The Life and Times of Alann

So it has been like 5 weeks since i posted which is due to my being lazy, finals and the Christmas holiday season. Does this mean that i have a ton of stuff that i can update people on, yes Does it mean that i will do it, no. It all depends on how fast i can type on my lunch break. Luckily though non of the stories i will tell are like the stories from our thanks giving outing to AZ. We had no major break downs or mishaps the worst thing that happened was that on Christmas day we had a winter storm that turn off the power for 2 hours and left almost 2 feet of snow in the front yard. But the power shortage was in the middle of the day and the snow will melt on its own so those two events weren't really that bad after all.

I got my grades for school today and and got 3 A's, 1 A- and 1 B+ which brings my school career GPA to 3.853, not too bad if i say so my self. Now i have one semester left to graduate and will be taking 13 credit hours. 6 hours are semi blow off classes 4 are for a group CAP class that depending on the class members could be time consuming or not and the last 3 are a traditional in the room learning class. So hopefully things will be fairly easy next semester.

Becca and i have decided to call our baby Claire Abigail Severinsen (so far) and she is due on Feb 11 09. We have gone to see the hospital and what kinds of rooms they have there and were all the important rooms are. Becca signed us up for a birthing class that starts next week and goes past when Claire is due so we may not finish the class, but we will be more ready than if we didn't take the class at all.We have started to work on Claire's room and are about 1/3 of the way done with it. We need to install the rest of the insulation and then put up the dry wall, mud, sand, and then paint. We are trying something different for the paint in Claire's room this time, we are going to paint it in a way that I have suggested. Which means instead of doing one full bodied color like the rest of the house we are going to do a full bodied color on the bottom half of the room and then a lighter whitish color on the top of the room. The hope is that this time the full bodied color wont overwhelm the room like the green piant does in the bedroom.

For Christmas i got a lot of tool stuff, a camcorder, a self sufficiency book and some PS2 stuff and we are still waiting to receive our gifts from Becca's family, but so far it was an enjoyable Christmas haul. My parents stayed for about a week and visited with me and my brother, it was fun having them here to visit and mom got to see the new bathroom we just finished. I gained the traditional Christmas 5 lbs and have started going to the gym to lose the weight and stay in better shape. It is especially important for me to keep going because i no longer have the workout classes and my job at WSA is nothing but sitting at a computer. So weight gain is an easy thing to do, I would say almost as easy as when i worked at nothing but noodles ans drank soda all day. So with my high blood pressure it is important that i try and lose some weight and do strenuous exercises to keep in shape.

The goal for this month is to prepare for Becca's soon lose of work hours by finding her another job or new position at her current employers. We are going to try and refinance the house to a lower rate to lwer our monthly payment, but need it to appraise for 165,000 which means we need to finish up the home improvements soon. We also are talking about how many hours i need to maintain and if we can get rid of some of our life style ways in exchange for others, like giving up Becca's cell phone or a home line and Internet access so she can work from home and other such things. We are also playing with the idea of rearranging the whole house and changing the purpose of rooms from one to another to see if it works better functionally. It will also give us a chance to do some deep cleaning and sorting of stuff.

Work is going good and i enjoy being here. I don't think that i will work here full time next semester, but if they want to hire me after i get my masters there is a chance i would accept it. We still hope to move back to the Midwest some where. So far the main candidates are Columbia Mo, because of our past experience with it. Kansas City Mo, because WSA has an office there that i could transfer to. Or to one of the towns located around the greater St Louis area, because there are jobs there and the land type we want and Dan is there. If no in Mo I am pushing for IL, upper AR, lower IA, or western TN. I don't really want to go too far north or into the plains and if you go too far to the east with out getting to the coast you run into the backhills people, which i would like to avoid.

Well thats all i can think of right now so hopefully that is enough updating for everyone and hopefully i'll get back into blogging more often

I tried to blog on Wednesday and even though I had the time I did not have the will. I sat down, logged in, looked at the screen for a few minutes, came up with nothing and promptly logged off.
I feel that when you have nothing, you have nothing and you shouldn't have to try and force something out, because it wont be as good as if you had just waited till you have something to say. Though that is not to say that you can get away with never blogging at all because you feel like you never have something to say, ehm you guys know who you are.

I started to read a blog of someone who had just started to write and i started to laugh. I noticed that everyone, including myself, who starts a new blog always starts it off the same with some kind of explanation of why they never thought they would start a blog and then how they somehow got pulled into doing it and not to expect anything from them because they might not keep doing it. It made me wonder why we all have to excuse ourselves and pretty much ask permission from the electronic society in order to start a blog. After blogging for a small time now i think it is perfectly fine to say, hey I’m an awesome, entertaining person and that is why I’m starting a blog, now get over here and start following it!

I'm sure this has happened to other people but today at the store i was in line to buy my goods and this guy gets in line behind me and just starts talking to himself and getting closer and closer to me. He kept mumbling about things under his breath just loud enough to hear him with out being able to understand what it was he was saying. He didn't look crazy, we was fairly well clean and had on a business uniform so I assume he had a job and was a stable individual, but he just crept me out I wanted to turn around and say to him can I have more than 3 inches of personal space and would ya please shut up or finish your conversation with yourself a little quieter. Of course I didn’t say anything because now days you never know who is packing heat and just looking for a chance to use it.

Speaking of packing heat, I registered for my classes next semester and I am going to learn how to pack steel. I signed up for a fencing class and am really looking forward to taking it. I don’t plan on walking around town with a sword strapped to my hip, but I think everyone should get to take at least one fun class in college that they wouldn’t be able to take anywhere else. Maybe someday me and kirk can have a duel, though I think I would need a bigger sword to match his claymore. Anyways my lunch is up and i have a lot of projects due soon so i need to go, till next time!

Well, i've been able to blog on my break for about 4 weeks now and i am doing a good job as far as i can tell. I have found that the only problem i have is that on mondays i only take a quick 15min lunch break so my blogs have to be real short and on fridays it seems like there is always something ging on and it always happens during our lunch break, so once agina the blog is either short or non existant. I am looking forward to this weekend and next week, it will be nice to get away from school and work for a bit. Though when i come back the finals rush period will be upon me and i will have lots of homework to do everyday. Ah well, thats school for ya nothing but class and homework. Well thats all the time i have for today, hopefully wednesday's blog will be a little longer and more exciting.

So for some time now i have noticed that the blogger websites have allowed you to do some more things to them then when i first joined and i have really wanted to do an updating of my site. The only problem is that it takes forever to do it and since we don't have Internet at home i cant just work on it in my spare time. The other problem right now is that all the end of the year big projects are coming to the time when they need to be started and i still have a few things to get done around the house before we go to AZ for Thanksgiving. This unfortunately means that my blog look update will have to wait for another couple weekends and that this weekend is officially leave Alann alone so he can get some work done. These are never good weekends, because inevitable something comes up that gets in the way or i can get people/animals to leave me alone for long enough periods to accomplish anything and besides that, they are just not fun. I'd rather be out doing things with Becca around the house or relaxing, but unfortunately those things wont help me to catch up on my work.

If i could pick anything i wanted to do around the house for this weekend i think i would finish cleaning up the garage. Since i started to organize my workbench it has made me realize how messy the rest of the garage is and once it hits winter it is no longer an option to go into it for long periods of time because it isn't insulated or even really finished.I really can't think of anything else i want to write about so i think i'm just gonna end it here. till next week.

This will be a quick blog because I went out to a middle eastern place for lunch with a bunch of colleagues to celebrate the new presidency. It is called Cedar's of Lebanon and it was passing food quality, we did the buffet instead of the regular lunch menu, which may have been better. Apparently it has been there for 23 yrs and features live belly dancers on Friday nights. Things are good at work, and I am trying to get ready for grad school by organizing required paperwork and programs. The bathroom needs to have some trim put in and there is some places around the underside of the sink that need to be caulked then it will be done. I think the biggest thing going on for me now is that i have to get a class program put together for my independent study class next semester and since it is all for and about my needs i want it to be useful and to have something to show for it, which requires a lot of forethought and planning. There are only 6 weeks left in this semester and then i am down to only 16 weeks till i graduate, ya me!

I only have time for a short one today because is am going to try to skip out of work a little early today so i can get a jump start on finishing the everlasting bathroom. I just had a couple thoughts today to convey anyways, so here goes.

First, we are going to try and stay here while i go into the masters program, i will turn in all my stuff as soon as i can and hopefully the will accept my application. So if i get accepted all we have to do after that it make sure we are financially stable for another year an a half, which i think we can do.

Second, have ya noticed all the iconic messaging going on lately. things like, c u l8er and :) I saw a comics show briefly on a TV i was passing by and he was doing a bit on these icons and telling a story using only or mostly these symbols and it was easy to intemperate the symbols into what he was trying for. It got me thinking about Egyptian hieroglyphics and wondering if we keep incorporating more and more of these icons, like we are now, will we one day end up like the ancient Egyptians and have half to all of our words be in caricatures

Lastly, we bought a bunch of these Campbell's don't add water soups for me to try and i noticed that even though every soup was a different blend they all had this similar background taste to them. And these soups were way different form each other, i had tomato bisque, Italian meatball, broccoli cheddar with potato and one other one that i can't recall, but every single one of them had this taste. So one, it makes me not want to eat their soup any more two, i wonder if all the soups start off with the same broth and they just add different ingredients to them along the way and three is maybe its the can I'm tasting and what does that mean i could be eating?

Well those are my thoughts for the day, hope you enjoyed them.

So the big "to do" this week has been trying to decide if will I go to graduate school or will I just start working. So far what I have come up with through my research is that if I go to grad school anywhere else or for another field it will take about 2-3 years to get a MA. But if I stay here and do a degree in the program here, it could take me 1.5-2 years or if I tried a dual masters 2-3. Of course that means I'm back in school and not working full time and can we have to decide if we can make it financially with a baby, if Becca only works part time or not at all regardless of where I go to school.

I think the most appealing course of action right now is to stay here and do the degree, because not only is it short, but the dean is willing to allow me to customize the program a little so I can focus more on design and less on policy. Also Becca could keep her job and if not go to a part time or work from home, position, than at least we have some great friends here who we trust, if they were willing, to watch the baby while Becca was gone. Then that allows us to have the income we need and not have to worry about who is watching Claire and can we really trust them. So I feel that is the way I am leaning, I think the biggest catch is that I just want to be done with school. So my rational side and my selfish side are fighting over who will get what they want. Usually it is the rational side that wins, but that is not always true, however if i am going to stay on here I need to decide soon because registration is only a couple days way and then come the late fees. P.s. I don't like this layout, hopefully I can change it soon.

So here we are again, a new Monday a new week of work and school. Over the weekend i worked on the bathroom and started to do the quarterly cleaning of the garage so i can let it fall apart again through winter neglect ( its just too cold to go out there for long). No, unfortunately the bathroom is not finished. Some where along the way the bolt from the floor to the toilet got messed up and after an hour of trying to clean it and just put the nut on i gave up. So today i get to go to home depot on the way home and buy a new toilet setting kit and hopefully by Wednesday the toilet will be back in place and then i can get the walls painted by this coming weekend. What took the most time was waiting for the wall compound to dry so i could sand it and apply a new coat and in fact it is still not done. only the part behind the toilet is done and painted.

While the bathroom may not have gotten finished it still was a good weekend. I have now acquired enough tools that i can start to break them up into categories of work like plumbing and tile and so forth and put them in their own tool boxes, which is what i did. So now i can just grab a tool box for the project I'm doing and be on my way instead of trying to gather it all first. I think i will need to make a general tools box too for the things that go in multiple projects so i don't have to keep switching them around. Also I have told Becca that i would like some kind of organizational system for the garage, she told me that if i can find one i like then maybe we can get it. I have to admit that i have it fairly nice when it comes to the accumulation of tools, as long as i can justify needing the tool for a project, i can have it and for the most part i have never taken advantage and gotten something i didn't really need or use.

Not all men can say that, even when they need the tool they are not allowed to get it because their wife doesn't understand why just a screw driver and hammer wont work. That's one of the reasons i am grateful that Becca was in shop at school, she realizes that the right tool not only makes things faster and easier,but sometimes it is the only way it can get done. I've decided lately that if we end up staying in Utah for a while that this next summer i am going to build or buy a small portable garden tool shed so we can get all the garden tools and supplies out of the garage and grouped together out of the way. Then maybe i will tackle the idea of fixing the back wall to the garage so that the door shuts and i don't have to worry if it is going to fall off the foundation, and think of all the lovely tools i can get for those projects :) When will i find out if we are staying here longer? I'm not sure but hopefully soon, i am talking to people and looking up possible avenues for the future so, well see.

So we had birthday celebrations today during lunch so i am now writing this after i have clocked out of work for the day. The main things going on in my life right now are:

1, I have to finish the bathroom this weekend
2, Decide if i want to do graduate school
a, where
b, what degree
c, what school
d, how to pay for it
3, Do i want to just get a job w/ an undergratuates
a, where
b, in what exact field
c, can we live off it
4, Do more interviews w/ urban design firms to find out what preperations i need to make
5, Start plans on my final semester line up of classes
6, Start working on major papers due at end of school term or before

I think that is all the main things so far, if you guys have any thoughts on these subjects let me know.

So I’m at work on my lunch break and I decided to see if now would be a good time to do my blogging because it seems like I never have the time to now. Of course this means that I will have to be a little restrictive when it comes to my talking about work, because the boss could be right behind me reading what I am writing. Not that I complain about work a lot, but it just wouldn’t be good for my work atmosphere to be caught complaining. Now the only problem I can think of with this idea of writing during my lunch is that I am a sporadic lunch taker. Sometimes I work while I eat some times I take it early or late or I shorten it or I don’t take one at all. So there is a real chance that I just might not make the time.

Work is going o.k., the project I am working on is nearing its draft date and I am adding all the final touches on it before my boss looks over it and critiques it. I feel like I understand what it is I’m doing a little better, but don’t know how well I would do if I had to start a new paper. I have started to email urban design firms to see if I can get an interview with someone in charge to ask them about what kinds of skills and education they look for. So far I have gotten one response from a secretary asking for more specific information on my situation, but that is about it. Hopefully at least 3-4 of them will respond to me and I can get a good look at the skills I should be trying to develop.

For those who have not heard I put in my graduation application about a week ago, so I should be graduating around May 09. So far I have given myself an easy last semester with only 2 real classes and 2 blow off classes, one is weight training and the other is fencing. If I get some good feedback from the firms I questioned or find a class to take, I will drop the blow off classes, but until then I am keeping them. I have done over loaded semester hours for the last 3 semesters and think that if I can take an easy one than I should.

If you haven’t read becca’s blog then let me now tell you that this last weekend I tore out the main bathroom floor and fixtures so I could replace them and finish repairing the wall. I have no idea why I did this, I just know one minute I was looking at the ugly bathroom floor wondering if it would get done before Claire was born and the next minute I found myself with a crowbar in my hand tearing up linoleum flooring and ripping out the vanity. It started out easy and was going quickly and well until I started to do the plumbing. Like all the projects in the house this one had to have something that wasn’t easy to do. I think if the plumbing had been easy than the bathroom would now be done. But no, I had to cut out a small section of wall, use my power saw to cut the pipe, mount a new wall drain, reconfigure the drainage from the sink 3 times, put together the tailpipe system for the sink and mount the faucet and connect it to the water supply. Then clean up the mess from all the leaking water when it was tested multiple times.

Hopefully the rest of the bathroom will go smoothly and it will be back to working and will be the first fully completed room in the house, YAA! Well i think that is enough for now till next time!

So I've had this pain in the back of my throat since Tuesday and everyday it has gotten worse so today i went to see the doctor to see if it was strep. After being nearly choked by the nurse the doctor came in and examined me and said that the test results were inconclusive and i could have strep or maybe something viral and maybe it is contagious and maybe it isn't. Some help. So he gave me some antibiotics for if it is strep or if it is bacterial and told me to stay home for the day. While it is nice to get to play hooky from work i think i would rather know what it is that i have. Next week is fall break from school and i get the whole week off and during the weekend i get to go camping/deerhunting with my dad and male relatives, hopefully by then my throat will feel better and i'll be able to go. Sorry this isn't that interesting of a post but i dont really feel like writing much today.

Oddly enough, i have found myself with a little bit of time to kill. This is mostly due to the fact that i just got done taking a test that i way over prepared for and got done with in 15min instead of the 75 we were allowed to take. But i feel like i killed the thing and will get a great grade, so I'm not gonna complain. So i said to myself what am i going to do for a little bit before i have to go to my supposed study group. Blog of course!

I recently found out that i am a 3-d visually minded, ISTJ (Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging ), steadfast, perfectionist type of person. Wow what a mouth full! How did i find all this out you say.Well had us do some personality tests at work to help them better understand who we are as the new people they've hired and how to best work with us. Now i really didn't believe the perfectionist part, but Becca insists that it is true. I conceded that it is only true when it comes to things that i decide matter, like grades and projects that i am into. I would be interested to hear from everyone on what they think of my personality and aptitude results.
By the way here is the details to a ISTJ

"ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty. Punctuality is a watchword of the ISTJ. The secretary, clerk, or business(wo)man by whom others set their clocks is likely to be an ISTJ.
As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something that ISTJs do without considerable energy loss.
ISTJs are most at home with "just the facts, Ma'am." They seem to perform at highest efficiency when employing a step-by-step approach. Once a new procedure has proven itself (i.e., has been shown "to work,") the ISTJ can be depended upon to carry it through, even at the expense of their own health. "

Also I have found that I don't really care for policy planning too much. At least so far, i admit that it has only been 2 weeks and things may change. But so far it is way to much reading and writing (not my strong point, though my professional writing teacher said i did a great job on my last paper and would have made any lawyer proud.) and too little doing or designing which is what i really like to do and went in to apply for. So i plan to stick it out for another week or two and if things don't improve I'll talk to my mentor and supervisor and see if there is another project that i could work on that i might be better suited for.

Other than that life is good, Becca is fine, the baby is healthy and we are making our debt payments. I think the only thing i would change is the fact that right now we are kinda friend deficient and need to have some friend time,which we have been too busy for. But it looks like latter this week there might be some open time or maybe not who knows. Till next time!

Apparently they have changed the welcoming window for when you first sign into your blog, it kinda threw me there for a second. i really didn't know if i had gone to the right site. So while i thought i had lots of free time between classes, i don't. So now if i want to blog i will have to do it after school before i go home, which i will try to do. I know that my desired job field will have me away from home at other activities like meetings, forums, business trips and presentations so i might as well start getting used to the fact that i wont get to be home every night by 5 or 6 and do some blog time. Really this is all i came to say, I just wanted every to know that i'm still alive and trying to blog.

So today while checking up on the status of my school loans and other things I went to yahoo to see if i had gotten any responses to a couple of emails. While in my inbox I found a letter from Columbia House about a 3-$22 sale they were having, and since i haven't bought any movies for a while i thought i would go ahead and look around for a bit. Now for those who don't know me, i love to own movies even if i only watch them once every 3 years. The fact that i have that movie to watch when i want it brings me a since of comfort and pride. But anyways back to the story, have you ever noticed that movies you may never wanted before suddenly look like they might nicely fit into your collection when they hit the $5 mark? I was scrolling down the page going that looks good, haven't seen that in a while, i remember that one, I probably could have just clicked on every movie in the sale and been quite happy with myself. However i did not buy anything, i just sat here and drooled until i could no longer look at the site for fear of shorting out my laptop.

The big news this week is that i was offered an internship with wilbur smith assoc, which i will begin working at in about 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately that is the only information i have on the job so far because they are still setting up the lab and have not finalized many of the details yet. But since this is a requirement for me to graduate as long as they don't try to pay me $3.00 an hour for 60hrs a week scrubbing floors i will probably be happy with whatever it is they come up with, after all some internships don't pay at all and have little to do with the actual degree. So I will keep everyone posted on what happens there.till next time, c-ya!

So i am trying to get all my financial aid stuff taken care of before they take away my classes and i have to go through this site uheaa and it wants to know all this information and passwords so i can access my account and then i have to put in my fasfa pin number at the end to electronically sign my docs. The problem is that i have not accessed this data in over a year and all the anwers are case sensative and half the questions i have no idea how to answer so now i have 5 days left to get this stuff taken care of and am waiting for a new pin number that may take 1-3 days to get all because these sites are so ultra high security that i can't even get into my own account and end up getting shut out and having to reapply for the accounts. I seriously hate the "electronic age" right now and wish they would just give me a piece of paper at the finacial aid office to sign so i could get it all done in person w/ an ID card instead. But no everything has to be done with email and passwords to save on trees and time. If i have to reapply for my own accounts again after getting this pin i might just take the semester off!!!

So if you read Becca's blog then you are fairly well up to date on some of the major things going on in my life, if you haven't read her blog i suggest you go over to it and read, because i will not be repeating any of what she said yesterday. School starts in like one week and i need to buy books and figure out where my classes are and if i can make it from one to the next without killing myself. Yes it is nice to have the bike gone from the driveway and i am sad that it didn't work out better, but it seems like i was supposed to use the money for school anyways so it has all probably turned out for the best. I was hoping that the company I'm trying to intern with (Wilbur Smith Associates) was the same one that my friend kirk wing works at, one because maybe he could put in a good word for my with the corporate hirer and two because maybe i could transfer out there to KS. Still WAS does have companies in the Midwest so if i do intern with them and if i like the company and if they want to hire me i may be able to transfer to the Midwest. Of course that's a lot of "ifs" to fulfill.

I had a bad experience this week with a former employer, apparently the ops manager didn't think that i was keeping busy enough and i thought that since it was work study that when ever they didn't have something for me to work on that i could study. Well the boss never came to me with his issues and even said i could have the job next year if i wanted it. So when i sent him an email asking to have the job i was SHOCKED to read his response,

"Hi Alann-

Sorry I missed you last week. Paula mentioned that you had come by.

I think that it would be better for us not to rehire you. To be perfectly blunt, my needs for the job are someone who is always on the lookout for something to do, and never willing to sit still. Based on my experience with you last year, I don’t think that really describes you. I don’t really have time to manage one more employee and make sure that I am getting my money’s worth by always assuring that there are tasks waiting.

Thanks for your time with us last year, and best wishes as you finish your schooling.

Tony"

So after a half hour of rewriting very upset and harsh letters, I finally told myself that nothing would change by telling off this guy and wrote the nicest email i could while still telling him a little of how i felt.

Tony,

Could you make sure I am taken off the mailing list for the museum. The random emails about nothing important are a bit irritating to have to erase all the time. Also I don't need to be insulted, you could have just said no thank you, that was my first work-study job and if you wanted something to change while I was there all you had to do was set up a meeting with me and let me know not to spend so much time on school work. I suggest next time you actually talk to your employee once in a while instead of assuming you know what is going on with them, then maybe you will be happier with their performance.

Best of luck with your move and new child.

Alann


If you have ever listened to the comedian Dane Cook these letters reminds me of the joke about the the guy at the cash register telling Dane " just a minute pal." when he wants some katsup for his hot tasty fries (Dan you should know what I'm talking about). For those who don't know what I'm talking about, you have to hear it to get the whole impact of it, maybe Dan will put in my comments which CD it is from so everyone can listen to it themselves if they want and at their own discretion.Mostly I'm just mad because i feel like i was blind sided by this guy and now i have to rethink some decisions i made about work during school if i don't get an internship. I think Becca said it best when she said it was bad management on his part and I think she is right because honestly all he had to do was talk to me and i would have changed what i was doing to better fulfill what he wanted done, but it too late now.


The only other thing i have to write about this week is that lately i have been getting real tired of hearing all the moronic discussions that happen around me at work or while I am out of the house. It seems like all I hear is people talking about things that they have no factual background knowledge of but they seem to know that they are right and nothing else could be true but what they think. I'm not saying that i have a complete knowledge of all the things they are talking about but when the news the night before says that a boy was caught on fire by a stray ember and you are saying that two boys set him on fire to watch him burn and how bad blah blah blah is and yada yada yada, I just want to tell you to shut up and stop talking about things that you only have a partial knowledge of.

It really just drives me nuts to hear two people talking about things they don't understand and act like they do or to hear them talk about pop culture things that have no lasting meaning or significance in life like they are more important then enything else. For once I want to walk into the break room and hear two cashiers talking about how to best conserve world energy and the world economic ramifications of Russia's and Georgia's border war. Instead i get to hear about how so and so had to b-slap her daughter and threaten to not let her go to church if she didn't stop calling her mother's new boyfriend a bas!#$%. I understand that not all conversations need to be deep and sophisticated and that i don't always talk about deep things, but i just want to know, what happened to meaningful conversations? Where did they go? And how do i get them to come back? Well i think that is enough for now, i will go for now c-ya!

So today we woke up early to go to Becca's work to let in the carpet cleaning people and then go to the temple. We only had to wait about 10 min for the guys to get here and get setup before we could leave, which was nice. Then we went to the temple to do sealings(marriages) for those who have passed on. It was quite a little adventure after we got there i realized half way through with undressing in the changing room that i forgot my pants for the ceremony and that i didn't have any money on me to rent some, so i got dressed again and went to go find Becca. Luckily as i was waiting for Becca to see if she had any money one of the assistants/guides saw me there and asked what was going on, after i told her what was happening she went to see if she could find my wife after about 5 min of waiting she came back out and said she could not find her but here was the 50 cents to go rent some pants. I thought that was very nice of her and was very grateful. So i went back in and got ready for the ceremony and went to go find Becca who was up stairs wondering where i was. But in the end it all worked out and we had a great time. Now we are waiting for the carpet cleaners to get done so we can leave her work and go back to our house to clean and rearrange the house so when my parents visit they will have a place to stay. That and this whole week i have been preping and painting the kitchen walls, which becca says looks great and not southwestern( though I disagree with the last part), but anyways we need to get that cleaned up as well so we can use the kitchen again. Well the cleaners are done and becca wants to leave so i will see yall later!!!

So i have been looking for an internship for the past 4 hours and can find nothing in utah that is taking interns, so finally i just started to blanket cover every company i could find on the net and after getting half way through the list i have decided to call it quits for the day. Next time i will finish the list then move on to enginerring, GIS, local Gov groups, then i will start calling places and asking if there are any oppertunities. I can find lots of interships and lots of jobs out of state, but nothing that i could do, because obviously i'm still in school and need to stay here. I hate looking for work.

So today i went to work at lowes like usual and for the 3rd time this week our team leader didn't show up for work and no one on the stocking crew knows why. Add to this that there was no truck of frieght to put away means that we had very little to do, so they let those of us who wanted to leave go home early.So I called up Becca and asked her if she wanted to go out to lunch,which she said yes to. We went to Sampan and got lunch and now i am going to hang out at her work for a little while and surf the net to get some work done. Work like find another job, check email, look at vehicles, look at classes and check my grades for this summer's semester (so far i have one A and 2 classes left to get grades for)

So last Thursday thru Saturday i spent everyday all day working on my friends fence with them. It was nothing special just a wood fence with a front gate and a double gate for car access on the side. We had to dig new post holes ( by machine and hand) put in the poles build the gates measure and put up the arms/ rails and then put on the planks. Over all it went really easy with no major complication and i think the resulting fence will last as long as they want it to and when they are done staining it will look nice. I was happy to help and well compensated for my labor, but man i don't know if I have fully recovered yet i am still tired and a little sore. Of course Becca missed out on the whole thing because she was at camp, but she still got to enjoy one of the perks for loaning me to build the fence. But for the most part that took up all my weekend.
Today i started to do some of the things that i would normally have done like mow the lawn and work on the house. I am currently puttying all the holes and cracks in the kitchen then i will finish the wall next to the cabinets and fix the gap in the wood floor by ripping down two floor boards to make on large one to make up for the shifted wood planks that happened during the mysterious leak episode. Then once that is done its on to the main bath to replace the floor, vanity and sand and paint the walls. Well i gotta go to class!

I have another meez slide show, but it wont be ready until later other wise the site has changed some

So yeah, this is like the 3rd post this week from me, but don't get used to it, i just happen to have a little extra time before class today. Also make sure you read the last post and that you respond to it, so i can see what everyone thinks. On my way to school i got passed by this early 90's white truck with an obviously low class driver, was i not doing the speed limit you ask, why no i was doing the limit and was in the correct lane. However what i wasn't doing that made this driver upset and pass me with a mighty rev of his engine was that i was slow starting at all the red to green lights. Basically i was starting off the line slower than everyone else, but the funny thing is that i would get to the next red light at around the same time as the other drivers in my "group".

I have driven this route enough times to know that if you get stuck at one red light you wont make it to the next light while it is still green so i don't even bother trying. But mister "has to speed" didn't seem to feel the same way as i did. I assume that he alsotakes this route fairly often too because he turned into a subdivision on the way. But my thought was even if i didn't know about not being able to make the next light why would i want to race from one light to the other.
All it does is 1 waste gas by getting into higher RPMs just to move a little faster at the beginning of moving 2. add more wear and tear to the engine 3 use up your brakes faster due to harder stopping at the next light. 4 wear out the tread on the tires faster from needed additional traction 5 make you look like an idiot as you race around people just to end up with them at the next light 6 get you upset if you don't make the next light and 7 add more pollution into the air because of the bad energy efficiency of your motor at that speed/power ratio. So really i gotta ask is it really worth speeding off the line just so you can end up next to me again at the next light?

O.K. fine Dan is right, my site has been under construction for a while now with no noticeable updates or major changes. I have this problem of only being able to connect to the net before class and Becca wants to see me or something so that kinda cuts down on the time i have to use the Internet before i go into my statistics class. So mostly the important things get done like checking my email for important documents, transferring money and looking up school "need to do" items. So blogging takes a back seat. "But don't you have Internet access at your local library?" you ask.Why yes i do,but you weren't supposed to remember that, because now i look like a slacker.....which I'm obviously not..... The problem with the library is that i don't like it, it hot, smelly, uncomfortable and there is not a private corner anywhere next to a wall socket so i really don't like to use the net there unless i really have to."But didn't you say you were going to try to start blogging more often? " you say. To which i reply, that boy are you starting to get on my nerves. YES i said that, but sometimes we say things that we don't really think that we will follow through with. " So your a liar then?" you say. Fine, yes i lied to you. I really don't have any intention of writing more until school starts up again and i have down time between classes, are ya happy now?! Yes, you reply to yourself, because by now i have walked away in disgust.

Obviously i am redoing somethings so check up avery now and then to see what is new

Yes, I admit it i have thoroughly slacked off on my responsibility to write a blog everyday.I don't think i have even made it every other week. For all those people who are like me and make the everyday rounds to to see if there is anything new on their friends blog sites, i apologise. It is just so hard to find the time to sit down and type for a half hour to a full hour and then add pics and change around the page. I just don't have the time and i can't stand just posting the little "I'm still alive" blips, because it like well yeah your still alive, but what have you been doing all this time? So I am going to try and do better, I don't know how or when it will start, but hopefully now that i only have evening classes i can find some time between work and class to sit down and type out a paragraph or two. Of course if my typing speed and accuracy were better i may be able to post more often too because it wouldn't take as long to post.

So I guess for a quick update on life i have got a couple things i can talk about. For fathers day Becca gave me a PS2 all on her own, I had no idea what she was getting me. I bought God Of War 2 and love it. For those of you how don't know what it is, the game follows a basic story line were you a fallen Greek god fight your way back into god like power to rise up and fight Zeus. So far i think I'm about half way through. It also can with a bunch of sports games most of which i will eBay off but some that i will keep.

I sold my motorcycle because of lack of funds to fix it and hope to save up for a little bit and get something else by the end of the summer of the beginning of next. I am not quite sure what will happen there because i am not working full time this summer and we may be moving next summer depending on what happens when i graduate.

I have one morning class left and then it is only one night class till the first of august, then i get about 3 weeks off till fall semester starts.Then i will be back to a full load of school and then will only have a cap class, internship and 1 blow off class to complete for spring of 09 to graduate.

We now have a fair amount of grass in our front yard from the seed we planted and now we are going to weed and feed the front to kill of the weeds that have grown and then we will plant more grass seed to help fill in the lawn.

I just put the hard wood floor back in the kitchen, because the mysterious leak went away once we fixed the washing machine hookup pipes. It is a little bumpy even with getting 2 out of 5 boards replaced. Maybe if we have the money and i have the time i will look at going back and replacing the entire middle section of wood flooring, but we have many other projects ahead of that one. I mean they really are small little bumps that aren't noticeable unless you know what it was like before.

The house in Columbia mo is for sale and we hope to sell it before to much longer into the summer. It is a good quality house with the option to have a renter downstairs to help lower rent payments so i think it will sell fairly fast.

Um i think that is it for now, atleast that is all i have time for so hopefully i will be posting a bit more often from now on.

Just a quick one today while i wait for my windows to update. I have read Garfield comics before and found them funny but lately i have had to spend some time at the library to use the Internet and while i wait for things to down load i read Garfield comics. Let me tell you they are so much funnier when you own a cat and a dog and can look at the strip and see your animals doing the same thing that Odie and Garfield are doing. Speaking of here is an interesting website i came across it is called Garfield minus Garfield and is at http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/page/1 it shows the strips without Garfield in them and some are pretty funny when you think about them in the context the the website suggest you should. Here is an example of one

I suggest going to the website and checking it out.

So last Friday and Saturday we went out to the Jordanelle Lake and took our tent and little 12' fishing boat w/ outboard motor and camped for the night. This was a new experience for me, not that I haven't been camping before but the way the site was setup was very different from what I am used to. At all the sites I have ever been to they tell you what plot to go to and then you decide where to put your tent and usually you are surrounded by trees and insects. This time however they had built a little 12 x 12 gravel pad to setup on and there were 3 trees per site, which obviously had been predetermined by the management, and there were no bugs what so ever and we happened to get a spot about 50 yards away from the lake front. The lack of bugs was very nice, I assume this was due to the cold summer we've had and the high elevation we were camping at and it was kind of pleasant to be able to see all the way across the lake and to see the outhouse instead of having to navigate your way through the forest, though I did miss the cover when it rained that night. I was not too impressed with the gravel pad though, it was way rough on the body even though we brought stuff to sleep on it was still easy to feel the rocks beneath the padding.

But all in all the site was very pretty and I took a picture of it using my old school film camera, so maybe in a few months when we use up the film I will post a picture of the campsite. So after a fairly cold night we woke up to a drizzling morning and decided to tough it out and go fishing on the boat. We drove to the boat launch and after some comunication problems between Becca and i we got the boat launched and went out to go get some fish. To make an entire day event short we never caught a thing though, Becca almost caught a bird and I got a couple of bites while Becca was back at camp making breakfast. Becca's new fishing equipment I bought her worked great and my older equipment failed me miserably by continuously breaking and getting the line tangled in the reel. We boated into a cove to fish and found a family of 7-9 beavers? woodchucks? Muskrats? Something. They were cute though, they ran up and down the hill and played in the grass while me and Becca fished and caught nothing. After that we needed to go in so we could clean up camp and I showed Becca how to operate the boat. She grasped the concepts just fine and only had problems when it came to pull starting the motor, but on the 5-6 time she got it started and she "drove" us back to the boat ramp where we loaded the boat and went back to the site. There we cleaned up the camp in about 15 minutes and made it back home around 3pm on Saturday in time to go to the church pig roast. Then we went home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

All in all it was a good trip, i told Becca to make a list of things she felt needed improvement for next trip and we would try to accomplish them before next time we go out. My list so far is 1. Get new fishing gear 2. Get better sleeping pads 3. Buy camp stove (we borrowed one) 4. Get new sleeping bags for us 5. Buy small hatchet 6. Remember to drink more water and wear suntan lotion, I got burned and a little dehydrated.

So we put in the grass seed this week and went into the back yard where i was assembling the 50' section of sprinkler pipe. first we tired to bring it up in one whole piece but it was too big for just the two of us to move with out having mass frustration or something breaking on the way. So i cut it into 3 sections and put on the joining adapters so that when all the pieces were up front it could be put back togeather and used. I had planned on dsing this anyways but wanted to do it later in the year when we were taking in for the winter. So we go it up to the front put together and all postioned and hooked up to the hose. The sprinkler heads i bought are ment to cover 11' each and are spaced 10' apart giving complete and comprhensive coverage to all the lawn area. However when we turned the hose on each sprinkler only cover ready....1'. what happened to the 0 behind that 1? It left when it found out that the water pressure behind the hose was less than origionally thought. So about 6hrs of work and 3hrs of planning were all for nothing. We ended going back to lowes buying 4 srinkler heads attaching them to lawn spikes and running individual hoses to each of them and then getting about half the range out of each that they are capable of. So now about 80% of the yard is getting watered and we have all the pipe we need to build becca a fancy new green house for her garden. So while the supplies are not a waste the time and energy put into it were. But oh well.

So this has to be a quick one because i am doing it on the booses dollar and i am leaving sooner than i thought because the place i need to go is closing a whole hour earlier than i thought. Today's Blog report shows sunny skys with a chance of lazing around tonight followed by some homework and house chores tomorrow and then some more lazing around in the evening. Then on Sunday a chance of friend time with the Bowles and then back to school on monday. I give this forcast a 75% chance of happening with a standard deviation of 1-2 bowls of ice cream for snackies. Have a good weekend everyone!!!!!

Yeah happy over a thousand visits to me!! So the lappy is still at home but will be turned in on Thursday back to the evil gateway people who sold it to me. This past weekend we took a c+ yard and completely tilled it under and made it into an A+ muddle puddle thanks to the rain. However we did make the side yard much nicer we took out the weeds, put a border up, laid down weed cloth, put down mulch, laid out a stepping stone path and planted some young bushes. All in all it went from being a D- to a B+ in my book. The project also broke me of any desire to do more projects for a week or two. Both me and Becca were so sore that our hands hurt and mine cramped a couple times while I slept. But now all that needs to be done is putting in the grass seed and me finishing up the above ground sprinkler system to water it and then we have to wait and water to see if we get a new lawn or have to start saving up for a new sod yard next year.

So today's post will be like all my other posts and be short and sweet. I think i will do a quick update on life. Since Becca will probably go into detail on Craig's wedding i will just say that the trip and wedding were fun and quick. When we got home and i previewed the yard i found that there had been some hot dry days while we were gone. All the grass had died and any new leaves on our plants were yellow and some plants didn't make it. I dropped one of my summer classes in favor of taking it during the fall so i can get full time status and all the loans and work study that goes with it. Besides with out that one class i can now see Becca more than once a week. I got one of my 2 school books and now am only slightly behind in that class and i am still waiting on my statistics book so i can start doing the problems in it so i can better retain the lesson from class. I called the gateway peoples support line and talked to a rep who was much more thorough about what was wrong with my laptop and scheduled another send in time. So hopefully this time it will get fixed, because if it doesn't i may just have to go "Becca" all over them. Other than that the weather is now cool and rainy and looks like it will stay that way for the weekend, which is fine with me because we plan to tear out and reseed the front lawn and the heat would not be very welcome. But i will leave you now because i have been in this chair for 4 hrs and if i don't get up now it will be another 4 hours till i get the chance again.

I know i have not posted in a while and wont for about a week till my laptop comes backa dn i start summer school. i just wanted everyone to know that i am still here and alive and hopefully will be posting again soon.

Alright first of all let me say FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!!! Man it feels so good to say that! So how did I do you ask. Well if you becca what I tell her it’s” not good enough”, I am always fanaticizing about getting A’s. But honestly it feels like it will get a mix of A’s and B’s out of 5 classes maybe 2-a and 3-b. Though right now it could be 5-cs and I’d be ok. Of course I still have summer school starting in a week, but till then I am going to enjoy the time off. That and the summer section ends the last week in July so I’ll still have august to myself. So I am trying to sell my motorcycle for $800 and this is how it is listed on Craig’s list.

goods

1982 Honda Sabre, 750cc, 36k mi, electric start, liquid cooled, rear axle drive, brand new battery, cleaned air filter, great first time bike

reasons
I bought this motorcycle in October and was only able to ride it about a dozen+ times before it got too cold. I planned on getting it registered this summer when I worked full time but now I am going to summer school and don’t have the time or money.

bads

I had its engine checked and they said it was fine and would last another 8-10k mi easily. I have not gotten it registered and don't know if it will pass inspections. It needs a new back tire, I need to replace a light cover (which i have), needs a new 25 cent gasket to put on the oil screw to stop the leak and has light superficial damage that’s all I know, but it needs to be officially inspected first to know of any other problems, which i will not do. It’s worth $1000 running in fair shape, but I’m only asking for $800 that’s a $1.06 per cc, if interested email me

Now I know your saying, why did you list so many bads? Because so many people are asking about it and if it is registered and blah blah blah , so I want to make sure they understand, no it wont pass and two I don’t know all the problems that’s why its cheep! Now as for a longer explanation of why it is being sold 1. The money set aside to fix it up is now going to school 2. I am not actively selling it and will keep it till it sells 3. The money from the sell will buy a working scooter that I can use now So those are the additional reasons and someday if I like riding the scooter I will give it to becca and get myself another, but working, motorcycle. Sometimes dreams just have to wait or be only partially completed until a better time comes along, and this is one of those dreams.

Also today or tomorrow I will be calling gateway to have them send out a box for my laptop so it can get fixed (again) so that I can enjoy it for another year of school (hopefully). I told becca that I think the next laptop I get will be a tablet pc depending on how much writing my job or schooling requires. I don’t really use much on my laptop except for the wireless internet, music/ video player, USB port and for the Microsoft office program. I don’t really even use the CD/DVD player that much. So a tablet should have what I need with the writable screen and light weight I want.

Well I should go my brain is getting fuzzy and I still have to walk up hill to get to the station to wait for the train to get to the next station to wait for the next train to get to my station to drive across town to get home to do house work to get ready for the scout program tonight. Wait……. do I really want to leave?

So here are the major things going on with me and us. Finals week is upon me and i have one final today and the rest next week. Then i get one week off and then summer school starts and its off to the races again. My laptop is still now the fritz but now has been backed up on Becca's mega 300 gig external drive so when finals is over i will send it in, till then it sits on my desk stuck in the on position, because if i turn it off it may not turn on again. We still no clue to where the leak is exactly but we tore up the floor boards and are waiting for it to show up again. i think that is about it for now.

so my laptops networking card just broke so now i can only get on the internet at school so the construction of my website is going to take a while. But i will still try to post when i can.

so i want to redo the look of my blog but that intails wiping the slate clean and starting over again witch i have no time for right now. But hopefully soon after finals are over and the plumbing is fixed i will be able to find the time i need to do it. Until then i will have to be content with doing minor changes to it and posting a few small post here and there, like this one. My latest attempt to add something to my blog will be adding a slideshow, which includes signing up for more web based sites so hopefully it all works out. so be on the look out for my Blog friends slide show and let me know on this post what you think of the people and if you want to be added.

So i am a big guy, and as such i have big feet. Not just long feet but wide feet, i have a size 13 wide in men's shoes. This causes no end of trouble when it comes to finding shoes for me. Usually i just have to settle on whatever shoe i can find that fits regardless of its looks. So the last pair of shoes i bought were only a 13 not a wide, and within the last month the front insides of the shoes where my big toes are have given out and so the sides of my big toes get a nice breeze. So last Friday we went and spent 2 hrs at the store looking for shoes that would fit me and found 2 pair, one of which i bought. But after only 2 days of wearing them the top of the left shoe blew a few stitches due to faulty materials ( not because of my foot size). So for the moment until i can take them back i have to wear my last pair of shoes. Today while walking to my class i looked down and not only saw that the front of my left shoe had given out, but so had that sock! So now when i walk not only does my left toe get a breeze, but it check out the view too!

so by complete accident i found this website that allows you to make a 3-d avatar for your blog page. I have only given it a quick glance and use but so far it seems to be fun. If nothing else it is one of those things were you can make up an alternative you just for fun. Today i have been trying to think about what i have learned this semester (because its ending soon) and every time i think of the semester it just feels like I've lost in a dream or something because none of the class periods seem to have stuck and i can only recall the slightest things that i have learned, which is not good for finals. This has definitely been the fastest semester i have had in my school career and i wonder if it is because my classes were only Tue and Thur or if it is because I'm getting use to going to school. Either way i hope the rest of my school career goes this fast, because then i will be graduated before i completely burn out. School seems to be the only thing i have to think about lately and it is kinda boring because it really is like being lost in sleep for a whole day and then trying to figure out what it is i was supposed to learn the rest of the week. Well class is starting so i gotta go

So i was going over my school schedule and i found out a great thing. I can graduate a whole semester earlier than i thought i could. Then today as i was going over my summer and fall semesters to make sure i wasn't repeating anything and i found out that i could graduate even earlier, by another whole semester.
The problem with that plan is that i would have to take 5 classes every semester from here on out, which might just kill me. It is really hard to go to school for 12hrs a day 2times a week and work 25 hour plus do the homework. So now the question is, do i want to get it all over with as soon as possible and lose my sanity or do i want to go at a more leisurely pace and finish only 1 semester later than if i force marched myself. Right now i am leaning toward just graduating one semester early instead of two. This semester has really burned me out and i kinda just want to go at a slower pace, at least for the next semester, but if i take it easy next semester than it no longer matters and it will only be one semester early. It really is at an all or nothing situation right now to graduate extra early. So after my last class today i think i am going to gather up all the info and do some alternative schedule and see which way i want to go

I will be doing this between classes and at work because it is so long so if you read this and it is not complete it is not because i don't know the alphabet, it is because I'm not done yet.

A - Attached or Single? I assume we are talking about personal relations and not house style here so i have to go with arched.
B- Best Friends? Becca first and then Dan Story and Ian
C- Cake or Pie? Pie, especially pineapple pie
D- Day of Choice? 3 day weekend
E- Essential Item? watch, it drives me nuts not having one, even if i ordinarily wouldn't look at the time when i don't have my watch i am constantly trying to look at the time
F- Favorite Color? forrest green
G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Yuck
H-Hometown? Le Roy IL, where i grew up in my teen years and had great friends in all may classes at school
I- Favorite Indulgence? Chocolate (I blame mom), Video games and Movies
J- January or July? July i suppose, at least in Utah, where in January you have to be crazy to leave the house
K- Kids? not yet but maybe 3-4 someday with an equal amount of boys and girls
L- Life isn't complete without? a reason to get out of bed
M- Marriage date? 12/2/04
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 1 bro 1 sis both younger
P- Phobias and Fears? Nothing i have come across yet, but i don't really care for praying mantises or walking sticks much, they just look gross and creepy
Q- Quote? I like the ones on despair.com
R- Reason to smile? i usually do it when around friends and fam, i find most things in life pleasing
S- Season of choice? spring or fall i like the cool weather and crisp air
T- Tag three people? they have already been hit but maybe their spouses so Ginny, Shannon and Dan
U- Unknown fact about me? I have a scar running along the back of my left thigh where i tried to jump a chain length fence and didn't quite make it
V- Vegetable? potato, is there a more versatile vegetable in the world, i think not
W- Worst Habit? I have this underlying subconscious thought that work is for working and home is for resting and having fun, which leads me to not work around the house as much as i should
X-ray or Ultrasound? i think it would be cool to own a full body x-ray
Y- Your favorite food? pizza!!!!!!!
Z- Zodiac Sign? Aquarius-Those born under the sign of Aquarius not only march to a different drummer, they make up new music as they go along. They are 'mind oriented' individuals, whose thoughts never stop tick-tocking over. Because of their high focus on intellectual exploration, many inventors, eccentrics and highly original trailblazers are born under this sign. Their intense ability to live on many mental levels, holds both pain and pleasure for Aquarians. For example, in the American Hall of Fame there are more Aquarians than any other sign, yet statistics reveal that in mental institutions there are more Aquarians than any other sign too. Many extremes can surround this sign and these extremes can take them to both heaven and hell. But in everyday terms, most Aquarians are extremely humanitarian and often involved in social programs that assist others. They can also be objective in judgement, for they never let their emotions get in the way. Outgoing and amiable, Aquarians attract friends wherever they go and those whom Aquarians befriend have their unswerving loyalty.

Aquarians are the zodiac's most mysterious and unusual people - and no two are anything alike. Those born under this sign - ruled by innovative and non-conformist Uranus - march to the beat of their own drum. They see life in a different way. Others quite frequently think their habits and ideas are eccentric or crazy in some way, but it is this uniqueness that makes them so special. The Aquarian mind is extremely quick and they never seem to stop thinking (it is interesting to note that many born under this sign suffer from insomnia.) Aquarians usually have strong political, environmental or social beliefs. But whether it is a relationship, career or cause - Aquarians are happiest when they have "something" to believe in and nurture.

So a couple of people have wanted to know what my future plans are so i thought i would just go over a quick snapshot of what i hope will happen. Hopefully at the end of the December if not before i can quit my Lowe's job and be interning at a planning firm of some sort. then by the end of may 09 i hope to have my BS in planning. I would like to then move out of Utah to a more hospitable environment like in the middle to eastern states where land is more plentiful and the cost of living lower. Also i don't really enjoy the dry heat here and i think there is something growing in the desert areas that I'm allergic to, because in TX and UT i get something like hay fever, but not in IL or Mo where i last came from. Becca claims to be a "sun child" so we will probably have to find a fairly sunny place to live. Mostly the job i get will decide on what state we live in.

In what ever state we move to we would like to buy a parcel of land, w/ or w/o a house on it, from 1-8+ acres so we can have a large garden - small farmett. We don't really want to be farmers, but some of the things we enjoy and want to do resemble that type of lifestyle. Hopefully this land would be close enough to the area i work and to local stores that it would only be 15 min or less to get into the city area. We would like to live in a 80,000 +/- 15,000 type city. I would like for it to be a college town, because i think i would enjoy doing some part time teaching at a local community college or university. I also would like to have a small library room for myself and Becca to study and read in piece, man shed/ tinkering shop and small fishing stream/pond on the property whether natural or artificial. I know Becca has somethings she would like too, like a nice sewing/ crafts room, established garden beds with green houses, nice indoor kitchen and a small outdoor one for nice days, to name a few. Obviously most of these things will take time to get and build and some we may never see.

A nice transit system around town and to local outlying areas and lots of people and dog parks, natural trails and camping would also make it a better place to be . I would like to stay with the same company for a while and move up through the ranks, but that is not a major concern of mine. I think i would like to work for/run a private company as a consultant to other government planning organizations. I have heard private companies have more flexibility, larger pay and a bigger assortment of job projects. Still being this far down the work ladder i am still open to other jobs and positions. Being close to family would be nice, but since most of us are still in a moving stage of our lives it would be hard to plan our moving around family, though i suppose if family or close friends wanted to buy/rent land from us to live on that could be arranged.

Kids would be nice to have, ya know to entertain guest and do chores j/k. But hopefully sometime between now and then we will either have one or be on the way of having one. If we timed it right and nature was willing we could have a child just about the time i graduate. Then Becca would still have health insurance and could quit when the baby was born and i could start working. Of course that's all luck and circumstance at this point. Being out of credit card debt is also a goal we have and hopefully that one will happen before i graduate.

I don't know if i have any other large goals besides those at this moment, i really just want out of my college kid life of half work, half school, no money or ability to get more and no permanent plans. i guess the only other "big" goal i have for us is to try and go on another cruise for our 5 year anniversary and the only reason that's a big one is because i need to start saving for it now. Well for anyone who read this whole things i applaud you, i believe this is the biggest blog i have ever written.

So my break has ended and i am now back at school. I also ended my break by getting a cold, it is not the kind like my wife has with the sinus and throught problems,i have the belly flux and no energy problems. So I am skipping the classes i can and trying to make it through the ones i need to be at. So far my mind tends to wander off every 5-8 min and i have to refocus myself on the teacher. One of the ways i can tell i am sick is that i get upset or fall into dark moods easily and for no reason, i think it comes from being overly tired and just wanting to sleep and not understanding why the rest of the world can't just leave me alone to do it. I have twice found myself upset with random strangers who are not even directly interacting with me. They are just doing something in my general area and it bothers me that they are there. I know this is silly and i shouldn't do it, so i make myself stop focusing on them and try to do something else. For the most part its not a problem but i have noticed it gets worse as i stay awake longer.

Break was good. I got my motorcycle title replaced so now i can get it registered. I got the boat registered so we can take it out when ever we want to. I put up another door in the house,which doesn't sound like much, but it takes 3-4 hours to do one with little or no trouble. I also cut holes in our cabinets ceiling and roof to vent outside our stove top hood in case something ever burns and that was a 2 day project by itself. I have to admit that i like doing things around the house. What i don't like doing is being rushed to get it done or having to try and squeeze it into the few minutes i have between work and school. i like to do the projects for the sheer joy of doing them. not so i can get them done and have it beautify or add accessibility to anything. Well I'm gonna stop here because i am losing interest and focus more and more. so c-ya later