Saturday, September 20, 2008

It's been awhile

Some of you may be worried about us since we haven't posted anything in awhile. Don't worry anymore, we are doing great. I think Ja has already been home more this semester than all of last year combined. Even though he has 8 more credits this semester than last, the classes are much less involved. I enjoy it very much because now we can have dinner together every night and I don't have to go to bed alone. We have started a work-out routine together as well. We go to BYU to swim Monday and Wednesday nights and we are really liking it. If you want to start swimming make sure and get good goggles, they are very worth it. Speaking of swimming, the life guards had this cartoon on their door and I thought it was pretty funny. 
 I guess he has been fast his whole life. 

We've also had fun trying to use all of the tomatoes and peaches we have. I don't really like tomatoes so it's been difficult to eat them. But we've managed. We have salads often, give some away, and make salsa. The peaches are much easier to eat. They are sooo good. We will be making homemade peach ice cream tomorrow and we've had peaches at dinner quite often. There is no beating home grown fruit and vegetables. The grocery store can't even compare. Grandma Winder has inspired me to do many things and having a garden and some fruit trees is one of them. 

I have really enjoyed not having homework to do. I get home from work at either 5 or 5:30, start on dinner right away, eat, then clean up. I would hate so have to start on homework after all of that. Instead I've been scrapbooking and having fun doing whatever I like. I have videos to share since I have some time on my hands. I think they are genius. You can check them out here on youtube. Until next time, Go Cougars!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I'm working again

After 4 1/2 months of unemployment I am finally working again. Kelly Services actually called me with work that I wouldn't mind doing. I'll be doing customer service for an online company called Costume Craze. They sell all sorts of costumes and, of course, Halloween is their busy time. So 4 of us were hired to help with all the calls that customer's have about shipping, sizing, etc. It's not that great of a job, but it's full-time and even if it's horrible at least it's only until Halloween. Today was my first day of training and listening to real calls. It's funny how costumes attract a certain personality type, a little weird type. You can just imagine who is really buying the sexy school girl outfits, and no it's not Britney Spears. I bet I'll have some good laughs with this job. They do have 1000's of costumes of all types so if you need any, you know who to call. They ship all over the world in case you need it. 

Sunday, September 7, 2008

For those of you who didn't know...

Ja was offered a job at PwC in the Washington Metro area. We were really excited to get the offer and look forward to going back to Virginia!

The Drive from Virginia to Utah

On August 25th we started our drive back to Utah. Our drive was much shorter home than on our way out to VA. We were told that we should eat at Cracker Barrel on our trip, so we did, everyday. We went once, had a great meal then said we would continue to eat at Cracker Barrel until we had a bad meal. We were still eating there on the last day. It's a great thing those restaurants are all over the country. Check here to see where the closest location is to you!

 Our first sight seeing stop was at Adam-ondi-Aham in Missouri. This is the view from there. 

From there we drove to Far West, MO and saw the temple site there. The 4 corner stones were laid but that was all. Each corner stone was laid in representation of either the lesser priesthood, the higher priesthood, the First Presidency, and the High Council. Here is a picture of the temple site and one corner stone. 














On our way down to Independence, MO we stopped at Haun's Mill and David Whitmer's grave site, and Liberty Jail. Liberty Jail was very humbling because you can see the horrible place Joseph Smith and others had to live. The men couldn't stand up straight because the ceiling was so low. It was cold and dark, and the men were given contaminated food to eat. We didn't take any pictures but you can see one here.

In Independence we visited the Visitor's Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We also visited the site of the future Independence, Missouri temple. 

Our next fun stop was in Amarillo, Texas. We didn't know it would be fun until we went out to dinner at a Texas steak house. We couldn't help ourselves and had to take a picture of the outside. 

Inside there were all sorts of stuffed animal heads, steer horns, and lots of cowboy hats. All the waiters and waitresses wore cowboy gear. There were 3 old men walking from table to table singing and playing the guitar, fiddle, and stand-up bass. It was so funny. We loved eating there. Oh, and the food was pretty good too.  

Our next scheduled fun stop was the Grand Canyon. We were both blown away by the natural beauty of the canyon. We had just been touring beautiful man-made buildings in Europe, so it was amazing to see something so beautiful God created. We loved the warm clean air, the lack of any noise, and the smell of dirt and pine trees. We drove in right before sunset and took some great pictures.


















The next morning we got up early and toured more of the South Rim. We saw what we could then decided to go back to the Grand Canyon when we would hike down to the bottom and raft down the river.
We drove through Page, Arizona and Ja just had to touch Lake Powell, the lake of his childhood. So we stopped in for lunch and Ja got in the water. 

From  there it was onward to Provo! We were getting so anxious to get to our final destination and to stop driving! We made it into Provo with no harm or accident for the whole summer. With all the driving and flying we did, we are really lucky. We are excited to spend the next 4 months in Provo until we are off again!