the horror of our monthly magazine run is over, nicely and happily over. it went relatively painless this time.
now i'm working on a website for shae's place bakery and catering. it's quite fun.
shae herself is running around being the gracious hostess and front-woman of shae's place bakery and catering. i hope she's having fun with it. i know she is.
i don't really have much else to say.... hm.
life goes on. yeah.
p.s.
lookit this.
NEWS!!!
This is what I received before after my class was canceled last thursday. Just thought you peoples might like to know.
Hi, everyone, I'm writing to tell you why I missed class yesterday. I
had to have emergency surgery yesterday (an appendectomy). I am already
home, but I am going to need a few days to recover. I hope I'll see you
next week, and I'll send an update email to let you know how we'll make
up for last night.
Take care,
Kelli
On a more personal note. I have not yet obtained a picture of my boy....because I don't want to be like....I need a picture of you that I can post it on the internet to prove to all my friends that I am dating an actual person. I don't know, I'm not sure if we have actually reached that point in the relationship.
I'm going to fly out to Chicago in October....just for fun. It's going to be awesome and I am super excited!!
Since last thursday I have not been able to use the shower, toilet, washer, or dishwasher in my home. Our plumbing has been flooding our storage room so we weren't allowed to do anything until today! when it was fixed. And since I'm wearing my last pair of clean underwear....it's not a moment too soon!
I have a cold sore on my lip. It hurts and I don't like it all.
I'm sure there are more things going on but that is just a small update
Read to the birthday song tune:
"Congratulations to you, congratulations to you,
Congratulations everyone on their joooobs...
Congratulations to you!"
a continuance...
"I'm so proud of yoooou and what you doooo
Congratulations to you! Yay!"
Yay indeed. I'm just tickled pink for all of us....being all grown up and such! I made a public scene when Kelli announced that Mandy and Hollie had jobs. Casey T. Allen was quite excited too...but I made an actual scene. After which, I was mocked by Kelli. ;) How degrading. But anything for you, my loves. Nessa, (This is your new nickname.) I would kill for a job at the Met!!! I'll be crossing my fat little toes!
Not much is happening in my life. We are extraordinarily poor. Not for long though, since I am working for Shae instead of USU....we will climb on top of our finances eventually. As for now, we cannot afford any extra activities....not even fast food. (Which is good considering I have gained a substantial amount of weight and am taking the Special K challenge.)
Since I eat cereal for two of my meals, I have an excuse to continue on my cooking adventures into scrumptious dinners by Chelsi Land. I'm a good cook, actually. Not without help though. Last night I made a pumpkin themed dinner. I made JeriLynn's Pumpkin Curry Soup (Which is to absolutely DIE for!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in pumpkin shaped bread bowls (courtesy of Great Harvest) and pumpkin icecream with a divine pumpkin swirl cheesecake. I'll post the recipe below...it's fabulous.
Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
Crust:
25 gingersnaps, crumbled
1/4 stick of butter, melted
1/2 c chopped pecans
Filling:
4 cream cheeses, softened
1 c sugar, divided
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine all ingredients for crust and press onto bottom of a 9 or 10 inch springform pan. Set Aside.
Beat Cream Cheese, 3/4 c. Sugar and Vanilla just until smooth. Add eggs and mix in one at a time. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the filling and put in a small bowl. Set aside.
Add remaining 1/4 c. sugar, pumpkin and spices and mix until well-blended.
Pour half of the pumpkin filling onto crust and top with spoonfuls of white filling. Repeat layers. Cut through the layers of filling slowly with a knife to create a marbling effect.
Bake 55 minutes or until center is set. Place a container of water in the oven with the cheesecake. (Not glass...it explodes...kneeh!) This way, your cheesecake won't crack. DON'T OPEN THE OVEN!
Let cool completely and then refridgerate for 4 hours or overnight. To serve, place the bottom of the pan in hot water for a few seconds. Remove from water and then open the pan. Tada!
Enjoy! I used two fat free cream cheeses and two light cream cheeses....it was still divine. Alter according to your Special K challenge status.
I saw Leisl yesterday. She's gorgeous and very strong, physically and emotionally (I can tell) just like her mommy. She liked my Red Sox hat. She enjoys Jay's receding, but very becoming, hairline. Frankly, I think she likes heads.
The Johnston's are throwing a Halloween After party after the Howl on the 28th of Oct. Clear your calendars!
We have an extra room and comfy couches if anyone needs to lodge. There will be a great pumpkin cake, a witches brew and green fondue.....Hooray!!!!!!!!!! (And that's only the food part.) Come one and all! Well, that's all for now everyone. Much Love and affection.
Hello everyone. I figured that it's my turn to post again. I haven't posted because I haven't had a lot going on lately. Except Liesl. It's amazing how she can take up my entire day. It's all I can do to keep the dishes clean (thanks to the handy-dandy dishwasher).
My neighbor just came home with her baby today. She's a little thing-- a full three pounds smaller than Liesl used to be. My neighbor pushed for an hour and a half. I only pushed for forty-five minutes (and that time included turning her around), and most women who have eight or nine pound babies push for two or three hours. Yay for me. (Liesl was 9 lbs. 7 oz., just to remind you.) I'm still proud of myself. (Although I must mention that Karissa, too, did a good job: she pushed for only twenty-five minutes! But her baby was smaller than mine.) :)
Anyway, I'm so jealous of my neighbor. I seriously loved being in labor and all that. It was so much fun! And even though I cried when they told me it was time to start pushing (parenthood still scared me at that point), I even liked that part!
Well, it's good to hear from all of you. Wilson, I think you'd be awesome at Amelia's job. Mandy, congrats. Tell Lisa hi for me. Holly, thanks again for the bracelets. I'll send the others back to you with a measurement of Liesl's wrist. Also, way to have an awesome job title. Vanessa, I miss you. What more can I say? I hope NYU is treating you well. Are the guys there more attractive than those in UT?
Anyway, I'll update my blog again. Soon I'll even update Liesl's website with more pics. I should be getting my desktop today, so I can install my Photoshop trial, and hopefully by the time that expires, USU will have more Suites for my hubby to buy.
I got a job offer today. It was hand-delivered by my aunt who works in the human resources of the INL. Yes, the old addage its not what you know but who that counts.
I will be working with the engineers. As an engineering technical writer. I will be the prescedent. The first techncial writer hired who didn't have an engineering degree but an actual technical writing degree. (You mean hiring engineers to write makes them want to quit after a year is a *bad* idea but hiring people who actually want to write is a *good* idea?)
I interviewed for this job back in June. I was told in the begining of August they were going to extend an offer, but they needed a million people to sign off on it. Then two weeks later talk to my aunt again and she says technically new position so some mucky muck had them go back to corporate headquarters, define the new position, make sure that it was acceptable to hire me for the position of technical writer and then start the signature process again.
Once all of the signatures were in, they had to check my references (who knew?) and they couldn't get a hold of one of them. So my aunt calls me yesterday and says: can't get ahold of one of your references. So I e-mail Kelli, beg and plead her to be a reference, she graciously agrees, I call my aunt back give her Kelli's contact info, they call her same day leave a message, then this morning they get a hold of her. My aunt says Kelli was the perfect reference so that if they decide to hire more tech writers out of USU, they're gonna contact her to spread the word.
So in my hand i have a letter that stars out The Bettis Atomic Power Laborartoy is pleased to extend an offer of employment as an Associate Engineering Writer ....
So apparently now that I got a job and can no longer spend hours checking the blog, everyone decides to post! Unfair!
BTW, you read correctly, I got a job!
I'm working at Ellis, a division of Pearson Digital Learning in South Jordan with our favorite Lisa (Ms. Ferrara). I get my butt out of bed at 5:30 (quite a shock after not having a class before 9 for 3 years) and drive for about an hour and 15 minutes down to South Jordan. Other than the early hours, it should be a really fun job. I'm working as a Quality Assurance Software Tester. Basically, Ellis makes an English as a second language software program and my job is to see if the glitches caused by switching from a CD-based distribution system to a web-based distribution system have been corrected.
I started on Monday and it was quite an experience; at first I couldn't get in because my boss failed to mention that I'd need a key card and then when I was getting frustrated, Lisa showed up and let me in! Then she gave me a tour while some of the others were trying to figure out why half the cubicals had no power. Then my boss (who I'm not lying goes by Griz) showed me my cubical and realized that my computer had no tower. I spent the rest of the morning reading instruction manuals for the old system while the computer guy grumbled about having to find me a computer and then having to find me a computer with a working hard drive. In the afternoon, I had to listen to another computer guy grumble about how the computer with a working hard drive wouldn't install the software I needed and then wouldn't connect to the server!
Today was better because I had a computer and other than the fact that IE crashed every time I ran the software I was supposed to be checking because I'm missing a patch, I had a really good day. I feel like I accomplished a lot and I remembered the names of the people I met yesterday. We had a staff meeting at the Mariott down the street which didn't really apply to me, but was like getting paid for sitting in a class (ah memories!).
I think this is going to be a really good job and a nice place to work with friendly people. But for now, I'm falling asleep, so I'm going to sign off. I'll update again later so you can all hear about my wonderful life ;-)
today is full of posters
nine-foot posters for floats
more normal sized posters for shae's brother.
all sorts of fun stuff.
life in general is full of missing logan and autumn academia and stuff. i miss it all. i miss walking across the muddy quad. i miss the chime of old main. i miss that blasted canyon wind.
but. well, i've got a decent share of beautiful misty mornings, a nice picturesque drive to work, and lots of hours in which to practice writing novels. or procrastinate writing novels. whichever.
i took a long walk on sunday, which was really nice. i miss walking places, so i think i'll do it more often. 
(yay for camera phones)
i found this neat little trail, and even though it was starting to rain and i had been about to head home, i had to turn down it and see where it went.
it went nowhere really. but it was lovely. i took several pictures. here are a few: 
the horses were so big and friendly. i was almost afraid they'd eat my phone.
ok ok, a straight, unmarried, attractive male is running loose in Ray B. West? Take his photo and post it on this thing for all to see...I must see it to believe it. You are going to have a 10 Things I Hate About You romance. (at least that won't be a Brokeback Mountain romance). Or maybe a Knight's Tale romance. YAY! either way, take his damn picture and let us have a look.
:)
I am sitting here writing this in RBW. You should all be jealous.
Short story from switzerland.
One fine day we are riding the bus back to our little city when a small section of the group decided to be rebels and sit in another train car. Little did we know the adventures that would ensue. While sitting innocently in this car we discovered that our fellow passagers had had a little too much to drink on that fine afternoon. I'm sure some french profanities were used. One of the girls occupied the WC when a male and a female model walked towards the WC in a purposeful manner. To our shocked and bufuddled minds we wondered..are they going in together?? There's just not enough room for that to happen! What can they be thinking? But they did enter the WC together! We of course wanted to see the state of their attire when they exited the WC but our stop was coming up. Right before I was to step off the train they exited the WC with a bang....and her hair was disheveled. Makes you wonder what they were doing huh?
and about the boy....yeah that would be terrible if he found this and all my secrets were revealed. I would say that we are dating....but not exclusively at this point. It's freakin' me out a little bit. He says all sorts of cute things that I just don't know how to react to. I'm not usually a cute things sort of girl....but he's doin' something to me. I'm just going with the flow right now...and keeping my eyes pealed for more Heath Ledger look alikes. We talk every single day. If I was listening to myself I would say that I'm sickening....but I am rather smitten with this fellow at the moment. So.....umm...yes.
There you go.
'tis our lasting affection for one another that will transcend the bounds of time and space...oh how nice it is to hear from everyone!! Elsie, who is this man with whom you had a one night stand? Is he a dirty European or a scandalous Utahn? I must know. Wilson, my dear dear friend, is the man you broke up with recently the same man that I met after Chelsi's wedding? I'm sorry to hear you are wayfaring through thorny paths right now. Well spoken on that end, might I add. I thought it was sickly poetic. I am right next to where our nation's president is currently hanging a memorial wreath for 9/11. Everyone is nostalgic here in the tri-state area after five years of post-9/11 sentiment. I can't believe it has been five years, by the way. I want to share a comic, above. I will add more later, as I find them invariably hilarious. J. lynn, did you hear that B. Spears wants to name her new daughter Jailynn? I thought of you when I heard that...KARISSA oh my GOSH put a picture of your child on our fine blog for hell sake...unless I missed it somewhere. Ummmm, Shae if you're out there, I left you a voicemail not so long ago, and never heard back. Something you wanna tell me Tam? Is Pappy in the loony bin again? I tell ya, I been all over town these days tryin to find a decent bologna sandwich...half the time I just say I'm out doin that just to get away from Joe (is that my husbands name?)
Well darlings, hope to hear from you all soon...if you ever need a break, come to New York!
much love,
vanessa
Okay, let's get this thing started. I haven't written or even read for a while, but talking to Els' on the phone yesterday inspired me to change my ways. I've managed to date the same guy for the past four months and - let's face it - guys take up a lot of time. So I've been absent, but absent no longer, 'cause I had to break up with him on Tuesday. Not fun. I had realized subconsciously that I wasn't ready for the kind of commitment he was looking for and we were just starting to get in deep with each other. I started actually having these incredible spells of anxiety whenever I thought about him. They were so strong that they inspired me to break up with him in spite of the fact that I REALLY didn't want to. Wasn't very nice for him, because I couldn't really explain it at all. Only afterwards did I realize that I had realized that I'd only hurt him more if I stayed and let him fall in love with me. Being the break-upper is harder than I expected. I cried whenver I thought about him for about two days. Ugh.
Anyway, I have work! Not pizza delivery, no. I work at Automatic Data Processing in Murray as a Design Services Intern. I'm finally having to learn Quark, but I'm realizing how truly piffling learning new programs is now. People in the workplace don't expect you to know them - most times they don't even know them. They use them for what they need and then they move along, leaving all the cool features. I'm also becoming intimate with Illustrator, and am picking up a new 3D prog called Milkshape. It's fun when I'm busy and, of course, I've picked everything up very quickly. When I'm not busy I'm allowed to simply read a book, or model in 3D. My computer's not fandabular, but it works for all I need it to - and there's money coming in. Not as much as I'm worth, for sure, but I haven't actually had that much to do so far. Maybe a faster paced job? I'm considering your job in January, Amelia, considering that this internship only lasts into November.
Now that I have no one, I'm really ready to go just about anywhere. I've got no strings to hold me down - and it's interesting the path I trod to get here. God's nice, but he sure likes you to take the dark and scary path through the briars on your way to sunny fields. Of course, if we only had sunny fields, we never would have invented Velcro, so let's be thankful.
As you can see, my writing - as well as my ability to think in complete sentences - has left me completely. My comma's are getting out of hand, and I'm pretty sure that I've "ran-on" at least three times in just this message alone.
Lorgily,
Wilson
Look at us networking! Craziness!
My work (New Dawn Technologies) is looking for another technical writer...it's just part-time so I suppose it is mostly for those who are still stuck around here. Jerilynn....are you looking? I think you could maybe even like it! But you are probably busy and successful working at Shaes.
I'm having a dessert/Whitney Todd's birthday party this friday. You are all invited should you be in the area....it is going to be a ton of fun and I am super excited. You can bring a dessert...or not.
Boys are trouble. The guy I was talking about in my previous post....is still around. It's weird. I guess you could say we're dating if you define dating as "going on dates and like each other" but he lives in lindon....and I live up here in logan. Anybody else see a problem here?
There is a guy who looks like Heath Ledger in my lingustics class....I'm attempting to sit next to him....it's pretty much the only reason I've been going to that class.
Hey everyone! It's so great to hear from you all. I love it. Where's Wilson lately, though? He hasn't posted in a while. And Elsie, you never did tell us any more about that boy or Switzerland. Lets just hope he hasn't Googled his name and found your post. That would be embarassing at this point, eh?
Anyway, life is busy. It's amazing how long it takes to adjust to normal life. My sister-in-law said it's hormones that make even the smallest task seem impossibly monumental. Well, I'm easing into things. Yesterday I did two loads of laundry. Today I have the worst headache in three years. I've taken two Rx strength ibuprofins, but it still throbs.
Hey, guess what! I bought a ball dress! WA HOO! Okay, so I'm still making payments on it, but I'm excited. I was having a bad day on Saturday, so I ditched my hubby and kid for about 5 hours and went dress shopping. An officer's wife has to have her a nice formal gown, right? Anyway, Levans was having this sale, and I tried on about ten dresses. I put one on hold because I couldn't decide then: it was $195. It was a pretty, tri-layered, princess-waisted fuschia colored gown. Well, I went back to buy it today. But I ended up not getting it. Instead, I settled for a slim-fitting, rose pink two-piece. It was cheaper, first off, but it's also more professional. As much as I like frilly and extravagent, like that fuschia piece, it would have been impractical: I would've worn it twice and then have been to embarassed to wear to important officer's functions. This pink one is pretty without being over-the-top, and it's simple enough that if I really wanted to, I could wear it to church and nobody would blink an eye. Anyway, I'm excited. I have a new formal dress. Yay.
Liesl is getting so big. She smiles when I change her diaper. She can hold her head up dependably well, and she can also do more pushups than I. Yesterday she started swatting at toys, so that's a step. It's fun watching her grow, but she's such a snugly, sweet little baby that I'm sad for her to get any bigger. Oh well, I guess that just means more babies for me.
xo -jeri
p.s. I saw Karrissa's baby last week. She has very pretty features and hazel green eyes. What a beauty!
hi everyone!
I miss everyone so much, let me say that much...I am starting my first day of classes today at NYU and I'm getting a little less nervous as I carve out some sliver of an existence here in the concrete jungle. I want to put up some pictures soon (as soon as I get internet and get my act together). I was thinking...things are going to be pretty tough without all of you guys to solve my problems and keep me updated on what's due and when. I realize how nice I had it when I could come to class, feel completely lost on whatever Cheryl's latest and greatest syllabus change was, and just ask for help and you all would be there for me. Even Wilson will say he told me so when I find that I cannot do things I thought I could without him sitting right next to me holding my hand.
I have my little (LITTLE) apartment, and I have not been mugged yet. I have sat next to transient individuals on the subway who tend to laugh maniacally at the absence of just about anything. I have made a fool of myself plenty of times, met some interesting characters, eaten strange fare, and gotten hopelessly lost. But, all in all, I am learning already and classes haven't even started (until tonight that is). Wish me luck, I will need it. I really miss the nurturing, accessible nature of Utah and Utah State in particular. But you what, so far, I have found that my experience at USU has really prepared me for graduate school. I had my moments of skepticism, but I am really suprised to learn that I actually know what's going on around here thanks to my years of struggle at USU. God bless the Aggies.
I will post pictures soon, and I cannot find pictures of your baby ANYWHERE Jerilynn, ( I am sure I am not looking in the right places) but either tell me how to view or resend por favor. I must see. I know what you mean about being depressed about not going back to school (even though I am looking down the barrel of a loaded gun of reading and homework--about 600 pages per week of book assignment reading with loads of articles on top of that) but I was in Logan not too long ago feeling that excitement in the air of everyone coming back from the summer and starting school and just...I felt really nostalgic and sentimental about everything. A big part of me wished I had one more year left. I thought of a lot of things I wanted to do still. I love Logan, and of course you never realize how much you love something until you lose it (that is my last rote comment for the day, I promise). Also, I turned 22 today! I think that's a nice number but I was crying last night because I will never be 21 again. I hope everyone is marvelously happy. I can't wait to see Bundy in December (though we have been playing a wild game of phone tag).
much love from the stinky streets of New York,
vanessa
Its now time for silly stories with your host, Hollie. This story was written during church (its one of many, trust me, trying to get my roommate to laugh out loud and if I had a scanner it would have the pictures to go with, but you will just have to suffer without).
Once upon a time there was a cheese grater named Gregory. He grated cheese, that was his raison d'etre. Unfortunately, Gregory was a bit of a snob. He only like to grate cheese of higher importance than the average, every day sorts of cheese. He put up his nose at cheddar, rolled his eyes at mozzarella, laughed disdainfully at Amerian and hid from Monteray Jack.
He would crawl his little metal body to the back of the utinsel drawer, cower in the corner and pretend to be a spoon when his ownders pulled out a hunk of less than worthy cheese.
"Give me Gouda! What about Parmesean or Feta? Perhaps a pepperjack! Something different, something refined." He shrugged glumly, "I'd even take Swiss or Roker if it came to it."
His friend Steve the Sieve wasn't sympathetic to his friend's plight. "At least you get used! The last time they thought about me they were canning applesauce! They haven't looked at me since. Plus, cheese is room temperature at most when they want to grate it. Unlike boling hot applesauce."
It was a common discussion, Gregory complaining followed by unsympathetic Steve's diatribes getting louder and then the belittling of Gregory's frustrations.
Gregory got tired of this so one day he shoved Steve down. Steve jumped up and pushed Gregory down. There was a bit of hand slapping until Gregory picked up a metal kebab skewer. Not to be out done, Steve picked up a skewer as well. "I challenge you to a duel." Gregory declared.
"Bring it on." Steve replied tauntingly.
"Engarde!" They crossed skwers and the game was on.
It was hard to keep track of who was winning because neither one could bleed and even if they could, the skewers kept passing through the holes in their metal bodies. After several hours, they both sat down, exhausted and sweaty.
"Truce." They declared at the same moment, out of breath and slightly frustrated.
"Let's not fight. This isn't accomplishing anything." Gregory shrugged.
Just then the utinsel drawer opened and Gregory was too tired to hide. He was forced to grate mild cheddar. Once cleaned and replaced in the drawer he turned to Steve and said, "I guess cheddar isn't as bad as I thought. It could be worse, I could be a pickle grater." He smiled, "By the way, I heard the coulander has decided to move out and they're having pasta for dinner tomorrow. You may be used yet."
Steve smiled. "Even if that isn't true, its a nice sentiment. Friends?"
"Friends." Gregory agreed. Gregory learned not tro be so snooty and Steve learned other uses and they lived as happily ever after as two utinsels are capable.
The end.
creatingpassionateusers is a really great blog that i read all the time, by a tech-writerish type woman, Kathy Sierra.
this recent post is all about documentation and how it should work.
Elsie and those still in school could defintely make use of some of its information when writing silly manuals for Shook or Hailey or whoever. Some of us in the working world might make use of it in writing documentation for the big huge xerox that nobody else quite knows how to operate.
anyway.
still no takers on my job in january?
when is final's week anyways? just curious.
mandy, writing grants to help a school buy more musical instruments sounds like a real challenge, but a very good cause. i'm kind of excited for you.
I'm back....from no where really. My life is very uninteresting now. I am blissfully happy though....so I suppose that's all that matters. I don't miss the drama. We are poor. Shae answered my prayers and offered me a job. YAY! I start tomorrow. I'm so excited. Tomorrow is our two month anniversary. I'm going to be naked when he comes home. I started school...I'm taking a video production class that seems very promising. It should be fun. I miss you all and love reading your comments. I would love nothing more than to see you all again. But I know it will happen someday. :) Much love to everyone!!!!!!!
Ps. Jerilyn, Liesl is beautiful. I'm calling you today to find out when I can come see you!
Hey everyone, I have a job offer for you. Shae's dad's company (Parent Help) is establishing a small branch here in Logan, and they desperately need good writers. I work from home for them and the pay is good. I don't know about benefits, though, because I'm a contractor, but it's a pretty interesting job. I do a lot, from editing their billions of web pages to researching and writing articles. If you're interested, you should probably contact Shae. Her number at Parent Help (in Missouri) is 1-800-688-8706, extension 117, or email her at shae@parenthelpcenter.com. They also need a few phone reps, but I don't know who's in charge of hiring for those positions.
No news on the homefront for me, except that I've been depressed lately because I'm not going back to school. I love my little Liesl, but I may go crazy being at home so much.
To answer your spelling query, Mandy, we spell her name IE. This not only follows the English "i before e except after blah blah blah" rule, but it also follows German pronunciation rules. We were going to spell it EI, but in German that is pronounced "eye" as in "stein," and that's not what we wanted.
To hear more about Liesl, go head and check out my blog. It's in the link to the right, under JeriLynn. I tend to take up too much space here.
I'm glad to hear from you guys. Please talk to Shae if you want. Logan's not such a bad place to live, eh? You've all done it before. :)
So I kind of have job related news, as you may have determined based on my title (Somewhere Dr McLaughlin is cheering, I've made you read the important part twice already). I got my first official rejection letter last week from a company I interviewed with on June 26. This was the first correspondence I've received from them even though I did the whole thank you email and then followed up a month later with a just wanted to check the progress email. As upset as I was that that was the first I heard from them, I was very impressed by their letterhead. The logo for the company is red and black and the back of the paper was completely red. The right hand corners were rounded. it was different without being weird or unprofessional and I bet some graphic designer got paid big money for saying "make the corners rounded and make the back red."
I also got a job offer today, however, before you start calling with congratulations, it was from my friend Emily who is changing jobs and needs someone to watch her six week old son until the daycare she is moving to has room for him. I went to 4 years of college and got a degree in tech writing so I can watch her baby sleep and change his diapers! He's a super sweet little boy, so good natured, and she calls me his "Aunt Mandy" which is cute but vaguely frightening. Really, there are lots of worse jobs I could do and I'm only agreeing to do it on the condition that I am free to leave should I find a "real job."
Networking is finally starting to work out as I am hearing about jobs that are opening up, but it took a long time to have very much of interest come up and my parents are no help. My mom got me volunteered to be a grant writer at her school and the teacher who had been doing it handed me half a ream of paper that was applications she'd printed out and a pamphlet on why art is important to schools and told me to have at it. She said that she wants money to buy musical instruments and have guest artists visit and I have NO idea what I'm really doing. My dad is even less help and told me yesterday that he is not encouraged by the fact that I'm still unemployed. He said it is further convincing him of his belief that editors are writers who didn't make and tech writers are any military personnel who can type.
That's about all for now; I haven't really had anything interesting to say so it's been a long time...
JeriLynn, I thought I cashed that check and I can't find it now so cancel it and consider your 3 dollars a baby gift ;D it's less than what I want to spend on you and Leisl/Liesl/I wish I could spell her name! Please remind me whether she follows the "i before e" rule or not. I think what I want to get you is a breast-feeding poncho. Do you already have one? Have you ever seen one before? Is it something you need and are interested in receiving? If not, please tell me what you want, and if it's something just for you, so much the better.
Pluto was demoted today from planet to .... rocky annoyance? The International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a resolution on planet definition, and Pluto didn't make the cut.
There are people alive today who remember when Pluto was first discovered in 1930 ... can you imagine some old grandpa type saying to any young whippersnapper who comes along, "I remember when there were just 8 planets ... then there were 9 ... but it turns out we didn't define the term 'planet' sufficently enough so when we calrified it, it turns out there were 8 all along and just an imposter planet with its silly little moon that tried to come in as a sister planet for a while too. But we sure showed it. We defined the term planet and they never had a chance..."
Ok obviously my imagination has gone off the deep end. Pluto was my favorite planet ... in jr. high I managed to do two extra credit research papers on Pluto, even then there was a debate on if it was a planet or not. I wish they had managed to let Pluto keep its status. Now I don't know how to explain it. That extra bit of planetoidy rock with the satelite named Charon ... or Pluto the rock formerly known as a planet ...
The IAU now defines a planet as "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
Can't science make up it's mind? At least with English we embrace the fuzziness of it all ... science was suppossed to be the hard-nosed, one answer for everything subject.
Okay so I'm totally doing this illegally...because I am sneaking around at work looking over my shoulder while I type so that nobody see's that I am not currently working on something.
I still miss Switzerland.
But life has gotten interesting within the last week. Excluding the usual insanities that occur in my day to day exisistance, something very random has happened. First...the back story.
Imagine me as a Junior in high school, confused and oppressed in the enviroment known as a public highschool. Towards the end of that year there was this cute guy named Steve Nelson who knew some of my friends....and there was some sort of romantic (maybe?) something going on between us. We hung out, talked on the phone for hours (literal hours), and went on a couple of dates, etc. Then because I didn't know how to deal with boys (still don't actually) it ended. Time progressed and I went away to college never really thinking about him.
During my freshman year of college, he randomly shows up at my doorstep. He was visiting my cousins roomate who was from snow college where he had attended and they somehow found the connection so he decided to come over. I had looked very cute that day...my hair was waved and everything had just worked....BUT I decided to take a shower. So when he shows up my hair is in wet moo-like bun on top of my head and I'm wearing ugly pajamas. NOT the way I want a high-school crush to remember me. So life continues...with one of my regrets being the...lack of resoultion I felt between us.
Fast forward to Wednesday, August 8th, 2006. I'm moving out of my apt and attempting to throw some things away when I find a old high school directory from my junior year...and his number is highlighted. Whitney gave me a small pep-talk and I called the number fully expecting his parents to have moved, or tell me that he is married or something like that. So it rings...and he answers the phone. HE ANSWERED THE PHONE! This moved out of the realm of my expectations. We talked on the phone for about an hour and he said that he was going to try and come up before he started school on the 23rd. I was reeling after this to say the least.
The next day I am moving things and I get a phone call...it's him saying that he helped somebody move to Park City and if it was okay with me he wanted to come up. So I said yes....and he came up...stuff happened....and didn't leave for nearly 24 hours. WHAAAT?? I'm still reeling about this. Apparently there is still something there. We have had some sort of contact (texts, phone, etc) everyday since then....and I really have no idea what's going on here or what I really feel about this. Oh and he lives down in lindon/pleasant grove my home town.
So that is one of the recent devopments in my life.
alright, as you wish JeriLynn. i shall stay up an extra string of minutes and post something...
last week, a miracle happened.
one of those local girls came in and needed a program for her wedding.
she handed me a cd of pictures and asked my advice on which one of her three favourites would look best.
she emailed me a file with all the order of events and the massively long wedding party list, and
although the word document was entirely in all-caps comic sans
she gave me total free reign to pick fonts and format the program however i wanted.
this is how my job is supposed to work, right? i'm the designer. yeah? yeah.
anyway, it was amazing. i picked collona for the headings and used bernhard somethingorother for the main text.
and she loved it. and her mother loved it.
basically i rock.
in other news: next week my own dear sister is getting married. i'm very much looking forward to seeing my family. if anyone is not busy for a few hours on tuesday the 22nd, i have a three hour layover in salt lake from 10.07 til 1.21pm. it'd be cool to have lunch with somebody or something. any takers? i've got the same old phone number.
So why did everyone stop posting? Or do I just have no life? Okay, don't answer that.
Vanessa, how did your stupid math test go? What about an apartment? When are you moving to NY? When does school start, huh? Gosh. If you haven't already moved away, you should come see me and Liesl.
Wilson, have you found another job yet? Are you going back to school? If so, where? How did your move to Salt Lake go?
Chelsi, I hope Lake Powell treated you well. I bet you're glad to have time off before school. When will you come visit me?
Elsie, that last post was wonderful, but I expect to hear more about Switzerland. Gosh. At least come tell me about your trip and show me pictures. Put together a slide show for me.
Mandy, how's the job search going? Are you going to go back to school? When are you going to get married? (Ha ha, just kidding. I figured since I'm already asking all the other annoying questions, I'd better finish the job. Or whatever. ha.)
Hollie, I really liked the update. I'm jealous you went to the Oregon coast. Someday I will. Someday I'll also go to New York, Europe, and the Amazon Jungle. And China, and perhaps Australia or New Zealand. Or Polynesia. Oh, and Yellowstone.
By the way Hollie, do you think you could make Liesl a yellow bracelet to go with her blessing gown? I vill pay you. And, yes, I noticed you never cashed the $5 check I gave you for my necklace with the Schwartzenegger crystals. Punk. (And Mandy, I also noticed you never cashed the $3 I gave you for the CD labels. You weren't just being charitable, were you?)
Amelia, I chat with you almost every day. But I still love your posts. Very amusing they are.
If I've left any of the regular posters out, I'm sorry. Not really. Obviously you don't post often enough for me to think of you, so it's your own fault.
Well, I still think my little girl is great. She's starting to smile a little. That's nice. Regretfully, the relief society stopped bringing me meals a week ago, so Jay and I are starving because I'm too lazy to cook.
Christy Archuleta got married el Fridayo, and I knew of her receptiono through the lovely, marvelous, award-winning HERALD JOURNAL. So I went. SHE has seen my lovely daughter, but none of yous guys have. Oh, and she looked very beautiful. Her skin goes so well in white. And her dress was beautiful, too. The groom looked a little nervous.
So I'm sick of writing about myself all the time. I do it just to fill the awkward empty spaces. Save me, people-- come on. You guys all lead such interesting lives.
xo-J-L
My family reunion (and by family I mean my siblings and parents) went to Arch Cape Oregon this year. It was a lot of fun. I missed the 100 degree heat wave ... I was in sunshine but the temp never got above 75... at the right is a picture of me on the beach at sunrise to make everyone wild with envy.
The only place that had cell phone reception was 5 minutes away at a leisurely pace ... but the beach had the best reception and that was only 8 minutes walking from the bungalow we rented (the picture is of the beach at sunset). 
We went to Seaside, and Astoria (yes, I saw the Goonies House) we also went fishing in the Ocean, 16 miles out for salmon. Apparently it was one of the worst fishing days in history. The only fish we could keep had to be hatchery (not native) and big enough. My brother says he has never gone where no one has reached their limit (2) but on our trip, we caught a total of 4 keepers among the 6 of us. The only thing I caught was a silver that we had to throw back ... the fish was impressive anywhere else but too small to keep there. Which was dissapointing at first ... but then seeing my family clean and chop their salmons into filets made me actually glad I didn't catch anything ... I may never eat fish again. We split the fishing into two days so that Ryker wouldn't have to sit still on a boat in a life jacket for several hours. He doesn't sit still well.
Being that far out on the ocean, on a cloudy day along the Oregon/Washington coast is freezing. I have one picture of me on the boat, I'm wearing a levi jacket, and a hoodie, and still my lips are blue and it took days to warm up. With windchill it was around 30 degrees. I havn't managed to get it off the second digital camera chip (I can't find the second chip) but I've seen it before so I know its there
The highlight of my trip was hanging out with my nephew Ryker who will be 2 on the 13th
of this month. He's talking and he's practicing his colors. He has a hard time saying the "r" sound so red he doesn't try ... the others sound like this: lello, onnnnnge, geen, boo, pp, and pinnnnnk. The easiest way to get him to say his colors is to bribe him with food.
The day his parents fished we took him out to lunch and he didn't want anything to do with my other brother and sister, he wanted me to hold him, me to cuddle with him, and me to smear ketchup all over while he was eating his french fries. He is the cutest in the world. If I have red-head kids, I want them to look just like him.
We did a lo
t of sight seeing when we were there. That's one of the things we do. We have a lot of cool scenic pictures. Here's one from Cape Meades ... which has the smalled light house in Oregon near it. The light house didn't get into this picture but its still fantastic anyway.
Hope everyone had fun this summer, and everyone who is looking has found a job.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could travel the world as often as we'd like? Ah, how I used to yearn to live in Europe, eating at a little, tucked-away cafe, just being on my own. Perhaps I would get a dog, and maybe I would have met some charming schmo over a cup of hot cocoa (since I don't drink coffee). Or, how much I wanted to go nanny in New York and teach English in China!
Ah, the dreams of a true dreamer! (Having my feet on the ground is something I learned from the more pessimistic people in my life, and that didn't come until after high school.)
Well, life goes on, that's for sure. And we don't always achieve all of our dreams. But reality isn't that bad. In many ways it's better, more satisfying. True love only exists in reality anyway, because it involves much work and sacrifice-- things few people ever wish for in their fantasies. Besides, I still hope to travel the romantic villages of distant lands. I may not do it alone, or, if I do go alone, I'd probably wish my loved ones were there sharing the experience.
Now I am a mother, and while I refuse to live my dreams through my daughter, she will have many dreams of her own that I hope to help her achieve. Like the most beautiful wedding dress we can afford. Motherhood is better than I thought, but I'm in the easy stage. She sleeps most of the time. I do not look into her eyes to see myself (although I do see my father-- she has his eyes), but rather I see her as Liesl. She will never be like me, but she will 'learn much more than I'll ever know.'
So ode to dreams and reality and love! May they be combined into one for all of you. I myself am living my dreams, even though they are not the girlish dreams I once used to have. But that's okay. I like it this way.
And Amelia, if I had an extra $600, I would gladly loan it. But, as it is, we need to start saving for a wedding dress.
xo jerilynn xo
i miss england.
does anybody have a spare $600 i could have, to go back?
on a sidenote, i feel rather guilty and confused about life, wanting to fly away to england when i know i'm saving all my pennies for a mission.
sometimes the things you know are just... meh.
while the things you dream are just... too far away.
and everything looks perfect from far away.
everyone, pray for me because I'm taking a MATH FINAL tomorrow morning and I need all the divine powers to join forces at the hip and shoot this math beast down. it really, really sucks, people. I cannot even express the bitterness I will feel should I find out that I spent an entire summer of my youth toiling away at a finkless endeavor (finkless to me anyway) for nothing. I am in the Engineering computer lab, and there is this boy straddling a chair backwards and I wonder if he knows how suggestive he looks right now. It's not a turn on either, what the hell is he doing? If only I had my camera right now. now he's bouncing, like, riding the chair like a regular jockey. I think he's pretending it's not a lab chair, but Seabiscuit at the Kentucky derby. Go boy, go! this is Vanessa by the way....
happy tuesday
jerilynn looks so beautiful as a mother, doesn't she?
mandy, i emailed you a long, rambly email about what i do for a living these days. hopefully it's useful to you.
it's been a busy day. i'm glad for lunch. sadly, xerox man (lovely superhero name, yes?) is going to arrive in a few minutes and disturb it. ah well.
a hypothetical question for you all:
so about two months ago you designed the wedding program for a sweet local methodist girl. 7 x 7 inch square, simple folded deal, the elegant Bickham Script Pro paired with stately little Copperplate. The finished proof got stuck in your massive Folder of Wedding Junk, which on occasion you drag out of the file cabinet to show to indecisive customers.
this month, yet another one of those sweet local (possibly methodist) girls comes in and needs a wedding program. She has a basic idea drawn up. Then she looks through your massive Folder of Wedding Junk and sees methodist-girl's program.
"Oh," she gushes, "do it like this."
Exactly like this?
"Yeah, here, just put my name in, and change all the other wording, and it'll be great."
Erm... but this wedding was only two months ago... are you sure you want to blatantly rip off the design? What if we make it less square, for a start, to match your invitations (which were 8.5 x 5.5 inch rectangles). What if we not include all the details exactly the same? I can make you your own custom layout too, how's that sound?
"I want it just like this one, dang it!"
Sigh.
Anyway, what would you have done?
The customer is always right, of course. But geez... local girl 2 even knew local girl 1 personally. local girl 1 might even get a chance to see these programs. What is local girl 2 thinking!?
Sigh.
To be sneaky and to make it at least a little bit original, i swapped out the Copperplate for Engravers.
Geez people are funny.
Well, everyone, I did it-- I hatched or popped or whatever you want to call it. On my due date, Friday the 28th, I started having contractions around 2pm. But I ignored them. I mean, I've been having regular contractions here and there for a couple weeks. So I decided to ignore them until they hurt a lot.
So, the day wears on and I keep having contractions about ever 15 minutes. At about 9pm I thought that maybe these would turn into real labor, so I start cleaning my house and taking care of other things that I needed to do. Come 11pm, my contractions move to 10 minutes apart and start getting more breathtaking. At 1am, Jay and I are just getting to bed, but my contractions are now 5 minutes apart and very painful. At 2:30, my water broke.
We get to the hospital and by 5am I got an epidural. I didn't want to originally-- I always wanted to have a natural labor. But since I'd already been in labor for 13 hours and had only dilated a half a centimeter, I realized that I had a long night ahead of me, especially since I hadn't had any sleep. (Also, come to find out later, Leisl was facing the wrong way-- she was looking down and forward instead of up and back-- and this is why I was having such terrible back pain while I still felt my contractions. Back labor is a killer.) So I got an epidural, and I slept. That was at 5am.
At noon, I got a dose of Pitocin to speed up my contractions. By 2, I was fully dilated. After the doctor turned Leisl so she was facing the right way, it only took another 45 minutes, and she was born!
So labor was mostly uneventful. Delivery was fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be. Leisl was born 9 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long-- quite the good sized baby (must've been t he chocolate pudding I've been eating). The picture at the top is her at about 1 hour old, and she was still puffy. She's lost her puffiness mostly.
Anyway, she's very healthy and strong, and very peaceful. I just brought her home today. She has chubby cheeks, but she's not as chubby looking as she sounds (nine pounds on 21 inches makes for a cute little round baby). And she doesn't look like either me or Jay. Yet.
Karrissa had her baby yesterday at noon. I only know her baby was around 6 pounds. I saw her husband as Jay and I were leaving, and we were in a hurry.
Anyway, life's good! If you want to see more pictures, you can go to www.spencersrock.com/leisl. Talk to you later!
jerilynn
Well, it's been about 10 days since my last update. I STILL HAVEN'T HAD THE BABY! ! ! Today is my due date. Tomorrow I am officially overdue. My doctor tried one method yesterday to try to induce me, but apparently it didn't work, so here I am, still nice and round. And irritable. My poor husband.
That's about it on my part. The good news is that I still have time to myself (i.e. I'm not a parent yet). Next friday, if I still haven't popped, I will be induced with pitocin. I don't want that, but at least the countdown is on. Let's hope little Leisl comes before then.
On another topic, the spiders I played with last summer in my old apartment are miniatures compared to some spiders around my new apartment. They are huge here-- so big. And of course, they're hobos. Probably. But for some reason, I'm not afraid of them here. They're big enough that they're easy to kill, and I don't live in a basement. I love my apartment, and that love supercedes my hate/loathing/fear of spiders.
I've put together a fact sheet about hobos on my blog (under Links to the left). This could save your life.
Okay, well, wish me luck, everyone. And good luck to all of you, too!
jerilynn
Okay so I have been reprimanded. Yeah I never really said anything on the Switzerland blog because a)I didn't have my own computer and felt guilty using anyone's computer for longer than 10 min b)I barely even got the assignments I was supposed to do up there and c)did you read how funny Sage was? I could compete with that....thus I did not even try.
So apparently people have been doing a lot of things while I was out of the country. What's up with that honestly?
I had an amazing fantastic time! I was literally in a different city everyday....there was not a single day that I just sat around and did nothing and I loved it! It was so much fun just to go and see something new everyday. Half the time our assignments were to draw something so it was difficult to sit down after you get stuck in this go go go mentality but then once I did I would get sucked into drawing and not want to leave. I took over 900 pictures while I was there....do you think that was enough? I still feel like I forgot to take pictures of some things while I was there.
So JeriLynn you requested more detail.....I really don't know where to start. Here something that didn't make it into the e-mails because I had to censor things a little bit. One day while riding on the train a small group of us decided we didn't want to walk through the whole train to sit with the group and thus we were sitting in a separate car. This car was full of some very interesting people....people that were apparently more than a little tipsy. If the clinking of bottles hadn't given them away I think the rambunctious French singing would have. So we are sitting there when we see a man and a woman (who walked like a model....and looked like one too) walk back towards the WC...together.....and opened the door and went in....together. Our poor little minds were shocked! I mean those WC aren't that big nor that clean. As we sat 3 seats away from the WC we wondered....what could those two possibly be doing in there? We heard the woman ask the man as they had passed if he had it (this was in English oddly enough)...he said yes. Had what? I guessed a condom (SCANDAL!) another guessed drugs. All we know is once they made it out of the WC (right before we got off so they nearly hit me with the door on the way out) her hair was....messed up. Anyway, that is just one small glance into my trip...maybe one of the most exciting stories. But there will be more later!!
This is one of the first pictures I took. It was at the Giannada Foundation museum....pretty much sums how I felt that day I think....:)
stay tuned!
and this time i don't have to make any up, because i really have news to tell.
work is going swimmingly along.
my car keeps dying and it needs its oil changed. i never realized what a pain owning a car can be.
i have decided... after much thought.... to go on a mission.
i never ever pictured myself the missionary type. i'm not cheerful. i'm not out-going. i'm not ultra-spiritual either, at least not overtly. it's kind of weird.
but it feels like the right thing to do, so here i go. 18 months of ... mission... i don't have any idea what to expect.
it should be an adventure.
hollie, just remember these four words: boys are worthless scum. make them your mantra. no, they're not comforting. but they are true. ;)
everyone else, i hope you're all happy and stuff.
sidenote: since i'll be leaving on the mish in january ish, shae will need to replace me. keep that in mind, anyone who's interested in my oh-so-fabulous job.
Sorry I have been MIA lately. I don't have a wonderful trip in Europe (or anywhere else for that matter) as my excuse. This will be a long post, I'm sorry about that.
My parents have stopped encouraging me to get a job because they don't trust my grandma (who lives with us) home alone anymore for varying reasons, and I gramma-sit very well, in addition to making dinner, cleaning, and tending a garden out of boredom. Still looking for a job, but not very diligently. I can't remember the last time I put in an application, and I can't tell you how much looking at job ads at varying places (I think I'm up to 5 different local and national websites I peruse) have made me want to eat my weight in chocolate.
The library closest to my house sucks, unless you adore murder mysteries. Half of the adult section is murder mysteries, and I'm not including the psychological thrillers with that. The other half is mainly comprised of LDS fiction (the cheesy kind), Romance Novels (can we say an entire stack dedicated to Daniel Steele?), Non fiction, and a few smatterings of sci fi/fantasy(when I say smatterings, I've found two). Needless to say I've been fighting a touch of depression and that makes me anti social because I don't want to tell everyone that my grand plans about after college have fallen through and I'm embarrassed about my life.
On the social front, Elsie and Mandy have already heard about part of this. Mitch, my on again off again for the last 8 years who said we'd get married after I graduated from college is now balking at the idea of moving anywhere I find a job that isn't in the Portland Oregon, or Salem Oregon area. Now he's also saying he doesn't want to get serious until I get a job, and get settled into a job. Just an endless fount of excuses. Then to add more complications there's this friend of mine from high school that we've been on 4 or 5 dates in the 4 last year. I was texting him the other day to get a guy's perspective on an argument Mitch and I were having and he wrote "What is it going to take for us to be together? I'm tired of games and I think you are too. You're the one I want in my life. You are one of my best friends and there is no one I'd rather be with." Which for me was out of left field because after our last date we had agreed (or at least I thought we had agreed) that because we live 5 hours apart we could only be friends and we are too good of friends to risk losing that.
Now its a different story. Now because we haven't really dated he wants me to spend a week in Boise (at his apartment I might add) going on real dates, him sleeping on the sofa and me in his bed until I want him in the bed with him. Yes, he is that cocky, it's part of his endearing charm if you believe it. If after a week we decide that we could get married and live happily ever after he wants to get engaged, and being engaged means I move in with him, and then 6-9 months later we get married and 9-12 months after that we start trying to have little red-haired babies. (My dad was born with red hair before it turned brown, my nephew has red hair, and James has red hair so the red haired kids would be a good chance.) Now I have a little voice inside my head that has been freaking out about this. Even while I've been typing this its been screaming, not so much that I can't think straight but loud enough that its distracting. The first text was on July 3rd and the other information, like his envisioned time table has come since then.
Needless to say, I've had a lot on my mind. I'm averaging talking to Mitch on the phone every other day (this is down from the 6-7 days a week before I graduated and he changed his rules again), James and I text or talk about that often now, which is weird to me since we've never had a talk on the phone type of relationship. We've been much more, a string of several e-mails over a few days, then nothing for months, followed by a date once a year in August.
My mom has made several ... hinting sort of comments basically trying to devise ways of convincing Mitch to marry me but sometimes it comes accross as a little desperate. I don't want to beg/force a guy into marrying me. I'd rather be single.
Since James and I are friends I've known about most of his girlfriends. There's some concerns there. How he was engaged to my best friend for a week before they both freaked out and broke it off. How this one girl he loved two years after he broke up with her, he wanted to reconnect with and contemplated trying to break her up with her current by presenting her with a diamond. Or about the girl he dated last year, who moved in with him, cheated on him (twice), left him for the bouncer at her strip club, then dumped the bouncer once she got pregnant and he actually offered to marry her, and was willing to bring up another man's child. Part of me just wonders if he wants to get married to get out of the rat race and I'm the only single girl who has been half-way civil to him recently.
Basically this whole mess has made me want to drop them both and start fresh. I actually went so far as to sign up for an online service when I was feeling really embittered. The first two men who looked at my profile were older than my dad. Until the average age of men who look at my profile get below 35 I'm not gonna get optimistic. Its down from 47 to 39 right now. Oh, and to add some icing to my pity party cake, one of my friends from high school who is two years younger than me, the one who got me into dying my hair funny colors, and acting wild and crazy, just got engaged this last week. To a guy who is a complete computer geek, who is completely devoted to her crazy-wackiness and has the potential to make them both very rich. I tried to be happy for her, but jealous, embittered rage followed by an intense desire to cry was the initial reaction.
Okay, the day I've predicted my daughter's entrance to this world is here, but still no little girl. Not that I'm getting impatient, because I'm not. But then again, I've been having regular contractions on a nightly basis for four days now, but these contractions go away after an hour. Take last night. In the middle of a temple session, I start shaking and the contractions started coming around ever 7 minutes or so. Not normal belly-tightening contractions, but these. . . they felt like a snake slithering tightly around my arm, except the sensation was in my belly. Weird, eh? So these keep up for over an hour. Then, I step into my house at 6:00, have one more, and POOF, they're gone. Except at 40 minutes after the hour for the next four or five hours. You can imagine that Jay and I were getting a little worked up for the actual event. It would be nice if my body would decide what's up. I wonder how Karrissa's doing.
Other news on the homefront is scarce. I'm wondering about Holly. I really miss you dear. You can call me and rant any time. And if that boy in Oregon's giving you trouble, I'll beat him up! Also, Elsie, you need to post more. The emails were great, but I need to hear all. I followed your freaking long Switzerland Blog, but you didn't really post much, and that made me mad! Okay, not really. But I'm dying to see pictures and souvenirs and stuff. Mandy, I hope you get offered that barn job because then you could take a pellet gun to work and have something to shoot during down times. Or maybe not, but it sounds fun. I have one I don't use if you want it! Vanessa, I hope you found a cozy cubby, or at least one you can spice up with your taste of deco. Chelsi, I hope married life is fun for you. Here's a picture from your bachelorette party. 
To everyone else out there, I love hearing from you! My goal is to post something just before I go to the hospital so you guys can come visit me if a) you want to, and b) you're around. Wish me to pop soon!
xoxo
Sorry to be too lazy to set up my own username peeps.
and Chels, I'm glad you liked my bizarre gift. It just spoke to me-- literally JUMPED OUT at me saying "I AM PINK, LET ME LIVE WITH CHELSI!" I know you aren't kidding about the gloves and bath time either, you little slattern. Dane called a couple of times but I think he has finally given up. I didn't feel the uh...spark there. He was nice, but I can def. see the "weird as hell" factor, bless his heart. You know what though, I had the most wonderful time at your reception. It was gorgeous and so well done and so YOU. Everyone thought Wilson was my hot, elusive, Lex Lutherish date. I totally played along. Afterward I had the strangest evening too. Wilson took me to a dance-a-thon where I watched a giant man wearing a pink cockatoo getup prance around a stage whilst chasing (this is me chasing) three Italian men around the club as they were my charges for the evening thanks to a random phone call from a Sri Lankan friend in Santa Cruz asking me to show them around Salt Lake. These rigazzi Italiani were passing through SLC on their way across the country and I was to show them a decent time in Salt Lake (as they were only there for one night and half a day). It's ironic that the first place we took them to was a gay nightclub in a city that is notoriously conservative and often thought of as...entirely lacking in large glittering men dressed as pink cockatoos. They were shocked. Wilson has hilarious friends, WHOM I met. that's WHOM, you bastards, WHOM.
Ok, THEN the following weekend I went to Ms. Lisa Ferrara's (the now, Mrs. Robinson) wedding which was just as amazing and just as reflective of her personality and cunning taste. I have a tendency to meet men at weddings, and I am considering a career in crashing weddings just to get a move on in the romance department. (I blame the isolation of Logan, currently). Anyway, at Lisa's fine reception I met this guy by the name of John. I won't say more, because I fear posting incriminating evidence of my infatuation on the internet, but I swear he worked some voodoo spell on me. I could think of little else after that night, and I am trying to reason with myself just to stop plotting a way to see him again. The thing is, this is my "last" weekend in Logan, he of course lives in SLC and is not partial to driving an hour and a half to cow country (not even to visit an amusing woman such as myself) so, arranging another interlude with this person is swiftly approaching the realm of impossible. WTHIGO, as good Shae would say, and I just had to vent all that. When Lisa introduced him, she told me he was Apolo Ohno's cousin (the speedskater) which of course, I gullibly embraced, because by another strange coincidence I happen to have met Apolo on several occasions as he is friends with my speedskater sister. STRANGENESS is in the air. I tried to find my horoscope to see if planet Cupidonicus was flying through the Virgoan house of Lunar Trapezoidal Glyphitronius that evening in hopes of finding some reason why I had to meet someone interesting yet shrouded in inconvenience. It's a damn shame, really.
Oh well. I'm going to NY next weekend to find a dirty little cubby (which I shall call home) if I am so lucky. I can't believe how cute VeryLynn is pregnant! Keep getting married everyone, so I can meet frustrating men.
Love you all,
vanessa
Hello Everyone!
I am finally Mrs. Johnston...Well, not according to the Social Security Administration...But whatever. The wedding couldn't have been more perfect. It was more fairytale-ish than I could've ever imagined and not one thing did not absolutely delight me. (Aside from an embarrassing display from my mother and mother in-law during the speech portion when they blurted out a very tactless and simultaneous, "We'll have beautiful grandchildren!!!!!!" Ew. I would've much rather heard Wilson's speech...and since we didn't get to hear it, perhaps you could write it on our lovely blog?) I'm sorry some of you couldn't make it, but Wilson did give me your well wishes.
Jerilyn, I'm deeply concerned for you!!! Are you ok? Can I do anything? Please call me as I don't have your number! 801-388-9452
Vanessa, your signing on my frame is my favorite one...I look at it daily. I loved your present too!! It was all pink and adorable! And...those gloves, although meant for dishes, have made bath time fun.... *wink wink* (Kidding, kidding...) It meant SO much to have you and Wilson there the entire time. I'm so glad you stayed to watch me leave. It really warmed my lil heart. The last image I have in my mind is Vanessa on Wilson's back, parading down the street (...with my best friend from Junior High, leading the way with an imaginary beton, whom I haven't talked to in four years being all weird and turbo "let's rekindle our friendship..") Anyway, I love you both. As for Dane, I have some advice: STAY AWAY! I like him because he always tells Spence he has a hot wife, and he's a good friend to Spence... but that's about it....he's weird as hell. He has no game...and he's just all....weird. However, this could be slightly charming in a way. If you're into that, then go for it...but I warned you.
Mandy, I loved your card...it was my fave!
I love you all...good luck with the job hunt. You all have all my confidences.
Hugs and Love,
Chels
xo
Chelsi's shindig was beautiful, of course. And also of course, I was there with the only two women without sleeves, and everyone was jealous out of their minds. I had to practically peel this one chap off of Van with a spatula from Chels's gift table. She and Mandy kept digging me to make a speech on behalf of everyone here, but they closed down the speech-giving right before I could. I did, however, give her the congratulations of all those who couldn't make it.
I have even less job than ever now - in other news. I was talking to my boss on the telephone and he treated me like a complete idiot. When I asked him to talk more respectfully, he started swearing, so I hung up and went home. His kids were nice though. Cuties. So, I'm unemployed again - that's for the third time this summer!
My dreams of leaving the state have been a bit curtailed, whereas I found someone to date - of course at the worst possible time in my life. Now I find myself looking at apartments and jobs in SLC. Ugh. I also find myself not having much to do when he's not around. Double-ugh. I think that school just kind of served as this big "filler" in my life for the past four years. Now that I don't have it anymore, I'm really starting to see how empty my life has been of sports, hobbies, attractions, and everything. Learning is really my only hobby now - and I'm having trouble breaking the habit - I'm actually learning C++ right now, which probably has Amelia thrilled. I'm also learning a freeware version of 3dStudioMax called gMax right now. Some days I feel like I'm getting somewhere - most I don't.
I find that I just don't want to spend the time writing individual cover letters - I haven't even gotten responses from most the companies I've applied at. It's making me very frustrated. Loves.
Good luck with the baby, Baby. ;)
Hi guys. Welcome to July. My husband finally got back two days ago. It's nice having him here and everything, especially since I gave my family a scare about two weeks ago and everyone thought I was going to have the baby without him. I was at Chelsi's bachelorette party (with a limo-- fun!), and I started having cramps in my lower back. Well, the mother of the hostess told me that's a sign of early labor (which I already knew, but it helped to have someone else with the same concern). So I backtracked to Logan and got checked out. Sure enough I was dilating. At that point the baby would've been premature, and of course Jay was gone, so I was put on bed rest for a couple weeks. My family flipped out and kidnapped me and I wasn't allowed to even get myself a glass of water for about 11 days! (They would've carried me to the bathroom, but I insisted I needed some exercise!) It wasn't that bad actually, being waited on hand-and-foot, but now I'm conditioned to laziness and am more tired than ever.
So our baby could come any day. Jay and I are going out to the movies every day this week. We have so much to do around the house to prepare for little Leisl. It's frightening, this parenthood thing. Oh well. Too late now!
Congrats to all who keep getting interviews. Good luck getting the job you like.
Will someone tell me about Chelsi's reception? I was stuck on a sofa sipping ice water
Shae emailed me. She is totally engaged to this, like, punk rocker named Lyle who she met at a rave in New Jersey. I guess he gave her all of his glow in the dark bracelets so she felt some kind of instant connection and then they went back to her parents and told them they wanted to elope. Anyway,he is totally...interesting looking. Kind of borderline scary, but I think once she removes his 489 piercings and gets the last four girls he dated removed from his tattooed arse she could really make a life with this guy. I know! It totally shocked me too, but I think that's kind of what life's all about, guys. Shae, growing up, making silly choices.
The rest of us just stalling on marriage and posterity, but we are trying.
happy july.
two months gone, already.
congratulatiosn and good luck to all of you crazy people getting married. i hope wilson said hi to you all this weekend like i told him to.
my life is percolating in summer, pierced by moments of self-doubt and unrealistic dreams. i could stay here for a long time.
but do i want to?
Since my last post, I got two interviews! It happened really fast, and I'm kinda still in shock.
I had an interview on Monday with Gibbs Smith Publishers who are based out of Layton. It went pretty well and I have a new random question for the interview files... "Are you allergic to cats?" This publishing company is based out of an old barn and they have several office pets that kind of prowl around and wander in and out. It seems like a pretty nice place to work, except that it's only 20 minutes from my parents' house so I don't know if I could justify moving out if they hire me. The interview seemed to go well; I started talking with the executive vice president in charge of editing and she made me spell accommodate (I don't remember if I put in two ms or not...) and we talked about my resume. She basically went over everything I put in it, very thorough. Then she brought in the managing editor and she made me tell her how to use an elipse, how to use a dash, and how to use a colon. They finished by telling me they would like to email me a document for me to edit as a trial.
Then today, I had a phone interview with Ernst & Young, a financial company in Denver (yay). I've never had a phone interview before so that was really weird. I was probably not as prepared with knowledge about the company and position as I should have been but it seemed to go pretty well. They said they would let me know by next week if they wanted to bring me in for an interview in person. And she asked the dreaded question about expected salary. I never know what to say so I kind of ballparked around 30000 and she said that they were probably going to be paying in the mid to high 20s and she didn't want to put me through the interview process if I couldn't work with that. I hope I didn't mess up because of that, but on the other hand, that doesn't seem like very much money...
What are you guys doing about the salary question? Has anybody even asked you yet? Am I expecting too much?
See you guys on the 30th at Chelsi's reception :D
Amelia, I will write for you. I've always wanted to do that kind of thing.
Here are two pumpkin soup recipes. They are both good, though I definately prefer the curry soup. But I haven't wanted either since I've been preggers. In fact, it's one of the first things I noticed not liking when I was first pregnant. That was more than a week before I actually knew that I was. Weird. Well, here are the recipes:
Pumpkin Curry Soup
2 Tblsp. butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper (I use black)
2 lg. garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cup chicken broth
12 0z. evaporated milk
15 oz. canned pumpkin
1. Melt butter on medium heat. Add onion & garlic. Cook 2-3 minutes 'til tender.
2. Stir in curry, salt, & pepper. Cook 1 minute.
3. Add broth & pumpkin. Boil. Reduce to low.
4. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 - 20 minutes.
5. Stir in evaporated milk.
6. In batches, transfer mixture to blender. Cover, and blend 'til smooth. Serve warm.
Creamy Pumpkin Soup
1/4 cup butter
1 small chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tsp. brown sugar, packed
14 1/2 oz. (1 can) chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
15 oz pumpkin
12 oz. evaporated milk
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1. Melt butter with onion, garlic, and sugar. Cook 1-2 minutes 'til soft.
2. Add broth, water, salkt, & pepper. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce heat to low, stirring occastionally still. Cook 15 minutes.
4. Stir in pumpkin, milk, & cinnamon. Cook another 5 minutes.
5. In batches, transfer to blender, cover, and blend 'til smooth.
Well, everyone, I have five weeks of preggerancy left. It's not too bad. I'm hot all the time, and my back hurts, but otherwise, it's perfectly agreeable.
Mandy, my advice to you-- don't be afraid to leave Utah. Just don't go to Nevada. It's an ugly state. And hot. Go east. Skip Kansas. I hear it's really flat there. No, go to Tennessee. No, too country. Try Illinois. That's a happy medium, probably. Just don't go to Nevada. Wyoming's better than Nevada. And Denver-- now Colorado's a very nice state. It's like Utah, except for more mountainy. Overall, I mean. It averages out to have more mountains there. Oh-oh-- you should go to Vale or Veil in Colorado. Lots of Celebrities hang out there. You could offer to ghostwrite or edit their memoirs. That's a good idea!
My office chair tilts. I was unaware of this until. . . today. Apparently I must have played with some mysterious switch on it, and now it tilts. Who knew?
I got Lisa's wedding invitation in the mail! It's beautiful! I like Chelsi's better. Totally. But Lisa's invitation is fit for her. It's. . . how to describe it. . . dark khaki or over-creamed cappuccino brown. Something. She's getting married in two weeks tomorrow, which is the same day my good husband gets home. Now here's a coincidence-- two friends, getting married on special days for me: Lisa on the 8th, the day my hubby gets back; and Chelsie, on next Friday, the 30th-- my birthday! That's kinda cool! What are the chances?
Well, toodles for now, ya'll!
I am in Limbo! Not the caribbean party game with lots of drinks with umbrellas, but the terrible place where I have to make decisions about my life and where I want to live. I've decided I don't want to stay in Utah but I don't want to move away either, thereby earning me a place in limbo.
Actually, it hasn't been too bad a week. I put in an application at Gibbs Smith Publishing company in Layton through the USU Career Services website and their VP emailed me back almost immediately asking why I want to be an editor and what my interests are. And today I got a phone call from Ernst & Young, an accounting firm in Denver, to set up a phone interview for the proofreader position I applied for last week.
In other news, my personal life is boring, but for those of you who are interested in this saga, my friend Shelece is going to break up with her boyfriend Ryan! Hooray! If you want stories about why this makes me so excited, just ask and I could fill a blog by myself!
My friend Emily is very pregnant and she assigned me the job of entertaining her because her baby was/is due on the 30 (her doctor changed his mind a month ago and told her it was due on the 15 and so she left work last friday and now her duedate's back to the 30th and she's bored out of her mind!) So what should I do with her? I don't want to do anything strenuous and send her into labor since her dr's out of town until next week, but if I leave her at home she's going to re-upholster her entire living room!
That's basically my life, but I wanted to post and let you know I'm still alive and checking in. I'll let you know how the interview and stuff goes.
it's been raining all day today. i love it.
last night i went on a semi-mad baking kick and made pumpkin cookies. i still have some pumpkin left over ... so i was goign to ask JeriLynn if she could share her recipe for pumpkin soup... i want to try it out.
in other news:
all of our printers died last night.
really really died.
they came back to life this morning, but only after several panicky phone calls.
we're printing magazines this week. someday... someday i want to own and produce a magazine. will i be able to recruit some of you guys to write brilliant things for it? please please?
p.s. wilson, how comes the notpron riddle? i'm still quite stuck on level 21.
Hello my pretties. Well maybe I'll just have to post as Ganddaddy West until I become a granddaddy myself. I've invought myself four times now and this blog still refuses to show up for me. I suppose I was born to suffer.
Well, I'm still delivering pizza but I quit my other job. Fortunately, I still make as much as Amelia most nights, so I'm good. I've kind of given up finding a job in the game industry that I'm qualified for, so I'm resigned to finding a tech-writing job now. Kelli will be so happy. Speaking of Kelli, did you ever find out about that naming crisis you were having Chels? We're lucky that we decided to keep the professors out of here - if they saw all the grammatical and spelling atrocities going on they'd have a heart attack. Yes, the plural would have a singular. Wahoo.
So, I haven't posted in forever because we didn't have the internet at my house until my father got here. Of course, all the innovations occur when he needs them. The rest of my family is here too, whereas it's summer. My sister just got married over the weekend and it seems to be catching like the plague. Marriage left and marriage right. So, I've decided that, if I don't end up getting a real job by fall, then I'm going to go back to school. Blech, I know. Well, that's just the way of it. Educate yourself until you can't anymore and then it's sink or swim. I suppose I could always just end up a professor.
Dr. Wilson
bwah ha ha ha!
Hi guys. I decided that since I didn't want to always be writing about myself here, I would use my old 3410 blog for that. It's at: http://abourneman.blogspot.com/
Amelia, will you add that to the list?
I think I need to turn the air conditioner on, or something. I can't breathe. It doesn't help that my uterus (*snicker*) is 34 centimeters now, or that my baby is sitting on my ribs, kicking my guts with her feet. I keep having these wacky dreams about labor and my baby. It looks like I'm packing a basketball under my shirt. I really should take a picture and post it. Hold on. 
There, now you can see how big I am. That took a lot of effort! Now I'm exhausted, and I really, really need to get to work. If anybody's in town and wants to go to a matinay of Nacho Libre with me, let me know. My husband hasn't written me a letter yet (after two weeks), and I'm a little depressed. I love yous guys!
chelsi's invitation came in the mail today, addressed to shae and i at the office. lucky for me, shae is away at girls' camp or something, so i got to open it first!
and it's gorgeous!
i love your cute photograph, i love the black inside of the envelope. i love the ribbon. i love the cute little oval hole punches.
yesterday i spent over 3 hours punching holes in 300 A2 wedding invitations, 80# gloss cover and 60# transparent vellum. cliche wedding invitation.... and what's more: they wanted the text in Papyrus. that's the second wedding invitation i've done this month in Papyrus. somehow i've refrained from being ill. what is it with these people?
but anyway, i fully appreciate whoever it was that had to score and fold and hole punch your invitations, chelsi. did they do the ribbon too? thankfully i was spared from ribbon on these... but i still had to punch holes.
i'm getting quite an education in paper weights and sizes. pretty soon i'll be able to pick up a piece of cardstock and tell you exactly what weight it is. (maybe) it's exciting.
anyway, happy friday to all.
Jerilyn! I love you. I laughed out loud the entire time I read your post. Good thing I'm the only one in this stupid lab!!!! I want to come see you and I'll help you clean! Is your house within walking distance of mine? Unfortunately I'm still driving impaired. >: I really really hope you can come to my wedding! I'll even make everyone sing Happy Birthday to you! And of course you can bring your Mom!!!! Come one and all! I'm getting endowed on the 23rd and Spence is going tomorrow!! (His Dad is going on a cruise the week before the wedding and he wanted to be here. I'm waiting so he can take me through the veil.) I'm so excited...I can't wait!
Everyone should be getting a wedding invitation if you haven't already. I hope you all approve! Being a tech writer, there was much tribulation in picking one. I HATED them all....THEN there was font choices. Woah. Speaking of, they were supposed to use the same font as the inside of the invitation for our names on the outside, with just the J in script. They messed up. :( And they wouldn't print just one for me to approve! Hello!!!?? What kind of business are they running?!! Anyway, I whimpered slightly and worried when I got 500 of them...but I think it looks good still. Do you all approve?
I'm getting married in 15 days...can you beleive it?! Remember when it was 135? It's gone by so fast....well, except the whole sex thing... ;)
I showed Spence Ray B. West: The Bloody Truth the other night. I'm so happy I have that!! I know it's a comedy, but I'll cherish it for a long time. It made me homesick for everyone though...which means you have to come to my wedding!!!! And I'd like everyone to stay a while...it's going to be a party, not a reception! Bring dates if you're worried about not knowing anyone! (Or your mom in Jerilyn's case.)
Well I'd best get back to writing thank you cards. Love you all!
*kisses*
Chels
Hello everyone! It's so great to read all your posts. I just love it.
Chelsi, I got your invitation today, and it's beautiful! I'm so excited for you! When are you getting endowed? I'm going to try hard to come to your reception (I can't resist seeing a pretty dress) because I should be heading south anyways that day. It just depends. Can I bring my mother? She wanted to spend my birthday with me (I think). If I'm not there, I'm stuck in Ephraim.
Elsie, I'm so jealous of you being in Switzerland. I hope you're getting fat off croissants and cheese and milk for me! I'm sorry we didn't get together beforehand. Jay left for Fort Lewis on the 6th, so we were crazy busy getting ready for that, and then we had his sister's wedding. That's a different story. I had, like, six billion mood swings and I think I cried the entire time. Not necessarily out of joy (though it was a joyous occasion), but rather out of self-pity. My sister-in-law made the most beautiful bride ever and everything was perfect. I was so jealous, and I get so sentimental about weddings. Oh yeah, the pregnancy thing may have factored into the mood swings too. But it was a good time too because we (the wedding party) waited outside the temple for an hour an a half while the bride got cinched back into her perfectly fitted ivory gown. The only reason this was fun was because I got to see lots of other brides and their dresses, and you guys all know me and wedding dresses. It's one of my eternal loves. :)
So I'm getting so big and I'm having a hard time bending over. My house is a disaster and I really want to get it clean so bad, but I just don't have a lot of energy most days. I'm about 34 weeks along now, which means that I will be a mother in about six weeks. It could happen sooner (but no sooner than four more weeks, otherwise Jay won't be here), or it could happen a little later. But six weeks is the aim. You guys can start putting in your guesses. My guess is July 19th. I don't know why, but it sounds like a good date to me.
If anyone's bored, they can come help me clean my house. I really need it. I did my dishes for the first time in a week today (okay, so I was gone for four of those days). I think when I finish this post, I'll clean some more because I can't concentrate to do much else. Except listen to NPR. Which I love. Thanks to broadband I can listen to KUER 90.1, not some dinky station like KUSU (which is a service of our lovely college of HASS, but it doesn't have the Diane Rehm show or Radio West).
Also, if you come see me, I have a ton of icecream. It's from the wedding. I'm assuming there's a gallon left, and I shouldn't eat it. Also, if you come see me, you can watch my belly boil. It's hard to miss anymore. My little girl's a shaker! I'm excited to see what she looks like. She'll probably look just like me except with Jay's lips. Wouldn't that be funny? If I had Photoshop, I would put Jay's lips on a picture of me. He he he.
Keep posting everyone. I love hearing how you're doing!
good summer, so far.
it's hot. there are bugs everywhere. i love it. well, okay, not the bugs.
i still love my job. it's great fun. layers and layers of responsibility, but really fun.
nothing much else is going on... i'm trying to find time to write more.
yeah.
blog-related update:
i've rearranged the profile for the actual owner of the blog, just a smidge. now, anyone who logs in under the main account will post under the name 'Great Granddaddy West' instead of posting as me. If you want your own account, just make one, then log in as grandaddy west, add yourself to the members list, log out again, log in as you, and then accept the invitation. that should do it. make sense? sorry that's been kind of sloppily handled.
i hope everyone else is having a lovely summer also. anyone read any fabulous books lately?
I have a job interview for a tech writing position. Normally they only hire engineers out of college but the funny thing is, engineers don't want to be tech writers generally (and vice versa). So they get these engineers, they pay for them to move out here, they work them for a year and the engineers find other jobs (they have to work at least a year or pay back the moving expenses) with a years worth of experience on their resume ... only they usually put it as engineering experience instead of tech writing experience.
So my aunt works in HR and is seriosuly getting tired of the high turnover and engineers who know nothing about writing that have to be trained to think like a tech writer and she got this idea. Hey, it would be easier to train a tech writer all the engineering stuff they need to know and keep them here for several years than training new engineers to be tech writers every year.
So she had me give her my resume and transcripts, she passed it on to the head engineering guy and I actually have an interview. My interview is on June 21st. It is for the INL and has excellent bennefits (from what I understand) and I can think of a lot of other places where it would suck more to work there.
