What I wanted to be when I grew up...

Well I think it is about time for a new blog post...

I think about every elementary teacher somewhere sometime ask the question, "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

I always knew I wanted to be in business, not sure why I chose business but I did and now you get to hear my bright ideas from childhood to now.

When I was young my father worked at Champion Auto Stores in the east gate shopping center. I would come with him on days I didn't have school to his work and hang out in their waiting area they had for customers, It had a snack machine and couches, as well as a wide open area, I later found out that the waiting area was above the shop, where my dad and his employees worked on cars. I was talking to my dad one day about how cool it would be to buy that store front and knock the walls down in the upstairs area put up giant window pains of glass, and Lazy Boy recliners all along the glass. Put a popcorn machine up there or some sort of free snack and then also serve beer. The concept was have women in coveralls doing oil changes for $100 an oil change and let the men watch the women do the oil change, or sports TV. Yes this is what an elementary aged kid came up with young and with the help of her father and uncle. Of course this was at a time where I was much into cars and working on them getting dirty with my dad, trying to help out as much as I could.

Years went by and my father changed jobs from working at Champion to working at Roemers Tire Factory. My father got too busy to work on side jobs with people and I slowly lost interest in the idea.

The other idea I did have was owning a restaurant, one that would be open 24hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. One that would serve coffee and let people just talk and talk without complaining that the people siting enjoying coffee was just there using the space. There was one restaurant that had done that, I would listen to my mom talk about many a time sitting and enjoying coffee and good customer service. At the time I loved eating at Finnegan restaurant. As i think about it now I realize now there are some good memories at that place. DeMolay dinners on the second floor, picking out little treasures outta the chest they use to have in the down stairs area, having family dinners, and standing on the balcony watching the rive flow on by. I every time I went in there as years went by the service got worse and worse. I thought to myself I would want own the building once the people who owned it finally went under. I know that this was very optimistic of me but as time went by it seemed like the people who owned the place had not done a good job at keeping up with the crowd it brought. My only concern with the building as it stood was change the layout make it more open. Change the carpet and change the wallpaper, but that really was the more simple aspect of the idea. I would change the upstairs to small bistro tables and lots more chairs as well as having always full coffee cambros upstairs with creamer and sugar always available. I would have college students pay a dollar to use the room equipped with WiFi, as wells as multiple outlets for computers, having a moderate conference table in the middle for a larger group. This way the ground floor was keep for people wanting to eat and not have to hear people banging on the computers. As time went on the ideas morphed into a restaurant to a cyber cafe, to a coffee house that was open all the time for people.

Those were the two big ideas I had. Later I found I was really good at taking pictures. I found this out because I was in yearbook class. We learned a small amount of Photoshop and Indesign in the class. But we had people in the class who were suppose to take photos, well after about many times when the people would not wanna stay after school land get photos of sports practices, it was so difficult. So one day I asked my teacher Sietz if I could take photos of a practice since no one was around to take them, and I wanted to get these photos. I took really good photos with a Nikon DSLR. I stopped relying on the photographers in class and more on getting my own photos instead. Going through my last few years in high school I grew to enjoy design. Designing pages fast in indesign. I can design a good amount of pages for a project in a matter of minutes. When I work on projects what I will do is open indesign, make a skeleton page on indesign in matter of minutes the pages is done, picture boxes are made, text boxes are made, titles boxes are all put on the page ready for the information. When that is said and done then all I do next is the my copy, and edit my pictures, once all my info is in one place which researching what I put on the page and research can take awhile, depending on the amount of effort put into it, because the page template is done already the finished project all I do now is plug in the info, look at it and fiddle with the finished product for not more then a few minutes and I find I am done. I see that fiddling with the finished product for too long even in this program you become a perfectionist.

Now I am interning at the University of Montana Printing and Graphics. I learned a lot so far, but i thrive to learn more. I get bored doing the same old same old things. Thus why when I learn the the one thing I would get bored, finally doing things that would help me learn more. As I was in the drive through taking orders I would take a blank piece of paper and start writing out every item on out menu board and the price, once I wrote all the items on the menu board I would start to input the items not many people knew about, sides of mac sauce, or buying just a biscuit, or the Mcgriddle cakes. 

My business ideas now are: 

The first one I am interested in right now I am thinking about is owning a print shop. This would be sort of one of a kind, not only a print shop but helping people with advertising, creating their image. It is ideally perfect for new business that need that help. Or for companies that want experienced people to write a new and fresh campaign for their business, if it were a digital type of campaign they want or a printed campaign they wanted I am hoping that this business idea would be something that most people would want to come back and do reprints. The hard thing about this idea is there are places in Missoula, Mt has already. I am in a almost dried up market because most business already have their own print shop they go to, and not many people want to change.

My other idea is, starting a small business with just me. My name as a graphic artist. Someone that can work well on an item for a business and get it back in a reasonable time for an affordable amount of money. You hear that there are graphic artists that charge $2 a minute on anything they would work on. I think that is just outrageous. As well as being a graphic design, I can add in a lot because my skill set is very open. Below are a list of programs off the top of my head I know well and could proly help about anyone.

Windows 7
Windows 8
Mac OS X Snow Leopard 
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Power Point
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Access
Adobe Photoshop CS4 CS5 CS6
Adobe Indesign CS4 CS5 CS6
Adobe Dreamweaver CS6
Adobe Flash CS6
Adobe Illistrator CS4 CS5
Adobe Acrobat 

As time goes on I juggle with the idea of being my own business owner or sticking to managing someone business. I only ever assume time will tell weather either scenario of another will happen.

Spring here we come.

I have one more week till my LAST semester of college. It is a bittersweet feeling.  I am glad I am finally done since I started college in 2011 had Lucy took a semester off.  I took the hit by not graduating with some of the friends I met my first semester. I did however my first semester back from taking the time off find some great friends that I have impacted my life so much.  I have over come so much hustles this past year  I am glad that in the middle of May I get to start looking for my dream job. 

I guess I should say what my dream job is.  Well it is really any job I can show my leadership skills I have in me. I am currently interning at a print shop.  I am really interested in graphic design,  working in photoshop,  in indesign, and illustrator. With the internship I hope to learn what these programs do in the printing world.  Being blessed to find a great job running a printshop would be great. I say if my destiny in his eyes are for me to run a print shop like I hope I will be so happy.

Now to say what spring holds. Well it holds my last 5 classes I need to take to graduate.  I wonder how new spring will look with a list of things I will be doing.
>5 classes
>Intern in the mornings at the print shop
>Giving my lord the time of me he deserves
>Putting some extra time in at our church
>Along with raising my daughter
>Spending time with my husband

I sure do have a full plate and time management will surely come into play in this house. I cannot wait for this spring to start  one more week and the chaos starts. While some people are not equipt to handle as much things going on but I am up for the challenge.

With God all things are possible.

The many means of transportation of this Arnold

We start the world on out backs just laying on floors, when we grow we move from that to our tummy's evolves from that to more. As time flies by we begin to crawl and our means of transportation is our hands and feet. We pull our selves up to our feet and start walking. As we master that mean of transportation we run, job, or walk. So already we are about 12 or 18 months and we have mastered 3 means of getting from place to place, rolling from back to front, crawling, and walking. As we grow with age we want more and easier ways of transportation.

I started with wanting a bike mastered that many times around our neighborhood. I rode up and down the block many times.  I rode back and forth to my elementary school and my place.

As I grew I saw friends having different modes f transportation ranging from roller blades to scooters. So I begged and begged my parents to get me a scooter. Until one Christmas I finally got one! The bike was put to the way side and I used the scooter. It wasn't until I rode my scooter to a friends and got really tired I knew the scooter was fine around the block but not for long distances that is when I alternated from bike to scooter.

In between having the bike and scooter I was given a I thought that was the best thing for me.

Once I grew more and more and moved from in town to the where we lived for a long time out past the airport in EGYPT. About two years living there my dad got me a 4-wheeler. That was the best thing on 4 wheels I had ever had. I would drive the 4 wheeler up to the bus stop, hid it under the brush near the gate. This was my favorite so far because I took it off road quite a few times. I rode it fast and traveled to many different areas I never knew of, one of my favorites was riding up and over the hill finding the many places the deer would bed down in out area.

The next thing I was in was a 1984 Chevy Chevette, a blue rusted, 2 door car. I learned to drive in this car. It was a stick shift car and I drove it for a good year before my dad got me into a 1983 Chevy Blazer. Grey, 2 door care automatic this was really nice to drive I was able to get 11 people and 3 bikes into the car. It was once car I drove for a long time. After awhile I met my future husband Russell and he introduced me to my first 90's car. He had a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix. A 2 door silver car we drove that forever. W had this care from when we met in 2009 to a little after we got married in 2010 and HE got me pregnant, we decided the 2 door car was not the best for a family since I broke my back so many times getting my nieces in and out of the car. In about January 2011 we bought a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, this was one nice car we enjoyed. My husband and my dad spent a very cold night to replace the heater core. We had that Jeep for a few months till my husband decided to got to Cheep Cars and financed a 2001 Dodge Ram truck in September 2011. I loved this truck. I miss the truck. This was one nice truck we got some crap for getting a dodge but my husband had been a Mopar fan for a long time. I stand with my husband. We had the truck for awhile and Russ my husband found a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix in may 2012, I think when he saw this for a good deal we decided it was the car we would have a long time and use for road trips and what not. Then at the end of 2012 Russ found a 1998 Ford Expedition this was nice his dream was to have a nice car where he could take our family and more on road trips. We really never did that though since we could not afford to go on trips. Had the Expy for a short while and sold it off to a friend in 2013 when they were interested in the big rig. We went down to one vehicle to save money. Realizing now in 2014 that we were driving a 2007 car around that had $8000 on a loan in a circle for $500 a month. This did not make sense to us. We did the logical thing and started to look for a reasonably priced vehicle we can replace the Grand Prix with and we would eventually sell our car and get out of the loan we have on the car. Today we found a vehicle that we will have until we are debt free, AND have cash in hand to buy a car outright. So now we are in a 1998 Chevy Tahoe and this we have no loan on. We hope to be able to sell our Grand Prix for what our loan is and finally have a good amount of money in our pocket. Not to have to struggle with paying our bills and be able to have good amount of cash flow for nice date nights with my husband.

I am so glad to have found a Chevy we can enjoy and not have a CAR PAYMENT!!!

Church, Spiritual growth and coffee.

I think of how far I have come in a year.  And I have grown so much maturity and spiritually. 

I can remember my friends Zach and Amy just always trying to get me to come to their church. I told my self I was content to not going to church and believing what I believe. At the time I thought of a higher power and I really didn't believe in if it was God or someone else. 

This brings me back to where I was in high school I had a friend Megan Jessop who would just kept trying to get me to come to "The Connection".  For the longest time she really wanted me to join her I kept giving her excuse after excuse in the book. 

I realize now that I needed to go to church at the time I had gone to church.  Around this time I saw my close friend Kayce going to a financial class at her church.  I became interested more and more in going,  she tried to get me to come to the class who  she was going again I just never did.  I however signed up for the next class which started in end of January 2013. 

I started going to the church by the class taught there FPU.  Brandon Smith was the first person from the church other than the people I knew that I met,  he was smart and knew his stuff.  We were able to switch insurance to his company and save money getting more coverage then we had.  The 6 or 7 week the pastor of the church came in to talk to the group,  at that time they were doing a series called inked. But he invited us to Easter Sunday which was the start of the new series.  We were thinking of going to the church that Sunday but didn't and then we wanted to go the next Sunday and didn't so then we planned to go Easter Sunday and never left the church after that.  I was use to a traditional service,  hymnals tithing, communion, Lords prayer, sermon, ending with dedication and invitational. But midtown was different they had worship with upbeat up lifting music, a tithe blurb,  then the sermon and finally invitational.  The pastor had made his sermon so interesting that I wanted to pay attention eery minute so I didn't miss anything. 

There were time were I wanted to take a break from gong to church and not come,  but I still got up and came to church,  coffee in my hand. That is proly the best thing about this church is they have coffee every Sunday morning.

All in all I feel that this quote always come to mind and my pastor is to thank.

"It's easy to join a church, hard to leave the church" Pastor Russ Smith.

I can see that because there have been times where we wanted to not go but we went anyway cause we felt we should, and we appreciated that cause we have met a ton new friends and made connections to people we never even thought we had.

I am blessed to have come so far then I have ever thought I have.  I want to grow even more this new year. Big plans for the new year. And I have a lot of new people to thank cause of this. 

God Bless and keep you.

2013

Well we had one heck of a year.

Lucy in January 2013

Highlights
January 2013:
>Spent New Years in Helena Mt, with Russell's mom and dad.
>Russell's grandmas dog passed away of old age, they got the dog a long time ago because someone stopped on the hwy in Malta and left the dog there possibly to die but Russell's grandma and grandpa Patrick took the dog in as their own.
>I learned to knit Sashay scarfs.
>Started the potty training process.
>Celebrated MY cousin Chases 7th birthday

Lucy and Skylar February 2013

February 2013:

Tattoo got done in February

>Had college classes on a regular basis.
>Got Lucy hand print on my arm, Byron did this at altered skin.
>Started FPU at Midtown church
>started playing bingo with some friends and happened to win both jackpot rounds!


March 2013:
>Took Lucy to her first carousel ride in Helena Mt

Lucy March 2013

>Met the Pastor of Midtown Church, my first thoughts of my pastor "Finishing up fpu, just met the pastor, I think I could sit and engage listening to him for a couple hours a week"
>Lucy had her first friend sleep over with Skylar
>Went to our church home for the first time on March 31st 2013.

Lucy April 2013

April 2013:
>Watcher wrestle mania and saw my favorite wrestler get 21-0
>Saw Jeff Dunham in concert! 
>Read the gospels. 
> Got a 4g phone! 

May 2013: 

>Barley passed accounting 2

>spent mothers day in Helena (came home early)

>Judged senior projects at my old high school (2nd year)

>watched my friends Bob, and Jackie graduate!

Lucy May 2013

June 2013:
>Celebrated my niece Lizzis 4th birthday
>was invited to church BBQ
>yard sale fun...

Lucy June 2013

Lucy July 2013

July 2013:
>Spent July 4th with family in alberton, 
>Watched our church win the church softball tournament.
>My baby turned 2 shared birthday with my niece who turned 6 Abbi
>Lucy tried to feed me a mouse.... one heck of a way to wake up

 August 2013:
>Tried my hand at Candy Crush.... failed... 
>Saw Kmart demolished... sad day 
>Fair with family had a long day of enjoying the sites
>Kamp Midtown

 

Lucy, Lizzi & Abbi August 2013

Lucy & Papa September 2013

September 2013:
>Lucy was bite by a dog. 
>Celebrated 3 years of marriage 

>Classes in full swing












October 2013: 

Lucy, Lizzi, & Abbi October 2013

>Attended the homecoming parade with friends and went to ihop afterwards. 
>Went to parenting classes through our church, got useful information. 
>Went to Kyle and Dani Smiths first night preaching at Zootown church! 

Lucy November 2013

>Attended first Griz game

>Mourned some loss.

November 2013:
>Attended Shane Willard when he spoke at our church.
>Got family pictures taken by Taylor of Shutter Photography.
> Worked the Griz game concession. 

>Met up after Lizzis surgery for lunch date
>Thanksgiving at my sisters and played many games! 

December 2013:
>Finals week was in 1 day! 
>Listened to some good words from Chris Sonksen
>Attended a great Team development Christmas party, and many others
>Enjoyed Christmas in our home.
>Traveled to Helena for Christmas the following weekend.

Lucy December 2013

With all that had happened in 2013 I hope that in 2014 I will have a more successful year, less of some things and more of others!