Why I love Maurices!

I was shopping at the mall the other day and found Maurices, which could become one of my favorite stores because of their jeans!
They have Ani brand jeans!I was so excited! Not only do they have my name, but they are the best brand they had, and amazingly comfortable! I bought two pairs I was so happy! They were having a buy one get on half off sale, so it worked out to be about $16 a pair.

Yay for clothes!

Tech BBQ

And, to compliment Megan's pics, here's some more!

Puppies!

Job news!

I feel like I’ve been such a slacker since we got out here. With Alan gone at work so much I’ve mostly just been sitting at home catching up on tv shows and such. All of that is officially changing today, as I had my first day of my new job out here in Minnesota!

I will be working as a collections officer for the4 collections agency AllianceOne, and I am way excited. I’m sure that pretty much no one will want to talk with me, and work will be really hard at times, but I’m actually really excited for the job. It will go great with my communications background and they are really big about promoting from within, so once we go back to Utah I’ll be able to finish my BS in Communications and really shine as an executive prospect. Plus, they are partnered with the company Telecommunications, which is based out of salt lake, so transferring at the end of the summer should be no trouble at all. The base pay is $11 an hour plus commission, so I’m confident that I’ll be able to make enough so that we come home after this summer with no debt and considerable savings for a down payment on a house! *GLEE*

The hiring process almost seemed like a rush job. I posted my resume on monster.com un Tuesday, they called me Wednesday, I had a phone interview Thursday, we met for an in person interview on Friday, and today, Monday, I had my first day of work! Whew! I love the atmosphere of the call center already, and can’t wait to start getting in and making some real money in those commissions. There are people that have worked there for years and years making 6 figure incomes doing the same job I will, though I’m nowhere near that hopeful to start out. I do really love the fact that we get insurance after only 30 days, rather than the usual 90+ and that will really ease my mind knowing we have that security in case things go wrong.

I am really glad I decided to go with this first training, rather that one toward the end of the month, as I got a job prospect for Alan from the guy I sat next to in training. He apparently does railroad operations and management, and is only going through the training for three weeks until hours pick back up on the railroad, but he pulls down a whopping $80,000 a year plus some of the best benefits I’ve ever heard of. He was ecstatic when I mentioned Alan’s military training and certification with tank mechanics, which are apparently decently close to trains. From what he was saying they love people with military experience and snatch them right up. I’m crossing my fingers hoping that he can get an interview, and hopefully start after APX is through for the summer. They do have some stations in Utah, so we’ll have to see if it will work out for us. Cross your fingers for us! If you have any extra prayers, feel free to send some of those our way!

Also, Alan’s birthday is this Wednesday the 10th, so don’t forget to wish him love and happiness!

Republicans and Democrats

Stolen from a friend's blog.

$50 Lesson

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when
she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some
day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I
asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing
you would do? '

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.

'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait
until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and
mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50.
Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy
hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new
house. '

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight
in the eye and asked, ' Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and
do the work, and you can just pay him the $50? '

I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

The Theory of Relativity

I've been so anti-social the past week or so, and it's driving me crazy! As most of you know we've been having some troubles with Cleo, our mini schnauzer.For 2 1/2 days she had nonstop diarrhea and vomiting, with no obvious reason for such. It finally got so bad that we took her to a vet out here, who put her on a simple diet and prescribed some meds to calm her insides down. For the longest time we had no idea what she could have gotten into to cause such problems. The lab results came back with nothing wrong, so she probably just ate something that didn't agree with her. As I have recently found out, she has no qualms about eating anything she can get her hands on. This is where the theory of relativity comes in;

Now, this theory is mostly seen in small children and animals and the adults that love them and take care of them on a daily basis. The theory states that young innocents have the uncanny ability to do, see, and say the wrong thing. This is seen when a child colors on the wall with permanent marker instead of washable markers, despite the permanent markers being put way up high and the washable markers being out on the table. This is seen when a child or animal spills or vomits something, not on the easily washable tile or linoleum floors, but on the carpet that is just off-white enough to not be bleachable. And finally, this is seen when a certain dog (cough*Cleo*cough), instead of chewing on the multitude of specially designed dog chew toys at her disposal, but instead chews on the most valuable and needed thing that she can find. In this case, it was the contact case holding my hard-gas permeable contacts, which are not disposable and can cost anywhere from $100-200 to replace. And thus, the results:
That's right, she chewed half of it completely off. I nearly killed her. Lucky for Cleo I was too stunned to move. I knew one contact was safe, but they only sell them in a set and I was pretty far away from my regular eye doctor, with no vision insurance available. Alan had come into the bathroom at this time and proceeded to crawl around the bathroom trying to find the tiny contact. Much to my shock and glee he did manage to find the contact, though the remaining pieces of the case were nowhere to be found. God definitely smiled upon us that day.
And thus, the theory of relativity. Either that, or Cleo really doesn't want me seeing what she's up to. A vendetta against eyewear. What a puppy!And yes, those white dots are chips in the glass from her nibbling on them.