Week 13: Randomness...

Hi once again, so this week has been filled with a lot of randomness but I suppose that makes for an interesting week. Kind of scary/stressful that I have 8 days of work left..... holy mackerel where did this summer go??? Well my lunch break is quickly drawing to a close so I should finish writing this ... here's my 10.

1. Never thought I would actually get to a point where I could max out excel. In excel 2003 there is a limit of 65,536 rows and who would have thought that I would get to a point where I needed at least 100,000 rows... fun times :)

2. The great thing about working in the "Great Work Room" is that it is always under construction. Currently they are replacing windows and brick that go all the way around the building. This week was the time when they got right behind me and every morning I got an hour of saws cutting brick. Luckily in our contract we were smart enough to tell them that after 9am they aren't allowed to be loud, so I only had to deal with an hour of noise every morning.

3. I have reached a point in my life I never thought I would reach. I have turned into the crazy uncle that does stupid magic tricks... you all know you have a crazy uncle that does that...

4. Kickball update... think of the same scenario last week except it was raining not 100+... 3 girls decide to bail and I only find out 5 minutes before game time... well this week we weren't as lucky as the week before and got smoked pretty handily... grrrr please follow through on your commitments... yes I know its just kickball but its still annoying!

5. SC J does a really good job with parties and events. This week they had the "Great Lawn Kickball Tournament" (No I did not play I just watched) But they go all out with food, signs, bleachers etc for a one day event. I was pretty impressed.

6. Ok really who can say they have seen their President/CEO walk around with an enormous super soaker and spray executives...???? Oh ya I can!!! I love this place :)!

7. My 4 year old niece decided she wanted to update the old wet willy gag... just forget about the finger she just goes straight for the ear.... ( I told you this week was random)

8. Pretty awesome, I got to have dinner with the CFO this week. Its cool he is a very smart guy but loves to talk ... A LOT... hmm reminds me of someone...

9. So one night I walk into my room and find a freaking Praying Mantis sitting on my bag... A. I don't like bugs and B. how does a praying mantis get inside, I mean I can understand I fly, bee, ant or something else... but come on...

10. Last but certainly not least my nieces discovered a laser pointer this week and now that the youngest is crawling they are having fun letting her chase the laser.... This was cute until I got a hold of the laser pointer and then the 7 and 4 year old started chasing the laser... didn't know my nieces were part dog....

Week 12: Victory!

So this week has been filled with a bunch of little victories. Work has been progressing along nicely and I am really enjoying my time. So without further adieu here we go.

1. Biggest victory of the Week: Kickball. Yes we won in a beautiful 7-5 victory. It was the hottest day of the year and we played two people down but none the less we came out victorious in the end.

2. While at the store with my sister we were on approach to the cashier when we notice this cute little old man in the aisle next to us take off. He starts racing towards to register trying to beat us there, which he did (while this is not a victory keeping this old guy from having a heart attack and dying on the spot was a victory) The best part of the whole experience was watching his wife give him the best look I have ever seen.

3. Apparently my car is a prime target for stupid drivers. But thanks to my awesome cat like reflexes I was able to avoid being side swiped at 70 mph on the highway.

4. I've recently discovered that Wisconsin drivers rival Utah drivers as some of the worst in the country.

5. I found I have an amazing skill of making music with random SCJ products but I also found out that my music history skills kinda suck...

6. Ice blocking is a very enjoyable activity, and it is hilarious to see how good little kids can be and how bad they can be and the same goes for adults... My brother in law even decided to show off his skills and ice block down a hill face first and then safely make his finale by going underneath a picnic table.

7. Went to my first Barn Party, it was a lot of fun after playing volleyball for 3 hours The dance kicked in and I proceeded to dance like a fool and show everyone my *cough cough* amazing dance moves.

8. Apparently based on my awesome dance skills this makes me qualified to teach my nieces ballet. Yes I was showing them my awesome moves, and No there is not enough money in the world for me to show them to anyone else.

9. Shout out of the week goes to my sister and her family. I survived a week of being alone in their house but oh how great it was to have them back!

10. Biggest failure of the week was writing this blog last night and after saving it the entire time I was writing it as soon as I hit publish it gave me an error and deleted the entire thing... stupid

Week 11: A week of me time

Hello again! So this week has seen another new adventure of my summer. My sister and her family went back to Ohio mid week to visit both sets of grandparents. So this means that I had the opportunity to "house sit" we'll call it. I do have to say its been pretty boring... nonetheless this is this weeks top 10.


1. The one day we were outside using the hose to water some plants and my niece decides she wants to start blowing into the hose for some reason. So of course my brother in law decides he will play a lovely trick on her and this is the result. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_RYdOGabc

2. Fun fact of the week. I discovered a new skill I possess, place and Oreo on your forehead and move it to your mouth with out touching it. You should try it... it's a lot harder then it might seem. The best part I discovered I had this talent at work! (In case you are worried that I just slack off at work, it was during a training meeting and they asked for 2 volunteers to attempt this feat) If you are wondering my time is 27 seconds forehead to mouth, I dare you to beat it.

3. I finally let the other interns in on my secret game plan. Lose every game intentionally so that the full timers will offer us all jobs. But the trick is still looking good and showing off your individual talent so that you get recruited for next year.

4. So needless to say we lost in kickball again!

5. I have found that swimming laps is kind of fun! And really really tiring!

6. Wanted: Eye donor... Strong pair of eyes that are capable of staring at an excel spreadsheet for at least 8 hours a day. I will swap you my current set they are getting a little tired...

7. Apparently my 4+ years of studying German are really paying off..... or something like that, because I can sit in my bosses office when she is talking to our Mexican coworker and I can understand over 50% of what they are saying

8. 2 hour staff meetings are not as fun as they might sound. Especially when most everything being discussed is stuff you have no clue about... But hey it was a good break from staring at my computer screen.

9. Our complex here at SCJ isn't huge, but I still get lost so its great that they give us these little maps to carry around with us. However, there is this intricate tunnel system that they have that connects every building (you know you are in the Frozen North (Wisconsin) if they have tunnels connecting everything). So I found it very interesting when employees who have been here for years still get lost (made me feel just a little bit better :) )

10. This weeks shout out goes to my pal Jason Taylor! So Ladies(if you are a flake you need not respond), Jason is a tall athletic confident guy that loves the outdoors and being awesome if you are interested just let me know and I'll hook it up for you!
(if you are interested in being next weeks shout out just call/skype me sometime this week and it could be you!)

Week 10: A new beginning... or something like that

So this week I began my second rotation of my internship. I am now working in Global Internal Audit and I get to look at countries in Latin America and do some lovely data analytics looking for trends and anomalies. So I'll cut to the chase here's this weeks 10.

1. So I'll just get this out of the way now. Intern Kickball team is 0 and 6 on the season. We have lost to every team once and my optimism for a turnaround is fading. We only had 11 players this week (usually 20ish) and we still couldn't pull it off.

2. I came into work one morning and I had an email that read:

Hi All

I brought Donuts today

Have a happy Friday

-Jesus

Yes Jesus brought me Donuts!

3. So I started in my new group this week, and unfortunately technology has decided to revolt against this move and has thus stopped working for me. The system I need for my project decided I do not have sufficient access, another program wouldn't let me log in, and my Outlook decided it just wanted to wig out for a few hours.... yup Love Technology some days!

4. So my 7 month old niece has been ... we'll call it scooting (almost crawling) around the house. YAY! Well anyways, one night she's on the floor taking a break so I got down and this was the result of my encounter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EaYyXx9MEw

5. Cute moment of the week: A few weeks ago my 4 year old niece told me I wasn't part of the family. Yesterday she told me she was talking about me during church. So I asked her why and she responded that they were talking about families. So I decide to ask if I was part of the family and she said YES and then gave me a big hug. :)

6. I wish I could keep track of everyones responses at work when I tell them I go to school at BYU. A lot of them end up being "How the heck did you get here???" Many start conversations about Jimmer. Every once in a while I get a comment about the church. But it's pretty much all of those in one form or another. On the same note I get different looks when I tell people at church that I work for SCJ but those are more looks than words... not sure why most of the looks are followed by " A family company" or "It's a good company"

7. So a about a month ago I went swimming with the Fam and my nieces were showing me their swimming ability... you might be amazed at what two weeks of swim lessons will do for them. The 7 year old is pretty solid, shes in and out of the deep end, and can go down the water slide all by herself and doesn't need as much help. However, the 4 year old while she has improved still needs constant supervision, this doesn't stop her from just leaping off the wall when you aren't looking and trying her best to reach you 6feet away before needing to be rescued.

8. I am a little surprised to find out that most of my Audit coworkers are extremely social and fun people. Yes I might be insinuating that accountants are usually dull and boring... but not this group.

9. My boss from my first half took me to lunch at ... Chipotle!!! Some of you might not know but I love Chipotle and unfortunately for the last 2 1/2 years I have gone without because the closest Chipotle is 40+ minutes away in SLC. Well as a good job / going away gift my boss gave me a gift card for Chipotle which will basically be enough for me to eat there once a week for the rest of the summer!!! I am very happy!!!!

10. I just have to let everyone know that Brooke Showalter is AWESOME.

Week 9: End of the first half!!!

Hiya all once again. Another week has come and passed. This week was filled with fun and excitement. I also finished my first half project and next week I'll be moving to a new area of the company and start working on another fun project. So like always here's this weeks 10.

1. I have really missed fireflies. When driving at night I can just see them flying through the fields all around and they are beautiful!!

(PS no I didn't take this picture)

2. So last week I mentioned that my work had given me a pair of tickets to Summerfest (which is a week+ long music fest that has 700 different bands that come and play throughout the 11 days) While I enjoyed the concerts (Neon Trees and Owl City) I've realized I'm not much of a concert person.

3. Milwaukee is affectionately referred to as Brew City. I've realize that they could also be called Fest City. They literally have a different fest ever week. They also love their beer, so that is why they even have a fest called brewfest... oh ya that is exactly what it sounds like

4. I've finally got back to what I am good at and that is baking. This week I have created a masterpiece and that is making mini cheesecakes! Yum!!

5. I bought a lovely pack of sparklers that my nieces enjoyed playing with. This is a picture of my 4 year old niece!

6. My youngest niece has started rolling all over the place. She is just about to the point where she will start crawling and is really enjoying her freedom. One night she was rolling around and the dog decided it wanted to join in the fun. So for a few minutes both baby and dog practiced rolling in sync.

7. Weekly kickball update: Lost again :( we took a 3-1 lead into the last inning and still lost the game.... sooo close

8. So I have spent the last 6 (really 4) weeks working on a project in my Business Planning and Analysis role. I was nervous to give an hour long presentation but the presentation went well. After some great feedback I spent 8 hours whittling down over 80 graphs on 50 slides down to 5 slides.... 6 weeks for a handful of slides....

9. It was great to finish my project and then my boss said hey take Friday off so you get a 4 day weekend. So when attempting to sleep in so far this weekend I failed pretty bad still waking up at 7 am .... lame when your biological clock decides you are going to wake up when you really don't want to.

10. So note to self, when shopping at 1 am and buying something in a poppin' fresh can, make sure it doesn't roll out of your grocery bag and sit idly in the trunk of your car for a day and a half at 90+ degree temperatures.... apparently when the can says keep at a certain temperature there is a reason for that... or it might go boom :(