State Certification Exam

Well, I took my Life and Health State Certification test today. I needed a 70% in order to pass. (It's a hard test!) After 2 hours of testing with only a 3-minute stretch break, I finished the test with a 78%. I thought "Yay, I guess I did pretty good." So after I left the testing room, I asked one of the staff if people usually pass the Life and Health exam on the first go and she laughed at me and said no. So I guess I did better than I initially thought! While I was there, there were several other people testing for it; only one that I know of also passed the test, and she passed with a 71%. Even my new boss said he had to take it twice. :P I may sound boastful, but I'm proud of myself; I studied hard for this exam and I'm glad it paid off. :)

So, I got fingerprinted, applied for my license from the state, paid some more money, and am now (I think) fully hired on at Beneficial Financial! (I still have to turn in my contract, they told me not to stress about it until after I had finished the test.) I'm going to talk to them tomorrow and find out when they want me to start coming into the office. Be aware, I might be calling you soon to help me get some clientele so me and Dawni can afford our cabbage soup for dinner! ;) (If you really are interested in setting up something for retirement in an IRA, Roth IRA, or a Whole Life Insurance policy (it functions like a retirement account + life insurance; you can take money out when you need it later in life), or just insurance on yourselves to help protect your kids (for those of you that have them), please let me know as I'd love to get some stuff set up early. It would help me and Dawni out a lot, as they say the first year or two is always the hardest to survive in this business.)

Oh, and someone told me last night while we were up in Morgan to ask Dad (father-in-law Dad) how many times he had to take the CPA exam, cause I was nervous I wouldn't pass this test. I'm guessing he had to take it more than once?

-Zach

Holiday Baking

I love baking for the different holidays (like you could see with my cookies on Halloween ^_^) These are the Christmas cookies that I made for the 2 family parties that we went to this year. I think they turned out great. They were really easy to make and were fun to bring to the parties :)

My New Car!!!

This is my new car :) It is a 2003 Honda Civic. We got it at the Auto Auction for a steal. The only thing that we can see wrong with it is the scratch on the front bumper and it looks like someone tried to steal the cd player but it it just a scratch as well :)


I love it :) The only thing is now I have to learn how to drive a stick shift. I am getting better every day at it and building my confidence. It will be a good family car and last a long time.

Yay for Graduation!!!

Zach graduated from Weber State University on December 12. He now has his Bachelors degree in Business Administration. He is done with college for now, until he goes back for his MBA but that will be after a well deserved rest.

This is him walking down to go to his seat. We were sitting right across from where he sat. (that was by chance because we were told wrong where he was going to march in from. It worked out better though, I think)

Sorry for the dark picture, the lighting was terrible. Here he is standing with his fellow graduates.

Walking back to his seat after he received his diploma. I think this is the best picture of him

Him with my mom. My dad was out of town on business or he would have been there as well.

Me giving my graduate a kiss :)

Zach and his family.

Hurray for the Graduate.

6 Quirks

I was tagged by Camille a while ago. Sorry I’m a slacker.

1. I have to have all my money facing the same way. When ever I get change at any store I have to put it from largest to smallest bill. I face Zach's wallet sometimes as well. When I tellered at America First I always had to have the bills not just face up, but having all the faces going the same way. I even had to face all the money in the vault when I was in charge of the money in there. I blame it on working at Jubilee. That is when this obsession started.

2. I hate folding socks. I don't know why, but that is always the last thing that I fold. Sometimes I even let them sit a few weeks before I get to them.

3. I don't like taking baths. It grosses me out to think that I am sitting in my own filth in the water. If I take a bubble bath or just need to soak in a warm bath for some reason, I have to shower first so I know I'm clean.

4. I always am early to things. I always over estimate how long it is going to take me to get ready, then I am sitting around until it is time to leave the house. I would rather show up early and sit in my car in the parking lot than show up late. (Zach is the one that usually makes us late to things. He knows exactly how much time it takes him to get ready and he waits until the last minute to start. It drives me crazy sometimes)

5. I have to have the TV on when I am alone in the house. I hate being alone and I guess that makes me feel like I'm not alone or something. I just have to have the noise.

6. At work, I have to have all my windows open in the same order every day. If one of my tab things on the bottom of the screen is out of order it drives me crazy. To the point that if one of my windows has to close for some reason, and it isn't that much of a hassle, I have to close and reopen all my windows to make them in the right order.

So there is all you ever you wanted to know about me, and maybe a little bit more ^_^
I tag Sherry, Natalie G., Michele, Denise, and Janell.

Beneficial Financial Group

Many of you know that I've been interviewing with Beneficial Financial Group for over a month now. Well, as of today I now have a new job. :) I begin my training on Monday, and they hope to have me through most of my training by the first of the year. Both Dawni and I are excited for this opportunity.

So, if any of you are thinking of investing, retirement accounts, or insurance, give me a call soon. My living will be based on the clientele I help, so if you have any friends that might be interested, please pass the word on! :) They say the first year is always the hardest, but I'm ready to go for it!

-Zach

(BTW, I'm still planning on working at the shop part-time for a bit, so still come in and say hi!)

First time

Last night when we were coming home from a friend's house, it was after midnight. We were by the new Chevron there on Park Lane (the street you go on to get to Lagoon Dr.) and I saw a car slow down, going the opposite direction for a deer to cross the road. I was pointing out that deer to Zach, and when I looked back there was one right in front of me. Yes, I hit it. It was the first time I have ever hit a deer and only the second time that I have ever hit an animal in the road. I was so greatful to have Zach there to help calm me down. The girl that had slowed down for the other deer came to help us and see if we were ok. Luckly, neither of us were hurt and there was very little damage to my car...

There is a small dent in the fender next to my door. As you can see I scared the poop out of the deer that I hit :)

There is also two small dents in the front end of my fender.

The door creaks when you open it a little so we think all we need to do is shift the fender back up, since the deer pushed it back, and hammer out the larger dent near the back of the wheelwell with a rubber mallet. These are the times I am greatful to have a mechanic in the family. As for the deer, all I did was break its hind legs. It was sad to see it struggle to get up to reach its family (the other deer that crossed the road before her). We had to call the police to come and put her out of her missery. It was hard, even though I hit it, to watch the officer shoot her on the side of the road but we couldn't let her suffer.

So, there is my long story of the night. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well after that :)

4 in 4 tag

Since the only picture file that I have is our picture dump that we did on Zach's laptop when we were in Disneyland because we ran out of room on our memory card, here is the 4th picture in that :) This is right after we got our camera a few years ago and all we did at first was take random pictures to figure out how everything works on it. This one is of Zach, Kaede(the brown dog) and Ryoko(the black and white dog, Zach's parent's dog) on our bed. Don't ask me what kind of face that he's pulling. I tag Natalie Richens, Camille Thornock, Timorie, and Annie. Hope you have fun :) (ps sorry about the last names but I have a couple of friends on my blog with the same first names)

Yay for a new entertainment center :)

We found this entertainment center on KSL yesterday. It is a scratch and dent from Overstock.com; that is what the guy who we bought it from told us. It fits the TV pretty good, but I don't know what I am going to do with all the other stuff that was in our other entertainment center. That thing was a bottomless pit (Sherry you should know).

We got a new TV!

We have been waiting for our $40 redemption card from the government to purchase a digital converter box for ~3 months now, and while at college today I looked into it and got incredibly frustrated. We haven't got our card yet, and another would take possibly months to arrive, and at that point we might be at the date where analog transmission ceases, so we'd have to go buy a digital reciever box with our own money anyway. And the box would only be a band-aid, as our TV would still be out of date... I got so frustrated, that I did something I normally do not do; I wanted to make a big purchase and just buy a new TV. Normally, I'm ok saving for something until you can buy it in cash, but at this point I just didn't care anymore.

So, we went down to RC Willey to visit Dawni's brother who works in electronic sales down there, and he hooked us up with a bright and shiny 50" Hitachi Plasma Screen. (Thanks, Bud!) Sadly, our entertainment center we had owned since we were married could not hold this behemoth, so I am going around with a truck today to various stores to find something to hold both it and the mountain of unknown mass of DVDs, CDs, and books that we had stuffed in the old entertainment center. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm going to visit various DIs and Furniture in a Box. We don't want to spend the gas to drive down to IKEA, but that's an idea as well. We'd like to keep it under $100 if possible and have places to squish our DVDs back into.

Hello, pictures!

Nightmare Before Christmas on the new TV.

Me acting like a fool in front of the new TV. Geez, I have long arms...

Dawni looking fully awesome.

Yes, that is a DESK the TV is currently on. I am attempting to remedy the situation!

-Zach

My Costume

So...here is my costume. Can anyone guess what it is?
Thanks to Zach's creative mind....I am a hobo spider :)

Here are all the people that dressed up at work. Hope everyone had a great Halloween :)

Halloween Cookies

I am having a Halloween party at my work and I made the best treat. I thought they could have turned out better, but I still think that they look pretty good. Sorry that the pictures aren't better. My Camera wouldn't focus on them very well.

What do you think?

Carvin' Pumpkins

Today we got together with one of Zach's friends (Erik) and his girlfriend (Sara) and carved pumpkins. Can you believe that Sara has never carved a pumpkin in her life? Crazy, I know. It was kinda fun being like a kid again and just having fun with the pumpkins and the gooey guys :)

In order from left to right, Erik and Sara's, Zach's, and my pumpkin. Erik didn't carve his own pumpkin because when he cut his lid off his pumpkin was filled with water. He drained it out and it smelt soooo bad. I have never heard of a pumpkin being rotten from the inside like that. It looked perfectly good on the outside. It was really gross. He almost threw up in the pumpkin.

Our pumpkins in the dark. Sorry for the blurry picture. It is not that easy to take a picture in complete darkness.

I FINISHED IT!!!!

I just finished the best book series that I have read. I read all 4 books in about 3 1/2 months-ish, and if anyone knows me, this is a feat. I had a few breaks in there when I read slower because I didn't want it to end, but then I just couldn't put them down. I won't say too much because I know that some people that read my blog haven't read it at all (in which case, I highly recommend that you do. You won't be dissapointed) and some haven't finished it, so I don't want to spoil anything. I loved it and recommend it to anyone. When my sister first suggested it to me, she said that it is a book about vampires and that she didn't think she would like it either, but there is so much more in it than vampires. I would totally have to agree with her. I didn't think I would like it at first either. It actually took me quite a few months to actually read it after I bought it, and now I wish I would have just started it then. If you want to start reading them, they are worth the money and if you are still reading, don't stop (like you will be able to anyway), there the best. I can wait for the movie to come out Nov. 21, and yes, I am going to be one of the crazies at the midnight showing with the "I love Edward" shirts on. I can't wait :)

Squash Season!

PATHETIC POST ALERT!

It's squash season!!!

I just posted this for the entirely sad fact that I like the face that I drew on our banana squash. That, and the fact that Dawni hasn't updated this in about a week, and it feels like everyone blogs more than us. (Guess that happens when you don't have kids yet...) Yes, our lives are so boring with college and work right now that this is the highlight of the week. At least I'll be done with college in ~2 months and we can move on with our lives to (hopefully) more interesting things.

If anyone has EXTRA squash, I would love to eat it for you. ^_- It, along with Halloween and Thanksgiving, are about all of the highlights of Fall for me. (I like green leaves and warm temperatures; I am very much a spring/summer type of person. Fall just is when everything starts to shut down or die around us, in my opinion. Spring is about new life and summer is about enjoying it!) ^_^

-Zach

6 unspectacular things about myself (I've been tagged)

1. I love having a big family: 4 sisters and one brother (all married) and once everyone is born, it will be 10 nephews and 7 neices - total of 17 ^_^

2. I love having a clean house, but don't like to clean very much. (who really does) (sorry Penny, I stole this one from you ^_^)

3. I love to crochet and cross stitch

4. I can't wait for Zach to graduate from college in December

5. I'm hopelessly addicted to the Twilight series, and can't wait for the movie to come out November 21st

6. I am not a decision maker (my whole family can contest to this). This is the reason that I ended school with only my associates because I changed my major 3 times and I still don't know what I want to do if I end up going back to school.

Our trip to Denver for NDK

This year we went to Denver for NDK (Nan Desu Kan). It is an anime convension that is held there every year. The Weber State anime club went all together this year, which made it more fun to have so many people there that we already knew. Here are SOME of the pictures that we took while we were there.
The first day during the opening ceremonies they did a Koto demonstration. It was really cool to watch them be played in real life not just in the movies.

This is us at Garcias. The resturant is right across the street from the convention center so it was an easy to get to. Yes, those are cat ears that I am wearing. I bought them in Disneyland just for this occasion. (They are Marie ears from Aristrocats)

This is Erik and Sara, a couple of our friends that went along with us.

Alexandra with a pair of hand made wings on. They are a lot cooler in real life than in the picture.

These are pictures of the group Mirai Taiko that came to preform. They were my favorite thing at the con. This is only a select few of the pictures that I took. I got a little excited when I heard that they were going to perform and I took literally 36 pictures of them. Yes, I am a little crazy :)

The three princesses. Princess from Mario Galaxy, Peach, and Daisy

This is an 11 year girl that was there. She was one of my favorites that were dressed up even though I don't know what she is dressed up like.

My Neighbor Totoro. We own this show if anyone cares to watch it :)

So there you go, there is a little bit of our trip. Trust me, you didn't wany me to post all of our pictures because there are way to many to post on the blog. If you want to see more, still not all of them, you can visit our facebook page :)

Pictures of us

I don't know if everyone knows where to go for regular updates of pictures and comments on what's going on in our lives on a more consistant basis, but both me and Dawni are on Facebook and have photo albums there.  If anyone ever wants to see a record of our many adventures together, just head over to our photo albums at http://www.facebook.com

Yellowstone

Yellowstone 2008

California 2008

Camping 2008

East Canyon 2008

Disneyland

Europe (Album #1)

Europe (Album #2)

Races, 5ks, etc.

BTW, we would love to add new friends on Facebook if anyone wants to take the leap into an online social network.  It's fun.  ^_^  If you have an account, you can also read and post comments on the pictures, and you can view all of the galleries a whole lot easier than how I have to do it here.  There are also some minor random photo galleries we have that I didn't link to here.  Oooh, the suspense!

-Zach

PS - I've added some stuff on the side bar, if something doesn't work, looks dumb, or if you know of some fun gadget we need on this page, let us know.  :)

Camping at Lyman Lake

This last weekend we (Zach, I, and his parents) went camping up in the Uintas at Lyman Lake. There is a youth stake camp up there, and Zach's grandparents are a couple of the care takers of the camp. This was our first and last camping trip of the year. (Besides the beach party at Mom's)

This is just before we left. It was early, can't you tell with the looks on there faces?

-sorry about the stop sign-

This is the lodge.

This is the cabin that Zach's grandparents stay in.

These are views of the lake.

This is my attempt at lighting coals for our dutch oven. It was windy and I couldn't get a match to stay lit.

Eating our tin foil dinners. My favorite camping meal.

My first attempt at cobbler in the dutch oven. It tasted realy good and only took 3 hours to cook. I didn't light enough coals at first then the wind kept taking the heat away. We finaly had to put it over the fire with all the coals on the top. It cooked fast after that.

Our dog Kaede after a long day of squirrel hunting/chasing. She decided that was a really fun thing to do while we were there.

Me in the morning. I wore 2 pairs of socks up to my knees, my levis and flanel pants, 2 hoodies with the hoods up most of the night, then I had a big sleeping bag with a blanket underneath me and one on top. Needless to say, I didn't get cold in the 30 degree weather.

Our walk arround Lyman Lake

Our walk arround Little Lyman Lake. It sits just below Lyman Lake

The stay there was short, just Saturday and Sunday, but it was still a ton of fun.