Starting in January 2015

The last few weeks have been very exciting for me. It started with a job opening where I work. I had very mixed feelings about this job in particular, so I have spent a lot of time talking with our HR department, and it has just spiraled from there.

HR mentioned that for this job, they really want an accounting degree. Then it also came up there are a few other jobs, in the company, that would also require the same degree. One of those jobs really interests me. There is no way to know when it would open up, but over the next few years, there will be a lot of retirements and a lot changes.

So I started looking at school. But its so expensive. So I went back to HR to get his opinion on a few things.

Then I thought about it some more.

Then I went back again to HR to learn more about how they help with tuition.

Then I decided to bite the bullet and meet with an adviser at the local extension of USU.

Let me back up 10-13 years ago. During high school, I took as many college classes as I could. I'm not sure how it works now, but back then, all I had to pay for was my books. My junior year, I could have graduated early; I was even engaged at this point. But I knew if I enrolled for my senior year, I could knock out several more college classes, so I did. That is why I married during my senior year of high school. I wasn't actually attending any high school classes and didn't even feel like I was a part of high school. But I wasn't not going to walk away from the chance at free college classes.

After getting married, I took a few more classes. But it got expensive and life happened. We actually moved away for a few months, and that was all it took to take the wind out of my sails. I was only 2 classes away from having my general studies complete.

Over the years, I've talked about going back to college, but it just never felt right. Money and time could just not line up together and make it possible.

So back to meeting with my adviser. I was worried I would have to start at square one. Retake Math and (gulp) English. I wasn't thrilled, but I really want my degree and am willing to do whatever it takes.

I was thrilled to learn I was wrong. I will only have to retake one class, and that's because the grade isn't good enough for me to get into the Accounting Program.

The next obstacle is figuring out where I stand on math. I have the required courses complete, but in order to get into the Accounting Program, I have to take a Math Placement Exam and achieve a certain score.

Let me tell you: a person can forget a lot of math over 10+ years. I've been known to say "Dear Math, I'm not a physiologist. Solve your own problems." Not that I hate math; its actually my favorite subject. I just have gotten lazy and let the calculator do my work for me. Its been a long time since I needed to know what "x" was.

My adviser was awesome. I actually knew her from when I did my internship there 14 years ago. She helped me work up a game plan. First on my list is to retake Econ (for the 3rd time...) and get a better grade. She told me when to apply for scholarships for spring and again for fall semesters. And she showed me where I can brush up my math skills in preparation for the test. I'm allowed to take it 3 times. After that, I have to take a math classes according to where I fall on my score.

My excuses to wait are gone. I didn't go back because I wanted to be a mother. Now that I know I won't be, I've realized I can channel that energy into my career. We used to live far from the extension, and the drive was just more than I wanted to take on. Now, we live 5 miles away. And the money? I'll take out student loans if I have to, but right now, I don't think that will be likely. We are very blessed to not have any vehicle loans right now, which frees up a lot of room in our budget, which I try to put into a savings account. I think by the time January come, I can have enough for tuition.

Its like there is now a fire in me. I used to spend all of my free time reading. Now, I'm doing math. I decided to start at the dummy level and work my way up, so I'm covering everything. I'm remembering just how much I love math. And hopefully, when the problems start throwing in "x", I will still love it.

I start classes in January and I can hardly wait. I wish I could start tomorrow. But I am worried that by the time January comes, I will have lost my enthusiasm. I wish there was a way to bottle it up and save it for later.

My interview went well, but in the end I didn't get the job. Which I was ok with. I wasn't sure I wanted it in the first place. I only applied because I had heard of others that had applied and I figured I had just as much a chance as they did. When I told Josh I didn't get the job, his response was, "I'm not sure if I should say sorry or not, because I could never tell if you wanted the job."

Now, to just save up this excitement for January...

Cats At Work - Winner, Winner, Friskies Dinner

One of my favorite Facebook Pages is Cats At Work.

Monday - Friday, the creator posts a cute meme of a cat at work. Often, she will also post a Top Fans chart. It is based on how many comments you make and how many pictures you liked during the week. I wish it also took into account how many shares, because I share all of them on my wall. I'm usually in the top 3. A few weeks ago, she gave away a prize to the top #1 fan of the week and I won! I got to choose a coffee mug. She has several cute options, but in the end I could only choose one. It arrived in the mail last night.

Las Vegas 2013

While I was at the zoo with my family, my mom mentioned she was going to Vegas with my grandma and she would only be using half of her condo. She was telling my grandma, she was thinking of trying to sell the other half, but wasn't sure how to find someone she could trust.

I stewed on it for a little bit, and decided I would really like to go. It was the same week Josh would be hunting, so I was going to be alone anyways. I just needed to make sure I could get off work for that week. She was leaving in like 8 days, so I didn't have long to plan.

I had 2 plans. I could go alone, and craft to my hearts delight, hanging with my mom and grandma when I wanted. Or I could get a friend to go with me.

I called one friend, but she couldn't go. I was bummed to be going alone, but was still determined to go and have fun. I was telling Josh about my plans when he said, "why don't you invite who ever that was you were talking to on the phone the other night?"

That person would be the amazing Ashley. We grew up close when we were young, and during my sophomore year, we were really good friends. I still have great memories of hanging at her house, making our own milk shakes.

But as life does, we had grown apart. I got married and she moved away and we lost touch. A few years ago, we connected on Facebook, but that was about it. After my 6 month hiatus from Facebook, I got back on and learned she was going through a tough time. I reached out to her online, and she in turn called me. We instantly picked back up where we had left off all those years again.

Since deciding to live my life free of the church, it has been really hard on me to connect with people. I still maintain the fact that I haven't changed that much, but I guess I must have, because I feel left out. Or like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. I've struggled through some depression over it, but didn't know what else to do. So when Josh suggested inviting Ashley to meet me in Vegas, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

I was going to arrive Saturday afternoon, and stay through until the following Saturday morning. She recently  moved to LA and was able to ride the bus to Vegas. I picked her up on Sunday and she was able to stay until Thursday night.

Honestly, I was excited to see her, but also nervous. It had been over 14 years since I last saw her. What if we didn't connect and it ended up being a miserable week? But it was just the opposite. When I saw her, I was so happy I could feel myself tearing up.

She is such an amazing lady and I'm so glad I got to spend the week with her. I feel like I have a new best friend and I hope we can keep it going strong this time.

We pretty much ran non stop the entire week. So much so, we didn't take any pictures. But it was a blast.

Notice our matching necklaces she bought for us.

Sunday night, we went to Sin City Comedy & Burlesque at the Planet Hollywood Casino. It was so funny! We were still laughing days later.

Monday was spent shopping and running a few errands. We were going to go to a Magic Show, but real life got in the way and we had to miss it. But I did get to meet another one of her friends and I'm glad to know she has some amazing people around her right now.

Tuesday, we went to Zumanity. It was AMAZING!

On Wednesday, we did something I've been wanting to do for over a year now.

Yep, I got inked!



I've been looking at pictures for over a year now. I knew I wanted a flower, and I was pretty sure I wanted it on my foot. I wanted it were I could see it often, but also where I could cover it if I needed to.

I looked at hundreds of pictures, but I always came back to this one. Its actually just a henna drawing, but I loved the design. When we got to the 3 Lions Tattoo Parlor, my phone wouldn't work, so I couldn't find the picture. But they had a computer and after scrolling to a gazillion pictures, I was able to find it again.

Holly did my tattoo and she was awesome. When she started, I warned her I was ticklish. She warned me, that it didn't matter, it wouldn't tickle.

I've heard the foot is the most painful area and I'm now convinced that is true. It hurt like HELL! I was sober when we started, but my friend, tequila, had to help me finish. 

I love how it turned out. I was only going to do one flower and let the vine go up my ankle, but after Holly drew it on, it didn't look complete, so we added another flower. 

That night, we took a limo to a club. And I was even able to wear these shoes that Ashley bought for me.

 

Our last day together was spent relaxing and getting her ready to catch the bus home. I was so sad to see her leave. Even more so when the bus stop was at the airport and all I could do was drop her off to the curb. I wanted to soak up every minute with her. LA feels so far away, but I'm hopeful we can keep our friend ship going. And its encouraged me to reach out to other friends from my past and reconnect with them.

Friday night, I went to Freemont street with my mom and grandma. When we went last year, the light show had been cancelled, so I wanted to try and see it again. It was pretty cool.

I'm glad I decided on this trip last minute. It was just what I needed to distress.

Josh also had an enjoyable week in the mountains, but didn't get an elk this year. But he was determined to shoot a big one. He did pass up several small ones, so he's ok with it. He does have a cow elk tag in December, and I'm sure he'll get one then.

Fuel to drive to and from Vegas by myself: $200

Food: $150

Gambling money: Actually, I broke even on that one. ;)

My first tattoo: $180

Making a new best friend: PRICELESS!

Our New Home

 For the last three years, Josh's job has had him working out of town, just about every week in the spring, summer and fall. The first year, he stayed at his grandparents each week. But then the next year, the company made room for him in their company house they own in Vernal.

 

Last year, we started talking about buying a home that would be more central for our jobs. I had been making a 40 minute commute for my work. We wanted to cut that down and also be able to get close enough to Vernal that he would be able to come home each night.

 

We looked at several houses, and even put an offer on one, but nothing worked out. Then hunting season came, followed by winter and the holidays, and house buying got pushed to the back burner.

 

Then this spring, our landlord told us he had a family member that needed to move into his rental. So we started house hunting again. We looked at a few, but everything in our price range was a serious fixer upper, which we had no desire to get ourselves into.

 

We kept looking online at this town home. But Josh is a country boy and we just didn't know how we would fit there. My cousin lives in one of the units, so we had seen them up close before and always thought it was cute, but never pictures ourselves in one.

 

In the end, we had two homes we wanted to look at. The town house in Roosevelt and a home in Lapoint. But because we were using the first time home buyers program, we couldn't qualify for the Lapoint one because it had too much acreage. We decided to look at the townhouse and quickly feel in love.

 

It was built in 2008 or 2009 ( I can't remember now) and had no serious needs like anything else we had looked at. All the other homes needed new carpet, paint, holes patched, etc. But this place was in great condition.

 

So we put in an offer and then road the rocky roller coaster of approval and closing for the next 40ish days. I won't get into it, but our banker was very disappointing and there was times I thought this move would never happen.

 

I started boxing stuff the first weekend after we made our offer; and when the big day came, we moved everything (but the freezer) by ourselves.

 

We've been here two weeks and its starting to feel like home.

The down stairs has a half bath. As I was unpacking, I found the owl tucks I sewed last year and decided to use them to decorate the down stairs bathroom. I found some cute décor on Amazon. Then I also plan to print out some pictures of burrowing owls that Josh has taken while he's working.

 The kitchen was one of the things we feel in love with. We've never had a decent kitchen. Just this weekend, I used several things I've never used before. I joked its because I'm still in the "honeymoon" stage, but really its because there is so much more storage room that things are easy to find.

 

 And it has a pantry!

 

Just this morning we hung Josh's elk. He declared it is now officially home.

 

A week after we put in our offer, our washing machine broke. We decided to limp along by doing laundry at our mom's and just buy a new set when we moved. This way, the furniture store would deliver & set up for free. It was kind of a pain, but well worth the wait! The laundry closet is at the top of the stairs and I'm glad we didn't have to pack them up there.

 

Upstairs is a full bath.

 

It also has a walk in closet!

 

The spare bedroom is still a work in progress. It will be our work room. I will craft in one corner and Josh will reload in the other.

 

Josh has had to work out of state a few times, so he's not been home at night as much as we hoped, but still, he will be able to come home more often then he used to. I love that my job is literally 2 miles up the road. So far, we've adjusted to town life pretty well. I LOVE my kitchen. The cats seem to be adjusting well. We've decided they will be indoor pets from now on. Sage has loved the move. We let her come inside each night and we are working on house training her. I also get up every morning and walk her. After years and years of renting, it is exciting to be home owners.

Roosevelt Redmud Run & July 4th

This year, Roosevelt decided to do a mud run on the Fourth of July. I seesawed back and forth, but in the end, I decided to just watch this year.

 

The run wasn't until 11, but we were told to be there at 9:30 for registration. It wasn't busy yet, so we were done after just a few minutes. We decided to use the time to walk around the course and get in idea of what to expect. I took a picture of all the obstacles (for blogging purposes). I even made Josh stand in front of the one with the pole you had to walk across.

Right at the beginning of the race, there was a spot where I thought I could get pictures of at least 3 of the obstacles. We decided I would stand there for some pictures, then run to a spot about 3/4 of the way through and hopefully I would still beat him to the finish line. But I wasn't too worried about the finish line since it was a straight run. I was after the muddy action shots.

 

They ran a few waves. The first wave was the teams event. The single runs were to start 15 minutes later. While we were there, we ran into our friends Todd & Randi. Todd was running with a team. Randi and I walked up to the spot I had picked out. Then she followed Todd along after that and I stayed to wait for Josh. I did get a picture of Todd right as he started down the slip & slide. 

 

 After watching he team race at the slide part, I decided I might be able to get a few more pictures then I originally planned. When the groups would get to certain points, it would bottle neck up as they each waited for their turn. So I decided to get in a few extra stops. I ended up getting about 2/3 of the race in pictures! Its almost like I ran the race too, but was able to stay clean.

 

I've numbered the list of all the obstacles they went through.

1. Picnic Tables - Run/jump up and over each table.

 

2. Large Culvert - jump, slide, hurdle over the culvert.

 

Then the next wave began. Josh is wearing a green shirt and black shorts. He is in the right side of the picture.



 

3. Big O Tire Run - high step through each row of tires.



 

4. Military Crawl - army crawl under net. Josh went through the 2nd row from the right. 

 

5. L&L Motor Water Slide - Slide down. (They made it extra slippery by adding a few gallons of dish soap.) 

 

6. TJ's Tires Hay Bales - Run up & over the hay bales.

 

7. Trash Cans - Jump, hurdle, slide over the trashcans. No one ended up doing that since the first set of runners seemed to leave a trail of weaving through them instead. 

 

8. UBATC Climbing Wall - Use rope to climb over the 2 walls.

I got a picture of Josh going up the first wall and then booked it past the second wall. Just as he came over the top, I snapped my camera, just as some people walked right into the shot. He can just see his leg behind the guy in the hat. But I was also trying to get to the next stop so I could get a picture there.

 

9. Large Mud Pit - run  up mound, then down into pit. Run through to the end.

 

10. K&K Straw Dumpsters - run/climb up into large dumpster, then out the other side.



11. Mud Hole  - Use pole for balance beam, through mud pit. Don't fall in!

 

12. Hollow - run down and up the other side of the hollow. (This is another thing every one seemed to skip. It was hard to tell where the markers where leading you.)

 

13. Dan's Tire Obstacle - Crawl/squeeze through giant row of tires. 

 

This is the point where I broke off from the group for a little bit. I wanted to be able to get the last few obstacles and was starting to fall behind, so I decided to skip ahead instead.

 

14. Paragon Pipe Crawl - Crawl through the pipe.

 

15. Hill & Mud Pit - Run through mud pit and up the hill.

 

16. Soccer Goals - Run under soccer goals.

 

17. Hill & Mud Pit - Run over the hill and into the mud pit. I decided I needed a picture of me on the course too.

18. Hill Obstacle - Run over the hill.

19. Mud Pit & Hill - Run through the mud pit and over the hill.

They had lots of photographers scattered along the course, but they also had someone with a video camera. He kept asking groups to give him good action shots of playing in the mud. So Josh decided to stop and pretend to take a bath. 

20. Pipe Hurdles -Jump over pipe.

21. Bleach Obstacle - Run up and over bleachers. 

 

Just after he crossed the finish line. I actually wasn't there for that part because I was still running from the bleachers. But I got there right behind him. 

 

After the finish line, we found a quick drink of water and then went to look for Todd so Josh could finish the race with him. 

 

It was a lot of fun and we can't wait for next year. 

After the run, we spent some time with Josh's family for a BBQ. I made a Red White & Blueberry Pie.

To finish off the 4th of July holiday, we went to Todd & Randi's for fireworks. It was a perfect ending to a great day!