Condo Crazy

I just bought my first condo about two weeks ago. It is so exciting to have my own place. Since I closed, I have been busy painting, working on my tiny little yard, and making arrangements to have a few renovations made. My friend, Tori has been a tremendous help with all the work. I will officially move in on April 11th. I will post some pictures as soon as I have a chance.

Busy Times

Things have been moving very fast since I moved to Salt Lake. I took a course to become a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) so that I could get a job as a CNA while I worked on finding a job where I could utilize my degree. I got a job quickly at Arlington Hills Health Care Facility as a CNA. Working with the elderly was rewarding and exhausting. I discovered rather quickly that I didn't want to be a CNA for long. Although I had toyed with the idea of becoming a nurse, I decided that I didn't really want to go through that much more school. So, I kept looking for a job in my field and applied at the Utah Food Bank for their Agency Relations Coordinator position. The two interviews went well and I was hired. My first day on the job at the Utah Food Bank was December 23rd and my last day at Arlington Hills was Christmas. I am grateful to have had the experience of working as a CNA and am very grateful to have had that source of income while I looked for my "career" job. So far I am loving it at the Utah Food Bank and feel like the job is a very good fit for me.

Moving!

I know, I know, it has been a loooong time since I posted. But, hey . . . life has been a little nuts lately. I moved from Pennsylvania back to Salt Lake the second week of September. And then with looking for a new job and whatnot, I haven't had a lot of time on my hands. So anyway, here are a few pictures of my trip across the country:

This is my friend Emma. She drove with me from Pennsylvania to Nebraska.

This is a picture of me and Emma with Emma's cousins in Waynesville, OH. They graciously let us stay the night at their home and fed us a scrumptious dinner and showed us a memorable night on the town.

Here is Emma sitting on a Route 66 couch in the lobby of the Route 66 hotel on Route 66 in Springfield, IL. We didn't actually stay at that hotel, but we stopped there to get a postcard for my little friends, Nick and Clara. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but this lobby had a menagerie of Route 66 stuff including two cars and an oldfashioned gas pump.

This is a picture of Emma's sister-in-law, Emily and her daughter, Catherine at the Henry Dorley Zoo in Omaha, NE. Emily, Catherine, and Emma's brother Chuckie let us spend the night at their home in Omaha. After we spent the night, Emma, Catherine, Emily and I went to the Zoo for a little diversion while I waited for my friend Krista to arrive at the Omaha airport. Emma continued her visit with her family in Omaha, while Krista and I made the rest of the trek from Omaha to Salt Lake City.

Here are a few more pictures I took at the Zoo:

I thought this was a terriffic little zoo, and I would definitely go see it a second time if I ever find myself in Omaha again.

And that is about it for my trip. I'm not exactly sure why I don't have any pictures of the rest of my journey. I guess we were just tired and wanted to get home. Krista and I basically just drove straight through Nebraska with a minor detour into Colorado. (We unknowingly drove off of I-80 and drove thirty miles into Colorado before we figured it out that we were not on the right road.) Then we spent the night in Chyenne and drove straight on through Wyoming the next day. I was so excited to get back to Utah!

"Christmas"

I had a nifty idea - "Let's have Christmas together before I leave." So, Jill, David, Miranda and I had "Christmas" on Labor Day. We opened presents and made our traditional Christmas Breakfast with little smokies, scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls. We even had hot spiced cider (there's no egg-nog to be found in September). We also had a mini "Cheese Fest" - a spread of special cheeses and crackers. (This was a tradition Jill and David started, that I think I will continue). We ended the day by watching The Nativity Story movie.

It was super fun! Check out the pics.

I put this up on the front door to make the neighbors curious.

This was our big pile of presents underneath my tiny tree.

This is Miranda with her Crocs Cell Phone Holder and Jill with one of her pepper pots.

Here is David with a picture of me.

Here is Gadget. She was not amused by the camera.

U.S. Open

I went to the U.S. Open with my Tennis Club on Wednesday, August 27th. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. (Definitely in the top 10). I watched 4 matches: Svetlana Kustneova vs. Sorana Cirstea, Jelena Jankovic vs. Sofia Ardvisson, Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Jie Zheng and Jesse Levine vs. Chris Guccione. My favorite was the match between Garrigues and Zheng. I also had a little lunch and got a couple of souveniers at the gift shop. I even got my picture taken next to a nifty giant tennis ball! All in all, it was a great day. I am really hoping that I will be able to make it back to the Open again sometime. Maybe my tennis loving friend, Sonja, will want to go with me some time (hint, hint). :-)

Tagged

5 Things I Was Doing 5 Years Ago:
1. I was finishing up my Bachelor's Degree
2. I was figuring out where I was going to go to grad school
3. I was hanging out with my friend's in Utah
4. I went to Las Vegas for the first time (only time so far)
5. I was dating someone.

5 Things on My To-Do List:
1. Finish Packing for my move back to Utah
2. Find a new job
3. Take stuff to Goodwill
4. Finish my application to nursing school
5. Take a trip to Jackson Hole, WY and Arizona

5 Favorite Snacks/Food:
1. Sugar Free Popsicles
2. Claussen Pickles
3. Carnation Instant Breakfast
4. Gyros
5. Hershey Bars with Almonds

5 Things I Would Do if I Were a Billionaire:
1. Send 4 people to college
2. Buy a medium-sized house
3. Travel to Australia
4. Build a log cabin in the mountains
5. Open another Best Friends Animal Sanctuary site

5 Bad Habits:
1. Eating when I'm bored
2. Not putting laundry away
3. Forgeting to put my gym bag in my car in the morning
4. Forgeting to shave and then realizing it at my Tennis lesson
5. Not staying in touch with my friends and family enough

5 Places I've Lived:
1. Salt Lake City, UT
2. Ketchikan, Alaska
3. Oakland, California
4. Allentown, Pennsylvania
5.

5 Things Under $10 I Can't Live Without:
1. Toothpaste
2. Chapstick
3. Gum
4. Hand Sanitizer
5. Diet soda

5 Favorite Movies:
1. Annie
2. Back to the Future
3. Fiddler on the Roof
4. Forrest Gump
5. Garden State

5 Favorite Kid Names:
1. Everly
2. Jillian
3. Cameron
4. Conner
5. Brianna

5 Thing Always in My Purse:
1. Debit card
2. Cell Phone
3. Mints/Candy
4. Address Book
5. Planner

5 Current Obsessions:
1. Tennis
2. Applying to Nursing School
3. Figuring out how to take people's pulses
4. Getting everything squared away at work for when I move
5. Moving back to Utah

5 Places I'd Love to Go:
1. Australia
2. Chile
3. Antarctica
4. Chicago
5. San Francisco

5 favorite vacations... (in no particular order)
1. Jackson Hole with Anna and Ryan
2. New York and Philly with Tori
3. New York and Philly with Sonja
4. Seattle with my sister
5. Carslbad Caverns with my family when I was younger

5 Things people may not know about me:
1. I have a phobia of Praying Mantises
2. I hate violent movies
3. I love planning things
4. I ran away from home for an hour when I was 9
5. I don't like my back to be scrachted - Ew yuckie!

If you have read this posting Tag your It!
Copy and past this onto your blog with your answers!

It is finished!

This is my thesis. It's title is: Religion and the Presidential Vote: An Examination of Trends in Religion and Voting for President from 1980 to 2008. It was approved about a week ago, and I just turned it in to be bound. What a relief! I am so glad it is done! It represents approximately a year of research and countless hours of writing, editing, and rewriting. It also represents the culmination of the last 2 1/2 years of my life that I spent working towards my master's degree. Now I get to figure out what I'm going to do next.