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!

Thoughts from Bike Movement

One of the questions that comes up is: "Can any of us find within our traditions something unique to offer anyone else?" We are part of a growing and changing community - our ethical traditions and cultural worship styles are important, but they are hardly timeless or culturally transcendent manifestations that encapsulates Jesus' way for the world. But that doesn't mean that our traditions and cultures should be blank-slated (even if they could be) and that we should imagine, somehow from scratch, what Jesus would be up to today. On the contrary, it means that we come out of particular and important stories. And we have a responsibility to those stories.

For Christians it's the scriptures, traditions, reasonings, and experiences that make us who we are. The question then becomes..."How, in conversation, do we constructively engage the stories of others, and without forgetting our own experiences, carefully entangle ourselves in the divine mess of regenerating a mutually Created truth?"

...I have been speaking only in the context of U.S.-American Mennonites - and that dialogue, at least for me, is intimidating enough. Bike Movement is about something more though. Bike Movement is asking me and you to consider broadening our understanding of the church to the world outside of U.S. borders - outside of North America. The broader the conversation, the more complicated it becomes. Sure. But to truly realize the Creative reign of our God - we must demarnd of one another at least an attempt at this imagined, truly representative, dialogue - a microcosm of the true global church.

- Tim Showalter on bikemovement.com
Harrisonburg, Va., native

A Quick Note

As most of you have noticed I have two new pictures up on my blog. The first is of a country view (mostly a fence and bridge in the background) of my families' farm. The second photo is a self portrait taken on the family farm.

You might have also noticed that I entitled the first photo All Roads Lead Home. Let me take a moment to add a disclaimer here; the previous comment was NOT (and I repeat, was NOT) a doctrinal message, meaning that all ways lead to Christ.

My comment was more or less referencing the fact that I'm a country girl at heart, and I'm bound to come back to that place I call home.

I hope that sets us straight now : )

The New and Improved...

...BLOG!!!

That's right I've updated. Can't you tell?

And with my new image I'm going to try and make a new effort. I'll be putting more effort into updating regularly and about subjects of interest (interest to me not necessarily you...sorry).

I've also told myself that pictures are colorful things (unless they are black and white) and I should post more of them.

So get ready, hold on tight, and prepare yourself, for the new and improved Blog of Jenwinker!

Family Heritage

Two weeks ago today I was in Virginia celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. Two weeks from today I will be in an airport again on my way back to Virginia. Two trips to see my family in less than a month...I'm a very lucky girl.

I'm enjoying this time I have to spend with my family and friends. I really enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family and I'm already looking forward to Christmas.

One of the best things (besides seeing family and friends) about being back in Virginia for Thanksgiving was some interesting information I learned. Most of this new information was concerning a deceased grandparent of mine. My Granddaddy Heatwole.

Granddaddy Heatwole (as I always called him) was part of my life as long as I can remember. Out of all my grandparents I probably felt closests to him. I'm sure that mostly had to do with the fact that Granddaddy Heatwole came down to the farm every day but Sunday, and lived only a mile from the farm (well they did move later in life - but he still came to the farm every day).

When I was a child, Granddaddy would come out to the farm early in the mornings and be there when I was waiting for the school bus. It was always for me to get in his pick-up truck at the end of the lane and wait for the school bus there. We would talk about different things, or I would search through his open glove box and play with the tire guage I found there, and sometimes he even had candy for me. Just spending that time with Granddaddy was special.

I have other memories of Granddaddy Heatwole, from him taking me to the livestock sales, going for ice cream, or playing croquet. I also remember the times when I'd be up at his house (being watched by my grandparents) and he'd be sitting in his chair reading his Bible or listen to some gospel record.

Granddaddy always impressed me as a quiet man, who enjoyed life, lived for God daily, loved his family greatly and was passionate about many things (from music to gardening). You know, as I sit here thinking of what I remember most about this man, I'm impressed with the knowledge that I knew he loved his family greatly. As I said my Granddaddy always struck me as a quiet man, in all my vaguest memories I can't remember one instance when Granddaddy ever said he loved me. And even though he might never have said the words to me I've never once doubted that he did love me. In fact I know it with absolute certainty. Granddaddy was always one to show his love through his actions, and I was a receiptient of those acts of love many a time.

Now that I've wandered a ways down this path of childhood memories let me get back on track with the purpose for me writing today. I was speaking earlier that I learned something new of my Granddaddy Heatwole while I was in Virginia for Thanksgiving. As it turns out my Granddaddy was quite the missionary in the years before I was born. I learned that he was involved with Cattle Boats to Italy, proposed church planting in Austrailia, time spent church planting in West Virginia, and even a trip to Russia.

The fact that my Granddaddy was passionate about missions isn't a surprise to me. I knew growing up that he supported missions, but I thought it was more of a financial support. He certainly did support missions financially, but in the years before my arrival into this world he was a missionary who went into the world.

For me there is a great significance to this new discovery. I finally feel as if there is someone in my family (or a family heritage) that I share a passion and desire with. For years I've known a desire to share God's love in the world, both where I was born/raised and other places. It's a desire that's torn me apart at times. At times I've wanted to stay close to my family and friends and everything familiar. Then there have been other times when I knew that peace wouldn't come until I ventured out of my comfort zone and went where God wanted me.

I'm encouraged to know that my Granddaddy (someone I've loved and who has loved me deeply) felt and experienced the same trials and joys. I know that my Granddaddy's faithful service to God continues in a legacy that I carry today. What a joy to have that knowledge.

Long Time...no write

Sorry guys it's been awhile. And there's really no excuse for me not writing all these long weeks. I guess if I was to come up with something it would be to say that I got out of the blogging groove for awhile.

I can definitely say as someone who has blogged now for the last year and a half there is such a thing as a blogging groove. There are times when blogging comes easy and I have plenty to say, those are the days when I view everything as blog material. Then weeks like these past few weeks are like a barren desert of blogging material.

Sure, things have been going on in my life. Great things in fact. I just haven't felt motivated to write any of it down. So, shame on me!!!

Now, for all that stuff I haven't shared. Mostly it revolves around a surprise trip I made back to Virginia. Last week I went home for Thanksgiving with my family. It was a surprise to my family and a great time for me. And now after several days of good eating and visiting with family and friends, I'm back in Utah.

I have three more weeks here in Utah and then it's back to Virginia for some Christmas family and friend time. During those three weeks I have plans to go to a hockey game (maybe two), spend some time with friends, fix lots of good foods and work some : )

And as this blog isn't getting any more exciting as I write I think it would be best to draw it to a close. So until next time...adios!

About Time...

Okay, so it's about time I wrote a post on here. I can't have too many voice blogs. You guys might get confused with all this little boxes and give up on coming to my blog at all. And I simply need all your attention on me and my blog or I can't function in life : )

Well, now I'm just being silly! And this isn't the kind of silly that's produced by large doses of sugar or caffeine; it's more of a natural high by simply having a good day. That's right you heard me I'm having a great day.

My question today is what makes a great day great, and a bad day bad? I mean it...this is a legitimate question, so don't roll your eyes at me.

My day to today isn't that much different from my day yesterday, and yet today I find myself full of life and ready to tackle the world, much unlike yesterday. Funny thing is that yesterday by all rights should have been the better day.

Take the weather for example, yesterday we reached an unseasonable high here in Utah with 71 degrees warm and sunny. Today on the otherhand the temperature has drastically dropped, it's overcast and rainy, they're even calling for some snow later. Now if mood was dependent upon weather then I should have been jumping with joy yesterday and ready to crawl back in bed today, but as I said earlier it's just the opposite.

Another factor in determining mood is (or should be) work load. Yesterday was an easy going day, not much going on, yet I kept steadily busy. Today on the otherhand, all the crazies and their mothers keep calling in. By all rights, yesterday was the more productive day, with the sort of work flow that I love. Today has been disruptive and random, just the sort of thing I usually hate. But as I said earlier I'm much more happy today, despite the working conditions.

So I guess what it all comes down to is your state of mind. Ha! Try and figure that one out. I'm not so sure a person's state of mind is reliable enough enjoy day upon day of good moods. I guess all that means for me is that I need to enjoy my good mood now while it lasts.

I should also apologize for the randomness of writing topic. I simply didn't have anything else I felt compelled to write about, and yet I felt compelled to write. You'll just have to bear with me just this once.