update

Sorry we haven't posted in so long. Life has been busy and hectic.
We have been working hard.
This last week Monday Tuesday and Wednesday reached 100 degree weather with the humidity. The rest of the week was cold and drizzly. Chicago weather seems to prove similar to home with its temperamental mood swings.

Ricky got to fly back to Idaho Thursday to watch her sister, Kelsie, compete in Miss Idaho. Her morning of travel soon turned into a full day after her flight was delayed and she missed her connecting flight to Boise. Alas she finally made it and got to spend a great weekend with her family. Kelsie did an amazing job and took second runner up against 21 girls. Ricky was so proud of her for the hard work she has put into the pageant. She is even more impressed by the hard work that she put into her platform. She has undoubtedly changed many children's lives and given them a new outlook on health and how to take care of their bodies. It was exciting to get to be a part of her huge accomplishment. Kelsie, from Brenda and Ricky we think you are amazing and look up to you for working so hard to achieve so many wonderful things. We hope that you never forget this experience.

Last night after Brenda picked me up from the airport we went to Lou Manalati's for some pizza... honestly it was a disappointment. Lou Manatalis is supposedly "the best pizza Chicago has to offer". Brenda and I would have been happier with a Dominos Pizza. But the experience was fun anyway. The atmosphere at the restaurant was fun.

We are now a third of the way done. We are going to hit the last two months of our journey hard and pray that we get one hundred accounts. Everyone's support is incredibly appreciated. You have no idea what a difference it makes to know that people are standing behind you and your goals. Thank you for the prayers. Keep them coming, we need all the help we can get:)

Love you all

Ricky and Brenda

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the guardians

Yesterday Brenda knocked it out of the park and sold three accounts in an hour and a half!!! That girls on fire.
This week we have been knocking in an area called naperville/lisle. It's a cool place and the area ricky has been knocking in is like a forest! It's really cool.
So now we are on our nightly journey home. Keeping our eyes peeled for a walgreens so we can get a mosquito stick. Tonight we got eaten alive out there in humid Chicago.

The picture is a creepy graveyard Brenda and I stumbled upon. It was near a catholic school. Funny.

Today ricky made a sale to a guy who inherited this awesome house from his grandpa. Two hilarious facts about the sale:
-the guys name was colonel
-he had just finished smoking weed when she got there.

Tomorrow is Saturday! A day that is hopefully really lucrative as Saturdays tend to be. Mosquito repellent here we come.

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Brenda Caught a Frog

I forgot to mention in the post earlier today that Brenda caught a frog (or a toad or something) the other night. It was outside of our apartment when we were getting home and she dive bombed it. Note that in the photo the frog(or toad or something) doesn't have a left hand. Poor little guy.

Being on the doors for so long every day gives us the opportunity to meet a lot of people. We run into very kind and thoughtful people, people who try really hard to be intimidating, people who just like to talk a lot, some lonely, some just friendly, and of course those grouchy people who must have had sour milk with their cheerios that morning.
So, we decided that we want to post about some of the most interesting people we ran into for the day.

Brenda:
I knocked on the door and I heard a guy say "come in" and I was confused but he said it again, so I walked in his house and followed his voice, where I found him on the couch with a brace on his neck. He told me he had just had surgery on his neck and his back and then instructed me to sit across from him and tell him what I was doing. I told him all he needed to know about pest control, but he was not interested and instead offered me a glass of water. I accepted because I was extremely thirsty and then proceeded to get it myself because he was injured. So I poured myself a glass of water and enjoyed it while chatting with him about school, the weather and anything but pest control by that point. He was a nice guy. Odd but nice. Best of wishes to the man in the brace, thanks for the water.

Ricky:

I knocked the door to this man's home and he answered rather joyously. He was from Africa somewhere and had a pretty thick accent. He was very kind and enthusiastic about what I had to say (the best and the worst type of potential customer because they'll talk for ever and then half of the time won't buy.) Anyway we talked for quite sometime and debated about whether he was seeing carpenter bees or standard bumble bees... according to Michael(that was his name) the nomenclature was not that of a carpenter bee. Turned out it was carpenter bees.. anyway, he wanted it done. But only one time(we sell year contracts) so he then backed out of the service. We chatted about where I was from, I told him I go to Utah State and he asked if I was a Mormon (a surprisingly common occurrence) and then directed me to the Mormons who lived next door. Haha he was a very nice guy. Thank you Michael for taking 30 minutes of my time and not buying:) really. I enjoyed the company either way.

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breakfast

Today Brenda and I made a yummy breakfast of eggs and pancakes. It's always fun to do that kind of stuff. It kind of separates your mind from the doors.
We decided we are going to go to the public library tomorrow and get books. We have a theory that it will help keep us sane:)

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On the Road: After a long, full day of driving, Ricky's dad bought us a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. We got pulled over for suspicion of drug trafficing, something the hotel host assured us of. This picture shows are renewed enthusiasm for driving after having a good nights rest. Thanks Garth/dad!!!

This illustrates just a small fraction of how packed the car was. There was a literal wall behind us and a small passage way to reach waters in the back. It was funny to see how much actually fit in the car. Rico(the car) was exhausted after his long jaunt.

Filling up gas proved to be a constant reminder of how much money we DIDN'T have coming out to Chicago. But it was fun for us to feel like grown ups:) and we pulled it off somehow...

We've come to realize, that if you don't have fun in between doors. You will go insane.

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a piece of Giordano's Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza.
We shared a large pepperoni pizza and it was well worth the money we spent on it. We all agreed that it was the best pizza we had ever tasted. The crust tasted like actual pie crust and was to die for. We later looked online and saw that you can order and ship them to any place. Ricky is putting this on the menu for her birthday dinner... it was that good.

Chicago is known for it's amazing architecture. Here is proof.

Outside the Union train station in Chicago.

First time in the city! We were deprived of these amazing buildings. Such a change of senary then the suburbs we were used to. It finally feels like we are in Chicago! We took a train into the city, and saw some of the sites.

Our brains are too fried to think of a cute title

Dear anyone-

We are here in Chicago.
This is the beginning of our first week.
Selling pest defense has proved to be much harder than we realized it would ever be!
However, we are learning many life lessons. This experience has been such an awesome growing experience.

We recognize that because it is so hard out here in Chicago, it's an experience that we will remember forever.
As they say(something along the lines of): Diamonds are only created under great pressure.

So here we are!
Sorry that we haven't been keeping up on posts. We don't have internet at the apartment so we're sitting at McDonald's stealing some wifi:) we tend to stay very very busy and don't have much time to do much but sleep, breath, eat, and knock doors:)

Some things that we have learned out here in Chicago:
-How to rely completely on Heavenly Father. Faith plays a large part in keeping yourself going after doors and doors of "no's".
-What it means to go to bed exhausted from a hard days work
-How to talk to grumpy, mean people.
- How to control our thoughts
- Smell the roses, we are blessed