Look at that cool laptop!!

  This past week has been pretty great! I went to see Temple Square with Hailey, it was just beautiful! I can't wait to see it around Christmas time; I've heard it's breathtaking. I also stopped by a mall in town known as The Gateway. This place is huge! It's an outdoor mall, and honestly, it could be it's own town. It is massive. It is so much fun to walk around in there, you can find anything and everything you could ever want!

  This weekend I'm headed to Provo to see Grandma and Grandpabill. I also have dinner plans with Mac and Kelly, so I kind of feel like I'm going to a mini family reunion! I plan on practicing some dinner recipes while I'm down there; hopefully they will go well :)

  The job is still going very well :) Madeline is such a great little girl, we have so much fun together! This past Friday, Madeline, Hannele, Adrien (Madeline's friend) and I went to watch Tangled (one of my favorite movies right now!) at the Capital building. We brought a picnic for dinner before the movie started, so we got there a little early to make sure we would have good seats for the movie. We sat on the grass and watched the movie on a huge screen in the front of the building, it was a wonderful night. Madeline also decorated my laptop for me with butterfly paper stickers! I think it looks better than any laptop cover I could buy, I love it!

Just call me Julia Child...

   Yesterday was my first day off from work, and it was just wonderful! I dropped Madeline off at her first day of third grade with Hannele, and got memberships to a gym (yay!) and Costco. After, I got to see a friend of mine from Wilmington, Hailey, who just happened to move to Salt Lake City as well! We went to lunch at a really cute, little restaurant, went to see Green Lantern at the dollar theater, and then got messages at Massage Envy (I have a membership and had some extra massages saved up over the past couple months). After the massages, I dropped Hailey off at her apartment and headed back to the house. One of Madeline's friends, and her family came over and made us dinner. It was a really fun night!

   Today was my first day cooking dinner. I was a little nervous at first, but as soon as I began, I had a lot of fun! Tonight I made spaghetti with a squash/zucchini/garlic/tomato sauce. All of the vegetables were grown in Sue's garden, and they were absolutely delicious in the sauce! I was really pleased with how dinner turned out, and am very excited to cook again!!

                                          Cooking...

Hannele is on the far left, Madeline (her daughter) is 

           in the middle, and Kenzi (Madeline's friend) is on the far right J

And so it begins :D

Yesterday was my first day on the job, and it was wonderful! I had Madeline all day because she doesn't start school until tomorrow (Wednesday), but we kept busy. We bought all of her school supplies, and went to lunch at Whole Foods. They have an AMAZING salad bar there, so I'm thinking I'll be going there a lot for lunch. We also did some art projects, like folding a fortune teller and putting hot glue of pictures we drew. Madeline thinks it's hilarious when the Easter Bunny in the movie Hop poops jelly beans, so she made sure to put that in her fortune teller. By the time Hannele got back, I was feeling pretty sick, so I decided I should probably get to bed early.

Today Madeline and I made derby pie for tonight. Hannele is having company over, so I thought it would be fun to make derby pie for dessert, and Madeline loves to cook so she was excited to help out in the kitchen! It turned out really well! I was worried it would be messed up because of the elevation, but I don't think I've made one better than this.

After we made the pie, Madeline and I went for a bike ride around the neighborhood, and to a local place that sells snow cones. I am definitely feeling the effects of less oxygen, I think we made it a couple yards before I felt completely out of breath. The bike ride was fun, but definitely more difficult than I imagined. I keep forgetting that higher elevation = less oxygen. I'm hoping I'll adapt to it quickly. Tomorrow is Madeline's first day of school!

Ready to Work :)

  So far I am absolutely loving Utah! I haven’t started my job just yet, but I have still been busy, busy, busy. My room is absolutely adorable! It has blue walls, white furniture, a bed with pink sheets, and black wall hangings. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I did rather well with the decorating. It’s not done yet, I still want to get a flower, and another 2 picture frames for the walls, but it is definitely coming along nicely.

  Hannele and Madeline left for a camping trip on Wednesday (I couldn’t go because my ankle started acting up and didn’t want to hurt it and/or slow them down on their hikes), so I have had a lot of time to explore and spend time with family. Having Aunt Sue live only 1 mile away is a lot of fun! She took me around on a tour of Salt Lake City earlier this week; this is one cool city! It has pretty much anything and everything I could possibly want in a city. Plus, I am only about 20 minutes from a ski resort so there will be a lot of skiing this winter, as long as my ankle approves haha J

  After staying with Aunt Sue’s family, I headed down to Provo to visit with Grandma and Grandpabill. Grandma taught me how to make stew, and an oriental meal complete with egg rolls and an oriental salad; it was so good!

  Funny story: Grandpabill was about to leave for a baptism in Salt Lake City. He was waiting in the kitchen, when he suddenly stood up, looked outside and said, “I completely forgot! I’ll be right back, I have to go bless my lawn.” I thought he was kidding, but when I looked at my cousin Josh, he just smiled and nodded his head. We both started chuckling at that point. It turns out Grandpabill blesses his lawn before he leaves everyday. I have never heard of anyone doing that before, and I find it to be quite hilarious. But I will say, he has one of the prettiest lawns I have ever seen, so it must be working haha.

  I was also able to see a couple movies while I was there. I saw Cowboys and Aliens with Josh – he loved it, I thought it was really weird. It was well done, the acting was impressive, and the fight scenes were pretty awesome, but overall it was just a really weird movie. I saw The Help with Josh and my other cousin Kelly – it was AMAZING!!!!! I loved everything about this movie! The script, the acting, the costumes, the directing, everything! It was such an impressive movie; I will definitely be seeing it again as soon as I can. I saw 17 miracles with a friend of mine, Jeremy – it’s the story of the Willie/Martin Handcart Company. It was a very touching movie, and very hard to watch at times. It is always amazing to see what people can endure when they are determined.

  Hannele and Madeline come home from the camping trip tonight, and I start my job tomorrow!!! I am so excited!! I’m also a tad nervous, but I think it’s going to be great! Hope everything is going well with all of you! 

On to a new adventure...

I am now a resident of Utah! Well not totally, I'm moving into my room in Salt Lake today at 10 am! The last leg of the road trip was rather quick compared to the rest of the trip - but it was absolutely beautiful with the mountains, rivers, streams and waterfalls. Since arriving in Provo, I have already made a trip up to Salt Lake to drop Angela off to the airport, and to stop by the house where I'll be living - it's so adorable! I'll have pictures up of my room once I finish decorating it, which might take a while since it includes unpacking. Here are the FINAL pictures from the road trip! So glad to be here :)

Utah Trip Pt. 2 - St. Louis, Missouri to Denver, Colorado

Today's trip seem to be a lot faster than yesterday's, but twice as boring (thank you Kansas). I took the first shift of driving this morning, driving 4 hours from St. Louis to Kansas City, Missouri. I was very surprised and excited that I was  able to make it 4 hours with my ankle; hopefully this means my ankle will be completely healed soon! The drive became almost unbearable once we hit Kansas - I'm sure Kansas has some very nice and interesting places to visit, but that has got to be the most boring state in America. By the time we made it to the other side of Kansas, Angela and I were both a bit loopy and finding EVERYTHING funny. Tomorrow we have another 8 hours to go before we get to Provo, but we are FINALLY done with this cross-country drive tomorrow!!! Time for pictures, and some much needed sleep :)

Off to Utah!!!

Today Angela and I started our trek across the country. It was hard to leave home knowing I won't be back for a while, but I am very excited about the adventure that is to come! Today we passed through five states: North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and we ended our trip in St. Louis, Missouri. Although I can't ever see myself living in St. Louis, I have enjoyed exploring this city. One interesting fact, Panera Bread was actually founded in St. Louis. This information would've come in handy earlier this evening when Angela and I were searching for a Panera Bread. It turns out, all of the Panera Breads in St. Louis are named The St. Louis Bread Company. We happened upon this information after finally giving up and stopping at a burger joint, which was coincidentally connected to a St. Louis Bread Company, it was then that we realized our mishap. Below are some pictures from the trip so far, more will be added as the trip continues!!!

First Look!!

I finally have an idea of where I will be living for the next few years!! My room is absolutely adorable! It has blue walls with white furniture and white curtains. There isn't a bed in the room just yet, but I was told there would be one by the time I got to the house next week.

The dresser is my favorite piece of furniture; it feels so 1950's, which in my opinion is one of the best decades of the 20th century. Now the only hard part is figuring out what to pack. I've started a bit, but it's difficult deciding what clothes to bring since I'm not completely sure about when the cold weather will begin.
I have also found out I will be learning how to go camping...the real kind, not the hike during the day and stay in a hotel at night (which is my preferred type of camping). I find this to be both exciting and frightening. You see, I'm not much of a live outside, sleep on the ground, no shower, live off of nature person. I love to go hiking, and I love the picturesque beauty of nature, but sometimes nature looks best from inside buildings with beds, showers, plumbing, and air conditioning.