The Palmer's from Pine City

Testing 1, 2!

2010-03-03T08:13:00.004-06:00

I have been so busy with life I forgot to share! So I make quick what has happened since I last posted (Almost 3 years ago).

-Quit Wal-Mart, worked for AFLAC, Quit AFALC, worked for Parker Industries (in the HR Dept), got laid off in January of 2009, worked for U.S. Census bureau (twice) throughout 2009, enrolled in college in September 2009 and started in January 2010. Been in class since 1/12/2010.

Classes are going well for me, I guess 15 years of life experience gives you a bit of an attitude adjustment. My classes are trying, but only from the fact that I am learning a liberal point-of-view while maintaining my conservative roots. I have these classes; Critical Thinking, Microsoft Suite Operating System (Microsoft Office), Human Ethics, Human Diversity and Marriage & Relationships. I am proud to say that I am nearly at perfect scores in all of them, as opposed to not giving a hoot the first time. I enjoy the classes because they actually give me the opportunity to vicariously be a teacher. I've proof read papers for students, I've taught others how to use Office, I get to challenge people's perceptions daily by posting and responding to online discussions. It is just a whole lot of fun.

My family, what a crew. Riley just finished his first year of basketball and that was a blast. I got to help coach a bit so it was good for me, but really it was great for Riley. He grew 3 or 4 inches from the beginning of the school year and he has slimmed up a lot. He is such an analytical child that sometimes he misses the point of just having fun. Once he was able to just have fun and learn the sport he improved greatly, I think he is ready for next year. School continues to be a shinning star for Riley as well, his teacher once again said she really enjoys his participation in class and also appreciates his helping other students (sound familiar?) All-in-all we are extremely proud of this kid.

Aidan...He is just itching to go to school, he wants to read so bad. Everyday he figures out a new word, if we had the time we could probably have him reading by the end of summer. But before that he has some other things to be excited for. He can't wait to turn 5 in April, he asks me everyday "How many more days Dad?" and of course I tell him since we share our birthday. And because he will be 5 he gets to start soccer this spring and he is stoked. He is not like Riley when it comes to sports, Aidan just jumps in and figures it out as he goes. He will love soccer and so will we because he will finally get to burn some energy off somewhere other than in our house.

Holly is still awesome. Working hard to support the family so that we can all do the things we want. This spring we start softball again but this year there is a twist, it's our team. We are in charge. I am coaching by myself and we went and got sponsors. We just haven't chosen a name yet. We are both looking forward to that as well.

There is, of course, so much more but I will end with what I have. And maybe I will post more than once every 3 years.

What a Busy Time of Year....

2007-05-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

It is nice to actually be able to enjoy this time of year for the first time in many, many years. Besides trying to continue growing my business, we have soccer, track day at school, holidays, new yard to establish, softball for myself, Lions Club, Chamber Meetings etc. But I am enjoying every one of this events. It is good to be able to spend time with my wife and boys. As Chad stated in his blog, "takin' time to breathe" how true. It is imparative to enjoy the things that have blessed into your life. I can not imagine missing the things that I get to see everyday. Here are just a few of hose things for you all to enjoy. See you this weekend, for yet another busy day.

Struggling

2007-04-04T10:04:00.000-05:00

Well the title says it all. I am very happy in my decision to leave Wal-Mart, and AFLAC has been good. But it is hard hearing no so many times, and it feels like I've tapped my market. I know I haven't and today I will be going out with my district cordinator to learn some tricks of the trade. Well at least I hope I will be learning some tricks. I just am not a BSer and that makes it diffcult to approach people wih a poitive attitude. I ajm going to continue learning this trade, I just hope I learn it quickly enough to support the family. I know you all understand and have experienced what I am going through, but is it fair to my family that because I am discontent that they may suffer. Holly has been awesome through every decision, and she supports me now wih whatever I do So for her sake as well as my boys I have to stick with it. I know this posting is kind of like being tied to a bungee cord and trying to run away. Almost there then yanked back to where it started. This is the process I am currently going through each day. So wish me luck as I move forward. See you all on Saturday.

Aidan's a-fitting In.

2007-04-03T16:41:00.000-05:00

We alls north a highways 70. Yous all understand........

Livin' in the Country.

2007-03-26T19:43:00.000-05:00

I am very happy about living in the country. This fall when we moved in we had some 30 pheasants that lived in the swamp land behind my house. And throughout the winter we have seen them, their numbers dropping as they get older and find mates. However we have one old Rooster that calls this place home and as hard as I try, I can not get a good picture of him. I do have a couple shots that we got, Holly got the winter shot and I got the spring shot. I am confident that we will have a couple bouquets this spring to watch grow and I am putting cracked corn out so we will have them feeding in the yard. My whole point is this, when would I ever get to see this in the city. I am very thankful for what we've got.

Little Boys and Their Bottoms

2007-03-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

So everyday day it is the same thing with little boys... "Don't play with your pee pee. Get your hands out of there. Get your hands out of your pants. Quit grabbing your butt." Well my son is no different. Put him to bed last night, and after an hour and a half of going in there and telling him to lay down and be quiet, I walked in at 10 to this picture. What a doll.

The child is dead asleep with his hand digging for gold. You all know how it is, we've all got boys. A never ending story.

First Sha-wa!!!

2007-03-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

The other night I gave Aidan a bath, and as any of you with children know, a bath is not complete without bubbles. Well half a bottle of shampoo, and some bubble bath later, Aidan was finished with his bath. Well after all the water drained out of the tub we still had over half tub full of bubbles, so I took the shower head down and started wash the bubbles down. Aidan loved that, he loved spraying the tub and his belly, fun all around.

So then last night when it was bath time, I took Aidan into his bathroom and all he would say is Sha-Wa, Sha-Wa...I had no idead what he was saying, He kept pointing to our bedroom, so I took him out of the tub and let him go into our room, only to see him go into our bathroom. When he got in there he pointed at the Sha-Wa (shower) cuz that is what he wanted to take. I put him in when the water was warm and he played for 15 minutes in the water and washed his own hair and Btt (Butt). He was so proud. Now he wants to Sha-Wa ever 2 hours...

This Is the reason....

2007-03-12T15:47:00.000-05:00

It is 54 degrees outside as I type this. I picked Riley up from school at 2:45 and came home and dug a trench for the ocean (now pond) to drain out of and end up in the marsh behind my house. I drove to Moose Lake this morning to talk to my district trainer and then came home to put together packets for presentations I have coming up. I ate half a bowl of mac & cheese drank a glass of water then unloaded the wood from the back of my truck. I checked my Aflac email and wrote one. I put out mouse poison and 3 traps then I took the chewed up duck tape off the bottom of the garage door. I stopped and saw a client whose boyfriend just got run over by a snowmobile and broke both legs and will be in a wheel chair for at least 6 months. All this I did on my time and when I needed to. I will be the one to make or break myself, and I am scared to death of that but also is the reason I will see my boys grow up and will enjoy their schools events. This is the reason I need to do what I am doing.

A New Life.

2007-03-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

Well obviously I am not as faithful to this as say....Aaron, but nonetheless I am posting again. Why???? Well because I am finally free from the "Evil Giant" that is big box retail sales. For some you may say "congrats", for others "It's about time". Either one is fair, but Wal-Mart has treated this family very well and I say thanks. Now why did I quit? SImply answer is that I want my time with my family. The boys are growing, my wife is awesome and I want to enjoy both. So I am now an official agent for "American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus" or to most of you AFLAC, the duck people.

SO in the week it has been since I was finished with Wal-Mart until now I have done little in the area of sales, but have been getting groups lined up and hopefully a couple of near paydays for me.

Also in the last week I have had my dad over to help me start the process of completing the basement, and that is right on pace with where I'd hoped it would be. We have the boys new room framed in and I completed my office framing yesterday. I have a good amount of the wiring already started and am getting the rooms set up for technology. If or when high speed capabilities hit my area I have the rooms wired with cat5e wire for DSL or Cable (In our case Satellite) high speed. Of course anybody that knows me knows I love outlets as well, and of course my office could quailify for it's own sub-station. We are looking forward to getting the 2 main rooms completed so the boys can moe downstairs and have a little more room to live.

We certainly look forward to seeing everyone soon, and hope that we do. Until that time, Be Well!!

What a week!!!!

2006-11-06T13:47:00.000-06:00

Aaron's Blog says it all I'm sure, I haven't yet read his since the whole incident with Sebby. We are so lucky that he wasn't hurt worse. Thank You God! But since that we have had a bit of excitement here in Pine City as well. Aidan took a trip into the cedar chest with his forehead. I was going to post a picture but Holly took the media card to work. So I soon as a can I will. He gashed his head from just above his right eyebrow down through his eyebrow to just under it. We were lucky that the meat that ended up on the cedar chest was from under his eyebrow, otherwise he would have a big ugly scar as well as a brow that wouldn't line up on the right eye.
Besides that excitement I have work 7 days in a row and should have worked today, but woke with stomach pains I haven't felt in a long time. I am feeling better now after 3 Immodium's and some time in the restroom. I have to be well for tomorrow, because I am a volunteer for Rotary to man a Kid's Vote booth at a polling place. Great program that the school has to get kids interested in voting at a young age.
Be sure to get out and vote tomorrow.

Life in our new home...

2006-10-11T07:32:00.000-05:00

Well we have been in our new home for just over a month. The house is great. Small matters for nothing, we are together in our own home. Riley and Aidan share a room which has been great, Riley is a tremendous brother. Aidan however has developeda very bad habit, he does not sleep past 5:00 am anyday. Today it was 4:30. I could deal with this, except that he wakes Riley up and that is not good, he gets so tired at school. So if anyone has a suggestion please give it.
Big thanks goes out to dad, he brought everything over to the house to help establish the yard. Glad to say that We will have a real green front yard next year. Yeah. We got used to the nice yard in Rockford, and I anticipate the same pleasure by July next year.
Not much else right now, I have to run Riley to school. Hope to see you all soon.

So Much To Do, So.......Much to do.

2006-08-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

We are only 4 days away from closing on the new house and things are looking good. So on top of that and working 65+ hrs a week, Holly has taken up a part time job. Nice thing is she doesn't go to work for this job she gets to stay home (home data entry). All those rebate forms you send in for $2, $3 or more from Lowe's, Verizon etc., end up in Young America, MN which inevitably sends them to Stacy, MN for processing. This is where Holly comes in. 2 or 3 times a week she picks up 200 to 400 pre-opened letters and enters all the data from within into a data program. Pretty simply, but holy long hours. She is putting about 20/hrs week into that so we can get the things we need in the new house. I love my wife and I surely do not know where she gets the juice to go. I and Riley help her by taking the letters out for her or in my case putting the letters back into the envelope after she is done. This speeds up the process, but it still is very tedious. In the end, we will figure out a process that works so we can be more efficient.

Weekends Rock......

2006-08-05T17:56:00.000-05:00

It is nice to finally have a weekend off for the first time in 4 weeks. Working 6 days a week gets real old, real fast. Been doing about 68 hour weeks since w............Zzzzzz!!!! Sorry about that, dozed off for a sec there. Since we took posession on July 10th. But I finally have a weekend to spend with the family. Went and watched a buddy's band last night at "The Floppy Crappie", they really are a good cover band. Check out their website at www.frantic-rocks.com. Tonight nothing special going on, we may have a fire and avoid the Pine County Fair. That is the ultimate red neck get down. Demo derbies and tractor pulls, all the fun stuff. Tomorrow we will continue doing more of nothing. That is the best weekend I can ask for. Hope you all have a safe and fun weekend as well.

Successful Bidding

2006-07-30T10:35:00.000-05:00

So we went ahead and made an offer on the house we were looking at, and it was accepted. Should I have went lower?????? What ever the case we will have appliances in there when we move in, so we will not have to worry about that. The house is smaller than I would hope, but I guess if we are ever going to learn to live less large then a small house is a good start. The house will need a deck built on and the basement finished again (like North Branch), but the positive part of that is, I and Holly are comfortable doing that on our own. Any help will be accepted, but everybody's good training last time certainly help to get us ready for this project. I am very excited about prospect of getting out of Lori and Harlan's house, they have been awesome for letting us stay, but it is god to go. This is a picture of the house, taken in the spring. The house looks great in the green of summer. A few more trees outside and a little landscaping will make the home beautiful.

We can't wait to get in and settle so we can have everyone over to visit.

House Hunting

2006-07-20T21:41:00.000-05:00

We went house hunting last night and may have been successful. We have been waiting and waiting to make a decision as to what we are going to do, and are leaning towards buying an existing home. The house we found is a nice rambler with a walk out basement. It currently only has 2 bedrooms but the basement is unfinished and there is room for a nice big room down there. Once again, the house we are lokoing at is brand new, it was built and now is sitting there waiting for someone to pick it out. It is settled on 4.38 acres, but it is also part of a developement. It is a very nice house that will need the same love and attention we gave our North Branch home. We will keep you all updated.

What it Takes!

2006-07-16T10:27:00.000-05:00

Holy Cow, All I can say is what a week. 5:30am to 6:00(ish)pm everyday this week. What normally takes a retail store 10-15 weeks Wal-Mart does in 5 1/2 weeks. We walked into an empty building Monday morning, and now the only thing missing is freight on the shelves. The longest part of the whole set-up is the operational side. We have to get all the info from the old store, we have to set up every office, ensure all our handheld scanners work, set up the registers etc. If it wasn't for that part of the equation, we could hypothetically open the doors in two weeks. It really is amazing, the proficiency with which Wal-Mart opens stores. This week shouldn't be quite so tiring due to the fact that the heaviest and most physically demanding work is mostly done. 1 week down, 4 1/2 left until we open an amazing new store.

Newest Wal-Mart on the block.

2006-07-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

Today I have to go into the new store and help lay down the tape that will signify where everything is to go in the store. This should be a relatively quick process (few hours), then tomorrow we take possesion and move into the store. The next 5 1/2 weeks will be very long and very tiring but the end will result in another new beautiful Wal-Mart store. For all you haters out there I recommend you go to www.walmartfacts.com and read a bit about what we do for your communities and the nation. Thanks.

Riley's Birthday

2006-07-02T20:05:00.000-05:00

Well today is Riley's 6th birthday, and it has been great. We've spent the day in the pool and playing outside. He received a couple remote control vehicles and alot of new clothes, but over all was very happy. Riley's first gift, a remote control jet ski was more of a pleasure to Aidan than to Riley, it has kept him occupied for many hours. The benefit of having a big brother like Riley!!! Happy birthday Riley, Mom, Dad and Aidan love you very much.