Weather or Not ?!?!

The weather was CrAzY cRaZy last night. On our way home we drove right into the storm. There was a tornado in Bloomington which is right to the South West of where we live... only about 15 miles away. I have never been in a storm that strong. There was lightning every 2-3 seconds followed by CRASH after CRASH of Thunder. It was insane. The tornado warning sirens went off in areas where a few of our sales guys were knocking and they got freaked out cause they were lost and didn't know which way to drive due to not being able to SEE what the road signs were and their GPS wouldn't work cause it said "poor satellite reception".

We were driving 15-20 mph with our windshield wipers full blast and still couldn't see a thing. We saw the forming tornado at the edge of the storm on the way home, the sky was green (which is what happens when a tornado is forming) and the hail started as well. It was the scariest thing ever. I didn't think we were going to make it home. Finally we rolled into our complex and had to drive the Mini Cooper in about 10 inches of water through our complex cause all the drainage pipes that were 4 foot pipes were over filled with running water... again we barley made it to our apartment. Then the run to the building was through about 8 inches of running water that was cruising down the middle of every road in the complex. Soaking wet we were...(that sounded like Yoda ...haha,) We finished watching the storm BLAST through from our balcony at our apartment... WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!

I thank God for literally protecting us ALL and allowing us to return safely to our homes. It was truly a miracle. Many of us are 20 minutes away from our car group when we are knocking doors and this storm blew in SO FAST that most of us got soaking wet RUNNING back to the car to get home as fast as we could. There was over 30 car accidents on the main roads and many people stranded and injured. Not us...Thanks again LORD!!!

I.M.S. Indianapolis Motor Speedway

I went to the INDY 500 Races and it was AMAZING!!! The actual race is Next Sunday (May 30, 2010) but we got tickets to the Qualification Races. The track is HUGE and the experience of being RIGHT THERE is a "once in a lifetime" experience. (FYI, you can click on pics to enlarge them)





I am so glad I got to do it. The cars were SO loud and SO fast. They were going 220-225 MPH and the track is 2.5 miles around.

These cars were going around the track every 40 seconds or so. Just to put this into proportion: Traveling 225 MPH they cover 3.75 miles per minute. That means they are traveling the distance of an entire FOOTBALL FIELD Endzone to Endzone in 1(one) second. (330 feet/second to be exact, and yes...I did that mathematics equation all by myself).
This was at the FINISH LINE. CrAzY Fast, huh?!

After we went to the Race Track we headed downtown to check out the "Soldiers and Sailors" Monument.







This Monument was amazing. It is over 32 flight tall and the craved statues and designs in the rock are ALL HAND CARVED out of SOLID stone. The metal work as well is all hand crafted. We decided to WALK up the entire 32 flights to the small observation look out at the top (I mean small, one person could barely fit up there at a time). It was SO humid inside cause there was NO ventilation and the top was all windows collecting the suns heat all day. While we were there we met "Annon".




Annon is a Jazz/Blues singer/songwriter and was selling CD's in the plaza (which we bought). He was VERY cool and very LARGE... like 500-600 lbs LARGE! We had to get a picture of little Juliana next to BIG Annon.

We then returned home, took a little nap due to the exhaustion from walking, climbing the tower and the HOT sun. We then gathered at my place to play a little SCUM. I maintained Vice Pres for most of the game, but we couldn't get Parker out of the PRESIDENT chair for nearly the entire game.






I cooked steaks, ate a little left over of my pot roast and vegetables that I cooked in my crock pot a few days ago and we had ice cream cones. We were eating the POINTY kind of cones that you can't set down, hench the "cone in the mouth" pics :)

Overall we had a GREAT time. The weather was HOT, but beautiful and the experiences were well worth it. I'm glad I was able to bring you ALL along with me on my adventures!

So on Sunday we went to the park and played a little Frisbee after BBQ'ing and playing SCUM for a few hours. It was windy and started to rain so we ended up leaving early from the park... plus Parker and I broke the Frisbee by throwing it too hard and trying to catch it with cool "tricked out" catches. It hit my foot while I was trying to catch it through the middle of my legs while jumping and spinning a 360. I know, we are trying WAY TO HARD to be cool, right?!?! :) The pics here are of Parker and his wife Brittney and then me and Parker posing like a couple of "COOL" Frisbee guru's. Heehee. The other picture is of one of the salesman (Kyle) that is visiting from another office this week trying to get through the fence. He weight about 350 pounds and there was a small spot in the fence that someone had pulled the bars apart so people could get through. Well, me and Parker had a hard time getting through and we told Kyle, "Bro, you can totally make it through. If you get stuck, Parker will push you the rest of the way through." Ha, so this is Parker pushing Kyle through the 8" gap in the fence. It was HILARIOUS!!!

Talk about a sale "Toppling Over"

Saturday I was selling to a girl on her front porch. When I first got there I noticed that she had a LARGE bell (like one that goes on a ship or something) and an old wooden church pew on the front porch. I had to ask. "What is that bell from?" She respond that is was a family heirloom that had been handed down from her grandfather who had just passed away. She didn't know where it came from though. Then I asked "...and the church pew?" "Oh, I just moved into this house and it was already here...I have NO idea where that came from either" she replied. This would be the demise of what was to come. So I got through my pitch and she was interested in getting our services. At this point in the sale I try to get into their home to sit at the kitchen table...I think people feel more comfortable there, and SO DO I. I asked if she wanted to go inside and take care of the paperwork or if she just wanted to stand on the porch and do it. Due to her having a BIG dog and probably not wanting me to see the mess of the boxes strung out from the recent move, she said "we can just sit on this church pew." O.k. wait, I have to back up a little bit. This church pew was OLD and looked weathered, not painted or stained either and it was totally exposed to the weather (rain/snow) not having a cover or the roof over it at all. So this prompted me to perform a "WEIGHT TEST" by pushing my hands on the bench BEFORE we sat. It seemed pretty sturdy. It didn't budge when I pushed down on it with Both hands. I half way made a joke as I was "testing" it about it not holding our weight...HA! Well I must have called the universe to ONCE AGAIN give me what I knew was to come. Halfway through filling out the contract... all of a sudden... CRASH!!! Her side of the bench gave out and she went rolling to the broken side and I too tumbling over her, my clipboard hitting the ground and my papers going everywhere. I think she threw a few vulgarities out during this disaster if I remember correctly. I tried to just laugh and make light of it. She was WAY more embarrassed than I was for sure. She then said "Well, looks like we are going to my kitchen table after all." Funny stuff, huh? I thought so. I LOVE how I never really know what might happen on any given day. Sometimes it's full of MEAN, ANGRY people yelling at me "didn't you see the NO SOLICITING sign on my door, I am going to call the cops if you don't get outta this neighborhood" or as I am walking up the driveway to talk to someone getting out of their car and they say "I don't care what you are selling, I'm not interested" (which I now respond "Oh, we are just giving out FREE MONEY, but if you're not interested, that's cool" and walk away). But when funny things happen, it makes my day SO MUCH better.

Visuals

This was yesterday. It was SO beautiful here. Blue skys and no wind. We all went to the park as a group and played a little frisbee. It was GREAT. I love Gods country, His creations and beauties. I have Mom's in my life as well that are His beauties too :) Again Happy Mothers Day to all my Mom's and mother of my children. I love you all. This blog could only hold 2 pics so I'll post 2 more right after this. Until next time...

Attack of the Dispenser!

Ok. This is NOT funny, but yet SO funny at the same time :) I was working out by myself yesterday morning at the gym and here is what happened:
I walked passed the gabrage can by the paper towel dispenser and saw that someone had spit in the garbage and it was NASTY (sorry Shanda, I will leave HOW nasty it was out of this story just for you). So I was going to grab a lenghth of paper towel and cover it up so noone else had to experience the gut rench that I had when I saw it. (People, seriously... That is just wrong!) As I pulled the handel down a few times to have the paper towel start to come out, I grabbed the extended piece and went to tear it off and in the same motion at the same time bend down to cover the "Alien" in the garbage can...kinda like a "tear, swoop, bend down and lay" move. At that same moment I was bending to swoop the paper towel down, the front of the paper towel dispenser came flying open and wapped me RIGHT IN THE FACE... above the left eye. ***I literally saw stars.*** (See attached Pics) There was blood running down my cheek by the time I got to the bathroom...! CrAzY ! This dispenser should have a label reading the following *WARNING* This dispenser has been known to cause SERIOUS bodily harm and may even cause DEATH!

Hair... Be Gone!

Yes... I am cutting my hair off today. Yesterday I was working and it was EXTREMELY windy. It seemed like every direction I walked the wind would change so it was blowing from behind me, causing my hair to go backwards from how it is supposed to go. I would go up to the door and look in the glass on the front door and it looked like I was wearing a bonnet... my hair all poofy and wind blown backwards. I made the decision RIGHT THEN. I AM TOO MANLY to look like I am wearing a bonnet. And so it is, getting cut in about an hour.
I will try to post pics later, I have to get a plug for my camera to go into my computer, but pics will come. I feel like I need to say goodbye to my hair. I really like it, SHANDA really really likes it, but due to professionalism and the "Anti-bonnet" rule I have and my company has (lol), ITS GOTTA GO! Maybe again later in life before I go bald, right?!?!
I Love you Guys...all 2 followers of my blog and the non-followers as well, I Luv You too.

TORNADO WARNING!

There has been some CrAzY storms here the past few days/nights. We had a "Tornado Warning" the night before last and the storm SURGE that came sweeping through was INCREDIBLE!!! I have NEVER before in my life experienced a thunder and lightning storm quite like this one. At 2:30 or so in the morning, we were all awakened by the AMAZING display of lightning and thunder. It was just like the Paparazzi were outside and there was a FAMOUS Moviestar or RockStar in our apartment. There was CONSTANT flashing for about 2 hours followed by the constant CRASH of thunder. We couldn't follow which crash of thunder came from what flash of lightning... there was SO many of both it not only woke us up, but KEPT us up for these few hours. The day at the office at our corralation meeting prior to this storm we had a pretty funny situation happen. Ben Worthington, a manager from the Louisville KY office was working in our office for a few days. In the middle of our corralation/training meeting the "Tornado Sirens" went off. These are an incredibly high pitched siren alerting ALL in the area that a tornado is on its way through and to "buckle down" and "get down" to lower ground. With not a could in the sky, this siren went off. They were obviously just testing the siren for the storm that was to come later that evening, but poor Ben thought there was a tornado coming and FREAKED OUT! He started yelling at everyone..." shhhhh, did you hear that?...listen... that's the tornado siren... quick everybody needs to get outta here." We all stood around looking at him and trying to tell him it was probably just a test and that there wasn't a cloud in the sky. He followed up with, "yeah, that's what you think...tornados come outta nowhere and just kill people. You could be sleeping and just like that be dead." (he was DEAD serious) We all couldn't help but chuckle. Even funnier, Ben stayed the night at our apartment for the evening when the REAL storm came through and can I just tell you I have never seen a grown man so scared that he was going to DIE from a tornado attack :) I love ya Ben :) Until next time... I LOVE YOU ALL!!

First two days of Selling

Yesterday (Friday) was the first day our office hit the streets to sell. They were trying to get the new office set up and a number of different problems arose. The internet cables were supposed to be ran the other day before we got here, NOT DONE. The computers were supposed to be delivered to the office, NO DONE. Contracts for us to use and set new accounts with, WRONG INFO PRINTED. Must I continue? It was crazy, but Aamon and I were just ready to start knockin doors...that IS why we are here, right? I told Aamon, "lets hit it." There are going to be about 23 sales people in our office but most of them aren't going to be here til the first week of May. So, there were about 13 guys that came from the Louisville, KY office that can't sell in their area til next week come here to sell with us for a few days. Included are 2 third-year Managers and a Regional Manager for that office. We had our normal daily corralation meeting before we all go out and sell around 10:00am on Friday. After, we split up territories and went out. Long story short... Me and Ammon both sold 2 deals each in our first 4 hours and the only other person that sold anything was one of the Managers. He sold 1. We both got praised. It was great. Then better news came to follow. Saturday corralation was to be held at 10:30am. Aamon , Ben (a manager from the other office that crashed on our floor last night) and I called and told everyone that we were NOT coming to corralation because we wanted to start working RIGHT AWAY... ITS SATURDAY FOR CRYING OUTLOUD! Everyone is home Saturday morning. So off we were. Within my first 15 minutes, I got my first sale of the day. An hour later, number 2 sale of the day. I called Aamon to tell him the great news and he told me he had sold 1 as well. NO ONE ELSE sold anything the entire day. In fact, I had sold my 2 sales before the entire office was done with their corralation meeting. ROCKSTARS... that is what we are...RockStars :) Jake (my boss) took us to lunch today to show us how much he appreciates our hard and GREAT work
(and making HIM money). Now its 4:30 pm and I am SO ready for a nap... some dinner and another nap.
*COOL LITTLE NOTE: I sold one of my deals to a member of the church out here. They are actually in our new Ward. We havn't been yet, but they told me what ward we are in, what time they meet and direction to get there. Super nice people. They asked if I was "Mormon" when I was talking to them about their Bumblebee problem. It just came up that I was from Utah and then the Question..."are you mormon?" I proudly responded "YES". They then went on to tell me they were as well. Thanks for directing me to good people and opening their wallets to me... haha, just kidding :)

The Trip to Indianspolis

WOW!!! Well, lets start here... Jake and I left Highland around 5pm. We were supposed to leave at noon but due to "someone's" inability to get what needs to be done ON TIME... 5pm it was. I was ready at 11:00am BTW. Jake started driving. We got 3 hours outta SLC and Jake was tired and said he had bad eye sight in the dark... so I should drive. I took the wheel at 8:30 pm Tuesday. NOTE: I got up on Tuesday at 6am. I drove from 8:30 pm on Tuesday night til 6:30 am Wednesday morning. 10 L O N G hours. With Jake sleeping the entire evening, Jake woke up at 6:20 am on Thursday and said "we should get some breakfast at the next stop." McDonald's it was. He offered to drive... "GREAT" was my response. About 20 minutes into HIS driving... I noticed him looking tired. I asked if he was OK and he replied that he was still VERY tired and asked if I could drive. "WHAT"? was my response to that... only mentally though, I wanted to give him the third degree for me driving through the ENTIRE night with him snoozing, but I simply said, "whatever gets us closer to our destination... safely." I regained control of the car. With my Ipod playing music to "pump me up", it was me and the Ipod. Jake sleeping again... snoring actually... I have GREAT video that I took while he was sleeping...hee hee! I drove through Nebraska. The rolling hills of NOTHINGNESS was pretty but boring. We then entered into Missouri. ALL OF A SUDDEN... the Highway we were traveling on was being diverted off an exit and the HWY was closed. We didn't know why. The handy GPS told where to go, (and it wasn't to hell). She told us to "take the next left turn and then in 1/2 mile, turn left back onto HWY 36." We did just this. I told Jake... "we are the ONLY ones on this HWY going either direction"... "Just keep driving" he told me. About 2 miles down the road 7 police were standing in the middle of the road flagging and waving us to pull over and pull off the road. They asked HOW we had got back on this road. We told them we had just followed the handy GPS system we had attached to the windshield. They then informed us that PRESIDENT OBAMA was 3 miles up the road and that is why they closed the HWY in the first place. We were informed that the HWY would be closed all the way to the Illinois Border. It took us 2 extra hours to regain our course that we were originally on. But off we were. Me still in the drivers seat :(
After a 23 hour drive (which I drove 19 of 23...straight, with no sleep), we finally entered into the Indianapolis area, found our apartment complex (which is as PLUSH as they come) and settled down for a great night and great needed sleep, for me at least, Jake was WELL rested :). The area is GREEN and BEAUTIFUL. Canadian Geese are about 30 feet from by back Patio. Grocery store right across the street and I am ready to start working. Hope to weekly (atleast) blog my experiences here so you can see how I am doing. Love you all!!