Were moving!

The rumors are true, we are officially moving to Kearney, Nebraska next month. You are reading the blog of the new Instrumentation Technician at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (assuming the background check goes well).

I applied for this job while Nick was still in Nebraska. At first we did a telephone interview, and I seriously thought that I blew it. (I have never really caught on to the whole self promotion thing that is so essential for job interview success.) A week later they decided that they wanted to fly me out there.

I went, and all five of the questions that I prepared to ask were answered in the first ten minutes of the first interview. And wouldn't you know it, I couldn't think of a single new question to ask! What a time to develop stage fright. I felt like such a heel, not asking any questions.

I was wined and dined in fine style. I stayed at a nice hotel, ate cheesecake at Old Chicago, and went in the very first Cabela's. I got a tour of the campus and the town. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The faculty was enthusiastic, full of new ideas and eager to teach. They displayed many of the qualities that are common to my favorite professors. I was impressed from the onset by the variety of instrumentation available for student use. And I love their vision of teaching through hands on research. Needless to say, I was impressed and excited for the opportunity to work with them.

The flight back was quite a bit bumpier, and I almost didn't make it without being sick. Can you imagine getting sick on the plane, while the airports are blaring the latest breaking news of the 'swine flu'?! I would have been horrified. Luckily my flight was late, and I missed the connecting flight out of Denver. That gave me some time to get my rebellious stomach under control. It was still noon the next day before I could walk without the fear of showing everyone what I ate for breakfast, and well into the evening before I felt back to 100%.

They called to offer me the job before my stomach even settled. I asked for a couple of days to decide. I had to make sure that Nick was really ok with moving out there, and that we were ok (if not optimistic) about his job prospects there. I also had to wrap my head around the idea that we really were going to move twice in as many months! That's what I get for staying in the same place for three years. Thank goodness I insisted that we keep most of our moving boxes!

It's pic time!

Ok, I now have the time to post. First, at the temple. This pic was actually taken on March 26. That way, on the 27th, we could run from the temple to the kabobs. We knew that the kabobs were the real reason for everyone to get together, and we didn't want any unnecessary delay.

Here's what we looked like at the reception. When I told my mom I was going to be wearing jeans to my reception, she told me that I had to stand out. That's when the t-shirt idea was born. Thanks go to Jen, who made these for us!

As I stated in the previous post, the kabobs were to die for! Oh, they were sooooooo yummy! When I went to say goodbye to my Grandma before she left, she kept eying my kabob. It took me nearly ten minutes to convince her that it was ok to take it from me, and I could go get another one. Time well spent.

We had to do something to break the tedium of a ten hour car drive, so we stopped at as many tourist traps as possible. And took pictures of all the state signs we passed. This was my favorite. It was located just outside of Four Corners Park. Which, by the way, closes at 5. We stopped to see the Glen Canyon Dam, in Page, Arizona. We were hungry, and while looking for Burger King we found the "Dam Plaza" which held the "Dam Bar and Grill" and the "Dam Outlet." However, our stomachs growled and we continued our search. My heart fell when we saw "Page High School," I love the idea of someone graduating from the "Dam High School." Even if it wouldn't be me.

There was a dinosaur track exhibit that we stopped at. The guide explained this picture the best, so I'll quote. "This is a dinosaur egg. They're pretty sure it is, but they could be wrong." I swear, he didn't show any signs of being drunk or stoned, but he sure sounded like he was. I think that he was the most entertaining part of the exhibit. We got to see fossilized dinosaur poop....and see how the guides arranged it into the shape of a turtle. We got to see where they dug a tooth out of the rock....not the tooth itself, just the hole. There were many dinosaur tracks there. Most of them were believed to be velosaur raptor prints, but then again, they could be wrong.

We finally reached the cave! It was awesome! There was a replica of a kiva. It was a replica because it hadn't been blessed. (The manager's words, not mine.) There was a washer, dryer, and a microwave. If you wanted to use the microwave you had to turn off all the space heaters. Otherwise you would blow circuits. They had a counter top oven and stove. Seriously, it was all one unit and sitting on the counter top. Then there was the water fall shower and Jacuzzi tub. We thought that it was very considerate of them to provide the bubbles for our bubble fight. I've got to get a Jacuzzi tub!

Out on the balcony they had a place to feed the squirrels, so we did. There was this one really old, fat, and slow squirrel. We're thinking that he ate about 3/4 of the food we put out all by himself. Three chipmunks showed up as well. They were terrified of this old squirrel. They would alternate between chasing each other off, and stealing food from the "old squirrel's" pile. Toward the end, two other squirrels showed up. They didn't move in slow motion, and were able to chase all the chipmunks and the old squirrel away. They were less effective in chasing each other away, though they did try.

While at the cave we went to Aztec, New Mexico and saw the "Aztec" ruins there. And yes, they freely admit that the ruins are most likely Anasazi and Pueblo, not Aztec. We also tried to visit several museums. Nothing was open! It was highly frustrating....until it occurred to us that every church parking lot was full. It was Sunday. It is really hard to keep track of time when you are living in a cave.

Our final night there, it snowed. Just a light dusting, but enough to knock out half of the power. Not half of the power like you are thinking, but half of the outlets in each room went out. We decided to get an early start back.

The drive back was fairly uneventful. Except for a large semi that threw a rock at us. It put a rock chip in the windshield that was a centimeter in diameter! When we got it fixed, I learned that my windshield is 6 years old, almost to the day. I only thought it was two or three. They grow up so fast.

Family drama, when it rains it pours....

You know, for most families a wedding is enough drama for at least a week or two. However, my family has never been typical. We like things to come in threes. In rapid secession.

I didn't know this at the time, but it turns out that my wedding day was also my brother and his wife's due date. She went into labor before we went into the temple. Needless to say, they were not there, and didn't get kabobs that night. I felt really bad for them. Those were some really good kabobs. Ty and Jo really out did themselves!

After kabobs, both Nick's sisters and Jen realized that they forgot the things to decorate the car. Yea! However, Nick's sisters decided that they would use plastic forks. Nick dragged me out to the car, in an attempt to head them off. Except that would be too easy. One of Nick's friends came late...and we didn't get to leave before they found the crayons. They wrote on all of the windows. Since you can barely see it, I'm ok with leaving it until I have time to scrub it off. We were really grateful that we didn't have to stop at a car wash on the way out of town.

After the BBQ my family (sans Nick and I) got together at my parents house for a marathon gab/joke session. This is my favorite part of weddings and funerals, and I felt a little bad about missing it. Since it lasted till three in the morning, I didn't feel too bad though. That's when Jared called to say that he needed a babysitter. He was taking my sister to the emergency room. It turns out she had a gall stone blocking a bile duct. OUCH! The next day, they stole her gall bladder. While they were at the hospital, Jimmy called to have my dad help him give a blessing to his wife. They were taking her for an emergency C-section. Double and triple OUCH!!! That has it's own story, which I don't have the rights to publish. Let's just say that a malpractice suit is probably pending. I've never heard anyone say anything good about that doctor, and now I don't like him.

Everyone is home now, and doing great. Jen says that her stomach hardly hurts anymore. And, I got pics of little Kendal. He's got to be the cutest little snot I've ever seen. Looks very much like his dad did! Hopefully he won't grow out of it (just kidding....I love you Jimmy).

Ok....so now everyone knows why I haven't posted. Family drama is wonderful, isn't it?

Where did the time go?

I thought that I had enough time! I remember planning it all out, down to the minute. So....why isn't all that time here?

Work has been absolutely crazy. I've been sharing the TGA with another research group who's TGA had boards fail that, according to tech support, were infallible. I have the experiments finished for the kinetic study on calcium carbonate...now all I need is the time to crunch the numbers. Now that I've heard from tech support, I can get on the decomposition studies for HMX. I believe that I have enough time to finish them. And just in case this wasn't enough going on, another group is taking custody of the TGA-MS soon. I've been working with them to ease that transition.

I believe that we have finally got everything planned for the wedding, a week from Friday. All should come. It's going to be a blast. The only way that Nick and I could stand to have a reception was to make it as non-traditional as possible. No line....no wedding cake (I don't think anyone will miss it. It's usually hard enough to stop a charging hippopotamus)....minimal flowers....BBQ....and most important, I get to wear jeans. Don't worry, I'll post pics for those poor souls who can't make it.

Now if we could only get the people who we've left apartment applications with to make a choice! Some have been trying to make up their mind for three weeks now. I think that we're good people...we're not partiers...we don't drink, smoke, or do drugs (as long as Allegra and Flonase don't count)...we don't have pets, not even fish...everyone says that we make a cute couple, whatever that means. I don't get it! What's not to love?

Ok. That's enough pity party time. I've got to get moving.

Wedding bells are ringing.

This is mostly for our facebook friends, whom we don't have addresses for. If you would like a 'paper' copy give either Nick or myself a shout, call, e-mail...whatever works, and we'll be happy to send one to your doorstep. We are planning on sending them out in a couple of weeks.

Life's been good to me

I am truly blessed. I find that I need to keep reminding myself of this a lot lately. The standard January depression is taking a bit longer to lift this year, any one of half a dozen reasons could be to blame.

I have a really awesome, sweet, funny, good looking...well, I could go on forever...man who is head-over-heals in love with me; and I with him. We are going to be married at the end of March, which has provided much more joy than stress. (Hopefully I haven't just jinxed that) I have many friends and family who provide love, support, encouragement, along with the occasional reality check. When I asked my advisor if it would be possible to extend my time at the University he replied "Of course." The sun peaked out of the clouds yesterday. And to top it off, I received some of the best news of my life today. My good friend Jennie, after two surgeries, has been declared cancer free! She is healing quickly, and absolutely disgusted with her level of energy. She may hate me for it, but I love the fact that she is disgusted! It shows she is well enough to care.

Well, I just wanted to take a moment to agree with Joe Walsh. Life has, indeed, been good to me.

12 Steps--Step 6

Step 6: Commitment to total change.

So...last week I was visiting the blogs that I frequent. There were a few new postings, but not as many as I had hopped for. It had been quite a while since my last visits. In an effort to cheer myself up, I visited my blog. I was surprised to find myself a little miffed that there wasn't a new post here to!

What a wonderful beginning to show my commitment to total change. I was elated when the illogical feelings of 'mifftiness' fluttered across my heart! I will take this illogical start another step forward. I pledge to do at least one thing that is absolutely devoid of logic every day.

The other day I made a chocolate run, and picked up the fixin's for bean dip. Today, I kept hitting the snooze bar until I was almost late. I can count on one hand the number of times that I've done that! Maybe I'll play an evil character in Baldur's Gate. That should provide ample opportunity for illogical decisions! (The game rewards non-violent/good solutions more than violent/evil ones) I've never had the heart to do this, since I always felt bad that the plot line makes me a 8asterd. I've never had the constitution to be an evil 8asterd.

I can't wait to see the new adventures I'll have in this new, illogical world I've stepped into!