Skiing in Colorado

Wow.  I'm really behind on my posts.  Oh well.  I wrote this post at the end of February, but didn't post it for some reason. Here it is now though!

I love to ski!  I haven't been able to do it much in the last few years, since I've lived on the East coast where there are no real mountains, but I still love it.  This year, I decided to treat myself to a long weekend and go skiing in Colorado!

I went skiing for two days, Saturday and Monday.  Saturday was just a relaxing, easy day.  We went with my brother's family and just went down some really easy runs.  It was great to warm up and remember what I was doing!  Monday we went to Copper Mountain.  I've heard really great things about that resort and it did not disappoint!  It was one of, if not the best day of skiing I've ever had!  The mountain was so much fun and the weather was PERFECT!

It was such a fun weekend.  I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few that either my brother or I took on our phones.

Here is what it looked like from the top of one of the lifts.  Gotta love the snow!

My brother Jon and me on Monday.

Look at how sunny it was!  It was one of the best days of skiing I think I've ever had!

My nephews and niece and I on Saturday.

I had a bit more of an adventure at the end of my trip than I was planning.  I was supposed to fly out on Tuesday, but that didn't quite happen.  It started snowing in Denver on Tuesday morning.  Not much, but enough to divert some of the planes.  Our flight attendants were on one of those planes.  The airline found some replacements for us, but after we loaded, we just sat there.  And then we sat there some more.  And some more.  Turns out, the luggage was uneven, which would've made it dangerous to land.  By the time it was rearranged, I would have missed my connecting flight and been stuck in St. Louis for the evening.

Instead of doing that, I decided to stay in Denver that night and fly out the next morning.  Luckily, I have 2 brothers in Denver, and I was able to stay with the other one! :)  We were supposed to all get together for dinner on Sunday, but there was a big snow storm that made the roads pretty dangerous.  Great for skiing, not so great for a family dinner.

So although it did not quite end up how I planned it, and I was out there for a day longer than I should've been, it ended up being a great diversion!  Thanks to Jon and Kelly and to Matt and Jenny for putting me up for the weekend!!!

PT

I have a confession.  This is going to be tough to say, but I have to say it.

 

I have bad knees.

 

There, I said it.  And I said it straight.

 

Ok, that's not exactly a secret.  Like, at all.  I've told people for about the last year that I have the knees of a 65 year old man.  And then, after reading an article about a 90 year old man that ran a marathon or something like that, I changed it to say that I have the knees of a 95 year old man.

 

I tore the ACL in my left knee almost 6 years ago.  Wow, that's a long time!  And my right knee has been acting up for over a year.  I hurts when I run (or try to run...) and it clicks every single time I go up stairs.  It's not fun, let me tell you.

 

I finally went to the doctor to check it out a few weeks ago.  I decided I should try and get the most use out of my knees while I'm young.  I'll probably have to get them replaced in like 10 years... Ok, I'm just kidding, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point I'll need a replacement surgery.

 

Good news though!  I don't have to get surgery... yet.  At this point, Physical Therapy is the only thing that will help my knee.  I have patellofemoral pain syndrome.  Basically, my knee cap doesn't go where it's supposed to, and it grinds and hurts.  The only thing to fix it is to strengthen the muscles in my entire leg so that it will go back in place. 

 

I'm two weeks into my 4 weeks of PT and I haven't noticed any difference yet, but I think my physical therapist is starting to notice a difference.  Hopefully she is, at least!

 

Anyway, here's to hoping that my knees get fixed and I can again have the knees of a 25 (soon to be 26) year old!!! :)

Surprise!

Today has already been filled with a lot of emotions.  And It's not even 11 AM yet...  So I took my last midterm last night for the class that I'm taking.  The way I was planning on doing it was to take my last midterm this week, and then take my proctored final next Tuesday.  It's not due until next Thursday, or so I thought, so it should be fine.  Right?  WRONG!

 

OK, first emotion of the day.  It's not really an emotion, but I was really tired.  And with that tiredness came a little bit of grumpiness.  But it's normal for me.  I'm not a morning person.  Give me 30-40 minutes (depending on how early it is) and I'm fine.  So onto the next emotion.

 

I was super excited this morning.  It's our work Potluck lunch and Yankee Swap.  It's a really fun afternoon and I got to work and started playing Christmas music and it was just so exciting!  So after I got that figured out, I went to my desk to sit and do some work for a bit.

 

Onto the next emotion.  Extreme anger and panic.  I logged onto my school's website to see something, and checked my school email, which I only do about once a week.  There were 4 emails there that were unread.  4!  Until this morning, I had only seen 4 emails total this semester!  And then I saw the subject lines.  There were something to the affect of "Final due THIS THURSDAY THE 13!!!" 

 

OH NO!   So I looked into it, and apparently, our final was due yesterday.  The syllabus was wrong.  Our teacher was wrong.  And she only gave us 2 days notice.  And that was the only form that she told us that the due date had changed.

 

Hence the panic for the next hour.  If we didn't take our final, we failed the class.  I had worked my butt off during the last 4 months to do well and I was about to see it go down the drain.

 

So I sent her a text (her preferred way of communication) and after about 40 minutes, I got a response saying that she just averaged my midterm grades and that I got an A.

 

WHAT?!!??  Did that really just happen?!

 

So as a recap, here were my emotions for the day so far (and there's potential for more!)

1. Tired/Grumy

2. Excited

3. Anger/Panic

4. Extreme Relief

5. Excited

 

How's that for a whirlwind of a morning?! :)

New Gadgets

I realize that I am not the best blogger out there.  I'm actually probably very close to being one of the worst bloggers ever.  But I actually have a viable reason for this last delay!  I have this post all ready to be published about this fun trip my roommate and I took.  All I needed to insert were the pictures. 

 

And then something awful happened.

 

My computer DIED!!!

 

It's so frustrating when your computer just up and dies on you, and it costs a lot of money to fix it.  Last time it was my power cord that broke.  This time it was the thing inside the computer that the power cord connected to that broke.  $200-300 for a 4 year old computer is definitely not worth it.  So I was in the market for a new computer.  I normally wouldn't have worried about it as much, except for the fact that I am in school and I am hoping to go back to even more school in the very near future. 

 

So computer shopping I went.  Can I say how much I hate shopping for technological things?  I hate it so much!  But I finally came to a conclusion.  I am ditching PCs. :)

 

I got a Macbook Pro and so far, I LOVE it!

 

That brings me to my second gadget of the weekend.  My phone has been dying for a loooong time.  I've been holding out on getting a new one because I love my flip phone and wish it would live forever, but it has been struggling for the last few months.  So over the long weekend, I got a new one!

 

I got an iPhone!  Apple, here's your newest convert!  I love the phone, and the computer (and the ipod that I've had for awhile).  They're such great products and I love how well they run.  I know they won't be problem free, but I'm excited about them anyway.

 

Yay for new things!!!

Seattle/Bellevue

Seeing as how I don't have time to go on many adventures right at the moment, I think I'll post some about the adventures that I've had over the past year or so.  Here's one that I titled in probably May and never got around to actually writing anything.  Oh well.

 

So I work for an Architecture firm called MulvannyG2 Architecture.  We do mostly commercial buildings, focusing on big-box retail.  Our main client is Costco, and we also do work for Target, Lowes, and Kohl's.  We also do other commercial work.  It's definitely an industry that I never thought that I would know much about.  But I do really enjoy learning things that I never imagined I would learn.  Just yesterday we had someone come teach us about lighting and they talked all about LED lights.  I still couldn't tell you much, but it was interesting, for sure!

 

Anyway, this is the company that I've been working for during the last year.  It has a great sense of community and has a wonderful feel.  The people are great and I love my bosses.  With that being said, people in the company are all for helping others to achieve their potential and help them to delve into other areas of interest.  With me wanting to go back to school, this didn't seem like much of an option for me.  I thought I'd just be at the front desk until I went to school.  So when I came to the conclusion that I wanted to try to go back to school, I also came to the conclusion that I wanted to make my work day more fulfilling and try to get into something besides just being at the front.  I was going to look for a new company to do HR with, but then, that very same week, my bosses asked me if I'd be interested in trying Marketing.

 

I had never thought of going into Marketing, but it was something I was willing to try.  Our company headquarters are out in Bellevue, WA.  So they sent me off for a week!  It was so exciting to actually be able to travel for work.  I for sure wouldn't want to do it all the time, but it's exciting every once in awhile, especially when you're single.  And it helps that some of my best friends live in Seattle!  I called my friend Ellisha and told her that I was coming out to visit and if I could come see her and her family and we started acting like 14 year old girls again.  We were talking really high-pitched and really fast.  It was just so exciting for both of us. :)

 

So out to Washington I went.  From one Washington to the other, I guess!  I was able to see my friend Matt from school.  He took me on a tour of Seattle, which was fun.  I was also able to see my trek parents, the Picketts.  I was really close friends with two of their kids in high school and I loved going to their house.  It made me sad when they moved back to Seattle, but luckily I've been able to see them twice, thanks to having some ties to that area.  And then I got to see Ellisha and her husband and their son.  Ellisha and I were roommates for about a year and a half, but it feels much longer than that.  She's one of my best friends and since we live on opposite ends of the country, I don't see her often.  I was able to go keep her company, meet her baby boy, and then go camping with her family that weekend.  I had a few friends that live there that I wasn't able to see, but hopefully next time we'll be able to catch each other!

 

We went to camp at Deception Pass, which is a gorgeous area on Whidbey Island.  Oh, did I mention that it was sunny the entire week I was there?  Yeah, I got a sunburn and when I came back, my co-workers didn't believe that I went to Seattle.  It was funny.  But it was so fun to spend time with her family and just have a nice relaxing weekend catching up with an old friend.

 

Work was great too.  I got trained on a lot of different marketing skills, and I got to meet a lot of the people in our company that don't ever travel.  It was such a fun time, and was a great experience. 

 

Unfortunately, I was having too much fun to actually break out my camera and take pictures.  But it was a great week and I wish I could go back to visit!

The difference of Fall from Summer

So this summer was FULL of adventures!

 

I went out of the country, I went to the beach a handful of times (more than I think I've been in my whole life combined), I went to New York a few times, I went to New Jersey for a weekend, I went home a few times, and I even went back to Utah to see a wedding.

 

I do need to actually post pictures of all my adventures and tell about them.  Maybe I'll get around to that this Fall, seeing as how my adventures are down to a minimum for the next few months.

 

Let me explain why.  It's kind of exciting in its on way! :)

 

I am going back to school!

Well, I'm going to try to go back to school at least.  I've decided that I actually want to get a graduate degree.  Crazy, huh?  Ever since High School, I think, I swore that I would never get a Masters degree.  Here I am, a few years later, eating my words...

 

 

I love the company that I work for and I absolutely love my coworkers, which helps a lot.  But sitting behind a desk all day is killing my spirit slowly.  I need to be up and doing things and I want to be able to definitively say that I've changed someone's life for the better.  So I'm going to try going to school for Occupational Therapy.  It's bringing me back to my psychology roots, which is also cool!

 

I have a few classes left to take before I can apply though.  And I still have to take the GRE.  And I have to volunteer for 20 hours with an Occupational Therapist and get CPR certified.  So needless to say, the next few months are going to be quite busy for me!

 

So for the most part, any posts are going to be about random things that I did this past summer.  I'm on an exciting adventure, for sure.  It's just not the type that you take pictures and tell stories about.... At least, not yet. :)

Belize!!!

Ok, so I'm finally going to recount my trip, two months later.  Exciting, right??

Seeing as how I had never been out of the country before, I really had no clue what I was doing.  I've never taken a trip like this before in my life either.  I've done some crazy things with friends, and gone on some trips, but I don't feel that I've ever quite done a vacation like this with friends.  I've definitely done it with family (the whole, let's plan this trip and make sure we do all the things that we want to, thing), but never with friends.

You can ask almost any one of my friends from BYU.  I was never one to go on random trips.   I was hardly ever able to get the time off work, and so I usually had to say "I'll see ya when you get back" and then do things with other friends that were in town.

But anyway...

I was so glad that I had Bekah.  This really was my trip.  As much as I didn't really want to admit it, this was all my thing.  It was my idea, and ultimately, it came down to what I wanted to do.  Which is nice, in a way.  But I'm still so glad I had Bekah.  She's been a world traveler for quite awhile.  She is lucky enough to have every summer free (ah, the life of a school teacher), and she usually goes on some foreign trip during that time.

So she and I got to planning.  We always asked our companions what they thought and what they wanted (lest you think I was completely selfish during the planning), but everyone seemed fine to just let us plan it.  They always offered to help, but schedules seemed to get in the way.  Don't you hate when that happens?

So anyway, (I'm kinda scatter-brained this morning... sorry) we plan our trip in two halves, basically.  The one where we have adventures, and the one where we sit at the beach and do nothing.  I was really excited for the second part.  And the first part, but I really just wanted to sit at a beach or at a pool and read and just soak up the sun.  Call me lazy, I don't care.  But I had never taken an extended vacation like that until this summer (I had 2 week long beach vacations! wahoo!!).  So needless to say, I was excited!

The first half of the trip, we went inland.  We were about 20 minutes away from the Guatamala border, which was kinda cool and kinda scary.  Apparently Belize and Guatamala have been in a dispute for awhile, since Guatamala feels that they should own Belize, or something like that.  I sould research that a bit more...  We had such a great time in San Ignacio!  It was this quaint little town that just had a spirit all its own.  We made friends with the local people there and had a favorite cab driver named David.  He was this little old man and was so funny!  We hiked ruins (awe inspiring), hiked through a Mayan cave (one of the coolest things I think I've ever done) and went tubing through some Mayan caves.

There was lots of character in this town, and we had one of the best views from our balcony.  It was on a hill and overlooked the entire town and all the countryside around it.  It was seriously awesome!

Then came the part that I was most excited for.  The beach!!!  We had a day of transport with a few bus rides and a water taxi.  To get the resort, we had to take another boat from San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (prounced Key) about 10 minutes north.  It was so cool.  There was basically just a line of resorts.  As we got off the boat, there was someone there with 5 drinks welcoming us to our place!  They took us to our resort and it was like a home away from home.  It was so nice!  It really was just like paradise in a bottle.  Mom, I'm petitioning that we go to Belize for our next family reunion.... :)

While on the island, we mostly just sat at the pool.  Why not the beach, you ask?  Well, the water was absolutely beautiful.  Super clear and warm and that pretty blue color.  But the beach itself wasn't the type that you want to go spend a lot of time at.  The sand was just hard and compact and it only lasted for about 10-15 feet.  So we hung out at the pool.  There was one day that Bekah stayed in the same chair for about 5 or 6 hours straight (maybe even more, I can't quite remember). 

We did have one grand adventure while we were at the beach.  We went fishing!  Now, for those of you that know me in relation to fish, you know that I don't like them.  AT ALL.  IN ANY FORM.  They freak me out, dead and alive.  Ew, gross.  BUT, I went snorkeling and swam with the fishes!  And I at fish voluntarily.  And I even ordered shrimp for dinner one night (not fish, I know, but still seafood and still not high on my list).  It was so fun!  There's a great story from that fishing trip, but retelling it just doesn't do it justice.  It involved me trying to real in a barricuda, while David stabbed a fish.  I'll try and find the video that we have of it and post it sometime.  If you want to hear the story, just ask, and I'll gladly retell it. :)

It was just so nice to have a week of absolutely no responsibilities and no time.  Especially on the island, we had no plan and usually had no idea what time it was.  I don't want to live like that forever, but man, it was so nice!  Until next time, Belize.  You treated me well!!!


The view from our Hotel in San Ignacio.



At some of the Mayan ruins, Xunantunich.
From left to right, Me, Laura, Whitney, David (our guardian and protector for the trip), Bekah


Our awesome pool at the resort... :)


My favorite thing to do.  And yes, I brought the floatie with me.


Me... fishing.  I'm glad this is documented.  It might not happen again...


The beach with the pretty blue water.  And a coconut tree.


We woke up early one day to watch the sunrise.  Another surprise if you  know me at all.


Goodbye Belize!!!

Out of the Country

What a week!  The subject of travel always seems to come up in conversations.  Inevitably, the question of "Have you been out of the country?" always comes up.  I never quite knew how to answer that question before this past week.  I had been to Canada for about 15-20 minutes before the border was closed and we didn't even stop the car to get out...

So technically yes, I had been out of the country.  But it was so lame, that I never quite counted it.

I now have a definite answer to that question.

:)

Yes, I have been out of the country.  Where did I go?  Oh, a little country called Belize.  Never heard of it?  That's ok.  I hadn't heard of it until one of my good friends volunteered there two summers ago.  It's sandwiched between Mexico and Guatemala and it's right on the Carribean.  Paradise, or about as close as  you can get.

It was such a fun vacation.  In my mind, it had everything that a Carribean vacation should have.  We had a bit of adventure, lots of sun and laziness, and plenty of laughs.  And we left with the longing of still wanting to be there.  Perfect, right???

I'll post pictures later and actually talk about what we did and the adventures that we went on, but now, I'm just enjoying the fact that I have been out of the country.

Finally.

Adventure July

One of my old roommates used to have "Adventure" days with a bunch of our friends.  They would dedicate one night a week to be their "adventure" day.  One year it was Wednesdays.  Another year it was Thursdays.  Then if there was something cool happening on another day of the week, they'd change the evening for just that week.  I wasn't able to, or didn't go most of the time.  Not that we didn't like each other, but we just did different things with our free time.  Although some of their adventures sounded pretty great... :)

My month of July of this year has reminded me of Heather's "Adventure" days.  But instead of it being a day every week, it's been every weekend and 2 of the 4 weeks.

At the beginning of the month, my family had a mini reunion of sorts.  5 of the 8 kids in my family live on the east coast (4 of us in Virginia), so we all rented a beach house down in the Outer Banks for a week.  There were 9 adults and 9 kids, including a one month old baby.  It was fun to see part of my family and just have a week to relax.  Until the last year or so, we've never had many girls in my family.  Now that there are a bunch of baby girls, my Mom made them all matching dresses and we took some pictures.  Here are a few:

The day after I got back from the beach, one of my good friends from BYU came to visit me for the weekend. He's in Connecticut for the summer, so he took the bus down and we spent most of the weekend just catching up and having fun.  It was also my brother's birthday that weekend, so I had to make him a cake!  I think I'm going to have to try that recipe again.... Mmmmm, it was good!

Ryan and me by the Washington Monument.  Sometimes I do love being in DC... :)

This past weekend was awesome!  Thursday night a few friends and I went to the midnight showing of Batman.  I still think I liked the second one best, but this one was super good!  I LOVED the ending.  On Friday a bunch of friends and I went to upstate New York to go see the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  I haven't seen it in over 10 years, and that was probably the most recent out of anyone in the group.  Some had never seen it.  It was a super fun weekend.  We split into 2 different groups.  One went to Niagra Falls and the other went to Hershey.  We ended up being in 2 minivans and just drove around everywhere in them.  It was great and SUCH a fun weekend!  I'm kinda tired now, but it was so worth it. :)

This is what 3am looks like

The group altogether in Palmyra!

The biggest adventure of the month is yet to come though!!!  This next Saturday I am leaving for.... wait for it... BELIZE!  If you don't know where that is (I didn't until a friend went there 2 years ago), it is in the Caribbean just south of Mexico and east of Guatemala.  It has the second best Scuba diving in the WORLD (too bad I don't have my scuba license...)  But the snorkeling should be fantastic!  I'll let you know ALL about it when I get back.  

Sounds like a fun July, right??? :)

Almost Dying

I wish that the title of this post was not serious.

First things first.  I'm ABSOLUTELY fine.  No injuries or scrapes or anything like that.  Not even any resounding psychological trauma.  But there was a serious chance that I could've died or been seriously injured about a week and a half ago.

This is a short story.

My roommate and I were visiting her hometown of Princeton for the weekend.  It's a really cute town that just has that country charm.  Seriously, it reminded me why I want to not live by a city for most of my life.  I hate traffic...

Anyway, after church on Sunday, we were driving around seeing some sites.  The road we were driving on on our way back to her house was this normal country road.  Two lane, no shoulders, 25 mph speed limit.  As we drove down this road, we saw a car coming from the other direction.  Not thinking anything about it (because let's be honest, who normally thinks about it when a car is coming in the other direction?), we just keep driving.  The other car swerves, and in my mind they were attempting to miss something.  No.  That wasn't it.  They swerved completely into our lane and didn't move.  And they were going at least 45 mph, if not over 50.  And they just kept coming.  Head on.

Luckily, I was not driving.  I have no clue what I would've done.  Bekah had her head in tact a little more than I did and slowed waaaaay down and laid on the horn.  At the last moment the car swerved back into their own lane and kept driving.  We thought that they may have fallen asleep or something, but as we looked at her face, there was no surprise or shock or anything like that.  She had the most dazed look on her face.  I hate to accuse anyone of anything, but I seriously think she was super high.  I really wonder sometimes...

Bekah and I were definitely dazed for awhile after that.  She would've pulled off into the ditch if the lady hadn't have swerved back into her lane when she did, but the end of the car probably still would've been hit and who knows what that would've done.  Or we could've been hit head on.  And seen it coming.  I feel that that would not be fun, to see an accident coming and not be able to do anything about it.

It was definitely a scary moment in my life.