Balloons and Burlington

Have you ever wondered how people get jobs like this?

Well, friends, let me tell you. Craigslist. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I now have a new job (on top of my other one at Noah's). I am officially a Hot Air Balloon Crewman for Gr8 Flight (aka Valley View Ballooning). Check it out at gr8flight.com. I was perusing craigslist.com looking for another part-time job when my wife, Danielle (some of you may have heard of her...), pointed out a listing that said "Hot Air Balloon Crew." "Oh my heck," exclaimed my super-hot wife, "that would be so awesome!" So I sent in an e-mail thinking, "Eh, what have I got to lose?" I've sent over 40 resumes and applications to people on craigslist and so far have gotten only automated responses from a few get rich quick schemes, so I didn't hold out too much hope. Well, O me of little faith. The very next day I had an e-mail from Bob Haupt wanting to meet with me. That was two days ago. I met with him yesterday at The Creamery on Ninth to discuss our (hopefully) future employment relations. We sat down and he introduced himself. He talked about his fixed-wing pilot's license and how he transitioned to a hot air balloon to advertise for a company he used to own. Then he told me all about how he upgraded to a commercial license along with a bigger balloon so he could make money directly. I thought to myself, "How interesting! This is a guy who's chasing his dreams! Good for him!" That's when he hit me with "Rule Number 1: Don't step on the balloon." I thought, "Well that makes sense. Very good advice!" A few minutes later, between him explaining what a crown line is and Rule Number 4 I started to think, "Gee, this guy's really going in depth for just an interview..." Then a few minutes LATER I started to realize that I was already kind of in. I was hired. He wasn't interviewing me anymore. He had begun training ten minutes earlier! Well gee whilickers, that seemed nice! We wrapped up the trainerview and he said he'd call me to tell me what time to show up the next day. That's today.

So here I am with one day of balloon chasing under my belt and another one on the way tomorrow morning at 6:15. So there you have it folks! I'm a balloon chaser. I chase balloons. Balloons: I chase them. Ok, just the one, but still I think it's preeeeeetty awesome.




Oh yeah! The second part of the post! Burrrrrlington (pretend I'm shivering; makes it fun). Danielle and I were out and about (or oat and aboat as our friends to the north might say) when I said, "Hey, my super-hot wife Danielle, what say we go into Burlington Coat Factory? I hear they're more than great coats!" to which she replied "That would be fan-jolly-tastic!" (I might be paraphrasing some.) So we started cruisin' around and we found some pretty good stuff! Sheck eet ooout!

This is Danielle's "I'm-a-city-girl-who-appreciates-the-whole-cowgirl-scene" shirt.

This is Danielle's "I'm hip and I don't care who knows it" dress. It's purple.

This is my "I'm a dude. Nope. I'm an awesome dude." shirt.

With Detail Below
This is my "I think I've had a shirt like this before but never really wore it much but this one looks like I might wear it more cuz I kinda made a deal with my wife and it was such a good deal anyway" shirt.
And here's a shot of gratuitous cheek kissing because I know Brad and Kadin will probably see this.

Toodle-pip!

1st day of school!

Ok maybe I'm a nerd but I needed a first day of school picture. I figure since I've been waiting for this day nearly my whole life, a picture should be in order.
(And to give credit where credit is due- Jesse picked out my first day of school clothes! haha)

Nursing school.... HERE I COME!

Well technically came.
Yesterday was my first day of school. I was completely excited/nervous (as depicted in the picture) but fortunately I haven't been COMPLETELY overwhelmed yet. I just have about a zillion chapters to read in the next week. No problem right?

Well except that we are compounding our problems by me having my 2nd first day of work today and we're moving OUT on Saturday and moving IN on Tuesday. Yeah no problem...

Finally de-junking

Well I have finally gotten up the courage to throw away the cards we got for our wedding. I'm a bit of a pack-rat believe it or not and it was hard to get rid of them! These are the containers they used to fill. (And I did have to keep those few in the basket for sentimental reasons)And this is what was thrown away! YAY for de-junking!

Jenn's Wedding

We had the pleasure of attending my 2nd cousin's wedding on August 7th and it was beautiful! Their sealing was wonderful and full of great advice. I always like hearing the advice and sealing promises at other people's weddings because I can't remember what was said at my own! It's always easier to listen when you're not stressed/nervous/excited about your own wedding.

Here's a few pictures from the day!

Cute newly married couple!

Ali and Tyer. Ali is Jenn's sister who just got engaged to Tyler and will be doing this all soon!
So exciting!

Not quite sure what these faces were all about but they made me laugh!

Jenn and her siblings

I love weddings! Such a fun time of life!

Speaking of weddings.... it is my good friend's 1 year anniversary tomorrow!
Shout out to Lauren and Dan! We miss you guys!

AGAIN?!

We were boxing up our stuff today and this is what Jesse found on our blanket...

Yes that is a spider in a nest on our blanket. It's the same type of spider that was nestled in the snap of Jesse's backpack. How do we find two of these nests with spiders in them? I don't get it.

GRAY HAIRS?!

I am in mourning. My hair is turning gray. I used to have two little gray hairs right in front, but now they've multiplied to 4. Just think how they're going to start multiplying now.... GRRR. I'm too young to have gray hairs! *sad sigh*

On a happy note, we got enough boxes to pack up our whole apartment from our neighbors who moved on Saturday. Cleaning someone else's apartment for 4 1/2 hours does pay off! Now the tough stuff begins.... actually packing and moving. YUCK.

Jesse's Big Post!

*Crowd screams* "Oh my gosh! A husband! It's a real live husband! And he's... what's that...? He's POSTING on a BLOG! Oh my gosh!" *Crowd screams for another hour, then goes to get ice cream*

I know. Don't bother saying it, cuz I know. I'm awful at keeping in touch with pretty much ANYONE who isn't consistently within 5 feet of my physical person, so posting on a blog that lets people I very well might not even KNOW in on the non-stop action that is our lives is quite out of character for me. But here goes...

I've been working a temporary internship at a place called Noah's in South Jordan (check it out at mynoahs.com!). It's a facility "For All of Life's Events." They have rooms you can rent out for weddings, bachelor parties, birthday parties, business meetings/presentations, movie nights, racquetball, even concealed-weapon certification courses put on by the Draper Police (which should be just about to finish up at the time of this posting). My job has been to give tours, process reservations, draw up layouts for how customers want the room to look, and most importantly, I set up. I set up chairs, banquet tables, round tables, skinny tables, fat tables, more chairs, tablecloths, ice carts, and a few more chairs. And tables. It's been fun, but exhausting seeing that they seem to like working me the 3pm-close shift Thursday through Saturday. This usually translates into me getting home around 1 or 2am-ish. Despite that, however, it has been a great time. Every day is like a new adventure. Last night I stayed till 3am to clean up after a graduation party put on by a family from India. Those Sikhs sure know how to throw a party! The day before that we had three weddings going on at the same time (have you ever had to deal with 3 mothers-of-the-bride simultaneously? Ugh.) And tonight I'll be working a quinceanera (it's like a hispanic sweet 16, but at 15). Anyway, I've been working my butt off and loving it, chipping away at the 100 hours I needed for this internship when a couple of days ago they approached me and said, "Jesse, we want to keep you. Would you be interested in becoming a real employee after your 100 hours are up?" To put it simply, awesomesauce. I was SO psyched! The "promotion" comes with a raise and the bonus of no longer being "the intern." Now I know how Ryan felt in Scranton. At least I didn't start any fires...

Anywho, so my hard work paid off! This is a fantastic company where I would eventually like to maybe end up in a management position at one of the facilities they're opening elsewhere. I feel so blessed to have been given this chance. So for all the folks wondering what's going on in my life, there you go. Happies all around! And here are some pictures to reward you for reading all that junk:

This is what it looks like at night. No really, it's so awesome it sparkles.

This is the main hall set up for a wedding reception or something. I kinda just pulled these pics off the internet so I don't know who took them or when or why or of what. Main hall. All you need to know. Ooh! Also sparkly.

This is the game room. That's two pool tables (one of them converted into ping-pong), a projector to which you can hook just about anything (watch movies, hook up a wii, laptop, whatever), a dang nice sound system, and off-screen there's a free 150 game arcade machine and..... wait for it...


Shuffleboard.


No seriously. It's a table version of shuffleboard! Crazy awesome, right? This room connects to a boardroom and a racquetball court (yes, I've begun spelling it the "European" way. At least it looks European to me...). I seriously love giving tours and seeing people's faces when I explain what these rooms can all do. If you're interested at all go to mynoahs.com, call 1-800-MYNOAHS, or just drop by and we'll give you a tour! (322 West 11000 South, South Jordan, Utah). I'm totally converted to this company. It's awesome.

Thanks for reading!