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!

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