I love my job

I've been putting off updating this blog for a really long time. I always said there was nothing that significant to report to the whole Internet, so I did not.

I really like my life right now. I have an awesome wife, and a very loving extended family. My job as an Assistant Manager at Walgreens makes me happy. I have so much fun at work and I enjoy it. It makes me feel good to help people. I sometimes joke that all I do at work all day is count money. And really that is what I spend a large amount of time doing, but my job is so much more than that. I motivate those that work under me. I resolve customer concerns. I help customers find what they came for. I train people on effective customer service and upselling. Recently I have been put in charge of more things. The decisions I make on a regular basis are starting to have a significant impact on the profitability of my store, and I am being recognized for it.

Previous jobs have not given me much power to change things, but now I can. I also like the fact that the work I do I can't bring home with me, so when I'm home, I'm home. That means I can focus all of my efforts on Katie and my church calling.

Unfortunately because of my position, I work on a rotating schedule of nights and days, including weekends. So I work on sundays two out of three weeks. On the weeks I work night shifts, I don't see Katie much because she is asleep before I get home, and leaves before I get up for the day. And even on my days off, which are typically during the week, I only see her after she is done at school, and if she doesn't have other evening plans. Eventually, I hope to work my way up the ranks so I can have nights and weekends off so I can spend more time with Katie. Probably that day won't come until after we start having children, but at least I can hope.

Cute Grandparents

Here is a picture of Braden's Grandparents. (His mom's Parents.) Grandma and Grandpa Pearson are a cute couple with love enough to fill the world. They always know the right things to say at the right time. They are constantly praying for us and we know they love us as much as we love them. They are quite the pair and care about each other dearly. Braden and I hope that we can be as cute as them when we get older. We love you Grandm and Grandpa!

Thanksgiving Point with all the kids!

At Thanksgiving Point they have $2 Tuesday's. So we Crazy People, decided to take all 8 kids on the Tuesday before school started again. It was so much fun. Here are a ton of pictures that show all the fun we had! Some of the pictures are sidewards because I don't know how to turn them. So just turn your head to the side. :)

Walking around with the kids.

David, Destiny and Maren playing together.

After we played we had a picnic on the big hill and the kids rolled down. Some even did summersaults down the hill. Crazy!

At the Children's Garden, they have Noah's Ark. It is a fun place for kids to play in the water. We didn't know they had this until we got there or else we would have brought their swimming suits and towels. It was fun anyways.

Here is Hannah Loving being in the water. The rest of the kids are in the water a little bit deeper. Don't worry, all the rest were clothed.

Here is Mark, Oliver and Lydia being kids.

By the end, Faith (and the rest of them) were soaked to the bones and had to lay on the hot ground in the sun to dry off a little bit.

The rest of the pictures are of all the people who came with us. Here is Susan and her 6 kids to follow.

Oliver, 8

David, 6

Destiny, 5

Faith, 3

Mark, 3

Hannah, 1

Here is Kami. She has 2 cute girls.

Lydia, 4 (and David)

Maren, 1

Here is my cute Mom and my sister Kami.

My dad always likes to come and play.

Here I am!

We had a fun day and the kids were great! If you want to go to Thanksgiving Point, Tuesday's is the day to go. I am so glad I have so many cute nieces and nephews!

Me and My Grandma

This is a picture of me and Grandma Fawn. I love her dearly!

Oliver's Baptism

Oliver, Mac and Susan's son, finally turned 8 and got baptized. Here are a few pictures of Oliver and the rest of the family. We had a fun party at Susan's afterwards to celebrate. Here is a photo right after the baptism with everyone congratulating Oliver. The rest are people at the celebration!

Braden and Katie Summer 2009

I often get the chance to babysit my cute nieces and nephews. One day I was babysitting some of Mac's kids Here are some pictures of Destiny, Mark, Faith and Hannah. We printed these pictures out in black and white and they got to color them. Mark's whole face was green and Destiny colored her hair pink! It was a fun Day!

Destiny and Faith are Mac and Susan's cute foster children. They have been a joy to have in our lives. We love teaching them new things especially things about the gospel. They bring us great joy and are a great addition to our family. We are hoping that one day we will be able to adopt them and have them sealed to our family forever.

Braden's Birthday Present From Oliver

The day before Braden's birthday, he got a phone call from Oliver. (Oliver is Katie's 7 Year old Nephew.) Oliver was calling to invite Braden to his performance at school. He said that he wanted to show him a spanish dance for his birthday. It was really cute and really sweet of Oliver. He goes to a bilingual school with his siblings called Dual Immersion Academy. He is doing a great job and is learning quickly. He truly made Braden's Birthday a spectaular day. What a great gift! Thanks Oliver!

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Braden and I went on yet another date night adventure. We have been loving having a happenings book, which gives us good ideas of things to go and do but also gives us a discount when we go and do some things. Our newest discovery is Thanksgiving Point Gardens. There is miles of walkways through cute and secluded gardens. There is always something to see.

Here is a picture of the huge waterfall that was there. It was very calm and peaceful to sit together on this large hill and just listen to the water. There is a big cement stage just in front of the water. I think that they hold concerts there. I think it is a beautiful place. We will come back here for sure!

Class of 2009

Yippee! We have finally finished school. Its been a joyous journey taking classes at the University of Utah. Both Braden and I find learning to be so enjoyable. We have enjoyed the experiences and the life long lessons that we have learned and are ecstatic in beginning a new life that is proving to bring us even more happiness. 

Braden is loving his new job at Walgreens and couldn't be any happier. It was definitely worth the wait of finding the perfect job. I admire Braden for his patience in such a long job search. It amazes me what can happen when you turn your life over to the Lord and let him guide you and direct you. Braden loves the work that is doing, his co-workers have been wonderful, and he is thrilled to be working for a company who continually helps their employees become better. Congratulations Braden on Graduating and on finding your dream job!

As for me, I am just beginning in the job search. It has always been a dream of mine to become a teacher. Its hard to believe that that dream is about to come true. I am truly blessed to have parents who helped me see, at a young age, my innate abilities in being a teacher. With the help of many, countless I am sure, I have been able to cultivate those skills and improve upon them. I know that I will find a teaching job that will be the perfect fit for me. Until then I will be patient and continue learning all that I can. Thank you to all of those who have helped us accomplish our dreams. We know we couldn't have done it without you!

Date Night

Braden and I had a fun Date Night. We went to this really cute restaurant up in Bountiful, Utah. We had a coupon out of our happenings book and decided to try it out. It was called Sego Lily Cafe. It is an old house they turned into an elegant fine dinning restaurant. This restaurant is unique and had some amazing food. Braden order some good babequed meat. They make their own barbeque sauce that has delicious apple sauce that they made it their own smoke house. If they put their barbeque sauce in jars and sold it we would definitely buy it by the case.

After we ate dinner, we went a couple blocks away to where Grandma Crockett lives. She lives at a great place called the Bountiful Legacy Home. Here is a picture of where she lives! We enjoy visiting with her and have a good time hearing the exciting things that happen in her life. She loves to play bingo and the home she lives at. Everytime she wins they give her a candy bar. She is diebetic and can't eat them. She puts them in the freezer until someone comes to visit her. We got to pick out our favorite kinds to take home with us. We love Grandma!

After visiting with Grandma Crockett we walked outside to the Bountiful Chalk Art Festival. It went for several blocks down main street out in front of the tabernacle and post office. It was had some very talented people working on master pieces. It was fun to see them all. We choose a few of our favorites and took pictures of them.

Welcome to Bountiful!

Katie's favorite picture. Honest Abe.

Braden's favorite picture of Superman.

This one we took for my Dad to see. He loves patriotic things and loves eagles because of his scouting background. We too are proud to be an american!

We liked this picture. There is alot of kid in us still. We are excited for the movie to come out in October. We love Where the Wild Things Are!

Braden's New Job

Since graduating in December last year I've been on the hunt for a full-time job. After sifting through tons of job postings, sending countless resumes and getting a handful of interviews, I was hired at Walgreens to be an Assistant Manager.

I started training the beginning of last week in Salt Lake, and Saturday I begin working at the South Ogden Walgreens. I love it. Its a good company that is continuing to grow, and I feel very good about working for "the pharmacy America trusts."

Eventually I'll quit working at FedEx, but for a while I'm trying the two-job thing. I need to wait for benefits to kick in, and I'm able to get benefits through FedEx, so I want to hold on to that as long as I can.

Thanks to everybody who prayed for me in my job search and interviews. I know it helped a lot.

Our Friends and Family ROCK

This past week has gone by so quickly. We have been having fun every single day. Monday we had  dinner at Dana and Marshall's house. It was so much fun and it was great to see my kids again. I might be doing some more babysitting for them over the summer while they go on vacation (business trips) without the kids. We might even get to go to Nova Scotia with them in August and watch the kids for them! Thats really exciting to me. Yesterday, Braden was trying to find that on the map. I told him it was above Maine and he still couldn't find it. He did determine that its the farthest he would have ever gone before. Luckily he has me to help him with geography. :) 

On Tuesday we went to my mom's house. We celebrated Marty's birthday! He is now 25 and he is fun to be around. My favorite gift that he got was a hammer that had a normal size head with a extra short handle. It was really funny. Mac and Susan did a great job picking it out! We love you Marty! 

Wednesday, I had Mock Interviews. We had some practice interviews with principles in school districts throughout the valley so that we could learn before we have the real thing happen. I have my 'real' Interview on Friday afternoon with the Salt Lake City School District. I am hoping and praying that I make it into Salt Lake District. Afterwards, Braden and I watched our new favorite show: Lie to Me. Its a cool show. (If you missed the first two episodes you can check it out on hulu.com.) 

On Thursday we had a friend of Braden's come over for dinner to introduce us to his new girlfriend. It was really fun and his girl is so fun to be around. I think that we will be doing more together in the future. His friend Brian and him met in Beta (Braden's fraternity) and they are still friends. We had a good time and love playing games with other people. 

Friday night we got a call from a married couple in our ward. They wanted to go to dinner and a movie. We love hanging out with Mike and Cecily. They are so funny and always tell some of the best stories. We went and saw the movie Taken. It was very intense. It had too much killing though. We had a great time with our friends. They truly are excellent friends to us. We love our 27th East ward too. There are some great people we get to see and work with. 

Saturday, was spent doing mostly correcting and homework. I have learned very quickly that is what teaching is all about. Sunday, We had a good time at church and loved hearing others testimonies. We later went over to Kevin and Sandra's. We had dinner with them. We watched this teacher movie I had never seen before. The Ron Clark Story. When it was finished it said that the movie was based on a book by Ron Clark. At that point I realized I was reading his book and I had it with me. I never put two and two together until the very end of the movie. They all laughed at me! We always love going to Braden's parents. We wish we had more time to visit with our families. We also went over to Grandpa Newbolds. We had fun laughing and telling old stories. Mom, Dad, Marty, Kami, Curtis and the girls were also there with us. I just love family. 

We are looking forward to another fun filled week and are so happy we live so close to both sides of our family. Oh, before I forget, I just want to mention to readers that Braden and I both write on this blog. Braden's entries tend to be a bit more random than mine. Our names our signed at the bottom of each entry. I hope you get to know Braden a bit better like I know him. We love you all! 

Braden's Favorite Smells

Katie thinks its strange that I have favorite smells, and you may too. Here are the top three:

1) Fresh-ground coffee beans. I don't drink the stuff, but I love the smell of it. In fact, I even make a special trip down the coffee aisle in the grocery store just for the smell whenever I'm there for other groceries.

2) Manure. Something about fresh country air is alluring. I'm totally a city boy and I could never handle living in the country, but whenever I do smell manure, I am on cloud nine. It's not horses. I don't care for horses, but manure that is ready to use for agricultural purposes is fantastic. Not that I do any type of agricultural anything. I just really like the smell. 

3) Charcoal. Whenever I smell it I know summer barbeques are here. True, propane grills heat larger amounts of food quickly, and is ideal for large parties, but nothing can replace the taste and aroma of charcoal. Dutch ovens use charcoal. That brings back the memories... Anyway this may be my most normal favorite smell.

Today we have an exciting day. Tonight we get to go over to Dana and Marshall's for dinner. I can't believe that I was their Nanny for 6 1/2 Years!! I stopped working for them in August 2008 so that I could do my student teaching but I still feel like part of the family. 

 Julia is 7 1/2 years old. She is in the 2nd grade at Uintah Elementary School. She is a good helper and wants to do well. She is learning how to play the piano and is a great gymnast. Sofi is 5 years old and has started Kindergarten this year at Uintah Elementary School. She is a very energetic little girl. She is smiling (most of the time) and knows how to speak spanish. She attended a spanish emersion preschool and is excelling at a rapid rate. 

 Alex is 3 years 

old and is growing up to be a great kid. He started preschool this year and loves to be the center of attention at home. Alex loves to read books. He is a loving little boy with such a kind heart. He always feels bad when he hurts someone's feelings. His dad is teaching him all about trains and skateboarding. He is a happy child and loves to play with his older sisters (when they are nice to him). Those are my kids. I miss spending everyday with them but we all have to grow up at some point in time.