Tim and Carrie's Blog

WAIT! We interrupt this blog post for a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hey there, everyone!

Carrie and I wanted to try out our greeting card system.

Several of you who have read our blog have received greeting cards from us this past year. Have you ever thought to yourself, “I’d like to try that out”? Well, now you can!

I have set up a few “gift accounts” using the same online software that we use. If you want to give it a try, just click on the link below to get started:

Click here to claim your free gift account

Then let me know what you think!

~Tim

PS – Go ahead! It’s FREE! And it’s our gift to you, our blog readers.

We now bring you this blog post in its entirety!

Once we got to Vancouver, there were many people holding Verizon Wireless signs guiding us where to go through the airport. When there was a rather large group gathered together, they led us to a new tram-rail shuttle service that was put in place specifically for the Olympics. Since there were so many people flying into Vancouver, they built the tram to move people to parking lots to aviod traffic problems.

When we got off the tram, we were brought to the bus where we were given a box lunch and got on the bus. We drove about 75 minutes and stopped at a rest area in Squamish to rest, then got back on to the bus to go to Whistler.

When we arrived in Whistler, we went to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler hotel. As we got off, the first person to shake my hand and greet me was the President of Verizon Wireless, Lowell McAdam and his wife. Then I was greeted by Dan Mead, the COO of Verizon Wireless and his wife. As I walked in to the hotel, I was greeted by John Stratton, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Verizon Wireless and his wife. I was ASTOUNDED by the warm welcome we were given.

Once we were inside the hotel, we were directed into a room where we received some jackets as gifts, schedules, our hotel room key, and were directed to a different room for a brief orientation given by a guy who called himself Captain Canada.

After the orientation, we went to our room on the 9th floor (out of 10). Some of our luggage was already in our room when we arrived. We looked out our window and saw some snow-capped mountains. What an amazing view!

Then we went downstairs to the welcome dinner. This was another FANTASTIC experience. When we walked in, a jazz trio was already playing. There were many chefs stationed around the ballroom with various entrees representing the different cultures of the area. We met several Verizon reps and listened to Lowell McAdam speak briefly about the significance of the upcoming week.

After we left the dinner party, we went for a walk outside to explore the area and walk off some of what we had just eaten. After our walk, we went back to our hotel room for the evening. We were exhausted after being awake for 21 hours.

More next time,
Tim

Hi there, everyone!

We began our journey this morning at 4:00 am, when our electronic rooster told us it was time to get going. After getting ourselves ready to go, I packed the car on our icy driveway and we were off to the airport. After check-in and going through security, we waited for to board our flight. While we were waiting, Carrie noticed that there was another couple with luggage tags that had the “President’s Cabinet” logo on their luggage. I was aware that there was a Verizon rep from Winona who also was going to Vancouver.

We flew to Minneapolis and had a 1 hour layover. Then we got on the plane and ended up waiting another 45 minutes before we took off. We finally took off and spent the next 3 1/2 hours flying to Vancouver.

Then next part of the story I will tell in the next posting. That’s enough for this one.

Tim

PS – the picture above is one of the views out of our hotel window here in Whistler.

Hi everyone -

There is a lot going on here in the Jensen house these days.  For those of  you who may not know, I have a story to tell you.  Here we go….

There were a number of changes in my job in 2009.  In early January, Verizon Wireless purchased Alltel.  Alltel employees had been told back in June 2008 that the merger was in the works, and the public found out soon afterwards.  After all of the regulatory bodies approved the purchase, the sale was completed in January, 2009. 

As you may have read on this blog last year, I had transferred to the Tomah Alltel in December of 2008.  I had worked in the Onalaska Alltel from May 2007 to November 2008.  I found that I was able to make more sales in the Tomah store than in the Onalaska store simply because I didn’t have to compete with as many sales reps for sales.

Right out of the gate after transferring to the Tomah store, my sales increased IMMENSELY compared to how I was doing in Onalaska.  Month after month I was increasing my sales and ending up at the top of my district’s scorecard for sales.  In February, I was at the top of the scorecard for all of Wisconsin.  I was really blown away by all of this success.  I was doing well as a salesman up to this point, but when I transferred to the Tomah store, my success was multiplying exponentially!

I used this success to apply for a management position, which I was able to earn.  I had never been in management before, so this was a new adventure.  The main reason I applied for management was that I thought I could be useful in teaching other sales reps some of the things that I have learned about sales and people to help them sell better.

Fast-forward to January 29th, 2010.  My supervisor was in my store (earlier in this blog, I mentioned that I had transferred back to Onalaska as part of my management duties) that day.  I generally leave my personal phone on vibrate only or silent when I am on the sales floor, so I had missed a call.  When I was in the back office, I noticed the missed call and listened to the voicemail.  It was the president of the Illinois/Wisconsin region of Verizon Wireless asking me to call him back.  Obviously, I don’t receive these types of calls very often.  I went back onto the sales floor and asked my supervisor why I was receiving a call from this person.  He told me that it was a good thing and that I should return the call.  So I did….

The region president told me that, based on my 2009 sales results, I had been selected to the Verizon Wireless 2009 President’s Cabinet.  I asked what that was.   He told me that only the top 1% of all salespeople in the company are chosen for this out of 25,000 sales reps.  I was floored, but he wasn’t done.  Then he told me that Verizon Wireless was sending me and a guest to Whistler, British Columbia in Canada for a 6 day, 5 night vacation from March 7-12, 2010.  He said I will meet the president of Verizon Wireless, I will be receiving my award during a ceremony while in Whistler, and that I should apply for my passport as soon as possible.  He also said that because I won the national award (President’s Cabinet), that I also won the regional award (Winner’s Circle).  Carrie and I will be travelling to Chicago on March 18th for that awards ceremony.

I felt very honored that I had reached this level of success in the company.  I got off the phone with him and called Carrie.  “Hi Carrie.  How fast are you able to get us our passports?”

“Why????”

“Because we are going to Canada on March 7th.”

“Why????”

And then I told her about my phone call.  Since that time, we have obtained our passports, received our airline tickets, and we are one week away from the big trip.  7 days from the time I am writing this, we will be in Whistler, and we are EXCITED!  We will be on the same mountains that the olympic athletes from this past week were competing on! 

We plan on taking in alot of the beautiful mountains while we are there.  One of the things we will do is ride the gondola as high as they will let us go to see the view from the top of the mountains.  We are excited!  Can you tell?

We will post some of our pictures here of our adventure, as well as on our facebook pages.  Stay tuned for more in the next few weeks!

That’s all for now.  More another time.

Tim

Hi there, everyone!

This past week brought about another change in our life, as Carrie received a promotion at her job.  Carrie is now the Customer Service Manager for Northern Engraving.  Carrie officially begins her new duties next week, on the 18th.  Woo Hoo!

On Friday of this past weekend, Carrie and I traveled to Tomah to pick up Hannah and Caleb for the weekend.  Elizabeth, Danielle, and Joshua headed to Green Bay on Friday for their church’s District Youth Rally, so we had Hannah and Caleb.  We had a nice dinner out before heading back home to watch some shows on TV, and then to bed. 

I had to work on Saturday, so Carrie had them for the day.  They went out to lunch with Carrie’s grandma Irma, and then headed to the farm to check on Diane’s goats, chickens and kittens.  At one point, one of the kittens was playing with the tail feathers of one of the roosters, which was very funny to watch.  It’s a good thing that the kitten was doing it through the fence, or there would be one less kitten in the barn.  Hannah and Caleb had a very fun time at the farm.

Hannah's Smiley Cake

After the farm, Carrie, Hannah and Caleb went to the grocery store, followed by the video store.  The video of the night was “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs”.  Carrie and Caleb told me that the movie was NOTHING like the book, and I just took their word for it.  Hannah also decided that she wanted to bake a cake that had a smiley face on it and said the word “Hi”.  Take a look at the picture and let me know what you think….:)

Today was church, followed by lunch, and then an afternoon watching the Packers lose their playoff game EVEN THOUGH they scored 45 points.  Hmmmm….It was a sad day in the Jensen house.  Then it was off to Tomah to bring Hannah and Caleb back home.

Tomorrow we are headed back to Tomah for Elizabeth’s high school band concert.  The rest of the week is just our normal routine.

More next week,

Tim

Hello everyone -

Thanksgiving is now behind us and we are now in the final month of 2009….December.  December is a time for snow, Christmas, bizzyness (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose), and a time to reflect on the year that just passed…or is passing.  And while you are looking back on the past year, remember that December 31st is our 1st wedding anniversary!  Woo Hoo!  Oh yeah, and it’s New Year’s Eve, too….

About a week and a half ago, Carrie and I took Elizabeth and her friend Kayla to the LaCrosse Symphony concert.  The concert was very good, and was the second in a 6 part series of conductor auditions.  They are using this year’s concert season to audition the 6 finalists for the conductor position for the LaCrosse Symphony.  What a job interview process, eh?

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and Carrie and I and the 5 kids went down to Fort Atkinson to see the relatives from my Mom’s side of the family.  We had a great time with my Grandma Juanita, Mom and Dad, my Aunt Karol, My Uncle Lee and Aunt Lynne, my cousin Beth and Tim, my cousin Brent and Michelle, and all the kids that were there.  Joshua commented to me later that this was one of the most fun Thanksgivings he has had, so I was happy to hear that.  We dropped off Elizabeth, Danielle and Joshua, and brought back Hannah and Caleb with us to spend all of Saturday with Carrie while I went to work.

The next day, I was headed to Eau Claire to work, then on to Tomah to watch Joshua and Elizabeth march in the Tomah Holiday Parade.  Lots of lights, music, floats, and fire trucks that honk loud enough to make you cringe.  Carrie, Hannah and Caleb spent the day together.  They went to Diane and Gordon’s farm and met Diane’s new kittens.  They also went to a movie in the afternoon before heading to Tomah to meet up with me for supper and then go to the parade.  After supper, Carrie headed to the parade and I picked up Danielle at work before heading to the parade.  Afterwards, we took the kids home and then headed home ourselves.

Sunday I played my sax in church.  The service was shortened so that at the end of it, everyone could walk across the street to gather in the new facility that was donated to the church.  The facility used to be a fitness center with 3 tennis courts, a swimming pool and a whole lotta room!  They superimposed an image of the facility over our church’s parking lot, and it looked HUGE!  Once everyone was inside, the pastor said a few words, led a prayer, and instructed everyone to take a marker and write on the walls something that they were thankful for.  I imagine that all of that will be covered up eventually, as the remodel will begin soon. 

Sunday afternoon, I spent some time backing up my websites because they were down from Thanksgiving morning until Sunday afternoon, and I didn’t want to take another chance of losing everything on this site as well as all the other sites I have online, so as soon as the server was back up, I started backing up the sites and downloading to an external hard drive.  I was really concerned that everything I had posted on this blog would be lost, but we were fortunate.  So now my goal is to back up my websites once a month onto my external hard drive so that if the servers were to go down again, I won’t lose very much.  After I was done downloading the backups, Carrie and I went to help our new Worship Pastor move in to his new house.  Several people were there, so it only took about an hour, and we were late because I was backing up my websites, so we only were able to help for a half an hour.  Then we left to go shopping before heading home to get ready for the Singspiration service at church, which I play for.  The service is once every 3 months, and I enjoy playing along with the hymns.  I grew up singing many of these same hymns and we don’t sing them much during the morning church services.  All 3 times I have played for this service, I have been “put on the spot” to play a solo when it wasn’t planned for me to do so.  This time around, it was on a song that I did not know and was sight-reading.  Towards the end of the first verse, I thought to myself, “I hope he doesn’t ask me to play a verse, because I don’t know this one and it is in 6 sharps.”  The closer we got, the more I thought to myself, “Please don’t pick me, please don’t, please don’t…” 

And of course, as you might figure since I am even bothering to tell this story, yes, the song leader DID ask me to play a solo verse!  It went fine, but Carrie could tell by the look in my eyes that I was not expecting this.  We had a good laugh after the service.

Yesterday, Carrie and I travelled to Middleton to pay a visit to PF Chang’s, Carrie’s favorite Chinese place.  Afterwards, we went to a movie called “The Blind Side”, then went to the West Towne Mall for a bit to look around, and finally went to my favorite pizza place, Old Chicago.  We had a nice day together and really enjoyed every part of it.

This week there really isn’t much going on other than work.  My time working in Tomah full time ends this week.  Today marks 1 year since I transferred to Tomah, and Friday of this week will be my last day there.  I am sure that from time-to-time I will go back there to help out, but most of my time will be spent in the Onalaska and Eau Claire stores.

More next time,

Tim

Hi again, everyone!

Lately I have been updating this blog every other week.  Honestly, life has been pretty mundane.  Just work, eat, sleep, and drive!

Last Tuesday, November 3rd, I traveled up to Eau Claire for a workshop of our new phones for work.  Most of the time was spent on the new Android phones.  Shortly after the workshop, I contacted Carrie and told her that we would be getting the Motorola Droid for our phones.  She was shocked, to say the least, as I have had a Blackberry for over 2 1/2 years.  I was so impressed with the Droid phones that I was willing to give up my Blackberry to get one.  You can do an online search for the phone to see the details of it, but suffice to say I was thoroughly impressed with it.

I ordered our Droids that Friday, as that was the day they came out.  The phones came on Monday and we had them activated that evening.  I was up until Midnight playing with mine, and Carrie was also up late, but did go to bed before I did.  Having a new phone is a bit of an adjustment, I must say.  Lots to learn!

I realize that talking about our new phones may be…um…well….not interesting to most, but since I am in the cell phone industry, it’s what I do!

Elizabeth and I after her band concert on November 6th.

Anyway, after the workshop, I was heading back to the store in Tomah when I got a call from my manager.  He asked if I would be interested in transferring to a different role.  I have been the assistant manager of the Tomah Verizon Wireless store since the middle of July.  Tomah is a 50 minute drive to work every day each way.  This new role would be what is called a “floating supervisor” position, where I would be based in Onalaska but could be assigned to any of our 4 stores on any particular day (Onalaska, Tomah, Eau Claire, or Chippewa Falls).  It is still a management position, but I would be based in Onalaska instead of Tomah.  My pay would be equivelent, but I wouldn’t have to travel each day.  That appealed to Carrie and I, so I applied for the position, was interviewed by the district manager for it, and was selected for it.  Today (November 15th) was my official start date in this new role, although I will be still working in Tomah for a while until they hire a replacement for me.  Very exciting!

Today was the first Sunday for our new Worship Pastor, Ty Cooper.  The service went very well and the rehearsal went very smoothly.  I am very happy that Ty is now on board.  I know that our church is very happy he is here, too!

Elizabeth the Drum Major!

Last Friday, November 6th, Carrie and I attended Elizabeth’s Fall Marching Band concert at Tomah HS.  I made the comment to Carrie that it was the first time I had ever eaten popcorn at a band concert!  The concert itself consisted of all of the marching band and pep band tunes that they had done so far this school year.  Elizabeth got to direct the band as the Drum Major, and they had put together a “Drum Major” video that they showed at the beginning of the show that featured Elizabeth and the other Drum Major, Alex Sanjari.  It was a very funny look at the contrasts between Alex and Elizabeth.

That’s about all for now.  More next time!

~Tim

Hello everyone!

Wow!  Where did October go?  It just seems like last week that we were going to parades and starting to watch the trees turn their Fall colors, and here we are in November!

Joshua throwing a football

With the conversion at work from Alltel to Verizon, I have spent a LOT of time at work.  One week, I logged 75 hours.  Friday night the 16th, I began work at 7:00am and left work at 11:30PM.  That was the day that the Alltel sign came down and the Verizon sign was put up at work.  After closing that evening, we spent about 3.5 hours removing all of the Alltelproducts and placing all of the Verizon products out in the store.  We had a crew from the Chicago area Verizon stores come and help us organize the store.  These people have been helping us since.  Each week we get a new set of Verizon people from the Chicago area come and replace the last set, so that we always have 3 “helpers” working with us in the store to train and coach us on every possible detail in running a Verizon store.  We still have them at our store for a few more weeks, which is great, because we really need to help and the training.  The billing conversion was completed on the 18th, and we have been working hard to learn everything we need to learn. 

Hannah reading at the Miller Elementary Concert

Other than work, our other time is spent doing mostly mundane household things.  There are a few highlights, though.  Last Monday, October 26th (Elizabeth’s and Joshua’s birthdays, btw), we went to Hannah and Caleb’s fall elementary concert at Tomah HS.  It was a very good concert.  The kids sang all patriotic songs.  Each class sang 2 songs at the concert, and Hannah got to read an introduction and help hand out flags to the Kindergarten and First Grade Classes.

Caleb sings at the Miller Elementary Concert

Wednesday after we got done with work, we picked up all 5 kids and went to Wisconsin Dells’ Wilderness Resort.  We were able to rent a 3 bedroom villa for the night for the same price as the hotel rooms that they rent there.  The Wilderness Resort has several indoor waterparks that we spent our time at on Thursday.  We came back to Onalaska late Thursday night. 

Friday we spent shopping with Elizabeth and Danielle to help them pick out new phones, then went back home and picked up Caleb and went grocery shopping while the other kids stayed at the house.  Caleb was a big help at Festival and Sam’s Club, including sampling all of the food stands with us at Sam’s!  We love appetizers!

Caleb and Hannah at the end of their Halloween trick-or-treating

Saturday I worked all day while the kids went to the mall with Carrie.  Later, Hannah and Caleb went Trick-Or-Treating with Carrie for an hour while I was coming home from work.  After supper, the 4 of us went out again for another hour.  It was a bit windy, but we all had a good time.  There was one house on 4th Avenue that really went “all out” with their Halloween decorating, including the owner of the house dressing up as some kind of monster and handing out candy while in his “haunted house” on his lawn.

Caleb throwing a football

Today was church, followed by lunch at a Chinese buffet.  Then we came home and did a number of things.  Carrie went out back with Caleb and threw a football around while Joshua and I played chess.  Then Joshua and I went out back and played with the football with Caleb while Carrie watched.  Caleb has quite a throwing arm!  He throws some pretty awesome spirals!

At the end of this week we will be going to the Tomah HS Band fall concert.  They hold an “end of the marching season” concert with all of their pep band and marching band songs.  There are 2 concerts – one on Friday night and one on Saturday night.  That should be alot of fun!

That’s all for this week.  More next time.

~Tim

Good Morning!

You probably wondered where we disappeared to!  Life has been busy and exhausting lately, and I haven’t had time to update our blog.

The week after Applefest, our church had a candidate for our Worship Pastor position come to the church, lead rehearsals for choir and the worship band, etc. for the weekend.  There were several times for Q & A with him and his wife.  We also got to meet Ty and Dayna Cooper at a social gathering at one of our church member’s farm.  Ty really impressed me, as he did many other people at our church.  That Sunday, September 27th, Ty led both services and also played bass guitar with the 3rd service worship band, so everyone who attended that week got a little flavor of what it was like with Ty leading.  The following Sunday (Oct 4th), the church membership voted on whether or not to hire Ty.  The vote was 98% in favor, so Ty was called and accepted.  I am very excited to have him on board.  He starts in November (the 9th, I believe).  Welcome, Ty!

Joshua marching at Cranfest

Carrie and I only were able to attend about 30 minutes of that September 27th church service, as we had to head out to Warrens, WI to attend the Cranfest parade and watch Joshua and Elizabeth march with their respective bands.  The Tomah MS band was alot bigger than I had figured it to be!  Both Joshua and Elizabeth did a great job marching in the parade.  The parade itself had lots of wind and a little rain.  When I taught band, I hated it when it rained on the parade (pun unintentional…really!) because of all the potential damage to the instruments and uniforms.  There was a guy there who was a vendor selling toys for kids at the festival, and all of the sudden we saw him selling these “emergency rain ponchos” to everyone.  I ran over there and got me 2 of them for $2 each right before he ran out of them.  All they were were glorified garbage bags with holes for 2 arms and a head.  But hey!  It kept us dry!

Elizabeth with the Tomah HS Marching Band

Carrie and I also attended the Tomah HS Homecoming game where we watched the Band (with Elizabeth).  After the halftime show, we took Hannah and Caleb back with us for the weekend, and Elizabeth, Danielle and Joshua came after the football game was over.  We had a great time with the kids for the weekend.  Elizabeth had a voice lesson on Saturday, and Danielle and Joshua went to the mall while she was at her lesson.  Carrie and I went grocery shopping with Hannah and Caleb and had a nice lunch with them, too.  Come to think of it, we had a nice snack at Sam’s Club before lunch, munching through the various displays offering free samples.

Carrie had asked Hannah what she wanted for supper, and she said potato soup.  So part of our grocery shopping was looking for ingredients for homemade soup.  Carrie decided that it would be good to have ham with the soup, so we got that along with some vegetables, potatoes, etc.

Joshua marching with the Tomah MS Band and HS Band

One of the things that I have learned about being married to Carrie is that, when the kids are over, I tend to get in her way in the kitchen.  When it is just the two of us, there isn’t as much food to make, so if I am in the kitchen, no problem.  However, when the kids are over, it is best for me to stay out of the kitchen while she is cooking.  But I do see that she has alot to do, so I try to ask her where I can help.  Carrie knows this, so she has me do things that are easy for her “kitchen-challenged” husband. 

Elizabeth leads the Tomah HS Band at Cranfest

I used to be a kitchen knife salesman, and when we got married, Carrie had her own set of kitchen knives that she likes, so she uses her knives.  I like to use the ones I used to sell, so when I get a chance to use them, life is good.  So we combined these two concepts in making Hannah’s Potato Soup.  I asked Carrie if I could help her with making supper (Note: I was in the dining room when I asked) and she suggested that I cut the ham (see above grocery list).  (Carrie’s insert – I asked him to slice the ham)

Now, I in my little male mind thought that she meant that the ham was going into the soup, and I figured it would be easier for me to first slice this ham, and then cut it into cubes.  Carrie saw me slicing the ham into rather thin slices (when I sold my knives, I used to say that they were so thin, they only had one side), so she turned around and tended to the soup.  Once I was done slicing, I started to cube the ham.  A few minutes later, I heard a loud *GASP* coming from the direction of the stove, followed by a “What are you DOING???” in a high-pitched, Soprano voice that sounded like Carrie.

It WAS Carrie…..

After the initial shock, she started to laugh and say that being married to me is SUCH an adventure….always.    Obviously, she wanted ham slices to go with the meal, but the cubed ham in the soup gave it more seasoning.  It was GREAT soup!

We took the kids back to Tomah on Sunday afternoon, and then I had to continue on to Stevens Point for more manager training for work.  After we dropped off the kids, we went to dinner and then Carrie went home and I went to Stevens Point.  Training was rather uneventful until it was time to leave and head for home.  We got out about 4:30 in the afternoon, and headed to our cars.  I got in, turned the key, and…..nothing.  It didn’t turn over.  The lights were on, but nobody was there.  This was not a good thing, because I had to work the next morning, and most everyone else had already left.  I called my roadside assistance program and asked them to send a tow truck.  They offered to find me a mechanic to tow the car to, so I suggested one.  They called the mechanic, but they closed at 5:00.  So I suggested a second one, and they actually put that mechanic on the line with me.  This mechanic was open until 8:00, so we had the car towed there.  I got there around 6:30, and they diagnosed it as a dead battery cell, which was easy for them to replace.  I was on my way by 8:00PM and home by 10:30.  Thank you, Scaffidi Motors in Stevens Point!

These past 4 days I have been working alot of hours.  Friday night the Tomah MS Band played with the Tomah HS Band at the football game.  I was scheduled to be done with work that day at 5:00, but one of our co-workers called in sick, so I had to stay until close.  Carrie was able to go to see Joshua and Elizabeth with the bands, but I missed it.

So that brings us to this week.  I am scheduled for 72 hours this week, with today being my only day off.  I will be heading out a little later to go to Joshua’s last football game of the season today at 4:00, then spending the evening with Carrie.  Next week, our little Alltel store will be re-branded as a Verizon Wireless, so that will bring about a new adventure.

Today is Columbus Day – October 12th.  There is SNOW out there today.  What is going on?  Did we just skip from summer to winter?  I miss the fall!

More next time,

~Tim