Living in my Mothers Basement: The End of the Blog is Near

The Fall weather has arrived and with the Fall weather comes the fall of this blog. Ha ha get it, the fall of this blog.  You know because I am getting married and moving out of the basement. Okay that was dumb.  But in all seriousness, I will have to begin a new blog.  I am up for suggestions for the new blog title.  My ideas are as follows:  Me and Bailee plus zero, Living in the attic with a wife,  Life Out of the basement, All you ever wanted to know about Bailee(JK she would kill me), Me and Bailee take on Fruit Heights, Chillin with Bailee in the Attic, or Newlyweds  finally out of the basement, for now.  Or whatever else you guys may suggest.

This Fall marks the first of many random things such as my first 26th birthday( that's old).  My first Fall with Bailee/getting married( oh precious),  being jobless(oh wait I already am).  Maybe it will mark getting my first job that does not involve cleaning a bathroom.  Or maybe the first time that I clean a bathroom in my own house.  It may also mark the first time that I depend on public transportation if my car breaks down again.  The great thing about life is that it is always changing.

 So with wedding preparations, one of the things that Bailee and company AKA the mom are doing is sewing all the flower girl dresses and creating the wedding dress.  With this, I sometimes get dragged along by Bailee as she does her shopping thing.  I don't know if you people have ever been to a craft store such as JoAnn's before, but they are a whole new world to me.  I felt like I was at a fast food restaurant for women.  The first thing you do when you go is grab a number.  Without this number you can't get service at the cutting table.  You then walk around the store gathering your sewing stuff waiting for your number to be called over the intercom system.  If you miss your turn then back of the line you go.  If people at the cutting table are taking too long, you can almost feel the female anger building as they wait their turn.  JoAnn's can be dangerous, they really need a security guard to monitor all the women competing for materials and spots in line.  I did not really enjoy the experience, I left hungry.  They have no food at the store.  But they did have some smelly scents floating around the store that somewhat satisfied my desire to possibly eat something,

Recently Bailee and I got are engagement photos taken.  What an experience! I finally got to fulfill my life long dream of being a super model.   Anyway I pose just seems to look good.  Afterwards when my mom was looking over the photos she said that Bailee looked very comfortable in the pictures and that I did not look as comfortable.  Essentially, I was the prop in the pictures.  That is what happens when you get your photo taken with Bailee, she steals the show.  I still think that I am super model material though.  My mom still loves me she just thinks that Bailee is much better looking than I.

I thought that my car was invincible that it would last forever, but recently things have stopped working on the car.  First it was the alternator, then it was the emissions, then it was a fuel injector, now the starter.  I am learning a lot about cars.  Quite interesting but expensive at the same time.  I like my car too much to throw it away though.  okay not really, I just tell myself that since I have no money to buy a new car.  I drove my mom's car yesterday, it was so nice I could almost live in it.

In other news, though I sucked up Creepy's web she still lives on.  I saw her last night just hangin in the shower looking nice and plump.  School is going well, I finished my first two classes and have now begun my second two classes of the semester.  I am somewhat getting used to 3 hour classes.  I do have to stop once in awhile and play some calculator games to give my head a relief.  Or just think of something else like what I just ate for dinner or what I am going to eat for dessert when I get home. 

Halloween is soon upon us.  I like halloween!  Candy, scariness, decorations, etc...  I am not sure what I will do for halloween this year, probably just sip some cider and eat a candy bar and call it good.  It depends on what Bailee wants to do I suppose, she did go trick or treating recently, so maybe she will want to go again.  If this occurs, I will be the scariest Jason that I can be.  I will scare candy out of everyone I meet.  You better believe it.



 On a final note, I must say that I sure do like sports!  I like tennis though hitting backhand is awkward, I like basketball and Bailee will like it too very soon, I like football though all the college teams I like are mediocre this year, and I like watching anything that is sports.  I think that my mom gets annoyed when I watch channel 5.2 universal sports during lunch or dinner when we are eating.  Apparently she does not enjoy Rugby and track and field as much as I do.  Gymnastics was on the other day I watched a lot of that, I watched a lot of diving last week, and this week ice skating has been showing.  Dang, I need ESPN and fast.
Anyhow enjoy you week!  This blog will not always be this random.
Peace to all and to all a good week

Living in my mother's basement: searching, planning, praying, etc...

Windows with paint on them, Brilliant!

          The days keep on flowing right along, I feel like they go by too quickly.  I am not working and I still feel like I do not have enough time in the day to get the things done that I want to get done.  I started writing in my planner a couple of days ago and that has caused me to do some unusual things.  for example, yesterday I cleaned my room.  A bit out of the ordinary for me, I usually just move stuff around and call it good.  I do things like push all the clothes off my bed so I have somewhere to sleep.  I skoot crap into the corner so I have somewhere to pray.  I stuff things under my bed and pile papers and books up on my shelves.  Well, I worked on cleaning all of that up and so it is better now. I will not have to clean it for another 3 months at least.  I even cleaned the bathroom yesterday including sucking up all the dead carcasses of spiders underneath creepy's hut in the shower.  I did not suck up Creepy though because she only comes out at night and it was the day time.  She is probably not happy with me right now, but I had to do it because someone came and looked at the shower yesterday to get an estimate and frankly the pile of dead spiders was kinda embarrassing.  I didn't mind it though and creepy did not mind it either I suppose.

 Conference weekend went great.  I kept hoping that Elder Yamashita would get to speak and he did and I was there at the conference center to see it.  He reminded me of how great it was to serve in Japan and be around those great people, and be a part of that culture.  I also liked Elder Scott's talk on the scriptures, I feel that I must now study a little better, and  gain some new prophet friends.  I am not a big memorizing person but if Elder Scott thinks it is necessary, then I shall do.  Elder Andersen's talk made me ponder whether or not Bailee and I should stick with our goal of  10-15 kids in the future or  bump are goal up to 20. 

Creepy is not going to be happy

As far as wedding stuff goes, Bailee is working on a wedding dress with her mom(good luck with that mom).  We have maybe settled on a place for a reception and we have maybe found a place to live and so we are maybe a little bit closer to figuring things out.  We did find a photographer and we did just change are wedding date to the 19th of November.  Just could not wait until the 22nd.  It will be on a Saturday and probably will work out a little better for everyone involved.

Bailee and I checked out a few apartments this weekend.  The first one we didn't like at all, The second one we liked okay it was doable and cheap, but the third one was pimp.  The third place we checked out was an apartment above a four car garage that is fairly new, fully furnished, part of a 1.5 million dollar house, and is very spacious.  The neighborhood and location is awesome too.  Hopefully they let us move in to the place, otherwise it will be sad. The best part is that I will not be in a basement, I will be in a roof!  I always wanted to live in a roof.  The only thing the apartment is missing is a big jetted tub, I was actually surprised when I walked into the bathroom and did not see one.

The job search is going okay.  I have a job interview on Monday and so hopefully that  turns out to be something.  Living in the basement is still good.  I have not gone crazy yet.  The dogs have only peed on my bed 3 times now. I very much do look forward to change and getting out of the basement soon and getting married of course, to my LLB.  You all may wonder what LLB stands for, but you will never know.  You can guess though in the comment section.  Hint(the B may or may not stand for Bailee)
Well,  that is it for now!  Love you all!

Living In My Mother's Basement: School, Being Productive, Wedding Prep,

The time has come that I find a job, it will happen soon perhaps, of course I said this 3 months previous also, and 3 months before that.  I may have to start like begging soon by visiting businesses with cookies, I don't know.  Looking for jobs reminds me a lot of searching for people to teach on the mission.  First off, looking for jobs online is like housing.  I can find jobs to submit my resume to every day online but nothing ever happens.  Housing in Japan was the same way and in both cases I don't get to talk face to face with the people.  In Japan, often we just talked through a speaker phone with a camera placed next to it.  We called this speaker phone a "kekko" box.  Kekko is the word that the Japanese would use to say that they are okay and don't want to listen.  It was a very nice way to say we don't like you, yet we heard it a lot and I always enjoyed hearing new methods of rejection that didn't include the word kekko.  If anything else at least it expanded my vocabulary.  Streeting was always fun on the mission especially in Tokyo.  Did not have a whole lot of luck streeting either except for  here or there.  At least we got to talk to people in the flesh and see some smiles.  I have not done a lot of job streeting, maybe I will try it, I am just not sure where to start.  Referrals were definitely the best resource for finding people to teach.  If we had decent people to teach it was always through referrals.  I have had some referrals in the job hunting process but I would like some more and I feel that ultimately that is how I will find a job but who knows.  I just need a job that will give me experience to get me started.  I have limited my options to gaining a job in my career field, I may need to look at that and tweak it a bit.

Wedding plans are on there way to a point.  We have a wedding date and we have ideas of what we want to do but nothing is set in stone yet.  I am thinking that since the wedding is close to Thanksgiving that we should have a Thanksgiving themed reception including replacing the traditional cake with a big fat turkey and holding the reception in a field.  The servers will be dressed as Indians or pilgrims and Bailee can be dressed as Pocahontas or Sacajawea and I can be Christopher Columbus or John smith or something to the sort.  Dessert will be cornbread and pumpkin pie with some warm fresh cow milk. So good!

Hey, It is Bailee and I.

Football season is fully underway, Utah State has crushed my soul twice in three games already.  Sports make me so mad sometimes, I remember when the Jazz were playing the Bulls in the Finals they were losing the game and I got ticked and started throwing my bananas all over the basement.  The cool thing is that they stuck to the ceiling and everything.  My mom was not happy with me.  I was not happy with the Jazz, I blame the Jazz.  Utah State's losses have been ridiculous.  The games go like this, the Aggies go up by many points, wait until there is 2 minutes left in the game, then they hand the ball to the other team and say go score and we will keep giving you the ball back until you win, sound good? and they say yes and that is that.  Needless to say, I try not to eat bananas so much anymore and Bailee probably won't let me even if I wanted too.

Last week Bailee and I got to spend time with a former mission companion of mine and was able to see his wife and new baby and hang out with him at temple square and at Braza Grill.   It was a good time, he was a great companion on the mission and he is inspiring to me.  I always enjoy meeting up with old friends.  Also,kj I must say that Brazilian food is good and even tastes better the second time, sometimes even the third.

guess where I took this picture?

 I am currently taking a business ethics class and a corporate finance class at Weber State University.  I have mentioned this before but it is just about the only productive thing I do these days.  I am learning some new things, so far most of the material has been a review of my undergrad coursework.  I have learned that ethics is really about making the best decision in every circumstance and that best decision comes through experience and personal values.  I am learning from finance that I really don't like numbers that much and that companies financial statements are crazy.  You have to dig deep to understand if a company is doing good or bad.  It seems that accountants may have more of an interesting job than I first thought.

Bear Lake without a beach

To end, I just want to leave with a few thoughts that I have had such as life in the basement has not been as bad as I thought it would be.  I don't really like it but it has not killed me yet. My mom is a good roommate she cooks, goes grocery shopping, tells me when I am being messy, and lets me know when I am slacking.  The singles ward has been fun,  a bit of an adjustment from the college ward, but it has been good.  It has been challenging as well in many ways which I did not really expect it to be.  Since being home I have grown more than I thought I would.  I would prefer to grow vertically though any day.  There is never a day to rest even jobless as I am.  Always a responsibility, always something that I need to do.  I am glad that I have a bad memory so as to get over all the mistakes I have made.  Working out is a good thing but eating is too, I like to do both and so I decided that I am just staying balanced in life.  That is the key to life, or so I heard!  Have an enjoyable week you all!  I look forward to seeing you soon.

Living in my Mother's Basement: Surprise! Engaged and jobless

Me and Bailee, visiting Logan, her beauty makes me look bad

I am engaged!  I would say that most of you are surprised.  I am still surprised myself, I often wake up now thinking "did I really ask a girl to marry me."  Then I think, freak I need a job.  Then I think about who I am and whether I can be the person that I need to be for Bailee.  For those who don't know, Bailee is the girl's name.  I first met her before my mission as I was visiting the girl I liked at the time at BYU that was a roomate with Bailee.  At that time, I remember thinking two things, 1 that is a cute girl and 2 Where is she now?  I only saw her briefly that day, I think that she was hiding from me because she did not want to fall in love yet.  I was a 19 year old pre-missionary at the time, I can understand her thinking.  So I went on a mission and then afterwards went to Utah State.  While at Utah State I had lots of good times, meeting lots of cool people,  dated various girls, and yelled a lot at basketball games.  During this time of my life, my good friend Tyler married Cami.  Cami is not just really cool, but she is also a good friend of Bailee's.  Cami would mention Bailee here and there and of course I remembered Bailee from when I saw her back back in the day. I did not want to overplay it but in the back of my mind I hoped that I would have the chance to take her on a date.  So essentially, the time arrived and I willingly agreed with Cami when she suggested that I take her good friend Bailee on a date.  So in March of 2010, I did just that.  She came up to Logan and we hiked the wind caves trail and then we had curry with Tyler and Cami.  We hung out a couple of times after that but then I blew her off.  I just had to do it at that time which stunk because when I called her that last time she was making Indian food and I thought, "dang it I am not going to be able to try any of that."   

So fast forward with me now to May of 2011.  As I prepared to move back home with my mom and live in the basement I spent a lot of time pondering my life and what I what I ought to do to be happy with my new situation.  When I thought about dating Bailee instantly entered my mind as someone that I had to ask on a date.  within the first couple of weeks of moving home I called her.  She did not answer of course, ( if you call Bailee and she answers the phone it is a miracle, if you text her and she responds she must really really like you and not just that it must be your lucky day) but she did quickly call me back and I asked her if she was dating someone and she said no and thought good and then I asked her on a date.  We went to Salt Lake City to a cultural festival.  I think she liked it,  I don't think that I won her over with the date though.  I should have thought of some jokes to tell her or something.  speaking of jokes, why is the ocean happy?  Because it waves.  Okay I am not so good at jokes.  Anymays, after the first date Bailee started to avoid me for awhile, I think it was the lack of jokes or the lack of breath mints I am not sure which.  She did not avoid me forever though, I was able to take her on a couple more dates before she left to China for the month of July.  My goal in dating Bailee was to get to know her the best I could and then if it works it works and if not then oh well.  So that is what I did and then Bailee went to China. I did not have an email for her, I did not think that she liked me really, I did not expect anything to happen when she returned, and so my search for the one moved forward when she left and I had a good month of getting to know a lot of people, go on blind dates, etc..

I really had the intent to just move forward, but I often wondered if she would talk to me when she got back.  One day I got a post card from her near the end of July and I was surprised somewhat with the tone of the postcard and also discovered that she had not arrived back home from China yet.  I had no idea when she was returning.  After receiveing the post card I thought that maybe my interpretation of what she thought of me was wrong.   One Sunday, I came home from ward prayer and a familiar car was parked in front of my house,  to my surprise, it was Bailee bearing gifts. I like gifts, and It was good to see her again.   I soon asked her on a date and she said yes.  I soon took her on another date and she said yes again.  Now,  I felt that she did like me and that made all the difference for me.  thereafter, I started spending more and more time with her and her family.  She has a great family, they are all a bit corky in there own way but I think it is great.  Father likes chickens,
alive ones that chirp. Nate the younger brother calls me nosaj ( jason backwards)  and always stares at me oddly and says things that just confuse me.  Melissa is always cooking food, cleaning(well sometimes cleaning), or chillin in her basketball shorts.  The dog chases me out the door every night, and mother is very prestigous as she sews, cleans, cooks, teaches piano, and everything else and she is good humored, I do not think she likes my jokes though.  They are not funny enough for her.  Bailee also has a sister and brother that are both married and out of the house and out of the basement, congratulations to them.   I like them all.  I almost forgot, my favorite of the the whole family is grandma, every time I see her it makes me happy.  She always makes me laugh.

This is the spot, kinda looks like a memorial for someone that died but that was not the case.

Okay, proposal story and then I am done.  Bailee really likes to spend time walking, hiking, and pondering in nature.  One of her favorite places is Jensen Park in Syracuse.  knowing this  and knowing that I had a ring that I would prefer she had rather than me, I decided that it would be the place to propose to her.  My criteria was that I wanted it to be special and I wanted her to be surprised.  I bought a bunch of roses including pink her favorite color and also candles because I knew that I would be proposing at night time.  I found a spot behind one of the ponds and with the help of my friend Matt set up the candles on the ground and placed the flower around the area.  It was a Friday night, Bailee was at a sewing class until 9.  So I showed up at her house a little before that time.  When she arrived I just acted normal and casually asked her if she was still up for doing something.  She said yes and so I suggested that we go hang with Tyler, Cami, and some friends at a house in the Clearfield/Syracuse area.   As we were driving, Bailee started pointing out that my brother lived around where we were and then she said that Jensen park was this direction also.  I told her that she was confused and then she really was confused.  as we neared Jensen Park she again emphasized that we were nearing the park.  I acted confused and said no I don't think so.  She then pointed to all the landmarks near the park and clearly stated that we had arrived at the park, I then said yep sure have.  So I successfully got her to the park without her even thinking that I might be proposing to her, in fact she even thought that we were going to join the sweet 16 party going on at the park.  There were bouncers and everything, it was legit.  anyways, I took her hand and walked with her past the party and over the bridge and around the pond.  As we neared the spot, she saw a flickering of light. (but not directly above her head) As she did so she tried to point out the phenomenon to me as I then tried to block her view.  As we neared the spot, she accused me of perhaps being the cause of this phenomenon, I said maybe, then walked her to the spot and got down on one knee and asked to her to marry me.  She was excited and said yes and then she kissed me.  Now we are engaged.  My days in the basement are numbered thanks to my sugar mama Bailee.  I feel a lot of pressure to find a job now.  I feel a lot of pressure in general now, but I am excited and look forward to this new adventure with Bailee.  So now you all know the story and if you have questions, ask Bailee she would be glad to answer them.  Life sometimes really is like a box of chocolates.

Until next week!

Living In My Mother's basement: Part 2 Things Are Changing

My blogging hiatus is now over, it has been too long and I miss writing randomly about my life in the basement.  It has been many weeks since I last blogged and now I should have lots of material to discuss.  You may think that I probably have a job by now, but I don't i did actually for a month but school ended my pursuit of being a professional sewer cleaner.  Yes I am back in college and yes I am at Weber State University.  I feel that I am moving back in time, I am now back to age 19 when I took Weber State night classes before my mission.  Essentially, a few more months and I will be back in high school.   Oh good times! except my friends will not be there and so it will probably be a different experience.  I will probably become Mr Lancer instead of Braden now that I have gained the proper skills. Bu ha ha!

I pretty much am a pro at archery

My sewer hole sucking job was awesome!  I would wake up at 5 in the morning, waddle out of bed, make my sack lunch consisting of peanut butter and honey along with a few other essentials, and then stick my bright green shirt with reflectors on before heading out the door.  The day would consist of driving to a location more often then not in a dirt field wherein we would pull the truck up to where we think a water or utility line should be and then we would start water blasting and sucking up the dirt as we blasted our way down into the earth.  It was kind of like digging for oil, sometimes we would find something sometimes we wouldn't.  I was always ticked when we didn't find anything cause it would take like 2 hours and then we would just have to start over.  I was the person of our two man crew designated to get muddy.  I held the tube that blasted the ground as the muddy water splattered all over me.  It made me feel a bit cool though actually, especially when I would walk into Artic Circle at lunch and would get the biggest stare among all the construction workers that were eating there.  I would just think, "Ya that's right,  Who da Man."  When we weren't digging aimlessly for holes we sucked out gutter drains and some sewer cleaning.  That was not too bad unless I dropped the sewer lid down into the sewer, then it was kinda crappy fetching the 80LB lid up and out of the hole. 

Logan Temple located on a hill built back in the 1800's

My mom is still alive and kicking she and I often eat lunch together and talk about the weather and such.  Her main complaint with me at the moment, besides then not having a job, is that I need to clean my room.  She says that I can't get married until I clean my room.  I say okay maybe I should clean it then.  I will do it tomorrow, maybe. She left me for a week back in August to visit my brother's family in Denver including my new niece Cara.  During that week it was my special responsibility to watch the dogs.  This included feeding them morning and night, if the dogs were inside I had to make sure that the back doggy door was shut and that Reggie's diaper was on.  When I let the dogs out i would have to take the diaper off the dog, shut the gates keeping them from peeing around the house, and open the doggy door.  At night the dogs would sleep with me on my bed.  I did not know that dogs could steal sheets during the night but they do.

School is cool I guess.  I am back to being forced to learn.  It is strange not being at Utah State.  I miss the commotion of being on campus that lacks at Weber State Davis.  My teachers are pretty chill which I like and they seem legit.  I currently have an ethics/leadership class and a finance class.   I am taking 3 hour night classes, I do good for the first hour and a half but the last hour and a half is blah.  My mind goes to another place and I become quickly worthless and brainless. I start thinking about  a certain someone,football, and whats for dinner.  Speaking of football, isn't it great!  I like sports!

spider couple in love

Other interesting facts that have occurred:  One night I entered my bathroom and there were now two spiders living in my shower.  I wondered if they were in love and so I decided to leave them be. I took a picture of the two love birds.  On the exercise front,  I still go to the gym once in awhile but not at quite the vigorous pace as previously.  I just do not want to get slow and fat, I need to be able to kick butt at basketball still.




To close this issue of my blog I will just say that change is occurring in my life and I look forward to the future with great excitement!  I hope that everyone is doing well with school, new babies, and work!

Have you seen this before?