Meet Virginia....or Gini.

Pictures as I promised

I was lucky enough to work in California this summer when Gini and her family were there on vacation. They took me to the beach and I saw in the ocean for the first time in my life. It was a great trip. Thanks Savage.

This is after the day at the beach during the same trip to Newport. After a sweet 24th of July swimming in Newton and a day at the beach, I was red.

Gini came up and visited me after my deer hunt. I wanted to put a picture up of my buck but I doubt that would have gone over really well. I love Newton. I love the first picture also.

Gini and I went to Strawberry Days rodeo. It wasn't as good as the Draper Days rodeo but it was up there ;)

Gini's little sister plays volleyball at Idaho State, basically she is a big deal. We usually travel up there for her home games. It is so much fun. I am learning so much about volleyball.

Gini and I went for a midnight chair ride at Sundance, there was a full moon out and so BYU let every zoobie out for the weekend it seemed like. We got there right before the line got crazy long.

The best thing, I don't think I can narrow it down to one, is the fact she loves baseball. She bought me this polo even though she absolutely hates the Yankees.

So here is an update into my life family. I wanted to let you all know what I have been doing and why I have been missing family dinners.

This week has been awesome. On Monday we had a guest speaker, he is my professor's son and just retired at age 30 from Google. Before he left he was in charge of Google's Asia arm. Loaded is spelled very similar to his name. He came in and talked to our class regarding careers. He graduated from London School of Economics (THE top economics school in the world). It was different because you could tell he had fallen away from the gospel. It was sad, a girl asked about having time for a family during a career and he scoffed at her. Anyways, it got to me. It got me nervous and sad about my career. I haven't had much success comparative to my friends who are interviewing all over right now. I was fine with it until this talk. I got kind of worried and as soon as those worries manifested themselves I got a job interview.

I got an email last week for an interview with International Trucks, Navistar is the actual name but International is the public name, the interview never got setup so I followed up. I got an email Tuesday morning for a Wednesday phone interview. I was very excited. I got to the phone interview and nailed it. I feel I did better than I had done in any interview before. At the end I asked him why BYU and their recruiting process. He told me they usually only interview BigX schools, but the new VP of Finance for the company is a BYU alum. The BYU alum was suppose to do the BYU stuff but his schedule changed and he couldn't but they already committed to the school to interview X amount of students. Right now I am thinking ohh great so I am just a formality. Well thanks for the practice. He told me he would call me the next day to let me know what was up. I got a call this morning. Of 150 applicants, I am one of 30 selected for 2nd rounds in Chicago next week. So Thursday morning I fly again. I hope I go Delta and I get to use my new Elite status to board early.

I am excited for this job interview and the opportunity. I am grateful for the answer to my prayer for an interview. This just showed me how much the Lord loves me. I don't know if I will take the job, I don't know if I will get the job but I asked God for this opportunity and He gave it to me. I wanted it more to have something to tell my classmates when they are talking about interviews and I don't feel like a loser. God is so loving though He will let me do this. That simple, ask and you really shall receive.

Until next time.

Update

So this past Sunday we had a going away party for my awesome little sister. She is moving to Virginia to take a high-profile job with a large corporation. Translation? She's a big deal and I love her.

As I was there visiting with my cousin, she asked why I don't blog anymore. I was like really? You read my blog? Combine this with my mother pleading to know what is going on in my life and I am back.

I moved to Orem, best decision of my BYU career. There was one time this summer when I went to visit my old house in downtown Provo, and while I was driving through Provo I was like I am never living here again. I got a house with four other guys, a little bit of a change from the Frat House I lived in last year of 16 guys but I am not complaining. We got a fixer-upper and did a number on it. I have my own room, complete with desk from my mom and new mattress for my birthday. I couldn't be happier.

School is in full swing, or at least that is what they tell me. I honestly feel like I went down a grade, like I am a TA in a class after last year. It is harder than I ever imagined because since I am not being challenged I spend most of my class periods day dreaming, hence me blogging instead of learning about six sigma. I spend most of my nights though studying about this stuff and teaching it to myself at my own pace because the classes go too slow.

I got a job on campus that I love, I am a receptionist. If you ever attended BYU you are laughing right now, it is like being a male nurse. Not a lot of men in my profession. I love it though because I enjoy listening to these girls dish about EVERYTHING.

Life is good. I am loving my classes, even if they bore me but I am dying to go back to work. I just want a real job and to be gaining experience. I will wait my turn and just keep applying and working things out. Last week I had an interview with Lockheed Martin, it was a good confidence boost but also helped me realize I need to work on my stories a little bit more. We'll see what happens. I still am looking forward to interviewing with Savage again. I loved the company and would love to go back to them.

I am going to post a bunch of pictures within a week. Just to update everyone. Just stay with me.

Last Post

Today is probably the last post for a while. I just don't have anything exciting to write about anymore. Life is good. I had a safe and happy summer. I flew home today and made it safe and sound. I really enjoyed my time with Savage.

Tonight was amazing. I came home and I went and visited my brother and his wife. Both of them served their missions in Canada and so both were excited and wanted to talk about my trip. I dropped off some delicious candy bars and then we chatted. My sister in law said, well when is your next trip? I said never. This summer was great but there is nothing like being home with my family and friends. Next week I move back to Orem, the week after that I go on my annual elk hunt. I love it.

Thanks for everyone reading. I hope you all have a safe and happy rest of the summer also.

Last Audit

Today was pretty funny, halfway through my audit I realized I was doing my last one. I can't believe this job is practically over. It seems like just yesterday I was in Price, visiting with my cousin and making ladies cry. I can't believe it has gone like this. I had some idea of putting of stats, of how many nights I spent in hotels or how many flights I went on. Needless to say I got a free flight to any where in the US and anywhere from one to three free nights at a Hilton depending on the city and how nice a room I want. Yea I got hooked up.

This morning I woke up and I drove to Point Tupper, it is on the water. So beautiful. I had a good time auditing this operation everyone in Canada is so nice. I hda a good day today complete with fish, seafood, and birthday cake.

Canada is a wonderful place, but I can't express how happy I am to go home tomorrow and stay home. Today is a huge milestone for me, I set a goal to have a successful summer and tonight it all came together. I thought back over the summer and everything I did and have never been more grateful than I was tonight.

I have been thinkink pretty deep lately. One thing that has been on my mind is control over my life and the balance. I know that I can't completely control my life, God is in control and no matter what I do it is really up to Him.

I love baseball. I love the Yankees. I was listening to some commentators on tv the other night. They were talking about pitchers, now if a pitcher is good he can throw one pitch. If they can't hit your fastball then you don't need anymore pitches. Exhibit Joba Chamberlain 2007. Now the trick to throwing a good fastball is to grip the ball loosely. The harder you grip the ball the slower it goes, that is actually how you throw a change up. Most people don't know that you only touch a fastball with the tips of your fingers. Somestimes pitchers are "over-gripping" and they lose velocity, they are self destructing.

This came to me today as I was driving. I am like the tired pitcher, wanting to control the game and blow my pitch by people. I try too hard to throw my pitch and I end up just hurting myself and my team. Sometimes we just need to let go and realize we can't control things anymore. I realized today that I have no control over the situations that come my way, I can control what happens when they get to me but the ones that come or don't come my way I can't control those.

Life is good if we live in a such a way as to make it so.

Friends

I don't think I titled last nights post, as you can tell it is a little scattered. Let us see if we can't remedy that.

So I had an amazing afternoon today. I got done in the office and asked them to recommend a place, I had a friend recommend a carnegie deli type place but after the last time I had smoked meats I don't think I will ever be the same. Imagine me and three women in a conference room one goes I know exactly where to go...La Fornetta....the other two go awww, like a puppy dog just came out of box with a pink ribbon on it and it had I love you in spots on its side. They all start jibbering in french and I am look okay, they tell me it is the nice little italian place on the river. So amazing. I went down and sat outside on a beautiful day and had some pretty good food. I love the change of personality people have when they realize I am American and I don't speak french. So my waiter ignored me which was nice because I got to really soak up the scenery in my corner of the patio. I loved it.

Today I got pretty sentimental and made up for not getting too deep last night. Just bear with me, unless you are one of my brothers then this post is over.

I was thinking about why this trip has been so hard for me. There isn't anything significant about it, I don't mind traveling, I haven't had any bad experiences, the french doesn't truly bother me.... I thought about it today while I was eating and then when I stopped and visited the Montreal temple on the way out of town. I have come to the conclusion it is my friends, I am missing them.

Have you ever been so sure of something only to find out the moment after you do it you were completely wrong? I have, it is like the story of my life. I try to hard to make things right and fix stuff when sometimes I just need to realize just becauce it isn't working how I want it to doesn't mean it is broken. I am not any good at fixing things anyways, exhibit A my motorcycle. I bought it running in April only to take a simple loose screw and turn it into 4 months of not running. But I tried my dangest to fix it.

I asked the ladies how early I should get to the airport, they say at least 3 hours. I was like wow that much foot traffic, ohh yea all the flights out of Montreal are in the evening. Okay...I will go that early. Needless to say I had no line in security, which btw Canada you aren't a threat to anyone no one wants to hijack your planes, stopped acting like you are a big deal and having more security than the White House; anyways back to the airport. I get through security and am able to get on an earlier flight to Halifax. I guess when it doesn't really matter I can get to where I am going just fine.

Good night.

Today was a good day. I woke up and went to location one of two today. I got there and it was funny because everyone was speaking french but me. It makes me feel really uncomfortable. Everyone starts out in French then when I speak English they seem so put out and upset like it some trial for them to speak English without an accent. I respect rules, even if I wasn't an auditor I still run by rules. A professor at Harvard Business School when he was teaching a class on Humility, said it is a lot harder to be obedient 98% of the time than 100%. I agree with that. Well so I bring up a rule that has been broken all through the company and she just scoffs at it. Then when her manager comes in, luckily he doesn't speak french so I could understand, she says guess what stupid thing they want us to do now as I am standing right next to her. One form of audit evidence is talking with the workers. Sometimes I rely on that pretty heavily to gauge how they do their work and their respect level and see if they openly admit to doing something they aren't suppose to do but don't know it. When I hear someone say stuff like that, it sends off a red flag. I wish I could have given her a 0. I was looking for a good enough reason. She was nice, but I hated giving her a score that I feel she didn't deserve.

I guess that is where my problems in life start, judging people too harshly. This lady is really nice and probably very good at her job. I just hated the way she scoffed at mine.

I then went to location two of two, a complete turn around. I go in and bring up the exact same thing to the coordinator, she goes oh my goodness well I'll get right on an email out to the managers. Should I tell them if they don't get it to not bother turning in receipts we won't reimburse them? I was like well that is up to you, in my mind I am thinking I am going to hate giving this lady a bad score.

I don't know what else to right, usually I have some insight or something deeper than people's reactions to my work. Today was just another high profile day in my auditing life. Life is good though. Tomorrow I get out of a french dominated city and move to Nova Scotia. It should be nice this time of year, and considering I have 6 hours of driving I should see the whole island.

Canada

So I started my last trip with a bang this morning. I got up and got to the airport and I went to check-in at the kiosk hoping to get an exit row seat. None were available. Well when I went to go check-in the line was at the end of the maze, pretty long but nothing I couldn't get through. Well so as I am checking in since I was going internationally I had to scan my passport. Well the kiosk was having issues reading my passport so it took me a while to get my boarding passes. Well I turn around and what has happened. The line is all the way to the short term parking. Anyone who has flown out of Salt Lake knows this is unheard of. I have been spoiled with the longest I had to wait was twenty minutes once. So I am like are you kidding me? I start in line, get about 5 spots up and I hear the TSA lady on the radio, "yea there isn't a line over at the international terminal". So I book it over there. Ahhh, to be in security for only 5 minutes.

The flights went by so fast. I packed only religious readings and after a while like my Dad says you can ruin a day with too much religion. I just think my mind was weary from the deep thinking. And there was a lot of it. They were mostly self help topics, I am always trying to improve and so they had a lot to do with that so it wasn't too bad.

I land in Montreal. Nothing is in English, no one is speaking English. I am dying. I wander around with a bunch of people until I finally get to the rental car place. The lady goes uhhh let me call and get you a car up right away. I say alright. She is like we are out let me go borrow one from Avis. I say okay. She goes uhhh it will be a bit they are running low also. Just then some guy brings back a sweet new ride. Can I get an upgrade, upgrade....for free? Yes please! So I am in a new Sonata. I love my job.

It is interesting to think that this is my last trip. I have three more flights, I bet one gets messed up for sure, and a couple more hotel nights and then this job is done. This summer has gone by way too fast.

I have been thinking a lot about a career and I know earlier I said I was dedicating myself to a career in public accounting. I think I need to change that. I realized this last week that I enjoy finding problems, but I hate handing them off to someone else to fix. I want to fix things. I always try and fix everything around me, sometimes I am really good and sometimes I am really bad but I still love fixing things. I love my job because I find out problems, inefficiences that put the company in a position to be hurt. I love finding them, I hate handing them over to someone and just saying yea sorry I found this problem do something about it. I want the job that finds and solves, or at the very least solves. I want to be on the forefront of day to day decisions and operations. I think me not getting in the Masters program at BYU was sign that the Lord knew I would want this also and protected me from going down a career path I might regret.

So here it is to changing again. The only good thing about this is that no matter what, I know I will be successful. As a Phillips I am blessed with an innate drive, that results in knowing that whatever comes across my path I will be able to beat. I will struggle, but there is nothing in this world that can stop me. I look forward to the job hunt, and in any other trial out there foolish enough to get in my way.