Good Morning Life!

"Good morning life, Good morning world how are you happiness? All at once I know what livin' can be!" Thank you to my good friend Dean Martin for the thought! This song describes my feelings for life right now. Things are going so well, and I am just so excited about everything. There is a lot to catch up on, so I'll get started!

Finally Work!

I finally have a job-two of them actually! I am working for a company called Acosta. What do I do there, you ask? Well I'll tell you! Have you ever gone into the store and it's all tore up, you can't find anything that you're looking for because they've moved everything, and there are boxes full of stuff all over? That's me! We go into stores and "reset" them, which means that we move things from one place to another. It's actually pretty fun, believe it or not! My little brother, JD, works there with me, an we make a really good team. One reason is that he is a lot taller than me! When we have to get stuff onto or off of the top shelves I make him do it. The other day I was trying to reach something way at the back of the top shelf and JD looked over and said "Stubbs! Let me do it before you knock the whole shelf down!" I gladly let him do it because I suffer from the same syndrome as the dinosaur on "Meet the Robinsons"- "I have short arms and a big head." Haha

The system that JD and I have set up is pretty good. We get our assignment and head to the right spot. Then I look at the plan o gram (seriously, that's what its' called!) and tell him where the shelves are supposed to be, and he moves them around. I like to let him do the heavy work! This past week JD made me do the shelves (which I didn't mind) because he was taking a few days off and wanted to know that I would be able to get along without him. So I'm standing on a milk crate balancing a shelf that's almost as tall as me and trying to get it into the right spot. I'm sure that it was a fun sight! But I did it! Back to our system...so once we get the shelves in place it's time to get the product on them. Usually we have a shopping cart and JD and I put the stuff into in then walk over to where we need to put it. We look like quite the cute couple, JD pushing his shopping cart full of groceries, me looking at the list and telling him what we need to get...it's so much fun! Once we have the needed products I look at the plan o gram again and tell JD where it needs to go. Man, it sounds like I tell him what to do a lot! We actually do it all together, and we're a pretty fast team.

Our first week the supervisor at the store we were at was really impressed, so he talked to our boss and requested us for the next week. Now we're working with him a lot. He's a good person to work for, so we're enjoying it. Every week Jerry tells us "I talked to your boss-we'll be in (insert name of city) next week." It's nice knowing who we're going to be working with each week, and the faces are starting to get more familiar. Not everyone on the reset crew is from our company, and we don't even know everyone in our company yet! When we first started everyone thought that JD and I were married. We had our interviews the same day, and our orientation. Everyone just assumes that since we have the same last name that we must be married. One guy we work with asked me one day if JD and I are married, and when I told him know he sighed with relief. "We had a couple that worked here and they used to scream at each other across the aisles. I'm glad that you guys aren't married!" It's actually kind of fun to explain to people that we're brother and sister. JD and I get along really well, even at work, so it makes things really nice.

I'm really loving work, even if the days start early and leave me a little more than worn out. I've discovered that this job is the perfect work out! The other day I noticed that I am so sore when I get home, and I wondered why. As I was in a squat arranging product the next day I realized why! I spend a lot of my day in a squat in front of shelves, or I'm stretching some other muscle group in some other way so that I can get my work done. A few months from now ya'll will say "Man! That Amanda sure is tone! I wonder who her personal trainer is?" And it will all be thanks to my job! :)

Job #2

I have another job, but I haven't officially started yet. JD (yes, we share this job too!) and I, along with our Dad, are working out at the Larry Miller Motor Sports Track. My Dad has been working there for a few years now, and when they started their summer hiring phase, he encouraged us to apply. Once again we interviewed together, and we were both hired on. We'll be working as "guest services" at the track when they have their big racing events. I'm excited to start out there and work on my tan! My Dad always has the best tan after a summer working on the track! Raccoon eyes, dark brown to the elbows, pearly white the rest of the way up his arms...look out world, here I come! Those boys won't know what to do with themselves when they see me coming in my multi-tone glory!

BFF, or so we hope! And Mom's surprise

So I have yet another venture with my brother-we practically share a room now. About a month or so together as siblings were sitting around talking, we all decided that we wanted to do something special for Mom for Mother's Day-and we decided that we would make her a craft room. Mom has so much craft stuff, and not a lot of room to make her crafts in. Hence a craft room. Originally we were going to make the room downstairs by my room, but my little bro stepped up to the plate and offered his room as the craft room and said that he would move downstairs with me. The room downstairs isn't exactly a bed room, rather it's a family room/den, and I walk through it to get to my room. Now it is occupied by my brother, and we have a blanket that acts as a door between our rooms. It's pretty awesome! The hardest part is that JD and I have totally different schedules and habits, and I'm usually asleep when he's awake, and he's asleep while I'm awake. It's working out though, and we're going to be BFF forever! Nothing like sharing a room again to strengthen that bond.

Getting Mom's craft room put together reminded me of the story "If you give a mouse a cookie..." because as we did one thing we would realize another that needed to be done, and then another, and another... We started out by clearing out one of the "gathering" rooms (I thought that was a better word than junk room" and organizing Mom's nativities. We had to get that room organized so that the stuff from what would soon be JD's room could go into it. Like I said, it just kept going! And the hard part was that we were trying to be sneaky about it! Luckily Jolene and I are the queens of sneaking! For my Mom's 50th birthday we planned a surprise party for her, and she brought cookies to it thinking that it was a church meeting! Like I said-we're the queens. So Jolene and I would spend hours working on our project while Mom was at work, then right before she got home we would run upstairs and sit on the couch, acting like we had been sitting there all day. A couple of times we were dusting each other off as Mom was walking in the door. We had a few times when we were almost found out-but to the very end we managed to keep it a secret! We had everyone in on it! Neighbors watched baby Turkey so that Jolene and I could devote our attention to cleaning/organizing/moving, and JD's girlfriend and my Aunt Tina even took Mom out for girls nights to keep her distracted. The surprise came off beautifully, and Mom loves her craft room. A Mother's Day gone right-thanks to the Sneaky Queens.

A Realization

So the other day I had a sudden realization and look into my future. First, I'll start with a quick explanation. Ever since my mission I've noticed that I am hyper emotional, and TV and movies are no exception. I've cried at so many movies since I came home, where before my mission I could count the number of movies that made me cry on one finger. Now I'm a wet mess at just about any movie. It's almost entertainment enough just to watch me cry! I also get very into what is going on in the movie, and I find myself feeling like I'm actually there, feeling and doing what the characters are feeling and doing. I laugh, I cry, I smile that silly smile of first love...it's crazy! So the other night my Mom and I had a girls night and watched a chick flick. During the movie I was clutching at my blanket for fear of what would happen, I was smiling as the characters realized that they were in love, I was misty eyed as they realized what was holding them back, I was laughing with them as they conquered fears, and I was cheering them on as they overcame obstacles and left the no-good-men in their lives behind. That's when it hit me. I have turned into that middle aged woman that you see in the movie theater watching the movies all by herself. She's wearing an over sized cardigan that has tissues overflowing out of the pocket, her hair and make-up haven't been done in days, and as she wipes her tears and blows her nose she cheers "You go girl!" to the woman on the screen. Yes, that's me. I've become a hopeless romantic. Ah well, it's fun! And who can blame me for enjoying a good chick flick every now and then?

Anything else you want to share?

I think that wraps things up for today. I have a few more stories to share, but I think that this is a good stopping point for tonight! Things are going really well for me, and life is really picking up. At least once a day I feel like singing along with Mr. Martin-"GOOD MORNING LIFE! GOOD MORNING WORLD, HOW ARE YA HAPPINESS?" I thank the Lord for all of the blessings that I have in my life. I know that the true source of my happiness comes from my Savior. He rescues me from the depths and brings me to the highest highs. He is the source of my happiness, the source of my strength. Truly, "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28) and "I will boast in my God, for in His strength I can do all things." (Alma 26:12) Thanks for tuning in! :)