Starting Over...

Come check out my new blog at www.jenwinkerva.blogspot.com

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.