What is going on here?

It is the end of October, the Red Sox are in the World Series, they re-defined the term "a good old fashioned whoopin'" last night as they embarrassed the Rockies, but I am not in Boston I am here in Salt Lake City. What is going on here? I am learning right now that what you plan on doing isn't always what God has in store for you. In my mind's eye I would be doing all I can to sneak into to Fenway tonight, either that or I would have gotten really lucky and someone would be hooking me up with some sweet tickets for the game tonight. Well, that certainly isn't the case. Instead I am doing some awesome manual labor on Mom and Dad's new house and just got another job with the Romney Campaign here in Utah. Life isn't always as you expect it. Instead of Fenway tonight, I will be up on 30 foot scaffolding in the great room at Mom and Dad's house or the B-CRANC putting bark grass on the ceiling. That is almost the same rush let me tell you though. Scaffolding = kinda scary.

So I took a job under the Political arm of the the campaign this week. I will be working between Salt Lake and Provo, (mainly in Provo) at offices set up with the goal to call out to voters in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada (the early states) to first see what they think about Mitt's views on the issues they feel most important and then as January approaches we will be calling them to make sure they are registered to vote and that they actual do it. The office in Provo will mainly be staffed by student volunteers and then 5-6 interns that will be working there as well. I guess you could say I will be the one in charge of the office, making sure it is staffed, and that things are getting done. So, though I absolutely would never have pictured this, it is going to be a pretty cool job. I am an actual employee the campaign now with benefits and all. And I have upgraded from the pay of a full time Wendy's employee, to that of a $30.000 per year school teacher here in Utah. Alright!

The best part about the job is that it is short term (til Feb.) it will give me a little time to figure things out and explore what my next move is, and I will be in Provo a lot, which is where Julie is. Things are going really well with her, the more I am with her, the better things get, and that isn't usually the case with me and girls that I have dated. She keeps exceeding my expectations. So I am pretty excited about that. I think she is going to come to Arizona with us for Thanksgiving, so that will give those of you there a chance to meet her.

Life is pretty interesting, wouldn't you say. You can never know what to expect, but that is what I like best about it. Predictability would make life rather boring. That said, it would be nice to have a little clue of what is going on every once in a while. I am still pretty excited about getting into the travel industry...I am finding more and more that that is one of my biggest passions...finding a way to bring the rich and the poor together. Finding a way to do it where I can be involved in not only traveling myself with my family, but finding ways to get families from all over to get involved with it.

I love you guys. Go Red Sox!

Watch the little guys...they don't mind eating it hard.

aren't these little guys awesome?

St. George and Back.

So. Last weekend was conference, and Saren talked me into bringing Julie down to St. George for the weekend (I liked the idea too). So we went down there and had an awesome time. A nice long drive is always good for talks...and there is nothing like a good traffic jam in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. We found a place to go backwards off an on-ramp and made up some time on the access road, so it wasn't too bad.

As usual Saren and Jared were awesome hosts. Jo and Aja were down in Vegas til Saturday night for Aja's reunion. So we had a great time with the Loosli's til Jo and Aja got there and then had a great time with them as well. They were all real nice to Julie and I think she was impressed by all you guys. I mean you are pretty awesome. So we had a lot of good food, both physically and spiritually...enjoyed some beautiful hikes...good weather...and lots of little kids.

For those of you who don't know, this is my new Jeep I just bought from a Vietnam vet. Just kidding, this is Jo's Jeepster Commando from the 60's. He let me and Julie take it out for a spin up Snow Canyon. That thing is awesome...feels like you are driving one of those army jeeps you see in the movies. Anyway, we made it to the top where there are some pretty huge speed bumps. Well, we went over those...and suddenly the old commando quit on me. So we tried to jump it, looked pretty dumb for a while...then couldn't get it to start so we coasted the whole way down the canyon, which was actually quite pleasant. We got back down to where Jo was and he in turn found out that one of the stupid big old speed bumps had popped the battery cable off the terminal. He slapped in on and it started...i guess I could have figured that out, I just figured we were out of gas. Anway, it was a great trip...I really enjoyed conference and the chance to spend some good time with Julie.

This last one is from the other night, Julie took me out and one of the stops was a 3d Imax about the ocean and the life therin. That would explain the sweet glasses on my head. We came home after and made fondue and ate with mom and dad. Nothing tops that huh?
Well. As for now I am going to be sticking around here in Salt Lake for a while as Julie is pretty awesome, and I can't just leave now that things are going so well. Not what I had anticipated, never in a million years would I guess that I would still be here and not back on the East Coast, but good thing God knows better than I do and things don't always turn out they way I expect them. Love you guys, give me a call...

a girl

So you may have heard a bit that there is a girl. Julie. She's pretty awesome. We were really good friends in Jerusalem...she had a guy back home though, so nothing really amounted other than us getting to be really good friends. So we got back, she was home in San Diego for the summer...a couple of weeks ago I went by to visit her when I was down in Provo and decided I ought to ask her out (after firguring out what happened with the other guy). So we went out. And we hit it off...so we have been spending a lot of time together the last couple weeks. and it has been really...well, great. She is really quite a girl. She came up last weekend and met mom and dad and Saren and Jared, so if you want the real inside scoop you might have to ask them. That much said, she is making my life quite a bit harder right now as I am unemployed and deciding where to go next...but harder in a really good way. Call me and we can talk details. Love you all, read on for more on the Rally that finally took place.

The Rally

Well. We came we saw we conquered. The Rally happened. It happened good. It is crazy to spend so much time on something and then all of the sudden it is over. What an experience it has been. It has been crazy. Every day til late 9pm working our tails off. It was awesome to see it actually happen. Mitt was there, he was happy, his people were happy and I think we raised a pretty good sum of money. So as Mitt has said before "I was pleased as punch" to see this thing finally come about.

Here they are....The Rally Coordinators. From left to right. Stevie from Iowa, me, Danielle, Brad and my doggy Parley. Had these guys not been around it would have been impossible to keep my sanity. We were all the on the same boat and felt the same way about a lot of things so we were able to vent to each other and keep our cool instead of going ape on our bosses. They are all now really good friends and it was definately a pleasure to work with them and get to know them. I think they will be friends for a long time.

Here's the Rally in action. We had around 1.000 there. Not bad, not what we wanted, but everyone that was there was dedicated to the cause and really excited about what is happening with the campaign.
Here we all are making calls. The baloon were the markers. Red = $1,000. Silver = 2,000 Gold = 5,000 and Blue = 10,000. By the end there were quite a few baloons around as we raised a good chunk of cash. Fund raising is not easy, especially after you have exhausted most of your options. I am really interested to see what the campaign does in the fourth quarter as they have pretty much tapped out all of their resources.