Home for the Holidays

I constructed my own dresser all by myself today. It, of course, came in a box from Ikea and has been sitting in my bedroom for the past month since I bought it. I was going to wait for Stephen to come home for a weekend to have him help me with it, but I decided that I wanted to spend what little time I have with him at home doing something other than building a dresser and moving furniture around our bedroom. It took me three hours to build, but it feels good to have my bedroom complete since we moved to Utah.

I am really looking forward to the upcoming holidays because that means I get to see Stephen not only at Christmas, but next week at Thanksgiving! I am so excited because he wasn't planning on coming home until Christmas. He called one day and told me he bought a ticket to come home for Thanksgiving, and he is so ready to come home. Stephen is almost half way done with training; key words being almost half way. I get to see him for both holidays, but after Christmas we have to go a whole other three months without seeing each other--what a drag. I have to give mad props and a lot of respect to military wives and husbands, especially when they are gone a whole year on active duty. I could never do that.

Stephen is doing very well in all of his classes and physical training courses. He is the kind of person who makes friends very easily and seems to be a class comedian by all the stories I've heard; he is very witty and quick on his feet. He is learning a lot and having lots of fun at the same time, but is ready to be home; as I am also ready to have him home too. He is such a great provider and husband; I love him and miss him very much.

I have been doing pretty well here at home with work and my new calling in the primary teaching the sunbeams. The next best thing to having Stephen home is having my family come visit for a weekend for family home evening in December. I have been planning and shopping for all the things I need to take care of everyone; it's going to be so great!

Halloween

I spent Halloween by myself this year in Florida. The day started out rainy and cold, but progressively got warmer throughout the day. I checked out of my hotel early in the afternoon so that I could plan what to do for the day since Stephen was in class. My plane didn't leave until 7:30 that night so I drove out to the Kingsley Plantation to take a look at the mansion and slaves quarters. I didn't have Stephen's bug spray with me and my elbows were just ravaged by insect bites. Also, see exhibit A:

I had no idea that bugger was on my eye until I looked at my picture, and yes, I now have a big red bug bite on my eye.

 I just love the scenery out here! There was a crane in this photo but he some how became camouflaged so I can't see him anymore.

I didn't know where to go after the plantation; I saw signs for the Jacksonville zoo nearby so I decided to stroll around the zoo for a few hours to pass the time. I then headed out to Jax beach until I needed to go back to the airport. I spent Halloween night sleeping on an airplane until I got home at 1:30 am.

 This is a tapir. I've never seen one before and he's a lot bigger than I had anticipated. Kind of ugly too.

 Komodo dragon

Kercheck and Kala

Inside that dog house is the worlds smallest deer species; it only grows to no more than 12 inches tall, and this blue little bugger was a nuisance. I walked into the bird refuge with no one else inside. I just walked around the place and this bird came flying at my face--I thought he was going to take my head off! I must have been near a nest or something because he made several attempts diving at my head to scare me away.

Georgia

I finally made it out to Georgia this last weekend to visit Stephen after six weeks without seeing him. I was so excited I could hardly stand it as I was in the air. My flight went really smoothly and I arrived on time. I left the airport to retrieve my rental car only to find the guy who helped me was from Murray, UT. He was very nice and after waiting a few minutes for my car to arrive, since they were still trying to park it, he turned around and asked me how I felt about Mustangs. I looked behind me and there was a brand new 2012 ford mustang and I instantly replied, "I'll take it!" knowing that Stephen would love to drive it as well. With the help of my trusty smartphone navigation I crossed the Florida state border into Georgia and met Stephen at the check-in point at FLETC. The first thing I thought to myself was that he looked SO good! He was waiting for me in the office as I got my visitors ID badge and was all smiles. We drove to his hotel room on base where he introduced me to his friends from his class. We all went out to dinner where one of the girls whisked me away from our table to introduce me to all the other class mates at the back of the restaurant. Everyone was so nice and all I heard from them was, "Its nice to see that Stephen's wife really exists", and "I sit by Stephen in class and boy that kid is a talker", "Stephen is so sarcastic; he's going to get himself into trouble one of these days" Haha, it was a lot of fun to see who Stephen has been spending his time and making friends with.

The next day Stephen and I spent the day driving and touring around the Golden Isles and eating REAL southern barbeque. We went to the sea turtle reserve  and drove around Jekyll Island  and ended up at the beach that afternoon. Then we went to St. Simon's Island to see the lighthouse and walk along the pier as the sun was setting. We ended the day at Sal's Pizza which was, in my opinion, the best pizza I have ever had.

 I found a sand dollar!

A gigantic horseshoe crab. It reminds me of Predator...ewe!

St. Simon's Island lighthouse. It has been shining since 1876 when it was rebuilt.

 Sunset

 We walked into a few shops on our way back to our hotel and walked through this candy shop. Stephen found the world's largest gummy worm. Gummy worms are some of Stephen's favorite candy.

Stephen's birthday was Sunday the 30th so I packed a whole bag just to bring his birthday gifts in. we found some Halloween cinnamon rolls and celebrated his birthday in our hotel room.

We went to Fort King George in Darien, GA--this was the first settlement in Georgia. We had a lot of fun walking around getting eaten alive by the bugs. Stephen warned me about the bugs out there so thankfully he brought his bug spray.

I love the South! Now I know why Becky loved living in South Carolina. I love everything about it--the rich culture, the accents, how down-to-earth the people are, the vegetation, everything! One of the coolest things to see on our outings were the Southern Live oak trees and all the Spanish moss hanging from the branches.

I had an awesome little vacation and, of course, the best part was being with my other half even if it was for only two days. It was way too short and only heightened my longing to be with him again. Christmas can't come soon enough this year until the next time I get to see him.

My New Job

I've made it through two weeks already without Stephen. The first week was the hardest, of course, but it is getting a little easier everyday knowing that I get to talk to him in the evenings. This is my favorite part of the day, but after we say our goodbyes and it's time to go to bed I just can't fall asleep anymore. I use to be able to fall asleep within five minutes, but it takes me hours now until one or two o'clock in the morning to finally drift off. I hate to say that I'm getting used it, but I am, which is good because I got a job!


A week after Stephen left I got hired as a horticulture plant technician at Cactus and Tropicals which is a little nursery a few miles from my house. They sell indoor and outdoor plants, but their main focus is interior plants and care. Every week I manage around 30 different accounts whether they are big office buildings, hospitals, schools, or houses I travel to different locations around the Salt Lake valley to water and take care of plants so they look their best. I love this job! I have so much flexibility with my schedule, I don't have to go into the shop to clock in or out every day, I get paid to travel, and I now have a second brand new smart phone that I use for work. Its a really easy job, but I'm not looking forward to the Christmas season because we will be swamped with poinsettias--having to install hundreds of them and then caring for each individual plant everyday, but it keeps me busy and flowers and plants are what I love. I am so grateful for this job.

My second day on the job I went to this magnificent muli-million dollar home to water her plants. They have a big iron gate that you have to punch in a code to open, but being my first time there I just parked on the street instead. So I went in to water the plants in her sun room and found a pond inside the house full of gigantic koi fish. I went into the kitchen to fill up my watering can and she had red granite counter tops which I've never seen before. The left side of the house is built over a small creek that flows from the mountains--the scenery and the view is unbelievable. The plants I watered were huge palm trees and a lime tree by the pond that was full of ripe fruit. So after I finished watering I walked out to the gate and it was closed. I couldn't get to my car and there was nowhere to punch in the code to open the gate again, so I had to scale over the wall to the neighbors and scale back over on the other side to punch in the code to let the other person I was with through the gate. As I climbed the wall I pulled a leg muscle really really bad, lol I had to go home and ice it. Next time I will drive through the gate so my car will trigger the gate to open again coming out.

Then the next day I was up on campus at the university and went into the student kitchen to fill my watering can, and for some reason all the knobs to the faucets were backwards to what I'm used to to turn the water on and off. Anyway so there was a lot of water pressure coming out of this faucet and my can was full so I tried to turn the water off and ended up turning it on even more so my can overflowed spraying water everywhere! I was drenched in water as well as the floor with students coming in and out; my work buddy was just laughing at me. It was a good thing that was my last stop for the day.

Besides this job I am so grateful for my family. Not just my family but Stephen's family too. It's so nice to have them around close by in case I need something or just want someone to talk to. They have been so great with Stephen being gone checking in with me to see if I'm doing alright. My family has been doing to same with phone calls and text messages, and I just want to thank everyone for all your thoughts and kindness towards us. It's not that great living alone with no one to talk to or eat with, so thank you all so much; I couldn't have asked for a better family or husband who is doing his best to do his job and provide for our own little family. Stephen is working so hard and learning a lot. I'm sure he is really looking forward to the day he gets to come home next spring. I love my family--both of them. You guys are awesome! And I love you Stephen and am looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

The Count Down Begins

This day came way too quickly for me. Since knowing Stephen would be leaving for training in September for the past two months it seemed like this day would never come, but here it is. I dropped him off early this morning at 5:30 am at the airport. He was really nervous and didn't want to go--I didn't want him to go either, but the sooner he can go the better. I tried to prepare myself for this day to be strong and just let him go, but I cried the whole way back from the airport. I've been thinking this whole time that it's not fair that I have to stay here at home, but I'm pretty sure Stephen got the worst of it going into the unknown not knowing anyone or what he's going to be doing. I, on the other hand, am in my comfortable home surrounded by both my families if ever I need anything. I now have absolutely no motivation to even get up in the mornings, to fix my hair, put on makeup, or get dressed. Every evening around 5:30 I would anxiously be waiting and looking out the windows to catch a glimpse of Stephen coming up the walk on his way home from work when I then awaited his kiss hello as he walked through the front door--best part of my day. I won't get that for another agonizingly, long six months.

I'm sure it'll get better and we'll both get used to living alone; I'll find work to keep me occupied while Stephen is working out and getting ripped ;) Haha, it'll all be good. The worse part is I don't have anyone to cuddle with at night to keep me warm when I go to bed, especially now that fall is here and winter soon to follow. March 16th can't come soon enough.

Ohio

Although it didn't start off on a great note, Stephen and I had a blast on our trip! First of all, I hate traveling by airplane; I have to take a minute and complain about the first day of our trip because we were stuck in the airport ALL day--for over 12 hours! One thing is for sure, we will never fly with American Airlines or American Eagle again. We both thought Wednesday would be a nice relaxing day--we would leave SLC at 7:00 am and be in Cleveland by 3:00 pm so we'd have the rest of the evening to drive to our hotel and go out to dinner and catch some Zs so that we could get up early to hit the roller coasters.

We got up at 4:30 am to arrive at the airport by 5:00 am; when we were five miles from the airport Stephen got a phone call from a 1-800 number and ignored it because lately he's been getting calls from telemarketers as early as 6:00 in the morning. We pulled into the parking lot and his phone rang again, so Stephen was ready and willing to answer the phone to give them an ear full for calling him so early in the morning. Well, it turned out to be the airlines telling him that our plane had been delayed for four hours so instead of leaving at 7:00 it wouldn't leave until after 11:00. We went inside to see what was going on and they told us our plane would leave around 9:30 so we decided to stay at the airport instead of going back home. Well, 9:30 came and went and the plane was delayed some more; we were at the SLC airport for almost 6 hours before we left. We finally got to Chicago to catch our connecting flight and that plane was delayed by a few more hours, so we didn't get to Cleveland until 10:00 that night. Then on top of that we still had an hour drive to where our hotel was so we didn't get dinner, sleep, or the relaxing evening we had hoped for.

CEDAR POINT
We were so excited to hit all the roller coasters Thursday morning. Luckily school started the day before we got into town so the lines for the rides weren't as bad as what we thought they would be. The longest we had to wait for a ride was 45 minutes. This amusement park is one of the best, if not, the best in the nation. It has some of the longest, fastest, and tallest coasters in North America. We rode the rides for about seven hours the first day and Friday we rode the rest of them and headed into the water park for the rest of the afternoon.

 This is the Dragster--it's 410 feet tall and drops you at 120 mph. Its a short ride, but wow, it make your stomach curdle and tie up in knots!

     
These are just a few of the other big coasters we got to ride. this wooden one called mean streak was so rickety that it knocked the wind out of us after climbing a hill and it came a sudden halt at the end of the ride that if we weren't strapped in we would have gone flying several hundred yards out of the roller coaster. Magnum was my favorite coaster; we rode on that one twice (the first picture) and Stephen's favorite was Millennium Force (the second picture). The only souvenir we took home was a caricature of the both of us. The water park was a lot of fun as well, we spent a good portion of the afternoon on the water slides and the wave pool. There are at least a dozen water slides but the wave pool was my favorite part even though it cut up the bottom of my feet pretty good.

KIRTLAND
We spent a day and a half in Cleveland and Kirtland for the remainder of our trip. We went to the Museum of Natural History Saturday morning before we headed to Kirtland. I love museums like this one; it had animals, birds, and insects from every continent, dinosaurs, rocks and gems, a planetarium, and an evolutionarily wall where they keep the famous "Lucy" one of earths earliest bipedal human beings.

I've heard about Lucy on the history and discovery channels before and find her fascinating. They don't have all her bones, but she is the most complete and oldest biped to this day. She is an adult human who only stands at a mere 3.5 feet tall!

We spent a few hours in this museum and then drove to Kirtland where we toured the Newel K. Whitney store, his home, the John Johnson Inn, the saw mill, and lots of other historic places. My favorite was the Newel K. Whitney's store because it's a lot bigger inside than what it looks. It was so neat to see how they lived and where the prophet Joseph Smith and his family stayed with them. We went inside the School of the Prophets, and the parlor where Joseph received the word of wisdom and many other revelations.

 Newel K. Whitney Home

 The store. Poor Stephen had to stand there facing the sun, lol

                       The School of the Prophets

Even though I have been told all the stories growing up in the church about the life of the prophet Joseph Smith it was really amazing to see everything first hand and walk where he had once walked. You could feel the spirit as we walked through each room in every building testifying that what we were witnessing was true--all the stories we hear in church every week and that the gospel really is true. I loved the stories, or testimonies rather, of the people who saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in this very room.

Next stop was the Kirtland temple. By this time in the day we were kind of exhausted and really tired, but took a tour of the inside of the temple. Again it was cool to see first hand the pictures they show you in sunday school. The time an energy those people had to go through to build that temple and then have to leave it a few months afterward was just amazing to look at and hear about. The temple is gorgeous inside and out. We would have loved to go to the John Johnson and Isaac Morley farms, but it was late and we were just way too tired to drive around some more. All the tours had closed for the day anyway, but there's always next time.

  The Kirtland temple in all its splendor

SUNDAY

Our last day in Cleveland was quite relaxing, for the most part, we got to sleep in until we needed to check out of the hotel and spent a few hours in the art museum (it was free). This place was huge! We enter one room and go through the next and the next; it was like a maze that was never ending and it was two floor at that. First, we looked at all the pieces of art and artifacts from around the world including Rome, Africa, England, and Asia. There were things dating clear back from 1 AD and beyond! We saw pottery, sculptures, coins, and jewelry from ancient Rome and Italy, Armour and swords from Medieval times, paintings of Christ, apostles, and saints from the Christian era, and modern American art from artists like Pollock (whom I don't care for), Pablo Picaso, Vincent Van Gogh, and Auguste Rodin.

The Thinker (Rodin)

This wasn't as large as I thought is was in real life. I was expecting a monumental size of this tiny statue, but it was cool nonetheless.

We ended up going to the airport three hours before our plane was to leave because we had nowhere else to go. We got there and waited for the plane, and again, our flight was delayed two hours which meant that we wouldn't make it in time for our connector in Dallas so we complained to the desk and they switched us to Delta which got us home four hours earlier than when we would have gotten home and we only had to fly to Cincinnati and then to SLC.

Our bodies are all bruised, cut, and tired and aside from Stephen getting pulled over, our delayed flights, and muggy weather it was all worth it to get to spend a long weekend with Stephen before he leaves me in two and a half weeks. We so needed this vacation from all the school and moving we had to do this year. I love you Stephen, thanks for the vacation!