Christmas

Guess you could say I'm a christmas humbug but I think it's more like I'm a little cindy lu who in the grinch ( the new one with jim carry). I just hate the all the hub bub that comes before it. Black friday, insane amounts of commercials about presents, and the excessive christmas music that proclaims happy days when people are more sour and mean this time of year than any other. Don't get me wrong, I love the presents, the music, the lights and the glitter as much as the next person, but I found real christmas over the summer. lol. Sounds kinda funny right? We had christmas in july up at aspen grove and it was the best christmas I've ever had. Just one week of decorations and celebration, but in that week we had the best christmas devotional, and I think the best part of the whole thing was that it was simple. Simple gift exchange (no more than 5 bucks), simple fhe caroling, simple decorations hand made, and a simple party with simple hot chocolate and fun pictures. Christmas is a whole lot of glam nowadays, but it's more than that. It's a huge deal, you have the gifts and the lights, the tree and the budget, you have the vacation plans and the airline scans, the snow storm set backs and the 30 extended family members to get presents for, and then on top of all that we try and throw the most beautiful, most wonderful, and most simple event of all time. It's all just too complicated. Too much stress, too much worry. So this year I will put up the christmas tree a little later, I'll spend a little less time listening to the christmas music and a little more time living it, I'll spend a little less time thinking about what I'm getting and a little more time thinking about that great gift I have already been given. Simplify. Love. Laugh. Smile. Play. And remember, the greatest gifts you could possibly receive you don't have to wait till Christmas day to open, they are already all around you, you just have to look.

Start of a new week

Well today starts a new week. The weekend was good. The single parent family camp came, including Katherine. I got to sit next to her in church, but other that that I didn't really get to see her a whole lot cuz I was working. I got to... guess what... clean bathrooms! YAY! and then I organized linen and guess what!? I cleaned more bathrooms. Today I did yard work all day... after cleaning bathrooms. You know how I said I might gain all my weight back cuz they feed me so well... well that was before I learned everything thing that was entailed in this job. You know how dad comes home all sweaty and gross from his runs cuz he's been working so hard? Think that only all day long. I mowed the lawn in the most awkward places today. This place is hill happy! I have never been so grateful for an automatic lawn mower in my whole life.

Mom you will be proud to hear that I think I have officially mastered the art of showering in public. I took a shower sometime when everyone else was at the dance on saturday cuz I didn't feel to good. I think I got dehydrated, which, for your information, is very very easy to do up here. I work like crazy till meals, and I try to get as much liquid as possible but it's hard to drink the needed amount to compensate the amount of sweat I end up sweating. I feel better today cuz we didn't have any work sunday at all and so I took the time to just sit and get feeling better.

I've made some great friends. As I have gotten to know my roommates better I have come to really like hanging out with them. Work is never ever boring cuz my co-workers are amazing. I think I may try and get picture sometime soon.... Oh! I get thursday off so I think I may come down Wednesday around 7ish and then come back up sometime thursday. I don't think I'll be able to come up on this friday and saturday though, sorry anna.

Well I'm sure there is more to say but I can't think of it right now. Love you all. I'll probably see you thursday.

First day on the job

Well I survived... We started out the day with breakfast, a lesson on the spirit of the Y, and then housing assignments. We then did a whole bunch of super... uhhhhh.... team building, bubble popping, mind stretching games. We then had lunch, I started moving in, and then I got my keys of power and awesomeness and the work began. I spent a good portion of the rest of the day getting the grand tour, learning how to clean the world, and organizing our large sums of cleaning supplies. Then we ate dinner and took pictures and then we had to get creative and come up with skits and stuff for the campfire thing. Needless to say it's been a long day; I am sunburnt, tired, and a tad home sick... I have rarely seen my room mates so I really can't tell you if I like them or not. The camp in general is awesome though. I work with three great girls who are just as quite as me with people they don't know and just as ready to work. I have already found some necessities I forgot.... hangers, aloe oil (for my sunburns), and... my other glove... Well it's been a crazy day and the internet here is super slow so I don't want to make this post to long... I would like to get to bed sometime tonight. So... yea... This is me signing out.

The power of love..... and a little adrenaline.

So today while walking Rocky, we were attacked by two labs. They ran at us full speed and immediately began to attack. I moved to block the dogs from killing Rocky, pulling him out of the middle of the fight. In my attempts to pull Rocky out his collar unsnapped.... he was now free and there was no way for me to pull him out of the way of danger. I watched, and yelled, as the two much larger dogs pushed Rocky out into the road. By this time the owner of the two dogs was there, and traffic on either side of the road had stopped. The owner was having no luck at all getting his dogs off Rocky, so in the midst of the moment I did something totally stupid... I reached my hands down into the pile of dogs and began to pull the dogs off of my dog. With both me and the other dogs owner we were able to get the dogs off Rocky enough for him to run away. There he went running like there was no tomorrow with out a collar. I chased after him and eventually he stopped, turned around and came toward me. We were out of harms way. I checked him over and found that he was not hurt though he did have dog slobber all over his right side. Both of us came out just fine, but on the way home I got thinking about what I had done and how stupid it was. I had reached my hand into the pile of dogs that obviously had no problem trying to bite what ever came in it's path. I grabbed that dog and pulled it away from my dog. Why? Because I loved my dog(and because there was so much adrenaline in my body that I didn't really realize it was super stupid). All I wanted was to protect my dog.... I guess I had never really felt something like this until today... I really would do anything to protect the ones I love. I think we all would.

10 Things I Learned from Kynetx Impact Conference 2010

This is just some stuff I picked up on that I thought is kinda fun or interesting. Of course I learned way more than this at the conference but I this is just something fun I decided to make.

1. Applications have to play nice too.

2. Mashup is a term that applies to more then just potatoes.

3. We all have a serious virtual identity crisis

4. Facebook is the ultimate watering hole.

5. Each group of professionals have their own language. Learning the computer science language is kinda like learning Chinese.

6. The best way to learn something is to listen to people who are way smarter than you.... ironically that is the same method to realize just how stupid you are....

7. Being in a cloud no longer means you aren't connected to the world.... in fact, it is exactly the opposite.

8. Our "scars" should be our credentials.

9. Physics drop outs are attracted to computer science.

10. Being a lazy multitasker will make me a valuable asset to businesses in the future.

Hey look I'm blogging!!

So I decided it was time to actually use this blog thing... I really don't have that exciting of a life but after the Kynetx conference I went to this week I decided it's all about staying connected and blogs are a great way to do that.... I'm sure this thing will evolve somehow to incorperate cooler things but for now it is simply a blog about.... me... and my life.... and stuff. For now I'll post things like cool or weird things that happen to me in my day to day life. :) Hope you enjoy.