September 17th through October 31st - 282nd day to 326 Day

Ok, I waited a while before I wrote on this.  Hunter won the $5.  Only two days elapsed between the time I wrote the blog and when he said, "Dad, show me the money!"  For the consolation prize, Jenny Jackson called two days after that.  Sorry Jenny!  Life has been GREAT at the Kimzey household.  We have traveled up to BYU every weekend but one so far in September and October.  We have BYU season tickets, so it's been fun to go up and watch the games, plus, we get the added benefit of getting to see Kaylee.  Nicole went all the way up to Idaho to see Amber in early October and had a blast.  I think Amber may be adopted!  She now has two dogs, and she is camping and shooting guns with her husband.  Next thing you know she'll be taking pictures in camo clothes and hanging deer antlers on her wall!  This week was Kaylee's 21st birthday, we drove up on Saturday, took her to Red Lobster with Grandma and Grandpa Burr, then we went to her concert.  I have a 21 year old?  Unbelievable, it seemed like yesterday I was 21 myself.  It was really fun to spend time with her though.   My girls are just so wonderful.   It's so fun to see what they're doing with their life.  It's also fun to be at home with the two boys.  I am blessed with fantastic children who love the Lord, and who love me.  Life is good.  Business has been profitable, but very busy.  It's also been too cold to ride in the morning, so I ride my bike into work at lunch, and then home for dinner.  It should help to keep me in shape during the holidays when I like to eat so much!

It's been an interesting year, trying to truly be kind to everyone.  Sometimes I slip up and am not so good.  Last week I even was angry with my wife because I was grumpy from work.  I felt horrible.  My wife should definitely not be one of the few people I get mad at during the year (it should only be customer service reps!)  Nicole is truly a great blessing in my life.

Well, I better get to work.  Let's make this a little exciting.  First one to call me and say these words, "The bald man is easily separted from his money!"  Gets $10!  I'm uping the stakes people.  I expect this time Hunter will probably take a few days, but hopefully some one else can win this time--maybe one of my college girls.

 

August 23rd through September 16, 2011 - 256th to 281st Day

This blog has become more of a monthly journal for me.  I think I could offer a million dollars to the first person who reads my blog and I'd go the next four months without a phone call.  However, it's cathartic, so I'll continue to write.

It was hard to see Kaylee leave home, it was fun having her around this summer.  She broke up with Dan, so now she's up at BYU in the dating zone again.  She's having a good time, however, and BYU seems to be made for her.  Yesterday she had two boys in her classes ask her out, and then had another one come by and visit her at her apartment, so I think she's feeling loved.  Amber came and surprised Nicole on Labor Day.  We were both very excited and it was fun to see her, even if only for a few days.  I've had to travel quite a bit for business trips.  In August I went to Reno, Nevada, then in September I went to Houston.  Next week I go to Edmonton, Canada, and the week after it's a trip to Madison, Wisconsin.  I had prayed about a year ago and asked Heavenly Father to help me be able to serve a mission in 4 years, and immediately sales began to pick up.  So, I only need a few more hundred companies to call in and buy my software and I'll be set!  Ha. 

It's great having Logan and Hunter around.   They're not home a lot because Logan manages the girl's soccer team (don't ask) and plays soccer and Hunter plays soccer and runs cross country, so neither of them are home very often.  We started the summer by being the welcome home for a foreign exchange student named James.  He was a lot of fun.  He stayed for a month, and ate about 4 months of food!  I've never seen anyone eat like he does.  One day I came in the kitchen and he was making an 8 egg omlette in the middle of the afternoon!  8 eggs!  If I ate 8 eggs at one time they'd have to pump my stomach!  James was placed with another family last week, and then we got two Japanese students, Katsuya, and Auska.  They are very nice, and they are only staying for 11 days, but we've had fun with them.  They don't understand English very well, but it's fun to point at things and quiz them.  They seem to like it here.

Nicole continues to be the best wife I could ask for.  She's constantly leaving me notes, and telling me how much she loves me.  I've very lucky to have her.  

One of my friends on Facebook posted an interesting comment yesterday.  She said, "What if you woke up this morning and only had the things that you thanked God for yesterday?"  It made me think.  I do thank my Father in Heaven for a lot of things, and I realized I'd wake up with my wife, my wonderful kids, family, the missionaries, my friends, my home, food, and the Gospel.   That's about all I would need, except for I would look a little bit weird running around naked all day, so I should probably thank Him for my clothes as well (and maybe my bike).  

Life is good, I'm probably not being as nice to people as I should, but I'm definitely more keenly aware of how I treat others this year.  It's interesting to note how well most people treat me.  I'm truly greatful for very good friends.  Nick Weaver left on his mission to Ghana yesterday and Pam was having a hard time.  It was sweet to see how much she cares for her family. 

$5 to the first person who reads this blog and calls me on my cell at 435-619-3056 and says, "I read your blog.  Show me the money!"  I'll bet I go at least a month without getting a phone call!  I think my money is safe. 

July 11 through August 22nd - Day 212 through Day 255

Ok, so it's been a long time since I've written on this blog. What a great summer! It's been hot, but nice. July was nice, I did a lot of bike riding, and had a lot of time to just ponder as I rode up beautiful canyons, up mountain roads, etc. I've determined that life is just too short. I waste too much time watching T.V., or doing things that won't really help me progress in life! Nicole challenged our family to spend 30 minutes a day just pondering and meditating. It's really nice. No TV, no stereo, etc, just quite time. We'll see how it goes. So far, so good.

In August I was able to ride the Ulcer with my brother and Scott Van Orden. It's 107 miles around Utah lake. We were really enjoying things until I ran over a huge rock and flatted my tire at 55 miles. As I was fixing my tire, another cyclist came by and told me to, "get off the road!" I WAS off the road. So needless to say, I wanted to throw my helmet at him and watch him tumble. I didn't, however--I refrained, and I didn't even curse him. I didn't pump up my tire enough, however, so after 75 miles I was beat and my legs were cramping, so I had to stop a few times and only got in at 5:53, but it was fun. Kerry wanted me to do the Desperado 109 miler two weeks later, and I wasn't too tempted. He is getting very strong. In fact, he did the first 80 miles in 3 and a half hours, and then his tire blew at 87 miles, and took him 35 minutes to find another tire and fix it, and he STILL got 5 hours and 34 minutes! He keeps putting us in the same sentence. He says things like "We're really getting faster Kyle, I think we may be able to do under 5 hours." I say, "Kerry, I'm not as fast as you!" Then he says, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." It's now down to basically us two that ride because the others don't want to ride with him. Maybe I should form my own club and call it FASER "Fat And Slow Easy Riders".

This year has been great, as I've been more cognizant of how much better my day is when I treat people nice. I've been able to keep relatively anger free for the most part, except for customer service reps!  So, it's been a great experience.

July 4th through July 10th, 2011, Day 206 -212.

Two names stood out to me this week, Christian Lopez and Johnny Hoogerland.  The first, Christian Lopez, caught Derek Jeter's home run ball.  It was Jeter's 3000th hit and has an estimated worth between $250,000 to $400,000.   As soon as he caught the ball Yankee security personnel ushered him and his father out of the stands, "What do you want for the ball?" the security person asked.  "I just want to give it to Jeter," he said.   Even when told that the ball was worth a lot of money he was asked again, and he said, "I just want to give it to Jeter."

The Yankees offered four seats in a suite for the rest of the season, front row seats in the Legends Suite for Sunday’s game, some autographed jerseys and autographed balls. Lopez nodded. It all sounded great but he really just wanted to give the ball to Jeter.

“He deserves this, he worked hard for it,” Christian said.

Who does something like that?  Would you?  Here's a 23 year old Verison Cell phone salesman who still has student loans!  I was so inspired.  In this world where greed seems more often the norm then the exception, here was a man who could use the money, but thought of someone else before himself.  My hat is off to you, Christian Lopez, I hope you get a million dollars in appearance fees and appear on TV talk shows across the country.  What an inspiration!

Here's the full story;

Fan Grabs Jeter's 3000th Hit ball

Then, in the Tour de France this morning, in the 9th stage, a television car veered into the pathway of some of the bikers, sending one of them, Johnny Hoogerland, flying head over heels into a barbed wire fence at over 25 miles an hour.  He had 7 inch lacerations, and will be hospitalized.  The accident took away Hoogerland's chances of a stage win and he will probably not be able to recover and defend the polka dot jersey, which he was winning (the jersey goes to the best mountain stage climber).  
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"It might be a scandal but I don't think they did it in purpose. Everything's well taken care of over here but... you can be mad but I don't think they did it on purpose," Hoogerland repeated. "I know that I'll be in a lot of pain during the rest day. I hope I can recover. It's a pity, but I'm a Zeelander. We're not easy to tear apart. I'm still alive. Wouter Weylandt wasn't that lucky," Hoogerland said, referring to the Belgian rider who died in a crash during the Giro d'Italia almost two months ago.

Take a look at the picture below of Hoogerland being extracted from the barbed wire.  Would you have been so forgiving.  I'm afraid to say, I don't think I would have been.

Yes, today I was inspired, not once, but twice, and both times by the sports world, who would have thought?

June 21st through July 3rd - 193 - 205 Days

The last few weeks have been Great.  I've decided that I need to serve more, and listen to the spirit more.  So, I decided that when I pray every day I would ask Heavenly Father who I can help.  On Thursday, I prayed in the morning and asked who I should help that day.  During the day, I really felt like I should visit an old friend.   Hunter and I made up some poppyseed bread and I took it by my friend's house.  At first, no one came to the door.  After a few minutes, the door opened and my friend invited me inside.  After we spoke for a few minutes he said, "Why did you come by tonight?"  I said, kind of sheepishly, "Do you really want to know?"  He said, "Yes, I do."  I told him that I had been praying for someone that needed my help and I felt I should visit.  He said, "That's really interesting, because I'm having a hard time right now, and as I was praying over my dinner I asked God to help me, and then when I finished my prayer, you knocked on my door."  We spoke and laughed for over 2 hours.  It was a fantastic night, and I was humbled and overwhelmed that the Lord would use me that way.

On the weekend, we had a bike ride from Jacobs Lake, Arizona to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which was a total of 88 miles round trip.  Kerry and I drove up Friday and went through the route.  I was a bit intimidated, as it was quite a bit of climbing and I'm not quite in the shape I'd like to be.  It also didn't help that the guys I was going to ride with were much better riders than I was.  There were about 20 of us that got up at 5:30 in the morning and began the ride.  The ride started on a hill, and the elevation was 7900 feet, so I was immediately sucking wind, and I thought, "I'm never going to make this."  Then I remembered a video that Jeff Jones had me watch earlier in the week, the video was from a photographer who said, "Like what you do, whatever you're doing."  I decided that I was going to like the ride.  I began to look around at the beautiful pine trees, the green meadows, the sunshine, the flowers, everything.  It was so beautiful!  Even though the wind started blowing at up to 25 miles per hour, and my legs felt like they were falling off, I completed the ride, and really enjoyed it.  In fact, it was one of the most enjoyable rides of my life up to this point.

This last week was just as good.  I closed a large sale at work, went on multiple bike rides, spent some time with my family, went swimming, read, had some great conversations with old friends, and truly had a remarkable and spiritual week.  I have a LONG way to go when it comes to treating others as kind as I would like, but I'm learning the process little-by-little.  My parents are visiting this week, and they are two of the kindest people I know.  It's fun to talk with them, and learn how to be better.

Things I learned the last few weeks:  1st:  If Mike Anderson says a bike ride is pretty hard, that means it's close to insane.  If he's bringing 10 or 12 of his buddies, fa-get-about-it!  2nd, My brother Kerry is older than me and weighs more, and he can still kick my can up the hills--what's that all about?!   3rd, Riding up hill when there are 25 mile an hour crosswinds is kind of like trying to blow bubblegum bubbles into a fan while running through peanut butter, it's just not very productive.  4th, Even though I'm getting older (45 this week!), I have great friends, a fantastic wife, a great family, and they love me, and I love them.  

June 14th through June 20th - 186 through 192 Days

This week was pretty relaxing.  It was my anniversary on Thursday so we planned some good stuff!  First, I went on a 30 mile bike ride, then I went to work until about 2:30.   I then went up to Cedar to watch my son's soccer game.  We then came home, went shopping at Costco, and then to Walmart.  For our anniversary present we bought a bird feeder.  Is that an exciting annivesary or what!   On Friday we went to another soccer game, on our way home, I was trying to find a ringtone for my wife and it said, "Free Ringtones", so I clicked, but didn't download any of the ringtones.  It then told me I had to pay $9.99 for 15 ringtones!  I thought, "What, I didn't download any ringtones."  I immediately cancelled, but the company texted me and wrote, "Your subscription is now cancelled, you will not be further charged."  Further charged!  I was not happy, but I was driving, so I told Nicole to call the company and make sure they didn't bill me.  When she got a live person, from India, of course, she asked them if they had actually billed my AT&T account.  When he said that he had, and that he wouldn't and couldn't reverse the charges, she told him that she needed to talk to his supervisor.  He said, "My supervisors are not here."  At this point, Nicole calmly told him to get the supervisors or she was going to chew him up like a piranha and spit him out like garbage.   The boys and I were laughing hysterically.  However, he still refused to cancel the charges, so what did I do?  I called AT & T and had them cancel the charges.    So right back at ya Motime ringtones!  I looked it up on the internet and Motime is known for fradulent charging people like that, so I wish somebody would put their owners in jail. 

On Saturday, we went through the temple with Nick Weaver and it was really nice.  That night we went to dinner for Mike Anderson's birthday at Red Robin resturant.  We had a great time. 

Sunday was Father's Day and my family made me an omelet and sang "Happy Father's Day" to me.  Nicole got me a bluetooth headset, and the kids bought me some Obsession cologne, so now I can smell good and look cool talking on my new bluetooth!   Then, I didn't have meetings so I came home and slept for 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon!  When does that happen?  Never!  Well, I guess on Christmas and Father's Day.  At church, Bishop brought in about 25 pies, cakes, cheese cakes, etc, and we all feasted.  It was quite tasty, to say the least. 

On Monday I rode a very hard ride with my brother and we set a new record for our 21 miles course!  21 miles in under an hour, and a total average speed of 21.2!   Hint:  Make sure to shower at you race for 21 miles.  Even Obsession cologne does not cover up 21 miles of sweat!

June 1st through June 13th, 2011 - 172-185 Days

The blog is not forgotten!  I just have led a really boring life lately, and I didn't want to put anyone to sleep.  June's been nice, but uneventful.   Nicole got sick a week before the Trek, and we didn't get to be parents.   She went into the doctor and he told her she had bronchitis, so the Blakes had to go in our stead.  I was a little bummed, as it sounded like fun.  My boys went, and had a blast.  The first thing Hunter said when I asked him  if he had fun was, "Yeah!  Brinley Bracken was in my group and the food was good"  So, I guess Brinley is cute, so Hunter was pleased with his family.  Logan's response was similiar.  So, I guess all it takes for the boys to enjoy the Trek is to be in a group with cute girls and have good food.  It didn't matter that they had to sleep on rocky ground, and they had to travel 11 miles the first day.   I was proud of them, however, because I heard they did great. 

On another note, I think I've been able to be nice to people, but I'm really trying to not have my first thoughts be negative when I hear someone complaining about something I know they have probably brought on themselves.  This is a bit hard.  My first reaction is always, "Buck up, and quit blaming everyone else."  The other day someone wrote on Facebook, complaining about our church ward, etc,  and my first reaction was, "WHAT!"  Then I realized that if they are feeling that way, I'm not one to judge, and that I should give them room to express their feelings.  Kind of difficult., however.

This last weekend Kaylee was in the Miss Washington County Pagent.  She did really well, in fact, I was confident she'd win.  However, she didn't, she got 2nd Attendant, which was kind of hard, because she was 1st attendant last year, and the girl who was 2nd Attendant last year was 1st this year.   Kaylee was kind of devastated, but I really couldn't have been more proud of her.  The girl that won wore a dress with a slit clear up to her crotch.    Last year, she lost a close race when the girl who won wore a VERY tiny bikini.  I'm not sure if that is what helped them to win, but I told Kaylee I was proud of her for not compromising her standards.   I'm  pretty sure she's never going to enter another beauty pagent, however.

Oh, the other night I had a funny dream!  Not sure what it's saying about me, but I found myself belonging to a "Degenerate" club.   The leader of the club said, "You're all here because none of you has ever accomplished anything in life".  I said, "Wait, I've accomplished a lot in my life."   He said, "Shut up, you're a degenerate."   After we were in the club a while, they gave out awards and at the awards ceremony the leader said, "The award for most inspirational goes to Ben...etc"  At the end of the ceremony, he had a packet of gatorade bottles for an award and he points to me and says, "This award goes to What's his name".   I said, "I'm in a degenerate club and you don't even know my name!"   Anyway, I woke up kind of mad, but quickly got over it.   Not sure what a dream like that means, maybe I'm having an inferiority complex or I'm having an issue with my mother.   Ha.  Anyway, life is good. 

May 23rd through May 30th, 2011 - 164 to 171 Days

What a great week this has been.  I wasn't able to write because we took a trip up to Portland to see my sister's daughter, Crystal, married.  Logan, Hunter, Nicole, and myself got in the car Wednesday night, and we traveled up to Nicole's parents house in Lehi.  We spent the night there, and then awoke early and headed to Portland.  Nicole had prepared a "Happy Box" to entertain us.  Every 100 to 150 miles, we opened up an envelope that had us play a game.  The games were simple, like trying to find 20 license plates from different states; or trying to find the numbers 1-20 consecutively on street signs.  Once we accomplished the game, we got to open the happy box.  The box was stuffed with Oreos, swedish fish, Milk Duds (which were melted), and various other goodies.  It helped the 13 hours on Thursday pass by.   When we were in Idaho, we saw a man walking down the freeway in a suit, and a mini van parked on the side of the road, about 1/4 mile back.  We stopped and gave him a ride into his town, and then we stopped at the store, and there was a homeless man.  We rolled our windown down and asked him if he was hungry (he was holding a sign that said, "Will work for food").  He said, "Yeah, I guess."  So, we gave him a $5 Subway card.  It felt good to help, but I was a little confused why he wasn't sure if he was hungry, when he was holding a sign asking to work for food! 

We arrived in Portland on Thursday night and went to dinner with the family at Chevy's Mexican resturant.  Then, we went up to our room and hung out with my brother, Keith and his family for a while and then went hot tubbing.  It was really enjoyable to hang with the family.  On Friday we went to the Portland Temple to see my niece, Crystal, get sealed to Brandt Gibbons.  There was a sweet spirit there, and it took me back to the time I was sealed to Nicole in the Jordan River temple.   After the sealing, we took pictures in the rain, then we drove 3 1/2 hours to Keith's house where we stayed the night.  On the way, we stopped at a waterfall in Portland and took pictures.  I've included a picture of the family.  It was raining the entire time, but wow was it beautiful!  Saturday we helped my sister Kory with the wedding reception, and then Saturday night we went to the reception.  It was beautifully decorated and quite nice. 

On Sunday we woke up and went to my Keith's ward.  He's the bishop, so it was fun to see him conducting.  Then, we got in the car and drove 11 more hours to Nicole's parents house.   Monday morning we woke up and visited Nicole's brother's grave.  We then traveled for another 4 hours back home where the Weaver's had invited us to swim and have dinner and ice cream.  All-in-all, it was a long 5 days, but it was worth it.    Family is important, and I really felt that it was important to support my sister.

So, that was my week, lot's a driving.  The boys didn't fight at all, and so it was actually a very pleasant trip.

Multinomah Falls in Oregon

May 10th through May 22nd, 2011 - 151-163 days

OK, so it's been two weeks since I've written, and yes, I had another day where I got upset at someone.  Who was it this time?  Yes, it was another customer service rep.  I'm not sure how the customer service reps get under my skin so easily, but here's what happened. I just got my really cool Android phone, and Alltel switched over to AT & T on May 12th.  So, I start downloading some cool apps and there's this one that says, "Download 6 Ringtones Now"  I click on it, thinking if they're charging for the ringtones, I'll be warned first--like EVERY other app in the world!  Well, I click on it, and it says, "Thank you for purchasing your 6 ringtones for $9.99!  The phone has 486,000 free ringtones, so I assure you, I didn't want to purchase 6 of them for $9.99.  I immediately cancelled, and it said I had to call a 1-800 number, which I did.  The lady said, "We're sorry sir, we can't cancel the ringtone now, we'll have to just send you a refund check.  I said, "No, you signed me up under false pretenses, just cancel my ringtones, I don't want the refund."  "We can't do that sir".  Anyway, this went on for about 10 minutes at which time I was so frustrated that I thought my head was going to literally blow off my head, so I just got off the phone.  I sware, sometimes I think Satan himself runs some of the customer service call centers, just to try and get my temperature to rise.

On a happier note, Mitch and Amber are now in Kansas, and they love being married.  Mitch is not selling as much as he'd like, but we're praying for them, and I'm sure they'll do fine.  He's quite the worker, and I actually have no worries about him providing for that little family.  Amber is surrounded by pregnant women, however, and so I don't how long they'll hold out until they have a little bambino.  Mitch already wants kids bad, and Amber is not far off.  Oh well, if I have to be a grandpa, I'm ready!  But, that being said, I do hope they at least wait a little while for their sakes.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks.  The weather has been all over the place, and yesterday was the day set aside by one of the ministers as the "End of the World".   It was supposed to happen at 4PM our time.  Well, I'm writing this on Sunday, and no, I'm not writing from heaven.  So, as you can guess, the end of the world never came.  Kaylee tried to convince me on Friday that I should pull all of the money out of KSS and distribute it amongst the employees, since the end of the world was coming the next day.  Luckily, I didn't fall for that Jedi mind trick.

Corey took 3rd in state in the 2 mile with a time of 9.31.  We were pretty excited.  He graduates on Wed, and we leave to go up to Crystal's wedding.  We are actually renting a car and driving up to Portland, Oregon, because it's cheaper than driving the mini-van, which only gets about 22 miles to the gallon.

Well, life is good, and we're all glad the rapture didn't happen quite yet.  I still have a lot to do!

May 5th through May 9th, 2011 - 146th through 150th Days

Cinco de Mayo!  On Thursday the family traveled to Laredo, Texas because we had an open house in Austin, Texas on Saturday for Amber and Mitch.  Now, you may ask, why would you travel to Laredo, which is 350 miles away from Austin?  The reason, money!  I saved $750 flying into Laredo and driving to Austin!  Hey, if it's only $100 savings, that's one thing, but $750!   We traveled to San Antonio on Thursday night and got there about 11:00 at night.  The person at the front desk was very nice, and I was nice to her (I wasn't sure if it was a her or a him, but she had earrings and Nicole assured me it was a she).    We woke up early Friday and went to the River Walk.  The River Walk is way cool!  There are shops, resturants, and beautiful plants all next to the river and the walkway is right next to the river and snakes through the town.    Then we went to a shop and took an old fashioned western picture.  I was dressed as a gentleman gunslinger and the boys were outlaws.  The two ladies (Nicole and Kaylee) were southern belles.  We then goofed off around the city and then went to the Alamo and got our history leason for the day.  Then we went shopping and went to the movie "Thor".  It was awesome!  After that we ate more (I think we did more eating then anything else on this trip), and then went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.  The day felt like it went on for about 48 hours.

On Saturday we woke up early and drove 2 1/2 hours to Austin, Texas.  We hung out at the Huntsmans and helped them prepare for the reception/open house and we also went shopping for the mom's for Mother's day.   I think the people in Austin are quite possible some of the nicest people in the world.  Usually, it's not fun to stand at a reception where you don't know a soul, but we had fun because everyone was so happy to see us (or at least they acted happy to see us).   I even had fun playing practical jokes on some of them.  One of the ladies came through and said, "My name is Susan, and my husband is Scott, our married daughter, Ashley and her husband Jason are back in the line a ways."  She then pointed them out.  When Ashley and Jason got to us about 15 minutes later I shook Ashley's hand and said, enthusiastically, "You must be Ashley, and this must be your husband Jason!"  Her jaw literally dropped open and she said, "Yes, yes, you're right, that's me.  How did you...?"  I then gave it all away when I laughed and said that I had already met her mom.  She said, "I was impressed, I just thought you had memorized the entire Huntsman family tree" (she was from the Huntsman line).    After the beautiful reception we went home and watched Amber and Mitch open presents, then we went to bed late and got up early for church on Sunday.  Sunday was Mother's Day so it was nice.  After church we got in the car and drove for 4 1/2 hours to Laredo, where we got on a plane for another 2 1/2 hour plane ride to Las Vegas.  We arrived in Las Vegas at 10:00 and had to travel home to St. George.  Talk about a long day.  This day even felt like it was 48 hours.

On Monday I woke up to rain, but it was a great day.  We took dinner to a good friend of ours who had just had surgery, and then we had Family Home Evening and went to bed.  It was a great week!

April 29th through May 4th, 2011 - 140th through 145th Days

I haven't written here for a week because nothing exciting has happened!  Friday night was a soccer game and it was so cold we had to bring our heater, and the day before it was 80 degrees and I was working in the yard at 9:00!  Go figure that.  Saturday we got up and all the youth in the ward cleaned the church.   It was amazing to see how much you could get done with 40 kids.  I think that every month we should have all the youth in the ward go to one of the homes in the ward and do a "super clean".   Imagine how clean you could get your house in one hour.  I know of some ladies that would love that --huh Nicole?  

Sunday and Monday were nice, but uneventful.  We did go to the movie, "I am Number Four" on Monday for FHE with Kerry's family.   I was plesantly surprised.  You know when you have no expectations whatsoever for a movie, and it ends up being enjoyable and you're not sure if it's because it's a good movie, or if it's just that your expectations were low.  Either way, I really enjoyed it. 

On Tuesday we went to the soccer game and, surprise, we lost!  Yes, we are now 4-11, and it gets more painful every time to watch.  I wasn't as nice to the ref as I should have been.  He made some horrendous calls and our boys were getting knocked to the ground and I said, "Come on ref, that's a foul and you know it.   Start calling those!"  Then,  he looked up in the stands, pointed at me and gave me the shush sign!  I actually got the shush sign from a ref!  Oh well, I was better behaved after that.  I still think that I should be given a little leeway in the niceness department when it comes to anyone in yellow and black!   Hunter's team won, however.  Sometimes I think they should just let the JV play on the Varsity and we'd probably win more. 

Wednesday was a good day.  I came home, cooked some nice tomato basil soup and sandwiches for my family, replaced the sprinkler in the yard, trimmed and yard, and went over with my son to mow and trim the Thomas's yard.   It was a great day.  Tomorrow we travel to Texas for Amber and Mitch's reception.  Should be fun!

April 27 and 28th, 2011 - 138th and 139th Days

I'm kind of liking this missionary week.  With the TV off, my boys and I have played basketball, pool, worked in the yard, and just had a good time.  On Wednesday Nicole made us this killer pasta dinner, and Logan and Hunter and I ate an entire pan.  Then Diane and Tamara came in from Phonix to stay over at our house while traveling back up to Canada.   Amber and Mitch called and their car broke down 100 miles outside of Austin on Tuesday night, so they had to get towed to Austin.  It sounds like it's a cracked block or radiator, so I think it may be a bit of money.  Amber was good about it though, even though it was the day before they left to Cancun.  She said, "Well, now I guess I know what it's like to be a grown-up!"  Hunter and I played pool and basketball, and Hunter beat me at both.

Thursday was a great day.  I woke up, rode my bike with Kerry for 26 miles, worked, came home and talked with the neighbors and weeded the yard.  The sun was out, it was beautiful, and I was nice to everyone!  Life is good.

April 22nd through 26th, 2011 - 133rd through 137th Days

What a weekend!  All my family got here either late Thursday, or on Friday.   Kerry and I went to work and no one had called in for the first three hours, so we closed up shop!  We decided it wasn't good to work on "Good Friday", so we spent the day with the family.  Friday night we all got together at the park with the Huntsmans and we decided to play a touch football game.  We divided up the teams by putting all the people 20 years and older on one team, and all those 20 years and younger on the other team.   I quickly found out that people under 20 are much faster and in better shape than those of us 40 and older!  Imagine that!  I was gassing like a dog, and all the tweenieboppers were not even breathing hard.  It didn't help that they convinced us they needed to have Mitch's dad be their quarterback.  We relented and agreed.  The problem?  Mitch's dad was a collegiate quarterback and picked us apart all day.  We had a bunch of 40 somethings trying to throw the ball downfield farther than their abilities allowed.  So, two things happened.  First, our passes looked like drunk, wobbling ducks, and we were intercepted about 500 times.   All-in-all, we didn't do too bad, however, and we scored 21 points to their 35, so at least it was respectable.   I think Kerry and I are going to stick to bike riding and let the tweenieboppers run the football field in the future, however.    Friday night all the teens and post teens got together at Kerrys and talked until the wee hours, so I'm glad I was at home not sleeping, rather than over at his house not sleeping. 

Saturday we woke up early and went to the temple.  The sealing was amazing!  We had all of our family and a few close friends in the temple with us.  Then, we walked outside and everyone else was waiting for us.  Amber looked absolutely beautiful.  We then went to the church and had a fantastic luncheon and we got to say a few words about Amber and Mitch.  I started crying before I even began speaking.  I am such a mushy gushy.  When we were done we had to head over to the reception hall and finish up the final touches.  We started taking pictures at 5:30, and by the time we were done there were already people at 6:45 lining up.  We stood in line and greeted people for a straight 2 1/2 hours.  My feet were so tired they felt like noodles, but it was great to feel of all the love and support from friends.  At the end, I got to have the daddy/daughter dance with Amber and we laughed the entire time.  The song was about 45 minutes long, or so it seemed, so once my legs fell off, we ended the dance.  I think I was supposed to cry, and not laugh, but Amber and I are a little different.  We definitely laugh more than we cry, so why should it be any different when we're dancing?  By the time we finished the reception it was about 10:00 and then my entire family came back and helped us clean up!  It was so nice to not have to do it by ourselves.  We were completely done and out of the hall by 10:45!   WOW, what a day!  That was one of the best days of my life.

On Sunday we started our youth missionary day.  We challenged the youth to live like missionaries for an entire week.  No cell phones, TV, music, etc.  They are to be home by 9:00, in bed by 10:30, and up by 6:30.  They need to do 30 minutes of exercise, write in their journals, and say morning and night time prayers.  They also were called to a mission (like Russia, Cost Rica, etc).  They were challenged to learn as much as they could about the mission, and report to their families.  Should be a fun week.  We'll see.  I agreed to do it with them.

Monday and Tuesday were same-o-same-o.  I already get up at 6:30, so Kerry and I got up and rode for 21 miles and then when I came home from work Hunter told us about his mission (Chicago), and Logan told us about his (Russia).  We then had a great Family Home Evening.  On Tuesday we were again up early and Kerry and I again rode 20 miles and half way through the day we went up to see Logan and Hunter play soccer in Cedar.  The varsity actually lost to Canyon View, which is akin to losing to a team of 4th graders.   It was quite humiliating.   Oh well, afterwards we got to eat waffles at IHOP, it doesn't get much better than that.

Here are a few early pictures of the wedding:

My beautiful wife and handsome sons!

My Gorgeous daughter, Amber.

Our reception hall

April 19th through 21st, 2011 - 130th through 132nd Day

On Tuesday we played Hurricane in soccer and it was a great match.  Both teams were doing well, and Logan was having a great game. It was the second overtime, and there was only a few minutes left.  We got called for a penalty, and Hurricane got a penalty kick, but it was on the 50, so we didn't worry much about it.  The ball boucned high, however, and Logan misjudged it and Hurricane scored.   I felt so bad for Logan, he was just devastated.  We lost the game 3-2 in double overtime.  It's kind of how are season has gone.  Logan doesn't normally get down, but he really took this one hard.  By Wednesday he had bounced back, but it's hard to be a goalie's parent sometimes.   I told him I still think he's the best goalie around. 

Wednesday was clean the house and fix the faucet day!  I never realized how much junk get clogged in faucets.  Logan and Mitch and I were replacing the faucet and I thought Mitch was going to throw up when he saw all the hair/gunk, etc.  He had that gag reflex thing going, and I thought he was going to spew all over the floor.    I was really tired by the time I got to bed.

Thursday was great.  At 3:00 we went over to the barn to decorate for Amber's reception.  It was A LOT of hard work, but we had a ton of friends to help.  Kerry and Kim,  the Macllelans, Bonnie Jones, Sherrie Reeder, Tonya Neilson, Kelly Anderson, Mitch and Amber, Kaylee and her friend Halie, and my two boys, were all helping.  We had to clean the chairs, put on the chair covers, put on bows, steam the tablecloths, hang pictures, hang banners, put up spot lights, and do about 1,000 other things.  I never knew it was so hard to set up for a reception!  However, it looked fantastic!  I couldn't believe how nice it looked.  We worked from 3:00 to 10:00, and then we all came home exhausted.  We finally got to bed at about 1:00 in the morning.   At about 4:30, Nicole was restless, so I work up as well (I'm a light sleeper).  I said, "Why are you awake at 4:30?"  She said, "I'm just so excited!  My brain is going, and I can't get back to sleep!"  I can honestly say, I don't think this happens to guys!   I told her that if she didn't get back to sleep, she was going to crash and burn on Friday, but I still think she stayed up a while.  I have to admit, it was exciting to see everything come together.  However, it wasn't so exciting that I couldn't sleep.  I think the only time I couldn't sleep was after I got my Pinarello, and even then, I think it only cut into about 4 minutes of sleep time.  Getting good sleep has never been a problem of mine, I could sleep standing up if there was a pillow attached to the wall.   Come to think of it, I could sleep standing up even if there wasn't a pillow attached to the wall! 

My family all gets in on Friday.  Keith got in last night.  Should be an exciting couple of days!  Things I learned today:  1st, Mitch is a weenie! (just kidding Mitch).  2nd, It's hard to see your kids have heartache.  3rd,  Setting up for a daughter's reception is akin to setting up for the Superbowl, only more difficult.  4th,  Setting up for your daughter's reception is much more rewarding than setting up for the Superbowl.    

April 15th through 18th, 2011 - 126th through 129th Days

Friday we had a soccer game and Logan was Awesome!  He was blocking shots all over the place.  We were playing Desert Hills, one of our main rivals, at home.  It was 0-0 and there was only a minute and 30 seconds left in the game.   Then guess what happened?  Right, another foul by our player in the goalie box, and they get a free shot.  We all started chanting, "Logan, Logan, Logan!"  Well, they scored and we lost 1-0.  What a bad way to lose!  But, I was proud of myself, I didn't yell at the refs, or even raise my voice.   Whenever I'd get mad I'd just say, "Kerry, yell at that ref"!  Hey, at least it's a start! 

Saturday was a big day because we got to take Amber through the temple for the first time.  The temple is so quiet and peaceful, it was a great way to start off the Saturday.  Then I came home, and went shopping with Kaylee at Costco and we were nice to everyone!  I then called Ken Sheppard up and we went for a bike ride.  At night we went to Kaylee Reeder's wedding reception out in Toquerville.  It was really nice.  We got so busy with everything that was happening in the day we forgot to pick up Logan's corsage for the Senior ball.   The place where we ordered the corsage from, Bloomers, had already closed, so what did Nicole do?  She made one for Logan's date.  And, no surprise, it was gorgeous.  Sometimes I think there is nothing my wife can't do.  I think next week I'm going to have her make me a suit out of cottage cheese.   I'm sure she could make it look fantastic, although it may be a little hard to dry clean. 

On Sunday I had a nice, peaceful day.   As I've mentioned before, it's always easy to be nice to others on Sunday.  I was able to go to church, read, and sleep for an hour or so.  At night we had a leadership meeting and learned about bringing the lost sheep back into the fold.  It was really nice. 

Monday was a busy day.  I worked, then came home, made salsa, cooked dinner, cleaned up, and then went to a choir concert my son, Logan, was participating in.  The concert was nice, but I have to admit, it was kind of long.  One song was 30 minutes.  Now, I appreciate music as much as the next guy (and my son's choir was incredible), but listening to one song for 30 minutes is akin to standing in line at Disneyland for an hour when you have to go to the bathroom.  You get just a little ansy!  I also began organizing my 25 year mission reunion.  I started a group on Facebook, and within an hour 34 people from my mission were part of the group.  It should be really fun seeing everyone again.  We're going to have a nice dinner, a little program, and a slide show.  It will be a little bit of work, but I called a few of my mission buddies and we have a little committee going that should help out. 

This week is going to be an adventure.  My daugther, Amber, gets married on Saturday, April 23rd.  I can't believe I have a daughter old enough to get married!  I guess that means I'm getting kind of old    Oh well, at least I haven't got a big beer belly yet (just a little soda pop can belly at the moment!). 

April 13th and 14th, 2011 - 124th and 125th Days

Wednesday was clean day in preparation for Kaylee coming home.  We were all so excited, that it was pretty  easy to be nice to everyone, but I still find I'm a little tense for some reason.  Could it be that my daughter is getting married in less than a week?  No, that's probably not it.   So we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more.  I dusted, and dusted, and then dusted after I was done dusting.  Every time I dust I think of the fact that dust is made up of dead skin cells, dried feces and dessicated corpses of dust mites!  Great thought, huh?   Well, I think I wiped out my fare share of dessicated corpses Wednesday night, I'll tell you that!  I'm sure the live dust mites were running in fear as the giant bald guy with the can of funiture polish and the humongous rag was moving in for the kill!

Thursday was an awesome day!  The entire day until 5:00 felt like it was a week long, however.  We took the family and drove down to Las Vegas to pick her up.  Logan couldn't come, because his soccer coach has a rule--you miss practice the day before a game, you don't play the next day.    When Kaylee got off the plane, hugs and tears were flying like dessicated dust mite corpses!   It was so great to see her..  She had been up for 24 hours, so she was very tired, but she wanted to eat American food so we took her to Cafe Rio and she ate an ENTIRE pork salad!  Kaylee eating an entire pork salad is akin to the normal person eating an entire cow!  She must have been hungry.  I've heard the Englishmen don't have very good food.  That's why everyone says, "I'd rather eat an American rock then an English steak!"  (I'm not sure that everyone actually says that, but I'm sure it's true nonetheless).   In fact, Kaylee kind of proved it when she engulfed the pork salad.  Maybe the saying should be, "I'd rather eat an American pork salad than English liver." (P.S. Kaylee wasn't so fond of the liver they served her).

When we got home, Kaylee gave us our presents.  She gave Hunter a very cool leather soccer ball, Logan an English hat, Amber and Mitch some noodles from Italy, Amber some lingerie, Nicole a hat, and me some chocolate.  However, she also gave me something else, and it was the best present.  For the last three months she's been taking pictures of "NO Cyclists" signs all across Europe.  Then, she put it to music and had a really cute message at the end.  It meant a lot to me that she would put that much effort into something for me.  It's been so fun to have Kaylee back home!



  

April 11th and 12th, 2011 - 122nd and 123rd Day

I wanted to plant my garden on Monday, so I headed to Home Depot in search of plants.  I didn't realize there were 4,000 different kind of tomato plants!  After doing the ini mini miny moe to pick the tomatoes, then I decided to buy some peppers.  I found out there are 5,000 kinds of peppers.  Well, this went on and on, until I finally just picked a few, then grabbed a bag of seeds for cucumbers, cilantro, onions, and Anaheim peppers.  By the time I got home it was 8:30 and dark, but I was determined to plant.  Logan held the flashlight, and I dug the holes, then I held the flashlight while he dug the holes.  We then planted about 25 Anaheim seeds, so I'm sure I'll have Anaheim peppers coming out my nose.   I didn't even get to plant the other seeds yet, so I'll have to do that later this week.  The lady at home depot was very helpful, so she was easy to be nice to. 

On Tuesday my boys had a soccer game, and I'm embarrassed to say, I was not super nice to the refs.  I really need to just be quiet, but they really were not very good.  They seemed to be calling the game very one sided.  Of course, it probably didn't help that we were playing Dixie and they are just better than us.  Logan is our goalie, and he had made 12 saves in the first 8 minutes.  It's one of those times in sports when you really don't want your son to touch the ball that much!  Dixie wears white and blue, and the ref was wearing blue.  At one point, I said, "Ref, just because you're wearing blue doesn't mean you have to give all the calls to Dixie!"  I shouldn't have said that, so on the way home, I made a committment to just not say anything to the refs.  A few weeks back, I decided to not say negative things about any of the players when they're playing like old women with arthritis.   That helped my attitude, so this next game I'm not even going to tell the refs that they need glasses.  It's going to be a challenge.    What do I do if the refs are reffing like old women with arthritis!  Kaylee comes home on Thursday.  I'm more than excited.

April 7th through 10th, 2011 - 118th through 121st Days

After riding hard with Kerry on Wednesday, it luckily rained on Thursday, so I got a bit of a reprieve.   By Friday the wind was howling and it was 40 degrees outside.  We had to go to a soccer game that night, and it was cold.  When I say cold, I'm not talking St. George cold, I'm talking real cold, like Canada cold (OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was very cold)!  We brought a little propane heater to the game and sat it on the ground in front of us.  I was afraid that someone was going to touch it, burn their skin off, and sue me for $100 (well, at least that's all they'd be able to get out of me at the moment!)    It definitely provided some warmth, but it was so cold that Kerry and Kim bought pizza from Costco and you had to take it out of the box quickly, and eat it like a jack rabbit (I'm assuming jack rabbits eat pizza very quickly).   Pineview dominated in the game, I think we shot 5,000 times and missed all but once.   Snow Canyon, however, shot 4 times, and made two of them.  The result?  Snow Canyon 2, PineView 1.   I think maybe our guys eyelids were frozen shut and they couldn't see the goal.  Either that, or we're just not very good.  I'm going to go with the eylids frozen shut.   After the game, I was so cold I had to go home, make a hot bath, and thaw out.  I must have pinched a nerve or something because my back was killing me!  I'd never had sympathy for people with back pain before.  Now I do.  I couldn't even roll over without moaning and groaning.  I think my wife must have been thinking, "Good thing he didn't have to have the babies!"  I took three ibuprofens and rubbed that Bengay stuff on my back, and I still woke up at 2:30.   Then, I tried to roll over on my stomach, and it felt like someone stabbed me with a very sharp needle.  On Saturday, I woke up to clean the garage and I couldn't even bend over to pick anything up.  I kept having to ask my boys to pick up anything heavier than a screwdriver.  I felt like one of those city managers who lean on their shovels and tell the other guys to get to work.   By Saturday afternoon I was feeling a little better.  I went to the state baptism at 5:00 and there were 700 people there!  It wasn't bad, however, and I was only there about an hour 1/2.  At 6:30 Nicole and I went to the HP party and they had baked potatoes and salad.  We then had a counselor, Mark Clayton, come in and talk to us about communication.  It was fun, and I actually learned something about communicating, which I wasn't expecting to.

On Sunday I had a dream about my mission president and his wife.  I woke up and it was 2:30 in the morning.  I decided I needed to plan the 25 year mission reunion.  So, what did I do?  I planned the entire reunion from 2:30 to 3:45.  Then, I went back to bed until 5:15.  Guess what?  When I woke up, my ideas weren't near as great as I thought they were at 2:30 in the morning.  Why is it that ideas that seem so fantastic at 2:30 seem so dumb at 6:00?   Well, the rest of the day was great, and I made salsa for Bishop Walker and Brother Neilson.  After delivering the salsa, we went home, played some games and went to bed.  Four more days until Kaylee is home!  In the last four days, I was nice to everyone I met, and didn't even feel like getting grumpy, so it was a good weekend.  

April 3rd through 6th, 2011 - 114 through 117 Days

Ah, Sunday was nice.  I got to sleep in until 8:30, then I woke up, ate some Marshmellow Matties, and watched conference until 12:00.   How does it get much better than that.    I then watched another conference session from 2:00 to 4:00, and the prohet and others talked about marriage, and how we should treat our spouses.  Elder Scott gave a great talk on how much he loved his wife, and how she had died in 2005, and he missed her, but he was glad for all the times they had.  It was really sweet.  After conference, I got to go do a little service for a half hour or so, then, Mike Anderson called and asked if we wanted to come over and have dinner and make cookies. We had already made Chicken noodle soup, and chocolate cookies, so we just took our dinner and cookies, and traveled up to Kelly and Mike's house.   Kelly had made salad, and it was really nice to just sit, relax, and eat.  So, we ate, and talked, and then ate cookies, and then more cookies, etc., until I officially now look exactly like a cookie.  I guess it's true, you are what you eat.   Good thing I wasn't eating pumpkins.

On Monday, we did yard work for Family Home Evening, and the boys were awesome!  They worked like Spartacus (I'm assuming, of course, that Spartacus was a very hard worker).   We then went to In and Out (as you can tell, I like In and Out) and had a double/double!  Woo Hoo!  How's that for fighting the fluff Debbie?.   Speaking of Debbie, she called at about 7:30 and asked the boys if they wanted to earn some money.  Of course, my boys said, "No, we're loaded".   Yeah, right, my boys jumped all over that, and they went and stuffed envelopes for a few hours.  Like most things Kimzey's do, they made it into a competition.  They said they stuffed 600 envelopes in 2 1/2 hours, so I'll have to confirm that with Debbie, that seems like a lot, even for my super boys.  While I was dropping off Hunter at Debbie's she gave me 5 biking jerseys!  I was so excited.  I have such great friends.  I challenge anybody who has ever read this blog to have better friends than I do.   I didn't think so! 

On Tuesday Kerry and I got to ride our bikes to and from work.  It was a beautiful day, and I wanted to ride the entire day, but no such luck.   However, we were looking good in our Orange, Blue, and green jerseys that Debbie gave us!  Life is good, life is very good!  Please, no comments about how the orange jerseys must have made me look like a pumpkin.  To that I say, "Yeah, right, when have you ever seen an Orange and Blue pumpkin?"  I definitely looked more like a Boise State Football Player (or maybe a mascot, but definitely Boise State).

Wednesday was the middle of the week, and not too exciting.  We stayed up late helping Hunter with his skit for student council.  I hope he does well, we'll see.  He's pretty funny, so he can probably pull it off.  Talked with Kaylee for a while on Skype today, I can't believe she's coming home in a week!

April 1st and 2nd, 2011 - 112th and 113th Days

I love Fridays.  Especially when there's not a lot at work to do and it's payday!  Friday afternoon we went to Cedar to watch Logan and Hunter play soccer.  I'm going to miss going to my kid's games when they all leave the nest.  Our Varsity played first and we beat Cedar 2-0, then our J.V. won 1-0.  So, it was a successful day, and there was no yelling at the ref.  I didn't even feel the need to say ANYTHING negative.  In fact, I told Nicole I'm going to only be positive at all soccer games.  She said, "You mean, if someone is really playing bad, you can say, 'That person is not nearly as horrible as they were last week!', or something like that?"  I assured her I was going to be much more positive.  If someone made a really bad play, I would just sit and smile, and say, "Good try, good try".    It was much more enjoyable, but it was also probably easier due to the fact we were crushing the other team.  My goal may be short lived when we play Snow Canyon next week, we'll see.  After the game, we went to Cafe Rio and Ordered dinner.  Hunter wasn't very hungry so he ordered a kids Quesadilla.   When I got up to pay for the meal, the lady at the counter said, "Oh, the kid's Quesadilla is free".  I said, "What?"  She said, "It's free, the kid's quesadilla's are free".    I said, "Great, I'll have 32 of them please!"  She didn't give me 32 of them.  Apparently, you only get one free with your meal.

On Saturday, we woke up and started doing yard work while listening to conference.  That doesn't work too well, especially when your neighbor starts up his leaf blower.  It's definitely harder to listen to talks over a leaf blower.  In fact, it didn't really make one of the talks better.   If it were sacrament meeting, it may have made some of the talks better, but conference is a different story.  Just kidding, don't send hate mail.   During the break, Kerry and I took off for a 30 mile bike ride, and I think Kerry was trying to kill me.  He had apparently not only eaten his Wheaties that morning, but I think he ate the entire box!  I was feeling good, he was feeling like super biker on roids!  About half way through, one of my legs fell off, and I had to stop and sew it back on.  Luckily, the sight of my leg on the ground made him stop as well, and I got a little reprieve.  Once I returned home as a hurting unit, I tried to again watch conference while doing yard work.  This time, the entire neighborhood was out talking, riding bikes, etc, and so again, my conference time was not quality conference time.  That night, my boys and I got to attend the priesthood session, and we happen to sit in the one place in the cultural hall where the air conditioning unit was blowing directly on us.  It was kind of like listening to conference while someone was blowing cold air on you.  Wait, it was exactly like that!  My eyelashes only froze to my eyelids once, however, so I was able to get something out of the priesthood session.  Luckily, my neighbor wasn't standing next to me with his leaf blower, or that would have put me over the edge.  After the session, Logan and Hunter and I went to Larson's Frost Stop and had hamburgers and french fries, and glaciers.  A glacier is ice cream in a slush.  It's about as good as anything you can think of, maybe better.  There we were, all three of us in suits, eating hamburgers and drinking glaciers.  I sometimes wonder what it's like for people visiting our city after conference.  They're probably thinking, "Why are all the people in suits and ties, even the young ones?  This must be a very interesting place to live!"  Things I learned, 1st, Listening to conference while your neighbor uses his leaf blower is like trying to talk on the phone while your wife uses the hair dryer right next to you.  You can tell there's talking, but everything is pretty garbled.  2nd, Cafe Rio gives free quesadillas to kids!  I think next week I'm going to take a bus load of orphans into Cafe Rio and say, "I'd like my 56 free quesadillas please".  3rd, Don't go riding bikes with Kerry, the madman Kimzey, when he's eaten an entire box of Wheaties and taken roids--he will destroy you!  4th, It's harder to listen to a speaker when you're freezing cold.  Your mind becomes numb, and you're more concerned about your fingers falling off, then getting spiritually edified.  5th, Larson's Frost Stop has killer glaciers.  6th, I like going out with my boys, they're good kids, and Hunter looks like Giorgio Armani in his new suit and skinny tie (at least that's what he says).

March 31st, 2011 - 111th Day

I finally found a few Lincoln Navigators that looked promising.   Both of them were in Salt Lake City, so Kerry and I took a road trip on Thursday to head up to Salt Lake.  The first Navigator was at Riverton Chevrolet.  I had been in contact with Ryan, who had followed up nicely, so I figured it wouldn't be a typical car buying experience.  I was wrong!  Right when we walked in the door, Ryan said, "Hi, I'm Ryan, let me introduce you to Mike, one of our Senior, more experienced, sales associates"  At that, Ryan was gone, and Mike took over.  He said, "What car were you looking at again?"  He then told us to sit, and we watched as he went out with the jumper cables and jumped the Navigator.   After about 15 minutes, he came and got us to show us the vehicle.  Besides having to be jumped, the car was dirty, and the bottom was rusted.  When we drove it, there was a constant pinging in the glove box, and the transmission sounded like it was going to fall off on the freeway.  When we got back to the dealership, Mike said, "Let me go get you my card".   After 5 or 10 more minutes, Mike came out with Jose.   "This is my manager, Jose".  Jose then said, "What do we have to do to get you in that vehicle today?"  I said, "We're going to look at another one, and so your vehicle has to be better than the one we are going to look at."  He then said, "Well, we'll see you in 30 minutes then."  I said, "No, you won't unless you're vehicle is better than the one we're going to look at".  At this point, I was a little perturbed.  First, they knew we were coming hours before we arrived.  They hadn't even started the car, there were gum wrappers on the back seat, the car was dirty, rusty, had the pinging sound, and the transmission sounded bad.  We were handed off to different people twice.  What is it about car dealerships handing you off to different people?  If a salesperson can't show you a car, should he really be a salesperson?!

We traveled to the next dealership, Murray Auto, and it was completely different.  Simon came out, greeted us, had the car all cleaned and ready, and didn't pressure us at all.  The Navigator ran great, looked great, and Simon didn't hand me off to his manager.     Which Navigator do you think I bought?  You're right, the first one.   No, just kidding, we bought the 2nd vehicle.  We then drove back to Provo, and met up with my brother Keith, and his wife Tonya, and their kids.  We had a great conversation before Kerry and I had to travel back to Saint George.   So, today was quite the accomplishment, because I dealt with a car dealer and was still nice to them, even though they were what the rest of the world would call sleezy dirtbags.  Ok, maybe not that harsh, I would put car salespeople somewhere between sea urchins and congressmen, but that's not fair to the sea urchins. 

Things I learned today, 1st, Going car shopping can be fun, but it can also be like trying to floss the teeth of a lion (very dangerous and no fun).  2nd, Everytime I get in a bind with anyone, I am going to just call in my personal manager.  That way, he can come in and save the day, and I don't have to be accountable for anything.  So, when my wife says, "Honey, did you clean the backyard like you said you were going to?"  All I have to say is, "Talk to my manager, he's more experienced than I am".  3rd, I've now found something that is harder to deal with than crab grass--car salespeople!

March 28th through 30th, 2011 - 108th through 110 Days

Monday was work in the yard day.  My wife finished spreading the new grass seed, and I was in charge of cleaning out the fountain and replacing the rocks.  Have you ever tried to clean out a fountain that has had water sitting in it for 5 months!  Yuck!  It was green (really green, like Oscar the Grouch green) and it smelled like the sewer had spilled all over me.  After I finally got all the water out, and cleaned out the algae, Logan and I cleaned all the rocks off and, Whalla, it looks great now.   Amber and Nicole also planted new plants, and Logan and Hunter were in charge of pulling up the crab grass.  Crab grass has an appropriate name, that stuff is nasty!  You pull up one clump, and two more take it's place.  Crab grass is the Zombie of the grass world.   After 2 1/2 hours, our yard looked nice, and we had to stop for some well needed Costco pizza.  As you can tell, I spend too much time at Costco.  If Costco and Walmart went out of business, I'd have no where to hang out.  I could always start hanging out at Home Depot, but I hear their pizza isn't the best. 

On Tuesday my father-in-law, Wesley Burr, went all the way to Murray to check out a Lincoln Navigator I had found on Cars.com.  Is that a good father-in-law or what?  It sounds like it may be a good deal, so Kerry and I are going up on Thursday to look at that Lincoln, and one other one I found.   Wes definitely wins the nice guy award for the week.  We then went to Logan and Hunters soccer game.  Hunter's JV team is quite good, and beat Canyon View 4-0.  Logan is the starting goalie on the varsity and they shut down the CV varsity 3-0, so it was a good night.  We then came home and stuffed Amber's wedding invitations for 2 hours.  All-in-all, it was a very productive day.  Work is really going awesome, my brother must be doing something right, because we sure have a lot of people interested in our software programs.   On Wednesday morning, Brian Bowling dropped by two new tubes for my bike.  He gets the other nice guy award for the week.  I have great friends, who are really genuine.  I truly feel like my friends would do anything for me.   Things I learned so far this week, 1st, Stagnant water reeks, really reeks.  And if you're going to eat pizza next to a fountain with stagnant water, bring nose plugs.  2nd, Girls get to plant shrubs and flowers, boys get to clean out stinky fountains and pull crab grass.  Is it just me, or does there seem to be something wrong with this picture!  3rd, If you cut off a zombie's head, it just grows back.  If you cut the head off a piece of crab grass, it just grows back.  Therefore, crab grass = zombie, it's pretty simple.  4th, Costco pizza is better than Home Depot pizza.  5th, I've got the best father-in-law, and greatest friends on the planet--seriously!

The Zombie of the plant world!

March 25th through 27th, 2011 - 105th through 107th Days

Do you ever find something that you really love, but you hate at the same time?  Well, my love/hate relationship is with cinnamon rolls.  Tha'ts right, those gooey, tasty, absolutely sinful confections.  Mitch came down this week and made cinnamon rolls for Amber.  This presented a dilema for me.  I love cinnamon rolls, but unfortunately cinnamon rolls love me as well.   Therein lies the problem.  I eat one, and then another, and pretty soon I've gained 4 pounds--even after going to the gym and on a long bike ride.   So, it was very difficult to stay nice to Mitch after he made the cinnamon rolls.  I wanted to scream, "Get thee hence Satan!"    Friday and Saturday were both rainy days, so I not only ate cinnamon rolls, I had to turn on my electric hot chocolate maker and drink hot chocolate all day!  (Yes, I have an electric hot chocolate maker that keeps hot chocolate at a perfect temperate and allows you to make it frothy) Ugh! 

I did do a few nice things, however.  Logan was helping Brian with the timing of the marathon on Saturday and it was rainy and cold.  Nicole and I took him out a jacket and some hot chocolate, which made his day, and ours.  Unfortunately, we should have taken Brian some hot chocolate as well.  Sorry Brian, next time I will not forget you. 

Sunday was a great day, and Steve Dorman gave an excellent talk.  He talked about how sometimes in life you're faced with hardships and you need to do what Dori did in "Finding Nemo".  You have to "Keep Swimming, swimming, swimming; just keep swimming, swimming."  He then related that to facing our trials.   I think if more people just tried to keep swimming, rather than complaining about how cold the water is, or how their arms are tired, we'd probably all be a little better off!  I have a friend, Rick Skousen, he's one of those guys who is always happy.   I think he could get his arm cut off and he would say, "Awesome! I still have one good arm and two great legs.  Am I lucky or what?!"  I've learned through the years that happy people tend to make others happy.  I was interviewing a 16 year old yesterday and I said, "How are you doing?"  She said, "Awesome!  I'm doing awesome!"  I said, "Why, what are you so happy about?"  She said, "Oh, I'm just happy.  I have good friends, a great family, I'm just doing awesome!"   That made me smile the rest of the day. 

Things I learned today, 1st, Cinnamon rolls are bad, even though they're good.  2nd, Hot chocolate on a rainy day is like a pillow after you haven't slept for 4 days--YUM! 3rd, Keep swimming, even if sometimes if feels like an octopus has your legs and is pulling you under the water.   4th, I like to be around awesome people who think life is awesome! 

Kaylee will be home in just over 2 weeks!

March 23rd and 24, 2011 - 103rd and 104th days

OK, Wed and Thursday were good days.    I tried to be nice to all customers, rather than just trying to not be mean.  One of my customers called in and said, "Hey, it sounds like you're getting over your cold".  I said, "I don't have a cold, this is the way I talk".  She said, "No way?!"  I said, "Yes way,  I'm kind of like a cross between Mikey Mouse and a Rock Star!"  She laughed hysterically and told me I had totally made her day.  I was happy that my self deprecation could amuse someone so.   She called back later in the day and really didn't have anything to talk about.  She said she just wanted to hear me, so I could make her happy.    I think maybe I have created a "Happy Stalker".  A Happy Stalker is someone who stalks you and feeds off your enthusiasm so they can be happy too.  So, I guess I'll except my role like a true Mouseketeer.

Thursday started off great!  I went into Dr. Anderson's office and he gave me a Kenalog shot.  I have such bad allergies that nothing helps.  He told me the shot should help immediately.  And WOW, it did!  It's never fun to get a shot in the butt, and have to wear a butt band-aid,  but anybody who has bad allergies will attest, the only thing worse than bad allergies is having your head chopped off with a dull blade.  No, I take that back, sometimes I would prefer to have my head chopped off with a dull blade!

Then, it was soccer time!  Remember, my proclivity to yell inwardly at soccer refs?   Well, I was really tested last night!  The score was 0-0, and the opposing team had a corner kick.   Right when the ball was kicked, the ref blew the whistle and called our guy for a foul.  No one knew what it was for.  Apparently it was because we were jocking for position!  Anyway, that gave them a free kick 5 yards away and they ended up winning 1-0!  I started to say, "Ref, you're a ..."  Then I stopped myself and said, "You're a, you're a...bad ref!"  I guess that's the Mormon way of cussing at the ref.  I'm sure he was quaking in his boots! 

Things I learned the last 2 days, 1st, If you sound like a Mickey Mouse rockstar, you may as well use it to make other's happy!  2nd, Kenalog shots are better than...Well, better than anything I can mention in a blog, let's just say that!   3rd, Soccer refs can be more nerve racking then trying to thread a sewing needle when you have 20/200 vision!

March 18th - 22nd - 98th through 102 Days

It's been a great week.  I've realized I've spent so much time trying not to be mad at anyone that I forgot my ultimate goal.  The goal is not that I won't get mad at anyone, the goad is to be nice to everyone.  There is a big difference between the two.  I've decided that being nice to everyone is a much better goal.  This last 5 days I've tried to change my focus.  It's been fun to go do the laundry, or do the dishes, or clean my room, just because it makes me feel good, and it makes my wife feel good. 

I've missed Logan and Kaylee this week.  I wonder how it will be when everyone is gone off to college or missions.  Logan is one of my best friends, so it was more difficult to have him gone then I thought.  He's a very good kid, and he really is extreemley positive.  I think I'm very lucky to have the kids I do.  Maybe the Lord realized I needed the best he could give because maybe I couldn't have handled the rough cases. 

Friday night Rhys and Pam took Nicole and I out to dinner at Cafe Rio, and then Nicole, and Amber and Hunter and I went to the movie Rango.  It was quite the weird movie, but we laughed nonetheless.   Saturday was just a throughly enjoyable day.  I went for a 35 mile bike ride with my brother, and it was windy, but that just puts hair on your chest (which unfortunately, I don't need any more of!)  Then, I went shopping for clothes with my wife, and then we watched BYU dismantle Gonzaga to reach the sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament.  It just doesn't get much better than that.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were pretty uneventful.  We did get to watch Hunter play soccer against Deseret Hills and they tied 2-2.  Pineview was up 2-0 at half, then we kind of fell apart.  Hunter had a great first half, but his second half was not as good.  He's a fun player to watch though.  Logan is still in Italy, so they had a freshman playing Varsity goalie, and that was scarey, but he did pretty well.

So, some things I learned this week, 1st, Not getting mad at people is not the same as being nice to everyone you meet, I am changing my focus back to being nice to everyone.  2nd.  We've adopted the saying in our house now, "Your name is safe in our house".   It's a little difficult to never say anything negative about anyone, but we're doing much better.  3rd, Amber is about to pop a blood vessel she's so excited about the fact she's getting married.  4th, Jimmer Fredette rocks the basketball world.  I hope they can beat Florida on Thursday!  

March 14-17th, 2011 - 94th through 97th Days

I've almost hit 100 days!  I'm sure something will happen in the next few days to make me not be nice to people, but this has been fun so far.  Monday and Tuesday were great!  Well, at least Tuesday was.  On Monday the client that was trying to rip us off called in and wanted to argue that users that were using our software remotely shouldn't be having to pay for it, since the software was only loaded on 3 workstations.  I said, "So if you bought 3 users, and had 2,000 people logging in from another location to use our software, does that seem right?"  He didn't have much comeback for that one, but Monday night they locked us out of being able to log in to check their user counts!  Oh well, not sure what to do there.  Can you divorce customers?

Wednesday I went shopping for my wife's birthday.  I bought her three or four outfits at JCPenny's.  I think I was the only man in the store that wasn't an employee, or with a spouse.  It's kind of funny the looks people give you when you're in the women's clothing section and you're holding up various outfits.  I'm sure some of the women thought I was of another persuasion.  Hey, at least I wasn't shopping in the lingerie section!  I then went to Kohl's and bought another outfit, but there were no funny looks there.   It was a lot of fun, however.   The ladies that are working at the department store are always very friendly and helpful.

On Thursday it was Nicole's birthday so I took her and Hunter to dinner at IHOP (OK, no teasing, she wanted breakfast food!)  We had a great meal, and our waitress was nice, so I left a good tip.  We then went home to open presents, and hang out watching NCIS re-runs.  Is that a fun birthday, or what.  I was also able to go the entire four days without getting angry at one single person, and I was nice to everyone I came in contact with. Things I learned over the last few days, 1st, if you shop without your wife, don't hold up outfits in front of you and say, "This is devine!", especially if it's a pink shirt!  2nd, I like to shop, is that weird?  3rd, If you buy your wife 5 outfits and she doesn't have shoes to match one of those outfits, you are obliged to buy her matching shoes and earrings, at least that is what 99% of women will tell you.  4th.  IHOP blueberry pancakes are the bomb! 

March 11 - 13th, 2011- 91st through 93rd Days

Friday I woke up to news of a massive 8.8 earthquake in Japan.  It created such a Tsunami that it caused massive problems for the people of Japan, and it looks like over 1,000 people were killed.  That makes for a solemn start to the day.  The day got better, however, as Kerry and I decided to take off on a bike ride at about 11:30 in the morning.  Hey, it was Friday, not much happens on Friday, so I didn't feel too bad.  It's also much easier to stay nice when you're on a bike, unless you have a cowboy in a pickup truck try to see how close he can get to you.  For some reason, I don't think cowboys like cyclists!  Maybe it's because we look like wild animals on our bikes and they instinctively want to run us over, I don't know.  However, this much I've established as a fact--cowboys in pickup trucks older than 1980 (the pickup truck, not the cowboy), don't like cyclists!  Well, I made it through the entire ride without even seeing a speeding pickup truck, then I went to my son's soccer games.  Hunter's J.V. team beat Park City 1-0 and then Logan's varsity team beat the Park City Varsity 1-0.  Logan got a shutout, and it was way intense.  You'll be happy to know, I didn't yell at the ref--well, not very much anyway.  I was very polite for a Kimzey at a soccer match I thought.   Putting a Kimzey at an athletic event and telling him to be quiet is kind of like trying to put a muzzle on a barracuda while underwater --it just doesn't seem to be natural!  Anyway, after the intense game we came home and Amber waited up for Mitchell, who got here at about 11:30.  I waited up with her and we talked, it was nice. 

Saturday we woke up early, cleaned our church, then went to the next soccer game against Uintah.  We shot about 4,000 times to their 2 times (literally, I think Logan touched the ball twice), and we still only won 1-0.  It could have just as easily been 8-0.  Hunter's JV team then put on a clinic, winning 7-0!  The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, until Sunday!  My alarm went off at 5:10, and I got up, showered, and noticed that my phone said 6:30, instead of 5:30!  My meeting started at 6:00!  I had forgotten it was daylight savings time.  I then set the clocks forward and set Nicole's alarm, so she wouldn't miss her meetings.  Yes, I deserved to get harassed by my fellow meeting members!  It's now Sunday night, and the boys and I and Amber watched "How to Train Your Dragon", which is perhaps the coolest animated show on the planet.  I'm not ready to go to bed, and unless I get in a fight with someone after 10:30, I think I'm safe on the be nice to people front.  Things I learned this weekend, 1st, It's better to bike ride and try to avoid cowboys, then to not bike ride and not worry about cowboys.  2nd, My sons rock at soccer!  3rd, I need to make an invention that will slap my face and wake me up in the spring when it's daylight savings time, either that, or I can just remember to set my clock forward.  4th, Logan goes to Italy this week, Kaylee is in London, I'm already missing Kaylee, but I'm going to miss Logan too!

March 7th - 10th, 2011 - 87th through 90th Days

Writing my experiences every day was too hard, and my life is not exciting enough to fill up a paragraph a day!  This week has been fantastic, except for the fact my brother is trying to kill me!  After going on a 50 mile bike ride on Saturday, we went for a 30 mile one on Tuesday, a 30 mile one on Wednesday and a 20 mile one on Thursday, and plan on going on a 30 mile one today.  That's 160 miles in one week!  My legs hurt, my back hurts, and I feel like I'm 80 years old!  Why do I mention this?  Because it's harder to be nice to people when your sore, it really is.  However, I've done good so far, as least if you don't count getting frustrated at emails.  I had a customer send me a nasty email and I wanted to shoot back an even nastier one (believe me, he deserves it, he's grouchy!)  Anyway, I didn't send back a nasty one, but I wanted too!  So, even though my actions are still pretty nice, sometimes my heart is not, so I need to work on that.   So far, this has been a good experience.  Every time I start to get frustrated I think, "No, you need to be nice".  Of course, it makes it much easier when I have such a great wife and kids.  I got home from riding my bike last night and my wife and kids were working on the front yard.  Logan had just stepped in dog poop and you'd think he'd freak out, but he just said, "Oh man!  I just stepped in dog poop!"  He wiped it off and kept working.  My kids are really good little workers, it was fun to change my clothes and work for a few hours with them.  Then we went to In-n-Out and got a burger, so it was a good night, and everyone was nice.  How does life get much better than that! 

March 3 through 6th - 84th through 86th days

It took four more days to write because it was easy to be nice to people for the last four days.  So, if you're reading this blog instead of climbing Mount Everest, I would think twice about your decision.  In fact, I'd probably read my daughter, Kaylee's, blog instead.  She visited Italy last week and her posts are hilarious.  Now, if you're still reading my blog, you must be really hard up for entertainment, so I'll describe my last four days.  We had a blast on Wednesday night.  Amber was having a really hard day because she had spent too much money on the flight to Cancun for her honeymoon.  She went to work that night, obviously a bit melancholy.  So, we decided to cheer her up and go to Brick Oven and ask for her to be our waitress.  We were going to order two cookie monster deserts and then leave her a huge tip.  When we got to the restaurant, they said she had just left.  We were bummed!  So, we called her on her cell phone and she was very sad, because she'd had her worst day ever as a waitress.  She had only made $14 in tips.  So, we weren't going to let that stand, no siree!  We bought four chocolate chip cookies from the Brick Oven take-out, then we went to the store and bought some ice cream and some hot fudge, whip cream, and caramel.   We then called Amber and told her she had to put back on her apron and she was going to make us some cookie monsters, and if she treated us right, we would give her a big tip.   When we got home, she was all dressed in her uniform, and she made us some very tasty cookie monsters.  I asked for the bill and she wrote one up on a piece of paper that read: 2 cookie monsters, .01 cent each, tax .01 cent, for a total of .03 cents.  I then signed the bill and left her a $60 tip.  So, she made a 200,000% tip!  I'm pretty sure that will be her biggest tip ever, at least in terms of %!

Friday we went to Logan and Hunter's soccer game.  They lost, but played really quite well.  The most entertaining part of the game was when the goalie from Wasatch (the opposing team), was about to get scored on, so what did he do?  He full on tackled our striker!  He got a yellow card (should have been a red card) and the ball was placed about 10 feet in front of him for the penalty kick.  Guess what?  Our guy missed, and we lost the game by 1 point!  How do you miss a kick from 10 feet away?  I think even I could have made the kick, and I kick a soccer ball like a grandma on crutches!  Our player felt terrible, however.  At first I thought the goalie had made a stupid mistake by tackling our player.  I guess it wasn't so stupid after all!  I've also realized that it's going to be hard to keep my goal of being nice to everyone when it's soccer season.  How is it possible to be nice to a referee when he makes a bone head call?  I had to bite my tongue like 48 times, and even then I think I said, "Ref, you're a bonehead!"  at least 47 times under my breath.   However, if it doesn't actually come out of your mouth, I don't think it counts, does it?  Stay tune--soccer season may ruin me--and my goal.

On Saturday we took the Varsity scouts (14 through 16 year olds) on a 50 mile bike ride.  This was not any ordinary 50 miler, it had almost 3,000 feet of climbing.  I thought some of the boys were going to die.  There is one hill the local bikers call "The Beast".  It has an 11% grade, and we told the boys they were going to have to climb the beast about 20 miles into the ride.  Every hill that was bigger than a speed bump would inevitably provoke the question, "Is this the beast!"  I'd just laugh and say, "No, that's more like the Beast's big toe".  When we got to the actual "Beast", I said, pointing to Beast, "That's the Beast," at which point I think my son said, "I want my mommy!"   It was rewarding though, to watch them all make it up all the hills and finish the 50 mile ride.  I thought it was quite the accomplishment for a bunch of 15 year olds.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with the Andersons and the Weavers, and had a great time.  Our waiter must have thought we were crazy, because Mike stacked the ketchup and the mustard bottles on top of each other, then Rhys stacked the salt on top of the ketchup and mustard bottles.  The waiter must have thought we were 4 year olds, but we gave him a pretty big tip for all of his trouble--not a 200,000% tip, mind you,  but hey, he wasn't near as cute as my daughter!

Feb 25th - March 2, 2011 - 78th through 83rd Day

So I haven't written in here for a few days.  There's a reason.  I got mad on the 79th day.  I actually got upset at one of my kids, actually quite upset.  No, I didn't throw anything or have steam come out of my head, by I raised my voice a lot.  I tried to remain calm at first, but one of my children was not being nice to my wife so I was not happy.   Anyway, I shouldn't have yelled, so I had to repent and start my quest for kindness all over again.  It seems like I make it 30 days or so, then I have an episode.  I think I must be like an angerleptic.  That's kind of like an epileptic who has seizures, I just have anger seizures.  It made for a hard day, because then I felt bad the rest of the day.  However, BYU beat SDSU by 13 points, and so now they are ranked 3rd in the country, so that made me feel a little better. Oh, I forgot to mention, a few weeks ago, one of the companies on our software wrote me an email and told me that they originally bought 7 users, and so we were billing them for maintenance for 7 users, however, they said they are now only using 3, so they only wanted to pay maintenance for three users.  I had my tech guy log in over a two week period and they were never using less than 9 users!  So, I sent them an email and said, "What's going on?"  They immediately sent me the check for maintenance for the 7 users.  My brother was so mad that they tried to rip us off, that he billed them for the additional 2 users they were using, plus maintenance.  So, dishonesty didn't work out too well for them!  I'll keep you posted, it should get juicy!

Then Sunday came, and it was nice, because I had a great day and I made up with my child.   Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful, but it was nice to hang out with my kids and wife and watch "Megamind" and a little TV.  It's funny, my kids always want me to watch TV with them now because we installed a thing called "BOB" on our TV set.  They have to put in their password, and they only get a certain amount of TV a day.  So, they always want me to come down and watch TV with them, because then they have me put in my password, and it doesn't take up any of their TV time.  So, BOB is my friend, but my kids hate BOB.  Wednesday I was finally able to go for a bike ride with Kerry, it's been 3 weeks because I've been sick.  I think it's now time to watch American Idol and relax!

February 21st-24th, 2011 - 74th through 77th Day

This week has been slow, dull, and uneventful, hence the 4 days since I've written my blog.  For the hundreds of you who can't sleep at night until you read my blog I am truly sorry.  Hopefully you can get some needed rest tonight.  I was able to stay nice this week, despite having to get my brakes on my car fixed, and having a bad sinus headache.  I did have something funny happen this week.  On Tuesday morning we got a call from Alltel and they said we needed to call them right away.  Nicole called, and they told her she was not authorized on the account (even though it is her account and we've been in twice to make sure she was authorized on the account).  Nicole told the rep that she knew everything about the account, the password, etc, and that she'd already been in twice.  The lady still wouldn't give her any information unless she was me.  So, Nicole said, "Then I'm Kyle."  The rep said, "I know you're not Kyle, you just told me you were Nicole."  Nicole said, "Then, I'll just call back in and say I'm Kyle."  The rep then said, "Then I'll put a note on your account and red flag you!"  So, Nicole tried to call back in as me and they started to tell her about the account and then they said, "Wait, your account is red flagged, you're going to have to go into the store and show a photo id."  Anyway, it was quite hilarious, except for the fact I now have to go into Alltel and convince them that I really am me.  I think I may have to go all Qwest on them and demand some respect!  Maybe I should say, "Why is it that I have to prove I'm me?  Is it my voice!  Are you discriminating against me because of my high voice!  I demand a new iphone!"  Ok, that probably won't work, but it would be fun anyway.  Things I learned the last few days, 1st, Alltel customer service reps were most likely trained by Qwest reps.  2nd, Alltel reps are also most likely outsourced from India (where they are trained by highly educated Qwest and AT &T reps)  3rd, Gas is now $3.25 a gallon, I think I'm going to start using more pedal power.  4th, I still haven't received my phone, it is obviously being shipped from India!