Dogs

I am so sorry I haven't posted at all about our journey in Utah.  Honestly, I haven't had a day off since December 21st, and I have three more days of work until I get my first glorious day off.  So, needless to say, I am asleep by 8:30 at the earliest and 10:30 at the extreme latest.

I thought everyone might get a chuckle out of this though...

Brian and I came home yesterday to Mallard having pooped in her kennel.  We get that cleaned up and are about to go ship some packages, and Mallard decides to throw up on the rug.  So no packages got sent, just cleaning.

This morning, Lola throws up on me in bed.

What is going on?  Sick puppies that are destroying my rest.  I don't normally ask why we got these dogs, but this morning the question is on repeat.  Pray for the children I teach today and that I don't get criers.

Happenings

So, we have officially been here for a week and a half.  We finished training, got our uniforms, got our season passes, made friends, went out on the town, may have locked both sets of keys in the car, attended a Santa Bar Crawl, bought a $10 sofa, and have gone hiking a lot.  Brian starts work tomorrow.  I start work on Wednesday.

Pretty season passes fo a dollar!  

Our outfits for the bar crawl.  The hats were a hit.

Some of the friends we've made.  The one on the left is from Florida and the one in the middle is from Canada and is also now Brian's roommate.  

i will update more soon!  i promise.  pray for snow!  do a little snow jig!

 

We made it!

Well, I know that some are anticipating a fantabulous post.  And, as I promised, I will post, but I can't promise fantabulous.  We made it to Park City.  After 3 days (a total of 31 hours), traveling through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and then Wyoming, we made it to Utah.  After the torrential all day downpour on Monday, meaning wet dogs/muddy car, it was a beautiful day on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We saw beautiful sunrises and sunsets, rolling hills, corn fields, windmills, and so much more.  I will post more later, rights now I am just going to have some pictures, feeling very sleepy.

First snow since we've been here.  I think there was a total of 4 inches.  Also, it has been single digits the past two days.  Meaning 7 degrees, and the windchill makes it -1.  Brrrr.  Frozen toes/frostbite.  

This is food from Squatters.  It is a microbrewery.  Surprising for a state so against alcohol.  The pie is a peanut butter/oreo pie.  The beer is called Polygamy Porter - "why just have one?"  Kind of hilarious.

This is the house that I am renting and paying way too much money for.  It is an old miner house.  Super cool.  Come visit.

Very happy puppies.  They get to go hiking almost every day and frolic in the snow.  They are LOVING it!

Till later.  Much love - j

The importance of reading recipes

Hello!  And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope that everyone has a splendid and blessed day tomorrow surrounded by loved ones.  My grandfather always makes us go around the dining room table and say what we are thankful for.  Of course as little kids we thought it was embarrassing and Kelly would name everything and everyone that would come into her head (aka Pochahontas, John Smith, Christopher Columbus, Sacajawea, and name every single person sitting around the table by name).  Reflecting on it today, it is not such a bad tradition and it gives us a moment to realize what we are most grateful for, which luckily, is a lot of things.  Here are a couple quotes on naming the blessings in our life.

Ann Voskamp has a quote in 1,000 Gifts by Alexander Schememann about naming our blessings which helps us to find God's identity - "Now, in the Bible... a name... reveals the very essence of a thing, or rather its essence as God's gift... To name a thing is to manifest the meaning and value God gave it, to know it as coming from God and to know its place and function within the cosmos created by God.  To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it."

"To name something is to allow you to know it comes from God, the invisible becomes visible." - Ann Voskamp

"Naming offers the gift of recognition; to name is to learn the language of paradise, we name to find an identity which is God's." - Ann Voskamp

If you haven't read 1,000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp, you should.  It's incredible!

So, for breakfast tomorrow, I have undertaken the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, which are absolutely delicious but I have never made them before.  Well I of course just read the ingredients and not the entire recipe.  So, after making all the dough, watching it rise, and preparing to put the cinnamon in the cinnamon rolls, my assistant (aka, Jennifer, my mom) starts to read everything to me.  Well, this specific recipes yields not 1 or 2 pans of cinnamon rolls, but 7.  Ha, I have concocted enough dough to deliver cinnamon rolls to all of the neighbors.  Woops.  Ha, so word to the wise (this is mainly directed at myself, I learn new lessons everyday), don't assume anything and read the entire recipe before mixing everything together because you may end up with more than you bargained for.  

Here are the rolls pre baked, I will update tomorrow on how they turned out!  

Love yall!  Happy Turkey Day!  Tell the people you love most how grateful you are for them.

4 days!!!!!!! 

   

We survived

"Welcome to the show.  Do you want it?  Do you need it?  Ladies and gentlemen!" (you can hear the song here... from the original team, the lovely Auburn tigers) (and just for the fun of it, see you soon bama)

Heather and I went to the Falcons game tonight, and we survived.  What we survived was not the rowdy fans, or the three hour football game, though we made it through all of that.  But, we survived the car ride there and the car ride back.  I have never feared for my life as much as I did tonight.  I have never ridden in the car with such a bad driver, he shall remain nameless.  I literally thought I was going to throw up when I got to the game and when I got back to Heather's apartment.  Not to mention the nerves and angst that the car ride brought me.  I have never been so thankful for solid ground and so ungrateful for the piece of machinery that we call the car today. 

And to top it off, I sent Brian a text trying to express the emotions that I was feeling.  And this is what it turned into. 

"Heather's [nameless person] cannot die.  I literally feel so sick to my stomach.  And am so uptight right now."

Thanks auto correct.  

8 days

...

i can't tell you lots of things...

1. where i am living in Park City (currently homeless)

2. what graduate school i will get into (if one at all)

3. if my dog is going to be allowed to stay with me in PC

4. what i am going to do when ski season ends

5. where i will go when it ends

i can tell a couple things...

1. going to the Falcons game tonight with Heather

2. Leaving in 8 days for Park City, Utah

3. i have a suit (so if i do get interviews i at least will look professional, i got talked out of the leopard print top... a little too wild for graduate school interviews)

4. and i promise whatever i will be doing, it won't be boring

Update on crayon wreath

I gave up on the crayon wreath.  Not that cute.  So now that I have broken lots of crayons in half, I guess the next step is to figure out something to do with them.  I'm thinking of melting them.