some random pics...

so i was thinking....what could i take a picture of to show you what i've been up to lately, but pictures of me studying aren't really all that exciting....so here goes

Mi casa that i decoratedo (spanish for decorated)




grandfather and grandmother's casa that i decoratedo...













and some random halloween pics...even my beekeeping brother!

nothing new....

okay, so my blogs lookin a little boring....but what do i have to tell ya.......so i'm back home, blah blah blah. anyway, i came across this story that i wanted to share with y'all! It's kinda sad, but has a good meaning!
i love ya & when i have something more exciting to post....i most certainly will!


A Mother passing by her son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up.

Then she saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to "Mom" With the worst premonition she opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.


Dear Mom,:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Dad and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it's not only the passion...Mom she's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone.We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don't worry Mom. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love,
Your Son Jon


P.S. Mom, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my center desk drawer.

I love you.
Call me when it's safe to come home.

a taste of my hood...

what else can i say...this is a picture of my favorite abandoned house out in my ghetto hood. pay close attention to the 2 doors in the picture...tell me what you see.

White Sox Game

so last week our team met a goal we were striving for, so the company took us to a white sox game in a stretched limmo. Here's a picture of the stretched limmo....yea right, more like an old folks bus!

It was actually a pretty sweet set up inside though, it had a big screen tv with leather seats and all. turned out to be really cool.


Anyway, the game was a ton of fun, although the sox lost to the twins like 11-0.....which was a little disappointing, but still fun! Anyway, love and miss ya all!
-the guy on the right is my manager & friend blayne, the guy on the left is a team mate, Jimmy.

Hi everyone!! So yesterday i went to the taste of chicago! All i can say is wow!!! imagine like 3 streets blocked off and full of booths set up by different restaurants! Then imagine trying all of their food!!! I had a rib sandwich, meatball sandwich, chicken salad, pizza, bbq hamburger & chocolate covered banana! It was SO good! Here are some pictures from it.

This friday i'm going to a sox game too!!!

Random Thoughts....

It's been a while since i've updated my blog, and for that I apologize. mostly it's because nothing new or exciting has been happening....i'm still just working :-)

we actually moved areas though, we're selling in chicago itself right now, i'm about a 15 min train ride from downtown where i'm at right now. the people are really pretty nice, it's about 90% hispanic which is my interesting tidbit of info for the day. 2 of the guys on my team had their appendix repture last week, the bizarre circumstances is that both of them were in the same appartment, and had surgery within about 3 days of each other. contagious? maybe.

anyway, i hope you enjoy the random pictures i took....the 'car umbrella' was a picture taken in my old hood (lake station, illinois). the name is pretty self explanatory, but just in case you're confused, the car had a large hole it's roof, so why not save some $ in repairs, it's much more cost effective is it to merely place an umbrella where that gaping hole was....problem fixed.

the next is from the chicago blues festival i attended 2 weeks ago (which was fabulous by the way) - it just doesn't get any better than good music, good food, and lots'a pretty ladies in the outdoor air!

Next is Buckingham fountain, which i'm sure many of you remember from the theme of 'Married with Children'.....oh come on, we all know you watched it religiously!

The next is of the Chicago Theater. the day we were there, they were shooting a movie inside the theater, so the road was blocked off and camera crews were waiting for the several stars to arrive. i watched in anticipation, and then got bored as i realized i didn't know who any of the actors were.

Lastly, the decoration i recently did to my appartment room, thanks to Jacob & Sunny's package they sent me. it actaully looks like someone lives in here now!

i love & miss you all~

a vote...

so yesterday was an extremely windy day out here in chicago, and i have to admit my hair is getting pretty long.....long enough that after it being blown around in my face all day long i decided i needed to get a haircut the following morning.

So this morning i woke up early and tried to find a barber, but ran into the problem that there weren't any barbers that open before noon! So what could I do, wait till the weekend.....no.....

so i borrowed a pair of clippers and figured how hard could it be, right?

Anyway, here's a picture of my first haircut down by myself. Not to bad right? And to think that I've been paying $15 for someone to do what i can obviously do just as good :)

some interesting tidbits....

I thought I had already posted my interesting facts about the new city that I'm selling in, but somehow forgot to mention them.....

The city I'm currently selling in is Gary, Indiana:

Last year, Gary had the highest per capita murder rate in the United States.
9 out of 10 crimes in Gary are violent crimes
Gary's local murders are 8.75 times the national average

Please feel free to research this further at:
http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Gary&state=IN

Wow I love going to work each day :)

Downtown...

Hi guys, so this afternoon (after church of course...) i went into downtown chicago with some friends. It's a lot of fun, there's a lot to see and do, but today we just kinda bummed around the town. We went to the apple store, mostly because I can't resist checking out all the new gadgets, and then after we ate at a pizza place called Giordano's. It was the best pizza I've ever had!!! It started raining pretty hard, so we kinda called it a day earlier than usual. Here are some pictures of me and some of the guys in my team at Giordanos, me at Chicago River and some randome pictures of the town. much love~

interesting tidbit....

So I was reflecting on my first week of time out here in Chicago......and I realized an interesting truth.....

The hoods that we're selling in are populated by about ~90% blacks, the other 10% is a variety of ethnicities. The interesting thing is, my assumption would be that the blacks would be sort of racist towards me, since I'm the minority there. This however was not the case at all...all of the black individuals I've met (for the most part) have been super nice!!! It's the white guys doors that I've knocked on that are just EXTREMELY rude! Kinda blew my mind how rude they were actually.

Another funny thing...(cough).....was one night we were getting in a little bit later than usual, and one of the guys I sell with was at the gas station waiting to be picked up. A cop came up to him, asked him what he was doing and wanted to make sure that he had a ride out of there, before it got too dark. Safe neighborhoods i guess :-)

Well, I love you all, I'm hoping to go into chicago next weekend, and if i do will post some pics. Love you all.
~dave

The Windy City...

Hi everyone! I've spent the last 3 days driving across the country...The first day (Monday) I drove through Arizona and New Mexico (which is not that pretty of a state - it's rather like an ugly version of Arizona). On Tuesday I continued on driving through Colorado and Nebraska, both of which were green and beautiful. Monday night though I was watching the news and noticing the weather forcast for Colorado, which I was going to be driving through the following day...and as I'm listening I realize they're talking about how there is a Tornado watch out in Southern Colorado, and that the tornado sirens had been going off.....and i'm thinking.....oh great, what a wonderful start to a road trip!! Anyway, the tornado moved east into kansas, much to their dismay i'm sure, but my advantage! Day 3 I drove through Iowa and Illinois to where I am now. I'm staying in Westmont Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago! The apartments are nice, pretty big. There are 3 of us that stay in the 3-bedroom apartment....although I haven't met my roomates yet, so i'll let you all know how that goes. The one thing, is that it's pretty chilly here and very windy. I think it's about 54 degrees right now with the wind factor cooling it off even more. needless to say i went to wal-mart to buy some groceries and dishes and what not, and I picked up an extra blanket as well. Anyway, tomorrow will be my first day selling, so I'll let you all know how that goes.
much love~dave

28th Birthday celebration :-)

The second celebration was my birthday of course!!! 28 years, man how the time flies, it feels like just yesterday that......um......that I was doing something that signifies a younger time of my life :)

Anyway, last Sunday was Savannah Decker's blessing and afterward we got together and celebrated my birthday. Call me ol' fashioned, but it just doesn't get any better than a backyard bar b que! It was a wonderful birthday with family and friends and hotdogs! There were even two new additions, Savannah Decker and Soldier Hyatt (the lil puppy in the pics) --no, I'm not engaged, but the puppy is just as cute as a future wife right? Anyway, coulndn't have asked for a better birthday, unless somehow you all could have been there!

Goodbye bash & 28th b-day party Pics

Hi Guys, I celebrated two things this past week; The first was my goodbye party with some of my friends at work. I had my last day at the hospital last Tuesday, so we went to Macayos and I had a great time. It was really sad to leave, as it always is; Between my volunteer & full-time work, I've been at Banner Children's for just over 4 years!!! It's amazing how fast time flies, but I feel lucky to have been able to meet such amazing people and make many lifelong friends. Below are some pictures...

Another new update...

Wow...2 posts in a week....I'm breaking new ground here.
Anyway, I decided to take a summer sales job in Chicago in hopes of only only needing to work part-time the following school year, so on May 14th I'm heading to Chicago to try my luck. I'll be selling home security systems through Pinnacle Security (I can probably get ya a good deal if anyone wants...let me know).

I was sad to leave the hospital b/c i love it and the people there, but i am also excited to hit up Chi town.

Featured Band...

I haven't been extremely consistent with posts, and I apologize for that; however I have a new artist that I found on itunes and she has an absolutely beautiful voice. Take a listen, and let me know what you think.
I cannot take claim to this video, it's better than anything I could do, so why not use hers :)

cruisin in style...

So I recently bought a skateboard...it's pretty pimp if i might say so myself. It's a barefoot longboard, and is made of bamboo. I really love it, but i can't tell you too much more than that because I really don't know a lot about skating myself. I do know that skating is one of those things that looks A LOT easier than it actually is. Turns out there's a bit of skill that goes into it, actually quite a bit of skill. The first night I got it, I skated over to Grandmother & Grandfather's house to try it out and show them my new board. I would estimate it's about 3/4ths of a mile (roughly a 7 min ride via skate board or rollerblades)...it took me about 20 minutes to get there!! I did get there without falling off...too much at least. Needless to say, it's a skill which I have yet to aquire, but when I do, I'm going to take it to ASU with me and cruise around campus in style!

So last sunday i took julia & analise out to try out the new board. here are a few of the pictures, as you can see they're both quite natural at it. Analise jumped on without hesitation, and well, pretty much showed me up.....notice that I'm not actually rolling in the picture, just standing!