Life In My Mind

Fill in the blank.

2009-10-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

Life just doesn't get much ______ than this.

So what is it? I have often thought of this phrase and tried to figure out what would go into the blank. Would it be funner, colder, more frozen, better, grander, S****** ... what would it be?

Let me try and explain my life at the moment, just briefly. Getting married! PLUS!!!! All the wedding plans (not such a plus). Only 5 weeks left of class!!!! PLUS!!!!!!! Am a part of an incompantant company. not such a plus. Super far ahead on my homework!!! PLUS!!! lost my internship. not such a plus. Little stress PLUS!!! HATE spending money .... even for food. (I worked hard for that money, I don't want to spend it on something I can go without ... errr wait ... food, no food, food, no food. Ehh no food.) Family, PLUS!!! trying to keep on a blog. not such a plus.

You see, there are many reasons why to hate life as well as to love life. I really dont like school or how difficult my company is to work with. Yet I love a woman who takes care of me, even when I hate spending money on food ... she pretty much forces me to. She is the best. I'm happy that she is up here to make me buy food.

So it is up to you, fill in the blank.

Lost another one

2009-10-14T20:59:00.001-07:00

Another one lost to cancer. A great friend and probably the best missionary in the mission died today from cancer early this morning. I got to know him well from Zone conferences, and his reputation. He was known to have over 20 baptisms and ALL of them are still active today (at least thats the rumor/reputation he had). For the south and our mission in paticular, that was absolutely incredible. He finished his mission, went home, was diagnosed with cancer and fought for a long time. Everyone thought he was getting fat because his neck didn't fit in his shirts anymore when in reality it was a tumor growing. A day for morning for the Florida Tallahassee Mission.

I am reminded of another missionary that had to go home because of health issues. All missionaries know that by the end of their mission they finally start to begin to think that they might have an idea on what to do to start doing real work. This paticular missionary had it down to a science at about 8 months out. He was put into brand new areas, open them up and have several people who are lined up for baptisms, he would fire up wards and branches like never before. Then, it is believed that satan had to stop him some how. And at about a year out he was sent home. Sad day.

Still No Business?

2009-10-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

I am in the finance department and we can't do anything until we get numbers. We are stuck, immovable, trapped, jammed, toast, done, finished until we get some numbers to work with. We get numbers from the Marketing and Operations departments and costs, prices, needs, blaa blaa blaa. Yesterday we as in the finance department (and the company for that matter) waisted the whole time because we couldn't do anything. Today, ok, serious now, let get some numbers. "Hold on Trent, we need to decide [insert phrase here]" Excuse me? what? ok well then we better decide what we are FREAKIN SELLING THEN! (Preface to the next part: we did find out what item we were going to sell ... sweatshirts) Weather it be plain sweatshirts, logoed sweatshirts, printed sweatshirt, zip-up sweatshirts, regular pull-over sweatshirts or what. 45 minutes later after all the bickering. I go to the CEO and ask alright, whats the decision? Response: "We are selling sweatshirts."

Are you telling me that we used yet another 45 minutes to find out we are selling sweatshirts, DUH! You incompitent fools. Do you realize that if we do not get a FINALIZED copy of our business plan, WITH a presentation within the next 36 hours, WE ARE GOING TO FAIL!!! With this brought to their attention, they split up into departments to really hammer our paticulars, prices to be percise. Yet another 30 minutes later we get our first number. How did we get it? I took a piece of paper and went to the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and told him to make an exeutive desition on how much we are selling these sweatshirts for. Response: "Pull-over sweatshirts, $17. Zip-up $20 no matter the design, or logo." THANK YOU, final freakin lee. Why can't we do that more. I find the COO (Chief Operating Officer) "How much money is it going to take to get these sweatshirts from the manufacture to the customers hands, I'm talkin our cost?" Response: "$10.75 for the pull-overs and 13.06 for the zip-ups, plus a dollar per sweatshirt for shipping plus 3 cents for the printings."

Whoa ... am I in the same company? Since when did we actually make a decision?

And so the finance department went to work ...........

Gone camping

2009-10-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

In the IBC my company went camping together to learn teamwork and leadership. While there we are told to filter though our many ideas and come up with one that will work. And so we did. We quickly filters the many different ideas down to 4 main ones that we thought might work. A straw maze, Hay rides, selling t-shirts and sweatshirts, or having a dry cleaning service. It took us less than 5 days to filter 500 ideas and filter down to 4, it took another week and a half since camping to filter out 3 of the 4. How, not why, how does it take longer to filter 3 ideas out when it took only 5 days to filter our 496 ideas.

Now, a week and a half after camping, tomorrow, we need to have a finalized version of our business plan. Pristine, beautiful, logical, and understandable business plan. We have found it is difficult to meet as a company since it is hard to find an opening for 25 people in their schedules. So when we do we need to be efficient and effective. Move with the agenda, get things done. The company met last Friday, we have a week to go:
"What decisions do we need to make."
"What do you mean what product are we selling?"
"I thought we already decided that."
So we decided to sell t-shirts and sweatshirts, then change our minds to winter apparel, then change our minds to chap sticks and lotions, then we decide to sell only sweatshirts, then we have an argument on what decision to make about what to decide on. Yesterday, I show up ready to get to work and crunch some numbers out so we can get this thing rolling. I ask, "How much are we selling these things for?" What did they respond with ... you will never believe. "Wait, did we make a decision on what we are selling?" **Sigh** ha.ha. Let me get this straight, your telling me that we spent over 10 total hours of arguing and debating and filtering and still haven't come up with what to sell even when we were suppose to have what our business was A WEEK AND A HALF AGO!

So to say the least it is pretty frustrating to go to class and find out that we are still trying to decide on what to decide on. There are some days when I just want to slap these people crazy and show them that we need this done in less than 72 hours or we will not get a loan for a business and FAIL the IBC because we can't run a business.

School? uuggg ... school .............

2009-10-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I at least know how to get to this freakin thingamagigger I figure I better update my life. So since I've been looking I've noticed that just about every one of my entries is fairly negative.

IM ENGAGED

Ok, enough positive crap. School is an interesting event in life. Since I've been up here I have been totally and completely consumed by my classes. Actually only one, but still. I mean, absolutely, entirely, sadly, and ugly consumed by the IBC. Yes, I am saying that school ate me, chewed me up and swallowed. Let me explain.

The IBC (Idiotic Burocratic Class I mean ... uuhhh ... Intergrated Business Core. I totally ment that, yea.) is the first stepping stone into the business program. The IBC is a series of classes in which the teachers combine all the classes and have their students form and run a business of their very own (oh, how precious ... yea right, maybe for the validvictorian). In this class we are immediately separated into 2 companies with 5 teams each. Then, there was a great division that happened amoung the people ... errr the two companies went to opposite sides of the room. First day of class, yea ... first day, as in Thursday, the 10th of September ... 7 assignments given due THE NEXT DAY! What the freak!? As the semester went on, my company starts working on business ideas. Ok, might be a good idea since 93 percent of our grade is based on our business. We come up with 500 business ideas, ok so actually it was an assignment to get 500. One of them was a green card service for illegals, you think that will fly, HA! We will see what happends.

Pretty Sad

2009-10-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, there are some things in this life that is just sad, depressing, and shouldn't be talked about ... ever, at all. They should be taken and buried 300 yards into the earth in the center of a 30 foot thick block of reinforced concrete. Some things like, how embarrassed you got when you were found stealing the cookies out of the cookie jar (don't lie, we've all done it). Or, the times when your playing Nintendo when you really should be in bed, and rush to bed when you hear mom and dad drive in. Or the time when mom and dad went on a date, dad forgot the keys but us kids thought it was a robber so Dave took the butcher knife to 'protect' us. Or the time when I was told to go to bed at 11:00 p.m. and was found by Dad still playing the computer with Dave and Kurtis at 2:30 a.m. Or the time when we were riding ATV's and I see Dave go into a sand pit and thought it was cool so I go in and get stuck instead. Or the time when Cory wanted to play with his remote control car, had fun, but sprained his ankle in the process. How? By stepping off a curb. Or the time when Dave ripped the door off of the van ... TWICE! Or the time ... OK OK I GET THE PICTURE. Our lives are full of retarded things, I think mine is more full for some weird reason. I'm sure the angels in heaven who are assigned to watch over me just shake their heads and ask Heavenly Father to be re-assigned.

All this is to prepare you for the next thing that I knew was enevidable but for some reason fought against it. I went to go check my blog ... I forgot how. Yea. I bet some of you had to re-read that, nope ... totally true. Had to look myself up through google to find it. Finally I found it, forgot the e-mail to use, forgot the password, quite frankly I practically forgot I had one of these. Goes to show how often I look at this.

I figure, I haven't checked facebook in a while either maybe I should do that before it expires. At least I remembered how to get to it, but still forgot my password. Now, who ... you know what ... I'm done with this, this is in the center of a 30 foot thick block of reinforced concrete buried 300 yards into the earth.

Road Trip .....

2009-08-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend we, being Jennifer and I (I am sure all of you know who Jennifer is), went on a little road trip. We started out Thursday late morning to head down to Las Vegas for a shotgun wedding. But what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right ... yea. Sorry we forgot pictures, and announcements, and the ring, and ... everything else, including the wedding itself. So what, we didn't get married but we went to strip ... I mean THE strip. Or maybe we stripped on the strip? Whatever the case was we had fun doin whatever we were doin. Some of you might wonder where we stayed. Jennifer's grandparents were kind and hospitable enough to take us in for a couple of nights. We watched the Bellagio water show. Which happens every fifteen minutes starting at 8:00. That was fun to see water dance like Cinderella to TECHNO. Ok maybe not techno but close enough. My missionary friend was there to give us a few laughs as well.

After leaving everything behind in Vegas we head down to Los Angles, where we live it up in the Morrell house hold. Kaylinn, my sister, and her husband Mark were great hosts. A few movies, plenty of 'eating outings', and a couple hundred dollars later we finally made it to Disneyland. That was probably the best day ever. Jennifer and I pretty much took our time and did whatever, a true vacation. Then once Kaylinn got off work they joined us at about 3:30 were we partied like twentieth century Disney guros. For dinner I was feeling especially rich so we made like a plane and flew over to the famous Blue Byuo were it felt like I dropped another couple hundred dollars. But it was worth it. I recommend it to anyone who is not afraid to spend money on vacation ... because now I feel very poor. A few shows later we left "The Happiest Place on Earth" early to hit the sack ... 5:00 a.m. comes early.

Tuesday morning we head back home and back to our normal lives ... UNmarried. And for those who are wondering, Jennifer and I still like each other after so many hours spent together, yea you read me, we're not sick of each other.

The Incedent

2009-07-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, so we have all done it at least once. Except maybe Kaylinn, or Tessa, or Dave, or Mom, but I know Dad has and that's all that matters.

Thursday, I have a little work to do to finish up the week. Mom told me to hurry up because Dave needed to use the truck. So I'm doing my work and being quick about it and I get to my last stop. My last stop was a pretty crappy full service. So I dive my pool pole in and start scooping out the muck. In the process of doing so, I find myself horizontal ... like:

This guy,

or like:

This guy.

Don't mind the fact that both pictures are soccer pictures and that in this one he misses the ball.

The fact of the matter is: I was horizontal ... above the water, with no place to go but down, to the ground, to get out of the ... whatever, I'm not an ant so I don't go marching. Whatever the case is. I didn't just fall in ... I straight up dove in and everything came with me. I figured if I'm goin in, I'm gunna go in. I don't think I have ever taken a shorter swim ... ever. I thought, "There is no way in h*** that anybody is going to see me in here". I got out of that pool so fast I didn't want anyone to see that I fell in. It's quite ironic, I'm the pool man. I don't do that, not that it doesn't happen, I just don't. What pool man do you know that 'takes a dip' while working? That's what I thought. When I got out, I proceeded to laugh so hard that I'm curtain that me getting out of the pool so fast becomes totally irrelevant. In fact, so hard that I almost fall BACK in.

So to say the least, I finish up the service while listening to my shoes sop at every step. And can I be discreet, heck no because I got a little water trail everywhere I go. What the freak! I jump back in the truck, race home so I don't totally soak the seat with my embarrassment. But do I try and hide it, nope the first thing I do when I walk in the door, "DAVE!!! GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" following which I watch him laugh just as hard as I did. It was so funny ... until I noticed my phone in my pocket. But who cares ... I got insurance, or so I thought. Suddenly a funny thing wasn't so funny anymore. I didn't expect to throw down two watermelons that day to get a new phone.

All at once

2009-07-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

I would like to point out how irregular I am at updating this. Something I'll go for a couple months without writin a thing then in one day ... suddenly there are like 30 posts. Ok so I dont think I have thirty posts on here total, but you get the picture. **sigh** I need a wife to do this for me. Hahahaha.

Disneyland

2009-07-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

If you know me or my family then you probably have seen their blogs, and if you have then you already know about the trip to Disneyland. It was great, grand, wonderful. I of course did not go on any roller coasters because if I did then I would have lost my breakfast, and lunch, and dinner, all at the same time. Even my iron stomach brother felt a little queezie after a few. So we had fun down there. A friend of mine, David Lambertson, came as well since he had nothing else to do that weekend I invited him and he had a blast ... I think. yea yea yea so I'm trying to update this so its all short.

The passing

2009-06-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 8:48 P.M. my father passed from this mortal experience into a world beyond. He laid peacefully, in his own bed, surrounded by family. None of us could have asked for a better way considering the situation. After some sweet words from Tessa, he moved on to bigger and better things. He doesn't suffer anymore, he doesn't hurt anymore, and he is busier now than ever before. So why worry about him? He is doing great! Death is apart of life and there is nothing we can do to stop it. He was a great man, we all know that. We love you dad!

Pictures

2009-05-13T21:40:00.001-07:00

So I just realized that I dont have very many pictures of me going on. So this is just to show some pictures of me, serious and fun.

What the, are those dead? ... yup!

Oh, oh, mommy ... look over there!

Probably the best one I got.

The Infamous Pool

2009-05-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting day. First it started with not having enough chlorine. So because there was about five gallons left on the truck from yesterday I head to the chlorine shed where I find only four more gallons. So I immediately call mom and tell her to order some more. Of course it doesn't get delivered until the next day (all that was yesterday). So this morning I leave WAY late so I can give the chlorine guy enough time to get the chlorine into the shed. So I already know I'm kinda on a time crunch if I want to even finish today. Then what every pool man dreads. It's the lousy, no good, piece of junk pool that no body even cares about but complains if it doesn't look pretty! This customer doesn't like to use his equipment because then he saves money. Yet he expects his pool to look beautiful every day of the week. (idiot) I go to the backyard and see that the pool looks better than most weeks, so someone must have had the equipment running. Since they splerged and kept the equipment on I felt charitable and decided to make the pool look extra nice to show the customer this is what you get if you run your equipment, or you can not run your equipment and have a not so nice looking pool. Then I go to empty the sweeper bag ... which didn't have anything in it. Wait, I thought they ran their equipment ... are you sure .... oh my blazes, someone is going to die! Sure enough, the whole system is powered down. Not an watt of electicity is moving to any part of the pool. So I just cleaned this pool spotless to show what they could get if they ran their equipment ... when they didn't run their equipment. I was livid! I don't think anyone dared to cross my path at that moment or they might be meeting St. Paul at the purly gates in the same moment. But its a good thing certain people know how to calm me down instantly just by the sound of their voice. Today started off bad, but wasn't really that bad since that was the only thing that went bad. Nobody got murdered lets put it that way.

The Singles Ward

2009-05-10T19:33:00.001-07:00

Do I really have to say much about this? Awkward, weird, uncomfortable, strange, bothersome, freaky, and more awkward. My first week there I felt very out of place. Everyone was wondering if I was single ... uuhhhh DUH! Isn't that what a singles ward is for? But I put a missionary face on and tried not to make them feel stupid. It's just weird to come home and go see all your friends that aren't your friends anymore, and you have even forgotten their name. Then they come up to you, "Hey! hows it going, what are your plans now." And I'm thinking, "WHO THE BLAZES ARE YOU!!" But it was good to see the friends that I do remember, aka Alex Svoboda who I rode with there. Hey Tess, I saw Danny Armstrong there too, he looks good, told me to tell you hi ... yea ... that was awkward, freak. Anyway, everyone and their dog comes up to me and asks me if I'm going to come here now. I try to keep it confidental by saying, "I donno, my home ward has a lot of young single adults there, I might stay there ......... (here is your sign)" I'm here arent I, that was a silly question. (saying borrowed from Tessa, thanks).

On a better note, my first sunday there ... we get a new bishopric. Ok well at least I dont have to spend time getting to know the old bishop. Bad news I sat in a sacrament meeting for an hour and 45 minutes because the testimoneies of the old bishopric, and their wives, all gave testimoneies. after about the first one it got really redundent. Then the testimoneies of the new bishopric, and their wives! **sigh** alright, well can I leave now. errrr wait, nope cant because all the people are trying to talk to me asking me if I'm coming back! If thats the better note, I'm not even going to talk about the worse note. And such was my experience my first sunday at the singles ward.

Today was a little better, I at least got to move around without getting stopped at every turn by people asking me if I'm going to be coming there now. I saw some more familiar faces where I was still nigh cussing trying to figure out their names. BUT nonetheless, it was better than last week. Maybe next week I might actually enjoy the experience.

My Computer

2009-04-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

I got all my computer parts together and my computer is now assembled and up and running like an interglobal server. Yea I like it ... I'm satisfied and I wont be needing a new computer for a long while. Now I just need a place to put it ..............

The Pool Route

2009-04-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

The day after I got back from my mission I get the opportunity to go to the temple to see my sister Kaylinn get married, on the way there my dad is sitting in front of me in the car and asks me, "So, Trent, you're going to start work on Monday right?" "Uuhhh, sure dad, I'd love to have a job." And so it is, I work for my dad doing half of the pools of the business, which amounts to about 75 pools. Lots of work. But I am happy I have an income so soon after I come off of my mission. Just another blessing from the Lord.

I'm back to start my life.

2009-04-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

well, I'm back. I figured I should start one of these so that people know what the heck is going on in my life if they really care instead of reading all my e-mails that I send out massively. I am back from my mission from Tallahassee Florida and plan on staying home for the summer before I go back to school for the fall semester. Life is good right now. I feel like now that I have that two year block of time that I don't have to plan around I can actually start my life and plan more intricately. I love my life.

The first full day back was my sisters wedding, what a joyous occation. First time I saw her was in the sealing room in the Oakland Temple. There I saw my whole family all my siblings with spouses, and even my dad made it. It was great to be back for that, even if I did have to ware my missionary tag.