My Birkenstocks and a dad and his daughter at the hockey game.

After a couple of weeks of working with a local business here in town my Birkenstocks are here. I got them on Wednesday and they haven't come off my feet yet. The owner of the store told me that when he went to the shoe expo in Las Vegas this year that Birkenstock had four or five executives there and they were all dressed in suits with Birkenstocks. How cool is that? So I have been wearing mine to work with my slacks and they don't look to bad. I love them because they are so comfortable and of course they don't have backs. It's like sticking it to the man without the man caring. I am sure that you all get the idea.

Also on Wednesday we all went to the hockey game. Audrey is getting better about not getting scared with the loud music and people cheering. There wasn't anybody else there so we had the entire suite to ourselves. We had such a great time and I also got to explain some hockey strategy with Audrey as you can see.

New Business Rep

So it is official, I am a New Business Rep for The Idaho Statesman. With this comes a pay increase and no territory. I am free to roam wherever I want to go to find business. This is such an exciting thing and I am totally stoked to be here with this new opportunity. Basically I go out every month with no business and try to get people to advertise. As they come on I keep them two months and then pass them to the territory reps. The Idaho Statesman has put a lot of faith in the four new biz reps since this is a new position and they are paying us, hoping that we will be able to bring business in. The four of us are really excited and up to the challenge so I know this will be good. I think that things are only going to get better and I am so excited for this new opportunity.

I want to go to there!

I am jonesing for Oregon really bad right now. Serious maybe we should have an intervention because I am addicted. I miss the beach, the smell, the fog, and the sweater weather. I am hoping that things with my job pick up and we are able to return as soon as possible. Otherwise we may have to take some drastic measures like steal mom and dads RV and head to the coast for a cheap trip. Watch out mom and dad, I can be sneaky.

Coming Soon

Last Thursday we had a meeting at The Statesman that informed the sales staff that there would be changes coming the following week. This Thursday should be a good day for me and my sales buddies as we find out what new positions we are going into and a new commission plan. I don't know any details but I have heard that this commission plan is going to be very lucrative so I am really stoked to find out what is going on. I will let you all know as soon as I do. Thanks for sticking around.

Extra Extra, read all about it!

So things are not looking so good at the newspaper these days. Unlike days of old when the newspaper was one of the few ways to get your news, there are many ways today. Right now at The Idaho Statesman we are going through a few cut backs and lay-offs. It is feeling like a wake and it stinks to go to work. Most days you show up and everyone is talking in hushed tones and rumors. There are closed door management meetings everyday and they won't tell you what is going on. Everything is a well known secret and it is starting to drive me crazy. Everyone knows that something is going on but no one will tell you. I really feel that the management should be upfront with us and just let us know what is going on rather then keeping it a big secret. These secrets are are more damaging then if the big wigs were to just tell you the truth. Also there is going to be some restructuring, I feel that there should be some employees in these meetings so that the management can get a true idea of what is going on in the real world instead of there false idea that everyone is doing fine. I get tired of hearing about sweet restaurants that our management get to go to while I am eating at home to save money. One of my managers was telling me about this place I should try the other day. He said that it wasn't priced to bad at $15.00 a plate. Jeez I can't eat off a regular menu at McDonald's right now let alone pay $15.00 per plate. I can't wait until this whole thing is over. I know that some people are going to lose their jobs and that is not cool but it will be better then sitting around the office with everyone mad all the time.

Life is AWESOME!

Things are awesome today.

• Its Friday
• Car Show
• My Birkenstocks are coming in
• Party at the office
• Our taxes hit our bank
• I Sold Stuff

Today is going to be great and I hope that means we have an awesome weekend coming up.

Have a good weekend

My book club is better then your book club!

We have had a lot of discussion on what everyone is reading and it has gotten me thinking. Why don't we start a family book club that we track over our blogs or even set up another blog that is only for this book club? I think that it would be really cool but I want to know if there is anybody out there who would like to do something like this. Just leave me a comment and let me know if your would be interested in doing something like that and I will get it going. I already have several books that I think would be good to start with that we could all work on and discuss. Let me know what you think when you get a chance.

My birthday was better then your birthday.

This weekend was by far the best birthday ever. I had a great time hanging out with Becky and Audrey as we celebrated my 29th birthday. I got up on Saturday morning to balloons and gifts, we had oatmeal for breakfast. We hung out and watched the BYU baseball game and then went to the Hockey game. This weekend was amazing and I love that my wife knows what to do to make me happy. She is so awesome and I love her and Audrey so much. Thanks Becky and Audrey for a well played birthday.

The Road

(Picture from http://www.yooglimusic.com/)

I have had a few people ask me why I liked The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I appreciated Aunt Millie's post and left a comment but it became too long and I finally scrapped the idea and thought that I would post a response here. I really liked The Road for a couple of reasons. I think that it was wonderfully written, to the point that you felt you were in this bleak landscape with this father and son. At times I found myself checking my surroundings to make sure that I was still in the comfort of my home. Cormac McCarthy does a great job of getting the reader into the story and a part of the book, and I love books like that. The second thing was that all though the book was full of despair there was a theme of love between the father and son. That theme was a beautiful depiction of a fathers love for his son. I don't know if it is because I am a father now, but that depiction really hit me. The father was willing to do anything for his son just to keep him safe. What a great book and I would be willing to recommend it to anyone.

Drage Cameron

Seriously this is going to be the last time today. I have just felt all day that I should say something about the birth of Marc's boy (not that it isn't yours as well Ashely, I am not leaving you out just this is Marc's post) over the weekend. I have pondered the birth of Drage over the last few days and I think that this is the best thing for Marc at this time in his life. Marc has worked so hard to be here today and if there is one thing that he has wanted above anything else it is a child. To watch him with Orlando you knew that is what Marc wanted to be and that he was going to be good at it. This time is different as Drage is Marc's own child, he will look like Marc, he will talk like Marc, and he will act like Marc (lets hope that he takes after Ashely in this department). The best thing about it is that Marc and Ashley have the opportunity to shape their sons ideas about the world the way that they want. They get to decide together how they want to parent and no one gets to tell them otherwise.

Lastly I want to tell Marc how proud I am of him. I always thought that it would be hard to be the father of someone elses child but he treated Orlando like he was his own and in the long run it has paid off. He now has his own son to teach things to. He has his own son to wrestle with, to play catch with, and tick Ashley off with. Marc, you have someone that will love you unconditionally regardless if you make millions or nothing. You have a wonderful little boy that is going to be just like you. One that looks like and acts like you. If this were a toast, which it isn't for those of you who thought it was, this is where I would raise my glass. I hope that you can treat your son with the love, compassion and respect that you showed to Orlando. I know that you will. I love you guys and I hope the best for your family.

My daughter dances better than your daughter

This weekend Audrey, Becky and I watched a Wyclef Jean concert that I had TiVoed. I love Wyclef, he is such an amazing musician. What we found out this weekend was that Audrey also loves Wyclef. She danced and danced all weekend, at one point she started crying when we turned it off so she could go to bed. She also wanted to turn Wyclef back on when we started watching Dave Matthews Band at Rothbury which ticked her mom off since that is Becky's favorite band. Really all I care about is that she likes good music and is getting a huge spectrum of music to broaden her horizons musically. I love my little girl.

Coloring at church

A couple of weeks ago we received newsletters at church. On the back page there was a maze that we could color. Audrey and I spent all of sacrament meeting coloring our maze pictures. I have posted both of our mazes below so you could compare and contrast.

Audrey's Maze

Dads Maze