Spring Break Report

Sorry for the delay.. I have about four posts in the queue now but this is me catching up!

This is what I was doing a little more than two weeks ago:

Clay and Trista invited us to take an inaugural roadtrip in their proud new purchase:

It doesn't have a name yet but they are very proud parents. Clay's parents generously offered us their home in Torrey while they were away, so we headed south for a long weekend-slash-university break. Ted and Janae have built a beautiful home with 360-degree views of the red rock desert and Capitol Reef National Park, and it felt exactly like we were staying in some ridiculously nice condo in the middle of Southern Utah. We spent the first full day hiking in Goblin Valley State Park, one of the most interesting places I've ever been:

The goblins are a blast to scramble up, over, and around, and eventually we discovered that behind the green limestone pinnacle is a whole playground of slot canyons and stream beds to wander through. This picture is one of my all time favorites:

We are incredibly lucky to have Clay and Trista; they one of those rare couples that Isaac and I enjoy spending time with either or both of them. We really are best friends every which way and it's absolutely lovely to have those kinds of 'couple friends.' AND they're family and can't ever get rid of us. It's a fabulous situation.

We spent the rest of the weekend laying around the house watching movies, reading books, soaking in the hot tub and laughing till my stomach hurt. I took a ton of pictures (maybe too many?) and you can see them and Clay's in my picasa album here.

Coming tomorrow: Whitt's wedding and maybe even the Holi Festival!

Some People's Children

We had the full Easter celebration with my family in Salt Lake last week, complete with adorably homemade Easter baskets. (Isaac loves holidays with my family, supposedly because as the youngest child he was cheated out of years of childhood tradition as his siblings left him behind. I am pretty sure he exaggerates the deprivation, but the fact remains that Isaac looks forward to things like Easter egg hunts more than Jens, who would like everyone to remember that he is in SIXTH GRADE and is probably way too mature for that kind of thing.) Anyway, Isaac's basket held an especially special treat for him, which makes me wonder if my mother has gone and picked someone else as her favorite child again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet George.

Isaac and George became fast friends, and genius struck my husband just moments after (almost) all the eggs had been retrieved, and after some of this:

and also some of this:

George was comfortably situated in his new home, like this:

Not only did we drive all the way back to Logan with this new hood ornament, it's still there, and I don't think it's going anywhere. Our new mascot comes just weeks after we finally rid ourselves of the Jedi Academy Graduate license plate frame, but I'm not convinced we've traded up. And I sincerely hope that my mom-- ahem, the Easter bunny-- is not offended by this unusual use of a gift, because it really has brought a surprising amount of laughter to this family. And produced an especially lovely picture of the event:

These faces are classic-- shrieking girls and their weirdo brother-in-law. And lovely because I loved listening to my sisters laughing with my husband out in the driveway, and because I love that my husband has such an awesome relationship with my sisters, who are so important to me. Next time I print pictures, this is going on the fridge.

I am writing lesson plans and papers galore and considering collapsing into a coma, but I promise to post Whitt's wedding and our fabulous trip to Torrey soon.

It's still better than BYU...

It's spring break for Utah State this week... unfortunately, the break part hasn't kicked in for me yet. (For that matter, neither has spring. Shocking).

In a noble effort to make some extra money, I signed up to work extra shifts this week. I lose a lot of shifts during practicum, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. This is what my day looks like:
Do you see the endless rows of empty seats? The complete lack of daylight? How about noticing that I'm working all alone? What the picture can't show you is that I did this for nine straight hours yesterday. And I'm almost halfway through my nine straight hours today. Just four and half hours tomorrow morning, thank goodness. I know I got myself into this, but I still feel like whining about the miscarriage of vacation justice going on here.

In an attempt to liven things ups, the IT department decided to change everyone's password, and I've had to personally walk every student through the process of changing their settings. (This was more irritating than interesting, but I appreciated the effort). Maybe a third of students found that they couldn't access USU systems at all (just, oh, their only email account, or the homework system they were trying to catch up on). Those lucky (read: angry) people got to stare at the blank screen while I spent twenty or thirty minutes on hold with the Help Desk. I don't think the people answering phones are having a very good spring break, either.

Tomorrow we head to Salt Lake for a bachelorette party for Whitt (lots of fun and skankiness, since the wedding is less than a week away). Thursday morning we leave for Torrey (in a brand new mini!) with our favorite couple ever, Clay and Trista, for a long weekend away from all things responsible. I'm taking stacks of books, a swimsuit for the hot tub, and planning on lots of red rock and laughter. Can it get any better than that?

Some guy just came into the lab and asked me where everyone was. He had NO IDEA it was Spring Break this week. What kind of a college student is he? Eesh. He might as well be at BYU, where (tragically) there's no Spring Break at all.

Welcome

So I'm officially making my blogging debut. Come catch up on my life and make me feel loved.

For those of you who are new to blogging: you are highly encouraged to leave comments by clicking the comment link at the bottom of every post.

If you have a blog that I don't know about, please let me know so I can add it to my sidebar and keep up with your life, too!

Bibliophiles Anonymous, anyone?

We ran errands in downtown Logan today (which somehow always deserves a special trip, even though it's maybe four blocks from our house). The plan was for me to run in alone to pick up a short list of books; Isaac decided to come in with me for a quick browse while I grabbed my stuff. This what we ended up coming home with:

That's 21 books for two people. And it's not even close to setting a record-- this is pretty much what every trip to the library ends up like. Only the top seven are mine, but considering that I'm headed into finals week in 48 hours, that really is too many. And that's in addition to the stack of picture books I already had at home, waiting for a 1st grade unit on families I should be working on:


I remember Mom rolling her eyes at my huge stacks of library books back in the day (I usually had to send some back to avoid going over the limit), but I never dreamed that I would marry someone equally addicted to my favorite past time. The only thing better than a late night reading marathon... is a late night reading marathon snuggled up next to your husband. We even fight over who gets which book first, which are pretty much the best arguments to have. That whole choosing a mate thing-- I think I did pretty well for myself.

When I was a kid I used to pretend I was scared of the dark so my parents would leave the hall light on; I thought I was pretty sneaky when I pulled a book from under the covers to read by the dim light as soon as they shut their door. I'm pretty sure that when my parents had to take away my books (plural because I usually had one hidden for just that reason) after turning off my light three times in one night, or threatened to ground me from books (the ultimate punishment), they had no idea that I was still going to be doing it years later, only this time with that W***** boy in my bed.

Marble Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

I have this weird fascination with finding family resemblances in pictures. In old pictures (like the stuff my awesome gramme sent us all a few weeks ago, one heck of a family treasure) I hunt for familiar features. Pictures of kids and especially new babies, I'm scanning diligently for noses and mouths and eyeballs that look like someone I know or remember. It brings me huge amounts of satisfaction to see my smile on my mother's and gramps's faces, or to see how much his wife looked like her mother. So much pleasure in such a little thing, but I think when I have the time/money/space, I will fill my home with pictures of family both living and gone. It makes me feel like I belong to these people, like I'm a part of them, and like they're a part of me. I love it.

So when I saw the lovely Look-alike Meter above, I got so excited. I usually avoid these kinds of things, but not this one. Finally, an impartial judge to tell me who I look like the most (much debate on this topic). Except that even that has failed me, and I guess I'll just have to belong to both parents. At least I know I definitely look like my siblings.

A new place for us

When Isaac and I decided to get married, we agreed that moving to Logan until I finished school was the best choice. He wasn't thrilled with living in Logan-- still isn't-- but he is incredibly supportive of my education and he heroically made the move. However, the underlying theme of our time here has been: get thee out of Logan as soon as soon as is humanly possible. That means student teaching in Salt Lake... and that means that as soon as this semester is over, we're gone. The date has been pinned down for a few months now: May 2nd. All we needed was to find a place... and jobs... and that sounds like a lot less stress than it really is.

We've got the place! Isaac's cousin and fiancee just bought a house with a basement apartment in West Valley and we are officially the new tenants. I'm so excited I decided to make a list of all of the things about this deal that are making me so excited. (Three hour classes, of which I have five right now, are an excellent opportunity to make lists. Much better than taking notes or paying attention).

My list (in no particular order):
1. Double square footage. Hello, second bedroom.
2. An island in my kitchen. It has nasty nasty blue formica counter tops, but still-- an island.
3. A kitchen with room for a kitchen table. Novel concept.
4. Enough wallspace to hang all the pictures that have been sitting in our storage rooms.
5. A linen closet!
6. A shelved walk-in storage room!
7. A laundry room!
8. A covered parking spot, in a garage. Come with even MORE storage space than we already have in the house.
9. Real, live landlords who we know will take care of things. Plus, they are going to make excellent built-in friends, whether they like it or not.
10. We'll be living in the boundaries of the ward Isaac grew up in. So we already know it's a ward that will love us and support us and put us to work. Something I really, really need right now.
11. No more going out of town every other weekend.
12. No more missing 90% of family gatherings because we just can't face making that dang drive again.
13. Walking distance to the Winder pool, all summer long. (Sidenote: I bought the cutest swimsuit ever yesterday, for $20, and I am awfully proud).
14. We'll be walking distance to Isaac's parents, brother, and oodles of extended family, and a fifteen minute drive from my parents and the rest of the Winders. I know you might find this weird, but this is actually a bonus for us.
15. So many fun things to do in Salt Lake: restaurants, musesums, field trips, date nights.

In conclusion: great deal, great situation, great excitement.