Halloween 2008

Wow! What a fun time of year, what a interesting time of year. You get costumes for all of the kids, get them all dressed up for the big night, and then you are off! One kid wants to go that way, the other this way, and then you get crying!! Okay maybe it didn't happen just like that but you get the picture wright? Kiarah was little Bo Peep, Madison was here little Lamb, and Kayden was his favorite; Shrek. Now I wish I could have been there to take the kids trick or treating I wasn't I had to work. However Kim took them around the neighborhoods with the help of Granpa Terry. My Halloween was actually a week earlier when we took the kids to "Boo at the Zoo". It was us, Grandma and Grandpa, Natalie , Eric, Kylie, and the rest of the aunts and uncles; to many to name here. Also I think everyone in the Salt Lake Valley was in attendance as well. Here are some picture.

Teddy Bear Picnic @ the Zoo

What a beautiful day. We got up early and got all three of the kids dressed loaded up into the car and headed for the "Teddy Bear Picnic" at the Zoo. We meet up with Damien and Jenny and Chiristian, as well as Natalie and Carly. It was still cool so we headed through the gates down the hill and saw some Turkeys. Kayden went nuts, pointing and yelling at them.

Next we saw the Colobus Monkeys and again Kayden went bonkers. Next Kiarah got to do some of the fun activities they had lined up for the kids. I had forgotten that the Zoo had made some changes; a new carousel. We all got tickets to ride except Kim she stayed off to take pictures and watch Madison.

We watched them feed the bears, saw the penguins, and Red Pandas. Now it was starting to get hot, so we headed up to the Asian Highlands area to see the big kittys.









Kayden, Kiarah and Carly had a great morning and afternoon at the Zoo.

Life is a road of curves! Thanks Winder Farms!!!

So it has been awhile since I last posted anything. I know! But my life just hit a big curve the begining of July. I had been working for Winder Farms; (Winder Dairy), for two and a half years I was a great employee. Starting off in a very low position (go-back driver), then moving into a Milkman position, then to the warehouse pulling crates of milk, then to the Aquasitions and Sales team, then to Retention Manager, then to Store Manager. It was a long road to where I finally ended up; but it is how I was treated in the end of things that gets my blood too boil!

In a nutshell I was forced to resign my position or be fired. The reason they gave me was because I accessed my own home-delivery account to close it out. That was against policy they said and that I could have changed billing, given credits to myself, etc.. The bottom line is that it had to do with money. I know that they are struggling with money and I was making a very hefty salary for that little retail store. So I was forced to resign, not paid any of my 60 hrs of vacation, thrown to the curb and just given a shallow sorry!

I knew that I wasn't going to work there forever because they way I had been treated. They have never really shown any kind of heart towards their employees, or customers; look at their Better Business Bureau report, or Bill Gephart's report. When I was a Milkman I fell out of one of the trucks twisted my ankle very badly and when I reported it I was laughed at. Also since I wasn't a member of their upper management groupies my opinion wasn't ever accepted. I created a whole retention guide to help with customer retention, we used that for awhile and after I moved positions it fell away. The President always said you can always come talk to me, when I tried I was always pushed aside.

Now I know that I have found a better company and look forward to a new career with the nations second largest wireless company. Good bye Winder, and good luck on doing business in a crummy economy, and forever piss on you!!

2008 Ragnar Relay

So at my work I was asked if I wanted to participate in the Ragnar Relay race. Huh? It is a relay race from Logan to Park City 178 miles. Holly Cow!!! I am not a runner and am not in the best shape of my life. That doesn't matter; you have 12 runners and each runner will run three legs each. Well that's not too bad as long as I got easy legs. So I agreed to join our company team and run. The race days were June 20-21. We started at 7:40 am at Merlin Olsen park in Logan and we finished 34 hours later in Park City.

All I have to say about this race is WOW!! What a sense of accomplishment to run a total of 15 miles with only two hours of sleep.

Leg #1

This was a nice 6.7 mile run through Nibley into Hyrum Utah. I lucked out because it was around 8:30 when I started the run and still very cool out. The nice thing about this run was that most of it was followed a winding country style road. The worst part was the nasty hill I had to climb after mile #4.

Leg # 2

This was a short 3 mile run outside of Mountain Green along Hwy 84. This by far was very easy for me and my fastest leg I ran; 33 minutes! Not much to tell you about this one.

Leg # 3

This run was a 5.3 mile hard run from Oakley into Kamas. I thought leg #1 would be the worst run of the race. Nope this one was by far. After only having about two hours of sleep and being sore I had to run this boring leg. It started off nice but soon turned into a long never ending straight run. I was so tired I had to stop a few times and walk. WOW I hated this one. I finished this leg on a high note as I sprinted to the exchange point and handed off. I was done!

Will I do this again next year? You better believe it! It was so much fun and hard work it makes you feel like you are living.

2008 Ragnar Relay Team. I am the second on the left top row; black hat on.

5-3-08 Day at the ZOO

What a wonderful day. Waking up getting the three kids together for a fun filled day at the ZOO! This was going to be a real fun day, with my parents in town for the weekend. Kiarah especially was overly excited because she got to go to the Zoo with Grandma Lois! When we arrived at the Zoo it was packed to the brim! People everywhere, so I dropped Kim off up-front to get our membership renewed and I set off to get a parking spot. WOW, I lucked out because after just a few moments of searching a car started to back out, and I quickly jumped in!

There were so many people that it made it very difficult to navigate the narrow walkways. Kayden loved seeing all the animals up close; he takes after Kim. I was a little disappointed that we were not able to see all the animals because of the crowd and the construction. I eagerly anticipate the opening of the new additions.