Bowling

So tonight my friend Jacee and I went bowling. It's quite amusing really when we do because we both have our own ball, shoes, bag, towel, and everything right? So we look like we should be some serious players here. We stink so bad!! LOL I mean we're by these guys that are like flying these balls down the alley and just like crashing all the pins down and getting strikes and spares left and right! I mean I don't know how they get that much force behind those balls when they throw them sometimes . . . I mean they are just zooming. And then here are all balls just rolling on down there. LOL I know I can't get the power cause I have a bad wrist/arm after a couple of reconstructive surgeries, but still. We were pretty pathetic tonight though. I'm not even going to mention our scores. I'll just say I was lucky to have gotten a few spares in there. We had a lot of fun though so that is what was most important. Then the bonus part was this place had an arcade that had the big arcade version of DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)!! Rock On!! I had to of course play a couple of rounds on that. Kicked butt of course. Except I made the mistake of letting Jacee pick the last song I did and she picked this ridiculous one that was all jumping and switch jumping. I was still rocking on it pretty good till right at the end when I tired out since I was already tired from doing a whole bunch of previous songs before besides. For those of you that do not know what DDR is you are missing out, so go check it out!!! :o)

Francine Rivers

So I finished my second book in the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers last night. The first is called Voice in the Wind, then Echo in the Darkness, and finally As Sure as the Dawn. The trilogy is the last of all her novels that I have to read. Her books are awesome. I encourage everyone to check them out. She writes so well. She develops the characters well, details things very well, but to the point, so that you are not lingering on and on on one subject for too long. And she tells it like it is, meaning she's not afraid to bring up a subject or detail something that may be offensive to someone even though its a Christian fiction book, but she does it in a way in my opinion that is . . . hmmm . . . I don't know. The books are just soooooo very well written. The messages in all of them are very very good. This last book I just read, Echo in the Darkness, the 2nd book of the Mark of the Lion trilogy, is the first book where I have to admit I cried while reading it. I mean I've been moved while reading books before, but this one actually brought me to tears, and not just tears . . . at times even goose bumps. So check out her books. I also found out she has a website, so I put a link for that up on the left. I think you will find her to be a very neat lady. :o) I can't wait to go pick up the 3rd and final book at Barnes & Noble on Thursday.

Weekly Scripture

This weeks scripture reading is going to be from Exodus Chapter 3. It is the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. God appears to Moses and tells him to go to Egypt and free the Isrealites from Pharaoh. Moses of course has many concerns, but God reassures him, and tells him he must trust in Him. Again use the link on the left under "weekly scriptures" or use your own Bible to study this passage.

And just so you all know I almost have the whole top layer of the 5x5 Rubik's cube solved. Woo hoo! :o)

Late Celebration

Well since my parents have been out of town, an my mom at a work conference we were not able to do the traditional dinner and a movie for my birthday until tonight. It was a nice night out with my family. We went to dinner, and then went and saw "The Brothers Grimm" which stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. It was pretty good. Not as good as I thought it might be, but still pretty good. A funny, action/fantasy type of movie.

One very fun thing I got tonight too from my brother was the 5 x 5 layer Rubiks cube. The original traditional one is just 3 x 3, and I've worn many of those out now after mastering that one and just working on my speed techniques of it. They have a 4 x 4 one that I've never tried, but then this 5 x 5 one too that I had always see that they call "The Professor" and I've always wanted to give it a shot. See if there are any similarities between it and the 3 x 3. So I'm very excited to have a new challenge now. It's very difficult though trying to turn all those layers I've discovered though. The cube does not move very well.

I also got a gift card from my parents to one of my favorite clothing stores, so I'm going to have to hit the mall now. May have to do that tomorrow since it will still be the weekend and a day off from work! :o) I really could use some new good clothes for work and church and stuff too, so thats really awesome.

So it was a nice night. Now I'm off to climb in bed and read a couple more chapters of my book since I get to sleep in a little tomorrow.

Awesome Friend

I have one of the most awesome friends anyone could ever ask for. I got a package in the mail today from my friend Laurie. She made me the cutest and sweetest scrap book of the two of us, our friend Heidi who was an exchange student from Hong Kong, and her dog Riley. It is really awesome. She also put together a really cool CD for me to watch of everyone from church and her parents wishing me a happy birthday. That was something really special, and really meant a lot to me because of how much I miss everyone there. It made me cry, laugh, and just really touched me. It's one of those things just means more then something money can buy. So Laurie, I love you hun!

Also today was my little Emmy's first day of school. I wish I could have been there to see her off, but according to Susan and Steve she was quite the trooper. Was not scared at all, and marched right up there and into class. She was apparently so excited for her first day of school this morning that she was up and ready to go at 6:30am this morning. LOL She likes her teacher, and colored her a picture already today. They made a craft today, and played Duck, Duck, Goose. I have pictures that Susan and Steve took, and will be adding those to my "Emily" album either late tonight or tomorrow, so check those out.

Thats all for now!

Go Kenny!

So it's turned into a pretty fun day. Started out very stressful at work to the point that I wanted to throw my computer through the window, but it got better. My brother treated me to lunch, and then my friends Susan and Steve also took me out to dinner. You can't beat two free meals! Of course it helps when it's your birthday, so you know people always seem to treat ya so much nicer then. I'm not sure why that is. LOL

My friend Susan and I, and her daughter Emily also went over this evening to watch my pastor play in his softball game. It's a senior men's league. It's quite entertaining to watch. This was their final matches tonight for the championship. They played one game at 6:00pm and then if they one that one, they played again right afterwards for the the championship. This league is great. First of all it's all men, and then the minimum age is 53, so you have to be that age or older in order to be in it, and then you have to be able to run to at least first base. After that you can get a runner to run in your place for you! LOL Isn't that just great!? It's so much fun to watch. It's pretty impressive though. I mean a lot of these guys are pretty good for their age! Anyways my pastor, Kendall (or Kenny as his teammates like to call), was doing pretty good tonight. His team won the first game 13-4. They kicked butt! We had to leave after that game for dinner, but I found out they won their second game too, so they are the champions. Go Kenny!!!

Free Gas

Well due to all of our cooperation in dealing with these tough times and customers during the big warehouse move at work lately, the owner decided to reward each of us in the call center with a free gas card. He made this announcement at a company wide meeting this morning before we started, so we were pretty excited. Everyone was thinking it would be for at least $25.00 right, enough to fill up your tank. When they got to passing them out late in the afternoon, nope they were for $10.00. Lots of people were making snide remarks about it afterwards, like "gee I can get a lot of gas with that . . . that will fill up like a quarter of my tank". I'm thinking, hey he didn't have to get us anything, and this is $10.00 of free gas. It's $10.00 that isn't coming out of my pocket, so I'll take it!! Some people are just so ungrateful.

Weekly Scripture

Just a quick note to let you know that this weeks weekly scripture is 1 Samuel chapter 1. It is the story of Hannah's prayers and request for a son, and how God granted her request. Because of this Hannah made sure her son Samuel was dedicated and belonged to God.

As always you can use the link at the left to view the scripture on line, or use your own Bible.

Good Day in Church

Today was a good day in church. I played the special music on trumpet, and then did the music during the offertory. Both performances went well, and I feel like I was able to really glorify God during the music, and touch people in the congregation. And that really is the whole purpose of it. A ministry through music.

We also had a guest speaker come today. His name is Luke Zeller. At 6'11", he will be a freshman at the University of Notre Dame (go ND!). He got a scholarship, and will be playing for the basketball team there. Luke led his small town of Washington, IN high school basketball team to win the Indiana state championship this year. He came to church this morning and gave a bit of his own personal testimony of what God has done for him in his life. It just impressed me to see how someone so young, but so mature, has been doing so much among his friends, teammates, and others around to try and bring them to know more of Christ. He talked about how he prayed before every game, and wanted to be a living sacrifice for God, and wanted God's will to be done that day. It was just awesome. I was glad he was there today to share a bit of his testimony because I think it was great for our junior/senior high kids to hear in the church. And not just for them, but for everyone.

So it was a good morning in church. God was working there today.

Catching up

Wow, I didn't realize I missed a few days in my posting. Guess I've been more busy then I realized. My parents are in Vegas, and I have the run of the house. No, I have not been having the parties, so you can all stop what you are thinking. I am bummed though because one of my friends from college was supposed to come for a visit this weekend, and I have not seen her in like over 2 years, and now she was not going to be able to make it. She got dragged into having to work. Now here I am working on Saturday too because since I was free now, and they were short staffed for the day I got stuck. Oh well, extra money. Need all I can if I'm going to get back to Montana! :o)

Tomorrow I get to play in church. By that I mean play my instruments, French horn and Trumpet. During the summer services our church choir takes time off, and we have musically talented people perform "special music" in the choir's place. I've been over practicing at the church this week, and I think it will all sound real nice, and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Well for now I should get back to work and being tucked away in my little cubicle. TTFN!

Frantic Cat

So tonight I'm watching a movie, a good movie by the way . . . "Coach Carter". . . . and all of a sudden I hear my cat just start meowing at the top of her lungs. Like real loud, long, drown out meows we're talking here. Now this cat does not normally meow. Only when she needs something and is trying to get your attention. So, I'm thinking "well what the heck is your problem?" I get up from the couch and look down the hallway and she is just sitting there at the end of the hallway, so I look at her, and I'm like "What? . . . Whats the matter with you?" lol And she just starts parading back and forth meowing again, real pathetic ones, like "help me, I need help here" lol . . . so I walk down the hall, and she immediately runs into the computer room, which is where we keep her food and litter box, we keep it in a closet in there. So I'm thinking well maybe she needs food or something, but we have one of those continues feeders that doesn't need to be filled that often, but it's a possibility that now is the time that it's run dry and needs to be filled. So I follow her in there cause she is still meowing at the top of her lungs. Well I do discover the problem. The door to the closet where her food and her litter box is kept . . . . is shut completely. I'm thinking "Ahhhh, poor putty, who shut that? Can't get to your food can ya?" I open the door . . . that wasn't the problem . . . she immediately darts into the litter box!! LOL Poor cat needed to use the potty! I think my dad must have shut it. I've caught him doing this before, and have re-opened it. He does it now and then just out of habit. In the end, crisis is solved though.

Meetings

Today I got to spend all day in meetings at work, and thats what I get to do all day tomorrow. It's kind of frustrating because it takes me away from the phones, and from making any sales, but at the same time it's kind of nice because I get to get away from all the customers that are calling in to sales to complain because they can not get through to customer service since customer service is soooooo backed up right now. The good thing is they are paying us a higher flat hourly rate during these all day meetings since we can not make any sales, so we are not getting our little base rate since we can not make any commission. Personally I think it's all a waste of time because they are trying to develop ways or theories to increase sales on the phone. The only thing is we are a privately owned company and this is all well and good and all, but while we come up with all of these great ideas, when they get presented to the owner they will get shut down. So why he is paying to bring in this corporation to do these meetings and stuff I have no idea when he isn't going to change anything anyways. Oh well, like I said it gets me away from the headache that is on the phones from the warehouse move mess and customer service for a couple of days.

Happy Birthday Laurie!!

This is my friend Laurie, and today is her birthday everyone! So everyone help me wish her a happy 24th birthday!!! YAY for Laurie!! LOL If your reading this girlfriend, I wish you all the best. I love ya, and I know God has wonderful and amazing things in store for your life. Happy Birthday hun!!

Yesterday I did not get a chance to get on line to post this sooner, but this week's scripture reading is 1 John chapter 3. It is talking about Love. How much God loves us and calls us His children, and also how we need to love one another. We need to not just say we love one one another, but show it by our actions as well. It's an excellent passage to look at, and I encourage you all to read it with an open heart and mind. As always you can use the link at the left to read it on line, or use your own Bibles.

Good Day

Today has actually been a pretty good day despite the fact that I woke up with what seems to be a pinched nerve in my neck. I have gotten them before, and it's a very painful task trying to get up and out of bed. I've found though that IcyHot does wonders. That is until it wears off, and I can't turn my head anymore. LOL

Now then I had to work today, but I was actually glad because I need the money, and I was hoping it would be busy and I would get lots of good phone calls from people wanting to place instrument orders. NOT a bunch of people complaining they can't get through to customer service, that their order is wrong, or that they haven't received it and they ordered it a month ago! Luckily it HAS been busy, people HAVE been ordering instruments, and GOOD ones I might add too! So it has been a good day in sales! Woo hoo!

After I get off work in 2 hours I get to go over to my friend's Susan and Steve's house and watch my Emmy til Steve gets off work because Susan is going out to a play with her parents. It will be nice because I haven't really seen Emmy since my last trip out to Montana a few weeks ago. Everyone has been too busy. If anyone wants to see my Emmy check out the Emily photo album on the left.

So it's a good day. :o)

Some People

I am so tired of some people at work. Mainly of one particular person. So this picture is my face right now. Now let me give you an idea of what is going on, and see if you don't think I have a reason to be angry. There is one person at work that I've always suspected steals orders from sales people including me, by that I mean gets a phone call from a customer who says they want to place an order for an instrument and they had been working with so and so but that person is currently unavailable. Now the right thing to do is to set up the order and put it in the other sales person's name that the customer has been working with. This is because we get paid on commission, so if you don't do that that is in a sense taking money away from the other sales person and putting it in your own pocket. Now this one particular sales person has always been suspected of putting orders in his own name even when a customer mentions they were working with someone else, but we have never had any real hard evidence. That is until now. Yesterday I had a customer that had I dealt with previously on several occasions on saxophones finally decide he wanted to set up his order. Well he had called when I was not in the office, and customer service sent me an e-mail saying he had requested specifically to talk to me and place his order (I still have the e-mail, evidence you know), and he also left me a voice mail asking for me. When I got back from lunch I gave him a call, but he said he went ahead and set up the order with this other guy. He said he asked specifically for me, but that I was unavailable, so went ahead and placed the order with him. I clarified with the customer that he mentioned to the guy he placed the order with that he did ask for me, and he said yes. After hanging up with the customer I look up his now placed order, hmmm to know surprise it was not in my name, but in the other sales rep's name. Boy did my blood bubble. I immediately went to my brass team supervisor and explained everything to him, and he agreed that he thought it should be in my name, but that before he changed it he should take it to the other "powers to be" and make sure they agreed too. It still has not yet been changed. If it does not get changed I am seriously going to be hacked off. Not only should it be changed, but this sales rep should be confronted about it by a supervisor and written up or something in my opinion because that is in all get out stealing! Stealing is stealing. Other people here have been fired for that before. He's always been suspected of it before and they know it. Now here is the proof! They know it's why his sales are so high. So there it is. What do you think?

Fun Thing To Do

Okay here is a fun thing to do when you are bored. I got the idea from Rebecca's blog, hildemollerknag.blogspot.com. Basically you just go on to Google and in the search box put "(your name) is" in the parentheses and then take a look at all the interesting lines that come up under the different headers. These are some of that came up for me. I put some of the sweet ones in there, but some funny goofy ones too.

Amanda is right.

Amanda is beginning to like being a Q.

Amanda is a funny kind of telescope.

Amanda is quiet and reflective.

Amanda is a caring, intelligent, and thoughtful leader.

Amanda is a name derived from Latin, meaning "worthy of Love".

Amanda is a specialist in blogging.

Amanda is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Amanda is the kind of girl you love to hate: rich, thin, blonde, and vicious.

Amanda is a certified BodyTalk Instructor.

Amanda is going to be famous.

Amanda is the coolest and from Mars!

Amanda is a very balanced individual.

Amanda is a likeable heroine who holds her own with the many suspicious men.

Addicted

So I've learned that I'm really addicted to this blogging thing. All I ever want to do is work more on my site now, and then cruise around and look at other people's sites to get more ideas. Then I start to think about that I could make more sites that are dedicated to just one specific idea or theme. Hmmmmm . . . . I'm telling you it's ridiculous. LOL Maybe it will blow over. I think I'm just having fun with it right now.

Last night was my parents anniversary. They had a nice night out to dinner together. Don't ask me how many years they have been married though because I'm bad, and I honestly do not know. Its' been a long happy marriage though, so I'm just glad I can say that.

Typical, Uneventful Day

Today has been a pretty uneventful day. I wish I had more exciting things going on in my life to report on. Work was slow, and made the time drag by. I did find one site on line today though that was exciting. It is the site for the upcoming "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" movie. It's based on the popular C.S. Lewis book series. I'm sure many are familiar with. It is a live action movie that Disney has made. It will be coming to theaters December 9th. I had thought I remembered seeing a preview for it a while ago, but have not since seen or heard anything about it, and thought perhaps it was all in my head, so I decided I was going to research it. They have a very cool site promoting this movie, and I encourage all to check it out. I made a link for it you all can use.

My friend Laurie is e-mailing me gross pictures of her dog, Riley, that shows sore he has right now. I'm like "why do I want to see these?" Apparently I need to see them though because after her telling me about this nasty sore on his chest (but she is a good mommy and had it looked at by the vet) over the phone she was very anxious to take pictures and e-mail them to me.

Later tonight I'm making a run to Barnes & Noble with my friend Susan. Have to pick up my next book by Francine Rivers. She is an excellent author and I encourage everyone to check her out. The first book I read by her was "Redeeming Love". It's like a 500 page book that I had read in 3 days. You get hooked to her books so easily.

Well that is my day. Exciting eh?

Wayne & Elizabeth's Wedding

So I had a very busy weekend this weekend with driving out to the Quad Cities in Illinois for a friend's wedding. My friend Wayne Jr. was getting married. We pretty much grew up together as kids. Our families have known eachother forever, and my parents are his Godparents. His, now wife's name, is Elizabeth. I have not really met her, but from what I have heard and seen, she seems really awesome. They were totally cute together at the wedding and reception, and Wayne was so nervous during the wedding ceremony it was so sweet. It was a gorgeous wedding though and went very well. The reception was very nice as well, and the food was excellent. I just got back today, and am completely exhausted, but I still managed to get all the pictures downloaded, edited, and uploaded into an album for the site so everyone can check it out.

I have also added a new section called "Weekly Scriptures". Here I will post a new suggested scripture reading every Sunday that comes from the New Life Community Church of Columbus, MT. This is my church family from that part of my life. The links will take you to an online site where you can read them, or you can look them up in your own Bible. This weeks, and the first, suggested scripture reading for the site is Matthew Chapter 5.

New Name

So the blog has a new name. You all can let me know what you think of it. I thought it may fit since Montana is where I long and dream to be permanently, and I am currently working to get back there. Plus I'd like to make this site a place where I can post my adventures out there, and my friends can do the same.

I have another idea of something new to add as well that I may post later today/tonight, so keep a lookout for that!

Awesome Bro

My brother is so awesome! As you can all see my page is normal again and everything is where it should be and normal size. He helped point out a backslash I was missng on my templated and that one little thing solved the whole problem!! Amazing!! Now it's just awesome. So check out all my cool photo albums.

Unleashed

Last night I went and saw the newest Jet Li movie with my brother. It is called "Unleashed". It is totally awesome. It also stars Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins. The movie has great action/martial arts scenes, but is also quite hilarious as well, so if you want to see a good action movie but enjoy a good laugh too this one is perfect.

As you may notice I am actively working to add more things to this site. I have set up a number of photo albums for you all to take a look at. At the moment they have screwed up the font and size and made all my posts appear at the bottom, but I am going to try and fix that. Until then you will just have to bear with the mess. Perhaps they will already be fixed by the time you are reading this. Otherwise enjoy the photos though!

The BLOG

I have been anxiously working on this Blog, and trying to put it all in order today. I'm actually quite impressed with myself with how much I've been able to do and figure out considering this is my first experience with a Blog or website. I have added some links to the left for everyone to check out as well as an address book that I am hoping you all will stop in and sign for me. With the links you can check out my brother - Scott's website . . . The Sewer Den. I have also put the link up for my work's website, Woodwind & Brasswind where I was telling ya'll how I worked before. It's a pretty sweet music company for all you instrumentalists out there if you ever need anything new or any supplies. We have all the pro audio stuff too for those of you that do all the recording stuff as well. Hey if you find something you want though, don't order through the website!!! I get paid on commission lol Give me a call directly at 800-348-5003 Ext 2277. Sides then I can answer any of your questions. I have also put on there 2 of my other favorite places . . . Barnes & Noble and Homestar Runner.com. I just love Barnes & Noble. I'm addicted to the place. I go there like every week and can just spend hours in there pouring over the books. Then I usually sit in the cafe and get an iced passion tea made with lemonade . . they are to die for! Anyways check out their website as well you can always find lots of good books and bargains on there. Homestar Runner is an awesome website as well. Its just got lots of great and hilarious cartoons. You can't go there though with out checking out Strongbad's e-mails. So I'm still working on everything. Hopefully soon I'll have a link for photo albums that I've been putting together. Until then I hope everyone enjoys what there is so far!

Deadest Day on Earth . . .

Today has been one of the deadest days on the earth for sales at work. First of all I work at a music store called Woodwind & Brasswind. We are the largest instrument and instrument supplies retailer in the world. We sell basically everything you can imagine. Right now we are in the middle of moving from 3 warehouses into one ginormous new warehouse we just built. The thing is absolutely huge. It has 20 receiving/shipping docks! I mean you can get lost in the place let me tell you. Anyways I am a brass specialist here in sales over the phones, and it's been totally dead as far as call volume for some reason today, which totally stinks for me since a good part of my pay check is based on commission. Plus it just makes the time go bay waaaaay to slow. I never understood that anyways . . . I mean why does the time seem to go by slower when you are bored, or waiting for a pot to boil, or whatever? I mean it's not like the time REALLY is going by any quicker or slower one way or another whether you are keeping busy or not. Time doesn't really change. It's all just in our heads really right, so maybe when we are bored, if we tell ourselves time is going by quickly we can make ourselves think that it is. Hmmmmmm. . . . .