Be Nice

Don't we all hate getting phone calls from unknown numbers that are trying to sell us things or get us to take a survey? I am part of the majority in saying that I don't like getting calls like this and usually just say no-thank-you and hang-up. A lot of the time I don't even answer. Well, my eyes have been opened now that I am the one doing the calling...

Did I ever think I would find myself working in a call-center? NO. Am I happy to be employed in a small college town where it's pretty difficult to find a job? YES. I started my new job on Friday. After only 1 hour of instructions, we were sent to start calling people to answer surveys. At first it was nerve-racking, but that ended quickly. When you make over 100 calls an hour, you don't have time to be nervous. After a few minutes, they brought us back into training and we discussed what we learned. They then taught us some more. Who knew reading a word-for-word script could be so hard? 

On my first official day on the job (yesterday), I was told that the survey would take 15 or so minutes to complete. Who in the world would want to take that on a Saturday morning? After 4 hours on-the-job, not one person had taken my survey and thankfully it wasn't just me. Lots of people were struggling in the call-center. 

I'll put it nicely by saying that I didn't know people were so mean. I understand if people don't want to take my survey. What I don't understand is why they think being so passionate and upset is going to do anything. Someone screamed the F word at me yesterday. I don't want to be near that person when something bad actually happens. It is sometimes difficult to be professional back to someone who is screaming at you, but it surprisingly comes easily. It was kind of fun to tell the man cussing me out to have a nice afternoon in a really pleasant, enthusiastic voice.

The point of this rant/post is to tell you to be nice. I bet the person calling you didn't plan on working in a call center. Sometimes they probably don't want to be giving the surveys themselves, so make their day and take some time to answer their questions. If not, NICELY reject them. Just something to think about...

P.s- It is pretty obvious to tell when someone makes up some random excuse as to why they can't take the survey. "I'm sick..." "I have bacon grease on my hands." "I'm really really busy right now and don't know when I won't be..." 

Watched Over

The past couple of weeks have been busy. With wrapping up our summer internships, packing, purchasing a second car, and more we are happy to finally be settled into our new place. We even had a few days off of work which has not happened in who knows how long.

This past week, we have had some pretty simple, yet eye-opening experiences. After buying my high-school car from my parents, we decided to put some new tires on it. We were happy to find out that we only needed to replace 2 of the tires which was cheaper. :) After picking the car up with the new tires, I noticed the car was driving sort of funny. Know that I am EXTREMELY paranoid when it comes to tires. I have always been terrified of getting a flat tire and have yet to have one. (Knock on wood) Anyway, on my drive home, the steering wheel started shaking a lot and veering to one side. There was also a loud noise. From what I have heard others say, this is what having a flat tire is like. At this point, I was almost home though and decided to just drive the one block there. Once home, I had my Mom drive it to see if she noticed anything. She did not. A few hours later I left on a work trip for the weekend, so the car was put on the back burner.

Once home from my long trip to Moab, the car seemed to drive a little better. I did have my husband drive it to see if he noticed the noise, and it actually happened when he was in the car. I was happy to know that someone else heard it too and I wasn't just making things up or being my paranoid self. After the drive with him, we decided that the noise didn't happen enough to take the car back in.

The day before we moved, I kept questioning whether or not we should take the car back in. The drive to Rexburg is about 4 hours, and I didn't want something to go wrong with our tires. Fortunately, I decided to take our car back in. On my way to the place, the car was making the noise worse than ever and I could really tell something was wrong. It was terrifying to drive. When I entered the tire shop, the same man that helped me a few days earlier was there again. You could tell he did not think anything was wrong with the car based on my vague "it sometimes shakes" description. He proceeded to tell me how nice the tires I bought were. A few minutes later, I noticed that another employee took the car out on a test drive. The entire time I was hoping it would make the noise, so I didn't look like a fool. It did! Hooray! I saw the guy speed the Lancer back to the mechanics and I was relieved.

A few minutes later, the guy called me back into the garage. He gently tapped the front drivers-side tire and it about fell off. He then told me that the tire was pretty close to falling off and that I was lucky it hadn't. I won't get too technical here, seeing as how I don't even know the name of the part that was broken, but I do know that something was broken on the drivers side, as well as the passengers side relating to holding the tires on. The employee could not believe that this problem went unnoticed in the first tire installation and gave me a discount.

The point of this long, rambly story is that Andrew and I were watched out for. Imagine if we hadn't brought the car in before our 4 hour drive to Rexburg. We were very blessed and I am so grateful. I'm also happy that it was proven that I wasn't just being paranoid about having a tire issue this time.

The other experience I want to mention that happened this week was small, but yet another sign that Andrew and I are being watched over. After hours of unpacking, we took a big load of junk to D.I. Later that evening, I sat down to play my keyboard but soon realized that we accidentally put that piano chord in the D.I pile. Oops. I was not very happy to say the least and Andrew kept telling me that we were going to have "an adventure" to try to cheer me up. After calling D.I, we were told that we could come and look through all of the donations to see if we could find it. Just how I wanted to spend my Thursday evening.

Once there, an employee took us back into a HUGE room full of tons of donated items. It seemed unlikely that we find our measly piano chord. Luckily, the donations from that day were clumped together and we just happened to bump into the white garbage bag full of our donations. Inside was the piano chord. The employee was stunned. Apparently people come looking for stuff a lot and never find it. Once again, we were watched over. Even though this wasn't a super significant thing, it was important to me and Heavenly Father knew that. I know that God is aware of every aspect of our lives.

Goodbye for Now

Today was my last day as the Primary Chorister because we're moving back to Rexburg. I am really sad and will miss my little kids. (Hopefully they will miss me too!) Last week I got a little choked up while they were singing just at the thought of leaving. Today was kind of rushed, so I was fine. I have had so much fun being the primary chorister and am so sad that our new ward won't really have a primary. (It's a student married ward) Here are some of the highlights I've had while serving in this calling:

• Going on a walk and at some point along the way hearing a little kid shout, "Hi Sister Ditto" from afar excitedly. 
• The children being very concerned that I cut a teacher's tie on Father's Day. "Can you sew that back together for him?" "What about tape?" (Good thing I brought a tie for him to put on that was in our D.I. pile)
• Having children guess what kind of skittle I put in their mouths. This was funny. The first boy guessed all of the wrong flavors. I think I finally had to just tell him. For the next kids that were guessing, I made sure to say the flavor first when asking if that is what it tasted like. (Is that Lemon?")
• The spray bottle. The kids were so eager to sing, so they could get a squirt of the "magical drink" aka Capri-Sun. I don't think I have ever heard them sing so loud.
• Leading the children in Sacrament Meeting while they sang the song, "The Family is of God." The words are so powerful and the kids were smiling so big at me. I was very proud of them.
• After being disappointed in the behavior of some of the kids, I had a little talk with them. I said something like, "It makes me sad when you talk instead of sing. It makes me sad when you don't stand when I ask you too. But it makes me happy when you sing loud and give me the chills." After this little chat, one of the younger kids came up and gave me a big hug because he thought I was really sad. It was adorable.
• One of the sunbeams doesn't know many of the words to the songs, but always wants me to choose him as a helper. His solution: scream/sing as loud as possible and not enunciate any words.

I'm not going to pretend that everything went perfectly each week though. Here are a few things that I can laugh at now, but are semi-embarrassing.

• Noticing when I got home from church some outrageous pit stains. (I don't know that I can wear that shirt to church again.) These were definitely noticed-- I mean my job does entail moving my arms wildly.
• Teaching the children how to pronounce the word "fervent." I spent like 10 minutes on this and made a big deal about it. The next week I realized, I taught them how to say it incorrectly... Yikes. Fervent is not spelled fervrent. 
• Almost taking someone out in the hallway each time I tried to quietly make my dash to primary (before the closing hymn) to beat the children there. The other ward is always in the hall standing right by the door, and I bump them.

I hope that sometime in the near future I will get this calling again. I'm counting down the seconds until that day comes.

Labor Day

Labor Day came just at the right time for me. I worked a lot last week, and had to work Friday and Saturday in Richfield which is kind of a drive. When Monday came, I was so happy to have a day off with Andrew. Originally, we were planning on running the Steeple to Steeple run from the Oquirrh Mountain temple to the Jordan River temple. I have done this race in the past and it is a fun one. It is 5 miles and mostly downhill. We didn't sign up before a certain date which increased the price to run it. I also was having some shin problems and Andrew's foot was hurting him, so we ended up not doing it. Maybe next year...

Instead of the race, we went on a hike with my family. We never seem to have much luck finding the hike we want to go on. This day was no different. The first place we arrived to was just a random trail and quickly left. The second place we went to wasn't what we thought it was either, but we did it anyway. This hike was in Pepperwood which is such a beautiful area. I think the sign called it "The Rocky Mountain Trail," but I could be wrong. The hike was secluded in the shade which was very nice. The best part of the hike was the end which led us to a gorgeous waterfall. We climbed right up next to the water (which kind of scared me) and it was more difficult than it should have been for me to get down. Here are some pictures:

            Me and Jess. Sisters who have completely opposite hair types.

My Dad was given a lot of grief when attempting to take our picture.

Andrew is completely fearless when it comes to hiking. Maybe our children will have hope. He even went exploring in some disgusting cave that I refused to step foot in.

This hike turned out to be much shorter than we expected, so we decided to go on another one which was a little further down the road. The second hike was up Bell's Canyon and it was quite crowded. This trail took us to a Reservoir which was stunning. Let me point out that this hike was not easy. Almost the entire way up you go up tons of stair type things that are quite steep. I was surprised by how many children we saw on this trail. It isn't very long though. I think it is a little over 0.7 miles up to the Reservoir and very worth it.

It took me a few minutes to walk out to this rock because I was "extra cautious." My family was laughing at me. When I finally got there, Andrew pretended to push me in and I screamed. 

Our Labor Day hikes turned out to be very successful. What a fun way to spend Labor Day morning. (Lots of other people thought so too.) And because it was Labor Day, Best Buy was having a sale and Andrew and I FINALLY bought a flat screen. (Goodbye to our 55 in box TV!) We can't wait to open it when we get to Rexburg next week. Pizza was the icing on the cake for such a wonderful day. 

My Dream

I have always wanted to go to the U.S. Open in New York City. Of course, when my family was in New York years ago, we didn't think about even going to see the courts, let alone planning our trip around when the U.S Open was. It's fine, we still had a fun trip and I'm really not that bitter.

That being said, every year my family fills out a bracket for the U.S Open. We use this website: http://bracketchallenge.usopen.org/#/ Make sure to save it as a favorite on your computer, so you can fill out a bracket next year.

Whoever wins on this website nationally, gets a free trip to the U.S Open for 2 the following year. (I think) This has yet to happen to anyone in my family. When it does though, I'm sure they will pick me to be the 2nd person going on this free trip. My family has a separate bracket just for us on the website called "The Denning League." It constantly updates and tells us who is winning on the men's side, women's side, and overall. At the beginning of the tournament, I looked at this site often because I was winning the men's side for a few days. Now, I prefer not to look because I keep getting further and further down in the rankings.

We always have a hard time determining what the winner of our family gets. Some of the ideas thrown out this year have been: an amazon gift-card, a free-flight, personal satisfaction, and a trophy. You can guess which idea was mine... (Anything that has do with the word free) I think we are going with a trophy and whoever wins has to keep it on display in their house all year, until it's time for the U.S Open again which is when the new winner will take it over. (Unless of course, the same person (me) were to win 2 years in a row.) By the way, I would not be happy just to have "personal satisfaction" after my win. I want something to show for my dominance.

I am a tennis fanatic. I get REALLY into tennis and have a hard time not watching every match. I'm not quite on the level my grandmother is on though. Watching the U.S Open becomes her full-time job and she doesn't even need to be paid to do it. A big debate in our family includes some of the top men. A couple family members seem to think Nadal is the best. Many others have Djokovic (Jokey) winning. My question is why wouldn't you have Federer winning? I love "Fed." He is so classy which can be hard to do. I don't ever see him throw his racket or lose his temper. He is a family man and has 2 sets of twins which I think is so cool. He is always funny and nice when he is interviewed before/after a match. That being said, Go Fed! I'm routing for you even if I stand somewhat alone in my family.

Andrew and I should both graduate this coming April, and I told him that I would love to go to the "US Open" to celebrate... We'll see if that happens. If not, I will continue to do bracket after bracket until I win that free trip.