Why the world needs Council Bluffs, Iowa!

First of all, a word about the title. I have a handful of people I'm trying to convince that Council Bluffs is the best place in the world. I love it here. I learned to love Council Bluffs while being away to Holland or Utah or Uganda, but I'm loving it even more being here right now with so much happening, enjoying the fall weather, being with the family and such. I don't want to come across as one of those people who are so terribly obsessed with their home or anything like that...to the point of where they'd only pick cards that have something to do with Iowa in a game of apples to apples (see Kasey or Alan for citation). So below are some reasons why CB is such a sweet place:


People are always so happy to be in CB

CB has some really sweet storms, this picture is with the flash on, it makes the rain drops really cool.

Without the flash

CB has some fine, upstanding members

Also some thugs

One really cool thing about CB is being in the mission field and meeting amazing people. This is Terrance, he grew up in the hood in Chicago and then redshirted for Fresno St. He came here, was looking for God and then the missionaries knocked on his door. He has turned his life around and is a really good example. He is so excited to be going to the singles ward and then on a mission. Last week he got the Priesthood during Elders Quorum. Haha, he came back from the circle and sat down and said, "I thought it'd be different being surrounded by white guys." Haha, one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

Lots of marryin going on around here in CB. That's always good.

Go Iowa Hawkeyes. We have manners here, notice there is no pick.

There are some really funny dawgs in CB

We explore creativity in CB, awesome hats, huh?

Most people don't know about the jungle we have here

And there's a temple!

And Papa Murphy's!!!! Ahh yeah...

We take great pride in our chairs which is why we brand every chair

Two words: Dream Playground

Four words: Mall of the Bluffs

And we have a desert here

No monkeyin around here

See, in CB even big kids never grow too old of being held by their older brother, who used to hold them like this when they were little babies, when they used to cry all through the night...and the older brother couldn't stand it so he would walk around with them like this, sing them songs until they fell asleep, then he'd put them down and they would start crying again.

...I rest my case

Always a beautiful sunset here in the religious Heartland

CB is disneyland for poli sci people. Good ole Fred Thompson

We even let Democrats come to CB

We foster old traditions here, in the ole Midwest

AL football baby!!!

Life lessons I've learned recently:

--sunrises and sunsets are really similar. As I was driving to work today and then later at night when I was driving to work I saw the sunrise and sunset and they looked pretty much the same.

--the laundry doesn't get done if you put it on your to-do list and set it out where you won't forget it if you keep on telling yourself you'll do it later.

--apparently I need to start saying 'bro' a lot more. Everybody at work calls each other 'bro.' I also need to work on my ping pong skills. I'm pretty sure I'll play at least 20 mins of ping pong everyday for the next 4 months.

--if you run by a dead skunk, you'll stink for the next 10 minutes. So you should probably be smart and run a different way home, cause if you run by the dead skunk again, you'll worse, for even longer

--it's pretty funny when dogs get brain freeze. Whenever Rusty hears us turn on the ice machine, he runs toward it and jumps until you give him ice. It was so funny when he got brain freeze cause he kept shaking his head, lost balance, and fell over.

--never accept a challenge to a mustache contest when you know you can't win. We're having one at work starting in October for a couple weeks. There's like 12 of us doing it, and the contest is more about how creative you can get with your mustache. I have to grow out a beard for our Aicha music video that we're going to do...the problem is that I really can't grow out a mustache or a beard.

--School stress is so much worse than work stress. I'm kinda working 4 jobs/internships at the moment. I'm working at TD Ameritrade, which is the second largest stock trading company in the US. It is incredible! I am learning so much about stocks, options, investing, everything. There is a whole other world I had no idea about. I traded stocks a couple years ago and did pretty good, stocks are easy, but options are so complicated. There's so much you can do with them, so many creative things. I'm glad I have a couple of months to learn the biz and then plan on doing lots of trading with what I have. I really would like to come back here after graduation, there are so many benefits and growth potential. Mitt's campaign is going well. Next week we'll be really getting into the phone bank stuff. I'm volunteering for Matt Schultz, who's running for reelection for the city council, and then I'm doing the district manager duties for all my dad's stores. So all of that, along with family stuff and the single's ward stuff is keeping me really busy...but it's all stress free really. At least nothing like school stress.

--I've slept on the trampoline a couple more times...I really just can't get over sleeping under the stars, enjoying the cool Autumn wind, and just loving life.

--Buying random stuff online is good. I bough a 50% hotel discount card almost two years ago but have never used it. We were in San Diego, checking into a Holiday Inn and I remembered I had the card, so we tried to use it. Bam! My parents and my grandparents both saved $60 each. The card cost $40 and is good for a lifetime. So I bought this sleep package that explains how to get a better sleep and even reduce the number of hours you need to sleep by 1-3 hours. So far so good.

--There's nothing like a Papa Murphy's rush to get the adrenalin going. Last weekend was a pretty crazy with the reception, some really big football games, and the grand opening of one of the stores. So I got called in and started making pizzas...just like the glory days with the old Dream Team staff.

--I grew up with some really awesome, good, and funny friends. Pretty much all my close friends are doing really well. Me and Trevor have resumed our traditional pool matches where we play for a prize and we're doing a lot of planning for life and a life in politics. The other night we had a little get together with some high school friends. I forgot how funny Mark Jurgens is. Ya know how you always had one of those friends who would get you into trouble? Well, Mark came really close, but never quite got me into trouble. He reminded me of so many funny stories that I forgot about. Probably the best story that describes Mark, is he and another guy took a bunch of gnomes from people's lawns and put them out on the baseball field in each position and a gnome on his side sliding into home plate. HAHAHA. Such a funny kid. We had some great times. It's cool being grown up and seeing him married and doing well with his investments.

Wow, this blog was a novel. I'm going to Utah right now.