window again asking if I was okay.  Awoken from my trance I answered, “yeah I’m cool.”  Slowly I backed out onto the street, my head still racing. Jordan yelled out at me, “You’re crazy, you should have run the light!”

“I know, I wasn’t thinking.” I cried in disbelief.  I still knew I had the fastest car, but I was still shaking from my near death experience.  “At least I won.”  I said smugly, and drove off. 

The Day We Met.

Well this is our blog so I wanted to start it out right and tell about Jason and I.  This is our story, well my side.  I'll have him tell his side later.

Jason and I met in one of our classes at BYU Idaho.  The class was called Personal Achievements.  We met in April at the beginning of the summer semester.  The first day of class I went into class picked a seat near the back because the back makes me feel comfortable.  Then I waited for class to start.  As I was waiting I watched the people come into class and two boys sat next to me.  This boy named Skyler sat to the right of me and another boy named Jason sat behind me.  Well I am not much for talking to anyone or saying anything in class on the first few days of class, I just don't feel comfortable enough to.  Anyway I just had this strong feeling/prompting to say hi to the guy behind me, which was Jason.  Haha so I thought to my self really?  I don't want to talk to him.  So I sat in my seat a little longer and then the same feeling/prompting came again only stronger.  So I said okay, I will talk to him.  I also had to talk to the boy next to me (Skyler) because I didn't want to make him feel bad.  So I turned so I was facing both Jason and Skyler and started talking.  I am sure I sounded lame, but I wasn't used to doing it, I was just obeying a prompting.   So I said hi, where are you guys from?  Jason said Idaho Falls, in a very strong Mexican accent, haha and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself.  Skyler then said, I am from North Carolina.  I said oh, wow, cool.  Then there was a long awkward pause and no one was willing to ask the next question.  So I said, where did you guys serve your missions?  Jason said, I served mine in Tampico Mexico, in his very strong Mexican accent.  I laughed and said, well that makes sense.  Then Skyler said, I served Paraguay.  I said, okay cool.  There was again another very long awkward pause.  I said, so... what are you guys studying in school?  Jason said, I am studying international business with a minor in Spanish.  I said oh, wow, that's cool!  Then Skyler said, something, but I can't remember what he said now haha.   Anyway after all that the boys weren't really helping the conversation move a long so I just stopped talking.   


So after Jason and I were dating and even after we got married I asked him what he thought/felt on that first day we met.  And do you know what his reply was?  Haha well his reply was, he didn't remember that day.  I was soooooo bummed!  I was like really???  After all the promptings I got and the work I did, you remember nothing!?  Hahah, crazy huh?  Well I've since then forgiven him for that.  Anyway that was how we met.