Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Several things caused me to laugh today, and I mean really laugh. It felt great. So I want you to feel great too when you read about them.

1. While I was gallavanting around the LDS Institute I left my binder and longboard at one of the tables where my friends were sitting. When I returned to my things I noticed a note had been inserted into the clear part of my binder. I have a quote on my binder that says, "A woman's heart should be so lost in Christ that a man needs to seek Him in order to find her." I really like this quote and think it helps me keep focused on trying to be like the Savior and improving the relationship I have with Him instead of worrying about stupid boys ;) Anyways, I come back to my binder and find a piece of paper had been inserted next to the quote that read "But no matter which path he chooses, any man is likely to get lost trying to find a woman's heart". Oh those silly boys. It made me laugh though.

2. Today I went to the temple, and since I usually go around the same time every tuesday I feel pretty comfortable with the temple workers that normally work that shift. So, on my way out of the baptistry I asked Brother Peterson, the Baptistry Cooridinator, "Why do the towels smell like glazed doughnuts?" After a a good chuckle, Bro. Peterson went and grabbed a towel out of the locker room and smelled it, then had all of the other temple workers smell the towel. None of them agreed with me! Even my own friend Abby sided with them and said it just smelled like a towel! Then the Brother at the front desk said it must be the spirit telling me to eat some doughnuts! I am telling you, every week I go to the temple the towels smell like glazed doughnuts!! Ii am positive that they are using Krisy Kreme brand fabric softener. So myself and all of the Baptistry workers shared a hearty laugh today and it was awesome.

3. At work I have a manager named David who is very funny, mainly in a teasing kind of way. It is very common for him to sing "Madi Madi Bo Badi Banana Fanna Fo FATTY" whenever I am working, and we all just laugh. Today, however, he told another associate today that he took my place as the fatty, so I decided to sing, "Niko Niko Bo Biko...FATTTTYYY!" That is exactly what I said. I didn't really sing much of the song, since his name wouldn't work anyway, but I still wanted to get my point across. But everyone working, included myself and Niko, were just laughing so hard for a good 5 minutes. It felt so good to be enjoying work and laughing with my co-workers.

If you see me sometime soon, make me laugh, and I will love you forever and always.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Soon-To-Be Math Wiz



You guessed it, that is a b-e-a-u-tiful, 100% plastic, calculator watch. One of my managers was commenting at how horrible I am at math and suggested I get a calculator watch as a joke, but I decided to take it seriously and invest in a device that will aid me in doing the inventory at work. I honestly am starting to wonder if I have some sort of mental disability related to math skills, it is truly embarrassing how bad I am at simple math and at counting. BUT thanks to my new watch, I will be doing math equations accurately and in record time!!!

Straw Fries

Today I began my shift at work at approximately 4:30 P.M. and almost immediately was asked to speak to a customer who need assistance. I went over to the man and greeted him with a great big smile and asked how I could help. The second he began speaking my smile was replaced with a nervous grimace. This man was VERY upset because he had just come through the drive-thru and had received "straw fries". He said that this happens to him everytime he comes through the drive-thru and that he is sick of being "frauded" by In-N-Out Burger and their nasty fries that taste like straw. He explained that our fries cost more than a whopper jr. at Burger King, and that has meat and cheese on it, and that he is personally being ripped off by In-N-Out. He then proceeded to shove the fries into my face and crumble them with his hands onto the counter, asking me, "Do these fries look light to you? I ordered my fries light, now tell me, do they look light?" Of course I agreed with them, the customer is always right ya now, and then he took it to the extreme and said he wanted it in writing. I was rather surprised by this, and was curious as to what he would do with this form of documentation. What I should have said was "No, I can't sign anything sir, it is against policy," but what I did do, out of fear, was scribble on a napkin, FRIES WERE NOT LIGHT and signed my name. Bad Move. I then asked if there was anything else I could do for him, and offered to refund his meal, but no, that was not enough. He wanted me to refund him for the last three meals he had purchased because they too had straw fries, wanted me to give him the customer service number, and as he was making his demands he was waving his new documentation in my face, and in every other manager's face. Eventually I let someone else handle him because I just could not find a way to please him.

Lessons Learned:

Do NOT put straw in the fryers, apparantly they do not taste half as good as the potatoes we traditionally serve.

The customer is always right, unless he is a rude, nasty old man, who is just trying to ruin your day.

NEVER sign your life away on a napkin, this form of documentation is more binding than signing your soul to the devil.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Driving University

In December I took a lovely trip up to Snowflake to visit the temple and on the way back was unsuccessfully learning how to drive through mountains and was pulled over for speeding; apparantly I suck at downshifting. So, today, all day, I took an online driving course and this is what I learned...

The refrigerator was patented in 1899
There are 119 grooves on the side of a quarter
Brontology is the study of thunder
Celery has negative calories
The black box in airplanes is actually orange
Creators of computer viruses are usually between 14-24 years in age
Arnold Schwarzenegger reversed and ran over his dog on his 40th Birthday
The exterior used for Jerry Seinfeld's apartment is Los Angeles

In order to ensure that students actually read the content there were quiz questions at the end of a section. Sometimes the question was relevant to the content, other times they referred to the random facts that were embedded in the content. They were my favorite bits of imformation to come across.

Aside from the random facts I did learn some new things about driving, such as "It is better to wait and arrive at your destination a few minutes later, than to arrive at a premature death in a head-on collision." The course was VERY dramatic, and was constantly warning me of the my potential death. At the end of each section it would say, "Be smart while driving your one-ton weapon"

I think I will ride my bike to work today.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Level 7



Oh Yeah.

That is not an accurate photo of me, my management team put that on there to be funny since mine doesn't have a picture.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Finally Finished

I was reading a friend of mine's blog and she made a list of 100 things she wanted to do before she died, and it was really neat, so I am copying her and making my own list!

1. Learn to play the piano and play the hymns regularly in my home
2. Serve a mission (either full-time or couples mission later, not quite sure what my plan is yet)
3. Go to primary and learn all of the songs, hopefully once I have a family I can either go with my kids or will get a primary calling
4. Go a whole year without missing a month of Visiting Teaching, I have the hardest time with it!
5. Get good at playing my guitar, right now I am pretty weak sauce at it.
6. Get sealed for time and all eternity in the Mesa Temple
7. Fall in love and stay that way forever. I want to still be holding my husband's hand when I am 40,60,80, and forever after that.
8. Go to Ireland and see all of the greeeeeen. I want to roll down the hills, visit the castles, do some intense family history research, and find a leprechaun.
9. Go to France and see the Eifel Tower, go to the Louvre, ride a vespa, and eat some yummy foreign food.
10. Raise children who have strong testimonies of the gospel and who will be able to teach me how to be a better person.
11. Go camping! I know, tragic, but I think this one will happen in the next year.
12. Go snowboarding, also semi-tragic, I can't help it that I didn't have a childhood ;)
13. Be an example to EVERYONE of the gospel of Jesus Christ..and thus baptize the world..ok maybe just lead several good friends, co-workers, and family members to baptism.
14. Buy a house and decorate it, with my husband's help, and make it look super duper cute, yet organized and functional.
15. Have a tree house in my backyard.
16. Learn how to can and have the most bomb-diggity food storage
17. Meet my great-grandchildren, which also translates to: live til I am old, real old., ha ha.
18. Get a massive chunk of my family history/temple work done, and be able to do the ordinances for family members in the temple with my children.
20. Have a week of total seclusion from the world, my husband would be able to come, but that's it. Out in the middle of nowhere in a cabin with no tv, computer, or cell phones
21. Run a marathon.
22. See a musical on Broadway.
23. Have a big Mormon Road Trip, hit up SLC, Adam-ondi-Ahman, Nauvoo, Sacred Grove, etc.
24. Learn Spanish.
25. Learn Sign Language.
26. Send out all of my children on missions.
27. Be able to make and eat a sit-down dinner almost every night with my future family.
28. Go to every temple in the United States, and some out of the country as well.
29. Play with my kids. I can't wait to meet them one day and just have fun with them. I bet they will be pretty cool.
30. Write something, a book, a poem, a song, a haiku, whatever, just something.
31. Keep a journal, but keep it secret until I die, then I could care less who reads it.
32. Jump in a gigantic pile of Autumn leaves.
33. Have a huge garden, half with vegetables and other yum yums, and half with flowers and other pretty things.
34. Have a porch with a swing and a view, where I can sit and think or read in the evenings.
35. Buy lunch for a homeless person. I have always wanted to do this, but fear that I would be endangering my life, some of the homeless people in Tempe are pretty scary.
36. Go to my mother's baptism.
37. Go to my father's baptism.
38. Go to my sister's baptism.
39. Go to my children's baptisms.
40. Come up with my own 100% orginal recipe, and keep my recipe a secret.
41. Have a huge library in my house, just like the one in Beauty and the Beast
42. Learn how to sew.
43. Meet the prophet.
44. Attend the temple with all of my children.
45. Make lots of home movies with my future family.
46. Keep in touch with all of the amazing friends I have currently, forever!
47. Drive less. I want to be able to bike, walk, and light rail more.
48. Walk through Central Park.
49. Make my own family traditions.
50. Get in shape and stay in shape, I definitely do not want to "let go" of myself, ever.
51. Listen to my children sing primary songs when they are young.
52. Get my Teaching Certification
53. Get a Master's Degree
54. Live in another state.
55. Kiss someone in the rain.
56. Be serenaded by a gorgeous boy with a song that was written just for me. :)
57. Ride a train.
58. Go to Jerusalem and walk where Jesus walked.
59. Be best friends with my little sister. We don't get along that great right now, but I am working on it, and hope one day we can be BFF's.
60. After all the movies have been released, have a Harry Potter marathon and watch all 7 in one sitting.
61. Ride a tandem bike.
62. Be 100% debt-free, I am sure this won't be until I am very old, but it's worth a shot.
63. Retire, then travel the world with my husband.
64. Be a Grandma and spoil my grandkids rotten.
65. Paint a picture worthy to adorn a wall in my home.
66. Ride a horse.
67. Go to Washington D.C. and see all of the historic monuments and such.
68. Grow apple, orange, and pears trees in my backyard.
69. Learn how to ballroom dance.
70. Take my family on awesome family vacations as often as possible. We rarely did family vacations growing up, so this will be really important for me to do with my own family.
71. Sing alone in front of a crowd.
72. Act in something. I did drama in 7th/8th grade and loved it. I don't know why I stopped but wish I hadn't.
73. Go to a high school reunion. I don't really have an option, since I was senior class pres. I have to plan all the reunions...ew.
74. Read as many books as possible.
75. Host a Murder Mystery party. This year perhaps?
76. Make a scrapbook of my family.
77. Have a family reunion!
78. Go on a hike in the Salt Lake Valley.
79. Have a secret room in my house, like a mystery room that can only be opened if I pull an old green book off of my huge book case.
80. Bake sugar cookies every Christmas.
81. Read the scriptures with my family every night.
82. Pull off an amazing, intricately planned practical joke.
83. Attend General Conference!
84. Dye my hair a ridiculous color...not all of my hair, but like put a streak of purple in it or something crazy.
85. Read "Jesus the Christ"
86. Make my kids' Halloween costumes. My mom always hand made mine and they looked so cool, so hopefully I can carry on that tradition.
87. Make a quilt, one that will put those Amish quilts to shame.
88. Go on a Disney Cruise.
89. Lay in a hammock on a secluded beach beneath a palm tree.
90. Plan and participate in a massive scavenger hunt with a group of friends.
91. Go to Latin America and see the Myan Temples.
92. Lay in a field of sunflowers and look at the clouds.
93. Come up with an analogy and use it in a church talk/lesson.
94. Give a random stranger a big hug.
95. Overcome my fear of guns by shooting one, at a shooting range of course.
96. Turn an everyday situation, like work, into a musical, where my friends and I dance and sing about the situation at hand.
97. Bear my testimony in a foreign language.
98. Be in the Easter Pageant at the temple grounds.
99. Read all of the Standard Works from beginning to end.
100. Never let one day pass without a smile. Find the good in each day and enjoy my life to the very end.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Bring it on two-oh-oh-nine

I am so excited for a new year! I was reflecting on 2008, and was shocked at how different my life was last january! I have gone through so much change and growth this year and I am so excited to go through even more this year!

Some things that will reside within 2009

1. In-N-Out management: In March over spring break I am supposed to go work at a another store for a week, as a manager, and get passed off by that store manager if I am ready. If I pass my week, then in June I get shipped out to California to attend a week of management classes at In N Out University (our company's training dept.) I am really looking forward to this new challenge and am hoping that I have what it takes.

2. Starting my teaching certification program, and interning part-time at a school. I am very excited to start my interning, this will really help me get excited and motivated about teaching because right now I am not sure if my heart is in it or not. I would begin interning in the fall semester, unlesssss.....

3. Mission? I will be turning 21 on September 28th of this year, and the question that has been plaguing me for a long time is whether or not I am to serve a full-time mission. My family, of course, is very unsupportive of the idea, but it's my life and I will do as my Heavenly Father wishes, once He lets me know what that is. For now I am just preparing myself to enter the temple, so that regardless of what the plan is I can be ready.

Those are just some of the MAJOR things I have to look forward to this year. I am hoping I encounter many many other exciting and life changes events this year. Happy New Year :)

Love, Madi