A Time of Change

So we've been experiencing a lot of change lately. First off, Jason started a new job this last week. He's working in Sales for a company named Qualtrics. They have a great survey tool, a good company culture, and a good staff that attracted Jason to the company. After one week working full-time, he's not loving it, but he learning a lot. He knows he doesn't want to make this his career, but he's also hoping that it could open up some opportunities for him. The nice thing is that it is full-time with benefits, the inconvenient part is that it is in Provo.

If working full-time wasn't enough, Jason was also called as the Second Counselor in the Young Men's Presidency as well as Scout Master. People in the ward have been both congratulating him as well as giving their condolences. Jason's excited for a new calling and he doesn't shy away from hard work, so I'm sure it will be a good learning experience. I do find it a little ironic that about 2-3 weeks before his call, he was commenting to his brother that Scout Master is about the last calling he would ever want to have. :) Jason earned his Eagle Scout, but just barely! He found a song on the internet called "Born to be a Scout" that has become the new theme song around here lately. In fact, it's been played so much that I can't get it out of my head.

I also got another calling in addition to being Relief Society chorister. I was sustained as a co-director for this year's ward road show. The first meeting is on Thursday, and we perform on April 8th for the whole stake. I imagine that will take up a lot of my spare time for the next month and I'm sure you'll get the updates on its progress.

The other change for me in the last couple weeks has been not having a functioning computer. The internet has been out on my computer for the last several weeks and has been hard on me to be without. I use my computer, and particularly the internet on a daily basis. I've tried to fix it, but even the repair people can't seem to figure out what's wrong with it. I may start computer shopping here before too long even though I'm happy with my other computer. I just need it to work correctly.

Besides working, we did have the chance to go skiing last weekend. We met Jeff and Sally and their kids up at Powder Mountain. They had a little condo there for the weekend, so we had a nice place to rest and have lunch in the afternoon. It was cold and snowy, but the skiing was great and it wasn't too crowded. It was a lot of fun!

This weekend, we had friends over for dinner and games, watched a BYU basketball game at my parents' house, and celebrated my niece's 5th birthday. It's nice to have a break for the regular work week.

Temple Projects

I spent a Fri. night putting together this picture. I've wanted a picture like this for awhile, but it costs a lot and I don't want to spend a lot of money.
Anyway, I heard about this company called Poppyseed projects that does temple kit classes. In about 3 hours I painted the frame with two coats of paint, applied vinyl lettering, put a special coating on the picture to make it look like an oil painting, and then stapled it all together. I didn't know a single person there, but fortunately women doing temple kits are usually pretty friendly people. :) I think the picture turned out well and it only cost me $55 dollars instead of $300.

Jason's B-day & Valentine's Day

Two weekends ago we went to dinner with Jason's grandparents for a late graduation/birthday celebration.They took us to eat at the Garden Restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was delicious! After dinner we went back to their home and played several rounds of Hearts. It's fun to play even though I don't think I would ever win while playing with Jason and Grandpa Richards. Some people play for fun, but those guys play to win! :)

Fast Sunday we went to Jason's brother's ward in Provo for James' baby blessing. The blessing was nice. We stayed for the whole block and then had a yummy soup and rolls meal after church. Andy and Kimra were still in town so it was fun to hang out with them again, and we saw Chelsey and Mike after Sacrament Meeting.

Jason's birthday was a week ago. Unfortunately, he was sick all week so we really didn't celebrate much on his actual birthday. I think it was more disappointing for me that for him. :) He got a really bad long-lasting cold that made him sick for over a week. He hardly had any energy for days and didn't play basketball for over a week--that's a sure sign that he's really sick!

For his birthday I got him The Prince of Egypt movie and three brown shirts with white strips. I actually gave him a brown shirt with stripes for Christmas but he didn't seem to like it too much so I returned it. After I told him I returned it, he acted surprised and asked if I was going to give him another shirt. Well, instead of giving him one, I gave him three. Now wasn't that nice of me? :) Jason was excited to see my three gifts for him. He wasn't too surprised when he opened the first brown shirt, but he was when he opened the second and third one. I even bought the Christmas shirt again so he could decide the best size and style. He picked his favorite and we returned the other two. It's not often you buy and return the same shirt twice!

Friday my parents ended up with extra tickets to a Vocal Point concert in Salt Lake and invited us to go. It was a lot of fun! I really liked it and so did Jason, so that was a good way to celebrate his birthday. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Saturday we went to the BYU v. U of U basketball game. We got there about 20 minutes early, which is the earliest I've ever been to any BYU sporting event! BYU wasn't on fire by any means, but they played a good game. Jimmer didn't play well during the first half, but had a good streak at the end to help win the game. After the game we ate dinner with our friends, the Jacobs. The food and company were great and we had fun playing games afterwards. I made brownies that morning intending to bring them for dessert, but they didn't turn out very well and Jason and I have been trying to eat them all week so it doesn't go completely to waste.

Valentine's Day was nice. Jason bought me a pretty bouquet of flowers and we went out for dessert at Red Robin. Fortunately for me, Jason's good about showing me he loves me in little ways almost every day, so I don't have to wait for it only a few times during the year. I do like have fresh flowers around though, it makes me hope for an early Spring.

Birthday Celebration

Thank you for the phone calls and birthday wishes. I had my golden birthday this year which makes it kind of a cool birthday. I had an interesting work week leading up to it though, and although I'll spare the details in this post, I'll just say that there was a lot of drama going on at work and unfortunately I was directly and indirectly involved.

Friday I finished a delivery of 9 courses to our client. I was pretty stressed on Friday because of a series of events that occurred earlier in the week, but after working all day without breaks, I was able to get it finished at 5:30pm so that I could go with Jason and my family to see the BYU Ballroom Dancers in the little theater of the Conference Center. We had great seats and they put on a fabulous show. They certainly do know how to entertain.
Saturday my friend Sara came up to visit me for my birthday. She took me to Mimi's Cafe and we had the most delicious stuffed French toast! I'll have to go back soon because it was delicious! She gave me the Bananagrams game for my birthday and I asked her to stay and play it with Jason and me before she went back home. As luck would have it, I won our first game!

In the evening Jason and I went indoor climbing at Momentum. It was a lot of fun. We climbed until we couldn't hold on to the wall anymore and I was sore for the next several days. I really enjoy rock climbing but if I ever want to make a hobby of it, I need to actually buy some equipment. It's kind of like skiing where if you only do it occasionally, it can be pretty expensive.
After climbing Jason took me to dinner. I felt like Mexican and had never been to the Mayan restaurant, so he took me there. Unfortunately it was the worst restaurant experience I have ever had. The food was horrible! I literally only ate about three bites and didn't want anymore. Jason ate more of his only because he was so hungry. We ended up telling our waitress who got the manager. We told the manager about our food and he took it off our bill. They didn't offer any free birthday desserts (which is one of the reasons we went there in the first place) but I did order fried ice cream and ate that instead. The ice cream was good but the experience was so disappointing. I'll never go to that restaurant again. Where is a Los Hermanos close by when you need one!?!
Sunday Jason and I taught the combined YM/YW lesson at church. It went pretty well and turned out to be a good experience. That evening we ate a yummy dinner at my parent's house and played hide-n-go-seek with the grandkids.

Last night we finished the birthday celebrations by having dinner at Jeff & Sally's house. Andy and Kimra are here from Chicago for a wedding so we had a family dinner/ get-together. Besides eating, the main even turned into a soccer game in the basement that included kids ranging from 3 to 35. I sat on the sidelines as a content spectator. :)

Jason is still job hunting. He had an interview last week and one today and he's submitted quite a few applications. We don't have any more news than that for now, but he's determined to find something good, so I'm sure that he will.