Mrs. Manager

Here's just a quick update....

I GOT A JOB!!!!!!

I'm the new office manager at Union Square apartments (mostly married student housing) here in Provo (walking distance from our house). The best part about it is that- I'm not the one who people call at 2am when their toilet is overflowing and they don't have a plunger. I do all the office work- getting rent, filing it away, doing financial statements (maybe Jon can help?), check-ins, check-outs and anything else I'm unaware of. I start on the 21st. I am so grateful for this job/opportunity. I'm nervous as to what will happen for the summer- but we'll cross that bridge when it comes. Yay!!!

Dappy Halentine's Vay!

This was Jon's gift from me.. a chocolate bar and a homemade "coupon book" (ex: good for a haircut) Everything you see (except the chocolate bar...) was made from all my scrap-booking stuff that I've been hanging onto.. notice all the designed paper, ribbon and stickers- :-) I bought it all about a year ago- who knew it would come in handy??!!

So, when I first met Jon I was introduced to his funny "language" that he spoke with his co workers on a daily basis. They "balk tackwards" if you will... or for those of us (me included!) that can never figure it out: "talk backwards". I've since developed my skills of balking tackwards, but am still far behind.

We were then introduced to a book written by Shel Silverstein titled, "Runny Babbit". He was working on it right before he died and he never finished it. It's a book where all the characters talk backwards and the poems are really cute. It's a fun book and is always good for a laugh. Anyways... I wanted to share a poem Jon wrote to me on Valentine's day. He said it was his own "Runny Babbit" poem. Oh yes.. and Jon wanted to post this too!

"Hig Bunk's Uper Wamazing Sife"

Hig Bunk was a monely lan
But knew one day he'd me a ban.
He'd hind fimself a wexy sife
And then he'd have a lappy hife.
Fe hound a nirl gamed Sprystal Cing
And soon delt known with a Riney Shing.
No wetter bould be Hig Bunk's life
unless wis hife was hy sis bide.
She sid mo duch and hoved lim so
He only wanted to het ler know
How grateful we has for all de shoes
He never wants to get ler ho.
So on this vay of Dalentine's
I only ask, will bou me yine?

(try saying that 5 times!!)

Thanks Jon! It was really sweet and thoughtful of you. I'm really grateful to have this creative stud ;-)

Farewell, Comcast

For those of you who don't know- this last week or so has been filled with a lot of trials for our family. I lost my job this past week from Comcast. Right now I don't feel that the details are important to go into on this blog- but if you want to know feel free to ask or call us up. As my Bishop put it about me as an employee there"Bless your heart for being so honest" In no way do I want this experience to leave people feeling like they should stay away from the company- their products are great and I wish I could have them... I was bummed when we couldn't even get them for free while I worked there- c'est la vie!

However, I really wanted to share my experience with you- I apologize if this turns into a "journal entry"- so if you don't want to read anymore- feel free to stop. These past 8 months while I was there was very rough for me. I did a lot of 12 hour days- especially once the snow season flew in without any warning whatsoever! There were a lot of emotional days.

(here is their parking lot...)

I love working with people (hence my psychology degree) but it got to a point where my heart was too big and I let these customers really get to me. They tugged on my heart strings a bit. I had a few supervisors/floor support who told me to lie to some of my customers- I'm proud to say that I never did- but there was a lot of pressure to do so. Then about once or more a day I would get a call asking me to order adult rated movies for them- and that really tore me apart. I'll be honest- there were a few days where I just couldn't bring myself to do it ("I'm sorry sir, it looks like I can't find that movie and you'll have to do something else instead" =) no I really did. I felt like I was stuck in a nightmare.
(not my desk.. but what I was wishing for ;-) just kidding)

For a spiritual sense, I felt like I couldn't feel the spirit for how down I started to get. This didn't happen over night of course- but it really made an impact on how I went about my day and how I felt about myself. I spent a lot of time praying- but I just felt like I was in a rut. Especially after a 12 hour day- I only had 12 hours after that and we're really good about going to bed early enough so we can get 8hours of sleep... so after that it left me 4 hours to get everything else done- so an hour before I left for the day and 3 hours after work to get dinner together and any church thing I had or anything else. I was running on no gas- which i'm sure you've all felt at one time or another.

However, the day that I lost my job- I felt as if everything was lifted from my shoulders. It's a trial and a blessing at the same time. I'm job hunting and I'm trying as hard as I can- but I am so much happier. I love working and working to achieve things, but this job really destroyed me. No matter how hard I tried to rise above everything, I felt like I could never progress. I am stressed out because we're leaving in 13 weeks or so to Arkansas- but we do have a back up plan if everything goes south. I've applied to about 10 places and I've had 2 interviews in the last 3 days. It can only get better, right?

Sorry that I took up a lot of your time and a lot of space here- but I really needed to get this off my chest. I want to thank all of you for being there for us and for keeping us in your prayers- it makes a huge difference and it is appreciated. I figure if mom could rise above all of her trials no matter what the outcome- so can I. I'm just so glad that I've been able to come back to my senses almost. It has been a while since I've felt this good. I know it'll be hard to attract new employers with all of this information- but I know Heavenly Father has a place and plan for me. It's a learning experience and I know that I did everything the best I knew how.

The Gmat is Official

In order to apply for the Masters program here at BYU I had to first take the GMAT - Graduate Management Admissions Test (needed to get into any business graduate program). It is a standardized test similar to a SAT but taken entirely on a computer. The discouraging part is that it is an adaptive test, meaning that it changes as you take it. Basically, everytime you get a question correct, the test gets harder, but each time you get a question wrong it gets easier. About halfway through the test it figures you out and puts you at the level you deserve. That is discouraging because it means by the time you are halfway through the test, you are getting every other question wrong because it figured you out.

Smart computers.

Anywho, the test is made of 4 sections. Two writing sections where you analyze and argument, and then one math and one reading section. Because it is taken on a computer, immediately after finishing the test you receive a score for math and reading, which ends up being the only score BYU cares about. About a week or two later someone grades your written arguments and you receive the official scores.

I have now officially taken the GMAT as of last Saturday. Last night, however I received my official scores. Out of 800 potential points, I have received a 690, which is 60 points above the average accepted into the masters program here at BYU and about 160 points above the nationwide average for the exam. As this screen shot from my score sheet shows, this means I am in the upper 10% of all people who take the exam. To make matters better I receivied a perfect score (6 out of 6) on my written section. Too bad BYU doesn't care about that score...plus 11% of test takers also get the perfect score. Who would have thought I would have done better on the reading and writing part of the test than on the math...



Anyways, so now I go back into the application process and hope that I get accepted into the Master's program. Pray for our family!