A Few Fun December Events

New pots and pans for Christmas (Thanks to Mom and Dad, Gr+Gr B, and Gr+Gr Richards)













A few games of air hockey New Year's Eve.
















Playing Settlers of Catan (Thanks to the Carter Family)












Jason grows a beard over Christmas break



















Christmas Eve get-together














Baking sugar cookies for the neighbors













First Presidency Christmas Devotional with Marilee and Devin












Playing Hide-n-seek with my nieces


A few other fun things . . .

1. Enjoying the cool snow storms (not quite as cool while stuck in traffic on I-15)
2. Speaking in Sacrament Meeting the day after Christmas
3. Singing Christmas music with the ward choir
4. Filling in as a last second Mary for our family retelling of Luke 2
5. Watching my nephews James and Grants "rip" their presents and enjoying the delicious breakfast afterward.
6. Being Santa Claus for my parents this year
7. Attending a BYU basketball game
8. Seeing Hale Center Theater's production of "A Christmas Carol" with family
9. Going to Temple Square 3 times! --- to see my parents sing in their missionary choir, the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and David Archuleta with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
10. Having days off of work to spend time talking, eating, and playing with family.
11. Ringing in the new year with ping pong and air hockey.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, it's hard to believe that Christmas is already over. It has been such a wonderful month full of Christmas music, concerts, plays, family get-togethers, and holiday treats. I've enjoyed a few extra days off work and have completely enjoyed it. Unfortunately I've enjoyed it so much that I'm sad that I have to go back to work tomorrow for another few days before New Years. At least the break is not completely over, but working seems a rude interruption to an otherwise lovely holiday break. I think it's extra hard since this is the first time I've had to work during the "holiday break" in the last 6 years. I definitely enjoyed that perk of being a student or working on the academic schedule. Hopefully I've survive and still find time to actually write more about what I've been up to this month.

But if I write nothing else this Christmas season, I definitely want to express my gratitude for a knowledge of Jesus Christ. There's really not a better reason to celebrate than to honor his sacrifice and gift to the world. Life doesn't always go as perfectly as I would like, but it has gone much more "perfectly" overall as a result of his tender care and mercies in my behalf. I really feel sad that the world in general is losing touch with this the greatest source of peace and happiness. Anything and everything can be made better, stronger, wiser, and kinder through his loving and healing influence. My hope is that I can be more Christ-like in the coming year and spread more joy and peace to those around me. That is the best gift that I can give back to the Giver of all good gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know this is late for anyone following my blog, but better late than never. It's already after 10:00 and I should go to bed, but I know if I don't write this soon, I never will.

I had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving. I got two days off of work and they let me go home early on Wednesday. Those were my first days off of work since Labor Day and it was really nice to have a break! We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Jason's family this year. We met at his brother Jeff's home in Provo. The food was delicious, but my favorite part was holding Jeff and Sally's 3-day old son. James is definitely a cutie even though he didn't do much the whole time I was there except sleep. :)

That evening we went over to my parents house and watched a Hallmark Christmas flick. Perhaps a little ironic since it was Thanksgiving, but I really liked it anyway. We got it at Redbox. It's called "Mrs. Miracle" for anyone else who wants to watch a cheesy feel-good movie.

Friday we put up our Christmas tree and decorated for the holidays. We went over to my brother Keith's house in the afternoon for some pizza, ping pong, and hide-n-seek with my nieces. Then we hurried home and changed just in time to be picked up to go to the "Savior of the World," a musical/play performed at the Conference Center, with Jason's parents, Chelsey, and Mike. It was really good. That was the second time I had seen it, but it's worth seeing more than once. It's a great thing to do to start off the Christmas season. We stopped at Red Robbin for dessert afterward and I enjoyed a yummy strawberry shake.

Saturday afternoon we went over to Jason's parents' house to watch the BYU vs. U of U football game. It was pretty intense the entire time and kept us nervously waiting until the last few seconds when Utah blocked a field goal and BYU lost the game. I won't mention that we (BYU) were ahead pretty much the entire game and should have won if it weren't for some poor calls by the refs, but that's football!

After the game we rushed home to make dinner for company. My brother Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira all came over for some dinner and games. The dinner turned out pretty well and the kids were well behaved enough so we could teach Jason how to play Settlers of Catan. He liked it so much that we've played it 4 times since then. I love being around Kira (1 1/2) who is so happy and full of smiles that she's puts a smile on my face when I see her.

Sunday was a good day to stay at home because it snowed all day and all night. Jason and I enjoyed a quiet day at home and sang in our ward choir for a stake activity that night. We were glad we didn't have to go any further than the stake center that night and it took me over an hour to get to work the next morning because of the snow and ice. It's weird to have so much snow so early in the season, but it definitely puts me more in the Christmas mood.

Even though I won't take the time to write my list of "thankfuls" right now. I do want to mention that I am so incredibly blessed and have so much to be grateful for. Although my life right now isn't exactly as I pictured it would be several years ago, I have no complaints. Jason is the best husband and friend anyone could ask for. I never get tired of talking to him or spending time with him. I thank the Lord every day that I'm married and sealed to such a good man. I'm also very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I couldn't be happy without it. It blesses my life every day. I think it's only appropriate that we have a day of Thanksgiving as we enter the Christmas season so that we can focus more on our many blessings made possible by our Savior Jesus Christ. He truly is the reason for the season.

A New Calling and a New Plan

This has been a good week with a few news updates. First, I was sustained as a Relief Society chorister today in church. I joke with Jason that they called me as chorister because I am one of the very few sisters that is consistently there on time for the opening hymn. We have RS first in our schedule and currently it starts at 8:30am.

Second, Jason made a final decision about seminary and has decided that it's not the career path for him. He has enjoyed it at times, and has learned a lot about himself and about teaching. We both feel like the experience has been a blessing for him in many ways, but it just isn't going to work out long term. So the question is, now what? Well, that's a good question. Jason plans to teach to the end of the semester which will end the middle of January, but then the sky is the limit. If anyone has any ideas of what we can do with our lives, let us know. We're open to suggestions. :)

We enjoyed our weekend. Friday we had some friends over for dinner and games. They taught us a new game called Manila. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed talking to them until late.

Saturday I cut Jason's hair and then we drove to the Provo Temple to do some temple work before the BYU football game. Grandpa Richards was kind enough to offer us their tickets on the 50 yd line for the game against New Mexico since they couldn't go. We thought it was going to rain on us, but the weather held up through the whole game. It was fun to watch the game again after only having heard the games on the radio for the whole season. And for anyone who didn't watch it, the Cougs won 40-7.

After the game we went out to dinner at Sam Hawk, our favorite Korean restaurant. It was delicious!!! I really like a good pork bulgogi. Thanks Sara, for introducing this yummy meal to me. On our way home rain quickly turned to snow and by the time we woke up this morning, there was a good 6 inches of snow outside. It was beautiful. A lot of it melted during the day, but there's more in the weather forecast for the next couple of days.

Work and Weekends

I haven't written for a couple weeks which means this post will be a collection of random thoughts and happenings.

Work has been pretty stressful and busy the last week and a half. I've put in some extra time at work, but I'm trying to keep it to a minimum. We delivered a script review for the first module of the parenting skills training that I'm working on. There was a miscommunication about the expectations of how far along the project should be and my project manager started looking through the course about 6 hrs. before I was ready. Then she got concerned it wouldn't be done on time because she had scheduled a Quality Control check a day early and the whole thing got blown out of proportion. I ended up getting it done in time for the QC and we were two hours early on the delivery and I thought that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, even though the course script was well done, it wasn't good enough for the client who ended up nit-picking it and causing a lot more stress and grief. Fortunately the project manager was on my side for that, but trying to make the corrections and meet the demands of their mixed messages is difficult. It undermines my confidence of designing because I worry that nothing I do will be good enough for them. Anyway, that's a simplified version of a complicated mess, but I'm hoping that everything will at least smooth itself over since I'll be designing about 28 more modules for this client in the coming six months.

It's been a little strange to have the sun go down so early now. I used to drive to work at sunrise, and now I drive homeat sunset. It makes me tired earlier in the evening so sometimes I go to bed at about 9:30 or 10:00 when Jason goes to bed. We usually go to bed about the same time, but then he gets up three hours before me! The latest news with seminary is that Jason is less and less keen on the idea of doing this for the rest of his life. He still won't give a final answer on the subject but he has started looking into other job options if that means anything.

Speaking of seminary though, Jason and I went to the Lehi Junior High production of Peter Pan on Friday night. We went with low expectations for a junior high play but were both surprised by a really great rendition of the play. The music was fun, the acting was impressive for the age group, the scenery was really well done, and the whole production went really smoothly and not too long. Overall we both really enjoyed it and Jason had fun seeing many of his seminary students both in the play and in the audience. It's funny because the 9th graders get really excited to see "Brother Burningham" and come up to say hi, but then they get embarrassed or shy and don't know what to say next.

Last weekend we also went to a really nice Holiday Seminary dinner at UVU. They had a meeting with the Utah County North area at the institute building where they highlighted a really cool talk byElder Maxwell called "In Him All Things Hold Together" and then we went to the ballroom afterward for a nice dinner.

This weekend was also our Stake Conference. The meetings were both good, but unfortunately it seems like they should have been better attended. For the adult session last night, we filled up the sacrament room area put three rows into the overflow. Maybe that's normal, but we would have twice that many in the BYU student stakes at least. For this morning's session we sat by our friends the Simmons. Brandon is the Elder Quorum President and Jason home teaches their family. I actually went with him last time since his companion couldn't go and they are a really nice family. They have three really cute daughters and I have apparently become best friends with the middle daughter Lynaea who is 5 yrs. old. She sat on my lap for about 1 1/2 hrs. or the 2 hr. meeting and was really well behaved. She was really cuddly and it was fun to have her sit with me. At one point she randomly said, "I like being with you." I loved it!

The funniest part of Stake Conference was watching an assisted living center bus drive a load of elderly members literally across the street back to the center. I can see why it would be necessary, but it was still kind of funny. The name of the center is the South Towne Ranch where Grandpa Rasband lived for about a year. I didn't know that I moved into his old stake.

After the adult session of Stake Conference last night I think I went a little stir crazy and ended up starting a pillow fight with Jason that night and then convincing him to play Hide and Seek in the dark. It was actually pretty fun, and then we got distracted trying to fit into small places in our apartment, like under our computer desk and under the bathroom sink. Jason didn't think it was possible tofit under the sink, but I provedhim wrong, and then ofcourse he had to try it too. :)

Happy Halloween

I think Halloween in a fun holiday, especially for kids. I like the fun festivities as long as it's not too scary or gory. Even though I don't like to be scared, I think a good startle is fun every once in while. Actually, I like to jump out and scare Jason any chance I get, and he returns the favor.

This weekend Jason's brother Steve and his wife Kirsten and their two kids were here from New York City. We enjoyed talking to them for a few hours on Friday night in Alpine where I finally got to meet little miss Brook who was born about 4 months ago. Even though Brook was tired, Kirsten was nice enough to let me hold her a long time.

Saturday Jason played football in the morning, we did sealings at the temple in the afternoon. Then we headed to Provo for another Burningham family get-together. The nieces and nephews all dressed up in their adorable costumes and Jason and I went around to a few houses while they trick-or-treated. That area is a great one for trick-or-treating. After trick-or-treating for about an hour they brought home a LOT of candy, and fortunately for me, Claire didn't like about half of the candy she got. :)

Today after church Jason and I went home teaching to his family and then to choir practice. I love singing Christmas music! We also went over to my parents’ house for a birthday dinner for my sister that was delicious as always.

My little niece Brook

The trick-or-treaters -- Truman, Dallin, Claire, and Ben

Kirsten, Ben, Steve, Jason, and Julie

A Cake-Walk to Remember

Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat activity. Since Jason and I are on the committee we spent a good portion of our day getting ready for it. This involved making and frosting cupcakes, finding Halloween music, cutting out bats and ghosts, and setting up chairs, table, and decorations.

At 6:00 the adults and costumed kids came running in the door for dinner, games, and CANDY. It almost seemed like there were more kids than adults--I'm estimating at least 50 kids or so. After dinner we hosted a few rounds of a cakewalk for different age groups. The first group we called up were children under 5. Big mistake! We suddenly had 20 small children who didn't know how to do a cakewalk and didn't know how to read numbers either. We quickly adjusted and called out the shapes they were standing on instead of numbers-- such as bats, pumpkins, or ghosts. That way, 1/3 of the kids could win at the same time. Our cakewalk adventure only got better after that, but out numbered shapes got TRASHED by the many children after the first 10 minutes. Note to self: laminate the shapes and TAPE them to the ground!

Well, we eventually got them all through with a cupcake of their choice. Some kids liked it so much that they stayed in the circle just to walk around again and again as they ate their cupcake. What they didn't know was that I rarely read the actual number on the slip of paper I drew from the bag. Just to speed things up, I called out my own numbers to make sure the people without cupcakes would win sooner rather than later. What a chaotic game! We only had one injury for the night though. As we were cleaning up the game so the kids could go outside for the trunk or treat, a 4-yr.-old boy was trying to get off the stage and lost his balance. I only saw his feet as they went over his head off the stage. He landed on his head and went home with a big goose-egg to show for it. I was just glad that it was the son of the activities chair and not someone else.

After most people went outside for the trunk or treat, Jason and I took a quick walk around the parking lot to see people's trunks and then headed back inside to assess the damage done to the church. The cultural hall was a disaster! I told Jason the bad thing about kids in costumes is that they tend to act like they're dressed, and when you have costumes like Thing 1 and Thing 2, Avatar, Batman, the Grinch, and such, it makes for a disaster, one that takes a long time to clean up.

I'm just grateful for those who pitched in to put away tables, chairs, wash dishes, and vacuum. I think you may be able to acquire saint-hood just for staying after church activities to put the church back together again. Needless to say that when we got home that night, we were EXHAUSTED!

Tis the Season for Cornbelly's

Jason had Fall Break this last week and enjoyed a couple days off of school. Since I still had to work he didn’t really do anything exciting, especially since he got pretty sick with a cold on Friday. Fortunately, he listened to his in-house doctor--me--and took some Tylenol. Lo and behold he felt much better a little over an hour later. Unfortunately he didn’t have enough energy to do much so we canceled our plans for the night and made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies instead—another good anecdote for any illness.

Saturday morning we went over to my sister’s house to help them build a shed in their backyard. Well, at least the husbands did. Jason was feeling a lot better so he, along with my dad and brother, all helped my brother-in-law for most of the day. And can I just say is that the weather was BEAUTIFUL. They couldn’t have picked a better day to do it. I came over to hang out with the women and helped shop, cook, and talk. The guys weren’t able to finish the shed by the time we had to leave, but they did get all four walls put together and put up.

That night we went to Cornbelly’s Corn Maize in Lehi with Jason’s parents. It was so much fun! We went last year and enjoyed it, so we decided to go back this year and bring some friends. Jason’s mom had never been in a corn maize, and I doubt his dad had either, but his dad didn’t last very long before he just wanted to get out by any means possible. Jason on the other hand was all about doing it the right way and so they bantered back and forth for most of the time. We also tried a few problem solving mazes, played tether-ball, went down a long slide a couple of times, and jumped on a giant pillow trampoline thing. The scariest part was going through the “monster,” a big blow-up monster that had a maze inside of it. It was dark and kind of scary. Well actually, the scariest person in there was Jason’s dad who kept making me jump while we were inside! Afterward we went to JCW’s for thick shakes and a rousing political conversation.

Ramblings about a business trip

Such a fun date deems it necessary to write so the date will always be recorded. :)

I never wrote about my trip to Dallas last week. It was a fun little trip, but I take it as a learning experience more than a trip of leisure. I flew there alone and met up with two women, one from my office, and the other a client from California. It was probably a typical business trip as far as eating out every meal, sleeping in a nice hotel, and attending to the required meetings, but it was different in the sense that I had never been alone as the only member of the LDS church for such an extended period. Even on my mission I always had my companion, so this was an experience of learning what other people's lives outside the church are about. What I found so different is that what is most important to me, and what I generally talk about to build relationships, is different for these women and for most of the people I met with. For example I found coffee and iced tea instead of water; expensive tailored clothing from the malls instead of practical reasonably-priced clothing, pets instead of children, careers instead of family, pleasures of the world instead of God.

On a lighter side, I did enjoy the beautiful weather in Dallas, a chance to go swimming, delicious meals without cooking or cleaning, a comfortable bed and room with a great view and room service to provide bedding and towels, and I had plenty of time to read a novel during the plane rides and before going to bed.

Besides the business trip, my life lately has been composed of work, dinner, dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, and reading. I enjoyed General Conference last week and look forward to rereading those messages. This weekend Jason and I watched Forever Strong, hung up pictures in our apartment, and had dinner and games with my parents. The day after we hung the pictures our landlord said, "I forgot to tell you that for every picture you hang, you have to stay here another year." I'm taking that as a good sign that we're good with our landlords.

Allergic to Exercise?

So you may hear that people say that they're allergic to exercise because they just don't want to exercise, but could it actually be true that someone could actually have an allergic reaction just because of the simple act of increasing their heart rate and physical activity? Well, that's a good question, one that Jason may possibly have answered last week. I like Jason's mom's account of the experience although it may be slightly exaggerated. She writes:

"Jason has now adopted a new friend: the same that Jeff and Cali have. Her name is EpiPen. Once on his mission his head blew up so big he looked like an alien and scared his missionary comp to death. Well, he decided to do the same thing again this week and impress Julie. She wanted to take him right to the hospital but it wasn't until his throat started closing off that he finally agreed to go to an instacare (probably because he could no longer talk) When he walked in the receptionist pushed other patients aside and rushed him to the back and made him drop his drawers. He had a new adventure--shots in the behind. If you want the details you'll have to ask him:) They're not sure what he's allergic to but believe it or not, it could be exercise! At the instacare they suggested that he still go to the hospital but he didn't--and they probably said, 'the next time, PLEASE go there and not here!'"

Jason and I had actually just come home from a typical night jogging in the park like we had many times before, but apparently, this time was different. Jason let me know as soon as we were almost home that he had started feeling like he was having an allergic reaction, but we didn't know to what. Within ten minutes he was sitting on the floor hunched over and having a hard time breathing, swallowing, and talking. I kept asking him questions but he couldn't/didn't want to say much. Go figure.

After consulting Google, I confirmed that Jason was having a serious allergic reaction and should be taken to the hospital immediately. Unfortunately we had just moved so I didn't know where the nearest hospital or doctor's office was and without great insurance until Oct. I didn't know how expensive that option would be if he didn't REALLY have to go. Jason's face had started swelling up, and as he puts it, he looked like a werewolf. I got more worried after seeing his face and called Dr. Mark to ask his opinion. He pretty much said, "Take him to the doctor right now." So, I got Jason in the car and had Mark look up the nearest Insta-care. Mark stayed on the phone with me until we arrived at the Insta-care. Jason said he felt like it was getting a little better by the time we got to the doctor's, but I decided we should go in anyway and find out what was going on. They took Jason almost immediately when they saw he was having a hard time breathing and gave him two shots before I even got in the room.

He felt a lot better soon after the shots, but he also started feeling drowsy as a result. I was so worried that he would fall asleep driving to work the next morning that I made him call and get a sub for his classes. He claims he would have been okay, but sometimes I think I do a better job of listening to his body than he does. :)

Crazy experience! And while we don't really know what happened that night, one thing is certain, we were definitely being watched over so that everything worked out. And until we have more information, we have to assume he's allergic to exercise. Who'd have thought?

Random happenings plus a trip to Dallas

So, a lot has happened the last couple of weeks, but I'm not even going to report it in any kind of order, so enjoy the randomness.

I found out about a week ago that I get to go on a business trip next week to Dallas, TX. It's for three days and I'll be there with the Senior Design Lead who is assigned to do a project that involves doing some interviews and focus groups for a company. I'm not officially assigned to the project, but I am not as busy with projects as some others, so I get to go. I'm kind of excited though because it sounds like they're treating us really well with a fancy hotel and meals and all. I'm not used to being treated to all this stuff by businesses--I guess that because I'm the product of the educational system, not the business sector. Work has been kind of slow lately, mostly because I'm ahead on the project I'm working on and have run out of things to work on. I'm learning about how much having no work can be a trial for me. I'm sure there won't be many times in life that I'll have to deal with that. :)

Speaking of trials, Jason is still doing well with seminary. He is trying to learn how to both teach and entertain and even though he spends hours and hours preparing, he still has good days and hard days. He was really excited this week to find out that some of the high school basketball team comes over and plays with the Junior High faculty on Friday afternoons and so he went to play with them for the first time on Friday. He said he really liked it because it was "his style" of basketball. I translate that to mean that the players are actually decent players who know how to do plays and stuff like that. I'm glad that he will get some exercise time that will keep him in shape. He goes running with me a couple times a week, but he usually stays by me if we run at night and I don't know if he even breaks a sweat. :)

We've tried to take advantage of the amazing weather we've had the last two weekends. Last Saturday we actually cleaned the church, washed both of our cars plus Rita's car, and waxed my car. I attended a family bridal shower for my cousin's daughter with my mom and sister and that was fun. Yesterday, after cleaning our apartment, we hiked to Donut Falls. Jason had never been before and it was a fun walk down memory lane for me. It's been a few years since I last went but the trail hasn't changed much even though a rock fall has changed the waterfall part quite a bit. The changing color of leaves in the canyons was beautiful and it was such a beautiful day. The sad part was that a boy had just fallen through the hole of the falls about 30 minutes before we got there and had dislocated his hip. We saw a lot of firemen and emergency help hike up the falls and lower him down in a stretcher. It was quite the drama. We felt like we were watching a movie as we sat there on a rock eating our picnic lunch and watching the emergency people try to get this boy down the falls.

Another happening was that Jason lost his wedding ring last week. He lost is some time Saturday and noticed it on Sunday when he didn't have it to wear to church. He look quite a bit on Sunday and Monday, but didn't find it. He thought he might have left it at the temple and we called and went there to check with no luck. Then yesterday we decided to look more diligently. We prayed and then found it about 5 minutes later. Apparently it had fallen into some gift boxes when I was wrapping a gift last week. I'm glad we found it then because I don't think we would have come across is again for many months.

We were sustained last week as members of the activities committee. Neither of us has ever been on any type of activities committee before, so it's a new experience for us. Jason claims it's not his forte, but it looks like he's going to get some learning experiences. Hopefully it won't be too painful. :)

We're grateful for all the yummy meals we've been enjoying with people lately. Two weeks ago  Boyd and Rita, our landlords, invited us over for dinner and treated us to barbeque ribs and some Venezuelan food since Rita is from Venezuela. It was delicious. Last Sunday we ate a delicious dinner at  Jason's parents' house for a family FHE and watched the CES fireside. Monday my parents came and visited me at my work during lunch time since they are just four blocks away. And tonight my old roommate Sara Moulton came over for dinner and peach cobbler. We like visitors and hopefully can keep arranging more visits from friends and family to our new apartment.

One last random thing. Last night Jason and I went to a Stake adult dinner thing and ended up participating and helping more than most of the long-time members of the Stake. We got there early and helped set up, we participated in a "minute to win it" game, starred in a ward skit, and then stayed afterwards to help clean up. We were probably one of the youngest couples there with an average age of 50+. I'm sure the older members appreciated the help and energy of us young whipper-snappers.:) Oh, and did I mention that we actually won the game? We had to keep a feather in the air by hitting it with our hands longer than the other teams and we won. They rewarded us with the Golden Feather Award--very prestigious I'm sure. :)

Well, that's probably enough news for today. Thanks for hanging in there to read it all.

Labor Day Weekend

This week has been a little calmer in comparison to the newness and busyness of the last few weeks. I’m settling in a little more to work and was assigned a project for a pharmaceutical company. It’s not a big project, but a relatively simple one for me to start on. It will be to create three web-based training (WBT) courses. The first course in 30 minutes and the other two are 20 minutes each. We had the kick-off meeting with the client and it went fairly well despite that it was a teleconference to San Francisco and we had technical difficulties for the first 20 minutes or so. I’ve starting learning the content and writing up the design documents. I’m working with one other full-time designer for the first course. She has been there about 5 months and her name is Julie also.

Jason had his first full week of teaching seminary. He likes it and is learning a lot about teaching and about 9^th grade motivations. He works long hours since it takes him a long time to prepare lessons for the next day. He was already observed once and he felt like the observation went well.

Both Jason and I had a couple of firsts this week. He volunteered at the church cannery on Wednesday and helped can corn for several hours. One sister working with him called him “lightning hands” but he wasn’t too flattered since most of the people volunteering at the time were twice his age. He said it was amazing what resources the church has to do projects like this on a regular basis.

My first happened to be walking a dog. Our landlords own a German Shepherd and since Jason grew up with a Golden Retriever Cali during his teen years, he volunteered to help walk their dog named Estrella (which means Star in English). Apparently Estrella wasn’t as excited to run with us as Cali is and we were running faster than she was for a lot of the time. At one point Jason couldn’t handle going so slow and wanted to run faster so I volunteered to take Estrella around the loop of the park while he lapped us. Having never walked a dog before, I was a little anxious since I didn’t know how she would react to other people and dogs, but she did pretty well.

Saturday we ate lunch at Jason’s parents house with his Grandpa and Grandma Richards and three of his cousins attending BYU, two of which just got home from their missions recently. The food was delicious! That night Jason and I volunteered at Thanksgiving Point for the Jon Schmidt piano concert. We had to be there a couple hours before it started to help direct people being seated. It was an outdoor amphitheater and it was fairly hot outside. Before the concert we got to walk around the gardens for about 15 minutes and they were beautiful. Then we sat down and watched most of the concert. I really enjoy listening to his music, so it was fun. However, at the end, both of us decided that the next time I want to go to a concert, we should just pay the money and not come 2 1/2 hours early. :)

Weekend Adventures

Friday I had a follow-up eye exam in Provo and Jason had a seminary family get-together so we tried to run all of our errands down there at the same time. Unfortunately it didn't start off very well because of several accidents on the freeway Friday afternoon. I thought I wouldn't have any problems since I left at 3:00pm, but I couldn't even get on the freeway South bound. I was herded to the Northbound entrance and ended up taking Bangerter Highway all the way around the valley until it meets back up at I-15 in Draper. Needless to say, with even more traffic in Utah County and making a quick stop to pick Jason up in Lehi, it took me almost 2 hours to get to Provo, and 45 minutes late for my eye appointment. Fortunately they were really nice and I got there just before it closed so they let me meet with the doctor.

The seminary dinner turned out well. We ate dutch oven ribs, potatoes, and cobbler. I'm sure I'm making at least some people jealous. :) It was delicious. The weather didn't cooperate very well though and because of the wind and rain we had to cut it a little short.

After running a few more errands in Provo, Jason and I stopped at the new Trafalga in Lehi (formally known as Liberty Land) since we had a couple free activity passes. We ended up playing mini-golf outside even though it has already rained and there were puddles on the course. It was still fun and the puddles just acted like sand traps in our game. Because of our competitive nature, we end up doing every hole at least twice so we can get our best score. Jason started this tradition and I got tired of waiting for him, so I joined in. :) Three holes before the end, it started down pouring. We couldn't leave before the end, so we ran around and finished the last three holes. We were soaked!

Before our night ended, we got lost in Bluffdale looking for a KSL seller with a nightstand that we wanted to look at. It took us a couple phone calls and a lot of time to find it, but we finally succeeded and came home with a very inexpensive nightstand.

Saturday morning our ward organized a hike up Bell Canyon and a barbeque. We got there a little late and we only saw one person from the ward the whole time we were on the 4 mi. round trip hike. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall at the back of the canyon. It took us about 2 hours to get up there and 1 hour to get back down. The trail is fairly steep in some places with lots of rocks and boulders. I'm sure Jason could have gotten up to the waterful in an hour, but he was nice and waited for his winded wife. It took up longer than expected to do the hike and we ended up missing the barbecue, but the hike was gorgeous and worth the time and effort to get there. I hope to go up there again in the Spring.

You can't see in the picture very well, but I'm standing on the path and we had to climb a steep path of boulders.

Bell Canyon Waterfall

Isn't that a gorgeous waterfall? 

A fun bridge right in the middle of the hike

The view from the other side of the bridge

Reminds me of the Sound of Music or something. :) This was at a reservoir about 1/2 mile into the hike.

All in a Day's Work

Jason's mom asked me a few questions a couple weeks ago that I finally got a chance to answer about my work. I thought others might be interested in the answers as well so I'm posting them here.

What will your day consist of?

So each day is pretty different, it depends on what part of the design process I'm in. At the beginning of a new project, it consists of reading up and learning the subject matter that I'll be designing. The subject matter generally deals with training, but could be for banks, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, automobile companies, the government, etc.

After you learn the content, then I put together a high level preliminary design usually with mock-ups of possible what the training might be like. Then we have a Kick-off meeting with the client either in person, or over the phone/internet. The Kick-off meeting can last anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days depending on the size of the projects. During that meeting we solidify what the objectives are, ask clarifying questions about the content, present the preliminary design ideas to get feedback, etc.

Following the meeting I write up a 25+ page design document that details the plans for the training in writing. That is sent to the company for approval, and once it is approved, then I actually start scripting the training on the company application that turns what I do into a website. The application has several basic templates for web pages that can be modified, but I work with programmers and graphic artists for help with the technical aspects and professional help creating the graphics.

Once it's scripted, it goes back to the client for review. Usually there are changes to be made and once I make the changes, the training goes to Quality Control for a thorough edit and testing. After it passes QC and the final edits are done it is delivered to the client.

All of these steps are put into a fairly tight time-line. The project that I'm starting right now is for a pharmaceutical company. It will start Monday and the first course has to be done the last day of September, and then I'll design two more courses for them by the first part of November. In this particular case we have a really tight time-line, so hopefully everything goes smoothly.

What kinds of projects will you be working on?

I'm assigned to work on different projects, and it just depends on what they have at the time. I'll always be assigned to at least one project, but could potentially be assigned to a two or three depending on their size and scope.

Do you work on a computer at a cubicle or...?

I have a cubicle, but it is fairly large. I would guess it's 6 ft. x 5 ft. or so. I have my own computer with several drawers and a couple of shelves. It even has a white board on one side. Almost every one that works there is in a cubicle. There are only three office rooms that I've seen, plus about three conference rooms.

What are your hours?

The hours are somewhat flexible. I just need to work at least 8 hours a day and most people show up between 8:00 and 9:00am. I can have an hour lunch break, but I try to make it short so that I can go home sooner. Since I'm salaried, I don't have to clock in, but I do have a time tracker that I report how many hours I've worked on different projects.

Do you get good benefits?

I think the benefits are good. They are better than I originally thought, but they aren't as amazing as some other companies I've heard about --namely, Microsoft. The company helps mitigate the cost of insurance, parking, etc. I'll accrue up to two weeks of vacation a year, and they are pretty lenient on sick days as long as you don't take advantage of them. The company also provides lunch for its employees every Thursday, which is nice.

I do like my job. The people there are very friendly and welcoming and the people in managerial roles are connected to the employees and seem to be well respected.

Wedding Day and a look at our new apartment

It was Jason's cousin Whitney's wedding yesterday. We were invited to attend their sealing in the Salt Lake Temple where they were sealed by their Grandpa Richards. Here is a picture of all the cousins that were at the reception. We've gotten together a lot with most of these cousins over the last year.

Mike, Jessica and their four cute kids, Andrea and Nate, Whitney and Cody, Mandy and Nick, Amanda and Craig, Julie and Jason

Also, here are a few pictures of our new apartment.

Entry door on the right, master bedroom just behind, and spare bedroom to the left

Master bedroom for the Master. :)

Nice big closet in the master bedroom. Jason has his own closet on the other wall.

Nice clean bathroom

Gourmet Kitchen with not one, but three lazy susans and a gas stove

Small living area that fits our great furniture. Husband not included.

Unfortunately, we still have a room in boxes, but it's coming along.

Spare bedroom still in boxes. Project for next weekend.

I forgot to take a picture of it, but there is also a small furnace room that has a small washer and dryer. It's sooooo nice to be able to wash our clothes in our own apartment!

Starting a New Adventure

It isn't every week that you graduate, move, and start a new job.

Jason and I both graduated from BYU on August 12th and 13th--Jason with a Bachelors of Science in Marriage, Family, and Human Development, and me with a Masters of Science in Instructional Psychology and Technology. It was much more fun to graduate together and sit by each during the graduation ceremonies, but let me tell you, August is the month to graduate! It was not nearly as crowded as the April ceremonies are which translates into shorter ceremonies. Elder Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke to us in the Commencement Exercises and Andrew Gibbons, the Chair of my department, was the key note speaker at my convocations. Jason walked with me at both commencement and convocations, so he got to sit in softer seats! The funniest part of graduation was the fact that I was wearing the wrong colors on my hood and tassel. Apparently you can graduate with any degree you want if you just check the right box when renting the gowns. :) And so, I graduated with a Masters of Education! :)

Julie and Jason behind the Smith Fieldhouse

Nicky Burgoyne Smith and Jana Chapman and two great friends that went through the program with me.

My parents, Julie, Jason, Jason's parents

Jason standing in front of the Coding Lab where he worked.

After the commencement exercises, Jason and I went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my parents and Jason's parents. Boy was it LOUD, but the food was delicious--the best steak I've ever eaten!

Graduation activities were mixed with packing up all our belongings and moving to a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment in Sandy, which was a long process stretching from the first load last Thursday to the last load on Tuesday. Where did we get so much stuff anyway? :) We live above the garage of an older LDS couple that we found after looking through TONS of listings on the KSL classifieds. We actually spent a long time looking for an apartment over the course of about five days, but things just worked out really well with this Sandy place. The owners were apparently impressed after we first met them to look at their apartment and they called us about four hours later to see "what they could do to get us there." It turned out that they lowered the rent $100 a month for us, which was a very generous offer. We really appreciate them and they are great landlords doing everything they can to help us out . . . including buying an extra internet booster to make sure we have the best internet access, getting us a couple new lightbulbs the same day we asked, giving us fresh tomatoes and other vegetables from their garden, teaching their German Shepherd dog Estrella to like us, and helping us get into our apartment most of the four times we've locked ourselves out in the last week. :)

We have really appreciated the many, many people that have helped us pack, move, unpack, and donated furniture to us for our apartment. We left our last apartment with just a small bookcase and have now acquired a bed, couch, love-seat, coffee table, end table, nightstand, chest of drawers, desk, TV, TV stand, lamp, and vacuum. Truly people have been so kind!!! I just hope that I too can practice such generosity as I am in a position to do so. The last several days I have felt full of gratitude several times each day.

The last adventure I'll mention is that fact that I've started my new job at Allen Communications. I'll save the detail for another post, but I can tell already that it is a good and generous company that treats their employees well. Case in point: On my first day there, Jason accidentally locked himself out of the apartment at 10:00 in the morning and no one was home to let him back in. I didn't find out until noon and didn't think I could do anything about it. When I mentioned it to my boss around 1:00, she said, "Why don't you just take all this paperwork home and we'll see you tomorrow." What a kind thing to do! She was really too busy herself to train me anyway that day, so I was so grateful she let me come home to rescue Jason. Otherwise, he would have been locked out at least another three hours.

It's much easier to endure life's trials when your eyes are so acutely fixed on all the blessings!

Lost a contact, found a job!

So this has been a crazy week! It's getting closer and closer to the time when I graduate, our housing contract ends, and I have to leave my university jobs--all without knowing what comes next. Well, a few things fell into place this week.

Friday morning we had the opportunity to attend the Provo Temple with a group of seminary and institute teachers. We met before in one of the meeting rooms and the Provo Temple President, Pres. Merrill J. Bateman came and spoke to us for about 45 minutes. It was really interesting and I learned new things about the temple that I didn't know. He even opened it up at the end for a short question and answer session which was also very interesting and a great opportunity. I'll have to tell you about it in the temple sometime. :)


That morning as I was getting ready to go to the temple, I opened my contact lens case to put in my contacts for the day and when I opened up the left side, there was nothing in it. In my 13 years of wearing contacts, that has never happened to me. I remember putting it in the night before, but in the morning, it was gone. It's hard to know where to look for it when that's the case. Unfortunately, since I wear gas permeable contacts and not soft lenses, I couldn't just open up a new package of lenses. I've actually had those lens for about four years, so I'll have to go in for an eye exam and order new ones. That's another thing I'm trying to take care of before we move. :) Of course trials also accompany the blessings, and although I don't consider this a huge trial, it has been somewhat inconvenient.  

A huge blessing came earlier in the week however. Monday night I got a call from Allen Communication Learning Services in Salt Lake to come in for a second interview on Tuesday. I went in and met with the Director of Instructional Design and the Chief Learning Officer. The interview went well and they were very interested with the work I've done with my master's project simulation. At the end of interview they said they would let me know in the next day or two and might invite me to come in for a panel discussion interview. Unexpectedly I got a call that night from them offering me a job. They sent an email that night with the details and I accepted the offer the next day.

 
 It really is a blessing to be offered such a good job. I have interviewed four times with principals for teaching positions and had several other offers for teaching interviews, but things just kept not quite working out. I've had enough experience as an instructional designer to think that it's something that I excel at and am interested in, but not enough that I feel really comfortable or confident doing it, especially in a business setting. So, I am somewhat nervous but grateful for the opportunity. The pay is more generous than I expected and because they offered me a full-time position I'll be able to get benefits for both Jason and I while he completes his student teaching. Additionally, it could turn into a convenient part-time job to have once we have children if it's needed. The shock is finally starting to wear off and Jason and I are busy finishing up what we need to here at BYU before we move and I start work on Aug. 18th.

Friday night I also convinced Jason that we should hike the Y before we leave. We didn't leave our apartment until after 8:30pm so we hiked up the trail during sunset and reached the Y about dusk. I'm always surprised at how STEEP that trail is! They might as well put a staircase right up the mountain side. It was kind of windy that night so a lot of the pictures didn't turn out, but you can see in these that I'm wearing my glasses since I lost my contact.

You can see the Provo Temple on the far right side which can kind of orient you.

The last time we hiked the Y was right before we got engaged.

Anniversary Celebration

Friday was a great day! One of those happy fun days that you don't mind re-living or at least remembering. To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to go to Seven Peaks Water Park. The weather was perfect! We live so close that we even decided to ride our bikes. :) Our favorite ride was Shotgun Falls, a two-person tube ride that is fast and fun. The worst part was the super hot sidewalks that kept us running up some of the ramps because we literally couldn't stand in one place for more than a second. Later in the afternoon my cousin Bill joined us for an hour. He actually works for Seven Peaks and gave us some free tickets. Thanks Bill! We had a really fun afternoon.

Afterwards we showered and went out to dinner at Los Hermanos, one of my favorite restaurants, and then walked around downtown Provo for a little while. It was a great day with my best friend!

World Folk Fest

Tonight my sister Katrina and her husband Neal came to visit us. They are here visiting with their two children from New York. It is Katrina's birthday (which means it's my half-birthday :) ) so my mom and sister Kristilyn took a couple shifts watching their kids so they could get away for a date night.

We ate delicious Navajo Tacos for dinner and chatted a bit and then headed to Springville to see the World Folk Fest. They had several groups from around the world come and perform on an outdoor stage at the Arts Park. Some of the visiting dancers represented were France, Spain, Paraguay, Nepal, China, South Korea, Polynesia, and the Czech Republic. Although it wasn't as high quality dancing as the BYU folk dance team, it was really fun to see the dancers perform their own native dances.

My favorite was the Czech Republic. They were the most precise, professional, and lively with their dancing, and I also got to meet them on Wednesday when they came to my beginning Folk Dance class. They taught us some of their steps through a translator, and I even got to dance with a couple of young men from the Czech Republic group. While they visited our class, they showed us the hat dance and let us do it with them in class while their live orchestra group accompanied them. It was a cool cultural experience!

The Hat Dance