Thoughts about life in Virginia...

...that's right folks I'm back in Virginia.

No, this is not a visit, it's the real deal, I'm now a permanent resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

You ask, how do I feel about being back?

Well I'll tell you, it's different. I expected that of course. I never expected that everything would stay the same. I knew people and places change.

I came in with certain expectations as to how I would feel and handle all those changes. Let me just tell you, you can't prepare for stuff like this.

As much as you think you're ready for life altering changes, like moving, starting a new career, and the like, you're never really prepared for the reality of it all. Or that's at least how I'm coming out of the whole deal.

This isn't to say the changes are bad, there just different.

So, here's what I keep telling everyone, I'm enjoying being back in Virginia. I love being around my family and old friends. I'm excited about everything involving my new career and the opportunities to be had there. I'm plain thrilled to be back.

At the same time I want desperately to be out in Utah. I miss the people, places, and opportunities I had there. These days I just grieve for all that I'm missing out there.

Is it strange how I'm feeling? To be so happy with life, and almost at the same time to be so sad and disappointed for other things I'm missing.

Why can't I seem to take Paul's and learn to be content in all circumstances? Hmmm...just another spiritual discipline for me to work on :)

Thoughts on Moving...

Well, it's known to most of the free world by now, I'm leaving Utah for the green state of Virginia. Sometimes I can't believe I've lived here in Salt Lake for two and a half years already, the time really flew by.

And now I'm planning my departure and trip of 2,000 plus miles. Let me state the obvious here, there's a plenty of work that goes into a move of that size.

First off, I should let you all know I'm moving home the way I moved myself out to Salt Lake to begin with, I'm just taking what fits into my vehicle. What that means for me is a great furniture sale. Which reminds me, if you live out in the Salt Lake area and are looking for some good furniture at a great price give me a call (or leave a comment).

After selling the furniture, then comes the reduction of my smaller pieces of property. This will be accomplished through a yard sale. That's definitely something to look forward too, getting up early on a Saturday morning to haggle prices with the most savviest of shoppers. Wish me luck!

From that point, it'll be only a matter of strategically arranging my belongings for the maximum of packing space. I've already begun creative thinking as to how to make my large items more useful in the move. Take my canning pot, it's large enough (and has a convenient lid) to make it useful in carrying several nice belongings of mine.

Well, if you have any other ideas or advice on moving please don't hesitate to leave me a message.

Pictures from the last week...

I've been accused in the past of not posting enough pictures to my blog, so the following are some photos for your viewing pleasure. These pictures have all been taken in the last week or so and reflect mostly on the visitors I've had to Salt Lake.

First off, we have a picture of Willard and Melba Heatwole up at Silver Lake. This lake is where we spent an hour or so of our afternoon strolling along the boardwalk examining the plants and wildlife. All I can say, what a relaxing way to spend the day!! You should come out and try it for yourself sometime.








Another view from the lovely Silver Lake. Don't you just love those lakes located in the higher elevations, where the mountain peaks are JUST THERE? Well, I do.



And yet another spectacular view...doesn't it make you want to come visit??













Here's another photo of interest that I took during Willard and Melba's visit to Salt Lake. While they were in town we spent part of our morning visiting Sandra Tanner over at Utah Lighthouse Ministry. Sandra is one of my good friends, so she pulled out this hate package she had received for us to look at. If you're confused as to what she's holding up, it's sign that says, "No Thanks Satan." The border surrounding this sign is a collection of DVD's that a Christian organization passed out in the community. The DVD's were broken so they can not be used again and attached to the sign. This sign was left on Sandra's doorstep. This is just one example of the kind of messages Sandra receives regularly.





Here's a random picture I took just recently. I was out with some friends on Saturday night when I saw a poster advertisement for the Salt Lake City monopoly game. I was most intrigued with the center of the board, where it said all proceeds benefit, "Mali Aftica." No that is not a typo on my part, that is definitely a "t" and not the letter "r". Come on people can't we spell Africa??










Now moving along to other visits from persons back home, here is some pictures of the Discovery 2007 group from EMHS (Eastern Mennonite High School) that are traveling around the west as I write this. They were in Utah on Sunday and I was able to spend Sunday evening with them.

This picture is of Helen Furry (second from the left) and her tent mates. Let me see if I can remember the names correctly, in order (left to right) they are, Heather, Helen, Brooke, and Rose. Some day Helen will have to tell me if my memory served me correctly and I did get them right. By the way, I helped ever so briefly with putting up this tent, I did a good job didn't I?


Here's another photo of the Discovery 2007 group. As you can see the group is out for a swim or a wade depending on what part of the photo you're looking at. Here they are in the Great Salt Lake. I think they are finding it not so much to their liking. Just to get to the lake they had to battle the hordes of small bugs the wind kept blowing at them. Then once they were in the lake it was the salt the beseeched them. In the end they came out looking flaky white with dried salt falling off their various limbs.

Despite the conditions you could see they were enjoying themselves on this trip. I just don't believe that many of them will make their way back to the Great Salt Lake any time soon (or if ever).


I'll leave you with this beautiful picture that was taken early into the sunset on Sunday. I was out at the campsite for the Discovery 2007 group, which was on Antelope Island (out in the middle of the Great Salt Lake). As you can see it looks like a barren land, which it is aside from the magnificent wildlife that you will find there, including but not limited to bison and antelope. The sunset on this particular evening was breathtaking and turned much more vibrant in color than even this photo demonstrates. I just never got my camera out again after this photo so I missed the shot 20 minutes later when the sky turned almost magenta in color. Well, on the bright side you still have this wonderful picture to look at!!

What a Week...

....I had last week.

It all began late Sunday evening when two voyagers from Virginia made their way to Salt Lake City. Willard and Melba are second cousins to my Dad, but there is kind of a generation gap between them. So having Willard and Melba come to visit was like having my grandparents visit me. What's even better about the family connection is that Willard had grown up with my Granddad, albeit about ten years his junior. It was fun hearing stories from Willard about my Granddad, especially since we lost Granddad about seven years ago.

What a nice visit I had with Willard and Melba. Like I mentioned before they came in to town on Sunday evening and were here until early Tuesday morning. I was able to spend Monday with them.

On Monday morning we started our day having breakfast with our hosts Tom and Judy Weaver (they are friends of mine from church - and graciously agreed to host Willard and Melba in their home). Then it was off to downtown Salt Lake City for Willard, Melba and myself. We spent some time that morning touring Temple Square, we voted for the self-guided tour directed by me. From Temple Square it was off to Utah Lighthouse Ministry and Sandra Tanner for the other side of the story.

After only those two jaunts around town we had enough of city life and headed out into the canyons for a picnic lunch and a nice walk around Silver Lake (located up at Brighton Ski Resort).

Those activities tied up our time until late afternoon. By that time in the day all our energies were flagging and we made our way back to Tom and Judy's home for a nice long visit and a delicious dinner. That evening I said good-bye to Willard and Melba and made my way back home, feeling as if I should be going back to Virginia with them the next day.

The very next day at work I really wished I was on the plane with Willard and Melba headed back to Virginia. On Tuesday our work server decided to fail us and made working near impossible. Of course it ended up being the day that the business received the most orders on record. UGH!! What a headache that day was.

The rest of the work week wasn't much better. I spent long hours at the office and when I wasn't work I was studying for my upcoming Series 7 exam.

Of course to cap off the stressful part of the week, my car decides to die and place me in the position of having to find a new one. I finally resolved the issue of a vehicle on Saturday afternoon when I bought a used 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Me and my new car (the guys have named her Lawanda) have spent some bonding time together this weekend and we've decided that we very much like our new relationship. Though you may all now recognize a moment of silence for my ol' granny mobile. That ol' gal was as faithful and as loyal as a car could ever be. We'll miss my Mercury Topaz I'm sure.

Well after the car buying excursion I needed to test out this vehicle with a nice long drive and the perfect opportunity presented itself on Sunday evening with the arrival of Discovery 2007 (the EMHS student group traveling the west). This group of students and teachers camped themselves about an hour drive from Salt Lake City and I made sure to make the trip out to surprise the students I know.

What a nice visit I had with these kids. They sure looked like they were having a good time on their trip and they were nice about including me as their guest for the evening. We even ended the evening with one of my favorite and most missed activities since leaving Virginia, we sang hymns. IT WAS WONDERFUL...all that four part harmony.

Well, that was my busy week in a nut shell. I hope you enjoyed the little update. Hopefully I'll be back soon to post some pictures of the events as well. Until then...take care.

The funny and unexpected...

Okay all you males out there, BEWARE!! My new roommate, Olivia, could take you unaware.

My good friend Jake learned the hard way last evening. It all started last evening when I small group of us went out to dinner last evening. In attendance was Tommy, Fou, Jake, Olivia and myself.

The evening was going well, with nothing too out of the ordinary happening, and then Jake went to leave. Jake stood at the end of the table with Olivia at the end nearest him. He's saying his goodbyes and Olivia took a moment to say her fairwell to him. It went something like this:

"Remember who you are and what you stand for."

I know, I know, that's nothing too extra-ordinary. It was Olivia's actions that took precedence over her words. She took that moment to give Jake a "go get 'em" butt slap. This coming from the girl that met Jake only two weeks ago.

I, of course, started laughing immediately. I don't know what I found more amusing the look of innocence on Olivia's face or the look of complete and absolute shock on Jake's.

At that point, I guess Tommy felt he must defuse the situation so he made a big tah-do over wanting to slap Jake's butt goodbye too. In the end the only persons who hadn't had their hands Jake's tushie was Fou and myself (aren't we the lucky ones).

So beware gentlemen you never know when my roommate might strike, or what sort of behavior will rub off on ME.

My Family...

Here's some pictures of my family I thought everyone would enjoy.

Aggravation

I'm completely aggrieved these days with my blogger account. Ever since I signed up for gmail it takes me twice as long to sign into my blog account. Why do you ask is this?

Well here's the situation, around about the same time I signed up for my gmail account is the time that the blogger went to gmail (meaning persons with Gmail automatically get signed into a special gmail account). Well, now whenever I try to get into my blogger account and I'm signed onto gmail it automatically directs me to a new blogger account. UGH!! How frustrating. I don't have any blogs with the gmail account, nor do I want any. I just want to be signed into my blog account without being kicked out of Gmail.

I don't see any way around this situation and it irritates me immensely. Oh well, as it stands what I do now to sign into blogger is to sign myself out of Gmail, then sign into Blogspot the "old way". It takes more time, but atleast it gets me to my account.

I've been told...

...to kindly update my site. I guess some of you missed hearing from me after all.

So as I sit down to write I wonder what would be worthy of a posting. All the stories I could recount to you, yet how boring my life is.

Then I think to myself, why don't I tell them about my little church adventure of this past weekend. This short story should bring a smile to your face.

The story all began late last week when my Mom called to let me know a cousin of mine (Chris Burkholder) was coming to town to perform with the Hesston College Chorale group. This is exciting to me I would love to see Chris and spend some time with him. Well, I go ahead and call Chris and arrange for us to meet prior to his performance.

When it was all said and done I spent Saturday after with the Hesston College group and enjoyed their company on a tour of Temple Square and then dinner at Training Table (known as the Utah Original).

Now, you're probably thinking what's so funny about any of this, and you'd be right it's not really funny. I'm about to get to the good stuff.

My evening all started to go down hill when after going home to change for the evening concert I couldn't get my car to start. There I was sitting in my car just turning the key and praying for a miracle. This is all around 6:50 p.m. and the concert was to start at First Baptist Church of Salt Lake at 7:30 p.m.

In my desperation I called my good friend Jake, asking for a ride. Sweet guy that he is, he went out of his way to help me out, even though he had a headache. So, at this point neither Jake or I are doing so well. I'm anxious about my car (turns out folks it needed a new fuel pump) and Jake had his headache. To top it off we're going to be late to this concert and nobody likes arriving late to stuff like this.

Well, we get to the church and the concert has been underway for the last ten minutes. We haven't missed too much, but we're still going to have to get inside as discretely as possible. This is where the story gets good. I'll try to be as illustrative as possible, but you're going to have to put your imagination to good use here.

You see the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake was built sometime in the 1950's and it's design reflects that fact. This church is rather large and intricate (somewhat like a maze), the whole design suggests of there once being a smaller church that has gone through several additions.

When we arrived, Jake and I first tried the front door to the right side of the building. No luck, the silly door was dead bolted. Our next move was to head towards the back of the church where there was an open door (now we're getting somewhere). Now we've managed to get inside the church and I hear the singing from straight ahead. The only issue I'm having here is that I have this sinking feeling that I'm not going to like where I'm headed as I walk down the hallway to the sanctuary. Sure enough, the hallway leads to the front of the sanctuary. I cautiously peak my head in and see very clearly that if we enter through this door we'd find ourselves at the front of the sanctuary and before an audience. I'm not so keen about finding myself center stage so I quickly decide to back away from that door.

So now the obstacle is to find a hallway that will lead to the rear entrance of the sanctuary where we can enter unnoticed by most. After following a maze of hallways that all lead to dead ends we find ourselves back outside again circling the church and looking for another entrance.

As luck would have it we found our other entrance. When I first noticed this church door all I saw was an open door and not much else. I immediately pointed out the entrance to Jake and he immediately pointed out the barred gate that stood between us and the open door.

I stand there looking at this closed gate and think to myself, what are we doing as "the church", people want in and we're locking ourselves up and keeping them out.

Never fear folks we were able to get past the gate, and through the door and into the sanctuary. We've accomplished all this and the singing is only 20 minutes into the entire performance, we're feeling pretty good about all this until...

...until we sit down on the old pew and it lets out a terribly loud groan that echoes off the walls and alerts everyone to our late arrival. So much for not holding center stage.

Visitors Galore

I've been having some good fun these last couple of months with all my visitors from out of state. First off there was Jesse Blosser who came in from Pennsylvania (though I more often think of him as a Virginia native).

Jesse visited back in March, but I never got around to blogging about it. We had a good two and a half day visit. I still can't believe we fit into our schedule all that we did.

We managed to see a good bit of downtown Salt Lake City, tour Temple Square, have a long conversation with a complete stranger about the LDS Church, have several meals with my close friends, take a drive out into the country side, and a bunch of other filler stuff. Let's just say it was a long two and a half days, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here's some pictures of our adventures. This picture is of Jesse out on a frozen lake. We went for a drive through Provo Canyon and couldn't resist getting out for a little walk when we came to this lake. The thing was frozen pretty good so we went a good ways out. We even got to watch a man do ice fishing out on the lake. As you can tell it's lovely out in the Utah countryside. I'm definitely going to miss the beautiful nature of Utah when I return to Virginia this October.






Don't ask me what Jesse is looking at in this picture on the left. What I can tell you though is where we were at when this picture was taken. We were enjoying a great breakfast at one of my new favorite restaurants in town, the Artist's Palate. It's a great little place that is owned and ran by a cute retired couple, Henry and Vivian. I love going to this place for breakfast (though I don't have the time to do it that often). They certainly make the best omelettes there.

Okay, now I'm going to throw in an odd ball picture that has become on of my favorites. This next picture was taken on Easter Sunday, when several of my good church friends came over for a special lunch. From left to right these guys are, Fo, Jake, and Tommy. Hands down these guys are my absolute favorite guy pals here in Salt Lake City. Hey and aren't I the lucky one to have such three handsome friends :)

I know girls, this is the moment when you can tell me how jealous you are of me!!

And last but not least of my visitors was my very own Mom. She came out to visit shortly after Easter and we had a very good time. Mostly we spent our time window shopping (one of my Mom's most favorite activities. We also checked out Temple Square, parks and did some driving in the countryside.

I could show you all kinds of pictures from our trip, but I am sort of limited on time here at the moment. I'll just leave you with this lovely picture of my Mom. Enjoy!!!

Desperately Behind...

I know what you're thinking. Here it was only two short months ago and Jenn was promising to make amends and keep us up to date on the Blog front. Boy, did that promise come and go quickly.

I do realize that I've missed the whole month of March and I'm woefully behind on the blogging scene. It's comforting to know that so many people must check out my blog, because I'm forever being reminded by individuals that I need to write.

You'd think after such a long break I'd write something cheerful and lighthearted, but what brings me back to blogging today is need to speak of a dearly loved cousin.

Those of you who know my family well have probably already heard that we lost Tiffany Heatwole to a car crash on Saturday evening. As I sit here at my computer the funeral for Tiffany is ongoing back in Virginia. From out here in Utah I wanted to share my own memories of her and the beautiful young lady she was.

I can't remember much of Tiffany's birth or those first times I saw her as a baby. The very first distinct memory I have of Tiffany is when she was (maybe) a year or so old. My Aunt Barbie (Tiff's Mom) was taking me, my sister Lora and Tiffany out and about. We stopped somewhere and Barbie was allowing me and Lora to get Tiffany out of her car seat. Somehow me and my younger sister managed to get over eager about closing the car door before we had exactly cleared Tiffany from the car and we clipped her on the head good with the car door. I remember when Tiffany started crying her heart out mine about stopped. As Barbie stood there in the parking lot holding Tiffany and comforting her (she was okay and eventually stopped crying) I stood there thinking how sorry I was for hurting my angel cousin.

See as a young girl, I remember thinking how Tiffany must be the closest thing to a baby angel I'd ever seen. You see, it was the blond hair. In our family everyone had brown to dark hair (well my sister and brother did have lighter hair as young kids). Tiff's hair was the lightest I had ever seen and she had those cute baby curls. She looked just like those pictures you always see of the little angels. And as a young girl I knew that God had given us our own little angel, and I was especially happy that it was my Aunt Barbie that had the angel.

When I start to think back on Tiffany as she grew older I have so many good memories. It's hard to sum them all up, or just pick a few of my favorites. I'll just say that the little girl I'll remember is one that was always bounding in energy. I'm laughing to myself even now as I write this, the thought that comes to mind is, "that girl could wear a body out." She always seemed to have twice the energy I ever had.

Even though I've been away from home more in these last few years, I still saw Tiffany as that same energetic girl (but now in teenage form). The woman Tiffany became was someone who used her energetic nature to love those around her with enthusiasm.

In the last few days one thought in particular keeps coming to mind. I've been thinking of my Granddaddy Heatwole who passed away seven years ago on the sixteenth of this month. I remember how we all grieved his passing away so suddenly (died of a heart attack). I also remember talking then with a much younger Tiffany about how she loved her Granddaddy.

If ever I knew something it would be this, that even now as they lay the body of my cousin in the earth, she's with Jesus and Granddaddy in Heaven. She's happy and surrounded by love.

Even now as I wrap up my memories I'd like to thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for the family. I know from being on the phone with my family during this time they've felt the comfort of your friendship. Speaking for myself out here in Utah, I've felt the long arm of that friendship.

I can't believe

I can't believe it. I just spent the last little while (talk about an hour or so) writing this awesome blog entry. Then I lost it. That's right I signed into my gmail account during my writing session and that disconnected me from blogger (with it's now new google accounts). Since my blogger account is set up through AOL anytime I log into Gmail it will disconnect me from blogger.

I still can't believe I lost that great journal entry. It was really well written and thoughts out. And now I don't feel motivated at all to rewrite. So sorry guys you're going to have to wait a while for that entry.

Random Statistics

A while back my good friend Brendan Yoder (who, if you haven't noticed I love to tease in these blogs) wrote a blog of his own containing some statistics. Some stats I'm sure were legit, but others were more fictional than fact.

If you're curious to read for yourself what he wrote then check out this entry.

The stat I'm taking up for debate today is:
- 99.9% of fatal car accidents happen outside of your garage! Staying in the garage is the safest place to be.

HA! I laugh in the face of your stat Brendan. All I have to say is, if you're stat is probable then I'm the special 0.01%.

That's right, and there's a story to back up my claim. When my Dad first thought he would teach me how to drive (and I was young at the time - but then again I was a farm girl and use to handling things that moved mechanically) he got me behind the wheel of the pickup truck and stood watching on the sidelines. He didn't seem to feel it was necessary for him to be present inside the cab of the truck. He had told me what to do with this manual vehicle, and that was to put it in reverse and slowly back out of the garage.

So, I moved the gear shift over to the right and down and did next what my Dad had explained that was was to lift my foot off the clutch as I came down on the gas. My Dad hadn't explained that it was supposed to be more of an easing motion, you ease your foot off the clutch as you ease your other foot onto the gas pedal. I managed to pull off more of a rapid and sudden motion. The vehicle jerked alive and sent me forward.

WHAT?? I thought I had moved the gear shift to the reverse position. Why am I going forward? Where's the brake? Why is half the hood of the truck stuck into our garage wall? And here's a rhetorical question that doesn't need answering, why is my Dad's face a sudden shade of red?

Somehow, in a manner that I'm sure even mechanics can't explain, I managed to start a manual vehicle in 4th gear. Yep, that's the gear position I had truck in when I gave it the gas.

Let's just say, after my Dad repaired our garage wall, he made sure he was always present inside the vehicle when he was teaching me to drive. Lesson learned, right Dad?

My Two Month Vacation...

from blogging.

That's right I took a break...a two month break. It didn't start out as intentional but it became that way. I just couldn't get myself motivated to sit down and write anything for this blog.

In the meanwhile I'm sure you've become bored with my December 15th posting and are no longer checking out the site for any updates. I guess I'll have to work extra hard in the next little while to win you back.

Maybe I should start out with some pictures. Get you up to date with a visual presentation. The problem is I haven't taken many pictures either in the last couple of months, but I'll give you what I got, how about that.

Why don't I start with my most recent photos and go backwards. First off is this beautiful rose given to me by an absolutely beautiful friend of mine, Danielle. She's so sweet and made sure I had a rose for Valentine's Day. Thanks Danielle!!

The Superbowl party picture is next (the one off to the right). Don't we look like an excited crowd. I celebrated the Superbowl at Tommy and Jake's place (two lonely bachelors from my Church). Tommy is also the youth pastor at Discovery Christian Community and so we had a passle of kids come for the Superbowl. Question...when it's a group of kids should we refer to them as a "passle", "bunch" or a "flock"? Who cares anyway : )

Ha, here's Elder Hare and Elder Schneck. They came over to my place for dinner. I believe the night I took this picture it was Elder Hare, Elder Schneck, Tommy and myself. How did I get stuck haning out with all guys? Just luck I guess. As you can see from the picture these Elders are funny guys.

Hey look it's a picture I took back when I was home at Thanksgiving. I thought of all my Thanksgiving and Christmas photos I have from Virginia I would post this one of Brendan Yoder. He's been the one most interested in seeing me post some pictures, soooo...

This picture was taken when some of the Weaver's Mennonite Young Adults got together one evening for Fun, Food and Fellowship. Okay, we just played games and ate food.

Well folks. That's the summation of my photos. I could go on, but I don't have the internet time or the patience to do so. I guess you'll have to be satisfied until another date and time when I'm back to post photos.

Take Care in the meanwhile!