Hello everyone, this website is great. Thanks Mike for coming up with the idea. I think we need to make sure everyone gets a profile..including Mom and Walker...so we can have updated photos and everyone's birthdays. That way we can keep track of all that and see how everyone is doing lately. I even made it my homepage so I won't forget to check it every now and then.
Well, as for me, I think everyone knew I had been unemployed for most of October and part of November (almost a month...AHHHH!) but did finally get a job on Nov 7th through a temp agency called Kelly Services. So I am a temporary employee working for a company called Moore Wallace as a Xerox Operator. It's exactly as it sounds kind of like working at Kinko's only picture a much bigger company like a wharehouse with about 20 of these really big copiers & I am running 2 of them at once. I run big jobs and little ones like today I ran a huge job of about 85,000 papers for AARP Insurance booklets. We do other things like Verizon & Cingular phone bills, Citibank booklets, Washington Mutual info, we even had Hewlett Packard paychecks and the client (meaning like the VP of the company) flew in from Florida just to make sure the job ran smoothly. It's kinda cool. So anyways, I guess they do a hire every year about this time so they have everyone trained and ready for their busy time in January. So I'm guaranteed a job until then and even further. For now I work Monday-Friday 4p-12p which has been great for school and church (but lousy for a social life) but what can ya do? But also in January because it's so busy then I will have to work 7 days a week (UGH!) but I think they also give out a higher pay incentive for it. But it's a job and it pays the bills, pretty well, and I actually kind of enjoy it. It's an easy job and I don't have to deal with "dumb John Doe" customers all day. So I had payed training for 2 weeks and now I'm pretty much full time and on my own.
Oscar and I have been dating for about 4 months now. It's been fun how much we learn from each other. He teaches me Spanish, things about the Hispanic culture, and especially how to cook! And I teach him English, about Americans and even the gospel. He's been taking the discussions for a couple weeks and is loving it. The elders that teach him are so funny and great teachers. He watched the movie The Work and The Glory with me and my roommates last Sunday and it was awesome how he remembered so much from what he had been talking about with the elders and he could recognize it in the video. His cousins were baptized about 3 months ago (the ones he lives with) and that has been a big support for him. After my ward ends then I go to the Spanish Ward with him for sacrament. It's amazing how I could feel the spirit and understand the gospel even when it was in a different language. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" in spanish and I bawled! I actually understood the words for the most part but it still blew me away how much it made me cry. Anyways, so yea it's been pretty exciting to watch him change and even watch myself change. The repentance process is an incredible thing and I'm so very grateful for it. Ok sorry to get all mushy on ya.
As far as Oscar's job, he has been working at Cafe Rio (a real mexican style restaurant) for about a month and loves it. It's like the perfect restaurant for him, with the right kind of food, and the right kind of management. He actually gets treated like a person, it's great. He has chances of moving up in the company with them. They've recognized he is a fast and dedicated employee by giving him raises and he even subbed in for the manager while he was gone for a couple weeks. Now they have even mentioned that he might be a trainer for them at other restaurants maybe even in Salt Lake. He is a really good cook!
As for school, I am still going and trying hard to get my GPA back up and to maintain it. I'm looking into accounting but nothing has changed as of yet.
So I guess that about sums it up for now. Oscar and I are heading down to SLC to go to Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma Smith and the family. We're a little nervous about it. But it should be fine. And he's really excited (meaning extremely nervous) to meet all of you when you come up for Christmas. I hope you guys like him. He's so funny.
But yea, I hope to hear some comments back or more updates on what's going on with everyone. Oh yea, I'm going to try to figure this thing out and post some pictures of Me and Oscar and my roommates too.
I love you all very much and miss you tons! I can't wait to see you all soon. Oh, and feel free to post pictures of the cats and Toni...I miss them too! Adios Amigos!