Life Revealed

If anyone can guess what is wrong with this picture then you are cool. You have to be someone I haven't already discussed this with. This was taken on Black Friday morning.

Life has been going good. Only a few things have happened since my last post. School, work, Onna, and Church have been my greatest priorities. In school we have taken two exams and the only thing that I didn't like about the second exam was that we still didn't have the first exam to look off of, you know, to see how to study for the second exam. That's okay though because the first exam gave me a 76 and the second one gave me an 85. Those aren't the best grades, but they will do for a Western Literature class that is a Coker requirement! I do enjoy the class though, and reading along with the stories. I'm a much better reader forced than by desire. My Spanish class is likewise going well. We got our grades in and I have a high B but have a few assignments I haven't turned in, so that should bump it up to an A without a problem I would think. I really love Spanish. I love the language and the culture. I love speaking it. In fact, and I just noticed this, I feel more comfortable expressing my feelings in Spanish than I do in English. Go figure! A guy came and talked to our class the other day and he just got back from studying abroad in Chile. He said he had a lot of fun, he partied a lot, drank a lot. Woo hoo! (WHAT THE HECK AM I GONNA DO?!)I'll think of something. The temple isn't too far away, either is the beach. I looked it up and apparently there is a gym nearby too, so I guess I can spend my time working out. I hope to lose some weight while I'm down there. My temple jacket has been getting quite snug! Speaking of Church and the temple, I told them yesterday that it would be my last Saturday at the temple. I asked what the procedure was and they said that they normally release people who will be away for so long. I was doing so well on learning and memorizing! I had the longest thing ever down pat, but now it's all over. Oh well. It's been a lot of fun being able to go there and do the work behind the scenes. I have a much greater view of the work that goes on in the temple now than I did before, and for that I'm grateful. My time is running short on my time left in this ward. I keep wondering if the Bishop will release me or keep me around. I think it would be quite hard to do it by himself, but then I do like the calling. Do I listen to what he needs or what I want? I bore my testimony today and cried. Onna and I are doing well. We finished our third puzzle the other day and will proceed to glue it I think. Maybe we won't. It's of Niagara Falls. It is pretty sweet looking. We haven't done much lately, just movies and such. She did, however, get her first pedicure last night (she's 25, I know!). It was a birthday present that I got her and she finally used it! She really enjoyed it. Her toes look so pretty! Hopefully it won't become a practice that she obsesses with! I don't think she will. Work has been going great. I've been working every day. The other temp that works with us has not been able to work. The work load has decreased so much. I really enjoy my job and I hope that I can come back to it after I get back from Mexico. They interviewed a kid this week for my job, but my boss didn't find him to suitable. I really hope I can have the job back! About a month ago I bought a teeth whitening kit that was sure to work. Well I half-heartedly used it and I wasn't seeing any progress, so I stopped. One day I saw a charge on my credit card for $59.90! I was so confused! I called the number and they said that when I ordered the teeth whitener I clicked on a link that automatically signed me up for a service that charges that much. I wasn't happy. She said that they could give me $40.00 back but the rest was non-refundable. I was pretty upset at this and decided to stop falsely trying to use my teeth whitener but to ship it back for a full refund. I shipped it back, got $50.00 from them, and the $40.00 from this random click I made. Since I've already paid for it it's like free money! Anyways, that's as exciting as my life gets. Arizona in two weeks, Mexico in four.

Step Show

Randoms

Nothing much to update. A few things I guess. I've been terribly sick for about three weeks now and it was really getting old. On Monday I finally went to the doctor and I did all the possible tests I think (even x-rays for the first time!) and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I stayed home from work for Monday and Tuesday. I was so bored, but luckily I used my time wisely and did my homework through Thanksgiving in one of my classes. The only other major event (besides my mom STILL being gone!) was Onna's birthday. It was her 25th, so I gave her plenty of stuff reminding her of her growing age. I liked the fact (and kept telling her) that insurance goes down at age 25! On Thursday I showed up at work and gave her flowers and her presents. She kind of enjoyed that. I don't think she could really decide. Saturday I took her out on a date and we went to see a Step Show. Now, I think step teams are really cool, so this was kind of for me. She said she liked it, but I even still doubt her. I have speckled pictures and hopefully a video or two within. Enjoy!

P.S. My mom gets home this week!

Nothing to report

Nothing much to update. Life has been good. I am home alone once again, my parents keep leaving me, but that's okay. I find myself sleeping on the couch more when they aren't here. Work has been interesting. My boss took off two days this week and work is always different when she isn't there. My higher up boss returns from a cruise to Antarctica this week, so that should be really fun to hear about. School has been getting tougher. My Spanish class is easy enough, I don't struggle much there. My reading class has been a huge struggle. Just this past weekend I was supposed to read 70 pages but after making it through 13 pages in 2 hours of reading I got bored with it and can't keep up with it! Not to mention it is written in olde English. Ugh! I hate it! But, we did have a test in that class on Thursday. I studied like crazy for it. I hope I did well. I thought I did. I wrote 7 total pages on it and I was living high, until my teacher took me out after the test to ask how I thought I did. She then went on to explain that people don't put enough time into the last question (worth 30 points) and they usually only write a page on it. I laughed and went on my way. Well, the laugh I gave was quite sarcastic. I ONLY WROTE ONE PAGE! What a joke! I will find out my score tonight hopefully. So that's it for school. Church has been good. Onna and I are doing good. We finished a puzzle this week that has taken forever! We then proceeded to glue it together, we didn't want to break it all up after the work we did! My dad said that us doing puzzles is out of our time, because OLD people do puzzles together! Oh well, I enjoyed it!

My dad comes back on Wednesday and then my mom comes back in 12 days. That's right, 12, I counted. I'm excited to see her. Oh, and I'm growing a beard! It has been almost two weeks now and it's definetly showing. I'm kinda liking it! I hope others do too. People were shocked at church yesterday, but that's okay. Life is good. I enjoy work, school, family, friends, not shaving. Kyle got unlimited texting this week. I'm glad he did. I think I annoy him with all the texts I send him now days. Oh well.

P.S. I've also become addicted to taking pictures of any temple I see, so this is the latest, of course, Columbia, SC.

Wow it's been a while...

Tiffany, I want to hear no complaints due to lack of pictures!

Sorry it's been so long, once again. I don't have much to say. School started again. I am taking a Spanish class and an English class. The Spanish class seems to be a lot of fun. We have already watched two rated-R movies in the class so I've had to ask for alternate assignments. The teacher has been very understanding with that. I love the class because we speak Spanish the entire time. I love speaking Spanish. It is really getting me excited to go live in Mexico next semester! Speaking of Mexico, we paid the deposit, so it's officially official! Wow I can hardly contain myself some days, I just want to get down there already! In my English class, well, that's another story. I am not a huge fan of reading, but that's what this class does, we read! I bought this book that has about 1000 pages and we are going to read the whole thing--IN EIGHT WEEKS! Wow I'm gonna die. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the books on mp3 this last week. I am a much better listener. I went to Seatlle a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun! It was a quick trip and probably a stupid thing to do on a nearly twice broken tailbone (5 hours of sitting), but it was so much fun seeing Pablo and James. Megan is such a great girl for Pablo, too. The whole ordeal just made me excited to get married. If only I had a girl for that..... After the actual sealing James and I were just able to walk around downtown Seattle for four hours. It got a little crazy, but it was fun to hang out with him again. We were still dressed from the sealing that morning except we had jackets on. imagine this, two guys, white shirts and ties. People thought we were missionaries! I didni't mind, until one guy asked me to give him some money and then said we must be Mormon missionaries because we aren't giving him anything. How sad. Unfortunetly I didn't have my camera with me, so the following are pictures from James' camera. By the way, James is the former Elder Showley, my MTC companion. Time has progressed nicely. Hard to believe October is nearly over! Onna and I went to the Halloween dance last weekend. I was Santa and she was Mrs. Clause. Unfortunetly, the other guys thought she was "Santa's helper" and still asked her to dance. Sorry Comodor, she's not just a helper! I was a little annoyed at the dance because they played five total slow songs, and the Cupid Shuffle twice. I wish they had played the Cha Cha or Electric, something that Santa could have gotten down to! Oh well, it was fun. My grandma Ensign has been in town for a while. I loved having her here. She is a vessel full of advice and information and experience. I took her back to Charlotte and we chatted the entire way. I ate Jack in the Box following that and it was such a good meal. I wish we had one closer... or maybe I really don't! Finally, the news of the week. I was awoken on Saturday with a text explaining that my beloved Abuela had passed away. It was sad. I put my head down and before having any chance of feelings to set in, my brother called me. We talked for about thirty minutes about memories that we had remembered with grandma. After our call I called Tiffany, we connected with Jen and talked for another thirty minutes. It was a lot of fun just talking it out, feeling the closeness. I cleaned the house to take my mind off of grandma and then had no desire to do any homework. I tried to do other things to take my mind off of it. I went to Adam's soccer game, went to Ethan's 3rd birthday party and then came home. Onna wrote her talk at our house and I fell asleep. Life has been good, nonetheless. I am currently in Boise, Idaho. I don't know the next time I will be here, if ever. It's fun to be around family again. We are all here and I don't know how often this will happen either. I will enjoy it while it lasts. Tonight we had the viewing for grandma and a lot of people came. It was nice to see her, she looked peaceful.

Just a catch-up

First and foremost, let me tell my wonderful sister that I love her and Happy Birthday! You are now 10 years older than me once again. Now that that's out of the way, let me get on with my week. Nothing really happened this week. I just went on with life as normal. I didn't spend a lot of time on the Wii Fit this week, but I did go the whole week without texting. What a crazy thing to do! Me, a person who sends and receives over 200 texts a day, took a week off. It was interesting to see who actually texted me from my friends. Now my family texted me for sure, but they were just trying to tempt me. Those jerks. ;-) I have, however, stayed home from work the last two days. Kyle said it was because my no texting finally caught up to me. Who knows. I didn't twitch all week! During church on Sunday I began to feel very weak and even fell asleep in Elders Quorum! The teacher threw a paper at me to wake me up. I came home and from 2pm all the way to 7am the next morning (with very short breaks) I slept! Wow! And when I did wake up I had the strongest aches in the world. My whole body ached. This scared me because body aches out of the blue mean flu. I can't have the flu. I kept sleeping. On my off day I had no aches but the strongest pain in my throat. I eventually got out around 6pm to take my final papers to school, but even that was a stretch. I wasn't feeling the best but I was determined that I would make it to work the next day. Well, at about 1:30am this morning (Tuesday) I was still up and couldn't manage to get to sleep! I think my body had so much energy that it just wouldn't allow it. I did take Tylenol PM and got to bed around 2:30. I woke at 7:10 and decided that I would miss another day of work. My throat is still KILLING me! To put it in perspective how sick I am, I didn't even see my girlfriend! In other news, my bed broke last night. I laid down in it to go to sleep and the whole thing shot up towards the feet. This isn't the first time it has happened, so I finally investigated (I mean, why not? I had so much energy!). The foot bar had fallen down so the bed was resting on only the middle and head bar. No wonder it shot forward. Well I took the bed apart only to realize that the problem was bigger than that. The Head bar was falling apart due to the added pressure probably and could be out for several days. We don't have several days though, grandma gets to town today and boy am I excited! And finally, in complete other news I wore my new white Crocs to the temple on Saturday for the first time. I got some looks, but two people said that it was a really good idea. One person (possibly jealous) said, "I would think the rubber would make your feet sweat." They were so comfortable! I've been watching a lot of baseball lately. I am really pulling for the Rays, that would be such a Cinderella story. I think that rooting for the Red Sox is dumb and those who do are as well. They have won 2 times in the last 3 years and this would be 3 out of 4. Let others have a chance for crying out loud! Sheesh! I go to Washington this Friday to see my friend Pablo get sealed to his new wife Megan. What a cool site that will be! I'm really excited to go, even if it is such a short trip and will mess me up on sleep. Hopefully there will be plenty of pictures!

Wowsers!

Wow! It's been quite some time, hasn't it? Not too much has been happening in my life lately. As far as school goes, we have three classes left before we start a new term with new classes. It's kind of crazy that we are already finishing school. My class that is supposed to get out at 10:30 we always get out at 10 or 10:10 and so that will be different with a new professor to stay the whole time. In my Social Problems class I got an A on the only paper I have written. He really likes my ideas and my paper. I was pleased with my efforts. My dad thought a little differently. He didn't agree with any of the ideas in my paper. He didn't understand the paper maybe, or just that he doesn't believe what I wrote. Oh well. In my Spanish class I'm rockin it. I love that class because we speak in Spanish. The best part is that there are no tests. They only have papers to write, and I am an okay writer so it translates pretty well. My Spanish teacher said I speak 'phenomenal' for someone who has never lived outside of the country. That was nice to hear. Most of my time has been spent on the Wii Fit. I love that thing. My mom even joined on this week and loves it too. They have agreed to letting me keep it with the big TV!

That's good news when no one else is on the TV!
Work has been a bit stressful. I heard on Monday that Sonoco was planning on cutting some temp workers (which includes me) and I was a bit worried. On Tuesday I was released at noon (which never happens) and I was a little worried the rest of the day as to whether or not I would have to start looking for a job. That afternoon my boss called and just told me to come into work as normal on Wednesday. I came in on Wednesday and it was just weird. I felt like every step I took they were watching and if I sat down for even a minute they would send me home. It was awful. Oh well. On Friday I got in a little argument with one of my co-workers. >
He asked me to help on this rush project, but only after he was done using the machine he was on. I agreed. I finished my assignment and went to do what he asked but he was still on the machine. I began doing my next assignment and was immediately yelled at that I wasn't helping out on this rush project. I then said that my co-worker said to not start until he was done and then he blew up and it was bad. I wanted to leave right then. The rest of the day was nice. I went to lunch with Heber J and then took Onna's car for a spin and washed it. It was awful! The bird poop stains were caked in. Like as if they were a part of the car. I also vacuumed the inside and changed her terrible wipers. She was appreciative. I had a doctors appointment this week to remove the planters wart on my foot. It hurt SO BAD to be injected in my heel. Afterwards the doctor pridefully said, "I think we got it." Well he must have forgotten the over ten times I have gone to him to remove it! It has a mind of its own, but it looks pretty gross! I also had a dental visit. He filled two cavities that I got while on my mission. Two in two years is pretty good if you ask me. We talked a little about Dental School and he said he would help me any way that he could. I was glad about that. The elections are getting pretty crazy. The vice-presidential debate was this week. Sarah Palin did a very good job, and Joe Biden did his normal job. Unfortunately for McCain, it might be too little too late. Say hello to the crappiest plan of all time--Socialized medicine. Kyle and MaryEllen came home this weekend. It's been good to see them, but they've been beating my Wii records! For that purpose I will not leave this house until I retake my livelihood (GLC! for those who have seen Seinfeld). Now this weekend has been fun. We have just been watching General Conference. It's so nice to hear them again. It's a good re energizer! I'm still doing my crazy Sunday schedules. Tonight, in fact, I plan on going to bed at 6:30pm and waking up around 2 or 3 to finish my homework. Good times. Well I got adventurous this week and decided to cook some frijoles de la olla (beans in a pot). Well I started last night and they be rank! They have about tripled in size, and today I plan on refrying them to get them extra good. All I can say is stay away from me when I'm done! Yuck...

Just a quickie!

I don't have a lot of time. Actually, my Spanish Professor just let us out of class a little early to come to the library to study. I am glad for this because I literally have been feeling the heat of having no wiggle room! Life has been a bit crazy. I finally purchased a Wii (or found one to buy finally) and bought a Wii Fit with that and Onna, dad, and I have been enjoying that regularly. It's so crazy to see your balance and how it should be in comparison! I am a little off balance, but not by too much. I am really liking the dance game. It reminds me of Dance Dance Revolution, but we won't tell anyone that I have done that, either! I will start with the normal topics... my mom has been away this week and life is always so much different when she isn't around to baby me. Yes, I admit to it! I have eaten out plenty of times this week and had one very poor experience with Burger King. For those of you who don't know, traditionally Burger King has been my favorite fast food location. The other night I was really craving some Burger King and it was 9:30 and Onna and I went and I pulled in, turned the car off and a Burger King worker stepped out and informed me that I could go through the drive thru. I got back in, puzzled at the time because I could have sworn that the dining room was still open. I pulled around and got my food and saw an hour chart and sure enough, it closes at 10:00! After I got my food (and I made sure I had all of it!) I asked for the number to Burger King and someone in Columbia owns all the Burger Kings in the area and I got their number and plan on calling them to get free food. I veto the Hartsville Burger King, at least. On Thursday night my Sociology teacher decided to play an R-rated movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. I removed myself from the class and emailed him, hoping he would understand. He has yet to reply. I am worried that he will be offended, nevertheless righteousness never was easy. Speaking of that, have I mentioned how much I love working in the temple? It's such a great blessing. I take all my worries and craziness of a stressed life in and I walk out refreshed and rejuvinated. I love being able to go so often. Also, in other news, I have decided not to do any homework on Sundays and have been reaping the benefits. The past two Sundays I have gone to bed early (9pm and 6pm, respectively) and have woken at 2am to do my homework. I feel like my homework gets done easier and with much less distractions (except from my girlfriend who sacrifices to keep me company at the randomest times!) Life is going well, it is very busy, but it is going well. I will add pictures later.

Governor Palin, I really do support you!

I'm as large of a supporter as anyone, but I know when something is funny, and this was simply hilarious! Enjoy to the right for a week or so.

The End of Colorado, the Beginning of Life

Well it has been quite some time since I've had the chance to update everyone on my life, so here it goes, I'll give it a shot. The Saturday I was in Denver we went to Eliches, it's a Six Flags type of theme park, it was a lot of fun. Wait, I'm forgetting something! That Saturday morning was the big day. It was the day of the much-anticipated race. I woke up and laid in bed for about 30 minutes imagining my opponent and picturing my victory. Could I do it? Or would I lose again? These thoughts continually ran through my head. As I descended the stairs all dressed and ready to go Scott asked me, "now?" "oh yeah!" I replied. We actually didn't leave right then. I had to drink my special elixir, four limes pure (with a hint of salt). Jen and Scott were amazed at my concoction. I drank it and began my journey to the park, where we would race. I arrived early and stretched a bit, chatted with the grass, took some practice runs. I noticed the grass looked a little wet. It was. My opponent and I lined up. On your marks, get set, go! We began the race, adrenaline pumping. The only thing I heard at the start of the race was "Oh shoot!" from Scott's mouth. The limes gave me an internal boost and I crossed the finish line milliseconds ahead of my brother in law. I had done it. I won the series! One would assume that this was it, right? Wrong. "Alright, rematch." I was shocked at what I was hearing! Nevertheless, I divulged. The second time, however, Scott had a trick up his sleeve. No, it wasn't Gracen this time; it was a head start. I love you brother. Now, onto Eliches. It was a lot of fun. I love roller coasters. I was glad to have gone with my much more adventurous brother over my possibly less dare devilish. The roller coasters were crazy! They were different than any other ones I had been on. The first one we climbed up about six stories and got in the coaster and it shot us right out of the gate and down a drop and through a loop and then we hit the end of it and the next thing I knew we were going backwards. It was a weird sensation that I am undecided whether or not I like. There was another one like that a little later that was just as weird. The final one we all went on as a family, it was a tubing one where is simulates white water rafting. I like these ones and have had impeccable success in not getting too wet. The success was no different here. Scott, Jen and Gracen got SOAKED, while I was left quite dry. Afterwards Jen and I went to get pedicures (shhh!). It felt pretty dang good! Afterwards I treated her family to Subway. Good times. Sunday was a good, yet hard, day. I found myself in an internal conflict. The converts I had visited on Friday weren't going to go to church and actually were questioning their beliefs again and it really began to stress me out and got me pretty much in a state of despair. I eventually went to Sacrament meeting in one of my old wards I served in. That was a good thing for me. I immediately forgot about all the despair and remembered the joy I had in that ward and all the friends I made. When sacrament meeting ended a flood of people came up and remembered me. They remembered my name even though it had been over six months since I served there. After church I drove to Superior and visited one of my favorite companions, Elder Woodhouse. I love that guy. We just sat and reminisced for about thirty minutes. I hung out with Joel and Isela that night and really enjoyed them and realized how much I love them. I love the Colorado sunsets. Those are what I miss most. Monday I returned home to South Carolina and have been on this work, school, church, girlfriend cycle ever since. It takes some good time management, but I think I'm getting better. Tomorrow Onna and I are going to Charleston to stay with Kyle and MaryEllen. I will let you know how that goes and take pictures.

McDonalds

Before I write a longer response from my vacation to Denver, I must give my props to McDonalds! They are amazing! Today I went to the Denver Airport at 6AM and didn't have time in the morning to eat breakfast. I was planning on getting breakfast at the airport, and I did. It was amazing! I got up in line at the register, told them I wanted a #7, she left to get my food, I swiped my card, she got my orange juice and gave me the reciept. How long do you think that took? 30 seconds! I was so amazed! Their customer service was impecible. I recommend the McDonalds in the DI Airport! I just wish all the other McDonalds would be as quick.

That being said, I ate the McGriddle sandwich. Did you know the bread/bun is actually a pancake?? It tasted so good. I almost got a McMuffin, but was glad that I got the McGriddle instead. go me!

Go McDonalds, you got it right this time! I'm lovin' it.

Day of Labor

Life is good life is great, give us this day so we'll be great. Or something like that, right? This week has gone by pretty quickly. I have a goal to write in my blog more than I have heretoforth done, but we'll see how that goes. Since I last wrote I was just starting school. Nothing big has changed. My Spanish teacher is still really pushing me to go on a study abroad before I get married. He says that as an RM my time clock is ticking. I agree. I then asked my parents what to do about it and they said that I had better go in the Spring if I could. They didn't have to ask me twice. I immediately began searching for study abroads in Mexico. I knew that my timing was runnign short with deadlines. I've met a time or two with my advisor and they are all on board. It will be a tough four months, but I've gotta do it, right? I was half-accepted in to a program already. They just want to see my disciplinary form filled out by Coker College. I hope they don't find out about all those bar fights I've been in! ;-) My Social Problems class is going better. I've enjoyed learning the other point of view. Kyle is convinced I am going to turn Democratic over this class. It's interesting to read about how the book projects we fix the problems we have, but it always suggests we raise the minimum wage and lower taxes and rent. Those things are hard to do. If you lower minimum wage prices go up and thus, the raise in minimum wage was pointless. But what do I know, right? Last Saturday Onna and I took her boys to Sonic and they just played and played. It was fun to watch them play. They are great kids. My home teaching companion caught us in the action and now we have no where to hide. By caught in the action I just mean together. To this point the ward really hasn't known that we are together. On Thursday I flew to Denver. It was a lot of fun to see the sights again. I think I started annoying Kaye (Jen's mother-in-law) at all the "aww, this place is..." and reminiced my mission. We helped Jen move first thing, by helped move I mean I put the table together and watched the movers do their work. I was feeling pretty lazy! On a side note, Jen is pretty cool. I had Jack in the Box for lunch and I am convinced (convinced!) that they outsource their drive thru box to India! The guy that took our order was nothing like the guy that gave it to us! Scott and I had a lot of fun with this one! I love that guy. We were just cracking up a storm on the way home. When we got home I went on a walk while I called Onna. Jen and Scott live in a new little neighborhood. I figured I was wakling in a circle the whole time, but eventually in the phone call I realized that I was lost. I had no idea how to get home. My thoughts were then preoccupied with that. Eventually after wandering for an hour and 20 minutes I turned the right corner and shouted "yes!" with my arms in the air. When my arms retired to their original location I noticed that a neighbor of Jen's was drinking a beer on the porch and watched me do that. I felt embarassed, but continued my journey home. I zonked out on the couch for the next 8 hours. Go me! Today I just chilled around and then realized that I needed to go "buying" and we took off to the Flat Irons Mall. Good times. We ate at Big City Burrito for lunch and then I went and visited some people from my mission. The first two I visited are recient converts (from October 2007). They have done a 180 and it hurt to be there. They weren't sure what they believed anymore and it made me sad. I then tried visiting another family of converts but they moved! I called and got the new address, so I'll hit them up on Sunday. I finished the visiting with the Lloyds. Brother Lloyd was a huge influence for me in the mission and the family is so nice! I headed home after that and am tired as ever, but still ready to continue on. It's vacation, after all. Tomorrow we are going to Eliches (Six Flags). I'm excited to do the roller coaster deal again. I'll take some sweet pictures! Tomorrow morning, I can't forget, is my race with Scott G. I'm gonna beat him this time! I've prepared for this race by eating Sonic, Burger King, Big City Burrito, Jack in the Box, and Wendy's all in the last week. It's gonna be a doozy... I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes. Oh yeah, Gracen LOVES me! (and also the camera!)

PS Enjoy the new blog!

Work, School, and Sleep

It has been an interesting week. I haven't had much time for free time, but I decided to treat myself tonight to some personal "Karl time" and boy has it been beautiful. I haven't done a thing, but this week has been crazy and I feel like I deserve it. Monday started my schedule from below. I got up and went to work for a full 8-hour day and then raced to school for my 5:30 class. I was unsure about my teacher, but he didn't show until 5:29, so I waited there for about 15 minutes. Thursday was better. I walked in about 30 seconds before him. My classes are a lot of fun. My first class is Spanish. I love this class! It is a writing class and it will help refine my Spanish skills. I can speak fluently, but I sometiems struggle to include accents. We did the whole class in Spanish and it made me so happy. I understood everything! My classmates--similar to those in the mission--look at me with shock or amazement that a white red-head can speak Spanish so well. I love getting that look, actually. The teacher suggested I start looking at Study Abroad programs. I will need to do a total of 16 weeks of study in another country to graduate with my Spanish major. My next class is Social Problems. This class seems like it's going to be very interesting. The teacher reminds me of Jimmy Cooper (photo right). They look very similar! He seems pasisonate, unfortunetly his class is from 8-10:30 and by then I am pretty tired. We watched two movies this week. One was about sweatshops and how Wal-Mart and Disney pay only 14 to 17 cents to their workers in Bangledesh. The way I see it, those workers wouldn't have jobs without these corporations. Albeit little, it is more than they would have. Agreed? I got my new computer this week. That's exciting. It is an Inspiron 1525 from HP. I like it. Work is going well. I am excited to go to Denver this next Thursday. I'll post the results of my race victory late next Saturday.

Life as we know it is about to change...

Well it was a great week! I didn't do too much, but aren't those the best weeks anyways? Onna and I went out a few times. On Tuesday I was able to take her two boys to swimming lessons. She had her visiting teachers coming over and was about to miss the lesson and since her visiting teacher is my mom I knew that this would cause a problem for my mom to have to visit Onna again, so I just volunteered to take them. It was so much fun! Those boys are really cool kids. On Friday I went to see that new Mummy movie. It was pretty good. The theater was about 2*, but other than that it was a good movie. Earlier that day on Friday I finished the OC. I have finally seen all 4 seasons! It was such a good ending, it kind of pieced it all together for me. On Saturday I went to work at the temple again. I am not sure I've talked much about this. I work at the temple twice a month. This time was special for me because it was Spanish Saturday. It was so great to be able to use my Spanish again. Those Hispanics, just like normal, were surprized as ever when a white red-head with blue eyes spoke their language. I love getting those looks. It was also special because the first thing that I was able to do as a worker I did to my dad and that made it more special. He has always tried to support me in whatever I do and am grateful for that. After having worked just two weeks at the temple I can see what a blessing it is for me. I love going each time and am really starting to learn the intracisis of it. When we got home it was sitting on the counter--my very first credit card! Don't worry, I applied for this one. I am so excited to start getting credit. I went by myself to dinner to celebrate. Just me and my Taco Bell had a great time. Just before I chose to celebrate I figured I would wash my truck. I haven't washed it for a long time and I knew that my dad was cringing each time he walked by it so I washed it at one of those pay-and-do-it-yourself places. All was working great until I got to the colored foam conditioner. It just was having problems coming out and spraying on the truck, big deal, right? Well I pointed it straight up in the air to see if it was work at a different angle. Well at that precise moment a large gust of wind happened and the foam began working. Within a second I was coated (and I mean coated) in this tri-color foam. I just laughed and said to myself, "This better dry away fast." I was on the way to my girlfriend's house and didn't want to have to go back home. It dried over time before I got there, luckily. Today is Sunday, I am tired. We just had dinner and now I am primed for a nap, at least a short one. Tomorrow school starts. My Monday/Thursday schedule will be almost unbearable I can feel it now. I will continue working full-time 8-5. Class starts at 5:30 and finishes at 10:30. My Monday/Thursday will be 8 AM to 10:30 PM! I'm not excited for that. I can't say my schedule is all too difficult. I am taking a Spanish class that the teacher already told me I would know more than anyone else in there. At any rate, I'm excited. :)

Technology Is Amazing

Technology never ceases to surprize me. It all started on Saturday. I was driving to the temple for my first day of work and I realized that I didn't have my GPS cord. The battery was dead. I was about to be lost. I texted Kyle and he didn't help me, but he did tell me to text Google and get directions. I texted Google "directions 29550 to 2905 E Trotter Road. Hopkins, SC" Within seconds I had 3 text messages giving me 10 detailed directions as to how to arrive at the temple. Technology amazes me!

Apologies for the wait...

I'm sorry to all for the extended delay without a posting. I've had some vacation and now I'm here for the long haul. Let me update you on a little bit of the past. I had a friend come visit, her name was Brooke. We did a lot of fun things. We went to Charleston and Columbia. After her visit here I flew back to Arizona with her and visited some old friends. One of my visits was to an old junior high crush named Shannen. It was weird this time that there were no feelings for her, but we were able to reminice for the longest time and just laugh at our old memories. As for the current, I'm working full time still at Sonoco. I have missed work lately, like actually missed working. I have missed making money and have been spending far too much. I just bought myself a ticket to Denver for the end of this month. It will be fun to be in my old stomping grounds again. I have been spending some time with a friend from Hartsville. Her name is Onna. We went to the beach on Saturday and had a great time. We also went to Hard Rock Theme Park. It had some great roller coasters and it was just a lot of fun. The bathroom in the park was pretty funny, too, so I had to take a picture! On the way home we ate at Central Park, an old food chain that left Hartsville many moons ago. My best friend came home from Ohio where he was working for the summer. We went golfing and he beat me by a few strokes. I'm really not good at golf, but for some reason I love golfing. I don't understand it! What's on tap for the near future? I have a date on Saturday. I am going to work at the temple for the first time on Saturday, that should be fun. School starts in a week and a half and I'm pretty excited to now begin learning again!

Life returns to Normal

Well it was a good week. On Tuesday I saw Hancock with a friend and it was an okay movie. I expected better, but what can ya do for 2 bucks? I didn't really do much more this week. I was trying to catch up on sleep but my friends never allowed that! On Thursday I was planning to go out with another friend but at the last moment the missionaries called and I went out with them. I had been wanting to go out with them so I cancelled on my friend and went with them and we taught a nice lady, but she has some misconceptions of the church and I did my best to bare testimony. It was fun to be in the teaching situation again. I really miss being a missionary. On Friday I went through the work thing like normal and then went to a game night with the other YSA in my ward. The THREE of us played games galore that night and it was a much later night than expected, but I had a lot of fun. I won some and lost some, and was destroyed on the OC game! On Saturday I slept in and then ate a muffin and went to play soccer in the blazing heat! It may have been the stupidest thing ever. I nearly passed out due to my lack of edible energy or water intake before I went to play. That night I went to Adam's and cockily told him I'd beat him in MLB 2005 on the PS2. I used to play that game every day before my mission. Long story short I went 0-3 and then lost the Home Run Derby for icing on the cake. Just as we learn in the scriptures, pride is of the devil and we are thrust to humility because of it. I learned my lesson, but I'll beat him next time!

Vacation #2

I'm sorry it's been so long! When I got back from Arizona I immediately began packing for Illinois and we left the next morning. We were away from nearly all electronics for the entire week. It was kind of nice! My cell phone didn't work, which wasn't very fun. Oh well. We arrived on Tuesday after a 15 hour car ride. My driving kind of freaked the other passengers out, but that was only for the first few minutes. I really am a good driver! :) My "amazing" co-driver had the bright idea to play a trick on me and turned up the heated seat to 5 (max)! About 15 minutes into my drive I noticed an intense burn in my lower back but was unsure why. Kyle just told me that leather does that when it heats up. I went another 15 and really was burning at this time! I then inferred that I was the only one in the sun so maybe that was why my seat was the only one that was hot. Kyle then felt the lower back portion of my seat and said, "Karl, this is normal for leather." Never believe your family members! I finally found out about 2 and a half hours later at Jack in the Box! My back was soo sweaty! I gave Kyle a nice punch before laughing about it. It was so good to eat Jack in the Box, but my body was pretty upset at me for the food I had been eating. I really hadn't eaten very good to this point in my two vacations combined. That night we arrived after minor delays due to the flooding that occured a few weeks earlier. Kyle, MaryEllen, and I walked to the temple and it was so beautiful! They light it up well at night. Kyle went and took pictures from very random angles and places and MaryEllen and I just chatted. It was nice to chat and just be near a temple. On Wednesday we woke and all chatted. The whole family was there except the first in-law (Scott). It was so fun to be with my whole family together again! I hadn't done that since long before my mission, and now MaryEllen was a part of the experience which was fun. I kind of felt left out that all had their own partner, but Amy didn't, so we joked that we were spouses (complete jokingly!). We all did a session together in the temple and it was such a cool feeling to be there with all my siblings (minus Scott), and my parents. It made me so happy that we all were there together. I wish that we could all be in together one time, all 11 (and eventually 12) of us. I think that would be pretty sweet. The rest of the day we started family home evening and I was a little irked from the first time I got to my room, it was filled with people. I didn't like that people ate on my bed, nor used it to hang out. I wanted my personal space too, just as they all had theirs, but I guarded my door better afterwards and it didn't happen again. On Thursday we toured Nauvoo. It was a lot of fun. I was dead tired though. My feet hurt. I stupidly wore flipflops. Oh well. It was fun to do that. We saw a lot of cool things and Kyle and I broke the rope making machine for a second. We then went to the visitors center and I was able to talk to a nice sister missionary from Austrailia. Her accent was pretty cool. We then walked home and shopped on the way. It was good times. That night we went to Sunset at the Mississippi and it was a lot better than I had expected. I nearly passed up the opportunity, but it was a lot of fun and good dancing and song. President Uchtdorf was there with his family and went up front during the Air Force portion. I felt bad because after he was hounded by "fans". I saw the sister missionary again and chatted a bit more with her. I'll never see her again, but she's pretty cool and--well, she has a nice accent. On Friday we headed to Freeport and again due to the flooding we were late in traveling and thus late for plans already made in Freeport. We went as quick as we could, but some had hard time with that. At fireworks that night it was fun to go see them. Last year at this time I was with a less-active named Nikki and we watched them from her house. It was a lot of fun to think like that. When we got home we played Murder (of course) and it was fun as normal. MaryEllen killed us all. I was kind of protecting her because it was her first few times playing and she kept getting killed for nothing so I adamently defended her only to be killed (by her!) and find out who did it. I learned who my true friends were that night. Also on Friday we had the lip sync and we did the Cha Cha Slide. It was a lot of fun. Kyle and I normally get down a little more than we showed in front of the family.

On Saturday Kyle and I played Disc Golf and he totally won. It was fun to play. He kept hounding me on the way home, "Karl, you want to get in to it? I want to get in to it, Ellen." Good times. That night we had an open house for my grandma. It was so fun. My dad asked some girls to come speak to me. My dad is the best wingman!

On Sunday we had church and I had a PPI with my sister Jen. That was fun. We just BBQed that day and played Murder that night. Good times once again. I really like being around my family. On Monday we woke early to begin our trail home. 16 hours later we were home. Good vacation. I didn't go to bed that night very early. I wasn't tired, but exhausted. I was wide awake. It was the next day that I was dead. I'm excited for the next reunion, both our family's and the greater family.

Good times--once again.

Well it's been a while and life has been equally crazy! Last week my work schedule was crazier than it had ever been previously at work! On Monday my boss gave me a special assignment that was ultra boring, but that's okay because it gave me plenty of time to think. It was seriously just as bad as watching paint dry though. Oh well, I make good money. My boss then gave me two more projects to finish before the end of the week because she was going out of town. Realistically speaking it would have been very impossible to finish even one of these projects, but I continued to work hard, I never took a break, I took 15 minute lunches and just worked my tail off. It was definetly not too desireable. The last two days of my work week I was at work until 5:30 and then the next night 6:45 to finish my projects. I worked a full week in only four days. I was DEAD tired at the end of the day on Thursday, but I got to do my FAVORITE thing ever. After my 6:45 day on Thursday I went to play soccer with some old friends. Now this is a pretty substantial thing. I hadn't played soccer competitvely in over two years and I could finally do it. It was so cool to lace up my old cleats and regain some control on the ball. It was ugly at first and we lost and lost due to some of my mistakes, but towards the end my command returned and it felt so good. All the stress caused by work and not being able to finish all my projects left me. I really do love soccer. I hadn't felt so satisfied in a long time and boy was it good. On Friday I woke up early and drove to Florence to board a plane to return to the homeland--Arizona. On the first plane ride to Atlanta my neighbor on the plane was sleeping and preferred that the arm rest stayed up (so he could take over a third of my seat!) I was hoping for some relief on the second plane ride but they placed me in the middle of two people! Ugh! My neck was very sore as I discovered that it is pretty hard and hurtful to sleep sitting up. It was so nice to return to the Valley. The first thing I did was go to the temple--that place is so amazing! I think it is highly underrated! After the temple I went to the vistors center to watch the Joseph Smith movie. I love that movie. So up to this point it was a pretty spiritual day. I loved it! After seeing Amy and the kids I went back out to see my cousin Scott. We met at Filiberto's and then ate at his house. It was amazing food, but not the best stuff to have before a blind date! Speaking of the blind date, as I was driving to her house and turning into her neighborhood something crazy happened. The gas ran out! Picture this--literally less than a block from her house and I run out of gas! She thought it was funny that we pushed the truck to her house for the first time we met, but all is well. On Saturday we went to lunch as a family and then I hung out with the kids before going out for the night. We ate at PF Changs and then saw Kung Fu Panda. Good movie--very hilarious! Today was any normal Sunday. I went to see my Mission President's homecoming talk. It was so nice to see him today. It just made me miss my mission so much. I miss the good times. I just sat there reminiscing the good (and bad) times of my mission--and that, in fact, was good times.

Wal Mart (La Tienda del Pared)

I love the prices. I hate the people. I went to Wal Mart today and I realized there that every single person is only worrying about themselves and no one else! I got cut off so many times, people would block the isle looking at things without moving their cart out of the way, cashiers talking to their friends rather than doing their job. I was just pretty touchy today. When I was looking at the watermelons i stepped away from my cart and I heard this family vying to steal my cart from me. The lady began to walk towards my cart and I dropped the watermelon and returned to my cart quickly to show my owenership. I wasn't having it today! It didn't help that that was my second cart on the day. My first cart had the bum wheel and I ditched it quickly! Well, that was my fun Wal Mart trip--gotta love it!